Chapter 40: You're So Vain (August - October 1974)

23 August 1974

The Yardbirds - Kashmir

Released: 23 August 1974

Recorded: January - February 1974

Producer: Jimmy Page

Track listing[1]

Side A

In the Light
Custard Pie
Trampled Under Foot
Kashmir

Side B

Ten Years Gone
The Wanton Song
Sick Again
In My Time of Dying

By the end of 1973, following a rough start in the mid-1960s before a revival by the end of the decade, the Yardbirds had overtaken the Beatles as the most popular rock band in England. However, by the start of 1974, they had decided to take a break from touring and launched their own record label, Swan Song, after an unreleased song from the early 1970s. Some critics dismissed this as the Yardbirds trying to copy the formula the Beatles had achieved with Apple Records, now in its seventh year, in attempt to maintain their spot as England's most popular rock band.

ROBERT PLANT: "Those claims that we were copying the Beatles when we started Swan Song Records were nothing but pure bullshit. Yes, the albums sold well, but the singles weren't quite as huge. The Beatles did their own thing, as did the Yardbirds." (1994)

JIMMY PAGE: "We left Peter Grant [the Yardbirds' manager] in charge of Swan Song while we did our own thing, mostly recording and touring. When we started, we got the Pretty Things, Margaret Bell and Paul Rodgers' band Bad Company as part of the roster." (1988)

The Yardbirds with Peter Grant at the Swan Song label party in New York City, 1974.

For the band's eleventh album, their first under Swan Song, eight new songs were written and recorded, the combined length lasting longer than fifty minutes. Although initially considered for a double album, the only outtakes available were "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" and "St. Tristan's Sword", both outtakes from Fight the Horde, and "Boogie with Stu", an outtake from Stairway to Heaven. Seeing as that wasn't enough to fill four sides, it was decided that the next album should only include the sessions from January and February 1974, although "Boogie with Stu" ended up being a B-side.

The resultant album, Kashmir, was the second to be released on Swan Song Records, following Bad Company's eponymous debut album from June. It was the Yardbirds' fifth consecutive album to hit #1 in the United Kingdom, and the fourth to do so in the United States (Stairway to Heaven having stalled at #2). The sole single, "Trampled Under Foot"/"Boogie with Stu", reached #38 in America but did not chart in the United Kingdom. Kashmir was met with positive reviews from critics, with some even calling it their greatest album; Robert Plant tended to share that opinion in later years, saying he preferred it to Stairway to Heaven. The album was even nominated for a Grammy for the best album of 1974.

6 September 1974

Electric Light Orchestra - The Falcons of El Dorado

Released: 6 September 1974

Recorded: February - August 1974

Producer: Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood

Track listing[2]

Side A

Intro/Eddy's Rock
Boy Blue
You Got Me Runnin'
Laredo Tornado
This is the Story of My Love (Baby)

Side B

Mister Kingdom
Crazy Jeans
Nobody's Child
Come Back Karen
Eldorado (Finale)

The Electric Light Orchestra's fourth album was a combination of two ideas by their two frontmen - Roy Wood's concept of a fictional band called Eddy and the Falcons and Jeff Lynne's concept about a daydreamer. For the first time, Lynne and Wood had hired an orchestra and choir arranged by Louis Clark to record alongside the band as opposed to overdubbing strings. During the recording, Mike de Albuquerque had departed the band to spend more time with his family. He was later replaced by Kelly Groucutt. Similarly, Mike Edwards was replaced by Melvyn Gale on cello. Bill Hunt also departed, but he was not replaced; Richard Tandy took over on piano duties full time.

With two different ideas taking place at once, The Falcons of El Dorado ended being an album in which every song was its own thing. The album reached #16 and #19 in both the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively. The preceding non-album single released August 12, "Rock and Roll Winter"/"Illusions in G Major", hit #6 in the United Kingdom, whilst the November 18 single, "Can't Get It Out of My Head"/"Are You Ready to Rock" also hit #6, but in the United States. It did, however, hit #8 in the United Kingdom. By now, the Electric Light Orchestra was gaining a greater following in the United States, but not all was well in the band, as Roy Wood was beginning to show signs of weariness with being part of the band...

4 October 1974

The Who - Who's Next

Released: 4 October 1974

Recorded: May - September 1973

Producer: The Who and Kit Lambert

Track listing[3]

Side A

I Am the Sea
Sea and Sand
Quadrophenia
We Close Tonight
Bell Boy

Side B

The Punk and the Godfather
Helpless Dancer
The Rock
I've Had Enough

The Who's follow-up album to Rock Is Dead - Long Live Rock featured nothing but outtakes from said album, and at one point, a working title was Odds and Sods. Who's Next reached #15 in the United States and #10 in the United Kingdom. John Entwistle had been in charge of the Who's Next project whilst Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and Keith Moon were making plans for a film adaptation of their 1969 rock opera Tommy, with the intentions of having Ken Russell as the director, per Townshend's suggestion. Among the castings for the film included actors Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed and Jack Nicholson, as well as musicians Eric Clapton, Tina Turner and Elton John, plus Daltrey as Tommy himself and Moon as Uncle Ernie. The film would not be released until next year, but by then, Moon's health was beginning to decline...

18 October 1974

Hunky Dory - The Gouster

Released: 18 October 1974

Recorded: February - May 1974

Producer: Hunky Dory and Nick Mason

Track listing[4]

Side A

Day By Day
I Need Somebody
Drive-In Saturday
Maisie
A Last Straw
Hangin' Around

Side B

Terrapin
Everybody's Sometime and Some People's All the Time Blues
Panic in Detroit
Make Up
Search and Destroy
Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road

Between the release of Hunky Dory's Melting Pottery duology and the recording of the second (or third, depending on how one viewed Melting Pottery I and II) album, drummer Robert Wyatt had been involved in accident on 1 June during Gilli Smyth's and Lady June's shared birthday party in which he fell from a window, causing him to become paraplegic from waist down. Later in November, Pink Floyd performed two benefit concerts at the Rainbow Theatre alongside Wyatt's and Kevin Ayers' former band Soft Machine, raising ten thousand pounds for Wyatt.

ROBERT WYATT: "By the time we had reunited to record The Gouster, I was in a much happier state than I was in the late 60s. Before then, I did not drink alcohol, but I became an addict when drinking with Keith Moon. In a way, I'm actually glad I had the accident; if I hadn't, my lifestyle wouldn't have changed and I'd have kicked the bucket before or by 1980." (2012)

LOU REED: "Rob's accident meant that he couldn't play the drums rock and roll style anymore; he started to play the drums in more of a jazz fashion without his feet, and that made Hunky Dory more wild and varied than it already was." (1995)

Robert Wyatt and Nick Mason, 1974.

Wyatt, Ayers, Syd Barrett, David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop reunited in Los Angeles in February 1974 to record the next Hunky Dory album, shortly after the final sessions for the Rolling Stones' The Diamond Dogs of Rock 'n' Roll. Barrett's former Pink Floyd bandmate Nick Mason was in the producer's chair; in between the sessions, the pair would catch up on what activities the other was going through. "I was happy that Syd was finally making a name for himself," Mason recalled years later. "Being surrounded by Robert and the others really helped."

During the sessions for The Gouster, Kevin Ayers had put out his fourth solo album, The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories, in May, his first since 1971's Whatevershebringswesing. Similarly, Lou Reed had already put out his solo debut, Berlin, in July 1973, and was recording his follow-up, Sally Can't Dance, for an August 1974 release.

The Gouster was finally released on 18 October 1974, charting at #28 in the United States and #10 in the United Kingdom. Like Melting Pottery, no singles were released from the album, as Iggy Pop and Lou Reed both said in interviews that Hunky Dory did not do single releases. "You get the full experience of the group by listening to the album as a whole," Syd Barrett added. Still, reviews for The Gouster were generally positive, with some critics seeing it as an improvement over Melting Pottery by having a more refined sound as a supergroup.

Footnotes

1. All tracks are sourced from Physical Graffiti.
2. Tracks are sourced from Introducing Eddy and the Falcons and Eldorado. "Intro" and "Eddy's Rock" are merged to form a single track, as are "Eldorado" and "Eldorado Finale".
3. All tracks are sourced from Quadrophenia with the exception of "We Close Tonight" from Odds & Sods. "I Am the Sea", "Quadrophenia" and "Helpless Dancer" all had their transitions at the end removed ("I Am the Sea" now runs at 1:09), and "The Rock" fades out earlier.
4. Tracks are sourced from Kevin Ayers' The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories, the Stooges' Raw Power, David Bowie's Aladdin Sane, Syd Barrett's Barrett and The Madcap Laughs, Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, and Lou Reed's Transformer.

Author's Comments

As an early Christmas gift to you all, here's four new albums from Strawberry Peppers! The Yardbirds' Kashmir is one of my personal favorite albums to make, especially since it tackles the challenge of whether or not you can make Physical Graffiti a single album instead of a double album mixing outtakes and new material. Despite the 1974 material exceeding fifty minutes, yes you can. I mean, the Rolling Stones' Aftermath (the UK version, at least) was over fifty minutes in length, and that was released in 1966. After that, we had Bob Dylan's Desire from 1976 that was fifty-six minutes long. So I don't see why Led Zeppelin (or the Yardbirds, in this instance) couldn't put out a fifty-three minute album in 1974/5. After all, they have already done so in Strawberry Peppers by including the outtakes from Physical Graffiti on the pre-1974 albums.

I don't have much to say about the other three albums, really. Roy Wood's not gonna last much longer in ELO, Who's Next kinda feels like a filler album, and The Gouster's finally given Robert Wyatt some vocal spots alongside his bandmates. Don't worry, I'll get to the solo albums of the Hunky Dory members soon enough; most likely as an Extra Scene focusing on the 1973-1976. And I might do one focusing on the Velvet Underground leading up to Lou Reed's joining of the supergroup. I'm wondering what other Extra Scenes I could do that focus on what I haven't throughout 1966-1976; maybe one focusing on the Tommy movie with a different director (maybe George Lucas)? So many ideas, so little time...

And on that note, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and well, Happy Holidays in general. We'll see you all on January 13, 2020 with chapter 41 to Strawberry Peppers!