1971 bands – 50th Music Anniversaries and Other Musings

2/8/71: Bob Dylan’s Eat the Document

In 1965, D.A. Pennebaker directed the documentary of Dylan’s U.K. tour that year, Dont Look Back (sic). It became a classic in the music doc genre. A year later he once again filmed Dylan’s tour across the pond, originally intended to air as a one hour documentary on ABC TV. Bob edited it himself after recuperating from his motorcycle accident upon returning home to Woodstock, but ABC rejected it as not being suitable for mainstream viewers. I own a copy, and I think it’s safe to say they were correct (it can also be found on YouTube). There are some good clips, especially from the shows, and most of these can be seen in Martin Scorcese’s Dylan doc No Direction Home. There is one long, awkward scene with Bob sharing a back seat ride with John Lennon, and they’re both inebriated. John is clearly uncomfortable being filmed, and Bob’s in such bad shape I almost get the spins just watching him. Eat the Document premièred at New York’s Academy of Music on February 8.

2/9/71: Carly Simon – Carly Simon

Simon’s debut album featured the Top 10 song, That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be. Sessions players included Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, David Bromberg, and Tony Levin, among others.

2/26/71: Erykah Badu born

Singer, songwriter, producer, actress, provocateur, and Dallas native Erykah Badu turned 50 on the 26th, one day before me. She’s also my neighbor, and though I’m not familiar with her music and probably wouldn’t recognize her if I saw her on the street (unless she was filming another outdoor video in the nude), she might have the best patio view in Dallas – a city lacking many nice views.

Erykah Badu on Her Latest Incense and Living the Badoula Balance | Vanity Fair

2/28/71: Soft Machine – Fourth

Free jazz/rock fusion band Soft Machine released their…wait for it…fourth album, on the 28th. It’s an entirely instrumental album, completing the direction they were headed on Third.

February 1971: Earth, Wind & Fire – Earth, Wind & Fire

Earth, Wind & Fire released their mostly well-received debut album this month in 1971.

Earth, Wind & Fire - Earth, Wind & Fire.jpg

February 1971: James Taylor – James Taylor & the Original Flying Machine

Attempting to capitalize on Taylor’s early fame, Euphoria Records released this 23-minute long album comprised of tracks from a brief recording session in 1966 with his then-band, The Flying Machine. That name would resurface in the lyrics to one of his most beloved songs, Fire & Rain (“Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground…”).

February 1971: Rita Coolidge – Rita Coolidge

The lovely Rita, Rita Coolidge, vocalist and muse to a number of late-60’s/early-70’s rock A-listers, released her solo debut album this month. It includes an impressive list of session players such as Leon Russell, Jim Keltner, Stephen Stills, Clarence White, Booker T. Jones, Bobby Womack, and many others.

February 1971: Three Dog Night – Single: Joy to the World

This month 50 years ago, Three Dog Night released this single from their 1970 album Naturally. It was a number one hit. The song was written by Hoyt Axton who, along with his mother, Mae Axton, became the first mother and son to each have a number one hit in the rock era. She had co-written Heartbreak Hotel.

-Stephen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_the_Document

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carly_Simon_(album)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erykah_Badu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_(album)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth,Wind%26_Fire_(album)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Taylor_and_the_Original_Flying_Machine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Coolidge_(album)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_to_the_World_(Three_Dog_Night_song)

Happy 1971, friends! This is the fourth year for my blog, chronologically speaking, but since I mostly skipped the year 1969 it’s basically my third. If I were a baseball player, I’d be a streaky hitter and semi-reliable fielder. When it comes to my blogging I’m either all in or struggling to turn on my computer. I don’t know why I’m so consistently inconsistent, but writing helps keep my brain synapses firing and I mostly enjoy the process. I continue to love music from the now mostly bygone era of 50 years ago, and I’m still hearing some recordings from that era (and earlier) for the first time, so I’ll continue to babble about them in these pages.

Ted Sizemore – Society for American Baseball Research

By 1971, most of the dayglow optimism of America’s youth as found in popular music had been scraped off and painted over in various shades of gray. Songwriters were creating more introspective music reflective of that come down. Vietnam still raged on, and America’s racial and economic divide showed no sign of improving despite earlier socio-political efforts to that end (I found that filed in a folder labeled “The more things change…”). Hard drugs were taking a toll everywhere, from everyday young folk to soldiers returning from Southeast Asia, and of course on the music scene. As Joni Mitchell would lament in June of that year, “Acid, booze, and ass, needles, guns, and grass, lots of laughs…”

Some of the most popular music of the still new decade – often forgettable in any era – was vapid bubblegum dreck for people who didn’t want to know “what’s going on” in the first place.* As depressing as all this may sound, 1971 is the heart of my favorite ten year span of music. And beginning with album releases at the end of the second month of that year I can finally say I was alive when they came out. Let’s set the stage, shall we?

Bands that said sayonara in 1971: Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Country Joe & the Fish, Derek & the Dominos, Fotheringay, Free, The Mamas & the Papas, The Monkees, Gary Puckett & the Union Gap, and Sounds Inc.

New acts in 1971: Big Star, Billy Joel, The Charlie Daniels Band, The Eagles, Foghat, Jo Jo Gunne, Loggins & Messina, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Manassas, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, The Motels, New York Dolls, Paul McCartney & Wings, Roxy Music, Sister Sledge, Split Enz, and Vinegar Joe (Robert Palmer).

Cosmic American Blog: Split Enz: Two Finns From New Zealand

There’s really nothing earth shattering about the first collection of bands listed above. Booker T. & the M.G.’s ended up re-forming, Derek & the Dominos & Fotheringay were basically one-off groups anyway, albeit with very well-known leaders who continued on, and a couple members of Free would form one of the biggest acts of the 70’s with an updated Free sound. The new acts contained part of the origins of glam, punk, disco, and new wave (and a former Beatle who dabbled in some of those genres at various points in the ensuing years), not to mention one of the most influential groups of all time when it came to future bands, yet who remain one of the most underappreciated groups ever to enter a recording studio when it comes to the masses.

So, here’s to 2021 being a better year than 2020. I hope you continue to stop by for a reminder of what was good in music 50 years ago as we once again ring in the new year of 1971. Cheers!

-Stephen

*Sometimes I don’t mind vapid bubblegum dreck.

Tag: 1971 bands

February ’71 Music Wrap Up

January 1, 1971 – It’s About the Music, Maaan!