40 Year Itch : Those We Missed in August of '73

 

[Purchase] 

"Midnight at the Oasis" is the big hit, but this album, featuring assistance from the likes of Dr John, Ry Cooder and, again, Clarence White is a tasteful delight all the way through. 

For Rolling Stone Jon Landau wrote "One of the half-dozen best albums of the year, the kind of glorious breakthrough that reminds me why I fell in love with rock and roll -- even though there isn't much straight rock here."

[Purchase]

One of rock's great eccentrics, Exuma 's final album for Kama Sutra , Life, didn't sell much but the Bahamian musician had achieved legendary status around New Orleans by the time I attended college there in the 80's so I bought this on cassette.  Life has two Rolling Stones covers, "Paint It Black" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want".

[Purchase]

Former Byrds drummer Gene Parsons's first solo album, Kindling, is almost a one man band effort. He gets some support from Clarence White , Gib Guilbeau and a few others on this tasteful but low key tribute to the music of Appalachia.

[Purchase]

Captain Beyond follow up their spectacular debut by changing direction with a sound they described at the time as "Space-Latin rock". Some have also called it "Acoustic Prog". In any case it's a far cry from the founders' former bands Deep Purple and Iron Butterfly. An intelligent and rewarding listen

[Out of Print]

On their third album, Pressure Cookin', Labelle were still a year away from achieving their  "Lady Marmalade" chart success despite the presence of a Stevie Wonder penned single ("Open Your Heart") Noteworthy for its melody teaming up Gil Scott Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" with Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air". (Thunderclap Newman's 1969 album was re released in '73).

[Out of Print] 

 

Stevie Wonder wrote and plays the keyboards on the 8 and a half minute title track for B.B. King  who also covers The Staple Sisters "Respect Yourself" and bends plenty of blues notes on his most commercial effort yet.

[Purchase]

Todd Rundgren produced this seventh, slickest and most successful of Grand Funk (Railroad) albums. By late September the title track , sung by drummer Don Brewer, would be the #1 song in the land. And the four members would have enough money to buy some gutdam clothes. And that's a natural fact!

40 Year Itch: Just A Sea Of Air

[Purchase]

After singing on the first three Deep Purple albums, including the hits "Hush" and "Kentucky Woman", Rod Evans was dismissed from Deep Purple who went on to record heavier, more popular ( and more plodding)  albums. After recording a solo album he founded Captain Beyond with Edgar Winter Band drummer Bobby Caldwell and two former members of Iron Buttefly: bassist Lee Dorman and guitarist Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt. Reinhardt has played with future Allman Brothers Bandmates Dickey Betts and Berry Oakley and it was Duane Allman who convinced Capricorn Records to sign the band.

Captain Beyond performing "I Can't Feel Nothin'(Part One)", "As The Moon Speaks (To The Waves of The Sea)" and "I Can't Feel Nothin' (Part Two)"


Captain Beyond's debut, released in July of 1972, offers listeners thirty five minutes of hard rock at its most powerful and precise. Like The Moody Blues albums of the time, songs effortlessly merge into each other.

 In an interview with Classic Rock Revisited, the late "Rhino" Reinhardt ( He passed away in January) talks about the time changes in the lead off track "Dancing Madly Backwards":


“Dancing Madly Backwards” is basically a blues song if you play it in 4/4. I switched it around to 5/4. It is a twelve bar but it has an odd meter to it. I had this riff and Bobby came up with that beat and when we played it together, the song was born.

Captain Beyond is also a blueprint for all the hard rock bands that followed. Some of the apparent Captain Beyond rules I've copped from listening to the album:

1. Don't worry about the lyrics; just sing them like a man.
2. Mix up the meters.
3. Mix up the guitar hooks. No fewer than three a song.
4. Give the guitarist some room!

I don't listen to a lot of hard rock but I hear Screaming Trees in some tracks. Unfortunately Capricorn Records heard a band that could boogie like label mates The Allman Brothers. But as "Rhino" said, that's not what Captain Beyond wanted to do:

We had a big problem with the record company. We put out the first album and they were calling us a ‘Super Group.’ It was just a term being thrown around. We were like “What Super Group? What are they talking about?” After the Allman’s came out with the Fillmore Phil (Walden) came to us and said, “I want you guys to start playing that kind of music.” A year before he thought we were the best thing since sliced bread and we were one of the best things that he had ever heard. I said, “That is not what Captain Beyond is all about. We can’t change from our first album to a second album where we sound just like the Allman Brothers. You’ve already got one of those.” But that is what happened; southern rock was taking over. We had a running battle with Capricorn. We have heard from people who worked at Capricorn over the years that Phil was under reporting how many albums we were actually selling so he could make it look like we were not doing anything, thus, he wouldn’t have to spend any money to pay us. We never even got the gold album that we should have. A lot of things went wrong. After the second album, it was over.


Too bad. But Captain Beyond left us with at least one classic album. Perhaps the best hard rock album of 1972.

Captain Beyond performs "Dancing Madly (On A Sea Of Air), "Armworth" and "Myopic Void"