Tag: 1970s

Barbara Mandrell | The Midnight Oil

“The most important thing to understand about Barbara Mandrell is that she was a musical prodigy,” (UDiscoverMusic). “Prodigy is, after all, the term most people would use to describe an 11-year-old who played pedal steel guitar (hardly a forgiving instrument) alongside adult professional musicians. Within a few years, she was joining Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline onstage to flaunt her skills.

Mandrell’s musical ability tends to get ignored because of just how commercially successful she was in the 1970s and 1980s, making songs that decidedly leaned toward the pop side of the country-pop spectrum … Her skill and casual, agile voice made it easy for Mandrell to dabble in several different pop styles. But she never abandoned playing music … she played not just pedal steel, but banjo, dobro, mandolin, and even saxophone. In light of that versatility and her seemingly unstoppable run of hit songs, it’s no surprise that she became the first artist to win the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year award in back-to-back years.”

Her 1973 release, “Midnight Oil,” was “a liberated woman’s anthem – not only is the narrator in this Barbara Mandrell song working late instead of running home to her beau, but she’s also actually lying about working late to continue a torrid workplace affair. A gentle, almost folksy instrumental backs Mandrell as she croons some (fairly risqué) sweet nothings to her unsuspecting partner. The song was a hit on the country charts …” An early half-step modulation hits as the second verse begins at 0:51. Many thanks to Rob P. for yet another great submission!

The Eagles | The Last Resort

“The Eagles achieved stratospheric success in the 1970s, effectively bridging the country rock and soft rock styles that were popular in the early 1970s,” (Aphoristic Album Reviews). “Songwriting team Don Henley and Glenn Frey pumped out a ton of popular singles, and their Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) is one of the highest-selling albums of all time.”

In Rolling Stone, the group’s lead vocalist and drummer Don Henley reflects: “‘The Last Resort’, on Hotel California (1976), is still one of my favorite songs… That’s because I care more about the environment than about writing songs about drugs or love affairs or excesses of any kind. The gist of the song was that when we find something good, we destroy it by our presence — by the very fact that man is the only animal on earth that is capable of destroying his environment … ‘ The song begins in Providence, Rhode Island, and goes all the way across America, wrapping up in the Hawaiian town of Lahaina. Along the way, it chronicles how Americans have exploited and destroyed their own land. ‘We satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds,’ Henley sings. ‘In the name of destiny and the name of God.'”

After a gentle solo piano starts the tune in E major, the track gradually grows in intensity over time. At 3:24, an instrumental bridge starts with a shift upwards to G major before the the next verse begins.

Many thanks to our devoted reader Scott R. for this submission — his first!

The Grateful Dead | China Cat Sunflower

“Deadhead or not, you have to respect any band that had the impact on popular culture that the Grateful Dead did,” (American Songwriter). “Even though several of the founding members, including Jerry Garcia, died long ago, the interest in the band continues, and you can still hear and see their influence in the music of jam bands like Phish and Widespread Panic.”

Most of the band’s classics are songs for which Robert Hunter wrote the lyrics “like ‘Truckin’’ and ‘Friend of the Devil.’ Even 1987’s ‘Touch of Grey’ became part of the fabric of life for so many counter-culturalists, some of whom actually were grey by the time “Touch of Grey” was recorded. One of Hunter’s most abstruse pieces, which became a staple of the Grateful Dead’s legendary hours-long concerts, was ‘China Cat Sunflower.’ It was recorded for the band’s 1969 studio album Aoxomoxoa, and later released on the live Europe ’72 triple album set in a mash-up with the old blues number ‘I Know You Rider.’ The two songs segued together perfectly, and the Grateful Dead performed the combination well over 500 times in live performances.”

Starting out in G major, the tune shifts up to E mixolydian at 2:08 before returning to G major at 2:50. At 3:18, a long instrumental outro in D major closes out the track.

Tom T. Hall | I Love

“’Songwriters aren’t good songwriters,’ Tom T. Hall once said,” (HollerCountry). “‘People are good songwriters. You sit down as a person and write a song. If you’ve written a song by the time you stand back up, you’re a songwriter. But the person comes first.’

One of Hall’s simplest songs, ‘I Love,’ went on to be the most successful solo single of his career. The song is a softly sung, heart-warming list of everything that Hall loves about life, from baby ducks to pick-up trucks, squirrels to puppies, written in five minutes and recorded in two takes. ‘I invested a total of nine minutes into it, and it sold more than a million copies and was used in a Coors Light commercial.'” It was released in October 1973 “as the only single from the album For the People in the Last Hard Town,” (Billboard). “The song would be Hall’s most successful single and was his fourth number one on the US country singles chart, spending two weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on the chart.”

Starting in F major, the tune shifts up a half step at 1:58 to F# major. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this track!

Jigsaw | Sky High

“Sky High” (1975) by UK band Jigsaw was recorded for the film The Man from Hong Kong. A global hit, it reached UK Top 10, #2 on the Japanese charts (where it remained for three years!), #3 in Australia, #3 on the on the Billboard Hot 100, and #8 on the US Adult Contemporary chart. As the video makes clear, the band didn’t shy away from kitsch; its short-lived life on the charts was likely further boosted by the novelty of a drummer (Des Dyer) on lead vocals.

“… this band had been around since the late 60s and had released four albums before this single came out,” (7 Inches of 70s Pop). “… they throw everything at you: a full orchestra complete with swirling strings, quick horn stabs to provide some tension, even some rolling tympani to start it off.” To say nothing of the soaring french horn line (2:29) as the track fades! However, the orchestra is nowhere in evidence for this performance, which is actually the studio version on playback.

Beginning in B minor, the track transitions to B major for its chorus (initially at 0:46). at 1:22, the B minor intro repeats in advance of the next verse; the pattern continues from there.

The Band | Stage Fright

After a wait of too many years, MotD is happy to finally feature a tune by a legendary band whose name likely created more than a few promotion challenges: “After many tours of duty backing the rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins and providing the muscle behind Bob Dylan’s move towards electric rock, the four Canadians and one Arkansan comprising the Band were pedigreed to a legendary extent even before making their first album,” (Pitchfork). “By the time they issued the twinned masterpieces Music From Big Pink in 1968 and The Band in 1969, their polymathic command of multiple genres, and self-conscious embrace of traditional American folk, country, bluegrass, and zydeco had established them as the thinking fan’s alternative to the diminishing returns of psychedelia and the counterculture … For critics, audiences and no-lesser peers than the Beatles, they had come to represent authenticity personified. So. How do you follow that up?

The answer came in the form of Stage Fright (1970), a charming, loose-limbed collection that elides the chore of living up to the previous records by basically not even trying. If their first two LPs inspired the Beatles and Stones to return to basics, Stage Fright connotes an entirely different sphere of influence: it’s a nonpareil boogie album, whose in-the-pocket playing establishes the Band as the equal of groovemaster peers like Booker T. and the Meters and sets a predicate for followers like Little Feat and NRBQ … What Stage Fright lacks in history lessons it makes up for in palpable joy. They would never seem so happy again.”

The album’s title track shows off the group’s unique songwriting sense; at times it’s often difficult to predict what might be coming next in terms of either overall form or harmonic progressions. G major holds sway overall, but between 1:47 and 2:41, there’s a clear shift in emphasis to the tune’s relative minor, E minor.

Boney M. | Brown Girl in the Ring

“Brown Girl in the Ring” is a traditional Jamaican children’s song that became an international recognized when it was recorded by the Euro-Caribbean group Boney M. in 1978. The track was originally released as the B-side to “Rivers of Babylon,” (the group’s #1 hit at the time) but crept its way up the charts and spent nine weeks in the UK Top 10.

The disco and reggae-infused tune begins in Db and modulates up to D at 2:19.

Chicago | Just You ‘n’ Me

The second single released from Chicago VI (1973), “Just You ‘n’ Me” climbed to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track “was written after a fight between Pankow and his future wife Karen: ‘We had had a huge fight, it was a nasty lovers’ quarrel, if you will. She locked herself in the bathroom and wouldn’t come out…Just You ‘n’ Me poured out of me in its entirety. Usually when I write songs, I come up with an idea for a chorus or a hook and fill in the blanks in stages. This was a moment of clarity I’ve never experienced before or after. It remains a special event in my songwriting experience,'” (Billboard).

“Just You ‘n’ Me” was the final song played by Chicago AM radio station WLS (known as “the Rock of Chicago”) before it changed to a talk radio format in 1989 (WLSHistory.com).

The track starts in Bb major, with the band’s famous brass section playing a strong role from the first measures. 1:04 brings a shift to Ab major before a swaggering brass break brings Bb major back at 1:33. A calmer instrumental break section starts at 2:00, this time in D minor, featuring solo soprano saxophone and keyboards. At 2:40, there’s a shift to the original Bb as the backup vocals return, leading back to a very overdue second verse and a surprising unresolved ending.

Tanya Tucker | Delta Dawn

Written by Larry Collins and Alex Harvey, “Delta Dawn” was first recorded by Bette Midler in 1971 and featured on her first studio album, The Divine Miss M. Country singer Tanya Tucker released her own cover the following year.

Tucker’s version differs from others by starting with a the chorus, sung a cappella, before continuing onto the first verse. The tune starts in Bb and modulates up to C at 1:16. Thanks to contributor Leah Pye for this submission!

Tony Orlando + Dawn | Knock Three Times

“L. Russell Brown, one of the two songwriters behind ‘Knock Three Times,’ grew up in a Newark housing project,” (Stereogum). “There was one phone in his building, so when someone in his family got a call, his downstairs neighbors would bang on a radiator … Brown and his songwriting partner Irwin Levine made that into a song. Tony Orlando was another New Jersey guy. He’d started out singing doo-wop as a teenager in the late ’50s, and he scored a couple of minor hits in the early ’60s. From there, he became a Brill Building songwriter and, eventually, a record executive. He signed Barry Manilow and co-wrote a few songs with him.”

Orlando was unexpectedly pressed into service as a vocalist, saw success, began working with “Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson, two backup singers who’d worked for Motown and Stax and whom Orlando had gotten to know from working with Manilow,” using the collective stage name Dawn. “Dawn eventually became Dawn featuring Tony Orlando, and then Tony Orlando and Dawn, and that’s the version that eventually got a mid-’70s variety show on CBS.”

“Knock Three Times” modulates up a half-step at 1:59 with a partial instrumental verse; the strings and brass battle it out for the title of highest state of cheesiness. The single was a worldwide smash, hitting top 5 in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, much of Europe, and Canada. It also reached #1 on both the US pop and easy listening charts — but during this era it wasn’t entirely unheard of for octogenarians to hit the dance floor for tunes that also climbed to the highest reaches of the pop charts.