More 1973 Albums We Missed

[Out of Print]

Harper (the subject of Led Zep's "Hats off to (Roy) Harper" and the vocalist on Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar")   follows the now legendary Stormcock with an album of songs recorded when he was ill and facing the possibility of dying. Jimmy Page plays on several of the tunes including "Bank of the Dead". Side Two is one ambitious 23-minute track, "The Lord's Prayer", which begins with a long monologue and is made up of at least 5 movements. Harper would recover from what ailed him and follow this with another masterpiece in 1974, Valentine.

[Purchase]

John Martyn's follow-up to his masterpiece Solid Air. Recorded with members of Traffic, Inside Out is jazzier than Solid Air and highlighted by tunes "Fine Line" and "Make No Mistake". Some of the singing is too over-the-top for these ears.

[Purchase]

  1973's best live album? ( Bill Withers, Yes and Focus fans might disagree.) That's right, kids, people once had time to play four sides of a live album for their friends. Especially one recorded this well. Alvin Lee and his band raise the game from their legendary Woodstock appearance. Plenty of boogie. Plenty of blues. Most CDs don't contain the epic drum solo in "The Hobbit". 

[Purchase]

Cobbled together from a variety of session, Roadmaster still offers great tunes. Gene Clark recorded "Full Circle Song" again for the Byrds 1973 reunion album. Clark would top this effort in 1973 with the more complex No Other.

[Purchase]

With Uriah Heep near the peak of its success, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Ken Hensley took Heep bassist Gary Thain and Heep drummer Kerslake into the studio to record this solo album. Mellower than what the Heep was putting out but great stuff.

[Purchase]

Milton Nascimento's backing band has made the transition from psychedelic rock to jazz fusion

[Out of Print]

Mexican garage rock. Ole!

40 Year Itch : Those We Missed October 1973

[Purchase]

Bonnie Raitt's third album, Takin' My Time,  is another critically acclaimed gem. Here she broadens her musical canvas to include calypso and dixieland while handing  over all songwriting duties to others ( including Randy Newman , Chris Smither and Jackson Browne). Of the album, often recorded with members of Little Feat,  Bonnie says:

"Takin' My Time is one of my favorite records to listen to, although I started out with Lowell George producing it, and he and I got too close to be able to have any objectivity about it. That's the problem when you're a woman and you get involved with the people you work with - and I just don't just mean romantically. It becomes too emotional. It's hard to have a strong woman telling the man her ideas when, in fact, the man wants to take over the situation. So that album had a lot of heartache in it. At the time it was a difficult one to make, but now I like it."

[Purchase]

With leader Nils Lofgren off recording and touring with Neil Young, and the label running out of patience,  this was the swansong for Grin. Fans would have to wait two years for Lofgren's spectacular solo debut

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The "one man Beatles" never made any money from his terrific catalogue thanks to a messed up record deal with Dunhill. Farewell to Paradise is the third and final album before Rhodes would abandon his musical career facing tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

"That was it, I didn't want to do it anymore," he told LA City Beat. "I wanted to open a Laundromat and watch the dryers go around."

[Purchase]

The former McCoy and member of Edgar and Johnny Winter's bands, killer guitarist Rick Derringer released his debut album featuring his solo version of "Rock and Roll, Hootchie Koo"--a song already featured on three albums. Derringer's version hit highest, peaking at #23 in 1974. Edgar Winter, Joe Walsh and Suzi Quatro lend a hand on the album.

John Martyn follows up his classic 1973 album Solid Air with the  even more experimental and jazzier Inside Out, recorded with Danny Thompson and  Stevie Winwood on bass and keyboards respectively. Absolutely hypnotic.

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40 Year Itch : Living On Solid Air

[Purchase]

"I didn't like that finger-in-the-ear stuff. I'm a funky, not a folkie."
 -John Martyn

 Described as a "poet-ruffian" by the Guardian, the tempestuous John Martyn released his best album, Solid Air, in February of 1973. It's one of those middle of the night folk-jazz "growers" that, if heard at the right time, will mesmerize its listener. Fans of Terry Callier, Beth Orton and Nick Drake should find something special here.

     Martyn had already made five albums by the time he entered the studio with acoustic bassist Danny Thompson and Fairport Convention's Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks. Playing an effects-laden acoustic guitar, Martyn and his band explored that place where deeply personal lyrics meet hallucinogenic improvisation.

The title cut was dedicated to Martyn's friend , Nick Drake, who had died of an overdose 18 months earlier.




Of the song Martyn said "Now Solid Air... I really like the title track. It was done for a friend of mine [Nick Drake], and it was done right with very clear motives, and I'm very pleased with it, for varying reasons. It has got a very simple message, but you'll have to work that one out for yourself."

The best known song, his tribute to kinship "May You Never", was covered ( some say "butchered") by Eric Clapton on Slowhand, earning Martyn a sizable royalty check. At a lifetime achievement award for Martyn, Clapton sent a message saying Martyn was "so far ahead of everything, it's almost inconceivable".