Back To School!

Repost: Don’t know about where you live, but in these parts it’s time to get back to school. Not me, of course (hahahaha) but my kids are getting ready to wake up early, do homework, etc. Well, wake up early anyway.

When you’re packing lunches you may want to throw in a tune or two.

MP3: “High School Confidential” by Jerry Lee Lewis

MP3: “School” by Nirvana

MP3: “Smokin’ In The Boys’ Room” by Mötley Crüe

MP3: “High School Nights” by Dave Edmunds

MP3: “Be True To Your School” by the Beach Boys

MP3: “What A Wonderful World” by Sam Cooke

MP3: “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” by Junior Wells

MP3: “The New Girl In School” by Jan & Dean

MP3: “Bitch School” by Spinal Tap

MP3: “School” by Supertramp

MP3: “Teacher” by Jethro Tull

MP3: “Hot For Teacher” by Van Halen

MP3: “Pom Pom Play Girl” by the Beach Boys

MP3: “School Day (Ring Ring Goes The Bell)” by Chuck Berry

MP3: “I Wish” by Stevie Wonder

MP3: “(Remember The Days Of The) Old Schoolyard” by Cat Stevens

MP3: “The Happiest Days Of Our Lives/Another Brick In the Wall (Part 2)” by Pink Floyd

Radio Daze: Rock Hype on the Airwaves

Back in the day, radio was the only way to get out the word about a new album. Of course, it helped that disc jockeys actually played songs from a new album – but record labels wanted to rack up sales right out of the box. And movies too – what better way to get the word out to the “kids” than through that boss, groovy local radio station?

So they worked up little spots to play on the hip-cool radio station in your town. Nowadays, with traditional terrestrial radio pretty much dead, these old radio spots are fodder for CD re-releases.  Let’s queue up a bunch and spin ’em!

MP3: The Monkees Present radio promo (The Monkees)

MP3: Live Dead radio promo (The Grateful Dead)

MP3: Help movie promo (The Beatles)

MP3: Cahoots radio promo (The Band)

MP3: Sweetheart of the Rodeo radio promo (The Byrds)

MP3: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere radio promo (Neil Young)

MP3: I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! radio promo (Janis Joplin)

MP3: Head movie promos (The Monkees)

MP3: Electric Warrior radio promo (T. Rex)

MP3: Aqualung radio promo (Jethro Tull)

MP3: Ballad of Easy Rider radio promo (The Byrds)

MP3: Easy Rider movie promo

30 Days Out Exclusive Interview: Anna Phoebe, violinist, Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Editor’s note: Anna Phoebe is *not* on the 2010 Trans-Siberian Orchestra tour.

Anna Phoebe is the dynamic, sexy, and ultra-talented violinist for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO). When Phoebe is on stage, her presence is such that it is hard to take your eyes off her. She’s that good. After releasing their latest disc, Night Castle, Tuesday, she and the rest of TSO hit the road for their annual winter tour beginning this Sunday. If you haven’t seen them yet, I suggest you buy a ticket. It’s amazing show with some of the best musicians in the world. Phoebe was nice enough to take the time to speak with us during a break in rehearsals and tell us about her beginnings, how she got involved with TSO, her love for Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and her solo work.

Sampler Daze: A Last Look at the Loss Leaders

When The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook appeared in early 1969, the liner notes said, by way of explanation, the sampler’s goal was “hopefully to win new friends for some very creative people.”  People like Jethro Tull, the Pentangle, Frank Zappa, Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, even Tiny Tim.  Warner Bros. Records, founded in 1958, was just beginning to hoist its freak flag, and in just a few years the label’s roster would be the cream of the crop.

And so the ride began: with L.A. street freak Wild Man Fischer’s “Songs For Sale” introducing “My Sunday Feeling” by Jethro Tull.  Eleven years later, the Warner Bros./Reprise Loss Leaders series ended on the sampler Troublemakers with Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols snarling, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”

Well, no.  The 34 Loss Leaders samplers that appeared between 1969 and 1980 formed my musical tastes and exposed me to artists I would never have dreamed of seeking out, to people who may have been just a little too adventurous even for early-Seventies radio.  I remember calling up my local AM pop station and smugly asking the DJ to play some Zappa and the Mothers, or that flip side by the Beach Boys, only to get the response, “What?”  The Loss Leaders made me cooler than the disc jockey!

Sampler Daze: WB/Reprise Loss Leaders, Part 4

By 1972, the world was still rockin’ in a sort of Sixties-era hangover: newly freaky 18-year-olds had been given the right to vote for the first time (only fair, since they were long qualified to be drafted into the military), and men were still walking on the moon way up there.  Warner/Reprise issued a whopping four – count ’em – 2-disc sets in 1972, so for brevity’s sake we’ll break ’em up here.

The Whole Burbank Catalog showcased the variety of the label’s stable: rockers like Jethro Tull and Alice Cooper were mixed in with Jerry Garcia, Jackie Lomax and Bonnie Raitt.  T. Rex and Faces would spotlight their best albums with “Bang A Gong (Get It On)” and “Memphis,” respectively.  Cuts from old radio shows were interspersed with the music, to really make it sound like a free-form FM radio show – that technique is still in use today.   A new group making their first appearance in the Loss Leaders series was the trio America, represented by “Sandman,” a deep cut from their first LP.  That album would of course yield the big hits “Horse With No Name” and “I Need You,” and was the springboard for a long career.  It would take another album for the Texas-born duo of Seals & Crofts to hit it big – here they offer “Sudan Village,” a cut from their first album.  They’d cash in later in the year with the title song from their next album: Summer Breeze.

Winter

 

MP3: “A Hazy Shade Of Winter” by Simon & Garfunkel

MP3: “Snowblind” by Black Sabbath

MP3: “Snow (Hey Oh)” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

MP3: “A Winter’s Tale” by the Moody Blues

MP3: “Pisshole In The Snow” by the Pernice Brothers

MP3: “Snowin’ On Raton” by Robert Earl Keen

MP3: “White Winter Hymnal” by Fleet Foxes

MP3: “Winter” by Steeleye Span

MP3: “Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow” by Jethro Tull

MP3: “Snow” by Loreena McKennitt

MP3: “Wizards In Winter” by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra

MP3: “Cold As Ice” (live)  by Foreigner (with Kelly Hansen)

MP3: “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” by Frank Zappa

MP3: “Thank You, Dreaded Black Ice, Thank You” by Giant Sand

MP3: “In The Bleak Midwinter” by Bert Jansch

MP3: “Snow In Austin” by Ellis Paul

MP3: “California Dreamin’ ” by the Beach Boys