“Handcuffs” by Parliament from Mothership Connection [1975]

The night before Valentine’s Day… Tonight is the night to get your groove on, people. Maybe use some handcuffs?

(For the record, this song came up randomly as the song of the day.)

“You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)” by The Dickies from The Incredible Shrinking Dickies [1979]

L.A. punk at its goofiest. 

“Know” by Nick Drake from Pink Moon [1971]

The best book I read over my winter break was Joe Boyd’s White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. Boyd started out as an ambitious young music fan with an adventurous streak that took him around the American South, to Newport, and to Europe. As his career peaked near the end of the Sixties, Boyd produced Pink Floyd’s debut single, albums for the Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention, and Vasthi Bunyan’s most noteworthy album Just Another Diamond Day. 

Of all the great musicians he worked with, none were as intriguing or multi-talented as Nick Drake. Drake could play complex guitar licks and sing in pitch without ever missing a pluck. But his severely introverted personality, his utter inability to interact with almost anyone, kept him from supporting his early albums with live tours. When it came time to record his third album Pink Moon, Drake somehow found the courage to challenge his supporting group at Island Records, including Boyd, to let him record his songs without the backing arrangements that had supported his playing on Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter. No strings, no pianos, no percussion. Just Nick and his guitar. The song “Know” is exemplary. 

See Boyd’s great book for a much more personal account of the recording sessions and of Nick’s lonely final days.

“I’m a Truck” by Red Simpson from I’m a Truck [1971]

Country music produced some great songs about trucking and about driving in general. But is this when country started to become a self-parody? I just feel like Red took the song far too seriously for its lyrics.

“We Don’t Care” by Manfred Hübler & Siegfried Schwab from Vampyros Lesbos Sexadelic Dance Party (Soundtrack to Vampyros Lesbos) [1970]

David Axelrod met Barbarella in the score of Vampyros Lesbos, a sexy European exploitation film about female vampires. Soft gore with soft core, said one critic of the 1971 cult classic. The soundtrack by Manfred Hübler and Siegfried Schwab (recording under the name Vampires’ Sound Incorporation) itself became a cult classic, enough to earn the CD reissue I found. Have a listen above. Watch the (NSFW) film trailer here (worse quality but with English subtitles here). Read more and find a few links here (also the source of the paraphrase above).

“You Can Get It If You Really Want” by Jimmy Cliff [1972]

The soundtrack to The Harder They Come opened with such an optimistic, encouraging song that its resulting popularity now appears as self destiny. The modern production values of Jimmy Cliff’s songs—getting people to feel like they were listening to contemporary soul music—further eased an American audience into a full-out reggae album. In Jamaica and the UK, the song already had a strong history. Desmond Dekker released his fantastic recording in 1970 and saw it climb to #2 in the Britain.

The song is still powerful. Music History listeners, whatever it is that you’re after, this song will put you in the right mindset. Go get it!

“Nature’s Way” by Spirit [1970]

For one of my classes, I am currently reading the book that is credited with initiating the entire conservation (and later environmental) movements. Man and Nature by George Perkins Marsh, originally published in 1864, made issues of deforestation, desertification, and the loss of species variety explicit topics of debate for the first time. 

Fast-forward a century. Two books published the 1960s, Silent Spring and The Population Bomb, reignited popular fears about the impact of humans on their planet. Moreover, by the end of the decade images of Earth beamed back from the Apollo missions began to put humans and human history into finite perspective. 

Spirit’s song “Nature’s Way,” from their 1970 album The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus,  expresses the feel of the era.

“Paranoia” by Wanda Robinson [1973]

An Exploration of Music and Poetry, Day 19: Unheralded

The Last Poets became a reference point in American culture in large part because their debut album was a surprise hit. Lots of people heard it and a fair number of reviews were written at the time. Other artists who were just as much a part of the black civil rights scene remained more obscure. See: Wanda Robinson. Though her first album of jazz poetry charted on the Black Albums chart, her poetry was subtler and less confrontational than that of The Last Poets, and her name quickly faded.

A short bio (from here):

[Robinson] recorded two spoken-word albums, 1971’s Black Ivory and a 1973 follow-up, Me and a Friend. Both were released by New York label Perception Records, whose roster included Shirley Horn, the Fatback Band, Dizzy Gillespie during his funk period, Astrud Gilberto, and Baha’i saxophonist James Moody. When Black Ivory was released, it made Billboard Black Albums chart, peaking at No. 29.

Robinson was a contemporary of the Last Poets and Maya Angelou, and she seemed poised to follow the same career trajectory. But she virtually disappeared after recording Black Ivory, fed up with show business and no longer willing to offer the world her words for what she calls “less than chump change.” She left the record business, worked at various odd jobs, and continued to write. In 1972, she shaved her head and changed her name to Laini Mataka. A year later, her second album was put out by Perception—but without her involvement.

Read more about Laini Mataka

I posted “Paranoia,” from her second album, as much so we can all hear the arrival of soul-jazz and fusion in the early ’70s as for Robinson’s poetry itself. Music had changed significantly since the folk-style settings of civil rights poetry of the ’60s.

“Black Is Chant / Black Is” by The Last Poets [1971]

An Exploration of Music and Poetry, Day 18: Black Is

The late ’60s saw the a major change in the way African-Americans pursued rights, equality, respect, and social change. Although the seeds had been sewn before 1968, Martin Luther King’s assassination catalyzed the transition from the peace-driven Civil Rights era into the more expressive—and in some cases more violent—Black Power era. Drawing on Malcolm X’s ideas of black nationalism and separatism, Black Power paralleled the rise of the phrase “Black is beautiful.” The movement offered an alternative to mainstream media and advertising, which were perceived to imply that whites were more beautiful.

Formed in Harlem in 1968, The Last Poets rhymed about black nationalism, violence, music, and revolution. Their self-titled debut album struck a chord with American Blacks, hitting #3 on the Billboard’s Black Album chart in 1970. “Black Is,” from the group’s 1971 second album, hits on every major theme I want to point out. For all intents and purposes, it is rap music, even if calling it such is anachronistic. The rhymes hit on revolution, racial relations, skin color, “black is beautiful,” and especially music. Listen to the way John Coltrane’s music gets wrapped into racial violence:

Black is digging John Coltrane,
John Coltrane as he blows, no not as he blows, but as he tells you of his life, which is the people’s life, which is all our lives, Blow Trane Blow! 
Listen black people, listen to Trane as he blows away your life, just like white people blow away your life everyday.

This is high art on so many levels.

“A Front Row Seat to See Ole Johnny Sing” by Shel Silverstein [1971]

An Exploration of Music and Poetry, Day 17: Dual Talents

Shel Silverstein had far too many talents. From cartoons to poetry to music, he succeeded at them all. This song doesn’t mix music and poetry (unless its basic country lyrical structure counts for you), but it celebrates his ties to country music, Johnny Cash in particular.