Sammy Johns by Sammy Johns (1973)

“Sammy Johns” by Sammy Johns (1973)

Release Date: 1973
Produced by Jay Senter, Jefferson Lee, Larry Knechtel
Genre: Country Rock, Folk, Pop
Label: General Recording

Chart Positions: #148 (US)
Certifications: N/A

Singles: “Rag Doll,” #52 (US), #34 (US Adult Contemporary), “Chevy Van” #5 (US), #2 (New Zealand), #8 (Canada), #80 (US Country), “America” (No Chart Data), “Early Morning Love” #68 (US), #79 (Canada), #19 (US Adult Contemporary), #79 (US Country), “Friends Of Mine” (No Chart Data)
Singles Certifications: “Chevy Van” (US Gold)

Other Charting Tracks: N/A
Best Tracks: “Early Morning Love,” “Chevy Van,” "Rag Doll," “Holy Mother, Aging Father”

“Sammy Johns” (Click Here)

Trivia: Sammy Johns was signed to his solo recording contract in 1973 to General Recording Corporation Records (also known as GRC). His first official recording was “Early Morning Love,” which was later released as a single in 1974, it was the fourth single release from his debut album “Sammy Johns.” Johns’ first single release “Rag Doll,” a country influenced ballad came and went without notice. “Chevy Van” was the second single which also came and went without notice. Two more singles were released (“America” and “Early Morning Love”) again no chart action. Finally 18 months after the album was released GRC recognized the hit potential of “Chevy Van” and re-released it as a single in 1975 and promoted the song. This time around it became a huge hit reaching #5 in the US and the top ten in New Zealand and Canada.  Due to the success of “Chevy Van” GRC re-released “Early Morning Love” and “Rag Doll” as singles and like "Chevy Van," both made it onto the charts. Much of the album has a country music character about it. Songs such as “We Will Shine” are reminiscent of John Denver while “Friends of Mine” begins with a twangin’ country music guitar.

"Chevy Van" (1975)

"Chevy Van" was written by Sammy as were most of the songs from his album. The song epitomizes an era when hitchhiking was popular and picking up strangers for a one night stand was a lifestyle for many. The million selling "Chevy Van" struck a chord so much that van sales dramatically increased in the next year, making it one of the most popular vehicles of the time period. "Chevy Van" inspired the 1977 low budget teen film "The Van" in which Danny DeVitto was one of the stars and prominently featured Johns' epic tune.

Sammy's second biggest single "Rag Doll" was written by popular songwriter Steve Eaton. The melancholy song with its open feel and memorable harmony received a fair amount of airplay on some radio stations across the US but failed to reach the heights of "Chevy Van." Despite the song is one of Johns' best recordings and is well remembered by his fans. Songwriter Steve Eaton's songs have been recorded by many top rate artists such as Anne Murray's "Out On The Road," Lee Greenwood's "I'll Still Be Loving You" and probably his best known song "All You Get From Love Is A Love Song" by the Carpenters. "Rag Doll" was first recorded by Sammy Johns but has since been recorded by Art Garfunkel and Glen Campbell.

Link to “Sammy Johns” (Click Here)

SAMMY JOHNS

Joni Mitchell - Blue (1971)

“Blue” by Joni Mitchell (1971)

Release Date: June 22, 1971
Produced by Joni Mitchell
Genre: Folk
Label: Reprise
Chart Positions: #15 (US), #9 (Canada), #3 (UK), #24 (Norway)
Certifications: Platinum (US), 2xPlatinum (UK)

Singles: “Carey” #27 (Canada), #93 (US), “California” (No chart data)
Best Tracks: ALL TRACKS. Again Joni gives us a solid collection of music.

“Blue” was Joni’s fourth studio album and her first to reach the Top Ten in her native homeland Canada.  “Blue” is regarded, by music critics, to be one of the greatest albums of all-time.

“Blue” by Joni Mitchell (Click Here)

The pivotal experience in Mitchell's life that drove the emergence of the album was her relationship with James Taylor. She had broken up with Graham Nash and begun an intense relationship with Taylor by the summer of 1971, visiting him on the set of the movie Two-Lane Blacktop, the aura of which is referred to in "This Flight Tonight". The songs "Blue" and "All I Want" have specific references to her relationship with Taylor, such as a sweater that she knitted for him at the time, and his heroin addiction. Despite his difficulties, Mitchell evidently felt that she had found the person with whom she could pair-bond in Taylor, and was devastated when he broke off the relationship. She retreated to the studio to record Blue.

In 1979 Mitchell reflected, "The Blue album, there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there either."

Mitchell continued to use alternate tunings on her guitar to allow easier access to augmented chords and notes in unexpected combinations. Due to the stark and bare revelations in the album, when it was first played for Kris Kristofferson he is reported to have commented, "Joni! Keep something of yourself!

Two singles were released from the album “Carey” was Joni’s follow-up single to her classic hit “Big Yellow.” In Canada the song fared well reaching #27 on their singles chart. Mitchell has stated that the "Carey" in question was a memorable character named Cary Raditz (or "Carrot" Raditz), a cane-carrying chef with bright red hair that she met in Matala during her European odyssey of 1970. At times it was rumored the song was about James Taylor. The second single “California” was recorded while Joni was living in France but longing for the creative climate she had experienced in California. In the song she expresses the depth of her longing for California by singing that if she was back in California she would even be willing to kiss a policeman, despite considering herself a member of the counterculture.

Little Green

“Little Green,” an album highlight was written by Joni about the daughter she had given up for adoption in 1965, when she was a poor folk singer in Toronto. The existence of her daughter, originally called Kelly Dale, was not publicly known until 1993, when a roommate from Mitchell's art-school days in the 1960s sold the story of the adoption to a tabloid magazine. Mitchell commented on the situation in an interview quoted in a 1998 article: "I was dirt poor. An unhappy mother does not raise a happy child. It was difficult parting with the child, but I had to let her go." Mitchell was reunited with her daughter, Kilauren Gibb, in 1997.

In his review for Rolling Stone Magazine, Timothy Crouse wrote regarding the song "All I Want," The accompaniment - James Taylor and Joni strumming a nervous, Latin-flavored guitar part over a bass heartbeat that throbs throughout the song - perfectly expresses Joni's excitement and anticipation."

The title track, "Blue," was supposedly penned for James Taylor. Blue is a nickname she gave Taylor during that time period.

James Taylor and Joni Mitchell (1971)

Link to “Blue” (Click Here)

JONI MITCHELL

Judy Collins - True Stories and Other Dreams (1973)

“True Stories and Other Dreams” by Judy Collins (1973)

Release Date: January 1973
Produced by Mark Abramson and Judy Collins
Chart Positions: #27 (US)
Certifications: N/A
Singles: “Cook With Honey” (US #32), “Secret Gardens” (US #122)

“True Stories and Other Dreams” was Judy Collins’ ninth studio album. For the first half-dozen albums of her career, Judy Collins sang only traditional folk tunes and material by other songwriters. Even when she began to write songs in the late 1960s, her compositions were outnumbered by tunes from other sources on the records she issued during the next five years or so. The 1973 LP True Stories and Other Dreams, however, marked the first album on which her own songs comprised the majority of the material. As usual, though, the record also featured astutely selected tunes from a variety of other contemporary singer-songwriters, some of who had also been recording since the early days of the folk revival, and some of who were newcomers to the music scene.

“True Stories and Other Dreams” by Judy Collins (Click Here)

True Stories and Other Dreams also marked the first occasion on which she received a producer's credit, shared with Mark Abramson, who'd produced her recordings since the mid-1960s. As Judy elaborates, however, throughout their association, "we produced together, truly. I would never have denied him his production credit. But it was also my choices, my thinking, my determination, and then Mark backing me up, helping me get what I wanted to get done. And we knew all these wonderful people, of course." On True Stories and Other Dreams, that support cast included her longtime friend Eric Weissberg on acoustic guitar, banjo, and upright bass; Bill Keith, whose pedal steel lent an occasional country flavor; and even Latin jazzman Ray Barretto on congos and bongos.

The songs on the album showcased Judy’s varied musical interests. The single “Cook With Honey” was alight flavored pop song that reached #32 on the US singles chart. The protest song, “The Hostage” brought us back to Judy’s folk roots. “Secret Gardens,” the second single from the album is a beautiful orchestral ballad about her family. The song bubbled under the US singles chart making it to #122. Opening with Judy’s tender keyboard playing, the wistful “Holly Ann” is about Judy’s sister. Of course there are the fantastic story songs like “Fisherman Song,” where Judy excels. Judy recalls, "I took a little time off in 1972 and went out to Long Island just to do some songwriting," remembers Judy today. "At that point, I wrote 'Fishermen Song.' I was on the beach there and these fishermen sing; they bring in the fish, and they would hand me a fresh bluefish or something for me to cook. So 'Fishermen Song' is really about that experience of watching them fish."

"Song For Martin"

“Song For Martin” is a poignant album highlight about Martin Hoffman, a school teacher, who composed the music for a poem written by Woody Guthrie titled “Deportee.” Hoffman and Judy became friends in the 1960s. Collins remembers, "He was the first person I ever heard sing 'This Land Is Your Land,' up at Lookout Mountain in Colorado," says Judy. "He was a wonderful man, just a sweet man." Hoffman committed suicide prior to the recording of “True Stories and Other Dreams.”

The album closes with the dramatic politically charged “Che.” In an entirely different vein, the seven-and-a-half-minute "Ché"–inspired, of course, by the famous revolutionary Ché Guevara – is one of the most ambitious compositions Collins ever put on disc. She'd been thinking about "the people who betrayed him, and how they might feel, because they were probably Catholics, they were probably poor, they were probably peasants in South America," she reflects. "And I thought, I want to see if I can paint that picture of him. Because all these people get told by leaders what they should do, and how they should live, and it must get to be a burden."

Judy Collins (1973)

Link to “True Stories and Other Dreams” (Click Here)

JUDY COLLINS