Shape of Things to Come

 

For some reason that touch of The Yardbirds made me dig about YouTube looking for some old songs I liked in the 70's. I don't have them on cd for the most part and don't hardly listen to cd's anyway. Occasionally some of these songs turn up in my web browser. YouTube has been a great place to hear some amazing blasts from the past. There is software that lets you convert the streaming video into files you can keep and store for replay but I haven't explored that yet. I have enough crap to do as it is. Today I didn't feel like doing much after I got home from work. I'm still running at slow speed because of the cold that I have had. Most of the symptoms are gone but I'm sleepin' more than usual. I was hopin' as I got older that what they say about old people needing less sleep were going to be true. It doesn't seem the case so far. I guess I have to get older to live my dream and have more waking hours.

I started diggin' around on YouTube because I wanted to hear Train Kept a Rollin' again. I just dig that song. Some versions have Jimmy Page on guitar. He went on to Led Zepplin after The Yardbirds. LZ is not a band I listen to anymore. Heard it enough when I was young. I played Houses of the Holy hundereds of times, but haven't listened to it in over 20 years.

Maybe it's nostalgia but I did enjoy hearing The Yardbirds and that lead me to Max Frost and the Troopers. Every hear of them? No? Not surprizing, they didn't exist, except in a movie. The band and the song came from the movie Wild In The Streets. It's not a great movie but it's certainly of it's time. 1968. I heard Julian Bond on MPR today talking about the 1968 Election season in the United States. That was some fucked up shit that year.

Max's song Shape of Thing to Come has been a favorite since I had the single. That was about 1970 or '71. The guitar is great and the drumming makes me want to pound on something. I had a friend years ago who had to air drum when he heard certain songs. That's this song for me. Train Kept a Rollin' is the same way. Early blues rock was pretty primal and certainly all new and exciting. There's a version from the movie here, and a fancy video here.

I Had To Much To Dream Last Night by The Electric Prunes comes in two length's. 3 minute and 7 minute. That some how led me to the Strawberry Alarm Clock and their classic Incense and Peppermints. There was a link to Donovan's Wear Your Love Like Heaven. I haven't heard that in decades I bet. Then there was a link to The Classics IV - Stormy and Spooky. Dusty Springfield did a cover of Spooky. Sopwith Camel - Hello Hello. The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard. The Music Machine - Talk Talk. Arthur Brown - Fire. Johnny Cash - Ring Of Fire. Now I'm gettin' off the beam.

Comments

[Crimso Giger]

You've listened to Houses of the Holy hundereds of times ? Just like me :)
The Electric Prunes is a good band too, the song you quoted is great (the long version in particular). Maybe you don't listen too much now to this old stuff but trust me, the music from the 60-70's is the best even for a "kid" born in 1977 like me !

[Neil]

You probably really want to see Wild in the Streets if you haven't. It has some of the very best minutes of any crummy movie ever.
Like the beginning, Max Frost leaving home. And Shelly Winters at the end, being taken away by the youth police. And Richard Pryor's first speaking part!