Jefferson Starship (1975) Miracles

 This long month of classic rock deaths just keeps on rolling with the passing of Paul Kantner the Jefferson Airplane guitarist and iconic figure of the 60s. Surely January 2016 will go down with the Day the Music Died and the 1980 deaths of John Lennon, John Bonham & Bon Scott. Or probably won't as those died in their prime, cut short while still in their classic period. Either way it's a tough time for fans of the music as this great period of music will soon be firmly in our past; the Eagles are over, how long can the Stones go on? Paul McCartney and Ringo won't be there forever nor will the Who or Kiss. Brian Wilson and Black Sabbath are in the midst of their last tour  Barry Gibbs is the only Bee Gee remaining and Deep Purple no longer have their chief figures of Lord or Blackmore. And we all know Robert Plant's stance on another Zeppelin reunion. 

 Still the music will get stronger or more iconic but it isn't the same when you hear a cover band. In fact some of the reunions felt like cover bands after all this time. I guess there is no substituting experiencing these acts in their heyday. The song 'Miracles' was Kantner's highest success after the Airplane ended and it is an absorbing soft rock gem with strong flamenco guitars mixing with the breathy call and response vocals of Mary Balin and the band.The build up of tension is extraordinary particularly the fact it keeps you drawn in throughout its duration probably primarily due to the criss crossing Jefferson Airplane styled bellowing vocals; creating a gorgeous choral landscape and a hot, sweaty Latin atmosphere.

Eagles (1973) Doolin Dalton‏

 It's been a week since we lost the great Glenn Frey, the mastermind behind the Eagles sound who juggled lead vocals, lead guitar and song writing duties on their hit multi platinum albums. I chose this gem from his creative peak, the early 70s when he effectively fronted the Eagles, a hot young country rock band that was far less traditional than their competitors mixing heavy doses of Pop, Rock and Soul with mild country flavourings. Though 1973's Desperado album was a commercial failure for the band that started on the back of a hit single, it featured some of Frey's best work. Doolin Dalton a Henley/Frey/Souther/Browne collaboration begins with Frey's old west harmonica setting the scene atmospherically on a cinematic scale. The vivid landscape already created due to the downbeat mix of acoustic and electric guitars played with a strong wistful echo.
  While Don Henley handles most of the lead vocals as a joint narrator with Frey, it's Glenn's dramatic asides that give the song an electricity. His deep, rugged declarations of "Lay down your law books there no damn good!" or "Well the towns lay out across the dusty plains". But it is that last bridge section where sonically the song spotlights Frey strumming his lone acoustic guitar like a camp fire storyteller spinning a yarn. His voice crisp, defiant and yet with a sweet sensitivity. His powerhouse moment is the real highlight, the climactic crux of the song before the fading denouement and it keeps you engaged in the edge of your seat. Glenn's arrangement is wonderful because the little details make this song, notice how at the end after Henley's closing verse both lead singers then exchange a humming pattern similar to their tag team vocal work during the composition.

Overall this along with Desperado is based around the Post modern criticism of Old West savagery  and is delivered in a monumental arrangement that proved they would always be bigger than Poco and the Byrds simply because they wrote bigger sounding tunes. It's a triumph for Frey's vocals and arrangement and final proof of his genius; a man who had to chose between his 'back' and his 'brains' and used both.

Player (1977) Tryin to Write a Hit Song

This mellow country rock song closes Player's Debut album, an album filled with funky soft rock and disco ballads melding jazz instrumentals with hard rock vocals. This soft rock ballad builds from flamenco guitar to orchestra sweeps with heavy guitars underlining the ever-present rock feel. But it works primarily due to JC Crowley's engaging voice bringing conviction to this R. L. Mahonin tune about a staff songwriter failing to connect with his emotional state.

Otis Clay (1972) Trying to Live My Life Without You

An apt message considering the numerous losses to the music world. All from the 70s, including amongst the multi hit superstars and masters of reinvention like Frey and Bowie is Otis Clay, a soul singer from Memphis. Keeping the classic Stax sound alive with thus incredible hit that only reached no.102 on the charts it displayed a rougher, down to earth sound to the dreamy lushness of the Philly groups. After Glenn Freys death this song resonates quite a lot possibly as it almost certainly served as a template for one of their last singles The Long Run. To get past this unusually intense period of music mourning it will take listening to these classics to heal in the long run.

Eagles (1975) After The Thrill is Gone‏

Glenn Frey, Lead Singer of The Eagles has passed away at 67, he was my musical idol I loved his solo records just as much as his heavy contribution to The Eagles. He was the foundation and creative core, along with Don Henley, of America's Greatest Rock Band; he was able to sing lead, perform expressive, concise guitar solos, write and arrange. In fact all Eagles tunes feature a strong imprint of his work usually instrumentally if he is not the singer or songwriter, such as in the case of Randy Meisner's tunes like Try and Love Again, Is It True and Certain Kind of Fool where he played all the guitar solos. He began in music learning piano as a child and contributed the classic saloon bar piano progression of Desperado; possibly his most timeless composition.

 But it was his flawless vocals that set a high standard for his fellow band members from the start with their first single, Take It Easy, onward through all the reunion tours to the end of the very last tour date in July. He particularly shone on his duets with Henley, possibly to show off his smooth and sultry, wide ranged tenor voice against Henley's bluesy rasp; his cool demeanour always nicely contrasted Henley's raw passion. He used every facet of his voice; creating a spectrum of characters and characteristics including the growly outlaw, the sensitive troubadour and the cool cocksure party rocker. He conveyed the dark complexity of male emotions but also nailed the glowing, easygoing feeling with the simple power of his laid back delivery. It was his vocal arrangements that were key to cracking the commercial breakthrough for the Country Rock genre to a mass audience. His phrasing particularly on the first lines of his Eagles songs were pitch perfect and original, which is why I have chosen my personal favourite Glenn Frey vocal which is on the album cut, After The Thrill is Gone.

 From an album where he memorably began to decrease his vocals, Lyin Eyes being his only full solo lead on One of These Nights album. Here he exchanges verses with Henley as he would many times on some of my favourite songs like Ol 55, Doolin Dalton, Teenage Jail and What Do I Do With My Heart. The track begins with synchronized acoustic strums waltzing in a off kilter rhythm, when Frey's wearied yet youthful vocals come in they express a general malaise and discontent with all time great lyrics such as 'Half the Distance takes You Twice as Long' , 'Some Habits That You Just Can't Lose' and 'No Tellin What a Man Might Use, After the Thrill Is Gone'.  Echoing the solemn intonation of his lines in Doolin Dalton he captures the creeping disillusionment and detachment of the 70s Post-Watergate generation with a subtle country inflection. The thick Don Felder guitar and Henley's more soulful bridge sections give the song a Stax quality leaving you not sure whether this is country rock, arena rock or soul. This chamelionic quality particularly by Frey's middle of the road vocals, that had a general North American twang to them and no affiliation to any one genre of music, is what Frey should be celebrated for most today.

 Last night we lost a giant in 70's music and I lost my idol but as the song says 'Time Passes and You Must Move On..' 

Thank you for the music, Glenn

Tuhin

Mott the Hoople (1974) The Golden Age of Rock n Roll‏

The week that saw us lose David Bowie and Alan Rickman has ended with the passing of another artist fondly thought of but hugely under appreciated. And while Dale Griffin of Mott The Hoople wasn't as internationally known as Bowie he had a great career as a Producer in the 80's and 90's, proving he had much more talent then people generally knew. One of their hardest rocking tracks with a raucous chorus and a 50's nostalgia that was prominent in a lot of the Glam sound a'la The Rubettes, T Rex etc.  From their 1974 The Hoople album it has a strong Doo Wop sound amplified with that 70's sonic quality but I have chosen this primarily for Griffin's stupendous contribution as his dynamite fills and rock steady drumming during the dramatic, echoey bridge along with the powerful saxophones; he's at the core powering the whole RnB package and sadly we've lost another lost 70's talent. 

Fleetwood Mac (1973) Why‏

Beginning with two minutes of Eastern sounding, blues slide guitars twanging away gloriously before slipping smoothly into a sensitive, uplifting Christine McVie patented piano ballad.

Isaac Hayes (1975) That Loving Feeling

An intoxicating and subtle piece from Isaac Hayes it is superior to the better known Shaft Theme that he is known for. The last great singer from Stax records Hayes brought together a darker more palpable emotion to his songs like the flip side to Barry White's sensual songs. Best known for being in the popular French film La Haine where the song was used to score a scene of drug taking it is a hypnotic song that pulls you in with its flights of synths,  strings and that incredible bass line. It reminds me of a soulful rendition of Led Zeppelins Kashmir in how it builds it's layered design.

David Bowie (1972) Starman

Hardly a lost gem but this is the first Bowie song I remember. The sound has a funky groove with a disco guitar break before the chorus a couple years before disco first began. It wasn't necessarily his vocals or guitar playing that made him a superstar but the whole enchanting package that his songs were and his unique artistic voice. He had some impressive contemporaries but I always felt his radical shifts in genre were more incredible did the guy who sung Young Americans also do Heroes and start with Space Oddity?. He took more chances than Marc Bolan and was more exciting than Elton John. He defined a generation and yet had a long, successful career: we lost a legend today.

Jay Ferguson (1976) Snakes on the Run

With a danceable bass line and accompanying acoustic guitar and piano this is off of Jay Fergusons' first solo album, All Alone in the End Zone, this is pre Thunder Island's vivid yacht rock and post Jo Jo Gunne's countrified boogie. It is actually a really good example of mid-70's soft rock when the country elements were replaced with disco and soul. Also check out the track Hit and Run; which is surely a contender for the title for 'most 70s sounding song ever' with its mix of Hard rock syncopations, Moog laden prog passages, rhythm guitar driven funk all mixing with singer songwriter piano.

Sweet (1978) Silverbird

 From my favourite Sweet album the incredibly under appreciated (though not on Lost70sGems) Level- Headed (1978) which was a brief commercial comeback for the group with the 'Love is like Oxygen' hit single. It begins with several sharp strikes of a wide open, acoustic guitar before a synthesized bass part gurgles underneath and we get to the vocals. The song features a bubblegum tone to it's story of young love; it is about a fictitious 'silverbird' rescuing the young protagonist from a lonely bedroom back to his love. This is a another great Brian Connolly lead vocal, proving why he was lead vocalist in a band full of exceptional singers; his delivery of lines such as "I was a young boy..yeah she was young too" and "It's been five-years, unjusti-fied years" are stellar and just as catchy as the pop hooks. In fact go back to Sweet's first record Slow Motion to hear how his vocals anchored the band with a Dylanesque brogue. 

Jackson Five (1973) Skywriter

The title track of the last album of the Jackson Five's bubblegum phase it began with the right sound of harpsichord that was key to their post -psychedelia brand of sunny funk pop. With pre-disco clavinets underlining it and phased harmonies smoothly cutting through the chorus kept the Jackson Five fresh and up to date with new sounds, though the verses are classic Tamla Motown that's not at all a bad thing. Like I Want You Back it features Michael singing with conviction about a break up and wanting to win back a girl's heart. Considering his age though I'm not sure he could hire out a Skywriter plane, but I won't scrutinise..

Blue Magic (1977) I Waited

The last song on their Message from the Magic album, it is very different from the lush ballads and upbeat club tracks, it features a chilled out bass groove complete with pinging vibes like a stroller type of song boosted by some fawning 'ah' backing vocals. The central melody is suitably relaxed "I could've loved anyone, but I waited!" The first few seconds should draw you into this fresh sounding track from the late 70s.

Eagles (1973) Outlaw Man

 The Eagles had two clear sides to their music; one is heavy rock based on contrasting dynamics and the other is smooth ballads that stay even paced. Examples of both are in the two singles from the Desperado album; probably their best album as it's chock full of the former. Outlaw Man did better than Tequila Sunrise precisely because it, like Lyin Eyes and other singles,  had no shifts in it staying at the same laid back pace. Take it Easy was in a similar vein of laid back country strums but it didn't stick so rigidly to a verse chorus structure like Tequila Sunrise and songs like Best of My Love. Also Take It Easy did more interesting things with the backing vocals.  
 
Outlaw Man is a prime example of the Eagles breaking from formula which is probably why it's not present on the bands many greatest hits selections; selections that cemented the band's reputation as being mellow and formulaic. Outlaw Man is a top notch arrangement seguing in from a short banjo rendition of Doolin Dalton into a aggressive acoustic strum before the hard rock guitar slashes in; the nice addition of electric piano chords adding a jazzy rhythm. Glenn Freys' growly intoning vocals are as evil and omnipresent as his power chords cutting through the acoustic bed. This rivals Witchy Woman as one of the best hard rock efforts by the first incarnation. Randy Meisners' frenetic bass work along with Freys' wailing coda is a great heavy moment from the band during any line-up full stop.

Grand Funk (1975) Bad Time

With I'm Your Captain/ Closer to Home this is the best self penned hit from the trio from Flint MI. Starting with Mark Farners' acapella vocal declaration before entering a swinging and very melodic pop song.