Category: 1970-1974

“Them Changes” (1970) – Ramsey Lewis * Written by Buddy Miles * 45: “Them Changes” / “Unsilent Majority” * LP: Them Changes * Produced by Ramsey Lewis * Label: Cadet

Jazz keyboardist Ramsey Lewis had a knack for the single format; too bad his “Them Changes” never got much radio traction, although playlists show that Los Angeles MOR station KMPC used to give it some air time. Recorded live at the Depot in Minneapolis in May 1970, this Rhodes piano version of Buddy Miles’s signature song hearkens back to the club-date sound of earlier Lewis hits like “The In Crowd” and “Hang on Sloopy,” locking into a deep groove with the help of Morris Jennings (drums), Cleveland Eaton (bass), and Phil Upchurch (guitar). The current-event images on the cover give the instrumental album an activist vibe. (The 45 version cretits “Ramsey Lewis & Co.”).

“Tickler” (1971) – Earth Quake * Written by J. Robert Dunbar * Produced by Earth Quake and Allan Mason * 45: “Tickler” / “Guarding You” * LP: Earth Quake * Label: A&M

San Francisco’s Earth Quake played the type of melodic, carefully proportioned rock and roll that would eventually get called power pop. Heavy airplay in the Bay Area for their song “Tickler” got them close to national chart placement when it appeared in Billboard as a San Francisco “regional breakout hit,” but it never, in fact, broke out. Frustration with the A&M label prompted manager Matthew “King” Kaufman to form the label Beserkley, housing Earth Quake until they’d call it quits in 1979, but eventually having chart success with the Greg Kihn Band. (Adapted from a longer post at Early 70s Radio.)

“Add Some Music to Your Day” (1970) – The Beach Boys * Written by Brian Wilson, Joe Knott, and Mike Love * 45: “Add Some Music to Your Day” / “Susie Cincinnati” * LP: Sunflower * Produced by the Beach Boys * Label: Brother/Reprise

A non-Top 40 charting hit in 1970 (#64 on Billboard) with, for the Beach Boys, uncharacteristic acoustic guitar breeziness. The song’s harmonies served the Beach Boys especially well during their 50-year reunion shows. The road does get a little bumpy, though, when Mike Love goes “there’s blues, folk and kun-treee and rock like a rolling stone,” and again when Bruce Johnston goes “Your doctor knows it keeps you calm.” One imagines Brian Wilson being able to sing lines like those with charming naivete, but in the mouths of Love and Johnston they sound poorly chosen. At 2:45 you can hear the same eerie high-register string parts the Walker Brothers used on their “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore.”

“Naomi No Yume” (1970) – Hedva and David * Written by David Krivoshe, Tirza Atar, and Kazuko Katagiri * Japan 45: “Naomi No Yume” / “Ani Holem Al Naomi” * Label: RCA Victor

In 1970 Israeli duo Hedva Amrani and David Rosenthal entered their single “Ani Cholem Al Naomi” (“I Dream of Naomi”) in Tokyo’s Yamaha Song Festival and won first prize. They entered with a Japanese version, though, which subsequently sold close to a million copies. If you let this sticky song run through your mind long enough, it might morph into the Association’s “Along Comes Mary” or the Zombies’ “She’s Not There.”

“Dear Prudence” (1970) – The 5 Stairsteps and Cubie * Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney * 45: “O-o-h Child” / “Dear Prudence” * LP: Stairsteps * Produced by Stan Vincent * Label: Buddah

This rendition of the whimisical Beatles song appears as the B-side to the Chicago family group’s now classic “O-o-h Child.” With their spiraling chord patterns and lyrics evoking childhood, both sides of the 45 can still reach into hearts and minds with rare potency. “Dear Prudence,” which reached #66 in Billboard while the A-side reached #8, also hearkens back to its era’s “soul rock” genre experiments. The single credits the group as “The 5 Stairsteps & Cubie,” even though their album, released later in 1970, presented them as “Stairsteps.”

 

“Arrebol” (1972) – Congregación * Written by Antonio Smith * Chile LP: Congregación Viene… * Label: IRT

Congregación recorded their lone Chilean folk rock one year before the 1973 coup that placed the murderous dictator Augusto Pinochet in power. When you listen to this song in particular, you’re hearing the sunset of a lost era. The word “arrebol” is one of those beautiful words with no precise translation, referring to the glow of clouds at dusk. “What is the arrebol’s color?” asks the singer, a philosophical innocent surrounded by chirping birds. “Is the color even a color, or is it something else? Something from inside of you?” In retrospect, his arrebol’s reddish hue had more ominous implications. Antonio Smith was the name of Congregación’s driving force, and he escaped to Argentina in 1973, after which he apparently kept musically active. The Congregación viene (Congregation comes) album, though, is the only one he left behind for future treasure seekers.

“After the Gold Rush” (1974) – Prelude * Written by Neil Young* Produced by Fritz Fryor * 45: “After the Gold Rush” / “Johnson Boy” * LP: After the Gold Rush * Label: Dawn (UK) / Island (US) * Charts: Billboard Hot 100 (#22); UK #21

British a cappella trio version of Neil Young’s curiously titled visionary song from 1970, which taps into the sparseness of the original, with its “Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s” refrain, along with the marketable declaration that “I felt like getting high,” to memorable effect. (But wait a minute – they’re actually saying “in the 1917,” aren’t they?) Young’s song already rang with end-of-an-era poignancy, but Prelude, at a point in time when the dust had truly settled, transformed it into a proper postlude, regardless of their weird year switch. 

“Dear Prudence” (1974) – Katfish * Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney * 45: “Dear Prudence” / “Street Walkin'” * Produced by Bob Herne * Label: Gonad/Big Tree (US); Phillips (Germany)

High grade teen angel dust version of John Lennon’s White Album evergreen. For Katfish, a Rhode Island rock band, “Dear Prudence” was their only charting hit (#53 on Billboard), and it signals the Beatles’ continuing influence on the next generation of rock ‘n’ roll hopefuls. A German picture sleeve presents a ’70s conflict: a masculine bar band wrestling with the glam impulse.