I was looking for something a little closer to the bone, like Ry Cooder’s Paradise & Lunch and Gram Parson’s Grievous Angel (released four months after his death in ’73). singer-songwriter movement was in full swing that year, I wasn’t buying much of it. Few songs from the era hold up as well as this one – an American classic. Their supremely talented frontman, Lowell George, also mined the south for inspiration – in his case, mostly New Orleans and the syncopated funk of The Meters. Geils Band’s Southside Shuffle… James Brown’s The Payback… Ultimately I decided to pick a standout tune by one of my favorite bands of the era, Little Feat. John’s Right Place Wrong Time… Billy Preston’s Will It Go Round In Circles… The J. Stop Breaking Downġ973 Lots of great songs to choose from that year: Dr. Note to future terrorists: Don’t try to break me by blasting Fillmore and Exile for hours on end. Pure southern blues goodness… Statesboro Bluesġ972 The Stones owned that year as they toured in support of Exile – another big, sprawling love letter to the American South (mainly blues and Memphis Soul… for more on Exile, check here). I’m back in my happy place every time I hear the first blast of their set opener, a cover of a Blind Willie McTell original. I literally wore out all four sides of At Fillmore East (might’ve had something to do with the cheap vinyl used by their label, Capricorn), and I still can’t do without it. I was spending summers in Milledgeville, Georgia – just down the road from the Allmans’ home base in Macon – so I sort of felt like their Rust Belt ambassador. In my mind, ’71 belonged to the Allman Brothers Band. Led Zeppelin, Free, Faces, Joni Mitchell, The Band, Bonnie Raitt… do any of you still give a shit about Dave Matthews? Santana stepped up their game with each new album. Traffic created their own subgenre – let’s call it pastoral rock – with their well-baked masterworks John Barleycorn and Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. Eric Clapton and Duane Allman set a new standard for blues-rock guitar with Derek & the Dominoes. The Rolling Stones were on the greatest run in rock history – from Beggar’s Banquet in ’68 to Exile on Main St. Thank You (Falettinme…)ġ971 When I think of rock ‘n roll in the early Seventies, I feel sorry for my kids. So this tune will forever remind me of an important right of passage, Akron style. I remember hearing it on a jukebox over and over again at a dive bar that inexplicably let me in to shoot pool with an older friend. By February ‘70 it reached the top of the charts, making it one of the funkiest #1 hits of all time. Also, my therapist thought it would way for me to begin the healing process by uncovering some deep-seated anxieties from “The Lost Years,” as she likes to call them.ġ970 Sly Stone released this song as a single in December 1969 (with the equally awesome Everybody is a Star), but it didn’t really catch on until it showed up the following year on the Family Stone’s Greatest Hits album. I thought it would be fun to take a “Time-Life” approach and share a favorite song for each year. So, what was my original premise? Ah, that’s right… This is another cheap setup for a playlist (we’ll save the intervention story for another post). I guess I was a hippie at heart, even though I fully intended to make a decent living in some soulless urban setting. So that put me on a blues track – mostly Muddy and Little Walter – with forays into hard country, bluegrass and other more idyllic strains that informed songs like Wild Horses and John Barleycorn. I spent much of the Seventies digging into the roots of my favorite artists from my teenage years, like the Stones, Taj Mahal, Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers, Traffic, etc. And if you weren’t in either camp (throw me in that category), you probably wouldn’t find much to like in our store. Punk rock was on the rise, as evidenced by the crate of unsold Dan Fogelberg albums I was storing behind the counter. The RS article reminded me of my brief stint as a record store clerk in Athens, where I witnessed the slow and painful demise of those heavily sedated strummers. Rolling Stone magazine recently featured The Mellow Mafia – a select group of session musicians who contributed to huge hits by James Taylor, Carole King, Jackson Browne, Carly Simon and other singer-songwriters of the era. Scores of alt-rock bands – from Iron & Wine to Weezer – are recycling the Sound of the Seventies, with varying levels of success. Oh, and I spent two years in Athens, Ohio… Need I say more?įact is, the Seventies are back with a vengeance. I also recall losing about 30% of the hearing in my left ear at a J. What exactly happened? I’m not sure I can answer that question, because I lived them – in the same smoky haze that partially obscured my view of The Rolling Stones during their ’72 show at the Akron Rubber Bowl.
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