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Song Of The Day – “Love On A Two Way Street” by Boz Scaggs

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BozScaggsMemphisBoz Scaggs has led a dual career over the years. On one hand, he’s been a master bluesman who cut his teeth recording with the likes of Steve Miller and Duane Allman, and then there’s the silky-smooth soul man who became a platinum- plated superstar during the late ‘70s. Fortunately for his fans, both sides of Scaggs are present on his essential new album, Memphis.

The record was recorded in three days at Royal Studios in Memphis, the hallowed ground where Willie Mitchell once worked with Al Green on his biggest hits. Matched with sympathetic backing from drummer Steve Jordan (who also produced), Ray Parker Jr. on guitar and Willie Weeks on bass, plus special guests including Spooner Oldham on keyboards and Lester Snell on string arrangements, Scaggs has delivered his best record since Silk Degrees.

The soul man is evident on well chosen covers like Tony Joe White’s classic “Rainy Night In Georgia,” Mink DeVille’s “Mixed Up Shook Up Girl,” Steely Dan’s Countdown To Ecstasy rarity, “Pearl Of The Quarter,” and today’s Song Of The Day, “Love On A Two-Way Street,” which was a hit for the Moments in 1970, and again for Stacy Lattisaw in 1981.

The album’s opener “Gone Baby Gone” sounds like a long-lost outtake from Silk Degrees, and along with the album’s closer “Sunny Gone,” is one of two originals here. And Scaggs would have been totally remiss if he’d gone all the way to Royal Studios and had not taken a shot at an Al Green cover. His superb version of Green’s “So Good To Be Here” features an equally superb string arrangement by Willie Mitchell.

Boz’s grittier side can be felt on his version of Mink DeVille’s “Cadillac Walk,” featuring a guitar part inspired by Buddy Miller, and also on “Dry Spell” with guests Keb’ Mo on guitar and Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica.  Elsewhere, Scaggs takes the blues standard “Corrina, Corrina” out for a leisurely stroll, and then kicks it up a notch on Jimmy Reed’s sinewy “You Got Me Cryin’” (featuring ace guitar work by Rick Vito).

In the hands of a less adept singer, this album wouldn’t be much more than musical comfort food for the baby boomer generation, but Scaggs brings something fresh and real to each song making this exceptional new record a must have.

Today in Rock History – October 29

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1965, The Rolling Stones kicked off their fourth 37-date North American tour at the Forum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

1965, The Who’s new single, “My Generation” backed with “Shout and Shimmy,” is released in the UK by Brunswick. Derek Johnson says in New Musical Express, “Analyse the ingredients for a hit and you’ll find them all in this disc. A storming, raving shake-beat, with crashing cymbals, raucous guitar, reverberating bass and hand-claps throughout – and that’s just the backing. The lyric is topical and loaded with teenage appeal, about the snooty approach of some adults to youngsters. Sung with verve, a strong blues feel and an occasional stuttering gimmick, with chanting supporting the soloist.” It reached number two in the UK, the Who’s highest charting single in their home country but only number 74 in America.

1966, ? & the Mysterians went to number one on the US singles chart with “96 Tears.” A number 37 hit in the UK, the song gave The Stranglers a UK number 17 hit in 1990.

1967, Cream played two shows at the Saville Theatre in London, England, billed as Sundays At The Saville. The Bee Gees were appearing the following week.

1967, During an American promotional tour, Pink Floyd appear on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. They lip-sync their single “See Emily Play,” but singer Syd Barrett keeps his mouth shut throughout the “performance.”

1969, King Crimson appear at Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont.

1970, The Who perform at the Hammersmith Palais, London.

1971, Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle on a Macon, Georgia street while trying to swerve to avoid a tractor-trailer. He was three weeks shy of his 25th birthday.

1972, Yes played at the Onondaga County War Memorial, Syracuse, New York.

1973, King Crimson appeared at Colston Hall, Bristol, England.

1974, David Bowie plays the second date of a four nights at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

1975, Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue play their first night at Memorial Auditorium in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1976, AC/DC performs at Town Hall, Birmingham, England.

1977, The Grateful Dead played at Evans Field house on the campus of Northern Illinois University.

1978, Aerosmith appears at Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, Texas.

1979, Eric Clapton appeared at Binyaney Ha’ooma, Jerusalem, Israel.

1980, ZZ Top played at the Pine Bluff Convention Center, Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

1981, Black Sabbath performed at Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford,New Jersey.

1983, “Islands In The Stream” gave Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers a number one song on the US singles chart. It was written by The Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry Gibb.

1983, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon had been on the Billboard albums chart for 491 weeks, establishing a new record for longest-listed album.

1984, American drummer Wells Kelly from Orleans and Meat Loaf died age 45 after choking to death on his vomit. He had the 1976 US hit singles with Orleans, “Still The One” and “Dance with Me.”

1987, Decades, Rolling Stones Ron Wood’s first ever British art exhibition opened in London, featuring portraits of friends and rock stars from the past 20 years.

1987, David Bowie played the first night of his 15-date Glass Spider Tour in Australia and New Zealand at the Boondall Entertainment Centre in Brisbane.

1988, Dire Straits notched their fourth UK chart topping album with Money For Nothing, a greatest hits album featuring material from their first five discs. It was also number one in France and Switzerland, but only number 62 in the US.

1996, Manchester band The Stone Roses split up. Singer Ian Brown said “having spent the last ten years in the filthiest business in the universe, it’s a pleasure to announce the end of The Stone Roses.”

2000, Limp Bizkit started a two-week run at number one on the US album chart with Chocolate Starfish.

2001, U2 performed for the first time on The Late Show with David Letterman, live from New York City.

2005, A set of waxwork heads of The Beatles from their Sgt Pepper’s album cover sold for £81,500 ($130,400.) The “pepperheads” were auctioned off after recently being discovered in a back room at London’s Madame Tussauds. They were used in 1967 by artist Sir Peter Blake in the backdrop of the album, with the actual Beatles posing at the front.

2009, Forbes Magazine reported that Michael Jackson had earned about 72 million dollars (£45 million) since his death on June 25th. That was good enough for third place on their list of dead celebrities making the most money. Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent came in first at $350 (£219 )million, songwriters Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein were second with $235 (£147 )million and Elvis Presley was fourth, earning $55 (£34.4) million.

2013, John Lennon’s first home, in Liverpool, was sold for £480,000 ($300,000) at an auction held at the Cavern Club. The red brick terrace at 9 Newcastle Road, Wavertree, was where Lennon lived from birth in 1940, until he was five. The property has a rear yard and is a few streets away from Penny Lane, made famous by The Beatles.

Born on October 29: Denny Laine, Moody Blues, Wings (1944);  Mick Gallagher, keyboards, songwriter The Animals, Ian Drury & The Blockheads (1945); Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac (1946); Ricky Reynolds, Black Oak Arkansas (1948); David Paton, guitarist, The Alan Parsons Project,  Bay City Rollers (1949); James Williamson, guitarist, songwriter, producer, The Stooges (1949); Kevin DuBrow, singer, Quiet Riot (1955); Roger O’Donnell, keyboards, The Cure (1955); Einar Örn Benediktsson,  singer, trumpet, The Sugarcubes (1962); Peter Timmins, Cowboy Junkies (1965); Chris Baio, Vampire Weekend (1984)

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Song Of The Day – “Push Push” by Herbie Mann

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herbiemannHerbie Mann was already ten years into a career that established him as a purveyor of Afro Cuban Jazz, Latin Jazz and Bossa Nova music by 1971 and the release of his album Push Push.

Mann had released albums for Bethlehem, Prestige, Epic, Verve and Savoy, before signing with Atlantic Records in 1962 where he would release numerous records over the next eight years that established him as the premiere flautist in all of jazz. While at Atlantic, Mann worked with a whole host of influential percussionists and instrumentalists like Ray Barretto, Michael Olatunji, Sergio Mendes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Bill Evans and Chick Corea, while stretching the very boundaries of Jazz to include elements of world music.

By the late ‘60s, influences from the soul and rock scene began to seep into Mann’s repertoire and he went down south to Memphis to record with producer Tom Dowd and the folks at Stax Records. In 1970, Mann founded his own Embryo Record label (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records by way of Cotillion Records) as an outlet for him to release his own albums and those of artists he felt were worthy.

Today’s Song Of the Day is the title track from Mann’s second Embryo release, Push Push. Once you get past the creepy and somewhat offensive cover image (I guess this passed for sexy back in 1971), and the raised velvet image of a copulating couple on the inside of the gatefold, you were treated to one of the premiere jazz rock recordings of all time.

For one,  Mann’s backing group included some of the greatest jazz and soul session men of the time, including Cornell Dupree and David Spinozza on guitar, Richard Tee on piano and organ, Chuck Rainey, Jerry Jemmott and Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass, Bernard Purdie and Al Jackson, Jr. on drums and Ralph MacDonald on percussion. And, with the exception of one track, all of the guitar solos were played by Duane Allman, in what was his last session.

The album includes several Mann originals, including the title track, plus covers of Aretha Franklin’s “Spirit In The Dark, “ Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On ,” Ray Charles’ “What I’d Say,” Bread’s “If” and the Jackson Five’s “Never Can Say Goodbye.”

To show you where Mann’s head was at, in the inner gatefold he plainly states that “Marvin Gaye’s album What’s Going On is the best album of the year!!” Even back then, they already knew what they had.

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed” by The Allman Brothers Band

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The studio version of this Dickie Betts original appeared on their 1970 album “Idlewild South.” The title of the song was inspired by a headstone Betts had seen while hanging out at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia…the very same cemetery that provides the final resting place of both Duane Allman and Berry Oakley. By the time of the Fillmore East shows that made up their classic 1971 live album, “Reed” had already become a concert staple featuring the dual guitar soloing of Betts and Duane Allman. It is also the place where Southern Rock meets Jazz Fusion. This clip features the classic 1970 incarnation of the Brothers with Duane Allman, Greg Allman, Dickie Betts, Butch Trucks, Jai Johanny Johanson and Berry Oakley.

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – The Jukebox Series #100 – The Allman Brothers Band: “Melissa” b/w “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” Capricorn CPR-003

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Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – The Jukebox Series #100 – The Allman Brothers Band: “Melissa” b/w “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” Capricorn CPR-003

Out of a period of tumult and disaster came the ultimate prize: utter greatness…

By 1971, The Allman Brothers Band were feeling the first blushes of success after having released two studio albums that went nowhere and a live album recorded at The Fillmore which broke the band big. As a result, several members of the band including Duane Allman and Berry Oakley found themselves very rich and very addicted to heroin.

The band began recording their next studio album cutting tracks for “Blue Sky,” “Stand Back” and “Little Martha” at Criteria Studios in Florida before a stint in rehab became necessary for Berry, Allman and a few of the group’s roadies. Unfortunately, tragedy struck the day after Allman checked himself out of rehab on October 29th, 1971 when he was involved in a fatal motorcycle accident back home in Macon, Georgia. Not only did Allman’s death call the new record into question, but the fate of group’s survival also became questionable.

The band decided to carry on by doing what they did best, heading back out on the road. During the stint on the road, Dickie Betts took on the role of lead guitarist and group leader before the group headed back into the studio in December of 1971 to finish work on their next album. The album, Eat A Peach was a double that was half studio recordings and half live recordings featuring the last recorded performances of Duane Allman. The album also included both songs from today’s jukebox single.

“Melissa” was originally recorded in 1968 by one of Gregg and Duane’s early bands called 31st Of February (which also included Butch Trucks, Scott Boyer and David Brown). Their demo recording featured Duane’s first use of bottleneck slide guitar on record, however after committing it to tape; Gregg sold the rights to the song to producer Steve Alaimo for $250, the price for an airline ticket from Los Angeles back home to Macon, Georgia.

Gregg Allman on “Melissa”: “I wrote that song in 1967 in a place called the Evergreen Hotel in Pensacola, Florida. By that time I got so sick of playing other people’s material that I just sat down and said, ‘OK, here we go. One, two, three – we’re going to try to write songs.’ And about 200 songs later – much garbage to take out – I wrote this song called ‘Melissa.’ And I had everything but the title. I thought (referring to lyrics): ‘But back home, we always run… to sweet Barbara’ – no. Diane…? We always run… to sweet Bertha.’ No, so I just kind of put it away for a while. So one night I was in the grocery… and there was this Spanish lady there and she had this little toddler with her – this little girl. And I’m sitting there, getting a few things and what have you. And this little girl takes off, running down the aisle. And the lady yells, Oh, Melissa! Melissa, come back, Melissa!’ And I went, ‘Oh – that’s it.’ I forgot about half the stuff I went for, I went back home and, man, it was finished, only I couldn’t really tell if it was worth a damn or not because I’d written so many bad ones. So I didn’t really show it to anybody for about a year. And then I was the last one to get to Jacksonville – I was the last one to join the band that became the Allman Brothers. And my brother sometimes late at night after dinner, he’d say, ‘Man, go get your guitar and play me that song – that song about that girl.’ And I’d play it for him every now and then. After my brother’s accident, we had 3 vinyl sides done of Peach, so I thought well we’ll do that, and then on the way down there I wrote “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More.” I wrote that for my brother. We were all in pretty bad shape. I had just gotten back from Jamaica and I was weighing at about 156, 6-foot-1-and-a-half – I was pretty skinny. So we went back down there, got in the studio and finished the record. And the damn thing shipped gold.” (San Luis Obispo Tribune 11-30-06 via Songfacts.com)

The song was performed by Gregg at Duane’s funeral since it was one of Duane’s favorite songs. It was also one of the first songs recorded by The Allman Brothers Band after Duane’s death. The group’s manager, Phil Walden ultimately bought back the rights to the song before the group committed it to tape for Eat A Peach.

The flip of today’s single is the reason it was chosen for the jukebox. “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” is the consummate southern rocker and the opening track to the Eat A Peach album. The music was composed by Gregg Allman before his brother’s accident, while the lyrics, dealing with Duane’s passing and veterans coming home from the Vietnam War, were written immediately following his death. Much of the song was composed on a 110-year-old Steinway piano in Studio D of Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida.

The Eat A Peach album ultimately rose to the #4 position on the album charts upon its release in 1972. The Allman Brothers Band lineup at the time was the classic lineup of Duane Allman on guitar, Dickie Betts on lead guitar, Gregg Allman on vocals and piano, Berry Oakley on bass, Jai Johanny Johanson on drums and Butch Trucks on drums.

The title for the Eat A Peach album came from a quote by Duane Allman who was asked by a reporter what he was doing to help the revolution: “I’m hitting a lick for peace — and every time I’m in Georgia, I eat a peach for peace. But you can’t help the revolution, because there’s just evolution. I understand the need for a lot of changes in the country, but I believe that as soon as everybody can just see a little bit better, and get a little hipper to what’s going on, they’re going to change it. Everybody will — not just the young people. Everybody is going to say, ‘Man, this stinks. I cannot tolerate the smell of this thing anymore. Let’s eliminate it and get straight with ourselves.’ I believe if everybody does it for themselves, it’ll take care of itself.” (Wikipedia)

Today, The Allman Brothers Band still exist and still perform their annual residency at The Beacon Theater in New York City. However, this year Greg Allman dropped out of the last few shows due to illness.

#100! “The Jukebox Series” focused on the 80 records that currently inhabit my 1963 Seeburg LPC1 jukebox. I’ve had my jukebox (or as I like to call it “the prehistoric iPod”) for a little over twelve years and in that time I’d like to think that I’ve perfected the mix of 45s within. Over the years, records have come and gone out of the ranks of the juke, but they were all at one time juke-worthy. I’ve decided to expand “The Jukebox Series” to include many of the “juke-worthy” records that are no longer currently in the mix, but at one time inhabited a coveted slot.