Wednesday, July 31, 2013

40 Year Itch : Those We Missed July 1973



 


10cc's playful debut spawned four singles in the UK ( the #1 "Rubber Bullets" and #2 "Donna" among them). One of the weirdest art pop bands of its day, 10cc's entire catalogue from here to Bloody Tourists is worth owning.








Although it's home to "Knockin' On Heavens's Door" ( US #12), this soundtrack of mostly instrumentals makes for nice background listening and that's it. And why would you by a Dylan album that you didn't want to really listen to?






Fusion doesn't get more furious than on this 5-track album from Carlos Santana and members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra ( as well as Stanley Clarke of Return to Forever and Larry Young of the Tony Williams Lifetime). It's not a particularly easy listen , but the album went gold anyway.




 


No band went through more stylistic changes than this Dutch group which formed in 1961. (Their Beatlesque stuff is pretty great!) Twelve years later, Moontan  and its single "Radar Love" broke Golden Earring in the US where they toured with the Doobie Brothers and Santana. Album closer "The Vanilla Queen" is a classic rock track for disc jockeys needing a pee break. "Just Like Vince Taylor" sounds like something the Del Lords would have put out in 1984.








Prone to disenchantment, Cat Stevens left behind his hit making era with Foreigner, an album featuring a  side long suite and some prog rock and funk experimentation. Tedious but it still went gold.








After years of playing and arranging for Bette Midler and singing and writing commercial jingles, Barry Manilow signed with Bell and released his first album. "Could It Be Magic" was a #6 hit in 1975 . But the real surprise here is the rocking tune "Flashy Lady".







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