Fusion 45

Every now and then, I’ll find the odd playlist laying around, scribbled on a cocktail napkin or a scrap of paper or a football. Some I’ve recorded while others were just “fantasies” (like the one where I mixed Enrico Caruso’s Faust with Dwight Yoakam’s Fast Cars).

I found this one as I was poking through my records, scribbled on the back of the Korgis Dumb Waiters album.

I was able to lay my hands on most of the tunes.

Here’s the list exactly as it was written in F45 shorthand, complete with misspellings, x-outs and weird capitalizations:

SOUTHSIDE - Ain’t

BOB JAMES - Shamboozie

STEELY - News

JOE JACKSON - Can’t

BEATLES - LOVE ME

TTD - Wishing

Johnny Nash - Stir

Ziggie - Tommorrow People

Sting - Set Th Free

Simon - Late

Winwood - Freedom

CSN - Southern

Band - The Wt.

Steely - Rikki

Band - Shape I’m

Wilburys - End of the

Dead - Touch

ARTWORK: Structure I (paper collage, 25 x 23, 1969) by Jack N. Mohr

It is the 25th 35th anniversary of the Summer of 1973. I was 10-years old during that particular summer.

I have a 10-year old of my own today. He’s sometimes sweet, often petulant, always inquisitive. In short, he’s a lot like his father.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that summer over the past several months, how much the music will always be a soundtrack to that time.

I was going to write a week long series of posts about my summer as a 10-year old, riding our banana-seated bikes around the lake where we camped (predecessors to the mountain bikers of today), catching crayfish in the creek, fishing for blue gills in the lake, burning piles of wood in the fireplace (because we could), singeing marshmallows and eyebrows over the campfire and listening to the jukebox in the campground rec room. Especially the jukebox in the rec room, where we dropped quarters on the pool table and the pinball machine in a freshly built space that smelled forever like concrete and sawdust.

But, I’m off on a business trip tomorrow (a few hours after school starts) and, like the summer of 1973, the opportunity for a long list of reminisces has largely passed.

I did get as far as making a CD of these songs for car listening. Grandmom immediately identified them as “songs from the lake” and my kids immediately wanted to hear Smoke On The Water several hundred times (which they promptly renamed Barbeque On The River).

In a way, I managed to pull my summer and his summer as 10-year olds together. Briefly, which is always the way life is…

And say goodbye to summer…one more time.

The Carpenters - Yesterday Once More

Not written by Paul Williams, but should’ve been.

Seals And Crofts - Diamond Girl

Great piano part.

McCartney And Wings - Live And Let Die

Maureen McGovern - The Morning After

Shelly Winters. Need I say more?

Mac Davis Clint Holmes - Playground In My Mind
Jim Croce - Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
Helen Reddy - Delta Dawn

Dr. John - Right Place, Wrong Time

Spent the entire summer of 1983 learning these lyrics.

Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water
BW Stevenson - My Maria

Like Croce, we wonder what would have been if he’d stuck around.

Paul Simon - Loves Me Like A Rock

Bette Midler - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

Stories - Brother Louie

CDB - Uneasy Rider

Doobie Brothers - Long Train Runnin’

Paul Simon - Kodachrome

I had yet to have my first schoolboy crush (Stephanie Turk, 7th grade math class) but I got it.

Indeed…

Mama asked the boys to put the shoes back on the shelf. This is what she got. My 8-year old asked me to take a picture and “write an article about it”. I think it speaks for itself.

Paul Simon - Diamonds On The Soles of Her Shoes
Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes
Lyle Lovett - Flyin’ Shoes
Chuck Willis - Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes
Joe Ely - Baby Needs A New Pair of Shoes
Kirsty MacColl - In These Shoes

Whereas our last subject, Russ Kunkel, could be found in the drummer’s chair for just about every southern California rock record of the 1970’s, Jeff Porcaro was more of a moving target. Arguably more a stylistic chameleon than Keltner or Kunkel (or even Gadd), Jeff Porcaro played for a hugely diverse set of musicians. He laid down straight-ahead dance grooves for the likes of Madonna and Bonnie Pointer, played fusion with Steve Lukather and Larry Carlton and supported pop players like Alan O’Day and Leo Sayer. Here are a dozen tracks from my vinyl collection showing him at play.

Al Stewart - Valentina Way (Time Passages, Arista, 1978)

In many cases, Porcaro would play on just a tune or two per album. This is the only Porcaro-driven cut in this set from one of Stewart’s late 70’s records. It has his signature tight snare sound, high-hat swing and triplets around the tom that show up through much of his work.

Steely Dan - Dr. Wu (Katy Lied, MCA, 1975)

Some hard-core Dan-heads say this was the last true Steely Dan record. Save for one cut, Porcaro’s all over it. This is my favorite from that set. Listen to how the China ride cuts through starting with the first chorus, underscoring The Dan’s much-loved Asian vibe.

Seals and Crofts - Baby Blue (Get Closer, Warner Brothers, 1976)

I staunchly stand behind my POV that Seals and Crofts are the most underrated of all the 1970’s singer/songwriter duos: great harmonies, great songwriting and a cool spiritual message. Their stuff was challenging for drummers: it required imagination, a light touch and a sensitivity to the texture of their songwriting. Porcaro nails it on this one.

Rickie Lee Jones - Youngblood (Rickie Lee Jones, Warner Brothers, 1979)

It took some extra research to confirm but it’s accurate: Porcaro’s the guy behind this funky reggae-pop riff. Even if it weren’t documented, the high-hat work gives it away.

England Dan and John Ford Coley - Hollywood Heckle and Jive (Dr. Heckle and Mr. Jive, Big Tree, 1979)

OK, this isn’t Porcaro’s best work but it shows his diversity and has some pretty pointed drum production. Someone got a “wall of sound” instruction book for Christmas, it sounds.

Crosby, Stills and Nash - Since I Met You (Daylight Again, Atlantic, 1982)

This is the only cut featuring Porcaro on this album. I had to listen a few times before I decided to include it; it didn’t strike me as too interesting at first. But, the fact is, without Porcaro driving the train on this one, it would have been even less interesting.

Paul Simon - Train In The Distance (Hearts and Bones, Warner Brothers, 1984)

Back before Paul aged into a shorter version of Mel Brooks, he grabbed Porcaro for his “Hearts and Bones” album. (Gadd must’ve been in rehab.) There’s nothing spectacular about this cut; it just swings along nicely supporting a great Paul Simon story. Nice echo on the snare drum in the chorus.

Joe Cocker - Don’t Forget Me (I Can Stand A Little Rain, A and M, 1973)

Anyone who’s ever picked up a pair of sticks and played for more than 20 minutes knows what it means to play “behind the beat”. They also know how hard it is. Porcaro lays behind the beat just enough to give this tune it’s blues vibe (though Clydie King singing back-up doesn’t hurt). A great tune (witten by Harry Nilsson, I might add.)

Eric Clapton - Forever Man (Behind The Sun, Warner Brothers, 1985)

Disco rock ain’t easy, is it? Porcaro makes it work here on one of the two cuts he supports on this album. It will forever be Clapton’s dark period in my book (even more than his current “archive the blues” kick). But, in the end, I do dig this tune ‘cuz it’s got…rhythm and melody!

Jackson Browne - The Only Child (The Pretender, Elektra, 1972)

Even though I wouldn’t qualify myself as a J. Browne fan, many of his songs are at the heart of what I love..straight-ahead, well-written acoustic rock with a great melody and a great arrangement. This just works right.

Boz Scaggs - Lowdown (Silk Degrees, Columbia, 1978)

I try to avoid the songs you can regularly hear on just about any radio station but there’s no getting around this one. Second only to ‘Rosanna,’ this is a defining groove and it speaks for itself.

Toto - Rosanna ( IV, Columbia, 1982)

Transcribed, analyzed, scrupulously studied and poorly played by 1000’s of drummers from LA to Lhasa, this is his signature groove. ‘Nuff said.

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Many thanks to our new friend over at Walkn’ Tha’ Bass for the kind words and the great link. Please check out his site…he has some very cool stuff goin’ on!

Ask anyone who’s played the drums for more than 20 minutes to name his Top 5 players and, without exception, you should hear the name Steve Gadd.

What makes Gadd one of the greatest is not his pyrotechnics, though he was certainly capable of making some noise.

What set him apart was his sound, his style and his inventiveness. He could (and did) make a couple cardboard boxes sound like a $3000 set of Pearls. He could slip a four-on-the-floor shuffle beat into his pocket and make it swing like Dizzy Gillespie. And, he had such an imagination that he created some of the most well known drum tracks in the history of pop music.

50 Ways To Leave York Lover (from Paul Simon’s album, “Still Crazy After All These Years, Columbia, 1975)
Even people who have no clue about Steve Gadd know this famous rhythm, based on a drum corps street-beat Gadd learned in the 1960’s.

Woody And Dutch On A Slow Train To Peking (from Rickie Lee Jones’ album, Pirates, Warner Brothers, 1981)
Tucked into the middle of this disc (at the end of side one of the vinyl version) is one of the swinging-est tunes Rickie ever recorded. The track fades in with Gadd playing brushes on cardboard boxes and goes full mojo for the next 5 minutes. Pure joy.

Danny’s All-Star Joint (from Rickie Lee Jones’ album, Rickie Lee Jones, Warner Brothers, 1979)
Whereas Gadd pushes “Woody and Dutch” forward to its climax, he does exactly the opposite on this cut: he lays back into the groove and lets the music drive itself. Never has a straight shuffle beat been executed with such artistry.

Workin’ At The Car Wash Blues (from Jim Croce’s album I Got A Name, ABC, 1973)
As “50 Ways” is to the word “iconic,” this track is to the words “under appreciated”. Once again using a modified street beat, with a delightful 16th-note roll on the fourth beat of the bar, Gadd underscores the song’s theme of tiresome work and light-hearted fantasy with a terrific “march-off-to-work” groove.

Late In The Evening (from Paul Simon’s album One Trick Pony, Warner Brothers, 1980)
The secret sauce behind this groove is Gadd’s “two-sticks-in-each-hand-held-at-the-’wrong-end’” technique, which gives the song its Latin street band sound. Listen to the drum break at the end of the song: it’s all Gadd on drums and a pair of cymbals, a groove that’s been co-opted by everyone from Ritchie Haywood to Dennis Chambers to James Bradley, Jr. (Gadd’s replacement in the Mangione band).

Aja (from Steely Dan’s album, Aja, ABC, 1977)
Considered by many to be Steely Dan’s crowning achievement, Becker and Fagen openly admit it’s the studio musicians who made this album work. On this track, it’s Wayne Shorter’s sax solo and Gadd’s incorporation of rock, jazz and Latin into one 7-minute song. Legend states that Gadd came into the studio, read the chart and played the song in one take, requiring the rest of the band to re-cut their performances. True or not, listen closely, especially the last 8 bars which is virtually all of Gadd’s signatures combined into one stretch of 30 seconds.

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Original Recording | November 1994 | Ithaca, NY

Digital Remaster | September 2007 | Brush Prairie, WA

Billy Bragg - She’s Got A New Spell
Jimmie Dale Gilmore - So I’ll Run
Tanita Tikaram - Sighing Innocents
Van Morrison - Redwood Tree
Townes Van Zant - Buckskin Stallion
Notting Hillbillies - Will You Miss Me
Gerry Rafferty - Get It Right Next Time
Paul Simon - Love Me Like A Rock
Simon and Garfunkel - The Boxer
Michelle Schocked - The L and N Don’t Come ‘Round Here
Manassas - Down The Road
Al Stewart - End of the Day
Neil Young - Goin’ Back
10,000 Maniacs - Trouble Me
Billy Joel - Ballad of Billy The Kid

<a href=”http://www.fusion45.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/2007/master_3.mp3″>A Frame Tapes, Volume 1</a>

Recorded Thursday, September 13, 2007

Elvin Bishop - Yes Sir (Capricorn)
Rolling Stones - Short and Curlies (RS)
Doobie Brothers - Slippery St. Paul (WB)
Jackson Browne - Take It Easy (Elektra)
Los Lobos - The Breakdown (Slash)
Santana - Written In The Sand (CBS)
Three Dog Night - Out In The Country (ABC/Dunhill)
Eric Clapton - Tell Me That You Love ME (RSO)
Steve Earle - Copperhead Road (UNI)
Sea Level - Shake A Leg (Capricorn)
Steve Forbert - The Sweet Love That You Give (Sure Goes A Long Way) (Nemperor)
Leon Russell - Stay Away From Sad Songs (Shelter)
Jesse Colin Young - You Gotta Fix It (Capitol)
John Stewart - Missouri Birds (Capitol)
Paul Simon - Peace Like A River (CBS)
Looking Glass - Don’t It Make You Feel Good (Epic)
Boz Scaggs - We Were Always Sweethearts (CBS)
Richie Havens - Roll ‘Em Daddy (Douglas)

<a href=”http://www.fusion45.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/2007/Fusion45.048-2007.09.13.mp3″> Radio In Heaven</a>