Classic Rock Review: Warren Zevon's Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School (1980)

Facing the new decade, the legendary Warren Zevon had a tough act to follow…his third album, 1978’s Excitable Boy, had yielded a Top 30 hit in “Werewolves of London,” an enduring classic of ‘70s rock that has since appeared in numerous movies and been covered by bands like the Grateful Dead and the Flamin’ Groovies, among others. The chart success of the song (peaking at #21) fueled sales of the album, pushing it into the Top 10 (to #8) and almost-immediate Gold™ Record status for over half-a-million platters sold. Other songs from Excitable Boy – “Lawyers, Guns & Money,” “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner,” “Johnny Strikes Up the Band,” and the enthusiastic title track – established Zevon as an intelligent and erudite, if quirky songwriter and vocalist possessing a way with words and a taste for the macabre.

Warren Zevon’s Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School

Released in February 1980, Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School was an appropriate, if slightly less commercially-successful, follow-up to Excitable Boy. From the album title to the material contained herein, Zevon’s whipsmart lyrics and dark humor dominate over an all-star cast of musicians that included longtime collaborator Jorge Calderón; multi-instrumental talent David Lindley; guitarists Jackson Browne, Waddy Wachtel, and Joe Walsh; singer Linda Ronstadt; and members of the Eagles. The album features six original Zevon songs (plus two instrumental “interludes”) alongside a single cover song and co-writes with Calderón, T-Bone Burnett (who had toured with Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue), and another rising rock ‘n’ roll star, Bruce Springsteen.

At the time of its release, critics were rather lukewarm on Bad Luck Streak, with Robert Christgau giving the album a rare B- grade (most of Zevon’s albums rated As). Writing in Rolling Stone magazine, critic Jay Cocks was complimentary overall, but most reviewers were seemingly confused by Zevon’s oddball songs and poignant glimpses into his own humanity. The album has since found kindness in reappraisal, with All Music Guide’s Mark Deming writing in 2015, “the album’s rockers hit harder and cut deeper than any of his previous work,” concluding that “while Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School didn’t quite return Zevon to the top of his game, it made clear that the quality of Warren Zevon was no fluke, and is a stronger effort than Excitable Boy in nearly every respect.”

I have to agree with Deming…Bad Luck Streak is overall a strong creative effort, an album that builds upon the strengths of its predecessor while inching, albeit slowly, onto new creative ground. Co-produced by Zevon and Greg Ladanyi (who’d worked with Browne and Fleetwood Mac), the pair perfectly capture the talents of the assorted instrumentalists while still placing an emphasis on Zevon’s strong, evocative vocals and poetic lyrics. The album-opening title track is a bit of a bawdy throw-away (“dancing school” a longtime euphemism for a brothel), but the song’s fierce fretwork and introductory orchestral flourishes point towards Zevon’s symphonic ambitions. An inspired cover of Ernie K-Doe’s 1961 hit “A Certain Girl” skews closer to the Yardbirds’ 1964 version than the New Orleans R&B of the original, but Zevon’s call-and-response vocals, backed by a chaotic instrumental soundtrack, provided the singer with his second charting hit single.
 
Bad Luck Streak picks up steam with the muscular ode to mercenary soldiers, “Jungle Work,” which features strident vocals, iron-pumping percussion, and Joe Walsh’s jagged guitar licks. The grand ballad “Empty-Handed Heart” (featuring a verse sung by Ronstadt) was written for Zevon’s impending divorce and reveals a sliver of the singer’s inner turmoil. “Bed of Coals” and “Wild Age” are of a similar thread, the former a lovely piano-driven ballad and the latter a more mid-tempo tune with a melodic groove; both songs delve inward, lyrically, as Zevon attempts to face up to his shortcomings with self-reflection, the emotion supported by Lindley’s wiry yet nuanced fretwork.

Play It All Night Long

At the core of Bad Luck Streak are the three songs that anchor the album and save it, perhaps, from melancholy and maudlin sentiment. “Play It All Night Long” is a dark-hued caricature of life in the deep south that cleverly references Lynyrd Skynyrd while revealing the lie behind the glorification of the Southern lifestyle. With barbed lyrics that address poverty, racism, and substance abuse, Zevon delivers one of his most scathing vocal performances above the mournful sounds of Browne’s guitar and Lindley’s pedal steel. The Springsteen co-write, “Jeannie Needs A Shooter,” was released as the second single from the album, and it should have been a huge hit. Zevon’s lyrics are inscrutable, as usual, but the song’s tale of romance and betrayal, and Walsh’s imaginative lead guitar – bolstered by slight background orchestration and a strong melody – should have helped the song receive a modicum of chart success.

“Gorilla, You’re A Desperado” is too often considered the album’s novelty song, a pithy comedic throwaway that lightens the mood before the one-two punch of introspection that closes Bad Luck Streak. I view it differently, however, and have long considered the song a savage satire of the music biz specifically and the entertainment industry-dominated Southern California lifestyle in general. Yes, it’s a funny song with visual lyrics and an infectious melody and plenty of meta references but it also features a jaunty, cheeky Zevon vocal performance alongside Jackson Browne’s tasteful slide-guitar playing and a rich musical backdrop. It’s novel only in that the song is an unbridled expression of Zevon’s imagination, which makes it a worthy successor to “Werewolves of London.”

Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School would enjoy modest success, with the aforementioned “A Certain Girl” haunting the upper half of the Billboard “Hot 100” singles chart while the album itself notched a #20 placement on the albums chart, not too shabby a showing considering that Zevon was uniquely out-of-step with musical trends at the time. The stopgap live album Stand In the Fire was released in late 1980, followed by the eccentric collection The Envoy in 1982. In spite of his earlier commercial success, Asylum Records dumped Zevon after The Envoy failed to chart, and as the artist sunk into drug and alcohol abuse, he wouldn’t record again for five years and the critically-acclaimed 1987 album Sentimental Hygiene…but that’s a story for another time. (Asylum Records, 1980)

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Classic Rock Review: Gregg Allman’s Laid Back (1973)

The tragic death of his brother Duane in October 1971 had a profound effect on Gregg Allman, who would develop an often-times debilitating substance abuse problem in its wake. Although the Allman Brothers Band continued truckin’ after the loss of its founder, releasing the critically-acclaimed 1972 double-album Eat A Peach – which also included Duane’s last recordings – the album’s commercial success (peaking at #4 on the Billboard album chart and achieving Platinum™ sales levels) ensured that the ABB would attempt another bite of the apple. Frictions grew within the band, with singer, songwriter, and guitarist Dickie Betts often butting heads with band namesake Gregg over the band’s creative direction.

Gregg began thinking about exploring a solo career and, in late ’72, he began work on Laid Back, with friend and former bandmate Johnny Sandlin co-producing the album. Desiring to explore musical avenues apart from the ABB, Allman had Sandlin enlist a talented crop of musicians, including old friends like guitarists Scott Boyer and Tommy Talton (from the Southern rock band Cowboy) and keyboardists Chuck Leavell (a future ABB member) and Paul Hornsby as well as bandmates Jaimoe and Butch Trucks. The album’s eight songs featured four written by Allman, one Boyer composition, and a couple of choice cover songs that explored the possibilities of rock, blues, jazz, gospel, and R&B music (i.e. Americana).

The resulting mix of sounds on Laid Back found an audience not only among ABB fans but also with newcomers who appreciated Allman’s soulful vocals and the album’s “laid back” blend of instrumentation and melodic musical styles. The hit single was Allman’s “Midnight Rider,” probably as close to the ABB sound as the singer would get here, an eerie swamp-rock soundtrack resonating behind Allman’s haunted vocals. There are other solid moments here, though – the smoky late-night blues vibe of “Queen of Hearts,” which offers jazzy undercurrents; an inspired, up-tempo cover of the 1964 R&B hit “Don’t Mess Up A Good Thing”; and the gospel fervor of the traditional “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” – all of which drove the album to #13 on the charts, selling better than half a million copies. It also launched Allman’s solo career, separating him from his longtime band and ensuring a musical legacy of his own. (Capricorn Records, 1973)

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Classic Rock Review: Mick Abrahams’ A Musical Evening with Mick Abrahams (1971)

Mick Abrahams was Jethro Tull’s original axeman, splitting after Tull’s 1968 debut LP This Was over arguments with bandleader Ian Anderson concerning the band’s musical direction. Abrahams would go on to form Blodwyn Pig, a British blues-rock band with a heavy jazz undercurrent not unlike what John Mayall was pursuing at the time, releasing two albums with that band before hitting the solo circuit.

A Musical Evening with Mick Abrahams (often shortened to just Mick Abrahams) was the guitarist’s solo debut, a mixed effort that showcases his six-string skills while also revealing the gaps in his songwriting abilities. The album-opening “Greyhound Bus” offers an infectiously-funky rhythm with scraps of Abrahams’ guitar shining through the dense mix alongside Bob Sargeant’s keyboard riffs, while “Awake” presages prog-rock with its dark ambience, subdued vocals, and instrumental prowess. The fleet-of-foot “Big Queen” is similarly priggish, but with blues threads woven throughout similar to what Mountain, Bloodrock, and even Beck, Bogart & Appice would be doing a year or two hence.  

However, the album goes off the tracks with the curious, weak-kneed “Winds of Change,” which is too soft-edged for blues-rock, its psychedelic pretensions a few years past the “sell by” date. Abrahams’ “Seasons” partially redeems the album’s excesses; a more straight-forward rocker with blues and prog tendencies, there is plenty of ominous keyboards, razor-sharp fretwork, and exotic instrumentation beneath the gang vocals to fill the song’s lengthy 15-minute run time. While not the most auspicious of debut albums, A Musical Evening with Mick Abrahams offers a glimpse of the guitarist’s immense talents. Abrahams would take keyboard wizard Bob Sargeant and big-beat drummer Richie Dharma with him to the Mick Abrahams Band for a single LP the following year. (Chrysalis Records, 1971)

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Classic Rock Review: David Bowie's Pinups (1973)

In 1973, British teens were deeply in the grip of “glam-rock,” with David Bowie and Marc Bolan of T.Rex sitting atop of a cultural phenomenon that included hitmakers like Slade, Sweet, Cockney Rebel, Mott the Hoople, and Roxy Music as well as a legion of lesser-known bands. Glam even paddled its way onto U.S. shores in the forms of Lou Reed, Suzi Quatro, and the New York Dolls. Bowie himself was riding high with three U.K. Top Ten albums (Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, and Aladdin Sane), the latter two of which also struck gold stateside.

David Bowie’s Pinups

While Bowie was working on a vaguely-defined concept album based on George Orwell’s post-war dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (elements of which he’d weave into 1974’s Diamond Dogs), Bowie enlisted guitarist Mick Ronson and bassist Trevor Bolder from his former backing band the Spiders From Mars, along with Bluesbreakers drummer Aynsley Dunbar, to record a label-pacifying “stopgap” collection of cover tunes. With a track list comprised of mid-to-late ‘60s British records that Bowie loved as a younger man, Pinups was designed with an eye towards wooing teenaged American fans unfamiliar with the original versions of the songs.

Critics unfairly assailed Pinups, many writing that Bowie’s renditions of songs by the Pretty Things, Them, the Yardbirds, the Who, and others weren’t as good as the originals. Blah, blah, blah…these reviews missed the point, really, as Bowie performed these personal faves not with mindless mimicry of the originals but rather in his own unique fashion, reinterpreting them as he saw fit. He retained enough of the original flavor and melodic hooks to reel in listeners, but delivered them with passion and energy that created an irresistible playlist that appealed to fans like catnip. For many of us Bowie fans at the time, this was the first we heard some of these songs, prompting many to go out and look up the originals. It’s safe to say that the Pretty Things won over more than a few new fans stateside after hearing Bowie singing “Don’t Bring Me Down” or “Rosalyn.”

Like usual, Bowie was ahead of the trends, recording an album of cover songs as a lark at the peak of his 1970s-era commercial success. Truthfully, though, Pinups is a good album by any standard of rock ‘n’ roll. The aforementioned PT’s song “Rosalyn” takes the band’s basic blues-infused garage-rock blueprint, spins the tempo up to punk-rock levels of energy, and lets Ronson cut loose with his dynamic, razor-sharp riffing. The song quickly jumps into a tearful reading of Them’s “Here Comes the Night” which captures all the blue-eyed soul and heartbreak of Van Morrison’s original, while the Yardbirds’ cover of Billy Boy Arnold 1955 song “I Wish You Would” is all but shorn of its Chicago blues roots in favor of a piercing Ronson guitar riff and an uncompromising and fiercely reckless arrangement.

Sorrow

The Mojos – which counted Aynsley Dunbar among their early members – are one of the more obscure choices here, and the band’s “Everything’s Alright” builds upon the song’s British Invasion roots with a glammed-up arrangement heavy on Bowie’s vocal gymnastics and Dunbar’s tribal rhythms. The Who’s “I Can’t Explain” veers delightfully onto Roxy Music turf with a slowed-down, almost languid performance punctured by cacophonic blasts of saxophone. Bowie raids the Peter Townshend songbook again for “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” the singer playing it straight down the line with a close-to-the-sleeve vocal performance wrapped around Dunbar’s Keith Moon-styled drum pyrotechnics.   
 
The mournful “Sorrow,” which had been a U.K. chart hit for both the McCoys in 1965 and the Merseys in ’66, was the break-out song from Pinups, and while it rose to #3 on the U.K. charts (#1 in Australia!), it found only a few diehard fans in the U.S. Bowie’s rendition is superior to either of the previous versions, offering the perfect balance of lovelorn melancholy and creative risks (in Bowie’s gorgeous multi-tracked vocals). By contrast, the Easybeats’ “Friday On My Mind” displays Bowie’s chameleonlike ability to take on different musical styles with ease, the singer delivering a spry and energetic pop-styled vocal riding atop Ronson’s scorching guitar licks. The Yardbirds’ “Shapes of Things” was another fetching tune that prompted young fans to seek out the original, Bowie balancing art and tradition with a reckless and joyful vocal performance. 

In spite of the critical barbs levied on it at the time, Pinups has weathered the decades since its release. Placed in the context of Bowie’s lengthy career – which spanned six decades and better than two dozen studio albums – Pinups is seen as a bona fide artistic triumph. With Pinups, Bowie stamped “paid” on his glam-rock persona, allowing the artist to extend himself musically wherever he chose to go. What the critics don’t know, the fanboys understand, and Pinups carried on Bowie’s commercial winning streak, topping the U.K. albums chart, hitting Top 30 in the U.S. and setting the stage for the enormous success of the following year’s Diamond Dogs. (RCA Records, 1973)

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Classic Rock Review: Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys' The Street Giveth...and the Street Taketh Away (1969)

Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys were a bunch of roots-rockers from New York City, playing what I’d call “hippie music,” i.e. an inspired blend of rock, country, blues, and folk music not dissimilar to what fellow travelers like Moby Grape, Poco, and even Buffalo Springfield were doing at the time. Formed in 1967 by bassist Roy Michaels and keyboardist Bob Smith, Michaels had been a member of the Au Go Go Singers with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay before they formed Buffalo Springfield. The pair added guitarists Charlie Chin and Larry Packer and drummer Michael Equine and set out to conquer the world of rock ‘n’ roll.

Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys quickly garnered a fan following through regular appearances at Café Wha? which, in turn, led to them becoming the house band at the infamous Electric Circus club in the East Village. A series of free concerts at Tompkins Square Park established Cat Mother as part of a thriving Greenwich Village music scene that included bands like the Lovin’ Spoonful, Blues Project, and the Youngbloods. They came to the attention of manager Michael Jeffrey, who was Jimi Hendrix’s mercurial overseer, and he got them a deal with the newly-formed Polydor Records label, opening slots for Hendrix, and a high-profile gig at the 1969 Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, playing alongside folks like Chuck Berry and the Doors.

Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys’ The Street Giveth...

The association with Jeffrey and Hendrix led to the guitarist co-producing Cat Mother’s debut album, The Street Giveth…and the Street Taketh Away. How much of the album’s impact is due to Jimi and how much to the band is lost to time but, considering the loose-knit, ramshackle countryish rock sound that Cat Mother achieved, I’d have to say that the production leans in their direction. The Street Giveth… opens with the too-clever-by-half “Good Old Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a medley of sorts that included heaps of honky-tonk piano, spirited vocals, and stinging guitar. A tribute to the music of the band’s youth, it incorporates scraps of “Sweet Little Sixteen” (Chuck Berry), “Long Tall Sally” (Little Richard), “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” (Jerry Lee Lewis), “Blue Suede Shoes” (Carl Perkins), and “Party Doll” (Buddy Knox), all strung together with original lyrics and musical passages.

“Good Old Rock ‘n’ Roll” was a surprise hit, rising to #21 on the pop chart and dragging the album along for the ride to #55 on the charts. It didn’t hurt that much of the rest of The Street Giveth…, while not in a similar vein, was nevertheless a strong collection of songs, musically and lyrically. “Favors” is built on a bluesy underlying riff straight out of the Doors’ playbook, but incorporates hard-rocking instrumentation, scorching fretwork, and gorgeous harmony vocals amidst the din. The folkish “Charlie’s Waltz” is a delightful story-song with sonorous vocals and a lush soundtrack that offers swirling crescendos of instrumentation while “How I Spent My Summer” is more in the style of Country Joe & the Fish, a country-tinted rocker with complex instrumentation, mesmerizing keyboards, and strong harmony vocals.

With a band as eclectic as Cat Mother, no single song can be considered a “departure” from their sound, but “Probably Won’t” comes close to qualifying, the song’s strident lyrics and piano-drums-bass rhythmic track setting it apart from much of the album’s good-time sounds. The following “Can You Dance To It?” evinces a funky, strutting rhythm with Southern-fried git-pickin’ that could pass for Steve Cropper or Elvin Bishop. By contrast, “Bad News” captures a big-band sound not unlike Blood, Sweat & Tear’s first album, a bluesy undercurrent and jazzy flourished balanced by rustic rock ‘n’ roll similar to the Band. The album-closing, nine-minute instrumental jam “Track In A” would become a longtime fan favorite, the song a jazzy romp with plenty of cowbell, multi-layered keyboards, exotic rhythms, and elegant fretwork that rolls along to a satisfying finish.

Vital, Energetic, Creative & Entertaining

In a year that boasted of debut albums from heavyweight talents like Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, the Flying Burrito Brothers, the MC5, Free, the James Gang, Joe Cocker, Poco, Alice Cooper, Blind Faith, Yes, Humble Pie, the Stooges, Santana, and King Crimson (among others…yeah, 1969 was a GREAT year for rock music!), Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys still had a lot to brag about. The Street Giveth…and the Street Taketh Away delivered on the band’s promise, masterfully combining disparate music styles into a cohesive sound that was as complex as any albums by their contemporaries. Fifty-plus years on from its release, The Street Giveth… still sounds vital, energetic, creative, and entertaining, a relic from an earlier era where musicians could (sometimes) get their groove on without market interference.  

To get out from under Jeffrey’s management and away from an increasingly stressful life in NYC, Cat Mother moved out to the west coast – first to San Francisco and later to a communal household in Mendocino – and dropped the “All Night Newsboys” from the band’s name. They would record three more albums for Polydor – 1970’s Albion Doo-Wah, 1972’s Cat Mother, and 1973’s Last Chance Dance – pursuing a more country-rock sound. Most of the band members continued to play music after Cat Mother’s mid-‘70s break-up, with Michaels landing in Austin, Texas by way of Thailand; Smith remaining in Mendocino and playing with various local outfits; and Packer joining Sha Na Na and playing with folks like Lou Reed and Hall and Oates. For a few years in the early ‘70s, however, Cat Mother was one of the most innovative and entertaining bands to cram country and rock music into a single loose-fitting straitjacket. (Polydor Records, 1969)

Classic Rock Review: Blind Faith's Blind Faith (1969)

Blind Faith was one of the classic rock era’s first ‘supergroups’, comprised of members of the chart-busting blues-rock band Cream (guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker) and prog-rock pioneers Traffic (singer/keyboardist Steve Winwood) and Family (bassist Ric Grech). Growing out of informal jam sessions by Clapton and Winwood in the wake of the break-ups of their previous bands, Blind Faith was never really built to last. The same ol’ tensions that helped Cream crack-up surfaced again and Clapton’s artistic restlessness found him increasingly isolated while on tour, where he spent more time with opening act Delaney & Bonnie than his own bandmates.

Clapton jumped ship after the last tour date, hooking up with the aforementioned D&B and associated musicians that would later become Derek & the Dominoes. The remaining members of Blind Faith formed Ginger Baker’s Air Force but, after a single album with the mercurious drummer, Winwood rang up his former mates in Traffic and the re-formed band recorded its classic comeback LP, John Barleycorn Must Die. This isn’t to say that Blind Faith didn’t accomplish anything during their lone year of existence – the band’s much-ballyhooed debut concert was played in front of 100,000 fans in Hyde Park in London, and their self-titled debut disc would top the charts in both the U.S. and the U.K. They stirred up a bit of controversy as well over the artwork of the British release of the album, which featured a photo of a topless eleven-year-old girl. A bog-standard group photo graced the front of the U.S. album release.

Blind Faith’s Blind Faith

As successful as the album may have been commercially, it received mixed reviews at the time as rock critics like The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau and Rolling Stone magazine’s Ed Leimbacher slagged the band’s efforts. Regardless, the album has withstood the test of time as not only one of the best works of the classic rock era but also representing a creative highpoint in the musicians’ careers. Blind Faith, the album, only offers us six songs but they run a collective 40+ minutes, which was actually long for the vinyl era. Album-opener “Had To Cry Today” is a Winwood original that is indistinguishable from past and future Traffic tunes save for Clapton’s savage riffing and the band’s stunning instrumental jam, which extended the piece to almost nine minutes.

Winwood’s “Cant Find My Way Home” is one of three bona fide gems on the album, the band weaving an intricate, soulful combination of blues, rock, and jazzy prog with wistful vocals, elegant filigree guitar, and uncharacteristically subdued drumwork by Baker which, combined with Grech’s underrated bass playing, creates a melodic rhythmic backdrop for Winwood’s haunting vocals. A cover of Buddy Holly’s “Well All Right” brings a contemporary prog-rock complexity to the rockabilly legend’s three-chord pop, although Winwood’s lengthy piano solo breaks whatever spell the band had woven with the song.

Baker’s “Do What You Like,” which runs 15 minutes and dominates the album’s second side, is perhaps the only misstep here. The Afro-funk-flavored performance mirrors what the drummer would creatively expand upon with Air Force (and with his work with African legend Fela Kuti), but while it’s not without its charms, it wears out its welcome here with too much meandering. Two shorter songs would have been more effective. The album’s other two treasures can be found in Clapton’s “Presence of the Lord” and Winwood’s “Sea of Joy.” The former is an ethereal, Gospel-tinged number with gracious Winwood vocals and somber keyboards while Clapton lights up the instrumentation with a soaring, innovative, and appropriately-toned guitar solo. The latter song is in a similar vein, with deft guitarplay, a sympathetic rhythmic track, scraps of wiry fretwork and autoharp, and truly otherworldly vocals by Winwood.

Although Clapton disliked his short time with Blind Faith, his friendship with Winwood continues to this day, and both men are justifiably proud of the music they made together. Both have enjoyed solo careers of varying degrees of success, and both are Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductees (Clapton with The Yardbirds, Cream, and solo and Winwood with Traffic). Blind Faith was but one notable stop along the journey for two classic rock legends. (Polydor Records, 1969)

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Blind Faith 1969

 

Classic Rock Review: The Alabama State Troupers' Road Show (1972)

Memphis music legend Don Nix made his bones as part of the Stax Records family tree. He wrote the blues standard “Going Down” which, although originally recorded by hometown boys Moloch, would find fortune in the hands of artists like Freddie King and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Nix hung around with talents like Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, and George Harrison and produced albums by folks like John Mayall and Albert King, so Elektra Records thought they had a hot property when they signed the Southern singer, songwriter, and producer.

When Nix’s label debut, 1971’s Living By the Days, failed to chart, however, Elektra started looking for another angle to break the artist. I’m not sure who came up with the “road show” concept (the CD reissue liner notes credit the label’s Nashville A&R director Russ Miller), but Nix jumped into the project enthusiastically, assembling a touring band that included regional talents like guitarists Wayne Perkins and Tippy Armstrong, pianist Clayton Ivey, and the “Mt. Zion Choir,” which included backing singers Brenda Patterson and Marlin Greene. The tour was designed to showcase Elektra label artists Nix, Jeanie Greene, and Lonnie Mack but, when Mack backed out at the last minute, Nix wisely recruited Memphis bluesman Furry Lewis to take his place.

As shown by the Alabama State Troupers’ Roadshow – a two-LP set pieced together from a pair of October 1971 shows in California – Nix’s inspired blending of Southern rock, blues, soul, and gospel music was decades ahead of its time (we call it ‘Americana’ these days). Lewis is provided the entire first side of the vinyl to spin his mesmerizing country-blues yarns, and those lucky bastards who paid $1.50 a ticket for the shows soaked in dynamic performances of gospel songs like “Jesus On the Mainline” and “Mighty Time” alongside furious rockers like “Asphalt Outlaw Hero,” “Olena” and, of course, “Going Down.” It’s an album entirely of its time, a timeless amalgam of American music that has only grown in appreciation since its release. (Elektra Records, 1972)

Also on That Devil Music.com: Furry Lewis - Good Morning Judge CD review

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Classic Rock Review: Badfinger's No Dice (1970)

Widely-considered as the “Godfathers of Power-Pop,” Badfinger’s storied career dated back to the early 1960s. Formed in 1961, the band ran through names like the Black Velvets and the Wild Ones before settling on the Iveys. A typical British R&B outfit, the Iveys played Top 40 chart hits, Motown, psychedelic-rock, blues, and soul while touring with better-known outfits like the Who, the Yardbirds, and the Spencer Davis Group. They would come to the attention of the Beatles and, signed to that band’s Apple Records label, would change their name and start the long slog of moving out of the long shadow of their benefactors.

No Dice was the second album recorded under the Badfinger band name and features the “classic” line-up of guitarists Pete Ham and Joey Molland, bassist Tom Evans, and drummer Mike Gibbins, all of whom share vocals at one time or another. It’s an odd album, and not what fans might expect, in spite of the power-pop blueprint “No Matter What,” an engaging slice of guitar-driven chart candy that would become the band’s second Top 10 U.K. and U.S. single. Although a lot of the album’s exercises in rock ‘n’ roll reflect the uncertainty of the changing decades (as well as upheaval in the Beatles camp and Apple Records), there are a number of gems hidden in these grooves.

The Ham/Evans co-write “Without You” would become a big hit for Harry Nilsson a year after Badfinger’s hauntingly beautiful and sublime version. The rollicking, country-tinged “Better Days” offers up some stellar fretwork and harmony vocals while the rockin’ “Love Me Do” one-ups the Beatles with a stomping ‘50s throwback soundtrack. Evans’ “Believe Me” is a Paul McCartney solo track by any standard with plaintive, yearning vocals and lush instrumental accompaniment and “We’re For the Dark” closes No Dice with an elegant folk-pop tune boasting of elegant guitarplay and Ham’s warm vocals. Oddly enough, only “No Matter What” was released as a single off the album, although there are easily a couple of other worthy candidates here.     

Badfinger peaked commercially with the band’s 1971 album Straight Up, which would ride the Top 10 U.S. hits “Day After Day” and “Baby Blue” to a #31 position on the Billboard albums chart. Financial mismanagement, personnel changes, the demise of Apple Records, numerous lawsuits, and other issues plagued the band until its break-up in 1975 following the death of Pete Ham by suicide. Broker than broke, Badfinger members Molland and Evans re-formed the band in the late ‘70s and released albums in 1979 (Airwaves) and 1981 (Say No More) before breaking up again, each man touring with their own version of Badfinger in the early ‘80s. Despondent over an argument concerning royalties, Evans took his own life in 1983. Joey Molland continued to lead Badfinger, in one form or another, into the 2000s while also releasing several solo albums. (Apple Records, 1970)

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Classic Rock Review: Black Sabbath's Paranoid (1970)

If Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut album, released in February 1970, was a shot across the bow of music biz politesse, then their sophomore effort, Paranoid, tore down the gates and announced that the freebooters were here to rampage and plunder. Released a mere seven months after their debut, the album represented a large creative leap forward for the foursome of Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass), and Bill Ward (drums). The touchstone for several subsequent sub-genres of heavy metal – as well as a foundational album for the metal genre altogether – there’s literally not a bad song to be found on Paranoid.

Kicking off with the anti-war dirge “War Pigs,” Iommi introduces his heavy, riff-based guitar technique to a legion of stoners while Ozzy’s sepulchre vocals perfectly match the Sturm und Drang of Butler’s lyrics. Producer Roger Bain added some sound effects to the mix while Ward’s explosive drumbeats drive the song’s lyrical narrative. The result ranks among the top two or three most influential metal songs ever recorded. The breakneck title song – literally thrown together in the studio at the last minute to pad out the album – shows the band channeling arcane forces with a thrashy descent into madness that would make “Paranoid” perhaps the most influential heavy metal track of all time (or only second, perhaps, to Deep Purple’s “Smoke On the Water”). Sabbath wasn’t content with merely resting on the success of the first couple of ball-breakers on Paranoid, nosirree…they go on to dredge up the most devastating sonic sludge that they could conceive of in the proto-metal daze of the dawn of the new decade.

The hallucinogenic psychedelic mindfuck of “Planet Caravan” is directly responsible for the creation of bands like Saint Vitus, Kyuss, the Obsessed, and Electric Wizard while the plodding, metal-clad golem “Iron Man” has taken on legs of its own beyond Paranoid. Songs like “Electric Funeral” and “Hand of Doom” display a heretofore unknown, uranium-strength level of heaviness and radioactivity while the album-closing “Fairies Wear Boots” (with its intricate musical intro often listed separately as “Jack the Stripper”) cranked the amps to absurd levels, Ozzy’s epochal vocals matched by jackhammer rhythms and Iommi’s six-string pyrotechnics. A new wind was blowing in from Merry Olde England, driving Paranoid to #1 in the U.K. and #12 on the U.S. albums chart, eventually selling more than four million flapjacks on its way to making Sabbath international rock stars. (Warner Brothers Records, 1970)

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Classic Rock Review: Leon Russell's Carney (1972)

Rock ‘n’ roll legend Leon Russell began his career as an in-demand session musician, playing on albums by artists like Jan & Dean, the Beach Boys, and Dick Dale as part of the Wrecking Crew conglomerate of L.A. studio professionals. After recording a pair of albums with guitarist Marc Benno as Asylum Choir, Russell put in time on the road with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends (where he met George Harrison and Eric Clapton) and, following Joe Cocker’s Top 20 chart success with Russell’s song “Delta Lady,” as the musical director for Cocker’s 1970 Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour.

Somewhere in between all this activity, Russell found the time to record his self-titled 1970 solo debut which, although peaking at #60 on the Billboard album chart, would yield one of the songwriter’s most enduring compositions in “A Song For You.” Recorded through the years by artists as diverse as the Carpenters, Ray Charles, Cher, Willie Nelson, Aretha Franklin, and the Temptations, among a couple hundred others, “A Song For You” would be inducted into the Grammy™ Hall of Fame in 2018. Russell would follow up his debut a year later with the Top 20 charting LP Leon Russell & the Shelter People, which featured both original songs and covers of tunes by George Harrison and Bob Dylan. Carney, Russell’s third album, was released in June 1972 to much anticipation from the artist’s growing fan base.

The album did not disappoint, the original slate of songs displaying Russell’s trademark quirkiness and musically adventuresome spirit. Nowhere is Russell’s free spirit more apparent than on the delightful “Tight Rope,” the album’s hit single (#11) and an unlikely radio hit that featured syncopated rhythms, staggered vocals, and a minimalist soundtrack on what is a metaphor for life lived in the spotlight. “Out In the Woods” offers up a swamp-blues vibe with double-tracked Russell vocals (effectively singing parallel to himself) and an overall rootsy vibe while “Cajun Love Song” moves out of the bayou and onto Bourbon Street with an infectious melody and mesmerizing vocal patois. “Roller Derby” offers a similar up-tempo New Orleans R&B sound with soulful vocals, honky-tonk piano, and breathless backing vocals.

Many critics, both at the time and more recently in reappraising Carney, have dismissed the second side of the album as too psychedelically-influenced which, honestly, would have been terribly out-of-date by ’72. Other than the second-side-opening, instrumental flight-of-fancy that is the title track, or maybe the meandering and pointless “Acid Annapolis,” much of side two of Carney is just as finely-crafted and imaginative as the flip side. “If the Shoe Fits” is a rollicking, mid-tempo romp with plenty of rowdy juke-joint piano-pounding while “This Masquerade,” which would become a Top 10 chart hit a few years later when recorded by jazz guitarist George Benson, is an ambient jazz-soul ballad with crooned lyrics and elegant fretwork. Album closer “Magic Mirror” is a blue-hued ballad with muted keyboards and haunted vocals.

Carney would become Russell’s most commercially-successful album, peaking at #2 on the Billboard album chart on its way to Gold™ Record status for better than a half-million hubcaps sold. Russell would continue to enjoy sporadic success through the years with albums like 1974’s Stop All That Jazz and the following year’s Will O’ the Wisp; several albums of country music recorded under his ‘Hank Wilson’ alter-ego; and collaborations with artists like Willie Nelson and Elton John. Russell’s eclectic musical tastes, along with his unbridled imagination and ability to span genres from rock, blues, and folk to country, R&B, and Gospel made the singer/songwriter one of the classic rock era’s most original and intriguing talents. (Shelter Records, 1972)

Also on That Devil Music: The Asylum Choir’s Look Inside the Asylum Choir review

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Classic Rock Review: The Asylum Choir's Look Inside the Asylum Choir (1968)

Long before he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Leon Russell began his career as a well-respected session musician. Moving to L.A. from Oklahoma in the late 1950s, Russell worked his way up the ranks of studio professionals, his natural ability to cross genres like rock ‘n’ roll, blues, country, and gospel leading to a chair with the legendary Wrecking Crew, where he brought his talents to records throughout the 1960s by such disparate artists as the Byrds, Jan & Dean, Ray Charles, Gary Lewis & the Playboys, the Beach Boys, and Glen Campbell, among many others. Russell would later hook up with guitarist Marc Benno, a fellow studio pro, as part of the two-man band the Asylum Choir, which released its debut album, Look Inside the Asylum Choir, in 1968.

It was an auspicious, if tentative debut for the future rock ‘n’ roll legend, with the two musicians sharing production duties and tag-teaming the instrumentation and songwriting on a set that blended psychedelic rock (only then becoming passé) with scraps of pop, blues, soul, and whatever else they could mix in the bowl. With Russell handling vocals, piano, guitar, and drums and Benno adding guitar, bass, and vocals, the pair delivered a fine, if overlooked album which displays their musical curiosity while still flirting with a (barely) commercial sound. As such, you get songs like the Sgt. Pepper’s-era Beatles (“Icicle Star Tree”), Big Band-styled psych-soul (“Death of the Flowers”), noirish exotica (“Episode Containing 3 Songs”), or frenetic ragtime (“Black Sheep Boogaloo”), all carefully-crafted and sporting a glossy studio sheen.

Look Inside the Asylum Choir refused to find an audience in spite of the album’s widespread critical acclaim, which didn’t deter Russell and Benno from taking another shot a year later. They called in some friends to help record Asylum Choir II, including talented guitarist Jesse Ed Davis and bassist Carl Radle. Scheduled for 1969 release by Russell’s own Shelter Records label, legal problems delayed Asylum Choir II until 1971, by which time Russell had begun to establish himself as a solo star, helping push the album to #70 on the Billboard chart. Russell hopscotched through Delaney & Bonnie & Friends on his way to a role as bandleader for Joe Cocker’s momentous 1970 Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour and then onto a modestly-successful solo career.

Benno didn’t do too shabby for himself either, establishing himself as a blues-rock solo artist and songwriter with better than a dozen studio LPs to his credit. Benno continued to dabble in session work as well, contributing guitar tracks to the Doors L.A. Woman album and recording with artists like Rita Coolidge, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. (Smash Records, 1968)

Classic Rock Review: Tommy Bolin's Teaser (1975)

Six-string wunderkind Tommy Bolin made his bones as a teenager playing with the blues-rock band Zephyr in Boulder, Colorado. Although he provided his stellar fretwork to that band’s self-titled 1969 debut album (Bolin was only 18), his restless muse prompted the guitarist to leave the band shortly after the release of their 1971 album, Going Back To Colorado. 

Bolin subsequently forming the jazz-rock fusion outfit Energy (which never recorded an album) before his immense talents would lead to high-profile gigs with the James Gang and Deep Purple during the mid-to-late ‘70s. Bolin also worked on sessions with fusion pioneers Billy Cobham (1973’s Spectrum LP) and Alphonse Mouzon (1974’s Mind Transplant) and provided guitar solos for Canadian hard rock outfit Moxy’s 1975 self-titled debut.

When it came time for Bolin to record his first solo album, 1975’s Teaser, it was only natural that he’d infuse the performances with elements of all of his disparate musical influences – hard rock, blues, jazz fusion – with the results varying entirely on your taste for what Tommy was dishing up. Recorded just prior to working on Deep Purple’s Come Taste the Band, Teaser is, first and foremost, a showcase for Bolin’s unique steel-string pyrotechnics. As such, it’s a somewhat schizo affair, with the guitarist often changing stylistic directions even within a song with whiplash accuracy.

Still, Teaser is an entertaining, if uneven, collection of period rock ‘n’ roll. Album opener “The Grind” is a boogie-flecked barrelhouse rocker with backing vocal harmonies, rollicking instrumentation, and an overall ‘70s era musical sound and feel. By contrast, “Homeward Strut” masterfully blends a hard rock soundtrack with funky rhythms and a little jazzy swagger to create a lively instrumental with definite New Orleans vibes. “Dreamer” skews a little too far into Elton John territory for my taste, probably due to David Foster’s wimpy piano playing while “Savannah Woman,” with its rhythmic Latin undercurrent, is a ‘yacht rock’ attempt at making the charts better left to folks like Toto (whose Jeff Porcaro plays drums on nearly every song on Teaser EXCEPT “Savannah Woman,” where the stool is occupied by the Tubes’ Prairie Prince).

Thankfully, the album’s title track mainlines some steroids with a hard rock soundtrack upon which Bolin embroiders his fluid, razor-sharp guitarplay. The soulful “People, People” displays Bolin’s emotional, albeit under-powered vocals, the guitarist bringing in a bunch of jazz dogs like synth wizard Jan Hammer and saxophonist Dave Sanborn to brass up the arrangement, which offers only the slightest of six-string shadings. Bolin dives into the depths of jazz fusion with “Marching Powder,” which brings in drummer Michael Waldon alongside Hammer and Sanborn for a cacophonic instrumental that wouldn’t have been out-of-place on a Cobham or Mouzon LP. Although the closer “Lotus” starts out deceptively soft and kinda mushy, it soon powers up with a soaring guitar solo before veering off again into more pastoral acoustic guitar strum and then exploding once more with switchblade flash.

Much like the entirety of Tommy Bolin’s too-short career (he would O.D. the following year after the release of his sophomore effort, Private Eyes), the guitarist’s debut album couldn’t figure out what direction it wanted to go, so instead it veered all over the road. It makes for a thrilling, if somewhat unsatisfying ride, but I’d still recommend either of Bolin’s solo albums for listeners looking for a challenging perspective on guitar rock. (Nemporer Records, 1975)

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Classic Rock Review: Be-Bop Deluxe's Futurama (1975)

The bottles were all empty and the lights were being turned out by the time that Be-Bop Deluxe made their way to the early ‘70s British glam-rock party. The band released its critically-acclaimed debut album Axe Victim during the summer of 1974 and, while they had the musical chops and cool song titles like “Jet Silver and the Dolls of Venus,” “Night Creatures,” and “Rocket Cathedrals,” it had been a couple years since Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust masterwork, three since Marc Bolan’s T. Rex breakthrough Electric Warrior, and Mott the Hoople were on the verge of breaking up. Glam-rock had begun to assume room temperature…

Be-Bop Deluxe frontman Bill Nelson evidently agreed, as he booted the entire Axe Victim band, stripped Be-Bop down to a power trio with new guys Charlie Tumahai (bass) and Simon Fox (drums), and re-forged the trademark Be-Bop sound to a curious mix of shimmering fretwork; unusual song structure; and oblique lyrics that often had the band venturing, often dangerously, into proggy art-rock turf not dissimilar to what Queen was pursuing at the time. In my humble opinion, Be-Bop Deluxe did it better. Listening to “Maid In Heaven,” from the band’s sophomore effort Futurama, my mind goes back to first hearing the song on Nashville’s WKDF-FM radio during my senior year in high school. Nelson’s wiry, melodic leads are balanced by a rough, scraped guitar lick, the band’s masterful vocal harmonies, and the sort of fantastical lyrics that would appeal to an erudite 17-year-old rock geek.

Nelson didn’t stop with “Maid In Heaven,” which became a minor FM radio hit stateside, delivering a knockout punch with the mesmerizing “Sister Seagull.” Offering up some of the most exotic six-string pyrotechnics of the era, the song matches a lofty melody with hard-rocking rhythms that are guaranteed to take your head to places that only ‘shrooms or old-school LSD could travel…call it a “new psychedelia” for a modern age. Nelson’s stunning guitarplay would bring an otherworldly vibe to every song on Futurama, from the lush, radio-friendly “Music In Dreamland,” with its lofty pop echoes to the Spanish-flavored guitar strum of “Jean Cocteau” or the alluring cacophony of “Between the Worlds.” Little has been recorded to match Futurama for sheer reckless abandon, and fewer still are the songwriters who could match Nelson in vision and ambition.

Be-Bop Deluxe would enjoy a short, but impactful career – a mere five studio albums and a stellar live set – over a too-short four-year span circa 1974-78 before Nelson packed it in and launched a solo career that continues to this day and best expresses his restless musical ideas. Still, you can’t go wrong with any Be-Bop LP, and after Futurama, I’d heartily recommend Sunburst Finish and Modern Music, both of which display differing facets of Bill Nelson’s talents and wandering muse. (Harvest Records, 1975)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Be-Bop Deluxe’s Futurama [Deluxe Edition]