A general comment on the albums each of us favours.

A lot must depend on the music we listened to, and were exposed to, as younger folk. I never heard much US music apart from soul, more British pop, garage and mod stuff in the sixties, and although some of the bands might seem obscure, I was expecting The Move to have been in there by now.

That said, it was nice to be reminded of Dr John, but his stuff (like Beefheart and the Mothers) was more music I first became aware of roughly ten years later, when my circle of friends gradually changed on leaving teen years behind. Same with the Velvets: it was Bowie's rise that turned me in their direction.

And although I was aware of Led Zeppelin, oddly they are a band I never got a liking for until many years after they had split up.

DAY 156.
The Band...........................The Band   (1969)






Built upon Robbie Robertson's extraordinary cycle of songs inspired by the American South. The Band is an album with a hefty contemporary resonance rooted in the hurt and pride of a nation's past (it was nearly called America)


Intriguingly, coming from four Canadians and a Southern boy from Arkansas, it is a heritage they both absorbed and memorably defined.


Will do this and Led Zep tonight.


 

DAY 156.
The Band...........................The Band   (1969)







Like shedboy, for some unknown reason I wanted and really tried to like this album, but for me it came up well  short. The opening track " Across The Great Divide" was a quite an inoffensive little number that  bounced along quite merrily, then came for me, the best track on the album "Rag Mamma Rag" followed by "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" which is also a cracking song, but unfortunately I much prefer Joan Baez's version ( or should I say "wee Joan" as that's what she was known as, and her Scottish mother was known as "Big Joan" .......... dead Scottish eh?)


After the first three tracks I was thinking this is a wa' pentin' album, I don't know about anyone else, but if I get telt to decorate one of the rooms in the house, I send the other half, the kids and the doags away for the day and night to her folks, so there's nobody to get in the way, then I get some music on, nothing I need to actually listen to but has a bit of beat to it, then pent and roll away, coat on tap o' coat, till my wee hearts content..


Unfortunately the next nine tracks would have had me swiggin' the white spirits (which has it's merits, but really has to be chilled imo,)  there was just too much country ,fidlee yeehah nonsense for this listener, and as a consequence will not be getting added to my collection.



Bits & Bobs;


About some of the songs;


One of the Band's first big European hit singles, "Rag Mama Rag" has some unusual instrumentation. Lead pianist Richard Manuel played drums, drummer Levon Helm played mandolin and sang lead, and bassist Rick Danko played a fiddle. This left the bass spot open on this track, and it was filled by the album's producer, John Simon. He improvised a bassline on tuba, although he had no idea how to play the instrument.


 
Robbie Robertson is the only songwriter credited on this track, although other members of the group claim they made contributions. The song finds Levon Helm trying to convince his girl to come back home so she can "rag all over" his house. What he has in mind in unclear: "rag" could mean playing ragtime music (a possibility, considering the line "rosin up the bow"), but he might have more prurient intentions.





The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down;




Robbie Robertson wrote this song, which is set during the American Civil War - "Dixie" is a term indicating the old American South, which was defeated by the Union army. The song is not related to his heritage, as Robertson is half-Mohawk Indian, half-Jewish Canadian.



 
Robertson came up with the music for this song, and then got the idea for the lyrics when he thought about the saying "The South will rise again," which he heard the first time he visited the American South. This led him to research the Civil War.



 
The main character in the song, Virgil Caine, is fictional, but there really was a "Danville train" and "Stoneman's cavalry."




The train would have been part of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, a vital conduit for the Confederate Army. George Stoneman was a Union cavalry officer who led raids on the railroad.


 
The vocals featured the 3-part harmonies of Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, and Rick Danko on the choruses, and Helm sang the verses. He was the only band member who was from the South (Arkansas), so it was fitting that he played the role of Virgil Caine, a Virginia train worker, in this song.



 
Robbie Robertson is the song songwriter credited on this track. Speaking about Levon Helm's contribution, he told Goldmine in 1998: "Levon's connection to it was, things that when I went down there, things that he turned me on to. Just kind of showing me around and stuff, and bringin' me up to speed on what was goin' on in his 'hood.' And I don't know, really, where it had come from. Usually when you write songs, you write because it's the only thing you can think of at the time. But it was something that I absorbed, and then years later it came out in a song."


 
This was recorded in Sammy Davis Jr.'s house in Los Angeles. The Band rented it and converted a poolhouse into a studio to record their second album.


 
Joan Baez covered this in 1971. It was her biggest hit, reaching US #3 and UK #6.




Her version was recorded at Quad Studios in Nashville with producer Norman Putnam, who gathered about 20 people from around the studio to sing on the chorus. One of those voices belongs to Jimmy Buffett, who Putnam would later work with on his album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.





Asked about the Baez version of this song, Robbie Robertson said it was "a little happy-go-lucky for me," but he was thankful that it introduced many listeners to The Band.



 
Baez changed some of the lyrics on her version. For example, she sings, "Virgil Cain is my name and I drove on the Danville train. 'Til so much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again." The original lyrics are, "Virgil Cain is THE name and I SERVED on the Danville train. 'Til STONEMAN'S cavalry came and tore up the tracks again" referring to George Stoneman, who was a general in the Union army).



Up On Cripple Creek



Guitarist Robbie Robertson wrote this song, which tells a disjointed story about a mountain man and a girl named Bessie. We hear about a trip to the horse races, listening to Spike Jones, and how what really makes him happy is when she "dips her doughnut in my tea."




Like many songs by The Band, it's wide open for interpretation. Robertson claims he doesn't even know what's going on. "I don't really write songs with anything other than just a storytelling sense," he said when asked about the song in Goldmine (August, 1998). "You sit down and write the song, and usually when something happens, you just don't even know where it came from, or why it came, or anything like that. That's the best. You know, when something comes out of you that surprises you. And it was one of those. You know, I was just sitting down to see if I could think of anything, and that's what came out. But it was a fun song to write."


 
Drummer Levon Helm sang lead on this track, giving it a very folksy vibe.


 
The guy in this song is one of the many curious characters Robbie Robertson has conceived. "We're not dealing with people at the top of the ladder," he said. "We're saying what about that house out there in the middle of that field? What does this guy think, with that one light on upstairs, and that truck parked out there? That's who I'm curious about."



 
Robertson is listed as the only songwriter on this track, which is something his bandmates disputed, as they claimed they helped write it. Songwriting credits going to Robertson was a great source of friction in The Band.


 
That funky sound on "Up On Cripple Creek" was created by keyboardist Garth Hudson, who played a Hohner Clavinet D6 through a Vox Wah Wah pedal.


 
The Band recorded most of the album (their second) in Sammy Davis Jr.'s Hollywood house, which they rented out. "Up On Cripple Creek" was one of three songs they recorded at the Hit Factory studios in New York City.


 
In The Band's 2000 Greatest Hits compilation, Levon Helm said, "It took a long time to seep into us. We cut it two or three times, but nobody really liked it. It wasn't quite enough fun. Finally one night we just got hold of it, doubled up a couple of chorus and harmony parts, and that was it."


  

Getting quite close to the 70's now.

Keep up the good work Mr C.

DAY 158.
MC5........................Kick Out The Jams    (1969)





Rolling Stone's cover stars The Motor City Five lived as renegades from the cops in their hippy commune, toting mean, psychedelicized  R&B and an ethos of dope, guns, and sex in the street.


Kick Out The Jams was a typical night of revolutionary rock 'n' roll from these arse-kicking provocateurs, spinning white noise, "liquid frenzy" and cosmic jazz.


Recorded at their regular haunt, The Grande Hotel Ballroom in Detroit, Kick Out The Jams ran through the setlist with clumsy abandon; guitars sprinted out of tune, ragged vocals overlapped, songs collapsed into feedback.....a glorious chaos.


Will do this and Led Zep ll tonight, tried to do Led Zep last night and after spending a bit of time on it I messed up, and it disappeared, cue cream puff and tantrum, then off to bed.

DAY 157.
Led Zeppelin.....................Led Zeppelin ll       (1969)









Right, Led Zeppelin ll, have to say done nothing to change my original thoughts of a couple of days ago, still got the screechy vocals but with the added twist of Mr Page playing his guitar with a bow, for the avoidance of doubt I'll run that by you again, A FUCKIN' BOW  I shit you not, how far up your own arsehole do you have to be to come away with that, and a bet you'd get some o' them headbangers going " did you hear that bit? Jimmy playing his guitar with a bow.....man it was far out"  Fuck Off, another one for my self indulgence island, where they can all have a flip-flop fight to see who's the most vain/conceited.


There's also the track "Moby Dick"  with a three minute drum solo, the whole track only lasts 4:20 for fucks sake, what is it with these people? I can just about get it at a concert, he's giving the rest of the boys three minutes to sample a wee drop of the "Colombian Marching Powder"  or any  joygiver of their choice, but on an album, nah no for me ( unless that's the cue for anybody listening to the album to go and fill their boots?)


I suppose you don't have to be Sherlock to know I wont be buying this one.


Bits & Bobs;


Some info on post #614 (if interested)
Bits about some of the songs;


Whole Lotta Love


This blistering track from Led Zeppelin's second album contains some of Robert Plant's most lascivious lyrics, culled from the blues. It's not poetry, but he gets his point across quite effectively, letting the girl know that he's yearning, and ready to give her all of his love - every inch.


 
Plant's lyrics are based on a 1962 Muddy Waters song written by Willie Dixon called "You Need Love," where Waters sings:

I ain't foolin', you need schoolin'
Baby, you know you need coolin'
Woman, way down inside

The band reached an agreement with Dixon, who used the settlement money to set up a program providing instruments for schools. (hats aff to you Wullie)




The 1966 Small Faces song "You Need Loving" also coped from Dixon's song, and those lyrics are more similar to what Plant used. In that one, Steve Marriott sings:

I ain't foolin', woman you need coolin'
I'm gonna send you, right back to schoolin'
Way down inside your heart, woman
You need lovin'



 
The massive drum sound was the foundation of this track, so Jimmy Page recorded it in the big room at Olympic Studios in London, which had 28-foot ceilings. One of the engineers, George Chkiantz, got the sound by putting the drums on a platform and setting up microphones in unusual places: a stereo boom eight feet above the kit, two distant side microphones, and a AKG D30 placed two feet from the bass drum. "For the song to work as this panoramic audio experience, I needed Bonzo to really stand out, so that every stick stroke sounded clear and you could really feel them," Page said in the Wall Street Journal. "If the drums were recorded just right, we could lay in everything else."


 
Jimmy Page served as Led Zeppelin's producer, and on this song, he let loose in the studio, using all kinds of innovative techniques, particularly in the freeform section about 1:20 in, which was the result of him and engineer Eddie Kramer "twiddling every knob known to man." This part is often referred to as "the freakout."



 
One of the more intriguing sections of this song comes at the 4-minute mark, where the distant voice of Robert Plant sings each line ("Way down inside... woman... you need... love") before his full-throated vocal comes in. This is known as "backward echo," and one of the first uses of the technique, but it happened by accident: A different take of Plant's vocal bled over to his master vocal track, so when Page and engineer Eddie Kramer mixed the song, they couldn't get rid of it. They did what most creative professionals do with a mistake: they accentuated it to make it sound intentional, adding reverb to it so Plant sounded like he was foreshadowing his lines from afar.


 
Led Zeppelin didn't release singles in the UK, where it was considered gauche, and in America, they didn't issue any from their first album. "Whole Lotta Love" was the first song they allowed as a US single, and it became their biggest hit, going to #4 (their only Top 10 entry) despite a 5:33 running time. Many of Zeppelin's most popular songs, including "Stairway To Heaven" were not released as singles.


 
Led Zeppelin used this as the basis for a medley they performed in their later shows. They had lots of songs by then, so they used the medley to play snippets of their popular songs they did not want to play all the way through. They incorporated various blues songs in these medleys as well, notably "Boogie Chillin" by John Lee Hooker, which was often followed by what they called "Boogie Woogie, by Unknown," and "Let's Have A Party" by Wanda Jackson. They would put this in when Robert Plant would yell, "Way Down INSIDE."


 
When this song became a hit in America, the UK division of the band's label, Atlantic Records, pressed copies of a shortened version of the song to release there, but Jimmy Page quashed that idea when he heard the 3:12 truncated edit ("I played it once, hated it and never listened to the short version again," he told the Wall Street Journal). The band issued a press release stating: "Led Zeppelin have no intention of issuing 'Whole Lotta Love' as a single as they feel it was written as part of their concept of the album." The American single is the same version as found on the album.


  
The line, "Shake for me girl, I wanna be your back door man" is a reference to the "back door man" of blues cliché (popularized in a Willie Dixon). This guy enters and leaves through the back door to avoid detection, as the lady is using him to cheat on her boyfriend or husband. This adds an illicit edge to the storyline.


 
In the freakout section of this song, Jimmy Page played a theremin, a bizarre electronic instrument he liked to experiment with consisting of a black box and antennae, famously heard on the 1966 Beach Boys song "Good Vibrations." The sound is altered by moving one's hand closer to or farther from the antennae and was used to create the fuzz that alternates back and forth through the speakers. It can be heard to great effect on their Royal Albert Hall footage. Page decided to try theremin after hearing the group Spirit use one.




After Page started fooling around with the theremin in the studio, it was open season for experimentation on the track; he started messing around with his guitar by detuning it and pulling on the strings, and Plant did his part by going to the extreme high of his vocal range.


 
Page, Plant, and John Paul Jones played this at the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert in 1988 with Jason Bonham sitting in on drums for his late father. Jason joined the band again in 2007 at a benefit concert for the Ahmet Ertegun education fund, where they played this as the first encore.


 
Guitar World noted Page's use of the wah-wah pedal during his famous solo, securing its place at #17 on the magazine's 2015 list of greatest wah solos of all time. Jack White has cited it as the greatest guitar solo ever recorded.


 
Jimmy Page played the loose blues riff for the intro on a Sunburst 1958 Les Paul Standard through a 100W Marshall "Plexi" head amp with distortion from the EL34 output valves.


 
 
The remaining members of Led Zeppelin played this at their Live Aid reunion in 1985. Along with Tony Thompson, Phil Collins sat in on drums. Collins was the biggest presence at Live Aid. He played a set in London, flew to Philadelphia, played another set, then stayed on when Zeppelin took the stage. Jimmy Page was not happy - he thought Collins butchered it


 
John Paul Jones told Uncut magazine January 2009 that Page began to come into his own as a producer around the time of this song. Said Jones: "The backwards echo stuff. A lot of the microphone techniques were just inspired. Using distance-miking… and small amplifiers. Everybody thinks we go in the studio with huge walls of amplifiers, but he doesn't. He uses a really small amplifier and he just mikes it up really well, so that it fits into a sonic picture."


  
The song's guitar riff was voted the greatest of all time by listeners of BBC Radio 2 in a 2014 poll. "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses came second in the listing and "Back In Black" by AC/DC third.


  This song got a mention in the 2014 lawsuit alleging that Jimmy Page stole the intro to "Stairway To Heaven" from a song called "Taurus" by the group Spirit.

In 1968, Spirit played some shows on the same bill with Zeppelin, and "Taurus," an instrumental written by guitarist Randy California, was in Spirit's set. California died in 1997, but his estate filed the wide-ranging lawsuit, which accused page of nicking an entire sound during this time. It states: "Jimmy Page's use of the Etherwave - Theremin, and other psychedelic-type audio effects which helped give Led Zeppelin its distinctive sound - especially prominent in 'Whole Lotta Love' - was inspired by seeing California effectively use these types of audio-enhancing effects on tour."


 
The CCS version was used as the theme song to the BBC music show Top of the Pops from 1970-1977 and again from 1998-2003. Led Zeppelin never appeared on the program, as they had no interest in lip-synching and weren't a good fit for the TOTP audience.


The Lemon Song


This is very similar to a Blues song by Howlin' Wolf called "Killing Floor." It was so similar, Wolf was eventually given a composer credit. On the original British copies of Led Zeppelin II, the label on the record lists "Killing Floor" as the third track and is credited to Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf's real name), while the liner lists "The Lemon Song" and credits Led Zeppelin.


 
Some lyrics are from Blues singer Robert Johnson's "Traveling Riverside Blues." Led Zeppelin played "Traveling Riverside Blues" for a BBC session in 1969, but the song was never released on an album. It was placed on their Box Set in 1990, and was also a bonus track on the Coda album for the Complete Studio Recordings.


 
No electronic devices were used to create the echo on Robert Plant's vocal. It was made by the acoustics in the studio and by his voice.


 
This contains a lot of sexual references ("squeeze my lemon"). Some people were offended, but Zeppelin's fans didn't have a problem with it.


 
Led Zeppelin recorded this in Los Angeles when they were on their second tour of America.


 
Plant often made up lyrics when he sang this live, usually making them even more sexually suggestive.


 You can hear drummer John Bonham's gong at the beginning of this song. The Chinese gong added theatrical value to Bonham's drum kit.


Moby Dick


This was Zeppelin drummer John Bonham's showcase song on early tours. His solo would last up to 20 minutes (that's a lot of "charlie")  while the rest of the band would leave the stage and grab a smoke. Bonham sometimes drew blood performing this from beating his hands on his snare and tom toms.


 
This is an instrumental song. According to Bonham's wife Pat, the song is named Moby Dick because his son asked him to play "The long song." When John asked why, the boy answered, "It's big like Moby."


 
This evolved out of a drum solo Bonham would play called "Pat's Delight," which was named after his wife. Jimmy Page would often catch Bonham jamming in the studio, and recorded parts of it, then pieced it all together.


 
Jimmy Page remixed this to flow seamlessly into "Bonzo's Montreux" on the Led Zeppelin boxed set.


 
The name of Bonham's drum solo was later changed to "Over The Top" for the 1977 US tour. It used the "Out On The Tiles" riff as an intro instead.


 
Page added a guitar riff to the mix, which came from "The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair," a song Led Zeppelin recorded live for the BBC in the Spring of 1969. It appears on the BBC Sessions album.


 
Led Zeppelin often borrowed from American Blues recordings, and the guitar riff in this song bears a strong resemblance to the 1961 Bobby Parker song "Watch Your Step." Led Zeppelin has faced criticism for using parts of obscure folk and blues songs and passing them off as their own, but it should be noted that riffs cannot be copyrighted, and many famous musicians have borrowed in a similar fashion. A notable example is The Beatles "I Feel Fine," which was also influenced by Parker's "Watch Your Step." 

Last edited by arabchanter (14/1/2018 10:44 pm)

PatReilly wrote:

See the Jimmy Page stuff about using the bow? Most music fans accept he was the first to utilise the bow, and Page himself credits David (Illya Kuryakin/The Invisible Man) McCallum's dad for giving him the idea.

David McCallum Snr was a violinist who became Leader of the London and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, and probably came into contact with session man Page at one point.

BUT, Eddie Philips was the originator of the 'bow'guitar' technique, and this is the song which used the style first. A better song you won't hear this month (imo)......................



 

Great post Pat, love to hear stuff like this that I don't know about, good song too but a bow and a guitar, bloody nonsense in my humble  

DAY 159.
The Temptations...................................Cloud Nine   (1969)







This albums foundations were laid in the Motown Producers Workshop at Hitsville, Detroit.
Central was that title cut, which landed the label it's first Grammy and introduced a fresh new Motown sound.


Funk Brother Dennis Coffey created the track's distinctive guitar intro, "It was my first session with Motown and it was then I introduced them to the wah-wah, I started throwing a few licks around and the within a week I was in the studio recording Cloud Nine"


The album left Berry Gordy scratching his head, but the likes of Funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes and Barry White all took serious note.

shedboy wrote:

Btw some of your fact finding gives me goosebumps so many facts youve put down on here that i didnt know or forgotten. I am now listening to RATM on train for example 👍

That's probably my favourite part to be honest, found out some weird and wacky bits and bobs, but also listened to some great albums that I wouldn't have heard if not for this daft book.

Glad you're still enjoying it and thanks for your kind words earlier,
 

DAY 159.
The Temptations...................................Cloud Nine   (1969)







Another short  summary, this album was background music at best, apart from the title track which I did like the rest were all average to say the least, and that version of the classic "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" has to be the worst cover of that particular song that I've ever heard.

No chance o' me buying this one


Bit & Bobs;



The most versatile of Motown's vocal groups, and one of the most successful soul acts of the 1960s, The Temptations epitomized classic soul at its most urbane and graceful. Stop-on-a-dime choreography and classy elegance made the group a hit on stage; in the studio, their harmonies benefited from Motown's best songwriters and producers. The presence of several talented lead vocalists with distinct styles meant that they could play it both smooth and sweaty, and enabled them to adapt to progressive funk and rock trends better than most 60s soul stars. However, time and too many personnel changes have reduced them to what is basically a nostalgia act for the last twenty years. The original quintet of Temptations - Eldridge Bryant, Eddie Kendricks, Otis Williams, Paul Williams and Melvin Franklin formed in the early 60s as a merger of sorts between Detroit groups The Distants and The Primes. Signed to Motown in 1961, they recorded seven singles that made barely any noise. In early 1964, two factors helped them break from the pack:


The recruitment of David Ruffin to replace Bryant, and the concentrated attention of Smokey Robinson. Robinson wrote and produced most of their mid-60s hits, starting with 1964's "The Way You Do The Things You Do", on which the Temps' harmonies jelled with state-of-the-art soul production for the first time. It was "My Girl", however, that established The Temptations as household names. This 1965 single, which made #1 on both the US R&B and pop charts, was one of Smokey's most lyrically evocative compositions. With its swooping strings and unforgettable vocal trade-offs on the chorus, it remains one of Motown's signature tunes. The Temptations are usually remembered as one of Motown's more romantic and pop-oriented acts, an image reinforced by such lush ballads as "I Wish It Would Rain", "Since I Lost My Baby", "You're My Everything" and "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" (the last of which was a collaboration with The Supremes). Actually, these were balanced by a fairly equal number of dancefloor-fillers like "Get Ready" and "Ain't Too Proud To Beg". Wide appeal, and a certain diversity, were ensured by the splitting of lead vocal chores between David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks on the early hits (Paul Williams occasionally took lead as well, but not on the big singles).


Kendricks had the high, gliding tenor that almost went into falsetto; Ruffin had the coarser, more emotive style. Ruffin would give the group's most passioned,even angst-ridden, performance on "(I Know) I'm Losing You"; his delivery was closely studied by Rod Stewart (who covered that classic) and, most likely, Mick Jagger, who would eventually cover "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" with The Stones. Starting in 1966, Norman Whitfield gradually poached Temptations production duties from Smokey Robinson. Whitfield was probably the first of the Motown principals to assimilate late 60s trends from the rock and funk worlds into the label's hit machine. The 1968 single "Cloud Nine" was a landmark for both Motown and soul, introducing a high degree of social consciousness into the lyrics and psychedelic guitar riffage into the arrangement. For The Temptations themselves, it was a different landmark of sorts: it was their first big hit after the departure of Ruffin, who was replaced by Dennis Edwards. (Ruffin had an intermittently successful but generally disappointing solo career.) The Temptations rarely wrote their own material, and in the late 60s and early 70s they became mouthpieces of sorts for Whitfield. With Barrett Strong (who had recorded the original version of "Money" in the early 60s), Whitfield penned message songs to reflect the complexity and confusion of the times, dressed up in arrangements heavily influenced by the rock-soul-psychedelic fusion of Sly & The Family Stone. "Cloud Nine", "Psychedelic Shack", "Runaway Child, Running Wild" and "Ball Of Confusion" were galvanizing hits, if a bit self-conscious in their lyrical references. The group never turned their backs on good old-fashioned romance, either, as the huge hits "I Can't Get Next To You" and "Just My Imagination" demonstrated. But, although "Just My Imagination" made US #1 in early 1971, all wasn't well in the group. Paul Williams left due to health and alcohol problems, in 1973. The same year, Eddie Kendricks left to start a solo career, which started brilliantly (his "Keep On Truckin'" making #1 in 1973) and steadily dissipated. That left only Otis Williams and bass singer Melvin Franklin from the mid-60s quintet. Whitfield would continue to work with The Temptations through the mid-70s. Indeed, the 1972 US #1 single "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" was a triumph for him, the group and Motown. With its throbbing, slow-burning rhythms and hard-hearted depiction of urban rootlessness, soul rarely sounded so foreboding and compelling. But The Temptations' funk, once futuristic, started to sound repetitive on follow-up singles. 1973's "Masterpiece" was their final US Top 10 pop hit; they remained reliable R&B hit-makers for a few years, but, with the loss of Whitfield and a general lack of direction at Motown, they were unable to continue adapting to the commercial and artistic trends of the day. By 1977, they'd left Motown (though they would return in a few years), and Edwards was gone as well (he would return for spells in the 80s). Otis Williams and Melvin Franklin continued to tour and record with new members, but to all intents and purposes they were (and are) now just another urban contemporary vocal group, with few audible echoes of their glory days. In 1973. Paul Williams, was discovered dead from a self-inflected gunshot on August 17, 1973 at the age of 34. Tragedy continued for the Temptations: David Ruffin died on June 1, 1991 after overdosing on cocaine; he was 50 years old. On October 5, 1992, Kendricks died at the age of 52 of lung cancer, and on February 23, 1995, 52-year-old Melvin Franklin passed away after suffering a brain seizure. With the death of Franklin, Otis Williams is their sole link to their illustrious past. The Temptations were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

arabchanter wrote:

 

............ and that version of the classic "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" has to be the worst cover of that particular song that I've ever heard.

Jeez, you haven't heard the Creedence Clearwater Revival version then 
 

DAY 160.
Sly And The Family Stone.........................(1969)










"Stand" for me is an album that should definitely be considered and judged by it's age, if you take into account the shit that was going on in the good old US of A  before and up to this point (1969,) and then listen to the lyrics I feel they portray a sense of hope, unity and dignity, no blame being dished out just a hunger for everyone to stand up and be counted, because we are all essentially the same regardless of race or background, and if we try we might just make this mad world a kinda better place.




Right, less of that old fanny, what about the music? The albums top track for me was "Everyday People" the rest of the tracks were ok, but not really being a funkateer more or less background music for me.



Now we come to Sex Machine" just under 14 minutes of instrumental, I don't know what it is with these people, just making the album 14 minutes less would always win my vote, rather than these free for alls, jamming shenanigans that seemed quite popular back then,.
Oh and the cherry on the top has to be, a f'kn drum solo for the last couple of minutes, then it closes people laughing and somebody saying (it may well be Sly himself) "We blew your mind, huh?"

No pal, you just blew any chance of me buying this and probably any other of your albums.....prick

 Maybe the last bit was a tad over the top, but it really wasn't what I wanted to hear after a 14 minute track, this album will not be being purchased.




Bits & Bobs;

In the late Sixties and early Seventies, Sly & the Family Stone fused R&B rhythms, radio-ready hooks and psychedelia to create a new pop/soul/rock hybrid. The band's bright, catchy songs artfully took on racism and other political issues and influenced pop artists like Prince to Rick James. From the Nineties forward, legions of artists — including Public Enemy, Fatboy Slim, Beck and many others — mined Sly's catalogue for samples.


 Sylvester Stewart's family moved from Texas to the San Francisco area in the 1950s. At age four, he began singing gospel music and at age 16 made a local hit, "Long Time Away." Stewart studied trumpet, music theory, and composition at Vallejo Junior College and while in school became active on the Bay Area music scene. With his brother, Fred, he formed several short-lived groups, like the Stewart Bros. He was a disc jockey at soul station KSOL, and at Autumn Records he produced records by the Beau Brummels, Bobby Freeman, the Mojo Men, and Grace Slick's first band, the Great Society. He later worked for KDIA.


 In 1966 Sly formed a short-lived group called the Stoners, which included female trumpeter Cynthia Robinson. With her he started his next band, Sly and the Family Stone. Sly, Robinson, and Fred Stewart were joined by Larry Graham [see separate entry], Greg Errico, and Jerry Martini, all of whom had studied music and worked in numerous amateur groups. Rosie Stone joined the group soon after. Working around the Bay Area in 1967, this multiracial band made a strong impression. They recorded their debut single, "I Ain't Got Nobody" b/w "I Can't Turn You Loose," on the local Loadstone label.


 The Family Stone's debut LP, A Whole New Thing, flopped. Its follow-up, Dance to the Music, included the hit title cut (Number Eight Pop, Number Nine R&B). Life sold fewer copies than their previous albums, but their next release, a double-sided single, "Everyday People" b/w "Sing a Simple Song," was Number One on both the R&B and Pop charts. 1969's Stand! mixed hard-edged politics with the Family's ecstatic dance music. It rose to Number 13 on the Pop Chart and contained Sly standards like the title song, "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey," "Sex Machine," "Somebody's Watching You," and "I Want to Take You Higher" (Number Three Pop, Number 24 R&B). Fiery versions of "Dance to the Music" and "Higher," heard on Woodstock soundtrack (Cotillion), established the Family Stone as one of the finest live bands of the late 1960s.


 Singles like "Hot Fun in the Summertime" (Number Two Pop, Number 3 R&B) and "Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin" b/w "Everybody Is a Star" (Number One Pop and R&B), saw the band hit a commercial peak, and the success of Greatest Hits (Number Two Pop) reflected their immense popularity. The smooth post-doo-wop/pop/soul of "Hot Fun" and the eerie funk of "Thank You" demonstrated the band's considerable range. By this time, Stand! had been on the charts for more than 80 weeks, and most of the Family's Top Ten singles had gone gold, as had most of their post-Dance to the Music LPs. Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who'd been flummoxing critics with electrified "fusion" albums, did it again when he named Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix as his favorite musicians.


 After 1970 Sly became notorious for arriving late for or missing concerts, and it was generally known that he was suffering from drug problems. The group's turning point came in 1971, when There's a Riot Goin' On went to Number One. Its darkly understated sound and pessimistic lyrics (the album's first words are, "I'm gonna tell you something: Feels so good inside myself, don't wanna move") contrasted sharply with the optimism of earlier albums, and instead of the flamboyant group interplay that had been a Family Stone hallmark, most of the album featured Sly overdubbing multiple vocal and instrumental parts, exploring the possibilities of electronic rhythm (Riot is one of the first major albums to feature a drum machine), and utilizing the services of guitarist/arranger and R&B veteran Bobby Womack. The result was the most powerful depiction of the bitter aftermath of the hippie dream; "Family Affair," about dissolution and breakdown, went Number One Pop and R&B, Sly's last chart-topping hit.


 By 1972, the Family Stone was growing restless. Key members Larry Graham and drummer Greg Errico, both well on their way out during Riot's recording, left, to be replaced by Rusty Allen and Andy Newmark. From Fresh (Number Seven pop, 1973), "If You Want Me to Stay" (Number 12 pop, Number Three R&B) did fairly well, and a blues version of "Que Sera Sera" got some airplay, particularly when (untrue) rumors of a romance between Sly and Doris Day emerged. Small Talk fared moderately well. It took advertising of Sly's public wedding ceremony to Kathy Silva at Madison Square Garden in 1974 to sell it out. "I Get High on You" (Number Three R&B) did respectably, but subsequent albums failed.


 Meanwhile, disco had emerged, and in 1979 Epic issued Ten Years Too Soon, a compilation album on which the quirky original rhythm tracks were erased and a disco beat dubbed in. By the mid 1970s, stories of drug problems and arrests were part of the Sly Stone legacy. By 1979, he was with Warner Bros., attempting to make the comeback many observers felt would be as natural as James Brown's, given the current interest in and popularity of funk. In 1981, having been cited as a major influence by George Clinton, he appeared on Funkadelic's Electric Spanking of War Babies. He toured with Clinton's P-Funk All-Stars, on his own, and with Bobby Womack in the early 1980s. In 1983 Sly released Ain't But the One Way, which was roundly ignored; that year he was arrested for cocaine possession and entered a rehabilitation program a year later.


 In 1986 Stone guested on ex-Time guitarist Jesse Johnson's minor hit "Crazay," which led to a deal with A&M Records. That year a single, "Eek-a-Bo-Static," failed to chart; Stone also duetted with ex-Motel Martha Davis on "Love & Affection," for the soundtrack of the movie Soul Man, in 1986, but the A&M contract fell through. In 1989, Stone was arrested, serving his fourteen-month sentence in a rehab center. In 1993 Sly and the Family Stone was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; a subdued Stone appeared to accept the honor.


 That would presumptively have been it, but in February 2006, for the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, rumors began that Stone would appear. And appear he did, wearing a silver lamé trench coat and sporting a giant blonde Mohawk. The performance was a mixed-bag, however – owing to a very busy audio mix, Stone was virtually inaudible, and his appearance was remembered for being as bizarre as it was unexpected. An exceedingly rare interview with the notoriously reclusive Sly appeared in Vanity Fair in 2007 that portrayed the musician as both an eccentric and relatively lucid. In the interview he said he had been working on music for a couple of decades, waiting for the right moment to spring it on the world. A handful of live performance followed in Europe in 2007 and the U.S. in 2008, with Stone's performances as erratic as ever. His festival dates – among them the prestigious North Sea Jazz Festival and Montreaux Jazz Festival – were largely considered disappointments, with Sly appearing onstage for only a handful of minutes. His shows at the New York's B.B. King's five months later, were similarly a mess; Sly shuffled on stage for only a few minutes to answer questions, deliver new rap verses (ostensibly from a song called "We're Sick Like That") before wandering off again.


 On Memorial Day 2009, Stone appeared on Seattle's KCRW show "Morning Becomes Eclectic," talking about his life and career. He confirmed that the song "If You Want Me to Stay" was written as a question to his fans, but gave no indication as to his future plans. That same year, he signed with the small L.A. independent label Cleopatra, planning to release an album that was a combination of new material and re-recorded greatest hits in 2010. In June of 2009, a recording of the group's legendary performance at the Woodstock Festival was released. In January of 2010, Sly & the Family Stone were announced as performers in that year's Coachella festival.