A new year is upon us and Independents Uncovered is back on the air. We did our last show of 2010 back on December 13th and then took a few weeks off to enjoy the holidays! I hope everyone else enjoyed theirs too. I had a nice Christmas, then was snowed in at my father's for a couple days. Then I went to a nice New Year's party with family and friends and now we are back!
For the new year, I decided to start out with something a little different. John is not a fan of progressive rock, so I don't really play any on the show. But I've been a prog-rock fan for almost forty years, so I couldn't deny it forever. But as I started looking at music to play, the prog started veering towards psychedelic.
I was born right at the beginning of the psychedelic era and having six older siblings meant that I was listening to "psychedelic rock" at a very young age and to this day I still love it. Both have played a big part in my musical upbringing and can co-exist peacefully, so I decided to merge the two.
I sent John music for about three week's worth of shows and we will have three weeks worth of shows dedicated to this music. They just won't necessarily be three consecutive weeks. Most of the music I play is usually under four minutes, but for the last several months, I've been threatening to play a 10+ minute song. This would have been the perfect week to do it. I came close, as the first song I played clocked in at 9:36. Here's the playlist for the show:
Renaissance - Running Hard
Genesis - For Absent Friends
The Syn - 14 Hour Technicolor Dream
Strawbs - Sheep
Bodast - Nether Street
Pete Sinfield - Still
Steeleye Span - Alison Gross
Giles, Giles & Fripp - The Crukster
Brian Eno - Backwater
Steve Hackett - Narnia
Strawberry Alarm Clock - Hummin' Happy
If you don't know any of these bands, you should check them out. The Dave Cousins-led band The Strawbs included Rick Wakeman as their keyboard player right before the joined Yes. The Syn was the band that Chris Squire was in right before he formed Yes. Bodast was one of the many bands that Steve Howe was in before he joined Yes, and the music from this song, Nether Street reappeared as the Würm section of Starship Trooper.
Pete Sinfield was lyricist for King Crimson and ELP and get some vocal help from Greg Lake on this track. Steve Hackett got a little help from Kansas' Steve Walsh when he released hist first post-Genesis solo album. Speaking of Genesis, the 1971 track that I played was the first ever vocal performance by Phil Collins in the band.
And finally we come to the Strawberry Alarm Clock, one of the first bands people think of when they hear the word psychedelic. Since I stay away from the "hits", I couldn't play Incense and Peppermints. But I did think about Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow or Strawberries Mean Love. Those two songs will get played on upcoming shows. But the one thing that many people don't know about the Strawberry Alarm Clock is that their guitarist and one of their primary songwriters was Ed King. The same Ed King who several years later joined Lynyrd Skynyrd.
My original plan for next week was to continue this theme, but now I'm thinking of going in a different direction for next week. I hope you'll be able to tune in to see what I decide on. There is also a rumor that there may not be a guest and I may be on from 8-10pm. That would be fun!
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