Dan Fogelberg (1972) To The Morning

 From his 1972 album, Home Free, it contains his best song, though it isn't often acknowledged as much as his early 80s work. With the dark, yet enlightening gospel feel of a James Taylor song it features  great 'weeping' vocal melody from Fogelberg. A hidden masterpiece from the LA Singer Songwriter phase of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne that peaked in 1972. It is an ode about about getting on with things.

Jay Ferguson (1976) Hit and Run

 From Jay Ferguson's' first solo album, All Alone in the End Zone, a soft rock album with a mix of funky disco beats, Moogs, Hard Rock Rhythm section and acoustic guitars. Famously had quite a career through the 60s to the 80s, from being the lead singer of the Psychedelic giants, Spirit in the late 60s and hard rock band Jo Jo Gunne who had a hit with 'Run Run Run' in the early 70s before having a top ten solo hit with Thunder Island, a classic Yacht Rock hit from his second album.

 This song has it all from the immediate piano rock intro to 'thunder and rain' sound effects to a chugging disco verse to a Moog based bridge to it's flute solo it has a driving quality to it and is the best composition on the album and slightly hints at Thunder Island in it' s visceral, heavy production.

Sweet (1978) California Nights

A breezy soft rock song during the band's later years, their peak of popularity may have been behind them but they were certainly at their musical peak. From their Level-headed (1978) album, it saw them experiment with Abba style Europop and duets (Lettre D'amour), country (Silverbird) as well as classical horns all over the tracks and funk on their top 10 comeback hit 'Love is like Oxygen'.
California Nights is a successful mix of Sweet's shrill choruses with California AM country pop and featured second vocalist Steve Priest on lead vocals. Lyrics describe the typical West Coast paradise, the destination of many pilgrimages all over the States. Describing girls from Las Vegas and New York with a disco feel, though it does feature dated lyrics like 'Boogie through to mornin'. One of many gems on this fine album from Sweet, expect more posts about what I consider their most essential album.

Deep Purple (1970) Flight of the Rat

 From their landmark heavy metal album In Rock (1970), Deep Purple transformed from a London based Psychedelia jam group with classical leanings into a heavy riff oriented rock act. Initially inspired with taking the sound of groups such as Zeppelin and Sabbath to boost their commercial success that was flagging they soon added their own style of instrumental passages to hard rock music. While it too some time to convince hard rock fans that what was missing was some Bach keyboard flourishes, it was Richie Blackmore's contributions which were key.

 Flight of the Rat is the hidden gem from the classic album, often overlooked and buried in the album, it's Purple at their best, a rare moment where they don't indulge but stay tight with a some heavy solos before the whole band descends into an all out funk session before regaining the original riff and ending on a superb drum solo. It stays sharp rather than rehashing any classical passages as they did with most of their songs sticking to a blues template that works best in hard rockand features a nice melody and lyrics by vocalist Ian Gillan. The central downstroke riff is a rip off of Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin, as is Sabbath's Paranoid, though it makes sense as Zep invented hard rock on their frist two albums. Also Blackmore noted they didn't know what type of music they were looking for till Zep debuted on the scene in 1968. This is the closest they came to Zep's tight fury and never would again, it's a shame it isn't the song their known for.

Harriet Schock (1974) Hollywood Town

 Harriet Schock released what is an undiscovered country classic from the Hollywood Town debut album in 1974. A singer songwriter from a commercials background, the song came out to little fanfare but has an indelible melody with swooping keyboards making up for an orchestra and Schock's heartfelt, down home vocals give this ballad a glowing, Disney pop feel. While the lyrics are excellent deconstruction of LA like Hotel California later in the decade this song comes at critical, post-hippie slant on the city that ahs been the subject of many songs.  Lines such as 'the lost and found try to find their way' , 'Putting their pride through well-known paces' and 'But their hearts are low down, dragging as they go' make great observations about Californians. While Manfred Mann would tackle this song, their version is irrecognizable sounding flat and too detached, for me Schock's is the only version that could do justice  to it.

Mott The Hoople (1973) Roll Away the Stone

 A single that would be re-recorded for the 1974 album The Hoople, a ballad heavy album, Roll Away the Stone, along with the Golden Age of Rock n Roll and Crash Street Kids are tough rockers and a throwback to the original spirit of 50s rock n roll and 60s soul. With doom laden guitars at the beginning, backing vocals and horns, the song is heavy but also features an excellent Ian Hunter lead vocals, while the chorus has a Motown quality to it. While Mott The Hoople are famous for one song but the quality of the production and Hunter' vocals are so much better than All the Young Dudes.

Karla Bonoff (1979) The Water is Wide

 From her second album, Restless Nights, Karla Bonoff covered the traditional Scottish folk song that dates back centuries to the 1600s. Bringing her reverbed, breathy vocals, acoustic picking and thick paino style to the classic, she gives the song a deep meaning in her wistful delivery. Though covered by many folk artists like Joan Baez and James Taylor, Bonoff's version is still the best modern cover with it's mixture of dark and light moods.