From Zambia's psychedelic Zam-Rock scene comes Amanaz ( an acronym for "Ask Me About Nice Artists in Zambia"). Their 1975 album, Africa, has been rediscovered and redistributed in recent years. Listening to the release, sung in both Bemba and English, one wonders whether the lesser known strains of the Velvet Underground and Love made it to the mining city of Kitwe by the mid-70's or did the musicians get there on their own using Jimi Hendrix as a starting block?
Magic Show in Times Square, 1975. By Nick DeWolf Chocolate Milk : Action Speaks Louder Than Words [Purchase]
History hasn't been kind to Chocolate Milk, who scored a 1975 Top 20 R and B hit with the funky title track from their RCA debut Action Speaks Louder Than Words. The reason is simple. They came from New Orleans, home of one of the decade's funkiest bands, The Meters. And if you know The Meters, you know New Orleans funk. End of story.
Except it isn't.
In fact, the members of Chocolate Milk became Allen Toussaint's regular studio band, playing on Lee Dorsey's Night People album, Aaron Neville's "Hercules" and on Paul McCartney and Wings's Venus and Mars sessions. Chocolate Milk, along with The Meters, Ernie K-Doe, Lee Dorsey and Professor Longhair, performed at the Venus and Mars wrap party McCartney hosted in March of 1975 aboard the Queen Mary.
The band toured like mad and had a few other hits but eventually broke up, Eric B and Rakim were among the first to sample "Action" on their 1987 platinum album Paid in Full.
In 1974 Good Times actor Jimmie "JJ" Walker came up with the catch phrase "Dynomite!", but it was a show director John Rich who suggested he emphasize the O and make it "Dyn-O-Mite!" The audience howled but show creator Norman Lear thought the line was an "asinine" non sequiter that contributed nothing to the show. Rich held firm telling Walker "Say it with energy! A year from now, people are going to be yelling 'dyn-o-mite' out of cars, on the street, and wherever they see you". The phrase was so big, middle school students were getting magazines called Dynomite and a band called Bazuka eventually hit the Top 10 with a song named after the catch phrase.
1 LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER –•– The Captain and Tennille (4 weeks at #1)
2 THE HUSTLE –•– Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony
3 LISTEN TO WHAT THE MAN SAID –•– Paul McCartney and Wings
4 WILDFIRE –•– Michael Murphy
5 MAGIC –•– Pilot
6 PLEASE MR. PLEASE –•– Olivia Newton-John
7 ONE OF THESE NIGHTS –•– The Eagles
8 SWEARIN’ TO GOD –•– Frankie Valli
9 WHEN WILL I BE LOVED / IT DOESN’T MATTER ANYMORE –•– Linda Ronstadt
10 I’M NOT IN LOVE –•– 10 c.c.
11 ROCKIN’ CHAIR –•– Gwen McCrae
12 LOVE WON’T LET ME WAIT –•– Major Harris
13 THE WAY WE WERE / TRY TO REMEMBER (Medley) –•– Gladys Knight and the Pips
14 MISTY –•– Ray Stevens
15 MIDNIGHT BLUE –•– Melissa Manchester
16 DYNOMITE (Part 1) –•– Bazuka (Tony Camillo’s)
17 WHY CAN’T WE BE FRIENDS –•– War
18 I’M NOT LISA –•– Jessi Colter
19 I’M ON FIRE –•– The Dwight Twilley Band
20 RHINESTONE COWBOY –•– Glen Campbell
On July 11 1975, more than twelve years after he toured the UK with an opening act made up of four Liverpool lads who called themselves The Beatles, Roy Orbison appeared on the BBC for a no frills half hour's worth of his best known hits, "Only the Lonely", "Crying", "Penny Arcade" ( a 1969 #1 hit in Australia), "Blue Bayou", "Running Scared", "Candy Man", "In Dreams", "Mean Woman Blues", "It's Over" and of course "Oh Pretty Woman".
1. On full page ads that ran in both Billboard and Rolling Stone magazines, Warner/Reprise's marketing team misidentified the newcomers to Fleetwood Mac, assuming the woman must be Lindsey Buckingham and the man Stevie Nicks.
2. Perhaps not realizing what they on their hands, the label released Christine McVie's "Warm Ways" as the first single in the UK. It did not chart. While this would have been a potential single on any of the past five albums released by Fleetwood Mac, the new album also had McVie's eventual US#20 hit "Over My Head", Nicks' US#11 hit "Rhiannon", McVie's US#11 "Say You Love Me" and the timeless "Landslide", a live version of which was released in 1988 as a single.
3. After Bob Welch left Fleetwood Mac in 1974, Mick Fleetwood needed to find a new guitarist. Sound City Studios producer Keith Olsen played Fleetwood a new album he'd produced called Buckingham Nicks. Fleetwood offered Buckingham a role in the band but Buckingham refused unless his romantic and musical parter, Stevie Nicks, could also join. Fleetwood relented and three months later, with Keith Olsen co-producing, they gathered in a studio to record Fleetwood Mac.
4. The band constantly toured, winning over audiences that had come to hear "The Green Manalishi" and "Albatross". Fifteen months after its release, the eponymous Fleetwood Mac topped the Billboard album charts. An amazing accomplishment, considering no previous album had charted higher than #34 in the US and that just a year earlier, a fake Fleetwood Mac, made up of musicians hired by band manager Clifford Davis, had toured the US.
5. That same tour and success brought out tensions that resulted in the end of bassist John and Christine McVie's marriage as well as Buckingham and Nicks' relationship. Fleetwood's marriage had also broken apart. Drugs, money and alcohol added fuel to the fire. But rather than breaking up for good, Fleetwood Mac responded with Rumours, the 1977 album that would sell 40 million copies worldwide. That's eight times the sales figure of the eponymous 1975 album.
Brooke Shields. Photo by Theo Westenberger, 1975 Be Bop Deluxe : Maid in Heaven [Purchase]
Unsatisfied with Be Bop Deluxe's debut album, Axe Victim, guitar hero Bill Nelson completely exchanged his back up musicians with two members of Cockney Rebel and drummer Simon Fox. Roy Thomas Baker was brought on board to produce Futurama, released in July of 1975. Nelson's shimmering guitar and double tracked vocals are again the highlights of this art rock/ post glam work. Two songs stand out: the UK#36 single "Maid in Heaven" and the heavy-riffing "Sister Seagull" which ends with Nelson's guitar mimicking the cries of the sea bird.
Dig the Miami Sound inspired summertime groove from the artist who would, later in 1975, release the oft-sampled bedroom sizzler " I Want' A Do Something Freaky To You". In the meantime, enjoy the subtle steel drums and the not so subtle lyrics.
