cktimes.ca Archives for Classic Vinyl


Classic Vinyl

With John Gardiner

Classic Vinyl and Other Great Stuff

Friday, August 30, 2002

John Gardiner on his 1973 Fender Precision bass guitar.

Welcome to the first edition of Journey Through the Past in the Chatham-Kent Times. Come take a magical mystery tour with me each week as I travel back in time to write about the music of an era now long past - the fabulous 1960's and 1970's - a golden period when the very best in rock 'n' roll was captured on timeless vinyl.

I grew up and came of age during this period, and they were heady times indeed to be a young person and into the music scene. I traded in my clarinet and gave up my spot in the town band to play bass guitar in a primitive rock group away back in 1964, and over the past 38 years I've been witness to musical styles and trends of all types.

Nothing compares with the era from about 1960 to 1975. There was plenty of good music before that period and there's been plenty since, but during that 15 year period there was more consistently innovative and creative rock music than at any other time.

Proof of this could be found by listening in on nearly any AM radio station from the period. On the same play list, it was possible to find such diverse musical talents as Ray Stevens, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Beach Boys, Poco, the Eagles, Cream and on and on. From Ahab the Arab to Quinn the Eskimo to Purple Haze, there was almost unlimited musical creativity and diversity during the period.

I hope you will indeed come along with me as I journey through the past each week. There's just so much great music to be remembered and remember it I will. There's so much great music that didn't make the jump to CD and that deserves to be remembered.

The Era of the Rock 'n' Roll Horn Band

Back in the late 1960's, rock musicians were pushing the musical bounderies in many directions. The Beatles had released the ground-breaking Sergeant Pepper a couple of years earlier, Jimi Hendrix was rocking the guitar world, and groups like Poco and the Byrds were busy introducing a new type of folk rock.

So, it came as no surprise when a couple of major rock horn bands broke onto the scene in 1967-68. The best known and most successful of these were the Chicago Transit Authority and Blood, Sweat and Tears, but they followed in the musical footsteps of bands like Paul Butterfield and Electric Flag.

Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears were different from the horn bands that came before because they played a fusion of rock and jazz and weren't as heavily blues influenced. Both groups also raised the bar on the level of musicianship on the whole rock scene.

I was a big fan of both bands in their early days, feeling the first Chicago album was one of the best collections of music on any two LPs. As a young musician listening to that album for the first time, I distinctly remember my mouth falling open in disbelief at some of the amazing tunes on the two-record set. From Introduction to Beginnings, it is one amazing piece of work and still worth a listen all these years later.

Chicago released several decent albums back in those early days, then pablumed out about Chicago V and releasing at least another 15 textureless collections since. It's too bad good bands can't keep their edge, but it's tough.

I've heard most of the Blood, Sweat and Tears stuff over the years, but I'm really only a fan of the first album when the frontman was Al Kooper. I thought the later stuff with David Clayton Thomas was too predictable. It led to great commercial success, but the music isn't nearly as interesting.

Couldn't leave any discussion of horn bands without talking about Canada's contribution, and in my mind, a truly great outfit, Lighthouse, fronted by Toronto's Skip Prokop and Paul Hoffert. Lighthouse added some strings to the equation and created the rock orchestra, and if you think those boys couldn't cook, listen to "One Fine Morning" sometime.

There were a variety of other horn bands at about the same time, some like the Ides of March (huge hit was Vehicle), who were legitimate horn bands and others, like Sly and the Family Stone that incorporated horns into their show. Sly was also part of a rhythm and blues tradition that made huge use of horns over the years.

Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, Lighthouse and others set the stage for later groups like the Electric Light Orchestra and the rock world seemed poised to move beyond three chords and become a serious musical form. Then came John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and the music died.

More next week.



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.