Sounds of The Seventies
1972---Alice Cooper exemplified perhaps the most veherment reaction to experimental rock.Alice Cooper was the name of both the band and its lead singer,a Phoenix minister's son whose real name was Vincent Furnier.The band moved to Hollywood in 1968 and hooked uo with Frank Zappa,who released their first album on his own label,Straight.It was loud,crude,bone-crunching rock with a fascination for the macabre.The music was so out of step with everything else happening in pop that it masked the group's burning anbitions.
The Raspberries emerged from Cleveland with "Go All The Way" and a leader ,Eric Carmen,who regarded the studio pop of the early 60s as the Holy Grail. The Doobie Brothers (doobie-being slang for marijuana joint) came from the blue-collar town of San Jose,California,with a reputation as a Hell's Angels party band.The doobies' ability to play boogie with folk harmonies and their appreciation for production values endeared them to mainstream rock fans.With "Listen to the Music,"they added to the growing body of rock songs about rock.
Argent was led by Rod Argent,veteran of the British invasion group the Zombies,which broke up in 1968.He formed his namesake band two years later and wrote "Hold Your Head Up" with former Zombie Chris White.As a sign of the times,the song was initially released as a single over six minutes long;when it began attracting attention,the single was shortened to a more conventional length to insure its sucess.
In black music,the Chi-Lites,together since 1960,finally took their sensitive-guy persona to the top of the charts with the poignant" Oh Girl.Back Stabbers" was the first ,and arguably the best,in a series of topical records by O'Jays that featured the blossoming Gamble and Huff production sound of Philadelphia,which defined mid-70s soul and disco.
Bill Withers folkish "Lean On Me" was written for his fellow workers at the Boeing plant where,until the year before,he had manufactured toilet seats for airplanes.The Staple Singers,once gospel purists and standard-bearers of the civil rights movement,consolidated their hold on the new genre of "inspirational pop," or "secular gospel," with songs such as " I'll Take You There."
1972
Al Green's sensual,pleading male,who had much in common with that of the Chi-Lites,urged,"Let's Stay Together." Crooner Johnny Nash introduced Americans to reggae with "I Can See Clearly Now,"which was cut with members of the Wailers as sidemen.(Reggae superstar Bob Marley used money he earned as a staff writer for Nash to start his own Tuff Gong label.)
Al Green's sensual,pleading male,who had much in common with that of the Chi-Lites,urged,"Let's Stay Together." Crooner Johnny Nash introduced Americans to reggae with "I Can See Clearly Now,"which was cut with members of the Wailers as sidemen.(Reggae superstar Bob Marley used money he earned as a staff writer for Nash to start his own Tuff Gong label.)
Three Dog Night's "Black and White" went back to 1955,when Earl Robinson and David Arkin (father of Alan Arkin) wrote it to celebrate the Supreme Court's Brown vs Board of Education ruling banning segregation in public schools. After the release of this song Earl Robinson,who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy Era,found himself at the top of the rock n roll charts--further proof that the 45 single ruled once again.
Brother Louie was the most unlikely No. 1 song of 1973.This tale of a black man in love with a white girl(which included in its hook a bow to the frat-rock anthem Louie,Louie) was written and originally recorded by Hot Chocolate,an interracial British soul band.Hot Chocolate took their song to No.7 on the charts in England early in 1973.
1973
Michael Brown,the leader of Stories,was once a member of the 60s pop band the Left Banke,who had hit with Pretty Ballering and Walk Away Renee. Brown had his group cut Brother Louie for their second album with lead vocals by Ian Lloyd.-Brown and Lloyd had been introduced to each other by their fathers,who were violinists working the same session. Brown quit the group before the second album was even finished,and Brother Louie proved to be Stories' only Top-40 single.
Michael Brown,the leader of Stories,was once a member of the 60s pop band the Left Banke,who had hit with Pretty Ballering and Walk Away Renee. Brown had his group cut Brother Louie for their second album with lead vocals by Ian Lloyd.-Brown and Lloyd had been introduced to each other by their fathers,who were violinists working the same session. Brown quit the group before the second album was even finished,and Brother Louie proved to be Stories' only Top-40 single.
Lou Reed, founding father of the Velvet Underground(the first rock group to sing openly of heroin, sadomasochism and homesexuality), bitterly parted ways with his band in 1970.He retreated to England the next year to work on a solo career and soon came under the spell of David Bowie,who had made androgyny and other themes of the Velvets fashionable to the general public.Transformer, Reed's second solo album,was produced by Bowie and his guitarist Mick Ronson and included Walk on the Wild Side. The song was Reed's ode to Andy Warhol and the bohemian New York crowd to whose lives the Velvets had supplied a sound track.
While the years between 1972 and 1977(the advent of Punk)are considered to be rock's dog days,interesting music did emerge during this supposedly fallow period.When old standby fail to deliver,room opens up for new bands,for one-hit wonders and for hit singles from unlikely veterans.In other words,there is novelty,which has always been essential to rock'n' roll's survival.Novelty visited 1973 time and time again.
Some bands prospered without hit singles.The Allman Brothers,with their fluid, dual-guitar jams that borrowed from blues and country,had personified Southern rock since their 1969 debut album.In 1971,leader Duane Allman,the finest guitarist in the south(if not the world),died in a motorcycle accident.Almost exactly a year later,bassist Berry Oakley died in a similar spill just three blocks away.The survivors regrouped under the leadership of Dickey Betts and Gregg Allman (Duane's brother).Betts had a softer approach to guitar than Duane,and he wrote the bands first chart single,Ramblin' Man, which echoed a traditional Southern theme.Brothers and Sisters,the NO.1 album that included the hit,was dedicated to Oakley.
Deep Purple surfaced in 1968 as a pseudociassical pop band then evolved into a heavy metal guitar outfit (fronted by Ritchie Blackmore).By the mid-70s,the Guinness Book of World Records had listed them as the loudest band.Smoke on the Water ,which was about a fire that interrupted a live recording session in Montreux,Switzerland,was their first top-40 record since their two singles in 1968,Hush and Kentucky Woman.The song actually appeared in four different versions--long and short studio takes,and long and short live takes.
Grand Funk Railroad was the era's reigning arena-rock band.They were conceived in 1969 as a crude,bruising power trio named after the Gran Trunk Railroad in their native Flint,Michigan.In 1970,they sold out Shea Stadium in New Yorl City quicker than the Beatles had. Grand Funk Railroad scored five gold albums in two years in America while remaining unknown overseas.Then in 1972,they dumped their Svengalian manager-producer Terry Knight and added a keyboard player.They took on clever popmeister Todd Rundgren as producer and cleaned up and tightened their sound for the singles market.
Grand Funk's Don Brewer wrote We're an American Band after a besotted late-night argument with tourmates Humble Pie,in a bar in Baton Rouge,Louisiana.The song touched off a string of successful collaborations with Rundgren,although it was the only No.1 single for Grand Funk,as they now called themselves.The references to all-night poker,hotel-wrecking and dalliances with a Little Rock groupie just about summed up the early 70s ethos of these rock marauders.(Rundgren, meanwhile,had a left-field hit of his own when he remade Hello It's Me, initially a hit in 1969 for Nazz,the Beatlesque Philadelphia harmony group he helped found)
Dr. John had begun his career as a New Orleans session guitarist and pianist in the mid-50s.He had released a few singles under his real name of Mac Rebennack before moving to Los Angeles in the mid-60s. By the end of that decade,he had donned robes and a headdress to masquerade as Dr. John the Night Tripper,who mixed mysterious musical textures with New Orleans voodoo lyrics to become an underground sensation.In 1972,he shelved the hokum and released a tribute to the classic Crescent City R & B sound of Fats Domino,Smiley Lewis and Professor Longhair.He came back the next year with In the Right Places,produced by Allen Toussaint.With the Meters as backup band,the album yielded a fluke hit, Right Place,Wrong Time.-----1973