Artificial Radio Hour with Rev. Dr. Dr. Phill Part 38

Hey folks!

Some mid-seventies glam-type stuff this week.

"New York Groove" was covered by KISS's Ace Frehley, but the version by the UK's Hello is the original. It's thumpy and pretty dumb, but fun, which describes most of these tracks.

Suzi Quatro played Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days. She is American, but she had more musical success in the UK. Can The Can reached number one on the UK charts, but was a much smaller hit in the US.

I ended up doing more manipulation of the podcast clips in this episode than I usually do. I sped some parts up to cut down on the length of the show, but then changed my mind & slowed some parts down. Echo here, reverb there, some excerpts from a Sunn O))) track (Bassaliens), and after a while they come out nearly unintelligible. Try listening with headphones!

They really glammed it up.

 Chicory Tip didn't start out looking particularly glam, but they changed their look with later releases. "Son Of My Father" was written by Giorgio Moroder. Chicory Tip's cover became the first UK number one single to prominently feature a synthesizer, in this case, a Moog.

It wasn't my plan to include two tracks from Guardians Of The Galaxy soundtracks, but it happened. Fox On The Run wasn't in Vol. 2 but it is in the trailer and the soundtrack album. There was also a version released on the Sweet's 1974 album Desolation Boulevard but the 7" version has the cool synth part.

Albert Hammond, in addition to being a prolific songwriter, is also, apparently, a train. He crossed paths with some of these glam guys, but he was more of a soft rock guy. His kid is in The Strokes.

"He's Gonna Step On You Again" by John Kongos is pretty odd for 1971. The Guinness Book says it's the first song to use a sample, but it's actually a tape loop (of African drumming) which wasn't really a new thing at the time. It is one of the first tracks to use a tape loop as the rhythmic base of the track, so there's that I guess.

Pictured: bozos.

 "The Flying Saucer Song" is an outtake from the 1974 Harry Nilsson album Pussy Cats. The album is kinda what it sounds like when a bunch of drunk bozos messes around in a recording studio. The main bozos were Nilsson and John Lennon, with other bozos making an appearance including Beatle Ringo Starr and Beatle pal Klaus Voorman. It's a bit of a mess. This track was included on the CD reissue in 1999.

I'm Not In Love by 10cc was in the first Guardians movie. 10cc weren't a glam band, they were more of a cerebral pop group. I love this song, and I love the weird recording techniques that were used to create it:

"Eric Stewart spent three weeks recording Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme singing "ahhh" 16 times for each note of the chromatic scale, building up a "choir" of 48 voices for each note of the scale. He created tape loops of about 12 feet in length by feeding the loop at one end through the tape heads of the stereo recorder in the studio, and at the other end through a capstan roller fixed to the top of a microphone stand, and tensioned the tape. By creating long loops the 'blip' caused by the splice in each tape loop could be drowned out by the rest of the backing track, providing that the blips in each loop did not coincide with each other. Having created twelve tape loops for each of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, Stewart played each loop through a separate channel of the mixing desk. This effectively turned the mixing desk into a musical instrument complete with all the notes of the chromatic scale, which the four members together then "played", fading up three or four channels at a time to create "chords" for the song's melody. Stewart had put gaffer's tape across the bottom of each channel, which meant it was impossible to completely fade down the tracks for each note; this resulted in the constant background hiss of vocals heard throughout the song."

        - wikipedia.org/I'm_Not_In_Love

One more dumb glam track to close out, this time from Slade. You can practically hear Noddy Holder's plaid outfit as he sings.

That's it for this week, as always please leave a comment wherever you're reading this, or reply to the email. Let me know how I'm doing!

Enjoy!

- Rev. Dr. Dr. Phill


New York Groove - Hello (1975)

I think this was the back cover of the Japanese single.

Can the Can - Suzi Quatro (1973)

Adam Ruins Everything Ep 9: Matrimony Myths with Stephanie Coontz 9/14/2016

Bassaliens (excerpt) - Sunn O))) (2004)

Not very glam.

Son of My Father - Chicory Tip (1972)

Fox on the Run (7" version) - The Sweet (1974)

Jordan, Jesse GO! Ep. 450: Autumnal Nip with Kyle Kinane 10/17/2016

Bassaliens (excerpt) - Sunn O))) (2004)

I'm a Train - Albert Hammond (1974)

He's Gonna Step On You Again - John Kongos (1971)

Jordan, Jesse GO! Ep. 450: Autumnal Nip with Kyle Kinane 10/17/2016

Bassaliens (excerpt) - Sunn O))) (2004)

The Flying Saucer Song - Harry Nilsson (1974)

The SubGenius Hour of Slack Podcast #1588 - "It's Gonna Be a Bummer, Man" 9/19/2016

I'm Not In Love - 10cc (1975)

Cum On Feel The Noize - Slade (1973)