40 Year Itch : I Switched from Coke to Pep

[Purchase]You wouldn't think a band whose last album, There's A Riot Goin' On, hit #1 needed to make a comeback record. But a lot happened in the two years between Riot and Fresh, which was released on June 30, 1973. Drug busts. Cancelled shows. Rumors of bass player Larry Graham hiring a hit man to take out Sly. The music is often spare but the syncopated beats are always tight. Sly is playful at times. ( the Top 20 "If You Want Me to Stay"...

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40 year itch: Those We Missed from June of 1973

[Purchase]One of the most sampled records of all time, "Bongo Rock" was celebrated in a 2006 article by Will Hermes for The New York Times. as the "National Anthem of Hop-Hop". The mastermind behind this album of mostly re-imagined surf tunes is Michael Viner, who produced soundtracks for Frankie and Annette movies. In June of 1973 the album popped up briefly in the 190's of the Billboard 200.[Purchase]Willie Nelson's first masterpiece...

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40 Year Itch: 10cc Hits #1

"I was amazed, but pleased that the BBC never banned the track, although they limited its airplay, because they thought it was about the ongoing Northern Ireland conflicts. In fact, it was about an Attica State Prison riot like the ones in the old James Cagney films." - Eric StewartOn June 23, 1973 10cc knocks Suzi Quatro's "Can the Can" from the top spot on the UK charts with their catchy single "Rubber Bullets".        But...

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Ron Sexsmith's Hotel Covers

Buy Ron's Forever EndeavorRon Sexsmith's Twitter Feed is a good read. Especially if you like groan inducing puns ( "Harnessing the winds energy is a wind wind situation"). Now he's posting  links to a series of wonderfully intimate performances he's calling Hotel Covers.You can catch them all on his new YouTube channel Rawnboy.The first one is Springsteen's "Bobby Jean" from Born in the USA, recorded the morning before his Birmingham,UK...

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40 Year Itch: "She Got The Same Jazz Only More So"

Bob Gruen[Purchase]On June 30, 1973 John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear on the US program Flipside to discuss her double  album Approximately Infinite Universe. John says engineers like to pretend there's some mystique to recording and they like to treat artists as children. He says Yoko got "the same jazz only more so."Yoko says when she sang, engineers headed off the bathroom leaving only John behind the board.Yoko then performs "Winter Song".One...

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40 Year Itch : I'm Famous But Most People Don't Know What I Do

In this interview conducted during an Australian tour, Zappa discusses new songs "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" and "St Alfonso's Pancake Breakfast"; how he scores the songs and leaves room for improvisation; the kinds of musicians he wants in his band; his favorite Blues guitarists and singers; censorship problems; how songs were based non real stories including a bit about a mud shark at Seattle's Edgewater Inn. He also talks about Hot Rats; future...

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40 Year Itch : King Crimson plays Central Park

King Crimson performs "Easy Money" live at Central Park on June 25, 1973. The line up consists of the same musicians who recorded Larks Tongue in Aspic namely Bill Bruford on drums, Jamie Murr on percussion , John Wetton on bass and vocals, David Cross on violin and keyboards, and Robert Fripp on guitar. According to bootlegs the band playedDoctor Diamond,Larks Tongues In Aspic Pt. I,Easy Money,Improvisation,Exiles,Improvisation,The Talking Drum,Larks...

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40 Year Itch: 1973's Sexiest Album Covers

[Purchase]Two years before they rescued Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks released the poor selling but wonderful sounding Buckingham Nicks. The album has yet to be released on CD. As you can imagine outtakes from the album cover shoot are surprisingly popular for an album that failed to chart.JACKSON HEIGHTS BUMP 'N' GRINDFormed in the UK by former Nice bass player and vocalist Lee Jackson, Jackson Heights suffered poor sales...

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40 Year Itch: Terry Reid plays the Old Grey Whistle Test

[Purchase]On June 19th 1973, Terry Reid and Del Shannon performed on BBC2 's "Old Grey Whistle Test".Reid was promoting one of the year's all time great albums, River. Sit back in awe of this enormous talent and remember Jimmy Page offered him the Led Zeppelin vocalist job before Reid turned Page on to Robert Pla...

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40 Year Itch: My Soul Must Weather the Storm

[Purchase]On June 22, 1973 the Bee Gees hosted The Midnight Special for the second time that year and performed their singles "Run To Me", "I Gotta Get a Message To You"  as well as "Alexander's Ragtime Band" .When they weren't singing they clowned around on stage in an adorable way that might remind you of Beatle antics in Yellow Submarine. ( Yes! They were that animated)Behind the scenes things weren't quite so fun. Despite going #1 in...

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Meet "That Lady"

Purchase 3+3 for $3.99The Isley Brothers 1973 hit "That Lady, Pt 1 and 2", which  peaked at #6 on the pop charts and #2 on the R and B charts,  was actually a remake of their 1964 song "Who's That Lady". The band, made of the three original Isley Brothers and cousins Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley and Chris Jasper, were jamming on the song, trying to give it a Santana feel, when they found that "fine, foxy new" sound.Guitarist Ernie Isley especially...

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Give It A Giggle, Instead Of A Sigh

[Purchase]His second album since parting ways with the James Gang, Joe Walsh's The Smoke You Get The Player You Get went Gold on the strength of the #23 hit "Rocky Mountain Way" --which became one of the first songs many a young bass player would learn in the decades to follow thanks to the fact it has...one note.Most of the album is not riff heavy rock n roll ( there are a lot of acoustic numbers) and it's not really a Joe Walsh solo album. His...

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40 Year Itch : Only Our Rivers Are Free

On June 16, 1973 the legendary modern Irish folk band Planxty's National Stadium concert was first broadcast to the rest of the country. Christy Moore had already become of Ireland's biggest draws when he met up with a group of young, inventive multi-instrumentalists in the village of Prosperous. Together as Planxty, they generated a new sound combing  traditional instrumentation ( bodhran, hurdy gurdy, uilleann pipes, bouzouki) with modern...

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Preachers And Poets and Scholars Don't Know It

[Purchase]Former Animals Keyboardist Alan Price didn't just contribute songs to the three hour Lindsay Anderson film O Lucky Man!. He appears in the film, playing himself, commenting like a Greek Chorus on the misadventures of Malcolm McDowell's coffee salesman. (Not dissimilar to the way Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye appear in Cat Ballou.)Despite the brief running time ( 24:43), Price's soundtrack is one of the decade's best....

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Once Again I'm Free

{out of print}The follow-up to Cymande's now recognized Rastafarian funk cult classic debut ("Bra", "The Message"), Second Time Around barely crept into the Billboard Top 200 LP chart in June of 1973 despite higher production values and a US Tour, opening for Al Green and Mandrill.     In 1974, the 11 piece band , made up of British musicians from much sunnier climes , toured Europe with The Chi Lites and Eddie Kendricks...

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Marvin Gaye releases "Let's Get It On" single

On June 15, 1973 Marvin Gaye released the single "Let's Get It On", a song that makes a strong case for sexual liberation and defined Gaye as one of he great sex symbols of the 70's.   I can't see anything wrong with sex between consenting anybodies. I think we make far too much of it. After all, one's genitals are just one important part of the magnificent human body. I have no argument with the essential part they play in the reproduction...

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Friday Funk : Riding in a Spaceship 1984

            Can't live in 1973 all the time. Here's some Italian disco circa 19...

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Soul Top 20 June 9, 1973

The Spinners celebrate replacing Barry White at #1 on the Soul Charts by playing the Apollo Theater with special guests Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes1. The Spinners : One of a Kind (Love Affair)2. Barry White : I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby3. Dells : Give Your Baby a Standing Ovation4. Gladys Night and the Pips : Daddy Could Swear, I Declare5.Bloodstone : Natural High6. The Independents : Leaving Me7. Chairmen of the Board : Finders...

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Get Down With Something Good

   In 1973, Gilbert O'Sullivan ("Alone Again ( Naturally)" , "Clair") hit #1 in the UK and Ireland and the US Top 10 with this song written to his dog.&nb...

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Two Bands With "Revolving Door Syndrome"

 [Purchase]Savoy Brown guitarist Kim Simmonds is the only consistent member of this UK band that spent most of its time touring in the US. In 1971 Dave Peverett, Roger Earl and Tone Stevens all left the band to form Foghat. The next year vocalist Dave Walker left to join Fleetwood Mac for one album. Simmonds hired a new frontman, Joe Cocker soundalike Jack Lynton for Jack the Toad, an album that sounds like it was influenced by the pub rock...

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The Campus Report June 9, 1973

[Purchase]On the left side of the dial college radio stations were thriving in the early 70's. As non-profits, they didn't need to worry about attracting advertisers so they played what they wanted to. Suddenly, an oasis of progressive music appeared. Thanks to Aquarium Drunkard for his timely post of the Link Wray tune just a week or so ago.WKMXSchoolcraft CollegeLivonia,MIRob Mulrooney reporting1. Speedy Keen "Aries Lady"2. The Kinks "One...

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John and Yoko, Move Over

Billboard full page ad May 1...

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Well Some Call Me Jeepster

 On June 8, 1973 ABC TV broadcast the world premiere of the new T.Rex single "The Groover". Warner Brothers took out two full page ads in Billboard Magazine to hype the event, a last desperate gasp for T.Rex to finally make it in America. Although the single was a Top 10 hit in the UK ( the band's last), it did nothing in the US and, to be honest, I can't even find a copy on any of my T.Rex albums. Sounds to me like T.Rex is imitating its 1971...

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