Song Musings

Happy Wednesday and welcome to Song Musings, my recurring midweek feature in which I dig deeper into a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. As a huge fan of Steely Dan, today’s pick definitely falls into the first category: Black Cow.

Co-written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Black Cow is the amazing opener of Aja, Steely Dan’s sixth studio album released in September 1977 and, I think many fans agree, their musical Mount Rushmore. In August 1978, Black Cow also appeared as the B-side of the album’s third single Josie.

The single enjoyed moderate chart success, peaking at no. 24 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, it did slightly better, climbing to no. 20. The Aja album, on the other hand, was hugely successful, peaking at no. 3 in the U.S. on the Billboard 200 and in New Zealand, no. 5 in the UK and no. 9 in each The Netherlands and Australia. Aja also reached 2X Platinum status in the U.S. (2 million certified sold units) and Canada (200,000 certified sold units), as well as Gold status in the UK (100,000).

Like the title track and Peg, Walter Becker did not play on the recording of Black Cow. Donald Fagen provided lead vocals and synthesizer. As had become common since the March 1975 Katy Lied album, Messrs. Becker and Fagen relied on contributions from top-notch session musicians: Larry Carlton (guitar), Joe Sample (clavinet), Victor Feldman (Fender Rhodes), Tom Scott (tenor saxophone), Chuck Rainey (bass) and Paul Humphrey (drums). Backing vocals came from Clydie King, Venetta Fields, Sherlie Matthews and Rebecca Louis. Here’s a live version captured by yours truly in New Jersey in July 2018.

Black Cow has been covered by various other artists over the years. Among others, SecondHandSongs lists jazz pianist Ahamad Jamal (1978), jazz drummer Norman Connors (1980), smooth jazz guitarist Nick Colionne (1999), soul and jazz singer-songwriter Tony Gallo (2006), Canadian art rock band The Darcys (2012) and singer and actress Linda Lavin (2020), among others. Here’s Colionne’s instrumental version, which he recorded for his 1999 album The Seduction.

Following are some additional insights from Songfacts:

“Black Cow” has a number of lyrical interpretations: a troubled relationship, an ode to self-doubt, a commentary on nightlife, a reference to Hindu culture (cows are sacred). Or it could be about Thelonious Monk, the American jazz composer who is often regarded as the father of bebop.

In the Classic Albums episode on the album Aja, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, perhaps showing their wry sense of humor, described the lyric as “self explanatory,” but did offer some insight as to what they had in mind.

“It starts out with this guy talking about this girl he used to be involved with,” Fagan said. “She’s sitting at a counter, and he describes her behavior and habits, and out of that you begin to see her character and their relationship.”

He added that the “black cow” is a beverage – depending on where you live, it can be a milkshake or a coke float (like a root beer float, but with coke). But it’s something you would get at a soda fountain, where the song takes place. In the ’50s, Fagen and Becker spent a lot of time at these soda fountains.

Note the deceptively simple disco-era instrumental starting out with a bass line and drums, then sneaking in layers of complexity with saxophone accompaniment and the electric piano solo. Steely Dan made a name for themselves with highly polished productions using a wide array of session musicians.

Becker and Fagan would sometimes record a song with one group of musicians, decide it wasn’t working, and try it again with an entirely new set of players – rinse and repeat until it was right. Aja was their sixth album; by this time Fagen and Becker had refined their system and developed an uncommon rapport where they could almost read each other’s musical minds.

The multitrack masters for “Black Cow” and “Aja” have gone missing, which makes it impossible to do surround-sound versions of these tracks. In the liner notes to the stereo remaster of the Aja album, the band offered a $600 reward for information leading to their return.

The 1998 hip-hop hit “Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)” by Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz samples significant portions of “Black Cow.” So much that Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are listed as the writers on the track.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; SecondHandSongs; YouTube

The Sunday Six

I hope everyone is spending a great weekend and like to invite you to join me on another Sunday excursion into the beautiful world of music. As always, the travel itinerary includes six stops in six different decades with tracks in different flavors. Let’s do it!

Dexter Gordon/I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Cry

Our trip today starts with relaxing jazz by Dexter Gordon, an American tenor saxophonist, composer and bandleader who fellow blogger Randy from Mostly Music Covers brought to my attention recently. Gordon is recognized as one of the most influential early bebop musicians. Between 1940 and 1986, he recorded numerous albums as a leader and as a sideman for the likes of Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton and Herbie Hancock. Gordon included an instrumental rendition of I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Cry, a 1944 torch song and jazz standard, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Sammy Cahn, on his studio album Go!, released in December 1962. He was backed by Sonny Clark (piano), Butch Warren (bass) and Billy Higgins (drums).

Joe Ely/Musta Notta Lotta Gotta

Let’s pick up the speed with a neat rock & roll song by Joe Ely, another great artist who was recommended to me a while ago, by Max, writer of the PowerPop blog. The Texan singer-songwriter and guitarist became one of the most influential artists on the Austin progressive country scene in the 1970s and ’80s. Musta Notta Lotta Gotta is the title track of Ely’s fourth studio album that came out in 1981. The fun song, penned by Ely, has a bit of a Jerry Lee Lewis Great Balls of Fire vibe!

John Mellencamp/Troubled Man

Our next stop takes us back to the current century. In September 2014, heartland-turned-roots-rock singer-songwriter John Mellencamp released his 22nd studio album Plain Spoken. Like the soundtrack to Mellencamp’s musical Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (2013) and his previous two studio albums No Better Than This (2010) and Life, Death, Love and Freedom (2008), Plain Spoken was produced by T Bone Burnett. During Mellencamp’s tour that supported the album, country singer-songwriter Carlene Carter was the opening act. Eventually, this led to their great 2017 collaboration album Sad Clowns & Hillbillies. Here’s Plain Spoken’s opener and first single Troubled Man.

Little Richard/Ready Teddy

Let’s jump back 57 years coz that how we roll on The Sunday Six; or rock & roll in this case. While he called himself Little Richard, the flamboyant artist was a giant of ’50s rock & roll. One of the most exciting performers, Richard also wrote and co-wrote gems like Tutti Frutti, Slippin’ and Slidin’, Long Tall Sally and Jenny, Jenny. These were all songs on his March 1957 debut album Here’s Little Richard. As was common at the time, it essentially was a compilation of Richard’s singles that had appeared earlier. One of four non-originals songs on the album is the amazing Ready Teddy. It was co-written by John Marascalco and Robert Blackwell and first recorded by Richard. Feel free to snip along!

Emerson, Lake & Palmer/Lucky Man

Let’s now head to November 1970 and the eponymous debut album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Aka. ELP, the English progressive rock supergroup had been formed earlier that year by Keith Emerson (keyboards; formerly of Nice), Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitars, producer; formerly of King Crimson) and Carl Palmer (drums, percussion; formerly of Atomic Rooster). While much of progressive rock hasn’t been love at first sight for me, I immediately dug Lucky Man, which Lake had written as a 12-year-old on the acoustic guitar. Admittedly, the folk rock-oriented song is not what you typically associate with progressive rock. The Moog synthesizer solo by Emerson at the end is one of the first rock compositions to feature a Moog as a solo instrument.

Donald Fagen/Trans-Island Skyway

We’re reaching our sixth stop, which means time to wrap up another Sunday music mini-excursion. Let’s end it on a groovy note with a song by Donald Fagen from his second solo album Kamakiriad, released in May 1993. The concept album revolving around the the protagonist’s travel in a high-tech car, the Kamakiri (Japanese for praying mantis), marked Fagen’s first collaboration with his then-ex Steely Dan partner Walter Becker who served as producer and played guitar and bass. Here’s Trans-Island Skyway, penned by Fagen who also wrote most of the other songs by himself.

Last but not least, here’s a Spotify playlist of the above tracks. As always, I hope there’s something you like!

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube; Spotify

Steely Dan’s Transformational Pretzel Logic Hits the Big 50

Steely Dan have been among my favorite bands for four decades, and my appreciation of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker has only grown over the years. That’s in part because I’ve been to many gigs of my dear friend Mike Caputo and his incredible band Good Stuff who faithfully play the Dan’s amazing music. I also feel fortunate to have seen Steely Dan three times since 2018, most recently in July 2022. Given all of that, celebrating today’s 50th anniversary of the transformational Pretzel Logic album was a no-brainer! BTW, the date coincides with what would have been Becker’s 74th birthday.

Released on February 20, 1974, Pretzel Logic was the final album to feature the Dan’s full quintet lineup and the first to rely on significant contributions from outside top-notch Los Angeles session musicians. Or as Fagen later put it, “the scrupulous meritocracy.” He was referring to the big band era when leaders would hire musicians based on the needs of the music, rather than rely on a standing line-up. Shortly thereafter, Messrs. Fagen and Baker would take the concept to the extreme, stop performing and become a sophisticated studio act.

From Pretzel Logic gatefold (from left): Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Denny Dias, Donald Fagen, Jim Hodder and Walter Becker

Pretzel Logic marked the first album where Fagen and Becker took over as directors of Steely Dan. It’s worthwhile recalling the band’s seeds were planted in the summer of 1970 when guitarist Denny Dias placed the following ad in The Village Voice: “Looking for keyboardist and bassist. Must have jazz chops! Assholes need not apply.” At the time, Fagen and Becker, who first had met in 1967 as students at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York and played together in various short-lived bands, were working as pop songwriters for ABC/Dunhill Records in New York City. Confident they were qualified, they responded to the ad, and the rest is history.

After Fagen and Becker had joined Dias’s band, they immediately introduced their own music. Dias fired the group’s remaining members, and the three of them relocated to Los Angeles. Subsequently, Jim Hodder (drums), Jeff “Skunk” Baxter (guitar) and David Palmer (vocals) joined the line-up. By the time Steely Dan’s sophomore album Countdown to Ecstasy appeared in July 1973, Palmer had left (though he contributed some backing vocals) and Fagen had taken over as lead vocalist. Becker was still playing bass. That would change on Pretzel Logic where for the first time he also handled some guitar work. Hodder’s role, on the other hand, was reduced to backing vocals.

I’d say it’s time for some music, and where better to start than the amazing opener Rikki Don’t Lose That Number! Jazz connoisseurs, especially fans of Horace Silver, undoubtedly noticed the song’s cool keyboard riff borrowed from Silver’s Song For My Father. Not only does this reflect Fagen’s and Becker’s love of jazz but also nicely illustrates how they incorporated jazz elements in their music. The instrument that can be heard in the beginning is a flapamba, Songfacts notes, a variant of a marimba. One of the song’s standouts is the killer guitar solo by Baxter. Rikki Don’t Lose That Number also appeared separately as the album’s first single in April 1974, climbing to no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Steely Dan’s highest charting in the U.S. By comparison, my all-time favorite Dan song Deacon Blues made it to no. 19. But, hey, 19 means a top 20, which isn’t too shabby either! 🙂

“It’s a beggars life”, said the Queen of Spain/”But don’t tell it to a poor man/’Cause he’s got to kill for every thrill/The best he can” – hm, what did Messrs. Fagen and Becker mean to tell us here? Songtell opines Night By Night explores themes of struggle, survival, and living in the moment. The lyrics depict a world filled with disparity, jealousy, and chaos, where the rich and powerful hold all the peace of mind while the poor and downtrodden have to fight for every small pleasure in life. Old Time Music maintains the lyrics poetically addresses the theme of self-destructive behavior fueled by addiction, both in personal relationships and societal structures. Previously, I read Fagen and Becker wrote some lyrics because they sounded good, so go figure. What I know is quite simple: I love this groovy track and that’s good enough for me!

Any Major Dude Will Tell You, which was the B-side to the Rikki Don’t Lose That Number single, is another great track Songfacts cheerfully calls “fairly obscure”. They also reference a 2009 Rolling Stone interview during which Fagen said this: “When we moved out to LA, people called each other ‘dude,’ which we found funny. We were trying to speak their language.” Notably outside contributors on the recording include prominent session bassist Chuck Rainey , Toto co-founder David Paich on keyboards, and Derek and the Dominos drummer Jim Gordon.

Next up: Barrytown, another great song with a fairly straightforward pop vibe. Barrytown is close to the aforementioned Annandale-on-Hudson. “I used the name of the town because I like the sound of it,” Fagen told student newspaper The Bard Observer during a 1985 visit of Bard College to receive an honorary degree, reversing his previously pronounced resolution never to return to his old school, as documented by Songfacts. “It’s basically a fiction. Funny thing is that I came back to Bard during Thanksgiving this year for the first time since I left. Just drove up for the day. When we got there most of the students were gone. It was pretty amazing walking around campus because a lot of those sites are emotionally charged for me. It was a very bizarre experience for me.”

I’m eight graphs and four songs into this celebratory review and, speaking in vinyl terms, I haven’t even touched the album’s Side two yet! The one song I’d like to call out here is the album’s title track. Referring to 1994 Steely Dan biography Steely Dan: Reelin’ in the Years by Brian Sweet, Songfacts notes Pretzel Logic is about time travel. They add Fagen specifically directed the author (who used to publish a UK-based Steely Dan fanzine) to the lyrics “I would love to tour the Southland/In a traveling minstrel show” and “I have never met Napoleon/But I plan to find the time” – glad we clarified that! Among the guests on the song’s recording is Timothy B. Schmit, of Poco and Eagles fame, who provided backing vocals.

What else is there to say? Pretzel Logic peaked at no. 8 on the Billboard 200, making it Steely Dan’s highest charting album in the U.S. at the time. Elsewhere, it reached no. 5 in Canada, no. 18 in Australia, no. 23 in New Zealand and no. 37 in the UK. It also secured Platinum status (1 million certified sold units) in the U.S. in September 1993.

Among critical accolades, Pretzel Logic was included in Rolling Stone’s inaugural 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, at no. 385, and nearly held that position in the list’s 2012 update (no. 386). Like many other great albums, it didn’t make the most recent 2023 revision. As a consolation, my all-time favorite Dan album Aja did (no. 63), and the current no. 1 is another album I love: Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; Songtell; Old Time Music; YouTube; Spotify

Albums Turning 50 This Year: A First Peek

A new year means more albums hitting the big 50. Like in 2023, this preview is based on a review of Wikipedia and an initial selection of 40 studio albums that appeared over the course of 1974. From there, I narrowed it down to six favorites, each of which are briefly highlighted, followed by a Spotify playlist that captures one song from each of the 40 albums, except for Joni Mitchell. I’m planning individual, more in depth posts about the six picks and possibly a few more, all timed to each album’s anniversary date.

Joni Mitchell – Court and Spark (January 17, 1971)

Kicking off this preview is Court and Spark, the sixth studio album by singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, one of the many outstanding artists hailing from the Land of the Maple Leaf. Not only did Court and Spark become Mitchell’s most successful album, but it also marked the start of her transition from a “straight folkie” to an artist who incorporated jazz elements in her music. Court and Spark featured prominent guests from both the jazz and other music realms, such as pianist Joe Sample (co-founder of The Jazz Crusaders), jazz bassist Max Bennett, session guitarist Larry Carlton and The Band’s Robbie Robertson. Here’s Trouble Child, which like all other except for one track was penned by Mitchell.

Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic (February 20, 1974)

While my favorite Steely Dan album will always remain Aja, there’s a lot more to the Dan than their September 1977 gem. Every time I see Good Stuff, an outstanding tribute led by my dear friend Mike Caputo, I’m reminded how great their earlier music was as well. Case in point: Pretzel Logic, their third studio album and final as a standing band featuring Donald Fagen (keyboards, saxophone, vocals), Walter Becker (bass, guitar, backing vocals), Denny Dias (guitar) and Jim Hodder (drums). That said, Hodder only sang backing vocals on one track, and the album had significant contributions from many prominent L.A. session musicians, already foreshadowing the approach Fagen and Becker would take starting with the next Steely Dan album Katy Lied. Here’s the excellent Night by Night, which has become one of my favorite Dan songs pre-Aja.

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Second Helping (April 15, 1974)

With (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd), the Southern rockers had released a strong debut in August 1973, which not only charted in the U.S. and Canada, but also overseas in the UK and Switzerland. While their follow-on Second Helping included what arguably is their signature song, Sweet Home Alabama, which became their first charting single and a major hit at home and elsewhere, the album missed the charts overseas. That said, it did better in the U.S. and Canada than their debut, peaking on the mainstream charts at no. 12 and no. 9, respectively. Here’s Don’t Ask Me No Questions, a great rocker co-written by guitarist Gary Rossington and lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant. The horns by Bobby Keys, Trevor Lawrence and Steve Madaio give it a nice soul vibe!

Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Boulevard (July 1974)

461 Ocean Boulevard, one of my favorite albums by Eric Clapton, marked his triumphant return to music after a 3-year hiatus due to heroin addiction. It also represented a clear break from Clapton’s hardcore blues rock-oriented days with John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds, Cream and Derek and the Dominos – all music I love as well. Sadly, his struggles with addiction weren’t over, and he would soon replace heroin with alcohol before finally getting sober in 1987. Here’s the fantastic Let It Grow, one of three tracks on the album Clapton wrote or co-wrote.

Supertramp – Crime of the Century (October 25, 1974)

Supertramp are a band I will always associate with my school days back in Germany, which in the U.S. would have been the equivalent to middle school. The English group became very popular in Germany, especially when they released their Breakfast in America album that topped the charts there and in many other countries. Crime of the Century, their third studio album, predated Breakfast in America by about 4.5 years. The song I best remember hearing on the radio is the opener School. Like all other tracks, it was co-written by Rick Davies (vocals, keyboards, harmonica) and Roger Hodgson (vocals, guitar, pianos). Typically, both alternated lead vocals, which in this case were sung by Hodgson.

Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (November 22, 1974)

This brings me to the final album I’d like to highlight in the post’s main section: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, the sixth studio album by Genesis. The British group became one of the few progressive rock acts I warmed to in the ’80s. I had always liked The Carpet Crawlers, which I had well known from the radio. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, the song missed the charts everywhere, which I find hard to believe. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway was a concept album telling the strange story of a poor Puerto Rican boy from The Bronx, who goes on a bizarre adventure in New York City, which ends in death. That said, musically, the group’s final album with original lead vocalist Peter Gabriel remains a gem, IMHO. Here’s the title track credited to all five members of the band: Gabriel (lead vocals), Steve Hackett (electric guitars), Tony Banks (piano), Mike Rutherford (bass) and Phil Collins (drums, bell-tree, glockenspiel, triangle, wind chimes, tambourine, timbales, backing vocals).

Here’s the above-mentioned Spotify playlist. It doesn’t include Trouble Child by Joni Mitchell who in January 2022 removed her music in solidarity with Neil Young to protest the platform for hosting Joe Rogan’s podcast, which spread dangerous misinformation about COVID-19.

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube; Spotify

The Sunday Six

Welcome to my third-to-last Sunday Six of 2023. If you’re celebrating the holidays, I hope you’ve been enjoying the season. In any case, it’s time to have a good time by visiting some great music of the past and present century. As always, our little excursion will have six stops. Let’s do it!

Bud Powell/You Go to My Head

Starting us off today is American jazz pianist and composer Bud Powell. A pioneer in the development be-bop, Powell was active from the mid-’30s until his untimely death in July 1966 at age 41 due to tuberculosis, malnutrition and alcoholism. Although his mental health was impacted by a severe police beating in 1945 and years of electroconvulsive therapy, which is just heartbreaking, he was instrumental in shaping modern jazz piano technique. You Go to My Head takes us back to the early stage of his career. Composed in 1938 by John Frederick Coots with lyrics by Haven Gillespie, it was covered by Powell as an instrumental on his compilation The Amazing Bud Powell released in April 1952. Powell was backed by Fats Navarro (trumpet), Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone), Tommy Potter (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums).

The Church/Destination

Let’s head to a land down under and February 1988, which saw one of my favorite ’80s releases: Starfish, the fifth studio album by The Church. The Australian neo psych pop rock band was formed in Sydney in 1980. Starfish became their international breakthrough, thanks to fantastic lead single Under the Milky Way. One of the many other great tracks on Starfish is the opener Destination, credited to all four members of the group at the time: Steve Kilbey (bass, lead vocals), Peter Koppes (guitar), Marty Willson-Piper (guitar) and Richard Ploog (drums, percussion). The song also became the album’s third single but missed the charts, not only in Australia where the group had enjoyed some success prior to Starfish, but also elsewhere – that’s a shame!

The Jimi Hendrix Experience/Purple Haze

After the jangly, mystical sound delivered by The Church, it’s time for some ’60s psychedelic rock by one of the absolute greats: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, the power trio headed by Jimi Hendrix, which also featured bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. They were formed in London in September 1966 after ex-Animals bassist-turned-music-manager Chas Chandler had brought the then-struggling backing guitarist there. Purple Haze, penned by Hendrix, was first released in the UK as the Experience’s second single in March 1967. The song also became the opener of the North American edition of their debut album Are You Experienced. The single climbed to no. 3 in the UK, which makes it even more puzzling to me why it wasn’t included on the album’s British version – what a killer song!

CSNY/Heartland

Let’s take it down several notches on our next stop in October 1999. That’s when David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash reunited in the studio one last time with Neil Young. Somewhat ironically, their first album as a four-piece since November 1988’s American Dream was titled Looking Forward. Unlike CSN’s two prior studio releases, CSNY’s final album enjoyed decent international chart success, even though it was fairly low key with no hit singles. Here’s Heartland, a lovely song written by Nash who also sang lead. Man, these guys could harmonize – too bad this didn’t translate to their interpersonal relationships!

The Doobie Brothers/Jesus Is Just Alright

Why don’t we continue with some great harmony singing? Admittedly, it’s more of a rhetorical question, given I’m the conductor of this magical music time machine – I still hope you’re with me! When I think of harmony vocals and rock, one of the groups I always love to go back to are The Doobie Brothers. In July 1972, they released their sophomore album Toulouse Street, which I think is a true gem. One of my favorite tracks on there is a song that wasn’t written by the Doobies: Jesus Is Just Alright. Originally, this was a gospel song penned by Art Reynolds who also recorded it first with his group, The Art Reynolds Singers, for their 1966 album, Tellin’ It Like It Is. The original is nice, but I love where the Doobies took it!

Steely Dan/Everything Must Go

Our final stop on this trip takes us back to the current century and Everything Must Go by Steely Dan, released in June 2003. While Donald Fagen and Walter Becker continued the Dan as a touring act until Becker’s death in 2017, this often-overlooked album marked their final studio project. Fagen subsequently resumed touring as Steely Dan in 2018, co-headlining with the Doobies – something I recalled after deciding to pick Jesus Is Just Alright – funny how the brain works! Anyway, I caught their great show at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J. in July that year. I got the news that earlier this year the Dan were forced to drop as opening act for the Eagles after Fagen had fallen ill and needed to be hospitalized. Though he has since been released from the hospital, it remains unclear what brought him there. Knocking on wood Fagen is doing fine. Here’s the title track of his above final Steely Dan album with Becker.

Of course, I wouldn’t leave you without a Spotify playlist of the above goodies. As always, I hope there’s something you dig and that I’ll see you again on the next trip!

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube; Spotify

Song Musings

Happy Wednesday and welcome to another installment of my weekly feature that takes a deeper dive into a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. I can’t believe it took 50-plus posts in this series before writing about one of my all-time favorite artists, Bruce Springsteen. Granted, I’ve covered The Boss on multiple occasions in the past and, yes, I’ve also briefly included today’s pick in a previous post. But I felt Jungleland deserves a dedicated take.

Written by Springsteen, Jungleland was first recorded as the epic closer of his breakthrough album Born to Run, which came out in August 1975. At a mighty nine-and-a-half minutes, obviously, it wasn’t well suited for mainstream radio. As such, not surprisingly, it wasn’t released separately as a single. Of course, they could have created a shorter edit, but it really would have been a shame to cut this masterpiece.

Jungleland started with its first recorded take in January 1974 and took until July 1975 to be completed. One of the song’s defining characteristics is a saxophone solo by the E Street Band’s Clarence Clemons, which starts at around 3:55 minutes and extends all the way until 6:05 minutes. In his 2016 Born to Run autobiography, Springsteen called it “Clarence’s greatest recorded moment”.

Evidently, capturing that greatest moment took some time. Wikipedia notes Clemons ended up spending up sixteen hours playing and replaying every note until Springsteen was completely satisfied – sounds like Donald Fagen and Walter Becker Steely Dan-like perfectionism on albums like Aja and Gaucho! “All we could do was hold on,” Clemons said. “Smoke a lot of pot and try to stay calm.” I’m glad the Big Man didn’t lose his cool. The outcome certainly is magnificent! Here’s a great live version, captured at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in 1975.

Speaking of live, Springsteen actually debuted Jungleland on stage long before its recording was finished. That moment happened on July 12, 1974 at prominent New York City venue The Bottomline. At the time, the song still sounded “like other jazzed-up mini-operas from The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, influenced by David Sancious,” according to Wikipedia. A multi-instrumentalist, Sancious was an early member of the E Street Band, who shortly left thereafter and was replaced by Roy Bittan.

The studio recording of Jungleland also features Israeli violinist Suki Lahav who briefly joined the E Street Band from September 1974 until March 1975, becoming the group’s first female musician. She played a lovely 23-note violin introduction accompanied by Bittan on piano. Lahav subsequently returned to Israel and became successful there as a violinist, actress, lyricist and author of screenplays. Here’s another more recent live version of Jungleland from New York City’s Madison Square Garden earlier this year, featuring Jake Clemons, nephew of the Big Man – what an amazing performance!

Following are some additional insights from Songfacts:

This is a poetic tale of life on the streets of New Jersey. Beginning with a simple piano intro, Springsteen goes through a series of abstract images and introduces a series of characters in the song, including Magic Rat and Barefoot Girl. It’s a song that led to comparisons with Bob Dylan, notably Dylan’s “Desolation Row.”

Born To Run came with lyrics to the songs, so listeners could follow along. Reflecting on the album years later, Springsteen singled out the last verse of “Jungleland” as an example of his work that had “a lot of overblown romance, but still contained the seeds of realism.”

Running 9:33, this song takes a lot of unexpected musical turns. After a 45-second intro and two verses/chorus repetitions, a guitar solo comes in around the three-minute mark, but instead of following form with a chorus and outro, we get a vocal bridge (“In the parking lot the visionaries dress in the latest rage”) followed by a sax solo that doesn’t abate until six minutes in, taking the song to silence before it comes back to life with a piano section and another verse and some wordless wailing to close things out.

Note how little of the running time can be considered chorus, which is really just the line “down in Jungleland,” or at the end, “tonight in Jungleland.”

Springsteen and the E Street Band performed this live for over a year before they recorded it. It developed into a longer song with a grand sax solo when it was finally released.

This features the piano of Roy Bittan. He joined The E Street Band for Born To Run after playing in orchestra pits on Broadway.

This was a highlight of Springsteen’s 1999 reunion tour with The E Street Band. The tour went very well, and the band continued to play and record together.

Clarence Clemons played a long sax solo on this track. With his bright suits and large stature, he was the most notable and popular member of The E Street Band, and when it came to this song, he wasn’t demure. “That’s one of the classic saxophone solos in the history of the world, if I may say so myself,” he said. Clemons was disappointed when the song was not included on the 1995 Greatest Hits album.

As seen in the documentary Wings For Wheels on the 30th anniversary package of the album, one take of the song had a dramatic flamenco-style intro.

This song was a huge influence on Bob Seger, who completed “Night Moves” after hearing it. Seger had two verses of that song written, but struggled to finish it until he heard “Jungleland” and realized he could stretch out the song and explore different dynamics. “Night Moves” was released the following year (1976).

Melissa Etheridge said in Rolling Stone magazines 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time issue: “When Bruce Springsteen does those wordless wails, like at the end of ‘Jungleland,’ that’s the definition of rock & roll to me. He uses his whole body when he sings, and he puts out this enormous amount of force and emotion and passion.”

Springsteen didn’t play this song live for over a year after Clarence Clemons died on June 18, 2011. When he did finally put the song back in rotation, it was at a show in Gothenburg, Sweden on July 28, 2012, with Clemons’ nephew Jake playing the famous saxophone part. Springsteen dedicated it to “the big man” when he introduced it.

Stephen King quoted the final verse in the epigraph to his 1978 novel The Stand. In the book, a group of survivors prepare to confront an evil tyrant after a plague eradicates most of the US population, echoing Springsteen’s lyric “They reach for their moment, and try to make an honest stand.”

King also references Blue Oyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” and Bob Dylan’s “Shelter From the Storm.”

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube

Steely Dan’s Countdown to Ecstasy Hits the Big 50

In July 1973, Steely Dan released Countdown to Ecstasy. The 50th anniversary of their sophomore effort gave me new appreciation of a great album from which I only had known a handful of tunes by heart.

At the time Countdown to Ecstasy came out, Steely Dan still were a standing band, but there already was one significant change. Donald Fagen became the sole lead vocalist replacing David Palmer who had shared the role with Fagen on the group’s debut Can’t Buy a Thrill and sang lead on most songs during live gigs – a result of Fagen’s stage fright. Palmer still contributed backing vocals on the album but subsequently departed.

While like the Dan’s predecessor Downtown to Ecstasy was more rock and blues-oriented compared to the later albums, especially Aja, there also was a strong jazz influence. To me, the blend of these different music styles makes for an intriguing listening experience.

Interestingly, the two singles the album spawned, Show Biz Kids and My Old School, failed to make much of a chart impact, reaching a meager no. 61 and no. 63 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, respectively. That stood in marked contrast to Do It Again and Reelin’ In the Years, the singles off Can’t Buy a Thrill, which climbed to no. 6 and no. 11, respectively. As is the case with nearly all other Steely Dan tunes, Fagen and his musical partner Walter Becker co-wrote all tracks on Countdown to Ecstasy.

Side one kicks off with the strangely titled Bodhisattva, one hell of a jazz and blues-flavored rocker. Had it been up to me, it would have been the lead single. Songfacts notes a bodhisattva is a human who has reached enlightenment, as the Buddha did, and can leave physical existence behind, but chooses to remain in human form to help others achieve freedom. The tune was “sort of a parody on the way Western people look at Eastern religion – sort of oversimplify it,” Fagen explained. “We thought it was rather amusing – most people didn’t get it.”

One of my great rediscoveries on the album is Razor Boy. I just love this groovy mid-tempo song. I’m not sure what it means but will add interpreting lyrics isn’t necessarily my strong suit. I also feel when it comes to Steely Dan, it’s more about the music! Plus, I think it’s fair to say even folks who are generally great at deciphering the words oftentimes get puzzled by Fagen’s and Becker’s lyrics. Sometimes, I wonder whether they simply combined certain words or phrases since they sounded good or fit the musical time signatures.

Let’s turn to Side two, which opens with the aforementioned Show Biz Kids, featuring Rick Derringer who provided neat slide guitar. The tune grooves along on the same chord with no progression, an unusual feature, especially for the Dan whose songs tend to have many chord changes. But it works. As for the lyrics, Songfacts states The repeated refrain sung by the female backing singers says, “You go to Lost Wages, Lost Wages,” sung to sound vaguely like “Las Vegas.” It was inspired by a joke from comedian Lenny Bruce, who was a major influence on the band’s lyrical outlook. I’m glad we got that clarified!

It’s safe to assume most folks have heard of My Old School, one of my all-time favorite Dan songs featuring a killer guitar solo by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, a core band member at the time, as well as great soulful horns. Songfacts notes My Old School was partially inspired by a drug bust in May 1969 at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., during which Fagen and Becker were arrested, along with their girlfriends. The two had first met at that “school” in 1967.

The last tune I’d like to call out is Pearl of the Quarter. That beautiful pedal steel guitar was provided by Baxter. According to a review on the webzine Something Else!, the song probably was inspired by Panic in Year Zero, a 1962 science fiction picture about a family on vacation, trying to survive after a nuclear war had broken out. The Dan’s lyrics take liberties, replacing the family with a loner trying to find other remaining survivors, using an old amateur radio.

In addition to Becker (bass, harmonica, backing vocals), Fagen (piano, electric piano, synthesizer, lead and backing vocals) and Baxter (guitar, pedal steel guitar), Steely Dan’s core line-up featured Denny Dias (guitar) and Jim Hodder (drums, percussion, backing vocals). In 1974, Fagen and Becker decided to abandon a standing band structure, stop touring and turn Steely Dan into a studio project, relying on a diverse group of top-notch session musicians. This concept eventually led to 1977’s Aja album, which is widely regarded as their musical Mount Rushmore.

Countdown to Ecstasy didn’t match the chart and commercial success of Can’t Buy a Thrill. Still, it climbed to no. 35 on the Billboard Top LPs and Tape chart (now known as the Billboard 200), and stayed there for 34 weeks. Eventually, it reached Gold certification in the U.S. in 1978, meaning 500,000 copies had been sold at the time. The album also received high scores from music critics, especially in retrospective reviews. If you like what you read and heard and haven’t listened to Countdown to Ecstasy or haven’t done so in a long time, I’d encourage you to give it a spin.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; Something Else; YouTube; Spotify

The Sunday Six

Welcome to another Sunday Six. I can’t believe we’ve already made it through the first month of 2023. I hope you’re feeling groovy and are in the mood for some time travel into the magic world of music. As always, the trip includes six stops in different decades. Fasten your seatbelt and let’s go!

Barney Kessel/A Foggy Day

Our journey today starts in 1956 with American jazz guitarist Barney Kessel, a name I first heard from my brother-in-law in the late ’70s or early ’80s, then still my sister’s boyfriend. Kessel, who was active from the early ’40s until the early ’90s when a stroke put an end to his career, was particularly known for chord-based melodies. He was a sought-after session guitarist who worked with many other jazz greats, such as Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown. During the ’60s, Kessel was a member of the prominent LA-based session group The Wrecking Crew, playing on recordings by The Monkees, The Beach Boys and others. Eventually, he left studio work to focus on his jazz career, both as a solo artist and sideman. In 1973, Kessel also co-founded Great Guitars, a jazz supergroup with fellow jazz guitarists Charlie Byrd and Herb Ellis. A Foggy Day, composed by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, is a track from Kessel’s 1956 album Kessel Plays Standards. Check out this amazing guitar tone!

Donald Fagen/The Nightfly

Let’s next jump to October 1982 and The Nightfly by Donald Fagen. His solo debut and first release without his longtime Steely Dan collaborator Walter Becker remains my favorite Fagen album. The Nightfly came 16 months after Fagen and Becker had dissolved Steely Dan in the wake of the Gaucho album, whose recording had been hampered by numerous creative, personal and professional setbacks. Fagen’s first solo album touches on topics from his childhood in the late ’50s and early ’60s, including late-night jazz disc jockeys, fallout shelters and tropical vacations. As such, it is very autobiographical, unlike his earlier compositions for the Dan. Notably, due to writer’s block, it would take Fagen 10 years to release his second solo album Kamakiriad, which was produced by Walter Becker who also contributed guitar and bass. It also led to a supporting tour of Fagen and Becker, their first as Steely Dan since 1974. Coming back to The Nightfly, here’s the great title track.

Etta James/At Last

Time to pay a visit to the ’60s and the debut album by Etta James, an amazing vocalist who over a nearly 60-year career performed in multiple genres, such as gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll and soul. James had an eventful life and career, which included heroin addiction, severe physical abuse and incarceration. In spite of her struggles, except for an eight-year gap in the ’80s, James released albums at a pretty steady pace. Following her 1988 comeback album Seven Year Itch, James received multiple recognitions, including inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1993), Grammy Hall of Fame (1999) and Blues Hall of Fame (2001), as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2003). Sadly, James passed away from leukemia in January 2012, five days prior to what would have been her 74th birthday. Let’s celebrate this outstanding artist with the title track of her very first album At Last! Co-written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren for the 1941 musical film Sun Valley Serenade, the tune was first recorded by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, becoming a no. 2 on the U.S. pop chart in 1942. James’ beautiful rendition, one of her best-known songs, reached no. 47 on the U.S. pop chart and no. 2 on the R&B chart. What a voice!

Ry Cooder/Little Sister

Our next stop is July 1979, which saw the release of Bop Till You Drop, the eighth studio album by Ry Cooder. If I recall it correctly, the first time I heard about him was in connection with the 1984 Wim Wenders picture Paris, Texas, for which Cooder wrote the score – one of the best acoustic slide guitar-playing I know. Cooder is a versatile artist who in addition to 17 film scores has released a similar amount of solo albums since his 1970 eponymous debut. Over his 55-year-and-counting career, Cooder has also collaborated with numerous other artists like John Lee Hooker, The Rolling Stones, Randy Newman, Linda Ronstadt and David Lindley. Bop Till You Drop, yet another album to which my then-bandmate and longtime music buddy from Germany introduced me, mostly is a collection of R&B and rock & roll covers. This includes the opener Little Sister, penned by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman and first recorded by Elvis Presley in 1961. While I dig that version, especially Hank Garland’s lead guitar, I like Ray Cooder’s soulful rendition even more!

Matthew Sweet/I Belong to You

I don’t know about you, but I’m in the mood for some sweet power pop. This takes us to the current century, more specifically May 2018 and Tomorrow’s Daughter, the 13th studio album by Matthew Sweet. I first came across the singer-songwriter in January 2021 when his most recent studio album Catspaw appeared, and featured one of the tunes in a Best of What’s New installment. After playing in various bands in the ’80s and releasing two unrecognized solo records (Inside, 1986; and Earth 1989), Sweet achieved commercial breakthrough with his third studio album Girlfriend, which came out in October 1991 and to date is one of two records that reached Gold certification in the U.S. Between 2006 and 2013, Sweet collaborated on a series of cover albums (Under the Covers Vol. 1 – Vol. 3) with Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles. I featured two of their great renditions in previous Sunday Six installments here and here. From the above-noted Tomorrow’s Daughter, here’s I Belong to You, a lovely pop rock tune.

Mudhoney/Blinding Sun

Before yet another musical journey comes to an end, let’s visit one more tune. The year is 1992 and the month is October. That’s when American band Mudhoney came out with their fourth studio album Piece of Cake. Formed in Seattle in 1988, the group is viewed as instrumental in creating grunge and an inspiration for many other bands who embraced that genre, as well as alternative rock. Mudhoney are still active and have released 10 studio albums to date. A new one, Plastic Eternity, is in the can and scheduled for April 7. At the time they recorded Piece of Cake, their only charting album in the U.S. on the Billboard 200 to date, Mudhoney featured Mark Arm (vocals, guitar, organ, piano), Steve Turner (guitar, harmonica, banjo, vocals) and Dan Peters (drums, percussion, vocals), who remain part of the current lineup, and Matt Lutkin (bass, vocals) who was replaced by Guy Maddison in 2001. Here’s Blinding Sun, credited to all members of the band at the time. I like their garage sound.

Last but not least, below is a Spotify playlist of the above goodies. As always, I hope there’s something here you enjoy!

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube; Spotify

My Playlist: David Crosby

Last week (January 18), David Crosby sadly passed away at the age of 81, which according to a family statement came “after a long illness.” By now it’s safe to assume this isn’t news to anybody, given the significant number of obituaries that have appeared in the wake of his death. As such, I’m not going to write yet another summary of the influential singer-songwriter’s eventful private life and career. Instead, I’d like to highlight Crosby’s music, particularly his last nine years, during which he was pretty prolific.

When reflecting on David Crosby, I feel it’s fair to say most people primarily think of him as a co-founder of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Some perhaps also recall his February 1971 solo debut If I Could Only Remember My Name and his ’70s collaborative albums with CSN bandmate Graham Nash. But unless you’ve followed him more closely, his post-’70s output is probably less familiar. I certainly belong to that group.

David Crosby with his son and musical collaborator James Raymond

In January 2014, Crosby released Croz, his fourth solo album and first such effort in 20 years, beginning a remarkably productive late stage in his career. On several occasions over the past couple of years, he noted his remaining time was limited, so he wanted to focus on music as much as possible. And that he certainly did. After Croz four additional studio albums appeared between October 2016 and July 2021. In his final interview with Songfacts two months ago, Crosby also revealed he had completed another studio album with his so-called Lighthouse Band, to be titled Hello Moon, and was working on two additional albums. This didn’t include the then-forthcoming live release David Crosby & the Lighthouse Band Live at the Capitol Theatre, which has since appeared on December 9.

Following I’m highlighting one song from each of Crosby’s last five studio albums. While I don’t want to guarantee these are the best tracks, I can confidently say I dig each of these songs. In any case, of course, it’s all pretty subjective. I’m also including a career-spanning playlist focused on songs Crosby wrote or co-wrote, as opposed to tunes on which he sang and/or played guitar. That is by no means to undermine his important role as a vocalist and musician. The Byrds and CSN/CSNY wouldn’t have sounded the same without Crosby’s vocal and instrumental contributions.

Set That Baggage Down – Croz (January 2014)

Crosby wrote that tune together with English guitarist Shane Fontayne who has been active since the ’70s and worked with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Ian Hunter, Joe Cocker, Graham Nash and Mick Ronson. “That’s a thing you learn in AA [Alcoholics Anonymous – CMM],” Crosby told Rolling Stone, as noted by Songfacts. “I went there for about fourteen and half years. You have to look at what got you there. You have to look at the mistakes, and I made some horrific ones, and then you have to learn from them, figure out how to not wind up there again. You have to set that baggage down and walk on. If you spend all your life looking over your shoulder at the things you did wrong, you’re gonna walk smack into a tree.”

Somebody Other Than You – Lighthouse (October 2016)

This political tune, co-written by Crosby and Snarky Puppy bandleader Michael League, appears on Lighthouse, Crosby’s first album with what became known as his Lighthouse Band. In addition to League, the group also featured vocalist and songwriter Becca Stevens and Michelle Willis, a Canadian singer-songwriter and keyboarder. “There are these politicians in Washington who are run by the corporations, ’cause corporations gave them the money to get elected, and they send our kids off to war,” Crosby explained to Classic Rock magazine, according to Songfacts. “I’m deeply offended by the fact that these politicians send your kids and not theirs.”

Sky Trails – Sky Trails (September 2017)

Sky Trails is the title track of Crosby’s sixth solo album, which appeared less than 12 months after the predecessor. Sky Trails also became the name of Crosby’s second band, which featured his son James Raymond who also produced various of Crosby’s albums, and “anybody we decide we want to work with,” as Crosby put it to Songfacts during his above final interview. In the case of this tune, it was Becca Stevens who co-wrote it with Crosby. “We both spend a lot of time on the road,” Crosby told Billboard magazine, as documented by Songfacts. “And when you’re on the road, after the second or third week you don’t know where you are. You’re out there somewhere, and all the cities look roughly the same, and you lose track.” My full review of Sky Trails is here.

1974 – Here If You Listen (October 2018)

1974, a partially wordless song, was co-written by Crosby and his Lighthouse Band members Becca Stevens, Michelle Willis and Michael League, and appeared on Here If You Listen, the second album Crosby made with the group. The title is a nod to a demo of the song, which Crosby recorded in 1974. “It was a song without words that I was fooling around with,” he told Songfacts. “I used to do that a lot: I’d have a set of changes but I didn’t have a set of words, so I would stack vocals like horn parts. I’m basically doing a horn record with voices. I had a bunch of those.”

Rodriguez For a Night – For Free (July 2021)

The last tune I’d like to highlight is Rodriguez For a Night, a great track from Crosby’s eighth and most recent solo album. A longtime Steely Dan fan, Crosby had long sought to collaborate with Donald Fagen. It finally happened with this tune, for which Fagen provided the lyrics while Crosby’s son Raymond James wrote the music with some help from his father. “[Fagan] just sent the words and stood back to see what would happen,” Crosby told Uncut magazine, according to Songfacts. “He knew what our taste was and he knew what we would probably try to do. He’s an extremely intelligent guy and I think he knew what would happen. We know his playbook pretty well, so we deliberately went there – complex chords, complex melodies. We Steely Damned him right into the middle of this as far as we could! And fortunately, Donald liked it, so I couldn’t be more grateful.”

Last but not least, here’s the above-noted career-spanning playlist. Crosby named Eight Miles High (and Turn! Turn! Turn!) when asked to identify the ultimate Byrds song during the above Songfacts interview. Separately, Songfacts notes Crosby thought Everybody’s Been Burned was “the first actually passable song that I wrote,” quoting him from an interview with his friend Steve Silberman, an American journalist with whom he hosted a podcast.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube; Spotify

A First Glance at Albums Hitting the Big 50 This Year

With a new year upon us, I thought this would be a good opportunity to preview albums that are turning 50 in 2023. Taking a closer look quickly confirmed my expectation that 1973 was yet another great year in music. Based on Wikipedia, I came up with an initial list of 40 records released that year. I’m going to touch on six of them. A Spotify playlist at the end features songs from those albums, as well as one tune from each of the remaining 34 records.

Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon (March 1, 1973)

Pink Floyd’s eighth studio album The Dark Side of the Moon remains among my favorites by the English rock band. Released in March 1973, it was primarily developed during live performances and premiered before the recording sessions began. In fact, as reported by Variety and other music outlets, last month, Pink Floyd quietly released 18 of these concerts on streaming services before the recordings hit 50 years and would have lost copyright protection. The Dark Side of the Moon, a concept album around themes like conflict, greed, time, death and mental illness, is Floyd’s best-selling record and one of the most critically acclaimed albums in music history. Here is Time, with lyrics by Roger Waters (bass, vocals) and the music credited to all members of the band, who also included David Gilmour (guitar, vocals), Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals) and Nick Mason (drums, percussion).

Steely Dan – Countdown to Ecstasy (July 1973)

Steely Dan’s sophomore album Countdown to Ecstasy, released in July 1973, was recorded when they were still a standing band. In addition to masterminds Donald Fagen (acoustic and electric pianos, synthesizer, lead and backing vocals) and Walter Becker (electric bass, harmonica, backing vocals), the line-up featured Denny Dias (electric guitar), Jeff “Skunk” Baxter (electric and pedal steel guitars) and Jim Hodder (drums, percussion, backing vocals). Countdown to Ecstasy followed the departure of David Palmer and was the group’s first album where Fagen sang lead on every song. After their third record Pretzel Logic, Fagen and Becker turned Steely Dan largely into a studio project, relying on top-notch session musicians. One of my favorite tracks on Countdown to Ecstasy is My Old School, which like all other tunes was co-written by Becker and Fagen. Baxter’s guitar work shines and is among his best.

Stevie Wonder – Innervisions (August 3, 1973)

Innervisions, Stevie Wonder’s 16th studio album released in August 1973, is part of his so-called classic period, which spans six records, bookended by Music of My Mind (March 1972) and Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through “The Secret Life of Plants” (October 1979). Following his 21st birthday on May 13, 1971, Wonder allowed his contract with Motown to expire. He returned to the Detroit label with Music of My Mind and a much more lucrative contract that also freed him from the artistic straitjacket of the past. Wonder’s lyrics changed and started to explore social and political topics in addition to standard romantic themes. Musically, he began exploring overdubbing and recording most of the instrumental parts himself. Innervisions and the excellent Living for the City perfectly illustrate these changes.

Lynyrd Skynyrd – (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd) (August 13, 1973)

August 1973 also saw the release of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s first album (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd). And what a debut it was, featuring classics like Gimme Three Steps, Simple Man, Tuesday’s Gone and the epic Free Bird. You wouldn’t necessarily guess it, based on the album’s relatively moderate chart performance when it came out. In the U.S., it reached no. 27 on the Billboard 200. Elsewhere, it climbed to no. 20 in Switzerland, no. 44 in the UK and no. 47 in Canada. But over time, the picture looks better. As of July 1987, it was certified 2X Platinum in the U.S. The album also made Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and was ranked at no. 381 in the most recent revision from 2020. Here’s the aforementioned Free Bird, co-written by the group’s original lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Allen Collins.

Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (October 5, 1973)

Elton John truly ruled during the first part of the ’70s. With Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, a double LP and his seventh studio album, he scored his third of six consecutive chart-toppers in the U.S. on the Billboard 200. The album also topped the charts in the UK, Canada and Australia. It spawned four singles, which charted in different countries. In the U.S., Bennie and the Jets became John’s second no. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, while the title track topped the charts in Canada and New Zealand. I decided to highlight the magnificent opening medley of Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. As usual, John wrote the music to lyrics by his longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin. What an opus!

Paul McCartney and Wings – Band on the Run (December 5, 1973)

The final album I’d like to call out here is what I consider the Mount Rushmore of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles period: Band on the Run, his fifth after the break-up of The Fab Four and the third with Wings. By the time recording in Lagos, Nigeria began, drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough had departed. This left Wings as a trio, which in addition to McCartney included his wife Linda McCartney and Denny Laine. As such, Paul ended up playing bass, drums, percussion and most of the lead guitar parts, with Laine providing guitars and Linda keyboards. Both also sang backing and harmony vocals. After recording the majority of the album’s basic tracks and some overdubbing in Lagos under difficult conditions, Wings returned to England and finished the album in George Martin’s AIR Studios in London. After initial modest sales, Band on the Run became the top-selling studio album of 1974 in the UK. More importantly, it revitalized the critical standing of Paul McCartney whose earlier post-Beatles records had received a mixed reception. Band on the Run’s opener and title track, credited to Paul and Linda, is a longtime favorite of mine.

I’m planning dedicated posts on each of the above albums and possibly others released in 1973, timed to their respective 50th anniversaries. Last but not least, here’s the above-noted Spotify playlist.

Sources: Wikipedia; Variety; YouTube; Spotify