Entries here came to a temporary halt for a number of reasons, partly lack of material released in May 1970 and partly sitting out in the Spring sunshine reading books rather than listening to music and writing about it. Hopefully there’ll be more content during the remainder of the month, not least because I’ve been scouring the music press of the time for releases not covered in the original list I have used as a guide.
Foreshadowing
The early part of the month held the tale of two Peters: Peter Banks of Yes and Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac. Melody Maker of 2 May printed a letter from Banks commenting on the breakup of the Nice. I don’t know if he knew by then that he was about to be asked to leave Yes, soon to be replaced by Steve Howe, but replaced he was. Being careful how I phrase this, in summer 2018 I was chatting over a beer with someone very closely associated with Yes, and it was clear that, 48 years later, the way Banks was treated by Jon Anderson and Chris Squire still rankled.
Peter Green leaving the Mac was obviously a big deal as he was so closely associated with their early success. What would they do without him? How would they ever attain the same level of success? ( 🙂 )
There are only 3 Albums to mention, two of them briefly, one at more length.
self-titled
POCO
I’ve only ever really only known Poco through Rose of Cimarron, an album I have on cassette somewhere, though it’s the title song that lingers in the memory. I wasn’t familiar with their early work at all. This was their second album, and its a good one.
The songs are reminiscent CSNY in their arrangements and melodies, but funkier. It’s country when it wants to be, rock when it doesn’t, and even the 18-minute final medley/track doesn’t outstay its welcome. I like it. It doesn’t raise hairs on the back of my neck as some albums I’ve listened to from the time do, but it’s good stuff, well played.
JACKSON 5 : ABC
Funky Motown pop, featuring a young Michael. No surprises and no real problems if you like this kind of thing.
Let It Be
THE BEATLES : LET IT BE
It’s strange to relegate a Beatles album to a compilation post such as this, but then Let It Be is a strange record. It was the last record they released as a band, but was, for the most part, recorded before Abbey Road. I remember listening to this album years ago and finding it didn’t appeal to me. This is the first time I’ve listened to it for a long time. It is very different to Abbey Road, and the primary difference is that Let It Be lacks both coherence and commitment.
I suppose this was inevitable: the band were disagreeing all the time and the initial sessions, produced by George Martin, were tarted up by Phil Spector for this album, to McCartney’s disgust and leading to some sardonic comments from Martin. And there was a lack of material, McCartney moaned about Lennon not contributing enough, Harrison was frustrated they didn’t listen to his songs (and wrote I, Me, Mine as a consequence). Across The Universe was an older Lennon song repurposed for this album.
The thing is, I really want to like the album because it has some great songs on it, including:
- Two of Us,
- Across The Universe,
- I Me Mine,
- Let it Be,
- I’ve Got a Feeling,
- The Long and Winding Road.
In 2003, a different version of the album, consisting of versions of the songs with the Spector production stripped out, was released as Let it Be… Naked. I much prefer it, though it still sounds like a collection of unrelated songs rather than a concerted attempt at an album.
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