Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Tractor, "Make the Journey," 1972

British psychedelic/space rock band, whose style was probably a few years too late.  Still, this song surely would have been a sensation in the summer of 1968 (especially if they cut the last few minutes!):

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Comus, "Song to Comus," 1971

Eclectic British folk/psychedelic/progressive band, they have enjoyed a cult following for many years.  This song comes from their debut album:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Tucky Buzzard, "She's Meat," 1971

Last featured in 2020, this British band, produced by Bill Wyman, produced several albums in the early 1970s; this song also comes from the best, second album:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Juicy Lucy, "Missippi Woman," 1969

The lead number from the debut album of this British blues rock band that we last featured in 2019:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Three Man Army, "Polecat Woman," 1974

British hard rock trio active in the early 70s, this is the lead number from their third album:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Third World War, "Ascension Day," 1971

Short-lived British proto-punk band formed in 1970, this is probably the best number from their debut album:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Toe Fat, "Bad Side of the Moon," 1970

Several members of this British band went on to greater fame and fortune with Uriah Heep (Ken Hensley, Lee Kerslake) and Jethro Tull (John Glascock); this is their version of an Elton John song:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Blonde on Blonde, "Conversationally Making the Grade," 1969

Eclectic Welsh rock band, who took their name from the 1966 Bob Dylan album, they did not enjoy much success, but recorded some memorable tunes, including this one:

 

Great moments in classic blues and their rock 'n' roll covers: Bukka White, "Parchman Farm Blues," 1940

This will be the final installment of classic blues performances that were later covered by rock 'n' roll performers.   The regular "Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll" will resume the first Saturday in September.

Bukka White (1906-1977) was another Delta bluesman, who served time in the infamous Parchman Farm prison in Mississippi, memorialized in his probably best-known song:

In 1957, the blues and jazz pianist Mose Allison did his own version, which had a more direct influence on later covers:

Great moments in classic blues and their rock 'n' roll covers: Robert Johnson, "Love in Vain Blues," 1937

Here's two takes by Johnson of this great number made famous three decades later by the Rolling Stones:

And here's the Stones from 1969's Let It Bleed:

 

Great moments in the blues and their rock 'n' roll covers: Robert Johnson, "Cross Road Blues," 1936

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) may be the most famous of the bluesmen of the first half of the 20th-century, and many of his songs have been recorded by rock musicians from the 1960s onwards.   Here's the original of the song Cream made famous for a new generation:

And the cover, by Cream, live in 1968:

Great moments in the blues and their rock 'n' roll covers: William "Big Foot" Harris, "Bullfrog Blues," circa 1927-29

Little is known about William "Big Foot" Harris, who recorded a dozen or so songs in the late 1920s, of which this has become the best-known over time:

The greatest covers of this number are all by Rory Gallagher, of which there are many versions on YouTube.  Here's one of my favorites, from 1976:

Great moments in classic blues and their rock 'n' roll covers: Henry Thomas, "Bull Doze Blues," 1928

In summer 2018, I did a series on the blues roots of rock music; as I wrote then:  "All the best rock 'n' roll is indebted through and through to the blues music produced by African-Americans, first in the American South in the first half of the 20th-century and then moving a bit north (to cites like Chicago) after WWII."  Thanks to the sickness of American apartheid, it largely fell to British and Irish musicians to recapture it and popularize it, although a couple of American bands (e.g., Canned Heat, The Allman Brothers Band) helped.  For the rest of the summer, I'll feature some of the classic blues originals, along with some of the more famous covers.  We'll start with what was the "Bull-Doze Blues" by Henry Thomas (1874-1930), but became far more famous in the 1960s as "Going Up the Country."

And here's the Canned Heat version (very indebted to the original), which became a hit in 1968:

Great moments in live (in the studio) rock 'n' roll: Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughn, "Born Under a Bad Sign," 1983

I'd never seen this clip before, a recording of a live studio session with two great blues guitarists:

(Thanks to Frank Saunders for the pointer.)

 

Great moments in live (folk) rock 'n' roll: Joni Mitchell, "Urge for Going," 1966

This is a remarkable early clip from a somewhat corny Canadian music show (Mitchell's performance starts at about the one minute mark):

(Thanks to Dan Jacobson for calling this to my attention.)

Great moments in live rock 'n' roll: Foghat, "Slow Ride," 1976

Foghat emerged from the British Savoy Brown Blues & Boogie Band, and really made it big in America in the mid-1970s, when they were a staple of stadium rock concerts (and, allegedly, one of the inspirations for the rock satire This is Spinal Tap).   Here's a terrific live performance of one of their signature songs, complete with the long Rod Price slide guitar intro (the video quality is uneven, alas):

 

Great moments in live rock 'n' roll: Deep Purple, "Lazy," 1972

This was the best Deep Purple line-up, recorded live from a tour in Scandinavia after the Machine Head album:  Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Jon Lord on keyboards, Ian Gillan on vocals.

 

Great moments in live rock 'n' roll: Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Killing Floor," 1969

Recorded in Stockholm, this is a pretty raw version of the blues classic, the one an unknown Jimi Hendrix played just three years before on a club stage in London, leading Eric Clapton to walk off after being upstaged:

 

Great moments in live rock 'n' roll: Chicago Transit Authority, "I'm a Man," 1969

Excellent footage of the whole band on this early performance for Beat Club in 1969, before legal threats by the actual CTA forced the band to shorten their name (big mistake by the actual CTA!).  Most of the band members had been students at DePaul University in Chicago.  Gives a nice sense of how good a guitarist the late Terry Kath was.

 

Great moments in live rock 'n' roll: Led Zeppelin, "How Many More Times," 1969

Zeppelin manager Peter Grant generally kept Zeppelin off television programs, but this is rare video of a live recording for a Danish radio program of one of Zeppelin's best blues-ripoffs--complete with Jimmy Page breaking out the violin bow:

 

Great moments in live rock 'n' roll: Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Free Bird," 1977

As long as we're on a Southern Rock theme, this performance of "Free Bird" at the Oakland Colosseum is basically the epitome of 1970s stadium rock.  Just a few months later, lead singer Ronnie Van Zandt and guitarist Steve Gaines (the one with the short beard) were killed in a plane crash.  Indeed, now the only surviving members of the band from that day are guitarist Gary Rossington (the one playing slide guitar) and drummer Artimus Pyle.  (That huge Confederate flag in the background is certainly jarring now, but it generated little controversy back then, although might have something to do with the striking racial composition of the audience!)

 

Great moments in live rock 'n' roll: Marshall Tucker Band, "Ramblin," 1973

Continuing with our new series of live rock 'n' roll video clips, we turn to the Marshall Tucker Band from South Carolina.  Never quite as successful as the Allman Brothers or Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tucker still contributed some staples of "Southern rock," including this rousing live performance of "Ramblin," with the late Toy Caldwell on lead guitar.

 

Great moments in live rock 'n' roll: Allman Brothers, "One Way Out," 1971

We'll take a break for a couple of months from our usual "obscure" fare in favor of some great live performances, mostly of non-obscure songs, but hopefully some readers haven't seen some of these clips.  We'll start with a gem from the Allman Brothers, from their famous show at the Filmore East in 1971, not long before Duane Allman (on slide guitar) died in a motorcyle accident.  And that's Dickey Betts, of course, on lead guitar.

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Bang, "Feels Nice," 1973

Another great number from the Philadelphia hard rock band that never made it to the big time (but made our "top five" finds for 2020):

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Captain Beyond, "Sufficiently Breathless," 1973

The title track of this California band's second album, this is my favorite tune of theirs:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Josefus, "Feeling Good," 1969

Houston hard rock band of the late 60s and early 70s, that we last featured last summer, this number also comes from their first album:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Fuzzy Duck, "Time Will Be Your Doctor," 1971

Another number from the British hard rock/progressive band we featured last fall; this was probably their best-known tune at the time:

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Blodwyn Pig, "Same Old Story," 1970

Another number from Mick Abrahams' post-Jethro Tull band that we've featured in the past; one of my two  favorites songs by the band:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Pax, "A Storyless Junkie," 1972

Peruvian hard/acid rock band that was most active from the late 1960s until the mid-1970s, this great number comes from their debut album:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Jericho Jones, "Man in the Crowd," 1971

Israeli hard rock and sometimes psychedelic band, active from the mid-1960s into the 1970s, sometimes under the name "The Churchills."  This is a representative number from their harder rock phase:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Zior, "I Really Do," 1971

A not very good British hard rock/blues band that did record one memorable number:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Hairy Chapter, "There's a Kind of Nothing," 1971

German hard/acid rock band, this is the lead number of their debut album:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Felix Pappalardi & Creation,"She's Got Me," 1976

After Mountain, bass player (and record producer) Pappalardi teamed up with the Japanese band formerly known as Blues Creation to record a forgettable album, except for the lead track, which isn't bad:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Nicky Hopkins, "Pig's Boogie," 1973

Another solo number by the great rock pianist (a variation on the 1966 version we posted last year):

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Les Variations, "What a Mess Again," 1969

French rock trio (whose members were Jews originally from Morocco), this is the lead number from their debut album:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Bolder Damn, "BRTCD," 1971

This is the lead number from the one and only album of this Florida hard rock band:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Steamhammer, "Contemporary Chick Con Song," 1969

Part of the British blues explosion in the 1960s, this is far and away their best-known number, and what a great one it is (you'll have it on replay I predict):

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Bang, "Mother," 1972

Another great number (this from their second album) from the Philadelphia hard rock trio that deserved to be much more successful than, alas, they were:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Damnation of Adam Blessing, "Last Train to Clarkesville," 1969

Cleveland, Ohio rock band active in the 1960s and 1970s (but never made it to the big time), this brilliant cover of the Monkees' hit comes from their debut album:

(Thanks to Jeff Roland for the pointer.)

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: the five best finds of 2020...

...in my opinion, anyway. Glad to hear yours in the comments (click on the category, "Great Moments in Obscure Rock 'n' Roll" to see this year's selections from which to choose).   When the year started, I was skeptical I would find enough suitable choices, but as it turned out, there were so many good choices, it's hard to settle on just five, so I'm going to list some runners-up too.  (By the way, you can find all these and more--and the best from prior years--on Spotify under "Brian Best of Obscure Rock 60s and 70s"; you may need to search "Bleiter" and then scroll through to find mine.)

Here's my top five:

Bang, "Questions," 1971

The Factory, "Gone," 1968

Freedom, "Nobody," 1970

Josefus, "Country Boy," 1969

Kaleidoscope, "Lie to Me," 1969

And here are my runners-up, which just as easily could have been in the top five:

Blodwyn Pig, "It's Only Love," 1969

Fat, "The Shape I'm In," 1970

Frijid Pink, "Sing a Song for Freedom," 1970

Fuzzy Duck, "Just Look Around You," 1971

Tear Gas, "Big House," 1970

You may add your choices from this year's selections in the comments.

Joe Walsh meets Xmas

40 years ago, in my misspent youth, I had planned to be a rock star, as it were.  I played a passable rhythm guitar, I sang more in tune than Bob Dylan or Neil Young (not by much), and I wrote lots of songs.   I was also fortunate to know a real rock musician, Tommy Williams. Tommy took my simple songs, arranged them, and added lead guitars, bass, keyboards, drums and lead or backing vocals.   Some weren't bad, and once we get around to digitizing them, I'll put them online.   Unlike me, Tommy has made a real career as a musician, since he is a very good one.  Anyway, all this is a prelude to the main point:  each Xmas, Tommy and his wife and son, record Xmas versions of well-known rock songs, in this case, Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way."  Tommy is playing all the guitars--do check out his Xmas twist on the famous guitar "talk box" solos.

(You can find this song and more at Tommy's YouTube channel.)

In Memoriam: Leslie West (1945-2020)

Not a philosopher, but a famed guitarist from rock's Golden Age (1967-1972), born Leslie Weinstein, a nice Jewish boy from Long Island.  Most famously, he played with the band Mountain (which took its name from West's bulk), and then later with Jack Bruce and Corky Laing in a trio.  Here's a few numbers, some obscure, some not so much.

Here they are doing their most famous number, "Mississippi Queen," live at Randall's Island, in the East River just off Manhattan in 1970:

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: T2, "In Circles," 1970

From the debut album of British progressive rock band T2:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Blues Creation, "Atomic Bombs Away," 1971

Japanese hard/blues rock band, this is the lead number from a 1971 album:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Highway Robbery, "Promotion Man," 1972

American hard rock/heavy metal trio, they were supposed to be the next Black Sabbath, but ended up recording only one album before being dropped by RCA.  This is the concluding number from that album:

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Tucky Buzzard, "Time Will Be Your Doctor," 1971

British hard/progressive rock band active in the early 1970s and produced by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones.  This is probably their best-known number:

 

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Speed, Glue & Shinki, "Mr. Walking Drugstore Man," 1970

Japanese power trio led by Hendrix-inspired guitarist Shinki Chen, this is the lead number of their only album:

UPDATE:  On Twitter, Andrew Grossman points out to me that in fact they released a second album, in 1972:  some details here.

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Ancient Grease, "Mother Grease The Cat," 1970

Welsh hard rock band, this comes from their one and only album:

 

A propos nothing...here's the earliest known recording of Joni Mitchell...

...at age 19, singing "House of the Rising Sun."  It's instantly recognizable as her!  What a voice!

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Dimitri, "Got a Dog Named Sally," 1967

Dutch psychedelic band, this is certainly a catchy tune, very much of its moment: