40 Year Itch : Pillage Villages With Verve

Henry Cow : War

[Purchase]

    Later covered by The Fall, Henry Cow is heard at the height of its leftist anti Vietnam War rhetoric in the lead off track from In Praise of Learning. Deconstructionist. Avant-Garde. And difficult. Not the first song I'd recommend to anyone with the kind of massive head cold I'm dealing with today. But considered by many to rival another In Praise of Learning track, "Living in the Heart of the Beast", as the Cow's greatest tune.

40 Year Itch : The Latest Tiding from the Tribe

[Purchase]

  Could this be the missing link between the Velvet Underground and Pavement? This catchy 1975 track is the result of a merger between the avant garde Slapp Happy and their anti-commercial labelmates Henry Cow. I'm told the rest of the album is nowhere near as accessible.

40 Year Itch : Rethinking the Electric Guitar

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Henry Cow founder Fred Frith's stunning Guitar Solos is an album of eight tracks recorded in four days of improvisation using modified and specially tuned guitars. On the track "No Birds" he's simultaneously  playing two guitars placed neck to neck on a table. 

   The album made the NME Critics Poll of Best albums of 1974. At the 9:45 mark, you can probably hear why Brian Eno wanted to record Before and After Science and Music for Films with Frith.

   The rest of the NME Critics Poll looked like this:

NME Albums 1974
 1. Pretzel Logic - Steely Dan
 2. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll - Rolling Stones
 3. Before The Flood - Bob Dylan
 4. 461 Ocean Boulevard - Eric Clapton
 5. Todd - Todd Rundgren
 6. On The Beach - Neil Young
 7. Rock Bottom - Robert Wyatt
 8. Fulfillingness First Finale - Stevie Wonder
 9. Country Life - Roxy Music
 10. Average White Band - Average White Band
 11. Future Days - Can
 12. Smiler - Rod Stewart
 13. Secret Treaties - Blue Oyster Cult
 14. Maria Muldaur - Maria Muldaur
 15. Another Saturday Night - Various
 16. Sold American - Kinky Friedman
 17. On The Border - Eagles
 18. Court And Spark - Joni Mitchell
 19. Odds And Sods - The Who
 20. Kimono My House - Sparks
 21. Okie - J.J. Cale
 22. Grievous Angel - Gram Parsons
 23. Radio City - Big Star
 24. Mysterious Traveller - Weather Report
== Sheer Heart Attack - Queen
 == Big Fun - Miles Davis
 27. Rock 'n' Roll Animal - Lou Reed
 28. Deal Gone Down - Michael Chapman
== I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight - Richard And Linda Thompson
== It's Too Late To Stop Now - Van Morrison
31. Teasin' - Cornel Dupree
 == Close Up The Honky Tonks - Flying Burrito Brothers
 33. Feats Don't Fail Me Now - Little Feat
== Veedon Fleece - Van Morrison 
35. Paradise And Lunch - Ry Cooder
== Dreamer - Bobby Bland
 37. In Concert - Beach Boys
== Fear - John Cale
== For Everyman - Jackson Browne
== His California Album - Bobby Bland
 41. Limited Edition - Can
42. The Psychomodo - Cockney Rebel
== Good For You Too - Toni Brown
 == Live - Marvin Gaye
 45. Live From Deep In The Heart Of Texas - Commander Cody
 46. All American Boy - Rick Derringer
== Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash - Mike Nesmith
== Streetwalkers - Chapman-Whitney
 == Keep On Smilin' - Wet Willie
 == Planet Waves - Bob Dylan
 51. Anthology - Marvin Gaye
 52. Soon Over Babaluma - Can
== Spyglass - Greenslade
54. Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley - Robert Palmer
 55. Propaganda - Sparks
 56. The Shipbuilder - Bob Pegg & Nick Strutt
== Learn To Love It - Jesse Winchester
 == Guitar Solos - Fred Frith
 59. Angel's Egg - Gong
== Good Old Boys - Randy Newman

Some 1973 Albums We Missed

[Purchase]

Tainted by scatalogical songs about pissing , farting and Pamela's popo, Serge Gainsbourg's follow up to Histoire de Melody Nelson is saved by the title cut and his devastating goodbye song, "Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je M'en Vais" which translates into English as "I've Come to Tell You I'm Leaving" and features the real life sobbing of actress Jane Birkin.

[Purchase]

Recorded with CSN and Y's touring band as well as members of Neil Young's band ( and Neil himself on piano credited as Joe Yankee), Graham Nash's Wild Tales is darker material than his fans might expect. But it rocks as fine as anything he's ever done. One of the year's great surprises for me!

[Purchase]

Vibe master Roy Ayers knocked out one of the best blaxploitation soundtracks of all time on this 1973 effort, highlighted by the funky "Coffy is the Color".

[Purchase]

With the hit title track, which was also featured on the soundtrack to Cleopatra Jones, Millie Jackson hits her stride. She gets super funky on "Hypocrisy". She'd follow It Hurts So Good with Caught Up, which will be in the running for my fave soul album of 1974

[Purchase]

Late of Lindisfarne, Alan Hull released his first solo album, the very tasteful Pipedream, in 1973. File between Duncan Browne and John Martyn.

[Purchase Henry Cow Leg End]

Henry Cow set out to be avant rock and anti commercial. Signed to Virgin, Fred Frith and company  challenge listeners with dissonance,  moments of beauty and  on "Nine Funerals of the Citizen King", a political statement. Robert Wyatt would soon proclaim Henry Cow his favorite group.

[Out of Print]

Is Lightnin' Rod's Hustlers Convention the birth of rap? With Kool and the Gang providing back tracking,  Last Poets member Jalal "Lightnin' Rod" Uridin ( Alafia Pudim) rhymes the story of two hustlers, Sport and Spoon, in the drug and crime infested inner city streets.