70's rock Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Grand Funk “We’re an American Band”

sfilzen — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 17:50:59 +0000

Grand Funk “We’re an American Band” 1973. Grand Funk (Railroad)’s 7th studio LP. We saw GFA this past Friday night at Summerfest — they were great!! Old f**ckers can still rock hard and played a great catalog of old and new songs, including their ubiquitous hit and title track from this LP: “We’re an American Band” (#1 US charts) which is considered one of the best hard rock songs of all-time. The LP, produced by Todd Rundgren, hit #2 in the US. They released one other single from the album, “Walk Like a Man,” which went to #19 in the US. Besides those singles, my other top picks are the drum-forward “Stop Lookin’ Back” (sidetone: it wasn’t this song I don’t think but during the show on Friday all the band members grabbed various styles and drums and performed an amazing jam/beat breakdown), the funky “Black Licorice” with both keyboard and guitar solos, and the soulful “Ain’t Got Nobody” (which, too, has funk).

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The Real Kids “The Real Kids”

sfilzen — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 20:13:49 +0000

The Real Kids “The Real Kids” 1977. Red Star Records. Hard rocking power pop with a punk edge. The Real Kids was the Boston-based rockers first LP. Founder John Felice was a childhood friend of Johnathan Richman’s and was even in Richman’s Modern Lovers for a bit (at age 15) before starting The Real Kids in ’72. He was also a roadie for the Ramones. Both influences, as well as 50’s and 60’s rock, can be heard on The Real Kids. The album is a mix of mostly originals and a few covers, including a punk’d up version of Buddy Holly’s “Rave On,” a rough blues interpretation of Eddie Cochran’s “My Way” and the rollicking boogie-woogie’d cover of “Roberta” by Frankie Ford + Huey “Piano” Smith. Of the originals my top picks are the hard-jangled power pop album opener “All Kindsa Girls,” the (early) Beatlesesque with a hard edge “She’s Alright” – it’s tight, an absolute scorcher, and the album closer “Reggae Reggae” (though on discogs it is listed as “Raggae Raggae”) which has absolutely zero reggae influences that I can hear but damn, it’s a hot garage rock ass-shaker. (That said, if the album cover has a misprint, it would make more sense. The track has more in common with a raga than reggae.)

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Pink Floyd “Meddle”

sfilzen — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 17:50:54 +0000

Pink Floyd “Meddle” 1971. Harvest Records. Vaguely trippy prog-rock, Meddle was Pink Floyd’s sixth studio LP and “is considered a transitional album between the Syd Barrett-influenced group of the 1960s and the Waters-led era of the 1970s.” I’m in desperate need of a nap today and this record is the most likely in my to-do pile to get me in a mellow mood. I recall listening to this record a fair amount in college (lol, of course I did), especially the track “Fearless;” I forgot how beautiful that song is (it also has a Zeppelin-esque guitar riff which is probably why it’s my top track). It was released as the b-side of the single “One of These Days,” a mostly-instrumental that features a rare vocal “performance” by drummer Nick Mason; he says the line “One of these days, I’m going to cut you into little pieces,” which “was aimed at Sir Jimmy Young, the then BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 DJ who the band supposedly disliked because of his tendency to babble. During early 1970s concerts, they sometimes played a sound collage of clips from Young’s radio show that was edited to sound completely nonsensical, thus figuratively ‘cutting him into little pieces.'” (wiki) I also recall listening to the bluesy “Seamus” in college but I’m not nearly as fond of that track (same with “San Tropez“). The entirety of Side B is made up of the song “Echoes” which is a bananas 23 minutes long and many consider one of Floyd’s best. I’m not sure about that but it definitely is making me sleepy.

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Billy Thorpe “Children of the Sun”

sfilzen — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 18:44:56 +0000

Billy Thorpe “Children of the Sun” 1979. The solar eclipse is starting as I’m listening to it and will likely be approaching its peak by the time I get to the second to the last track, “Solar Anthem.” The “space opera” concept album Children of the Sun was Thorpe’s third studio LP and the first to be released in the US. It went to #39 on the US charts and to #44 in Thorpe’s native country Australia. The record overall is standard 70’s rock but I love the title track “Children of the Sun” which reminds me, every single time I hear it, of my dear friend Rhonda who used to rock the shit out of it back in high school. Thorpe released that track as a single, as well as the album opener “Wrapped in the Chains,” the overly dramatic “Goddess of the Night,” and the really awful “Simple Life,” which has Thorpe singing gut-forced overly emotive lyrics over jazzy rock AM gold music. It’s pretty bad. Thank goodness the epic “Children of the Sun” is here to cleanse the palate.

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Led Zeppelin “Houses of the Holy”

sfilzen — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 22:16:56 +0000

Led Zeppelin “Houses of the Holy” released 50 years ago today, March 28th, 1973. I never need much of an excuse to listen to Zeppelin’s fifth studio album – it’s one of my favorites and gives me all the good feels/memories. I was a late bloomer Zeppelin fan, not getting into them until ’89 at college where this record was on heavy repeat. It went to #1 in the US and the UK and is on a multitude of best-of lists. They released a few singles in various international markets: “Over the Hills and Far Away” which went to #51 in the US and is definitely one of my top tracks with its gorgeous acoustic riff that explodes into heavy rock fury. They also released “D’yer Mak’er” (#20 US), a reggae-flavored rocker and “Dancing Days,” which “was inspired by an Indian tune that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant heard while traveling in Bombay” (wiki). (I love Zeppelin but they certainly were kings of ripping off other cultures music). One of my all-time Zeppelin tracks from any album, “The Ocean” (released only in Germany as a single where it went to #8) is also on Houses of the Holy – I thought the last line was kind of creepy until a friend in college gently explained to me that the three year old girl Robert Plant sings about was his daughter.

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Lynyrd Skynyrd “(Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd)”

sfilzen — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 17:27:24 +0000

Lynyrd Skynyrd “(Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd)” 1973. Today’s spin of their debut LP in commemoration of Gary Rossington’s death yesterday, March 5th 2023, at age 71. He was the last remaining founding member of the band, having survived the infamous plane crash of ’77 that killed fellow bandmates Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines. (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd) went to #27 in the US and is still ubiquitous on classic rock stations 50 years on. The album includes some of the era’s most recognizable southern-fried blues rock songs: “Tuesday’s Gone,” “Gimme Three Steps,” and, of course, the ultimate arena rock ballad, “Free Bird.” “Free Bird” is still considered one of the best rock songs of all-time; it went to #19 in ’74 (when it was released as a single) and then charted again after the plane crash. It’s also the longest running joke in rock history (I’m assuming anyway), its name still screamed out by audience members at shows regardless of the band or style on stage. I’m pretty ambivalent about Skynyrd in general, but there’s no denying the anthemic appeal of (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd) and its influence on the rock genre.

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Alice Cooper “Love It to Death”

sfilzen — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 19:19:09 +0000

Alice Cooper “Love It to Death” 1971. Today’s pull for the track “I’m Eighteen” because my kid turns 18 today. Hard rocking glam rock, Love It to Death is Alice Cooper’s third studio LP. It’s considered among the vanguard of hard rock/metal of the 70’s and inspired some of the heavy hitters of the 70’s punk scene including Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols (he auditioned for the Pistols by performing “Eighteen” and mimicking Cooper’s delivery), Johnny Ramone of the Ramones (he wrote his first song based on “Eighteen’s” chords) and Pat Smear of the Germs (Smear reportedly was inspired to start playing guitar after listening to Love It to Death). The record hit #35 in the US and went to #28 in the UK. The first single, “I’m Eighteen,” went to #21 in the US, making it the band’s first top 40 hit and its lasting influence has it included in many best-of all time lists. The second single released was “Caught in a Dream,” the album’s opener. A big riff-filled rocker, it squeaked into the top 100 at #94 in the US. Besides those tracks, I also dig “Hallowed Be My Name,” another hard rocker, “Black Juju,” an evil-tinged psych-rocker, and the glammy “Is It My Body.” One of the kiddo’s belated birthday presents is to see Alice Cooper perform here in Milwaukee in May.

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Sweet “Give Us a Wink”

sfilzen — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 18:57:01 +0000

Sweet “Give Us a Wink” 1976. Today, February 23rd, would have been Sweet founding member and bassist Steve Priest’s 75th birthday (b. 1948, d. 2020). Give Us a Wink was Sweet’s fourth studio LP and the first to be entirely written and produced by the band members. It hit #27 in the US but didn’t chart in England, Sweet’s home country. Hard and fast glam rock, Give Us a Wink is overblown 70’s awesomeness with intricate guitar solos and sometimes wailing operatic vocals (“White Mouse” has all of that and more), it’s what the UK punk movement was directly rebelling against. But it’s a really really good time! Our version is the US Capitol Records release, which flipped the European RCA sides A and B and adds the song “Lady Starlight” which originally appeared on the European versions of Desolation Boulevard (1974). Sweet released three singles from Give Us a Wink: “Action” (which leads off the US version) which went to #20 in the US and to #15 in the UK; according to Wiki it’s a criticism of the music press’s coverage of Sweet and has a “masked backwards vocal with the words ‘You kiss my arse.'” The other two singles were “The Lies in Your Eyes” (#35 UK) and “4th of July” (only in Australia where it failed to chart).

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Aerosmith “Aerosmith”

sfilzen — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 19:24:44 +0000

Aerosmith “Aerosmith” released 50 years ago today, January 5th, 1973. Aerosmith’s debut s/t record. Our copy certainly looks about 50 years old but it is not the first pressing (the song “Walkin’ the Dog” – originally by Rufus Thomas in ’63 – was misprinted as “Walkin’ the Dig” on the first pressings and ours is correctly printed). It is most likely a second pressing since it has the original cover art. The third pressings of Aerosmith after the success “Dream On” had bigger photograph of the band with the text “Featuring ‘Dream On'” on the cover. The single “Dream On” was first released in 1973 and went to #59 (though it was huge in the local Boston market) but then went to #6 in 1976 in its edited down form. That track is really the only song I know from this record, and it’s the only song that actually sounds like Steven Tyler. The rest have his voice really subdued. From Tyler’s autobiography via Wiki: “”The band was very uptight. We were so nervous that when the red recording light came on we froze. We were scared shitless. I changed my voice into the Muppet, Kermit the Frog, to sound more like a blues singer.” “One Way Street” has some glimpse into Tyler’s true range and shriek, and the track “Movin’ Out” is a really great gritty blues rocker, but the rest of the record is kind of meh.

Aerosmith took a few years to really gain traction. It received mostly negative reviews, from those who bothered to review it, upon its release in ’73. After “Dream On” the album went to #21 and since has gone well over double platinum.

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The Guess Who “American Woman”

sfilzen — Sun, 04 Dec 2022 19:36:06 +0000

The Guess Who “American Woman” 1970. Spinning this class hard/psychedelic 70’s rocker today because I’m currently obsessed with the track “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature.” Up until quite recently I really didn’t like The Guess Who at all, mainly because the title track “American Woman” was (is) relentlessly overplayed on AOR/classic rock radio. I’ve gotten over that to a large degree: I can stand it now plus Lenny Kravtiz covering it back in ’99 didn’t hurt. Kravitz’s version, used in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, went to #49 in the US and won the Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in 2000. The Guess Who’s original hit #1. “No Sugar Tonight” (without the “New Mother Nature” part) was the B-side to “American Woman” but it also charted, at #39. The Guess Who also released “No Time” as a single; it is the re-recording of the same song from their Canned Wheat LP (1969) and went to #5 in the US. I should note that virtually everything The Guess Who released automatically went to #1 in their native Canada. The non-singles that I dig on American Woman include “When Friends Fall Out” and “Proper Stranger” which has a killer riff, ass-shaking groove and a Robert Plant-like howl. I’m not a fan of the twee and mellow English-folk inspired “Talisman” but other than that, I’m kind of kicking myself for it taking over 50 years to discover how much I love this record.

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