Tagged: 1970s

As the Who gears up for another series of shows featuring Quadrophenia, beginning on June 8, 2013 at Dublin, it's worth remembering that things haven't always gone so well for Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. In fact, during rehearsals for the original tour of this 1973 opus, with a film crew there to document things, the two actually - and [...]

Paul McCartney is taking stock of the 1975-76 world tour that produced Wings Over America and the concert film Rockshow, just as each are seeing deluxe reissue. The album and film souvenirs recount a triumphal tour for Wings, celebrated in its moment as the first time McCartney had played live in the U.S. in 10 years - and that was [...]

Stevie Nicks has spent years sorting through the tangled history of her affairs with bandmates Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood. With "Beautiful Child," however, she was talking about someone else. The coming-of-age song, part of Fleetwood Mac's sprawling 1979 effort Tusk, actually focuses on a brief fling that Nicks says she had with Derek Taylor, the late road manager and [...]

It's much easier, nearly four decades later, to separate the music from the moment when it comes to Wings Over America. Back then, this multi-disc concert souvenir from Paul McCartney seemed like a triumphant musical summation. In stark contrast to his modern-day globe-trotting ways, McCartney hadn't at this point toured America in 10 years - and those concerts dated to [...]

They're not letting me go without a struggle. The powers that be seem intent to keep the stress on until the last minute. Not that I absolve myself of internalizing the frantic vibes in the air. Which I appreciate in a song like this, though not necessarily in life situations. But forget all that panic for now. I'm headed out for vacation, and this track can double as my getaway soundtrack. Meanwhile, I'm going to try desperately not to allow this terrifying album cover to take up space in my mind. See you back around Memorial Day. [...]

• Johnny Harris - Stepping Stones

Loving covers of popular music is a grand jazz tradition. From blues vamps to show tunes to popular song of the day, jazz musicians have explored the harmonic opportunities found in pop music. Results, as you might expect, have varied. Miles Davis' version of "Someday My Prince Will Come" became a jazz standard. On the other hand, did the world [...]

The last recordings of an early rock legend had none of the crunchy grit of "Dizzy Miss Lizzy." Instead, Larry Williams reimagined his sound (and with "Bony Moronie," one of his most famous songs) as ass-shaking 1970s funk bombs. The New Orleans-born Williams, who would be dead of a gunshot wound by 1980, had already made a sweeping impact on [...]

If you have any doubt who the greatest singer in the history of metal, heck, maybe in the history of rock 'n' roll is, just pop this DVD into your player and fast forward to the second song. When Ronnie James Dio belts out the vocal of Deep Purple's "Mistreated," an in-his-prime Robert Plant bows to the mastery and original [...]

Like most fans, we were hoping the Rolling Stones would pull out some deep cuts as they convened to celebrate five decades of debauched rock. What we got, however, was "Emotional Rescue" - a song they'd apparently never before performed in concert. There's a reason for that. Like the other songs on this excruciating list of musical misdeeds, "Emotional Rescue" [...]

When the Rolling Stones performed "Emotional Rescue" in concert the other night - apparently for the first time ever - it got us to thinking about other train-wreck moments the band might consider resurrecting. Not that we're advocating this stuff. It was just, after contemplating that sad turn of events, these five most-dreaded Rolling Stones songs got stuck in our [...]

This is a first-time CD reissue in any form of Sam The Sham’s fine 1971 solo album, originally released on Atlantic Records and produced by the legendary Tom Dowd at Criteria Studios in Miami - plus as a bonus the non-album single, Janis Joplin’s country-flavored "Me and Bobby McGee." Sam actually earned a 1971 Grammy for best liner notes, too. [...]

The 1970 festival Stamping Ground was also called the "Dutch Woodstock". It that took place in Rotterdam, with attendance estimated at 350,000. 01 - Santana - Gumbo 02 - Al Stewart - Zero She Flies 03 - Canned Heat - Human Condition 04 - Canned Heat - So Sad 05 - T-Rex - Pavillions Of Sun 06 - Jefferson Airplane - Saturday Afternoon 07 - It’s A Beautiful Day - Wasted Union Blues 08 [...]

Originally released in 1975 on A&M Records, Armageddon proved to be the late great ex-Yardbirds/Renaissance vocalist Keith Relf’s last stand - and he really went out rockin.’ It must have come as a shock to his legacy fans, as it was a very different direction to anything he had done before. To the uninitiated, Armageddon was an amalgam of progressive [...]

At the time, punk was thought of as the fast and rough stuff, with classic rock geezers like Ritchie Blackmore already relegated to the dustbin of history. Hardly. Rainbow's molten Live in Munich, recorded in 1977, zips along at a blinding pace. All these years - and a couple of previous reissues later - Live in Munich 1977 (due in [...]

Though Jacques Levy ultimately ended up writing six songs with Bob Dylan, the songwriter and director said their initial meeting was marked by no small amount of trepidation. "First of all, it got me a little nervous," Jacques Levy says in the below video. "I said to him - and it was very funny at the time, though I don't [...]

Originally only available as a hand-made fan-club item, Captain Beyond's 1973 concert with King Crimson had become something of a legend - a poorly heard, pieced-together legend. But a legend, nevertheless. This forthcoming reissue shows why. Featuring former members of Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly and Johnny Winters' band, the all-star Captain Beyond wasn't around long enough to match those antecedent [...]

• Captain Beyond - Dancing Madly Backwards [On a Sea of Air] from 'Live in Texas' (2013)

It seems quitting Asia, with whom Yes' Steve Howe has recorded and performed in tandem since 2008, has only given the guitarist more to do. Even as he continues touring a trio of 1970s-era albums with Yes, plans are taking shape for a flurry of solo activity. Yes' tour - featuring The Yes Album (1971); Close to the Edge (1972) [...]

When Jerry Marotta was hired on to work with Peter Gabriel and Robert Fripp, he'd heard of neither one of them. A fan of rhythm-and-blues players, and most famous then for his work with Orleans, the drummer brought his own sensibility. "I actually didn't know who Peter Gabriel was," Marotta, who played drums with the former Genesis frontman's solo band [...]

In searching for forgotten gems from Journey, we left aside arena-filling efforts from Escape through Trial by Fire - which combined sold some 18 million copies. Been there, done that, right? We also left aside the post-Steve Perry era, since - let's be honest - you could argue that all of those tracks are, outside of Journey's most committed fans, [...]

Jaws dropped, knees quaked and eyes twinkled. That was the reaction, when it was announced David Crosby from the Byrds, Stephen Stills from Buffalo Springfield and Graham Nash from the Hollies had formed a band together. Imagine all that talent under one roof, and as expected the guys delivered the goods above and beyond the call of duty. Spring 1969 [...]