'Innervisions' by Stevie Wonder is arguably his greatest album. It's between that and 'Songs In The Key of Life' for me. Both just exceptional.

​I think i'll do a Mr Chanter and listen to 'Innervisions' 'afresh' if that's possible and review it.

Day 294.
ZZ Top...........................................................Tres Hombres   (1973)









"Tres Hombres" marked ZZ Top's elevation into the megaleague as one of the biggest touring acts in the world, The jury will probably always be out on which was the better of ZZ's two great eras, straight-down-the-line blues rock (1970's) or pumpin' blues disco (1980's and 90's) What is indisputable is that their Texas roots were absolutely inseparable from their down 'n' dirty sound.


Tres Hombres is a showcase of everything that is magnificent about the band, and the inclusion of the huge hit "La Grange" is only part of the story. In fact "La Grange"  based around a rift so simple yet so inspired that you will never forget it, is atypical for it's mumbling novelty vocals.

Me in the early hours, sorry




 

Stevie Wonder - 'Innervisions'

​Track 1 - 'Too High' 


​I always felt the album should have started off with 'Living For The City' but pehaps Stevie wanted to keep his 'powder dry' and build the album up slowly. Nonetheless 'Too High' is a decent album opener.

​Great lead vox from Stevie (who plays EVERY instrument on this track) as well as really cool and great backing harmonies from his backing singers Tasha Thomas and Lani Groves. That weird funky Bass sound was played on a Moog Modulator NOT a bass guitar.

Track 2 - 'Visions'


People hand in hand
Have I lived to see the milk and honey land?
Where hate's a dream and love forever stands
Or is this a vision in my mind?The law was never passed
But somehow all men feel they're truly free at last.
Have we really gone this far through space and time
Or is this a vision in my mind?I'm not one who make believes
I know that leaves are green
They only turn to brown when autumn comes around
I know just what I say
Today's not yesterday
And all things have an endingBut what I'd like to know
Is could a place like this exist so beautiful
Or do we have to find our wings and fly away
To the vision in our mind?I'm not one who make believes
I know that leaves are green
They only change to brown when autumn comes around
I know just what I say
Today's not yesterday
And all things have an endingBut what I'd like to know
Is could a place like this exist so beautiful
Or do we have to take our wings and fly away
To the visions in our minds?

This was a beautiful track that was Stevie's hope for a future World of peace and racial understanding and equality. The title track 'Visions' to me was a play on the fact he was (of course) blind so had to forsee these hopes through his conscience mind as he would never see them metaphorically or literally.

​Track 3 - 'Living For The City'


A fictional story of a poor young black boy from the South who moves to the hustle and bustle of New York City seeking work and a life. But quickly finds out what it's like to be a young black man in a sprawling metropolis and that the prejudices are just as strong in this land of 'Milk and Honey'.

​EVERYTHING about this track is just off the scale magnificent. That breakdown bit where the cops come and you hear the black slang talk. Even as a kid that blew me away when my old man would play it. Stevie by this point was becoming a real voice not just in music but for and behalf of 'black culture'.

Track 4 - 'Golden Lady'


Just a beautiful love song. Stevie's lead vocals are just sublime in this track that he plas no well than 5 instruments on.

Track 5 - 'Higher Ground'


Just a great upbeat, happy funk track that keeps a great 'toe-tapping' tempo throughout the entire track.

​Was a song about being dead and Stevie questioning if there was an afterlife. Another rack Stevie plays EVERY instrument.

Track 6 - 'Jesus Children of America'


Yet another track Stevie does it all by himself. Plays every instrument (6 of them). And provides the backing vocals and handclaps etc for himself. Not my favourite track on the album. But still listenable.

Track 7 - 'All In Love Is Fair'


The best song on the album and one of the best songs Stevie Wonder has written full-stop.

​What you hear here is a man breaking his heart and letting the World hear it. He wrote this during the break-up of his first marriage to Syreeta Wright his first Wife and collaborator.

​Not only are his vocals, piano playing and drumming all pretty haunting on this but they are some of his finest lyrics also.

​"A writer (Stevie Wonder) takes his pen to write the words again, that 'All Is Fair In Love'.

​Track 8 - ' Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing


One of Stevie's best known tracks but personally not one of my favourites of his.

​Track 9 - ' He's Misstra Know-It-All'


Just a great album ender and Soul song that dips it's toes into the waters of Gospel from the middle 8 till the end of the track. Track flows beautifully and I love the backing vocal harmonies.

'Innervisions' - 9/10


 

Day 294.
ZZ Top...........................................................Tres Hombres   (1973)










"Tres Hombres" hit you hard from the opening track "Waiting for the Bus" through to the bluesy closing track "Have You Heard"

This was ZZ top raw, with no frills just good solid rockin' blues, I really enjoyed that listen and a special mention about Billy Gibbons guitar work, the boy was rated by Hendrix who seemed to know his way around a guitar, and even me being the least guitary loving person you can meet, can see the  talent the boy had.

"Shiek" was probably my favourite track, closely followed by "La Grange," and "Master Of Sparks," this album could well end up in my collection, but only if there is not an 80s ZZ Top album that comes up later, as have to admit, I still have fond memories of these songs and especially their videos from that era.



Bits & Bobs;


They are the longest-running American rock band with no member changes.


 
Gibbons and Hill have been growing their beards since 1979. Frank Beard is the only member who does not have a beard.


 Jimi Hendrix called Gibbons "One of America's best young guitarists" on The Tonight Show.


 
They were the first and last band to play McNichols Arena in Denver. It opened in 1975 and closed in 1999.


 
In a 1984 Saturday Night Live Democratic candidate poll, they received 131,384 votes.


 Legend has it that the "ZZ" in their name comes from a design on barn doors and "Top" comes from Tops rolling papers, but in Billy Gibbons' book, he states that while looking at the concert posters that were adorning the wall and trying to come up with a new name for the band, he noticed a poster for ZZ Hill. He liked the ZZ part and thought of using ZZ King, like BB King, but that was too close. However, King was the best, or "tops," so ZZ Top is was.


They performed for President George W. Bush a few days before he was inaugurated in 2001. While Governor of Texas, Bush proclaimed May 15, 1997 "ZZ Top Day."


 
In 1991 a Texas man kidnapped and killed the wife of their manager, Bill Ham. The man was caught and given the death penalty.


 
They appeared in the 1990 movie Back To The Future III as a Square Dance band.


 
They opened some shows for Janis Joplin, who was also from Texas.


 
Their 1976 "Worldwide Texas" tour featured a stage shaped like Texas, as well as a steer, snakes, and cacti.


 
Hill was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 2000. They had to cancel a series of shows so he could get treatment.


 
The iconic car that appeared in their videos and on the album cover of the same name is known as The Eliminator. It's a 1933 Ford that Billy Gibbons had made into a Hot Rod (he started working on it in 1976), and it proved so popular that he had another one built just like it to go on tour. Gibbons was into Hot Rods and for many kids watching MTV, The Eliminator was their first look at one in action.


 
ZZ Top played their first ever concert on February 10, 1970 at a Knights of Columbus Hall on the old US 90 outside of Houston. The gig was booked by Beaumont radio personality Al Caldwell of KLVI, who would later also broadcast the band's first recordings. When the curtains opened there was just one person in the audience. Billy Gibbons recalled to Q magazine: "We shrugged and pressed onwards. We took a break halfway through, went out and bought him a Coke."


 
Before forming ZZ Top, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill were both members of a fake version of the British rock act The Zombies. The Texan group of imposters masqueraded as the Zombies and toured throughout the US to sold out shows a year after the real band split in the UK.




"Waiting for the Bus"

An early ZZ Top track, this kicks off the album Tres Hombres. For years, radio stations played it along with the following track, "Jesus Just Left Chicago," keeping the natural segue on the album. This was an early casualty of automated corporate radio, as stations now rarely let one song flow into another like they do on the album.


 
In a 1985 interview with Spin magazine, ZZ Top bass player Dusty Hill said: "I've always liked that song. It's a working man's song. It's been a couple of years, but I went to Austin from Houston and I decided, hell, I'll ride the bus. I hadn't done it in a long time. And you can meet some very unique people on a bus and in a bus station. I like to people watch. I love bus stations and train stations. The thing about a bus is who you have to sit beside. If the guy's got good wine, it's OK."



"Jesus Just Left Chicago"

In an interview with Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited, lead guitarist Billy Gibbons explained: "The two songs ["Waitin' For The Bus" and "Jesus Just Left Chicago"] were written separately during sessions that were not too far apart. We were in the process of compiling the tracks for the album Tres Hombres, and that segue was a fortunate miscalculation by the engineer. He had been attempting to splice out some blank tape, and the result is that the two come off as a single work. It just seemed to work."


 
The Deep South is noted for its Christian roots, and in spite of the hostile reception rock 'n' roll received from the Bible Belt when it first reared its head, many contemporary musicians began their musical careers in or around the church. The most famous white rock 'n' roller from the Deep South to combine the two was of course Elvis Presley, who recorded the odd religious song.




Although "Jesus Just Left Chicago" isn't exactly a hymn, it does have a spiritual dimension, and is written more in the style of Black Christian music, adhering to a strict blues format. And Gibbons is actually known as Reverend Billy Gibbons!


 
According to Billy Gibbons, he got the idea for this song when he was a teenager. He was talking on the phone to a friend who was known as "R&B Jr," who had lots of strange sayings in his lexicon. One day Billy was talking to him on the phone when he blurted out, "Jesus Just Left Chicago!"


 
Talking about this song with Rolling Stone, Gibbons explained: "We took what could have been an easy 12-bar blues and made it more interesting by adding those odd extra measures. It's the same chords as "La Grange" with the Robert Johnson lick, but weirder. Robert Johnson was country blues - not that shiny hot-rod electric stuff. But there was a magnetic appeal: 'What can we take and interpret in some way?'



"Beer Drinkers And Hellratsers"

Group composition "Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers" (with or without the ampersand) is a fun track with the band playing up to their Southern redneck image. Unusually, bass player Dusty Hill supplies the lead vocal, backed up by axeman Gibbons.


 
It has been suggested that the line "...baby, don't you wanna come with me?" means something a little more explicit than "Would you like to accompany me to the honky-tonk, miss?" If that is indeed the case, then the censor missed it; although it was not released as a single it received considerable airplay, including in the UK, where in 1973 this sort of innuendo would not have been tolerated by the BBC.


 
The original version runs to 3 minutes 23 seconds, and the song has been covered by both Van Halen and Motörhead, the latter of whom produced a blistering track with some fine and innovative soloing by Fast Eddie Clarke, but as is often the case, the original has not been bettered.



"Master Of Sparks"



The song tells the apparently true story (according to an interview in Sound magazine, in June 1976, with guitarist Billy Gibbons) of several “rednecks” who weld together a spherical steel cage (inside of which is a VW-Bug seat fitted with a seatbelt), place the cage into the bed of their truck and at night, after reaching a speed of 60 miles per hour (97 km/h), on Highway 6 in Houston (aka Jack Rabbit Rd), propel the cage from the back with the hapless narrator taking a ride inside. If he lives, the passenger is granted the title “Master of Sparks”. Gibbons survived.



"Precious and Grace"

Another based-on-a-true-story song that’s integral to
Tres Hombres is “Precious And Grace,” the story of a couple of
not-so-nice girls that two out of three ZZs encountered early in the
band’s history. This one is verified, certified, but certainly not
sanctified.


Billy and Dusty had driven Billy’s ‘69 Pontiac Grand Prix
(not the “flathead Ford” mentioned in the song) to Rocky’s Pawn Shop in
Dallas on a mission to acquire the 1952 Fender Precision bass that
Dusty’s played for many years. On the way back to Houston from Dallas,
they notice two hitchhiking females and decided to do the country thing
and give the girls a ride. These, then, were Precious and Grace, whose
names were far from descriptive of their true nature. This is to say
Precious sported a big knife scar on her face, and Grace was kind of
gauche. P&G occupied the backseat, chatting with each other. It
became clear to the guys in the front that at least one of them had just
been let out of prison in nearby Huntsville. As the sky darkened, the
girls directed the guys to a local make-out spot they referred to as
“Put Out Road.” The girls propositioned the wary young rockers, who
were understandably spooked when they noticed a male figure holding a
shotgun. “Precious, is that you?” he inquired. Adrenaline told the
guys to act fast, and the girls were immediately put out of the
still-moving car as the fellas hightailed it back to Houston, where they
immediately collaborated with Frank on the song.



"La Grange"

 
This song is about a whorehouse. Many people in Texas knew about it, but when the song was released it drew so much attention to the illegal activities going on there that they had to cease operations.




"The Chicken Ranch," or Miss Edna's Boarding House in La Grange, was probably the oldest establishment in Texas, catering the the oldest profession. It was closed down by a zealous TV reporter from Houston, who couldn't find enough vice and corruption to report in Houston. He challenged the governor on the issue of why it continued to operate in fairly plain sight. The governor had no choice but to order the sheriff to close it.




Miss Edna's girls had weekly visits from the local doctors, so they were "clean." The girls spent their money in La Grange and when a new hospital was needed, Miss Edna gave the first and largest donation. The reporter remained on the air crusading against such hideous crimes such as slime in the ice machines of restaurants.




Most of the building still stands, only a room was moved to Dallas for a nightclub. A "Ten to get in" was the price. There was a strict dress code for patrons - only sharp dressed men were allowed in.


 
The place in this song is the subject of the 1982 movie The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, staring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds, which was adapted from a 1978 Broadway play.




In a 1985 interview with Spin magazine, ZZ Top bass player Dusty Hill explained: "Did you ever see the movie, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas? That's what it's about. I went there when I was 13. A lot of boys in Texas, when it's time to be a guy, went there and had it done. Fathers took their sons there.




You couldn't cuss in there. You couldn't drink. I had an air of respectability. Miss Edna wouldn't stand for no bulls--t. That's the woman that ran the place, and you know she didn't look like Dolly Parton, either. I'll tell you, she was a mean-looking woman. But oil field workers and senators would both be there. The place had been open for over 100 years, and then this a--hole decides he's going to do an exposé and close it. And he stirred up so much s--t that it had to close.




La Grange is a little bitty town, and little towns in Texas are real conservative. But they fought against it. They didn't want it closed, because it was like a landmark. It was on a little ranch outside of town, the Chicken Ranch. Anyway, we wrote this song and put it out, and it was out maybe three months before they closed it. It pissed me off. It was a whorehouse, but anything that lasts a hundred years, there's got to be a reason."


 
La Grange is a real town in Texas. Coca-Cola had a bottling plant there.


 .
In 1992, Bernard Besman, who owned the copyright to "Boogie Chillen," claimed he had just recently heard the song and sued ZZ Top. After years of litigation, a court ruled that "Boogie Chillen" was in the public domain and ZZ Top was not liable.


 
Talking about the song in Rolling Stone, guitarist Billy Gibbons said: "'La Grange' was one of the rites of passage for a young man. It was a cathouse, way back in the woods. The simplicity of that song was part of the magic - only two chords. And the break coming out of the solo - those notes are straight Robert Johnson. He did it as a shuffle. I just dissected the notes.


 
This was ZZ Top's biggest hit at the time. They were big in Texas, but it would be a few years before they became nationally known.


 This song is an example of the Texas sound ZZ Top developed. Southern rock was big at the time, but Texas had its own thing. ZZ Top modeled their music on a gunslinger image, drawing inspiration from their proximity to Mexico.



  
 

DAY 296.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band......................................Next   (1973)









Two years after Glasgow band Tear Gas met Alex Harvey, fully 16 years their senior, the partnership's second album gave them a career highlight, After a UK tour, supporting Slade forged a gung-ho mentality, they performed "Next" and "Faith Healer"  on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973.


The band's mixture of hard rock and theatricality, combined with Harvey's vpcals and demonic charisma made them a powerful draw.

Tek wrote:

Hate the Alex Harvey Band.

Pure shite.

Now now, Tek. My granny's maxim was 'if you've nothing nice to say, say nothing'.

But 'pure shite' is a great term, right enough.

I mind you missed SAHB out of your 'Best Ever Scottish Band' competition, when they are, arguably, the best ever Scottish band . But you had the Bay City Rollers, Deacon Blue and Fiction Factory in 

DAY 295.
Paul McCartney And Wings..............................................Band On The Run   (1973)










I much preferred this when I bought it in the early 70's, not that I don't like it now, but feel it's more easy listening than I can remember. Play this album as background and you're no' gonna offend anybody, I also found myself singing along to every word hypnotically, so it must have made, and left it's mark right enough.


"Jet" for me is the stand out track, closely followed by the title track, but both  would have to drop down the pecking order if like the US version "Helen Wheels," was included, I love that song.


Summing up, maybe my passing years, but felt the album was just a little bit more placid and uneventful than I recall, and although I did enjoy it, not quite enough to place in my collection



Bits & Bobs;


Paul McCartney's fifth album since The Beatles' split, Band On The Run was critically acclaimed and became Wings' most commercially-successful album. It was credited to Paul McCartney & Wings.


The album was issued two weeks after John Lennon's Mind Games. Although the title track of Lennon's LP was a hit single, McCartney's release ultimately proved more successful.



 Two hit singles – the title track and Jet – were issued from Band On The Run; three in the United States, where Capitol opted to include Wings' recent standalone single Helen Wheels on the album.
 McCartney was at a peak in 1973, enjoying both the praise of critics and high sales. His James Bond theme Live And Let Die had finally established Wings as a serious group, and Band On The Run consolidated his position as one of the decade's leading creative forces.



 The success of Band On The Run is more remarkable, then, given the troubled circumstances surrounding its recording. McCartney had to contend with band members leaving, a hostile reception in Lagos, armed robbery, adverse weather and temporamental studio equipment. Against the odds, Wings emerged triumphant.



 Wings take flightMost of the songs which appeared on Band On The Run songs were written at High Park Farm, the base in Kintyre, Scotland that McCartney had bought in 1966




 Each of the songs' composition was credited to McCartney alone, apart from No Words, on which Denny Laine was given a co-credit for the first time. The song was written before Red Rose Speedway, the Wings album which preceded Band On The Run.




"I'm kind of an odd-job man in this group. I look on Band On The Run as definitely their album. We're not a group anymore. I'm one of the three or I'm an individual. If it was Wings, I'd feel more a part of it. But it's not my songs and I'd like to feel more involved and contribute as much as they do. I did write one of the songs on the album and Paul helped me out with it. I'd like to do more like that."

Denny Laine


 Paul and Linda McCartney had grown tired of recording in the United Kingdom, and requested from EMI a list of their international recording studios. They settled on Lagos in Nigeria and were set to leave in August 1973.



"The idea to go to Lagos was originally just to have some fun, because I didn't fancy recording in London. I fancied getting out and EMI have got studios all over the world, including one in communist China, but because that was so far away, we decided to go to Lagos, because it would be sunny and warm."

Paul McCartney



 Just weeks before their departure, however, lead guitarist Henry McCullough left the group. He had become disenchanted with McCartney's particular ways of working, which he felt stifled his creative freedom. McCullough was also disdainful of Linda McCartney's musical skills, saying: "Trying to get things together with a learner in the group didn't work as far as I was concerned".



 McCartney was sanguine about McCullough's departure, describing it as necessary for the good of the band. The disagreement reportedly arose during a rehearsal when McCullough was reluctant to take direction on a composition by Denny Laine.



"Henry was asked to play a certain guitar lick on one of Denny's songs and he refused. Next morning, he phoned up and said he wanted to quit. Henry left over what they call 'musical differences' and it was actually that. We were rehearsing and I asked him to play a certain bit. He was loath to play it and kind of made an excuse about it couldn't be played. I, being a bit of a guitarist myself, knew it could be played. And rather than let it pass, I confronted him with it and we had a confrontation. He left rehearsals a bit choked and then rang up to say he was leaving. I thought, 'Fair enough.' So it was exactly the stereotyped 'musical differences'."

Paul McCartney



 Wings' plans to record in Lagos continued. However, an hour before their flight was due to depart from Gatwick Airport, drummer Denny Seiwell announced that he, too, was leaving the band.



"Denny rang up five minutes before we were leaving to record in Lagos and just said, 'Hey, man, I can't make the trip.' I don't think he wanted to go to Africa. I think it was a bit much, but then again, I think everybody should do what they want. That's what we said Wings should be. If anybody fancies leaving, great."

Linda McCartney


 Unpeturbed, the multi-instumentalist Paul opted to play drums. Wings were reduced to a core line-up of the McCartneys and Denny Laine, along with one of The Beatles' former balance engineers, Geoff Emmerick


.
"We thought that it would be warm and sunny out in Africa. We thought it would be like a fab holiday place but it's not the kind of place you'd go for a holiday. It's warm and tropical but it's the kind of place you'd have monsoons. We caught the end of the rainy season and there were tropical storms all the time. There were power cuts too and loads of insects. It does bother some people but we're not creepy-crawly freaks. Linda doesn't mind lizards. But someone else, for instance the engineer we took out, who did Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road, he couldn't stand them. So a couple of the lads put a spider in his bed. It was all a bit like scout camp."

Paul McCartney



Upon their arrival in Lagos in August 1973, Wings found the circumstances far from perfect. They rented houses near the airport in Ikeja, an hour's journey from EMI's studio in Apapa. While  Paul McCartney considered using some local musicians during the sessions, the reception from some of the locals increased his resolve to go it alone.



"We went there intending to use some of the local musicians. We thought we might have some African brass and drums and things. We started off thinking of doing a track with an African feel, or maybe a few tracks, or maybe even the whole album, using the local conga players and African fellows. But when we got there, and we were looking round and watching the local bands, one of the fellows, Fela Ransome-Kuti, came up to us after a day or two, and said: 'You're trying to steal the black musicians' music.' We said, 'No, we're not! Do us a favour, Fela. We do all right as it is, actually. We sell a record here and there. We just want to use some of your guys.' But he got heavy about it, until in the end we thought, 'Blow you then, we'll do it all ourselves.' So we did and the only guy from Africa we used, Remi Kebaka, was someone we met in London, then we discovered that he came from Lagos. But that was purely coincidental."

Paul McCartney


 Wings met Ransome-Kuti through former Cream drummer Ginger Baker, who owned ARC Studios in Ikeja. Baker was keen for Wings to record the whole album at ARC, but only one Band On The Run session took place there, for the song "Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)"   Around two weeks into their Nigerian visit, Paul and Linda McCartney were mugged at knifepoint, and demo tapes of the songs were stolen. Paul had to remember the words and music for the songs.


"After we had been in Lagos a couple of weeks, we were held up and robbed at knife point. Linda and I had set off like a couple of tourists, loaded with tapes and cameras, to walk to Denny's house, which was about twenty minutes down the road. A car pulls up beside us and goes a little bit ahead. Then a guy gets out and I thought that he wanted to give us a lift. So I said, 'Listen, mate, it's very nice of you, thanks very much but we are going for a walk.' I patted him on the back and he got back in the car, which went a little way up the road. It stopped again and Linda was getting a bit worried. Then one of them, there were about five or six black guys, rolled down the window and asked, 'Are you a traveller?' I still think that if I had thought really quickly and said, 'Yes, God's traveller,' or something like that to freak them out a bit, maybe they would have left us alone. But I said, 'No, we are just out for a little walk. It's a holiday and we are tourists,' giving the whole game away. So, with that, all the doors of the car flew open and they all came out and one of them had a knife. Their eyes were wild and Linda was screaming, 'He's a musician, don't kill him,' you know, all the unreasonable stuff you shout in situations like that. So I'm saying, 'What do you want? Money?' And they said, 'Yeah, money,' and I handed some over. Shaking, we walked on home and we were just sitting down having a cup of coffee to try and recover our nerves and there was a power cut. We thought they had come back and cut the power cables. We had a lot of trouble sleeping that night and got back to the studio the next day to be told, 'You're lucky to be alive. If you had been black, they'd have killed you. But, as you're white, they know you won't recognise them.' I wanted to call the police, but everyone said it would do no good there at all. With that we had to carry on and make the record, adding to the pressure, which we had already got."

 Paul McCartney



 Shortly afterwards, McCartney collapsed outside the studio after complaining of chest pains.



"It seemed stuffy in the studio, so I went outside for a breath of fresh air. If anything, the air was more foul outside than in. It was then that I began to feel really terrible and had a pain across the right side of my chest and I collapsed. I could not breathe and so I collapsed and fainted. Linda thought I had died.""The doctor seemed to treat it pretty lightly and said it could be bronchial because I had been smoking too much. But this was me in hell. I stayed in bed for a few days, thinking I was dying. It was one of the most frightening periods in my life. The climate, the tensions of making a record, which had just got to succeed, and being in this totally uncivilised part of the world finally got to me."
 
Paul McCartney


 In the studio



EMI's studio in Lagos was a far cry from the state-of-the-art conditions at Abbey Road. The studio was situated next onto a noisy pressing plant, and construction was not complete. The mixing desk was faulty, there were no backup facilities, no acoustic baffle screens, and the only microphones were a set found in a cardboard box inside a cupboard


 Furthermore, the tropical storms meant led to frequent power cuts. Geoff Emmerick, manning the eight-track Studer recording console, was in charge of making a success of the performances. Eventually they recorded seven of the nine tracks on Band On The Run.


 Recording continued in England following Wings' return on 23 September. Two weeks later they entered George Martin's AIR Studios in London, where most the tapes were first copied to 16-track to prepare for overdubbing.

 Extra vocals, percussion and orchestration – the latter by Tony Visconti – were added at AIR. Band On The Run was completed in early November 1973 with three days of mixing in Kingsway Studios.


 In addition to the nine songs on Band On The Run, the sessions also yielded seven other recordings, : Helen Wheels, which was issued as a standalone single; Zoo Gang, which became the theme to a British television show and was later the b-side of the Band On The Run single; B-side To Seaside, used as a b-side to the Suzy And The Red Stripes single Seaside Woman, and was later re-recorded; and Oriental Nightfish, which was later used in a cartoon soundtrack, and again was re-recorded at a later date.




 Cover artwork



The photograph on the cover of Band On The Run was taken by Clive Arrowsmith, a Welsh photographer who had known The Beatles since their Quarrymen days in Liverpool.



 Years later, Linda McCartney spotted Arrowsmith's pictures in Vogue magazine and invited him to shoot the cover of Wings' album. The shoot took place on 28 October 1973 against a wall of the stable block in Osterley Park, Hounslow, London.




"There had been a few different ideas banging around when Paul came up with concept of a jailbreak scene, with each of the escaping prisoners caught in the glare of a guard's spotlight. I remember shooting it against a wall of a 16th century Tudor mansion in west London and I hired an old post van and put an theatre light on top of it.


The only problem was that the light wasn't that powerful which affected the exposure and meant every one had to strike a pose and hold it for a moment."
 

Clive Arrowsmith


 Linda McCartney came up with the concept for the cover shoot, which featured the members of Wings alongside talk show host Michael Parkinson, singer Kenny Lynch, actors James Coburn and Christopher Lee, boxer John Conteh, and Member of Parliament Clement Freud. Each of the cast were dressed as convicts, in keeping with the album's title track.

 Prior to the shoot, the McCartneys had thrown a party for the guests, and Arrowsmith had to stay sober in order to maintain decorum.



"I was the only there who wasn't wasted, I was too scared. This was my first really big job and the responsibility was way too great to join in the fun."

"I really didn't know what I was doing and used the wrong film, so all the pictures all came out yellow. On top of that only about three of the shots weren't blurry from everyone moving about, so when it came to showing Paul I was freaking out too much to say anything – I just held my breath."

 Clive Arrowsmith


 Arrowsmith convinced McCartney that the yellow photographs were intentional. The photo shoot was also filmed on 16mm by Bary Chattington, and the 26 minutes of footage were later edited to eight minutes. The edit, made by Storm Thorgerson and Gordon House, was used as a backdrop during Wings' 1975-76 world tour.



 The release  McCartney decided not to tour in support of Band On The Run, but he did grant a number of interviews to promote it. The most extensive of these was with Paul Gambaccini for Rolling Stone magazine, and was published in January 1974. Gambaccini recounted his efforts in obtaining the interview in the sleeve notes of the 2010 reissue of the album. Helen Wheels was released as a standalone single a month ahead of Band On The Run, and was a worldwide top 10 hit. Capitol Records executive Al Coury persuaded McCartney to include it on the second side of the US album release, in between No Words and Picassos Lat Words (Drink To Me), to ensure an even 10 tracks and improve its chances of being a hit.

 Band On The Run proved a slow burner following its 3 December 1973 release, but reached number one in the US in early 1974 following the single release of Jet.


 Although sales declined after the single peaked, the album returned to number one several months later after the title track was released. In all, Band On The Run had three spells at the top of the US album chart, and was eventually certified triple platinum. In early 1975 Wings were also given the Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus.


 In the United Kingdom the album was issued on 30 November 1973. Again its success was slow, and it took eight months before it topped the album chart on 27 July 1974. It spent seven weeks at the top, was on the charts for a total of 124 weeks, and became the UK's biggest-selling album of 1974.


 By the end of 1974 Band On The Run had sold more than six million copies worldwide, making it Wings' most-successful album. The slow climb up the charts and continued high placing allowed McCartney to reconsider the direction of Wings and to recruit a new guitarist and drummer prior to more recordings and world tours.       



"Jet"


"Jet" was the name of a black Labrador that Paul McCartney and his wife Linda owned, and the dog provided the title for the song. The McCartney's owned a variety of animals, and at the time their brood included a Golden Lab named Poppy, a Dalmatian named Lucky, and the old Sheepdog Martha (from the Beatles song "Martha My Dear). "Jet" was chosen not because he was Paul's favorite, but because the name makes a very stadium-ready title, perfect for throwing your fist in the air when it's performed in an arena. The song is really about freedom; McCartney did something similar when he used an amusement park ride as the title for a song about madness in "Helter Skelter."


Paul's wife Linda gave some clues to the thought process behind "Jet" when she said in 1976: "He wanted that one to be totally mad. Paul's had a lot of practice in the studio. He's done some very trippy things. Every now and then he remembers how much he loves it."



"Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)"

The famed Spanish artist Pablo Picasso died at the age of 91 on April 8, 1973. News of the legendary Spaniard's passing reached Paul McCartney, when he was in Jamaica. While having dinner there with Paul McCartney, Dustin Hoffman told the story of the death of Pablo Picasso and his famous last words, "Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can't drink anymore." Paul had a guitar with him and immediately played an impromptu chord progression while singing the quote. Thus, "Picasso's Last Words" was born, later recorded and added to the album Band On The Run.


 
The song features former Cream drummer, Ginger Baker on shakers.




"Band On The Run"



McCartney wrote this song in response to drug laws that criminalized him and his friends (including fellow "bands on the run" Eagles and Byrds). "We're not criminals," he explained. "We just would rather do this than hit the booze - which had been a traditional way to do it. We felt that this was a better move."


 

Shortly after the Band On The Run album was released, McCartney told Melody Maker: "The basic idea about the band on the run is a kind of prison escape. At the beginning of the album the guy is stuck inside four walls, and eventually breaks out. There is a thread, but it's not a concept album."



Asked if this was a reference to Wings escaping from The Beatles, he replied: "Sort of – yeah. I think most bands on tour are on the run."


 
The song begins in a metaphorical prison ("stuck inside these four walls..."). Where the orchestra comes in is where McCartney envisioned a hole being blasted in one of the walls, and the subsequent escape.

 
Paul McCartney combined pieces of different songs to make this one. The Beatles did a lot of this on their Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road albums, since it provided a way to use unfinished songs. "A Day In The Life" is a good example of two Beatles songs combined to make one.

 
During a lengthy meeting with executives at The Beatles' Apple Records, George Harrison complained, "If I ever get out of this house." McCartney remembered the line and used it years later in this song.


 
McCartney recorded the album in Lagos, Nigeria along with his wife Linda and guitarist Denny Laine. The other Wings decided not to make the trip, which worked out fine in the end: McCartney considers the album his best post-Beatles work. He told Word in 2005: "I was on drums and guitar a lot, mainly because the drummer decided to leave the group the night before and one of the guitar players decided not to come! So we got that solo element into an otherwise 'produced' album."


  
History shows this song to be a forebear of the "Yacht Rock" genre, which is made up of intricate soft rock classics that bear repeated listening. The leading Yacht Rock cover band, the Yacht Rock Review, includes the song in their set. Their vocalist Nicholas Niespodziani says it's the most deceptively difficult song in the Yacht Rock rubric. "It just has a lot of stops and starts and different twists, and then the vocals are really high at the end," he told us. "So it's a pretty high level of difficulty I would say."

 
Paul McCartney explained the song's meaning to The Mail on Sunday's Event magazine: "I wrote it as a story to sum up the transition from captivity to freedom. When the tempo changes at (sings), 'The rain exploded with a mighty crash,' I do that in my concert and that always feels like a freeing moment."





 

Last edited by arabchanter (02/6/2018 3:38 pm)

DAY 296.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band......................................Next   (1973)









My initial thoughts after listening to this one for the first time were, certainly not boring, lots of different styles and bags of energy, and Harvey's "60 a day" vocals were all very much enjoyed by this listener.


I particularly liked the opener "Swampsnake," "The Faith Healer" (although they could have pared a few minutes off of it) but my favourite track on the album was "Vambo Marble Eye" which seemed to a bit of a Hendrix vibe about it, also the Jaques Brel song and title track "Next," some may recall it from DAY 43 (if anyone's been with us that long, I hope so) it was on the album "Olympia 64" entitled "Au Suivant."


Also a shout out for "Giddy Up a Ding Dong" brings back memories of a weekly disco I used to go to on a Friday, this would always be a floor filler, this was written by Freddie Bell in 1953, but didn't  rise to prominence until 1956, when it was featured in the film, Rock Around The Clock starring Bill Hayley. It became a hit in several countries for the group Freddie Bell And The Bellboys, and is perhaps their best known recording.



Anyways, this kinda snuck up on me as I listened to it for the second time while looking for stuff to use in the Bits & Bobs bitty, and as a consequence, I will be adding this one to my collection, I would have loved to see them live' I should imagine an absolute rockin' frenzyfest!



Alex Harvey admitted "they’re either going to love us or hate us; there wasn’t going to be any middle ground.”


I think we all need to remember this;


“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”

―Isaac Asimov




Bits & Bobs;
 
In the 1950s, singer Alex Harvey won a “rock-a-like” competition as Scotland’s answer to British pop star Tommy Steele. It should have catapulted the youngster into a career as a teenage idol, but little followed the promise of this early success. Harvey moved on and formed his own soul band that toured with The Beatles and were known for Harvey’s distinctive singing style and their signature song called “Shout!” Yet, nothing much happened for Alex Harvey’s soul band, and their best known song only became a hit once a wee Glaswegian lass called Lulu decided to sing it for herself.


 It seemed the Fates were against Alex Harvey—even with all his great talent, skill and his voice that was second to none. Harvey gave up bands and joined the London cast of the musical Hair. It brought him good reviews, a regular income, and a taste for the theater that would later come in handy.


This wasn’t what Harvey wanted to do though. Harvey was a star, but at that point only he appeared to be aware of this fact.

Then things changed in 1970, when Harvey hooked up with a talented band called Teargas. They saw Harvey’s experience and ideas as useful to their own ambitions and together they formed The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.


Live there was no one to match SAHB’s performances. Their shows were mesmerizing, as can be vouched by a story of band’s residency at The Roxy in LA, when the bar made a loss as the audience were so captivated by Alex and co, that they wouldn’t get up and order booze.


Alex described himself as the director who created films to which Zal Cleminson (guitar), Chris Glen (bass), Hugh McKenna (keyboards) and Ted McKenna (drums) provided the soundtrack. This excellent short documentary on Alex Harvey will tell you everything you need to know about the great man and SAHB—for everything else, well, just watch them in action. Harvey died in 1982, of a heart attack at the age of 48, but still all these years later Vambo Rools Ok ?


This is from a great site I found called Retro Dundee;


 SAHB Caird Hall- 3rd of MAY 1975


.




"Gang Bang"

The title of this song is deliberately provocative; it is not about a gang bang (a mass rape), but about a woman of easy virtue who finds having sex with a continuous stream of men therapeutic. It was released as the B-Side of ."Sergeant Fury"
 
In spite of his over the top stage image, Alex Harvey was a family man, as his biographer John Neil Munro points out, adding that in the liner notes to the compilation Big Hits And Close Shaves, Harvey wrote: "There's no glory in rape, you must protect your little sisters."


"Faith Healer"

In 1973, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band played the Reading Festival. Guitarist Hugh McKenna told Harvey's biographer John Neil Munro, "We opened up with 'Faith Healer,' which we had only written the week before, it hadn't even been recorded yet."


 
"Faith Healer" is the third track on Next, but at least one extended live version has been recorded, which is superior to the already superb album mix. The single was released in the UK on Vertigo; the B Side was a song called "St. Anthony."


"Next"
Although this Jacques Brel song was apparently first recorded in English by Scott Walker, the definitive version has to be that put out by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. In John Neil Munro's biography of Harvey, he is said to have introduced this song as a tango, "the type your mother and me used to do together!" The eponymous album was released November 9, 1973.


 
The original version, "Au Sauviant" in French, is written with a forthrightness typical of Brel, but the translation is even more explicit. In December 1973, Harvey appeared with his band on the BBC music program The Old Grey Whistle Test where they played "Faith Healer," and, accompanied by 3 masked violinists, gave a mesmerizing performance of "Next."


 




 

PatReilly wrote:

But that night in the Town Hall in 1973 will always be one of the highlights of my live music experiences..

Very Jealous.
 

DAY 297.
Alice Cooper.................................................Billion Dollar  Babies   (1973)










Billion Dollar Babies, was a great listen, but must admit, you may have to have been from the time to truly appreciate it. This album probably has a sell by date, but for me I'll take a gamble and buy it, maybe for the nostalgia, but also in my humbles because it's a bloody good album.


I can't think of one track that "gees me the boak" all through the album there may not be forensic stinging  lyrics, but for me you've got involvement and theatre, all good tracks especially "Elected" and "No More Mr Nice Guy"
Whether it's because of nostalgia or just 'cause I still like the album, this will be going into my collection.



Bits & Bobs;

The king of shock-rock and one of the music business’s most flamboyant and charismatic performers, Alice Cooper could lay claim to have invented the American strains of glam punk and gothic drenched heavy metal long before they became common currency. Certainly his influence is as great as his record sales and he parlayed his act into the mainstream with epic tracks like “School’s Out”, “Elected” and the carefully constructed conceptual pieces on Billion Dollar Babies and Welcome to My Nightmare where we first encounter a backdrop of sardonic horror tropes that have made the man and his music a by-word for out-there showbiz chutzpah. Less is more doesn’t apply to Cooper who has always preferred to present himself as a larger than life character and someone who understands that sometimes caricature is a potent weapon and with that mighty roar of a voice who are we to argue anyway?


 A highly intelligent and affable person away from his recorded and stage persona Cooper is a renowned amateur golfer, restaurateur, film actor and celebrity DJ whose classic rock show Nights With Alice Cooper provides a treasury of good listening. He has also transferred that talent to BBC6 Music. Once christened the worlds most beloved heavy metal entertainer Cooper is a force of nature.




Born Vincent Furnier, Detroit, Michigan in 1948 to mixed British, Huguenot and Sioux ancestry the young wannabe rock star began emulating the British Invasion acts in high-school band The Earwigs who would become The Spiders. Alongside Vincent were pals like Dennis Dunaway, Glen Buxton and drummer John Speer. Having relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, The Spiders built up a healthy local reputation thanks to their heady blend of garage rock and stage props and eventually switched from being Nazz (since Todd Rundgren already had a successful band of that name) and adopted the Alice Cooper moniker, borrowing it from a female character on the TV show MayberryR.F.D.


Never one to shy away from controversy, Furnier grew into his role by wearing ripped and tattered women’s clothing and plenty of black eye make-up, basing his look on a crazy combination of Barbarella, Anita Pallenberg and British Avengers star Diana Rigg (Emma Peel)


Early recordings were darkly psychedelic with influences drawn from Pink Floyd and Jim Morrison, who Alice Cooper idolised. The initial disks Pretties For You and Easy Action strayed into MC5 and Stooges territory but the band found their own sound once producer Bob Ezrin arrived to flick the faders on Love It to Death, their last album for the Frank Zappa/Herb Cohen label Straight Records. A major deal and consistent touring throughout the urban outposts of America resulted in a solid fan base and their first big hit, “I’m Eighteen” set the ball rolling. By now the theatrics included the infamous electric chair and the horror struck Killer (1971) spawned epic cuts like “Halo of Flies” and  “Under My Wheels”. The stage was set.
Albums School’s Out and Billion Dollar Babies made Alice and the band superstars by 1973 and they were as significant a fixture as any British glam rock stars such as David Bowie, Queen and Elton John, all of whom owed him and them a debt. Decapitated mannequins, guillotines and fake dollar bills added lustre to the drama and the band made what is arguably their greatest first phase album, Welcome To My Nightmare,  with a new look metal line-up including the twin guitars of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, the monster bass player Prakash John and drummer Pentti “Whitey” Glan who Ezrin and Cooper loaned out toLou Reed for his Rock’n’Roll Animal/Berlin period.




"Raped And Freezing"




 
This is a story song about a young man hitchhiking in Sante Fe, New Mexico who is picked up by an older, allegedly religious woman. He ends up stranded in Chihuahua, Mexico robbed of both money and clothes. .


 
This song was written by Cooper and guitarist/keyboardist Michael Bruce, who was a member of the original Alice Cooper group. Bruce established himself as the band's chief songwriter and wrote or co-wrote many of the their most recognized tracks, including ", "Schools Out" No More Mr Nice Guy," "Under My Wheels," "I'm Eighteen," "Ballad of Dwight Fry" and "Billion Dollar Babies."


 
When the Billion Dollar Babies album came out, Alice Cooper was both the name of the singer and the band. Produced by Bob Ezrin, the collection went on the sell more than a million copies and topped both the US and UK single charts.




In an interview with Creem magazine in 1973, Cooper discussed Billion Dollar Babies' driving theme: "The whole idea behind the album was exploiting the idea that people do have sick perversions," the shock rocker said. This explains the twisted theme on "Raped and Freezin,'" a demented little tale of robbery and sexual assault.



"Elected"

Alice Cooper released this song a few months before the US presidential election of 1972, a contest between Richard Nixon and George McGovern. To stir up publicity, Cooper announced that he was actually running for president, and this song outlined his platform: "We're gonna rock to the rules that I make."

He did get some votes, but Richard Nixon won that one.


 
This is a re-write of an earlier Alice Cooper song, "Reflected," off the Pretties For You album in 1969. The two songs have completely different lyrics, but are musically similar.


 
Mocking politics was a good strategy for Cooper. "We always tried to do things that infuriated parents because we thought that would be the fastest path to getting their children to like us," his manager Shep Gordon said.


 
Cooper revived this song every presidential election year, always announcing that he was running. In 2016, he took it a step further, posting his platform on votealicecooper.com. His campaign slogan: "A Troubled Man for Troubled Times."



Some of his campaign promises:



Adding Lemmy to Mt. Rushmore
No more pencils, no more books
Ban on taking selfies, except on a designated National Selfie Day


 
When he performed this song in concert during election season, Cooper would have bloody versions of the candidates come out and battle.


 
This is one of the few Alice Cooper songs with composer credits going to the entire band: Cooper, guitarists Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, bass player Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neil Smith


.
Cooper doesn't really want to get elected. "That would be my hell," he told Ian Fortnam in 2000. "I hate politics, but there's something about social fiction and social fact that's fascinating. I don't care about taxes or all of that crap, what I do care about and Alice cares about, are the extremities of violence in this society. Alice has his boundaries, his violence is very choreographed and it always happens to him. He always gets his comeuppance, gets his head cut off and pays for his sins, but then comes back with a white top hat and tails and it's party time."




Fortnam then suggested that this was not unlike US President Bill Clinton. Cooper replied: "Yeah, he just gets away with everything and it's amazing. The guy just smiles right through it, he's an amazing character."


 
Mojo magazine commented that as an apolitical person "Elected" was a strange song for Alice Cooper to record. He replied:

"Really, it was just us saluting The Who, their big riffs. And everyone hated Nixon so much at the time - they hated Nixon more than they hate Trump, and that's what we were tapping into. Who's the most unlikely person to run for office? Alice Cooper."


 
This song got John Lennon's vote. He declared it "a great record." Alice recalled:


"He'd come in every day and listen to the acetate, saying, 'I love this record.' He was very political whereas we weren't in the least political. But the record was such a great satire on at all. John told me he loved the power of it, and what it said and it was a perfect time for that record. Though he said Paul (McCartney) would have done it better - well, duh - of course."





"Billion Dollar Babies"



This song is about the dangers of overindulgence. It came just as Cooper was getting famous and exposed to rock star excess, and accordingly it helped make him rich and famous. Alice used the cash to buy a house in Los Angeles and finance more elaborate stage shows and videos. He lived the rock star lifestyle for a while, but in later years settled into a very sensible upper class lifestyle, living in Arizona, playing lots of golf, and making shrewd business decisions. He never became a billionaire, but he did very well for himself.


 
Cooper and his band recorded this at a mansion they rented out to record the album in Greenwich, Connecticut, which is a very wealthy suburb of New York City.



The song is credited as written by Cooper, his guitarist Michael Bruce, and a session guitarist they worked with named Reggie Vinson.

 
The Billion Dollar Babies album was re-released with new packaging as a DVD in 2000. It contains all the songs plus interviews and bonus tracks.

 
As part of his stage show, Cooper would mutilate dolls when he performed this song. The tour for the album introduced the props Cooper became famous for, including the guillotine, the snake, and hundreds of cans of beer.


 
This song took on new meaning when Cooper started playing casinos in the '90s.

 
1973 was the last year that Alice Cooper was recognized as a group, rather than just the lead singer. Since the singer, Vincent Furnier, drew most of the attention, many fans did not know the difference between him and the Alice Cooper Band. Muscle of Love was the last album as the group.




As lead singer Vincent Furnier became the known as Alice Cooper and sucked up all the notoriety the band received, the guitarist, bass player, and drummer from The Alice Cooper Band left and formed a group called The Billion Dollar Babies. They released an album called Battle Axe in 1977.


 The background vocals were sung by Donovan,  Donovan was recording at Willesden's Morgan Studios around the same time as Alice, and got roped into the session.




Donovan told the story: "Here was this guy that I just met. He played me the song, and said, 'Would you like to put a vocal on?' I said, 'OK. Give me the chorus.' I listened to the chorus, and his guitar player was playing like Keith Richards - something very powerful that he'd learned from Keith or from Brian Jones in the Stones. And when I listened to the chorus, I said, 'OK. I'll give it a go.'




But I learned something: I had to sing in falsetto. Power bands in Britain had already learned that to have a singer in a power rock outfit, you need a singer who can go into falsetto. That's why you've got Robert Plant in Zeppelin, Jon Anderson with Yes. They have to raise their voices into the high range.



Chris Squire of Yes, who was a friend at the time, I said, 'Why is it?' And he said, 'Well, it's very easy. If you want your voice to be heard, you've got to climb above the guitars in the mid-range, or else you won't even hear the vocal.' And it's true.

So, I immediately said, 'Hey Alice, what do you think of [singing falsetto] Biiiillion Dollar Babies? So I did the falsetto, Alice loved it, and then I forgot about it, and never even thought about it, until someone told me later, it went to #1. And I was half the vocal! So Alice and I, when we meet, we have a chuckle and a laugh about it. It was a great pleasure. And the best thing about it was nobody knew it was me for so long!"


 
Notwithstanding the sometimes grotesque subject matter, Cooper said that one of his main inspirations for the album was Chuck Berry. "[Berry] was my favorite lyricist," said Cooper. "When I first heard something like 'Nadine,' or 'Maybelline,' I understood those songs told a story. As the lyrics went along, you really got a picture of what was going on. He took the girl out; he couldn't get his seat belt off - things like that. I always wanted to write three-minute stories that were funny, or maybe not just funny, but also dramatic. The idea was to compact everything into three minutes, which is really hard to do."


"Unfinished Sweet"


This song is about a trip to the dentist! On the Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper DVD, this song is acted out as Alice having a cavity and having to get it drilled out. It then cuts out of the concert and shows him chasing the tooth through the street. It wasn't originally going to be shown that way but to keep it rated PG they had to shoot the street thing and edit out the part where he gets "frisky" with the giant tooth brush. That part is in the deleted scenes.




"No More Mr Nice Guy"






 
Cooper wrote this song about the reaction of friends and family toward his over-the-top stage persona. The maniac he plays on stage goes over well with his audiences, but the folks in his mother's church groups were unsure how to handle it and were uncomfortable talking about it. This song was the shock rocker's declaration that the "gloves are off," and he's no longer going to apologize for his wild-man stage antics, as there are many worse things that he could be doing with his life.

The upbeat pop-rock anthem boasts an irresistible sing-along chorus that helped its chart fortunes.


 
Cooper co-wrote this song with Michael Bruce, who was a member of the original Alice Cooper Group. Bruce played guitar, keyboards and contributed vocals as a band member. He was also the group's chief songwriter and wrote or co-wrote many of their most-recognized songs, including "Schools Out," "Under My Wheels," "I'm Eighteen," "Ballad of Dwight Fry," "Be My Lover," "Desperado" and "Billion Dollar Babies."


 
The lineup on this track was Cooper (vocals), Glen Buxton (lead guitar), Michael Bruce (rhythm guitar), Dennis Dunaway (bass) and Neal Smith (drums). This song came at a time when the band was burnishing their shock rock for greater appeal. "'No More Mr. Nice Guy' is a good combination between the dark side and the commercial side," he said.


 
This was the third single from Billion Dollar Babies, the sixth studio album by Alice Cooper (the name of both the singer and the band at the time). This was the band's most commercially successful album. It topped the album charts in both the United States and the UK, and also made the Top 10 in Australia, Austria and Canada.




The album was produced by Bob Ezrin, who has produced many albums for Cooper - both the Alice Cooper band and his solo LPs. With this album, Ezrin aimed for a more polished sound, but the tracks still have Cooper's signature hard rock flavor. Ezrin was one of the most commercially successful and acclaimed producers of the 1970s. Highlights in his career include his production work for Pink Floyd's groundbreaking album The Wall and KISS's multi-platinum Destroyer. Other notable albums he's produced for Cooper include Welcome to My Nightmare, School's Out, Love It To Death and Lace and Whiskey. Cooper has described Ezrin as "our George Martin."


 
Pat Boone pulled off an ironic cover of this song for his album In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, released in 1997. The thrash metal band Megadeth recorded a more sincere version for the 1989 horror film Shocker, which was later included on the band's EP Hidden Treasures in 1995.


  In 2010, Cooper rerecorded the song for the popular video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.

 
Dave Mustaine, the frontman for Megadeth, became Alice Cooper's godson after Cooper became his mentor. When the video for Megadeth's version of this song was being shot in 1989, director Penelope Spheeris remembered Mustaine being so messed up on drugs he could not do the vocals and guitar playing at the same time, so the parts had to be recorded separately.



"Generation Landslide"

This satirical song attacks the corruption and hypocrisy of the older generation and predicts that youth culture will rise up, conquer the world and change the status quo. Cooper sings the caustic lyrics in a tongue-and-cheek fashion. Far from an anarchist, Cooper is a shrewd businessman who takes on a character for performances.


 
This is one of the rare recordings by Alice Cooper that features acoustic guitar and harmonica. Cooper plays the harmonica part on this track.


 
"Generation Landslide" was written by all the original members of the Alice Cooper group, which were Cooper, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith and Glen Buxton.

 
This track is from the band's sixth studio album, Billion Dollar Babies, which was helmed by producer Bob Ezrin,and became their most successful set, selling over a million copies and topping the album charts in both the US and UK. It also broke into the Top Five in Australia (#4), Canada (#2) and Austria (#4).




Ezrin, whose other clients have included Rod Stewart, Jane's Addiction and Taylor Swift, was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2004.


 
Michael Bruce played guitar, keyboards and contributed vocals as a member of the original Alice Cooper group. He was also the band's principal songwriter, co-writing many of their biggest hits. Bruce would often have the music and lyrics written out for a song, and Cooper would rework the lyrics. Some of the notable songs that Bruce helped write include "Billion Dollar Babies," "Schools Out" "Elected" and "Halo of Flies."




"I Love The Dead"


Alice Cooper lived up to his shock-rocker rep with this a darkly humorous track about necrophilia. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Cooper expresses his fascination and sexual attraction for fresh corpses - a pretty risky and taboo subject to take on in song, even by today's standards. And as disturbing as the subject matter is, the track boasts some great playing by the Alice Cooper band. All of the members acquit themselves here, displaying their considerable chops as musicians.


 
During his Billion Dollar Babies tour, Cooper would simulate sex with a mannequin while performing this song. He would also stage a mock beheading of himself during the song.


 
Cooper wrote this song with his wunderkind producer/songwriter/arranger Bob Ezrin. The song wasn't released as a single due to its macabre subject matter, but it became a favorite among Alice Cooper fans.




Ezrin was a longtime collaborator with Cooper. He produced a slew Alice Cooper's albums in the '70s, including the top-sellers School's Out, Welcome to My Nightmare and Alice Cooper Goes to Hell. Ezrin also has credits on Pink Floyd's landmark album The Wall and Kiss' multiplatinum-seller Destroyer.




Neal Smith, who was the drummer with the original Alice Cooper Group, he discussed how integral Ezrin was to the band's success: "I can't underestimate the impact of what Bob did. Once Bob got involved, that was the missing part of the puzzle that we were looking for, and it took three albums to find him."


  
 

 

DAY 299.
The Isley Brothers,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,3+3   (1973)









A warm romantic album, 3+3 is filled with danceable grooves (Marvin ranks with the best of funk bassists) and the overall sound has a light, almost acoustic R&B-folk-rock feel, that makes one yearn for the innocent days before disco.

DAY 300.
New York Dolls................................New York Dolls   (1973)










Pilloried by the press as merely drag impersonators of the Rolling Stones, the New York Dolls were in fact a tight and well rehearsed band who loved fifties R&B and sixties girl groups.


They paid their dues at the Mercer Arts Centre, where they were adopted by Andy Warhol's Arts Factory entourage. Convinced they were the next big thing, Marty Thau, who was associated with Aerosmith's management team, struck a record deal. The Doll's hard-boiled insights into Manhattans day-to-day decadence and chronicles of underground despair were set to keep The Velvet Underground's flame alive.


I had this one back in the day, a couple of interesting Bits & Bobs about the Isleys, will do The Doll's and The Isley's tonight,

Last edited by arabchanter (05/6/2018 10:35 am)