40 Year Itch :We Can Share The Women

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Of course it's sprawling! Europe '72, released on November 5, 1972, is a three record set documenting the Grateful Dead's tour of Western Europe in the Spring of 1972.The Dead hauled around a 16 track recorded to capture the tour so songs are taken nine separate concerts. Double platinum, it remains the best selling of all the live Dead albums although it must be admitted, the band sweetened their performances in the studio, overdubbing harmony vocals in places.

Europe '72 showcases the band's Americana phase with songs like "Jack Straw", "Cumberland Blues" and "Truckin" but there's plenty of psychedelia as well ("China Cat Sunflower", "I Know You Rider").

Below is the Copenhagen show from which "Brown Eyed Woman" was taken:

40 Year Itch: A Royal Rock N Roll Wedding

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There are two stories that explain why superstars Carly Simon and James Taylor got married in Simon'[s tiny Manhattan apartment on November 3, 1972. There's the story the couple told Rolling Stone Magazine ( in which JT quotes the title of Carly's first hit)

ROLLING STONE: Do you want to talk about why you decided to get married?
 JAMES: That's the way we always heard it should be.
CARLY: I mentioned one morning to James in London that I thought we should get married, and James was kind of hesitant in his response. He said, "Oh well, there's really no reason to get married. We love each other and we've been living together." And then later on in the afternoon, James said, "You know I've been thinking about it and maybe we should get married." I said, "Well, what's happened between this morning and this afternoon?" He said, "This afternoon it was my idea."



And there's the more salacious version that involves Bianca Jagger calling JT to tell him Mick and Carly were having an affair in LA. He defended Carly and when she returned, he popped the question. Carly has said
"There's nothing that gets men so crazy as other men pursuing their women. Boy, did we decide fast!"

In any case, it was a small affair. There were only three guests at the wedding. Carly's songwriting partner Jake Brackman was best man for both the bride and groom. That night, during his concert at Radio City Music Hall JT announced the marriage to cheers of approval from the crowd.

That same month Carly released her third album No Secrets, a gold record that would top the album charts in the US for five weeks and wind up in the collection of my childhood home. It begins with a song, "The Right Thing To Do" , written directly for James, who had fallen back into a heroin addiction at the time so the line "nothing you can ever do will ever turn me away from you" has quite a lot of resonance.

There are songs that examine Carly's childhood ( "The Carter Family") and her relationship with her late father ( "Embrace Me Your Child" which James called the strongest song on the album) and songs that confess a bit more bed-hopping than even the most confessional of singer songwriters would usually admit to ("We Have No Secrets" and "Waited So Long"). And of course there was "You're So Vain" (discussed in a May post). All immaculately produced by Nilsson's main man Richard Perry.

40 Year Itch: Donovan's Intimate Performance

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On November 2, 1972, the BBC2 aired Donovan: An Intimate Performance featuring the singer. Sitting on a carpeted platform with two guitars and a harmonica, Donovan intimately performed:
01. Jennifer Juniper
02. There Is A Mountain
03. Catch The Wind
04. The Ordinary Family
05. Lovely Princess
06. People Call Me The Pied Piper
07. A Well Known Has-Been
08. Happiness Runs
09. Colours
10. Sailing Homeward
11. Cosmic Wheels/Maria Magenta
12. The Pee Song
13. Mellow Yellow

"The Pee Song", heard above, came from 1971's H.M.S. Donovan, his second album for children.
By the time the show aired this August 1972 performance, it had been nearly four years since Donovan had a Top 20 hit single in the UK.

6 Degrees of Separation: Ry Cooder to Big Country

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On his second album of 1972, the November release Boomer's Story, Ry Cooder performs an instrumental version of "Dark End Of The Street". The song--a 1967 hit for soul singer James Carr--is written by Memphis songwriter and producer Dan Penn who also contributes some vocals on the album.

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Though Dan Penn gave most of his songs to others ( there was also "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and The Box Tops hit "Cry Like a Baby") Penn records his own "Nobody's Fool" for his 1973 debut with his Muscle Shoals AL buddies. Alex Chilton would cover the song nearly 15 years later. Keyboardist Mike Utley is one of the keyboard players.

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Utely is also on board The Train I'm On, Swamp Fox Tony Joe White's 1972 country/soul album that is rapidly gaining a new fan base. The cover photo is taken by one of Rock's great photographers Jim Marshall.

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Blessed with a great eye and great access (as the chief photographer at Woodstock and the only backstage photographer at The Beatles last concert) Jim Marshall has shot a number of iconic photos including the one above of Johnny Cash at San Quentin. The art director for the live album was a man named Howard Fritzson.

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Fritzson has more than a thousand credits as art director including one for Talk Talk Talk, the 1981 album by Psychedelic Furs. Talk Talk Talk was produced by Steve Lilywhite.

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Among Steve Lilywhite's credits are albums by U2, XTC, The Rolling Stones and The Crossing, a 1983 hit album from the Scottish band Big Country.

40 Year Itch: Some We Missed from Oct '72

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Mellow man David Gates takes center stage on Bread's follow up to Baby I'm A Want You, the final album before a 1977 reunion. Guitar Man hit #18 in the album charts thanks to the soft rock numbers like the #11 title track, "Aubrey" (#15) and "Sweet Surrender" (#15). The rest sounds like filler.

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The second James Gang album after the departure of Joe Walsh is probably the low point. By the following album Tommy Bolin would be adding some guitar fire, raising the band's fortunes for a few years at least.

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Vilified for an album cover that made Don Stevenson giving the finger on Moby Grape's debut seem gentlemanly in comparison, Mom's Apple Pie jams Chicago-style about as competently as Grand Funk Railroad used to rock.

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Diana Ross earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of doomed jazz singer Billie Holiday and the soundtrack hit #1 on the Billboard charts. The album contains far too many snippets of dialogue from the movie but overall, Ross deserves all the plaudits she received. She's not "doing" Billie. Thank God.

40 Year Itch: Bad Bad Dreams

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I can't speak for the entire album, but the single "Run To Me" is one of my 5 all time favourite Bee Gees tunes. That's sibling harmony at work.( And to think I probably heard it first on my cassette copy of Here At Last...Bee Gees Live ) I 've also gained an awful lot of respect lately for the way Maurice Gibb played bass. Mo gets to work out his bass quite a bit on the album's sole rocker "Bad Bad Dreams". But I've also heard "Paper Mache, Cabbage and Kings", the fourth track on this album, and it's God awful. So you've been warned not to expect too much from To Whom It May Concern released in October of 1972.

40 Year Itch : Getting Fresh

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So you want to be the American Beatles? Then you'd better put out two album a year like the Fab Four did. Fresh is the second Raspberries album and the second to be released in 1972. Led by singer Eric Carmen, the Cleveland quartet borrowed the best ideas from The Beatles ( tight pop songs), Beach Boys ( four part harmonies) and The Who ( wicked guitar lines like the ones featured in the Top 5 hit "Go All The Way"). There's a little less Who on Fresh than on the debut, but still some big winning songs like "I Wanna Be With You", "Let's Pretend" and "If You Change Your Mind".