Artist: Various Artists
Album: Holding Back The Years: 1973compiled by viker
Track Listing
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1. If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picket Up (Betty Davis) (5:00)
2. Chicago, Damn (Bobbi Humphrey) (6:32)
3. Locomotora (Blops) (5:34)
4. Thicker Than A Smokey (Gary Higgins) (3:37)
5. Dream (Terry Reid) (5:20)
6. Andalucia (John Cale) (3:54)
7. Sexy Ways (The Ebonys) (3:04)
8. Brothers On The Slide (Cymande) (4:12)
9. Higher Ground (Stevie Wonder) (3:42)
10. Watermelon Man (Herbie Hancock) (6:32)
11. I’m Your Pimp (Skull Snaps) (4:02)
12. The Slums (Donny Hathaway) (5:11)
13. Silifke (Mustafa Özkent) (3:35)
14. Draft Board Blues (Merry Airbrakes) (5:38)
15. Warinobaril (Lard Free) (3:50)
16. Walking Alone in the Rain (Kim Jung Mi) (4:13)
17. A Song For You (Gram Parsons) (4:56)Total Playing Time: 79:01 (min:sec)
Total Size : 138.0 MB (144,749,270 bytes)01. Betty Davis – If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picked Up (Betty Davis)
On her debut, Betty Davis brought her flamboyant funk to the masses of America. With a heavy beat and psychedelic guitars, this opening track was all about this wild woman’s prowling night on the town, looking for action – something that certainly wasn’t sung about by women up until this era.02. Bobbi Humphrey – Chicago, Damn (Blacks And Blues)
Blacks And Blues is an essential summertime record filled with Jazz Funk of the highest order. Humphrey’s skills as a musician are top notch and the debut of her strong vocals are also something special. Next time you’re going out to cook some ribs, throw this on for a guaranteed great time.03. Blops – Locomotora (Locomotora)
The third album by Chile based Blops found itself completely ditching the pure psych folk that was prominent on their 1970 debut, but it really wasn’t a surprise as their style grew harder with each successive album. Locomotora was all about electric guitars and also started introducing a Prog feel to their sound. Shortly after this recording the band split up, then two of the original members reformed Blops several years later for a very brief time before disbanding again in 1980.04. Gary Higgins – Thicker Than A Smokey (Red Hash)
It took more than 30 years for Higgins’ Red Hash to gain popularity among the masses, when Drag City reissued the album in 2005. Though it’s a lot like several other typical hippie songwriter efforts in several ways, the crisp production and downright depressing lyrics really set this apart from just about everything else. At times you feel like he’s a gentle guy who got mixed up with the wrong crowd or came across bad luck, which is somewhat true as not long after the release of Red Hash, Higgins spent much of the 70s in jail on drug related charges.05. Terry Reid – Dream (River)
Many artists at the time used strong music sections to embellish their songs which happened to have laid back, stream-of-consciousness lyrics – but here, the lyrics are what *make* the songs and are really the center of attention. On "Dream" you find Reid in a very laid back mode accompanied by just his acoustic guitar – a song which really personifies this highly personal album.06. John Cale – Andalucia (Paris 1919)
A highly literary album, Paris 1919 has become one of Cale’s finest solo efforts – an album that is filled with rich poetry and luscious production. Upon hearing these tracks, one would never think that his prior abrasive recordings were ever there – as this is nothing but beauty.07. The Ebonys – Sexy Ways (The Ebonys)
The 1970s were full of great soul musicians who were unfortunately never noticed until decades later for whatever reason (case in point: Numero Group’s recent output of stellar songs), and The Ebonys were another group who never made it although their music is something really special. The album even had a song that made it into the Billboard top 20, but the fact that so many other groups (from much larger labels) were also putting out similar content, The Ebonys were merely just overlooked.08. Cymande – Brothers On The Slide (Cymande)
Cymande was one of the first groups to blend together rhythms found in soul, reggae, funk and rock which resulted in this splendid display of grooving music. They were again another undeserved casualty in the music business and never gained much public interest until many years later, when some crate digger probably stumbled across the album cover and though "whoa, what the hell is this?". Now a treasure among collectors – both for its interesting LP art and more importantly, the infectious grooves.09. Stevie Wonder – Higher Ground (Innervisions)
Not much more can be said about the genius of Stevie Wonder, especially during this time period when he was churning out r&b/soul hits like clonedhuman turns tricks. Higher Ground became one of his major hits, but it was also very special in that shortly after recording the song, Wonder was involved in a coma-inducing car accident and when his road manager began singing the lyrics to the song in Stevie’s ear, something clicked and he began moving his fingers in time with the song.10. Herbie Hancock – Watermelon Man (Head Hunters)
While working with Miles Davis Hancock pushed boundaries on several recordings, but it wasn’t until 1973 that he would really put electronic synths into the spotlight of a jazz album. Head Hunters also had a huge dose of funk and soul, inspired by the likes of James Brown and Curtis Mayfield, and the combination of these new elements left many jazz purists ready to dismiss the album for being too far out. Of course all these years later you can see what a fresh breath of air he brought to the genre, and at one point the album became the #1 selling jazz album of all time (later to be outdone).11. Skull Snaps – I’m Your Pimp (Skull Snaps)
Legendary cult funk group that only stayed together long enough to record one album, which an original of now goes for triple digit costs in some areas. That price doesn’t go unwarranted either – this album has been sampled dozens of times by very popular hip-hop stars and contains some great breakbeats throughout.12. Donny Hathaway – The Slums (Extension Of A Man)
Extension Of A Man was probably Hathaways most ambitious album…it was all over the place in terms of style: ghetto-inspired soul, orchestral arrangements, ballads and easy listening numbers. It’s got a lot of great songs, but it usually isn’t remembered often by many soul fans because of the sublime album he released a couple of years prior, Everything Is Everything. The worst part of it all though was that Hathaway wouldn’t get a chance to release another solo album again…his severe bouts of depression eventually did him in, and he took his own life in 1979.13. Mustafa Ozkent – Silifke (Genclik Ile Elele)
Ozkent was a highly sought after musician in his native Turkey who did a brilliant job at fusing psychedelic pop & rock influences with R&B and jazz improvs and creating totally new sounds by modifying the design of his instruments. Genclik Ile Elele (Hand In Hand With Youth) was recorded in one of Turkey’s most famous and notorius record Studios and resulted in a great funk album that seemed to be begging to be sampled by DJs for its extraordinary number of excellent breaks.14. Merry Airbrakes – Draft Board Blues (Merry Airbrakes)
Some great heavy bluesy psych (which also has a few touches of fragile beauty) from a group of Vietnam vets here, which wrote many songs from the Vietnam point of view. No surprise it never got much airplay and was unknown to pretty much everyond outside of collector circles until Germany’s Shadoks label reissued it 30+ years later.15. Lard Free – Warinobaril (Gilbert Artman’s Lard Free)
A wonderful avant-garde jazz rock album from a band that was one of France’s premier groups at the time. Artman was a great drummer who also did a nice job with synths and piano, and was the only constant member of the group that released 3 albums throughout the 70s. After disbanding the group Artman continued to work in the French prog scene.16. Kim Jung Mi – Walking Alone In The Rain (Now)
Now is a legendary acid folk album with great fuzz guitar parts provided courtesy of Shin Jung Hyun and The Men, full of a spacey California vibe. A moody melancholic album, with a sexy voice similar to Francoise Hardy.17. Gram Parsons – A Song For You (GP)
Having Gram Parsons end the mix seems only appropriate, as his relatively brief career also ended in 1973 when he overdosed near the Joshua Tree National Park in California. The father of Cosmic American Music was a member of the International Submarine Band, The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, influenced many groups of the 70’s Country Rock and 90’s Alt-Country scenes and remained one of the most loved figures of the decade.