Author: Phil Bausch

Pink Floyd is one of the most successful bands in history, but that doesn’t mean all of their fans jumped on the bandwagon right away.  And, the band didn’t make it easy either.

Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, & Rick Wright…1967

Pink Floyd’s name is taken from the names of two bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.  That’s because in 1965, the group planned on being a blues band.  Plans change, and in 1967 they were considered England’s first Acid Rock/Psychedelic band.  Their lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and main songwriter was Syd Barrett.  The band had some success in England in 1967 with a couple of singles…”See Emily Play” (#6 U.K.) and “Arnold Layne” (#20 U.K.), and with their album The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (#6 U.K.).  Pink Floyd was also a popular live act in London, and used innovative light shows to heighten the psychedelic effect.

The album and some singles did nothing in the United States, although I do remember hearing “Astronomy Domine” on one of those sampler albums the record labels put out in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s.

Then there was a problem that would have ended most groups.  The band’s leader, Syd Barrett, who had been using LSD regularly, suffered a mental breakdown.  He had to leave the band in early 1968.  The band had already added his replacement, David Gilmour, and Roger Waters took on most of the songwriting and the leadership role.

Although some fans love the band’s early music, the fact is…they released 7 albums that mostly failed in the U.S.  The most successful one barely cracked the top 50, and some didn’t even make the top 200 chart.  If their career had ended there, most people in the U.S. would not have even heard of Pink Floyd.

So, there was no way to predict what happened next.

In 1973, Pink Floyd released The Dark Side Of The Moon, and everything changed.  The album went to #1 in the United States, and went on to sell over 45-million copies worldwide.  It holds the record for most consecutive weeks on the Billboard album chart…741 weeks…that’s over 14 years!  Those continuous sales meant the album kept finding new fans.  Our son, Paul, was born the year the album came out.  He’s a more knowledgeable Pink Floyd fan than I am, and he literally wore through his favorite The Dark Side Of The Moon T-shirt by the time he graduated high school.

There were a lot of reasons why Dark Side was successful.  Instead of extremely long songs with psychedelic or obscure lyrics, the songs are much better melodically, less drawn out (but they still have room to breathe), and the lyrics are purposefully direct and about important aspects of everyday life.  In addition, Pink Floyd had honed the songs in concert for a year before they took them into the studio.

The Dark Side Of The Moon was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with engineer Alan Parsons, who had worked on Let It Be and Abbey Road for The Beatles.  Upon hearing the album, Capitol Records launched a major advertising campaign.  Since the songs were considered too long to be singles, the label released professionally edited shorter versions of the songs “Money”, “Time” and “Us And Them”.  That helped the group get on more radio stations.  “Money” even had an edited version that changed the “bullshit” line to just “bull”…in case station owners were afraid to offend anyone.  Money, and lots of it, was flowing to the members of Pink Floyd.

There is a great “Classic Albums” film documentary…The Making of The Dark Side Of The Moon.  It features interviews with all 4 members of Pink Floyd, who offer insights and play instruments to demonstrate some of the parts (a couple of really nice acoustic versions).  The 2003 film is wonderfully edited together…going from live playing, right into the original studio versions.  I bought the documentary, and now it’s for sale on iTunes for only $1.99, or you can stream it free online.

With The Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd became the popular and influential band we know today.  Roger Waters was the main songwriter, but all four members contributed some songwriting, and added to the arrangements, particularly David Gilmour’s perfect-for-each-song guitar solos.

Their follow-up album was  Wish You Were Here , #1 in 1975.  It’s nearly as good as Dark Side, and is the favorite of Gilmour and Wright, who co-wrote a lot of the music with Waters.  The album includes the line from a clueless music executive asking the band members…”Which one’s Pink?”.

Animals, went to #3 in 1977, and their next #1 album came in 1979…The Wall.

The Wall was another “cultural event” and third #1 album for Pink Floyd.  It had massive sales.  Although it didn’t sell as many units as Dark Side, it officially is listed as having greater sales, because it was a double-album and each unit sold represented 2 albums.  The Wall also contained Pink Floyd’s only #1 hit, “Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)”.  Interestingly, Pink Floyd just had two Top 40 singles, the other being “Money”, but they had plenty of their album cuts played on FM stations…still do.

Maybe all that success was too much pressure, because there was a lot of tension in the band.  Waters even wanted to not include David Gilmour’s outstanding cut “Comfortably Numb”  in his rock opera The Wall.  The last Pink Floyd album to include Roger Waters is The Final Cut in 1983.  It sold okay, and at the time was considered the band’s last album.

In 1987 David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason reformed the group and released A Momentary Lapse Of Reason.  It’s a solid effort (I love “On The Turning Away”), and the public responded in a big way to the album (#3) and especially the tour.  It continued the Pink Floyd style of elaborate stage productions with big screen videos, laser lights, and giant props.

The artwork for Pink Floyd’s studio albums:

Another successful (#1) studio album from this lineup is The Division Bell in 1994.  There was the live album Pulse in 1995 (#1), and their final (nearly all instrumental) album  Endless River, #3 in 2014.

My wife and I were lucky to see Roger Waters in concert in Omaha in June of 2007.  It was a stellar large arena show with excellent musicians, and all the production values of a Pink Floyd show, even the famous flying pig.  Waters and his band performed many of the best Floyd songs (he sounded great on “Wish You Were Here”).  Then they presented the entire Dark Side Of The Moon album…while a giant lighted pyramid hung over the sold out audience and beamed more lighting to the stage.

We’ve never seen David Gilmour perform live, except in some videos of his Pink Floyd style concerts.  We do have three of his solo albums, and enjoy his distinctive guitar playing and vocals.

For a band that had so much trouble finding commercial success, Pink Floyd has sold over 250-Million Albums.

Everyone has heard of Pink Floyd.

Extra:  Since we can’t see Pink Floyd anymore, we did the next best thing.  The Australian Pink Floyd Show was in Eugene, Oregon on August 4th, 2024.  It was a great presentation.  Besides first-rate musicianship, they had amazing visuals.

Ricky Nelson first became known as a cute kid on his parent’s radio and television show “The Adventures Of Ozzie & Harriet”.  The TV version of the show started in 1952 when Ricky was 12.

Ricky Nelson became a popular Rock & Roll singer in 1957, when he was 17.  My family watched the show, and saw Ricky Nelson performing his hits…which started with his cover of Fats Domino’s “I’m Walking” (#4).  It was somewhat unfortunate that this was his first million-seller, because white artists had been covering songs by black artists, and the black versions were not getting enough airplay.  That trend was deplored by music critics.  Of course Fats Domino had just as big a hit with “I’m Walking” (#4).  Many years later Ricky and Fats even toured together.  After that one hit, Ricky Nelson built his career on original songs, mostly provided by professional songwriters.

(“Teen Age Idol” picture sleeve from my family’s collection.)

A favorite memory from grade school…one of my classmates, Keith Goins, was a guitar player, and we used to sing Ricky Nelson songs.

Nelson performed in what might be considered the first music videos.  They were played at the end of episodes of “Ozzie & Harriet”, when Ricky would sing his songs.  The videos were production pieces, not just performances.

He started going by Rick in 1961, but “Ricky” stuck.  By the way, he’s driving an Avanti…here’s a reminder of what it looks like:

Ricky Nelson’s other Top-10 Hits (nearly all million-selling) included:  “Be-Bop Baby” (#3), “Stood Up” (#2), “Believe What You Say” (#4), “Poor Little Fool” (#1), “Lonesome Town” (#7), “Never Be Anyone Else But You” (#6), “It’s Late” (#9), “Travelin’ Man” (#1), “Hello Mary Lou” (#9), “Young World” (#5), “Teen Age Idol” (#5), “It’s Up To You” (#6), and “For You” (#6).  Those are just some of the 33 Top-40 hits he had from May of 1957 to January of 1964.

Then, Ricky Nelson stopped having hits.

What happened in January of 1964 that could have had such a big impact on his career?  The Beatles happened.

Almost that quickly, teen idols were replaced by British bands and singers.  It wasn’t that teen idol types didn’t still release music, it  just didn’t chart well anymore.  Even Elvis Presley only had one Top-10 hit from the beginning of 1964 to mid 1969.

What eventually got Rick Nelson back on the charts was forming The Stone Canyon Band in 1969.  Rick Nelson’s songs often had a country sound to them, especially “Hello Mary Lou” in 1961, which some people consider early Country Rock.  Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band, focused on that Country Rock sound, even adding steel guitar.  They were on the Top 40 chart in January of 1970 with the Bob Dylan song “She Belongs To Me”, and had a well-reviewed album, In Concert At The Troubadour.  The band included Randy Meisner, who went on to become one of the founding members of Eagles.

Rick Nelson and his band played a Rock ‘N’ Roll Revival concert in Madison Square Garden in 1971, and it didn’t go particularly well.  When they played a newer song, a cover of “Honky Tonk Women” (then a fairly new song by The Rolling Stones), there was booing in the audience.  Nelson left the stage, but was convinced to finish the set.  He stuck to the oldies the audience wanted.  Some audience members said the booing was actually about a police action in the audience, but still, it angered Rick Nelson and he wrote “Garden Party”.

The song went to #6 on the Pop chart, #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and sold over 1-million copies in 1972.  Garden Party tells the story of his experience at Madison Square Garden.  He thought the booing was for not looking like he did back in the early ’60’s, and for not just playing his old hits.  The song also has a lot of clever descriptions of artists who attended or performed at the concert.

Unfortunately, that was the last chart success for Ricky Nelson.  Then after a messy divorce in 1982, he was forced to tour, because he needed money.  “I get no rest when I’m feelin’ weary, I gotta pack my bags and go.  I gotta be somewhere tomorrow, to smile and do my show.”…lyrics from “Teen Age Idol”.

It was in 1985 that he released the collection, Ricky Nelson: All My Best.   You can see he embraced the “y” he couldn’t get rid of.

He also launched another tour in 1985.  He didn’t like buses, so he bought a 1944 Douglas DC-3 airplane that was once owned by Jerry Lee Lewis.  The DC-3 was old and unreliable.  On December 31st, 1985, the plane crash-landed northeast of Dallas, Texas.  Nelson and all six members of his band and crew died in the crash.  Rick Nelson was just 45 years old.  There was a false and hurtful rumor that the musicians had been freebasing cocaine, but the official investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board said a faulty heater caused the smoke and fire that led to the crash.

One somewhat eerie note…the last song Rick Nelson performed on stage was “Rave On” by Buddy Holly, who also died in a plane crash.

Ricky Nelson wasn’t just a kid who was made into a teen idol.  Sure he had the good looks of a movie star, and did some film work, but foremost he was a musician.  He played guitar, wrote some of his own songs, and he had a great baritone voice with excellent range.  Ricky Nelson brought along other young musicians, such as guitarist James Burton who gained his own fame through the years.  Nelson was also one of the earliest movers in Country Rock in the 1960’s, before it blossomed in the 1970’s.

Ricky Nelson helped make early Rock & Roll popular, and then contributed to its evolution.

For Carole King, songwriting came first.

Born Carol Klein in February of 1942,  she started playing piano when she was just four years old, and had the ability to correctly identify a note by simply hearing it.  As a young adult in New York, she came in contact with other interesting musical friends.  She made record demos with Paul Simon, and dated Neil Sedaka, who wrote the song “Oh Carol” for her.  Then, at just 17 years old, she married the man who became her songwriting partner…Gerry Goffin.

Carole King (her chosen professional name) and Gerry Goffin had their first real songwriting success in 1961 with “Will You (Still) Love Me Tomorrow”, which was a #1 hit for The Shirelles.  Soon, Goffin and King became what is probably the most famous songwriting couple to come out of the Brill Building “song factory” in New York.  The other team that comes to mind is Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.  It was a time when most performers didn’t write their own songs, but used professional songwriters.  Carole wrote the melodies, and Gerry wrote the lyrics.

Other major songs from Goffin and King are:  “Take Good Care Of My Baby”(#1 for Bobby Vee), “Chains” (#17 for The Cookies, and covered by The Beatles), “The Loco Motion” (#1 for Little Eva, also #1 for Grand Funk Railroad, and #3 for Kylie Minogue), “Go Away Little Girl” (#1 for Steve Lawrence), “Up On The Roof” (#5 for The Drifters), “Hey Girl” (#10 for Freddie Scott and #9 for Donny Osmond), “One Fine Day” (#5 for The Chiffons), “I’m Into Something Good” (#13 for Herman’s Hermits), “Just Once In My Life” (#9 for The Righteous Brothers, Phil Spector got a writing credit too.), “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (#3 for The Monkees), and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” (#8 for Aretha Franklin).  Those are only some of the songs they wrote during their 10 years together, and of course their songs were recorded by many more artists.

In 1968, when Carole King split from Gerry Goffin (both personally and professionally) she decided to try performing her own songs.  Back in 1962, she had a minor hit with “It Might As Well Rain Until September” (#22), but it was 1971 when the world would know the singer, Carole King.

It’s hard to overstate how Carole King’s Tapestry album dominated 1971.  It held the #1 spot on the Billboard Top 200 for 15 weeks, then stayed on the charts for over 6 years, for a time, it was second in longevity to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon.  Tapestry was the biggest selling album in history at its time of release, and has sold over 25-million copies worldwide, according to the Library Of Congress.

Tapestry features the hits “It’s Too Late” (#1), “I Feel The Earth Move”, and “So Far Away”, plus songs that became hits for other artists…”Where You Lead” by Barbra Streisand, and most notably “You’ve Got A Friend” (#1) for her good friend James Taylor.

Taylor and King (and at times Joni Mitchell) had been recording together…on James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James and Mud Slide Slim albums…and doing live performances.  It was during rehearsal when James heard Carole playing “You’ve Got A Friend”.  The professional songwriter in Carole King allowed her to give up the song when James Taylor asked her permission to be the first to release “You’ve Got A Friend” as a single.  Carole King said it’s the only song that came to her in a dream.  Carole also said it was a response to Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” line…”I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend”.

Carole King won four Grammy Awards for Tapestry, including Album Of The Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance (Female), Record Of The Year for “It’s Too Late”, and Song Of The Year for “You’ve Got A Friend”.  Almost all of the songs on the album got FM radio play, and were well known among fans.

My wife told me, when we were in Virginia Beach in 1971, that one of her co-workers always put on “Beautiful” to start her day.  The lyrics are:  “You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face, and show the world all the love in your heart.  Then people gonna treat you better.  You’re gonna find, yes you will, that you’re beautiful, as you feel.”  “Beautiful” is also the title of the Broadway musical and touring show about Carole King’s life.

Carole King had moved from New York to California after her divorce from Gerry Goffin, and somehow fit in with the music on the West Coast.  1971 was a time when peace, love, and the hippie movement were still factors in America.  And, there was Carole King on the cover of her album, holding a tapestry that she had made, she’s in jeans, and she’s barefoot.  She looks natural and relatable, and became the leader of the female portion of the singer-songwriter movement.  

Tapestry featured sparse, intimate arrangements with production by Lou Adler, and songwriting help from Toni Stern.

The song “Where You Lead” got new life, and new meaning in 2000 when Carole King was asked to do the song as the theme for “The Gilmore Girls” TV show.  Carole performed the song with her daughter, Louise, and it became associated with the TV daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel) following the lead of her mom, Lorelei (Lauren Graham).  Carole King even took a small role as a music store owner for a few episodes.

(My picture sleeve for Carole King’s “One Fine Day” single.)

Carole King had 14 Top 40 hits, including “Sweet Seasons” (#9), “Jazzman” (#2), and “Nightingale” (#9).  She’s also released 25 albums, and continues to perform.  She had a reunion with James Taylor for the Live At The Troubadour album which hit #4 on the charts in 2010 and was certified Gold.  They even toured together, because they enjoyed the reunion so much.  Update:  In January 2022, CNN aired a two hour concert/documentary…Carole King & James Taylor “Just Call Out My Name”.

For songwriting, Carole King and Gerry Goffin were inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame…as a team…however, Carole King has not been inducted as a performer.  It doesn’t make sense how anyone this successful, and influential could be left out.  Other organizations understand.  She was the first woman to be honored with the Library Of Congress Gershwin Prize, and was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2015.

Update:  On May 12th, 2021, it was announced that Carole King is being inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall Of fame…finally.  And then on October 30th, 2021, Carole King was inducted by Taylor Swift.  Swift sang “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, Jennifer Hudson also honored King with “Natural Woman”, and the 79-year-old Carole King performed “You’ve Got A Friend”.

Here’s an excerpt from a Rolling Stone interview they posted just after Carole King was chosen:

Where Carole King led, lots of people followed.  The songs she’s written, and the songs she’s sung, will certainly be enjoyed, for generations to come.

Some artists are more important than their record sales.  Kris Kristofferson was never a big-selling artist, but his songs from the late ’60’s and early ’70’s are the gold standard for songwriting in Country music.

Some of Kristofferson’s songs from his early career include: “Sunday Morning Coming Down” (for Johnny Cash), “Me & Bobby McGee” (for Janis Joplin), “For The Good Times” (for Ray Price), “Help Me Make It Through The Night” (for Sammi Smith), “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”, and “Why Me”.

With the exception of “Why Me” (his biggest single, #1 Country, #16 Pop) and “Loving Her Was Easier” (#4 AC, #26 Pop), Kris Kristofferson’s songs were hits for other artists, as indicated above.  Many more artists covered his songs, but those were the most popular versions.

Not only do the songs have memorable melodies, but they include some of the best lyrics ever written for Country music.  Kristofferson provided for Country what Bob Dylan did for Rock…deeper meanings, more complex topics, and clever phrasing.

These days, we simply type the word “lyrics” and a song title into Google, and we can read the lyrics of almost any song.  If that’s done with Kristofferson’s songs, people can see how well written they are, and how they go beyond what is considered typical Country songs.

In one year, 1970, Kristofferson’s songwriting won “Song Of The Year” from The Academy Of Country Music, and “Song Of The Year” from The Country Music Association.  But the thing is…the awards were for two different songs, “For The Good Times” (Ray Price) and “Sunday Morning Coming Down” (Johnny Cash).  That feat has not been done before or since.

So why was Kris Kristofferson’s songwriting so different?  Maybe because his background is anything but typical.  Growing up mostly in California, Kristofferson was an athlete…football, rugby, and boxing.  He was a scholar…Bachelor’s Degree in Literature (summa cum laude), was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University in England.  It was there that he began writing songs.

Under pressure from his military family, Kris Kristofferson joined the U.S. Army.  He became a helicopter pilot, an army Ranger, and attained the rank of Captain.  By 1965, Kristofferson left it all behind to move to Nashville to become a professional songwriter…and ended up sweeping floors at the Columbia Records studio.  He was probably the only Rhodes Scholar janitor in history.

Eventually, he was able to get his songs into the hands of Johnny Cash, and other Country artists.  Rocker Janis Joplin recorded “Me & Bobby McGee”, partly because Kristofferson & Joplin were a couple shortly before her death.

Kris Kristofferson’s first two albums, in 1970 and 1971, contain his most famous songs.  The albums are Kristofferson (later the title was changed to Me & Bobby McGee) and The Silver Tongued Devil & I.

Those two albums make up half of the songs on his career retrospective double-album The Essential Kris Kristofferson .  The other half of the collection covers 14 years…so, you can see how front-loaded his career was.

Another part of his career was acting.  He had quite a few movie roles, and the peak of his acting was winning a Golden Globe for “A Star Is Born” co-starring Barbra Streisand.

Although my wife and I were aware of many of the songs Kristofferson wrote, we almost missed his great versions.  It was in 1976 during my first radio job as a news reporter at KLEM AM & FM in LeMars, Iowa, that we were first introduced to his records.  One of the DJ’s, George Norman, knew we liked James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and other singer-songwriters, so he recommended Kris Kristofferson.

We bought those first two albums that George recommended, and Kristofferson became one of our favorite artists.  He has a deep, somewhat gravelly voice that not everyone likes, but we think his versions of his songs are definitive.  The arrangements compliment the songs perfectly, and his voice captures all the nuances of the lyrics.

We bought some more of his albums, but the truth is, the recordings we love are all from 1970-1973.

Kris Kristofferson went on to a lot more success, including working with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings in The Highwaymen.  Fairly recently, I saw a video of one of their old concerts, and The Highwaymen featured more Kristofferson songs than songs by any one of those other major stars.

Kris Kristofferson songs are so good, everyone wants to perform them.

Update:  Above is a shot from a Kris Kristofferson’s concert we attended February 23rd, 2019 in Salem, Oregon.  You can read the concert review (Kris Kristofferson Concert) on this site.

Update:  It was announced in January of 2021 that Kris Kristofferson retired.  The 84-year-old’s last performance was in January of 2020.

Update 9/28/2024:  Kris Kristofferson passed away today at the age of 88.  He died peacefully, surrounded by his family.

 

It was 20 years ago today…that we visited the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

(Four postcards we bought at the museum, click to enlarge)

It’s hard to believe it’s been that long.  Back then, they didn’t allow photos to be taken inside the museum, so I made a journal of what we saw in order to help us remember.

The large main displays were “on loan” from artists or their families.  In this case, we saw excellent displays from John Lennon and Neil Young…two of our favorite artists.

The Lennon display was particularly impressive.  It had John’s Sgt. Pepper uniform, his collarless Beatles’ Jacket, and his black leather jacket from Hamburg, Germany.

(John’s is the green jacket in this 50th anniversary Sgt. Pepper display)

There were four of John’s guitars, including the black Rickenbacker he used during the Shea Stadium concert, and the acoustic guitar he used for “Give Peace A Chance”.   John’s hand-written lyrics for “In My Life” and “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” were on display, along with a gold record for Sgt. Pepper, and a pair of John’s famous wire-rim glasses.  Plus, there were many more personal items, and promotional Beatles posters.

(Neil Young’s gigantic stage props from Rust Never Sleeps)

The museum had Neil Young’s oversized props from his Rust Never Sleeps tour.  That included large Fender and Marshall amps and the huge microphone as shown above.  There were Neil’s hand-written lyrics to “Rockin’ In The Free World”, and a leather jacket with fringe on it that he wore when he was in Buffalo Springfield.

There was also a telegram from 4/28/82 complementing Neil on his Live Rust album, and saying “We’ve listened to it over and over and love it”…signed Paul & Linda McCartney.  By the way, Neil Young inducted Paul McCartney into the Hall Of Fame.

(20-years ago we took these photos…actually, April 22nd, 1998.)

There are permanent displays for artists who have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.  We saw the new display for the Eagles (class of 1998).  It included Glenn Frey’s first guitar, and Don Felder’s white double-neck guitar from “Hotel California”.

The Allman Brothers display had a Duane Allman Guitar, a Dicky Betts guitar, a Gregg Allman B-3 Organ, and a Butch Trucks drum set.  There was also a bass case (possibly Berry Oakley’s) that was covered with stickers.

Other displays included:

Led Zeppelin guitars and costumes, including those worn by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page (black dragon outfit).

Paul Simon’s guitars from Simon & Garfunkel albums & Graceland.

Huge concert props used by Pink Floyd.

The Mamas & The Papas stage costumes.

Roy Orbison’s black guitar and horn-rimmed glasses.

Ricky Nelson’s guitar and hand-written “Garden Party” lyrics.

Elvis Presley’s costumes and old 78 rpm records.

A unique mic-stand that held 4 microphones for The Temptations.

The actual tape recorder used by Bob Dylan & The Band to record The Basement Tapes.

And those are just a sampling of what was there.

(Our 1998 pamphlet for the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Museum)

Should you go see it?  If you’re into music, I’d say…”A splendid time is guaranteed for all”.  There’s something special about being right next to the actual guitars and items used by great musicians to create their art.

When we saw it, the newest inductees (Fleetwood Mac & Eagles) were from the 1970’s, because artists aren’t eligible until 25 years after they became successful.  When we saw the museum, it was mostly for Rock artists, but now, a lot of Pop artists are included.  At this time, the newest inductees would have to be from anytime before 1993.

No doubt the museum displays have undergone many changes over the past 20 years…and so has Rock & Roll.

Rolling Stones fans bought a lot of their albums, but for the band to become well known and popular, it took hit singles.  So, let’s look at their classic singles from the 1960’s and 1970’s.

(Bill Wyman, Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, & Keith Richards)

The Stones were mostly a blues cover band in London in 1963.  Their first major hit in England was Lennon & McCartney’s “I Wanna Be Your Man”.  The Stones had asked John Lennon & Paul McCartney for a song, and they gave it to them, because The Beatles were not planning to release it as a single.

The Rolling Stones were not really part of the initial wave of the British Invasion, which started at the end of 1963, and had The Beatles’ explosion in early 1964.    It wasn’t until November of 1964 that The Rolling Stones had their first Top 10 hit in the U.S….”Time Is On My Side” (#6).   In fact, the Stones tried to tour the United States in June of 1964, before they had any U.S. hits at all, and bassist Bill Wyman called it “a disaster”.

I have a memory of seeing a large newspaper ad for a concert in the Omaha World Herald.  It claimed The Rolling Stones were “Bigger than The Beatles”.  Bashing The Beatles in 1964, was amazingly wrong headed.  It would have been better to say “Good friends of The Beatles” (which was actually the truth).  The Omaha concert was infamous for almost no one showing up, and the band being threatened by someone who had a gun.

The Rolling Stones started out wearing matching suits…like Brian Epstein had provided for The Beatles…but The Stones, along with agent & producer Andrew Loog Oldham, realized they needed a change.  It was decided The Stones would not emulate The Beatles, but instead foster an image as the bad boys of Rock & Roll.  Oldham let them dress individually, and told them not to smile for publicity photos.

More importantly, he urged Keith Richards and Mick Jagger to become songwriters.  They soon became an excellent writing team.

By 1965, The Rolling Stones (originally called The Rollin’ Stones after a Muddy Water’s song) were having hits…”Heart Of Stone” (#19), “The Last Time” (#9), and one of the best singles of all time:

Keith Richards says he patterned the beat and feel of the single after Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman”, a #1 hit in  1964.  “Satisfaction” has a killer guitar hook, the lyrics went a long way in helping them with their “bad boy” image, and it was simply the biggest hit of 1965.  It took The Stones to a whole new level of popularity.

One minor mystery about the recording of “Satisfaction” is why there has never been an official release of a really good stereo version.  Even their 2002 re-release of the Hot Rocks collection has a quasi-stereo mix.  A great stereo mix exists, because it was available on a radio station promo CD in the 1990’s.  I have a copy of it, and it sounds so much better.  You can even hear that there’s an acoustic guitar in the mix.

The big hits continued in 1965 & 1966, including “Get Off Of My Cloud” (#1), “As Tears Go By” (#6), “19th Nervous Breakdown” (#2), and “Paint It Black” (#1).

In the latter part of the ’60’s, The Rolling Stones’ biggest hits were “Ruby Tuesday” (#1), “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (#3), and “Honky Tonk Women” (#1)…great singles!

Unlike The Beatles, who stopped recording together in 1969, The Stones kept rolling in the ’70’s with “Brown Sugar” (#1), “Tumbling Dice” (#7), “Angie” (#1), “It’s Only Rock & Roll” (#16), “Fool To Cry” (#10), 1978 disco hit “Miss You” (#1, their last chart topper), and “Beast Of Burden” (#8).

With The Beatles gone, The Rolling Stones began promoting themselves as “The Greatest Rock & Roll Band In The World”.  Why not?  They had eight #1 hits, and forty-one Top 40 hits.  They’ve been a concert draw for over 50 years!    No one thought any Rock Band would still be playing when they were senior citizens.  They give “70’s Band” a whole new meaning.

(Charlie Watts,  Keith Richards,  Mick Jagger,  and  Ronnie Wood.)

Of course…now they smile!

Update:  Drummer Charlie Watts has passed away at the age of 80.  It had been recently announced that he was not going on the latest Rolling Stones tour after he had an undisclosed medical procedure.  Watts passed away today, August 24h, 2021, at a London hospital.  He died peacefully, surrounded by friends and family.

If ever there was a one-man-band…it’s John Fogerty.

He pissed off the other members of Creedence Clearwater Revival by wanting to not only write, sing lead, and play lead guitar…he basically wanted complete control of the recording process.  The thing is, their recordings came out great that way.

By 1973, Creedence Clearwater Revival had broken up, and this new group…The Blue Ridge Rangers…released their first album.  Only it wasn’t a group, it was John Fogerty playing all the instruments and singing all the vocal parts on old country standards.  The album contained no mention of Fogerty, until it was re-released with a new cover years later.

The album went to #11 on the Billboard Country chart, and the single “Jambalya” was a hit at #16 on the Top 40 chart.

Two years later, 1975, John Fogerty released his first album of original material.

The self-titled album was not a big hit, but included two songs that would have been at home on Creedence albums….”Rockin’ All Over The World” and “Almost Saturday Night”.  One of my memories of owning this album is that it was pressed off center.  To play it without a lot of wow-and-flutter, I had to enlarge the hole in the middle of the record, which gave me room to center the album so it would track without the needle swinging back & forth.

John Fogerty’s first two albums, Blue Ridge Rangers & John Fogerty were re-released on vinyl in 2023.  Hopefully, the records’ holes are nicely centered.

Legal battles with his old CCR label, Fantasy Records, kept Fogerty from recording for nearly 10 years.  Then, in 1985 he “knocked it out of the park” with his best solo album, Centerfield.

The album went to #1, and featured the hits “The Old Man Down The Road”, “Rock & Roll Girls” and “Centerfield”, which to this day is played at baseball games.  Again, John Fogerty played all the instruments himself.  Other excellent songs on the album include “Big Train From Memphis” and “I Saw It On TV”.  This last one is a clever look at history as it appeared on our TV screens from the 1950’s through the Vietnam War and Watergate.  Here are the lyrics to the first half of the song, right up to where it’s “time to join the band”.

They sent us home to watch the show comin’ on the little screen.
A man named Ike was in the White House, big black limousine.
There were many shows to follow, from ‘Hooter’ to ‘Doodyville’,
Though I saw them all, I can’t recall which cartoon was real.

The coon-skin caps, Yankee bats, the “Hound Dog” man’s big start,
The A-bomb fears, Annette had ears, I lusted in my heart.
A young man from Boston set sail the new frontier,
And we watched the dream dead-end in Dallas,
They buried innocence that year.

I know it’s true, oh so true, ’cause I saw it on TV.

We gathered round to hear the sound comin’ on the little screen.
The grief had passed, the old men laughed, and all the girls screamed,
’cause four guys from England took us all by the hand,
It was time to laugh, time to sing, time to join the band.

The 1985 song was a precursor to the 1989 Billy Joel hit “We Didn’t Start The Fire”, which was also a clever encapsulation of history.

A weird thing happened after Centerfield was released.  His old label, Fantasy Records, sued John Fogerty.  They said “Old Man Down The Road” sounded too much like Fogerty’s own Creedence song “Run Through The Jungle”.  The label had the rights to that song, and so they sued for copyright infringement.  In court, John Fogerty used his guitar to demonstrate how the two songs came about, and how they differed.   Fogerty won the lawsuit.  The label even had to pay his legal fees.

Maybe a year between albums was not enough time, because Fogerty’s 1986 album Eye Of The Zombie, was a weak follow up.

There was still a lot of animosity among John Fogerty, Fantasy Records, and his former band mates…who came up with the name “Creedence Clearwater Revisited” to try to cash in on touring.  John Fogerty refused to play his own Creedence Clearwater Revival songs in concert, because he didn’t want to make money for Fantasy Records.

Fifteen years after the 1972 breakup of Creedence Clearwater Revival,  John Fogerty finally played a Creedence song at a Vietnam Veterans concert on July 4th, 1987.  After that, he began adding the group’s songs to his concerts.

It was ten years before we got another John Fogerty solo album, 1997’s Blue Moon Swamp.

It was a solid effort and won The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.  Songs included “Joy Of My Life” and “Hot Rod Heart”.  Fogerty wrote “Joy Of My Life” for his wife, and even learned how to play a dobro just for this recording.  (Update:  The song is featured on Chris Stapleton’s 2020 album Starting Over.)

In 2004, Fogerty released his next solo album.  It wasn’t great, except for the title track “Deja Vu All Over Again”.  The song was about how the Iraq War was like the Vietnam War…all over again.

Just three years later, 2007, Revival was released.  It’s a good album…#14 on Billboard’s top 200 Album chart, and #4 on their Rock chart.  The standout track is “Creedence Song”, which really is a great Creedence song about the music of CCR.  He also saluted CCR songs with his 2013 album Wrote A Song For Everyone, which featured Fogerty playing Creedence songs with many other well-known artists, including Country stars Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, and Keith Urban.  My favorite is his duet with Bob Seger on “Who’ll Stop The Rain”.

John Fogerty, who turns 73 in May (2018), is still a popular touring act.   He often does shows with other artists, including ZZ Top this year.  It’s amazing how he came up with what seemed like his own genre of music, “Swamp Rock”.

He certainly wears “The Old Man Down The Road” title well, and the cool thing is how popular his Creedence and best solo songs remain today.

Update (1/12/23):  77 year old John Fogerty has gained controlling rights to his Creedence Clearwater Songs after a 50-year legal fight.  It comes at a time when many older artists are selling the rights to their music.

(Please check out the earlier article on Creedence Clearwater Revival.)

Normally a rock band forms, and then has a hit…but with The Grass Roots, the hit came first.

It was the mid 1960’s, and Folk Rock was the hot thing.   P.F.  Sloan (the P stood for his real name, Philip, and the F for his nickname, “Flip”) was writing hits (usually with co-writers like Steve Barri)…such as “Eve Of Destruction” for Barry McGuire, “You Baby” and “Let Me Be” for The Turtles, “She’s A Must To Avoid” for Herman’s Hermits, and “Secret Agent Man” for Johnny Rivers.

       (A young P.F. Sloan in the 1960’s.  Folk Rock is serious stuff!)

Sloan also worked as a studio musician with L.A.’s famous Wrecking Crew.  He came up with the cool guitar intro for “California Dreamin'” by The Mamas & The Papas.

In 1966, P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri wrote “Where Were You When I Needed You”.  They recorded the song with studio musicians.  It had P.F. Sloan on lead vocals, and became a hit.  The band name on the record was The Grassroots, but they didn’t exist!  So, they had to find a band that could tour and record albums.  After a failed attempt with a working local band, they finally found the musicians they needed.

Rob Grill was the lead vocalist and bass player, Warren Entner sang some of the lead vocals and played guitar,  Creed Bratton also played guitar, and Rick Coonce was the drummer.  The lineup later changed, but this was the group that had most of the hits.

Rob Grill re-recorded the lead vocal on “Where Were You When I Needed You”, and by mid 1967 they had a #8 hit with “Let’s Live For Today”…which fit right in with the “Summer Of Love”.

Then in 1968, “Midnight Confessions” went to #5, sold over a million copies, and was their biggest hit.

The Grass Roots were the first national act I ever saw in concert.  They were in Lincoln, Nebraska at Pershing Auditorium in 1969.  The concert was good, but I was a little disappointed the band didn’t tour with any brass players.  Their hits like “Midnight Confessions”, “The River Is Wide”, “Lovin’ Things”,  and “I’d Wait A Million Years” featured horns prominently.

Informative digression:  There was another show in Lincoln that night.  A popular Midwest touring band (with horns) was at the Student Union…The Fabulous Flippers.  Too bad they couldn’t have added the horn parts for The Grass Roots!  The Flippers had the regional hit “Harlem Shuffle”.   Years later the song was covered by The Rolling Stones.

        (The presentation of their name became The Grass Roots.)

Creed Bratton was ousted from The Grass Roots, partly because he resented the fact their label, Dunhill Records, limited most of the songwriting to outside professionals instead of band members.  Keyboardist Dennis Provisor (on the left above) was added to the group.  Hits with that lineup included “Temptation Eyes” (#15) and “Sooner Or Later” (#9).  In all, they had fourteen Top 40 hits from 1966 through 1972.

You could find variations of The Grass Roots out on tour in later years, but the main lineup was never together again.  There are good collections of their hits available, but you have to watch out for re-recorded versions.  Almost all of the collections on iTunes are re-recorded.  The only good one I could find on iTunes is the 20th Century Masters-The Millennium Collection: The Best Of The Grass Roots.

Even though The Grass Roots were started by studio musicians, once the band formed, they had a good string of hits in the late 60’s.  There were some excellent songs with great arrangements, and I particularly liked the lead vocals of Rob Grill and Warren Entner.  Their hits are fun to sing along with, although now some of those high notes…

Here’s my experience giving the original Apple HomePod a home test.  (After discontinuing the large HomePod, Apple released an updated version in February of 2023, more info at the end of this article.  It looks nearly identical.)

On the first day it was available to order, I did.  On February 9th, 2018 the UPS man handed me the box.  It was much heavier than I expected.  I took out the nicely packed white HomePod and plugged it in.

With my iPad next to it, the setup was just a few taps on the screen, and the HomePod was activated.  From that point, no Apple device is needed on a daily basis.  The HomePod gets the music directly from iCloud through our wi-fi.  I asked Siri to play a particular song, and it sounded great.  There is amazing clarity throughout the frequency range.  The bass is extremely impressive, especially for the HomePod’s size, which is only about 7-inches high and 5 1/2-inches wide.

Now the reason I wanted the HomePod was for playing songs using my iTunes playlists.  Playlists are the way I’ve organized my music over the last 14 years or so.  Most of each playlist’s songs are placed in chronological order by years, and programmed with tempos, styles and meanings in mind.  Anyway, I didn’t want to just use Apple Music’s streaming service after spending so much time getting songs in order.  Plus, I have quite a few rare versions of songs that aren’t on any streaming service.  Here’s how the HomePod looks in our home:

(When Siri is voice-activated, the top has modulating colored lights.)

Before:  To play music on our large stereo system, it took:  1. Turning on the Mac in the office.  2. Going to the family room and using a remote to turn on the TV.  3. Using another remote to turn on the Apple TV.  4. Using yet another remote to turn on the Stereo Amplifier.  5. Choosing the Apple TV computer/music function, and then scrolling to the playlist I wanted.

Now:  I just walk into the living room and ask Siri to play whatever playlist or song I want.

The six internal microphones will pick up commands when spoken at a normal tone of voice, even when the music is fairly loud.  Until you activate the unit by saying “Hey Siri”.  All of your commands are automatically deleted, and never used to give advertising information to businesses.

The sound of the HomePod is very impressive.  Even though the audio is coming from a single source (with 8 internal speakers, as shown above), the instruments and voices seem separate and clear.  The bass is surprisingly full, and yet never muddy.  The volume goes higher than we’ll ever need, and it doesn’t distort at any setting.  Volume is adjusted by asking Siri, or by tapping the + and – lights on the top of the unit when it’s playing.   Basically, all stopping, pausing, resuming, and other needs can be accomplished by telling Siri.

The HomePod uses “beaming technology” to automatically adjust its audio pattern to fit any room in which it’s placed.  The circular array of the internal speakers is much better than any front-facing speaker at giving you good sound no matter where you sit in the room.  The circular array might become a common speaker design in the future, so there isn’t just one “sweet spot” for listening.

The HomePod is so enjoyable to listen to, we even added another one when the stereo option became available.

We came up with this placement, and the stereo sounds absolutely great!  The separation is excellent.  HomePods have an exceptional ability to reproduce all frequencies clearly.  The bass is so good, you might even wonder if there’s a subwoofer hidden in a corner of the room.

After decades of purchasing and storing thousands of records and CD’s, and having large stereo systems…It’s almost unbelievable that these small speaker/amplifiers would take the place of all of it, and that you could simply ask to hear any songs you want!

Update:  It’s sad that this great-sounding speaker was replaced by a small one with lesser sound quality.  Apple will continue to provide technical updates to the original HomePods.  I’m glad we got the larger HomePods when we could.  Here’s the size comparison:

The mini is only 3.9 inches wide and 3.3 inches high.  Apparently, the sound of the Mini is good “for it’s size”.

Update 1/18/23:  There’s a new version of the original large HomePod.

It looks almost the same as the original HomePod, with the colors being white and “Midnight” black.  The price is $299 each, which is $50 less than the original, but the same price used prior to the pause in manufacturing.  The display now covers the entire top, and the electronics feature the S7 chip.  The new HomePods was released February 3rd, 2023.  Most reviews say it sounds nearly identical to the original HomePod.

Sure horns were a part of Rock & Roll in the ’50s and ’60s, but those horns were mostly played by session musicians and backing bands, not by actual members of rock bands…at least not by bands that were making it on the national stage.  That would change in the late ’60s.

Chicago, Illinois was the home of some bands that featured horns on their recordings.  According to Billboard Magazine, the most listened to American band of 1967 was The Buckinghams.  This Chicago group had five major hits that year…”Kind Of A Drag” (#1), “Don’t You Care” (#6), “Mercy Mercy Mercy” (#5), “Hey Baby, They’re Playing Our Song” (#12), and “Susan” (#11).  Although their popular songs and albums heavily featured horns, there weren’t any brass players in The Buckinghams.  But, one of the producers on “Kind Of A Drag” was a big-band leader and ballroom owner.

After their first hit, “Kind Of A Drag”, The Buckinghams signed with Columbia Records and a major figure in the future of “Horn Rock”, James William Guercio.

Guercio was a session bassist in the 1960s, toured with Chad & Jeremy, and wrote their single “Distant Shores”.  When he became the Producer/Arranger for The Buckinghams, he used innovative brass arrangements on the last four of the above hits, and on their two most popular albums…Time & Charges and Portraits.  The Buckinghams split with Guercio…and had no more Top 40 hits.

James William Guercio took on two bands that did have excellent horn players as members…Blood Sweat & Tears and Chicago Transit Authority.  Both were on the Columbia label, and they both had important albums out in 1969.

The self titled BS&T album was huge, with the hits “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”, “Spinning Wheel”, and “And When I Die”…all three of which made it to #2 on the Billboard singles chart.  All of a sudden, the term “Jazz Rock” was  born.  Blood, Sweat & Tears won the Grammy for Album Of The Year.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Transit Authority album was fairly successful in 1969, reaching #17, but there were no hit singles at that time.  Even though the two groups were often lumped into the Jazz Rock category, the CTA album arrangements were much more Rock than Jazz.   Plus, the album featured some fierce rock guitar played by Terry Kath.

Here’s the original line-up for Chicago:

Terry Kath-guitar, lead & backing vocals, Robert Lamm-keyboards, lead & backing vocals, Peter Cetera-bass, lead & backing vocals, Lee Loughnane-trumpet, James Pankow-trombone, Walter Parazaider-saxophone, and Danny Seraphine-drums/percussion.

Chicago’s second album, in early 1970, was the big breakthrough.  It was simply called Chicago, because the real Chicago Transit Authority mass-transit company didn’t want their name used.

The Chicago album, which would later be designated Chicago II, had the hits “Make Me Smile” (#9) and “25 or 6 to 4” (#4), plus popular album cut “Colour My World” (the flip-side of “Make Me Smile”).  The album also featured what I believe is their defining moment, the 13-minute seven-song medley “Ballet For A Girl In Buchannon”:

1.  “Make Me Smile” (3:32) [vocal Terry Kath]
2. “”So Much to Say, So Much to Give” (1:04) [vocal Robert Lamm]
3. “Anxiety’s Moment” (1:00) [instrumental]
4. “West Virginia Fantasies” (1:34) [instrumental]
5. “Colour My World” (2:58) [vocal Terry Kath)
6. “To Be Free” (1:21) [instrumental]
7. “Now More Than Ever” (1:27) [vocal Terry Kath]

Most of Chicago’s early hits were written by Robert Lamm, but this medley was written by trombonist James Pankow.  My original memory of the medley was hearing it played in it’s entirety on an FM station in Memphis, Tennessee in early 1970.  We were outside on a break from electronics school, and someone had a transistor radio.  The medley played for nearly the whole break.  I love those horn instrumentals as much as the hits in the medley.

Once Chicago became a smash (#4), the singles from the Chicago Transit Authority album were re-released as hits…”Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” (#7), “Beginnings” (#7) and “Questions 67 & 68” (#24).

Chicago III came out in 1971.  It included modest hits “Free” (#25) and “Lowdown” (#35).  Easily my favorite cut is the one that sounds like CSN&Y doing “Teach Your Children”…”Flight 602”.  No horns in this one, but lots of vocal harmony, and even a steel guitar.  James William Guercio had used the same style with the little known group Illinois Speed Press for the song “Bad Weather”.  The singer and songwriter, Paul Cotton, went on to success with Poco.

Unlike Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago continued their success in the the 1970s and through the 1980s with hit albums and thirty-five Top 40 hits.  The hits included “Saturday In The Park” (#3), “Just You ‘N’ Me” (#4), (I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long” (#9), “Call On Me” (#6), “Old Days” (#5), “If You Leave Me Now” (#1), “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” (#1),  “Hard Habit To Break (#3), “You’re The Inspiration” (#3), and many more.

In the middle of that recording success, two important events happened in 1978 that greatly affected Chicago.  Lead guitarist and sometimes lead vocalist Terry Kath died from an accidental gunshot from a gun he thought wasn’t loaded.  The band also parted ways with producer James William Guercio, who they felt was taking too large a percentage of their earnings.

The loss of an excellent rock guitarist & vocalist, along with the change in production made a huge difference in the sound of the band.  Peter Cetera also became a more prominent songwriter, and he had an affection for ballads.  Throw in Pop producer David Foster, and Chicago became more of an Adult Contemporary band, rather than a Rock band.  The public didn’t seem to mind, because some of those big 1980s ballads were very popular.  But, their softer sound was probably why it took Chicago until 2016 to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Despite the success of Chicago, “Horn Rock” (or “Brass Rock”) never developed into a major category of Rock & Roll.  We have to enjoy what they gave us, and be happy when we get a saxophone now and then, or maybe the rare horn section for a live concert.  I guess “rock trumpet” doesn’t have the same ring as “rock guitar”.