Marvin Gaye--What's Going On (1971)

     Renaldo "Obie" Benson, bass singer of the Four Tops was hurt and angered by what he witnessed. An anti-war protest turned violent in a lot called, "People's Park" in Berkley, California. Benson watched the brutality by the police and along with lyricist Al Cleveland wrote the beginnings of "What's Going On"       Meanwhile, back in Detroit, Marvin Gaye was deeply grieving. His singing partner and close friend Tammi Terrell had past just months before from a brain tumor which took her life just five...

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David Gates--The Goodbye Girl (1977)

     Before forming Bread in 1967,  David Gates was a well known studio musician and producer. His credits ran from Elvis to Merle Haggard, to Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band. During this time he had also recorded a number of unsuccessful singles, but his pairing with Robb Royer and Jimmy Griffin produced soft rock magic as the group had a number of top ten singles.      The fact that record label Elektra always chose Gates' songs as singles was a source of antagonism for Griffin who was a fine...

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Leif Garrett--I Was Made For Dancing (1979)

      Leif Garrett (real name: Leif Per Nervik) began his career as an actor with his first role in a major picture being, "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) at the age of 8. He then began a series of bit roles on television in the mid-70s on shows like Family and The Odd Couple. Garrett also was in all three "Walking Tall" movies.      The whole teen idol thing began with a role on the CBS show, "Three for the Road" in 1975. The show didn't make it to Thanksgiving but there was a great interest...

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Art Garfunkel--All I Know (1973)

     It had been three years since Simon and Garfunkel had split. Paul Simon immediately came out of the gate in January 1972 with his first album, "Paul Simon" and two hits which was a logical extension of some of the work he had done on the "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album. May of 1973 brought another album, "There Goes Rhymin' Simon" which solidified him as a top solo artist.      During this time Art Garfunkel kept a low profile, at least musically.  He was tapped by director Mike Nichols to play...

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Gallery--Nice To Be With You (1972)

     There used to be a major divide in the early 70's between those who listened to "FM" or album rock, and "AM" top 40 . It seems silly in a way, but there has always been divisions in musical taste like this. For many music fans (and unfortunately those who write about music as well), there is a territorial view of their genre, no matter what it is. Because of all of the different types of music I was exposed to as a child, there has always been a wide range of taste. To me, if it sounds good, I don't care who made it. This...

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Saturday Music Digest--May 18, 2013

Stemming from an "inflamation of his vocal cords," Smokey Robinson postponed his concerts for the rest of May on Friday (May 10). Little Richard received an honorary Doctorate of Humanities degree from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia Saturday (May 11). Meanwhile, Macon officials announced Friday that Richard's boyhood home there will be moved to avoid being demolished by a highway construction project. In its new location, the home will...

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Gale Garnett--We'll Sing in the Sunshine (1964)

     Gale Garnett was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and moved to Canada at the age of 11 in 1953. After high school, she chose to go into acting and singing. She got a parts in television shows of the early 60's, and made her New York club debut in 1963. Shortly afterward she was signed to RCA records.      The song "We'll Sing In The Sunshine" was her own composition and was the single lifted off her first album, "My Kind of Folk Songs". The single went to number 4 on the charts, and won a Grammy in 1965...

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Peter Gabriel--Solsbury Hill (1977)

     In the village of Batheaston, Somerset England, there is a small flat top hill known as little Solsbury Hill. It was here that a young Peter Gabriel came to a decision that would influence the rest of his life. He felt the need to separate himself from the band he helped create in 1967 at the age of 17.  Now, 8 years later, the band had become a success but it had come at a cost. Having begun more or less as a musical collective, the press began to focus more on Gabriel as the star, which caused tensions within the...

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Bobby Fuller Four--I Fought the Law (1966)

     Bobby Fuller was born in Baytown, Texas then as a small child moved to Salt Lake City. Shortly after his move at the age of 12 to El Paso, his life changed forever like many others who heard Elvis Presley. More importantly, he was influenced greatly by fellow Texan Buddy Holly and attempted several independent recordings with local musicians including his brother Randy, who would be the only constant throughout his Fuller's life.      He build his own recording studio complete with an echo chamber in...

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Record Review: Rod Stewart--Time (2013)

     It's been dammed difficult at times to be a Rod Stewart fan. In the 70's he was one of the best singer-songwriters that rock music had to offer. His voice was outstanding, but it was the depth of his writing that kept you long after the music and voice grabbed you. Somewhere in the early 80's, he began to stray, seemingly enjoying his fame much more than his craft. Since the late 80's, he has been maddeningly inconsistent in his output, every now and then showing those glimpses of his past, but more often settling for the...

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Saturday Music Digest--May 11th, 2013

     I have become a big fan of twitter. Those are naysayers who grouse about the massive amount of inane stuff posted, but have you looked at Facebook lately? I can assure you as well that most phone conversations are just as useless. We just live now in a newer generation of consumers, where idiocy can be broadcast world-wide. On the other hand, it can and is a powerful tool for getting information out quickly and for those who want to find people of like mind on any subject, in my case, older music.      There...

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The Friends of Distinction--Grazing in The Grass (1969)

     The Friends of Distinction were formed by Harry Elston and Floyd Butler who had been members of Ray Charles' backing band, The Hi-Fi's. When this group disbanded in 1966, the other members, Lamont McLemore and Marilyn McCoo went to form the Fifth Dimension. Elston and Butler recruited Jessica Cleaves and Barbara Jean Love and in 1968 began to hit some of the clubs in Los Angeles. It was there they met Jim Brown.      Brown had been one of the best players in the National Football League who had decided to...

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Frida--I Know There's Something Going On (1982)

     The group ABBA never formally disbanded, but just slowly faded away in 1983 with the unfilled promise that the group had not stopped recording. The quartet had basically lost interest, as well as being lured by other new and interesting projects. Frida Lyngstad was the first to take advantage of this as she paired up with the Phil Collins' produced, "I Know There's Something Going On".      The other three members had one hit a piece in the US as well. Agnetha Falskog had a top forty hit in 1983, "Can't...

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Frijid Pink--House of the Rising Sun (1970)

     I had been interested in rock music and it's history all my life, but it's been in the last several years since starting the blog and radio show that I've dug under the surface to find endless tributaries that feed into modern rock and pop. One of those feeders come from the city of Detroit where the music scene went much deeper (and arguably more influential) than anything that came out of Motown. The Bob Seger System, The Amboy Dukes, Alice Cooper, MC5, The Stooges, and Grand Funk Railroad laid the foundations for what...

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Friend and Lover--Reach Out in the Darkness (1968)

     Sometimes a song can capture a moment in time and frame the zeitgeist of a movement more than any other medium. This song from it's first line, "I think it's so groovy now that people are finally gettin' it together" spells out the short period of time where "flower power" really might have seemed more than just a cloud of pot smoke on the horizon. Coming out between the assassinations of Martin Luther King (in April) and Robert Kennedy (in June), it really was just one last gasp of what seemed a year before to be a viable...

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Record Review: Ready To Die--Iggy Pop and the Stooges (2013)

Track List 1. Burn (Iggy/James Williamson) 3:37 2. Sex & Money (Iggy/James Williamson) 3:18 3. Job (Iggy/James Williamson) 3:05 4. Gun (Iggy/James Williamson) 3:07 5. Unfriendly World (Iggy/James Williamson) 3:46 6. Ready To Die (Iggy/James Williamson) 3:06 7. DD's (Iggy/James Williamson) 3:21 8. Dirty Deal (Iggy/James Williamson) 3:42 9. Beat That Guy (Iggy/James Williamson) 3:15 10. The Departed (Scott Asheton/Iggy/James Williamson) 4:36      It was odd in a way, but very poetic that after the death of Ron Asheton in...

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Saturday Bus Digest--May 4, 2013

This is the first "Saturday Bus Digest". Hopefully we will be a one stop new source for your favorite artists and news of the past week. Included will be commentary on things that are related to music, rock and otherwise.  ------- Remembering George.... This past Thursday Nashville laid to rest one of the last links to old school country. In a very moving service at the Grand Ole Opry, his personal family, colleagues and fans came to say goodbye to the Possum. I've never made any attempt to hide the fact that Country music isn't my favorite...

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Glenn Frey--The Heat Is On (1984)

     Glenn Frey was having a solid career as a solo artist by 1984. Perhaps not to the level of The Eagles, his previous group, but three top 40 hits gave promise to a brighter future. From his late teens, the Detroit native had been at first been in a succession of local groups,  even singing backing vocals on the Bob Seger System's, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" in 1968. Thinking that his future was not going to be in his hometown, he went to California and shortly teamed up with J.D. Souther, a fellow Detroit native and soon...

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Free--All Right Now (1970)

     The group Free came together in April of 1968, with all four band members being under the age of 20. Bass player Andy Frasier was only 15, guitarist Paul Kossoff 17, and lead singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke coming in at 18. Despite this, all four members had experience in other bands. After six months, the group produced it's first album, "Tons of Sobs" which actually saw some action in the US charts, but none in the UK.      Their third release however, "Fire and Water" was an excellent...

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