Brinsley Schwarz (1970) Ballad of a Has Been Beauty Queen- LOST 70s GEMS

From Brinsley's interestingly CSN inspired debut album, moored somewhere between a British and American sound, between the 60s and the 70s, between country rock and hard rock. First off Hymn to Me has it's CSN harmony laden vocal lines and swinging slide guitars, Shining Brightly bears a rocking harmony vocal hits you right away. The band does overdo the harmonies on the 7 minute track, Lady Constant which is an accurate name as the vocals do outstay their welcome. Finally What Do You Suggest and Mayfly feature inspired late 60s hippy blue rock, full of gospel, feel good rock and life lesson lyricism.

However, Ballad of a Has Been Beauty Queen is our gem for today and is a ten minute starting rocker, beginning with a Native American beat and ear splitting, blues guitar before devolving into a quiet, slow ballad. It eventually returns to its most galvanising organ and guitar based coda book ending the track in lopsided fashion

Brinsley Schwarz (1970) Funk Angel - LOST 70s GEMS

 From the talented Pub Rock band named after it's guitarist comes the country inflected 1970 album Despite it All, its full of humble country and rock n roll playing,bolstered by future New Wave star Nick Lowe's fronting of the group with his pop prowess. Pub Rock is a really hard genre to define, it bares a lot of old school retro feel to it, like the rock n roll nostalgia of Glam Rock and the early 60's Motown revivalism of Northern Soul, but also points to the industrial, soulful, roots rock and Americana of artists like Tom Petty and Springsteen whilst still remaining somehow very English.

After all an American country band called Eggs over Easy defined the genre with their small scale tour of pubs, the rock is very homely and avoiding being to grand or to loud. It's rustic charm and reliance on older more rudimentary musical styles was in sharp resistance to their own earlier psych folk styles not to mention the big 70s rock sounds of Prog and Hard rock filling stadiums worldwide. This second album featured some particularly inspired playing and crafted compositions like Country Girl and humdinger of a country rock tune, Starship. Elsewhere on Despite it All, there are upbeat roots rockers like Ebury Down, while Old Jarrow is a fiery hard rocker with country seeped in like most tracks; the band excelled at American country and had diverse set of talents.But best of all is Funk Angel with it's interesting mix of chiming Allman brothers guitars, a solid chorus and constant saxophone to hook you in whilst retaining some of Nick Lowe's best melodies.

The Kinks (1971) Mountain Woman - LOST 70s GEMS

The album Muswell Hillbillies, was one of the finest albums by the Kinks with it's humble country roots flavouring, similar to Elton John and Stealers Wheel's rough hewn, rolling country rock n' rollers. The title track is a good representative of how the album could've worked with its thick bluegrass electric guitar rolls, organ backing, listless East End accented country shuffle full of strained, rag tag harmonies not as strong as the Band but still good. Holloway Jail is almost the bets track with it's down home folk finger-picking melody mixing with more monolithic rock backing, while Complicated Life features beautiful, gentle mix of coursing organ and aching pedal steel before entering a bright electric,T Rex styled bop similar to other album track Skin and Bone; this was when T Rexstacy was in full force and Kinks made a clear attempt to get into some of the Glam Rock quirks and solid 50s thump.

But Mountain Woman is most impressive of all on this album, with it's slight Calypso organ beat, while the usual T Rex, jagged, rock n roll guitars spike the arrangement and the Davies brothers harmonise for the chorus. The central melody rolls so effortlessly with particular attention to the Purdie-esque drum performance by Mick Avory, it was definitely better than the Lola and the Powermen concept misfire with far better musicianship and writing .

The Shoes (1977) Boys Don't Lie - LOST 70s GEMS

Black Vinyl Shoes was the sound album from the Shoes, a rare classic in the power pop genre, such a diverse record; jammed packed with beautiful mix of pop, rock, shiny guitars and heaps of semi- noise rock/psych electrics.

 Boys Don't Lie's fuzzed out pop attack is filled with shades of 2000s pop punk sounds, like Blink 182 particularly in its trembling bass segment, meanwhile the compressed, chunky signature guitar tone the late 70s would soon dominate rock from the 80s onward to the present day.
An album full of fuzzed out noise rock melded with power pop, though this means the vocals are so overpowered its a strenuous listen burying strong melodies. Black Vinyl is a strong LO-FI statement with enough textures and raw edge to make this a really underrated piece of work.
Highlights include the melodic, clean clanking guitars of Writing a Postcard, the claps and haunting reverb of Fatal and the sitar-esque guitar of Capital Gain; full of demented modulations and a real easygoing beat. The winding pedal steel of Fire for A While trippily driving the melody while in the background is a flanged acoustic or steel guitar strumming clankily.

The lyrical sliding feedbacks and overdriven guitars, as found on Tragedy, blend well with the centrally mixed, matter of fact vocals. The pop vocals are so restrained that their delivery flows seamlessly through the attention grabbing grooves. Along with the Scruffs and maybe Television this is some of the most exuberant and creative music of 1977 when punk was dying out opening a colourful future ahead for the music industry.

Tom Johnston (1979) Small Time Talk - LOST 70s GEMS

 Tom Johnston was part of a legacy of unsung yet highly successful American frontmen, he followed in the tradition of other high tenor lead singers with their own unique rhythm guitar style and tremendous harmony arrangement and occasional stunning lead guitar skills to boot; other examples being Roger McGuinn with his clear pop voice and jangly 12 string rolling guitar style of play or Glenn Frey with his sleepy, gossamer vocals and swift yet clean country acoustic strum. Tom's reedy, scratchy choice and attacking, hammer-on funk guitar defined the Doobies style as much as the McGuinn to the Byrds and Frey to the Eagles.

 The album is packed full of strong funk playing; three examples of note are the solo in album opener, Down Along the River where Tom executes a heavily filtered funk solo full of Funkadelic,Roy Ayers flavoured quacking duck wah wah; deep and jowly in it's tone and so, so funky. That track features ringing out Fender Rhodes, glistening soul harmonies and the kind of country lyrics reserved for his former band. The other examples are the intricate and so clear cut clavinet bouncing along in Savannah Nights and the supersonic, incredibly fat toned BB King soloing of Show Me.

 My choice gem however third on the track listings, Small Time Talk; a rocking soul number with subtle backing vocals and a nifty melody that mixes Tom's strengths of country, funk and soul. The solo acoustic guitar sets the beat with a grooving ascending stutter; the best thing he has ever played. It's undeniable groove and yet keeping a rootsy grit to it's a fine accomplishment while he sings with such a clean and positive soulfulness alongside the Memphis horns its the best song from it's album.

Brinsley Schwarz (1972) Why, Why, Why, Why, Why - LOST 70s GEMS

Brinsley Schwarz's 1972 release, Nervous on the Road, was more a bump on the road for the pub rockers, with it's regression back to generic, lifeless blues and jazz jams and bland rock n roll. There's very little original playing and the band failed to display the flair, passion and diverse songwriting of their other albums. Full of lifeless genre exercises a lot of the album fades into mild background music and displays some of the weaknesses of Pub Rock its lack of true ingenuity and sonic dynamism that other forms of rock were readily imbued with. There is a Stones quality to the silly jams and slurred vocals of I Like it Like That, Surrender to the Rythmm and Nervous on the Road (But Can’t Stay at Home) but overall a weak album. It does pick up with two of the last songs with the endearing romance of Brand New You, Brand New Me, while the song Why, Why, Why, Why, Why with it's snappy hook and driving mix of persistent acoustic guitar and short piano and country guitar fills; though it's the titular whining chorus harmonies that are the most memorable songwriting of the whole album not to mention the lead vocal is mixed a lot sharper and more prominent than rest of the album's leads.

Eagles (1972) Chug All Night - LOST 70s GEMS

On the second anniversary of Glenn Frey's passing I will look at two gems, one being a big hit the other an album cut.

I chose this album cut, often derided by die hard fans and even by Glenn himself, because it ultimately speaks volumes about Glenn's talent when you listen to the terse rocker, its a rare moment where Glenn's singing AND lead guitar took central focus; this song being unique along with Most of Us are Sad as being his only sole writing credits with the Eagles.

 When away from his usual collaborators Don Henley, Jack Tempchin and JD Souther you see both his strengths and weaknesses; his songs are melodic and flow quite naturally but the lyrics lack sophistication and depth. Just look at the awkwardly worded titles, though within the tunes themselves are some lines bearing tremendous subtlety and insight such as "I've been shadows of myself, how was I to know" in 1972's Most of Us are Sad. 

 Or in today's gem, Chug All Night, which opens with the classic opening line, "You scare me a bit, but that's alright"; which keeps to one of the themes of the band's 1972 debut album; the theme of supernaturally evil women also visited in Henley's Navajo flavoured Witchy Woman. Notice how Chug All Night's falsetto bridge features Frey and bassist Randy Meisner harmonising in a Native American styled melody itself, similar to modal sounds of Witchy Woman, as they sing "No devil ever cast a voodoo, So long and dark and real". Glenn was real talented at linking songs to a creative vision for a specific album and the band overall output; he branded the group with his own mix of syrupy smooth, down home harmonies as well and a Detroit chug they brought to even their most acoustic hits.

While the title itself did put me off I came to appreciate its song's sonic quality over it's lack of substance, Chug all Night is in the vein of the cacophonous, brawling Detroit rock n roll of Out of Control off the Desperado album, and undoubtedly the main hook is Glenn's killer lead guitar tone.

We open with a punchy, stinging guitar line that erupts like a cluster lightning storm tearing through the sky. It bursts with electrifying menace  in a flurry of blues notes; Glenn's guitar sounding almost like Jimmy Page's. The malevolent rhythm chords that run through in the background almost rage as they hang over the song, revving up at the end of each phrase like a beat up oldsmobile. Also listen to Glenn's orgasmic solo full of his signature meaty pull offs and lyrical slids that he would use in Already Gone, Too Many Hands etc.
 While Bernie Leadon is in there too like he is in Out of Control, adding a buoyant, cleaner tone as a twangy counterpoint and adding a few honkytonk licks in there to keep the country vibe present too. Frey mentioned he struggled to return the favour and play country guitar during Bernie's songs; the Eagles were ultimately a rock band not a country band.

 For me Glenn's best vocal moment is also in this song; when he sings the line "Till I'm blind and black and bluuuuee" with a high note on the word blue. Then he delivers the follow up line, "No one else will dooo", in a low, greaser voice almost in a animated sprechgesang register. 

 Meanwhile the song is packed with fantastic lyric couplets like "I'm wired for sound, Are you wired for light?", Glenn was amazing at this in particular. His skill at writing colourful little phrases epitomised his brand of breezy but flippant country rock songwriting, that gained substance and scope from Don Heney's overarching themes of discontent. Who can forget his single greatest lyric contribution of the 'flatbed Ford' line to Take It Easy, the best line in that masterpiece of a composition that only Glenn could pull off and deliver with 100% sincerity. Another great example is the couplet that opens Lyin Eyes about how 'City girls just seem to find out early, How to open doors with just a smile' and also pay attention to After the Thrill is Gone; a whole song built around these ingenious quips.

I no longer know how I could have had such a disdain for this song that I rarely got past the first chorus of 'I do believe we can Chug all night, I do believe we can Hug all night'. This was just one cut on their very first album and they were looking ahead to loftier ambitions and higher plains; after all these Eagles weren't meant to be grounded. Besides, I ask you; how can you hate a song which contains the line "If I'm alive in the morning, I'll be alive in a dream"; Glenn Frey the king of the couplet!