Scotch Sampler

Continuing with singer/songwriters I skipped over the 1st time around, Cat Stevens put out some great music in the early 70s. Starting with 1970's triple platinum Tea for the Tillerman, he put out a new album each year, giving us Father and Son, Moonshadow, and these

Cat Stevens - Wild World (live acoustic)



Cat Stevens - Peace Train (live)



The latter had a popular cover by Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs

10,000 Maniacs – Peace Train (live)



He followed these with Morning Has Broken ('72), Oh Very Young ('74) and this single

Cat Stevens - Another Saturday Night (live)
 
It's time for an early 70s version of everyone's favorite segment: One-offs! Well, actually a couple of one-offs and a two-fer.

Believe it or not, many years ago, if you liked a particular song, but didn't own the album, you had to actually wait for it to come on the radio. You couldn't stream it, or download it, or get it on-demand. You just had to wait until it came around, and hope they played it when you happened to be listening. I had a few favorite songs like that, where I didn't have the album, so I just waited. And probably the number-one song on that list was this insane, comical/prog-rock/fusion song from 1972, by a Dutch band named Focus. This live version shows both their extreme talent, and their high level of insanity - perhaps it was the drugs. Anyway, it earned them a standing ovation

Focus - Hocus Pocus (live on the Midnight Special)



The band Golden Earring has had exactly 2 hits, nearly 10 years apart. The latter, Twilight Zone (1982), is good, but their 1973 hit is the classic, and may be the best road song ever

Golden Earring - Radar Love



And finally, this next band has also had 2 hits (I'm not counting the 3rd top 40); and although one is more notable, they are both favorites of mine. The Edgar Winter Group is a great collection of musicians, and it features the amazing multi-instrumentalist namesake. This 1973 live performance is mind-blowing for several reasons: for one, I had assumed that being an electronic piece, the sax and timpani drums must be synthesized, right? Nope, both played by Winter, while the keyboard hangs around his neck. And the synthesized gleeps and glorps and thumps must be a studio add-in, right? Nope, Winter plays a big old synth unit live as well. And it couldn't all be performed in real time, right? Well, watch this

Edgar Winter Group – Frankenstein (live)



The other big hit of theirs is this iconic 70's rocker

Edgar Winter Group – Free Ride (live)
 
These are some kick ass lyrics.

It's two a.m. (It's two a.m.)
The fear has gone (The fear has gone)
I'm sittin' here waitin' (I'm sittin' here waitin')
The gun still warm (The gun still warm)
Maybe my connection is tired of takin' chances
 
scotchandcigar said:
Believe it or not, many years ago, if you liked a particular song, but didn't own the album, you had to actually wait for it to come on the radio.
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Those were the days. You could go days without hearing your favorite song, and it was torture when you turned the rasio on and only heard the last few seconds of it.
scotchandcigar said:
Focus - Hocus Pocus (live on the Midnight Special)
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That was a great tune.
scotchandcigar said:
Golden Earring - Radar Love
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Overplayed on FM, but very solid.
scotchandcigar said:
Edgar Winter Group – Frankenstein (live)
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That was the good stuff back then. If they couldn't play it live, they didn't play it.
sadchild said:
And 12 year old me sitting at the radio with a little cassette boom box hitting record!
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I still have a couple of those tapes laying around. I don't know if they are even listenable any more.
 
And before 78s, there were wax cylinders. The earliest known recording was made on April 9, 1960 by Parisian inventor Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville on a device he called a phonoautograph. It etched sound waves onto paper covered in soot and smoke from a burning oil lamp. He recorded a few seconds of the folk song Au Clair De La Lune – 17 years before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph!


 
Yes, the earliest known sound recording was made in 1860, not 1960. Dummy me! And I can't go back and make the correction.

Here are the first words Thomas Edison recorded in 1877. His "little piece of practical poetry" was one of dozens of sound-bites included in the 1968 Vanilla Fudge album The Beat Goes On.


 
This next band put out some great rock music, had plenty of hits, and launched the careers of several legendary musicians. Yet, among certain crowds, declaring an affinity towards them is kind of like stepping-up to the podium at an AA meeting.

"Hi everybody. My name is Scotch, and I like Styx".
"Hi Scotch!".

The problem is, they went from being a progressive hard rock band, to "Dōmo arigatō, Mr. Roboto", which Wikipedia classifies as synthpop. As for myself, I've spent much of my life defending early Chicago against soft-n-sensitive pussy-whipped love-song Chicago. So I know I'm able to like Styx if I want.

They had an early hit with 1973's Lady, although it didn't chart until 1975. But like other bands of the time, such as Yes, Rush, and Jethro Tull, they spent a few years mired in the depths of "drama rock", where the track listings are arranged like the movements of an opera. They had a 2nd hit in 1976 with Lorelei, but their real success came in 1977, with the first of several triple-platinum albums. The Grand Illusion is my favorite Styx album, with all these great songs

Styx - The Grand Illusion (live)



Styx - Fooling Yourself (live)



Styx - Come Sail Away



Their follow-up, 1978's Pieces of Eight, is a close 2nd in my book, with songs like Sing for the Day, and these rockers

Styx - Blue Collar Man (live)



Styx – Renegade (live)
 
From there, they went steadily downhill. 1980's Cornerstone gave us the insufferable Babe, but also this rock-heavy pop-rock song

Styx – Borrowed Time



Continuing downhill, my last stop was 1981's Paradise Theater, which had The Best of Times, and this poppy but bearable tune

Styx – Too Much Time on My Hands (live)



After that, it's best to imagine they didn't exist.
 
scotchandcigar said:
defending early Chicago against soft-n-sensitive pussy-whipped love-song Chicago
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LOL I know that feeling
scotchandcigar said:
After that, it's best to imagine they didn't exist.
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LMAO Again I can relate with other bands.

I have two Styx MP3s in my collection that will make you roll your eyes...

Styx - Mr Roboto.mp3 (loved it when I was 12, still like it just as not much)
Styx - Too Much Time on My Hands.mp3 (liked it and still do)

I really should add "Come Sail Away" because I like it. And I'm sure there's a couple others of theirs I like.

Anyway, I'll have to listen to (or at least scan) every song on Pieces Of Eight and Grand Illusion, but most of the song titles don't sound familiar to me.
 
scotchandcigar said:
"Hi everybody. My name is Scotch, and I like Styx".
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Hi Scotch!!! :wavey:

I'm HecticArt, and I'm a Styx fan too.

Equinox was the first album I remember hearing a lot when I was a kid.
and I can admit that I liked Paradise Theatre.
I even had the laser etched LP. (I still have it somewhere.)
Nb5pfGP.jpeg

Granted, the Dennis DeYoung pussification of the band was not to my liking.
 
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