"Wam Bam: Glam Rock, 1971-75" compilation

A couple of years ago I was reading about old glam rock hits, and I realized there were a lot that many people considered important to the genre, but that I'd never heard. That led me to search for a good, comprehensive compilation, but I was surprised that there really isn't one.

This may be due to key tracks being on different record labels. Or it could be that glam rock is more closely defined by what it looks like than it sounds like. Indeed, the fashion of its stars was often far more outrageous than the music.

And what songs are considered "glam rock" by one person are often categorized as "bubble gum," "power pop," or any number of other sub-genres by another. So this imagined five-CD box set includes tracks that I gathered from a number of "top glam rock songs" lists I found online. Some you'll undoubtedly agree with, others you may not.

DISC 1 - SHINING
1. Hot Love - T. Rex
2. Co-Co - The Sweet
3. Bang a Gong (Get It On) - T. Rex
4. Coz I Luv You - Slade
5. Funny, Funny - The Sweet
6. Jeepster - T. Rex
7. Alexander Graham Bell - The Sweet
8. John, I'm Only Dancing - David Bowie
9. All the Young Dudes - Mott the Hoople
10. Stay With Me - The Faces
11. Clap Your Hands and Stamp Your Feet - Bonnie St. Claire & Unit Gloria
12. Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to be a Long, Long Time) - Elton John
13. Standing in the Road - Blackfoot Sue
14. School's Out - Alice Cooper
15. Changes - David Bowie
16. Telegram Sam - T. Rex
17. Little Willy - The Sweet
18. Rock and Roll (Parts 1 & 2) - Gary Glitter
19. Virginia Plain - Roxy Music
20. Mama Weer All Crazee Now - Slade
21. Starman - David Bowie
22. Children of the Revolution - T. Rex
23. Walk on the Wild Side - Lou Reed
24. Elected - Alice Cooper
25. Son of My Father - Chicory Tip
26. Wig-Wam Bam - The Sweet
27. 10538 Overature - Electric Light Orchestra

DISC 2 - SPARKLING
1. The Jean Genie - David Bowie
2. Metal Guru - T. Rex
3. Poppa Joe - The Sweet
4. Crocodile Rock - Elton John
5. Gudbuy T'Jane - Slade
6. Suffragette City - David Bowie
7. Solid Gold, Easy Action - T. Rex
8. Ballroom Blitz - The Sweet
9. Cum on Feel the Noize - Slade
10. I'm the Leader of the Gang (I am) - Gary Glitter
11. See My Baby Jive - Wizzard
12. 20th Century Boy - T. Rex
13. Do You Wanna Dance - Barry Blue
14. Saturday Night - Bay City Rollers
15. Tiger Feet - Mud
16. Dancin' (On a Saturday Night) - Barry Blue
17. 48 Crash - Suzi Quatro
18. Block Buster! - The Sweet
19. Rock On - David Essex
20. Street Life - Roxy Music
21. Dynamite - Mud
22. The Groover - T. Rex
23. Angel Fingers (A Teenage Ballad) - Wizzard
24. Can the Can - Suzi Quatro
25. Hellraiser - The Sweet
26. Life on Mars? - David Bowie
27. Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting) - Elton John
28. Do You Wanna Touch Me There (Oh Yeah) - Gary Glitter

DISC 3 - GLITTERING
1. My Coo Ca Choo - Alvin Stardust
2. Skweeze Me Pleeze Me - Slade
3. Looking for a Kiss - New York Dolls
4. Truck On (Tyke) - T. Rex
5. Wired Up - Hector
6. All the Way from Memphis - Mott the Hoople
7. No More Mr. Nice Guy - Alice Cooper
8. All Because of You - Geordie
9. Rebel Rebel - David Bowie
10. This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us - Sparks
11. Do the Strand - Roxy Music
12. Teenage Rampage - The Sweet
13. Killer Queen - Queen
14. Jealous Mind - Alvin Stardust
15. Angel Face - The Glitter Band
16. Devil Gate Drive - Suzi Quatro
17. The "In" Crowd - Bryan Ferry
18. Bennie and the Jets - Elton John
19. Seven Deadly Finns - Brian Eno
20. Teenage Dream - Marc Bolan & T. Rex
21. Horror Movie - Skyhooks
22. Summerlove Sensation - Bay City Rollers
23. Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth - Sparks
24. Sugar Baby Love - The Rubettes
25. Magic - Pilot
26. Needle in the Camel's Eye - Brian Eno
27. Light of Love - T. Rex

DISC 4 - FADING
1. Diamond Dogs - David Bowie
2. Dance with the Devil - Cozy Powell
3. Seven Seas of Rhye - Queen
4. The Six Teens - Sweet
5. The Bitch is Back - Elton John
6. You You You - Alvin Stardust
7. Rebels Rule - Iron Virgin
8. Va Va Va Voom - Brett Smiley
9. Action - Sweet
10. Once Bitten, Twice Shy - Ian Hunter
11. Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) - Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
12. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
13. January - Pilot
14. Give Me a Little Love - Bay City Rollers
15. Nothing to Do with Us - Jet
16. All My Friends Are Getting Married - Skyhooks
17. New York Groove - Hello
18. Get Down and Get With It - Slade
19. Love is the Drug - Roxy Music
20. New York City - T. Rex
21. Glass of Champagne - Sailor
22. Bye Bye Baby - Bay City Roller
23. Fox on the Run - Sweet
24. Sky High - Jigsaw
25. The Tears I Cried - The Glitter Band
26. Roxy Roller - Sweeney Todd
27. I Love Rock n Roll - The Arrows
28. Rock and Roll All Nite - Kiss

The general consensus seems to be that glam rock began when Marc Bolan appeared on "Top of the Pops" in 1971 in glitter makeup. And the genre seems to have pretty much run its course by 1976 and the punk explosion. So I included only songs from 1971 through 1975. The songs are presented here in mostly chronological order. And what a collection it is -- it's really all over the place musically.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to me is that it remained a British phenomenon that never seemed to catch on elsewhere in the world—although the styles would greatly influence later musicians, most notably the L.A. metal scene in the 1980s.

I found the glitter background and a sparkly guitar online and used them for this box set cover and added titles.

John Entwistle -- "Send in the Clones"

There is surprisingly little information available regarding John Entwistle's planned science fiction rock opera from the late 1970s. It's both surprising and maddening considering how much has been written about The Who and their many projects. 

In the liner notes of Who Are You, Entwistle is quoted as saying, ""I had started a concept album along the same lines as Lifehouse. My story was a little different. It was set in the future. I put it on the shelf for a long time. When that album came along I took them off the shelf and changed them around a little bit. But '905' was actually one of the songs from that. The hero's name was '905' and he lives with this guy named '503' and they're absolutely identical. There aren't any women around because that's what they're eating."

But the project was never fully completed, partially because Entwistle reportedly decided that the story was too close to that of "Soylent Green."

When The Who first began working on Who Are You, Pete Townsend tried to create a sequel to Lifehouse -- which is odd since Lifehouse itself was never finished. But as Townsend struggled with the new project, it was decided that maybe both the sequel and Entwistle's concept could be merged. However, somewhere along the way, Who Are You became a regular Who album with leftover elements of the earlier projects. And most people at the time were none the wiser.

While two songs from Entwistle's project are known, the rest are up for debate. It's unclear whether he actually wrote enough songs for the full album. It's also unknown if his concept was originally meant to be a Who project or a solo one. But I've utilized a mix of tracks recorded both by the band and solo that kind of fit the theme.

SIDE A
1. Overture
2. Had Enough
3. 905
4. Sleeping Man
5. One at a Time

SIDE B
1. Dangerous
2. It's Your Turn
3. You
4. Too Late the Hero

While I'd considered trying to put together this album in the past, the lack of info and questions regarding what tracks should be included always left me stymied. What got me rethinking about it was finding an apparently unreleased outtake titled "Overture" on YouTube. I have no idea if this is truly an Entwistle composition or not, but if true it gives us a nice beginning. Due to the fact that it's all synthesizer makes me think that this wasn't completed. But, again, I've no way of knowing.

From the liner notes of Who Are You, we know that "905" and "Had Enough" were both originally part of the project. I've also read that "Dangerous" and "One at a Time" from The Who's It's Hard album were originally from the project as well. 

One item from Entwistle's liner notes quote caught my eye -- his reference to "the hero" of the story. That led me to think that maybe the song "Too Late the Hero" -- the title track from Entwistle's 1981 solo album -- was also part of the project. With these six tunes, I then picked and chose other Entwistle songs from his solo album and Who albums to fill out the tracklist. The truth is, I could be way off. But the tracklist I'm providing here is as good as any other attempt I've seen.

The songs "Had Enough" and "905" can be found on The Who's Who Are You. "You" is on The Who's Face Dances album."Sleeping Man" and "Too Late the Hero" are from Entwistle's solo album Too Late the Hero. "Dangerous," "It's Your Turn" and "One at a Time" are from The Who's It's Hard. As far as "Overture" is concerned, I ripped it from YouTube, but it may be on bootlegs. (Edit: "Overture" was included as a bonus track when Too Late the Hero was rereleased in 2007, but the album appears to now be out of print).

I don't know if Entwistle ever had a title for the story. I tried to come up with something thought-provoking, original, and interesting, but I failed miserably. All I could think of was Send in the Clones, which is silly and unoriginal. Maybe I'll change it later.

For a cover, I found this image on the web and added titles.

Yes' "Yes Solos"

I don't want to get into the habit of redoing projects I've already completed, but I decided this was one that could be reconsidered. Way back in June 2018 I posted a concept for an album using tracks from the solo albums of members of Yes that were released in 1976. I called it Harmonium: https://albumsbackfromthedead.blogspot.com/2018/06/yes-harmonium.html

So little did I know at the time I put that album together that there actually was an album titled Yes Solos Sampler that was issued in 1976 (https://www.discogs.com/Various-Yes-Solos-LP-Sampler/release/7702268). I think it was just a promotional album for radio stations, and not available to the general public. But it’s interesting that the tracklist is very different from what I came up with. And since this was not available to the general public, I consider it a lost album:

SIDE 1
1. Flight of The Moorglade - Jon Anderson
2. Hold Out Your Hand - Chris Squire
3. Break Away from It All - Steve Howe
4. Best Years of Our Lives - Patrick Moraz
5. Spring: Song of Innocence - Alan White

SIDE 2
1. Oooh Baby (Goin' To Pieces) - Alan White
2. Dancing Now - Patrick Moraz
3. Lost Symphony - Steve Howe
4. Lucky Seven - Chris Squire
5. Meeting (Garden of Geda): Sound Out The Galleon - Jon Anderson

Yes Solos Sampler is a little more democratic than my Harmonium in that it includes two songs from each member's solo albums. First of all, I found it interesting that Yes Solos Sampler only included two of the songs I had included in Harmonium. I had based my Harmonium tracklist on the solo songs that Yes performed in concert. I've no idea what criteria went into deciding which songs were included on this sampler.

I find it a strange coincidence that "Spring: Song of Innocence" was included in the exact same place as I had included it -- the last track on side 1. 

To show I put a little more effort into this than simply copying the info, I created a new cover for the album. The sampler cover was just white and included "Yes Solos" in the Roger Dean-designed logo. I took the logo, colored it, and also used other Roger Dean artwork to create the cover. I also added the surnames of each member at the bottom using a Roger Dean-style font.

Elvis Presley -- "Taking Care of Business: The Essential '70s Masters"

The box set The King of Rock 'n' Roll: The Complete '50s Masters, which packaged all of Elvis Presley's Sun and RCA recordings from 1954-1958, was a big success.

As a result, RCA assembled a second Elvis Presley box set the following year titled From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential '60s Masters. This second box set included all the studio songs he recorded in that decade, except for movie soundtracks and gospel album tracks (these were collected on Command Performances: The Essential '60s Masters II and Amazing Grace: His Greatest Sacred Performances respectively).

With the third decade-spanning box set of the series, RCA issued Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters. But instead of following the outline of The Essential '60s Masters, the '70s box set has two discs made up of the A and B sides of singles, discs 3 and 4 made up of selected studio cuts, and the final disc 5 of live tracks.

I don't know why this change was made, but it's possible that RCA realized that with three box sets, most people could own nearly everything they would ever want of Elvis' music. In other words, they were killing their cash cow.

Whatever the reason, to me this was a letdown. I strongly believe that the '70s box set should have included all studio tracks from 1970-78, minus songs from his gospel and Christmas albums. This would have made it more akin to The Essential '60s Masters.

So here's how I think it should have been issued.

DISC 1

1. Twenty Days and Twenty Nights
2. I've Lost You
3. I was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago
4. The Sound of Your Cry
5. The Fool
6. Little Cabin on the Hill
7. Cindy, Cindy
8. Bridge over Troubled Water
9. Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off of It
10. How the Web was Woven
11. It's Your Baby, You Rock It
12. Stranger in the Crowd
13. I'll Never Know
14. Mary in the Morning
15. It Ain't No Big Thing, But It's Growing
16. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
17. Just Pretend
18. This is Our Dance
19. Life
20. Heart of Rome
21. When I'm Over You
22. I Really Don't Want to Know
23. Faded Love
24. Tomorrow Never Comes
25. The Next Step is Love
26. Make the World Go Away

DISC 2

1. Funny How Time Slips Away
2. I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water
3. Love Letters
4. There Goes My Everything 
5. If I Were You
6. Only Believe
7. Sylvia
8. Patch It Up
9. Snowbird
10. Where Did They Go, Lord
11. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
12. Rags to Riches
13. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
14. Early Morning Rain
15. (That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me
16. Miracle of the Rosary
17. Padre
18. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
19. Help Me Make It Through the Night
20. Fools Rush In
21. It's Still Here
22. I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen
23. I will Be True
24. I'm Leavin'
25. We Can Make the Morning if We Try
26. It's Only Love

DISC 3

1. Love Me, Love the Life I Lead
2. Until It's Time for You to Go
3. Put Your Hand in the Hand
4. My Way
5. Separate Ways
6. For the Good Times
7. Where Do I Go from Here
8. Burning Love
9. Fool
10. Always on My Mind
11. It's a Matter of Time
12. If You Don't Come Back
13. It's Diff'rent Now
14. Three Corn Patches
15. Take Good Care of Her
16. Find Out What's Happening
17. I've Got a Thing About You Baby
18. Just a Little Bit
19. Raised on Rock
20. For Ol' Times Sake
21. Girl of Mine
22. Sweet Angeline
23. I Miss You
24. Are You Sincere?
25. I Got a Feeling in My Body
26. It's Midnight

DISC 4

1. You Asked Me To
2. If You Talk in Your Sleep
3. Mr. Songman
4. Thinking About You
5. Love Song of the Year
6. Help Me
7. My Boy
8. Loving Arms
9. Good Time Charle's Got the Blues
10. Talk About the Good Times
11. Promised Land
12. Your Love's Been a Long Time Coming
13. There's a Honky Tonk Angel
14. If That Isn't Love
15. Spanish Eyes
16. She Wears My Ring
17. Fairytale
18. Green, Green Grass of Home
19. I Can Help
20. And I Love You So
21. Susan When She Tried
22. T-R-O-U-B-L-E
23. Woman Without Love
24. Shake a Hand
25. Bringin' It Back
26. Pieces of My Life

DISC 5

1. Bitter They Come, Harder They Are
2. She Thinks I Still Care
3. The Last Farewell
4. Solitaire
5. Moody Blue
6. I'll Never Fall in Love Again
7. For the Heart
8. Hurt
9. Danny Boy
10. Never Again
11. Love Coming Down
12. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
13. It's Easy for You
14. Way Down
15. Pledging My Love
16. He'll Have to Go
17. A Hundred Years Ago from Now #
18. I Didn't Make It on Playing Guitar  #
19. The Lord's Prayer  #
20. Lady Madonna  #
21. I Shall be Released  #
22. Softly as I Leave You  #
23. The Twelfth of Never  #
24. Tiger Man  #
25. Alla en el Rancho Grande #
26. Stranger in My Own Home Town #

Here we have five discs with 26 tracks each. Everything is in chronological order except the 10 bonus tracks at the end. These are mostly partial songs recorded during rehearsals.

To compile the tracklist in the proper order, I used Ernst Jorgensen's excellent book "Elvis Presley: A Life in Music -- The Complete Recording Sessions" as a guide. I didn't realize until working on this that the last song Elvis recorded was "He'll Have to Go" -- which is kind of an eerie title considering he would die soon afterward.

Since Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters gets its title from a live track that isn't included in my version, I had to come up with a new title. "Taking Care of Business" was Elvis' personal motto, and he used the TCB logo for jewelry and other things, and named his backup band the TCB Band. So Taking Care of Business: The Essential '70s Masters seemed like a good title for this collection. 

I used the cover from Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters for this box set cover and rather clumsily changed the title.