Rock & Roll Historical Perspective

Rolling Stone Issue 98

Dated December 23, 1971. Mel Lyman on the cover.

Random Notes

Blues singer Herman “ Little Junior” Parker has died in Chicago at the age of 44. Other blues legends have done a benefit to raise money to help with hospital expenses.

John Lennon has a new single set for Christmas release called Happy X-Mas.

Keith Godchaux has joined the Grateful Dead to play keyboards, replacing Pigpen. And The New Riders have replaced Jerry Garcia with Buddy Cage.

John Sebastian & Delaney & Bonnie have written songs for & are sitting in on the sessions for the next Everly Brothers album.

John Prine is in the hospital due to bleeding ulcers, causing concert cancellations.

Dickey Betts will take over lead guitar duties for The Allman Brothers, putting to rest the rumors of Eric Clapton joining the band.

Another rumor floating is that Dennis Wilson has left the Beach Boys for solo work.

Mike Nesmith has been released from jail on a $2,000 bond for marijuana possession.

Max Yasgur, the owner of the 600 acre farm & home to Woodstock, has put the property up for sale.

Syd Barrett is alive & sort of well, living in Cambridge. He states he is “disappearing”. He seems ill at ease, tense & hollow cheeked. In the interview with him, he apologizes for not being able to speak very coherently & says it’s very difficult to imagine anyone being interested in him. He sometimes locks himself in a room for days at a time & sees no one. His time ended with Pink Floyd when he got to be to big of a distraction. He would sometimes play only 2 notes on the guitar in an entire set. He is now 25 & claims to have stopped dropping acid, but he doesn’t want to talk about it.

Roy Wood, the erstwhile leader of The Move, has left the group. But, he has formed a new group he is pretty excited about. He calls it Electric Light Orchestra. Joining him from the Move are Bev Bevan & Jeff Lynne. He has been looking for a cellist for 12 months. The one they have found always plays off key, so the search is still on. He says that ELO is meant to take up where I Am The Walrus left off. He suspects that they will have to gain acceptance in the states first, because the Move weren’t as well known over here.

Ads for groups or albums this issue:

Isaac Hayes - Black Moses

Hoyt Axton - Country Anthem

Bob Dylan - Greatest Hits Vol. 2

Helen Reddy -

Carly Simon - Anticipation

Livingston Taylor - Liv

Mountain - Flowers Of Evil

Seals & Crofts - Year Of Sunday

Faces - A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse

Leon Russell/ Marc Benno - Asylum Choir II

Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Schmillson

Crabby Appleton - Rotten To The Core

Alice Cooper - Killer

Traffic - Low Spark Of The High Heeled Boys

Sly & The Family Stone - There’s A Riot Going On

Savoy Brown - Street Corner Talking

Dion - Sanctuary

It’s A Beautiful Day - It’s A Big Bad Beautiful Day

Mahivishnu Orchestra - Inner Mounting Flame

Album Reviews:

Led Zeppelin - IV
Led Zeppelin, a band never particularly known for it’s tendency to understate matters, has produced an album which is remarkable for it’s low keyed & tasteful subtlety. If it isn’t their best to date, it certainly comes off as their most consistently good. …Lenny Kaye

John Prine -
This is a very good first album from a very good song writer. His music demands time & effort from the listener, he’s not out to write pleasant tunes, he wants to arrest the listener & get some attention for the important things he has to say. If he is this good, this young, time should be on his side…Karin Berg

Other albums reviewed:

Sly & The Family Stone - There’s A Riot Going On

Merry Clayton

Billy Preston - I Wrote A Simple Song

Crabby Appleton - Rotten To The Core

Humble Pie - Rockin The Fillmore

Steppenwolf - For Ladies Only

Etta James - Peaches

Lazarus

John Stewart - The Lonesome Picker Rides Again

Albums Expected in the near future.

Laura Nyro - Gonna Take A Miracle

Eric Clapton/Jeff Beck / Jimmy Page - Guitar Boogie

Paul Kantner/Grace Slick - Sunfighter

Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick

Rolling Stone Issue 99


Dated January 6, 1972. Cat Stevens on the cover.

The article on Cat was written while he was in Texas on tour. At this point he is selling out shows everywhere he goes, except for Texas. Most everyone in his entourage leaves him alone, a lot. He spends time by himself writing or drawing or creating new lyrics. He doesn’t like talking to the press & states he has already turned down RS 4 different times, but his managers think that is not a good thing to continue.

He says he wrote the album Teaser & The Firecat while on tour the last time.
He says that his song Wild World was not written about a woman, but was in fact written about himself.
On the Road To Find Out, while it includes the words Good Book, was not about the Bible, but about just any good book.
Longer Boats is about Flying Saucers. He truly believes in them & is positive that he was abducted one night from his bed. He has no doubt that it was real & not a dream.
He says he is a bad guitar player & even though folks have offered to teach him to play better, he isn’t learning anything new.
Cat had become a star in England at age 17 with hit songs I Love My Dog & Matthew & Sons. On top of that his song Here Comes My Baby was a hit for The Tremeloes way back in 1967.

Random Notes

It seems that even back in the early 70’s selling concert tickets was a tough go. No matter how popular they were on records, The Band sold only ½ the seats in Philadelphia & 1/3 of the seats available in the Boston Garden on their current tour.

MCA held a party for The Who in the Penthouse Suite of the Continental Hotel just off the Sunset Strip. The party was attended by many rock stars & luminieries & The Who were presented with 26 Gold Records all at the same time.

Warner Brothers is in the process of adding distribution rights for the Capricorn label. This will add Livingston & Alex Taylor, The Allman Brothers & Wet Willie to their stable.

The Flying Burrito Brothers will break up immediately following their current European tour. Chris Hillman has already left.

This issue features the Hunter S. Thompson article…Fear & Loathing in Washington.

Frank Zappa was rushed to the hospital in London & treated for a broken leg & fractured ankle after a fan threw him off the stage & into the orchestra pit during a concert performance. It was just 1 week ago that the band lost $50,000 worth of equipment in Switzerland when the Montreux Casino burned to the ground….an event that will later be immortalized by Deep Purple in their song Smoke On The Water.

Ads for groups or albums this issue:

Cat Stevens - Very Young & Early Songs

Boz Scaggs - Boz Scaggs & Band

The Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks 1964-1971

Albert Collins -

The Youngbloods - Good & Dusty

Wings - Wild Life

Taj Mahal - Happy To Be Just Like I Am

Paul Kantner/Grace Slick - Sunfighter

Elton John - Madman Across The Water

The Byrds - Farther Along

Papa John Creech -

Leonard Bernstein - Mass

John Denver - Aerie

Judy Collins - Living

The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies

Roberta Flack - Quiet Fire

Mountain - Flowers Of Evil

Laura Nyro - Gonna Take A Miracle

Traffic - Low Spark Of The High Heeled Boys

Grand Funk - E Pluribus Funk

Album Reviews:
Faces - A Nod Is As Good As A Wink….
This just doesn’t make sense. Rod Stewart has 3 albums out & all of them are excellent. The Faces with Rod as singer have 3 albums out & each one is duller than the last. The gap in achievement between the two entities is to great for it to continue & leaves me wondering how they intend to deal with that fact…Jon Landau

David Bowie - Hunky Dory
With his affection for using intriguing & unusual themes that most rock artists would dismiss David Bowie is an original. And as such will one day make an album that will induce us homo superior rock critics to run around like chickens with our heads cut off. Until that time Hunky Dory will do just fine…John Mendelsohn

Grand Funk Railroad - E Pluribus Funk
Had Grand Funk listened to more of the Standells & less Cream they might have turned out to be a really good group. Not enough of it soaked in though. Take into account the inconsistencies of their albums & a general lack of musical direction & it has to be admitted that there is a general case against Grand Funk for musical shoddiness…Mike Saunders

Alice Cooper - Killer
This is without a doubt the best Alice Cooper album yet & one of the finest rock albums released in 1971. In every area of conception & plain instrumental & vocal tightness it excels. One thing is for sure, this is a strong band, a vital band, & they are going to be around for a long time to come…Lester Bangs

Pink Floyd - Meddle
Meddle not only confirms the emergence of David Gilmour as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully & accurately that the band is back on a positive growth track. Meddle is killer Floyd from start to finish….Jean Charles Costa

Other albums reviewed:
Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits

Boz Scaggs & Band

Livingston Taylor - Liv

Mahivishnu Orchestra - Inner Mounting Flame

B.B. King In London

T. Rex - Electric Warrior

Roberta Flack - Quiet Fire

Barbra Joan Streisand

Judy Collins - Living

Ike & Tina Turner - Nuff Said

BJ Thomas - Greatest Hits

Stevie Wonder - Greatest Hits

Tom T. Hall - In Search of a Song

Long John Baldry - Long John’s Blues

Albums Expected in the near future.

CCR - Live In Europe
Gordon Lightfoot - Don Quixote
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - All The Good Times & Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Neil Young Harvest
Ry Cooder - Into the Purple Valley
Malo - first album as yet untitled
Todd Rundgren - Something/ Anything?

Well, here we are at Issue #100. Since it has been months & a few issues now since anyone has responded to this thread, I figure this is a good place to end it. I can talk to myself almost any time. Thanks for reading, it's been fun.

Rolling Stone Issue 100


Dated January 20, 1972 . Jerry Garcia on the cover.

In the interview with Jerry, he tells us that his father was an immigrant from Spain that played almost all of the reed & woodwind instruments. His father died when Jerry was still young. His Mother was from San Francisco, but her folks were of Swedish descent.
He was first introduced to marijuana at the age of 15 when he & a friend went into the foothills above San Francisco with 2 joints.
On his 15th Birthday his Mom gave him an accordion, which he didn’t want, so they took it to the pawn shops & swapped it for his first guitar. It was 1957 & Chuck Berry & rock was just being heard from.
He went to high school for only 1 year, did badly, quit at 17 & joined the Army.
The first of the future Dead members he met was Phil Lesh & the two hit it off almost immediately.
He also used to play old time country music with Dave Nelson, who now plays with The New Riders.
Bob Weir was a young guy that was learning to play guitar & just used to hang around all the time.
Jerry & Bill Kreutzman worked together in a music store in Palo Alto, & Bob Weir would always hang out there. So, they all formed a jug band & began to play music together.
Pigpen was also a member of the jug band, but played harmonica at the time & was much more into the blues. Pigpen eventually convinced the others to start playing electric music.
The name The Grateful Dead came about because one day they were all at Phil’s house & Jerry opened up a Oxford Dictionary & the first thing on the page was the phrase Grateful Dead. He says it was just a very weird thing to happen, so the name stuck. None of the band members really liked the name, but people outside the band started to call them by that name so they kept it.

Random Notes

Rumor of the month: There is a new band forming in N .Ca. & apparently they will be called The New Crusty Nostrils. Maybe they’ll keep us informed as to who this really became.

Second Rumor: Now that Paul Rodgers band Peace, & Frasers band Toby, have both fallen apart, Free is set to reform.

Grand Funk’s contract with Capitol is set to expire so negotiations are under way & it looks as though top bidder will be Clive Davis & Columbia at $8 million. Columbia has already put out $5 for Neil Diamond, $1.75 million for Lee Michaels & $4 million for the next 4 albums from Laura Nyro.

RCA has signed former lead singer of The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, to a solo contract.

Mary Hopkin married her producer Tony Visconti.

Rod Stewart is ready to marry his former secretary Deidre Harrington.

Governor Ronald Regan has signed a bill into law in California giving 18 year olds the right to marry without parental consent.

Ads for groups or albums this issue:

Atomic Rooster - In Hearing Of Atomic Rooster

Mark - Almond II

Miles Davis - Live

Lenny Bruce - Live at the Curran Theater

Rare Earth - In Concert

Album Reviews:

Wild Life - Wings
Like Paul McCartney’s first 2 post Beatles albums, Wild Life is largely high on sentiment but rather flaccid musically, & impotent lyrically, trivial & unaffecting. Mostly, it nicely executed pop music & should be taken or left on that basis alone….John Mendelsohn

Traffic - Low Spark Of The High Heeled Boys
Just as Traffic have provided some of the best onstage music performances of any musical group, their albums have also been some of the best recorded in the business. Steve Winwood can take & deserves a lot of the credit for the meticulous job on this album. Although he is not up to his best as a composer, the musicians have never played better than on this album…David Lubiun

Elton John - Madman Across The Water
Madman probably won’t crush any Elton fans, but it certainly won’t draw any new ones either. Madman is a difficult & sometimes impossibly dense album. America is worthy of a better story than this album & Elton needs a better story to sing…Alec Dubro

Don McLean - American Pie
If you’ve ever cried because of a Rock & Roll band or lain awake at nights wondering about Our Music & what it all means & where it’s all going, if you’ve ever kicked off your shoes to dance, if you’ve ever believed in Rock & Roll, you’ve got to have this album…Lester Bangs

Other albums reviewed:

Laura Nyro - Gonna Take A Miracle

The Doors - Other Voices

Badfinger - Straight Up

Carole King - Carole King Music

Miles Davis - Live

Isaac Hayes - Black Moses

Neil Diamond - Stones

Rita Coolidge - Nice Feelin

Mary Hopkin - Earth Song/ Ocean Song

Albums Expected in the near future.
From Atlantic in January, new offerings from Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes, Mott The Hoople & Lord Sutch.
Joan Baez, her first for A&M.
From Polydor, a new one from Cat Mother & Teenage Lick by Stone the Crows
Captain Beef heart - The Spotlight Kid
Clockwork Orange - The Soundtrack
Commander Cody - Hot Licks & Cold Steel
Joni Mitchell her first for the Asylum label.
Rolling Stones - tentatively titled Eat It.