As a kid in the 1960s-early 70's listening to WRIG & WIFC and pestering the DJs with requests and telling them that they were playing the wrong songs, I really couldnt have envisioned working in that business for nearly 40 years and spending many of those years working at those stations. I can't remember when I dec...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago.... The only "new" Christmas album I could find from 1972 was this one from "The Man In Black". He and his family, touring band and several notable guests deliver an album of mostly original holiday material along with old standbyes "Jingle...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... Maybe the oddest thing about the hit double LP "Made In Japan" from the band Deep Purple is the fact that they didnt even want to record it and then when it was recorded didn't really care if it got released. Many fans had recorded bootleg tapes of t...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... This is one of those LPs that nobody in Central Wisconsin heard at the time. No one was really playing jazz records here. Even ones as funky as this. You may not know the name Bernard "Pretty" Purdie but I guarantee you have heard him play. He was Ar...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... The New Riders of The Purple Sage were prolific if nothing else. "Gypsy Cowboy" was the second Lp of the year and their 3rd in 15 months. As in most cases of that much material being needed, some is weaker than most. The best tracks on the Lp are a s...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago.... Our final batch of hit singles from 1972 Trouble Man-Marvin Gaye From the soundtrack of the blaxploitation film of the same name. Gaye plays drums and piano on the track and sings all the vocals. It wen to #7 on the Billboard chart. They certainly didn't spend ...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago...... There was no shortage of singer-songwriters in 1972. There were alot crowding the top of the mountain. Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carole King, Neil Young, Cat Stevens and on and on. One new voice appeared in late 72 when Joan Armatrading's first LP, "W...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago...... As much as I enjoy the funkiness of "Pleasure", the 3rd LP from the Ohio Players, it's the jazziness of this record that stands out for me. Moys of the songs have sort of jazz edge to them, most of which comes from the creative keyboard work of Walt...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... It shoulda been better. Combine two parts Mountain and one part Cream and you should have had a power trio that delivered an album that hit differently. "Why Dontcha" from West, Bruce & Laing is not that album. Yeah, you get Leslie West's solid g...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... As he continued recuperating from being pushed off a stage in Europe and suffering a mind numbing array of serious injuries, Frank Zappa continued to write a series of mostly instrumental albums that tempered his weirder inclinations for more serious musical p...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... Despite changing lead vocalists following their first LP (they would do it again after this one), the Illinois band REO Speedwagon continued to hone their sound as a solid guitar-organ based rock & roll band with few frills. REO 2 featured some of the song...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... I heard the title of this blog used to describe the music on "The Worrl Is A Ghetto", the fifth album from the group War, and thought it was a pretty good description. Ranging from jazz to funk to latin to the kind of progressive soul that had been p...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago...... He made a living writing songs about the wrong side of life. The destitute, the addicted and booze riddled souls who might live another day but then again might not. He also wrote about the loss of love and the search for it as well. So when Kris Kristofferso...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... When he formed a new group in 1972 we didn't realize that Edgar Win ter was bringing together what we would later recognize as a budding "supergroup". Dan Hartman, Ronnie Montrose and, at least on this album, Rick Derringer, came together to create t...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... This is one you might have missed. "Old Dan's Records", the ninth LP from Gordon Lightfoot, is kinda just there in the middle of his discography. You might have heard the title track as it was included on 'Gord's Gold" which most fans gobbled up...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago.... It's a bit ironic that on an album called "No Secrets" there should be a secret that Carly Simon kept for decades. Of course, that would be the identity of the self-absorbed "hero' of the song 'You're So Vain". She has admitted in recent yea...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... As we said with Carole King in her battle to follow up "Tapestry", it's not easy to do it again. As Don McLean found out in 1972 with the release of the self-titled followup to 'American Pie". That it's not another American Pie should be obvious...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... When the 4th studio LP for the country-rock pioneers known as Poco did not do well, it showed Richie Furay that the band he formed after the breakup of Buffalo Springfield didn't have the kind of future that he thought it did...he would leave after the next LP...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... As probably my favorite band of the 1970's, you know I'm gonna give a good review to "Can't Buy A Thrill" from Steely Dan. The bands debut features many things we would not hear in later albums. David Palmer sings a pretty lead on two tracks before e...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... Even though constant touring and heavy drinking had ravaged a once beautiful voice, Joe Cocker still delivers a solid follow-up to the classic "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" LP with his second self-title album, 1972's "Joe Cocker". It's a piano-...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... Back in the 60's and early 70's albums were expensive as compared to what you might have been making at your part-time job. Singles were alot cheaper so you bought the hits on the little records with the big holes. By doing that you might have missed some real...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... Prog music was all the rage across the pond in 1972. ELP, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd and dozens of other bands were working the genre including a band from Oldham called Barclay James Harvest who released their fourth LP, "Baby James Harvest" in late '...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... For their 2nd album, "Fresh", the Raspberries gave us even more glistening power pop than they had on their sparkling debut. The Ohio based band could have easily been transported from Liverpool circa 1965. They had listened to their Beatles records ...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... Perhaps no artist of that time (or any other time for that matter) delivered material that was a better melding of heart and mind (or heart and brain, if you will) than Joni Mitchell. Her 1972 LP "For The Roses" saw an artist in transition between th...

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago..... There are some who consider this album a classic. They say it belongs in the hard-rock and prog pantheon. There are others who say it's an overwrought mess that has some high moments but too many misses as well. The album is the second release in 1972 for the ...