40 Year Itch : Sing With Me, Sing For the Years

Aerosmith : Mama Kin ( Detroit, 1974)

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40 years ago this month Boston rockers Aerosmith released their debut album, Aerosmith, on Columbia Records. Despite the presence of "Dream On", the album's first single was "Mama Kin" a song in which Steven Tyler hD so much confidence, he had the words "Ma Kin" tattooed on his arm. Despite its heavy riff, the single bombed. The album barely broke into the Top 200, peaking at 166.


Click Here to learn  How Aerosmith Landed A Record Deal (August 5, 1972)

While the band would earn a reputation as the American Rolling Stones, it is their Led Zeppelinesque tune "Dream On" that truly stands out on the debut.Tyler wrote the classical keyboard riff on his father's piano when he was a teenager.



Joe Perry told Classic Rock Magazine he didn't care for the song:

"Back in those days you made your mark playing live. And to me rock 'n' roll's all about energy and putting on a show. Those were the things that attracted me to rock 'n' roll, but 'Dream On' was a ballad. I didn't really appreciate the musicality of it until later, but I did know it was a great song, so we put it in our set. We also knew that if you played straight rock 'n' roll you didn't get played on the radio and, if you wanted a top forty hit, the ballad was the way to go. I don't know if we really played it much live, in those days if you only had half an hour to make your mark, you didn't play slow songs. So it wasn't until after it became a single that we really started playing it."

As a single "Dream On"  peaked at a disappointing #59 in the pop charts, but the ballad showed just enough promise for Columbia Records to keep Aerosmith on the label. A decision that would prove very fruitful in the years to come. Aerosmith has sold more than 150 million albums.

40 Year Itch : Aloha From Hawaii

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On January 14, 1973, just half an hour past midnight, Elvis Presley made TV history when his concert was beamed live via satellite from the Honolulu International Center Arena  to Australia, Thailand, Japan and many other countries. 40 in all. European nations watched on a delayed basis. Because it was the same day as Super Bowl VII,  NBC broadcast the concert April 4, 1973 where it was reportedly seen by more people than those who watched the first man step onto the moon.




 Colonel Tom Parker got the idea of a satellite concert from Nixon's televised visit to China. He told reporters a billion people would see Elvis perform.
To prepare for the concert, Elvis lost more than 20 pounds training with his Kung Fu master Kang Rhee.

Following the "Also Sprach Zarathrustra" intro,  Elvis , wearing his "American Eagle" jump suit, stepped in front of 6000 fans on a huge stage and put on one of the best shows in his life. The stage was built with a runway which allowed Elvis to walk out into the audience, kiss the ladies and wipe his sweat off onto anything they handed him. He was tan. He was playful. He sang 24 songs including hits "Burning Love", "Suspicious Minds" and "Hound Dog" and covers from George Harrison ("Something"), James Taylor ("Steamroller Blues") and Marty Robbins ("You Gave Me a Mountain").

After the show Elvis met the actor he singled out during the concert, Jack Lord of "Hawaii 5-0". The two agreed to meet for dinner at Lord's house and began a friendship that lasted until the King's death.

40 Year Itch : Back From The Abyss

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"It really wasn't difficult to get people to help. In fact, you might be surprised at a few names I could mention who would have given their right arms to join in this band."- Pete Townshend


On January 13, 1973 Eric Clapton headlined a pair of charity concerts at the Rainbow Theatre in London. The real charity might have been Clapton himself. Three years deep into his heroin addiction, Clapton had been seen only once since Derek and the Dominos dissolved. At George Harrison's Bangladesh bash.

It was Pete Townshend who got Clapton back on stage where he fronted--with little in the way of rehearsal-- an all star band that includes Stevie Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Ronnie Wood. The resulting live album is ragged, almost lifeless.

 Rolling Stone's Bud Scoppa wrote

 "Rainbow Concert presents some of the best people in rock at their most egoless and supportive. But the crucial question — is Clapton able to come out of isolation and return to his music and to the people who care about it? — remains unanswered."


But critical reviews aside, Clapton admits Townshend saved his career and possibly his life: "I did that very much against my will. It was purely Townshend's idea. I'm indebted to him."

And things would get much better from here on out, beginning with the sensational 461 Ocean Boulevard.

40 Year Itch : Top 20 Singles This Week

                                 Top 20 Songs This Week 40 Years Ago

Carly Simon moves up one notch to grab the top spot with "You're So Vain". Stevie Wonder moves up from #2 to #2 and Billy Paul falls from the top spot to #3. Jethro Tull's "Living in the Past" and Three Dog Night's "Pieces of April" make their first appearance in the Top 20.


 1.You're So Vain Carly Simon
 2 Superstition Stevie Wonder
 3 Me And Mrs. Jones Billy Paul
 4 Clair Gilbert O'Sullivan
 5 Funny Face Donna Fargo
 6 Your Mama Don't Dance Loggins and Messina
 7 Crocodile Rock Elton John
 8 Papa Was A Rollin' Stone The Temptations
 9 Why Can't We Live Together Timmy Thomas
 10 Superfly Curtis Mayfield
 11 Hi, Hi, Hi Wings
 12 It Never Rains In Southern California Albert Hammond
 13 Oh, Babe, What Would You Say? Hurricane Smith
 14 The World Is A Ghetto War
 5 Love Or Let Me Be Lonely The Friends Of Distinction



 16 Living In The Past Jethro Tull
 17 Sitting Cat Stevens
 18 I Wanna Be With You The Raspberries
 19 Pieces Of April Three Dog Night
 20 Keeper Of The Castle The Four Tops

40 Year Itch: Stevie's Soul Train Tune

This magic moment occurred on Soul Train on January 13,1972. Stevie , who can make even a grand piano sound funky, plays an impromptu tune about Soul Train and the Soul Train gang. Lovely the way the audience members sing along.

40 Year Itch: Genesis Plays the Bataclan

On January 10, 1973 Genesis performed six songs at Le Club Bataclan in Paris for a French television program. Gabriel dressed up the fox on the cover of Foxtrot , the band's most recent release. Genesis was at the height of its powers. A live album, recorded the following month, would be their first album to enter the Top 10, and another magnificent album, Selling England By The Pound, would be recorded in August. It would be a few more years before Gabriel's theatricality would drive him out of the band and Phil Collins would take on singing duties.

 

 The sequence:

 1 The Musical Box
2 Supper's Ready ( a generous excerpt)
3 Interview
4 The Return of the Giant Hogweed
5 The Knife

40 Year Itch: Such a Cool Chick Baby

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"I enjoy the B-52s, because I heard them doing Yoko. It's great. If Yoko ever goes back to her old sound, they'll be saying, "Yeah, she's copying the B-52s."

-John Lennon to Playboy Magazine

This. Is. Why. I .Do. This. Blog. To pluck the transcendental among the sloughed off. Approximately Infinite Universe, released January 8, 1973, is one of those treasures,

In 1980 the kindest critics congratulated Yoko Ono for keeping up with her husband on Double Fantasy. But back in 1973, she surpassed him ( and his Mind Games) by combining the experimental avant garde and feminist screeds with the more approachable pop. Mick Jagger, who plays some guitar on the album, reported to friends that Yoko is "really trying to sing properly. She's not singing. She's really trying to sing".

Not that the critics got it. In his review for Rolling Stone Magazine, Nick Tosches absolutely trashes the double album:

           Is that shit or is that shit? I mean, is there any need to dissect and discuss the faults of such schticks? The beatnik poets on Perry Mason used to write better stuff, for Chrissake.

To which I say: just listen.



This is music that sounds like it came out last week.

Yoko recorded the album with Elephant's Memory who shine here far more than on Some Time in New York. John Lennon produced and plays guitar on two songs ( "Move On Fast", "Is Winter Here To Stay?") The single "Death of Samantha" inspired the name of the 80's Homestead band.

  

The ironic footnote is that once DJ's got an opportunity to remix and update Yoko's songs they became dance club hits. In 2011, the year Yoko turned 76, "Move On Fast" hit #1 on the dance charts, her sixth consecutive chart topper.