Steven Seaweed's
Classic Vinyl

Weekdays, 10:30am

Once upon a time, vinyl records rocked the universe. CD's didn't show up until the mid '80's so it was all turntables, tone arms and stacks of wax baby! None of this digital stuff where the computer segues from one song to the next. No, you had two turntables - one was playing a song on the air, the other was cued up and ready to play the next one.

You had to be there to make the segue, so bathroom breaks were always on the short side (unless you were rockin' Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother, clocking in at 23:44, about the length of a typical vinyl album side).

I've got 8,000 pieces of Classic Vinyl in my garage, and I bust out a new track every weekday at 10:30. Fire up the webcam and watch an actual record for gods sake, spinning on an actual turntable, actually being played on the airwaves of 107.7 The Bone!

That's me in black & white at my first radio station, KLRB Carmel-By-The-Sea-Weed. I believe the platter on the turntable was Todd Rundgren's Something / Anything?

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7-24-08
Cocaine - J.J.Cale, 1976 (Troubador)

J.J.Cale is a guy who has been happy to stay out of the spotlight all these years, but is still doing session guitar work today at the age of 70. With astronomical royalty checks as songwriter of Call Me The Breeze, After Midnight, and today's Classic Vinyl track, Cocaine, he doesn't have to work. J.J.Cale says, "I have no time to retire!"

Earlier this year, J.J.Cale and Eric Clapton won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album (Vocal or Instrumental) for The Road To Escondido.

At that point, Clapton had 19 Grammy's. This was J.J.Cale's first.
If you wanna get down, down on the ground - listen to the original version of Cocaine.

7-23-08
Good Rockin' Tonight - Montrose, 1973 (Montrose)

Ironic that the debut Montrose album wasn't that successful in the beginning - some say their record company had no idea how to market the group and their sound. However, as you know from the gazillion times you've heard it on the radio, Montrose has undergone a renaissance since then, the album eventually going platinum.

Track 1, side 2, Good Rockin' Tonight, wasn't even a Montrose original. It was written by a New Orleans gospel singer who was also a professional boxer and occasional encyclopedia salesman when times were tough, Roy Brown.

A lot of people have covered Good Rockin' Tonight, including James Brown, Robert Plant's Honeydrippers, Paul Mc Cartney, and even Pat Boone, but this one is our favorite.

Have you heard the news? There's Good Rockin' tonight.

7-22-08
Tales of Brave Ulysses - Cream, 1967 (Disraeli Gears)

On the second Cream record, their sound was less bluesy and more psychedelic. You see, in 1967 you could take pretty much anything and make it psychedelic - in the case of today's song - it was the Greek tragedy Ulysses.

Cream's Tales of Brave Ulysses was pure hippie/Summer of Love. With lines like "tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers," it was definetly time to roll a doob and put Disraeli Gears on the turntable.

The song actually came about in a London club when Eric Clapton ran into an Australian artist who happened to live in his building.

Clapton mentioned that he had some music that needed lyrics, so the guy wrote out a poem he had composed on a napkin and gave it to Clapton, who recorded it as Tales of Brave Ulysses.

7-21-08
School's Put - Alice Cooper, 1972 (School's Out)

Legend has it that Vincent Furnier chose the name for his late 60's band during a ouija board session, where he was told he was the reincarnation of a 17th-century witch of the same name - Alice Cooper.

That is just one of many stories that have been floating around about this guy over the years. One of my favorites is why Alice was inspired to write today's Classic Vinyl track. When asked the question, "What's the greatest three minutes of your life?", says The Coop: "There's two times during the year. One is Christmas morning, when you're just getting ready to open the presents. The greed factor is right there. The next one is the last three minutes of the last day of school when you're sitting there and it's like a slow fuse burning. I said, 'If we can catch that three minutes in a song, it's going to be so big.'"

7-17-08
Better By You, Better By Me - Spooky Tooth, 1969 (Spooky Two)

Spooky Tooth were an English progressive rock band you probably haven't heard of. They were huge in the late 60's-early 70's and were fronted by a guy you might have heard of - Gary Wright - remember Dreamweaver?

Gary Wright was a former child actor who appeared on Broadway, was in a number of rock bands in high school, then studied psychology in Europe, before joining Spooky Tooth.

Track 3, side 2 of Spooky Tooth's best record, Spooky Two, was written by Gary Wright - Better By You, Better By Me. You might have heard the Judas Priest version - this is the original.

7-16-08
Bell Bottom Blues -
Derek and the Domino, 1970 (single)

When Derek and the Dominoes made their first record, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs in 1970, the record company wanted to make sure everybody knew who was in the band, so they made up tons of buttons that said "Derek is Eric" - as in the great Eric Clapton of course.

What the record company didn't know was that Clapton was spending £1,000 a week on heroin, but not even that drug coud dull the pain of falling in love with his best friends wife. His best friend was George Harrison. The wife was the famous "Layla," Patty Boyd.

On the song Bell Bottom Blues, Eric Clapton asks her, "Do you want to see me crawl across the floor to you? Do you want to hear me beg you to take me back?," then he answers, "Id gladly do it."

7-15-08
Night Prowler - AC/DC, 1979 (Highway To Hell)

Highway To Hell is the final album AC/DC recorded with Bon Scott, and Bon's final words committed to vinyl come at the end of today's song, when he says "Shazbot, na-nu na-nu," phrases uttered numerous times by Robin Williams on the then-popular TV sitcom, Mork and Mindy.

Night Prowleris the last track on Highway To Hell, and while many have perhaps unfairly associated AC/DC with notorious serial killer Richard Ramírez, the "Night Stalker," because of the lyrics to this song, the band claimed it is actually about a guy sneaking into his girlfriend's bedroom at night.

We got your lyrics right here - "I'm your Night Prowler, make a mess of you, yes I will."

7-14-08
One Way Out - The Allman Brothers Band, 1972 (Eat A Peach)

The Allman Brothers album Eat A Peach came close on the heels of their breakthrough At Fillmore East set and featured some live tracks that didn't make it onto that album, including two entire album sides devoted to Mountain Jam, a 34-minute improvisation based around Donovan's song There is a Mountain.

Back in the day we would occasionally play both sides back-to-back, going back and forth between turntables. If you really wanted to go nuts, you would start with side 4 of At Fillmore East, which was an almost 23-minute version of Whipping Post, which ends with the opening notes to Mountain Jam - play those two sides as well - for a full 57 minute stoner jam session - just like it happened that warm July night in 1971.

Today, though, it's track 1, side III of Eat A Peach, an old 60's blues number called One Way Out. First you'll hear guitarist Dickey Betts, then the great Duane Allman comes in over the top with an absolutely wicked bottleneck slide guitar part, after which vocalist Gregg Allman narrates a lusty tale of a rather philandering fellow.

7-11-08
Rats in the Cellar - Aerosmith, 1976 (Rocks)

Aerosmith Rocks - nice ring to it, don't you think? The perfect title attached to an album by the bestselling American hard rock band of all time.

These guys have sold 150 million albums worldwide, with 21 Top 40 hits, nine #1 Mainstream Rock hits, four Grammy Awards, and ten MTV Video Music Awards. And they're in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

Rock is the album that Slash of Guns N' Roses said "changed my life." As well, it was one of Kurt Cobain's favorite records.

Track 3, side 1, Rats in the Cellar (maybe a sequel to Toys In The Attic?), was written as Tom Hamilton describes it, by "taking this thing The Yardbirds created, and making it balls to the wall."

7-10-08
Albatross - Fleetwood Mac, 1969 (single)

With the legendary Peter Green on guitar, Fleetwood Mac's Albatross was a huge hit - everywhere but North America.

Peter Green was an absolute figurehead in the British blues movement, one day inspiring the great B. B. King to say, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats."

Peter Green played one of his favorite guitars on pretty much everything - a 1959 Gibson Les Paul - except on this song, Albatross, where he used a Fender Stratocaster, just like Buddy Holly and Buddy Guy did, and Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton would.

7-9-08
Funk #48 - James Gang, 1969 (Yer' Album)

In 1966, the James Gang formed in that hot bed of rock 'n roll, Cleveland, Ohio. Joe Walsh was at Kent State University and joined the group in 1969.

Thirty-one years later, Joe would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Eagles.

He wouldn't have to go too far - the Hall of Fame is right there on Rock and Roll Boulevard in downtown Cleveland.

And today on Classic Vinyl, we're going to play track 3, side 1 of the debut James Gang record called Yer' Album.

Their producer said in the liner notes that Funk #48 "started out as a soundcheck warm-up riff," adding that the "number 48 [in the title] came out of thin air." Presumably the same holds true for the follow-up Funk #49, which you've heard here on The Bone a gazillion times.

7-8-08
Show Me The Way - Peter Frampton, 1974 (Frampton)

Peter Frampton didn't have a whole lot of commercial success with his early albums. This changed with his breakthrough best-selling live album, Frampton Comes Alive!, in 1976, recorded mostly at Winterland, here in San Francisco.

Show Me The Way was a huge hit from the live album, but the original studio version of the song came out two years earlier on Frampton, his fourth record.

One day while vacationing in the Bahamas at the home of his former Humble Pie bandmate, Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton wrote this song, Show Me The Way, during a spectacular Caribbean sunset.

7-7-08
No More Mr Nice Guy - Megadeth, 1989 (Shocker the Music)

As successful as Megadeth was, boy did they have their problems. And it started in the beginning.

Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine said, "After getting fired from Metallica, all I remember is that I wanted blood. Theirs. I wanted to be faster, and heavier than them".

Apparently it worked. Megadeth sold more than 20 million albums worldwide, including six consecutive platinum albums, with seven consecutive Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance.

But in 1989, right before Mustaine was arrested for a DUI and possession of narcotics, having just crashed into a parked vehicle occupied by an off-duty police officer, he recorded a spectacular version of Alice Cooper's No More Mr Nice Guy for the soundtrack to Wes Craven's Shocker, one of the hands-down scariest slasher flicks ever.

The Coop also appears on the Shocker soundtrack and he would also later play Freddy Krueger's abusive foster father, Mr. Underwood, in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

7-3-08
One Fine Morning - Lighthouse, 1971 (One Fine Morning)

Lighthouse was a Canadian rock band formed in 1969 in Toronto which included horns, strings, and a vibraphone. Their sound was very Chicago-esque - Lighthouse would rock out, or get all jazzy, or go classical - sometimes incorporating all three styles into one song.

These guys were huge in the early 70's, especially in Canada. They played at the legendary Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals and the Isle of Wight Festival along with Hendrix (one of his last concerts).

This is the title track to the fourth Lighthouse record, One Fine Morning, reaching #2 on the Canadian charts.

7-2-08
It's No Secret - Jefferson Airplane, 1966 (Jefferson Airplane Takes Off)

When you talk about the 60's psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco, Jefferson Airplane should be the first words out of your mouth.

They played at the very first "Human Be-In" in Golden Gate Park. They played the first ever show at the Fillmore. The Airplane did Monterey and Woodstock and, a lot of people forget, they also performed at the disaster known as Altamont. Founder Marty Balin was knocked unconscious by a Hells Angel at that one.

The Jefferson Airplane were also the first psychedelic band to sign a contract with a major record label, the first to appear on American national television, the first to score hit records and the first to tour the US East Coast and Europe.

Two more firsts for you.

The group's first single was Marty Balin's It's No Secret (a tune he had written with the great Otis Redding in mind), and it appeared on their first record, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off from 1966.

Hey - it's no secret - Marty Balin knew how to write a love song.

7-1-08
Do You Believe In Magic - Lovin' Spoonful, 1965 (Do You Believe In Magic)

The Lovin' Spoonful were a New York pop rock band of the 1960s, and were named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. The band's founder, John Sebastian, was elected to the 2008 Songwriter's Hall of Fame just last week.

The Lovin' Spoonful were an instant success with their good-timey blend of folk, rock and pop, although they were definetly more pop than folk or rock, if that makes any sense.

Starting in 1965, and in part responding to the so called British Invasion, The Lovin' Spoonful busted out one classic hit single after another, including You Didn't Have to Be So Nice, Daydream, Summer in the City, Nashville Cats, and today's Classic Vinyl track, Do You Believe in Magic?, the first track on their first record.

Hey, it's magic if the music is groovy.