WNEW | Where Rock Lives

The Flower Travellin Band: Japan's Answer to Black Sabbath

When it comes to the lost history of rock you can't beat the story of the Flower Travellin' Band, an essential part of a thriving Japanese psychedelic scene in the late '60's.

Flower Travellin' Band consists of Akira "Joe" Yamanaka (vocals), Hideki Ishima (guitar), Joji "George" Wada (drums) and Jun Kozuki (bass). They also had a female vocalist, Remi Aso, seen as the Japanese Janis Joplin.

The fantastic thing about this band is that they made no effort to copy their US counterparts, but broke new ground in these formative years of rock.

Listen to their most popular album, Satori (1971) and you can hear the precursor to stoner rock and doom. Long instrumental pieces of heavy freak-out sludge, stuff that Black Sabbath hadn't even thought about. 

The Flower Travellin' Band never really made it outside of Japan. In 1973 they were actually billed to open for the Rolling Stones, a gig that failed to occur because of Mick Jagger's visa problems. Tough breaks like this didn't come easy and they soon broke up.

In January this year the band reunited, after nearly 4 decades and have a new album called We Are Here.

Here they are in their prime (Man !!! Japan in the late '60's rocked !!!)

Founding Father: Dick Clark

Too many fathers of rock have been lost to the mists of time, so join J.A. Bartlett of the Hits Just Keep On Comin' every Saturday as he reminds us who helped to set the groundwork for the music we love...

Last week we revisited the career of pioneering DJ Alan Freed; this week it's Dick Clark's turn. Clark was born this week in 1929 in Mount Vernon, New York. He started his radio career in 1945 working in a radio station mailroom before getting behind the microphone. Like many young broadcasters of the early '50s, he worked in both TV and radio. His big break came when he landed a job at WFIL radio in Philadelphia. He ended up on WFIL-TV as the substitute host of Bandstand, a weekday afternoon dance party show. When regular host Bob Horn was arrested for drunk driving (during the station's anti-drunk-driving campaign), WFIL fired him and installed Clark as the regular host. A year later, Bandstand went national on ABC-TV, and the 27-year-old Clark found himself on a live coast-to-coast hookup for 90 minutes every weekday afternoon. (ABC was the weak sister among the TV networks at that point, and had literally nothing else to offer its affiliates in the late afternoon.) The first TV show devoted to rock 'n' roll became a smash hit.

Clark quickly turned American Bandstand's success to his advantage, getting involved in music publishing, talent management, and other aspects of the record business, often as a silent partner with others. He escaped the payola scandal that ended Alan Freed's career by being forthcoming and cooperative with Congressional investigators, although he denied taking illegal payments. He quickly sold his record business interests as ABC's price for keeping him on American Bandstand. The show moved to Los Angeles in 1964, and was cut back to a taped weekly show seen on Saturday mornings, although it remained a starmaking force until the music-video era began in the 1980s. Once in Los Angeles, Clark moved into TV production. In 1972, he created New Year's Rockin' Eve, an annual music special that continues to this day. He became host of The $10,000 Pyramid game show in 1973, staying in that role until 1988. His company also produced TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes and various one-shot music specials. All the while, he continued to host syndicated radio countdown shows.

For years, Clark was known as "America's Oldest Teenager," and it wasn't until the new millennium, well past his 70th birthday, that he started to look his age. He suffered a stroke in 2004, which curtailed his career, but he still makes brief appearances annually on New Year's Rockin' Eve.

Clark is occasionally seen as a villain, responsible for the early '60s channeling of rock's outlaw spirit into a series of prefabricated teen idols, or for popularizing bubblegum acts like David Cassidy and John Travolta in the 1970s. His high-school classmates might have predicted this -- after all, they voted him "most likely to sell the Brooklyn Bridge." But he also helped make rock more palatable for a wide audience, presenting a non-threatening face to American parents concerned about what their kids were listening to. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

Have something to add to the mix? Share your thoughts below or read through Founding Fathers past...

Forgetten Favorites: 'Shoot Out the Lights'

Some albums are just too good to let slip away beneath the sands of time, so each week Bill Melville pulls one out, dusts it off and offers it up for your renewed consideration ...

Richard and Linda Thompson toiled in near-obscurity for most of the 1970s, critical darlings unable to move albums.

From nowhere, their brightest and last moments together would lead to one of the 1980s' best records.

On the surface, Shoot Out the Lights apparently depicts a couple making music as their marriage tears apart at the seams. The great irony is most of the songs were written prior to their marriage's rough waters, but it's impossible to ignore the troubles behind the songs. Luckily for the listener, it's the pinnacle of Richard and Linda's years together (I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight comes a close second).

The couple storms from the gate with Don't Renege On Our Love, depicting a relationship that's led to a bad place. It's a plea to stay together, albeit a heavy-handed one. The lovers' eyes don't meet anymore, but one still holds a sliver of hope for reconciliation. Its follow-up, Walking on a Wire, seems to say the opposite. Linda leads in this ballad, questioning why she takes to the tightrope "When all the pain is on my side of the fence."

The funky Man In Need brings all their best attributes together -- vocals that don't quite harmonize but never dip in power, plus an intricate guitar solo. On the thunderous Shoot Out the Lights, Richard takes the lead and backs himself up with a simple yet effective riff that sets a doom-laden tone for the song.

The highlights here are so monumental that it never stumbles on more modest songs like Just the Motion and Back Street Slide.

Shoot Out the Lights hits an emotional nadir on Did She Jump, Linda's vocals infusing doubt into whether a woman's fall to her death was a suicide or something more sinister. Her delivery on "They found some fingerprints/Right around her throat" leaves open the chance that the woman's end came due to bad associations.

Some versions come with a bonus track, Living in Luxury, but the album wraps up just fine with Wall of Death.

The amazing duet takes carnival rides and turns them into allegories for life itself. Wall of Death has a finality to it, a sense that the two singers are unafraid to face the unknown (even if it is just a carnival ride). The light melody contrasts those weighted lyrics, but that was among the many brilliant facets of this partnership.

Got memories of your own from this hidden gem? Share them in the comments section below ...

Video Classics: 'Tangled Up in Blue'

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

Bob Dylan's 1975 album Blood on the Tracks is something of a landmark in the career of the singer/songwriter. The 15th studio album from a prolific artist, it followed several albums that had received lukewarm reception but went on to be considered one of his best (so much so that on several occassions when one of his more recent albums has received critical acclaim, it is described as 'his best since Blood on the Tracks').

While Dylan has denied the songs from the album are autobiographical, his son Jakob has stated that many of they lyrics are 'my parents talking'. Composed at a time when Dylan was suffering emotional turmoil and heartache over his separation from then-wife Sara, a common theme for many tracks on the album is a relationship that has gone wrong. Tangled Up in Blue, the best-performing single from Blood on the Tracks, is no exception.

Although the lyrics are sometimes hard to track (this was intentional on Dylan's part, as he sought to apply his study of cubism to music and create 'multi-dimensional' songs with no fixed reference to time and space), it seems clear that they refer to a relationship that has ended, though not by the singer's choice ('So now I'm goin' back again, I've got to get to her somehow'; 'We always did feel the same, we just saw it from a different point of view, tangled up in blue.') While Dylan continually reworked the lyrics, even after the album's release, the element of loss and heartache remained constant.

While it has been reported that the title comes from a weekend which Dylan spent listening to Joni Mitchell's album, Blue, Dylan hasn't confirmed it. What is certain is that Tangled Up in Blue represents one of the best songs by an American cultural icon. It ranked #466 on the 1991 Firecracker 500, and rocketed up to a Top-100 #42 for the 1996 list.

Have memories of this song or the Firecracker 500? Add your thoughts to the comments below or take a look at Video Classics past...

Survival Tips For Black Friday

Today is Black Friday and, if you're smart, the closest you'll get to a retail store will be clicking on Amazon and buying some music for yourself. Oh, wait, I mean "for the people you love".

Here are some arbitrary suggestions from the Fusion 45 elves, who at this moment are putting the finishing touches on their feather boas for the annual Black Friday Elfen Ball. After all, pressing CDs from dawn 'til dark at 12 cents a day would make any elf want to party.

For Your Viagra-Popping, Wishing-for-the-Old-Days Dad: Madeline Peyroux's Half The Perfect World. Second only to Diana Krall on the sexy chanteuse meter, Maddy harkens back to the days when Dad was, well, a younger man.

Taste Test: I'm All Right

For Your Cool-but-Decibel-Intolerant Mom: Glen Campbell's Meet Glen Campbell. He's 72 and he's still cool. And you can still feel the Wichita breezes flowing through your hair when you sing along.

Taste Test: Walls

For Your Used-to-Be-a-Hippie-Before-He-Sold-Out Uncle: Ruthie Foster's The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster. Inject some spirit back into his money-market-managing soul with this year's Fusion 45 favorite find.

Taste Test: Heal Yourself

For Your Sister, Who Hasn't Bought an Album Since the Moody Blues Were Still Together: James Hunter's The Hard Way. Turn her on to Sam Cooke reincarnated as a guitar-playing white guy from Londontown.

Taste Test: No Smoke Without Fire

For Your Music Snob, Know-it-All Brother Who's Seen it All: Paul Thorn's A Long Way From Tupelo. Artist and guitarist, he'll have to dig Elvis Presley manners as it meets kick-ass Americana, with a sense of humor to boot.

Taste Test: A Long Way From Tupelo

For Your Ramones T-shirt-Wearing Niece Who's Still on the Piercing Parade: Foxboro Hot Tubs Stop Drop and Roll. Green Day by another name copping licks the Kinks through Sweet and back.

Taste Test: Mother Mary

For Your Retro Nephew Who Thinks Looking Like Devandra Banhart Is Something New: James Jackson Toth's Waiting In Vain. No, it's not a reworking of Bob Marley. It's the new sub-sub-genre I've invented: GrindGaze

Taste Test: City of Gold

Video Classics: 'Alice's Restaurant'

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

The song for which Arlo Guthrie shall forever be remembered, Alice's Restaurant is a rock masterpiece that come in on the Firecracker 500 at spot ... um ...

... all right, so Alice's Restaurant comes nowhere near the WNEW Firecracker 500 on either the 1991 or 1996 lists. But it still holds a special place in WNEW history.

18-and-a-half minutes in the performing, Alice's Restaurant is a rambling musical narrative of an outrageous story (true, though embellished somewhat for the song) that began on Thanksgiving Day, 1965. As for the details of the story, you'll have to listen to the song (if you don't know them by heart already), but suffice to say that it became a counterculture anthem (and the entire A-side of Guthrie's 1967 debut album). It also became a Thanksgiving tradition at WNEW.

Because the song is so long, it rarely receives airplay. Because of the subject matter, DJs and program directors found that the one time of the year they could justify playing it was Thanksgiving Day. After this was done for the second year in a row, it qualified as a 'tradition' in the minds of fans, and woe betide any who broke it.  Stories are still told of the one year in which a WNEW program director, looking to 'overhaul' the station, ordered that Alice's Restaurant not be played on Thanksgiving. He left no holiday forwarding number, and when the station switchboard was flooded with outraged traditionalists wondering where the song was, the on-air DJ had to make an emergency call to the station manager on his holiday to authorize the tradition being restored.

In the end, the station manager's Thanksgiving got interrupted, Alice's Restaurant got played, the fans got satisfaction, and the program director got an earful on Monday. WNEW.com won't make the same mistake he did, and therefor we offer up a link to a 2005 live performance of Alice's Restaurant in all its uncut glory. Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving from WNEW!

Have memories of this song or the Firecracker 500? Add your thoughts to the comments below or take a look at Video Classics past...

Rock 101: Lennon's Last Live Gig

Not everyone is a rock expert, so here is your weekly Thursday primer on the events and happenings that shaped Rock and Roll from J.A. Bartlett of the Hits Just Keep On Comin'...

During the summer of 1974, John Lennon and Elton John spent a lot of time working together. Lennon played guitar and sang on Elton's cover of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (taking a credit as "Dr. Winston O'Boogie") while Elton provided guest vocals on Whatever Gets You Through the Night. Elton was impressed enough with the latter to tell Lennon that it sounded like a number one single. Lennon wasn't buying, so Elton made him a bet: If the song hits number one, come and sing with me at a concert. Lennon, who hadn't performed live in several years, took the bet.

The week of November 16, 1974, Lennon's song hit the top. On November 24, Lennon rehearsed with Elton and his band at the Record Plant in New York City. On Thanksgiving night (November 28), midway through Elton's show at Madison Square Garden, Lennon came onstage. The two performed Whatever Gets You Through the Night, then Lennon said, "I'd like to thank Elton and the boys for having me out tonight. Here's a number by an old estranged fiance of mine called Paul. This is one I never sang, but we just about know it." The band kicked into a version of I Saw Her Standing There that rocks so hard it makes the Beatles' original sound like elevator music. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds followed, and then Lennon was gone. Yoko Ono was in the audience that night -- in the wake of Lennon's "lost weekend" in Los Angeles, it had been 18 months since she'd seen him, and they were reunited backstage.

In 1976, Elton released the live album Here and There, featuring tracks from the Madison Square Garden show and a May 1974 Royal Festival Hall show in London. None of the Lennon tracks appeared on the album; oddly enough, the original liner notes didn't even mention Lennon's appearance. I Saw Her Standing There appeared as the B-side of the 1975 single "Philadelphia Freedom," but neither of the other two Lennon/Elton tracks appeared until Here and There got a CD upgrade in 1995. (And what an upgrade it is. The original Here and There had the feel of something rushed out to fulfill a contractual obligation, while the expanded edition is a valuable document of the precise moment at which Elton John was at his peak as the world's biggest pop star.)

After that Thanksgiving night at the Garden, Lennon would never appear on a concert stage again. Reunited with Yoko, he would spend five years at home in the Dakota, helping to raise his son Sean, before his 1980 reemergence with the album Double Fantasy. The album would contain Lennon's second number one single, (Just Like) Starting Over, but he wouldn't be alive to see it.

Not the way you heard it? Add your thoughts below or check out Rock 101s past...

On-Demand Concert Special: John Mellencamp, Live at the Greek Theater 7/31/08

On July 31, 2008 our friend John Mellencamp put on a spectacular show at California's Greek Theater. Unlike his short set at this year's Farm Aid show, this was a full concert and featured all of his major hits, plus some of the new tracks off his 2008 album Life, Death, Love and Freedom.

Click the play button below to hear the full show, front-to-back without commercial interruption.

Here's the setlist from 7/31/08 - Greek Theater:

Pink Houses, My Sweet Love, Check it Out, Minutes to Memories, Longest Days, Troubled Land, If I Die Sudden, Crumblin' Down, Jack & Diane

Enjoy!

From the Front Row: Paul Simon Debuts New Book "Lyrics" at Barnes & Noble In-Store

Please join us in welcoming Mari S., our newest guest contributor. Mari attended Paul Simon's in-store reception for new book Lyrics, and caught an impromptu acoustic performance.

About a year ago, I held a job that afforded me the unexpected opportunity to meet the legendary Paul Simon. I won't go into specifics but after the brief encounter took place, I was left mortified and saddened by the fact that I had blown my chance at making a good impression on someone who I have admired since sophomore year of high school. Little did I know that the redemption I needed to assuage my embarrassment would come in the form of the Barnes & Noble's One on One Series almost a year later to the date.

Thursday, November 13th, started out and continued as any normal day in my life would. I woke up late, haphazardly threw course materials into my knapsack, and hurtled down 8th street until I slid into my Philosophy class five minutes late, face glistened with sweat, breath not entirely caught. As I tried to combat my boredom with my desire to stock my brain chock full of Nietzsche, I received a text message from my friend, Lisa.

"Paul Simon is going to be at Barnes and Noble Union Square at 7pm. Want to go?"

My heart jumped and I could only respond with one word: "YES!"

Major Labels Be Damned! Get Out Your Credit Card!

In a creative twist that major labels will poo-poo today (and try to make illegal five years from now), upstate New York indie rock band, Ten Year Vamp, is inviting their fans to become shareholders in their record company. Anyone from Joe Sheetrock to Suzy Creamcheese can become a record mogul and TYV stockholder by contributing money toward the production of their first record.

Apparently their plan has been pretty successful: over the past year, fans of the band have contributed over $25,000 toward the project, which is due to be released early next year. In return for their investment, each shareholder will receive "their fair share of CD sales revenue, based on the amount they contributed," according to the band's co-founder and rhythm guitar player, Mark Rose.

For as little as a $25 contribution, investors also get to listen to all the band's demo songs, vote on the songs that will go on the record and get exclusive band schwag (like T-shirts and free passes to shows).

You can get a taste of their single, Don't Be Alone With Me, here and, if you like it, become a music mogul by contributing here.

Hello big cigars and backstage passes!

Video Classics: 'Penny Lane'

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

In much the same way as Paul McCartney and John Lennon were one of the greatest songwriting pairings in history, the Beatles' 1967 double A-side release of Penny Lane (principally composed by McCartney) with Strawberry Fields Forever (principally composed by Lennon) may well be the greatest singles pairing ever. This single went to #1 in the U.S. (and #2 in the U.K., famously falling short of Engelbert Humperdinck's Please Release Me, the longest-charting single to this day). Penny Lane holds spot #384 on the 1996 Firecracker 500. More on Strawberry Fields Forever can be found on its own previous Video Classics post.

Penny Lane is the name of a street in Liverpool and the neighborhood immediately surrounding it. Both McCartney and Lennon grew up in the area and would meet at Penny Lane to catch a bus to the center of the city together. The song's lyrics reference many locations and sights on the street, and consequently it has become an important destination for Beatles fans visiting Liverpool as tourists. Unfortunately, this has also led to the repeated theft of Penny Lane street signs, such that the city temporarily resorted to foregoing signs and painting the street name on buildings until more theft-resistant signage was devised.

While Penny Lane is a songwriting tour de force for McCartney (showcasing his ability to match musical and lyrical movement as well as employ unique instrumentation such as David Mason's piccolo trumpet solo), the video is also strong. It is often cited as one of the most influential examples of the form from the late '60s. It begins with scenes of the band ostensibly on Penny Lane (though the scenes where they appear were actually filmed in London) and ends with country scenes of brunch and horseback riding (displaying Ringo's rather ... interesting grasp of horsemanship, if nothing else). After the jump, we offer something that may help get you away from your computer and on the road, if you're delaying your Thanksgiving travel ... the 'Penny Lane' episode from the oft-forgotten series of Beatles cartoons.

This Week in Rock History: Hello and Farewell

Rock music has a robust history, so every Wednesday, J.A. Bartlett of the Hits Just Keep On Comin' talks about the biggest and most intriguing moments from years past...

This week in 2001, George Harrison died at age 58. His family released a statement saying, "He left this world as he lived in it, conscious of God, fearless of death, and at peace, surrounded by family and friends. He often said, 'Everything else can wait but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another.'"

This week in 1968, Cream played two farewell shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Ginger Baker admitted that the shows didn’t represent Cream at their best, saying, “We knew it was all over. We were just finishing it off.” The shows are documented in the film Goodbye Cream, although the live tracks on the Goodbye Cream album are taken from an earlier show on their farewell tour.

This week in 1942, Johnny Allen Hendrix was born in Seattle. His mother named him, although when his father returned from Army service in Oklahoma, he renamed him James Marshall Hendrix. His father also bought him his first guitar.

This week in 1929, a key figure in rock history was born: Berry Gordy, an auto worker turned businessman who borrowed $800 from his family in 1959 to found a record company called Tamla, which later turned into Motown Records. Over the next several years, Motown would launch the the careers of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, and many others.

Did we miss something this week? Add it to the comments below...