First Draft

I began this journey with the post in which I published an old letter to the editor by Linda Coney. I used Three Dog Night’s version of Mama Told Me Not To Come as a framing device. The song comes from It Ain’t Easy; its cover features a gaudy Sixties room with gaudy wallpaper. I was hooked and decided to use it in this space.

Little did I know that the original album artwork had been rejected because it was so controversial. Three Dog Night? Controversial? Who knew?

It Ain’t Easy was supposed to be The Wizards Of Orange. The cover featured Three Dog Night naked but with the naughty bits obscured. The original cover later resurfaced on a CD reissue.

I’d never heard of this mishigas. Obviously, I need to brush up on my pop-rock trivia.

We begin with the gaudy room cover:

Here’s the naked cover:

That’s so orange that I want a mimosa. Chuck Negron naked has driven me to drink but not a Negroni.

The album is not quite as juicy as that story but it’s a good one. Here it is via Spotify:

Buffalo Springfield were like a comet: briefly sighted, never forgotten. 1968’s Last Time Around is their last official studio album before Stills, Young, Furay, and Messina went on to other projects and greater glory.

I’ve always loved this cover because it perfectly captures Neil Young’s restless spirit. He’s always looking for the next challenge, which is what makes him a difficult band mate and a great solo artist.

I couldn’t find any artwork credits but suffice it to say that it’s swell:

Thanks to Sgt. Pepper and We’re Only In It For The Money, everyone in those days was into photo montages. This one was on the back cover:

Here’s the whole damn album:

Dinah Washington née Ruth Lee Jones had a short, tragic life.  She was married 8 time and was a prolific recording artist until her death in 1963 at the age of 39. Sounds like a blues singer to me, y’all.

I’ve picked two album covers from 1962 and 1963 respectively that depict two sides of The Queen:

Here’s Back To The Blues via Spotify:

The album title is somewhat ironic. Guitarist Larry Coryell and Drummer Alphonse Mouzon played together in The Eleventh House, which broke up a mere two years earlier. This 1977 album is Jazz fusion at its brashest and loudest.

The cover was designed by Bob Defrin who was then the design honcho at Atlantic Records. He went on to work with AC/DC for many years designing their album covers and stage sets. Talk about brash and loud.

I almost eggspected Vincent Price as Egghead to show up.

Here’s the whole damn album via Spotify.

I’ve always thought that the Flying Burrito Brothers had one of the worst band names ever. But their 1969 debut album has one of the best titles ever: The Gilded Palace Of Sin. Not a bad short-term trade-off. I do, however, like burritos.

Gram Parsons was the Pied Piper of Country Rock. When he left the Byrds, Chris Hillman soon followed. As his subsequent career proved.  Hillman was more of a country guy than a rocker. Parsons was always restless and left the Flying Burrito Brothers  after only recording two albums with them. I told you he was restless. A restless guy in a Nudie suit.

The Gilded Palace Of Sin was where it all began:

Here’s the whole damn album via Spotify:

Other than the opening track being Johnny Mercer’s I’m An Old Cowhand, I have no idea why photographer William Claxton had Jazz sax great Sonny Rollins pose in cowboy mufti. Sonny *was* something of a musical gunslinger. Otherwise the cover of this 1957 album makes no sense whatsoever. Of course, some of the best and worst things in life make no sense.

Here’s the whole damn album:

I’m just as surprised as you are to see Rick Springfield’s name atop this post. Here’s why: I did a search for “album covers with animals on them”and these doggone covers topped the list. It was destiny or some such shit.

Sad clown? Funny clown? Evil clown? It’s unclear what the great Jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus and designer Marvin Israel were after with this cover. Perhaps it’s crappy clown thrown out of the circus for lazy makeup application. Beats the hell outta me.

Mingus described the title track as follows in the liner notes:

“The Clown” tells the story of a clown “who tried to please people like most jazz musicians do, but whom nobody liked until he was dead. My version of the story ended with his blowing his brains out with the people laughing and finally being pleased because they thought it was part of the act. I liked the way Jean changed the ending; leaves it more up to the listener.”

That sums up my attitude about clowns. They creep me out. The Jean Mingus refers to is Jean Shepherd a writer/actor/radio and tv personality who is best known for A Christmas Story. Holy leg lamp, Batman.

Here’s the whole damn album:

In the Rick Wakeman segment of last Saturday’s Odds & Sods, I discussed his comeback album: 1984. It was released in 1981 and was a collaboration with lyricist Tim Rice of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita fame. It’s almost as if Keith Emerson had collaborated with Oscar Hammerstein.

Oddly enough, Wakeman did not like Orwell’s book but made the concept album anyway. There’s no accounting for taste.

The album art was done by the ubiquitous Hipgnosis:

Here’s Rick Wakeman performing 1984 live:

What? No cape?

This is not the only album the Queen of Soul released called Aretha. It is, however, the only one with cover art by Andy Warhol.

Here’s an expanded version of whole damn 1986 album via Spotify:

Art Tatum was one of the greatest and most influential Jazz pianists of the 20th Century. Players who he influenced include Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Ray Charles, and McCoy Tyner among others.

Discoveries is a compilation released in 1960, four years after Tatum’s death. The cover art is by the eminent illustrator  Irv Docktor.

I failed to discover Discoveries on either Spotify or YouTube. Here’s a short clip of Art Tatum doing what he did best:

Here’s some lagniappe, Oscar Peterson and Bill Basie with some Tatum talk:

The Bar-Kays began life as a session band for Stax Records in Memphis. The  original Bar-Kays backed up Otis Redding on his last tour: 4 of them died in a plane crash along with Otis. Nevertheless, the band persisted.

Soul Finger was the band’s debut album and it’s as soulful as all get out. The psychedelic soul cover is by Loring Eutemey. It was 1967, after all:

And now for something completely different. I’m going to experiment with using Spotify here at First Draft. Please let me know if you have any playback issues. This album is well worth a listen.

Billy Preston is one of two musicians who merited a “with” credit when he played with The Beatles; specifically on the Get Back single. He also had one of the best Afros in music history. It was featured on several of his Seventies releases:

Billy’s hair was also prominently featured on the covers of two of his hit singles:

Since this an odd post, our musical selection is a live album of the same vintage. It features some Prestonized Beatles tunes and Mick Taylor on lead guitar: