Classic Rock Appreciation

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A lyric that says it all: "My soul... has been psychedelicized!!!" Time Has Come Today, by the Chambers Brothers

[CenturianSpy]

Billed as UKs answer to the Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" I present to you Billy Nicholls last track off of the amazing "Would You Believe" album. Here's "It Brings Me Down":

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The song that established Fleetwood Mac on the music scene: Oh Well, written by the band's founder Peter Green (before he became a total basket case)

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From Pink Floyd's first album, "Piper at the Gates of Dawn": Interstaller Overdrive, written by the band's founder Syd Barrett (before he became a total basket case)

[Buried Alien]

Have a great trip.



Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[ed2962]

Queen. I guess that Robert DeNiro produced movie/play based on Freddie Mercury is still in development?

[CenturianSpy]

Happy 68th Birthday to Jim Messina. Messina got his break going from a studio engineer/musician to the bass player of Buffalo Springfield when that band let go of Bruce Palmer for drug abuse. This gig was short-lived since the band broke up within 6 months. Three (Richie Furay, Messina, and R.Young) of the band members (if you count Rusty Young and his steel guitar as a band member) formed the southern rock band Poco. Their first Top 100 hit "You Better Think Twice" came off their 2nd album Poco. Their 1st album was entitled Pickin' Up the Pieces, a nod to the reforming of a band after Buffalo Springfield.

Here's "You Better Think Twice":

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The "Summer of Love" (1967) in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco - this is one of the main love songs they were listening to. Comin' Back to Me, by Jefferson Airplane.

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The perfect blend of 1970 Bay-area garage-band sound fused with Motown: Creedence's 11-minute version of I Heard It through the Grapevine

[WillieMorgan]

Happy 68th Birthday to Jim Messina. Messina got his break going from a studio engineer/musician to the bass player of Buffalo Springfield when that band let go of Bruce Palmer for drug abuse. This gig was short-lived since the band broke up within 6 months. Three (Richie Furay, Messina, and R.Young) of the band members (if you count Rusty Young and his steel guitar as a band member) formed the southern rock band Poco. Their first Top 100 hit "You Better Think Twice" came off their 2nd album Poco. Their 1st album was entitled Pickin' Up the Pieces, a nod to the reforming of a band after Buffalo Springfield.

Good call on Poco. You kind of beat me to it there. This band certainly never reached the kind of sustained heights that maybe they should have. Over here in the UK they are virtually unknown.

They are also notable for being the prior 'home' to both of the Eagles' bass players. Briefly Randy Meisner (who left during the mixing sessions of 'Picking Up The Pieces') and, in a much more profound way, Timothy B. Schmit. You could say that Schmit 'served his apprenticeship' in this band. He appeared on nine of their studio albums in the 1970's before he was poached by the Eagles. Here he shares lead vocals on one of Poco's finest ever numbers, the classic 'Rose Of Cimarron' from 1976:



Also notable is the delightful guitar solo towards the end by the other vocalist displayed here, Paul Cotton. Cotton's still going strong, and is a hugely underrated talent, but he didn't half love the rock n' roll lifestyle back in the day .

[WillieMorgan]

As an example of Paul Cotton's talent, I humbly present this gem of a song taken from the same Poco album (Rose Of Cimarron - 1976).

It's about an escaped con hiding out in canebrakes in the wilds of the Mississippi, sleeping by day and only moving around by moonlight. Hunted and petrified. This is the wonderful 'Too Many Nights Too Long':

[CenturianSpy]

Happy 69th birthday to Kim Simmonds! Kim Simmonds is the founder of UK's Savoy Brown Blues Band shortened later to just Savoy Brown. This band never gets much credit, especially compared to one of its splinter bands Foghat. One of Kim's biggest success actually came last year (2015) where he reached #4 (on the blues charts) with the album The Devil to Pay. Here's "Tell Mama" from Kim's personal favorite album from 1971 Street Corner Talking:

[WillieMorgan]

The "Summer of Love" (1967) in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco - this is one of the main love songs they were listening to. Comin' Back to Me, by Jefferson Airplane.

Quality stuff. From the same album, Surrealistic Pillow, here is a delightful acoustic tour-de-force from Jefferson guitarist Jorma Kaukonen:



This track was revisited a few times over the years. Kaukonen himself fleshed different versions of the song out into an album during the 90's. A decade later over 50 million Americans watched the song play out over the ending credits of the final episode of 'Friends'. I don't know who's idea that will have been but the track actually managed to fit in there perfectly.

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A group that should not be overlooked in a classic rock retrospective: Traffic

[Kirby101]

If you see something that looks like a star
And it's shooting up out of the ground
And your head is spinning from a loud guitar

Great, great band.