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The September Minuets

We're An American Band

Here is a rock and roll band from Flint, Michigan that got absolutely no respect from the critics, yet they sold albums like crazy. They sold out stadiums. They had some successful singles. I remembered the first 45 by that group, "Grand Funk Railroad". It was called "Time Machine" --  just good old fashioned Midwest kicking rock and roll.  It charted around number 50, but it got good airplay in Louisville. A year later Grand Funk put out the introspective "Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain)" which peaked outside the top twenty in the fall of 1970. Just for the record you can hear the original five minute single version right here on WAKY. Another great song we play by them is the rip roaring "Foot Stompin' Music", which made the top 40 in early 1972. Boy, did that tear up the Louisville airwaves! Up to that point, singles success was at best modest. However as the leaves began to fall in 1973, they came out with "We're An American Band". This single, originally pressed on gold vinyl, became their first of two chart toppers. Their other number one hit was a hard rock and roll remake of "The Loco-Motion". Granted, they were Rodney Dangerfields of Rock and Roll but Grand Funk Railroad was successful.

Play That Funky Music

One of the funkiest songs from the 70s belongs to a group who took their name from a cough drop flavor. Wild Cherry was a Cleveland rock band playing at a club when an audience member shouted "play some funky music, white boy" That playful tirade provided the inspiration for this group's only chart topper "Play That Funky Music."  The record sold two million copies, but Wild Cherry quickly had their fifteen minutes of fame. They never had another major hit. I recalled one of my first radio gigs was at WLOU, an urban station in Louisville. Everybody thought it was so cool of me to kick off my show with "Play That Funky Music White Boy" I can almost hear that refrain by an audience at a KC and the Sunshine Band concert…

Get Together

The Youngblood's plea for peace and universal harmony first charted in September, 1967. However, in its first chart run, it struggled-- only peaking at #62 by October.  At first it seemed it was doomed to be a lost relic of that fading Summer of Love. However two years later, a snippet of this song was used in a public service announcement promoting "peace and love".  Sure enough, The Youngbloods' "Get Together" was given a second life and peaked in the top five around August, 1969.  Sadly the Younbloods became a one hit wonder.  What a shame.  They had another song out called "Sunlight", which the old WAKY played back in 1970.

Abbey Road Released

On September 26th, 1969, The Beatles, fragmented at that time, released "Abbey Road" in England. It was released on these shores on October the first. Beatles' producer considers this album his favorite. It was a return to a somewhat earlier form of the group, leaving behind the studio trickery of "Sgt' Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" and "Magical Mystery Tour". This album contained the first double sided chart topper. "Come Together", the lead-off track is a cryptic John Lennon song that was reportedly a campaign song for Timothy Leary. The second song was the main side of the single. A straight forward unabashed love song written by George Harrison, "Something" was regarded by Frank Sinatra as the "greatest love song of the last 50 years". Other standouts on this classic album include another George Harrison is "Here Comes The Sun", a song he wrote in Eric Clapton's garden.  Another standout (at least to me) is "Because", supposedly a backward rewrite of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". All in all, it was a classic album. It makes the listener long for more such great material. Unfortunately the group was no more. The tattered "Let It Be" album, recorded under acrimonious conditions in January 1969, was finally issued in May, 1970. Then came the solo stuff.  As good as the material on the aforementioned, nothing will top the "Abbey Road" album.