It was a good summer for records. I happened upon a few excellent collections; one of highbrow folk rock circa 68 – 75, another from a fellow who must have emptied out the jukebox of an urban CT bar circa 1975. Nothing but soul and funk 45s, 100s of ’em. Add a few good weeks at the flea market, including one especially notable pile that apparently contained ONLY 70’s-soul-records-that-were-sampled-in-1990s-hiphop-hits and you get FALL 2012. Six years into doing these mixtapes, a heavy emphasis on the period 1970 – 72 remains. If you see me, ask me for a CD copy…
1. ‘Between Today And Yesterday’ Alan Price. From the LP “Between Today And Yesterday,” Warner Brothers 1974.
2. ‘Coming into Los Angeles’ Arlo Guthrie. From the Warner/Reprise compilation LP “The Big Ball” 1970.
3. ‘Let It Rain’ Eric Clapton. From S/T LP, RSO 1970.
4. ‘You’ve Got To Do It All Yourself’ Jackie Lomax. From the LP ‘Three,’ Warner Brothers 1972.
5. ‘Helpless’ Buffy Saint Marie. From “She Used To Want To Be A Ballerina,” Vanguard 1971.
6. ‘I’ll Tell You No Lie’ Nicky James. From the S/T LP, Threshold/London 1972.
7. ‘You Can Close Your Eyes’ Kate Taylor. From “Sister Kate,” Cotillion 1971.
8. ‘One Sure Thing’ Bonnie Koloc. From “After All This Time,” Ovation INC 1971.
9. ‘Take A Look Around’ The Temptations. Gordy/Motown 7″ Single 1971.
10. ‘The Longer We Stay Together’ Al Wilson. From “La La Peace Song,” Rocky Road/BELL 1974.
11. ‘Always Together’ Jackie DeShannon. Imperial 7″ single 1969.
12. ‘Rock Your Baby’ George McCrae. T.K. Records 7″ Single, 1974.
13. ‘I Can’t Get Over You’ The Dramatics. ABC Records 7″ Single 1976.
14. ‘When Something Is Wrong With My Baby’ Sam & Dave. Stax 7″ single 1967.
15. ‘A Raga Called Pat’ John Fahey. From the LP “The Voice Of The Turtle,” Takoma 1968.
16. ‘Elegia De Che Guevera’ Quilapayun. From S/T LP, Monitor Records c. 1970.
17. ‘Darling Be Home Soon’ The Loving Spoonful. Kama Sutra 7″ single. From the Motion Picture “You’re a Big Boy Now” 1967.
18. ‘Diamond Meadows’ T-Rex. From S/T LP, Reprise 1971.
19. ‘Rock And Roll Love Letter’ Tim Moore. From “Behind The Eyes,” Elektra 1975.
20. ‘Another Day Like Heaven’ The Flame. S/T LP, Fallout Re-issue. Originally on Brother Records 1970.
For detailed track notes, links, and more of the best album art of all time, click the link below…
1. ‘Between Today And Yesterday’ Alan Price. From the LP “Between Today And Yesterday,” Warner Brothers 1974. Beautiful Bill Fay-esque track from a great writer and singer, formerly organist for The Animals. I can’t say for sure, but the chorus of this track sounds like it may be one of the only-known appearances of the PianoMate on a record…
2. ‘Coming into Los Angeles’ Arlo Guthrie. From the Warner/Reprise compilation LP “The Big Ball” 1970. Guthrie apparently performed this track at Woodstock, but it failed to make an appearance on the record. True? LMK. A surprising counter-culture anthem from a singer who I had never considered to be especially rebellious.
3. ‘Let It Rain’ Eric Clapton. From S/T LP, RSO 1970. Yea that’s right. Clapton. Never thought it would happen… but he made it on. Pretty much sounds like one of the more upbeat selections on ‘All Things Must Pass’ so it’s hard not to like.
4. ‘You’ve Got To Do It All Yourself’ Jackie Lomax. From the LP ‘Three,’ Warner Brothers 1972 (No link available). I’ve featured Lomax before on this blog. Great singer, great writer, all of his records that I’ve heard are good. This one was produced by the great John Simon, he of ‘the Band’ fame.
5. ‘Helpless’ Buffy Saint Marie. From “She Used To Want To Be A Ballerina,” Vanguard 1971. This is Buffy’s most ‘rock’ record, featuring Neil Young and Crazy Horse as well as Jesse Ed Davis, Ry Cooder, and Merry Clayton. Whoa. This cut is great, but so are all the rest. Worth seeking out.
6. ‘I’ll Tell You No Lie’ Nicky James. From the S/T LP, Threshold/London 1972 (No link available). James came close to the big time several times, but never quite connected. This is a fantastic album in the vein of Spooky Tooth. Highly recommended.
7. ‘You Can Close Your Eyes’ Kate Taylor. From “Sister Kate,” Cotillion 1971. James Taylor’s sister, here doing one of his songs. Fantastic piano playing by Carole King.
8. ‘One Sure Thing’ Bonnie Koloc. From “After All This Time,” Ovation INC 1971. Really powerful track with some great heavy guitar playing by the legendary Phil Upchurch (!) of Chess Records fame. The dual guitars and dual vox in the solo section make me think that this was probably arranged especially for Quad, as the sticker on the dust jacket suggests…
9. ‘Take A Look Around’ The Temptations. Gordy/Motown 7″ Single 1971. Good social-consciousness jam from their later period. Great guitar sound.
10. ‘The Longer We Stay Together’ Al Wilson. From “La La Peace Song,” Rocky Road/BELL 1974 (No link available). Great ‘adult-themed’ ballad.
11. ‘Always Together’ Jackie DeShannon. Imperial 7″ single 1969 (Bizarrely, no link available…) DeShannon was a huge pop star. She was also a great songwriter and she dated both Jimmy Page and Bryan McLean of LOVE. This is just such a great soulful ballad, reminds me of Dusty at her best.
12. ‘Rock Your Baby’ George McCrae. T.K. Records 7″ Single, 1974. McCrae had two killer singles – the other is ‘I get lifted.’ “Rock Yr Baby’ features a great primitive beatbox-plus-live kit groove that just never, ever gets old.
13. ‘I Can’t Get Over You’ The Dramatics. ABC Records 7″ Single 1976. Great slo soul jam with some crazy echo’d-out elec guitar.
14. ‘When Something Is Wrong With My Baby’ Sam & Dave. Stax 7″ single 1967. The great S+D at their best.
15. ‘A Raga Called Pat’ John Fahey. From the LP “The Voice Of The Turtle,” Takoma 1968. I couldn’t find an exact link, but this track is pretty close. I couldn’t possibly add anything to the huge body of words that have been written about Fahey, but suffice to say that yea his early shit really is that fukkin good. This is a strange, very eclectic record of his… thanks to DS for letting me take it off his hands, I don’t think my chances of ever finding it at another yard sale were very good… and that wasn’t yr average yard sale.
16. ‘Elegia De Che Guevera’ Quilapayun. From S/T LP, Monitor Records c. 1970. Their name means ‘Men With Beards.’ Fantastic, right? This record was a good find… as close to finding an original Victor Jara LP as I have ever come… and if you don’t know who Victor Jara is, get on it! Talk about a revolutionary singer… Jara lived and died it.
17. ‘Darling Be Home Soon’ The Loving Spoonful. Kama Sutra 7″ single. From the Motion Picture “You’re a Big Boy Now” 1967. What a sweet, beautiful song this is. I had heard a few other versions through the years, but I somehow missed this, the original version sung by writer John Sebastian, until I came across the 45. Incredibly, this song was actually written on-assignment for a very early Coppola movie! I had no idea he was making real studio pictures as early as 1966. Crazy.
18. ‘Diamond Meadows’ T-Rex. From S/T LP, Reprise 1971. This was a good find from a pretty bland estate sale (I also got some killer belts and nice casio synth…). There ain’t a bad song on this record. Overall the LP sounds a lot more like Tyrannosaurus Rex than T-Rex. Worth seeking out.
19. ‘Rock And Roll Love Letter’ Tim Moore. From “Behind The Eyes,” Elektra 1975. BPT! Not a great song, but shit this was recorded on Main Street, Bridgeport CT in 1975 at Paul Leka’s Connecticut Recorders… so far, this is the last major-label record I have found that came out of that studio. Anyone?
20. ‘Another Day Like Heaven’ The Flame. S/T LP, Fallout Re-issue. Originally on Brother Records 1970. Good fkkng god this album is amazing. After two different dudes, major music experts, life-long rockers, told me about this album in the span of two days… it just seemed like I couldn’t refuse. Considering that the original LP appears to be completely unavailable, and it’s never even had a legitimate licensed re-issue, I violated one of my cardinal rules and dropped $20 on LP re-pressing # 125 (out of 1000) that Fallout pressed about a decade ago. You can hear most of the songs on YouTube, and holy shit if you like Badfinger, Big Star, the Raspberries, Cheap Trick, or any other band that ever tried to out-do the Beatles, get ready… cos these South Africans do it better. Singer Blondie Chaplin went on to perform with the Beach Boys and Rolling Stones for decades. Heavy shit… wait ’til you hear what happens around the 3:00 mark.
