"I’ll Be Creepin’"
Three Dog Night

I hold you in my arms, like nobody else
When I know we’re apart, I won’t take no less

If Paul Rodgers had died, he’d be an icon.

Ironically, Paul Kossoff did and is not.  Because he didn’t quite live long enough, his post-Free career was only beginning when he O.D.’ed, whereas Paul Rodgers moved on to Bad Company.

In the summer between my senior year of high school and freshman year of college there was this song on the radio…  How does one describe "All Right Now"?  Really, it was the guitar sound, Paul Kossoff’s guitar sound.  Didn’t matter if you had an AM radio with one speaker in the dash or an 8-track tape setup, that sound reached you.  It was like there was an explosion in Kossoff’s Les Paul.  Like they were cooking something in there.  And you COULD HEAR IT!  And then the singer…  Such SWAGGER, such ATTITUDE!  I loved that record so much that when I moved to Middlebury and was car-less, I purchased the album, "Fire and Water", just to hear it.  I ultimately found an extended solo, not included in the single version, but the rest of the album just didn’t reach me, and I paid almost full price for it.  I was disappointed, I never purchased another Free record.

But only a few months later, there was this ad in "Rolling Stone".  Not a full page, but less than that.  I seem to remember a one third vertical strip.  And reading every single line in that magazine, it being much more important than anything I studied in class, I discovered that if I just sent a note to A&M Records, in Hollywood, California, I’d get a FREE ALBUM!

It was different from today.  There was no e-mail, you didn’t make long distance phone calls, people were unreachable.  I put the letter in the mail, but I really didn’t believe I’d get anything in return.  But a few weeks later, I got a notice in my box in the mail room to pick up a package, the sampler "Friends" had arrived.

It was always hard to get noticed, always difficult to get traction.  If you got radio play, fine.  But what if you didn’t?  I never heard of another free A&M sampler album, but this one I played plenty, and got turned on to a plethora of acts.  Everybody from Humble Pie, with their "One Eyed Trouser-Snake Rhumba" to Cat Stevens and "Trouble".  But the one song that made an indelible impression was Free’s "I’ll Be Creepin’", from their second, eponymous album.

If you’re trying to screw me baby
Take my advice
Opportunity baby
Never knocks twice

Oh, the guitar playing is good.  And you’ve got Paul Rodgers’ swagger.  But then there’s this SWEET BRIDGE!  Where Paul Rodgers sings the lines atop this page.

It’s the subtleties that entrance you, that rivet you, that change your life.  In this short passage, Paul Rodgers encapsulates all the intimacy of a love relationship, all the nuance.  And that’s why music is so powerful, why no movie and no video game can compare.  Forget the sheen, when you have those magic moments, people can’t RESIST!

Instead of having sampler albums, all music is free today.  Well, not all, but plenty.  You hear about an act and go to allmusic.com to research it.  And listening to Three Dog Night’s version of "Liar", I decided to dig deeper into their catalog and learn more about them.  And I found out they covered I’LL BE CREEPIN’!

I fired up my P2P app.  Took me three days, but I just got the track.  It’s not as good as the Free original.  But it fills in the gaps, paints history with a richer brush.  I understand Three Dog Night’s influences.

All these years later, I’m no different from a fourteen year old discovering Led Zeppelin.  Something gets you digging, and then you unearth these NUGGETS!

Well, in this case not exactly a nugget.  But I’m glad I heard it, glad I own it.  Would I tell you to pay 99 cents for it?  NO FUCKING WAY!  It’s not worth that to you OR me.  But it’s worth something.  This is the new world, this is the world that needs to be monetized, that will bring our business back to health once again.  As opposed to suing people for trading and watching CD sales tank seventeen plus percent this week…

"Peace Of Mind"
Blue Cheer

I know, I know, it’s the band that covered "Summertime Blues".

You’d never know that listening to this.

Imagine yourself back in 1970, lying in a field of grass, looking up at the sky, watching the clouds blow across the horizon.  THAT’S what this sounds like.

I discovered this on XM’s Deep Tracks.  Just because something is old, that doesn’t mean it can’t be discovered.  This is a different guitarist from the one who cut the hit.  This is pure San Francisco.  You’ll dig this.  But you’ll probably never hear it.

And researching the band, trying to find out who exactly they were, what was going on with them, I read in the Wikipedia that they ultimately did a record with Jack Endino, King of Seattle.  Hell, I get e-mail from that guy, I always thought he was a nobody, he always tells me not to bother responding, he cut MUDHONEY?

I e-mailed him.  He told me the whole story…

"Highway 62"
Eric Burdon

I took my records to camp.

Just because we didn’t have iPods that didn’t mean we weren’t addicted, that we didn’t need to listen to music.  I took my Beatle and Beach Boy albums.  And also schlepped them to the social.  That’s where I dropped the needle on "Do You Wanna Dance" and inspired by the music stole Jill Philipson from Jimmy Calechman.

And coming up for parents’ day, my mother decided to buy me some singles.  She ran into Carl Goldfield down by the post office and he recommended three records.  "Foolish Little Girl", "My Little Red Book" and "The House Of The Rising Sun".  I NEVER would have bought the first two.  I played them, and came to know them, but the only one I loved was the last.

I won "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" at a bat mitzvah at the Rodeph Sholom, it was a dance contest, I danced with Nancy Moss.  She wanted MY record.  I wouldn’t give it up.  I won’t say she never talked to me again, but it was CLOSE!

Still, my favorite Animals cut is "Don’t Bring Me Down".  No American can pull off this sound, it ends up sounding phony.  Sure, the magic is enhanced by Alan Price’s keyboard work, and the fuzzy guitar helps, but without Eric Burdon’s vocal, it would be just another record.  He was just a young ‘un, but he sounded so MATURE!  Life must have been different in England.  We were on our way to becoming lawyers, doctors, we were going to set the world on fire.  In England there was no future, no upside, it was all about finding someone and settling down.  You could HEAR it in this record.  Whew!

Years later, 1982 in fact, I went with my boss to Eric Burdon’s dressing room after a show at the Country Club.  My boss had offered him a deal.  It never closed.  But what blew my mind was how burned out and incoherent Eric was, like every mile on the road had taken something from his soul.  I’m stunned to find out he still has it.  But when I heard "Highway 62" on XM’s Deep Tracks, I realized he still did.

"I Am In Love"
Crowded House

I bought the first two Split Enz albums at Rhino Records on Westwood Boulevard.  They must have qualified, because I don’t remember Harold Bronson or Jeff Gold giving me any shit for my purchase.  That’s the way it was at Rhino, you had to be hip enough to shop there.  It was "High Fidelity" for real, but instead of a leather attitude, there was a JEWISH attitude, all casual, but cutting nonetheless.

I didn’t love those records.  But when the band put out their A&M debut, I purchased it immediately.  I just FELT it would be great.  And it was, and still is.  This is the one with "I Got You", and the laser-etched vinyl.  But as great as that track is, what made the album necessary were two cuts you never heard on the radio, "Poor Boy" and "Nobody Takes Me Seriously".  There was somebody LIVING in these grooves.  A BUNCH of people.  This wasn’t playing to the masses, this was cutting your soul bare.  They may have been from New Zealand, but they weren’t that different from me, I could FEEL IT!

The band actually broke through with the follow-up, "Waiata".  But then they got spotty, and dissolved.  But before they did…

If you’ve read the liner notes to the "Kink Kronikles", you know that John Mendelsohn claimed that "Waterloo Sunset" might be the most beautiful song ever written.  I love that track.  But I’ve got a contender, Split Enz’s "Message To My Girl".

No more empty self-possession
Visions swept under the mat
It’s no New Year’s resolution
It’s more than that

Do you masturbate?  I hope you answered yes.  And when you masturbate, you fantasize about what can be.  All you single people out there…  Admit it, you’ve got a fantasy.  But the fantasy oftentimes doesn’t square with reality.  So, you hold back and don’t play.  You continue to live in your fantasy world, you don’t risk.  That’s what the protagonist of this song has done.

I don’t want to say ‘I love you’
That would give away too much
It’s hip to be detached and precious
The only thing you feel is vicious

Can you admit it, can you say it out loud?  Or is it too risky?  Everybody’s so busy being cool, playing by the rules.  Concerned with their image, they’re one step removed.  They might LOOK good, but at the core, they’re yearning for something more, a connection, a fulfillment.

Oh there’s nothing quite as real
As the touch of your sweet hands
I can’t spend the rest of my life
Buried in the sand

As Bruce once sang, in a song that’s been unjustly ignored and buried, we all need that human touch.  Leave the house, take a risk.  And to embolden yourself, listen to the version of "Message My Girl" done with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.  Oh, you can’t buy it.  But it’s readily available P2P.  When the strings soar with Neil Finn’s voice you’ll become empowered, you’ll cast off all restraint, you’ll GO FOR IT!  I’m rooting for you!

Crowded House got the hit, and the accolades, but really, Split Enz was better.  Oh, do you know "Hole In The River" from Crowded House’s debut?  That’s got the Split Enz feel, I love it.  But there’s too much levity in what came thereafter, not enough seriousness, I wasn’t touched.  But Mike Marrone found this track from the band’s outtakes album and reminded me of how truly great the Finns are.  They might be from far down under and get no respect, not even be on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame RADAR, but these guys are treasures.

"I See You"
The Byrds

"Morning Glory"
Tim Buckley

My favorite Yes album is the very first, with the band’s cover of "Every Little Thing".  It’s my favorite Beatle song, and Yes rearranges it, yet keeps its essence.  I did a whole podcast on the band’s debut, and featured a bunch of this cut.  You can hear it at: RhinoCast Show #16, 1/10/2006 and ultimately learn that my DENTIST turned me on to the act.

Well, the second cut on the debut Yes album is a song entitled "I See You".  I didn’t know the Byrds did it first until TODAY, when I heard the original on XM!  And shortly thereafter, I heard the original "Morning Glory", which was covered so well on the first Blood, Sweat & Tears album.

I now own both of these.  Thanks to P2P.  The covers are superior.  But sometime in the future, maybe YEARS from today, the originals will come up on random on my iPod and my mind will drift to this very afternoon, and the point of discovery…