In my mind’s eye I connect a a couple of album covers with the year 1972. One of them is “Aqualung” from British band Jethro Tull. (It may or may not interest you to know that the original Jethro Tull invented the seed drill in 1701… a fact that has stuck in my mind ever since I first came across it…).
And these words:
“Do you still remember December’s foggy breeze, When the ice that clings onto your beard was screaming agony”
Here’s the title track “Aqualung” live:
The studio version of “Mother Goose” form the same album:
“Wind Up”, the closing track:
Part of the unique sound of Jethro Tull is Ian Anderson’s flute. Here’s a solo from July 1976
“Dust In The Wind” from Kansas features strongly in a short story I once wrote that takes place in a bar in (then West) Berlin, which in turn always reminds me of a Kate Bush song that begins with the line “You’ll find me in a Berlin bar in a corner, brooding” (“Saxophone Song” from her first album “The Kick Inside”.)
Last time I went back to that bar, some years ago, it had turned into a bright, slightly sterile pizzeria. No atmosphere and certainly no “Dust In The Wind” playing.
Anyway, back to “Dust In The Wind” itself.
This is the studio version accompanying what appears to be a privately made music “video” filmed on 8 mm film in 1977 and recently salvaged by the filmmaker’s son:
A live version of “Dust In The Wind” from 1982:
And finally “Dust In The Wind” unplugged:
There have been numerous cover versions of this song, for example by Guns ‘n’ Roses and the Scorpions.
Meanwhile I just found the band’s other big hit I had forgotten about, “Carry On Wayward Son”, which was the closing song to the 1977 movie “Heroes”, featuring Henry Winkler (“Fonzie” or “The Fonz” from the hit TV series “Happy Days”) and Sally Field (whom I always associate with “Gidget” and “The Flying Nun”, presumably the namesake of New Zealand record company Flying Nun).
Here’s “Carry On Wayward Son”, live in 1976 (although apparently only the vocals are live and the music is a studio version):
And this version of “Carry On Wayward Son” seems a lot more recent, the sound of the recording is definitely crisper…
Just goes to show, you can’t keep a good song down!
I could listen to Carlos Santana playing “Samba Pa Ti” for hours, and yet for years I didn’t even know what the song was called – I just knew that I loved it!
Actually I could listen to anyone playing it, as long as they played it well.
My main Seventies memory associated with this song, off the 1970 Santana album “Abraxas”, is the Awapuni Tavern in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
We used to go to all kinds of student functions there, but also just to hear whoever was playing. It was quite a way out of town, so you had to make an effort to go there.
Usually it was worth it…
So here it is, “Samba Pa Ti” by Santana, the original:
Here’s a live version of “Samba Pa Ti” in 1988, in Zagreb, Croatia:
And “Samba Pa Ti” live in Carlos Santana’s home country of Mexico:
I particularl enjoy the way the song starts off really slowly and then builds to a crescendo.
In 1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival released their album “Cosmo’s Factory”, with hits like “Lookin’ Out My Back Door”, “Up Around the bend”, “Who’ll Stop The Rain, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and “Long As I Can See The Light”.
From another album that year, “Pendulum”, the only tracks I can remember were “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” and “Hey Tonight”.
Creedence Clearwater Revival accompanied me from the late Sixties into the Seventies, but by 1972 they had broken up.
Although from 1969, “Bad Moon Rising” and “Lodi”, which I had on single, and “Midnight Special” and “Down On The Corner” from the album “Willy And The Poorboys” were popular long into the next decade, as were songs like “Born On The Bayou” and “Suzie Q” and of course the iconic “Proud Mary”, with which Ike and Tina Turner also had a hit in 1971.
So here’s what I have found, first, a classic CCR song, “Long As I Can See The Light”:
More upbeat, “Hey Tonight”:
Next up, “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?”:
Still on the topic of rain, apparently after the experience at Woodstock in 1969, “Who’ll Stop The Rain”:
Lookin’ Out My Back Door:
“Up Around The Bend”:
Proud Mary:
The Ike and Tina Turner version of Proud Mary I mentioned above…
“Down On The Corner:
Bad Moon Rising:
And the B side, “Lodi”:
“Midnight Special”:
Here’s a shorter version of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”, but with video:
And for those who like the longer version, but just the music of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”:
Speaking of long songs, here’s “Suzie Q”:
And finally, some very rare footage of “Born On The Bayou” at Woodstock in 1969:
