A SPECIAL TIME AND PLACE...

LAUREL CANYON PART 1
LAUREL CANYON PART 2

Just last week, I finished reading a rather interesting book entitled “Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Legendary Neighborhood,” by Michael Walker (see americanhitnetwork.com if you wish to read my review of this book). Besides providing a few spicy tidbits of information about Graham Nash, Frank Zappa, Cass Elliot and many others, the book did a great job of providing a backdrop for some of the most interesting and/or influential music from the ‘60s and the ‘70s. A few of my own personal favorite musicians appear in the pages, and I always had a curiosity about what it would have been like to have David Crosby, Micky Dolenz and Joni Mitchell for neighbors. This book provides a substantive portrait of those times, and I figure that a good portrait of this musical location and era ought to be accompanied by some of the music that was spawned there, and then.
So, today’s show features music written by artists who were influenced by their surroundings in Laurel Canyon. Some songs mention it by name, others only imply it. Either way, there is common ground to be found here, so here is our own humble offering of a soundtrack to accompany a rather fascinating book about a fascinating era in a now fabled location.

The Songs;
(backdrop) – Mr. Tambourine Man – The Byrds
1) I’ll Set You Free This Time – The Byrds
2) On the Way Home – Buffalo Springfield
3) Hungry Freaks Daddy – The Mothers of Invention
4) Elenore – The Turtles
5) Laurel Canyon Boulevard – Van Dyke Parks
6) Creeque Alley – The Mamas and the Papas
7) Maybe the People Will Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale - Love
8) You Don’t Have to Cry – Crosby, Stills and Nash
9) Ladies of the Canyon – Joni Mitchell
10) Our House – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
11) Take It Easy – The Eagles
12) Revolution Blues – Neil Young

March 1971

March 1971
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The Spring of 1971 was a confusing time for popular music. Most of us were still trying to get used to the fact that the Beatles were no more. At the time, their solo projects all seemed to be suffering from the absence of the others (my own opinion on this matter has changed since then). Alice Cooper was creating something significantly different from the idealistic perspective of the ‘60s (and an Englishman named David Bowie was apparently taking notes). Soul music had become the most popular genre of the time, and albums had become much more significant than the soon-to-be-obsolete 45 RPM singles.
This show combines singles and album tracks in about equal proportion, which is probably a fair ratio for the state of music as it was back then. Over the course of the next hour, you will hear these songs as you may have heard them in March of 1971, when they appeared on the pop charts for the first time.
What songs do we play? Well, how’s this for starters;
1) Another Day – Paul McCartney
2) What Is Life – George Harrison
3) Wild World – Cat Stevens
4) You’re All I Need to Get By – Aretha Franklin
5) Eighteen – Alice Cooper

6, 7, 8, 9) Miscellaneous Album Tracks from the following
“New” Releases from March 1971;
Nilsson – The Point
David Crosby – If I Could Only Remember My Name
Crazy Horse – Crazy Horse
Love It to Death – Alice Cooper

ROCK AND ROLL BRANCHES OUT – DECEMBER 1968

DECEMBER 1968
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It has often been said (by me) that pop music turned darker after 1967’s Summer of Love, but today’s show does a fairly good job of proving me wrong on this point. While it is true that both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones incorporated experimentation and darker themes into their music post-1967, and drugs fueled many other bands to take off the rose-colored glasses, you would not discern the change from today’s show.
The singles featured in this show all maintain their pop sheen, making a liar out of me by leaving the impression that Summer of Love never ended. Only the album tracks betray the encroaching darkness. The album tracks also point the way to the future, and the future was headed in a direction far away from the pop pleasantries of these singles. So, I maintain that I am not wrong in my assessment, but I also will concede that to get the full story, you must look at the subject from all angles.
With that in mind, we start today’s show with a few typically “Great Hits” from the month of December ’68, touch on one silly ‘Great Miss,” then extract a few great album tracks from that very same month.

Here’s a list of songs that we cover in today’s show;
1) Crimson and Clover – Tommy James & the Shondells
2) I’m Gonna Make You Love Me – The Supremes and the Temptations
3A) Am I the Same Girl - Barbara Acklin
3B) Soulful Strut – Young-Holt Unlimited
4) Hooked on a Feeling – B.J. Thomas
5) Son of a Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield
6) Stand By Your Man – Tammy Wynette
7) Chewy Chewy – The Ohio Express (as a ‘Great Miss’)
8-…) Album Tracks from The Monkees’ “Head”

The ‘Dog Days’ of 1966

Late Summer 1966

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Well, it’s back to the grind for us. Barely married one week, and already we are returning to our normal routine. The good part of that routine is doing American Hit Radio, though, so here we are with a brand new episode!
Today’s topic is “The Dog Days of 1966 (August-September 1966). What a summer it was, too, especially if you were a fan of pop music. To think that all of these songs were debuting for the first time at the same time, all in the middle of summer, blows my mind. We can’t even FIND a ‘great miss’ for this show! I think that the Summer of ‘66 speaks for itself, so enjoy!

Here’s a list of tunes culled from the ‘dog days’ of 1966;
1) Land of 1000 Dances – Wilson Pickett
2) Sunny Afternoon – The Kinks
3) The Dangling Conversation – Simon & Garfunkel
4) Reach Out, I’ll Be There- The Four Tops
5) Last Train to Clarksville – The Monkees
6) 96 Tears - ? and the Mysterians
7) Psychotic Reaction – The Count Five
8) Walk Away Renee - The Left Banke
9) And Your Bird Can Sing – The Beatles (as a Featured Album Track)
10) Tomorrow Never Knows – The Beatles (ALSO as a Featured Album Track!)