Humble Pie (1971) Down Home Again

 My first Humble Pie post, I must admit knowing little about them but what's clear is Peter Frampton's rock n roll chops mixing with Steve Marriott's already established soulful blues howl and songwriter prowess would be a powerful little act. This classic countrified hard rocker has some strutting Zeppelin power chords before entering a fun chorus of "There's a young girl there she's a part of my life, says I'm 'her only', I call her my 'wife'" and the final refrains of "Don't want your money honey. Just want your lovin honey"

Doobie Brothers (1971) Feelin Further Down‏

 The Doobie Brothers 1971 debut album is considered a slight, poorly mixed effort by some with nothing exceptional, though I would describe it as a key starting point where they immediately cultivated their reverberated, heavily acoustic sound of countrified R n B with strong doses Pat Simmons' folk picking and Tom Johnsons' chugging guitars. Their roughness is somewhat smoothed down, but the exquisite mixing of the electric and acoustic sounds is one result of the poor production which I think  of as a happy accident if it doesn't help identify whether they are more folk rock, funk rock or smooth soul. 
 This track displays this nice melding of acoustic/ electric with some winsome, elongated harmonies, showing off their delicate side more than later Johnson era albums would it is also subtly restrained from their later overt ventures into funk and soul. The rhythm is practically the Listen to the Music riff with a different set of lyrics but its all pleasurable to the ear. You can choose any track from this consistent effort really, its just interesting seeing where this diverse group would venture 'further down'.

Led Zeppelin (1975) Houses of the Holy

A extremely smooth groove from the biggest band of the 70s, it is peculiar for several reasons the first of which is its crammed into the legendary double album and the pinnacle of their career; Physical Graffiti. Arguably the closest they came to a pop single with its smooth repetitive verses, built around the lead vocals with no guitar solo or extended instrumental break this could of been a radio single easy. Side note: it would've been interesting if Jimmy Page put out the shorter album cuts out to promote the album's compositional depth even if it went against their ethos of making an album a singular work.


 Oh well the other peculiarity is this song dedicated, to their local fan base(their devoted masses being affectionately named in the title), is that this was the namesake track of their preceding album. An in joke done by many other 70s artists like David Bowie and the track Ziggy Stardust, those damn 70s artists! It's all elementary as this track with its sturdy funk rock rhythm snakes along with their usual sensuality. Plant's laid back vocals flirting with the listener before the dynamics pickup with Bonhams cowbell, backing oohs and Plant intensifying come-ons. This track like many others got virtually no attention but it had more melody and energy to it than say the country rock influenced California sound also prevalent at the time.

Yes (1977) Wondrous Stories

 Jon Anderson is front and centre in this Yes single from 1977, it's one of his patented folk tales, this finds him at his peak with a wondrously soaring lead vocal over a bed of spellbinding acoustic strum. The Classic lineup of 1972 is reunited here after a three year hiatus for a succinct radio-friendly album, Going for the One(1977). Steve Howe capably handles the fantastical arrangement of Vachalia, while Chris Squire's close harmony adds a genuine choral depth, while the layered PolyMoog flourishes of Rick Wakeman help give the package a symphonic grandeur that came effortlessly to this group.  A band that systematically displayed Prog Rock's best and worst tendencies got the right ingredients and measurements for this concise album with strong pop and rock hooks combined with enough experimental material that would have been irresistible to rock fans not bowled over by punk.

Loggins and Messina (1976) Wasting Our Time

 From their last studio album, Native Sons, this jazzy track was a Loggins co write with John Townshend of the Sanford Townshend Band, a group who would effectively continue Loggins' brand of woodwind blue eyed soul with a Southern rock tilt. This song captures Loggins' sensuality in its arrangement before breaking into the catchy chorus of 'Theirs no sense in wasting our time', while nice its not on the compositional or instrumental level as their best work that managed to mix blue eyed soul with the dynamic contrasts of baroque folk, pastoral easy listening and rocking guitars.

Black Sabbath (1973) Who Are You‏

 Based around a Martian sounding Moog synthesizer lick, playing a simple three note pattern, you'd think this was an oddity in Sabbath's canon but actually they busted out the synths,acoustic guitars, Mellotrons and even flutes quite regularly during their semi- progressive phase in the mid 70s.

 Ozzy sings with himself backing him up, it soon gets weirder as it takes a detour wherein Tony Iommi plays a sombre piano progression with a Mellotron backing; while the Moogs play a nice lead line over it that builds up into a bolero before returning to the main riff again. Now with the two acid drenched Moogs playing in each channel, the stereo quality of the track with the echo threshold ringing out in each ear is mind altering to say the least.  The warped effect of the synthesizer sucks you in and combined with Bill Ward's doom laden beat and Ozzy's stricken vocals means this works without the standard Iommi fuzz tone. It ends on a dissonant oscillating fade out; it's Black Sabbath going Sci-Fi!

 Embracing new technology and diverse genre shifts to get across their own message that is more likely about the threat of governments or nuclear weapons rather than the you know..Satan. It sees them at their most adventurous with a Yes like mid section symphony, heavy on the keyboards but with that Sabbath patented despair and destruction all over it. Its similar to another paranoia based track, 1975's Am I Going Insane which shares a similar melody, the two part harmonies, the Moogs and the bolero rhythms.

Dave Mason (1972) Misty Morning Stranger

Sample of a piano riff and horns set the foundation of this Dave Mason gem. The interplay of funky horns and a resolute piano is great along with the harmonies of 'misty morning stranger'. However it's Masons clean and thick aerial guitar tone that is so pleasing to the ear along with the piano horn based backing track.