Agents of Fortune by Blue Oyster Cult (1976)

BOC - (Don't Fear) the Reaper/ Tattoo Vampire single sleeve (1976) (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

THIS IS THE NIGHT WE RIDE
Agents of Fortune was described on its release as Blue Oyster Cult‘s most accessible and commercial album, which is true up to a point. Admittedly, it has a very clean clear production with plenty of catchy melodies, but the lyrics are intelligently dark and witty and are delivered with Eric Bloom‘s perfectly matched vocal. Added to this is the outstanding lead guitar work of Donald ‘Buck Dharma’ Roeser, the range of complimentary keyboards of Allen Lanier(1) and the Bouchard brothers’ propulsive rhythm section. All combine to provide moments of inspired melodic hard rock, which avoid the sticky sentimentality of many bands who were to follow. Much of the credits were not written in stone as Roeser, Lanier and drummer Albert Bouchard all provided lead vocals on some tracks, while Bloom and Lanier were capable guitarists.

The intro to This Ain’t the Summer of Love(2) reminds me of a murky version of The Ripper by Judus Priest. However, this not so much heavy, as grungy some fifteen-to-twenty years before grunge. It serves as a reminder that BOC were no hippy band, but more a dark melodic rock faction. True Confessions is slightly commercial with piano to the fore. BOC’s greatest hit, (Don’t Fear) the Reaper, combines the harmonies of The Byrds with lyrics that sound bright, even if they are marginally sinister. The second half builds up to a guitar solo that was left off the single and is guaranteed to strip the paint from your door. Although written by Buck Dharma and serving as a vehicle for his singing and guitar, credit should go to Albert Bouchard’s drumming and choppy cowbell percussion, which drive the track.

E.T.I. (Exra-Terrestrial Intelligence) is the heaviest piece so far with spacey Hawkwind-like synthesizers and weird sci-fi guitar sounds, along with more of those Byrds harmonies. ETI segues directly into Patti Smith‘s breathy-voiced intro to Vera Gemini. She adds background voices throughout to a heavyish track with a great off-kilter bass riff. The lyrics demonstrate the brilliance of BOC’s songs and the lead guitar is as sharp as ever. Buck Dharma’s incisive guitar kicks off Sinful Love and is all-pervasive on another heavy song, with more terrific lyrics which dovetail perfectly with the instrumentation, ‘I love you like sinful love, but I won’t be your pigeon.’ By now BOC are on a roll and Tattoo Vampire is one of the best tracks on what is a flawless album, beginning with one of the best and strangest drum intros you will ever hear. Joe Bouchard‘s bass playing gives the track its dynamism, showing the brothers were an underrated rhythm section. vocal delivery of the alliterative lyrics makes for one of the most memorable hard rock songs of the seventies.

Opening track of the second side of the vinyl Agents of Fortune, Morning Final, reveals the overtly melodic aspect of BOC with its swirling organ, chiming piano, tubular bell, and wah-wah pedals. The only weak part of an otherwise perfect album is the blatantly contrived voice of the subway newspaper seller, but nothing is completely perfect. Tenderloin continues the melodic theme, a gentle song with a theme from ELP‘s Knife Edge, but about a district of a city where vice and corruption are prominent. Debbie Denise is beautiful with its interlaced mellotron and guitar, as well as vocal harmonies. It has several hooks to emphasise the cliched point about the girl left at home by the touring rock star, ‘I was out rolling with my band,’ and, ‘Debbie Denise was true to me-ee-ee.’ Buck Dharma’s guitar tone is sublime in the closing stages of the song. His playing is often criticised for fading, just when it gets interesting, and this is a case in point.

My version of Agents Of Fortune (Japan SICP-30662, 2014) has the song Fire Of Unknown Origin as a bonus, because, according to the excellent liner notes, it is an outtake from this album’s recording sessions. It reappeared as the title track of one of the band’s best albums after Agents. The outtake has a number of superb ‘sounds’ and deserves to be on this album. Sally and Dance The Night Away were demoed for Agents although not used – apparently versions were later recorded and released by The Brain Surgeons and Jim Carroll respectively. Sally is typically full of melodic tones, feeling like a cross between Bob Marley, The Shadows and the song Bony Moronie; it shows a lot of promise never fully realised. Dance Away is a John Lennon-ish piece and the only inferior track on the album, but it is a demo and who knows what it could have become? The first part of the demo of Don’t Fear the Reaper, with bongos, sounds less like The Byrds and a lot like America. It is different to the hit, but is no less wonderfully atmospheric, although the final section featuring the guitar solo seems a bit tacked-on.

Production was by the team of Murray Krugman and Sandy Pearlman, with David Lucas. If ever there was a fully consistent rock album with quality songs, strong vocals and shimmering instrumentation, it was Agents of Fortune. Possibly the only album to match Blue Oyster Cult’s effort was Boston‘s first album; that, however, is another story.

NOTES
As part of my policy of swift writing, this review took about two days on-and-off, which is the blink of an eye by my usual standard of weeks, months or even years. It started as just a post on Tattoo Vampire for my ‘From the Alan Freeman Playlist’ series, but isolating one track from Agents of Fortune seems inappropriate somehow. Stuart Maconie, in his biography, listed a music journalist’s particular skills as, ‘Taking the piss, reviewing at speed and taking pop music way too seriously’ (Cider with Roadies, p.229). So, I have got to increase my writing speed, whether I like it or not.

(1) Allen Lanier, a co-founding member of Blue Öyster Cult, tragically died on 14th August 2013. The keyboard player and guitarist, who was 67, succumbed to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as a result of smoking. BOC guitarist Donald ‘Buck Dharma’ Roeser, speaking of the habit in Rolling Stone said, ‘It wasn’t a big surprise, but it feels like the circle is broken.’
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/blue-oyster-cult-co-founder-allen-lanier-dead-at-67-20130815
(2) BOC made no secret of the fact that inspiration for the riff of This Ain’t the Summer of Love was borrowed from Ascension Day by Third World War. It can be heard on: YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhKeMc8mQRg

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Buck's Boogie by Blue Oyster Cult (On Your Feet or On Your Knees 1975)

From the Alan Freeman Playlist

Blue Oyster Cult - On Your Feet or On Your Knees gatefold (1975) (Courtesy: Headheritage)

BORN TO BE WILD
There are bands who, when they record a live album, add previously unreleased or original tracks – in addition to replicating, changing, improving or extending familiar songs. The Who‘s Live at Leeds (1970) adds the covers from their regular set: Mose Allison’s Young Man Blues, Jerry Capehart and Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues and Shakin’ All Over by Johnny Kidd. A studio recording of Summertime Blues had been made in 1967, but was not released until The Story of the Who (1976). Thin Lizzy appended two unreleased ‘originals’ to Live and Dangerous (1978), Are You Ready? and Baby Drives Me Crazy.

To On Your Feet or On Your Knees from 1975, Blue Oyster Cult attached an original lengthy instrumental, Buck’s Boogie, which serves as a showpiece for Donald (Buck Dharma) Roeser‘s impressive guitar playing. Like The Who, they added some covers from their usual set, The Yardbirds’ I Ain’t Got You, restructured as Maserati GT, and Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild. Buck’s Boogie consists of a simple but extremely catchy rock ‘n’ roll melody, over which Dharma weaves his intricate but faultlessly played solos. What sets Boogie apart from other live guitar showpieces is that the remaining members of the band are also given opportunity to shine, especially Allen Lanier‘s organ work which acts as a foil to the guitar. Albert Bouchard‘s drum solo appears after about four minutes and his brother Joe‘s bass solo comes around a minute later. As a rhythm section, the brothers are prominent with or without their own solos.

BOC were often grouped with the early ‘heavy metal’ bands like Blue Cheer, Vanilla Fudge and Black Sabbath, but they did not have a particularly heavy sound. Nor were they primitive enough to qualify as a garage band, despite being classified as such. BOC also had another dimension in that they were consistently unpredictable, varied, experimental and melodic. Their songs were usually of the highest quality and revealed a sometimes bizarre sense of humour.

Buck’s Boogie was recorded on one of several shows during 1974 and it is unclear from exactly which performance it was taken. It remains a part of Blue Oyster Cult’s set to the present.

DAVID GILMOUR ON LATER . . . WITH JOOLS HOLLAND
David Gilmour and his band appeared on the extended one hour edition of BBC Two’s Later… with Jools Holland on Friday night (2nd October). Surprisingly, he opened the show, with Rattle That Lock, so we did not have to wait long for his appearance. He closed with Today, the guitar solo at the end of which gave him opportunity to demonstrate his seemingly effortless and highly distinctive playing. In between times, he performed The Girl In The Yellow Dress, a disappointingly slow, jazz-inspired piece with Guy Pratt on double bass, Jools Holland at the piano and João Mello on sax.

One of the problems with watching Later, is that you have to suffer a lot of dross to catch the band you like. But with Gilmour appearing early, and three times in total, it was not so bad. An interview with former Gilmour collaborator, Georgie Fame, was interesting, for sharing his influences, but he did not perform. Also appearing on the show were The Weekend, The Libertines, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, and Ukrainian quartet DakhaBraka.

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Symptom of the Black Sabbath (Sabotage 1975)

From the Alan Freeman Playlist

Black Sabbath - Sabotage (1975) (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

TAKE ME THROUGH THE CENTURIES TO SUPERSONIC YEARS
In his biography, Iron Man, Tony Iommi said of Black Sabbath‘s sixth album, ‘It felt like we were being sabotaged all the way along the line and getting punched from all sides. We were constantly in some problem or another with management or somebody … That’s why … the album is called Sabotage.’ Rightly believing the previous album to be inferior, he is alleged to have told Steven Rosen in the nineties that, ‘We wanted to do a rock album – Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath wasn’t a rock album, really.’ One of the best tracks on the ‘rock album’ and one of the best ever by the band is Symptom of the Universe.

Symptom of the Universe is a track with a number of changes. The intro consists of the preceding track, Don’t Start Too Late, a quiet acoustic guitar instrumental from Tony Iommi, which segues into the thunderously heavy opening riff of Symptom interspersed with Bill Ward‘s rolling drums. At around the two-minute mark, the riff changes again for another heavy one and then switches back. Throughout, Ozzy Osbourne‘s voice is at its most maniacal. At just over three-and-a-half minutes there is another riff, presaging Iommi’s massive guitar solo. Almost a minute later Symptom becomes acoustic again, this time with vocals and a separate lyric. Iommi’s guitar playing on the coda is Spanish-influenced. This final passage is like the intro to Fairies Wear Boots, in that it was created independently in a jam session and tacked onto another track. As with Fairies, it works.

Geezer Butler‘s lyrics are mostly nonsense, although it is fair to say the Symptom of the Universe is love, ‘A symptom of the universe, a love that never dies.’ All of the verses are fantastical or dreamlike, with their mention of supersonic years, electrifying enemy, the Moon, silver tomb, seven-hundredth unicorn and magic ocean. From verses four to three, the first person and his love escape to their dreams and find happiness. Hence, the quieter detached playing of the final, almost separate, passage.

Symptom of the Universe is very heavy as is much of the Sabotage album, with Hole in the Sky, Megolamania and The Writ. To describe the song as an early example of ‘thrash metal’ or NWOBHM, as is popular these days, is errant nonsense and is like suggesting The Beatles were an early Brit-pop band. It seems amusing that someone at the record company thought it would be a good idea to release Symptom as a single. Unsurprisingly, it was not a hit. Equally funny is shredder Yngwie Malmsteen‘s comment, in an interview with Nick Bowcott of Guitar Player in 2008, in which he said that, ‘Tony’s use of the flat fifth [in Symptom of the Universe] would have got him burned at the stake a couple hundred years ago.’

Unfortunately, by the mid-seventies Sabbath were being ripped off by their manager, Patrick Meeehan, and their record label, Nems. Sabotage turned out to be their last great album with the original lineup of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. Fans had to wait for Ronnie James Dio and Heaven and Hell, in 1980, for the band’s salvation.

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Sister Seagull and Maid in Heaven by Be-Bop DeLuxe (Futurama 1975)

From the Alan Freeman Playlist

Be-bop Deluxe - Sunburst Finish (1976) (Courtesy: Allmusic)

SOUND ON SOUND
Some bands are too unusual to classify and Be-Bop Deluxe are one such example. Bill Nelson had a David Bowie or Bryan Ferry vocal style, but without the Anthony Newley and Mick Jagger theatrical delivery. His guitar playing was somewhat at odds with his singing, being a bright version of Jimi Hendrix‘s fluidity. Maid in Heaven has a forceful intro, which becomes even more so with the introduction of Bill Nelson’s guitar. Nelson’s lyrics were often imaginative, with Maid in Heaven sounding as if it must be about more than a liaison in a cheap hotel, ‘She’s a maid in heaven/ He’s a knight on the tiles’. Likewise, the band sounds as if it is about to expand and develop the idea, when the song ends abruptly.

Sister Seagull is a slower track, but has a slightly heavier riff than Maid in Heaven. It is equally compact, ending with a seagull impression played by Nelson on his guitar. The lyrics use the bird as a metaphor for the feeling of freedom provided by a relationship, ‘And the wings of change have spread themselves o’er me/ Sister seagull you’re the reason I survive.’ Both tracks were released as singles from the Futura album in 1975, with the economical lineup of Bill Nelson on guitar and vocals, Charlie Tumahai on bass and backing vocals and drummer Simon Fox. Keyboards were played by Nelson and overdubbed. Production was by Queen alumnus Roy Thomas Baker, who gave the band a sharp clean sound.

Tragically for fans of rock guitar, Bill Nelson later exchanged Be-Bop Deluxe for Red Noise and, along with his hollow-body Gibson ES-345, disappeared into new wave, synth pop and ambient(1). He worked with experimental champions such as Harold Budd, Roger Eno, Robert Fripp, Gary Numan, David Sylvian and others. In 1996, Nelson augmented his sound with drum and bass for After The Satellite Sings, which some claim was an influence on Reeves Gabrels‘ instrumentation and production on the Earthling album (1997) by David Bowie. By this time, Nelson had come full circle.

HANDY COMPUTER TIPS FOR OLD-FASHIONED USERS 1: STRIKETHROUGH
This evening, I was completing a form in Word, which requested that I crossed out one of two statements that did not apply. I thought the best way to answer would be to strikethrough(2), although it is something I have never used in Word 2003. A Google search revealed an article written by Diana Huggins for Locker Gnome(3), a site describing itself as, ‘Empowering the geek lifestyle; finding cool stuff for you since 1996!’ And a very useful site it is too. The instructions are in plain English for a numbskull like me. These are Ms Huggins’ instructions:

“You can apply Strikethrough formatting to text in Word using the steps described below.
1. Select the text that you want to change.
2. On the Format menu, click Font, and then click the Font tab.
3. Select the Strikethrough or Double strikethrough check box.
4. Click OK to apply your changes.”

HANDY COMPUTER TIPS FOR OLD-FASHIONED USERS 2: YOUTUBE
YouTube has lots of irritating features and one of them is the absence of a repeat button. To repeat a video in YouTube, type the word repeat after youtube in the URL. I cannot remember where I saw this, but it is very handy. Also very annoying is the Autoplay of a new video that you did not select. To switch this off, look in the top right hand corner of the screen. There is a little white circle in a blue box with a white tick, meaning Autoplay is switched on. Click and drag the circle to the left. The tick disappears and the box becomes grey, which means it is off.

(1) A contributor to Amazon, described Bill Nelson’s original style as ‘Ziggy-plays-Yes’, and his subsequent change in style as being ‘like Jimi Hendrix recording an album on the flugel horn’: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1S6TDBXL3OX4N/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00000JR4Y&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=5174&store=music
(2) Strikethrough – a horizontal line through the middle of the selected text, primarily useful for tracking changes made to text.
(3) Thanks to Diana Huggins of Locker Gnome: http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2006/12/15/use-strikethrough-formatting-word-2003/

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Birthday by The beatles (The Beatles of The White Album 1968)

From the Alan Freeman Playlist

The Beatles - White Album, poster photos (1968) (Courtesy: nkw)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YER
Birthday is a song from The Beatles or The White Album (1968), and is credited to Lennon and McCartney. According to Chris Thomas, who produced the track in George Martin‘s absence, the song was mainly Paul McCartney‘s because it was improvised at Abbey Road studio and he arrived first. As the others gradually appeared they added their parts. McCartney said he and John Lennon made a 50-50 contribution, but Philip Norman, in his book Shout! (2003), has claimed these were rare. More likely one wrote about half the song and then asked the other for help. It has been claimed that Lennon said the song was rubbish and his input was minimal, but I have not seen a reliable source for this at the time of writing.

Birthday has a repetitive speeded-up blues riff, giving the feel of rock ‘n’ roll or even hard rock. The track begins with Ringo Starr‘s drums, rapidly joined by the bass and some rock ‘n’ roll guitar. I have not named the guitarists, as it is claimed McCartney played lead, with Lennon, while George Harrison was unusually on bass. McCartney is a very good guitarist and George Harrison is thought to have played bass on a few Beatles and solo tracks, but again I have seen no verification for this regarding Birthday. Lead vocals, on the first verse, are by Paul McCartney in a raw style, with block harmonies from Lennon, Harrison, Patti Harrison and Yoko Ono. There is a lengthy drum fill and brief guitar part, followed by Lennon taking lead vocal on the verse, ‘We’re going to a party, party’. McCartney again takes lead vocal for a frantic ‘party’ passage, which is accompanied by distorted piano (through a guitar amp) and high-pitched harmonies. Throughout, one can hear handclaps and random shouts. The sound effect at the end is also the piano.

Few would say Birthday ranked among The Beatles great songs, but, like Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, it is a bit of fun and was ahead of its time as an early hard rock or even ‘power pop’ track. Birthday‘s frivolity balances the more meaningful songs on the album, such as Dear Prudence, While My guitar Gently Weeps or Blackbird. Engineer Ken Scott kept it in mind when he went on to produce hard pop by David Bowie, Supertramp, Kansas, Cliff Richard and The Tubes, as well as hard rock by Ronnie Montrose and Gamma.

ITV WORLD CUP RUGBY NEEDS A NEW THEME
This evening, hosts England played Wales, at Twickenham, in a Group A match of the Rugby Union World Cup. It brought to a head the controversy over the current version of the theme song, World in Union, recorded by British ‘singer’ Paloma Faith for ITV’s presentation of the tournament. World In Union was commissioned by the International Rugby Board (now World Rugby) for the second Rugby World Cup, in 1991, and was written by lyricist Charlie Skarbek, who for the melody borrowed the middle part of Jupiter from The Planets by Gustav Holst. Previous singers of the piece include Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Bryn Terfel, Dame Shirley Bassey, Katherine Jenkins, Russell Watson, Lesley Garrett, Aled Jones, Blake, Hayley Westenra and Laura Wright.

Newspapers have carried front page stories, rugby fans were moved to start online petitions, viewers wrote directly to ITV and even Paloma Faith fans have complained about her, ‘Screeching like a tortured cat, so you can’t make out the words.'(1) Defending herself, Faith further inflamed viewers, when she told BBC Newsbeat: ‘I mean I’m quite pleased with it, so that’s all that matters really.’ ITV continue to insist that the theme tune will continue until 31st October, when the World Cup ends, and add that it features on the official album! There are five weeks to go, so it will be interesting to see the outcome.

At Twickenham, the half-time score was England 16 – Wales 9. By full-time the result was England 25 – Wales 28. The Welsh go to the quarter finals, the hosts are in trouble.

FROM GREG LAKE TO STRICTLY
Earlier this evening, BBC 1 broadcast live the third part of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing pro-celebrity competition. Musical director, Dave Arch has the difficult task of re-scoring the songs for his orchestra, and adjusting the timings for the dances. In 2005, Arch played keyboards for The Greg Lake Band, following in illustrious footsteps, and later toured with Paul McCartney in support of the Memory Almost Full album (2007). Dave Arch’s orchestra includes percussionist Frank Ricotti and singer Lance Ellington, son of Ray and former member of the duo Koffee ‘n’ Kreme with Beth Hannah.

(1) From the Daily Telegraph comments: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/rugby-world-cup/11888395/Rugby-World-Cup-fans-petition-ITV-to-replace-truly-awful-Paloma-Faith-theme-music.html

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Can't Get Enough by Bad Company (Bad Co 1974)

From the Alan Freeman Playlist

Bad Company (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

COME OVER HERE RIGHT NOW
One of the characteristics of supergroups in the seventies, was that they rarely lasted for more than a few albums or years. The first of them, Cream, only survived for three years and it became a cliche to suggest that their successor, Blind Faith, was killed by the practise after which they were named. Rod Evans’ Captain Beyond made one, albeit great, album with the original line-up; and UK lasted for two studio albums and one live recording, but with a change of drummer. One of the exceptions was Bad Company, who made six excellent albums, over eight years, with the original personnel.

Bad Company were a supergroup formed by the singer and drummer from Free, Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke, along with guitarist Mick Ralphs from Mott the Hoople and bassist Boz Burrell from King Crimson. It gave an interesting configuration because Rodgers no longer had the support of distinctive bass player Andy Fraser, who wrote the hit songs with which he was most closely identified, All Right Now and My Brother Jake. Mick Ralphs, out of Ian Hunter’s singer-songwriter shadow, was free to be an all-out hard rock guitarist and songwriter. The glimpses of Ralphs’ talents on Hoople tracks like Darkness, Darkness and Ready for Love could be given full reign, the only exception being his singing which would be sidelined for Rodgers. Most interesting of all was, and remains, Boz Burrell, who came from a jazz backgound, as a rhythm guitarist, and enjoyed a brief career as a pop singer, with members of Deep Purple, in the mid to late-sixties. Burrell joined King Crimson ostensively to sing, but they needed a bassist more than a rhythm guitarist, so Robert Fripp taught him to play bass. Within a few years, Boz became one of the best fretless bass players in rock music.

Can’t Get Enough, the opening song on Bad Co’s first album, is counted in and launched by Simon Kirke’s prominent drums. Rodgers voice sounds the same as it was with Free, but Ralphs’ guitar has less of a fiery blues feel than Paul Kossoff’s. It is also more straight forward hard rock than he was playing in his Hoople days. Bad Co had a more jazzy feel than Free, due partly to the presence of Crimson saxophonist Mel Collins and also to Burrell’s jazz background. On Can’t Get Enough, the bass is quiet in the mix, but often busy. The lyrics are simple and straightforward, which is frequently the sign of a great song. All Right Now had simple lyrics; All the Young Dudes, less so! The song was Bad Co’s first hit single and remained popular in their live set. Written by Mick Ralphs, it epitomised their approach in that it is catchy, direct and unpretentious. Can’t Get Enough demonstrates the reasons Bad Company lasted longer than many of their peers.

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Alan Freeman's Saturday Rock Show on BBC Radio 1: Tracklist - Pt.5 U-Z

Uu

Unknown by UK (UK 1978)
Suicidal Man by Uriah Heep (Wonderworld 1974)
Something or Nothing by Uriah Heep (Wonderworld 1974)
Return to Fantasy by Uriah Heep (Return to Fantasy 1975)
Unknown by Uriah Heep (High and Mighty 1976)
Unknown by Uriah Heep (Firefly 1976)
The Dance by Uriah Heep (Innocent Victim 1977)
Choices by Uriah Heep (Innocent Victim 1977)
Rape of the Young by Utopia (Oops! Wrong Planet 1977)

Vv
Albedo 0.39 by Vangelis (Albedo 0.39 1976)

Ww, Xx
Motel Blues by Loudon Wainwright III (Album II 1971)
Turn to Stone by Joe Walsh (Barnstorm 1972)
Rocky Mountain Way by Joe Walsh (The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get 1973)*
Frankenstein by The Edgar Winter Group (They Only Come Out at Night 1972)
Baba O’Riley by The Who (Who’s Next 1971)
Love Reign O’er Me by The Who (Quadrophenia 1973)
Unknown by Wishbone Ash (There’s the Rub 1974)

Yy
Roundabout by Yes (Fragile 1971)
America by Yes (The New Age of Atlantic sampler 1972)
And You And I by Yes (Close to the Edge 1972)
Yours is no Disgrace by Yes (Yessongs 1973)

Zz
Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers by Z.Z. Top (Tres Hombres 1973)
Other tracks/albums I am vague about, although Fluff definitely played them, are by: David Bowie (Low), Stanley Clarke, Climax Blues Band, David Coverdale (White Snake 1977 and/or Northwinds 1978), an unsigned band called Gentlemen, Jimi Hendrix (Midnight Lightning), Mott (Drive On), Neutrons (Man offshoot), Silverhead (Michael Des Barres) and Styx (Equinox). Alan Freeman also narrated The Story of Pop radio and magazine series which included a progressive rock episode.