1973

This blog is about the music from 1973 because that’s the year I believe "the Sixties", as a socio-cultural phenomenon  ended. All those English invasion bands were fading, The influence of Electric Organs and synthesizes were having an impact on pop music. What's more,  radio clearly diverged into AM pop and FM-friendly music. 1973 saw Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin and the Who all touring North America. It was an amazing time and the managers of these bands had realized that the big money was made touring; it was not from hits on AM radio.

Alice Cooper had a big hit with I'm 18 in 1972. And following up on this hit and a big hit album called Billion Dollar Babies,  "Alice"  hit the road for a monumental tour in 1973.
The Who were also touring to promote an album, Quadrophenia. It was Pete Townsend‘s second rock opera.  Long Train Running from the Doobie Brothers  another hit from 1973. The beginning of many for them in that decade.

Another hit from 1973 is Will It Go Round in Circles from Billy Preston.  When Get back by the Beatles was released as a single in 1968, it featured Billy Preston. Billy was very popular in London at that time and hung around Apple studios a lot. Photograph from Ringo is his no.1 from 1973.

Many great albums now considered "Classic Rock" and are still being played on the radio today were released in 1973. Possibly the most prominent is Pink Floyd's Dark side of the moon, but also there was  Stevie Wonder's  Innervisions. A great track from that LP is Higher Ground. It was released as a single and made the top 10 in 1973.

Fleetwood Mac were on tour in that year, what a great year to have been young and a music lover. I feel lucky to have been there and experience these great moments. 

post script

42 years ago July 26, 1977, Zeppelin were touring North America once again when they got a message that Robert Plant's five-year-old son was very ill. They cancelled the rest of the tour,  Robert flew back to England.  Sadly, his son passed away. Robert Plant was shattered by the loss and did not do much for the next 18 months. After that date in 1977,  Led Zeppelin never toured America again; Because in 1980  their drummer, John Bonham died from alcohol poisoning and the band effectively dissolved.

PLAYLIST for 1973

18 from Alice Cooper.

the real me (from Quadrophenia)

Long train running from the Doobie Brothers

Will it go round in circles from Billy Preston.

Photograph from Ringo,

Higher Ground from Stevie Wonder

Ecology and Police Profiling

Both of these topics remain in the forefront of 21st Century activists' attempts to increase  awakening in Society. As it should be.
However, what comes to my mind is how long this fight for better practices has been going on, and while big gains have been made, so much remains to be done. It is wonderful to see someone as young as Greta Thunberg getting centre stage at International Events and calling out us adults to do much more for the next generations.

Pop music from the sixties Protest Movement echoed the sentiments of the population. As the sixties became the seventies, music continued to echo the worries of the population passed the Anti-war rhetoric. 

Throughout the sixties, Motown was staunchly grinding out memorable pop hits; However, they did in fact become aware of the changing sentiments in society and even Stevie wonder covered Bob Dylan‘s Blowing in the Wind. It made the top 20. As mentioned earlier MOTOWN was a purveyor of great pop songs,  however, long before the 21st century & the growing awareness of racial profiling, this was the theme for one of Stevie wonders massive hits in 1973 recorded on the album Innervisions. The album version of Living For The City which includes a spoken section in the middle where Stevie indicates how he is railroaded into jail simply for being with other Black youth; His innocence was irrelevant to the case.  The album track was edited and released as a single without the dialogue in the middle piece and it made the top 10. 

 In the early seventies, Marvin Gaye was moved by the state of society and the environment and wrote a whole album about ecology. Berry Gordy was loathe to release it, but Marin had clout after 2 number 1's and a decade of popularity, Berry gave in and the album was a huge hit and remains a classic with What's  Going On being covered by many others. 

SONGS

blowing in the wind. - Stevie wonder

Living for the City - Stevie wonder

What's Going On - Marvin Gaye

Eric and the Beatles. A Playlist

As the Beatles came to prominence in the early sixties, British music was moving from folk based tunes to Blues based songs. However, as Britain did not have a history of  home-grown Blues Music it was all borrowed from America and especially music from the South.
There were many great blues artists who came over to Britain and the rest of Europe for tours. My friends and I managed to see just about all of them; the Legends.

In the fall of last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles White album. One of the stand-out tracks on that album was George Harrison's composition, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. On the anniversary of the original release, Apple reissued a re-mastered version of the double album with extras.

One of the features of that track was Eric Clapton‘s uncredited solo guitar break. Of course we all know that George and Eric were good friends, this was the period that Eric had fallen in love with George’s wife Patti,  who Eric did eventually marry. But George and Eric remained good friends all their lives.

Back in those days record labels controlled their contracted artists were very stringently. Especially  about guest appearances on other major artists tracks; hence, the lack of accreditation for Eric‘s solo. Of course this was ridiculous because everybody knew that it was Eric Clapton. The rumours  and gossip columns in the tabloids revealed everything. The special interest in Eric Clapton was because back then, and still now 50+ years later, is considered one of the greatest rock guitarist.

Here is a track by George Harrison When We Was Fab, it too is a collaboration with Eric Clapton.

Clapton came to prominence with the group the Yardbirds. As they moved from their original blues based styling  to more progressive rock, Clapton left them and joined John Mayall's  Bluesbreakers. He recorded one album with them.  On the cover is a photo of the band with Eric being extra cool and reading a famous British comic called the Beano.
Ever since then the album is known as the Beano album. Rambling on my mind from that album is a track where Eric not only plays guitar but also does the vocals with Mayall's band backing him.

The irony of Clapton leaving the Yardbirds because he felt they were getting too progressive is that Eric left  John Mayall's band pretty soon to form the supergroup Cream. Cream were at the forefront of progressive rock. One of their first singles was a hit I feel free.

Cream only lasted about 30 months, Clapton was disillusioned with the music business and was heavily into drugs. However, he still wished  form a group where all the players  had similar sensibilities. That group was Derek and the dominoes. They’re really only famous for one track Layla. Once Eric got himself together and started performing again in the early 70's he released 461 Ocean Blvd. and re-started his career and never looked back. On the 30th anniversary of that album's release it was re-issued with a second disc of a live recording where Eric does Layla. Unlike the Derek and the Dominoes' version it doesn’t have a long Piano coda.

Layla  was about his love for Patti Boyd, as is Wonderful Tonight.
On August 1, 1971, George Harrison got some friends together and put on the first Rock for Charity concert. Two shows at Madison Square Garden’s which were released as the Concert for Bangladesh. From that album,  is the track called Bangladesh. George does the lead vocals, along with his pal Eric Clapton on guitar, and many other famous performers.

In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were promoting their efforts to stop the Vietnam war and foster peace. They were in Toronto when John got the idea for a peace concert which occurred in Toronto in that august. Of course it was recorded an album released later. Be truthful it’s not a very good album, it was very disorganized and it comes through on the recording quality. However one of the best tracks is John Lennon doing Money (that’s what I want), The old Barrett strong number that they did all those years ago in the Cavern and Hamburg. John is backed up by Eric Clapton and Keith Richards on this track.
In the Beatles early days, they played many Carl Perkins tunes, one track that Ringo sang on was called Matchbox. This is a live concert of  Carl's where he does Matchbox with  Ringo and Eric Clapton on it.

After George Harrison passed away Ringo wrote and recorded a wonderful track called Never Without You. An homage to his friend. Of course, Ringo invited George’s friend Eric Clapton to sing and play on the track as well.

Repeating the same  theme  Without You, is John Lennon's drinking Buddy,  Harry Nilsson’s hit from 1972. It topped the charts that year. The tune is a cover of Badfinger's song Without You from their first album.

In early 1992, Columbia records put on a show at Madison Square Garden‘s to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Bob Dylan‘s first album. Anybody who is anybody is in that concert. There’s a CD released and a DVD with a boat full of great music. At the concert  Eric does a  version of Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice (it’s all right). It’s an amazing rendition of the song that’s been covered by hundreds of other artists.

Playlist
While my guitar gently weeps
When we was Fab
Rambling on my mind
I Feel free
Layla
Wonderful tonight
Bangladesh
Money (that’s what I want)
Matchbox
Never without You
Without You
Don't think twice (it's alright)

Teddy Bears

When we arrived in England in 1953 we did what many new immigrants did, we moved in with family friends who had emigrated from India before us. Then, after 6 months, we bought our first home. My parents also bought a TV and radiogram within the first few months of settling into our home. Pretty forward thinking for those days.  There was only one TV channel and just three BBC radio channels. Back in those days a lot of the programming concerned people talking or maybe dramatic plays but very little pop.
One of the most popular radio shows was on Saturday morning for a couple hours of children’s favorites. Requests came in from children to hear tunes that they liked. I was recently watching a documentary on Eric Clapton and he mentioned being a child and listening to the same show. His early introduction to music. A favourite song that was constantly requested was one called The Teddy Bears Picnic it was done by Henry Hall. I remember it well from those Saturday mornings.   It also was a song we sang as a family in Calcutta. 

Even before Disney turned Winnie the Pooh into a worldwide money making machine, the simple but sweet philosophy of Winnie the Pooh was a big hit with the hippies and the love generation. I remember having a small paperback called the hums of pooh. In wide circulation again in the mid-sixties.  (I am pretty sure a friend showed it to me first. We shared its insights over many coffees.)
One of the original members of  Buffalo Springfield was singer-songwriter and later producer,  Jim Messina. When Springfield broke up Jim hooked up with Kenny Loggins  and as a duo, Loggins and Messina they had quite a few hits. They had a lovely one where they’re singing about Winnie the Pooh. It’s called the house at Pooh corner.

I loved reading when we were 6 by A.A.Milne to my daughter and my mother would sing "They're Changing Guards at Bucking Palace"...

(Christopher Robin Went Down with Alice,) to them also.

Teddy Bears Picnic - Henry Hall

House at Pooh Corner - Loggins & Messina

They're Changing Guards at Bucking Palace - Vera Lynn

        

OTIS REDDING

December 10, 1967 I was working my first serious full-time adult job in Oxford, England. I was an editor at the Clarendon Press, a part of  the OUP (Oxford University Press). The office was on Saint Giles, then an old road from the Woodstock & Banbury Road junction and the shopping district and at the edge of various colleges. I had a short two stop bus ride or about a half an hour walk from the office in order to get “home”.  I finished at five pm and walked to my bed sit on Chalfont Road, made a simple meal on my one-ring burner and put on the BBC News on the transistor radio.  I was shocked to hear of the death of the great Otis Redding in a plane crash in the US. Along with members of the Bar-Kays who were backing him on the tour. I actually cried. 
He was a great artist that all my friends and I admired. My friends and I went as a large group to see him, (and the whole revue,) in the great Stax-Volt Revue when it came to London. As I discovered later, The Beatles & Stones were in attendance too, as they were huge fans.

51 years later he is still admired around the world and his great posthumous number one hit, recorded  just days before he died (Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay remains a staple of radio in the 21st-century.

Oh, to be in England

It is odd that of all the many citizenships one can claim, one cannot be “English “, unless you were born in one of the ‘Shires’.
I am British, but it is the imagery, of ‘England’, that Rupert Brooke aspires to in that amazing poem that I feel, too.
I remember walking down English Country lanes, or driving them in later years. Admiring the vista and the people.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a proud Canadian also.
But as an “English school boy” we were taught Brooke’s poem in a period when poetry was completely lost on me, he suddenly resonated with a wimpy 14 year old.
I have loved his poetry all my life and his collected works are within reach, even now.
Not just Rupert Brooke, but many other great men and women had lives cut short.
I thank them.

it was a different time

Recently in the news we had television personalities commenting about the use of "Black Face" make up as an accessory for Halloween costumes. It cost Megan Kelley her hosting job. I have no love for her as a commentator but am appalled at the lack of analysis around how common that form of entertainment was right up to the 1970's without others receiving a similar raking over the coals.

I completely understand how a Black American can feel mocked by such an outfit, but Halloween is full of absurd outfits for adults. Why is the "Sexy Nurse's Outfit" not raising similar outcry for people doing a very necessary and demanding job.
Of course, the simple answer is that most of those costumes are meant as humour not mockery. I do agree that Black Face is inappropriate for a child's Halloween dress up, though. How we dress up our children should be held to a different standard.
Living in Britain throughout the 1950's and '60's my family often watched one of the most popular television variety shows of the time: George Mitchell's Black and White Minstrel Show. It lead to a long running stage show that lasted until the mid-1970's. Also there were albums of the shows that dominated the pop music charts for a couple of years before The Beatles and similar youthful acts stormed into our lives. I cannot imagine how such a show would be handled nowadays.
(p.s. really was not a very good show. Its success says more about the lack of alternative viewing than the merits of the show itself. However, the lengthy success of stage show does puzzle me. Especially in London with its enormous choice of great stage offerings.)
In my own life I have been called many derogatory names but have also been treated with utmost respect and affection from the same community that the people mocking me came from.
One of the truly humorous names I have been called is "Paki". As an Anglo-Indian from Calcutta with a great love of Britain, and my British friends it seems an absurd moniker to foist onto me and shows how ridiculous name calling is when it is based on a single item of a complex human beings existence.