New Words & Music Adaptation by Huddie Ledbetter - Copyright 1963 (Renewed) 1977 (Renewed) Folkways Music Publishers Inc.
This episode, we return to the “Creation & Evolution” theme as we trace the history of the song called “Black Betty”. It’s a fascinating story, from its origins as an African-American work song to its transformation into a rock anthem by Ram Jam. We’ll explore the musical evolution of this enduring track. Join us for this captivating musical journey.
“Black Betty” New Words & Music Adaptation by Huddie Ledbetter – Copyright 1963 (Renewed) 1977 (Renewed) Folkways Music Publishers Inc.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast on the Pantheon Podcast Network. I’m Brad Page, host of the show, where each episode we take a song and put it under the microscope, so to speak, looking at all the elements that make the song work. We look at the performance, the arrangements, the production, all the various components that go into making a great song. No musical expertise is required here, this show is for anyone who’s curious about the strange alchemy, the magic of music.
This episode is the second in our occasional series that I call “Creation and Evolution”. This is where we look at songs that have an exceptionally long, involved, and sometimes convoluted history. You may remember that back on episode 152. I used the “Creation and Evolution” theme to explore the song “Midnight Train To Georgia”, that classic track from Gladys Knight and The Pips. Some songs are written pretty quickly, in a burst of inspiration. Other songs might be meticulously worked on, written and rewritten over time. But some songs, passed through various hands, are recontextualized or mutated as different writers and performers add their interpretations and revisions. Sometimes this can happen over generations.
Case in point, the song we’re discussing today has its roots, at the very latest, in 1935, but probably much older than that. Eventually, it made its way onto a single in 1977 by an unknown rock band who became a one-hit wonder thanks to this song. This is Ram Jam with “Black Betty”.
Tracking the history of the song called “Black Betty” is difficult to do with any certainty. Its origin is considered to be as an African-American work song. The first recorded version was by a prisoner named James “Ironhead” Baker. John Lomax and his son Alan traveled across the country recording and documenting the folk music of America. During a visit to the state prison in Sugarland, Texas, they recorded James Baker, along with other inmates, singing a version of “Black Betty”.
The most well-known version for quite some time was recorded by Huddie Ledbetter, otherwise known as Lead Belly. He was also a former prisoner, convicted of murder, who recorded dozens, maybe hundreds of songs for the Lomaxes that made Lead Belly famous… but never rich. In April 1939, Lead Belly recorded a medley of three work songs, “Looky, Looky Yonder and “Yellow Woman’s Doorbells”, with “Black Betty” sandwiched in between.
Lead Belly was credited as songwriter on that version, and his name still appears in the credits sometimes today. But the song surely predates him.
So, who– or what– exactly is “Black Betty”? Well, the first reference we know of was published by Benjamin Franklin, of all people, in 1736. Appears in his “Drinkers Dictionary” as a term for being drunk; when someone was pretty tipsy, you could say “he’s kissed Black Betty”. It could also refer to a whiskey bottle.
Others have described “Black Betty” as a whip that was used against prisoners. Some say it refers to a gun. And some people said it was a term for the transfer wagon at the penitentiary. That later morphed into referencing a cardinal or motorcycle. One thing that seems pretty clear in all of these early interpretations is that Black Betty was probably not a woman.
There are many more versions of “Black Betty”. Some notable versions include one by Odetta in 1964. Like Lead Belly, she included it in a medley with “Looky Yonder”.
You’ve probably noticed at this point, we’re getting some musical accompaniment with guitars, and not just the acapella version.
As far as I can tell, it first appeared in a rock context by Manfred Mann in 1968. But in their version, they called it “Big Betty”.
And by this time, the “Black Betty” in this song appears to have transformed into a woman.
Now, there was a band called the Lemon Pipers in the late sixties. They were signed to Neil Bogart’s Buddha label, home to quite a few bubblegum pop bands in the sixties and seventies. The label pushed the band into a more pop direction, and they did score one big hit, the psychedelic pop classic “Green Tambourine” in 1967.
By 1969, the Lemon Pipers had split up. Their guitarist and singer, Bill Bartlett, formed a Band called Starstruck. In 1973, Starstruck recorded their version of “Black Betty” as a single and released it on their own label. It ran 4:45 seconds and was performed by Tom Kurtz on rhythm guitar, David Fleeman on drums, David Goldflies on bass and Bill Bartlett on lead guitar and lead vocals.
And the song became a regional hit around the Cincinnati area. A couple of producers out of New York, Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffrey Katz, who had done a lot of work for Buddha Records, they heard the Starstruck version of “Black Betty” and thought they could do something with it. So, they took Bill Bartlett and formed a whole new band around him, which they called Ram Jam.
Ram Jam released their first album, self-titled, in 1977, which includes “Black Betty”. It’s actually the opening track on the album. But except for Bill Bartlett, none of the members of Ram Jam play on the song. Producers Kasenetz and Katz took the original Starstruck recording and edited it; they reordered the parts and deleted some sections altogether, editing the 4:45 seconds Starstruck version down to just 2:25 seconds for the Ram Jam single. Now, the version released on the Ram Jam album is closer to the original’s length– it’s 3:57 seconds. But once you know that this track has been significantly edited, you can pretty easily hear where the edits were made.
So, now let’s get into the track– and remember, this is just the same musicians that played on the Starstruck version, re-edited into this Ram Jam version.
It’s the same intro as the Starstruck version, including a gong with a phasing effect on it.
Here comes that gong again with more of that phasing or flanging effect on it.
Now, right there, is the first of the edits, and it’s maybe the most noticeable edit in the whole Song.
Now this is interesting… it’s actually kind of crazy. They are going to take the intro of the song– which you just heard less than a minute ago– and they’re going to splice it in here, repeating the exact same intro, including the same guitar solo again.
There’s clearly another edit right there. It’s particularly noticeable in the way the cymbal or gong is abruptly cut off rather than its natural decay.
They’re double tracking his vocals here.
Now, the Starstruck version has this whole guitar riff thing that they do here, and then they go into a sped-up version of the verse. On the Ram Jam edit, they move that guitar riff to later in the song, and delete the sped up verse altogether. Instead, they take a different guitar riff from later in the song and move it up here.
We even get a little mini drum solo here.
After that, we get a short dual guitar harmonized part, and then the song speeds up, but only for the guitar solo. There’s no vocal part here.
Bill Bartlett is ripping it up on guitar there. But it’s equally impressive what the bass player and drummer are doing behind him. This was played by David Fleeman on drums and David Goldflies on bass, both from Starstruck.
And now here’s where they splice in that riff played earlier in the Starstruck version.
And here comes another drum break– It’s actually the same drum solo from earlier in the Song, edited back in again.
Here’s another twin guitar part. I really like this one. First, let’s hear just the guitars.
And now let’s hear that with the whole band.
“Black Betty” by Ram Jam. Or should I say Starstruck?
The song’s been covered quite a few times since then, including a version by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; that version is pretty reminiscent of the old Lead Belly version.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that this song has had its share of controversy. The NAACP called for a boycott of the Ram Jam song when it first came out… and you can see why a bunch of white guys singing about “Black Betty” could be seen as offensive. But considering the fact that the song was originally written and performed by black artists, and it’s always been murky whether the song was about liquor, a gun, a prison wagon, a whip, or a woman, I feel comfortable enough including the song in this show. I hope you liked it, and maybe learned a little something about the creation and evolution of songs.
Thanks for joining me for this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast here on the Pantheon Podcast Network. If you’d like to support the show, one way to do it is to tell your friends about the show and help spread the word.
Another way you can support the show is to buy a t-shirt from oldglory.com. You’ll find shirts and merch from all your favorite bands at oldglory.com, and when you use our discount code, lovethatsong, you’ll get 15% off and you’ll be helping to support the show. The website is oldglory.com and the discount code is lovethatsong. Thanks in advance for helping us out. I will be back in about two weeks with another new episode. Until then, turn up your favorite version of “Black Betty”. Bam-a-Lam!
REFERENCES:
Ram Jam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Jam
Black Betty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Betty
Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton, Greg Ridley, Jerry Shirley - Copyright 1971 Unart Music Corp (BMI), UMG Recordings, Inc.
Humble Pie is often overshadowed by bands like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, and Queen, but they were a considered a “supergroup” when they formed in 1969– fronted by Steve Marriott from the Small Faces and Peter Frampton from The Herd. Their first 2 albums are a mixed bag, but by the time they signed with A&M Records in 1970 they had refined their style down to a bluesy, hard-rockin’ sound. Rock On (1971) was their most successful album to date and features “Stone Cold Fever“, which is itself a stone-cold classic.
“Stone Cold Fever” (Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton, Greg Ridley, Jerry Shirley) Copyright 1971 Unart Music Corp (BMI), UMG Recordings, Inc.
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TRANSCRIPT:
I’ve got a Stone Cold Fever, but I don’t need no doctor! Welcome to the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast. I’m your host, Brad Page. In each episode of the show, I pick one of my favorite songs and we explore it together, looking at it from every angle, trying to get a handle on what makes the song work, and why do I like it so much? Musical knowledge or experience is not a prerequisite here. We don’t get technical. This show is for anyone who loves music.
This episode, we’re taking another look at one of the best hard rocking bands from the 1970’s, a band that’s kind of overlooked now. They’ve been overshadowed by groups like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Queen… those all became iconic bands, but for a while there, Humble Pie was right up there with them. This time out, we’re digging into a song that’s one of their classics, from a pivotal album in their career. This is “Stone Cold Fever” by Humble Pie.
Humble Pie were somewhat of a supergroup when they formed in 1969. Steve Marriott had been the front man for the Small Faces, and Peter Frampton was the breakout star from a Band called The Herd. They got together and formed a new band with Greg Ridley on bass– He’d been playing with Spooky Tooth– and a young drummer named Jerry Shirley. He was only about 17 when he joined Humble Pie.
Now we’ve discussed Humble Pie, and the Small Faces. on this show before, so I’m not going to rehash everything again, you can go back and listen to those episodes. But essentially, both Marriott and Frampton wanted to be taken more seriously as musicians. They were tired of being perceived as pop stars, so Humble Pie was their shot at credibility.
They signed with Immediate Records and released their first album, “As Safe As Yesterday Is”, in August 1969. Interestingly, one of the earliest uses of the term “heavy metal” appears in a review for this album. I don’t think anybody today would describe this album as anything close to “heavy metal”. In reality, this record is kind of a mixed bag with some rockers, but also some bluesy numbers, acousticy folk, and even a touch of post-psychedelic rock.
Their second album, “Town And Country”, was released just a few months later, in November 1969. This one was more acoustic than the first album, but Immediate Records was in financial trouble and they quickly went bankrupt. So this album, “Town And Country”, was never even released in the US at the time.
After the collapse of Immediate Records, they signed a new deal with A&M Records, and the band refocused. Most of the acoustic stuff was gone. They developed a harder, heavier sound and they concentrated on the American market, determined to break through here. Their first album for A&M, which most people in America thought was their first album period, was just called “Humble Pie” and came out in July 1970. It features a great version of the Muddy Waters classic “I’m Ready”.
They continued to refine their sound, and in March 1971, they released their strongest, most successful album yet, “Rock On”. There’s a half-dozen rock-solid songs on this album, including “Stone Cold Fever”. Most of the tracks on “Rock On” had been part of their live set for a while, so they’d worked out all of the kinks and they were well rehearsed by the time they hit the studio to record this album.
The album was produced by the band along with Glynn Johns. All four band members share songwriting credit on “Stone Cold Fever”. The song was performed by Peter Frampton on guitar and backing vocals, Greg Ridley on bass and backing vocals, Jerry Shirley on drums and Steve Marriott on guitar, harmonica, keyboards and lead vocals. The track begins with the guitar riff– and what a great guitar riff this is. It’s played by Peter Frampton in the left channel.
After two times around, the rest of the band starts coming in, including Steve Marriott’s guitar in the right channel.
They add these little trills to the guitar riff. Marriott does it first in the right channel, and then Frampton adds a harmony to it.
Let’s back it up a bit and we’ll play into the first verse. It’s an interesting vocal sound on this track. I used to think that they just used some heavy slapback echo on the vocal to get that sound, but now, listening to it more closely, I think that Steve Marriott actually double-tracked his vocal; he sang it twice. So, the natural inconsistencies in any human performance keep the tracks from sounding 100% identical, which produces the sound we hear on the final mix.
So, let’s try to isolate each one of these vocal performances. Here’s the first one.
And here’s the second vocal.
Now, they sound pretty much the same when you listen to them in isolation, but if we can combine them together, you can hear how those slight differences between the two tracks provide the sound we hear in the final mix.
All right, let’s go back, put that all together, and hear that verse again in the final mix.
That leads us into a new riff. The first time through, Marriott and Frampton play it in unison. The second time around, Frampton plays a harmony which climbs with each cycle.
Next is a short harmonica solo played by Steve Marriott over the main riff. Also notice Jerry Shirley’s banging on a cowbell in the background.
Let’s go back and listen to the two guitars during that verse. They’re essentially playing the main riff, but each of them are playing it pretty loosely, improvising around it as they go along. They’re not trying to play it exactly or perfectly, and they’re not trying to match each other. This gives the recording a spontaneous live feel. Again, its Frampton in the left channel, Marriott in the right.
And that brings us to the second riff with the harmonica.
After that nice drum fill by Jerry Shirley– and remember, he was only about 19 when they made this record– that fill takes us into a jazzy section featuring a fantastic guitar solo by Peter Frampton. Frampton’s name doesn’t often come up when listing the great guitarists, but I absolutely think he’s one of the best. So, let’s hear just his guitar first.
Frampton is an incredibly tasteful player, and his jazz-influenced licks are really distinctive. There’s no one else who really plays quite like him. Now let’s hear how that solo works in the final mix.
Then we get a short harmonica break before the guitarists return with another riff.
The next riff is accentuated with some backing vocals. Let’s hear those backing vocals first.
And now let’s hear that in context.
“Stone Cold Fever” by Humble Pie.
“Rock On” was their best-selling album up until this point, but Peter Frampton was feeling frustrated. He was fine with the harder rocking material, but he wanted more than that, too. And he wanted to be more than just the guitar player; he wanted more opportunity to write and sing. And let’s face it, Steve Marriott was not the easiest guy to deal with. So later in 1971, just after they had recorded a live album, “Rockin’ The Fillmore”, Frampton left to pursue a solo career.
When “Rockin’ The Fillmore” was released, it became a big hit. It’s still the album that Humble Pie is most remembered for, and as Frampton watched his former band’s album climb the charts while he struggled to get his solo career off the ground, he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d made a big mistake. But things worked out for him a few years later, though. That’s a topic for another podcast.
As we’ve mentioned on previous podcasts, Steve Marriott died tragically in a fire, in April 1991, age 44. One of the greatest vocalists of his generation.
Greg Ridley died in November 2003 from complications from pneumonia. He was 56.
Peter Frampton suffers from a somewhat rare progressive muscular disorder called Inclusion Body Mitosis. He initially announced his retirement from music, but he’s still been able to play, so he’s kept going. Above all, he is a true guitar player at heart, and he’ll play for as long as he can.
Jerry Shirley is still with us, and thankfully, as far as I know, he’s still healthy and still playing drums today.
Thanks for joining me here on the Pantheon Podcast network for this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. If you’d like to support the show, and I hope you do, zip on over to oldglory.com and buy a t-shirt or two. They carry shirts and merchandise from all of our favorite bands, and if you’re like me, you can never have too many t-shirts. So support your favorite artists, wear their shirts with pride. And when you use our discount code, “lovethatsong”, you’ll get a nice discount and you’ll be helping out this show. That website is oldglory.com and the discount code is lovethatsong. Thanks in advance.
I’ll be back in about two weeks with a new episode, so I’ll see you then. In the meantime, catch up on all of our previous episodes– there’s over 180 of them now– on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or find us in your favorite Podcast app.
Now go dig out some Humble Pie records and rock on with “Stone Cold Fever”.
RESOURCES:
Humble Pie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humble_Pie
Peter Frampton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Frampton
Steve Marriott https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Marriott
Rock On album https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_On_(Humble_Pie_album)
"Serpentine Fire" (Maurice White, Verdine White & Reginald "Sonny" Burke) Copyright 1977 SBK April Music Inc/Free Delivery Music
Many bands would be running out of ideas by their 8th album, but not Earth, Wind &Fire – many consider All ‘n All to be their best record. Freshly inspired by the varied sounds & rhythms of South America, Maurice White brought his genre-blending compositions to new heights on this 1977 album, as evidenced by the opening track, “Serpentine Fire”, which White himself described as Earth Wind & Fire’s “most ambitious single”.
“Serpentine Fire” (Maurice White, Verdine White & Reginald “Sonny” Burke) Copyright 1977 SBK April Music Inc/Free Delivery Music
TRANSCRIPT:
Sing a song and keep your head to the sky, ‘cause you’re all shining stars. This is the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, one of many fine shows on the Pantheon Podcast Network, and I’m your host, Brad Page. Each episode, I pick one of my favorite songs and we dig into it together, looking and listening for all those magic moments, the little things that turn a good song into a great one. Don’t worry if you’re not a musician or musical expert, you don’t need to be. We’re just going to tune our ears into the arrangements, the performances and the production that make it a great song.
This episode we’re listening to one of the biggest, most successful acts in history. Call ‘em R&B, call ‘em funk, call ‘em Afro pop, jazz, soul…. any way you look at it, this band has an incredible catalog of music and a bunch of huge hits. We’re going to explore one of those hits right now: This is Earth, Wind And Fire with “Serpentine Fire”.
This is our second visit with Earth Wind And Fire. We covered the song “Shining Star” back on Episode 56– check that one out if you haven’t heard it yet. It’s one of my favorites. So let’s recap just a little of Earth Wind and Fire’s history here.
Maurice White was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1941. For a while he played with Booker T in Memphis before he moved to Chicago to live with his mother and stepfather. He attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music, played drums around the scene, and worked as a session drummer at Chess Studios, where he played with many of the greats: Etta James, Chuck Berry, Junior Wells, Muddy Waters, just to name a few.
In 1969, he formed the Salty Peppers with Wade Flemings and Don Whitehead. Eventually he moved to LA and changed the name of the band to Earth Wind and Fire, based on his astrological sign. In 1970, his brother Verdine White joined the band as their bass player. Earth Wind and Fire released their first self-titled album in 1971. Their second album, “The Need of Love”, came out the same year, and a third album, “Last Days And Time”, was issued in 1972. That was the first album with vocalist Philip Bailey, who would share vocals with Maurice White and become a critical factor in the band.
“Head To The Sky” came out in 1973, and “Open Our Eyes”, their fifth album, in 1974. This album features “Mighty Mighty”, which was kind of their first big crossover hit.
In 1975, they released “That’s The Way of the World”, their 6th album. It was also the soundtrack to the film That’s The Way of the World, and the band appears in the movie. “Shining Star” is from this album, and it would become their first #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. See our previously-mentioned Episode 56 for more details.
The title cut was also issued as a single.
Maurice White was a musical visionary, but he was more than that, too. He envisioned bringing people together spiritually through his music. He viewed their next album, the album that would become “Spirit”, as their most important album so far. He was also interested in showing a different vision of black masculinity than what you typically got from celebrities. He wanted to present the band as “sons of a royal and noble Africa”.
The album cover featured the band all dressed in white, eyes closed in meditative poses with three large white pyramids behind them. This was the first of many album covers that would feature eastern and Egyptian imagery.
He wanted to awaken spirituality among his audience. Not so much religion, but spirituality. His goal was to share his interests– mysticism, Buddhism, Egyptology. As Maurice said, “Our vibe was definitely afro-centric, but not a separatist one. It was about community, the family of man.”
Sadly, as they were working on the “Spirit” album, they lost a key member of their family. Charles Stepney had worked closely with the band on their last few albums as producer, arranger and contributing songwriter. He died on May 17, 1976 from a heart attack. He was 45 years old. He was a close friend of Maurice White and the whole band, really. The album would be in many ways a tribute to Stepney. “Spirit”, their 7th studio album was released in September 1976.
After the success of the “Spirit” album and the massive tour that followed, by now, Earth Wind and Fire were putting on an amazing stage show and they were a huge concert draw. But Maurice White was exhausted. He needed a break. He took the first vacation of his life, spending two months touring South America. He visited drum schools in Brazil and absorbed the sounds and rhythms of the various cultures. When he returned home, he brought these fresh ideas to the next Earth Wind and Fire album, which would be called “All In All”, their 8th album of all new material.
Now, you would think at that pace, eight albums plus a live album, all within six years, that they would have run out of steam. But many people consider “All In All” to be their best album.
“Serpentine Fire” is the song that opens the album, and what a way to kick it off. It was written by Maurice White, Verdine White and Reginald Sonny Burke. It was produced by Maurice White.
\Maurice has described the song as “profoundly odd, an idiosyncratic mixture of African music, tango and gospel blues, with an abstract lyric about Kundalini energy.” Kundalini is a form of divine feminine energy located at the base of the spine. When awakened, it leads to spiritual liberation. Kundalini is a Sanskrit word meaning “coiled, or coiled like a snake”.
Maurice White says “Serpentine Fire” is Earth Wind and Fire’s most ambitious single because it’s so musically abstract. The song begins with an intro played by the bass, keyboards and percussion, with the horns joining in after the first four measures. You can already hear that Latin feel in the percussion.
Let’s go back and listen to the keyboards because it’s a very dense mix. A lot going on. Sometimes it’s hard to pick out the individual parts. There are at least two keyboard parts, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the right has a phasing effect on it. From there, it’s going to break out into a supremely funky track.
Let’s break that down a bit. Like all good funk songs, at the heart of the groove is the bass guitar. Adding to this syncopation is both the percussion and the horn parts. So let’s listen to those.
Little further down in the mix are the keyboard parts.
And there is one guitar part in the left channel. Let’s hear all of that together again. Now for the first verse.
Let’s check out the vocals. This is Maurice White with an occasional harmony by Philip Bailey. The vocals are doubled with a decent amount of reverb on them.
Let’s continue with the rest of that verse. This is the chorus where Philip Bailey takes over. Philip was renowned for his falsetto, and the way it contrasted and complemented Maurice White’s vocals is one of the most magical things about Earth Wind and Fire.
At the end of the chorus is a short section where they bring in the gospel influence. You can see how they’re blending all kinds of elements together.
That brings us back to the main riff. I love that vocal bit at the end there.
We’l pick it back up for the next verse.
That groove is so great. I want to hear just a little of the bass, the horns and the percussion. We’ll keep a little of the guitar in there, too.
I want to hear more of Maurice White’s vocal track.
And I’d like to hear just the vocals on that part, too.
There’s kind of a big finish there this time around. They could have ended the song right there, but just when you think it’s done, they kick back in.
Notice how there’s tuned percussion.
And that brings us to the last chorus. The guitars and keyboards are going to make their way forward a bit in the mix here at the end. The guitars are still difficult to make out, but there are two guitar parts in there. That’s pretty crazy, right? And of course, there are still the two keyboard parts. And of course, that killer bass guitar part that I just got to hear it by itself one more time.
All right, let’s go back to the final mix. We get another round of the chorus vocals, then the horns take over as the song fades out.
“Serpentine Fire” by Earth Wind and Fire. The “All In All” album was released in November 1977. The album cover featured artwork by Shusei Nagaoka. Shusei didn’t speak English, and Maurice didn’t speak Japanese, but they met and Maurice was able to articulate his ideas by showing him books on Egyptian art and UFO’s. Nagaoka sketched out some ideas and a relationship was forged that would result in a whole string of album covers for Earth Wind and Fire. Nagaoka created a bunch of other album covers for ELO, Jefferson Starship, and Deep Purple, but my favorites of his are the covers he did for Earth Wind and Fire.
Thanks for being a part of this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. You can find all of our previous episodes on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or just look for us in your favorite podcast app. We’ll be back in about two weeks with another new episode. Until then, check out some of the other great podcasts on the Pantheon Podcast Network.
It’d be great if you left a review wherever you listen to the show, and if you’d like to contact us, you can find us on Facebook, or send an email to lovethatsongpodcastmail.com.
If you’d like to support the show, the best thing you can do is to tell a friend about it, because your recommendation really does mean a lot. As always, remember to support the artists you love by buying their music. And thanks for listening to this episode on Earth wind and Fire with “Serpentine Fire”.
"Footstompin' Music" (Mark Farner) Copyright 1971 Storybook Music - BMI; "Rock 'N Roll Soul" (Mark Farner) Copyright 1972 Cram Renraff Co. - BMI
Imagine a time when a band could sell out Shea Stadium faster than The Beatles, without the support of radio airplay or the blessing of music critics– and no social media. Grand Funk Railroad did just that, and in this episode, we’re back with another look at the high-octane world of live rock concerts. Discover how Grand Funk Railroad became a music phenomenon, becoming one of the biggest bands of the ’70’s. We’re delving into a live album where the opening tracks weren’t just songs but declarations of a rock and roll manifesto. From the adrenaline rush of “Footstompin’ Music” to the soulful grooves of “Rock ‘N Roll Soul,” this episode isn’t just a history lesson– it’s a backstage pass to one of the greatest shows on earth.
“Footstompin’ Music” (Mark Farner) Copyright 1971 Storybook Music – BMI “Rock ‘N Roll Soul” (Mark Farner) Copyright 1972 Cram Renraff Co. – BMI
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TRANSCRIPT:
We’re coming to your town, we’ll help you party it down– we’re the Pantheon Podcast Network, and this is the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I’m your host, Brad Page– I’ve got the whole show, that’s a natural fact. In this episode here, we explore one of my favorite songs, getting a deeper understanding of what makes them tick, what makes them a great song.
On the last few episodes, we’ve been looking specifically at live recordings, how a song can come to life when played by a real band in front of a real audience. We’ve been looking at some of the different aspects of live music, how a song can be reinterpreted live, how a band can really take flight live and just play.
And one of the other aspects is the full concert experience itself, from the opening number to the final encore, how a show is built and paced. Some of my favorite moments on live albums are the first tracks; the show openers — from the way deep purple tear into “Highway Star” on their classic “Made In Japan” album; Cheap Trick, kicking off “At Budokan” with “Hello There”, the perfect opening track; when Paul McCartney and Wings open the “Wings Over America” live album with the medley of “Venus and Mars” into “Rock Show” into “Jet”– It’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard.
Another one of my favorite one-two punch opening numbers is when Grand Funk Railroad opens their live album, “Caught In The Act” with two back-to-back tracks that set the tone for a rock and roll celebration. So this time, on this episode, we’re going to be listening to not one, but two songs. So let’s get this party started with “Footstompin’ Music” and “Rock ,N Roll Soul” by Grand Funk Railroad.
You may think I’m exaggerating when I say that for a time, Grand Funk Railroad was the biggest rock band in the world. But in the early seventies, they were bigger than Black Sabbath or Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin. They had at least six platinum-selling albums in a row and sold out Shea Stadium in 72 hours– that was faster than the Beatles did. And they did this with virtually no help from the critics or the radio. The critics hated them, and they got almost no airplay on the radio until their 7th album. But let’s start at the beginning.
Terry Knight was a local DJ in Flint, Michigan and a Grade A hustler. He formed a band called Terry Knight and The Pack, which included a drummer named Don Brewer and a bass player named Mark Farner. The Pack never had much success, though they released two albums and some singles and gigged around a lot. Eventually, Terry Knight left the band to start a solo career in New York and ended up as a producer. Meanwhile, Brewer and Farner carried on with The Pack, but eventually they hit rock bottom. Stranded on Cape Cod in Massachusetts in February, in the middle of a blizzard, with no gig and no money, they returned home to Flint and contacted Terry Knight because they knew he had contacts.
Knight agreed to manage them, but at a cost: he wanted complete control as manager and producer. But with no other options, they agreed. By now, Mark Farner had switched to playing guitar, so the first thing they did was recruit a bass player, Mel Schacher, who had been playing with Question Mark and The Mysterians.
The next thing they did was change their name. Terry Knight rechristened them Grand Funk Railroad. It’s kind of a pun, based on the Grand Trunk and Western Railroad, which ran through the Midwest.
Their first big break came when they were able to get on the bill at the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1969. They weren’t even paid for the gig, but they made the most of it by playing their asses off and earning a standing ovation. They went over so well that they were invited back the next day, and the day after that. By the end of the festival, they were the hot new thing and immediately signed to Capitol Records.
Their first album, “On Time”, came out in August 1969. In December, only four months later, they released their second album. It’s just called “Grand Funk”, but fans like to refer to it as “the Red Album”.
They steamrolled across the country, selling out shows, some concerts ending in riots. They released their third album, “Closer To Home” in March. That’s three albums in less than a year. But they were actually getting better. This was their strongest album yet.
Terry Knight celebrated their success by erecting a 60-foot-high billboard in Times Square to promote the “Closer To Home” album. Terry Knight kept up the hype, and he kept the boys busy by constantly being on the road… and away from their books. Knight was taking a big cut of their royalties and performance fees. Mark, Don and Mel were essentially just employees of Grand Funk Railroad enterprises. Terry had all the control.
By now, the band were selling out shows not just in the US, but in the UK and Japan. It was in July 1971 when they sold out Shea Stadium faster than The Beatles. More records followed, including “E Pluribus Funk”, in my opinion, the best of their early albums.
But trouble was brewing. The band was chafing under Knight’s control, and they started wondering, “where’s all the money?” A bitter dispute followed. They sued Knight, and he sued them back. This legal battle went on for two years, and in the end, Knight ended up with a big load of cash and the rights to all their recordings and their songwriting royalties. All the band was left with was the rights to the name Grand Funk Railroad. Ironically, if they had just waited three more months instead of suing, that contract would have expired.
In 1972, they brought in a fourth member, keyboard player Craig Frost, and they released album number six, “Phoenix”. This is kind of a dividing line for fans, from “Phoenix” on. They embraced their R&B roots more, and their sound got just a little more melodic, more hooks. To some fans, this is where they get off the Grand Funk train. But for me, this is where the records get better.
It’s certainly where the records get more popular. In 1973, they bring in Todd Rundgren to produce their next album, “We’re An American Band”, and the title cut is their first number one hit.
They bring Todd Rundgren back to produce their next album, “Shining On”, in 1974, which includes their hit version of “The Locomotion” and the title cut, “Shining On”.
By December of 74, they release another album, “All The Girls In The World Beware”, which featured two big hits: “Some Kind Of Wonderful” and “Bad Time”.
They toured in ‘74 and ‘75 and then released their second live album. They had released a previous live album in 1970, simply called “Live Album”. This second live album is called “Caught In The Act”, and it features all the hits, plus a ton of great album cuts. The band, Mark Farner on vocals, guitar and occasionally keyboards; Craig Frost on keyboards; Mel Schacher on bass; and Don Brewer on vocals and drums, are augmented on this tour by The Funkettes, two backing vocalists named Lorraine Featherson and Jana Giglio.
The original album opens with a long introduction. The sound of the crowd and fireworks going off. That lasts almost three minutes. When the album was issued on CD, they cut most of that out, fading up the crowd just before the band kicks off their opening number “Footstompin’ Music”.
Don and Mel laying down the groove. So there’s Don on drums, Mel on bass and two keyboard parts, because both Mark and Craig are playing organ here. Mark’s keyboard is in the right channel, Craig is in the left. Sounds like Craig maybe switched to playing a clavinet while Mark stays on the organ. Let’s hear just those keyboard parts for a bit.
That’s Don Brewer with the ad libs there. It’s Mark handling the lead vocal.
Let’s focus on just the bass and the drums here, especially that great walking bass part that Mel Schacher is playing.
There’s some great dueling organ swirls there. Let’s just listen to that.
Now Mark is going to step away from the organ and do some good old-fashioned rock and roll preaching.
Now, Mark has had his guitar on this whole time, but he hasn’t played a note on it until now. On this tour, Mark was playing a Valeno 72 Standard. It’s a pretty unusual guitar; it’s made of aluminum. Mark has a fairly unique guitar tone all through this album, but how much of that is strictly due to this guitar? I don’t know.
Let’s bring up this guitar solo in the mix.
And Mark is going to switch back to the organ here.
Let’s bring those vocals to the front.
Let’s go back and just hear that drum fill.
Alright, here comes the big finale. And listen to Mel Shocker’s bass in particular; he is riffing like a madman.
Here’s another great drum fill by Don Brewer.
So “Footstompin’ Music” ends right there. But the party is just getting started. They pause for just a few seconds and then they count right into the next number. “Rock ‘N Roll Soul”. I really dig this whole introduction.
So right there, Mark says “we done this song a long time ago”. This concert was recorded in 1975; the song originally appeared on the “Phoenix” album in 1972. So I don’t know, three years doesn’t seem like a long time ago to me. But I suppose when you’re still in your twenties, releasing two to three albums a year and living at the pace these guys were, three years maybe seems like an awful long time.
I love that transition into the actual song.
Let’s bring up the vocals.
Notice how they change up the groove on this section, especially on the drums. Don Brewer is going to take over the vocals for this section. And I really like what Craig Frost is doing on the keyboards in the left channel. It’s very simple, but I love how it plays off the rhythm of the guitar and the drums.
Mark Farner takes another guitar solo. But first I want to hear what the bass and drums are doing under this section.
Okay, let’s go back and hear that with the guitar solo. More guitar. Now he’s got a flanger on his guitar.
The base goes wild again.
“Footstompin’ Music” and Rock ‘N Roll Soul” by Grand Funky Railroad.
This would be the peak for Grand Funk Railroad. They would release a couple more albums, but sales were declining, and there was tension building within the band… and by 1976, they split.
Mark Farner released a couple of solo albums and Frost, Brewer and Schacher soldiered on, releasing one album under the name “Flint”. They got back together a few times, starting in 1981, and released a couple more albums. In my opinion, those records don’t really hold up.
For quite a while, both Brewer and Frost joined Bob Seeger’s Silver Bullet Band. In fact, Frost still plays with Bob Seeger today. Mel Schacher left the music biz for a while, but he and Brewer have toured versions of Grand Funk Railroad since the late nineties. Mark Farner does his own thing with Mark Farner’s American Band.
Grand Funk can sometimes be a punchline today. They are, after all, Homer Simpson’s favorite band.
But they’re no joke to me. Yes, it’s meat and potatoes rock, but there is some great stuff in their catalog, and I legitimately love this album. As a teenager, I played it over and over, and spent many an hour playing air guitar to this record.
Thanks for joining me here on the Pantheon Podcast Network for another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. We’ll be back in about two weeks with another new episodes, so join me again then. All of our previous shows, and there’s over 160 of them, can be found on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or find them in your favorite podcast app. Just look for us. You’ll find us in there.
Keep in touch with us on Facebook or send me an email– Lovethatsongpodcastmail.com is the address. And if you’d like to support the show, all I ask is that you tell a friend about it because your recommendation is worth more than any advertising.
I thank you again for listening to this episode. Now go find yourself a copy of “Caught In The Act” by Grand Funk Railroad; put it on your turntable and crank up those first two tracks, “Footstompin’ Music” and “Rock ‘N Roll Soul”.
RESOURCES:
Grand Funk Railroad https://www.grandfunkrailroad.com/
by Joe Walsh & Patrick Cullie - Copyright 1973 Songs of Universal Inc., Barnstorm Music Inc. and Belkin Music Company
We dive into the electrifying atmosphere of live music on this episode, as we take a detour from studio recordings to explore the raw energy and spontaneous magic of live performances. This time around, we’re sizing up “Meadows” by Joe Walsh, from his dynamic 1976 live album, You Can’t Argue with a Sick Mind.
Join us as we trace the origins of Joe Walsh’s musical journey and examine the intricate layers of “Meadows,” from the driving guitar riff that hooks you in, to the dual drummers and star-studded band lineup that includes the likes of Don Felder, Jay Ferguson, and Willie Weeks. With two drummers, two keyboard players, and a percussionist, you’ll discover how this ensemble manages a tight, uncluttered sound that defines true musicians. Whether you’re a die-hard Joe Walsh fan or just love the thrill of a great live album, tune in and turn it up.
“Meadows” (Joe Walsh & Patrick Cullie) Copyright 1973 Songs of Universal Inc., Barnstorm Music Inc. and Belkin Music Company
TRANSCRIPT:
We are back once again for another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. We’re here on the Pantheon Podcast Network, and I’m your host, Brad Page. Each episode, I pick one of my favorite songs, and we delve into it together to see how it works: what goes into making it a great song? As always, musical knowledge or experience isn’t a prerequisite here. We don’t get into music theory or anything too technical. We’re just going to use our ears and sharpen our listening skills.
Now, usually on this show, we focus on studio recordings, where we can examine how a song was put together, the choices made during production and recording. But in the next few episodes, I want to take a look at some live recordings. There are a lot of great live albums out there, some pretty popular and some really famous ones. You know the ones I’m talking about– from “Frampton Comes Alive” to “Kiss Alive”, Allman Brothers “At the Fillmore East”, Thin Lizzy “Live and Dangerous”, Humble Pie “Performance Rocking The Fillmore”, I mean, there’s just so many great live albums.
But what I want to do is go off the beaten path a little bit and play some probably less familiar tracks that highlight different aspects of what I love about my favorite live albums. This time, we’re looking at a track by Joe Walsh from his 1976 live album, “You Can’t Argue With A Sick Mind”. This is a song called “Meadows”.
Joseph Fiddler was born in Kansas in 1947, but he was an army brat and moved around a lot. His father was killed in a plane crash in Okinawa, Japan, when Joe was only a year and a half old. His mother would later remarry when Joe was five, and he took his stepfather’s surname, Walsh.
Like many kids, he was insecure. Never felt like he fit in. But he had a talent for music. His mom was a classical piano player. Maybe he inherited that from her. He got a guitar when he was about ten years old, but it was hearing The Beatles for the first time that really kicked him into gear.
He went to college at Kent State in Ohio and gigged around regularly with a band called The Measles, and eventually hooked up with the James Gang out of Cleveland and became their guitar player. The James Gang was originally a five-piece. But when their keyboard player and lead singer quit right before a gig in Detroit, Joe stepped up and became their lead vocalist as well.
The James Gang built a following, got a recording contract and released three albums between 1969 and 1971, and they had a pretty big hit with the song “Funk #49”.
But Joe was restless with the limitations of that band, and quit the James Gang in ’71. He put together a band called Barnstorm and recorded a couple albums with them, which were really marketed as solo albums. The second album featured “Rocky Mountain Way”, which of course became a big hit.
It was around this time that Joe had met Irving Azoff, who became his manager. Azoff was also managing a little band called The Eagles.
In April of 1974, his wife was driving his daughter to school when someone ran a red light and crashed into them. His wife was knocked unconscious, but his four-year-old daughter suffered major head trauma and didn’t survive. As you can imagine, it was heartbreaking and pushed Joe further into alcohol and cocaine abuse.
At the end of 1974, he released his next album titled “So What”. A number of The Eagles appeared on various tracks on that album, and within a year or so, Joe would become a permanent member of The Eagles.
But in November 1975, before he officially joined The Eagles, Joe was invited to appear on “Don Kirchner’s Rock Concert”, one of the all-time great rock music TV shows. So many great performances on that show, and they’re worth watching just for Don Kirschner’s awkwardly stiff introductions. Classic.
Anyway, Joe put together an all-star band and filmed a live show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on November 26, 1975. It was broadcast on Don Kirchner’s Rock Concert and billed as “Joe Walsh And Friends”. I don’t believe the video of that show was ever officially released; you can find it on YouTube, but the quality is pretty rough. But some of those tracks were released as a live album in March 1976. It was called “You Can’t Argue With A Sick Mind”.
This was the height of live album mania, of course. “Frampton Comes Alive” came out that same year, but this album was a relatively concise single LP. It doesn’t feature everything from the Don Kirchner footage, but it’s really well recorded and well performed. And it’s one of those live albums where I prefer most of these versions over the original studio versions.
This episode we’re listening to the song “Meadows”, which is the second track on this live album. First, let’s have a quick listen to the original studio version, which was released on Joe’s second solo album called “The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get” in 1973.
The live version is a few beats-per-minute faster, as is often the case, but I think the riff and the groove of this song really benefit from being faster. It just feels, well, livelier. And the performance is just great. I mean, look at the lineup of this band:
Of course, you’ve got Joe Walsh on guitars and vocals; Don Felder of The Eagles, also on guitar; Jay Ferguson on keyboards– e was in Jo Jo Gunne and Spirit. We covered one of his Spirit songs in a previous episode. He also had a big solo hit in the seventies called “Thunder Island”.
You also have David Mason on keyboards. This isn’t the Dave Mason who played in Traffic. This is a different David Mason who spent some time playing in Todd Rundgren’s Utopia. You have the great Willie Weeks on bass; he was one of those go-to players. He was on records by David Bowie, George Harrison, Donnie Hathaway, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder. He just played on tons of albums.
And then there are two drummers on this song, both playing together. Andy Newmark and Joe Vitale. Again, both highly regarded session players. Each of them has a credit list a mile long.
Plus you have a percussionist, Rocky Dzidzornu, also known as Rocky Dejon. He played on tons of tracks, including “Sympathy For The Devil” by The Rolling Stones. Now that is what you call an all-star lineup.
Now, let’s get into the track. It begins with Joe Walsh playing the riff before the whole band joins in. I gotta say, this is one of my favorite guitar riffs of all time. So let’s just hear those guitars for a second.
Let’s go back and hear the full band version. And remember, besides two guitars and bass, there are two keyboard players, two drummers and a percussionist all playing together. But notice it doesn’t sound cluttered. Nobody’s over playing. They’re very tight. Those are signs that you’re dealing with real professionals here.
The verses are a little mellower. The keyboards come more to the front. Jay Ferguson is playing piano while David Mason is on the organ. And of course, Joe Walsh with the lead vocal.
Let’s try to bring up the piano and the organ so you can hear how they interact.
I wouldn’t describe Joe Walsh as a typical singer. There’s a lot of quirks to his voice, but I’ve always loved it. It’s unmistakably him. I think he sounds great on the next part of this verse, so let’s hear that.
The riff comes back. Listen to that bass part by Willy Weeks.
Here’s the next verse. Some things are left unspoken some things are handed down the circle stands unbroken sending it back around.
Around during the verses, Andy Newmark is playing the traditional drum kit, but Joe Vitale is just adding fills, playing kettle drums with a pair of mallets. Listen for that.
Now at this point, we come to a new section featuring a guitar solo played by Don Felder. This is different than the studio version. There’s no guitar solo here on that version.
Now if you listen closely, you can hear a buzzing sound, probably coming from one of the guitar amplifiers. These days, they’d be able to remove something like that, but I kind of like it when these things are left in. It makes it feel like a genuine live recording, that they’ve captured something real. Let’s bring up Don Felder’s guitar.
Another thing to note about that section is that Joe Vitale switches from playing drums to playing synthesizer. So there’s only one drummer during that section, but there’s actually three keyboard parts.
At this point, the song builds back into the final verse, but there’s still plenty more of the song left to go.
We’re back to two drummers playing here. And this drum fill coming up is one of the few times where it’s very clear there are two drummers on this song.
Some more tasty playing by Willy Weeks on bass and a nice little Joe Walsh guitar lick here.
Now this is interesting: this is where the song seems like it should end. But they add a whole new section– and this is not part of the original studio version. Jay Ferguson is going to play a little bit on piano and then we’re going to get some extended guitar playing from Joe Walsh and Don Felder. That’s Joe Walsh on the right and Don Felder on the left. This is the kind of dueling guitars that these two would perfect on Hotel California, but they did it here first.
And here’s another new piece of music. Again, this is not part of the original studio recording, either. Jay Ferguson is once again going to take the lead on piano and now Joe Walsh is going to take a solo on his own. Let’s bring up Joe’s guitar for a little bit.
Joe Walsh – “Meadows”.
You can find the video of this performance on YouTube. Just search for “Joe Walsh Meadows live” and you’ll find it. It’s worth watching. Joe wears this goofy coon-skin cap through the whole performance. It looks ridiculous, but that’s Joe. It’s such a great performance though.
Of course, The Eagles would go on to massive success before imploding in 1980. Joe continued making solo records, but he descended deeper into alcoholism and drug dependency. When The Eagles started talking about reforming in 1992, they told Joe straight up they couldn’t do it unless he cleaned himself up. And he did. He got sober, and against all odds, Joe Walsh is still with us today– looking, playing and sounding great.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. We’ll be back in two weeks with another new episode. If you missed any of our previous shows, you’ll find them all on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or look for them in your favorite podcast app.
Be sure to share your thoughts on this song, or any of the other songs we’ve talked about, on our Facebook page; just search for “I’m In Love With That Song” on Facebook and you’ll find us. And of course, you can always send an email to lovethatsongpodcastmail.com.
And if you’re hankering for even more music related podcasts, well, the Pantheon Podcast Network has a bunch of other great music related shows, just waiting for you to discover them. So check them out.
And as always, if you’d like to support this show, the best thing that you can do is to tell someone about it. Recommend it to your friends, your family, or your coworkers, because your endorsement carries a lot of weight. So thank you.
I’ll see you again soon. Thanks for listening to this edition of “I’m In Love With That Song” featuring “Meadows” by Joe Walsh.
RESOURCES:
Joe Walsh https://www.joewalsh.com/
The James Gang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gang
Kent State University https://www.kent.edu/
Jo Jo Gunne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Jo_Gunne
In this episode, we take a fascinating journey into the world of obscure Psych and Hard Rock from the 1970’s with the “Brown Acid” series. Brown Acid is not just a collection of music; it represents a moment in time, a period that falls between the peace and love of the hippie era and the aggressive sounds of punk rock– a vital documentation of a lost chapter in American music history. In this episode, you’ll be treated to a selection of tracks from the series, showcasing the eclectic and often wild sounds that characterize the Brown Acid compilations.
This unique series has been a labor of love for its creators, Daniel Hall and Lance Barresi, who have dedicated over ten years to unearthing rare tracks from the late ’60’s & ’70’s that have long faded into obscurity. As the 20th volume of the Brown Acid series has just been released, we take this occasion to explore the entire series and highlight some of Lance & Daniel’s favorite tracks.
Zeke – “Box” (Intro track) (Brown Acid Volume 1) Josefus – “Hard Luck” (Vol 1) Glass Sun – “Silence Of The Morning” (Vol 2) Factory – “Time Machine” (Vol 3) Summit – “The Darkness” (Vol 7) Attack – “School Daze” (Vol 8) Stonewall – “Outer Spaced” (Vol 9) Gary Del Vecchio – “Buzzin'” (Vol 13) Raven – “Raven Mad Jam” (Vol 14) White Lightning – “Under Screaming Double Eagle” (Vol 15) Brotherhood Of Peace – “Feel The Heat (In The Driver’s Seat)” (Vol 16) Parchment Farm – “Songs Of The Dead” (Vol 18) Banana Bros – “Suck You In” (Vol 20) Luke & The Apostles “Not Far Off” (Outro track) (Vol 8)
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on the Pantheon Podcast Network. I’m your host, Brad Page.
Chip Monck (Woodstock): Uh, to get back to the, uh, the warning that I’ve received, you may take it with however many grains of salt you wish that the brown acid that is circulating around us is not specifically too good. Uh, it suggested that you do stay away from that. Of course, it’s your own trip, so be my guest. But, uh, please be advised that there is a warning on that one.
Okay, on this episode, we’re going to explore the Brown Acid. Don’t worry about it– the Brown Acid I’m talking about is a series of compilation albums of some of the most obscure psych and hard rock bands from the 1970’s. If you’ve listened to this show for a while, then you know that I love psychedelic garage rock from the 1960’s, but I’ve also got a soft spot for 1970’s hard rock. And the “Brown Acid” series collects some of the hardest-to-find, most collectible records from that period.
These were not bands where the members went on to find fame and fortune later; these are bands that managed to put out a single, or maybe one album, but never made it beyond that and faded into obscurity.
But these records are wild and untamed, and there’s some magic in that. And I love this Brown Acid series. I’ve been thinking about doing a show on Brown Acid, and just this past month, they released their 20th volume in this series– 20 albums full of the rarest, forgotten hard rock that you’ll ever hear. “Brown Acid: The 20th Trip” is available now on CD, vinyl or digital if you want to stream it.
So, I thought there’s no better time than right now to shine a light on this great series. And rather than just talk about it myself, I figured I’d invite the two guys responsible for this series to join me on this episode. Lance Barresi, from the Permanent Records store in LA, one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on this music, and Daniel Hall, owner of Riding Easy Records, the label that has released all 20 editions of Brown Acid. They both graciously accepted my offer to come on and tell the stories behind this music in the Brown Acid series. Buckle up, because this episode, it’s a long one. But I had a great time talking with these guys, so let’s go!
BRAD PAGE:: It is my great pleasure to be joined by Daniel Hall and Lance Barresi to talk about the “Brown Acid” series on the occasion of their 20th album release. Let’s start first, Daniel, by telling everyone what exactly is Brown Acid all about?
DANIEL HALL: People ask me all the time, and my go to easy definition is it’s post-hippie, pre-punk, it’s in that sort of like, no man’s land time period where, you know, peace and love is over. There’s bad acid going around at Woodstock; people are getting stabbed at Altamont; You know, it is a social, cultural change, and the music is getting more aggressive and louder. But it’s not quite heavy metal, it’s not quite punk rock. It’s just that sort of, you know, sweet spot in the middle. So, for those of you who may not be familiar, that is kind of the really quick definition of what it is. And most of it’s in America.
BRAD: You guys are doing a really great job of chronicling this lost period of American hard rock. For someone like me who grew up in the 70’s, these were the kinds of bands that your older brother played in when you were in high school. And they scraped together just enough money to put out one 45, and then that was it. Then it disappeared. But you guys have brought this stuff back. Lance, tell me how Brown Acid came to be; what’s the story behind the series?
LANCE BARRESI: Yeah, our series started a little over 10 years ago now, believe it or not, back in 2015, Daniel and I got together and decided to give this thing a whirl. And it all kind of culminated from, you know, me having a record store, Permanent Records. I’ve been the owner of permanent since 2006. And, long story short, anytime I would find an interesting record, especially a private pressing, whether it be a 45 or an LP, I would track the artists down to see if they had any stock copies left of the original pressing. So I was already in the habit of doing that. And then sometime in like, 2014 or something like that, I started a weekly DJ night with Ty Segal. And we were spinning mostly late 60’s and early 70’s hard rock and heavy psych and stuff like that. But as he stepped away from the DJ nnight to start touring more heavily– his career was really on an upward trajectory around that time– I took over the DJ night, and that put a lot of pressure on me to bring fresh material every Wednesday night from 10pm to 2am to keep myself entertained and not just constantly come back with the same stuff. So, I started digging deeper. So I very quickly amassed a pretty massive quantity of late 60s and early 70s hard rock, heavy psych and proto metal 45’s. And so through trying to acquire these 45’s, I was striking out finding them on Discogs and eBay and all the other usual suspects online. These records are generally not available in record stores, or even at record fairs– even the biggest one on the planet in the Netherlands, you’ll find very few of the kinds of records that we comp on the Brown Acid series. So, my last resort was to track down the members of the bands to see if they had any copies of the records left in their attic, basement, closet, what have you. And so I started inadvertently just amassing a big list of contacts of the artists behind these records.
DANIEL: When Lance’s DJ night was happening, I don’t even remember what the 45 was, but I was like, “Dude, this is sick”. And you’re like, “Oh, I have some of that at the shop. You should come by next time, remind me”. And he had a lot of 45’s. And I was like, “Dude, how do you have like so many copies of this?” And then he told me how he had gotten them and he had reached out and whatever. And I was like, wait a second, you know how to get a hold of all these guys? And that was like the beginning of sort of like, we gotta do something with that, man. So yeah, yeah.
LANCE: And so I, in addition to doing the DJ Night, I also at some point decided to start bringing a tape deck. So I was recording all of my sets and the sets of my guest DJs. And at some point, somebody saw the tapes and they were like, “Hey dude, you should sell these at the shop”. And I was like, “I, uh, don’t think I can do that legally. I don’t feel quite right about it”. But that got my gears turning. Like, hey, I think it would be pretty good idea to do a compilation series, or at least a compilation, just one of some of the records that I was playing. And then right around that same time, Daniel came into the shop, I mentioned the idea, the concept, and he was like, “Send me a playlist. Send me a mix and I’ll check it out.” And the rest is history.
DANIEL: You know, obviously, we’re all privy to the Black Sabbath and Zeppelins and Deep Purple and Hendrix and, you know, some of the greatest records ever recorded. But what blew me away was like, How did I miss– how did all of us miss… I mean, not just me, but, like, all of us missed all of this stuff that happened around that time. And, you know, even going back and talking to people who were around at that time and very much in the mix, and people who you would kind of expect to know, and they’re like, “Guys, I get a Brown Acid record, I might know one song of the 10 that are on there”. Like, “I’m always getting schooled”. So that was the biggest mind-blowing thing for me. And when Lance and I started talking about how it was going to be, I don’t think either of us really understood how deep it would go. But we, I don’t think we would have thought that we would hit 20 and still kept it strong through 10 years, but here we are.
BRAD: So the other thing that I love that you guys do, you don’t just seek out the artists, but you’re actually paying these guys, right? I mean, you’re giving them the licensing and royalty, Probably seeing more money now for these records than they did 50 years ago when they were actually released.
DANIEL: Yeah. For many, this is the only time that they ever got paid for their music was through the Brown Acid comps. And, um, yeah, we shell out a couple hundred checks every six months. And I get a lot of text messages and email saying, “I got the check. Thank you so much! I can’t believe you guys keep sending these.” So that is one of the fulfilling things.
LANCE: The other thing is that I think a lot of people, when we’re talking about music history in general, people tend to forget that the trajectory, and the way things have gone historically with musical styles, is that it’s been a continuum since Day One, right? So we didn’t just have The Beatles and garage rock, and then jump forward to punk and metal with nothing happening in between that. If you just go back and listen to, especially some pop records, of course, and there are a lot of major label records that have the same vibe that Brown Acid has. But also, even if you just listen to classic rock radio, you go back and you’re like, all right, well, this track’s from 1972. And this gets us to 1974 pretty easily. Before you know it, you’re in 1976 and you’re like “this is almost punk rock”, but nobody has actually codified it or put a label on that, as Daniel said, “no man’s land of music” that kind of slipped through the cracks, and isn’t easily defined as “garage rock” or “punk” or “metal”. It is Brown Acid, and it is these things that are in between there. And unfortunately, hard rock doesn’t exactly describe this music perfectly, because a lot of people, when you say “hard rock”, they think Guns N Roses or Aerosmith or something and that’s not necessarily incorrect, but hard rock is just like a little too big of an umbrella, little too broad.
DANIEL: Yeah, exactly.
LANCE: So yeah, it’s been our mission to kind of like put these particular records, and these tracks into a context that makes it easier for people to understand the history.
BRAD: Well, I think we’ve talked about it as best we could; let’s listen to some of this stuff. I asked you guys to pick– I know this was a real “Sophie’s Choice”, but I asked you to whittle down 20 albums worth of material into about a dozen songs. Some of your favorites. So, let’s get started. Where do you want to start? You want to pick something off the very first volume to play a little bit of first?
LANCE: Yeah, sure. So Josephus is a band from Texas, from Houston, and they released two LPs back in the day. They self-released the “Dead Man” album, which is just an absolute stunner of a hard rock. People call it “Psych”, and maybe it has some psychedelic elements, but it is a straight early 70’s hard rock and thoroughly Proto-Metal LP. And I mean that in terms of the sonic vibe of the music, but also the album cover is absolutely frightening; there’s just a stark kind of sepia tone skull just blasted on the front of the album cover. It’s got a really kind of dangerous looking font also. So this record just jumps out of the bins at you if you’re lucky enough to find one. It would just slap you in the face as something you absolutely need to hear. And Josephus went on shortly thereafter to release a self-titled album on mainstream records. And unfortunately, that didn’t do much for the band and they ended up splitting up. In addition to those LPs, Josephus released two singles on their own Hookah Records imprint, and then one single promo single off of the Mainstream Records LP. And “Hard Luck” was one of the singles that they put out way after the fact. “Hard Luck” didn’t actually even come out until 1979. So, we’re talking about, like almost a decade between when the “Dead Man” LP and the self-titled record came out, and the two singles that they released much, much later. But the vibe is still, you know, right in line with the time period that we’re generally focusing on, going up to 1974. Even though this record was released in 79, it very much sounds like an early to mid-70-s affair to me.
BRAD: Okay, well, let’s hear Josephus and “Hard Luck”.
LANCE: And uh, low and behold, after Hard Luck got comped on Brown Acid, it was covered and… Tanya Tucker did the.
DANIEL: Tanya Tucker did the cover. And she was actually nominated for a Grammy that year for her full album. I don’t think she won, but nonetheless, Tanya Tucker, the famous country singer and dude, I mean, she performed the song on Oprah and stuff like that. So anyways, that’s a nice little tidbit, but it just kind of goes to show how broad this stuff really can go. You know what I mean?
BRAD: Right.
LANCE: There is, uh, an official music video of Tanya Tucker doing “Hard Luck”, which is amazing.
DANIEL: Absolutely. Yeah.
BRAD: All right, so let’s take a look at something from the second volume of Brown Acid. You picked a track by a band called Glass Sun. Tell me about these guys.
LANCE: Yeah. “Silence of the Morning” is kind of the quintessential heavy psych jam. This particular track is just absolutely stunning. It’s everything you want out of a heavy psych jam. The band was from Detroit. They released this 45 back in the day. They did put out a second single called “Stick Over Me”, which is good as well. This is a perfect example of exactly the kind of Heavy Psych that we’re trying to comp on Brown Acid. Not all the songs on Brown Acid get into this kind of heavy psych zone; a lot of them are more straightforward hard rock. But God Damn, this track is just absolutely incredible, acid-soaked psychedelic rock. I don’t know what more to say about it. You kind of have to hear it to believe how amazing it is.
DANIEL: The whole thing pretty much a masterpiece. It’s like it really is a quintessential Brown Acid track. So…
BRAD: All right, let’s hear a little bit of Glass Sun and “Silence of the Morning”.
BRADe: Glass Sun and “Silence of the Morning”. Great fuzz guitar on that one. I love that.
LANCE: Yeah, there’s fuzz guitar abound on the serieseries that’s kind of, one of the…
BRAD: It’s the staple, right? Yeah, fuzz guitar; you know, little rough vocals, but it’s all in the charm of these records. I don’t know “charm” is necessarily appropriate word…
DANIEL: That’s charming.
BRAD: Yeah, I dig it. I love this stuff. All right, what do we got up next?
DANIEL: Factory “Time Machine”.
LANCE: Factory “Time Machine”. This is another, just absolutely mind blowing track by a band that put out one 45 and then ceased to exist. I feel so lucky to have been able to track these guys down, because the band lives in the UK now, and they also, they’re American guys, if I remember right, I haven’t talked to Tony and Andy Kunta from Factory in a long time. But they released this single in 1971 and they did, like many bands of the day in the UK, an edition of 99 copies. I think the reason behind that was for tax purposes; I think if you released a record during a certain time period in the UK, it was considered a promotional thing only, so you didn’t have to pay taxes or whatever. It wasn’t dealt with the same way by the government. And yeah, both songs on this single are stunning. “Time Machine” is like the more Sabbathy heavy jam on the 45.
BRAD: I was getting some, like, Grand Funk Railroad vibes a little bit– until the vocals come in and he goes to a whole other place with the vocals on this track.
LANCE: There’s a wild vibrato going on with this that you’re just like, you can’t believe happened. You know, and that’s kind of one of the most wonderful part about parts about these bands self-releasing this material, is that they were not inhibited by a record producer or a label A&R person, for the most part. They went into the studio, paid for their own time, and got to make all their own creative decisions, for better or worse.
BRAD: Right.
LANCE: This is unencumbered artistic freedom, which I absolutely love. And maybe in some cases these tracks would have had a better shot at commercial appeal if they had been more well produced or more professionally produced. But I enjoy the vibe of them as they are. And you know, a lot of the guys that we talk to, when we’re licensing this material, they ask if they want us to, they’ll want to re-record the song, or they’ll want to remix it or change it in one way or another. And we always say, “No, thank you. We like these songs as they are. Let’s re-release the original version and keep it as it was”. Because that’s the way it was meant to be in the first place.
BRAD: Right. It keeps it from being generic, because it’s so specific, you know, the amateur-ness of it in some cases…not always, but in plenty of cases. But that’s all part of the charm.
DANIEL: It’s part of the charm.
BRAD: Yeah, exactly. What makes it work the way it works. Right.
DANIEL: And another thing that we also get to is like when we’re going to license a song and they’ll be like, “Wait, you want to do what? Like, dude, I recorded that when I was 17. Let me play you my new album. I’m so much better now”. And you’re like, “No, no, no, no, that’s, I’m sure it’s great, but this series focuses on this time period, and we’d love to check out your other stuff, but this is what we’re talking about”, right?
BRAD: Yeah, that’s a whole different animal. All right, well, let’s hear some of Factory and “Time Machine”, exactly as it sounded in 1971.
BRAD: Factory “Time Machine”. All right, I think the next track you guys got, you skipped ahead to the fifth edition of Brown Acid. You chose a song by a band called Captain Foam, “No Reason”. Tell me about Captain Foam.
LANCEE: Uh. Oh, you gotta love that, right? Just the name. “Captain Foam”.
BRAD: Some of these name are brilliant.
LANCE: Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I live for this stuff. So, we only had to skip ahead to the Fifth Trip here, in the interest of saving time. Otherwise, we’ll be here all day.
BRAD: Sure.
LANCE: Captain Foam is actually a solo project by a guy named Richard Bertram. He was from Canton, Ohio. And,yeah, he performed initially with another guy named Mike O’Brien as “Captain Foam and The Doctor”. But then he shortened the name of the group to just Captain Foam and release this 45, just the one 45, “No Reason”, backed with “Will There Ever Be a Time” in 1972, on Bold Records. And there are other records on this imprint, but it’s definitely a tiny little micro-label from Ohio. And he recorded in the Youngstown studio, Peppermint Productions recording studio. And we’ll get to that later– we talk a lot about Youngstown and a lot about Peppermint Recording Studios when we’re talking Brown Acid, because Youngstown was the Mecca. But Captain Foam, he was particularly hard to find because I was looking for him in Ohio, and believe it or not, Richard Bertram had an illustrious career in the tech world. And he now lives in a mansion in Malibu. And luckily, I was able, I don’t even remember how I was able to track him down, but I found him and we were able to license “No Reason”, which again, this is a quintessential Heavy Psych monster. And I got to meet him because he came out, he had…
DANIEL: A crazy, like a one-piece robe on. Like he had a whole vibe, dude. It was not like just some old rock dude showing up with like his jeans and a T-shirt. He came to play. I mean, he was pimped out. So it was pretty exciting to meet him.
BRAD: That’s great.
LANCE: He looked like an extra from the cantina scene in “Star Wars” or something. What is going on? You are from the future, dude. Holy…
DANIEL: I remember being there and Lance is like, “Bro, can you believe Captain Foam is in the building right now?” Like, so funny.
LANCE: Yeah, we got to talk with him about the band and the stories he was telling that now were absolutely unbelievable. That particular project was so successful for Richard that he, when he was out on tour with Captain Foam, had to mail U-Haul boxes full of cash back to Ohio while he was out on the road. I don’t know why you… I mean, I guess I do know why you don’t just take the cash and put it in the bank, but instead of depositing the cash from the shows, he was just taking the cash and mailing it in. U-Haul boxes back home. And also, you can see a photo online of him performing live. He told us all about his setup, which was just mind blowing. It’s literally him with a wall of full stacks behind him, like six to ten full stacks. And he’s got this massive lighting rig that kind of goes around the perimeter of the stage, and he’s in control of all the lights in the fog and everything, just with foot pedals on stage. And he created his own rhythm tracks, just with the guitar, and loop them over and over for the live show. So you can see in that photo that he’s on stage by himself. And there’s no drummer on stage with him in these photos. And you can hear the drums obviously on the 45, but live, he was doing all this stuff himself. And it was hugely– well, it was moderately successful. He was playing very sizable venues at the time, and it was like kind of a big deal. And then, you know, he ended up being a session musician. And I think he started playing with a bunch of like legendary blues cats and he moved out to the west coast and ,you know, ended up doing well doing that. Gave up Captain Foam and then ended up becoming very successful doing other things.
BRAD: Captain Foam, “No Reason”. So, you guys have talked a little bit already about tracking down all of these band members. How difficult is that? I imagine that’s got to be a slog in probably 90% of these cases. Is that true or…? I would imagine it’s not easy.
LANCE: It’s rarely easy. But luckily, like I mentioned before, we had a little bit of a jump-start because I had already reached out to a lot of folks in an effort to acquire copies of these 45’s. So that helped. And then I just, I’m extremely motivated, and excited about this kind of stuff. So I’m always using whatever spare time I have, between running the Permanent Records roadhouse and acquiring as many used records as I can for our store, to spend as much of my other time tracking these guys down because, A: we want to license these tracks for Brown Acid; B: I would love to purchase copies of the record for the store and my personal collection if I don’t have them already. And C: getting to hear these guys stories is absolutely amazing. Yeah, you know, you sometimes the story behind the record is even better than the song.
BRAD: Right.
LANCE: But yeah, I mean, not only is it difficult to find some of these guys, because a lot of time has passed; you know, we’re dealing with records now that are, in some cases, more than 60 years old, you know, and, nfortunately, a lot of the guys that were in these bands are getting up there in age, or have already passed on.
BRAd: Yeah.
DANIEL: And also, when we do finally get a hold of them, most of these people came up at a time when the record business was pretty predatory, and artists were getting taken advantage of and getting just completely hosed. So there’s already this sort of built-in distrust of a record label coming to them.
BRAD: Sure.
DANIEL: But the one thing that we have is our word and our track record. And, you know, we can show them our body of work, especially at this point. It’s sort of an institution at this point.
BRAD: Have you ever had someone just flat give you a No?
DANIEL: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
BRAD: Is that heartbreaking, when you’ve chased the record down and you really want to get it on the series?
DANIEL: No, Lance. Just keeps hitting them up every three months until they say yes.
BRAD: So you just wear them down.
LANCE: That’s not actually true. I only do that if someone says, “I’m not interested right now”.
DANIEL: Right, right, right.
LANCE: But yes, we have been told a handful of times; it’s rare, but more often than not, if someone’s saying hard No, “please don’t contact me again about this”, it’s usually because they want nothing to do with that era of their life anymore. And that’s completely fair for a couple of reasons, because first and foremost, you got to remember these guys were in these bands and they put a lot of effort into making these records, right? And for the most part, they were not successful.
BRAD: It can be painful. Sure.
LANCE: Yeah. And who knows what kind of other, uh, bad blood there might have been between any given band member and their other bandmates. You know, a lot of bands break up because, you know, a guy sleeps with other guys ‘wife, or sister or whatever, and it gets ugly. And I know a lot of people in contemporary bands that don’t talk to each other anymore. And for these guys, what’s the point of dredging up a whole lot of history and bad memories for what amounts to not a whole lot of money at the end of the day? You know, this is the labor of love for everybody involved, and we understand that. We’re not offering these guys million-dollar checks. And as Daniel has said in the past, “Nobody’s driving a Lamborghini around here”. You know, another time the guy said, “I’m a Christian now, and I don’t want to have anything to do with that part of my life where I was doing psychedelic drugs”.
DANIEL: And, yeah, he didn’t like the name of the compilation series, he didn’t like the artwork that was part of the compilation series. And we’re like, okay, well, we can’t really. We can’t argue with you there. So…
BRAD: Yep.
LANCE: And we say thanks and respectfully leave them alone.
BRAD: All right, the next track you guys picked was from a band called Summit, a track called “The Darkness”. This one kicks off with some textbook Echoplex oscillation. You had me from the word go on this one. Let’s talk about this track.
LANCE: Yeah, this is one of my favorites on the series for a couple of reasons; the intro and the outro make it really fun to DJ. And Summit are from Missouri, and that’s where I’m from. And there’s not a whole lot of these kinds of records from my home state, unfortunately. Just a handful. But anyway, yeah, “The Darkness” is about the most appropriately-named track on the series. This is a very, very dark, foreboding psych track. And I love the fact that this was recorded in rural Missouri, in Clinton, Missouri, which is a small town about an hour and a half southeast of Kansas City. And these guys– talk about dedication to their craft– these guys used to have to take a bus ride to rehearse, an hour or so away from their home, to go to a barn out in the middle of nowhere to rehearse. And they did that. You know, that’s dedication, and that’s how you come up with some of the special magic that’s on these tracks.
BRAD: All right, let’s listen to a little bit of Summit and “The Darkness”.
BRAD: “The Darkness” by Summit. The next track you selected was one of my favorites, too. A band called Attack, and the song “School Daze” with a Z–, D, A, Z, E. Tell me a little bit about this one.
LANCE: Yeah, Fans of the Detroit sound, you know, from the late 60s and early 70s, will immediately recognize the MC5 influence on “School Daze”. These guys were absolutely amazing. They’re from St. Clair Shores, Michigan, just outside of Detroit. And the fact that these guys did not get signed to Electra around the same time is just a tragedy. This band should be a household name. The Production on this 45 is just as good as the early MC5 singles. stooges up, too.
DANIEL: Or The Stooges, too, I mean, it’s, like, right in line with what was going on at that time, for sure.
LANCE: Totally. Both sides of the 45 are killer. And it’s one of the rarest ones on the series, too. I’m looking at the stats on Discogs right now. There are no copies available for sale; 319 people want this, only 20 people have it, and it has sold for as much as $1,000. I wouldn’t be surprised if it went for three times as much the next time it comes up for sale.
BRAD: A great riff. I love the drums on this one too. This is a band called Attack with “School Daze”.
BRAD: That was Attack with “School Daze”. All right, what do we got up next?
LANCE: This one is near and dear to me. Aand this one is, maybe has one of the wildest stories behind it– I hope you have time for it, Brad.
Brad Page: Yeah. Let’s talk about Stonewall.
Brad Page: Oh, my goodness. So “Outer Spaced” is the track we included on Brown Acid. And that track is on a LP. It’s on an LP, self-titled LP that was technically released in 1976. But that’s only the beginning of the story. Stonewall were a legit band. They were based out of New York, and they had a career going, like, they were just getting rolling. They had a manager and they were about to kick things off. Well, they go into the studio, they record this LP and unfortunately there was a falling out between the guys in the band. They decided to split up. The recordings sit on the master tape, get put on a shelf and forgotten about. Everybody goes their separate ways. That was in 1972, I believe. So, in the mid-70’s, thanks to a loophole in the tax law, record labels took advantage and started releasing quote unquote “recordings” and then taking a loss on those, because they didn’t actually release them properly, they just said they did, and reported the loss for the write-off on their taxes.
DANIEL: That’s where the word “Tax Scam Labels” came from. There were a bunch of these labels that were really using tax scam labels to launder money, essentially.
LANCE: Yeah, exactly.
BRAD: That’s the record business for you.
LANCE: Yeah. As if Morris Levy needed more shadiness, right? He was able to form Tiger Lily Records to release a whole bunch of material that, lo and behold, took huge losses. Well, they only took huge losses because he reported that, he didn’t actually even release any of these records properly. And the Stonewall tape, for whatever reason, got pulled off the shelf and pressed the vinyl, probably only in an edition of 100 copies, maybe? There’s only five known copies to exist of this particular record, right? They all say “For DJ Use only, Not For Sale” on the label. And the record was pressed, it was actually pressed, in some unknown quantity in 1976. The recordings from ‘72 released in 1976, quote unquote. Well, this record exists somehow, some way, somewhere, unknown, until the mid-80’s when Paul Major, a guy who, well, he’s in Endless Boogie now and a legend in the record collecting world. He was trading records with traders and collectors and dealers all over the world. And they were sending each other boxes and sharing finds and stuff. And he got the Stonewall record in one of these trade boxes. He puts it on, he’s like, “Oh, that’s cool”, but he was way more into the outsider scene and like really, really crazy Psych records. And this thing didn’t immediately check a box for him. So, he offered it up for sale in his mail order catalog for 60 bucks. The mail order catalog goes out to all of the recipients– nobody bites on it. And one night, he decides to just go ahead and throw this record back on, revisit it. And it clicks and he’s like, “Oh my God, this is a monster. I’m keeping this”. It’s never gonna be offered up for sale again, you know? So somehow, some way, I’m not sure if it was from Paul’s copy or otherwise, it gets bootlegged– it’s bootlegged on vinyl, it’s bootlegged on CD numerous times, over and over and over, bootlegged. And these bootlegs are on top of what the original pressing was, which was a bootleg– the band was never paid, ever, for the release of this record, until I came along in 2019, I think it was when I originally contacted the surviving member, Anthony Assalti, he’s the drummer from Stonewall. And I released the LP legitimately for the first time ever on Permanent Records. And that’s the first time Stonewall was ever paid for this recording they made in 1972. And they didn’t even know that the record had been pressed until sometime in the 90’s when they found bootlegs of it on eBay. So, truth is truly stranger than fiction in some of these cases. And Stonewall is one of the craziest stories of a legendary, epic rock and roll record from 1972 that could have, if it was handled better when it was originally recorded, it could have been up there with the best of the best of the era.
DANIEL: Absolutely. 100%. And we’re lucky enough to have one of the tracks on Brown Acid.
BRAD: Yeah, this was another one of my favorites. I love the groove on this one. Killer track. Let’s play a little bit of Stonewall and “Outer Spaced”.
BRAD: “Outer Spaced” by Stonewall. One of the things that I really love about this series– your design, the album cover art, the graphics. Who handles that? Who came up with that? Where do you find these photographs?
DANIEL: All the design work is done by Jeri Yoshizu, and she actually is the Creative Director for the Riding Easy Records label. So, she has a hand in every single cover design. And I’m glad that you mentioned that, because a lot of thought and work went into Brown Acid, and designing Brown Acid. All credit goes to Jeri Yoshizu, who has done an incredible job at helping us come up with the visual to sort of tell the story of what that is. And some of the photos are taken from old magazines, some of the photos are taken from film, some of the photos are photos that were given to us. And then we obviously take them and flip them and make them our own.
BRAD: I mean, these look like people that I went to high school with in the late 70’s and the very early 80’s. It brings me right back, just looking at those covers, just everything from the hair to the clothes.
LANCE: Yeah. We’ve literally had friends send us photos of their parents and we’re like, “Oh, wow, can we use this for Brown Acid?” Because they’re like, “Hey, I found this photo of my mom from 1970, and it looks like something you would use for the series”.
BRAD: Kudos to Jerry. Great work. I love it.
LANCE: Yeah, she works magic with not a lot of original source material to work with. And that’s an important thing to kind of note, too; Daniel mentioned that these bands generally don’t have any photos or flyers or ephemera from the era. A lot of them don’t even have an original copy of their own 45.
DANIEL: Yeah.
LANCE: You know, so forget about master tapes, a lot of these guys don’t even have a usable copy of the original vinyl record for us to use. So that’s been another element. We have to track down the record. If I don’t already have it, the hunt is on. Once we’ve licensed the track, to be able to release the material properly, because you can’t just take an MP3 off of YouTube or wherever else you might find it online, and just throw it on a vinyl record and have it sound as good as the rest of the material on there, you know?
BRAD: Right. Well, one of the artists on Brown Acid, you’ve been able to reissue a complete album of his work: Gary Del Vecchio.
DANIEL: That’s exactly right.
BRAD: Yep. I can buy copy right here.
DANIEL: All right, man! Yeah, Gary. Gary’s been great to work with. Obviously, the “Buzzin’” 7-inch came out.. . when did I come out? ‘73?
LANCE: 1970. It’s a pretty early one. And Gary was in high school when he recorded that one.
DANIEL: Yeah, another one in Youngstown, Ohio.
LANCE: Recorded at Peppermint Studios. And Gary has told me– I met up with him at Peppermint Studios last summer, actually, and went on a tour with Gary Rhamy and Anthony, the guys that, Gary’s the original one of the founders of the studio there. He’s been there since day one and he still records new music in there. They have a massive archive of tapes. It’s an amazing facility. And Gary Del Vecchio and I met up there last summer, and he told me that he would literally save his lunch money and as soon as he had enough, he would go talk to Gary Rhamy and record a new track in there, which is how the “Buzzin’” 45 initially was recorded. And all the other material that came out on the “Buzzin’” LP on Riding Easy as well.
DANIEL: And the “Buzzin’” LP was the first time that most of those songs ever saw any sort of wide or commercial release, the first time was two years ago. And basically it was all recorded from like 1970, 1976, I believe.
BRAD: What’s a great record. Let’s play a little bit of Gary Del Vecchio’s “Buzzin’”.
BRAD: Gary Del Vecchio “Buzzin’”. Okay, next up is Raven. Now, this is not the Raven, the heavy metal Raven from the 80’s. This is one guy, right? Raven is one guy.
LANCE: Correct.
Brad Page: Let’s talk about this record. Raven, and the track you chose was “Raven Mad Jam”, which is– I mean, it’s all there in the title.
LANCE: It is quite a mad jam, for sure. You know, with just… this is a wasted, biker-rock LP called “Back to Ohio Blues”. It was originally released in 1975. Yeah, Raven was a free spirit. He’s no longer with us, unfortunately, but I’m in touch with his estate, and his brother-in-law told me that he grew up in Columbus. At some point, he kind of drifted off down to Florida, was just kind of hanging around with a biker gang and writing and recording songs. And then, back in 1975, he moves back to Ohio, hence the name of the LP—“Back to Ohio Blues”. He goes into the studio with a bunch of these songs that he had written and just jams them out with a bunch of other musicians. There are other musicians on the LP, obviously, but little is known about any of the guys that were in the studio at that time. I think there was just such a drug-fueled haze around the whole situation that they just went in there, ripped this thing out, and then kind of went their separate ways. Raven passed not that long ago, because he was behind the reissue that came out in 2007, where he changed up the album cover and put a contemporary photo of himself on the cover with an acoustic guitar, and he’s dressed all dapper. It is truly a unique, unhinged listening experience. And Raven just totally shreds all over this thing. This guy truly lived a rock and roll lifestyle.
DANIEL: He embodied Brown Acid, OK?
LANCE: Definitely, yeah.
BRAD: Four minutes into it, you get a drum solo that lasts for a couple of minutes, I think. And then it ends with, like, an acoustic guitar, Jimmy Page-style workout. This song’s got it all folks!
DANIEL: Right!
BRAD: Yeah, this is, it’s everything. This is a great track– it’s Raven and “Raven Mad Jam”.
BRAD: That’s ‘Raven with “Raven Mad Jam”. Next up, a band called White Lightning and a song called “Under Screaming Double Eagle”. What’s the story behind this one?
LANCE: So before White Lightning, Tom “Zippy” Kaplan was in a band called The Litter, a garage band called The Litter. He’s kind of like the main guy. And The Litter are well-known in the garage circuit; the LP’s, “Distortions” and “$100 Fine” are both very well-known and expensive and collectible garage LP’s. And then they also put out an LP in ‘69 on Probe called “Emerge”. Well, after The Litter, Zippy and some of his other cohorts out of Minneapolis, they formed a band called White Lightning, and White Lightning released only one single back in the day, “Of Paupers and Poets”, backed with “William”. They originally released this on their own label Hexagon, which is the same label that I think “$100 Fine” came out on, but it also got picked up a year later and was released on Atco. So it did get released on a major label eventually, but that was pretty much it for White Lightning. But before they went on to release an album under a slightly different name– just Lightning– they recorded a bunch of other White Lightning material. So, once we got in touch with Zippy, we discovered all this other material and, yeah, we licensed it all. Not only did we license it, we acquired the master tape.
DANIEL: Yeah, White Lightning lives over here. Now, the record that we did reissue, we gave it a name, called “Thunderbolts of Fuzz”. And, for anybody who’s wondering what the reference to White Lightning is, that was actually, um, a strain of LSD that was going around at the time. So, it very much fits right into Brown Acid, yeah. But it’s definitely acid-soaked, heavy psychedelic rock and roll, for sure.
BRAD: White Lightning with “Under Screaming Double Eagle”.
BRAD: “Under Screaming Double Eagle” by White Lightning. Let’s talk a little bit about Brotherhood Of Peace. You picked a track called “Feel the Heat”.
DANIEL: Yeah.
LANCE: Yeah, that’s a banger. And there are not a whole lot of Rock 45’s that have killer drum breaks like the one on “Feel The Heat in the Driver’s Seat”. But yeah, wow. Hip-hop producers should take note of this one, especially because they could flip this beat so easily.
DANIEL: Yeah, it’s a really funky track too.
BRAD: Yeah. This is my favorite– of the tracks you picked, this is my favorite one. I really like this one; Love the riff, great bass playing. Really well recorded bass too, which is something you don’t always get on a lot of these records. But it sounds very professional. Yeah, Great guitar solo, great vocals, nice harmonies, cool percussion at the end. It’s a great track.
DANIEL: Yeah. Kind of reminds me a little bit of David Bowie “Fame”, like the vibe and the feel of it. But yeah, you’re totally spot on there. It’s a groovy track from, Mount Airy, North Carolina. That’s where they’re from.
LANCE: Yeah. If David Bowie was from North Carolina and got into some Southern Rock, that might be what had come out of him, for sure in a different universe. And that’s kind of an important element of Brown Acid, too, Brad, is a lot of these tracks could have been hits in a different, an alternate universe. You know, any one of these bands. And Brotherhood Of Peace is a good example of one that was accessible enough, well recorded enough, catchy enough, to have broken through if they had had, if circumstances had been different, right? You know, it just goes to show you that it doesn’t just take talent to become massively famous and successful in the music industry; you have to be at the right place. Mount Airy, North Carolina was not the right place and at the right time. And you have to have a lot of stars align and be willing to play the game that the people who did become famous played to be able to get to where they got. Yeah, Brotherhood of Peace is such an underrated band. They released this single in ‘78, I think it was. But before that, they released an LP called “Cutting Loose” in 1976. And the single we chose for Brown Acid is not on the LP. And we chose that single because the entire LP got reissued on Riding Easy Records as well. It’s a really, really melodic, fun rock and roll record from 1976.
DANIEL: Yep.
BRAD: Yeah, I really love this one. So, let’s hear a little bit of Brotherhood Of Peace and “Feel the Heat in the Driver’s Seat”.
BRAD: Brotherhood Of Peace, “Feel The Heat in the Driver’s Seat”. The next one you picked was “Songs of the Dead” by Parchment Farm. This, to me, sounds like the Allman Brothers if they were punks.
DANIEL: That’s actually a really good description. I like that.
LANCE: Yeah, this his track is outstanding and has to be one of the heaviest tracks ever recorded from a band from Missouri, especially from this era. Parchment Farm recorded this material in the late 60’s, maybe into the early 70’s. I don’t remember the exact date, ‘72, I think. And they never released any of this stuff, which is just unbelievable, because it was fantastic material. Pretty well recorded. Easily could have had “Songs Of The Dead” on a 45 at least. But it never saw the light of day. And the only reason Daniel and I know about it, and now the world at large, is because through trying to license– was it Osage Lute,or….
DANIEL: Yeah, it started with Osage Lute. And then we figured out that the same guys that were in Osage Lute were involved with another band out of Missouri called Back Jack. And we were dealing with the gentleman named Mike Lusher. But Mike said, “Hey, you know, there was nine of us that were in this incestuous sort of groups all over, and there’s this Parchment Farm thing. Have you guys heard the Parchment Farm stuff?” And when he sent the unreleased album over as MP3’s, Lance & I were like, “What the– How the hell did this thing never see the light of day?”
LANCE: Yeah, that was a mind-blowing find. Essentially, I had been looking for the Back Jack guys and I was striking out, and I went down the road of looking for the Osage Lute guys. And to have Mike Lusher respond almost immediately about Osage Lute, and then divulge almost immediately that they were related to another band that I was already trying to track down without success… and then tell us that there’s a Parchment Farm LP of completely unreleased material.
DANIEL: We didn’t even know what Parchment Farm was. He just said, there’s another project that happened around this time. And on top of that, Mike takes meticulous notes and has all kinds of stuff that, like, most bands never held onto. He even had Super 8 video of a rehearsal one day. He really came through with just a gold mine; you know, as we were saying, a lot of these guys don’t even have a copy of their record, let alone an old show flyer, a poster, or band photos that could be used for anything. And Mike just had all this stuff that was archived and in really good condition. And yeah, we took the tracks that they had and we had them remastered and run through some expensive gear. And like, that’s what the album is.
LANCE: And there’s other recordings that we’re still considering releasing from that core group of people. Just an unbelievable treasure trove. Thanks again to Mike Lusher for making it all possible and being such an amazing archivist.
BRAd: Yes, that’s such a great story. So great. Let’s hear a little bit of Parchment Farm “Songs of the Dead”.
BRAD: “Parchment Farm”, Songs of the Dead. All right, well, that brings us right up to today: the 20th volume of the Brown Acid series is out now. I just got my CD in the mail the other day. I own all of them on CD; I have a few of them on vinyl as well. But I love this series, it’s so great. Even up to Volume 20, you guys are still finding some fantastic material to put out. You wanted to spin up one track from the latest edition. This is by the Banana Bros, a song called “Suck You In”. What’s the story behind this one? This is probably my second favorite of the tracks that you guys picked.,I really love this one. But who are the Banana Brothers? Why are they called the Banana Brothers? And what exactly are they sucking in?
LANCE: That’s, uh, definitely a better question for the Banana Bros themselves. But I’m sucked in by this track. And the story behind it is absolutely unbelievable. Because, first of all, the Banana Bros “Johnny Banana” 45 does not exist on Discogs. There’s only one reference to the 45 existing on the Internet, and that’s on RateYourMusic.com com, which I don’t know who uses RateYourMusic.com– and no slight to them, but it’s not necessarily a huge resource. And so I have a copy of the “Johnny Banana” 45. My copy has “Johnny Banana” on both sides. So it does not even have the track “Suck You In” on it. However, the RateYourMusic listing does list that. And my girlfriend’s copy of the 45 has “Suck You In” on it. And because of Tara’s copy of this 45, we were able to include “Suck You In” on Brown Acid: The 20th Trip. They don’t know why some copies got pressed with “Suck You In” on it and some didn’t. Even though the center labels for my copy and Terra’s copy are exactly the same, and say they only have “Johnny Banana” on both sides, some of them got this track pressed into one of the sides– and thank goodness for that, right? Because “Johnny Banana” is an all right track, but this one is an absolute, just stunning.
BRAD: Yeah, this one’s great. It’s a really good recording. The drums sound great, which, again, is something you don’t always get on these records. Whoever recorded this one really knew how to record drums. Good guitar work, too. It’s a great vocal. Yeah, it’s a great track. And it’s another one of those ones you think “Only if”, right? This could have stood up to– it does stand up to plenty of other quote unquote, “professiona”l major label releases of the time.
LANCE: Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. And, yeah, it’s not surprising that these guys were so good and were able to record this, because Buddy Sklar, one of the Banana Bros, was in a fairly well-known late 60’s garage psych group called The Hook. So he had plenty of experience in the music industries, a very accomplished musician. So, it’s fantastic that he continued on and recorded this 45 after his career in The Hook. And I don’t know if Daniel wants to divulge this information on this podcast or not, but I’ll just go ahead and say it and you can edit it out if it doesn’t work for this: we’ve licensed both of The Hook LPs for reissue on Riding Easy Records as well.
DANIEL: Yeah, that’s exciting. That’s a world exclusive.
BRAD: So when will those be coming?
DANIEL: We’ll get them up on digital probably this year. But physical, we have a little bit of a backlog.
BRAD: Awesome. Let’s hear a little bit of the Banana Bros “Suck You In”.
BRAD: And that’s the Banana Bros with “Suck You In”. All right, guys, well, that is the baker’s sozen that you decided to play. I’m sure we could go on and talk about a ton more tracks, there’s so much great stuff on there. I can’t recommend this series highly enough. I discovered it– I wasn’t there from the beginning, I think I probably came in somewhere around on the 10th or the 12th album, and immediately went back and bought all the prior editions. I’ve bought every version that’s come out since, and I’ve loved every one of them. They are so much fun. If you’re a hardcore music fan, you gotta check some of this stuff out. What is the best way for people to explore these albums and purchase them? Should they do it from the Riding Easy website? Is that the best place to go?
DANIEL: Obviously it’s on all streaming platforms, so you can try it before you buy it, you know what I mean? But go in there and check it out. But we always recommend, if you’ve got a local shop, support your local store. Those are the stores that continue to sort of help spread the gospel. Obviously ridingeasyrecs.com has them, Permanent Records has them. Um, there’s a lot of different ways to get this, I think we still have maybe, like, three or four of the “Die Hard” versions of the 20th Trip that come with a book and some extra stuff and whatnot. But regardless, as long as you buy it, whether it’s digital on bandcamp, or you’re streaming it or whatever– or even if you don’t have any money, take a listen to it and share your favorites track on social media. Like, you don’t have to spend money to support small endeavors like that; sharing something on social media is great too, you know, and you might tip somebody off who will come out and buy a record. So, Brad, I just want to thank you so much for taking the time and having us, and the fact that you buy these things, it means a lot, it really does.
BRAD: Oh, it’s my total pleasure. The fact that you guys are keeping this music alive, you’re putting it out there… again, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Please go check it out. Lance Barresi from Permanent Records. Daniel Hall from Riding Easy, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show and talk about this series and the 20th edition. Congratulations on making to 20. I’m sure there’ll be more coming. I’ll be in line for the next volume for sure. Thanks so much guys.
DANIEL: I appreciate it. Thank you Brad.
LANCE: Thank you for having us, Brad. And my website is permanentrecordsla.com, and if you’re intrigued by the Raven LP or the Stonewall LP, you can get those at permanentrecordsla.com .
BRAD: I will definitely be checking those out, so thanks for that. Thanks, guys. Hope we talk again somewhere down the line. But I really appreciate it, this has been a blast. I’ve loved every minute of this. Thank you so much.
DANIEL: Thanks Brad.
BRAD: There you go. Lance and Daniel, they were just great. I could have talked with them all day– we just scratched the surface here. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Please check out the Brown Acid series, and their other releases, too. I’ll put the links in the show notes.
Come back and join me in two weeks when the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast returns with another new episode. All of our previous episodes can be found on your favorite podcast app or on our website, lovethatssongpodcast.com.
On behalf of everyone on the Pantheon Podcast network, I thank you for listening. See you next time.
"Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To......)" Freddie Mercury Copyright 1975 Queen Music Ltd
Join us as we dive deep into one of Queen’s most iconic tracks, “Death on Two Legs,” from their legendary album A Night at the Opera, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. This episode features an in-depth analysis of the song’s history, production, and the individual tracks that make up this classic, along with performance insights from Tyler Warren, who has played this music live with the Queen Extravaganza. Don’t miss this chance to celebrate the music that shaped rock history.
“Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To……)” Freddie Mercury Copyright 1975 Queen Music Ltd
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I’m your host, Brad Page, and each episode here on the Pantheon Podcast Network, I pick one of my favorite songs and we dive into it together to discover what makes it a great song.
This episode we continue our look at one of the greatest albums ever made,” A Night at the Opera” by Queen, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Last episode, we talked about this album as a whole, what led up to the record, how it was recorded, and an overview of each track. We were joined by author Gillian Gaar, who’s just published a new book all about this album. Go back and listen to that episode for details.
This episode, we’re doing a deep dive on one of my favorite tracks on the album. It’s the song that opens the record and we’ve got a special guest who’ll join us at the end to give us some additional insight on actually performing Queen’s music live, especially the tracks from the “Night at the Opera” album. So let’s do it– Let’s dig into “Death on Two Legs” by Queen.
“A Night at The Opera” was Queen’s fourth album, mostly recorded during the summer and fall of 1975. As I mentioned before, we covered the making of this album on our previous podcast, so if you haven’t listened to that one, go back and check it out for the history of this album.
“Death on Two Legs” is the song that opens the album– side one, track one. The full title is actually “Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To…)”. The lyrics never mention who the subject of the song is, but clearly Freddie is not happy with them.
The target of Freddie’s rage was Norman Sheffield, the owner of Trident Studios, along with his brother Barry, and the band’s former managers. This was your classic dispute between artist and manager, with the band claiming they never received the money that they were due, and management maintaining that the band racked up huge expenses and there just wasn’t much money left.
When Norman Sheffield heard that Queen’s new album began with a song that raked him over the coals, he sued the band for defamation. Though Sheffield is never mentioned by name in the song, the band ended up settling out of court for a not insubstantial sum.
“Death on Two Legs” was written by Freddie Mercury and performed by Freddie on vocals and piano, Brian May on guitar and backing vocals, Roger Taylor on drums and backing vocals, and John Deacon on bass. It was produced by Queen and Roy Thomas Baker.
The song begins with the sound of a piano, distant at first, then coming closer to us, the listener.
That heavy riff is played by a distorted guitar and an acoustic upright bass, also known as the double bass, played with a bow. But before that riff appears out of nowhere, you can hear some strange sound effects in the background. My guess is that those were actually played on Brian May’s guitar with some delay or effects added.
Let’s go back and listen to that again in context and see if those sounds jump out at you.
Now you can hear those effects getting louder here.
Brian’s overdubbed some additional guitars here, including a part reminiscent of those violin stabs from the “Psycho” soundtrack.
It’s going to continue to escalate, culminating in a blood-curdling scream, performed by Roger I believe, before it comes to a screeching halt. Literally.
Now were hitting the song proper. The author Martin Power, in his great book “Queen: The Complete Guide to Their Music”, described this song as a “heavy metal tango”. Which is actually a pretty good description.
Before the first verse starts, Brian plays a short guitar solo that has a real exotic feel to it. It’s not your typical rock mode. Let’s listen to that guitar by itself. Couple of things to note here: As usual he’s playing his legendary Red Special guitar. That’s the guitar that he built himself with his dad, made out of a 100-year-old piece of mahogany that came from a fireplace mantle. For amplification, we can assume that he’s playing through a Vox AC30 amp using a Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster pedal, between the guitar and the amplifier; that was his standard setup around this time. Another key element of the Brian May guitar sound is that instead of using a traditional pick, Brian uses a sixpence coin. So you’re actually getting a metal-on-metal sound whenever he picks the strings. So, that combination of all of these things– the custom-built homemade guitar, the AC30 amp, the treble booster pedal, and using a coin for a pick– all of these things contribute to giving Brian one of the most distinctive guitar sounds in all of rock. So let’s hear that solo.
I think you can really hear the sound of that metal coin on the strings. Let’s hear that again in context with the rest of the song.
So here’s the first verse. Right before Freddie’s lead vocal comes in, we get a blast of those famous Queen harmonies. Then Freddie comes in with a vocal that is just spitting venom. Notice how he’s overdubbed the vocal on different tracks so that they overlap ever so slightly on the last word of each line.
All right, there’s a lot going on here. Right before that first chorus, we have a backwards cymbal that’s inserted.
Let’s hear that again in context.
There’s also an interesting drum pattern that Roger Taylor is playing under the chorus. Let’s hear some of that.
Then before the start of the next section, there’s a sound effect that, probably the best way to describe it is, it’s kind of a helicopter sound. I’m pretty sure that sound is made by Brian’s guitar through an Echoplex tape delay.
Let’s play through the next section.
Okay, let’s break down this section. We’ll start with Freddie’s piano, because that’s the part that’s really the foundation for this section. The original working title for this song was “Psycho Legs” because apparently Freddie’s piano playing was so intense.
Now let’s hear how Brian has layered a couple of guitars to thicken up this section.
Now the vocals.
Just wow. One more thing I want to hear before we move along is to listen to Roger Taylor’s drum part during this section,because this is just a classic Roger Taylor performance. Let’s hear it.
All right, let’s put that all back together again and hear the final mix of this section.
That is maybe the most brutal lyric in this whole song.
“Do you feel like suicide? You should.”
He’s basically telling this guy he should kill himself. Let’s go back and pick it up from there.
Another guitar solo from Brian May. This one is much more in a traditional rock vein, but still fantastic. Let’s just hear that guitar first.
And let’s hear what Freddie’s piano was doing under that.
And I haven’t forgotten about John Deacon. Let’s hear what he’s playing on the bass during this section. Theres some nice gritty distortion on the bass all through the track; that’s old studio trick that helps the bass cut through when you’re doing the final mix.
Okay, let’s hear that all put together.
That brings us to the final verse. Let’s play through that. I’ll stop along the way to point out a couple more things.
Nice bass guitar lick there by John Deacon.
And Brian May’s guitar joins in at the tail end of that lick.
And I’ve always loved the way Freddie sings the word “balloon” in this verse.
And let’s listen to the vocals on that part again.
And before we play through the final chorus, let’s highlight a couple more things. First, let’s hear Roger Taylor’s drums again.
And let’s hear John Deacon’s bass one more time.
And let’s hear how Brian’s guitar and Freddie’s piano work together.
On top of that, Brian plays some short little guitar licks; these were actually composed by Freddie on piano, then Brian learned them on guitar.
There are little licks like that throughout the song, which were all Freddie s idea. Okay, let’s put it all back together one final time and listen to this last chorus through to the end of the song.
And that’s it. That’s how the song ends, rather abruptly. On the album. It goes right into the next song, “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon”. And that transition couldn’t be more extreme. Two completely different styles, polar opposites.
And that is just one reason why I love this album: the sheer nerve it takes to open your album with a one-two punch like this. And it keeps going like that through the whole album. It’s incredibly audacious, this album. It’s a masterpiece.
And someone who has experience actually playing this album live, all the way through in front of an audience, is my special guest on this episode, Tyler Warren.
Tyler Warren is a drummer and singer who was recruited by Roger Taylor himself to play in the “Queen Extravaganza”, the Queen tribute that Roger Taylor put together. Then, when Queen hit the road with Adam Lambert, Tyler joined them on stage, playing drums and percussion. So, he knows this music inside out. I met up with Tyler in Nashville at the RockNPod Expo, and we had a brief chat about his experience performing this album live.
BRAD: Well, Tyler Warren, thanks for joining me here at Live at RockNPod. My next episode is focusing on one particular track from “Night at the Opera”, “Death on Two Legs”. And I really wanted to get your insight, because you’ve actually performed this song.
TYLER: Well with his, with the tribute band, official tribute band that he put together, 10 years ago now, called Queen Extravaganza.
BRAD: And you actually played the whole album front to back?
TYLER: We did. We did. We did it a couple of tours where we did “A Night at the Opera” front to back. The first tour we did, it was in two sections, and the first section was all music pre-“Night at the Opera”,. And then the second half was “Night at the Opera”.
BRAD: I mean, that’s quite a lot of music to bite off…
TYLER: I loved it. I love all that stuff. So I was in heaven.
BRAD: And that’s incredible record. And so you played drums and percussion?
TYLER: Yeah, I played drums and sang lead vocals with Queen Extravaganza. And then with Queen, I do percussion and background vocals, stuff Roger doesn’t want to do anymore.
BRAD: So tell us just a little bit about what is it like to work with Roger.
TYLER: It’s like I tell everybody else, like, Roger and Brian– obviously, I have more experience being around Roger– but they are who they are. They’re freaking legends. But they’re humans, too. And whenever we’re hanging out, it’s just like I’m hanging out with. buddies, you know? They just happen to be these massive, gigantic rock stars that are legends, you know?
BRAD: Right, right. So, let’s talk a little bit about this particular song, “Death On Two Legs”. What’s always fascinated me about this song is there’s so many elements, little pieces to that song. What was the most challenging thing about doing that particular song live?
TYLER: Really, the most challenging thing for us, whenever we did it with Extravaganza– with pretty much anything that’s Queen related– is background vocals. Because everything else kind of falls into place and it kind of goes where it needs to go. But we just wanted to make sure that everything we could possibly do is there. And, you know, Roger was, and still is, extremely keen on not using tracks. So everything that we did, we did live.
BRAD: Right. No backing tracks, no fudging it.
TYLER: No, no, no, no, no. So if you screw up, it’s for real. But I would say that definitely the most difficult part was doing the background vocals. And we spent a lot of time making sure we got that one right. Because it’s important for us. Because especially for Roger, back then with the tribute band, the whole reason that he put it together was, he was sick of seeing all these other tribute bands that were way more focused on dressing up like Queen and putting on the mustache and stuff like that, and less focused on representing the songs and the albums as good as they possibly could, and making it something that actually sounded amazing. And that was the whole impetus of Queen Extravaganza; like, we didn’t dress up like them or anything. We just performed. And, you know, there are certain bands where the visual is just as important. You know, if you’re going to see a Kiss tribute, man, you want to see them dressed up in the makeup and stuff, you know? But a band like Queen, the visual is important, so there is a really good live show and everything, but the music is just as important.
BRAD: Right.
TYLER: And another thing I learned from Roger and, even back in the day with Queen, is they knew they couldn’t reproduce those records note-for-note live. So they became their own beast. They became their own little edgy thing live. And, you know, we tried to translate that as much as possible with Extravaganza, and most certainly still do with Queen and Adam Lambert.
BRAD: How difficult you find it in general reproducing some of those songs live, because there’s a lot of studio, I don’t want to say “trickery”, but, like, real production value. I mean, a lot of ways, on “A Night at the Opera”, Roy Thomas Baker is almost like the fifth member of that band, right?
TYLER: Sure. For sure.
BRAD: Yeah. So there’s a challenge there, right? Just getting that sound right.
TYLER: And honestly, like, Death was probably one of the easier ones. I don’t want to downgrade it that way, but it’s a little more straight ahead than some of the other songs on the record. Like, probably the hardest one that we did was… I would say it’s either a cross between “Seaside” and “Prophet Song”, because there was this guy named Mark Martell that was a lead singer in Extravaganza for a while, and when it got to that middle section with the echoes and stuff, you know, we did that live, and if you mess up, it messes up three times. But we worked so hard to make sure that that was good. And yeah, the hardest parts, the vocals; instrumentally, if we know the songs and we know what we’re doing, it comes together. But vocally, we all sang in that group, so we all had to make sure we knew our stuff.
BRAD: So did you sing the Roger parts generally?
TYLER: Yeah. Or just whatever needed to be filled in. I always took the high stuff and then Roger, anything that Roger sang lead on, I would do. Like, “Car” and things like that.
BRAD: So what were some of the other challenging things, aspects, maybe, that we wouldn’t necessarily think about doing that particular album, or just any Queen stuff in general, live?
TYLER: Well, it’s kind of two different beasts. With Extravaganza, we do what we can to do some of those, some of the stuff that they did in the studio that they didn’t do live. Like, with “Seaside”, doing all the mouth trumpets and all that stuff, we would do that, and the ukulele things for “Good Company”. And a lot of it was pre-prep. Like, we would spend a lot of time on our own. Either I or the keyboard player would transcribe vocals and send each other parts. And, like, “you do this, you do this, you do this”, just to make sure that we’re all on the same page.
BRAD: Right.
With Queen, it is totally different because we can, it always comes together. But, like, whenever we get in rehearsals, we really don’t practice the music that much. You would think we would, but… we might, we’ll do, like, top and tail, beginning of a song, end of a song, and if there’s any massive train wrecks, we’ll go through it. Bbut other than that, we’ll spend a little bit on music, a bit on production, and then first show, hopefully everything comes together, and it always tends to. It always seems to be like, the first show is great, the second show is terrible, and then it evens out after that.
BRAD: That’s interesting.
TYLER: Yeah.
BRAD: So you’ve toured with the Adam Lambert version of the band?
TYLER: Yes. Yeah.
BRAD: And what’s it like working with Adam?
TYLER: It’s ridiculous. It is unbelievable what that man can sing, and it’s almost like it’s nothing to him. Like, we can show up for sound check and he’s not warmed up. He might have just woken up or might have just gotten back from a lunch or something. And we get up there and it’s there. And it just seems like it’s nothing to him. His voice is absolutely insane.
BRAD: What a gift, right? Man.
TYLER: And he’s such a nice guy. I just saw him a couple weeks ago because he was doing “Cabaret” in New York, and we saw his last show, March 28, I think. And of course, naturally, he was as ridiculous on that as ever. But he’s got a gift, there’s no doubt about it.
BRAD: Yeah. Well, let’s talk about some of your music. You were telling me you’ve released a couple of singles on your own.
TYLER: I have. I’ve got another band called Flare Light, but we’re kind of on hiatus at the moment. But around Valentine’s Day last year, we were in Japan with Queen and Adam Lambert, and the last show was Valentine’s Day, and I released two singles called “Beautiful Ways” and “Falling Into You”. It’s the first solo stuff that I’ve done in nearly 10 years, I would say. It’s just I’ve been so caught up with Queen and stuff like that, I just hadn’t really had time. But since those two singles, I’ve been kind of getting back into the idea of being a solo artist again. And I’ve been writing, recording, so hopefully I’ll have a record out. And hopefully it’s some time this year. But it’s on Spotify, Apple, all the streamers, wherever you get your music, “Beautiful Ways” and “Falling Into You”.
BRAD: Okay, and that’s under your name?
TYLER: Yes. Tyler Warren.
BRAD: Yeah. Cool. All right, well, thanks, man. I appreciate you coming by, talking a little bit about the record. And we’ll play a little bit of that track to get us out of this episode.
TYLER: There you go.
BRAD: But thank you so much, man.
TYLER: The most vicious Freddie might have ever been. Oh yeah, It’s a great one. Thank you so much. Thank you.
BRAD: Thanks, brother. Appreciate it.
Tyler Warren. I had a good time chatting with him.
Well, this wraps up our special two-parter on Queen’s “Night at the Opera” and the song “Death On Two Legs”.
Of course, “A Night At The Opera”, led by the hit single “Bohemian Rhapsody”, would become the album that broke Queen in the US and around the world. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Thanks for joining me for this edition of the podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, there’s about 180 other episodes just waiting for you to discover them. You can find them on your favorite podcast app– Spotify, Pandora, Apple, Amazon, iHeartRadio, whatever podcast player you prefer, you can find us there. Just search for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. Or you can listen on our website, lovethatssongpodcast.com.
You can send your thoughts and comments to lovethatsongpodcast@gmail.com or post them on our Facebook page.
If you’d like to support the show, head on over to oldglory.com and buy a t-shirt or some merch from your favorite bands. They’ve got some quality Queen t-shirts there, and it’s all properly licensed stuff, so the bands don’t get ripped off. And when you use our discount code lovethatsong, you’ll save 15% off anything you buy there, and this show gets a few bucks on the deal, too. So go to oldglory.com, use the discount code lovethatsong, save some money and support this show. Thanks.
From everyone here on the Pantheon Podcast Network– where fans belong– I thank you for listening. I will be back in two weeks with another new episode. Until then, crank up your copy of “A Night At the Opera”.
Now, to play us out, let’s hear a little bit of our friend Tyler Warren and his song “Falling Into You”. You can find it on any of the streaming services, so please make sure you support artists like Tyler. See you next time.
RESOURCES:
Queen: https://www.queenonline.com
A Night at the Opera (Album): https://www.queenonline.com/discography/albums/a-night-at-the-opera
Tyler Warren: https://www.tylerwarrenmusic.com
Roy Thomas Baker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Thomas_Baker
This episode we celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest ever made– A Night At The Opera by Queen. I’m joined by author Gillian Gaar, whose new book, Queen and A Night at the Opera 50 Years, offers a fascinating look at the making of this legendary record. Together, we explore the unique personalities of the band members, the pressures they faced leading up to the album’s release, and the innovative production techniques that defined their sound.
Each track on A Night At The Opera is a testament to Queen’s eclectic style and musical genius. Join us as we celebrate the artistry behind this classic album and the enduring legacy of Queen. Whether you’re a lifelong fan or new to their music, this episode is a must-listen!
Welcome to another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on the Pantheon Podcast Network. I’m your host, Brad Page, and on the next couple of episodes, we’re celebrating the anniversary of one of the greatest albums ever made: “A Night At The Opera” by Queen.
Author Gillian Gaar has a brand new book out called “Queen and A Night At The Opera: 50 Years”. This is a great book, and so I’m happy to have her join me for this episode as we dig into this classic album. Here’s our conversation.
Brad Page: All right, Gillian Gaar, thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the podcast. Just a few episodes back, I did a show on all of the amazing records that came out in 1975. It was an incredible year for some classic albums, and one record in particular that’s celebrating its 50th this year, is by any measure, an all-time classic. It’s Queen “Night At The Opera”. And you have a fantastic new book– I have it here, I’ve read it, it’s great. Couldn’t recommend it any higher. You’re kind of giving us the inside scoop on the making of “A Night at the Opera”. So, thanks for coming on the show to talk about the book and about this amazing record.
Gillian Gaar: Well, I’m excited to be here. Thanks for inviting me.
Brad Page: Yeah, thanks for coming on. So, let’s set the stage here. Let’s talk about who Queen was. I think when you look back at, not all, but many of just the legendary bands, there are four very distinct characters, right? John, Paul, George, Ringo… The Who… Led Zeppelin. Each one of those guys is singularly unique in where they fit in those bands and really irreplaceable, I think. And I think Queen is the same way. You had four very distinct individual characters in this band. So, let’s talk a little bit about just who those guys were; Let’s start with Brian May and Roger Taylor, because they were kind of the core of the band and they had sort of been playing together before Queen became Queen, right?
Gillian Gaar: Yeah. In fact, they were all in college, and Freddie Mercury knew them at that time and they were in the band Smile. And Freddie desperately wanted to be in a band, but Smile was a trio, so they couldn’t, he couldn’t really fit himself into that format, but he just hung around. He was an ambitious guy already at that stage; you know, he’d have suggestions for them. “Oh, why don’t you play this song? Why don’t you move like that on stage?” That kind of thing.
Brad Page: Yeah. Freddie kind of weaseled his way into the band just kind of on sheer personality, I think.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah. I mean once Tim Staffell left and Smile was over, well, then Freddie could step right in. And then it just took a while to find John Deacon. I mean, that’s a kind of interesting aspect about how a band comes together; they had three other bass players that they worked with before John Deacon, and it didn’t say that any of them weren’t necessarily, That John was necessarily so much a better bass player than them. I think they probably perhaps had the same level of skill, but they just weren’t the right fit. And John came along and he was like the last piece of the puzzle, which you see that in retrospect, though it couldn’t have felt like that at the time– they were probably thinking “Are we ever going to find a bass player?” And, kind of like the moment when Ringo joins the Beatles, the last part of the puzzle finally falling into place.
Brad Page: Right. The key piece that fits. And then it just gels, and it’s magic.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah, yeah. It’s also interesting, because they are four very different personalities, and yet they all worked well together. I mean, yes, of course they were known for their arguments in the studio and all, but in general they meshed well together. And I think I quoted, it was probably Freddie, or maybe Brian, just saying how he thought that element made them a more interesting group; that you did have all these different people instead of all the same kind of person.
Brad Page: Right. Well, yeah, again, that goes back to where you look at The Beatles, or The Who– I mean, that’s a bandwidth four very distinct characters. Led Zeppelin… John Deacon is kind of that John Paul Jones-type of character, right. The quote-unquote “Quiet One”.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah.
Brad Page: But an incredibly important force. I think every band has a “secret weapon”, Somebody who’s sort of under-the-radar but is so important, and to me, that’s John Deacon and Queen.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah, well he turned out giving them some of their most notable hits. And who knows, if he had not been in Queen, if he’d been in some other group, maybe he would not have become a songwriter, because he sort of blossomed with that. He didn’t join and say, “Oh, I have all these songs”. He sort of developed.
Brad Page: Yeah, and we’ll talk about that as we go through the record. So, as we come into 1975, Queen’s got three albums on the books. They’ve had a taste of success with “Killer Queen”. They didn’t really have any hits off the first two records, but “Killer Queen” on the previous album did pretty well.
There’s a thing where, by the time you get to your third record, if you’re not producing hits, there’s a lot of record company pressure. But where do you see the band as they come into this record? Where are they at in their career, in your perspective?
Gillian Gaar: Well, as you say, you know, obviously they hadn’t had the big breakthrough, but they were coming along, as frustrated as they probably felt that the three albums didn’t do better than they hoped. But by the time they made, “Night At The Opera”, they were a headlining act in Britain– not in the US; they had been to the US and were opening for other bands, and so probably the next step would have been to be the headliner. But they were headlining in Britain, so they had come on that much. “Killer Queen” was the first song I remember hearing from them. So that was like the first US breakthrough… I was going to say big hit; It wasn’t a “big hit”, but it got in the Top 40. So, you heard it on the radio, even in the suburbs.
They’ve got a new manager by that time, because they were having, they were having some conflicts with Trident where they were making the records. They were sort of under a management contract with Trident, who was also, I think, looking after their publishing and having them record in Trident Studios, which in Norman Sheffield’s book– he was one of Tritee’s co-owners, the founder, he owned it with his brother. He wrote out pretty interesting book, because the band was saying, “Oh yes, they didn’t pay us enough royalties”, etc. And he said that at the beginning, he didn’t want Trident to be overseeing all those aspects of the band because he just envisioned it generating conflicts of interest down the road, which of course it did, when the band was unhappy. But they brought in John Reid at this time and John said, you know, “Don’t worry about any management issues, record company issues. You just go out and make the best album you can.” So he sort of took that pressure off. He’s like, “Don’t think about business. Your job is to make this record. So just focus on the record and don’t even think about these business issues.” But I know Brian has said he considered it a make-or-break record, because they were on the verge of breaking through. So they were in a good position, they were in a great position for that. But then you have to deliver. And if they’d put out an album that wasn’t as strong, you know, they may have just stayed kind of at that middling success level. You don’t generate the momentum to carry you to the next level. So that was what they were looking to do with “Night at the Opera”. So certainly they themselves felt pressure for that.
Brad Page: Yeah. So they begin rehearsals in July of 1975. And they end up, over the course of the album, they end up using a total of six different studios, I think, between the overdubs and all of that.
Gillian Gaar: Yes. If you want to count the national anthem, it was seven, because they recorded that before that even started proper work on “Night at the Opera”. They recorded it to play at the end of their concerts, because in Britain, they usually play the national anthem at the end of a theatrical performance. And, they thought, well, let’s provide them with a rock version to play. And so they’d already recorded that and decided to put it on the end of “Night at the Opera”.
Brad Page: Before we dig into the record, one more person to talk about, and that’s the producer, Roy Thomas Baker. Talk a little bit about Roy and his role here.
Gillian Gaar: Well, when he was starting out, learning his trade, he actually worked with some opera companies in the studio, which was very helpful, I think. One reason Queen got on so well with him was that he was as experimental as they were. And when they were making Queen II– which one band member, or maybe it was Roy had called it “the kitchen sink album”, because they just threw everything into that. But he had been told by Freddie when they were starting work on it, Freddie saying,” if there are any other crazy ideas you want to try that other bands wouldn’t let you do, you could do them on this album”. So they were both interested in experimenting and pushing the studio technology. So they were lucky in having Roy with them, because he was just as excited to see what could be done in the studio as they were.
Brad Page: Exactly. Particularly in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, you had a lot of those pop producers that were, you know, they made some great records, no doubt, but it was very much almost an assembly line in a way. It was just, you come in and you do X, Y and Z, and back out on the road. And there wasn’t a lot of room for the acts to experiment. I mean, sometimes they didn’t even get to play on their own records.
Luckily, you had four very strong-willed characters here who weren’t about to let themselves get steamrolled by any producer.
So let’s go through the record, track by track. Because to me, when I think of the all-time great records, what makes a great record– not just a good record, but one that really stands out– to me, it’s sort of a cliche, but I always feel like a great record has to take you on a journey, from start to end. Doesn’t necessarily have to tell a story like a concept record, but it’s got to take you somewhere from the moment you drop the needle, so to speak, ‘till the end of the album. And to me, this record really does. It just takes you to so many different places and it’s such a fantastic record for that. So let’s look at these individual pieces that make this great work of art.
The album kicks off with a track by Freddie, that Freddie wrote called “Death on Two Legs”. And I don’t want to get too deep into it here, because we’re going to actually explore this track in detail on the next episode of the podcast… but just to kind of put it out there, this is one of the nastiest tracks that’s ever been written about another person. I think particularly written about their two managers, who, frankly, I don’t know that really deserve this level of vitriol. But it is a brutal takedown of Barry and Norman Sheffield, who you mentioned before, who had been acting as their managers. And clearly Freddie wasn’t particularly happy with that situation.
Gillian Gaar: Well, the whole band actually was wondering why they weren’t getting more money since their records were selling. And in particular, “Sheer Heart Attack”, the third one, selling more because it was the most successful. And Norman, in his book, which he called “Life on Two Legs”, he said that Queen had such expenses, such high expenses that they were still in debt to the company. Freddie in particular, always wanting a new costume to wear, and they had a kind of elaborate stage show, lights and all the rest of it that they wanted to use. So, he could certainly be right about that. And he was trying to tell them, or was trying to tell them. “Well, as more money comes in, then you’ll earn back this debt and then you go start to get money of your own”. But, yeah, that relationship did not last. And, they worked out a settlement to where the Sheffield’s were no longer involved. But they did get money from the next few albums until a certain period. Norman recognized that the song was about them and they were considering legal action, but he didn’t really want to, you know, hold up their career. It was easier to just make a settlement, let the album come out. And, if you notice, if you read interviews done at the time, Freddy’s careful to never name them. And he doesn’t even say, you know, our former managers or anything. He’s really kind of vague.
Brad Page: Yeah, he’s pretty cagey about it.
Gillian Gaar: They probably came to some agreement that, yes, we don’t want to get in legal trouble either.
Brad Page: Yeah.
Gillian Gaar: And I mean, it’s interesting to know that about the song, the backstory, if you will, but certainly you can relate to it anyway, even if you have no idea what they’re talking about. Because probably everyone’s had a boss or a superior that you didn’t like. Maybe not to that degree… Or a teacher. You know, there’s probably some figure that’s grated on you. Or these days, maybe it’s a politician. So, it has a lot of universal appeal, I would say.
Brad Page: Right, right. I mean, it is certainly a brutal takedown. And Freddie, just the way he digs into those lyrics vocally, it’s just like he’s just like breathing fire.
Gillian Gaar: He’s so over the top, though, that it’s kind of funny. I mean, you sense that his tongue is a bit in cheek there because it’s somewhat delivered with a wink. The animosity is real, but it’s, um, I think it’s tempered a little bit.
Brad Page: And then the song ends, and we go right into about as much of a polar opposite as you could get: Track two, “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon”, another track written by Freddie.
Gillian Gaar: Oh, I love that one.
Brad Page: I do too. The song is 1 minute and 7 seconds long; it’s like it’s over before you Know it. But even in that little over a minute time, there’s some interesting things going on. Let’s talk about how they recorded the vocal on this track because that’s pretty fun.
Gillian Gaar: You know, these days, I suppose you just hit a switch on the console and get a digital effect to make your voice have that kind of “old timey” sound, like from a Victrola record player. Back then, you had to do those things, you know, the analog way, the hard way. So they had his microphone, they sent the vocal into a microphone in a bucket, to give it that kind of echoey sound, which actually is pretty clever when you think about it. A lot of the things they did on this album were very clever. They thought of all kinds of solutions to get the sounds they wanted.
Brad Page: Right. It’s pretty ingenious. He sings in the studio, as you normally would, but then they pump that audio into a pair of headphones; they put the headphones in a bucket and then stick a mic in the bucket to record the audio kind of bouncing around inside that tin bucket, and you get this sound that really sounds just like an old time radio or Victrola like you said. It’s fun, it’s just a fun little track and I really dig it. And I love the juxtaposition of the fury of “Death On Two Legs” with “Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon”.
Gillian Gaar: Oh yeah, the album starts out that way, it continues on. Each song is kind of, you know, so different from the one before it.
Brad Page: Yeah. And so the next song on the record is Roger Taylor’s moment to shine, and kind of became his signature song. “I’m In Love With My Car”.
Gillian Gaar: This is an aspect that isn’t talked about with Queen very much, but there was always a sense of humor running through what they did. I think not so much in the ‘80’s, and maybe that’s why I didn’t like their music as much in the ‘80’s, I’m more a ‘70’s Queen person.
But, of course, “I’m In Love With My Car” has all these great innuendos in it that are, you know, not unheard of in songs about cars. So he kind of continues that fine tradition.
Brad Page: It’s in 6/8 time, which is not an unusual time signature, but for kind of a more heavy rock song, it’s not typically used in that format, so that’s kind of interesting. It has that sort of false ending at the end, where it fades out and then it comes back in with the guitar part. And I believe Roger actually played rhythm guitar on this track, right?
Gillian Gaar: Yes, yes. Helped to thicken the sound.
Brad Page: Yeah. So you got, I think, both Brian and Roger playing a little guitar at the end of it. And then of course, they overdub Roger’s sports car at the end of it. That is a real car. Yeah, that’s his Alfa Romeo. That’s his actual car. You hear revving it again at the end. It’s it’s not a sound effect, it’s an actual recording.
And then we get John Deacon’s moment, a song that he wrote called “You’re My Best Friend”. And, spoiler alert– this is my favorite track on this record. I think this is an absolutely perfect pop song. I love the sentiment of it, it’s just so pure, and I just think wonderful. And it’s like the second song he wrote, right? Because he had written one track on one of the previous records, and I think this was song number two?
Gillian Gaar: Yeah. I mean, you know, technically, I don’t know if he wrote a song in between or not.
Brad Page: Yeah, he may have had other songs, but this was this only the second song he brought to the band. But I mean, wow. You know, this is the kind of song I think you could write and just if you write this once in your life, that’s a big accomplishment. Pretty incredible. Such a great song. He plays the electric piano on it. It’s very distinctive, that electric piano sound.
That’s all John. Incredible bass part on here. If you go back and listen to the bass on this part, super busy. Very McCartney-esque, in that way that Paul’s bass parts are kind of like a song all unto themselves. You don’t really hear any guitar until you get to the third verse, and then Brian does that great harmonized guitar solo. Kind of what I always think of as that guitar orchestration that he was so great at. That’s such a big part of the Queen sound is in here.
Gillian Gaar: And it’s really the first on the album where you can see the group’s harmonies on full display.
Brad Page: Right? Yeah. Those classic Queen harmonies really come into play here. Just a great track.
Gillian Gaar: Oh, yeah.
Brad Page: And then the spotlight turns to Brian. So: so far on the record, we’ve had two Freddy’s songs, we’ve had a Roger song; John doesn’t sing “You’re My Best Friend”, but it’s really his moment to shine. And then we’ve got “’39”, which is one of Brian May’s featured tracks on the album. He sings it. It’s kind of this, it’s a sci-fi folk song, which is a genre all of its own.
Gillian Gaar: I think Brian had to himself.
Brad Page: Yeah, yeah, I can’t think of too many other sci-fi folk songs out there.
John Deacon learned to play the upright bass specifically for this one. It became a real staple of the Queen’s setlist. They would play this live in kind of their acoustic section.
Gillian Gaar: Yes. They’d come down to the front of the stage.
Brad Page: Yeah. Brian on vocal; it’s a pretty heartfelt vocal. And, you talk about it in the book, that ostensibly the song is about the concept of when you go out in space and you travel at the speed of light, a year might pass for you between the time your journey begins and ends. But back on Earth, like 100 years could have passed. So he comes back to Earth, He’s a year older, but his family, his wife has probably passed away at this point, or she’s an old woman, and his kids are fully grown. He’s missed all of that.
But in your book, you have quotes of him talking about that’s kind of like how he felt as a touring musician. Going out on the road, on tour, and then coming back, you’re almost a different person than the family you left behind, which I think is fascinating.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah, it’s sort of an allegory as well as just being the song about interplanetary travel. I’ve read something similar from other musicians; especially if you’re on a big tour, a big major tour, that there’s sort of a disconnect when you come off the road and then you get back to, quote, real life with, maybe you’re married, your spouse and your family… you haven’t been dealing with them, you’ve been dealing with all this other stuff. And if you’re a big band, you know, you’re catered to all the time, right? And now you’re back home and wait, “I’ve got to get my own dinner?”
Brad Page: Yeah. “I have to take out the garbage?”
Gillian Gaar: “What do you mean, mow the lawn?”
Brad Page: Yeah, yeah. And meanwhile, your family at home has been living their lives, you know, they’re almost on a separate path than you are. It’s no wonder so many of these relationships just… they fail because it’s such a hard thing. It’s nobody’s fault, you know, it’s just the nature of being a touring musician. You’re kind of in your own world and then you have to come back and reorient yourself into, quote, unquote, real life. And it’s kind of a weird thing… but I love how this song gets at that. And there’s a point towards the end of the song where the music breaks and he just says, “Pity me”. And just. I don’t know, the way he sings that, to me, there’s like some real emotion in that, that’s getting at something deeper than just the story that he’s telling.
And then that’s followed up by another song written by Brian, a track called “Sweet Lady”. This is kind of the one that sort of gets short shrift on this record, I think. The one nobody ever talks about.
Gillian Gaar: Well, it is the weakest track, I would say, on the album, certainly.
Brad Page: You know, I love the guitar riff. I think it’s a great guitar riff. But somehow it never quite seems to take off or to gel, I guess.
At the end of the song, the band kind of tries to ramp it up and go into overdrive, but somehow it feels smaller to me, uh, when it should feel bigger.
I think it’s almost a production failure. It’s not a terrible song by any stretch, but it’s kind of tough to live up to all the rest of the tracks on this record, I think.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah, I think that fade out– and here, I’m looking it up– it lasts about a minute and a half. I think that’s my favorite part. That’s when they really sound the most engaged in the song. Because I have to say, the rest of it, I don’t know, there’s almost kind of a forced Quality. It’s kind of leaden.
Brad Page: Yeah, yeah… Brian was trying to do this thing of having 3/4 time in the verse and 4/4 time in the chorus, and it almost feels, in a way, like maybe more of like an exercise than a finished product, if you know what I mean. Like, it’s nice idea but doesn’t necessarily go anywhere.
Gillian Gaar: Mhm.
Brad Page: Again, I really do dig that guitar riff I think it’s a great guitar riff. So, I don’t want to completely crap this on this song, but you know, it’s on a record that’s chock full of, I think, masterpieces. So you know, something’s got to come last, right?
And then side one closes out with another one of Freddie’s old timey songs, “Seaside Rendezvous”, which I think has a fantastic vocal by Freddie.
Only he could do a song like this and pull it off that way.
Gillian Gaar: Well, that was the aspect I liked about Queen, in particular that camp side that Freddie embodied. Because I grew up listening to musicals, and it was fun reading Mark Blake’s book on Queen, “Is This The Real Life”, and hearing what a fan Freddie was of the musical “Cabaret”, the movie in particular. And I was, too. Probably appreciating a different level from him, because I was still in junior high school. So, I always liked that aspect. So I kind of, I understood more where those songs were coming from. And maybe I think some of the rock contingent didn’t quite get that. Or maybe they were just things they tolerated or put up with from Queen. But I always liked those type of songs.
Brad Page: I do too. And it’s a very Beatle-esque kind of thing, too, right? ‘Cause so many of the great Beatle records would have, usually from McCartney but not necessarily always, you’d have these kind of British music hall throwback-type numbers, and I just think it adds to the, just the whole overall scope of the record. Like I said, sort of taking you on a journey through different musical genres and different times, and I love that. I love a record that just throws all kinds of things at you. And I think these songs hold up as well as the more classic rock numbers. I think “Seaside Rendezvous” was great for that, and I think it’s a great way to wrap up side one.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah, yeah. Because of course, that’s how we heard these albums in those days; there was a side one and a side two.
Brad Page: Yep.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah. When you think about it, when they were putting the albums together, not like today with the CD thinking what’s going to open and close the album. You had to do that twice, because you had to think of what’s going to open side one and close side one.
Brad Page: Right.
Gillian Gaar: So you have to think of two openings and two closings.
Brad Page: Right. But I think the feel of albums benefited from that. And there was something about that break, where you physically had to flip the tape or flip the album. There was just something about that pause that was like an Act 1, Act 2.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah, yeah, it did have that quality.
Brad Page: Yeah. And so speaking of that, side two kicks off with the song that I think was supposed to be the epic on the record. I know Brian always felt that this song kind of got overshadowed by “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which is one of the all-time epics, but “Prophet’s Song” is the song that kicks off side two, and it’s really an intense piece. What’s your take on this song?
Gillian Gaar: Oh, I always like that one. Especially when you, you know, got your first pair of headphones and you could appreciate the canon part in the middle, with the vocal kind of going around first on one channel, then on the other, and then in the middle.
And that was very exciting. And it was so long.
Brad Page: Yeah, it’s over eight minutes long. I believe it’s the longest song Queen ever did.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah. I wrote that, and I said technically, on one of the very later posthumous albums, they put this sort of long track together…
Brad Page: Yeah, there’s like an ambient piece that closes out the “Made in Heaven” record.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah.
Brad Page: But that’s not like a “song” song, right.
Gillian Gaar: No. I always, I liked it quite a bit. I do like Brian’s songs, he was the one that was more apt to go into, you know, the realms of fantasy and mythology. That was, well, you saw that in “’39”. And then this similarly is tapping into that.
Brad Page: Yeah, this came From a dream he had, right?
Gillian Gaar: Yeah, yeah, that was the impetus of it. And then he just said it was a very difficult song for him to bring all the different parts together. But, I know he always felt it was overshadowed by “Bohemian Rhapsody”, but I don’t know if it really would have been, say, as successful as “Bohemian Rhapsody” had “Rhapsody” not existed or been on that album.
Brad Page: Right.
Gillian Gaar: I think, because of the length, and then also just the different passages. You had the canon sequence with Freddie’s vocals, but then coming out of that, you have this kind of long rock instrumental section that goes on.
Brad Page: Yeah. “Prophet’s Song”’s not quite as catchy, in terms of… you know, I can’t really picture it ever being a hit on the radio, the way “Bohemian Rhapsody” took off.
Gillian Gaar: Oh, they’d take the middle section out completely. You know they would have done that.
Brad Page: True. Yeah. And if I had one criticism, I think it may go on a little too long.
You’ve got the sound of this wind, which is actually just an air conditioner, like a microphone in front of…
Gillian Gaar: Yes, it was funny.
Brad Page: Right. And this is kind of a kitchen sink thing too, because Brian’s playing a toy koto, which is a Japanese instrument that I think was gifted to him on a Japanese tour.
like a microphone in front of.: Yeah.
Brad Page: You’ve got tape effects in it; there’s one point where they actually, you hear the sound of the tape starting from dead stop. You know, when you turn a tape on, it doesn’t immediately… It’s not like a cassette, you know, these reel to reel tapes, they took a second to ramp up to full speed. And so you’d kind of get that ramp up sound. And they actually used that in here. They edited that in, which is very difficult to do.
Gillian Gaar: Well, especially then you’d have to cut the tape and, you know, like literally tape it back in there. Yeah.
Brad Page: Lterally editing with razor blade and splicer tape. You could not afford to screw up. You really had to know what you were doing or the whole thing would be trashed. Wasn’t for the faint-hearted.
And then you have this beautiful acoustic guitar at the end of it that turns into the next track. Freddie’s piano comes in, and you get the song Love Of My Life, which is one of the most beautiful songs that Freddie ever wrote and ever sang. Let’s talk about that song.
Gillian Gaar: Well, I think it was Brian who said that later on in the ‘80’s, Freddie was somehow a bit insecure about his piano playing. So in the ‘80’s, he didn’t play piano that much on Queen’s records, they’d get other people in to do it. But, here he does, and I think that makes all the difference. And it just shows how artists can be self-conscious about something that to the rest of us sounds perfectly wonderful.
Gillian Gaar: It’s a beautifully performed piano part.
Brad Page: And you see the classical influence. I mean we had, you know, his love of vaudeville in the earlier songs. But now the classical influence comes in to play, very strongly on this number.
Brad Page: Yeah. And he asked Brian to play harp. Brian had to learn how to play the harp.
I think you say in the book Brian basically had to do it like one chord at a time. ause he didn’t know how to play harp.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah. And then he found it would go out of tune pretty frequently. So you’d have to stop and retune it then play the next chord. So yes, he wondered how they managed in symphonies. But, I suppose perhaps in more climate controlled rooms, that’s easier. I have heard that harps can go out of tune very easily.
Brad Page: So yeah, it’s a tricky instrument. The guitar solo: Brian’s guitar work here really feels like what a violin would play; at other points, it feels more like cello. You know, Brian was so great, and we’ll talk about it further on on the record, of just making his guitar… I mean, it always sounds like Brian May’s guitar. That’s the other thing too, is that on one hand, it’s so distinctive. Brian is one of those players where you can hear two or three notes of a Brian May guitar part and say “That’s Brian May”. And at the same time, he can become other instruments, like violins and cellos, and play those parts. What a brilliant player.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah. I think he’s underrated in a lot of ways. Perhaps people remember the big guitar riffs, the signature guitar riffs, something like “Tie Your Mother Down”. But he was just very inventive and very expressive. I mean, think about “Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon”. You know, his little guitar part at the end there, which is just so fun, and it’s probably only 10 seconds or 20 seconds. I think people overlook that side of his skills.
Brad Page: Yeah. Just incredibly versatile as a player and yet always sounding like Brian May.
It’s an amazing track. It’s one of their greatest ballads, if not their best ballad.
Gillian Gaar: Yes, it probably is the best ballad. Freddie’s best ballad. Yeah, certainly.
Brad Page: And one of the things that I love about this song, and just in general sort of fascinates me about music and songs in general, is that they would play this song live– and it would be a big part of their live set– but it became something else. They would do it acoustically, basically just Brian, I think, maybe John playing bass, and Freddie singing, but the audience would sing with him. The song kind of became this whole other thing.
It’s like this heartbreaking kind of lonely song on the album…
Gillian Gaar: Yes.
Brad Page: …but when they brought it live, you would get this 10,000, 20,000 people singing it, and it becomes something else.
Brad Page: How this song of one man’s broken heart kind of became almost an anthem in a way. And sung by 20,000 people, all kind of sharing the same feeling. It’s just, it’s just great. And to me, that’s a sign of a great song; it can withstand being taken apart and performed in different ways, but still always works.
Gillian Gaar: Mhm.
Brad Page: That’s followed by another Brian May song. Another song that he takes the lead vocal on, a song called “Good Company”.
Brad Page: That’s another favorite.
Brad Page: Yeah, he plays ukulele on it, as well as taking the vocal. He turns his guitar into an entire brass band.
Gillian Gaar: I know, it was remarkable. And just talking about creating the horn parts by recording them one note at a time. So, it was just an incredible amount of effort that he put into just getting it just right. That was typical of his meticulous approach to his music like that.
Brad Page: Just incredible amount of work for, again, it’s probably 30 seconds worth of music, but it probably took weeks of work.
Gillian Gaar: Mhm.
Brad Page: There’s one interesting thing in this song where lyrically he rhymes the line “My very good friends and me” with “The girl from Number Four”, which doesn’t even rhyme, right? You’d think it’d be “The girl from Number Three”.
Gillian Gaar: Number three, but you’re right.
Brad Page: It’s got to be an intentional, like, well, “I’m not going to go where you think I’m go going to go. You think I’m going to say three, I’m saying four”.
I love the way at the end of this song there’s this guitar trill that’s kind of an unresolved thing.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah, it’s like this minor discord and it gives you a little, it kind of leaves the song hanging, sort of a bittersweet note.
Brad Page: But that also takes you into “Bohemian Rhapsody” and the a capella intro of that. Just the way that flows is really interesting.
Brad Page: So then, of course, that leads us to the last track on the album, Freddie’s masterpiece. I mean, I don’t know what more we could say about the song that hasn’t been said a million times by other people, but it is a tour de force. I mean, it’s iconic. It’s hard to think of any song more iconic. There are songs as iconic, but I don’t know if there are any that are more iconic than “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
Gillian Gaar: You know, we’ve been talking about the different styles on the album, and this has all those different styles in one song.
Brad Page: Yeah, yeah, exactly. You’ve got just every element that makes Queen great; that they’re able to do all these different things, and do them masterfully. And it’s all crammed into this one song.
I love the little touches, like after he sings “Shiver down my spine”, you get that kind of metallic clanging, which is actually Brian hitting the strings behind the bridge on his guitar.
And you’ve got that big gong at the end of it.
Gillian Gaar: Yes. It really was remarkable. And to think of that being played on the radio. I don’t know that a track like that could get played on the radio these days, or would get played, rather.
Brad Page: Right. This song is sui generis, to use a big word. You can’t think of anything like, “Oh, well, that’s just like this other song”.
It’s hard to come to a song like this and hear it fresh. Sometimes you have to kind of force yourself to just to flush it out and try to hear it as it sounded in 1975 and what, like, a shock it was.
Gillian Gaar: Yeah. Uh, people say the same thing about “Stairway to Heaven”, too. Just overplayed. And perhaps you could say that about “Hey Jude”, the Beatles song. So much out there. But younger people, though, who maybe haven’t had all that exposure, as much exposure to it in things like commercials; maybe, you know, each generation comes to it with fresh ears, one can think. You know, I find you have to sort of step back sometimes, and not play that favorite album for a while, and then listen to it again, and you can revisit how great you thought it was.
Brad Page: Yeah, sometimes you just, “Wow, that really is great. I forgot how great that song was”, you know?
And then the album closes on “God Save the Queen”.
Gillian Gaar: I think it sort of underscores the idea that you could see the album as a theatrical presentation.
Brad Page: Mhm.
Gillian Gaar: I mean, the cover kind of suggests a theatrical program that you might get when you were seeing a show.
Brad Page: Yeah– Let’s talk a little bit about the album art. For Queen, it’s kind of an understated cover, I mean, considering how big and flamboyant they could be. It’s basically just very white with some bright colors. And that Queen coat of arms on the front, that Queen logo on the front kind of represents each of the four members of the band, right?
Gillian Gaar: Yes. That was designed by Freddie based on their astrological signs. Remember, astrology being such a popular thing then.
Brad Page: And I think you said it kind of feels almost like a theater program or an opera program, kind of the way it’s laid out. It’s very elegant, which befits the title of the record.
Gillian Gaar: Yes, that too. And then, on the inside; it’s a gatefold, having the lyrics and the portraits of the band members, they look like headshots– always made me think of headshots, the kind of things that actors and performers would use to pass out to agents and so on.
Brad Page: It’s just a very complimentary album design to go with this record, and the music that’s contained within. I really love the whole package of it.
So the album comes out in November 1975.What happens?
Gillian Gaar: You know, if you look at the reviews at the time… I mean, there are some raves, but there are also some, they did get some mixed reviews as well. Just because it was so elaborate and so many different styles, and people were sort of not sure how to take this. But certainly the sales came out strong, and soon they had a number one album & single, right away in England; I don’t think either of those got to a number one in America, interestingly. But yeah, certainly in England. And it broke through, gave them their number ones and around the world it certainly performed strong, got in the top 10. It was the breakthrough they had wanted and waited for, and worked so hard for.
Brad Page: Yeah, no doubt. This is the record that really brought them to that higher level, that broke them, made them legends and again, when I think of the great records, the great albums, this is absolutely one that’s always up there for me. I just think it’s an incredible record.
By the time this episode airs, the book will be out April 1st. I encourage anyone who’s listened to the show that’s a Queen fan of any measure– Go pick it up. It’s great. It’s just a great fun read and it’s a beautiful package. Jillian, they really did a wonderful job putting the book together. It looks great. Packaging is great. It looks beautiful on your bookshelf.
Gillian Gaar: It’s got a golden spine, folks. It’s in a slip case and it has a lovely golden spine.
Brad Page: Yeah, it’s befitting a band as elegant as Queen, for sure. You can find it on Amazon, but of course, if you can get it from your local bookshop, please do. Wherever you get it, get it. You won’t be disappointed.
I love the book, I love the album and I love the chance to talk to you about both the book and the album. So, thanks so much for coming on the show. I really, really appreciate it.
Brad Page: Well, you’re welcome. I had a great time.
Brad Page: Thanks, Gillian.
The book is called “Queen and A Night At The Opera” 50 Years” by Jillian G. Gaar. It’s a must-have for Queen fans.
One of my favorite places to order books from is bookshop.org. When you order from them, you’re actually supporting your local bookstore, so it’s always a great place to get any book. Look, I’m not making any money from this… I’m not getting a kickback, I’m not sponsored by any of this. I just genuinely enjoyed Gillian’s book and I think you will, too.
I’ll be back here in two weeks, digging deeper into “Death On Two Legs”. So I will see you then. Until then, take care of those you call your own and keep good company.
"747 (Strangers In The Night)" (Words & Music by Byford, Quinn, Oliver Dawson, Gill) Copyright 1980 Carrere Music/Heath Levy Music Co. Ltd. - 2009 Union Square Music Limited, a BMG Company
Saxon came out of England in the 1970’s and quickly established themselves as one of the leading lights of the “New Wave Of British Heavy Metal” (NWOBHM). Their 2nd album, Wheels Of Steel, is considered one of the classic Metal albums. On this episode, we dive into “747 (Strangers In The Night)“, one of the hits from this album and remains a concert favorite at any Saxon show.
“747 (Strangers In The Night)” (Words & Music by Byford, Quinn, Oliver Dawson, Gill) Copyright 1980 Carrere Music/Heath Levy Music Co. Ltd. – 2009 Union Square Music Limited, a BMG Company
— Is Rock dead? Of course not! And there’s plenty of podcasts on the Pantheon Network to prove it!
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back, true believers, to the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast. I’m the host of the show, Brad Page, coming to you on the Pantheon Podcast Network. Each episode of this show, I pick a favorite song to dig into, as we continue our exploration to uncover what makes great songs work. No knowledge of music theory or technical jargon is necessary here. We’re just going to use our ears to listen and see what we discover.
This episode, we’re going back to 1979 to take a look at the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and a song by one of the bands at the forefront of that scene. This is Saxon with a song called “747 (Strangers In The Night)”.
We haven’t touched on the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal on this show before. So before we get into the song, let’s talk about that. If you’re not familiar with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, or as its often abbreviated in print, NWOBHM or “Newabum”– which I find either of those pretty awkward, so I’m just going to keep calling it the “New Wave Of British Heavy Metal”.
This was a scene that began in the mid-seventies in England, and by the early eighties it broke big around the world, with bands like Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest. The scene really developed in parallel with punk, but it was its own separate thing.
This is, of course, a gross generalization. Like any scene, there’s a lot of complexity when you dig into it. But one of the things that distinguished the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal was that they took the core sounds of hard rock and early metal bands like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, and they injected it with some of the energy of punk. It was faster, more aggressive. Again, I’m giving a surface level overview here, but I think you get the idea. The term New Wave Of British Heavy Metal was coined by Jeff Barton, a writer for Sounds magazine, in 1979. There were literally hundreds of bands that came out of that scene, everything from Motorhead and Venom to Girlschool and the Tigers of Pantang. But one of the most successful and long lasting was a band called Saxon.
Though they never cracked the big time in the US, Saxon were huge in England, Europe and Japan. They had eight albums in the UK. Top 44 of them that reached the Top 10, and they’re still making records in touring today.
Saxon came together around 1975, after two separate bands disintegrated. The remaining members merged into a new band they initially called Son of a Bitch. They were negotiating a deal with a French record label, but the label insisted that they change their name to something a little more commercially acceptable. So Saxon was born in July 1978.
Their first album, titled Saxon, was released in 1979. Their second album, “Wheels of Steel”, was released in 1980. It hit number five on the UK chart and generated two hits for them, the title cut, “Wheels of Steel” and “747 (Strangers In The Night)”.
The lineup of this album was Graham Oliver and Paul Quinn on guitars, Steve Dawson on bass, Pete Gill on drums, and Peter “Biff” Byford on vocals. All five band members share writing credit, and the song was produced by Saxon and Pete Hinton.
Biff Byford was watching a BBC documentary about the great northeast blackout that happened in America on November 9, 1965. That started when a 230-kilovolt transmission line in Ontario, Canada, failed, which then caused other lines to go down, eventually bringing down the entire northeastern transmission network. It plunged eastern Canada, parts of seven US states and all of New York, including New York City, into darkness. People were trapped in subways and elevators, supposedly even the airport runway lights went down.
This inspired Biff to write the song. That image of planes coming in to land and the airport lights suddenly go out, the planes forced to divert or circle going nowhere. The song begins with one of the classic metal guitar riffs, with a great guitar solo played over the top.
Let’s check out the guitars here. Just classic heavy guitar tones across the board. Pretty straightforward recording, too. Just a little bit of reverb on the rhythm guitar and some echo on the lead guitar. One is panned left and one is on the right, though there is some crossover on each channel. I believe that’s Graham Oliver on the guitar on the left and Paul Quinn on the solo on the right.
The band breaks here, letting that rhythm guitar come to the front, really establishing that riff before the vocals come in for the first verse. You can really hear that reverb on the guitar during the break.
Biff sings those first two lines solo and then overdubs a harmony with himself on the next two lines. But on the next part of the verse, he sings three lines solo and only harmonizes on the last line.
And that lands us at the first chorus. This is the part of the song that Biff Byford wrote first. He liked the idea of strangers meeting in the night during the blackout. There’s always been a legend that nine months after the blackout, there was a baby boom. I don’t think there’s any evidence to really prove that, but hey, makes for a great punchline to the story. And Biff was tapping into that.
Second verse. Biff mentions a plane, Scandinavian 101, in this verse, based on a real flight involved in the 1965 blackout. The actual plane was Scandinavian Airlines flight 911. The pilot had his eye on the airport landing lights, but when he glanced down at his controls and looked back up, the lights were gone. Dangerously low on fuel, the plane was lucky to make it. Some planes were able to land thanks to a full moon that just happened to be that night. Bits of all of this make it into the song.
Let’s listen to what’s going on musically during the chorus. The two guitars, again panned left and right, are playing the same arpeggio throughout the whole chorus.
But the bass is playing a descending pattern, going lower every four beats. Now, let’s hear that all together, and then we’ll bring the vocals back in.
Here comes another guitar solo. This time it’s Graham Oliver who gets the spotlight. He’s the guy panned to the left. It’s another great solo.
Third and final verse. We’ll focus in on some of Biff Byford’s vocals here.
The Band UFO released an album called “Strangers In The Night” in 1979, a full year before Saxon recorded this album, but I haven’t seen any evidence that Biff Byford was influenced by that title. Biff has said that he probably got the idea from Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers In The Night”. Biff’s actually a Sinatra fan. They return to the Riff here one more time and we get some jet engine sound effects.
One interesting thing is that on the verses, Biff overdubs harmonies with himself, but on the choruses, he doubles the vocal– but it’s not a harmony. He sings them in unison. Both parts are the same.
That’s a nice big raise of the vocal there. And with that, they’ll play out the fade with one final guitar solo from Paul Quinn.
Saxon – “747 (Strangers In The Night)”
I don’t claim to be the biggest metal fan, but there’s a lot that I do like, and I’ve always had a soft spot for Saxon. I first saw them open for Rush in September 1980, if I remember correctly, and they rocked. Biff was every bit the rock star, and Paul Quinn was almost an anti-rock star. He had kind of an Angus Young thing going on; he wore a little cap, probably to hide his balding head (which I can relate to), and he spun his guitar around on his chest. I saw him do that long before I ever saw ZZ Top do it. The whole Band was great.
Thanks for listening to the show. New episodes of the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast are released on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so we’ll be back here soon. If you’d like to dig into our previous episodes, you’ll find them on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com or look for us in your favorite podcast app. We’re on Apple and Google and Amazon and Spotify and Pandora and every place that you can think of. So you got no excuse for not joining in on the fun.
Which reminds me, don’t forget to follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. If you’re inclined to support the show, well, you don’t have to spend any money, just leave us a good review and tell a friend about the show. Your recommendation is our best advertising.
I’ll see you next time here on the Pantheon Podcast network. Thanks for being a part of this show on “747 (Strangers In The Night)” by Saxon.
REFERENCES:
Saxon https://www.saxon747.com/
Wheels of Steel album https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheels_of_Steel
Motorhead https://imotorhead.com/
Venom https://www.venomslegions.com/
Girlschool https://www.girlschool.co.uk/
Tygers of Pan Tang https://www.tygersofpantang.com/
Jeff Barton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Barton
by Robin Trower - Copyright 1974 Chrysalis Music Ltd
On this episode, we fix our gaze on guitarist Robin Trower. Though he’s not a household name today, he continues to be held in high regard by guitar aficionados. His time with Procol Harum and the formation of his own power trio laid the foundation for a sound that would captivate audiences and inspire countless guitarists. From Trower’s use of the middle pickup on his Fender Stratocaster to the swirling effects of the Univibe pedal, we explore the sonic artistry behind “Day of the Eagle“, and the power of music across decades… from the days when guitars ruled the airwaves and heroes were measured by bend of a string.
“Day Of The Eagle” – Robin Trower Copyright 1974 Chrysalis Music Ltd
TRANSCRIPT:
Greetings, fellow travelers, on the road from yesterday to today… you’ve crossed the bridge into the Pantheon Podcast Network, and your path has brought you here to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. My name is Brad Page, and each edition of this show, I rummage through my music library and pick one of my favorite songs, and we explore it together. Not in a technical way– we don’t get into music theory here, we’re just listening in a way to uncover those little nuances, those magical moments that make it a great song.
The history of modern music, especially rock music, is replete with brilliant guitar players. So many great guitar players. We’ve celebrated some of them here. From the earliest sounds of rock and roll, the guitar– and the men and women who wielded them– demanded attention, playing louder, faster, pushing the boundaries of creativity and sonic exploration. Even today, when the guitar is not the ever-present driving force of the music business the way it used to be, there are still plenty of players making an exquisite racket with this infernal instrument.
In some ways, guitar heroes were a dime a dozen. There’s never been a shortage of guitar players. Even now, many of the greats are still celebrated today, but many more are overlooked or just plain forgotten. Well, on this episode, we’re going to shine a light on a player who was one of the biggest guitarists of the 1970’s. He’s not a household name now, but guitarists still hold him in high regard. This is Robin Trower with a song called “Day Of The Eagle”.
Robin Trower was born in March 1945. He was born in London, but during his childhood his family lived in Canada and New Zealand before moving back to London when he was about eight years old. In his teens, he started playing guitar, largely influenced by Cliff Gallup, Steve Cropper, and BB King. He formed the Paramounts with some friends, including keyboard player and vocalist Gary Brooker. They mostly played R&B covers and had a minor hit with their cover of “Poison Ivy”.
The Paramounts eventually split and Brooker went on to form Procol Harum, who had a big hit with “A Whiter Shade of Pale” in 1967. When their guitarist Ray Royer left, they asked Robin Trower to join.
Robin played with them from 1967 to 1971, appearing on their first five albums, though he’s not on “Whiter Shade of Pale”, because that was recorded before he joined. But by 1971, Trower was looking to move on. He was writing more of his own songs, and Procol Harum was dominated by the songwriting of Brooker, Keith Reed and Matthew Fisher. There just wasn’t room for Robin Trower’s songs. Also, Procol Harum was a keyboard-based band, and Robin was itching to play more guitar music.
So he left Procol Harum and put together a band named Jude, a four piece featuring Frankie Miller on vocals, ex-Jethro Tull, drummer Clive Bunker, and James Dewar, who had been playing with Stone The Crows, on bass. But this lineup didn’t work out, and it fell apart before they ever recorded anything.
So, Trower decided to form a power trio, following the example of bands like Cream. Besides playing bass, James Dewar was an excellent vocalist in the Jack Bruce mold, so he took over lead vocals, and they brought in Reg Isidore on drums. The trio of Trower, Dewar and Isidore released their first album, “Twice Removed From Yesterday”, in March 1973.
By this time, Robin was very inspired by Jimi Hendrix, as you can certainly hear on that track. The Hendrix influence is probably most direct on this first Robin Trower album, but the general Hendrix style would remain a part of Trower’s sound.
The band returned to the studio in late 1973 to record new material, which would become their second album, “Bridge of Sighs”, the album that many would consider their peak. It would be their commercial breakthrough, and is still Robin Trower’s most popular album today.
The album was produced by Matthew Fisher, Robin’s old buddy from Procol Harum, and it was engineered by Geoff Emerick, the legendary engineer who worked with the Beatles among many, many others, and is really the one responsible for the incredible sound of this album.
“Day Of The Eagle” is the song that opens the album. Side one, track one. It was written by Robin Trower and performed by Trower on guitar, James Dewar on vocals and bass, and Reg Isidore on drums. The basic tracks were recorded live in the studio. Rhythm guitar, bass, and drums. They nailed it in about two or three takes. The lead vocals and lead guitar were overdubbed shortly after.
The song begins with a heavy guitar riff, accented by the snare drum. Then the bass joins in for the second half of the riff. Let’s hear just the bass and drums there.
Let’s talk about Robin Trower’s guitar sound. He’s using two Marshall 100-watt amp heads with two 4×12 speaker cabs. He’s playing a Fender Stratocaster. It’s just a stock Fender Strat, but one of the unique things about Robin is that he favors the middle pickup. Most guitarists don’t really use the middle pickup much at all, but Robin prefers it, and that does contribute to his sound.
Another highly identifiable thing about Robin’s sound is the use of a Univibe pedal. It creates that swirling, fluid sound, and he uses that a lot on this track. He’s also using a homemade booster pedal, which allows him to drive the amplifier that much harder. There’s no distortion pedal or fuzz box in use here, just the amps cranked up and that boost pedal pushing the sound into overdrive.
Here’s the first verse. James Dewar on vocals.
Let’s back it up and listen to those vocals.
“I’m living in the “Day Of The Eagle” not the dove”. That’s pretty much the chorus. They return to the riff and then the second verse. Let’s pick it up from here.
I Love the way Robin bends those notes there. It’s like he just twists them. We’ll go back just before the second verse.
Back to the riff and then the guitar solo. Very interesting tone for this guitar solo. It’s very mid rangy, a honky, nasal tone. Not a very appealing tone all on its own, but I bet it was chosen for the way it lets the solo sit in the mix. It stands out in contrasts from the other guitar parts.
These tones all start with microphone placement. Jeff Emerick used three mics on the guitar amps: one close up to the speakers, one mic about 15ft away, and a third microphone in between, and he could choose and blend together all three of those microphones. I’d bet that the rhythm guitar is primarily the close microphone, whereas the guitar solo is mostly a blend of the two further away mics. Let’s push the vocals back up again for this last verse.
And now they’re gonna slow it down and change the whole feel of the song.
Let’s hear just the bass and drums for a little bit, and then we’ll bring the guitar back up.
You can hear that they’ve overdubbed an overdriven distorted guitar that takes over the solo here, while the cleaner guitar plays sparingly and quietly in the background.
Robin Trower “Day Of The Eagle”
The “Bridge Of Sighs” album was the record that gave Trower his big break, though he would always be more popular in the US than in his home country of England. Reg Isidore would leave after this album, replaced by drummer Bill Lorden, but James Dewar would stick around for a whole bunch of records: “For Earth Below”, “Long Misty Days”, “In City Dreams”, “Caravan To Midnight”, “Victims Of The Fury”. These were all good records– and great album titles too– though his profile diminished as tastes and trends changed in the eighties.
Record labels and bandmates would come and go, but Robin Trower has released new albums consistently in every decade, a solo career lasting over 50 years.
Reg Isidore passed away in March 2009 – heart attack. James Dewar suffered from a debilitating condition that caused him to have multiple strokes, eventually succumbing in May 2002. But at the time of this recording, Robin Trower is 80 years old, still with us and still playing.
I hope you enjoyed this journey across the Bridge of Sighs into the “Day Of The Eagle”. New episodes of this podcast come out on the first and the 15th of every single month, so I’ll be back here poking your eardrums again soon. You can catch up on any episodes that you missed on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or of course, you can find us in pretty much every podcast player, so wherever you like to listen to your podcast, I’m sure you’ll find us there. And while you’re there, leave a review of the show, and if you’d like to send me a comment, you can do it on our Facebook page or send an email to lovethatsongpodcastmail.com.
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On behalf of everyone here at the Pantheon Podcast Network, I thank you for listening. Now it’s time to crank up your turntable, CD player or the mp3 files– however you prefer to listen, and blast out “Day Of The Eagle” by Robin Trower.
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