-Chairman of the Board-"Give Me Just A Little More Time": This is one I really dug. I just wish they had more than one really big hit because I never got tired of hearing this one. The lead singer has since passed away and I really miss him.
-Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose-"Treat Her Like A Lady", "It's Too Late To Turn Back Now": "Treat Her Like A Lady" has got a groove and one of the greater guitar drives on the rhythm that I've enjoyed over the years. The guitar provided the confidence and the lyrics provided the respect for women all of us guys should have when it comes to loving them. "It's Too Late To Turn Back Now" is just so lush and beautiful. How can a person not love a song like this? Plus, this was a big one which was playing on the radio when my Dad and I went on the trip to Santa Clara prior to my moving back down. I seem to recall that my Mom liked this song as well. But hey! She had to live with us guys having the radio on to what we wanted to have it on.
-The Eagles-"Take It Easy", Witchy Woman": Well, the big run of The Eagles becoming like a franchise instead of a band started while I was living up here. KEED played to death both of these songs. I enjoyed them. It was obvious, even to a kid like me, that this was the start of a band that was going to have some staying power. It really did strike me, in my want of having a girlfriend as far back as then, the line where it is mentioned "I've got seven women on my mind". Even back then, I sometimes wish in my case that it was only seven. For the life of me, I could swear that I only started hearing "Peaceful Easy Feeling" when I moved back to Santa Clara. I can't seem to recall for certain.
-Linda Ronstadt-"Rock Me On The Water"-I got exposed to Linda through this song first in a clear way that I was listening to Linda and knowing it was her. I could swear, however, that I did hear her with The Stone Ponys and "Different Drum" back when I was still living on Franklin Street. This was my double shot entry to being influenced by Jackson Browne as well as this is his song being covered by Linda. Little did I know that two people with whom I've already mentioned early in my story had a connection to Linda. They were both distantly related to her.
-Harry Nilsson-"Courtship Of Eddie's Father", "Without You", "Coconut": Well, what can one say about Harry that isn't going to be full of superlatives? He was superb in his voice range. He was deeply soulful as a singer (he took "Badfinger's "Without You" and made it his own and ended up winning a Grammy for it). He could be absolutely hilarious as in the case of "Coconut". He would go on to make one of my favorite records of all-time while I was still living up here and would not be released until I moved back to Santa Clara. God Bless Harry Nilsson! The music world has not been the same since he passed away.
-Three Dog Night-""Mama Told Me (Not To Come)", "Joy To The World", "Liar", "An Old Fashioned Love Song", "Never Been To Spain"-These guys used to blow me out of my socks. I recall watching a t.v. special of them of a live performance and I was just stunned. I loved how hard they worked. For some reason, I have always loved the drumming of this band. It was very driving, steady and hard. "Joy To The World" was the one that would become the big anthem. Whenever my Mom and I would sing this together in the car, I would always sing "joy to the fishes and the deep blue tree" instead of "deep blue sea". My Mom had to convince me a few times. Well, you know how stubborn hearing impaired kids can be sometimes. If I had to choose out of these singles I heard up here, then I'd choose "Never Been To Spain". This Hoyt Axton song had the drums, the guitar and the world weary lyrics that really appealed to me. Three Dog Night would continue to keep going as the early '70s progressed.
-Bread-"If", "Baby I'm A Want You", "Diary", "Everything I Own": The voice of David Gates was the voice that opened doors for a lot of guys trying to start awkward conversations with girls back then. Bread won you points with them. Sadly, guys could not talk about them amongst themselves because you were considered some kind of sissy if you liked them. This is really too bad because this was a marvelous band. I never had that problem of having to keep my mouth shut about my like for them as I was in a basically isolated pattern anyway. Plus, I always was a little different in that I kept my openmindedness at the forefront of my sense of discovery. It would take for me to be an adult to learn that one of my favorite Monkees tunes, "Saturday's Child" was co-written by David Gates. If all of you recall, it was a rocker and not a ballad. It would also take me years to learn about why the late James Griffith was such an important element to this group. He was such a gifted guitar player. Bread would go on to make a song when I moved back to Santa Clara that would be a driving force in my life at the time.
-The Grateful Dead-"KC Jones", "Truckin"/Jerry Garcia-"Sugaree", "The Wheel": My first exposure to the music of The Grateful Dead and specifically Jerry Garcia came from 4 big ones. When I was a kid, I wasn't exposed to the crap that writers would later put into my head about the Dead and cause me to go on a very long and convoluted journey with them which would have its share of deep prejuduice and put-downs. But back then, I accepted The Grateful Dead with open arms. It was during a time when people were into the Dead because they loved the music. It was many years before the band became a franchise of sorts and the hanger's on and bad people got associated with the fandom. All of the later years bullshit was to be a continuing hinderance in my appreciation of the band.
What I can tell you though is that I think I am being fairly accurate in saying that I did hear Jerry Garcia's "Sugaree" and "The Wheel" being played on KEED at different odd hours. To this day (and I have not bothered to check official listings online), I am not sure that either were issued as singles. There were one or two djs at KEED who were big Dead fans. As a result, I honestly think they snuck in "Sugaree" and "The Wheel" when the station PD (program director) wasn't listening. I have to be perfectly honest here. I loved the two big singles from The Grateful Dead, but it was these two songs from Jerry Garcia's Jerry Garcia album which launched a brief fascination with Jerry before fate, circumstances and plain ol' bullshit got in the way.
This stuff was so different. It had a whole different feel to it. The pedal steel on "The Wheel" just floored me. Mind you, as a kid, I couldn't make heads or tails of what Jerry was driving at in the song. It didn't matter. His practically fragile voice (in a sense) and the music combined in a swirl that told me he was aiming for something.
I have to tell you that I still have to be in the right mmood to listen to The Grateful Dead or Jerry Garcia nowadays. When I listen to the Dead, I focus on Jerry and Phil Lesh. Though the conditions have to be right, I'm still glad that I have made my way through to listen to them when I do. I will write more about them as time goes on.
-The Chakachas-"Jungle Fever": O.k., this song made me blush. Even I could figure out that there was ex going on in this silly little ditty.
-Al Green-"Let's Stay Together: Oh brother! This is it, baby. This is truely one of the greatest Soul singles to ever be released and I was there to hear it when it first came out. It knocked me out cold. It did so repeatedly. Long live Al Green!
-Edison Lighthouse-"Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes"-Great pop. It's another one of those great early '70s singles that seemed to come out of nowhere, made its run, and then faded into obscurity. They used to do that back then.
-"Smile A Little Smile For Me, Rosemarie": I'm too lazy to go and see who did this wonderful little single, but I loved it.
-"Jaggerz-"The Rapper"-Another in a long line of singles that made their run and then faded out.
-Cher-"The Way of Love" "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves": I actually bought the album that these two singles came from. It's weird though. Everybody remembers the latter song, but nobody recalls that "The Way of Love" made a big run back then. It got really heavy airplay. I'm really surprised oldies stations don't play this one more often given the impact it had back then.
-"The Resurrection Shuffle"- I can't recall who first did this. It would later be covered many years down the line by Clarence Clemons on a solo album of his with JT Bowen.
-"I Love You More Today Than Yesterday"-I can't recall the band. This was another quick riser that I loved.
-Lobo-"Me and You and a Dog Named Boo"-This was a huge one back the day. You got to take roadtrip with Lobo as he described different parts of the U.S. as you experienced his adventures. Lobo would be big in the early part of my retunr to Santa Clara.
-Donovan-"Atlantis", "Sunshine Superman", "Hurdy Gurdy Man": "Atlantis" was a single which came out that was still charting when I moved up to Eugene. It really fascinated me. This whole idea of being down in the bottom of the sea was a new concept to me. But for pure hippiedom and my attempts at passing myself off as one, I got the greatest attitude from listening to the old '60's singles "Sunshine Superman" and "Hurdy Gurdy Man" being played on KEED. Little did I know that the heaviness I was getting from "Hurdy Gurdy Man" was being supplied by none other than Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones and John Bonham. Yea. You know. Those guys from Led Zeppelin.
-Agrissi or Adrissi Brothers (I can't remember which-it's my hearing)-"We've Got To Get It On Again": I really loved this song. To me, it was very dramatic. I still love hearing it to this day.
-Looking Glass-"Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)"-This one was a huge hit. I will always identify this song with driving around with my Dad in his truck when we were down in Santa Clara before we moved back down there. They would eventually come out with another single that I liked even more when I moved back.
-Manfred Mann-"Living Without You"(I think that's what this was titled.) This is a song I always identify with my brother Mike for some strange reason. I remember hearing this song on the way up to the Mt. Angel basketball tournament to see him play when he was still at St. Paul.
-Smokey Robinson & The Miracles-"Tears of a Clown"-It was this song which made me a fan of Smokey. He's the man who was given a voice which need not have to pass any inspection. He's the envy of many great singers of different stripes because he's got the falsetto pipes. You can take that to the bank.
-Janis Joplin-"Me and Bobby McGee"-Her last single was my first exposure to her. She would grow on me as the '70s progressed. I am just so sad that she's gone. I wish more people would have been around to help her fight her addictions. We could still use her combination of vulnerability and feistiness today.
-The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band-"Mr. Bojangles", "House At Pooh Corner": These were two huge singles back then. I had the "House At Pooh Corner" single and my brother John had the album from which both songs sprang. It was beautiful stuff. I also didn't know at the time that there was yet another Jackson Browne coinnection being made by way of "House At Pooh Corner".
-"Fruit of the Universe" (was that the title?): Who did this really weird song that used to kind of freak me out?
-Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flak-"Where Is The Love": This is a great duet and a song about having an affair. Well, I didn't know that being as I didn't understand about things like that yet. But I did identify with the feeling of emotion expressed though. Why don't people make songs like this anymore? They all seem so flaky nowadays- the ones where you have these superstar parings and they end up falling flat on their faces.
-Eric Burden & War-"Spill The Wine": This was a cool song that made me wish I could be among all of the women Burdon was singing about.
-War-"Slippin' Into Darkness": This is one of the best songs to come out from this '70-'72 period. My God! It had feeling. It had a musicality that killed me. Was was to continue to knock me out as time went on. This song had so many elements being put together in it. It made for an undeniable power. That's what you get when you make a combination of Soul, Funk and Latin rhythm and get that stew going.
-Olivia Newton-John-"If Not For You"-I could swear that her cover of the Bob Dylan song came out when I lived in Eugene the first time around. Back then, I didn't know she was covering Dylan. I thought she was covering George Harrsion because of my being exposed to the All Things Must Pass album so much back then.
-Neil Diamond-"Cracklin' Rosie", "I Am I Said", "Song Sung Blue": This is the period where Neil Diamond had another big emergence. Because of moving for my first time, "I Am I Said" struck me in a way that I didn't realize it was going to. "Song Sun Blue" just got so much airplay. I remember my Mom singing to it occasionally when we were driving around.
-Tommy James-"Draggin' The Line"-This was one of those special songs that set my attitude at the time in place. Like I said before for other songs, this was one of those which justified my feeling that I was a hippie-a very young one. Whenever I hear it now, I'm never embarrassed. It tells me that there's still one way deep inside me even though I've gotten a bit weathered.
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