US Top 20: April 10, 1976

Johnnie Taylor : Disco Lady

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   From the album Eargasm, Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" topped the US pop charts for four straight weeks on its way to becoming the first platinum single ever. That's despite the fact that it's not a disco song. With leering lyrics like "Lord have mercy girl, You dance so fine, and you're right on time/ Girl you ought to be on T.V. on Soul Train/ When you get the groove, It ain't no stopp-in/ Just can't help it, I'm finger pop-pin", the song became an instant seller. Columbia Records president Bruce Lundvall sent Taylor bottles of Dom Perignon champange. "I took a bath in it," Taylor later admitted. "It makes your skin so smooth!"

1 DISCO LADY –•– Johnnie Taylor 

2 DREAM WEAVER –•– Gary Wright  

3 LONELY NIGHT (Angel Face) –•– The Captain and Tennille 

4 LET YOUR LOVE FLOW –•– The Bellamy Brothers 

5 RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM –•– Maxine Nightingale  

6 DREAM ON –•– Aerosmith 

7 BOOGIE FEVER –•– The Sylvers 

8 ONLY SIXTEEN –•– Dr. Hook 

9 SWEET LOVE –•– The Commodores 

10 GOLDEN YEARS –•– David Bowie 

11 SHOW ME THE WAY –•– Peter Frampton 

12 BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY –•– Queen 

13 SWEET THING –•– Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan 

14 DECEMBER, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) –•– The Four Seasons  

15 THERE’S A KIND OF HUSH (All Over the World) –•– The Carpenters 

16 MONEY HONEY –•– The Bay City Rollers 

17 DEEP PURPLE –•– Donny and Marie Osmond  

18 FOOLED AROUND AND FELL IN LOVE –•– Elvin Bishop  

19 ALL BY MYSELF –•– Eric Carmen 

20 WELCOME BACK –•– John Sebastian 

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40 Year Itch : Burned in My Prime

Todd Rundgren : Love of the Common Man

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  On April 9, 1976 Todd Rundgren released the single "Love of the Common Man", a nifty slice of pop perfection that radio stations simply did not play. That's why a local FM rock station in Reno, Nevada donated its promo single --as well as hundreds of others--- to the Washoe County Library. And that's how I got my 12 year old hands on this single ( as well as 10cc's "I'm Mandy Fly Me" and The Band's "Ophelia"). The library didn't want to keep track of the 45's so anyone could go into the Sparks, Nevada branch, grab a few at a time and keep them forever.

   I was a kid who would walk blocks and blocks past empty desert lots and small ranch houses with dead lawns and drop outs working on their broken down dirt bikes just to visit the library.

  

 What I didn't know at the time was that "Love of the Common Man" came from Faithful, with its Side A of note for note perfect copies of classic rock songs Rundgren loved like "Good Vibrations" and "Strawberry Fields Forever." Interesting once. Maybe twice and then you just have to ask "Why?"

     Side B had the good stuff, especially "Love of the Common Man", a return to the power pop form for those who loved Something/Anything. Rundgren was actually trying to avoid writing love songs at the time so I hear this as a celebration of the good nature of your everyday man, the kind who will catch you should you take a dive from your ivory tower.

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40 Year Itch : All the Guitar Heroes

Chris Spedding : Guitar Jamboree

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  One of gun for hire Chris Spedding's follow-ups to his 1975 hit "Motobikin'", "Guitar Jamboree", released in April of 1976, reveals why Spedding was such a sought after session guitarist. ( He also played with The Sharks, The Wombles, toured with Roxy Music and John Cale...the list goes on)  Here in the space of four and a half minutes, Spedding imitates Albert King, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townsend, Keith Richards, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jack Bruce, Paul Kossoff, Leslie West and Dave Gilmour. The song is well timed because many of these "men who made music history" would be left in the dust by the punk revolution brewing in the wings.

   For some less inhibited mimicry, see Spedding play this song live below:

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40 Year Itch : Remembering the Hag

Merle Haggard : Union Station

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   I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the death of Merle Haggard with this 1976 gem from his concept album My Love Affair With Trains. Among my ten year old son's faves, this album ranks right alongside Michael Jackson's Thriller. He shares Haggard's love of trains and this Ronnie Reno penned number hits all the right notes.

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40 Year Itch: Giving Praise

The Abyssinians : Forward Unto Zion

The Abyssinians : Y Mas Gan

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Satta Massagana for Jimmy Dread 

                         Cut off his ears and chop off his head
                                                              -The Clash "Jimmy Jazz"

  What if I told you 1976's best reggae album wasn't released by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh or even Bunny Wailer? Consider the roots reggae album Satta Massagana by The Abyssinians. The title can be translated from Amharic (a Semitic language in Ethiopia) into "Giving Him Praise" and it's full of both spiritual songs of devotion ( like "Forward Unto Zion" and "Y Mas Gan") and political songs like "Declaration of Rights" and "African Race". Band members Bernard Collins, Donald Manning, and Linford Manning used 60's soul and Motown-style vocal harmonies ( the best you'll ever hear from a reggae group) to express their deeply spiritual messages. Satta Massagana has rightfully grown in reputation over the years. This may wind up being your favorite reggae album - period. Essential listening!

One of the original covers of Satta Massagana.

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40 Year Itch : A Cocktail Party in Space

Marvin Gaye : After the Dance ( Instrumental)

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  As we get into the month of April, how about one more track from March of 1976 that I can't seem to move on from just yet. Why, you might ask, would anyone suggest listening to an instrumental song on an album by the smoothest soul singer of his time? Well, it's because that smooth soul singer could also play the drums, and on I Want You, he can be heard experimenting with the synthesizer. It all sounds like some kind of spacey cocktail party jam. But I dig it.

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40 Year Itch : Joe Strummer's Lightening Bolt

That's Joe Strummer on the right

The 101ers : Keys to Your Heart

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   On April 3, 1976 the Sex Pistols opened for Joe Strummer's pub rock / rockabilly/ R and B band, the 101ers, at the Nashville. Within five seconds of hearing the punk rockers' opening set, Strummer saw the light: "As soon as I saw them , I knew that rhythm and blues was dead and that the future was here," Strummer told rock journalist Caroline Coon later in 1976. "But hearing the Pistols, I knew. I just knew. It was something you knew without bothering to think about it. Punk Rock is the music of the now."

    Just three months later, Strummer, Mick Jones, Bassist Paul Simonon, drummer Terry Chimes and a third guitarist , future Public Image Ltd's Keith Levene, played their first gig, supporting the Sex Pistols at the Black Swan Pub in Sheffield on July 4. They called themselves The Clash.

     The band's early playlists included the Strummer-penned 101er single "Keys to Your Heart", "London's Burning", "White Riot", "Career Opportunities", "1977" and "I'm So Bored of You" ( later rewritten as "I'm So Bored of the USA").

     Also at the gig that April evening was future Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan who would later say of the Sex Pistols "They were the best rock'n'roll band of all time . I just couldn't believe it. This was the band I'd been waiting for."

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40 Year Itch : I Know I Know I Know I Know

Donna Summer : Try Me I Know We Can Make It

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  I couldn't be more obsessed with a song than I am right now with this 18 minute disco epic Donna Summer wrote with Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte for A Love Trilogy. If you enjoyed the New Wave sounds of the 1980's you'll hear many moments that should thrill you.

   At 5:28 there is a simple but very catchy marimba solo that might take you back to "Love Plus One" from Haircut 100.

  And at 9:26 there is a breakdown that sounds like something Talking Heads might have recorded on '77.

  It's all sandwiched between a dance track that is disco at its highest art form. Try it. You'll get it a big kick out of it.

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40 Year Itch : We Have Assumed Control

  My college roommate used to do these air drum impressions of Neil Peart which always ended with his arms flapping around so spasmodically that he would lose his balance and topple over. Although Peart wasn't the original drummer for Rush, the inclusion of this voracious reader of science fiction changed the band's direction for good.

  Ignoring the label's demand for a commercial album, the trio of Canadians who make up Rush indulged themselves on 2112, especially on the twenty minute title cut. It's the Ayn Rand inspired story of a guy who finds a strange device ( an electric guitar) which is destroyed by one of the screeching Priests of the Temples of Syrinx. His response is open to interpretation. Does he lead a revolution or hide in a cave and commit suicide? In any case, Rush came into its own on this album and eventually became the "biggest cult band in the world".

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