DAY 214.
The Allman Brothers Band...................................At Fillmore East   (1971)







 

They were known for extended live jams, evolving a symphonic blend of rock, blues, country, soul, and jazz. When their first two albums flopped, a concert disc seemed the obvious answer.


A f'kn double album, 7 tracks in all , 4 of the tracks come in at, 8, 12, 19 and 22 minutes a piece,


There's a good story about how they're all laughing on the front of the album, will cover that in Bits & Bobs.


 

DAY 215.
The Rolling Stones.................................Sticky Fingers   (1971)




[img]https://hips.hearstapps.com/esq.h-cdn.co/assets/15/24/1433876679-sticky.jpg?resize=480:*[/img]




Sticky Fingers was the first LP released on The Rolling Stones own label, the first to feature the world famous John Pasche-designed tongue and lips logo, and their first to top the US and UK album charts.


Andy Warhol's cover of a jeans clad crotch originally came with a working zipper, sealing the consummate sleazy Stone's package

The weirdest thing happened last night (Sunday), went for a pint and an old boy that I see in there, shouts me over and says " I know your into the 70s now with your book thing, and thought these might be of interest to you, I hivnay used them in years so you can keep them if you want"






If you look at the top right, I think it's a bootleg but it has all the "Sticky Fingers" outtakes, the cover picture is the same as one used in Spain, the cover was deemed too lascivious and a “politer” version illustrating sticky fingers covered in treacle was used, really found it weird that the next morning after getting these gifts, I open the book and the album of the day is "Sticky Fingers"


The other CDs are;


Bowie At The Beeb.........listened to that tonight, 37 tracks ranging from very early stuff, some "Hunky Dory" most of "Ziggy Stardust" and belting versions of The Velvet Undergrounds "I'm Waiting For The Man" and "White Light White Heat" if you can get your hands on a copy, I guarantee you wont be disappointed, and finally how good was Mick Ronson? I tend to forget how important he was to Bowie's rise to stardom.


The Who.....The Complete Amsterdam 1969

Haven't listened to this yet, but looking at the tracklist seems to be "Tommy" on tour, with some Who favourites before and after the rock opera.


The High Numbers.(before they changed their name to The Who)........Live 1964

The first 11 tracks are from a recording at, The Railway Hotel And Lounge, Wealdstone in October 1964,  and are all covers I think The next 7 tracks are from a recording at The Abbey Road Studios in October 1964 , also covers and I also haven't listened to this yet.


Gimme Shelter DVD


Now this I have watched, absolutely mental, I wont give too much away in case anyone wants to give it a look, but if you do,I know you can find this on you tube, I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in music to watch this, the free concert at Altamont was crazy, dangerous and downright scary in places, it really is worth a watch.


Listening to Bowie and watching "Gimme Shelter" I never had a chance to listen to "Sticky Fingers" will do that first thing in the morning.

Last edited by arabchanter (13/3/2018 1:25 am)

DAY 215.
The Rolling Stones.................................Sticky Fingers   (1971)




[img]https://hips.hearstapps.com/esq.h-cdn.co/assets/15/24/1433876679-sticky.jpg?resize=480:*[/img]



Just finished listening to this one, I thought it was a good album, this is the fifth Stones album from the book, and probably my least favourite.

"Brown Sugar," "Sister Morphine" and "Wild Horses" were obvious stand outs, but the rest of the album was pretty ordinary, in my humbles.

I think I preferred The Stones early stuff best, sorta pre "Sticky Fingers" although there were a few exceptions in later years.

Andy Warhol's cover is a beaut, but that and the trio of songs already mentioned, are not enough for me to put it in my collection, as I've put better Stones albums in already.




Bits & Bobs;

Already done a few posts about The Stones previously (if interested)



"Brown Sugar"


The lyric is about slaves from Africa who were sold in New Orleans and raped by their white masters. The subject matter is quite serious, but the way the song is structured, it comes off as a fun rocker about a white guy having sex with a black girl.


 
Mick Jagger wrote the lyric. According to Bill Wyman, it was partially inspired by a black backup singer named Claudia Lennear, who was one of Ike Turner's Ikettes. She and Jagger met when The Stones toured with Turner in 1969. David Bowie also wrote his Aladdin Sane track "Lady Grinning Soul" about Lennear.




American-born singer Marsha Hunt is also sometimes cited as the inspiration for the song. She and Jagger met when she was a member of the cast in the London production of the musical Hair, and their relationship, a closely guarded secret until 1972, resulted in a daughter named Karis.


 

According to the book Up And Down With The Rolling Stones by Tony Sanchez, all the slavery and whipping is a double meaning for the perils of being "mastered" by Brown Heroin, or "Brown Sugar." The drug cooks brown in a spoon.


 
The Rolling Stones recorded this in the musically rich but luxury deprived city of Sheffield, Alabama, where Jerry Wexler of the group's label, Atlantic Records, often sent his acts. The Stones arrived in Sheffield on December 2, 1969, stayed until the 4th, then performed their fateful Altamont Speedway concert on December 6, where they performed this song live for the first time. At the show, a fan was stabbed to death by a Hells Angels security guard.




During their three days in Alabama, The Stones recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, which opened in May 1969 when four of the musicians from FAME Studios left to establish their own company. "Wild Horses" and "You Gotta Move" also came out of these sessions, making it a very productive stop. The engineer at the Muscle Shoals sessions was Jimmy Johnson, the producer/guitarist who was one of the studio's founders. The Rolling Stones engineer Glyn Johns added overdubs in England (including horns), but he left Johnson's mix intact. Johnson says that Johns called him from England to compliment him on the mix.


 
Even though this was recorded in December 1969, The Stones did not release it until April 1971 because of a legal dispute with their former manager, Allen Klein, over royalties. Recording technology had advanced by then, but they didn't re-record it because the original version was such a powerful take.


 
Mick Jagger started writing this while he was filming the movie Ned Kelly in the Australian outback. He's been in a few movies, including Performance, Freejack and The Man From Elysian Fields. Jagger recalled to Uncut in 2015: "I wrote it in the middle of a field, playing an electric guitar through headphones, which was a new thing then."


 
In Keith Richards' 2010 autobiography Life, it floats a theory as to what the lyrics "Scarred old slaver know he doin' alright" are all about. Some poor guy at their publishing company probably came up with that transcription for the lyrics, but Jagger was most likely singing, "Skydog Slaver," as "Skydog" was a nickname for Muscle Shoals regular Duane Allman, since he was high all the time.



 
A year after this was first recorded, The Stones cut another version at Olympic Studios in London with Eric Clapton on guitar and Al Kooper on keyboards. It was considered for release as the single, but was shelved until 2015 when it appeared the a Sticky Fingers reissue.



 Originally, Mick Jagger wrote this as "Black Pussy." He decided that was a little too direct and changed it to "Brown Sugar."



 
This was the first song released on Rolling Stones Records, The Stones subsidiary label of Atlantic Records. They used the now-famous tongue for their logo.


 
The album cover was designed by Andy Warhol. It was a close-up photo of a man wearing tight jeans, and contained a real zipper. This caused considerable problems in shipping, but was the kind of added value that made the album much more desirable.




Sticky Fingers also marked the first appearance of the famous tongue and lips logo, which was printed on the inner sleeve. The logo was designed by John Pasche, who was fresh out of art school (the Royal College of Art in London).


  
The fortunate souls who got to see The Rolling Stones on their nine-date UK tour in 1971 got a preview of this song, since it was included on the setlist even though Sticky Fingers wouldn't be released for another month.


 
This was one of four songs The Stones had to agree not to play when they were allowed to perform in China. After getting approval to play in China for the first time in 2003, they canceled because of SARS, a respiratory illness that was going around the country.


   
In 327BC Alexander the Great came across the cultivation of sugar cane in India. From this reed, a dark brown sugar was extracted from the cane by chewing and sucking. Some of this "sweet reed" was sent back to Athens. This was the first time a European had come across sugar.


 
The bootleg version which has Eric Clapton playing lead slide guitar was recorded at a birthday party for Keith Richards. It is widely considered to have been part of an informal audition by Clapton to become The Stones second guitarist. The bootleg version shows why Clapton likely did not get offered the job, or withdrew himself from consideration: While Clapton plays a million notes a minute, his lead has almost no interaction with the rest of the band. It is like a studio musician simply playing along with a CD that has already been recorded.

In many interviews, Richards has spoken admiringly of his good friend Clapton's musicianship, but has always commented that the two-guitar sound he and Ron Wood have developed is not Eric's cup of tea.


 
"Sister Morphine"


Marianne Faithfull recorded this during The Stones' Let It Bleed sessions (she was Mick Jagger's girlfriend at the time). Her version was released in 1969 and tanked. Decca Records pulled it after 2 weeks.


 
The song is about a man who gets in a car accident and dies in the hospital while asking for morphine.


 
Mick Jagger wrote the music in Rome in 1968. Marianne Faithful wrote the lyrics, but The Stones did not give her an official songwriting credit until they released it on their 1998 live album No Security. The Stones were very protective about songwriting credits - they made sure most of their songs were credited to Jagger/Richards.


 
Faithfull was not a heavy drug user when she wrote the lyrics, but became an addict in 1971, at the same time The Stones' version was released. She called this her "Frankenstein," consuming her and leading her into an abyss of drugs. In later years, she was able to break the habit resume a successful career as both a singer and an actress.


 
Some of the lyrics were inspired by the time Anita Pallenberg, Keith's girlfriend, was hospitalized and given morphine.


 
Ry Cooder played the bottleneck guitar on this track. He was filling in for the drug-addled Brian Jones, who died before this song was released, but after it was written. This was the only song on Sticky Fingers that Mick Taylor, who replaced Jones, didn't play on.


 
The Stones recorded this in 1968, but their version was not released until 1971.


 
This was left off the Spanish release of Sticky Fingers because of the explicit content. It was replaced with "Let It Rock."


 
The Sticky Fingers album had an actual zipper on the cover. On many copies, this track was damaged because the zipper pressed into it. To solve the problem, the zipper was opened before the album shipped, this way it just dented the label.


 
This was influenced by the Velvet Underground, who were writing dark songs about drugs, especially heroin.




Marianne Faithfull recalled writing the song to The Guardian newspaper in January 2013: "I just liked the name, and loved Lou Reed's work, 'Sister Ray" and 'Heroin' I liked the idea poetically. I thought it was like Baudelaire, but the song doesn't glamorise anything. It was a really interesting vision."


 
Not long after writing the song, the lyrics came painfully true to Marianne Faithfull. She recalled to The Guardian: "The story is about a man in a car accident in hospital, who's very damaged and wants to die. It isn't exactly what happened to me, but my feelings about it are probably the same. I was hospitalised in Sydney after an attempted suicide after Brian Jones died. It was a terrible time."



"Wild Horses"


This started as a song for Keith Richards' newborn son Marlon. It was 1969 and Keith regretted that he had to leave his son to go on tour. Mick Jagger rewrote Keith's lyrics, keeping only the line "Wild horses couldn't drag me away." His rewrite was based on his relationship with Marianne Faithfull, which was disintegrating.


 
This was first released by Gram Parsons Flying Burrito Brothers in 1970. The Stones' version was written in 1969, but had to wait for Sticky Fingers in 1971.




Parsons was good friends with Keith Richards, and the musicians often cited each other as an influence. Said Parsons: "I picked up some rock and roll from Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger knows an awful lot about country music. I learned a lot about singing from Mick."




Regarding "Wild Horses," he said is was "a logical combination between their music and our music. It's something that Mick Jagger can accept, and it's something I can accept. And my way of doing it is not necessarily where it's at, but it's certainly the way I feel it." (Quotes from Bud Scoppa's liner notes in the Sacred Hearts and Fallen Angels collection.)


 Mick Jagger's girlfriend at the time, the singer Marianne Faithfull, claims "Wild horses couldn't drag me away" was the first thing she said to Mick after she pulled out of a drug-induced coma in 1969. There are other theories as to Mick's muse for this song, however. Jagger's longtime girlfriend Jerry Hall in The Observer Magazine April 29, 2007, said: "'Wild Horses' is my favorite Stones song. It's so beautiful. I don't mind that it was written for Bianca." (Not likely, since Jagger didn't meet his future wife Bianca until 1970, which was after the song was recorded.)


 
The Stones recorded this during a three-day session at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama from December 2-4, 1969. It was the last of three songs done at these sessions, after "Brown Sugar" and "You Gotta Move."




Muscle Shoals Sound Studios (actually located in Sheffield, Alabama) opened in May 1969 when Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records (The Stones' label) loaned money to four of the musicians at nearby FAME studios so they could start their own company and install 8-track recording equipment (FAME was on 4-track). Wexler sent many of Atlantic's acts to Muscle Shoals, since the musicians were fantastic and it was a dry county with nothing to do, which meant the artists were more likely to stay focused. The studio also had a distinctive sound that can be heard on this track, especially on Jagger's vocals - you can hear a slight distortion that was caused by the console.




When The Stones left the Shoals, they headed for Altamont, California, where they gave a free concert on December 6, 1969 - a disastrous show where a fan was stabbed to death by a Hells Angels security guard. In the documentary Gimme Shelter, which chronicles the concert, there is a scene where the band is listening to playback on "Wild Horses" at Muscle Shoals Sound.



 The Sticky Fingers album had very elaborate packaging. Designed by Andy Warhol, the cover photo was a close up of a man's jeans with a real zipper on it. It was also the first time the tongue logo was used.


 
Ian Stewart, who usually played piano for The Stones, refused to play on this because he hated minor chords, which is how this starts. He left the session and Jim Dickinson was brought in to play piano. After playing with The Stones, Dickinson worked as a musician and a producer with Aretha Franklin, Big Star and the Replacements, and did a lot of movie soundtrack music with Ry Cooder. He died on August 15, 2009 at age 67.


 
Stones guitarist Mick Taylor played acoustic guitar on this song in what's known as "Nashville tuning," in which you use all first and second strings and you tune them in octaves.


  
Keith Richards wrote in his autobiography Life (2010): "'Wild Horses' almost wrote itself. It was really a lot to do with, once again, f---ing around with the tunings. I found these chords, especially doing it on a twelve-string to start with, which gave the song this character and sound. There's a certain forlornness that can come out of a twelve-string. I started off, I think, on a regular six-string open E, and it sounded very nice, but sometimes you just get these ideas. What if I open tuned a twelve-string? All it meant was translate what Mississippi Fred McDowell was doing - twelve-string slide - into five-string mode, which meant a ten-string guitar."
 

DAY 217.
The Beach Boys...........................Surfs Up   (1971)







Like many Beach Boys albums, "Surfs Up" presents a difficult target to hit squarely, in terms of appreciation.

Released in 1971, it was the work of a band being pulled apart by internal dissent and the slow eclipse of Brian Wilson's sanity.


Got in late last night, so haven't listened to Lennon yet, so will double up tonight.



 

PatReilly wrote:

Lennon's Imagine, mostly great songs, Beach Boys, really past it by the time of Surf's Up.

Sent you a PM, arabchanter. 

Thanks Pat

DAY 218.
Yes........................Fragile   (1971)






After touring April to December 1971 with the likes of Iron Butterfly, Jon Anderson and Chris Squire sought to develop the bands sound with newfangled synthesizers.

Tony Kaye's preference for Hammond's (and arguments with roommate Steve Howe) led to his exit in August, by which time Wakeman had left The Strawbs, bringing Yes a whole new level of virtuosity and showmanship.

Critically lauded and top ten in the UK and the US, it signaled as Jon said, "Yes are a people's band"  albeit people with a love of music at it's most complex.



Started to fall asleep listening to "Surfs Up" last night, so will do a double tonight, I don't think it will take long , as I foresee a bit of skipping through tracks tonight.

Last edited by arabchanter (16/3/2018 8:04 am)

DAY 217.
The Beach Boys...........................Surfs Up   (1971)







Just finished listening to this one, and have to admit it's a funny one to call, I actually found it in most parts better than "Pet Sounds" but then there is "Take A Load Of Your Feet"  and a couple of others which makes you think WHY?


My favourite bit of the album is the last three tracks (the Brian Wilson ones,) unlike Mr Lennon yesterday, with his "every cunt's to blame but me" Brian Wilson paints pictures in his lyrics of how it feels to be where he was, no blame just raw emotion, and sadness.


I wont be buying the album as there's only 3 or 4 tracks I would want to listen to again, but I did find it interesting, in a weird sad kinda way, it certainly wasn't an uplifting album, I feel they were trying a re-invent themselves and wanted to be seen as more socially conscious, and be seen as part of the evolving counterculture.




Bits & Bobs;
Have already wrote about the Beach Boys in previous posts (if interested)


The Wilsons are brothers. Mike Love is their cousin and Al Jardine was Brian Wilson's classmate.


 
Brian Wilson was the creative force. He was tormented by drug problems and a difficult childhood. He lost most of the hearing in his right ear when his father hit him with a wooden plank. By 1965, he stopped touring with the band and focused on writing and producing their songs. He was replaced on tour by Glen Campbell, who played on their Pet Sounds album as well as "Good Vibrations."


 
In 1968, Dennis Wilson became friends with Charles Manson, who thought of himself as a songwriter. Wilson let Manson and his followers stay at his place and paid most of their expenses. When it became clear Manson was not of sound mind, Dennis was afraid to evict him, so he just let the lease end on the house and never came back to it. Manson and his "family" went on a notorious murder spree in 1969. Before he killed anyone, the Beach Boys recorded one of Manson's songs - "Learn Not To Love."


 
Dennis Wilson died in 1983 when he drowned while swimming near his friend's boat in California. US president Ronald Reagan gave special permission so his body could be buried at sea.


 
They became the first major American rock group to play in a Communist country when they performed in Czechoslovakia in 1968.


 
Along with Chynna Phillips, Brian Wilson's daughters Wendie and Carnie formed the popular early '90s group Wilson Phillips. Brian and Carnie were estranged for many years, but reconciled in 1995.


 
Carl Wilson died of lung cancer in 1998.


 
At one point when he was depressed, Brian Wilson weighed over 300 pounds.


 
Brian Wilson stopped touring with the band because he hated performing, but he also hated to fly. Much of the travel on their early tours was by bus.


 
The Beach Boys do not seem to enjoy being referred to as "Oldies." In their concert riders, the band explicitly states that no advertising or promotional materials should contain the word "Oldies" in conjunction with their name or logo. Another requirement of the band during touring is to be provided with a masseuse/masseur qualified in Swedish or Oriental deep muscle massage. Loyal to their environmental concerns, The Beach Boys also ask for recycling bins.


 
Dennis Wilson was married 5 times (twice to the actress Karen Lamm) and had 4 children. His last marriage was to Shawn Love, who was Mike Love's daughter. Shawn, who had control of Dennis' body when he died and had him buried at sea, died in 2003 of liver failure.


 
The Beach Boys won Best Historical album for The Smile Sessions at the 2013 Grammy Awards. It was their first ever Grammy.


 
The first album Brian Wilson ever bought was Four Freshmen and Five Trombones by The Four Freshman, which he said "changed my life.".

The Four Freshman were an American male vocal band quartet that blended open-harmonic jazz arrangements with big band vocal group sounds. Four Freshmen and 5 Trombones was a major seller during the 1950s, reaching #6 nationally in 1955 and residing on the charts for over eight months. One of the most innovative and imitated jazz vocal quartet ever to grace vinyl, The Four Freshman's harmony singing was a big influence on the Beach Boys.


 
Speaking about his influences to Billboard magazine, Brian Wilson said: "As a writer, I've had a few influences, and Chuck (Berry) is primary. As a producer, he also informed my sense of how a record should feel."

"There were only two other producers I studied closely," he added. "The first was Phil Spector, who taught me how to make tracks and craft what some might call 'baroque' backgrounds. The second was Bob Crewe, famous for his work with Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, who showed me how to utilize horns to sharpen and sculpt an overall sound."


 
Brian Wilson could not contain his excitement upon seeing Elizabeth II in the flesh at a 2002 royal gala. On seeing the English monarch, he shouted: "Hey, Queen!" The Beach Boy legend recalled to The Guardian: "I yelled it out. She didn't say anything back."


 
In spite of its complex multi-layered tracks and harmonies, Pet Sounds was mixed not in stereo but in mono - largely because of Brian Wilson's lack of hearing in his right ear.



"Surfs Up"


This was originally going to be part of the celebrated, but aborted Smile album. The song was written by Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson in an hour at Wilson's Chickering piano in 1966. In 1970 the song was completed by the rest of the Beach Boys under the supervision of Carl Wilson, and it became the title track of their 22nd album. It was also released as a single but didn't chart.


 
This song is about the innocent spirituality and innate love of youth, contrasted against the many imperfections and failings of adult society, who are pictured in a theater oblivious to what is going on outside. It is thought Van Dyke Parks was reflecting on the protests going on in America at the time about the Vietnam War.


 
The phrase, "Are you sleeping, Brother John?' is a reference to the children's song better known as "Frere Jacques."


 
The recurring phrase at the end, "The child is father of the man," is a quote of William Wordsworth's line in his poem My Heart Leaps Up.


 
Brian Wilson performed this solo for a CBS News special on popular music, hosted by Leonard Bernstein in November 1966.


 
Mike Love was critical of some of Van Dyke Parks lyrics, including those to this song. He told Uncut magazine March 2008: "I asked Van Dyke what a particular set of lyrics meant and he said, 'I haven't a clue, Mike.' I termed some of his lyrical contributions 'acid alliteration.' Some of the stuff was phenomenal, but I looked at things from an objective commercial point of view. Whether it's a strength or weakness. I said, 'Is it going to relate to the public to the degree that they can identify with the message and the lyrics?'"

Last edited by arabchanter (16/3/2018 1:16 am)

DAY 218.
Yes........................Fragile   (1971)






Deary me, 41 minutes of organ/synth driven drivel backed up, by a boy who sounds like his balls haven't dropped yet, listening to this I got the feeling it was a case of all the band members trying to see who was best at not making it sound simple, lets make it sound all over the shop, and call it art ( more charlatans, in my humbles.)


As for the lyrics, fuck me, judge for yourself, here's a sample;


Tell the moon dog, tell the march hare
Tell the moon dog, tell the march hare
(We have heaven)
Tell the moon dog, tell the march hare
Tell the moon dog, tell the march hare
Tell the moon dog, tell the march hare
Tell the moon dog, tell the march hare
Tell the moon dog, tell the march hare
Tell the moon dog, tell the march hare
(We have heaven)

and what about this for a bit of fuckwittery;


"The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)

The title comes from Chris Squire’s nickname: he was dubbed “The Fish” because of his tendency to take long baths. He also happens to be a Pisces.The subtitle of this song is Schindleria praematurus, which is an obscure, neotenic marine fish from the Pacific ocean. “Neotenic” means the adult fish exhibits no adult characteristics, only juvenile characteristics.

The story is that Chris Squire had the melody and wanted to sing the name of a fish that had eight syllables, and dispatched a roadie (maybe Michael Tait) to find one. The best he could find had nine, which is why the last syllable kind of trails off.

for me that smacks of "don't you think I'm clever' it's Latin you know," 

how far up your own arse do you have to be, for that type of behavior?     fud!


Now is that the kinda boy you would want to have a pint with?



Anyways, there wasn't a single track, I found close to likeable, I really don't like prog rock but am willing to be converted if something comes along in this book that changes my mind, but can't see that happening.


This album most definitely wont be going into my collection.



Bits & Bobs;

Wrote about this lot in post #833 (if interested)



"Roundabout"   (aka sircul)



This was Yes' breakthrough hit and one of their most well-known songs, but the band wasn't looking for a hit at the time. The album version runs 8:29, but it was edited to 3:27 for release as a single, which climbed to #13 on the US Hot 100, giving the band their biggest hit until they eclipsed it with "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" in 1983.




Anderson explained: "When we first heard the 'Roundabout' single, it was on the radio. We didn't know it was released. We were busy being a band on the road, and then we heard the edit and we thought, 'Wow, that must have been a big pair of scissors to edit that song.' I mean, it was just totally wrong musically. It actually worked and all of a sudden we became famous, we had a hit record and more people came to see us, which was great, because then they would see the progression of music we'd been doing and they'd see us more as a band and not just wait for 'Roundabout.' Because we didn't do that 'Roundabout' in those days. We did the 8-minute version."


 
Yes lead singer Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe wrote this song near the end of a tour when they were traveling in Scotland. They were in the back of a van going from Aberdeen to Glasgow when the song came together. Awed by the scenery, Anderson came up with lyrics like "Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there," as the mountains would disappear into the clouds.




The band had been touring for about a month, and Anderson was looking forward to his imminent return to London, where he could once again see his wife at the time, Jennifer. The lyrics, "Twenty four before my love you'll see I'll be there with you" indicate that he is just 24 hours away from being with her again.


 
The lyrics describe a psychedelic-country life, with allusions to driving. A roundabout is a kind of traffic circle that substitutes for a stoplight and confounds tourists who are unfamiliar with them. Traffic patterns don't always make the most poetic lyrics, but the word "Roundabout" sings very well and fits with the theme of the song, as when Jon Anderson came to a roundabout in Scotland, he knew that he was almost home.


  
The lake mentioned in this song ("In and around the lake...") is Loch Ness, which Jon Anderson saw when he was riding through Scotland. This lake is supposedly inhabited by a rarely seen creature known as the Loch Ness Monster.


 
This song is known as a showcase for the musicianship of Yes, notably the keyboard work of Rick Wakeman and the acoustic guitar intro played by Howe. Fragile was Wakeman's first album with the band. Anderson says it's a "happy song" and describes it as a "Scottish jig."


 
The odd sound at the beginning of this song is a piano played back backwards. Their engineer Eddy Offord spent a lot of time stringing up tape the wrong way and picking out just the right notes to make it work.



Yes was split into two groups in the '10s, with Chris Squire, Steve Howe and Alan White leading one faction, and Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman leading another. Both permutations of the group made "Roundabout" a focal point of their sets, and when Yes reunited for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2017, it was one of two songs they performed. The other, "Owner Of A Lonely Heart," is a song associated with guitarist Trevor Rabin, who was part of the Anderson/Wakeman lineup.



"Cans And Brahms"


This song is made up of extracts from Brahms' 4th Symphony in E minor, Third Movement. It was arranged by keyboard player Rick Wakeman, who said the piece "was dreadful, but contractual hangups prevented me from writing an original solo track."




Wakeman was also recording as a solo artist at the time, but for a different record company (he was on A&M, Yes was on Atlantic). He did write an original piece for the album called "Handle With Care," but when legalities abrogated that effort, he did "Cans And Brahms" (credited to Johannes Brahms) for Fragile, and reworked "Handle" as "Catherine of Aragon" for his 1973 solo album The Six Wives of Henry VIII.



 Each of the five members of the band contributed one track of their own design to this album. "Cans And Brahms" was keyboard player Rick Wakeman's contribution, and he played all the parts on the song. And the other four contributions: Jon Anderson sang all the vocal parts in "We Have Heaven" Bill Bruford created "Five Per Cent For Nothing" (played by the entire group with percussion instruments), "The Fish" was created by Chris Squire using only the bass guitar, and Steve Howe did "Mood For A Day" as a solo guitar piece, to be fair that track was almost passable.

"Tell the moon dog, tell the march hare
(We have heaven)"

You just don't get it, A/C 

The Moon Dog and the March Hare are being assured that, although they will die, Heaven is around the corner.


You're right , what a load of pish.
 

DAY 219.
The Doors....................L.A. Woman    (1971)






Found this an enjoyable album, "Riders On The Storm" is the star track on this album, it has the "ear worm" effect, in that when you hear it, it's a hoor of a job to get it out of your head.

I also liked "Love You Madly," and "L.A. Woman" but the rest of the tracks, for me at least, were all pretty mediocre at best.


I would think any self respecting album collection, would feel somewhat incomplete without a Doors album, but as I have bought the debut album my collection needn't feel embarrassed.

This one wont be getting added.  



Bits & Bobs;

Have already wrote about these boys in previous posts  (if interested)



The psychic toll of Jim Morrison's addiction and legal hassles threatened to overwhelm the group. Any attempts at making an album under these conditions should have met with unmitigated disaster, but on L.A. Woman – the final Doors LP released during Morrison's lifetime – the band succeeded almost in spite of themselves. Self-produced and recorded in their private rehearsal space, the album was a homecoming in both a musical and spiritual sense. "Our last record turned out like our first album: raw and simple," drummer John Densmore reflected in his autobiography. "It was as if we had come full circle. Once again we were a garage band, which is where rock & roll started."


Morrison left on an extended trip to Paris as the final mixes were being prepared, hoping to rediscover his muse in the City of Light. He would never return: The singer died there in July 1971.



The Doors' longtime producer quit the sessions, dismissing the songs as "cocktail music."



L. A. Woman got off to an inauspicious start in November 1970, when the band played their new material for producer Paul Rothchild. They possessed only a handful of semi-complete tunes, and Rothchild was less than impressed. He dismissed "Riders on the Storm" as "cocktail music," but reserved particular scorn for "Love Her Madly," which he cited as the song that drove him out of the studio. "The material was bad, the attitude was bad, the performance was bad," he said in the Morrison biography No One Here Gets Out Alive. "After three days of listening I said, 'That's it!' on the talk-back and cancelled the session."


They convened for an emergency meeting at a nearby Chinese restaurant, and Rothchild laid his cards on the table. "I said, 'Look, I think it sucks. I don't think the world wants to hear it. It's the first time I've ever been bored in a recording studio in my life. I want to go to sleep.'" With that, the so-called "Fifth Door," who had produced the band since their debut, walked out. Once the shock had worn off, the Doors turned to engineer Bruce Botnick, whose credits included all of their previous albums, as well as the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, and the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed. With his help, the reinvigorated band vowed to coproduce their new album. Gone were the days of Rothchild's studio strictness, where it was normal to record 30 takes or spend hours on perfecting a drum sound. "Rothchild was gone, which is one reason why we had so much fun," Robbie Krieger"
"The warden was gone." 



"Riders on the Storm" contains Jim Morrison's last recorded contribution to the Doors.




When the band gathered at Poppi Studios early January 1971 to mix L.A. Woman with Bruce Botnick, they made some last minute embroideries to their epic album closer. Thunderstorm sound effects were added to "Riders on the Storm," but Morrison had a more subtle contribution: two ghostly whispers of the song's title on the fadeout. The eerie send-off is even more haunting in retrospect. "That's the last thing he ever did," Ray ManzareK said "An ephemeral, whispered overdub." The song was released as the album's second single, entering the Billboard charts on July 3rd, 1971 – the day Jim Morrison died.




"Love Her Madly"


 
Doors guitarist Robby Krieger wrote this song on a 12-string guitar. It is about the numerous times his girlfriend (and later, wife), Lynn, threatened to leave him. "Every time we had an argument, she used to get pissed off and go out the door, and she'd slam the door so loud the house would shake," Krieger said.


 
Krieger, John Densmore, and Ray Manzarek recorded a new version with Bo Diddley for the 2000 Doors tribute album Stoned Immaculate.



LA Woman was the last album they recorded with Jim Morrison, who died shortly after it was released.


This was recorded in a very casual atmosphere. The musicians all played together, with no overdubs. They produced it themselves, which meant they could relax and make their own rules. The whole album was recorded in just two weeks.





The group's longtime producer Paul Rothchild had this to say in an interview with BAM magazine: "That's exactly the song I was talking about that I said sounded like cocktail music. That's the song that drove me out of the studio. That it sold a million copies means nothing to me. It's still bad music."


 

The title is a twist on a phrase Duke Ellington popularized. At his concerts, he would say, "we love you madly."The Doors didn't have a bass player, but sometimes used one in the studio to beef up the low end.On "Love Her Madly," Jerry Scheff, famous for his work with Elvis Presley, played.
 
 

Last edited by arabchanter (17/3/2018 9:04 am)

DAY 221.
Elton John..........................Madman Across The Water     (1971)











So contractually bound, he released 5 albums in 18 months from April 1971, although one
was a movie soundtrack and another a live effort, Madman ...., which started with two tracks recorded in February 1971 and was completed that August, was the fourth studio album, and included no major hit singles, yet remained in the U.S.charts for almost a year; by contrast , it was one of his least successful in the U.K.



I'm going to randomly, try and listen to "Tago Mago" in small digestible chunks, during the day rather than in a oner.

Will try and post early evening about this mob, and EJ later on tonight.
 

DAY 221.
Elton John..........................Madman Across The Water     (1971)










Have never been a great lover of Elton John, the singer or the person, always came over as a spoiled, bitchy old queen.

"Madman Across The Water" apart from the opening track, tended to be a bit samey, a bit bland and lyrically left me struggling to get the jist of some of the tracks.

The stand out track for me was "Tiny Dancer" it's a shame that it didn't have anything that would come close to it on the rest of the album, apart from that track there was nada!


This album just didn't do anything for me , it didn't make me happy, and it didn't make me sad, it  didn't really evoke any emotion at all, not even hatred or dislike, I can't think of any of the tracks that would make me want to buy this album, and as a consequence, this album will not be going into my collection.



Bits & Bobs;


Elton doesn't write lyrics, his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin takes care of that. They met through a want-ad in a British music trade paper, and someone at the publishing company where they both applied connected them, since Elton needed a lyricist and Bernie needed someone to write music. Taupin would deliver lyrics to John in bundles, and Elton would fit tunes to them. He wouldn't even ask Bernie what the songs were about, and Taupin claims that there are some songs Elton thinks are about him, but are actually about Bernie.


 
Before he was a solo artist, John was in a group called Bluesology. They were a backing group for Blues singers from America that toured England (like Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles). They were hired by Baldry in 1966 as his backing band. John coproduced an album of his in 1971.


 
John's original name was Reginald Kenneth Dwight. The name Elton comes from Elton Dean, a Bluesology sax player. John comes from Long John Baldry, a British R&B singer and founder of Blues Inc. In 1974, he made Elton Hercules John his legal name. Hercules was the name of the horse in the British comedy series Steptoe and Son, which he enjoyed.


 
He won a piano scholarship when he was 11 to the Royal Academy of Music.


 
When Elton auditioned for Liberty Records, they liked his performance, but not his songs. So they gave him a bunch of Taupin's lyrics, and that's how the two met. He also famously auditioned for rock groups King Crimson and Gentle Giant ... and was rejected by both.


 
Has played piano on records by many different artists including George Harrison, John Lennon, Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, Jackson Browne, Ringo Starr, the Hollies, and Bob Dylan.


 
John's American debut at Los Angeles' Troubadour featured handstands on his piano and members of the Spencer Davis Group backing him. He was an instant critical success.


 
As a child, John didn't need glasses, but wore them anyway to look like Buddy Holly. They damaged his eyes so much that he was soon forced to wear them.


 
After he topped a poll by Cadbury to find Britain's favorite personality, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London made a statue of Elton out of 227lbs (126kgs) of Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate. He's the first solo rock star to get a wax portrait made by Madame Tussaud's. The Beatles were the first rock band.




His 1975 album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirty Cowboy was a charting milestone for the singer and the industry. Not only was it his first album to enter the US charts at #1, it was the first time an artist ever debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. His other 1975 album, Rock of the Westies, was the second.


 
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 by Guns 'N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose, who calls John a major influence.


 
Taupin and John give a lot of their British royalties to AIDS charities. It's one of several things he has done for AIDS research. Others included auctioning off his record collection, hosting Oscar parties, and organizing an auction for a date with supermodel Cindy Crawford.


 
John was made an Officer of Arts and Letters by France, one of their highest distinctions.


 
At one point, John was responsible for 3% of all records sold on the planet.


 
In 1976 he admitted that he was bisexual. An initial negative response to that prompted a semi-reclusive state by John.


 
He was well known in the mid-'70s for his outrageous clothing (especially eyeglasses) in his live sets. He had a $40,000 collection of clothes.


 
He appeared as the Pinball Wizard in the film version of the Who's Tommy. After convincing Rod Stewart to turn down the role, he took it for himself and also asked if he could keep the large boots that he wore for the part.



 
Elton married studio engineer Renate Blauel in 1984, surprising many people who thought he was gay. He was. They divorced four years later.


 
John characterizes 1989-1990 as the worst time period of his life. He had become close friends with AIDS victim Ryan White, who died in 1990. He had just gotten divorced. His lover forced him to check into a hospital for drug abuse and bulimia. He even auctioned off most of his old belongings, including many of his old clothes.


   
When he performed there for the 60th time on his 60th birthday, he set the record for the most performances at New York's Madison Square Garden.


 
Elton John is unwilling to wear a backstage pass, as the rider for The Elton John One Man Show reveals.


 
He ranks #1 in Billboard's 2011 list of the top Adult Contemporary Artists Of All Time. He had 16 #1 AC hits by the time the list was compiled.


 
He composed his first five albums on a 1910 white upright piano, which was sold at a Dallas auction for $164,000 in 2004.


 
Elton is godfather to several celebrity children, including Sean Lennon (son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono), Brooklyn and Romeo Beckham (sons of David and Victoria Beckham), and Damian Charles (son of Elizabeth Hurley).


 
Elton married longtime partner David Furnish in 2014 after gay marriage became legal in England. Exactly nine years earlier, they were one of the first couples in the UK to form a civil partnership after the Civil Partnership Act came into effect.


 
The singer has two sons with Furnish (born via surrogate mother): Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, born in 2010, and Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John, born in 2013.



 
Elton had a long-standing feud with Madonna after he criticized her for lip-synching during a live performance in the early 2000s. After over a decade peppered with insults against the Material Girl, including calling her a "f--king fairground stripper" and asserting that her career was over, Elton apologized to the singer in 2013.


 
Elton John's "Million Dollar Piano" that he plays in concert features more than 60 LED video screens. It took Yamaha almost four years to make and weighs 220 stone.



"Tiny Dancer"


The lyrics were written by Bernie Taupin, John's writing partner. They were inspired by Taupin's first trip to America. John and Taupin are from England, and this was the first album they wrote after spending time in the US. Taupin and John spent a lot of time together in the '70s; Bernie traveled with the band would usually stand by the soundboard during shows.


 
The "Blue jean baby, LA Lady, seamstress for the band" sure sounds it's Maxine Feibelmann, who was Bernie Taupin's girlfriend when he wrote the song and who became his first wife in 1971. She traveled with the band on their early tours, often sewing together the costumes and fixing their clothes. Plus, on the Madman Across The Water album, it says, "With love to Maxine" under the credits for this song. Elton John even said at one point that Bernie wrote it about his girlfriend.




Well, Taupin says that the song was not about Maxine. Here's the story he tells: "We came to California in the fall of 1970, and sunshine radiated from the populace. I was trying to capture the spirit of that time, encapsulated by the women we met - especially at the clothes stores up and down the Strip in L.A. They were free spirits, sexy in hip-huggers and lacy blouses, and very ethereal, the way they moved. So different from what I'd been used to in England. And they all wanted to sew patches on your jeans. They'd mother you and sleep with you - it was the perfect Oedipal complex."




Taupin adds that the "tiny" was poetic license, although these women were all petite. And "Tiny Dancer" sounds a lot better than "Small Dancer" or "Little Dancer."


 
The Madman Across The Water album was much more heavily-produced than Elton's first four. It was one of his first songs with a lush string section arranged by Paul Buckmaster, who arranged the stings on many of Elton's albums as well as songs by The Rolling Stones, Train, and Leonard Cohen. Ron Cornelius, who played guitar on Cohen's album Songs Of Love And Hate, told us: "Buckmaster is a wonderful string arranger, he's just one of these guys who can make an orchestra talk. In other words, if the strings aren't saying something, it ain't on the record."


 
Rick Wakeman, who later joined the group Yes, played keyboards on the album.


 
This was featured in the 2000 movie Almost Famous. It is used in a scene where the band is mad at each other, but remembers why they love music when they all start singing this on their tour bus.




In 2011, Budweiser used the same "Tiny Dancer changes the mood" theme in a commercial that debuted on the Super Bowl. In the spot, a gruff cowboy starts a sing-a-long to the song when he gets his beer. Peter Stormare, whose film credits include Fargo and The Big Lebowski, played the cowboy.


 
Elton was pleasantly surprised to learn about this song's use in Almost Famous, as it didn't always get a great reaction when he performed it live. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2011, Elton recalled: "Jeffrey Katzenberg called me and said, 'There's a scene in this film which is going to make 'Tiny Dancer' a hit all over again.' When I saw it, I said, 'Oh my God!' I used to play 'Tiny Dancer' in England and it would go down like a lead zeppelin. Cameron resurrected that song."


  
On October 28, 2010, Elton played the Electric Proms, and the following evening appeared on the BBC magazine programme The One Show where two members of the audience had been at the show the previous night, and the guy - Guy! - had proposed to his girlfriend during Elton's performance of "Tiny Dancer". He insisted on them coming up to meet him.


Fortunately, nobody alluded to the ill-omens that Elton's marriage ended in divorce when he decided that neither the lovely Renate Blauel (nor any woman) was the right person for him, nor even worse that Bernie Taupin and his tiny dancer were divorced in 1976, and that by the time this programme was aired, the lyricist was on his fourth wife!