40 Year Itch : Searchin' Everywhere

[Purchase]For his funky smash hit of 1974, Bobby Womack revamped a Top 10 R and B oldie he originally recorded with The Valentinos ten years earlier. He even recruited the Valentinos ( made up of Womack brothers) to back him up. Nothing's changed but the groove.  Even the Women's Lib movement couldn't convince the now 27-year old Womack to switch any lyrics around so he sings of his search for a woman "to fix my breakfast/And bring it to...

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40 Year Itch: Those We Missed Jan '74

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40 Year Itch: Fist Strike

On January 29, 1974 Can recorded a 14 and a half minute instrumental version of  "Tony Wanna Go" in a session for BBC 1 Radio DJ John Peel. The experimental German rock band was still reeling from the loss of vocalist Damo Suzuki who had recently married a German girl , become a Jehovah's Witness and quit music until 1983.Can bassist Holger Czukay summarizes the band's reaction to its new line-up:   For the rest of the group it was...

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40 Year Itch: Like an Atomic Bomb

[Purchase]On January 28, 1974 the hard-touring New York Dolls entered A and R Media Sound Studios on New York City's 57th Street to record their follow-up to the self-titled Todd Rundgren produced debut album. Shadow Morton, best known for his work with The Shangri-La's, was hired to produce the album. The New York Dolls has been performing Morton's "Give Him a Great Big Kiss" on the recently completed six month tour of the US and Europe. Shadow...

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40 Year Itch: Step Right Up...

[Purchase]On January 22, 1974 "Mr Country Music", George Jones recorded one of the saddest divorce songs of all time: "The Grand Tour". The song , produced by Billy Sherrill, would top the country charts in August. The following year his seven year marriage to "Mrs Country Music", Tammy Wynette, would be overYou can take a grand tour of the Lakeland, Florida home Jones and Wynette owned in the early 70's. With a swimming pool shaped like a guitar...

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40 Year Itch: Flash Your Warning Lights

[Purchase]On January 26, 1974 Glam rockers Mud climbed all the way to the top of the pops with "Tiger Feet", the biggest UK single of the year. The tune was written by producers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman who also wrote and produced  Glam rock hits for Sweet ("Little Willy, "Blockbuster", "Ballroom Blitz", "Teenage Rampage") and Suzi Quatro ( "Can the Can", "48 Crash", "Devil Gate Drive"). Emphasis on the good time party beat. De-emphasis...

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40 Year Itch: The Midnight Toker

[Purchase]On the January 25th episode of The Midnight Special Steve Miller  performed his #1 hit "The Joker", which had just peaked a week earlier before being overtaken by Ringo Starr's "You're Sixteen". Miller followed up his smash hit with an early, psychedelic seven-minute version of his future 1976 hit "Fly Like An Eagle".His final tune was "Sugar Babe", another tune from The Joker. Miller introduces the band, including the late James "Curley" Cooke who would go on to found Pacific Northwest Blues in the Schools, a musical outreach program...

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40 Year Itch : The Other Big Star

[Purchase]As we anticipate the February 1974 release of Big Star's Radio City, let's take a moment to listen to one of the Ardent label's other great power pop band, The Hot Dogs. Formed by Memphis rockers Bill Rennie and Greg Redding, The Hot Dogs ( like Cargoe)  share their label mate's love of 60's pop, Beatlesque harmonies and stinging guitar solos. Lead guitarist Terry Manning also produced Alex Chilton's 1970 sessions. Drummer Richard...

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40 Year Itch : A Rhapsody Divine

  On January 23, 1974 Roxy Music performed on the West German music program Musikladen.  Brian Eno was gone, replaced by multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson. An American named Sal Maida played bass on the touring version of Roxy Music. With Ferry dressed for a cocktail party and Phil Manzanera seated on a bar stool, they band played four songs from their latest album, Stranded, and the 1973 Top 10 single "Pyjamaram...

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40 Year Itch : Spot the Starman

[Purchase]On January 22,1974  Cockney Rebel previewed songs from the forthcoming album , The Psychomondo, in a Peel Session recorded for BBC Radio 1 which was broadcast later in June. The band had not broken though on their superb 1973 debut, The Human Menagerie, but rather than get more accessible, Steve Harley and his band just got stranger. The result: a Top Ten album in the UK.The tracks below are:1. Bed in the Corner/ Sling It at (...

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40 Year Itch : One Little Wave

[Purchase]On January 21st, Slade announced its new album, Old, New Borrowed and Blue had gone gold...18 days before it was even released. Advanced orders for copies had earned the band $375,000. It had been nearly two years since Slayed?, the band's last studio effort,  and the first single from the album,  "My Friend Stan",  had already peaked in the UK at #2 , so anticipation was at a boiling point among fans of Glam's loudest rock...

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40 Year Itch: Passport Smiles

[Purchase]"The first truly great pop album of 1974" -Jon Landau, Rolling Stone On January 17, 1974 Joni Mitchell released her sixth, and arguably best, studio album, Court and Spark, to widespread critical acclaim and the best sales of her career. The double platinum album would be voted the best of the year by the Village Voice Pazz and Jop Critics Poll edging out Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic for the honor.      At the time,...

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40 Year Itch: Forming Magic Chandeliers

  On August 18, 1974 off and on Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman recorded the best selling album of his solo career, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, live in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra and The English Chamber Choir. Based on the Jules Verne novel, the concept album topped the UK charts and peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200. It has since sold 14 million copies. The narrator on the album is actor David Hemmings. He is replaced in...

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40 Year Itch: A Folk Waif Rocks Out

  On January 18, 1974, a day after the release of Court and Spark, Joni Mitchell hit the road for the first time in a couple of years, opening her nine month tour of the US and London at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, Missouri. The show began with some jazzy instrumentals from Tom Scott and the LA Express, the session men who played on Court and Spark.        Then Joni came out in a low cut dress. After accepting a bouquet...

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40 Year Itch : How Geffen Signed Dylan

   On January 17, 1974 David Geffen's Asylum Records released two of the year's biggest albums on the same day: Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark and Bob Dylan's Planet Waves. While the albums got the lion's share of the publicity, it was also a coming out party of sorts for the 30 year old millionaire record exec. Not his official "coming out", of course, as he was dating Cher.   "I was the first person to share his bed and to...

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40 Year Itch : Dark Lady Played Back Magic

On January 16, 1974 Cher performed "Dark Lady: on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. After "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves " ( #1,1971)  and " Half Breed" (#1, 1973) ,  "Dark Lady" would be the last of her trio of #1 smash hits. Written by Venture keyboardist  John  Durrill, "Dark Lady" sold more than a million copies in the US and proved to be Cher"s last Top 40 hit in the UK for ten years.On Febuary 13, 1974, The Sonny and Cher Comedy...

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40 Year Itch: Stevie Wonder's 12 Fave Songs

Five months after the car accident that nearly killed him Stevie Wonder and his band Wonderlove played two shows in a single night at the Rainbow Theatre in London. Among those in the audience: Paul and Linda McCartney, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Ringo Starr, Pete Townshend and The Staple Singers. Radio Luxembourg recorded the second show for broadcast.    Asked to make a Sophie's Choice between Innervisions and Talking Book, Wonder said...

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40 Year Itch : Fakewood Mac

The Real Fleetwood Mac[Purchase]           Every fan and record executive who thought Fleetwood Mac consisted of Bob Weston, Christine McVie, Bob Welch, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood must have been very surprised by the Fleetwood Mac touring the US at the start of 1974. Sure, they billed themselves as Fleetwood Mac, but not a single member of that band ever played in the real Mac.The source of the confusion: Mac manager...

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40 Year Itch: Love Is Like A Cloud

[Purchase]Four months after ex Byrds and former Flying Burrito Brother Gram Parsons was found dead at the age of 26 of an overdose in a Joshua Tree,CA motel, his second solo album, Grievous Angel, was released to critical acclaim and little interest from record buyers. They were still buying albums from the singer who died the day after Parsons, Jim Croce.       What did they miss? Well. Grievous Angel sounds like a hodgepodge...

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40 Year Itch : Energy Crisis '74

In early 1974 comedic sampler Dickie Goodman hit the Top 40 with  "Energy Crisis '74" . Not that many Americans found anything amusing about odd-even gas rationing or how one out of five gas stations had run out of gas.Goodman used the same tactic of inter-cutting fake interviews with songs when he recorded his biggest seller would the #4 1975 hit "Mr. Jaws".The songs that were sampled are: Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) by Helen ReddySmokin'...

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