40 Year Itch: Hating The Eagles

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After backing up Linda Ronstadt on her 1971 album Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles --Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner-- formed their own band, signed with Asylum Records and recorded their West Coast country rock album in that sunniest of Southern California cities : uh...London, England.

 

 That's how much the band wanted to work with Glyn Johns who had produced or engineered The Who, The Stones and Led Zeppelin. They knocked out the album in three weeks. (Not that The Eagles ever "knocked anything out". They were nothing if not perfectionists) Johns would later say "I don't think I'd been as excited since probably Led Zeppelin --they were amazing but they didn't really know what they'd got."

 

What they had on their debut album , released June 17, 1972, were three Top 30 US singles: the lead off track "Take It Easy" ( while writing the tune Jackson Browne got stuck at the line "I'm standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see." Frey added  "It's a girl my lord in a flatbed ford/Slowing down to take a look at me"). "Witchy Woman" and "Peaceful Easy Feeling".





 Naturally they'd be one of the biggest acts in the world. They'd sell millions of albums but they wouldn't sell all the critics. In his June 1972 article for Newsday, critic Robert Christgau who worte:


Another thing that interests me about the Eagles is that I hate them. "Hate" is the kind of up-tight word that automatically excludes one from polite posthippie circles, a good reason to use it, but it is also meant to convey an anguish that is very intense, yet difficult to pinpoint. Do I hate music that has been giving me pleasure all weekend, made by four human beings I've never met? Yeah, I think so. Listening to the Eagles has left me feeling alienated from things I used to love. 




Maybe you've hated the good looking big men on campus for whom everything--and every hot looking girl-- comes too easily. The kind of guys who bond by chugging brews all night and telling each other about the hot chick who slowed down to take a look at them. Those are The Eagles. And because every goddamn country band in America is still trying to sound like them, I'm over them. Yeah, I hate The Eagles too.

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40 Year Itch : Remake and Remodel

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With their debut album, released June 16, 1972, Roxy Music set out to re-make and re-model rock and roll. The new sound deconstructs fifties rock, adds electronic bleeps and blitzkriegs courtesy of a synthesizer playing Brian Eno ( who looked like a "balding, long-haired eunuch" to critic Robert Christgau), features the hyperactive saxophone sounds of Andy Mackay and stars the quavering  vocals of the lovelorn front man, former art student Bryan Ferry.

40 years later, I still have a problem enjoying this album as a whole but New Musical Express writer Tony Tyler predicted this was the start of something big:

Already awesome and potentially breathtaking...Roxy Music, Roxy Music Roxy Music. Remember where you heard it first.




Originally a non-LP single, "Virginia Plain" peaked at #4 in the UK charts and helped propel the debut album to #10. Although the song was included on US albums, Roxy's debut flopped in America.



Produced by King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield, the album begins with 25 seconds of party sounds before launching into the stomping "Re-Make/Re-Model". The chant "CPL 593H" is the licence plate of Ferry's old car, a blue 1970 Mini Clubman in which he saw a beautiful woman driving. Everyone gets a solo. Eno makes strange sounds on his synthesizer while bass player Graham Simpson quotes The Beatles' "Day Tripper".


For "Ladytron", Eno and Mackey team up to follow Ferry's instructions to make a sound "like the moon". Eno recently said the only instrument he ever learned how to play was a player piano in the house in which he grew up. His desire for amateur improvisation would soon clash with Ferry's desire for structured sophistication.



If only the entire album were this good. Roxy was still in search of the sound that would produce such classics as Country Life, Stranded and Siren. But the debut would be a major influence on punk and new wave music and a lot of what has followed since then.

Roxy's debut also introduced the first in a series of beautiful models posing for their album covers. In this case the model is Kari Ann Muller who would later marry Mick Jagger's brother, Chris. Mick would have a long term relationship ( and four kids) with Siren's cover model Jerry Hall after stealing her away from Ferry.

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40 Year Itch : You Can't Pin A Label On LaBelle

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                           5 Interesting facts about LaBelle 
who released their second album Moon Shadow June 10, 1972.

1. LaBelle ( made up of Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash who combined rock, gospel and soul) went on tour as an opening act for The Who in 1970. They would cover "Won't Get Fooled Again" on their second album. Their 1971 debut album was produced by Who producer Kit Lambert.

2. LaBelle was too busy touring ( and helping Laura Nyro record her album Gonna Take A Miracle) to record Gamble and Huff's "If You Don't Know Me By Now" so the song went to Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes who hit #1 on the R and B charts and #3 on the Pop charts.

3. LaBelle recorded a 9 minute version of Cat Stevens's "Moonshadow" as the title track for their second album. Nona Hendryx wrote two thirds of the songs on the album.




4. Inspired by David Bowie, LaBelle went glam in 1973/1974 when they also opened for The Rolling Stones on their US Tour. Their third album contained a medley that included Thunderclap Newman's "Something In The Air" segueing into Gil Scott Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised".

5. LaBelle finally hit it big with the 1975 chart topper "Lady Marmalade" ( which featured the risque line "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir)?", which means: "Do you want to sleep with me (tonight)?". The instrumental backing is provided by The Meters.

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40 Year Itch : The Reunion

 Days after Elvis played four sold out shows at Madison Square Garden, Simon and Garfunkel reunited there for a seven song performance on behalf of Democratic Presidential candidate, South Dakota Senator George McGovern. The break up of S and G was one of those demarcations of the end of the Sixties. Simon has said Art's movie career ( Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge) and personal differences led to the break up right after they released their most critically acclaimed album Bridge Over Trouble Water.

The concert took place the same day Simon and Garfunkel released their Greatest Hits album, which would go on to sell 14 million units. Also on hand, a reunited Peter, Paul and Mary, comedy duo Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and movie stars like Dustin Hoffman and Paul Newman.

Nixon blew away McGovern in the election by winning more than 60% of the popular vote and every state but Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.( The subsequent Watergate scandal inspired bumper stickers saying "Don't blame me – I'm from Massachusetts").



Madison Square Garden, New York Performance: 
Mrs. Robinson
El Condor Pasa
The Boxer
Medley: Cecelia / Mother and Child Reunion / Bye Bye Love
Scarborough Fair / Canticle
Feelin' Groovy
America
Bridge Over Troubled Water (Paul sings last verse along Artie)

16 months later Rolling Stone's Ben Fong Torres interviewed Garfunkel about the concert:

What motivated you to do the reunion with Paul on behalf of McGovern?


There were also the reunions of Peter, Paul and Mary and of Nicholas and May. That’s why I did it, I loved the show. It appealed to my showmanship. Much more that McGovern ever could to my politics. It’s selfish, I suppose. I loved the idea of those three acts; I thought it would be a terrific 
show.

Who approached you?


I do believe in the lesser of two evils, and in that spirit I became a McGovern supporter. 

How’d you feel onstage?


 It was strange, non-experience. It was the first time I had sung with Paul onstage in quite a while. We had ostensibly broken up and we were doing this thing together. And I did think beforehand that it would be a kick, some kind of novel experience, and yet after about three bars into the first song I had a very strong feeling. “Well here we are again. This is where I left off.”

How was the relationship between you at that time? Were you cordial, anxious to see each other after two or three months?

Yes. We’re anxious to see each other when we see each other.

How did the decision come for Paul to sing a verse of “Bridge over Troubled Water”?

(Swirling his gin and tonic) Interesting question. (Long pause). He said that was an idea he wanted to do. He thought that would be good. I don’t know what you want me to say. Cut me open and look at all my contradictory reactions to uh, do I think it was a good idea? Do I trust? Do I sense an ego trying to subtract from my ego? It’s the kind of thing I don’t want to get into, really. Things work in relationships and things don’t work, because they’re usually petty s--t. Examinations of why things don’t work, negative things, can be lessons, or enlightenment to people who were carried along on the strength of your feelings about the unity of people through the unity of Simon and Garfunkel. Beyond the words of the songs, I felt that S and G projected the hopefulness of an ongoing friendship as a sort of public message. I liked that about S and G. But then there are even deeper needs.

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40 Year Itch: The Subversive Sounds of...

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Though they may have since earned a reputation as the brother-sister act that could have performed on the Lawrence Welk Show without disturbing a single senior citizen, The Carpenters could be subversive. Yes, subversive. For "Goodbye To Love", the first single to be released after their fourth album , A Song For You , hit record store shelves on June 13, 1972, Tony Peluso records not one but two fuzzy guitar solos.

Peluso first played something soft and sweet, but then Richard Carpenter said "No, no, no! Play the melody for five bars and then burn it up! Soar off into the stratosphere! Go ahead! It'll be great!"

 
 Richard Carpenter has said it's the best guitar solo in recorded history.

 Then there is the 22 second "Intermission" that ends Side A.
The lyrics are, in full, "We'll be right back after we go to the bathroom"

.

 "Flat Baroque" anticipates the classical jazz sounds of Claude Bolling.

 

 But what makes A Song For You such a stand out are the songs (Six hit singles were pulled from the album including "Top Of The World" (US#1) , "Hurting Each Other" (US #2), "It's Going To Take Some Time "(US #12) and "I Won't Last A Day Without You" ( US #11) ) and Karen Carpenter's voice--an equal blend of perfect pitch, emotion and diction. I found myself enjoying this album in the car with the windows rolled down and my son in the back seat. Not what I expected from The Carpenters!

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40 Year Itch : Que Pasa New York?

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While most of John and Yoko's Some Time In New York, released June 13 1972, sounds like a mess made with the best of revolutionary intentions, the title track is more than a worthwhile listen. It's kind of an update to "The Ballad of John and Yoko".




  Standing on the corner
Just me and Yoko Ono
We was waiting for Jerry to land 




( Jerry is most likely Jerry Rubin who, along with Abbie Hoffman, were the first people to get in touch with Lennon when he arrived in NYC. They got him involved in a John Sinclair benefit which led to the song "John Sinclair" and other political tunes Lennon would later dismiss as "journalism and not poetry")

 Up come a man 
with the guitar in his hand 
Singing "have a marijuana if you can"
His name was David Peel 

 

 ( David Peel, who had recorded the 1969 album Have a Marijuana for Elektra was a street musician who befriended Lennon. He'd recorded a song called "The Pope Smokes Dope" and a few songs about cops hassling street musicians. After Lennon's death, Peel wrote a song about the friendship called "In My Life")

And we found that he was real
 He sangs "The pope smokes dope everyday" 
Up come a police man 
shoved us up the street Singin, 
"power to the people today!" 
NYC...NYC...NYC Que pasa Ny?
...Que pasa NY? 
Well we went to Max's Kansas City 



( New York City nightclub, a hand out for Andy Warhol, The Velvet Underground ( who recorded a live album there) and various other NYC artists) 

Got down the nitty gritty 
With the Elephants Memory Band





 (NYC band that once included Carly Simon as a vocalist. They had two songs on the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack. As the Plastic Ono Elephants Memory Band, they back John and Yoko on Some Time In New York)

 Laid something down
 As the news spread around 
About the Plastic Ono Elephants Memory Band! 
Well we played some funky boogie 



  ( I don't know how funky it is but there's boogie on Some Time like "We're All Water")

 And laid some tutti frutti 
Singing "Long tall sally's a man" 



 (Both Little Richard tunes)

Up come a preacher man
trying to be a teacher 
Singing "God's a red herring in drag!"


(Likely a lunatic street preacher. Though red herrings are often considered elements of detective novels, they originate in a bible story.)


 NYC...NYC...NYC 
Que pasa NY?...Que pasa NY?


 Well we did the Staten Island Ferry
Making movies for the telly




 Played the Fillmore




with Frank Zappa and The Mothers June of 1971.  Both Lennon and Zappa put out performance on record which cause some serious bad feelings.

 and Apollo for freedom,


Lennon's December 1971  appearance at the Apollo was to raise money for families of victims of the Attica State Prison Riots.



Tried to shake our image
 Just a cycling through the village
 But found that we had left it back in London.
 Well nobody came to bug us,
hustle us or shove us
so we decided to make it our home






(Easier sang than done. After John and Yoko posted billboards that declared "War Is Over If You Want It" the Nixon Administration spent 1972 embarking on what would be a four-year attempt to deport him. Lennon was denied permanent residency in the US until 1976 and said of the battle:

 In '72, it was really gettin' to me. Not only was I physically having to appear in court cases, it just seemed like a toothache that wouldn't go away....' Now, the last thing on earth I want to do is perform. That's a direct result of the immigration thing. In '71, '72, I wanted to go out and rock my balls off onstage and I just stopped.

 -John Lennon in a 1975 Rolling Stone interview



 If the man wants to shove us out
 We gonna jump and shout
The Statue of Liberty said, "come!"


 NYC...NYC...NYC
 Que pasa Ny?...Que pasa NY?
 NYC
down in the village What a bad-ass city!
 Que pasa Ny?...Que pasa NY?

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40 Year Itch: King Of The Garden

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Elvis may not generate the polymorphously perverse hysteria the Rolling Stones arouse, he may not move around and jump into the air and wiggle his hips as much as he used to, but he's come through superstardom without forgetting what it means to rock, that's the important thing. So everybody gets enough of what they want to get what they need.
-Bob Palmer, Rolling Stone

On June 10 and 11 of 1972, Elvis Presley performed four sold out shows at Madison Square Garden, his first live appearance before a live NYC crowd since 1956. In the audience: George Harrison, John Lennon, Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon, David Bowie ( with red hair and a padded space suit), the entire band Ten Years After, Jerry Leiber,Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen who had just signed his first record contract with Columbia Records earlier that week.



After the audience endured "toothless old men hawking Elvis pennants, Elvis posters, albums of Elvis pictures" , the singing of the Sweet Inspirations and an awful comedian, the show begins with the epic  "Also Sprach Zarathustra" .

Elvis comes out as the TCB band ( led by guitarist James Burton)  rocks out on "That's All Right".The show ends with the emcee announcing "Elvis has left the building"

In between, the 37 year old singer showed everyone there he was still the king.

He used the stage, he worked to the people. The ones in front, in the best seats, the ones in back, and up in the peanut galleries. He turned, he moved, and when a girl threw a handkerchief on the stage, he wiped his forehead with it and threw it back, a gift of sweat from an earthy god..
- Chris Chase New York Times


SET LIST
1. Introduction "Also sprach zarathustra"

2. That`s all right






3. Proud mary
4. Never been to spain
5. You don`t have to say you love me
6. You`ve lost that lovin` feelin`

7. Polk salad annie



8. Love me
9. All shook up
10. Heartbreak hotel
11. Medley (let me be your) teddy bear - don`t be cruel
12. Love me tender
13. The impossible dream
14. Introductions by elvis
15. Hound dog
16. Suspicious minds
17. For the good times
18. American trilogy
19 Funny how time slips away
20. I can`t stop loving you
21. Can`t help falling in love
22. End theme

Friday night, at Madison Square Garden, Elvis ... stood there at the end, his arms stretched out, the great gold cloak giving him wings, a champion, the only one in his class.
 -Chris Chase, New York Times

 One of the entire shows can be heard here.

 

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