Forgotten Songs Playlist

“Don and Dewey”
It’s A Beautiful Day

Most famous for “White Bird” off their initial LP, the second album, “Marrying Maiden,” has been lost to the sands of time. It’s A Beautiful Day played my college and my friend ran into guitarist Hal Wagenet, who he took up to his dorm room and we all hung with. Hal was sipping from a bottle of apricot brandy, which my friend saved, but alas, has that Rhinoceros song, which accompanied so many racetrack ads on FM radio, been forgotten? I don’t think so.

“Tattler”
Ry Cooder

A reworking of the Washington Phillips song “You Can’t Stop A Tattler,” this is from Ry’s 1974 LP “Paradise and Lunch,” a complete return to form after the moribund “Boomer’s Story.” I prefer “Into The Purple Valley,” but it and “Paradise And Lunch” are Ry’s two best LPs. The irony is Ry is a twenty first century artist. Of course we knew his name back then, I bought the LPs, but he never broke through, today nobody breaks through and if he started now he’d be embraced by a coterie who would not stop testifying about him. Strange world we live in, where if you stop clamoring for worldwide success, if you do what you do best and play small ball, you can succeed.

P.S. Of course Linda Ronstadt covered this on her 1976 LP “Hasten Down The Wind,” but you only seem to hear her upbeat remakes of classic tracks on the radio anymore.

“Memo From Turner”
Mick Jagger

From the “Performance” soundtrack, I include this because it features Ry’s exquisite slide playing. But not being on a Stones LP, this track has been lost to the sands of time. This is when Jagger used to manipulate each and every word, before he started shouting verses to the back row of the stadium, this is about as understated as he gets, except for ballads, which is why it’s so magical.

True fans still wonder if you were at the Coke convention back in ’65.

“Family Affair”
Sly & The Family Stone

Of course this was a monster hit, and people trumpet the importance of “There’s A Riot Goin’ On” all the time, but not being a hit in the sixties and being so dark it’s somehow slipped through the cracks.

“One Toke Over The Line”
Brewer & Shipley

And speaking of tracks that were hits that seem to have been forgotten… This was an anthem when marijuana was illegal, stunning that it hasn’t been resuscitated since dope has come above ground.

“If You Wanna Get To Heaven”
Ozark Mountain Daredevils

And since we’re talking about forgotten midwest rockers, I might as well include this, which is a great driving song, a great track when you’re stoned and want to lock into a groove. The rest of the LP was nowhere near as good as this, I know, I bought it, but this is in the pocket, great.

“Rubber Bullets”
10cc

The best Brian Wilson track of the seventies, AND HE DIDN’T WRITE IT!

This is the cut that built 10cc’s reputation, but it was not a hit here, only across the pond, but word was spread throughout the rock press and if you purchased the initial LP you were mesmerized by the hooks and the humor.

“It’s A Long Way There”
The Little River Band

I still remember where I heard this track for the very first time. I’d just gotten on the 405 at Wilshire, was gridlocked in traffic waiting to switch to the 10 to drive for a 9 am class at law school and it emanated through the speakers of my 2002 via KLOS. This is a masterpiece, completely different from the hits the band ultimately had, when they were seen as being closer to Air Supply than rock. If you’re a fan of seventies rock, and that era is now pooh-poohed, you’ll be stunned by this nearly nine minute cut that lags not a bit, that sets your mind free and makes you feel good all at the same time.

“Day Of Change”
Lee Michaels

Did you see that Frosty passed?

Yes, it was a two man act, Lee Michaels on keyboards and Frosty on drums, until Frosty was canned and Michaels went on to have a hit and decide he wanted to play the guitar and ultimately ended up a restaurateur.

Now this track was never famous. I was gonna include “What Now America,” the most known track from the album “Barrel,” his best, my favorite, but whenever I go back to that LP, which I do on a regular basis, “Day Of Change” is the song that resonates.

Yesterday I saw her
Now she won’t see me
Yesterday I helped her
Now she won’t help me

So I think I’ll call it a day of change
Think I’ll call it a day of change
Think I’ll call it a day…
Of change

Women move on, guys are lost. They mope in their beer about what they lost, how great she is, even though they bitched about her when they were together, they burn their friends out on the story and then they end up alone, at home, staring at all four walls until they realize, it’s time to accept their fate, it’s time to move on, it’s time to change.

Michaels’s vocal is impassioned, more optimistic than resigned, but somehow both, but it’s the changes and the organ overflows that seal the deal, I LOVE THIS!

“Angel Come Home”
The Beach Boys

From their best seventies LP, “L.A. (Light Album),” which is most famous for its dreadful disco remake of “Here Comes The Night” and the opening winner “Good Timin’,” this is the best track on the LP, the one that still resonates, it’s not written by Dennis Wilson, but it features everything his legend is built upon, the rough-edged vocal of someone who’s lived… This will get under your skin and will never leave your body.

“Move Over”
Janis Joplin

From her posthumous album, “Pearl,” which sounds dated because of the dry production, but Joplin’s impassioned vocal sustains. Funny how Janis was ripped for oversinging but by today’s standards she’s positively restrained.

“Life Goes On”
The Kinks

From before they became an arena act, from the first Arista album, when they still played the Santa Monica Civic every year but put aside the musical plays. Now and again you still hear “Jukebox Music” from “Sleepwalker,” but it’s this closer that resonates lyrically. Only Ray Davies could make a song about suicide optimistic. From a different era, when we were troubled by our problems, before everybody exuded success. Can you imagine going on Instagram and saying this is a photo of me depressed and I’m looking for a sponsorship from Lexapro? And I love that Ray didn’t anglicize the lyrics, he hadn’t SETTLED his bill!

“Chili Dog”
One Man Dog

From the last album produced by Peter Asher, it had a hit track in “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight,” but the LP was so much more than that, especially the second side, where the songs all ran together in a suite like the second side of “Abbey Road,” and you can’t overlook the duet with Linda Ronstadt on “One Morning In May” and “Mescalito” into “Dance,” but the song I want to hear most is the one I wrote off as more of a novelty back then.

You get old, and if you survive, only your hits remain. And JT can still sell a lot of tickets, but it would be so great if he did complete albums on tour, I don’t think it would work, unless it was “Sweet Baby James,” people pays their money to hear the hits and are impatient, but I’d love to hear all of “One Man Dog,” but there are a number of live takes of “Chili Dog” out there, albeit not on Spotify, and there’s even more humor in those iterations, this’ll put a smile upon your face.

“Carolina Day”
Livingston Taylor

People clamored for everything Taylor, they eventually got both Kate and Alex, but Livingston had the most success, especially with this, the opening cut on side two of his debut.

“King Harvest (Has Surely Come)”
The Band

The buzz was about the initial LP, with “The Weight,” but the follow-up had the big radio track “Up On Cripple Creek,” and it’s even better, the best the band ever did. But it was the album cuts that sealed the deal, none no more than this, the closer, which I was turned on to in Brad Weston’s playroom, I had to buy the album after that, from an era where getting it right was more important than getting it to the top of the chart.

“Spring Is Here”
Wendy Waldman

Yes, it finally is. We’ve been experiencing June gloom for weeks in L.A., where summer is delayed, where it’s hot in the fall when the leaves are turning and the temperature is dropping elsewhere, and it still is spring, it won’t really be summer until the end of the month. Through the magic of Spotify you can hear this instantly today, but for years Wendy Waldman’s third album was out of print and unavailable, you could only sing the songs in your head, the disc I listened to was lost in a divorce, and then through the magic of Napster, everything from the past was unearthed, it all reappeared, I downloaded this and put it on my Rio and literally danced in my front yard.

“Liar”
Argent

And I think this was the first track I downloaded from Napster, you occasionally hear the Three Dog Night cover, but you never hear this, never ever, it’s dark and penetrating, with Russ Ballard’s vocal and Rod Argent’s stylings and if you don’t think this is an understated classic you were never a rock fan, you’re a popster, and if so, that’s all right, but sometimes the two merge, find common ground, you get a brief ditty that’s so good it’s undeniable.

Like this.

Like all of the above tracks.

It’s terrible.

Robin Wright is superb, Kevin Spacey is believable in every role he plays, he’s America’s greatest actor, not Meryl Streep, but they can only do so much with the material, which is underwritten and confusing and concerns a plot point that we’re not interested in.

How did this HAPPEN?

The loss of showrunner Beau Willimon.

It’s like when your favorite act stops working with their hit producer, but even worse, because Willimon wrote, HOC was his baby, and now I don’t even know if I can finish the season.

The point being one individual makes a difference.

Willimon launched the franchise, and no one cares about it as much as he does. No one else has the vision. No one else is willing to push for clarity and excellence. Kinda like the endless sequels in the movie theatre, the franchise is not enough. Hell, how many sequels are better than the original? I can only count one, “Godfather II,” after that…

And you may disagree, but that’s not the point, I don’t want to get into an argument over movie trivia, I just want to say we live in a world of individuals, and individuals make a difference. Kind of like Aziz Ansari and “Master Of None.” It’s his vision, his voice, he cares, which is what makes the series so good. Sure, he occasionally fails, but everybody who reaches for the brass ring does. But when he succeeds, the episode wherein he delineates multiple Thanksgivings at his gay friend’s house, from her revelation that she is gay to her family’s ultimate acceptance of this fact (and her girlfriend!), is pure genius. We’re all imperfect, most even have prejudices, but we overcome them.

At least that’s what art tells us. And art rules the universe.

You might think it’s corporations, zeros and ones. But isn’t it interesting that with all its money Silicon Valley can’t get content right. Oh, they can buy it, and they can steal it, they just can’t make it. How many bucks has YouTube blown trying to create compelling television…

Some people have it and some people don’t.

And even though those without it, and the mediocrities and the sellouts, the compromisers, are constantly clamoring for attention, we know the real thing when we experience it, it touches our heart, titillates our brain, and we hope it never ends and we tell everybody about it, because it’s rare and we live for these moments.

I can live without “House Of Cards.”

But I can’t wait for Beau Willimon’s next production.

Close me once, prove your genius once, or over four seasons in Willimon’s case, and I’m a believer, I’ll give you many chances to fail, because when you ring my bell I never forget it.

And I’m looking to have my bell rung.

We all are.

Billy Bush and Kathy Griffin lose their gigs but the offender in chief keeps rollin’ right along.

Ain’t that America!

What is CNN afraid of? Like anybody cares about the activities of a nitwit comedian with a brain who’s in search of attention. I’m not saying I would have done it, I’m not saying it’s not in bad judgment, but after all, that’s a comedian’s gig, testing limits, is this the country we’ve evolved into, one wherein we all have to color within the lines?

I’m not saying we’re not a country of laws. Then again, we’re famous for our forgiveness. Just cry and go to rehab and you get away scot-free, you can go back to your television show. And what is it we want to protect, institutions like CNN, corporations, or the individuals who make up this great country of ours… Isn’t that what the right is always saying, that we want government out of our lives and the ability to walk and speak freely?

Yeah, right.

As for Baron Trump being offended… Like he never speaks to his dad? Does he not have a smartphone? And, if not, what was he doing cruising the sites where this pic was displayed? Ever hear of parental controls? And if he really fell for it, he needs to go to a better school, one not focused on religion but the ability to decipher truth from falsehood.

It’s only a picture, it’s only speech. Yet the whole nation has got its knickers in a twist while the President sells access to the Russians and promulgates policies where we all burn in hell, only this time it’s above earth as opposed to below.

Kick her off the air for a month, penalize her, hell, we all went to high school, we know actions have consequences. But the penalty far exceeds the crime, assuming there’s a crime at all. And to tell you the truth, I believe what comes out of Kathy’s mouth more than that of social climber Anderson Cooper and fake Mr. Gravitas Wolf Blitzer. Come on, she’s got more creativity in her little finger than either of those MALES and she worked hard to get where she is. Bill O’Reilly harasses women for years and keeps his job, until the payments hit double digit millions and Fox’s owners want a Sky license, but a COMEDIAN exercises her fair right to free speech and she’s suddenly a pariah. What next, ban Chris Rock from Netflix? Stephen Colbert tested limits and CBS stood up for him, the FCC backed down. Hell, the government is a paper tiger. And if you don’t stand up for yourself you’re gonna get run over.

And the people pissed about this aren’t watching CNN anyway, they’re over at Fox.

And if CNN hadn’t amplified this, the story would have gone down the drain of internet detritus, that’s how hard it is to get noticed. Hell, Scott Pelley loses his gig and I don’t even know what network he’s on. I’ve moved on. And the challenge CNN and the rest of the cable networks face is not Kathy Griffin, the lone gunwoman, but the internet.

A cop kills a black man and after a million dollar trial he goes back into uniform.

A comedian makes a joke and she’s in celebrity jail, without a key, serving a life sentence.

Hell, the same people cheering for lethal injections would probably want her on death row when the truth is I’m much more worried about the Administration’s faux pas than the words of any celebrity.

And if the celebrities don’t stand up and test limits, what chance do we have of changing the course of this country?

Let your freak flag fly!

New York Tendaberry – Spotify

1967 wasn’t so different from today, it was hard to get noticed.

Sure, it was hard to get a record deal, but it was even harder to get someone to buy your music, and if they didn’t, chances are it went unheard, unless, fortuitously, you were inundated with talent and your composition was covered by an established act.

Can you surry, can you picnic?

Gobbledygook to millennials, all baby boomers know this as the initial line of “Stoned Soul Picnic,” a monster smash by the 5th Dimension in 1968. But it was written by Laura Nyro and appeared on her second album “Eli and the Thirteenth Confession,” her first for Columbia, her initial LP, 1967’s “More Than A New Discovery,” went completely overlooked, but not for long. Blood, Sweat and Tears went to number two in 1969 with her composition “And When I Die” and Barbra Streisand went top ten with her rendition of “Stoney End,” but Nyro had already moved on. Sure, “Eli and the Thirteenth Confession” included “Eli’s Comin’,” which helped make Three Dog Night a household name, but it also contained “Poverty Train.”

Last call for the poverty train

They don’t make tracks like this anymore, piano-dominated with a flute with lyrics about the underside of life, the disadvantaged on drugs. Today everybody’s a winner, if the song isn’t laden with hooks Max Martin doesn’t want to be involved, but in 1968 songs were still just that, songs, with melodies and changes, yet Nyro and her contemporaries were testing the limits, stretching the form, and if some young ‘un with pipes went on Jools Holland and performed “Poverty Train” jaws would drop. And if Gaga sang it… No, the problem is she oversings, ever since Mariah Carey that’s been the paradigm, all subtlety and meaning is sacrificed in the desire for personal attention, the song is trumped by the performance, but…

No one with any traction wants to sing anything controversial. You’re just supposed to shake off your losses and delineate your personal victories and petty complaints, but Laura Nyro was trying to vault a different bar.

Now let’s be clear, David Geffen was her manager. And although Geffen’s admired for his money-making abilities, he made his bones as an artist-protector. He stood between the label and the act, made it so Laura could play by her own rules. It all didn’t end well, but when “New York Tendaberry” was released in 1969, the stars aligned, people now knew who Nyro was and she released just the music she wanted to and the song with the most traction, once again a hit for the 5th Dimension, was “Save The Country.”

I got fury in my soul, fury’s gonna take me to the glory goal
In my mind I can’t study war no more
Save the people, save the country now

Hmm… Our country still needs saving. But now it’s not from war with enemies, but war within. We’re divided, not united, and no one with a voice is willing to challenge the status quo, for fear of pissing off those on the other side. But Todd Rundgren, a famous friend of Laura, said Trump fans should not even buy tickets to his show and if you’re not willing to take a stand you’re living outside the conversation, you might have a fat bank account, but you’ve got no impact.

Now the times were different. The young ‘uns were all on the same page. Or were they? Believe me, most teenagers and twentysomethings were for the Vietnam War before they were against it. After all, the United States was the greatest country in the world, couldn’t we just clean up wherever we wanted? But we’d never experienced guerilla warfare, we didn’t know that those who truly believed in their cause would never give up. But as these songs by their contemporaries filled the airwaves, as the carnage was paraded on the news, students started to change their minds, because kids are still malleable, it’s adults, the establishment, who are stuck in their old ways. Fewer than forty percent of people over sixty five have smartphones, how are you supposed to explain Uber and Spotify to them? And this is the government, this is the heads of corporations, this is why the oldsters are no match for the youngsters when it comes to innovation.

Traditionally.

But it’s the oldsters who are rebelling against the political status quo, leading the charge, but we need artists to infect the youngsters.

Come on people, sons and mothers
Keep the dream of the two young brothers
Gonna take that dream and ride that dove

The two young brothers were the Kennedys. Laura Nyro was inspired to write “Save The Country” in the wake of Robert Kennedy’s assassination. That’s how art used to work, before songs were composed by committee, sanitized for consumption. It’s the lightning burst that attracts us, how did we get so far from the garden.

And inspiration is plentiful these days, it’s everywhere you look.

But to be inspired and create on Nyro’s level you have to have paid your dues, honed your chops, put in your 10,000 hours. And in the sixties if you hadn’t you couldn’t get a deal, but today everybody can play. So the waters are muddied. But this just means the professionals must play on a higher level, strive for greatness, undeniability that eclipses the work of the hoi polloi.

We could build the dream with love, I know

I do too. Isn’t that what John Lennon was preaching? I don’t think it’s possible for all of us to love one another unconditionally, but we’ve still got a lot of room to move. Then again, when you can’t get a good ticket to the show, when acts whore their ducats out to scalpers, it’s hard not to become disillusioned, we’re all disillusioned, that’s how we got here, hating each other, we’re all pissed about the lack of upward mobility, except for those on top, who are doing the best to keep the rest of us down.

Come on people, come on children
Come on down to the glory river
Gonna wash you up and wash you down
Gonna lay that devil down, gonna lay that devil down

Come on artists.

1. Be informed. There’s no excuse not to be. Hell, iPhones come with a news app built-in. No one’s that informed, including our President, read every day and feel confident weighing in.

2. Be prepared. Practice instead of sell. Believe me, one great track will eclipse years of social-networking. Become better at what you do best.

3. Channel inspiration. All artists know when it hits. Drop everything and catch lightning in a bottle, that’s always the best stuff. We’re looking for human emotion and honesty, not seamlessness. Just because you can perfect it in Pro Tools doesn’t mean you should.

4. Be fearless. Be willing to endure the blowback. There are three hundred million people in America, gain the attention of less than one percent and you’re a star, ignore the haters.

5. Have a viewpoint, have a backbone, don’t be wishy-washy. Stand for something, or else you stand for nothing at all.

It’s your duty to save the children. Kudos to Ariana Grande and friends for staging a benefit concert so soon after the Manchester disaster. But shows are not as powerful as songs.

I got fury in my soul. I ain’t got no money and I ain’t got no political power, but I do have this platform, I do have a voice, I can take a stand and when I channel my anger, it takes me closer to the glory goal.

And you can do this too.

We’re pissed off. We’ve all got our platforms.

It’s just that that of the musicians is bigger than all of ours.

Bono is over fifty, he’s performing his greatest hits, U2 can’t even crack the pop charts, but there are those who are not moribund, who are less beholden to commercialism who can tap into their inner consciousness and deliver the anthem we need.

Because one thing’s for sure, we need to save the country.