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:: release info.
::
:: artist......> va
:: title.......> ultimate seventies 1975
:: label.......> n/a
:: genre.......> classic rock
:: rip.date....> 04.05.2003
:: street.date.> 2003
:: source......> cdda
:: quality.....> 192kbps - full stereo
:: encoder.....> lame 3.92
:: playtime....> 73:38 min
::
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:: release notes.
::
:: 1975
:: No stranger to No. 1 hits, Elton John had a spectacular
:: year in 1975. Two singles released in 1975 went to the
:: top of the charts (as had Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,
:: which was released at the end of 1974 but carried over
:: into the next year). Rocket, the label John owned, was
:: thriving, and he was touring in the biggest venues in
:: America. Everything Elton John and his songwriting
:: partner, Bernie Taupin, touched seemed to turn to gold.
::
:: Philadelphia Freedom was no exception. John was a big fan
:: of the fledgling World Tennis League and especially of
:: player-coach Billie Jean King's team, the Philadelphia
:: Freedoms. Whenever he could get a day off in the States,
:: John jetted into the City of Brotherly Love to watch the
:: matches. King, then at the peak of her game (and a media
:: darling almost on a level with John), presented him with
:: a custom-made Freedoms warm-up jacket; he paid her back
:: by writing a song for the team. And since it was a Philly
:: team, after all, how better to pay tribute than to bring
:: in former Philly International arranger-producer Thom
:: Bell and duplicate the Ken Gamble and Leon Huff sound
:: that was taking over the charts at the time?
::
:: Philadelphia Freedom was released as a novelty single.
:: Its B side had a live version of Elton and John Lennon
:: dueting on I Saw Her Standing There, recorded at Madison
:: Square Garden on Thanksgiving 1974. John had sung backup
:: on Lennon's Whatever Gets You Thru the Night in 1974, and
:: the ex-Beatle, then in the depths of an extended lost
:: weekend, played guitar under the name of Dr. Winston
:: O'Boogie on Elton's version of Lucy in the Sky with
:: Diamonds.
::
:: Following the autobiographical Captain Fantastic and the
:: Brown Dirt Cowboy, which yielded a No. 4 hit in Someone
:: Saved My Life Tonight, John replaced his old rhythm
:: section, expanded his band and entered studios in
:: Colorado (hence the title pun) to cut Rock of the
:: Westies. Like its predecessor, the album entered the
:: Billboard chart at No. 1--they were the first two albums
:: ever to do so. Island Girl then replaced Neil Sedaka's
:: Bad Blood at the top of the singles chart, and the irony
:: was that John had sung backup on Sedaka's hit, which had
:: been released on Rocket.
::
:: KC and the Sunshine Band were in the midst of a string of
:: No. 1 hits that brought to disco a languorous Florida
:: rhythm inspired by the "junkanoo" (steel-drum) bands of
:: the Bahamas. That's the Way (I Like It) was the second
:: chart topper in a row for the nine-man band headed by
:: pianist-singer Harry Casey and bassist Richard Finch,
:: co-writers and co-producers (and the only white members
:: of the group). As in nearly all their tunes, the lyrics
:: of the song consisted of a simple chant. According to
:: Casey, the original version offered little more than a
:: bunch of moaning and groaning over the characteristic
:: whistles, cowbells, steel drums and rhythm section. After
:: speculating about what his mother would think, Casey
:: cleaned up the song for the final take.
::
:: In 1975, disco was in full swing. The most popular dance
:: was the hustle, and journeyman writer-producer Van McCoy
:: jumped on the fad reluctantly. When New York City DJ
:: David Todd tried to talk him into checking out Adam's
:: Apple, a trendy New York club, McCoy sent a friend
:: instead. The friend returned to demonstrate the hustle to
:: McCoy, who was excited to see touch-dancing making a
:: comeback. Though McCoy had already finished his album, he
:: threw together a hustle track in an hour and called the
:: album Disco Baby. The Hustle went on to win a Grammy for
:: Best Pop Instrumental and proved to be the only hit for
:: McCoy, who died four years later.
::
:: LaBelle's Lady Marmalade, an ode to a Creole prostitute,
:: knocked Frankie Valli's My Eyes Adored You off the top of
:: the charts. But Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan weren't
:: complaining--they'd penned both singles; they became the
:: first writers, other than Lennon-McCartney and
:: Holland-Dozier-Holland, to replace themselves at the No.
:: 1 spot. The song had first been recorded in 1974 by the
:: Eleventh Hour, a studio group fronted by Nolan. With its
:: catchy French hook lyric, the song accented both
:: LaBelle's emerging glittery space-age image and New
:: Orleans producer Allen Toussaint's growing reputation as
:: a crossover hit-maker.
::
:: Pop Staples was reportedly upset about the sexual
:: innuendo behind Let's Do It Again, the Curtis Mayfield
:: title song to a blaxploitation film starring Bill Cosby
:: and Sidney Poitier. However, with Mayfield producing and
:: releasing the song on his own label, it became a top-40
:: hit for the Staple Singers, although they never reached
:: such heights again.
::
:: War's Why Can't We Be Friends? was the kind of topical
:: black single that nearly disappeared with the advent of
:: disco; its Caribbean accents made the band at least
:: distant cousins to KC and the Sunshine Band. Meanwhile,
:: the Average White Band (given its name by Bonnie Bramlett
:: when she and they played the Eric Clapton comeback
:: concert at London's Rainbow Theatre in 1973) was proving
:: that Casey, Finch and War's frontman, Lee Oskar, weren't
:: the only funky white boys around. Pick Up the Pieces,
:: which won a Grammy for the Scotsmen, rode disco's
:: coattail even if it owed as much stylistically to the
:: Crusaders and soul music.
::
:: The charts also had a distinctly Californian flavor.
:: You're No Good, a 1964 hit for the underrated Chicago
:: (via Mississippi) R&B shouter Betty Everett, launched
:: Linda Ronstadt's new sound. This sound was shaped by
:: Ronstadt's manager-producer Peter Asher and guitarist
:: Andrew Gold, who played most of the instruments on the
:: track when the studio band couldn't get it right. Black
:: Water, a salute to the Mississippi River, was originally
:: the B side of the Doobie Brothers' Another Park, Another
:: Sunday, but its theme and catchy a cappella section soon
:: had southern DJs playing the other side of the single.
:: With Sister Golden Hair, the Beatles' former producer,
:: George Martin, continued to pump life into America's
:: career, which had been sagging until he took over the
:: band's sessions the year before.
::
:: Finally, the year saw the successes of a one-hit wonder
:: from England and two bands of American working-class
:: heroes, one northern and one southern. How Long was Ace's
:: only hit, which came out of the British pub-rock scene.
:: Although the song sounds like a paean to lost love, it
:: was actually singer-keyboardist Paul Carrack's bitter
:: message to bassist Terry Comer, who temporarily crippled
:: the group by quitting to work with the Sutherland
:: Brothers and Quiver in 1973, just when things were
:: starting to look up for Ace. Nevertheless, Corner
:: returned to the fold in time to play on this song.
::
:: Grand Funk Railroad remade Some Kind of Wonderful, a 1967
:: regional hit for Soul Brothers Six in Detroit. Though it
:: had little impact elsewhere, the original remained so
:: influential in the motor City that its signature riff was
:: reworked into I Can't Get Next to You, a No. 1 record for
:: the Temptations in 1969, long before Grand Funk of Flint,
:: Michigan, made it into a pop smash themselves.
::
:: Free Bird first appeared on Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1973 debut
:: album as a tribute to Southern-rock hero Duane Allman,
:: who had died two years earlier. The song, an ideal
:: jamming vehicle for the band's three-guitar attack,
:: became, in turn, a concert favorite, a belated hit single
:: and a Southern-rock anthem.
::
:: But in 1977, the unthinkable happened. Ronnie Van Zant,
:: the band's charismatic writer and singer, was killed in a
:: plane crash, along with guitarist Steve Gaines, backup
:: singer Cassie Gaines and manager Dean Kilpatrick. The
:: remaining members dissolved the group. But the Rossington
:: Collins Band was formed in 1980 by four surviving members
:: of Lynyrd Skynyrd. The band ended its concerts with an
:: instrumental version of Free Bird that was a stirring
:: tribute to Van Zant and a fond farewell to Southern-rock
:: in general.
::
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:: track listing.
::
:: 01. linda ronstadt - you're no good
:: 02. ozark mountain daredevils - jackie blue
:: 03. kc & sunshine band - that's the way (i like it)
:: 04. j geils band - must of got lost
:: 05. war - why can't we be friends
:: 06. america - sister golden hair
:: 07. elton john - philadelphia freedom
:: 08. doobie brothers - black water
:: 09. linda ronstadt - love is a rose
:: 10. ace - how long
:: 11. orleans - dance with me
:: 12. lynyrd skynyrd - free bird
:: 13. joe cocker - you are so beautiful
:: 14. bad company - feel like makin' love
:: 15. labelle - lady marmalade
:: 16. average white band - pick up the pieces
:: 17. elton john - island girl
:: 18. grand funk - some kind of wonderful
:: 19. van mccoy - the hustle
:: 20. staple singers - let's do it again
::
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