- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Subtitled “Pop Progress ’71”, Think! shows what was happening below the surface in 1971, a pivotal year in music in the eyes of many (including me).
Think! (Various Artists) (1971): Subtitled “Pop Progress ’71”, Think! is a German compilation album of a wide range of recording artists, from Supertramp, to Elton John, to Lee Michaels, to Procol Harum, to Jimi Hendrix, to Humble Pie, to the Move, to Status Quo, to Strawbs, to T. Rex. As a double album collection mostly composed of obscure bands and deep album cuts, and somewhat similar to the A&M Records sampler called Friends, Think! provides a snapshot of what was happening below the surface in 1971, a pivotal year in music in the eyes of many (including me). Some of these recording artists I don’t recognize at all, and the specific songs from even the familiar artists are mostly unknown to me. The best-known song on Think! is “Take Me to the Pilot” by Elton John; it was originally the “A” side of his first international Top Ten hit single “Your Song” that started as a “B” side. I also know the Bob Dylan song “Open the Door Homer”, though not the recording artist, Titus Groan, a short-lived British progressive rock band whose album Titus Groan (1970) on Dawn Records was reissued on CD in 1989 by See for Miles Records. “Open the Door Homer” is a rewrite of a prominent hit song “Open the Door, Richard!”, and in his song, Bob Dylan still sings “open the door, Richard” (I have even heard that tag line in a Bugs Bunny cartoon); the version of “Open the Door, Richard!” by Count Basie is the #9 song of 1947. “Nothing to Lose” is taken from the debut album Supertramp (1970) by Supertramp that I gave you earlier. Lee Michaels sings a topical song “What Now America”, taken from his fourth album Barrel (1970). “Whisky Train” comes from Procol Harum’s hardest rocking album Home (1970), with Robin Trower’s guitar in full force on the song. Home is the final album that Robin Trower would make with Procol Harum; he left the band in 1971 to start his own group. The Jimi Hendrix track is an “Opening Jam” to his cover of “Sunshine of Your Love” that he dedicated to Cream, apparently not knowing that Cream originally wrote and recorded “Sunshine of Your Love” as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. I am uncertain as to the source of the recording, however. Humble Pie was formed in 1969 when Small Faces frontman Steve Marriott befriended guitarist Peter Frampton, and they commiserated with each other over their “teen heart-throb” status in England and their desire to be taken more seriously as musicians. “Big Black Dog” is Humble Pie’s first single for A&M Records that does not appear on any of their early albums. “Turkish Tram Conductor Blues” appears on the third album by the Move, Looking On (1970); it is a transitional album from the mostly psychedelic music of the Move to their later incarnation as the progressive rock band the Electric Light Orchestra, whose debut album The Electric Light Orchestra (1970) was being created in the studio at the same time. Looking On is the first album by the Move to feature Jeff Lynne, who would later become the main creative force in the Electric Light Orchestra. The medley of “Is It Really Me” and “Gotta Go Home” by Status Quo is taken from their third album Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon (1970) that marks their abrupt shift to a hard rock boogie band, abandoning the psychedelic stylings on their first two albums, including their hit song “Pictures of Matchstick Men”. Status Quo would follow their new path faithfully and become one of the longest lived and most successful English rock bands of all time, while making hardly any impact in the U.S. beyond their early hit single. The final track on Think!, “Where is This Dream of Your Youth” is the closing number on a live album by Strawbs called Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios (1970) that was recorded at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Strawbs was founded in 1964 as a bluegrass band called the Strawberry Hill Boys that later became an eclectic progressive folk-rock band. Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios is the first album by Strawbs to be released in the U.S. “Jewel” comes from the debut album by T. Rex, T. Rex (1970); like A Beard of Stars by Tyrannosaurus Rex, T. Rex is a transitional album between the two bands, and the bandmembers on T. Rex are the same duo of Marc Bolan and Mickey Finn who are on A Beard of Stars. Gary Wright is a keyboard player in Spooky Tooth and later a backing musician on George Harrison’s triple-album All Things Must Pass (1970); the two became close friends and collaborators. “Get on the Right Road” is the opening track on Gary Wright’s debut solo album Extraction (1970), and the song was released as a single. In 1976, Gary Wright had a major hit single with “Dream Weaver”. Black Pearl is a hard-rocking West Coast rock band along the lines of MC5 that is led by Bernie “B.B.” Fieldings. “Hermit Freak Show” comes from Black Pearl’s second album, Live (1970). Paul Brett is an English session guitarist who formed the folk-rock band Paul Brett Sage (also known as Paul Brett’s Sage) with percussionist Bob Voice. Their first album Paul Brett Sage (1970) opens with “3D Mona Lisa”, effectively melding folk and hard rock; it is one of my favorite songs on Think!. Fair Weather is a progressive rock band that was formed by singer-guitarist Andy Fairweather-Low and grew out of an earlier Irish band called Amen Corner; “You Ain’t No Friend” comes from their debut album Beginning from an End (1970). Andy Fairweather-Low has been in Eric Clapton’s band since 1991; he was prominently featured as Clapton’s backup guitarist and vocalist on his Grammy-winning mega-hit album Unplugged (1992) and his appearance on the MTV program MTV Unplugged. “Sudden Life” is the single from the experimental debut album Revelation (1969) by the Welsh progressive rock band Man. “Fire Higher than the Mountain” is taken from the only album by the French/Scottish hard rock band the Falcons, The Falcons’ Fever (1970) that came out on the German label Hansa Records.