Wire are an English rock band formed in London in October 1976, (and intermittently active to the present) by Colin Newman (vocals, guitar), Graham Lewis (bass, vocals), Bruce Gilbert (guitar), and Robert Gotobed (né Grey) (drums). Wire’s debut, Pink Flag (1977) contains songs which are very diverse in mood and style, but most use a minimalist punk approach, unorthodox structures, and several songs are under a minute in length; “Field Day For The Sundays” is only 28 seconds long. Inspired by the burgeoning U.K. punk scene, Wire are often cited as one of the more important rock groups of the 1970s and 1980s. Critic Stewart Mason writes, “Over their brilliant first three albums, Wire expanded the sonic boundaries of not just punk, but rock music in general.”
The band was led by “Mahavishnu” John McLaughlin on acoustic and electric guitars, with members Billy Cobham on drums, Rick Laird on bass guitar, Jan Hammer on electric and acoustic piano and synthesizer, and Jerry Goodman on violin. The group is best known for their albums The Inner Mounting Flame (1971) and Birds of Fire (1973). This group was considered an important pioneer in the jazz fusion movement. McLaughlin and Cobham met while performing and recording with Miles Davis during the Bitches Brew sessions. McLaughlin was also influenced in his conception of the band by his studies with Indian guru Sri Chinmoy, who encouraged him to take the name “Mahavishnu” which means “Divine compassion, power and justice.”
Their musical style was an unprecedented blending of genres: they combined the high-volume electrified rock sound that had been pioneered by Jimi Hendrix (who McLaughlin had jammed with on his initial arrival in New York as part of the Tony Williams Lifetime), complex rhythms in unusual time signatures that reflected McLaughlin’s interest in Indian classical music as well as funk, an improvisational concept that was rooted in jazz as well as Indian music, and harmonic influence from European classical music. The group’s early music was entirely instrumental; their later albums had songs which sometimes featured R&B or even gospel/hymn styled vocals.
The video on this blog features a live performance of the track “Resolution”. The original version of this song can be found on the album Birds of Fire. It is one of my all time favorite pieces of music…
The Amboy Dukes were an American rock music band of the late 1960s and early 1970s from Detroit, Michigan, best remembered for their hit single “Journey to the Center of the Mind”, and for launching the career of Ted Nugent. The band’s name comes from the title of a novel by Irving Shulman about a Jewish street gang of the same name in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn during the 1940s. This song is about hallucinogenic drugs. Ted Nugent takes pride that he never did drugs, and claims he had no idea this was a drug song. He thought it was about looking inside yourself. It was written by the group’s other guitarist, Steve Farmer.
James Gang were a rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1969 the band consisting of Jimmy Fox (drummer) Tom Kriss (bass) and Joe Walsh (guitar / vocals) released its debut album Yer’ Album. In 1970, the band released its second album James Gang Rides Again, which included the popular single “Funk #49″, as well as the AOR classic “The Bomber”. By this time, Dale Peters had replaced Kriss on bass. The band opened for The Who during a tour of Britain. After two more albums, Thirds (with the single “Walk Away”) and the live album James Gang Live in Concert, Walsh left the band (in late 1971) to go solo and later joined The Eagles.
The Soft Machine were one of England’s original and best psychedelic bands, emerging out of the same “UFO Club” London scene at the same time as Pink Floyd. While the band would always undergo constant personnel and stylistic change, their best known lineup in their psychedelic days was the trio of Kevin Ayers-bass, guitar, vocals, Mike Ratledge-organ and Robert Wyatt-drums, vocals. Soft Machine were named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They played many shows and built an audience in “swinging London” and beyond. A link with Jimi Hendrix’s management culminated in the Softs touring the USA with the Jimi Hendrix Experience two different times in 1968, playing over 60 shows as their opening act and recording their first album while in the USA during their touring, after which the band collapsed and disbanded, temporarily.
In January 1969, in order to fulfill contractual obligations, Soft Machine reformed with former road manager and composer Hugh Hopper on bass added to Wyatt and Ratledge, and set about recording their second album, Volume Two, which launched a transition towards a purely instrumental sound resembling what would be later called jazz fusion. The base trio was late in 1969 expanded to a septet with the addition of four horn players, though only saxophonist Elton Dean remained beyond a few months, the resulting Soft Machine quartet (Wyatt, Hopper, Ratledge and Dean) running through Third (1970) and Fourth (1971), with various guests, mostly jazz players (Lyn Dobson, Nick Evans, Mark Charig, Jimmy Hastings, Roy Babbington, Rab Spall). Fourth was the first of their fully instrumental albums, and the last one featuring Wyatt.
The Longhorn Ballroom is a music venue and country western dance hall in Dallas, Texas (USA). It was formerly the Bob Wills Ranch House.
On January 10, 1978 it achieved brief infamy in national music circles when the Sex Pistols appeared there and during their performance taunted the audience, resulting in a woman head-butting Sid Vicious
Nick Barbaro in the Austin Chronicle writes: The Sex Pistols were doing this short, weird Southern tour in funky locations and might never play the U.S. again, and there were already personnel problems in the band. Going seemed like the natural thing to do. They were the Beatles of the punk movement. They were the band. It was an event to see them. I’d been to progressive country shows at the Longhorn Ballroom before — seen Willie Nelson — so it wasn’t exactly a redneck bar. Sid was really fucked up. Really drunk. He played for a while without his guitar plugged in. He played for a while with a fish. I think somebody threw it up there, a bass or something. People seemed pissed at him. He’d spit on the audience; they’d spit on him. That’s what you did. There was this element of, “You paid to see us play?” The memorable thing about the show was the crowd and how tightly packed it was. Everybody had moments when you were suddenly not on the ground anymore, being swept along with the crowd. Some people were genuinely scared of being crushed. But that’s an old British football tradition, too. I don’t remember anything about the song list. I’m sure it was all their favorites. They didn’t have all that many songs, but they were entertaining songwriters. It was a great rock & roll show.
Black Oak Arkansas is an American Southern rock band named after the band’s hometown of Black Oak, Arkansas. The band reached the height of its fame in the 1970s with ten charting albums released in that decade. Their style is punctuated by multiple guitar players and the raspy voice and on-stage antics of vocalist Jim “Dandy” Mangrum. Their self-titled debut album Black Oak Arkansas was released in 1971 while the band toured extensively, gaining a reputation as a live act. The twin album releases that followed in 1972, Keep the Faith and If an Angel Came to See You, Would You Make Her Feel at Home, expanded on the group’s eclectic musical style. In 1973, Black Oak Arkansas released their fourth album Raunch ‘N’ Roll Live and introduced a new drummer, Tommy Aldridge. It was their fifth album High on the Hog, released later that year, that established solid commercial success by peaking at number 52 on the Billboard albums chart. Vocalist Ruby Starr also toured with the band during this period. Her raspy voice can be heard on the group’s remake of LaVern Baker’s 1957 hit ” Jim Dandy,” which reached number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Jim Dandy is credited with inspiring Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth’s image and onstage persona as well.
Atomic Rooster were an English progressive rock band, formed by ex-Crazy World of Arthur Brown members. Throughout its history, keyboardist Vincent Crane was the only constant member, and wrote the majority of their material. Their genre in music cannot be exactly defined, since they went through radical changes in very short times during their life. However, their best-known era would represent a more hard rock/progressive rock sound, exemplified by their only hit singles, “Tomorrow Night” (UK no. 11) and “The Devil’s Answer” (UK no. 4), both in 1971. The original drummer was Carl Palmer who later went on to form Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Focus, based out of the Netherlands, was comprised of keyboardist and flautist Thijs van Leer, guitarist Jan Akkerman, bass guitarist Martin Dresden, and drummer Hans Cleuver. In 1971, the group released Moving Waves, which brought the band international acclaim and a hit on both sides of the Atlantic with the radio edit of the rock rondo “Hocus Pocus”. This rock classic consists of Akkerman’s guitar chord sequence used as a recurring theme, with quirky and energetic interludes that include alto flute riffs, accordion, guitar, and drum solos, whistling, nonsensical (Dutch) vocals, falsetto singing, and yodeling. This album established Thijs van Leer and Akkerman as composers who could appeal to progressive-rock album listeners (a large audience in the early 1970s) and radio single buyers.
Be sure to watch at around 1:05 for one of the most embarrassing moments to ever happen to a band on live TV. Also, Akkerman looking at his guitar the end of this performance is hilarious!
