1970s
THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND A&R Studios: New York 26th August 1971 Leftfield Media CD
Less than six months after
recording one of the definitive live albums
of the ’70s in At Fillmore East, the
Allmans found themselves playing in front of a small invited audience at New York’s A&R Studios which was simultaneously broadcast on local radio station WPLJ. Not only does this radio broadcast feature the original line-up of the band, including Duane Allman and Berry Oakley who were to both die in motorcycle accidents almost exactly a year apart, it also features essentially the same set list as At Fillmore East including the band’s classic readings of Blind Willie McTell’s ‘Statesboro Blues’ and T Bone Walker’s ‘Stormy Monday’ alongside the evergreen Allmans originals ‘In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed’ and ‘Hot ‘Lanta’, with the only notable absentee being the epic show closer ‘Whipping Post’.
Most poignant of all, this recording documents one of Duane Allman’s final performances with his demise coming a mere two months after this broadcast. Grahame Bent
ANCIENT GREASE Women And Children First Sireena LP Formed in spring 1970 from the remnants of Eyes Of Blue and Strawberry Dust, this
quintessentially Welsh act signed to
Mercury (after nearly releasing their album on Vertigo) with the assistance of friend and future Man drummer John Weathers. Although not a band member, Weathers contributed seven songs to the album, all steeped in various hues and colours of the then musical pallete. Woman & Children contains the very essence of what it was to live, breathe and make underground rock in that hallowed year. The ’70s was yet to take off and the spirit of the ’60s was yet to die. ‘Odd Song’ and Time To Die’ see the quartet in a bucolic mood, ‘Freedom Train’ and ‘Mother Grease The Cat’ are as sludgy as boogie-rock can get, ‘Where The Snow Lies Forever’ captures that Band-esque Hammond wheeze Mercury-era Rod Stewart coffered and ‘Mystic Mountain’ tries its hand (rather successfully) at country-rock.
If not exactly taking things in a new
direction, Ancient Grease were excellent musicians who waved their freak flag high! A super little album. Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
ARRIVAL Complete Collection RPM 2-CD I really don’t know what to make of this collection. The two discs’ worth of material from UK male/female vocal act Arrival is far from inspiring. Apart from a cover of Terry Reid’s ‘Friends’, which provided them with a chart-topper in 1970, there’s little
80 Beat CD
Hailed as the missing link between The Box Tops and Big Star, this project collects Alex Chilton’s solo sessions from 1969, including two previously unreleased acoustic demos, with ‘It Isn’t Always That Easy’ an on-the-road lament and ‘If You
else to grab the listener. Their take on Aretha Franklin’s ‘Prove It’ is cute and the proggier numbers like ‘Hard Road’, ‘La Virra’, and
‘Sit Down And Float’ show the band’s métier nicely, despite being at odds with the bulky MOR offerings. Admittedly, I skipped my way through the second CD in desperation, disappointed by what could have been revelatory listening, in the context of Arrival’s credence, not to mention the roster of acts they were billed with at the time (Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy etc). This collection merely confirms the belief that soft vocal acts of this ilk prevailed in North America some three or four years prior to the arrival of Arrival. Louis Comfort-Wiggett
SKIP BATTIN Topanga Skyline Retroworld CD Almost four
decades on from what would have been its original 1973 release date, one time Byrds bass player Skip
Battin’s second solo album finally gets a full release, having found itself shelved as a victim of the worldwide vinyl shortage. Originally conceived as part of a co-ordinated five album release programme on Warner Brothers alongside titles by Gene Parsons, Country Gazette, Gram Parsons and Clarence White, not only was Topanga Skyline denied even a limited release but the planned supporting all-star concert tour also bit the dust due to the untimely deaths of Parsons and White. Recorded in Hollywood with Skip
backed by members of Country Gazette and with the original material co-written and produced by his old buddy Kim Fowley, Topanga Skyline is unassumingly easy on the ear country-pop. This enhanced CD edition also includes rare TV footage of Skip from 1965. Grahame Bent
ALEX CHILTON Free Again: The 1970 Sessions Big
Curved Air’s Sonja Kristina enjoys the air conditioning
Would Marry Me Babe’ piano pop at its finest. Recorded at Memphis, Tennessee’s legendary Ardent Studios, with production and musical assistance from Terry Manning, Chilton’s kaleidoscopic musical vision is enthrallingly given free rein. A few of the numbers reflect his
growing disenchantment with his Box Tops career (the Byrds-like ‘Free Again’, a bitter ‘All I Really Want Is Money’ and an up-front ‘All We Ever Got From Them Was Pain’) while others encompass blues-rock on ‘Just To See You’, out-and-out cheekiness (‘I Wish I Could Meet Elvis’), Rolling Stones-styled slinkiness with a gritty cover of ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and an inventive jam-up of The Archies’ ‘Sugar, Sugar’ and James Brown’s ‘I Got The Feelin’’. Intriguingly, elements of Brian Wilson and British pop abound. Gary von Tersch
CURVED AIR Air Conditioning Second Album Both Repertoire CDs No one could ever accuse Curved Air of conforming to the lazy stereotype of early ’70s rock. Fronted by former folk singer and one
time member of The Piccaddilly Line, the seductively ethereal Sonja Kristina, and with electric violin and electronic keyboards including mellotron and the VCS3 synthesizer as their lead instruments of choice, Curved Air was always a band destined to stand out from the crowd. Signed to Warner Brothers on a wave of hype and expectation, their debut
album Air Conditioning arrived in 1970 and besides including such delights as the mesmeric ‘Hide And Seek’, went down in history as the first ever picture disc. Released the following year, Second Album continued the inventive blend of classical and progressive influences with ‘Back Street Luv’ becoming an unlikely Top Five single in the process. Curved Air may have been on a major label there’s no denying their distinctive and experimental edge. Grahame Bent
BO DIDDLEY The Black Gladiator Future Days CD
In 1970 Bo Diddley set out to do what his contemporaries Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf had recently endeavoured to do – make a new record that would connect with the day’s young audiences. But The Black Gladiator is the case of a man trying in vain to escape himself. Yes, there are some Hendrix-ian guitar flourishes, some Sly & The Family Stone-style vocals, and an overall rock feel that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Funkadelic record, but this is
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