It’s dark and musty 50 years ago underground but this playlist was worth the dig.
1972 was crazy. That summer paid crooks we’re prowling inside the Watergate. Breaking and entering didn’t bother voters. In the fall the principal perp, president Nixon, got reelected by the greatest republican landslide in history. 49 states to 1.
Underground radio was in full bloom.. People were sick of hearing the same Top 40 songs over and over again. You were lucky if you lived in a market where the DJs played what they wanted, when they wanted and freedom was just another word for choosing to play Led Zeppelin over the Archies.
Great example. The top album of the year was the Stones Exile on Main Street, a two record set, and AM radio would only play Tumbling Dice. But on the underground FM side of the dial, a DJ with freedom might play a whole side of the album while stepping out to the parking lot to smoke a Doobie, brother.
Most of this I haven’t heard in, well, 50 years. I may have been a baby but I was a charter member of the National Progressive Radio Announcers of America.
Odds are you weren’t around at all. You have a hunch that you might have missed some great sounds and you might be right. Fill your tank with 36 cent a gallon gasoline, fill your heart with joy, and let’s drill down into Episode 36, Lost and Found Underground ‘72.
SWEET JANE Mott the Hoople (1972)
DANCING MADLY BACKWARDS Captain Beyond (1972)
SPACE TRUCKIN’ Deep Purple (1972)
THE SLIDER T. Rex (1972)
MARIE ANTOINETTE Curved Air (1972)
LADY OF THE LAKE Jade Warrior (1972)
STARDANCER Thomas Rapp (1972)
FROM THE MORNING Nick Drake (1972)
SANDMAN America (1972)
BARANGRILL Joni Mitchell (1972)
THE PERSECUTION AND RESTORATION OF DEAN MORIARTY Aztec Two-Step (1972)
CHILD OF MINE Fleetwood Mac (1972)
STAY Pink Floyd (1972)
ROCK AND ROLL SUICIDE David Bowie (1972)
SATELLITE OF LOVE Lou Reed (1972)
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