My Top Ten Tunes by Andy O of Blue Zoo

Now known as the founder of the mushroom foraging group Fungi To Be With, Andy O was at one time vocalist for a promising UK band called Blue Zoo. Though dismissed  as "a bunch of fucking tossers" by one YouTube comment maker, their Top 20 single "Cry Boy Cry" anticipates Gene Loves Jezebel pop-Goth hits by at least two years. #4 is most likely "Dance Away" as "Dancing The Night Away" is a new wave hit by The Motors. Andy made this list for the January 20th, 1983 issue of Smash Hits which comes to us courtesy of Brian at Like Punk Never Happened.

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40 Year Itch : Paid The Cost To Be The Boss

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Following in the funky footsteps of Issac Hayes ( SHAFT), Curtis Mayfield (SUPERFLY) and Marvin Gaye (TROUBLE MAN), James Brown ( and Fred Wesley) finally contributed a soundtrack album to a blaxploitation picture. Sold as the Godfather of Harlem, Black Caesar stars Fred Williamson as a black member of the Mafia who goes to war with the rest of the city while bedding down with pretty lady Gloria Hendry.

    It seemed natural to have the Godfather of Soul work on the soundtrack to a movie about the Godfather of Harlem. There are some decent cuts on the soundtrack ( released in February of 1973) -- most notably the opener "Down And Out In New York City" and "The Boss". Both feature great funk instrumentation and lyrics gangsta rappers of the 80's and 90's would envy. The rest of the album, made up mostly of Wesley instrumentals, isn't so inspired. The "Dean", Robert Christgau, gave the album a D+ and suggested Brown "should never be allowed near a vibraphone again".

James Brown and Fred Wesley would return later in the year with another soundtrack, Slaughter's Big Rip-Off, which featured one of the great tag lines in film history :"The mob put the finger on Slaughter …so he gave them the finger right back curled around a tight trigger."

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40 Year Itch: When Fridays Rocked

Beginning February 2, 1973, rock fans who stayed up after Friday's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson were rewarded with music and comedy. After a special hosted by John Denver in August of 1972, NBC made The Midnight Special a regular thing. Each show had its own host.

On February 2, the host was Helen Reddy, still riding high on her #1 hit "I Am Woman". Among the other performers that night were The (Clarence White era) Byrds, Curtis Mayfield, Don McLean, George Carlin, Rare Earth and Ike and Tina Turner.


The show stuck around until May of 1981. By then musical guests had included such 1001Songs faves as David Bowie, Elton John, Rod Stewart, The Cars, Blondie, Roxy Music, Genesis and hundreds more.


 

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40 Year Itch: ELO on TOTP

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On February 1st 1973 Electric Light Orchestra appeared on Top of The Pops to play "Roll Over Beethoven", the band's Top 10 single from their forthcoming second album ELO 2. The album isn't an easy listen--with overly orchestrated, overlong progressive monstrosities not the least of which is the eight minute album version of the single.



ELO founder Roy Wood left the band during the recording, leaving Jeff Lynne behind as the main songwriter. Lynne's Beatlesque feel would pay off for ELO months later with their October single "Showdown", a favorite of John Lennon's who called ELO  "Son of Beatles".

The second cut of ELO II, "Momma", is our favorite. By a long shot.

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40 Year Itch : KISS Plays First Gig

[Purchase the Kiss debut album]

On January 30th, 1973, just weeks after Ace Frehley answered an ad in Village Voice from a band called Wicked Lester seeking a lead guitarist, the newly christened Kiss played their first gig at the Popcorn Club.Three people showed up.

Inspired by Alice Cooper and the New York Dolls, the boys took to the stage wearing makeup in March of 1973. By 1974, they were Hotter Than Hell. 

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40 Year Itch : The Caped Composer

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Released in January of 1973, and written on Yes's tour of the United States, Rick Wakeman's Six Wives of Henry VII is an album of instrumentals. Each track is devoted to one of Henry VII's wives, about whom Wakeman read on long plane trips between gigs.  The album was recorded in London with members of Yes and The Strawbs and was debuted in a BBC performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test ( seen below)

The album sold 15 million copies and stands up better than most of the albums from the progressive rock era. That's despite mostly dreadful reviews that met the album.

inside cover of Six Wives

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40 Year Itch: A Star in the Face of the Sky

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Released on January 26, 1973 , Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player --the #1 album that secured Elton John's rise to superstardom--also carries a whiff of mediocrity about it. Even Elton has dismissed it. "I really like some of the things on Don't Shoot Me but as far as continuous flow, it doesn't hold up. It's really a bubblegum album."

      Elton and the band knocked out the album just weeks after Honky Chateau came out. His contract called for two albums a year and the pressure was getting to Elton. "I made Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player really on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I was so ill. I didn't know it, but I had glandular fever and was very slow."

   

The album contains two big singles. The first was the cheesy early 60's tribute "Crocodile Rock" that, in its "la la las" quotes Pat Boone's "Speedy Gonzales".



The better hit was the enigmatic but beautiful "Daniel". In its final verse Daniel is revealed to be a Vietnam vet trying to get back home to the life he led. But without that reveal, plenty of people guessed Elton was singing about a boyfriend he missed.



  Our favorite deep cut is "Elderberry Wine" which could have been an A-side single despite its rhyming "You aimed to please me/ Cooked black-eyed peas me." In all, 1973's Don't Shoot Me was just a slight hiccup. Elton's greatest album was ten months away.

 

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