Australian Archives 1: Dragon

Information Taken from Wikipedia:

Dragon formed as a prog-rock band in 1972.  However the original line-up never released any albums.  It was only after bass player, Todd Hunter, brought in his brother, Marc, as a vocalist that the band began to find success.

In 1974 they released their debut album, Universal Radio in New Zealand and followed it up in 1975 with another prog-rock album-- Scented Gardens for the Blind.  While they were successful on the live circuit, their studio albums were met with very little success.

In 1975 their manager, Graeme Nesbitt, convinced them to go in a more pop-friendly direction and to tackle the Australian market.  They brought in keyboardist Paul Hewson who had developed a reputation for being an exceptional songwriter.  In 1976 after the release of their first pop single in Australia, This Time, the band was hit with their first setback.  Drummer Neil Storey died of a heroin overdose at age 22.  Dragon considered disbanding, but again manager Graeme Nesbitt came to the rescue and recommended Kerry Jacobsen as a new drummer.



The 1975-1979 line-up of Dragon consisting of: Todd Hunter: bass guitar; Marc Hunter: vocals; Paul Hewson: keyboards & vocals; Robert Taylor: guitar; and Kerry Jacobsen: drums brought Dragon their first wave of success with Aussie hit singles April Sun in Cuba, Are You Old Enough, and Still In Love With You from their albums Sunshine, Running Free, and O Zambezi.







In 1979 Dragon attempted to break into the US market in a disastrous tour with Johnny Winter in which Marc Hunter nearly incited a riot by referring to a Texas audience as "faggots."  Upon their return to Australia the band was forced to fire Marc.  His drug abuse was adversely affecting his voice and his brother, Todd, felt that the only way to save Marc from himself was to fire him from the band. 

The band enlisted singer Billy Rogers to replace Marc and brought in violinist, Richard Lee in an attempt to change their sound and direction with their new singer.  They released one album, Power Play, that was a commercial flop prompting the band to disband in December of 1979.  Meanwhile Marc cleaned himself up and recorded his debut solo album, Fiji Bitter, and scored a minor hit with Island Nights.  He followed up Fiji Bitter with Big City Talk in 1981.  The title track was a minor hit for him.







In 1982 Dragon reformed, initially under the auspices of paying off their old debts.  Drummer Kerry Jacobsen left for health reasons and was replaced by Terry Chambers.  In 1983 Dragon scored a number 2 hit with Rain.  In 1984 Dragon saw a return to their late seventies era fame with their Body and the Beat album.  Dragon's success was further helped by the success of Marc's 3rd solo album, Communication in 1985. 







Sadly keyboardist and songwriter Paul Hewson left Dragon and died of a drug overdose on January 9, 1985.  Drummer Terry Chambers and guitarist Robert Taylor left the band shortly thereafter.  Chambers was replaced by Doane Perry (currently in Jethro Tull) and Taylor was replaced by Australian guitar ace, Tommy Emmanuel.  The band brought in Todd Rundgren to produce their next album, Dreams of Ordinary Men and toured Europe supporting Tina Turner under the name "Hunter" in 1986 (incidentally Dreams of Ordinary Men was released in the US under the band name, Hunter.  The US version of the album also included a remix of their 1982 hit Rain).





The band briefly split up but released Bondi Road in 1988 with guitarist Randall Waller and drummer Barton Price.  They continued touring into the 90s with the Hunter brothers, their longtime producer Alan Mansfield, and an ever changing line-up of keyboardists, guitarists, and drummers. 





In 1995 Dragon released Incarnations, an album featuring new arrangements of some of their biggest hits with a litany of notable Australian guest musicians augmenting these adventurous new arrangements.

In 1997 Marc Hunter was diagnosed with severe oesophageal cancer.  Marc underwent a litany of traditional and experimental treatments and his friends in the Australian music industry even performed a couple of concerts to help defer his medical costs.  At the first of the benefits, Marc appeared on stage and thanked his fans for coming.  For the second benefit he was to ill to attend but sent a video thanking his fans and friends.  That concert was released on CD as "The Concert for Marc" and includes a who's who of Australian musicians including Little River Band vocalist - Glenn Shorrock, Australian Crawl frontman - James Reyne, Midnight Oil vocalist - Peter Garrett, Cold Chisel vocalist and Australian vocal legend - Jimmy Barnes, Barnes Cold Chisel bandmate guitarist and vocalist - Ian Moss, Men At Work vocalist - Colin Hay, Daddy Cool and later Mondo Rock vocalist - Ross Wilson, Southern Sons lead vocalist - Jack Jones, vocalist Wendy Mathews, and even former bandmates guitarists Robert Taylor and Tommy Emmanuel.  Sadly Marc Hunter succumbed to his cancer on July 17, 1998.



In 2005 Todd Hunter reformed Dragon with vocalist/guitarist Mark Williams, guitarist Bruce Reid, and drummer Peter Drummond.  They released the 2 CD Sunshine to Rain in 2006 featuring acoustic arrangements of Dragon's biggest hits and fan favorites performed by the current line-up of the band.  On July 1, 2008 Dragon were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.  They were joined on stage by Australian Crawl's James Reyne and Cold Chisel's Ian Moss to perform April Sun In Cuba and Rain.  In 2009 Dragon released Happy I Am,  their first album of original material since 1988's Bondi Road.

Forgotten Music Thursday: The Hounds - Puttin' On the Dog (1979)

In 1979 John Hunter and The Hounds released their second and final album, Puttin' On the Dog.  While not as strong or ambitious as their debut, Unleashed, their sophomore release has its moments and is still quite enjoyable.

The album opens with a fun rousing cover of Doo Wah Diddy Diddy.  The Hounds interpretation of this rock classic while enjoyable neither takes anything away from nor adds anything to the original version leaving the listener wondering why they bothered covering the song in the first place.

Angel of Fire is perhaps the best song on the album.  It has a fire and energy to it that would not have sounded out of place on their debut and, perhaps more than any other song on the album, it recaptures the overall fun spirit and energy of Unleashed. 

Next is yet another cover, this time they decide to tackle the Stones Under My Thumb.  And again while an enjoyable cover it neither adds anything to nor takes anything away from the original version.  It's slightly more enjoyable than their cover of Do Wah Diddy Diddy.

Other than Angel of Fire, the next 4 tracks are some of the strongest on the album and are all original songs.  Of the four songs (Gotta Find a Way to Meet You, The Moth and the Fire, Workin' On My Cool, and Horses), The Moth and the Fire is the strongest and is easily the 2nd best song on the album.

The balance of the album is somewhat uneven-- an original tune, Spiders, a cover of The Kinks Who'll Be The Next In Line, and the album closes with a strong finishing track, Along The Lane.

After further researching this album I noticed that there was a bit of a personnel shift in the band between the 2 albums.  Gone were guitarist Jim Orkis and drummer John Horvath and in their place were guitarist Donald Griffin and drummer Michael Neff.  Given the general uninspired "going through the motions" vibe of the album I'm left wondering if the personnel change was prompted not by Hunter or anyone in the band but by record label executives or producer Jeffrey Lesser.  The absence of Orkis was especially noticeable as Orkis had co-written 4 of the songs on Unleashed.  Perhaps the 3 covers are the result of the absence of Orkis and the corollary lack of his creative input in the songwriting process. 

If you've heard and enjoyed Unleashed chances are you'll also enjoy Puttin' On the Dog... You just won't enjoy it quite as much.  If Unleashed was a feast, Puttin' On the Dog is the microwave reheated leftovers of that feast you have for lunch the next day.

Related Links
The Hounds Puttin' On the Dog

Forgotten Music Thursday: The Hounds - Unleashed (1978)

It's 1977.  You're at Just Angels Lounge in Harvey, IL.  The floors are sticky and the stench of cigarettes & stale beer hangs like a fog in the air.  You're packed like a sardine with the rest of the standing room only crowd near the restrooms where the ammonia stench of the urinal cakes has your eyes watering.  The bar is packed and the audience is waiting for The Hounds to take the stage. 

The Hounds were a mainstay of the south-suburban Chicago bar scene in the late seventies.  Led by the charismatic keyboardist/vocalist, John Hunter the Hounds performed a lively brand of late seventies hard rock with tinges of glam mixed in.

Hunter would take the stage dressed in a silver jacket, ratty old jeans, and a handcuff dangling from his right wrist.  And given their local popularity the Hounds played to packed houses.

Truth be told, I'd never heard of these guys until quite recently.  A colleague of mine had the pleasure of seeing the Hounds live in the late seventies before they signed their recording contract. 

After a bit of investigation I found a high quality rip from vinyl of Unleashed.  From the opening bars I felt my feet sticking to the floor, my eyes watering from that ammonia urinal cake stench, I smelled the cigarettes and stale beer.  I was instantly transported back to the Just Angels Lounge.

The Hounds were a band that wore their influences somewhat on their sleeves but mixed those influences together in a way that was distinctly their own... Whether it's the Mott the Hoople tinged When the Boppers Turn to Rockers the suggestions of David Bowie on Janeane Tangerine or even John Hunter channeling Mick Jagger on I'll Be Your Magic Man you get a fun album full of delightful seventies musical influences.

After listening to this I find it a pity that the Hounds only released 2 albums (Unleashed and Puttin' On the Dog) and unfortunately they never released any live albums.  While Unleashed is thoroughly enjoyable it only hints at the band's showmanship.  It lacks the energy and the chemistry between the band and the audience that was present in their live shows.

That being said, if you're looking for an excellent sample of late seventies hard rock nostalgia you really can't do much better than Unleashed.  Try it, you won't be disappointed.

Related Links:
The Hounds Unleashed (download the album)

Forgotten Music Thursday: John Barry - Themependium (2007)

With a career spanning over 5 decades, John Barry has made a name for himself as one of the most in demand film score composers-- perhaps only second to John Williams. 

Included in this exceptional box set are not only Barry's more well known works for the Bond films (including the signature theme) but also material from his Oscar winning scores for Born Free, Out of Africa, The Lion In Winter, & Dances With Wolves. 

The set is rounded out by a handful of some of Barry's lesser known works including TV themes and material from his scores for Raise the Titanic (easily the best part of this Golden Razzie winner of a bomb), Somewhere In Time (the hauntingly beautiful theme that yanks on the heartstrings and some might argue is more memorable than the film) not to mention material from Day of the Locusts, Body Heat, Frances, Peggy Sue Got Married and many more.  For fans of film scores this is a must have as Barry's  scores were so brilliant they at times were even superior to the films he was scoring (Raise the Titanic and Frances are cases in point).

While it could be argued that much of the material on this box set is well known (the Bond themes in particular) much of it is not.  And pulled from the context of the movies and shows the music is taken from, much of the "forgotten" and even some of the more well known gems are what stand out the most as they are strong enough to stand on their own even without the films they are from as a frame of reference. 

There's a distinct and haunting beauty to much of Barry's work.  Considering the length, scope, and breadth of Barry's career a single CD collection would not do him justice.  This box set is an excellent place to start delving into Barry's extensive body of work and could conceivably inspire the listener to delve deeper into some of the full scores that are merely hinted at in this set.

Related Links
John Barry (wikipedia)
John Barry - The Man With the Midas Touch

Between a Heart and a Rock Place by Pat Benatar

Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, the Donnas, Fergie... the list goes on and on.  But their careers likely would have been considerably rockier and likely even a bit less successful had women like Pat Benatar not paved the way for them.


Most of us know her hits Heartbreaker, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Love is a Battlefield, Invincible, and We Belong to name but a few.  But there's so much more to her story than her hits and the path not only to her success but once she attained it was far more difficult than most realize.


Even if you're not a big fan of Ms. Benatar's music, and admittedly prior to being approached for this review my familiarity with her work was largely limited to her hits, Between a Heart and a Rock Place is a thoroughly enjoyable read.


Pat gives a very candid snapshot of the music industry of the late seventies and throughout the eighties-- its superficiality, its obsession with image, and the many double standards applied to female musicians that weren't necessarily applied to male musicians-- at least not to the same extent.


The stories that are told of record label executives and the peek behind the curtain to see the Wizard that Ms. Benatar provides throughout her book shows the considerably less glamorous and far less savory side of the music industry;  How they tried to tell her how to look, how to dress, discouraged her relationship with her guitarist and later husband Neil "Spyder" Giraldo, and even attempted to hide her pregnancy for her first daughter and make her feel ashamed of it; all of it would make for quite an incredible novel but what makes it even more chilling-- it's all true!


Without giving too much away-- this book is a must read for any fan of music, anyone curious about how the recording industry works, and certainly for any aspiring musicians whether or not you happen to be fans of Pat Benatar as a musician.  The insights provided give a glimpse of how much popular music has evolved from the late seventies to the present and it's all through the eyes of one of the most successful female rockers in the history of rock and roll!


Related Links & Media
Promo video for the book's release:

Pat Benatar(official site)
Pat Benatar (wikipedia)

Harry Chapin - Portrait Gallery (1975)

Starting with 1974's Short Stories and right up until his untimely passing in 1981, Harry Chapin released a series of consistently brilliant albums.  Portrait Gallery was one of the best of his best albums.  The quality of the material is considerably more consistent than on Verities & Balderdash. 

Opening with the whimsical yet cynical Dreams Go By.  The clarinet and the whistling provide a backbone of whimsy to the relatively cynical lyrics that tell the story of a couple who grow up together sharing their dreams but keep putting off their dreams when life gets in the way.  The song ends with a gentle but regretful, "But I guess our dreams have come and gone, you're s'posed to dream when you are young." 

The album then shifts to Tangled Up Puppet, which makes for a unqiue companion piece to Cats in the Cradle from the previous album.  This time, instead of missing his son growing up and becoming a man a father laments as his daughter grows less and less a part of his life and becomes increasingly more her own woman.  As a father of a little girl this song packs a wallop every time I listen to it-- "I'm a tangled up puppet, all tangled up in knots, and the more I see what used to be, the less of you I've got." The message, as with Cats in the Cradle is clear, treasure and make the most of the time you have with your children as that time doesn't last.

Star Tripper while one of Harry's weaker songs, lyrically, from a musically perspective is one of Harry's more hauntingly beautiful compositions.  There's a somber melancholy vibe that drips from every note.  The song shows the less glamorous side of the life of the astronaut.  Given that the NASA was in a bit of a lull at the time, it could be argued that the song is also metaphor of the space program in general and the general apathy the public was starting to display towards the space program.

Babysitter had the potential to be a huge misstep, but Harry manages to turn what could have been a sophomoric locker room tale into a poignant coming of age story.  As a young man laments that, "I was much too late to be the first to make you a woman, but you were the one to make my mother's son a man."  The song delves into the beauty of the experience of first love and the impact that first love had on the rest of the man's life, long after the experience had ended.

Harry delves into his back catalog for Someone Keeps Calling My Name.  The song initially appeared on a then (and now) long out of print and largely ignored album that Harry and his brothers recorded as The Chapin Brothers in 1966.  The original version was later re-released on Harry's 3CD box set, Story of a Life.  The original and considerably shorter version was in the tradition of the Kingston Trio and other folk acts of the mid-60s featuring Harry, Steve, and Tom Chapin harmonizing and trading vocals.  Harry dusted off the song and added several verses stretching the song from just under three minutes upt to six and a half minutes.  The vocal harmonies with his brothers are replaced on the newer version with a group of women echoing as Harry sings the chorus.  The verses Harry adds tell the stories of Jenny who is "four fingers old," Jason is "ten birthday's old", Jonathan at "fifty seasons old", and Jamie who at "15 years has been too young,"

The Rock is one of Harry's finest story-telling gems.  It's an instantly catchy Chicken Little-esque tale about a young man who warns his townspeople that the large rock that leans over his town is about to fall.    The townspeople are dismissive of his claims as the rock has always been there and as far as they were concerned it always would be.  Without help, he decides to take matters into his own hands and figure out ways to stop the rock-- "he ran under with one last hope that he could add a prop, and as he disappeared the rock came to a stop, the people ran into the street, but by then all was still, the rock seemed where it always was or where it always will be, when someone asks where he had gone they said 'ah he was daft, who cares about that crazy fool?' then they'd start to laugh." 

Sandy is a song Harry wrote for his wife, the same wife he detailed in his I Wanna Learn a Love Song on his previous album.  Of the two songs, I Wanna Learn a Love Song is imminently more enjoyable.

Dirt Gets Under the Fingernails is an O. Henry-esque story of irony about a mechanic and his wife with aspirations of being a painter.  The payoff at the end is thoroughly enjoyable.  Musically the song is a bit dated but it works but the lyrics make up for it.

Harry brings the epic back to his albums with Bummer, at just shy of ten minutes it's his longest piece since Sniper and A Better Place to Be from 1972's Sniper and Other Love Songs.  It tells the tale of a man who grew up abused and on the wrong side of the law yet he somehow manages to earn a Medal of Honor and a handful of Purple Hearts in Vietnam.  Upon his return he falls back into his old habits and comes to a bad end.  When his body is retrieved they find him clutching onto his Medal of Honor and a smile on his face.  The song features a rather dated 70s horn chart and string arrangement giving the song a similar epic over the top anthemic vibe reminiscent of Sniper.

The album closes with the somewhat more upbeat and tongue in cheek blues tinged Stop Singing These Sad Songs creating a nice bookend for Dreams Go By which opened the album.  Much like Harry's live favorite, Circle, this album come full circle ending on a similar upbeat fun vibe to that which it began.

Portrait Gallery was Harry's strongest album to that point and arguably none of his other studio albums, save for 1977's dual LP Danceband on the Titanic, would quite equal the quality of this album.

Related Links and Media
Harry Chapin (official site)
Harry Chapin (wikipedia)

Harry Chapin - Verities & Balderdash (1974)

From first glance this album has a forceful message.  With Harry sporting an Uncle Sam "I Want You!" pose he singles out the listener before the album is even purchased. 

Largely due to the oft-covered Cats in the Cradle, Verities and Balderdash is Harry Chapin’s best known album. Harry was busy in 1974 as this was the 2nd album he released that year (although Short Stories was recorded in 1973 it wasn’t released until 1974). Short Stories and Verities and Balderdash bookend each other nicely. Harry and his band built on the strengths of Short Stories and recorded what some would argue was his best album to that point.

The album opens with Cats in the Cradle which may actually have done the album a disservice in the era of LPs as there are a lot of other excellent songs on the album and any listener who might hear Cats in the Cradle may or may not have continued on to the rest of the album. Anyone skipping the rest of the album is doing him or herself a tremendous disservice.

After Cats in the Cradle is the autobiographical, I Wanna Learn a Love Song which tells the tale of how Harry met his wife, Sandy, several years before. The song later became a staple of Harry’s live set.

Shooting Star is another of Harry’s story-telling gems about a woman married to a man who is mentally ill. At its core it’s a beautiful love song—a woman standing by her man through all of his mental difficulties even as the rest of the world would either laugh at or ignore him.

One of Harry’s most popular live staples, 30,000 Pounds of Bananas, made its first appearance on Verities and Balderdash. As enjoyable as the song is, the live version took on a life of its own and easily eclipses the original studio version that appears on this album. Both musically and lyrically this is a purely fun and enjoyable album. The live version is sped up at points to great effect as it fits the lyrics as Harry tells the story of the out of control truck of bananas. Incidentally, the song is based on an actual truck crash in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Other notable tracks include Vacancy and What Made America Famous, an ode of sorts to our nation's then upcoming bicentennial.  Today it sounds somewhat dated but it's still an enjoyable song when enjoyed within the context of when it was recorded.

While not quite as strong as Short Stories, Verities & Balderdash is consistently enjoyable and shows Harry's further growth as a songwriter with the albums stronger tracks including his trademark, Cats in the Cradle.  Give it a listen, you won't be disappointed.

Related Links & Media
Cats In the Cradle (Live on PBS Soundstage)

30,000 lbs. of Bananas (Live @ Rockaplast 1977)

What Made America Famous (live on PBS Soundstage)

Harry Chapin (official site)
Harry Chapin (wikipedia)

Forgotten Music Thursday: Harry Chapin - Short Stories (1974)

Short Stories was the next step in Harry Chapin's musical evolution.  After finding his footing with Heads & Tails and Sniper and Other Love Songs Harry comes across considerably more self-assured and comfortable in his shoes on Short Stories.  While Short Stories lacks the epic seven to eleven minute tracks like Dogtown, Sniper, and A Better Place to Be from his first two albums Harry manages to say less with more.

W.O.L.D. tells the tale of an aging DJ constantly seeking happiness at his next stop on the radio dial only to one day find his life, looks, and youth have passed him by.  The song was inspired by Boston DJ, Jim Connors who was instrumental in Harry's early success.  Chapin overheard a phone conversation Connors had with his ex-wife that sparked a deep discussion between Chapin & Connors and that conversation was the inspiration for this song.  The song is told through a phone conversation a DJ is having with his ex-wife, although you only ever hear his half of the conversation. 

Harry hits another homerun with Mr. Tanner which tells the tale of a humble man in Dayton Ohio who runs a dry-cleaning business and has a talent for singing in local plays and shows.  After increased pressure from his friends and neighbours he uses up all of his savings to book a concert hall in New York City to audition.  Being crushed after receiving some rather unkind reviews, Mr. Tanner returns to Dayton where he never sings again, "excepting very late at night when the shop was dark and closed, he sang softly to himself as he sorted through the clothes."  What drives the song home are the haunting background vocals of bass player, John Wallace as he sings O Holy Night.  According to interviews this song was inspired by a couple of rather harsh reviews Harry read in the New York Times-- Harry actually quotes segments of both reviews in the song.

As good as all of the tracks are, of all the tracks on the album it is really buoyed even further by the aforementioned tracks and by the achingly beautiful Mail Order Annie.  A sad tale of two lonely less than attractive people who, through unusual circumstances end up fighting that loneliness together-- a similar theme to what Harry tackled on the previous album with A Better Place to Be.

Once Harry found his voice, his comfort level and gained a bit of self-confidence as an artist his albums were elevated to another level.  Short Stories is the first in a series of several Chapin albums that truly showed Harry at his creative peak, a peak he rode through the rest of the seventies and up to his untimely passing in 1981.  Honestly, from this album on, there's not a weak one in Harry's entire catalog.

Related Media & Links
W.O.L.D. video

Mr. Tanner video

They Call Her Easy video

Mail Order Annie video

Harry Chapin (official site)
Harry Chapin (wikipedia)

Harry Chapin - Sniper and Other Love Songs (1972)

While not as commercially successful as his debut, Sniper and Other Love Songs is a far superior album to Heads & Tails. Harry’s vocal delivery and range are substantially improved, the production is superior, and the overall quality of the material is far more even and consistently good. Where Heads & Tails was largely buoyed by Taxi & Dogtown, there’s not a weak track on Sniper and Other Love Songs.

The first half of the album, or what would have been side 1 of the LP is anchored by Sniper which is easily one of Chapin’s most vocally challenging songs. Later in his career Harry would rarely sing the song as he confessed, “It tears my voice to hell.” While no real names are actually used. The song is a fictitious account of actual sniper Charles Whitman who killed 14 people and wounded 32 others from the clock tower at the University of Texas in 1966. The song is so ambitious in its scope it plays out like a screenplay examining the psychology and mindset of the sniper. Harry alternates between singing the voice of the sniper, the eyewitnesses and an objective narrator showing a tremendous range and an impeccable ability to shift between different vocal deliveries within the same song.
The other standout track on the first half of the album is Burning Herself. After the soft more acoustic folk stylings of And the Baby Never Cries, Burning Herself is a somewhat jarring piece. Compared to the other songs on the album it’s largely out of place, but it’s that rather jarring out of place style that makes the song that much more effective. There’s an anger and hostility to the lyrics that needs to be noticed.

The second half of the album is equally strong, if not stronger. It features the hauntingly beautiful A Better Place to Be about a night watchman and a rotund waitress who “both know all about loneliness and living all alone.” It also features the catchy sing-a-long, live-staple Circle.

All in all, Harry sounds decidedly more comfortable and self-assured in his second outing. The quality of the material is consistently better and you can clearly hear Chapin’s growth as both a singer and songwriter. *** ½ (out of *****)

Related Video & Links
Sniper

A Better Place To Be

Circle

Harry Chapin (official site)
Harry Chapin (wikipedia)

Harry Chapin - Heads & Tails (1972)

While not as well known or remembered as some of his contemporaries, Harry Chapin’s career thrived on a sizable and devoted cult following and the respect of many of his peers.

Despite not being as strong as many of his later albums, on his solo debut, Heads & Tails, Chapin shows glimpses of his talent as a singer/songwriter. Musically, the songs are quite an eclectic mix. As would be the trend on future Chapin compositions, the cello (played on this album by Tim Scott) is a cornerstone of his folk-rock sound on every track. The album also features Chapin’s longtime bass-player/background vocalist, John Wallace (he continued touring with Harry right up to Harry’s last show).

The trouble with the album is that it’s rather “bottom heavy” that is to say on the LP side 2 was considerably stronger than side 1 (or on the CD, Tracks six through nine were stronger than tracks one through five).

The second side starts with Taxi, easily one of the best songs Harry ever wrote or recorded—so popular amongst his die-hard fans that it yielded Sequel in 1980 that picks up several years after Taxi leaves off. As much as I enjoy Taxi, I’d argue that the live versions I’ve heard are superior to this original studio version. Where Harry’s voice is somewhat youthful and innocent on the studio version, there’s a grizzled world weariness to his vocals on the various live recordings I’ve heard of the song that gives the song a bit more emotional weight. An interesting footnote to Taxi, the movie Taxi Driver was supposedly a cross between Taxi and Sniper which appeared on Harry’s 2nd album, Sniper and Other Love Songs.

Dogtown is the #2 of a 1-2 punch on side two. It’s another glimpse at the storyteller style of songs that Harry first exhibited with Taxi and would become increasingly more prevalent on Harry’s subsequent albums. It’s the tale of a town of fishermen’s wives in Massachusetts. With their husbands out to sea so much they all have guard dogs to keep them safe in their husband’s absences. The song relates their hard lives even mentioning one widow who had already buried 3 husbands who had drowned. The song also features the wives of these fishermen asking, “Am I his widow or his wife.” and asking if they’ll have to give their husbands to the sea or the sky. The emotional intensity is undeniable and Harry’s delivery is considerably stronger and more intense than on Taxi.

The album closes with the haunting autobiographical Same Sad Singer. The song is spare and yearning but the lyrics lack the punch of songs like Taxi and Dogtown. Harry does make up for the weak lyrics (weak in comparison to Taxi and Dogtown) with a strong vocal delivery. The sorrow and loneliness drips from each tender note he sings.

While Harry would come to perform stronger material on later albums, his debut made for a respectable start and a glimpse of the better material that he’d release as his career matured and progressed. For the casual listener, it’s generally a “pass”, but for the more die-hard fan and those who are interested in hearing his musical evolution it’s an excellent place to start one’s musical journey.  Feels like ** 1/2 (out of *****)

Related Video and Links

Harry Chapin (official site)
Harry Chapin (wikipedia)

Blood Sweat & Tears - New Blood (1972)

Aside from their self-titled sophomore album Blood Sweat & Tears struggled under the vocal leadership of David Clayton-Thomas. While largely forgotten, the Jerry Fisher era of Blood Sweat & Tears was an all too brief breath of fresh air at just the right time. 1972’s New Blood marks Fisher’s first foray on lead vocals for BS&T.

His vocals are more on the soulful and less on the crooning end of the spectrum. And while New Blood exhibits the classic BS&T sound Fisher’s vocals give their material more of a New Orleans/Dixieland jazz vibe than Clayton-Thomas’s vocals did.

While there are no big hits and much of the material would largely be unrecognizable to all but the most seasoned of BS&T’s fans the music is quite enjoyable from Down In the Flood to I Can’t Move No Mountains to the amusing take on aging, Over the Hill, to the melancholic So Long Dixie. While the material still is not as strong as on the band’s debut, Child Is Father to the Man, it’s easily their best material since then.

The album closes with Snow Queen/Maiden Voyage an eleven and a half minute musical adventure allowing Fisher to stretch out his vocals and giving the horns plenty of time to show what they’re capable of. Despite it’s length it remains one of the most enjoyable tracks on the album.

While compared to other Blood Sweat & Tears albums New Blood certainly stands up well, perhaps its greatest flaw is that it has not aged as well as other material from the early seventies. The sound is so dated that if you close your eyes and just listen perhaps you might open them to find yourself in 1972. Which, depending on your personal proclivities may or may not be a bad thing.

Related LinksNew Blood (allmusic.com)
New Blood (wikipedia)
Blood Sweat & Tears (official site)
Blood Sweat & Tears (wikipedia)

Steve Hackett - Voyage of the Acolyte (1975)

Released while he was still in the band, Steve Hackett’s debut solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte, is the Genesis album that wasn’t. Even the cover art is reminiscent of the style used on the covers of Foxtrot and Selling England By the Pound. Following Peter Gabriel’s departure from the band after the over-indulgent The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway Hackett released this hauntingly beautiful album in which his remaining Genesis bandmates Rutherford, Collins & Banks contributed to in various ways shapes and forms.

The album at different times offers glimpses into what the post-Gabriel Genesis would sound like (at least initially) and at other times shows glimpses of what Genesis COULD HAVE sounded like following Peter Gabriel’s departure had Hackett been granted more creative control on the first two post-Gabriel studio albums (A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering). Instrumentally the Genesis influences are so unmistakable that one might be left wondering if some of this material might have ended up on a Genesis album had Peter Gabriel NOT left.

Hands of the Priestess Pts. 1 & 2 features some beautiful flute solos reminiscent of Peter Gabriel’s solo in Firth of Fifth (from Selling England By the Pound). And throughout, Hackett dares to defy the stereotype that progressive rock lacks emotion. There’s a poignant beauty throughout both pieces that leaves the listener wanting for more.

A Tower Struck Down is more a preview of the musical offerings that Hackett would release following his own departure from Genesis a few years after Peter Gabriel than anything Genesis might have recorded during or after Gabriel’s tenure in the band.

Star of Sirius features guest vocals by Phil Collins and would not have sounded out of place on A Trick of the Tail. Hackett’s guitar is gentle and understated allowing Collins vocals to carry the song and at the same time providing a gentle accompaniment to those vocals.

The album closes with Shadow of the Hierophant a nearly 12 minute epic that starts softly and gradually crescendos with increasing intensity and volume before fading to silence in a gentle anti-climax.

For fans of the classic Peter Gabriel era Genesis this is a must have. It’s largely a musical bridge between The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and A Trick of the Tail. While predominantly instrumental the musical themes have a distinct Genesis sound.

Related LinksSteve Hackett Voyage of the Acolyte (Wikipedia)
Steve Hackett Voyage of the Acolyte (Allmusic.com)
Steve Hackett (Official Site)
Steve Hackett (Wikipedia)

Forgotten Music Thursday: Poco - The Last Roundup (2004)

Starting today, on the fourth Thursday of every month a "forgotten" album or band will be featured.

Recorded at a live show for a tentative late 1977 early 1978 release, The Last Roundup was instead shelved upon the departure of all but two members of the band’s line-up. While the concert did find its way into the hands of collectors and bootleggers and floated through the bootleg circuit for nearly thirty years, it remained largely unheard outside a core of those die-hard Poco fans.

It’s unfortunate as this is one of the best live albums I’ve ever heard. It was one of Timothy B. Schmit’s final appearances with Poco before he departed to replace Randy Meisner in the Eagles (ironic considering he joined Poco to replace Meisner). This performance also features a guest appearance of then departed founding member, Richie Furay.

This live set opens with the autobiographical Livin’ In the Band followed by a country arrangement of the Steely Dan song Dallas before it shifts gears with the stirring J.J. Cale (Cale is better known for writing Cocaine and AfterMidnight both of which were made popular by Eric Clapton) ballad, Magnolia. Where Cocaine and After Midnight were upbeat and rollicking songs, Magnolia is a more melancholic piece with a pervasive longing that tugs at the heart strings.

Honky Tonk Downstairs is just a generally fun song with very country lyrics, extremely tight vocal harmonies, and a thoroughly enjoyable melody.

P.N.S. (When You Come Around) is a Paul Cotton penned piece that Cotton brought with him from his days with Kal David in Illinois Speed Press. The Poco arrangement is decidedly more country-tinged than the harder rock/blues tinged ISP version from the early 70s.

Sagebrush Serenade is an upbeat crowd pleaser, the audience can be heard clapping at times. As with most of the songs in this set, the vocal harmonies are very tight, arguably tighter than their contemporaries, the Eagles. But then again where the Eagles walked closer to the rock side of the country-rock tightrope, Poco was planted more firmly on the country side of that tightrope.

Indian Summer is another gentle ballad that gives off a similar vibe to America’s Ventura Highway From the opening lyrics: “There’s a fool moon in the sky, it’s got a hold on me, I’m hypnotized, like your love it’s getting stronger, just give my heart a little longer, Indian summer is on its way, it’s cool at night, and hot all day” the song draws in the listener. I can almost picture people sitting on blankets on the lawn, wearing sweatshirts or sweaters and singing along with the band.

Other stand out tracks include Starin’ At the Sky and the Timothy B. Schmit penned Keep On Tryin’ his first hit with Poco. The vocal harmonies are arguably the tightest of this whole live set making it one of the most enjoyable 2 minutes and 43 seconds of music on any album. The only flaw is the song’s brevity as it leaves the listener wanting more.

The Dance is a trilogy of songs from the Indian Summer album. Given the personnel changes in Poco over the years, I believe this is one of the only live performances of this excellent song, it’s certainly one of the best as well. The lyrics are enjoyable, and it can’t be stressed enough how tight the vocal harmonies are. The melody hooks into the listener and doesn’t let go for the nine plus minutes of the song.

Following the Indian Summer tour Timothy B. Schmit left to join the Eagles and most of the band opted to call it quits leaving Paul Cotton and Rusty Young to soldier on. Ironically Poco would go on to score one of their biggest hits in this era with Crazy Love off the Legend album (another fun bit of trivia, the artwork on Legend was designed by late Saturday Night Live alum, Phil Hartman, prior to his career as a comedian/actor). As such, The Last Roundup is a time capsule marking the end of an era for this often overlooked and very underrated band that has often gotten lost in the shadows of the considerably more famous band that spawned them, Buffalo Springfield, and the hugely popular band that poached two of their members (Randy Meisner and Timothy B. Schmit), The Eagles.

As far as live albums go, few match the energy and pure chemistry exhibited by Poco on this set. Everyone in the band was “on” for this performance, it was one of those perfect concerts where everything came together just right… and luckily for us, over 30 years later, it was recorded for posterity and luckily it finally saw release in 2004.

Related Links
Poco (official site)
Poco The Last Roundup (Wikipedia)
Poco (Wikipedia)

Chicago V (1972)

After a string of double-LP releases and the arguably over-ambitious quadruple-LP live album, Live at Carnegie Hall, Chicago released their first regular length album. What arguably sets V apart from many of Chicago’s subsequent albums, the band crams as much creativity and talent into this single-player as they had into Chicago III, which had its moments but also could have benefitted from a bit of editing.

The album opens with the Lamm penned A Hit by Varèse. An enjoyable musical excursion that shows a band firing on all cylinders musically and lyrically laments Lamm’s boredom with the music of the day and his thirst for something more adventurous… and that something more adventurous is exactly what the band delivers on this track.

The band changes gears slightly on All Is Well which features a sublime horn chart and a thoroughly enjoyable melody and some of Chicago’s tighter vocal harmonies in an era in which they were arguably known far more for their musicianship, musical adventurousness, and instrumental prowess than their vocal harmonizing capabilities.

Why Now That You’ve Gone was never released as a single is beyond me. It’s easily one of Chicago’s best album cuts ever, bar none. Starting with some solid and infectious drumming by Danny Seraphine, Robert Lamm’s organ and Terry Kath’s rhythm guitar follow shortly thereafter, followed by the horns, and Terry’s vocals. The rhythm grabs you by the short and curlies, the horns get a death grip on your soul, and Terry’s souful vocal guides you through this catchy musical journey. If this had been released as a single it would have been a nice counter balance to their later string of soft-rock saccharine-driven tight melodic late seventies and early eighties soft rock staples.

Lamm’s socially conscious Dialogue Pts. 1&2 follows. The song is a conversation between a socially conscious ideologue (sung by Terry Kath) and an out of touch student who is just going with the flow (sung by Peter Cetera). While the horns are present on Dialoge Pt. 1, it’s much more notable for the tight rhythmic chemistry between Kath, Cetera, and Seraphine and features some of Peter’s finest bass playing. In later years Peter of course became much more known for his vocals, but throughout Chicago and predominantly on this and songs like State of the Union, Peter’s melodic style and bass-playing chops are quite evident. Dialogue Pt. 2 is more of an instrumental showcase than vocal showcase but also features some tight vocal harmonies from both Terry and Peter.

The album does not let up on While the City Sleeps featuring Robert trading his lead vocals with a tight harmony vocal led by Peter Cetera. The song also features what might be an otherwise overlooked Terry Kath guitar solo with the horns offering a soft musical carpet to layer his guitar over. The juxtaposition of Terry’s raw guitar against the smooth horns draws greater attention to both the horn chart and to Terry’s solo. The only complaint one might have of this song is that the ending is somewhat abrupt and anti-climatic.

Saturday In the Park was the opener on side 2 of the LP. It’s an excellent opening track and on the CD release it feels somewhat lost in the middle, sandwiched between While the City Sleeps and State of the Union. It’s success as a single is a testament to its popularity. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable and un-offensive track about spending a Saturday in Central Park that happened to fall on the fourth of July (which would insinuate the song was written in 1970, the most recent Saturday to have fallen on the fourth of July at the time of the song’s release).

State of the Union is one of Lamm’s socio-political gems. Musically speaking it’s an excellent song, Peter shines both on vocals and on bass. The horn chart is one of the best on the album (although, in all fairness, I’d argue there’s not a weak horn chart on the album). Terry’s rhythm playing is also enjoyable but (at least on the Rhino re-release) has been pushed more to the back of the mix in favor of bringing Peter’s bass and the horns closer to the front of the mix and making them considerably more noticeable.

Goodbye is another example of a band firing on all cylinders and all the pieces coming into place just right. The song is a look back on the previous few years of the band’s existence and a farewell of sorts to Los Angeles (Chicago V was recorded largely in NY and the next several albums would be recorded at producer, James William Guercio’s Caribou Ranch in the Colorado Rockies). The song is good throughout but really hits its stride at about the 3:37 mark (“Feels so good to be soaring, ‘Cause LA was so boring, Goodbye”) and then again at about the 4:06 mark a musical reprise of sorts (“There must be room for growing, somewhere else, and I’m going, Goodbye”). Between this and the aforementioned A Hit by Varèse, there’s a definite vibe a band that’s creatively restless and hungering for a change of scenery both literal and figurative to re-fill their creative juices.

The LP closed with Alma Mater, a somewhat more elegiac and mournful look at the previous few years. The vocal harmonies are tighter on this song than perhaps any other. From start to finish Chicago V, in addition to being a creative triumph is possibly the band’s most consistently lyrically autobiographical album. Alma Mater is also a look to the future—“We must set new goals, we must not lose control of the possibility, of finding the discovery, that would let everybody see, that we were just meant to be”).

The 2002 Rhino re-release continues the musical journey with an instrumental version of A Song For Richard and His Friends, a song that had previously only appeared on Chicago Live @ Carnegie Hall release. It was and perhaps remains Lamm’s most outspoken middle finger at the establishment song ever. A song whose somewhat prophetic lyrics begged for Richard Nixon to quit… In 1971, over three years before he actually did. The instrumental version includes a heavily distorted Terry Kath guitar solo. Stripping away the lyrics the song does get a bit of new life as it allows the listener to focus more on the music and less on Lamm’s politics. The horns are slightly out of tune, on purpose (I’m guessing) as a reflection of the discord (or would it be dis-“chord”) felt at the time in which the song was written. While the instrumental does certainly have its moments, chances are it would largely be skipped over by the casual listener and only the more devoted of the fans would take the time to give it a fair listen. Trying to be objective, the inclusion on the re-release neither adds to nor subtracts from the album with its inclusion.

The re-release also features an early arrangement Mississippi Delta City Blues a song that the band had played in their early days on the Chicago club circuit before relocating to L.A. and would later appear with a somewhat different (and arguably better) arrangement on Chicago XI, Terry Kath’s final album with the band.

The last cookie that Rhino tossed the fans on the re-release was the single-edit of Dialogue Pts. 1 & 2. Its inclusion is somewhat unnecessary as a sizable chunk of the song was removed for the single edit (over two minutes).

Between 1969 and 1972, Chicago released 3 double LPs, a quadruple LP live album (Live at Carnegie Hall), a double LP live album (Live in Japan), and this album. In hindsight one might argue that the band essentially “blew their load” on these releases. And certainly an argument could have been made for them to have better paced themselves as subsequent albums displayed a noticeable drop in quality and a shift in direction from being musically adventurous to being more pop-friendly. With that in mind, Chicago V marks the end of an era. There would still be occasional flashes of the creativity and adventurousness displayed in this era, but as time progressed those flashes of creativity and adventurousness grew increasingly fewer and farther between.

Related Links

Now That You’ve Gone (Live)

Saturday In the Park (Live)

Dialogue Pts. 1 & 2 (Live)

Chicago V (Wikipedia)

Chicago V (AllMusic)

Chicago (official site)

Chicago (Wikipedia)

Chicago III

How many bands do you know of that have released three consecutive double albums within the space of two years? Between 1969 and 1971 Chicago released 3 double LP studio albums and a quadruple LP live album. That's the equivalent of 10 albums worth of material in less than 3 years! It's a staggering musical statement by any estimation.

And while later albums certainly displayed glimpses of the creativity and musical talent of this period in the band’s tenure, none of them quite matched the consistently high quality of the first three albums.

Chicago III starts with Sing a Mean Tune Kid, a musical tribute of sorts to those which came before them and paved their way. It features a blistering guitar solo by Terry Kath, not to mention it exhibits a strong musical chemistry between Kath’s guitar and the keyboard/organ playing of Robert Lamm.

As Sing a Mean Tune Kid fades out it’s replaced by Loneliness Is Just A Word, a song the band had been playing since their days paying their dues on the Chicago club scene prior to their move to Los Angeles. The Chicago III version is of course considerably more polished and well rounded than the earlier version, thanks largely to the superlative production of James William Guercio.

Perhaps what sets Chicago III apart from their debut or Chicago II are the occasional country-influenced flourishes on songs like What Else Can I Say or Flight 602, perhaps giving the clearest example of the direction Peter would inevitably steer his career following his departure from Chicago. Terry’s guitar also shines front and center a few tracks later on I Don’t Want Your Money.

On the remastered 2002 Rhino re-release, Peter Cetera’s bass playing is particularly audible (incidentally, Rhino did an excellent job on bringing Peter’s bass-playing closer to the front of the mix on all of their Chicago re-issues).

Much like on Chicago II which featured the multi-part It Better End Soon anti-Vietnam anthem and the Ballet For a Girl in Buchannon (the latter of which spawned two of Chicago’s more memorable hits, Make Me Smile and Colour My World), Chicago III features the multi-part Travel Suite, An Hour In the Shower, and Elegy. All three pieces have their moments, Travel Suite features a fast-paced Danny Seraphine drum solo, Motorboat to Mars, the aforementioned country-tinged Flight 602, the live staple Free, At the Sunrise would not have sounded out of place on a latter day Beatles album with the McCartney/Lennon-esque vocal chemistry of Robert Lamm and Peter Cetera being the hallmark of the piece. But perhaps the strongest part of the Travel Suite is the underrated instrumental gem, Happy Cause I’m Going Home which features some of Terry Kath’s better acoustic guitar playing marked a soft counterpoint to his heavier electric guitar work on other tracks and truly displayed his versatility. Add to that there’s enough cowbell to make even Christopher Walken happy. The band was truly exploring and utilizing the studio space with the cowbell. To this day Happy Cause I’m Going Home remains one of my favorite Chicago album cuts. The song starts with the trademark layered approach that had become a staple of many of Chicago’s earlier songs, Terry counting them in, starting with his acoustic guitar, followed shortly by Peter’s bass, and shortly after Peter comes in, Danny’s drums before the rest of the band joins the rhythm section. There’s a scat vocal throughout that dances around the instruments and is an instrument in and of itself. And despite not being as well known as his solos on Colour My World or Just You & Me, Happy Cause I’m Going Home has perhaps the best flute solo Walt Parazaider ever recorded (although his solo on the Live At Carnegie Hall version of It Better End Soon would also be in the running for that honor). His solo is syncopated with more cowbell, some solid drum fills by Danny Seraphine, and some of the most melodic bass playing that Peter ever laid down.

The band takes a brief break with Mother and Lowdown before launching into An Hour In the Shower. Both songs are enjoyable, Lowdown has some decent guitar work by Terry even if he didn’t personally care for the song, he still put his heart into it.

An Hour In the Shower is perhaps the most unusual song ever recorded by Chicago. Instrumentally it’s as good as anything else on III (or II or their debut for that matter), but paying attention to the lyrics one might be left scratching one’s head. The song is by and large an ode to a morning routine (“Now I usually have my breakfast which consists of tasty Spam, Yeah, I could eat it all day long, But I only love one brand, and I can’t find it way out here, So I’ll have to take a pass, settle for some hash, what a drag, you’re not here, Oh sweet sweet Spam”), masturbation (“Now I lay me down to sleep, and I dream of my treasure map, it shows me where my maypole’s buried at, and I dream of all the fun I have when my maypole comes out to play” and later “Just reach underneath your bed, and turn on your electric friend, yeah, and turn your thoughts to me, cause you know where I’ll be, and you can join me in my hour in the shower”), and environmentally unfriendly water consumption (Terry sings of both starting and ending his day with hour long showers—2 hours in the shower a day!)

Following the perpetually amusing Hour In the Shower the album takes a decidedly pretentious turn with Robert Lamm reciting the Kendrew Laschelles poem, When All the Laughter Dies in Sorrow which opens the third and final multiple part musical piece on the album. Once Upon a Time features another thoroughly enjoyable flute solo by Walt Parazaider before James Pankow offers an equally enjoyable trombone solo before both Walt and trumpeter Lee Loughnane come in. The horns eventually blend into a cacophony of noise that fades out as the sound of car horns fade in along with the sound of jackhammers and other unpleasant reminders of modern life. The car horns and jackhammers crescendo into a toilet flush and the piece ends with the instrumentals The Approaching Storm and Man vs. Man: The End.

While not as consistently strong as their debut nor as polished as Chicago II, Chicago III was then and remains today a thoroughly enjoyable album. It remains one of the most creative albums in their rather extensive catalogs and while, Elegy may have been a bit of a “miss” for me, credit has to be given for having the stones (of Sisyphus?) to try something so outside the norm. And, Elegy, to me, is the lone “miss” on an otherwise excellent album.

Related Links

Chicago Lowdown (1972 live video)

Chicago (official website)
Chicago III (Wikipedia)

Chicago III (allmusic.com)

Chicago (wikipedia)