1974 started with the release of one of the finest singer/songwriter albums of the 1970s, Joni Mitchell’s melodically and harmonically sophisticated, partly jazz-influenced, Court and Spark, an album that ended up in the record collection of most of the young ladies I knew in the 1970s, and deservedly so. As a music lover, it is the quality and distinctiveness of her music that wins me over, and how her music not only supports her nicely crafted set of meaningful lyrics but weaves and seeps into their essence. Ensuring that Mitchell’s vision is fully and artfully realized, and is a masterfully finished product, Tom Scott provides beautiful, engaging orchestral arrangements for some of the tracks and he and other musicians provide remarkable complementary contributions to fully complete Mitchell’s masterpiece. Every track Joni Mitchell has composed is a classic, and she ends the album with “Twisted”, AnnieRoss’s (of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross) clever overlaying of lyrics to Wardell’s Gray’s November 1949 recording of his instrumental composition “Twisted” with its masterful tenor saxophone solo, an appropriate way to end an album which owes part of its magic to Mitchell’s adept incorporation of jazz influences.
Harmonia: Musik von Harmonia
Released in January 1974, Harmonia’s debut album, “Musik von Harmonia” is, in my mind, the debut of German electronic cosmic space music. Many albums released before this have been classified into that umbrella term “Krautrock”, but for that specific flavor of German repetitive, sequence-driven, minimalist-inspired, partly ambient, but mostly hypnotic music that Tangerine Dream perfected and first showcased in their February 1974 release, Phaedra, and which Kraftwerk would popularize later in 1974 with their relatively more pop-oriented Autobahn album, it is this album that provided the prog world its first taste — the amuse-bouche for what is to shortly follow.
Musik von Harmonia is a collaborative masterpiece, uniting the talents of Michael Rother, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Dieter Moebius, all of whom were already renowned for their contributions to the German/Swiss avant-garde “rock” music scene. Together, they craft an auditory experience that well exceeds the existing conventional boundaries and expectations of pop music or of the contemporary progressive rock of the time. It works wonderfully as ambient, background music to read or do repetitive tasks during its forty-two minutes of mechanical-like mysteriousness, but it is even better for concentrated listening, as one allows oneself to get pulled into the funneling, black-hole sonics of this trio’s relentless and imaginative industrial-electronic soundscape.
Carly Simon: Hotcakes; Graham Nash: Wild Tales
Released in January 1974, both these albums deserve mention for how they are successfully stamped with the creative musical style of their respective artists. My favorite track on Hotcakes is “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain” written while Simon was with child. While there is no one track that stands out on the Nash album, it bubbles with his captivating, pop-flavored, often country-music tinged musical style. As a bonus we have appearances by David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, David Mason and a hint of Joni Mitchell’s vocals.
Released on December 7, 1973, Yes’s sixth studio album, is a double LP set containing a single work composed of four sections inspired by a footnote in Paramahansa Yogananda‘s autobiography which discusses the classification content of Hindi scriptural writings into four categories of shastras: śruti, smriti, puranas, and tantras — or four bodies of knowledge. The album devotes a whole side of each LP to four concepts: 1) The knowledge of God and available truth, 2) Our comprehensive memories, feelings and thoughts — the Topographic Oceans of awareness and being, 3) Ancient, lost knowledge and culture, and 4) The Ritual of Life. The lyrics of the album, perhaps are worthy of study or further understanding, but I accept the words as being beyond my initial or even my likely eventual comprehension, and I am content to value them for their sound characteristics and overall contributions to the musical whole of the album.
That musical whole, is more arguably worthy of study, and provides a wealth of pure auditory enjoyment, and even though there is a fair share of meandering and excessive repetition, and though Bill Bruford has left to join KingCrimson, and Rick Whiteman, contributing to his final Yes album, has less of a compositional and performing role than ideal, there is much to like in the many individual musical episodes and the overall impact of the work. Howe’s guitar work is exceptional, and Wakeman, Alan White and Chris Squire provide an exceptional musical foundation for this immense, though somewhat imbalanced and imperfect, ambitious effort. The production quality is amazing, another fine effort by Eddy Offord, and the sonic brilliancy of the album is a major component of its enduring appeal.
Joe Pass: Virtuoso
Recorded in August of 1973 and released December of that year, Joe Pass’s Virtuoso is one of the best musical treatises on the electric guitar. Pass performs without any supporting musicians, deftly executing one jazz standard after another — as well as performing one original work as if exquisitely improvised on the spot. Providing intimacy and depth for each solo, Pass’s overall musical and technical approach set him apart from even his most notable contemporaries Most importantly, each track is similar to a short story or multi-page poem, with a distinct narrative identity and all the elements that make up a good theatrical piece. Pass’s handling of time is particularly remarkable as he goes beyond the use of traditional rubato into the realms of an elastic stretching of the tempo and beat, further contributing to the sense of someone spinning a good folktale or an off-the-cuff story. For example, on “My Old Flame” it is as if Pass is reflecting leisurely, over shared afternoon coffee or tea, on a past relationship — and ultimately going beyond simple musings by delivering a clear sense of some unspoken message or moral. The recording is amazing, allowing clarity of each individual note and the accompanying acoustics of the guitar and room to be radiantly presented. A must album for anyone that has even a borderline fondness for guitar.
Gong: Angels Egg
Released in early December of 1973, Angels Egg (no apostrophe in the title) is Gong’s fourth studio album and the second in the Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy, continuing the narrative of the earlier Flying Teapot and adventuring into even greater musical exploration, spiced with an appealing (French and British mix of) whimsy and eccentricity. The album is cosmic and sometimes just plain fun, and shifts moods (as well as rhythms and textures) wildly, unpredictably, yet sensibly and coherently, covering the mundane and the galactic, the profound and the profane, and all with elite, unique musicianship.
After the musically masterful Aqualung and the impeccably crafted and executed Thick as a Brick, there were many of us in 1973 that had very high expectations for Tull’s next release. Those preceding albums had been released in March of 1971 and 1972, respectively, and it wasn’t until July of 1973 that the next studio album saw the light of day. Once it hit the record stores, my next-door neighbor brought it over to be played on the better stereo at my house and give me the opportunity to record on reel-to-reel, which I set at 7 1/2 inches per second, a speed I reserved (since I had limited funds to purchase recording tape) for recording the best albums.
The album starts out with a mysterious, dramatic opening: a heart beat, the wind, and a hint of the recurring musical theme with additional components eventually including a repeated organ pattern accented with drums, then a musical opening as energetic, upbeat, lively, and captivating as the material on Thick as A Brick — initially unfolding as organically as any prog-rock album up to that time. Vocals are added and the main theme is introduced, and this is followed by a wonderful shifting-meter section that includes soprano saxophone. The theme returns, followed by another strong instrumental section with acoustic guitar and soprano or sopranino sax, and all is well approaching the end of side one. Yes, one could argue that there is excessive musical repetition, however that is easily absorbed in any initial listening just as it was easily absorbed during that initial listening back in 1973. So all was great back then, until the last few minutes of side one, with the inclusion of the seemingly irrelevant, textually and musically, “Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles”, which sounds like an aggressively-abbreviated and vastly inferior nod to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. Oddly this section could have been placed entirely at the end of side one or two, but was divided, Solomon-like, so it marred both the end of the first side and opening of the second side. Thankfully, this diversion only lasts for less than 4 1/2 minutes, but it irrecoverably breaks any momentum and continuity. The second side includes much good material, but even with the forced inclusion of the “Passion Play theme” most notably as a coda to finalize the album, much of the music sounds unrelated to anything from the first side.
How then to critique something that really outshown 98% or more of the music being released at that time, yet it could not meet the standard for musical cohesiveness set by a few exceptionally rare cases, such as Yes’s Fragile, or Jethro Tull’s own Aqualung or Thick as a Brick? Well, for what it’s worth, back in 1973, the two of us, my next-door neighbor friend and I, as teenage listeners, him 19 and I recently 18, our expectations, primed by the two exceptionally strong previous two albums, ended up disappointed. That did not inhibit my immersing myself in multiple replays, on headphones, mostly, of the Passion Play LP content I had recorded on reel-to-reel. I found much to like, and enjoy, but ultimately rarely played the album after the initial week of repeated listening. The album was panned by the senior rock critic of the L.A. Times, whose name I will just as soon not mention — enough just to say that he generally panned all prog-rock, focusing on his perceived excellence of groups like the New York Dolls, whose first album was released also in July of 1973.
Years later, with informed by the wealth of information on the internet, and in preparation to hearing this album again prior to writing this month’s entry in the zumpoem’s blog, I learned that the initial material intended for the new album started as a set of individual songs, even though Ian Anderson’s and the band’s intent was to create something much like the previous Thick as a Brick but done seriously without the intentional irony. The material as it was created and worked out, seemed to have a common theme around how different animals could be related to human behavior, but due to the material ultimately not convincingly coalescing into a final product, perhaps partly due to challenges with food-based illness for some members of the band at the recording venue, the Château d’Hérouville recording studio about 21 miles north north-northeast of central Paris, the material was essentially shelved with only a small portion being leveraged when the band resumed their work in the UK at Morgan Studios, with a general agreement to start anew. Due to upcoming tour dates, the band was left with little time, with that limited time forcing them to work intensely, putting in long hours at the studio, sometimes late into the night. Ian Anderson later expressed his dislike around the mechanics of the sax, an instrument he used generously on the album, and mentioned the awkwardness of dealing with reeds, which became soggy and chaffed his lips, as well as his lack of training, practice, and lack of affinity for the instrument.
Seems to me that it was a combination of circumstances that collectively insured that A Passion Play fell short of the quality established by Thick as a Brick, quite a high bar for any group to expect to clear twice in succession. Fortunately for us, the material from that French chateau recordings was partly or even mostly preserved and made available to us on the first CD of the 1993 Nightcap album and on the 2014 Steven Wilson’s 2 CD remix of A Passion Play with the second disc containing these Château d’Hérouville tracks. It is understandable why the band hit an impasse with the original material, or fell slightly short in their rushed second attempt, yet included in A Passion Play is some exceptionally good music. It makes one wonder whether if the band had had some additional time and had deviated from the common prog-rock approach of creating an album by a generally accretive compositional approach but instead had pruned and sculpted the sum of all the material created in the two studios between the end of 1972 and early 1973 into a single LP, the result might have been the finest Jethro Tull album ever. This was not meant to be, but at least what we have with A Passion Play is an album containing mostly exciting and satisfying musical material, that, though not setting any standards for musical cohesiveness, is incredibly enjoyable and withstands repeated listening and the test of time.
Released sometime in July 1973, Steely Dan’s follows up their excellent first album with an equally strong second album — this time with all lead vocals handled by Donald Fagan. Some of the songs, such as “Bodhisattva”, a simple blues-progression, rock and roll tune, take on special life through the selective use of substitution chords and imaginative, quality soloing, while some other songs work well by seamlessly combining great music with inventive, imaginative, or memorable lyrics. My favorite is the final track, “King of the World”, which I first heard, for the first, second, third, fourth time, and perhaps fifth time at the 1974 California Jam, from a lengthy mixtape played from the very latest hours of the evening prior to the concert (many of us arrived the night before to get a seat close to the front) until well into the next morning, a few minutes before the start of the first act. Wowed by both music and lyrics, as well as the wonderful, straightforward synth solo, this song has had a place in my heart ever since. The lyrics, how they unfold, portray and characterize the persona, in this case the individual reaching out on the ham radio, and the economy of word usage and choice, are well-suited for study by any beginning lyricist. Of course, the album itself should be of interest to any music lover.
Genesis: Genesis Live
Released in the UK on July 20, 1973, this historically important album contains some of the material recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour in February 1973. Genesis’s record label, Charisma, advised the band it was in everyone’s interest to release this material prior on a budget album that could readily be sold at local stores like Woolworths and bookseller/music retailer WH Smith. This was agreed on by the band providing the album was not released in the US, due to concerns from Peter Gabriel over the quality of the recordings. Soon after Selling England by the Pound was released in the US, the Genesis Live album showed up as a low priced album ($2.99) in our local record stores, and so I eagerly purchased a copy.
Maybe the recording quality wasn’t up to the standards wished for by Gabriel, but it provides a great document of a amazingly proficient and creative group capturing them at their artistic best. The material was remastered in 1994, but doesn’t contain “Supper’s Ready”, also captured as part of the 1973 recordings — however, this was eventually released in 2009 as a bonus track on the Live at the Rainbow, . What this live album does include is amazing, particularly this 1973 live version of “The Return of the Giant Hogweed” with its baroque-like counterpoint, creative handling of meter and harmonic progressions, and concert-hall demands on the performers.
Queen: Queen
Released on July 13, 1973 in the UK and in early September in the U.S., this was an album I bought after getting all the earlier Queen albums soon after hearing tracks from Queen’s third album, Killer Queen and the just released fourth album, Night At the Opera from a cassette played in the car stereo of the friends of my good friend from next door. As I bought albums in reverse order until I got to the first Queen album, I was able to get a sense of how the group progressed and was pleasantly surprised how good that first album was. Of course, I later learned that the group really had been together since 1970, giving them ample time crafting and improving that material for that first album.
What makes the album immediately appealing is the effortless blend of hard rock, prog rock, and prog-folk elements, the vocal harmonies, the dramatic expressiveness, May’s distinctive guitar, and Mercury’s quality vocals. From the first track, already branded indelibly with Queen’s signature sound, to the short instrumental that ends the album, the album has enough of the later Queen energy and cleverness to make it mandatory listening for those of us that love the creativity and musical singularities of this group.
I usually don’t mention live albums, but Yessongs is an important exception due to its effectiveness in capturing the live side of Yes while in their prime. Better sonically than most live albums of the early seventies, Yessongs permanently documents, for existing and future music lovers, the band’s interplay and improvisation and how they made their music come to life on stage.
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Released at the end of May 1973, over two and a half years after the impressive All Things Must Pass, it is evident that quality was much more important to George Harrison then quantity of releases. Each track is perfect, with not a weak moment in the entire album, making this one of Harrison’s best albums as well as one of the finest solo albums ever released by any of the Beatles.
Paul Simon: There Goes Rhymin’ Simon
Paul Simon balances commercially attractive material with some real solid compositions on this critically acclaimed album. Though I may skip the very first track or stop the album before I get to the very last track, there is no way I will ever skip hearing Simon’s timeless classic, “American Tune”, which surprisingly gained traction on AM, as the third single of the album — and now listening fifty years later, I do find that I am more accepting of those first two singles, and more appreciative of the other songs on the album, such as “One Man’s Ceiling Is Another Man’s Floor” and “Learn How to Fall”, particularly as I include consideration of lyrics rather than just engaging with the music. I may still prefer Mr. Simon’s work from the Simon and Garfunkel days, but even a finicky musical curmudgeon like myself has to acknowledge the high quality of this album.
Gong: Flying Teapot
Released on May 25, 1973, Gong’s Flying Teapot is one of those rare rock albums that masterfully blends humor, whimsy, and an apparently casual irreverence with disciplined, artful, musical craft — incorporating a range of musical styles in doing so. This is the first of a set of three concept albums about Zero the Hero, the Good Witch Yoni, and the Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong, as indicated on the cover with the alternative title of “Radio Gnome Invisible Part 1.”
Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells
Released on May 25, 1971, this was nineteen-year old Mike Oldfield’s first album, and the reason behind Richard Branford creation of Virgin Music, and the very first album released by that label.
If ever there was a labor of love primarily by one person, this album has to qualify. Oldfield spent countless hours on recording, instrument selection, adjusting musical material, and overdubbing to deliver an album that initially no record company was interested in, ultimately becoming one of the most commercially successful albums in the UK in 1974. Part of the reason for the record’s success was the catchy 15/4 opening minimalistic theme/ostinato which then became inextricably associated with 1973’s highly successful movie the Exorcist after that material was used both in the movie and as part of the closing credits. It’s association with that movie aside, the album is a musical treat from beginning to end, covering a variety and range of sonic territory and musical mood, yet effectively coming together as a single artistic expression and experience.
Earth, Wind & Fire: Head to the Sky
Though Earth, Wind & Fire on Head to Sky, released around May 1973, move away from jazz to a more commercial sound, that sound is solid, keeping elements of jazz, and more heavily incorporating soul, funk, and other R & B elements as well as sitar and Latin elements. The standout track for me, maybe predictably, is their mostly jazz-based take on Brazilian composer, Edu Lobo’s Zanzibar.
Tower of Power: Tower of Power; Carpenters: Now and Then
Additional albums released in May of 1973 include Tower of Power tastefully arranged, self-titled third album, which include the reflective analysis of “What is Hip”, candidly pointing out the ironic pitfalls of being hip for the sake of being hip and the Carpenters’ fifth studio album, with Karen Carpenter’s seemingly effortless, velvety voice, the distinctly recognizable Carpenters’ signature harmonies, and an eighteen-minute, early sixties medley on side two.
For those of us that were wearing out our vinyl copy of Ziggy Stardust, the next David Bowie album couldn’t come soon enough, yet who could have anticipated how different it would be, even taking into account the extreme differences between Hunky Dory and Ziggy? While not surpassing the excellence, quality, or musical appeal of Ziggy, it further supported Melody Makers 1971 characterization of him as “the ultimate pop chameleon.”
Museo Rosenbach: Zarathustra
I wish I could say I obtained this incredible album in 1973. Or even, in 1978, when I scoured the record stores in Italy for progressive rock LPs. Fortunately for all of us, Zarathustra was rescued from relative obscurity in the 1990’s by Italian record collector Giorgio Mangora, who came across a copy of the album and recognized both its quality and historical importance. He began a quest to track down the band members and eventually located lead vocalist Stefano Galifi and drummer, vocalist Giancarlo Golzi. There were two pleasant outcomes that came about from this original search: This talented, creatively-gifted band reunited and began performing again, and Mangora, after several dead-ends, finally succeeded in getting the album reissued in 1999 on the Italian Electromantic Music label. The success of the reissue and interest in the live performances caught the attention of Sony BMG, which reissued a remastered version with additional previously unreleased material around 2006.
Zarathustra is a a concept album with lyrics based on writings of German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Such formidable intellectual material really requires seriously impressive music to be effective, and this is what makes Zarathustra, the album, a memorable work of art, musically as imaginative and as enjoyable as the best of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Van Der Graaf Generator and King Crimson. The use of keyboards, particularly the mellotron, recall early King Crimson and there are stylistic similarities to both King Crimson and VDGG — even similarities to King Crimson and VDGG material not yet released when this Zarathustra was recorded in 1972.
This level of excellence, which seamlessly blends the Italian language, the dramatic vocal delivery and vocal harmonies, the keyboard work and the broad epic essence of the congruently harmonious musical components, make this an album that I unhesitatingly on my Must Listen To Music page and recommend to any music lover with a wide range of musical preferences. The album is available either through various online retail outlets or even on youtube.
Pablo Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973)
The greatest visual artist of the twentieth century wrapped up a lifetime of impressive contributions o April 8, 1973 at the age of 91. Throughout his lifetime, Picasso made an indelible impact on the art world with his innovative techniques, bold use of color, and unparalleled creativity. He was a true pioneer who constantly pushed the boundaries of traditional art forms, and his influence can still be seen in the work of contemporary artists today.
The Picasso Museums in Paris and Barcelona are both have celebratory events this year (see links below.) These two museums offer a comprehensive look at Picasso’s life and work, showcasing his paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and other works, and providing a meaningful glimpse into Mr. Picasso’s personal life with exhibits featuring photographs, letters, and various artifacts that give visitors a deeper understanding of the individual behind the art.
A visit to the Picasso Museums is a unique opportunity to witness the evolution of Picasso’s art over the course of his lifetime. From his early, more traditional works to his later, more abstract pieces, the museums showcase the breadth and depth of Picasso’s creativity. Visitors will also gain insight into the artistic movements that inspired Picasso, such as cubism and surrealism, and see how he incorporated these styles into his own work.
If you’re a fan of art or simply interested in learning more about one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, a visit to the Picasso Museums is a must. It’s an opportunity to see some of the world’s most celebrated art up close and personal, and to gain a deeper appreciation for the creative genius that was Pablo Picasso. So make sure to add the museums to your travel itinerary this year and experience the wonder of Picasso’s art for yourself.
Few progressive rock albums have had such great appeal across a wide section of the music loving public as Dark Side of the Moon, released March 1, 1973. Casual Listeners, Hard Rockers, Stoners, Prog heads, Music Majors, and just about anyone with more than 10 rock albums in their collection, had a decent chance of owning this timeless classic, an album as likely as any other album to be in the collection of anyone from age 17 to 25 during the mid 1970.
Despite a collection of diverse material with varying levels of contribution from each band member, Dark Side of the Moon has a cohesiveness, largely due to Alan Parson’s proficiency and creativity as an engineer. Just as Parsons significantly contributed to the Beatles’ Abbey Road sense of musical unity despite an understandable lack of shared thematic material between tracks, with one exception, the same result is achieved here: an album that holds up nicely as a single work as opposed to a collection of unrelated tracks. If it has been sometime since you have last heard it, get it out, put it on the best equipment possible (don’t just stream it a suboptimal bitrate or listen to it through low quality headphones or speakers) and enjoy one of the great musical works of our time.
King Crimson: Lark’s Tongue in Aspic
Released on March 23, 1973, King Crimson’s fourth album is less accessible than their previous three studio albums, but the level of musicianship and improvisation are better, with the two parts of Lark’s Tongue in Aspic that open and close the album being particularly impressive.
Roxy Music: For Your Pleasure
Before the release of Queen’s first album, or Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, we had this Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure, released on March 23,1973, adventurously combining art rock, glam rock, and a range of experimental sound techniques into a cohesive, very enjoyable and very well executed work of art. Throughout the entirety of the album, Roxy Music’s musicianship is highly focused and expertly executed, serving as an essential component of the band’s overall artistic vision. Phil Manzanera is amazing on guitar, and Andy Mackay sax provide richness and additional depth, with strong compositions, foundational keyboard work and distinct, nuanced and expressive vocals from Bryan Ferry.
Alice Cooper: Billion Dollar Babies
Released on Feb. 25, 1973, Alice Cooper’s sixth studio album is also his finest with an effective mix of hard rock, glam, and non-traditional topics, some of which were competently exploited for Alice Cooper’s live theatrics. Including four singles, the two standout tracks on the album are “Elected” which was released in September of 1972 prior to the Nixon-McGovern election contest and “Billion Dollar Babies”, released several months after the album’s debut and features Donovan providing effective glam-style vocals including Donovan’s falsetto reaching his upper limit.
Tangerine Dream: Atem
Atem, released their fourth album, Atem, in March of 1973, one of the most impressive works of electronic music, providing a more interesting and substantial listening experience than most of the works by the academic-based classical composers who had been creating electronic sound compositions since the publishing of Luigi Russolo‘s “Art of the Noises” in 1913. The opening title track takes up the first side with three tracks on the second side, each compelling, each a story with the sound caringly shaped and crafted to provide a self-contained complete musical journey.
Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, A True Star
With 1973 being one of the most innovative periods in music, Todd Rundgren’s fourth album, A Wizard, A True Star, is about as ingenious, original and imaginative as any album of the 1970s. The first side is the musical equivalent of “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”, apparently madly reckless, yet never careening off the rails. “International Feel” starts and ends that first side, with a myriad of sparkling, brilliantly shimmering musical excursions thrown in between. The second side is mellower, allowing the listener to finally relax with a reflective, sympathetic re-creation of four 1960s R&B classic singles, and a memorable anthem, “Just One Victory”, bringing this one of a kind album to a close.
Rundgren’s engineering and production is historically impressive, taking advantage of various vocal and instrumental layering and effective editing. Additional richness is added by both the array of and the arrangement of instrumental timbre. And as an extra bonus to all this, the album is over twenty-six minutes on the first side, and almost thirty minutes on the second side — something matched by some of the classical records I had at the time, but not even approached by any of the single LP rock records in my collection.
One of my music teachers and I were talking about progressive rock around 1977 or 1978 and he was emphasizing how hard it was to predict what music would be canonized in the distant future. Much to my surprise he referenced Todd Rundgren, indicating his familiarity with contemporary, non-“academic” music, by casually remarking that “for all we know Todd Rundgren may be just a footnote in musical history fifty to hundred years from now.” Well, fifty years have passed, and I think it’s safe to say that Todd Rundgren will be encountered by those exploring the music of the 1970s, not as a footnote, but as a musical and engineering wizard, if not a true star.
Electric Light Orchestra: ELO 2
Though not as ambitious or consistently appealing as the first album, or with anything that equals “10538 Overture“, ELO 2, released March 2, 1973, has many fine moments with generally more emphasis on smoother, more conventional orchestration. Particularly good is the opening track, “In Old England Town (Boogie No. 2)” and its second-side counterpart, “From the Sun to the World (Boogie No. 1)”, the latter incorporating true boogie-woogie components. Also worthy of note, is the seven-minute (or eight-minute arrangement in the U.S.) of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven.” A four and a half minute single version of it got substantial airplay in the UK, charting as high as number six, while in the states, a slightly shorter version, got some AM airplay starting in late April of 1973, climbing as high as 42 on the Billboard singles chart. In Southern California several FM stations regularly played the full-length album cut during the spring and summer of 1973, providing greater exposure in terms of airplay, even if not in terms of audience reached. Besides being a fairly spirited and compelling cover of the original tune, the work incorporates the famous motif of the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, perhaps unintentionally inspiring (though no evidence to support such an assertion) Walter Murray’s 1976 disco-hit, “A Fifth of Beethoven.”
Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy
Once again, Led Zeppelin eschews just copying what made their previous album successful, creatively exploring new musical techniques and pathways, but as often the case not shy to incorporate notable musical elements of contemporaries and past predecessors. The overall result is an excellent hard-rock album that nicely balances acoustic and electric components and that successfully incorporates reggae, R&B, funk and even some classical and progressive influences.
Tom Waits: Closing Time
Tom Waits’ debut album, Closing Time, was released on March 6, 1973, receiving limited attention. Though largely folk-based music with some country, jazz and blues influences, what is most notable is how the music supports the lyrics and how each work, independent and finished, come together into a quasi-concept album of isolation, loneliness and dependency. Whereas an artist like Randy Newman comments on the darker side of life with a isolated, somewhat remote detachment, Waits incorporates a very distinctive viewpoint not only within each song but makes it as a necessary component of the content, the character often representing someone not really getting the implication of the commentary, making the song’s meaning even more apparent. Each song works nicely, there is not a bad song on the album — the opening track received some minor airplay as a single, well deserved and eventually covered by the Eagles, but, curiously, there are better candidates to have captured greater airplay if that had been the Asylum label’s focus. However, this is an album best heard from start to finish, enjoying such the varying emotional shading and of each song with “Martha”, “Rosie”, and the evocative ballad, “Grapefruit Moon” being three of my favorites pieces of the whole experience.
John Cale: Paris 1919
Released around March 1973, Paris 1919 is a remarkable work, consistent and enjoyable throughout with generally strong lyrics including Cale’s freewheeling imagery in the first track, “Child’s Christmas in Wales” and his historical references in various songs. The most impressive work is the title track, but the other tracks are all praiseworthy, particularly the last track with its memorable fragile opening of whispered vocals and electric piano building up with energy for what promises to be a strong dramatic ending, but even more appropriately tapers off into another moment of delicacy to provide a fine closing to the entire album.
Herbie Hancock: Sextant
The first track, the stunningly pointillistic “Rain Dance” is like nothing ever recorded previously, either in jazz, rock, fusion or academic electronic music. Furthermore, it makes full use of the stereo sound-field materializing packets of sounds in various, hovering points of space in the listening room, some of the pinpoint sounds coming within the expected stereo field, but others unexplainably occurring well out of the usual and expected speaker-range territory. This wonderful first track, is then followed by the two remaining tracks that, though closer to traditional fare that melds jazz, rock and funk elements, still are pretty far out there, effectively incorporating synthesizers and other electronics with trumpet, trombone, sax, bass and drums. Sextant was not a commercial success, and I never remember seeing this in anyone’s record collection — and wasn’t even in my own collection until recently.
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds of Fire
Though Herbie Hancock’s Sextant sold relatively few copies, the opposite was true of Mahavishnu’s Orchestra’s Birds of Fire: it was in several of my friends collections and soon I would buy my own copy. This is one of the finest albums of 1973, appealing to jazz and progressive rock fans alike — and beyond — for anyone in love with electric guitar virtuosity this was a must have. Besides McLaughlin’s guitar, there is unfaltering, propulsive percussion work from Billy Cobham, keyboards from Jan Hammer, and violin work that provides a perfect compliment to McLaughlin contributions. A classic album of unerringly invigorating and captivating instrumental music.
Argent: In Deep
Argent releases their fourth studio album on March 5, 1973, and though there is nothing to match the organ solo in Altogether Now, there are still some good piano and organ work from Rod Argent. The first side is mostly written by Russ Ballard and includes a semi-hit rock anthem, “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”, which was later picked up and modified by Kiss for the soundtrack to Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey and “It’s Only Money” part one and two. The second side is mostly written by Rod Argent and Chris White and is substantially closer to a progressive rock than the first side, with “Be Glad” and “Candles on the River” being the most adventurous.
Procol Harum: Grand Hotel; Steeleye Span: Parcel of Rogues; Faces: Oh La La
Other notable albums released in March include Procol Harum’s elegant and grandly orchestrated Grand Hotel, overall their most consistent and cohesive album, Steeleye Span’s spirited and well-produced, prog-tinged folk album, Parcel of Roques, and the Faces earthy, energetic Oh La La.
As progressive rock continued to gain traction and garner more and more fans in the UK , The U.S and throughout Europe, Camel released their very first effort, a fine self-titled album, at the end of February 1973.
The album starts relatively conventional with the vocal section of “Slow Yourself Down”, which shifts into a less conventional instrumental section including some notably strong guitar. The second track, “Mystic Queen” is a good representation of the mellow, more reflective nature of Camel’s recognizable style with a pleasant balance of the electric and the acoustic and with some pleasant acoustic guitar and flute. This album continues with the instrumental, “Six Ate”, a bit uneven in places, and the upbeat “Separation”, with nicely mixers vocals with instrumentals including the final stand out instrumental passage, possibly influenced by Genesis’s “The Return of the Giant Hogweed”. “Never Let Go” is Camel at what they do best, mellow, flute-infused instrumentation — music that is spaced, properly paced, and slightly spacey. The same can be said of the next track, “Curiosity”, which nicely blends the delicate and expressive. The final instrumental, “Arubaluba” ends the album containing some strong drumming by Andy Ward. All in all a strong first album.
Blue Öyster Cult: Tyranny and Mutation
Blue Öyster Cult first album cover was an unique black and white cover, and they followed this up with another mostly black and white cover but adding a tasteful amount of red, as shown above, to further enhance this memorable album cover. Similarly, with Tyranny and Mutation, released on February 11, 1973, Blue Öyster Cult further enhanced their musical style from that first album, becoming more innovative, distinctive, and even exotic, broadening their sound and extending their range of expressiveness. And in spite of the interesting, one-of-a-kind approach, perhaps one could correctly claim that it is this group as captured in this album, and not the even more idiosyncratic Black Sabbath or the more foundational Led Zeppelin, that truly provides the template of the unashamedly, and unrelentingly aggressive heavy metal sound for the rest of the 1970s and the 1980s.
Fifty years ago, 1972 was coming to a close with the usual releases of albums in November and December coinciding with the holidays. One of the best out of the very best of those albums, was Gentle Giant’s fourth album, Octopus, named for the eight “opuses” included in the album. Appropriate, for sure, as all eight tracks are worthy of bearing that often historically and musically important designation. The instrumentation is richly diverse with Gary Green providing his usual impressive electric guitar work, Welsh drummer John Weathers replacing the injured Malcom Mortimore, on drums, and providing bongos, varispeed cymbals, and some enduringly memorable xylophone, Kerry Minnear on acoustic piano, electric piano, the renaissance-era regal (organ), electric organ, moog, mellotron, clavinet, vibraphone, other percussion, cello and, of course, lead and backing vocals, Ray Shulman on bass guitar, acoustic violin and viola, electric violin, acoustic guitar, percussion, and vocals, Derek Shulman on sax and lead vocals, and Phil Shulman. in his last studio appearance with his brothers, on tenor and baritone sax, trumpet, mellophone and lead and backing vocals.
The album opens up softly and intimately with Kerry Minnear’s “The Advent of Panurge” with interlaced vocals (I believe Minnear and Phil Shulman) followed by a hard-rock interlude that includes the classical technique (Haydn, Beethoven) of compacting a repeated motif to create heightened tension and energy leading into a temporary vocal handoff to the more dramatic Derek Shulman, then vocals becoming intimate again with Phil, then a short mystical section, returning to the opening melody with the stretto-like compressive technique followed with a strong ending with Derek again on vocals.
The second track, Minnear’s “Raconteur Troubadour” takes us back to the Middle Ages and Renaissance, before exploring an Elgar-like melody, that moves into a more twentieth century feel with trumpet before another verse and chorus of the main melody ending with a repeated motif slowly unwinding the work to a stop.
Ray Shulman’s “A Cry for Everyone”, takes us into harder progressive rock mode, with Derek on vocals, and some brief flamboyant moog garnishes followed by some more instrumental including that unique Gentle Giant “stride” style (see Fifty Year Friday: July 1971), interrupted with some more moog flourishes, returning to a third verse of the main melody, and concluding with a brief coda.
The first side ends with Minnear’s contrapuntally clever “Knots”, which sets excerpts from R.D. Laing’s psychological-themed poetry of the same name. Besides a mix of Renaissance and prog imitative counterpoint, hocketing, and some additional madrigal-like Renaissance handling of the words and musical material there is a contrasting, more contemporary, prog-rock, second theme, Weathers mirthful xylophone interlude, an instrumental transformation of the earlier material prepping for and then interlaced with the return of the original material followed by a repeat of the secondary theme ending the piece. Whew! What an exciting four minutes of music seemingly covering as much ground as covered by some lesser prog-rocks groups on much lengthier tracks!
Side two is equally strong, opening with Ray Shulman’s instrumental “The Boys in the Band” reminiscent of Frank Zappa’s best material of the early seventies. The next track is Minnear’s Renaissance-like “Dog’s Life, “a backhanded tribute” to the band’s roadies with the regal providing a shawm-sounding whine, complemented nicely by Ray’s and Kerry’s string playing. The third track on the album is Minnear’s beautifully sensitive and reflective “Think of Me with Kindness” as good as any ballad ever penned in the 1970s. The second side ends strongly with Ray Shulman’s epic “River”. which while under six minutes, is much like “Knots” in that it seems to cover enough musical ground for take up the better part of a single side of an LP.
The production, for 1972, is good enough to differentiate the various parts and provide a crisp, relatively undistorted listening experience, the performances are energetic and expressive, and the music itself is unusually distinctive with compelling melodies and motives that have a level of adventurousness, playfulness, and durability that creates a substantial listening experience the very first time or even after a dozen. Impressively, this was a group that could deliver this material live very effectively, with all the studio wizardry translating without any loss of intensity into live performances. Though most rock critics at the time couldn’t or wouldn’t even try to appreciate the singular music on this album, the music still lives on, embraced generation after generation by music lovers the world over.
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso: Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
Influenced by the emergence of a multitude of English Progressive rock groups, a number of talented musicians came together in various locations throughout Italy to provide their own contributions to the ever increasing riches of the progressive rock canon. In Rome, classical trained pianist Vittorio Nocenzio, having studied composition, organ performance, and ethnomusicology, and written songs for Italian folk singer Gabriella Ferri, formed Banco Del Mutuo Soccorse (Bank of Mutual Assistance) in 1969 with his brother, Gianni, also skilled on keyboards, and former members of two other rock bands, Fiori Di Campo and Le Esperienze including the vocally captivating tenor, Francesco Di Giacomo, who would provide a Puccini-like drama and intensity to the band’s recordings and concerts. The talented group played festivals before recording their first album, a particularly strong debut that incorporates stylistic elements from both progressive rock and early twentieth century classical music.
Despite the multitude if influences, the material is identifiably Italian, especially in some of the melodic phrases and in the character of their exuberant playing. Particularly impressive are the second track, “R.I.P. (Requiescant in Pace)”, and the fourth track “Metamorfosi.” Side two includes the 18 minute “Il Giardino del Mago” and ends with an animated tarantella-like piece simply titled “Traccia” (track.)
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso: Darwin
Banco’s second album, released near the end of 1972, builds on the excellence exhibited in their first album, improving on it with a cohesiveness and establishment of a consistency of style. The album starts off with the magnificent opening of L’Evoluzione, a dramatic 14 minute work rich, beautiful, and epic in impact that effectively sets the tone for this concept album. The second track, “La Conquista Della Posizione Eretta” (‘The Attainment Of The Standing Position”) begins with a extended and compelling instrumental section that brings to mind the survival struggles of prehistoric life including growls that settles into a reflective lyrical section narrating the advantages of standing upright.
The second side opens up with the casual, jazzy “Danza Dei Grandi Rettili”. The next track, “Cento Mani E Cento Occhi” opens up in frenzied contrast to the cooler preceding track, not only making use of some of the musical language elements of Ginastera and Bartok, but covering a wide range of progressive rock musical expressiveness in unremittent 4/4 time with the appropriate use of accents for inescapable forward momentum. The third track, “750,000 Anni Fa … L’Amore?” seemingly channels Puccini for its amorous expressiveness achieved with a expressive piano accompaniment to Giacomo passionate vocals and as well utilizing the moog synthesizer for a dramatic middle section. “Misere Alla Historia” (badly translated as “History’s Lament”) provides musical reflection on the lost/dead civilizations with the warning/observation of “Ma… Quanta vita ha ancora il tuo intelletto se dietro a te scompare la tua razza” “But… How much life does your intellect still have if your people disappear behind you.” The album ends with additional reflection, ironically set in 3/4 time, “Ed ora io domando tempo al tempo ed egli mi risponde…non ne ho!” (“And Now I Ask Time for More Time and He Answers Me…I Don’t Have Any!”) bringing the album to an indisputable close, fully covering the saga of human evolution from early, undeveloped life to its apparent, overwrought and unavoidable finish.
Released in November of 1972, this is the first of Donald Fagen’s and Walter Becker’s string of excellent albums. The music ranges from pop to rock to folk-rock to jazz-based rock with engaging and intelligent chord progressions and a healthy use of minor seventh and ninth chords.
THE EDGAR WINTER GROUP: THEY ONLY COME OUT AT NIGHT
Skillfully produced by Rick Derringer, this is Edgar Winter’s most solid album with a number of songs that for the rest of 1972 and early into 1973 found a prominent place on AM radio, FM radio, at high school parties, or in the repertoire of high school dance bands. “Hangin’ Around”, “Free Ride”, “We All Had a Real Good Time” and the instrumental “Frankenstein” are hard rock classics that have effectively captured and preserved the spirit of early seventies hard rock, providing, today, an effortless means for us to travel back in time fifty years ago.
LOU REED: TRANSFORMER
Released on November 8, 1972, Lou Reed’s Transformer excels at creating a level of nonchalance and casualness that was more reminiscent of the beat movement of the 1950s than typical of an early 70’s rock album. Aided by David Bowie, Mick Ronson and Trever Bolder and elegantly produced by Bowie and Ronson, this album, along with the success of its glam, transexual and sometimes banned single, “Walk on the Wild Side”, brought Lou Reed out of the shadows of the Underground and into the commercial spotlight. The album is considered a classic by many and has had substantial influence on many Indie Rock artists that came later.
WAR: THE WORLD IS A GHETTO
War’s fifth studio album, released around November of 1972, opens with the once relentlessly-played AM single, “Cisco Kid”, which though annoying for those of us that heard it in spring of 1973 played through third-rate speakers of a school bus for multiple weeks almost every morning on our ride to school, was a welcome relief from the equally often-played, but far less bearable “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ol’ Oak Tree.” That said, now hearing “Cisco Kid” on a first-class audio set up almost fifty years later, the quality of performance and the arrangement almost make up for the melodic and harmonic mediocrity of the track. More importantly though, the rest of the album is quite good, starting with the infectious, funky “Where was You At” and the effervescent jazz-infused 13 1/2 minute “City Country City” instrumental on side one and the three tracks on side two including the soulfully reflective “Four Cornered Room”, and the beautifully funk-infused, “The World is a Ghetto.” This was not only War’s most commercially successful album, but the best selling album for the year 1973 holding the number one position for two weeks in February 1973 and staying on the Billboard 200 for a total of 68 weeks.
JONI MITCHELL: FOR THE ROSES
Released in November of 1972 between two of her most artistically and commercially successful albums, 1971’s Blue and 1974’s Spark and Court, the excellent For the Roses brims over with wonderful melodic phrases, remarkable piano lines, and beautiful acoustic guitar and an appropriate amount of harmonica, bass, percussion, winds and strings — always at the right places!
CAN: EGE BAMYASI
Can’s highly influential album, Ege Bamyasi, with the name apparently inspired from the label of a container of canned okra of Turkish origin also meant for German consumption of these “okra pods”, takes a detour from the previous no-holds-barred and even more influential Tago Mago, with an often more structured (via editing in some cases) and relatively more contained set of compositions. Not readily available in the US, I purchased this album in a German record store in 1978, and listened to it once before shelving it for several decades. It’s great to come back and revisit it and find there is much more here than I thought — and to discover the influence it has had on music since my original purchase, with Stephen Malkmus of Pavement, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and the band Spoon all having been much more serious fans of the album and reaping music influences from it. Truly fortunate to revisit the album and able to enjoy it on a much better audio set up than I had in 1978.
Uriah Heep, Moody Blues, Carly Simon, Hawkwind, and Barclay James Harvest
Other notable albums from November 1972 include Uriah Heep’s semi-progressive Magician’s Birthday with a memorable Moog synthesizer solo from Ken Hensley on “Sweet Loraine” (reaching the 91st spot on the Billboard Hot 100) and a more expansive title track concluding the album, Hawkwind’s third studio album, Doremi Fasol Latido, stylistic different than their previous albums but still quality, engaging space-rock, Carly Simon’s No Secrets with two well-known tracks, the number one hit “You’re So Vain”, and less commercially successful but equally appealing “The Right Thing to Do”, the richly arranged, orchestrated Barclay James Harvest, Baby James Harvest, a mix of straight rock (“Thank You”) and more progressive tracks (“Summer Soldier”, “Moonwater”), and Moody Blues’ eighth album (last of the highly regarded string of seven classic album) which had two commercially successful singles, “Isn’t Life Strange” and “I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)”, which spurred increased interest in their previous work resulting in the re-release of the beautifully haunting single version of the “The Night”, titled “Nights in White Satin”, which did much better the second time around, getting more attention and airplay than any of the music on the Seventh Sojourn album.
From the opening set of the choral-like, other-worldly, mellotron-intro of carefully constructed chords — initially over a “pedal-point” (a sustained bass note), followed by a short set of chromatic modulations, the tone of this epic classic album is established and sustained through out the next magnificent fifty minutes of one of the most appealing rock albums of the last sixty years.
The music is epic, dramatically supporting some pretty impressive lyrics, with the first track, “Watcher of The Skies”, a sci-fi narrative from an alien visitor’s somber, almost jaded, perspective regarding the remnants of a vanished earth civilization, followed by the more lyrically but equally potent and allegorical “Time Table”. “Get “Him Em Out By Friday” also time travels, from 1972 to 2012, and effectively mixes upbeat rhythms and shifting meters into moments of Dickensian commentary, starting with shifts between 6/4 and 4/4, with a heavily triplet-based 4/4 section into a more reflective, slower 6/4 section with some the return of a modified original A section with some 7/4 bars and an appropriately reflective coda. This is followed by another epic track, the amazing “Can-Utility and the Coastliners” with an acoustic guitar and flute opening section and its sense of substantial narrative, proportion, and consequence far exceeding its limited five minute and forty-five seconds of actually clock time. Of particularly musical note is Tony Bank’s mixed-meter keyboard solo, perhaps either celebrating the use of the name he had initially suggested for the band (Can-Utility and the Coastliners, a name Peter Gabriel reportedly summarily rejected, understandably), or letting off a little steam for the band, instead, being ultimately named “Genesis.” Seriously, though, this composition a true work of art, anticipating both Banks’ “Firth of Fifth” on Selling Englandby the Pound and his “One for the Vine” on Wind and Wuthering.
Side two opens with Steve Hackett’s elegantly simple guitar solo, followed by the masterpiece of the Genesis catalogue, the twenty-three minute “Supper’s Ready.” Though its seven-section make-up indicates a piecing together of individual songs into a common thematical framework, the overall effect is that of a single cohesive work, much in the way that the second side of the Beatles Abbey Road works together, except that “Supper’s Ready” is more integrated and reuses material to create an effective sonata-like form. Though too difficult, and hopefully totally unnecessary, to pick one single composition to make the case that classical music was an unbroken continuum to the present that included the best works of the best rock bands, this work has to be considered as deserving top consideration for making that case.
Miles Davis: On the Corner
Eschewing and yet incorporating contemporaneous offerings in jazz, jazz fusion, rock, progressive rock, minimalism, and funk, Miles creates yet another landmark album with On The Corners as representative of the spiritual-industrial meld of the early 1970s as anything yet released or yet to come. Few critics even began to know what to make of the work, and the record-buying public, which had sent Miles’ previous album up to the 7th spot, were mostly absent at the cash registers, with On the Corner peaking at 156.
The album, though foundationally based on the familiar musical components of its time, was yet so alien to many when it came out on October 11, 1972, primarily due to the resulting originality of the approach. Overall, Miles and team took on the same type of challenges that were tackled by such German progressive rock groups such as Can, but due to significantly better musicianship and a more focused vision, created a superior and eventually more influential product.
Henry Franklin: The Skipper
One of the lesser known albums of 1972 by one of the lesser known artists on one of the lesser known record labels, bassist Henry Franklin’s debut album, The Skipper, is well worth any effort to hunt down, with such ultimate acquisition being readily achievable due to the reissuing of the Black Jazz record catalog by Real Gone Music. Thank-you, Real Gone Music!
Franklin’s plays both acoustic and electric bass, writing most of the music on the album, with Bill Henderson on electric piano contributing one of his own compositions joined by Charles Owens on soprano and tenor sax and Oscar Brashear both of which provide the vital contributions that make this album a neglected classic.
Doug Carn: Spirit of the New Land
This is the second of four albums that Doug Carn released on the Black Jazz record label. Accessible and topical, this jazz concept album brims with amazing work from both keyboardist Doug Carn, Charles Tolliver on flugelhorn, reed player George Harper and Carn’s wife, Jean Carn, on vocals with notable contributions from Earl McIntrye on tuba and Garnett Brown on trombone.
The Awakening: Hear, Sense and Feel
The Awakening released their first album on the Black Jazz label, providing an excellent set of jazz-rock/jazz-fusion instrumentals bookended by a brief introductory recitation and final poetic coda. The music is slightly reminiscent of some of the Chicago’s instrumental passages from their first two albums with a hint of early 1970’s McCoy Tyner. Of particular note is the keyboardist, Ken Chaney, who composes the opening instrumental following his wife’s opening introduction. In general quite good, with “Jupiter” being a particularly strong track. For those that like no-nonsense early 70s jazz and jazz-rock, this is worth the effort of tracking down. Available from Real Gone Music as are all the Black Jazz late sixties and early seventies catalog.
Keith Jarrett: Expectations
Taking his core quartet that included Dewey Redman (now known as the “American Quartet”) (Jarrett, saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Paul Motian), Jarret adds Sam Brown on guitar and Airto Moreira on percussion and drums, along with some strings and brass arrangements to create a ambitious, relatively eclectic two record set that unfortunately for Columbia records, was the last one under that label, simply due to Columbia suddenly dropping Jarrett during the its sweeping commercially-driven jazz purge, something that appears to be one of those historic money-driven record label decisions that ended up being a fiscal mistake.
The album is a bit uneven with Jarrett basically redefining “free jazz” to mean “freedom in playing a range of styles” but the overall final result is a strong album with side four being the best.
Santana: Caravanserai
Released on October 11, 1972, Caravanserai was quickly embraced by the same audience inescapably attracted to progressive rock as well as enthusiastically embraced by a substantial number of fusion fans. Though nowhere as commercially successful as the previous two albums (the president of Columbia Records after hearing the tapes for Caravanserai, told Santana he was committing “career suicide”), the album is an artistic gem, a work that can be listened to repeatedly with various spectra of pleasure.
Stevie Wonder: Talking Book
Released on October 27, 1972, Mr. Wonder exceeds the level of professionalism, artistry, creativity on the previous album, displaying flawless judgement and execution as composer, musician and producer. Artistically, the albums opens strong with the timeless love song, “You are the Sunshine of My Life” followed by a strong first side and then an even stronger second side made up of five classic tracks that starts with “Superstition”, followed by “Big Brother”, the subtly impressionistic “Blame It on the Sun”, the Latin-jazz-influenced “Lookin’ for Another Pure Love”, and then perfectly concluded with my favorite work on the album, “I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)”.
zumpoems 