Okay, something a bit different.
We've don a couple of female singers such as Melanie and Francois Hardy earlier in the thread, so I'd like to do probably the greatest female singer in the "popular music" genre. Not sure how this will be received by the Masses, but here goes nothing!!

Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters! There, I've said it. They pretty much dominated radio and day time television from what I remember. But the woman could sing. Great control on cue, and a million other positive things one can say about singers. Her and her Brother were both products of a UC music program down South. I can't remember which school they went to, but some of the best singers I've meet in the last couple of decades since I returned to CA have studied at a UC school down in Southern California.

I enjoy and appreciate the quality of her voice and how she could use it. The songs, on the other hand, can be tough to get through, but that's the subjective part, and that's all on me. I know their first few records were done by the Wrecking Crew, as was the production team. I also know that the Parental units especially the Mother were involved in production. Micromanaging has never produced Great Music in the entire History of Micromanagement.

So, in my opinion, what turns some of their songs into just fucking mush were bad choices in arrangement and just production choices that shouldn't have happened. The typical side 1 for a Carpenters album was almost all cover songs. Side 2 was mostly the Brother and his friend's songs. With a voice like Karen Carpenters, high light it! For example, they doubled her voice for background a lot. Why they didn't have her do a track singing at an interval is beyond me. They chose no harmony in the background signing. Makes no sense. But, whatever!

There are about 7 albums I think they recorded in the '70s. I ended up with only three, and you can see that I started out strong, but withered away towards the end. The singing is great, but the music got to me. So many other things that could've been done, but weren't. At this time period in American recording business, it was common practice to get the recording done as quick as possible to get the finished product out to market as quick as possible. No time for quality!!!!!!! Only quauntity!!!!!!

from Close To You, 1970
We've Only Just Begun
Reason to Believe
(They Long to Be) Close to You
Crescent Noon
Another Song

Man, people really do love this song!!! Blows me away. I can't figure out why! LOL

But, always happy when others love the music!!!

Again, apologies to those that won't be able to get through an entire song, but for the rest, just pay attention to her voice!
from Carpenters, 1971
Rainy Days And Mondays
Let Me Be The One
Superstar
Bacharach-David Medley  -  they covered a lot of Bacharach and David. That's why I'm familiar with the Carpenters. My Mother's crushes were Burt Bacharach, Jack Jones and George Preppard. Apparently she had a type!!!!

I could only get through two songs:

from A Song For You, 1972
Hurting Each Other
Road Ode

They killed me!!! Not really. When I think of love songs, Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" and "I Walk the Line" come to mind. Or "Wichita Lineman" by Glen Campbell; or a huge number of songs by Led Zeppelin with "All My Love" and "The Rain Song" just scratching the surface of what they could do for a love song. I guess the lesson here is "Don't let your stage Mother make your song choices for you."

This is another great Marty Balin love song!!!!

Haven't clicked on this thread in a bit... and it has taken a turn.
Need a palate cleanser

from the heart of me


this is more of my kind of "love song"
jaded lover

Al Green was a huge part of the '70s sound, and he wasn't even associated with neither Motown nor LA. Musically, he has some distinct periods starting back in the late '50s. Huge Elvis fan!

The first part of the '70s is where he is becoming popular with each record release. Life is good! Until '73 when he meets a woman.

By 1974, he and his music are even more popular than ever, but his life is in turmoil. You can find it in the lyrics of the songs. They upped the tempo, but the lyrics are on the depressing side. The Woman he was involved with was married, had three kids, and one day burned Al Green with boiling water. Within hours of this she would succeed in her second suicide attempt. You can start picking up the change in the music with the last album we look at today.

The last part of the '70s, he had become an ordained Minister, and his music reflected this until he decided no more public music, but only his ministry.

Al Green!!!!

Al Green Gets Next To You - 1971

I Can't Get Next to You
Are You Lonely for Me, Baby
Tired of Being Alone
I'm A Ram
Driving Wheel
You Say It

Ha! Don't have to type in the titles!!!!

I'm Still In Love With You - 1972

ETA: I guess I do have to do at least one title: Love and Happiness is the third clip down.

Another 1972 release: Let's Stay Together

So far, we've had a lot of love songs about love that goes well and also love that goes South. While a lot of the songs pose questions as to why, there's still hope throughout the lyrics.

It starts changing here!! 1973! His next two albums would be the height of Al Green's popularity and album sales and appearances. But, even with up-tempo songs and brighter arrangements (Church organ almost disappears for these next three albums) the lyrics are becoming more sad and less hopeful, so enjoy this one from 1973 as we already know the how it's going to end in 1974.

Roll on down the road

Ramblin, Scramblin

Happy Holidays!



father christmas

thats what love will make you do

I read the notes under the player. Says the song was recorded at Keystone Berkeley. Me and my friends used to go to Keystone Palo Alto all the time before it disappeared. Last group I saw was Blue Oyster Cult. I took my then wife. That's the only bad part of that memory!!!! LOL

Al Green was a guest on our next Band's first TV  special: Chicago.
Chicago is actually a Super Group on the World Stage. Well over 100,000,000 records sold Worldwide. One of their albums, from the '80s, is Platinum 6X over. Mind boggling that the World could agree on something!

The Band was formed in Chicago where they were mostly a cover band. I don't recall correctly, and I guess I could have looked it up, but I just thought of that right now, but a Hollywood guy named Bill Guercio asked them to move to LA. So, essentially, they are an LA Band much to the chagrin of the rest of us. If you've ever watched a movie called "Electric Guide in Blue," that's one of Guercio's movies that he produced and directed. A few of the guys from the Band had bit parts in the film and the Band did a big chunk of the Original Sound Track.

We're doing the Chicago double album from 1970. Crazy popular album as was their first album and as is almost all of their albums. The other major connection to Chicago we've done is Bill Champlin from Sons of Champlin a number of pages back. After Terry Kath killed himself through an ND, the Band had stability problems for a couple of albums. Champlin was brought in to fix it. Record Labels know a cash cow when they see one and will protect it as best as possible, or if they can't, they outright destroy a Band. It's the "if you don't dance with me, you'll dance with nobody" story.

Last thing I saw before the music is that as I was selecting songs from the double album, I just realized that I played most of these songs in one of the bands I was in with one of the instruments I've played when I was a kid in the '70s. (Kind of neat!)

Chicago - 1970 (Chicago II)
Movin' In
In the Country
Wake Up Sunshine

The Best way to hear the album is all the songs including the ones that are only a minute and 10 seconds long. It's classical style passages that connect the songs to each other. I think they included that thought in the sleeve notes, plus the nod to the Revolution. Also, Terry Kath was one of the greatest guitarists the World has seen. An amazing band! I stopped listening though after Kath died, and they dropped the Jazz fusion style in favor of power ballads.

Colour My World

• I don't think there was a school dance in the US or Canada that didn't have this song played during the entire 1970s

Fancy Colours
25 or 6 to 4
It Better End Soon (First Movement)




I shall return to edit with the whole album for those that are interested.


ETA: okay, I hope this link gives the whole album. Posting two different ways:


All 11 songs with their identified Movements for 23 songs.

One last thing: Peter Cetera, when he was a scruffy looking kid, was one of my favorite Bassists. Then he got a haircut and sang ballads. It hurt when he left the Brotherhood.

Dig some Rare Earth, Brothers!




PS- First band I saw in concert was Chicago in '76 at the Cow Palace. Awesome show!

Live Bullet

Hey, here's a thought!!      Let's listen to a Band where every single member is an asshole!!!!!!

Gentlemen, I give you Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I like the music, but I wouldn't want to be trapped in a stuck elevator with any of them.

This will be from Deja Vu, a 1970 release. They had one of their many fall outs with each other when the tour that supported this release ended. The next album release was a live album of this tour because they needed "space" from each other. They also needed "space" from each other during the recording process. Young did his stuff in LA while the other three did their recordings in San Francisco.

Still a lot of talent packed into what recordings they did over the decades. I'm pretty sure many of us are fans of Buffalo Springfield. They all meet through that association. Now that they're all sober, more or less, they still do perform together on the same stage at the same time during the same concert. Let the healing begin!!

Deja Vu - 1970

1  Carry On
2  Teach You Children   -   Their worst song on any of their albums.
3  Almost Cut My Hair   -   Their Best song on any of their albums - and they're conveniently next to each other!
4  Helpless
5  Woodstock

Side 2 for us Americans, and for those of us that are British, Side B
1  Deja Vu
2  Our House
3  4 + 20
4  Country Girl
5  Everybody I Love You

grateful dead
black throated wind

jerry jeff walker
old five and dimers like me

Okey dokey, riddle me this...name a group that started with band members from several parts of the US, then went completely Canadian of all things, then went to entirely composed of New Yorkers, then went back to having human beings in the band again with the odd Canadian thrown in there for border crossings? This band also had well over 110 members in it over the years, a number of which were Jazz greats and another number of which made up the Blues Brothers Band in both live performances, the first album and the movie??? Huh Smart Guy????? NAME IT????????????

Well, if you said Blood, Sweat & Tears, then go right on in to your favorite club or bar and have a drink on me!!!!!

Literally a Band that you need a program to follow. Yikes. On the other hand, a pretty damn good band even when they were hated by the leftist youth of America!

There first two album came out in 1968 and 1969. Great Albums. We start with 1970 and 1971: Albums 3 and 4. They kept it simple for us. David Clayton Thomas (a Canadian with a Criminal record!!) was the lead singer for these two albums.

The one thing that always really impressed me as a kid listening to his voice was that it had "credibility" with the lyrics. He sang with conviction (literally!) (I went a long way for a joke. Sorry.) You could take the words as true. That's a pretty powerful gift. About half the songs they did were covers. They did a lot of Laura Nyro songs for those of you who know who she was.

Enough talk!!!!

Blood Sweat & Tears 3 - 1970

Hi-De-Ho
Lucretia Mac Evil
Lonesome Suzie
He's A Runner
Somethin' Comin' On

Blood Sweat & Tears 4 - 1971 - choices and consequences; these selections of songs and the rest of the album are all about choices and consequences. It's a fairly religious in nature album. (For those of you who check out the rest of the album, the song John the Baptist isn't the biblical John, so no need to get mad that they got all the details wrong, but the gist correct.)

Go Down Gamblin'
Cowboys and Indians
Redemption
Lisa, Listen to Me
High on a Mountain
Mama Gets High

As an added Bonus!!!!

Did you know that Blood Sweat & Tears were at Woodstock? Yes, correct, they weren't in the three hour movie!!!
The stated reason was that there was no agreement about being filmed between the Promoters/documentarians on one side and band "management" on the other. It sounds like management asked for, but didn't receive a greasing of the palm, if you know what I mean.

Here's the missing audio recording:

1  More and More
2  Just One Smile
3  Somethin' Comin' On
4  I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know
5  Spinning Wheel

6  Sometimes in Winter
7  Smiling Phases
8  God Bless the Child
9  And When I Die
10 You Made Me So Very Happy

ac/dc
sin city

grateful dead 12/31/78 winterland
Stagger Lee

https://youtu.be/gCDQ9EABNtQ

almost got laid listening to this in 76
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTUhnIY3oRM

Agreed. Her brother was an innovator in the studio, layering her voice with more tracks than ever before.
She had the voice of an angel.

When we last heard from our Heroes, they just released Who's Next in 1971. If you remember, that was a failed attempt at a rock opera, and they just turned the songs that were finished into an album with some added extra songs done by the others in the group. I should digress here and write that Pete Townsend writes the vast majority of the songs.

Quadrophenia is the next album from The Who, and it is another rock opera. Tommy was a big hit, and somebody turned it into a movie which made it an even bigger hit.

Quadrophenia would be...successful...ultimately. Tommy had an inspiring story about overcoming hardships. Quadrophenia has a real Man with the Golden Arm vibe to it. There is no happy ending here. It simply isn't in the cards.

Musically, the songs are much more impressive than the music from Tommy. It's really one of the high points of the Hard Rock genre. Maybe even it's zenith or apogee for those you like their words to come from one group over another group.

The Story takes place in '60s England when the wheels really started to come off for English Society. England has a problem that they haven't been able to solve since the end of WWI. They still have a Class system that has a real death grip choke hold on thinking about the future. The English still can't decide whether they should be socialist or fascist, so they keep going back and forth, unlike in Europe where they have socialist parties run things as if they were fascists running things. It's a compromise, and it seems to work for them for maybe 60% of the time which is not bad actually. England has never found the balance.

Instead they choose to tear themselves apart. It really comes out in the musical styles they've developed over the last 60 years. Punk is just the most extreme, but all of the mod, teddy boy, rude boy, uh, can't remember the rest, of the '60s and '70s just morphed itself into soccer hooliganism of the '80s and so on. Yup, things are pretty fucked up there. "1984" has turned into "the master plan" instead of being a cautionary tale.

Ultimately, you can say that Quadrophenia is what happens when politics is your guide for living life instead of concentrating on "life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Take that, John Bull!!!!

PS - only selected songs to show the main styles of the songs.

Quadrophenia - 1973

The Real Me
The Punk and The Godfather
I'm One
Helpless Dancer
Is it in My Head

I've Had Enough
5:15
Drowned
Bell Boy
Doctor Jimmy
Love Reign O'er Me - Roger Daltry's voice in this song. It's the most intense you'll ever hear of a voice in Rock. He sings right at the edge and keeps himself in Tune. I can't even imagine how it was possible in an era without digital processing.



ETA: The complete Opera:

(I'm way behind schedule!! Still not ready to post Christmas Songs!!!)

You guys remember The 5th Dimension!!! Perhaps, or at least in anyone's Top 10 lists of Popular Music Artists/Groups, they're right there at the Top. Boy, were people surprised they turned out to be Black. Quite the shock to a lot of them. Good Times!

If you remember the group, then you remember Marylin McCoo. Very Easy on the eyes, and tall, and could really sway her hips when she moved. Important considerations when first entering puberty. No joke, People!

Picked out some songs to show case Marylin McCoo's voice; other songs to show case their "Harmony"; and two songs featuring the other chick.....LaRue! Damn. old age. By the time I post, I should remember her first name!!!
Puppet Man
One Less Bell To Answer
On the Beach (In the Summertime)
Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes
Changed
(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All

The Adult Contemporary Category is not really a favorite music genre of mine. Mostly, it's covers of good songs that were first tortured and then "beaten to safe death" to make them safe for people who don't buy albums or go to concerts. However, this kind of music does get plenty of air time on radio stations and in elevators or while you're on hold. So, there's that.

The 5th Dimension I always considered better than that. They should have tried to enter the Jazz Vocal market. Always room for groups that can harmonize accurately!

Florence LaRue!!! Did it!!!!!!! Yea me!!!!!

If I Could Reach You
Medley: The Declaration; A Change Is Gonna Come; People Gotta Be Free
Viva Tirado    -    we did this song when I posted El Chicano. I get a big smile when I tell certain people the writer is a Black Jazz musician.  
Dimension Five



Going to try and get the two Florence LaRue featured songs here. She too had a hell of a voice. Very very Powerful. And a great body. Again People, and I can't stress this enough, Puberty is no joke!!!