D-Sides, Orphans, and Oddities

Gentle Giant - On Reflection (live) (1976) 

Glockenspiel, cello, violin, recorder, 4 (or 5)-part vocal fugue accompanied by the same musicians providing instrumental backup for those parts, but not the parts they are singing, electric guitar, keyboards, drums, BELLS, etc. in ONE SONG. Gentle Giant was too clever, musical, English, talented....just amazing... too good for American audiences. Their studio creations could be abrasive and angular, but this might be the best live album by a Prog group in the decade. This is a live album with some mistakes, but that's because this is an incredible, real, raw representation of a Prog band at the peak of their powers. Tour, tour, tour, tour...backing group for many many bands that you know. Black Sabbath being one. Can you imagine? 

James Brown - Ain't It Funky Now (live) (1971) Live at The Olympia, Paris

As soon as this groove hits you, you wonder how a human being can be so rhythmic, so bred-in-the-bone entertaining, so giving. So broken. But this track always makes me smile because you can hear the rehearsals that went into it. Creating funk like this is a science. People try to understand and recreate, but damn. It's like pretending to be funny. You are or you are not. Brown's organ solo is terrible. But I love it.

Todd Rundgren's Utopia - Another Life (live) (1975) I love this version of this song. It has everything. It sounds like Zappa smushed together with Bowie smushed together with Chicago. I don't care for the rest of the album, but this is impressive to me. 

Frank Zappa - Elvis Has Just Left The Building (live) (1988) 

Ted Nugent - Stormtroopin' (live) (1977) I know. What an ass. But in my pubescent vulnerability, I found his two Buffalo Auditorium concerts very exciting (and nearly sold out). Selling 16,000 tickets to snow-bound youth is not a small feat. No one would ever say that THAT Ted didn't bring it. Like Gentle Giant, tour, tour, tour, tour. His live album, Double Live Gonzo, is pretty good. I could have picked any number of (non-scatological) songs. Kinda like Zappa. 

Grand Funk Railroad - Inside Looking Out (live) (1975) This Animals cover had been a live standard since it was first recorded by the band in 1969. I often wonder what goes into live albums like this, specifically in the way of crowd volume and performance. Ever since I learned that Kiss Alive was doctored thusly, I guess I've become cynical. I listen for it. If there's a live performance without mistakes, it sort of bothers me. And we might never learn the truth. That being said, I owned two Grand Funk live albums. This version is my favorite song from both of them, and the keys really help to flesh out what was a pretty barren version on the first live album.  How many times did I practice those hammer-ons on the g-string whenever I got a new guitar? Mark Farner, I believe, left the band for "religious" reasons. That honky could sing. 

James Brown - The Big Payback (live) (1974) Live in Zaire is the recording of Brown’s 1974 concert that was part of the build-up to the “Rumble in the Jungle”, the famed boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali.

The Soul Searchers - Blow Your Whistle (1974) 

Trouble Funk - Side B (1981) Go-Go funk band from Washington D.C. that released their own 4-sided album of go-go jamming. This is side 2. They ultimately landed on Island Records, where they proceeded to be neutered and rendered obscure. Can you imagine being in this audience?

The Soul Searchers - We The People (1972) 

Charles Brown. 

Cameo - Rigor Mortis (1976) Like a cross between Fatback Band, EWF, and Parliament. This isn't go-go per se. Just another band that started in the Soul Searchers/Gap Band mold, only to evolve into something marketable on its own. What do you think of when you think of Cameo? Larry Blackmon's codpiece? I think of that wonderful single "Candy". Gap Band makes me think of their tight harmonies on Stevie Wonder's "Ain't Gonna Stand For It", and of course

First, a story about the ideal first encounter. 

 

Michael Franks - When She Is Mine (1985) His first album was on the Brut label. WAMPUS DOESN'T SOUND SO BAD NOW, DOES IT??? The players on his albums are pretty much the same studio cats on every yacht rock act's harder-to-play stuff. Chicago, Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Dan Lewis, everyone. But it's a testament to that cadre of professionals that they can do something as laid back and open as Franks' music AND Steely Dan. I hear the difference. You do, too, if you listen to this show. But...they ruined Chicago. And for that, I will never forgive David Foster. I LOVE this song. I can even forgive the couplet, "She's a virtuoso in amoroso..." No purist, I. 

Manhattan Transfer  -  Walk In Love (1976)

Michael Franks - Tiger In The Rain (1979)

The Brighter Side Of Darkness - Love Jones (1972) Brighter Side of Darkness was a short-lived American R&B/soul group. They were formed in 1971 at Calumet High School in Chicago, Illinois. Their lead singer was 12-year-old Darryl Lamont. "Love Jones" was a #16 hit in the US in December 1972, and was certified gold by the RIAA. They released an album, Love Jones, in 1973. "Love Jones" was parodied as "Basketball Jones" by Cheech and Chong in 1973. The parody was released as a single in August 1973 and reached #15 on the Hot 100. The parody got higher than the original. Oh well, as long as the checks clear. I don't think they all did. They broke up after this. 

Manhattan Transfer  - It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference (1976) 

This album Coming Out featured Popsicle Toes by Michael Franks.

Michael Franks - The Lady Wants To Know (1977)

Manhattan Transfer - Chicken Bone Bone (1971) Manhattan Transfer Phase 1 I guess. Wikipedia: Jukin' remained an orphan in the Manhattan Transfer's catalog. Issued on a different label than their future successes, with a different line-up and sound from what became their trademark, Jukin' is not acknowledged on the band's official website, nor have any of its tracks been anthologized on compilations. The revised group re-recorded the track "Java Jive" on the group's next album. It is the re-recorded version, not the version found on Jukin' , that can be found on multiple compilation albums.

FOR ALL YOU MANHATTAN TRANSFER PURISTS OUT THERE. 

Don Ellis - Excursion Part 2 (1970) Written by the same fellow that wrote "Walk In Love" which you'll recall from earlier in my show. 

Don Ellis - Pussy Wiggle Stomp (1970) Jay Graydon on guitar. He produced Manhattan Transfer and played that one-of-a-kind solo on "Peg" by Steely Dan.  Graydon has written over 200 songs. His catalog includes the Grammy winners "Turn Your Love Around" (co-written with Steve Lukather (Toto) and Bill Champlin (Chicago)) as performed by George Benson and "After the Love Has Gone" (co-written with David Foster (who ruined Chicago) and Bill Champlin (who stood by and watched)) as performed by Earth, Wind & Fire, many songs written with and for Al Jarreau (including "Mornin'", "Breakin' Away", "After All", etc.), and several hits with... Manhattan Transfer. 

 

So, Donny Jenczka...I auditioned for your band in 1985. I sang the song "After All". What was wrong with my performance? Why didn't I get into the band?

 

Mike Sheridan’s Lot - Make Them Understand (1965) Roy Wood's first recorded song. 

Michael Franks - Can't Seem to Shake This Rock and Roll (1973) Michael Franks had a strange take on the Rock. To be....frank? HAAHAHAHAHHA LOL   

Sick Man of Europe - Mandocello (1972) Cheap Trick before the mighty Robin Zander grabbed the mic from these idiots. 

Nature’s Way - Zander and Kent (1973) 

Muse - Across The Skies (1970)

Cheech and Chong  (featuring Tyrone Shoelaces) - Basketball Jones (1974) Serendipity! George Harrison plays on this. So does Klaus Voorman. My sister had this album. Read the Wiki. 

Weldon Irvine - Love Jones (1974) This record got zero stars in the 1981 Rolling Stone Record Guide, so I had to check it out. If you

I saw Genesis twice. Once in 1980, and then the next year. As I had worn out the grooves of Seconds Out, their live record from 1977, I somehow expected a duplication of the same, which meant playing some of those wonderful tracks from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. I remember them doing lots of tracks off of the album Duke, which was fine, but the next year, when Abacab came out, it was, I knew, time to move on to other things. 

The main line-up of Genesis during their glory days was Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, Steve Hackett, and Phil Collins. 

Rutherford and Banks wrote "Squonk". Tony Banks wrote "Mad Man Moon" and "One For The Vine".  For chrissakes. So what happened? I dunno. Pay me and I'll tell you. I have an idea. 

 

Peter Gabriel - A Wonderful Day In A One-Way World (1978) Any prog fan worth her salt recognizes that Chapman Stick being played by the most famous progenitor of the same, Tony Levin. Aside from being in King Crimson, he was in the movie "One-Trick Pony" with Paul Simon. But there's the Chapman Stick. 

Anthony Phillips - Musical Box (demo) (1969) The opening track from the band's third album, Nursery Cryme, was, as you hear here, the birth-child of Anthony Phillips. 

Anthony Phillips - Um & Aargh (1979) The drummer is Michael Giles, the drummer for King Crimson's first two albums. King Crimson's family tree, especially in the Prog world, is deep and wide. 

Brand X - Nuclear Burn (1976) Phil Collins side-project that started off in the Mahavishnu-Chick Corea vein of Electric Jazz, but, like everything Phil Collins touched, devolved into pure pop. 

Flaming Youth - Mars and Jupiter (1969) Phil Collins' pre-Genesis band recorded one album, Ark 2, a concept album about "the evacuation from a dying Earth". It's not bad. I think lots of these bands in the early days of Prog were trying to resolve Sgt. Pepper and The Beatles' affection for and use of old Music hall tropes with Robert Fripp's dexterity and distortion. 

Genesis - A Winter's Tale (1968) This single pre-dates their debut album, From Genesis To Revelation (1969)

Genesis - Hair on the Arms and Legs (1967)

Genesis - It's Yourself (1976) B-side of "Ripples". There's a section that sounds like "Los Endos" as if it were meant to be a segue of sorts. this is from the Trick of the Tail sessions, the first album after Peter Gabriel left. It's a great record. 

Genesis - One-Eyed Hound (1968) Genesis is a band with lots of pre-fame rarities that are worthy of a listen, if only for Gabriel's authoritative voice. Their first album sold 650 copies.

Genesis - Patricia (1967)

Genesis - Shepherd (1970)

Genesis - The Day The Light Went Out (1978) B-side of the "Many Too Many" single. 

Genesis - Try a Little Sadness (1967) Tony Banks is a more prominent backing vocalist on these early sides. Good? Bad? 

Genesis - Inside and Out (1978) The Spot The Pigeon EP was released when we would have bought a Genesis Taxidermy Kit if we had the money. But the more I heard it, the more I realized that there was a really fundamental shift in the basic tenets of one of my favorite bands.

According to Wikipedia: "The song was performed several times on the Wind & Wuthering tour in 1977. The first section, "Inside", concerns a man who is wrongfully imprisoned of rape. The second section "Out", is an instrumental passage that represents the man's freedom."

Mike Rutherford - Hideaway (1982) Mike Rutherford sings with the inflections of Phil Collins and the pipes of a drunken Dennis Wilson. Some of the drums on this album by Stewart Copeland. They were on the same polo team. The same polo team. The same fucking polo team. 

Peter Gabriel - Moribund the Burgermeister (1977) Nothing but quality from this great. The more I listen the more I realize that he was the heart and soul of that group. Genesis was a different, much less chance-taking group when he left. They must have known this when they heard this album the first time. 

Peter Gabriel - Biko (1980) P

The Go-Gos are a nice concept. They were pretty down and dirty in their nascent stages, but eventually, they cleaned up nice. And this show features none of their music. Only their girl group antecedents. Ya big jerk.

Birtha was a good but pretty overlooked all-female band. They toured and toured. Then they broke up. But POACA will recall one of their members went on to a somewhat ubiquitous role as a backing vocalist for some pretty big stars of the time. James Taylor, etc.

This is me talking about my new album, and the tracks thereof, in detail. 

If you would like to support a humble troubadour like myself, humbly traipsing through the forest, offering up my tales of daring-do, please visit my Bandcamp thingie. 

This show lasts about 1:15 or so. The rest is my standard DSAO fare. 

The artwork is by the great Joe Irizarry (The Mad Sketcher) and his artwork can be seen here. 

Darrell Nutt and I made this jam and Darrell's a well-liked denizen of all things music. His page is here. 

My record company is Wampus.com, and it's run by Mark Doyon. Wampus is here.

A RARE Murry Wilson project from 1969, a one-man debate about the first rap record, and some Allman Brothers before they were that

Insane, I bought a whole bunch of obscure vinyl cut-outs. And here I present the best of them for you. A couple more arrived after this. Look out for solo Sha Na Na, Lou Christie, Freddy Cannon, and a couple of obscurities.

Cherie Currie was the lead singer in The Runaways. Here's some of her solo stuff, and a bunch of obscurities.

When you're kickin' it with Tom Bosley, it's natural to get a big head and think you're a rock star.