SCOTT's HIDDEN TREASURES #57 - Something Old Something New

SHT has been missing the last couple of weeks due to vacations and work load. But I'm thinking of ways to make this list more accessible, more appealing. I thought I would step back and establish a new starting point, a firm grounding if you will, by looking back at songs that changed the way I listen to music, songs that established my tastes and changed my opinions.

The most obvious change is that I’ve scaled back to 5 songs for two reasons. 1) To make sure I can deliver this weekly given my new schedule, and 2) I think this makes the playlist more accessible to everyone on here. We shall see...

Anyway, let’s re-start with this list and go forward....

PLAYTLIST VITALS ...

LENGTH: 22 minutes 29 seconds
LINK: http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/344af2e422bdae1c2e541137ba937613

TITLE: Crystal Blue Persuasion
BAND: Tommy James and the Shondells
ALBUM: The Best of Tommy James and the Shondells
YEAR: 1969
LENGTH: 4:05
DID YOU KNOW: The title of the song came to James while he was reading The Bible's Book of Revelation, according to James in a 1985 interview in Hitch magazine: "I took the title from the Book of Revelation in the Bible, reading about the New Jerusalem. The words jumped out at me, and they're not together; they're spread out over three or four verses.

My earliest recollection of music is playing around with my Dads stereo. A big huge console that took up half of a wall. When you flipped it open it had a place to store records, turntable, radio and an 8 track player. The record collection consisted of Tennessee Ernie Ford, Eddie Arnold, Herb Alpert, and Lynn Anderson (why I remember all of those is another story). When my oldest brother played his Tommy James Greatest Hits album on it one day, I was mesmerized by Crimson and Clover and this track. I wore it out and he was PO'd at me. I think I still owe him a copy of this record. I don’t know much about Tommy James other than his greatest hits, but I will be eternally grateful for them.

TITLE: Monday Morning
BAND: Fleetwood Mac
ALBUM: Fleetwood Mac
YEAR: 1975
LENGTH: 2:48
DID YOU KNOW: Both "Rhiannon" and "Monday Morning" were written during the Buckingham Nicks days, though only performed live. The early version of Rhiannon was played much faster, in what was described by one reviewer of the time as a 'polka' style.

Seminole moment #2 comes from my best friend’s sisters stereo. It was a brand new unit, made of all sorts of components and it sat in a cool glass rack. But the best part was the freakishly huge speakers in the corners of the room. We sat back and this tune came on! Got to get some peace in my mind indeed! My quest for my personal rock and roll collection was now in full swing. This and Night Moves were my first ever purchases shortly thereafter...

TITLE: Flaming Youth
BAND: KISS
ALBUM: Destroyer
YEAR: 1976
LENGTH:
DID YOU KNOW: Destroyer is the first Kiss album to prominently feature outside musicians, such as members of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra. However, one musician was not credited: Dick Wagner, from Alice Cooper's band, replaced Ace Frehley on tracks such as "Sweet Pain" (as Frehley did not want to interrupt a card game he was playing during recording sessions for the song) and even on a song that Frehley himself co-wrote, "Flaming Youth".

In 6th grade I had some friends who packed lunch boxes plastered with KISS Army stickers. Typical KISS fan story really, they were laughed at and teased. But I was interested in what they were, so we hung out one day in their room. It was plastered with KISS posters. Anyone remember the one with KISS at the top of the Empire State building? Coolest thing I’ve ever seen up to that point! Beth was on the radio, but I didn’t get that. Then Flaming Youth interrupted my staring at the poster and that was it. I was part of the KISS Army. Sorry Jon, I'm a KISS fan!

TITLE: Serpentine Fire
BAND: Earth Wind and Fire
ALBUM: All 'N All
YEAR: 1977
LENGTH: 3:50
DID YOU KNOW: The band's concerts during this time were loaded with pyrotechnics, magic, laser lights, flying pyramids, levitating guitarists and elaborate production tricks, that included the entire group ascending in a pyramid and a disappearing act, which saw EWF literally vanishing from sight. Magician Doug Henning directed many of their tours throughout the 1970s with his young assistant, David Copperfield.

I've made no secret of my love for EWF, but I purposely leave them off my playlists because I think maybe they don’t have a place on a site like this, and maybe that’s true, but for this list they have a prominent place, because this band changed my thinking about what music could be. My friends Dad had the best sounding stereo I’ve ever heard, even to this day. I swear you could hear the pick hitting the strings on the guitar it was so clear. Anyway, his older brother plays Stanley Clarke and EWF all the time, so every time were there were hearing this band. Then he brought home this "new" EWF, and the needle hit this track and all was well in my ever expanding understanding of music and rock and roll.

TITLE: Its A Long Way There
BAND: Little River Band
ALBUM: Little River Band
YEAR: 1975
LENGTH: 8:44
DID YOU KNOW: In Australian terms, the original lineup of LRB can be considered a "supergroup". Glenn Shorrock had been the lead singer of leading Australian 1960s pop band The Twilights and highly regarded early 1970s country rock band Axiom. Beeb Birtles had been the bassist in the popular 1960s band Zoot (which launched the career of singer-guitarist Rick Springfield), and Goble had led Adelaide folk rock group Allison Gros before forming the harmony-country-rock band Mississippi, which had enjoyed some chart success in Australia

My sister was infatuated with this band, it’s all she listened to and so by association me to. But it wasn’t the repetition of hearing them that stuck with me, it was the geetar in this song. Still one of my top 5 songs ever. And for their pop-savviness, LRB was really very talented and an extremely technical band, it was the lesson I learned by digging deeper into this song

Song’s that are still important to me today...

So there's the baseline going forward, I know I double dipped on a couple tracks but isnt it important to stop, reconnect with what got you here?

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jon on September 4, 2011 at 10:39am

That was a cool listen. Loved the crackles and pops off the first song, made it sound really old. Vinyl rules!

Second song was not my bag o' tea. Too countryish for my standards.

Rest was a-ok in my book. Back to the first song, I have the soundtrack to "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" because I watched the movie and totally dug the music and still do. That first song reminds me of that style.

So it'll be interesting to see what comes next. Opera? Show tunes?

Stay tuned!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jon on September 17, 2011 at 12:56pm

My turn!

The Smothers Brothers--You Didn't Come In

When I received my first stereo for Christmas, my parent generously gave me a bunch of their old albums as well. They were all old jazz records which I dug but there was a Smothers Brothers album as well. I am almost positive that the album was titled "The Smothers Brothers Play It Straight" because the album cover on the internet looks very familiar. However, I distinctly remembering a routine where the line "You didn't come in!" was featured, yet that track is not on that album. There is a song titled "Almost" that's the last song on the album and it's not really a song per se. So I took some liberties and included this cut since that line is featured. Dunno, maybe I had two Smothers Brothers albums.

Queen--Bohemian Rhapsody/I'm In Love With My Car

The first 45 I bought, all because of that one song. But you want to know something? I thought the B side was kick ass so I'm featuring that instead of that other song.

The Spy Who Loved Me--Nobody Does It Better

It's the first James Bond movie I saw and have been hooked ever since, through the good and bad. Have them all on VHS (taped off TBS when they got the rights), the VHS sets, the first DVD set, the remastered DVD set and all the Blu-ray currently available. So yeah, I'm a fan. Anyway, I bought this album and really wanted to include the discofied version the the James Bond theme but I don't have it so this song will just have to do....

Jesus Christ Superstar--What's The Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying

That first stereo I got was top o' the line stuff cause it also had an 8-track player. Don't remember which 8-track I got first this one or "Grease" but I'm featuring this one since there's really filthy words in some of them "Grease" songs so will go with this. Some guy by the name of Ian Gillan plays Jesus on this recording. Wonder if he ever hit it big?

Led Zeppelin--All My Love

I'm in junior high and it's lunch. I'm sitting with a bunch of friends and the discussion is about which band is better, Led Zeppelin or The Grateful Dead. I'm asked what I think and since I don't much about rock music at this point I'm kind of on the spot, but my "better" friends all liked Led Zeppelin so I jumped on their bandwagon then went out and bought "In Through The Out Door". The song I picked is not my favorite from this album, but I noticed back then and it still bugs me to this day: that keyboard error. Maybe it's really not, but it sounds like one to me.

Than came Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and the rest is history, at least in my tiny mind......

Hey, you can listen to this stuff here: http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/75da9996c9d08985caae161aa1048948#