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

Davy Jones of The Monkees, R.I.P.

Davy Jones

Davy Jones, the British heart throb and lead vocalist of 1960s pop group the Monkees, has died at the age of 66. We met him once at a tennis tournament, and he was a really nice guy.

Davy Jones obituary from USA Today

YouTube: “Daydream Believer” by the Monkees (1967)

Lost Classics! Michael Nesmith

Mike Nesmith, in the Monkees

In 1970, after the breakup of the Monkees, singer/guitarist Michael Nesmith set out to carve his own solo career in music.  Along the way, he took a country-rock detour that proved to be his most successful period as a solo artist.  Hooking up with a group dubbed the First National Band, Nesmith cut four albums with the band for RCA in 1970-71.

The second First National Band single, “Joanne,” went to No. 21 on the pop charts in 1970.  Followups including the near pure-country “Silver Moon” and the rocker “Nevada Fighter” were nowhere near as successful.  As a songwriter, Nesmith had some songs performed by the Monkees (“Propinquity,” “Listen To The Band”) and a few of his other compositions were hits for other people (“Different Drum” for Linda Ronstadt, “Some Of Shelley’s Blues” for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band).

 

Lost Classics! John Stewart

In the early 1970s, John Stewart was a leading, although unappreciated, practitioner of the country rock movement.  This singer-songwriter with the booming voice actually got his big break when he replaced Dave Guard in the Kingston Trio in 1961.  The Kingston Trio was one of the best-selling folk acts of the early ’60s, and Stewart toured and recorded with them until their breakup in 1967.

Stewart went solo and wrote songs for other people, most notably “Daydream Believer,” a big hit for the Monkees (and later, Anne Murray).  In the early ’70s he signed with RCA and in 1973 recorded Cannons In The Rain, critically acclaimed but not a hit.  Wingless Angels, from 1975, followed a similar pattern.