40 Year Itch: Funny How The Circle Turns Around

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Only Gene Clark shines in this half hearted reunion album released on March 7, 1973. That's perhaps because the band ( last together in their original line-up in 1966) didn't reunite out of  a strong desire to start up the band again. As Roger McGuinn told Creem Magazine's Cameron Crowe, it all started off kind of half-assed.

 Nobody really pushed for it very hard, which is partly why it happened. It was sorta “how’d ya like to…,” an open invitation to all the original Byrds. Nobody stood to lose anything, even David Crosby, who really didn’t stand to gain by it because he was already doing okay by himself. I think he wanted to reinstate himself as a Byrd,; his pride was at stake. He didn’t like the idea that I continued the group without him. 



 There were two different points of view, one is business and the other aesthetic. (Drummer) Michael Clarke stood to gain quite a bit. Chris Hillman was doing okay and I was doing all right. I could’ve passed it up, but then I thought, well, it could be pretty big. It could reopen the catalog of past Byrds albums and a lot of people would probably like to hear the new one. Looking at it aesthetically.



The album received generally bad reviews. There were two Neil Young covers (a limp "Cowgirl In The Sand" and "(See the Sky) About to Rain"), a Joni Mitchell cover ("For Free" from Ladies of the Canyon) and two songs each from Hillman, McGuinn, Clark and Crosby ( including a very similar "Laughing" to the one Crosby recorded for his solo debut). So the Byrds final flight was a shaky one. McGuinn would release his solo debut later in the year.

40 Year Itch: 'Cum On Feel The Noize' Debuts at #1

"Unmistakeably Slade - a rousing, raucous, rocker that follows its predecessors with an instantly recognizable sound"
 -NME Magazine

For the first time since The Beatles did it with "Get Back" in 1969, Slade debuted a single at #1 in the UK.

In its first three weeks, "Cum On Feel The Noize" sold 500,000 copies.

As guitarist Dave Hill tells  the now defunct Slade FanClub website , it's a song about the Slade concert experience.

  "The song was based around audiences and things that were happening to us. They were just experiences. Obviously, when you are on the road, you are writing about being on the road, you're writing about what's going on."



Until 1983, the song failed to translate on US shores where Slade's "Cum on Feel the Noize" stalled at #9. Ten years later Quiet Riot recorded the song and took it to #5. Slade singer Nobby Holder talked to Kerang! Magazine about the Quiet Riot cover.

 "The first Slade knew about Quiet Riot was when they approached our publisher for permission to do 'Cum On Feel the Noize.' We agreed, never believing something like this would happen. In fact, the record was out for some while in the States before becoming a big hit, wasn't it? The really nice thing about the whole affair is that it proves how strong our songs are. After all 'Cum On Feel the Noize' is now ten years old, so it's obviously stood the test of time rather well! "

40 Year Itch: Keep On Pushing Mamma

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The Captain and Me, released March 2 1973, is commonly considered the creative peak of The Doobie Brothers. It's chock full of their good time strumming, double drumming, California rock'n'roll featuring two monster hits "Long Train Runnin " (US#8) and "China Grove" (US#15) as well as a nice couple of Patrick Simmons tunes including "South City Midnight Lady" ( featuring future Doobie Jeff "Skunk" Baxter on pedal steel guitar.

 The band admits this was a bit of a rush job following up on the success of Toulouse Street and "Listen to the Music". "Long Train Runnin'" was a re-write of a Tom Johnson instrumental called "Osborn". Producer Ted Templeman suggested the song be about a train so Johnson sat in a bathroom at Amigo Studios in Burbank and knocked out the lyrics:

 Down around the corner half a mile from here/ 

see them long trains run and you watch them disappear 

The Doobies solidified their hit formula with the double platinum Captain And Me. Long running fans still consider this to be their best album.

40 Year Itch : You Want The Obvious

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Enter the "unpredictable" phase of Rundgren's career, which is going on (40) years now.

-The New Rolling Stone Album Guide

There's a lot more studio wizardry on A Wizard, a True Star than star-making songs. Not wanting to live up to the "male Carole King" label, Rundgren appears to have deliberately left behind almost all of the singer-songwriting ear candy that made Something/Anything? such a pleasure and, instead, seeks to dazzle us- in short lysergic snippets- with his genius.

"Psychedelics brought me to an awareness of myself that I'd no comprehension of previously", Rundgren said. " You don't know you're 'you' until you've had your ego stripped away and you realize you're all that stuff." 

He's monkeying with your stereo this time out and your ears will lap it up. Wide, weird, wired and wonderful

-Warner Brothers ad

When Rundgren delivered the 53 minute single disc album, not everyone at Warner Brothers was thrilled.

"It was like I had lit off a stink bomb in the record office," Rundgren says. "There was just so much commotion and recriminations like 'Why did you do this?' What were you thinking and yaddiyaddiyadda.."

There are some fully realized songs on Wizard, especially the single " I Don't Know What To Feel", album opener "International Feel" , "Zen Archer" and concert closer "Just One Victory". The  medley "I'm So Proud/Ooh Baby Baby/La La La Means I Love You pays tribute to Philadelphia soul before breaking out into "Cool Jerk".

In retrospect, the patchwork of songs on Side One sounds like a demo reel for Todd Rundgren, producer. I'm sure XTC heard all kinds of possibilities for Skylarking in tracks like "Dogfight Giggle".

In late 2009, Rundgren began touring the album after discovering Wizard has a whole new set of young fans including the bad Hot Chip.

40 Year Itch : Top 20 US Singles March 3, 1973

 We still had a common goal, which was to become rich and famous.
-Roger Waters


THE TOP 20 FOR MARCH 3, 1973

1 Killing Me Softly With His Song Roberta Flack
2 Could It Be I'm Falling In Love The Spinners
3 Crocodile Rock Elton John
4 Love Train The O'Jays
5 The Last Song Edward Bear



6 Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) Deodato
7 Do It Again Steely Dan
8 Rocky Mountain High John Denver
9 Dueling Banjos Eric Weissberg
10 Daddy's Home Jermaine Jackson

11 Dancing In The Moonlight King Harvest
12 The Cover Of The Rolling Stone Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show
13 Do You Want To Dance Bette Midler
14 Don't Expect Me To Be Your Friend Lobo



15 Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye) Gladys Knight and The Pips
16 You're So Vain Carly Simon
17 Aubrey Bread
18 Danny's Song Anne Murray



19 Space Oddity David Bowie
20 Break Up To Make Up The Stylistics

40 Year Itch : Dark Side of the Moon - side 2

And now on to side two...

1. Money 

 Roger Waters and Nick Mason built the synchronized tape loop for "Money" using pennies on strings and coins swirling around a mixing bowl. Session musician Dick Parry made the saxophone safe for progressive rock for years thanks to his down and dirty solo.

2. Us And Them

The longest song on the album --at 7 minutes 46 seconds, "Us And Them" was originally composed by Richard Wright for the 1969 Antonioni film Zabriskie Point. The spoken word section includes the behavioral science phrase "short, sharp shock", which also inspired the title of Michelle Shocked's second album. Paul and Linda McCartney, recording Red Rose Speedway at the time, agreed to be interviewed but offered nothing usable.

 3. Any Colour You Like 

 Recorded as a touch of relief to the tightly arranged album, the instrumental "Any Colour You Like" is the last Pink Floyd song to appear without a songwriting credit for Roger Waters while he was still a member.

 

4. Brain Damage 

 A nod to former member Syd Barrett, Roger Waters's "Brain Damage" even recalls how towards the end of the Barrett era, Syd seemed to be playing a different tunes from the rest of the band:

    And if the band you're in starts playing different tunees/
    I'll see you on the dark side of the moon

Syd Barrett in 1975

5. Eclipse

A grand ending to the album, "Eclipse" leaves listeners with a bit of curious wisdom :

Everything under the sun is in tune/
 But the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

Roger explains.
" I think it's a very simple statement saying that all the good things life can offer are there for us to grasp, but that the influence of some dark force in our natures prevents us from seizing them."

During the fade out, with the heartbeats still audible, you can hear an orchestral version of  The Beatles' "Ticket To Ride" faintly playing--due to a mastering error.

40 Year Itch : Dark Side of the Moon - side 1

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Why has Dark Side of the Moon --released in the US on March 1st, 1973--sold in such spectacular numbers--more than 35 million copies in all? Let me tack a crack at the answer:
    Coming on the heels of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Apollo Missions, the album title--and its cover by Storm and Po at Hipgnosis-- promises a perfectly timed journey for the ears and the mind. The engineering of the album made it the definitive test record for new stereo systems. Pink Floyd had encapsulated everything great about progressive rock in songs that averaged just over 4 minutes in length.
Ultimately, the credit belongs to the ten songs. To the lyrics that captured something so universal that high school students and college professors, American loners and African party goers could relate.



1. Speak To Me

I've always thought that by starting Dark Side of the Moon with complete silence, Pink Floyd was testing its album buyers's abilities to gently place the needle on the record. Considering how many of them must have been blissfully stoned out of their minds, it's little wonder most used copies crackle like a bowl of Rice Krispies. Nick Mason says "Speak To Me" is an overture,  "a taster of things to come", constructed from cross fading all the other pieces on the album. Peter Watts, a road manager and the father of actress Naomi Watts, can be heard laughing .

2. Breathe

David Gilmour achieves that lush guitar sound with the help of a uni-vibe and lap steel guitar. Though it sounds pretty cool in its acoustic form as well.



3. On The Run

An instrumental that deals with the fear and pressure of travel, "On The Run" makes use of the most recent advances in synthesizers and dips into the EMI sound effects library. Floyd's road manager Roger "The Hat" Manifold is heard saying "Live for today, then gone tomorrow, That's Me".



4. Time

The only song credited to all four members of Pink Floyd, "Time" begins with the sounds of clocks recorded by engineer Alan Parsons for a quad demonstration. Nick Mason does a long passage playing roto-toms before Roger Waters sings about something anyone over 30 can relate to: Time moving at a pace so quickly, people feel like they're always falling behind.



5. The Great Gig In The Sky

22 year old session singer Clare Torrey injects the entire album with passion in her performance. Nick Mason says "She was embarrassed by having let herself go so much during one of the takes and came into the control booth to apologise, only to find that everyone was delighted". Torrey was paid 30 pounds for her performance and sued Richard Wright for songwriting credits. The suit was settled in Torrey's favor for an undisclosed amount.

Clare Torrey

Side Two tomorrow....