40 Year Itch : Those We Missed October 1973

[Purchase]Bonnie Raitt's third album, Takin' My Time,  is another critically acclaimed gem. Here she broadens her musical canvas to include calypso and dixieland while handing  over all songwriting duties to others ( including Randy Newman , Chris Smither and Jackson Browne). Of the album, often recorded with members of Little Feat,  Bonnie says:"Takin' My Time is one of my favorite records to listen to, although I started out with...

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40 Year Itch : Birth of a Glam Queen

[Purchase]She hasn't owned a dress in years-Offical Suzi Quatro Bio    In 1973 Detroit native Suzi Quatrocchio became a household name in the UK--as Suzi Quatro --thanks to a string of huge hits written by the songwriting powerhouses Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. "Can the Can", a two-million seller topped the UK charts in June of 1973. "48 Crash" peaked at #3 in the UK consolidating her position as a big new--if somewhat androgynous, bass...

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40 Year Itch : Yes is the Answer

[Purchase]Retreating from the political messages of Some Time In New York City. for Mind Games John Lennon focused on his very best subject for songwriting subjects : himself. Sure, there are the Lennon-esque cries for peace and love and understanding but the more personal songs written for Yoko have far more resonance. The Anthology versions of most Mind Games songs are cleaner and more enjoyable. Though fans will argue this is one of Lennon's most...

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1973: The Best of Brazil

The post Tropicalia years offer some of the best music to ever come out of Brazil. While our 1973 retrospective offers a few familiar names from our look at  what happened in 1972, most of the albums we want to focus upon came from a new batch of veteran musicians.[Purchase]Light in the Attic recently reissued this funky gem from Rio singer-songwriter Marcos Valle. The Moog features heavily in Previsao Do Tempo which promises to spray burst...

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Goodbye Lou!

Short of words at the moment , I offer pictures and music in memory of Lou Re...

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40 Year Itch: Midnight Train Hits #1

[Purchase]She was so ubiquitous on the radio, some of us may still be taking the enormous vocal talent of Gladys Knight for granted. We really shouldn't. She could do it all. The smooth soul numbers were the ones that charted but dig a little deeper and you'll find some gritty funk as well.The first Gladys Knight and the Pips album for Buddah Records, Imagination, produced three gold singles including "Midnight Train to Georgia" which hit #1 this...

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40 Year Itch : I'm Crazy Ma. Help Me

[Purchase]On October 26, 1973 The Who released their second rock opera, Quadrophenia, in the UK. The project began as an autobiographical tale of the rise of The Who in the early 60's but eventually Townshend settled for a broader tale of a teen-ager named Jimmy growing up in the Mod/Rocker period with four personalities--each representative of a member of The Who. There was the tough guy of "Helpless Dancer", representing the former sheet metal...

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40 Year Itch: Highlights from Billboard Magazine

    For an idea of what was happening musically this week in 1973, we can flip through a copy of the October issue of Billboard Magazine. On page 2, there's a full page ad for Lou Reed's Berlin, citing a Rolling Stone critic's blurb: "Berlin will be the Sgt Pepper of the Seventies". There are also full page ads for Linda Ronstadt's Don't Cry Now, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells ("This is the album that captivated critics and is now a...

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40 Year Itch: By the Wings of Dreams

On October 24, 1973 the film Jonathan Livingston Seagull made its world premiere at the Sutton Theater in New York City. Based on the best selling spiritual novella by Richard Bach, the movie managed to become a box office flop and a disappointment to critics. (Roger Ebert wrote "This has got to be the biggest pseudo-cultural, would-be metaphysical ripoff of the year" while The New Yorker's Frank Rich called it "Strictly for the birds").That didn't...

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40 Year Itch : Well I've Been Out Walking

[Purchase]In October of 1973, Jackson Browne released his second album, For Everyman, a collection of songs old and new, recorded with some of the West Coast's most talented musicians including David Crosby, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Elton John ( who, as "Rockaday Johnnie",  played piano on the single "Redneck Friend"). Among the older songs is "These Days", first recorded by Nico , then Tom Rush, then The...

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40 Year Itch : The Campus Report

For October 19, 1973   According to Tulane University's John Abbott, WTUL's Top 3 most played albums this week were1. Grover Washington Jr : Soulbox2. Sopwith Camel: The Miraculous Hump Returns from the Moon 3. Tim Buckley SefroniaWhile across Freret street, at Loyola University, Thaddeus Jones reported these three albums were the most played1. The Meters Cabbage Alley2. Severin Brown (st)3. Elvin Jones Mr JonesFinally, Wake Forest's...

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40 Year Itch: The Mysterious Alvin Stardust

It was just a brief item in the October 26th issue of Billboard Magazine:Newly formed Magnet Records will release four singles before Christmas for distribution through CBS. The first, "My Coo Ca Choo" by mystery singer Alvin Stardust has received Powerplay plugging on Radio Luxembourg. Stardust is stated to be a familiar music business figure, but his identity is not disclosed.Ah! The hype of those early years of Glam Rock! Alvin Stardust was...

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40 Year Itch: Really Love Your Peaches Wanna Shake Your Tree

[Purchase]The story of The Joker, the album that finally broke the Steve Miller Band, begins a year earlier, in 1972, when Steve Miller broke his neck in a car accident on the way to the airport, where he was heading on yet another big tour to support a moderately selling album. He told me:  I fractured a vertebrae.I'm dealing with it right now. I got like three numb little fingers right here and kind of a bad arm over here.  Steve...

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40 Year Itch : Creem Magazine's Top 10 Jazz Albums of 1973

Creem Magazine readers clearly prefer jazz with rock song structure so their Top 10 reads like a Who's Who of fusion ..minus anything with funk overtones like Headhunters or Donald Byrd. At the end of the list see Downbeat Magazine's list.10. Considered by many at the time as the best guitarist in the world9.Brazilian crossover artist hit the Top 20 Billboard album charts with Deodato 28.Two John Coltrane covers on this lp by Sir Chinmoy devotees7.A...

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