Music Break

It's been so long since I've posted one of these that I'm not sure that there have been any during the current year.  So let me get busy.  First up is the opening song from the 1981 movie Heavy Metal, Radar Rider from the band Riggs.  This group was led by guitarist/singer Jerry Riggs, who later was in Pat Travers's band and Bobby Friss's band.  Today, he's a member of 38 Special, who include this song in their set.

In 1970, Creedence Clearwater Revival released the album Pendulum, which includes Pagan Baby.  Like most CCR songs, it was written and sung by guitarist John Fogerty.  This video includes some live footage of the band and a lots of people dancing.

Little Feat released the album Let It Roll in 1988, their first since 1979 and the untimely death of their original singer/guitarist/songwriter Lowell George.  On this comeback album, longtime members Paul Barrère (guitars/vocals), Sam Clayton (percussion/vocals), Kenny Gradney (bass), Richie Hayward (drums/vocals) and Bill Payne (keyboards/vocals) are joined by Pure Prairie League alumnus Craig Fuller (vocals/accordion/guitar) and Fred Tackett (guitar/mandolin/trumpet), who had appeared as a guest musician on some of their earlier records.  Fuller sings lead vocals on most of the album's songs.  This is the title song.

Bachman Turner Overdrive's self-titled 1973 debut album includes Hold Back the Water, sung by bassist Fred Turner.  The band's original lineup consisted of Turner and three Bachman brothers, Robbie (drums), Tim (guitar/vocals) and Randy (lead guitar/vocals).  Randy, who was also a founding member of the Guess Who, plays a "hoe-down" style solo in the middle of the song.

During the early 1960s, a quartet of musicians started a band in Liverpool, England.  Today, their drummer and bassist are still around and making music, but their guitarists are no longer with us.  If you think I'm referring to the Beatles, you're wrong.  This group was the Liverbirds, named after the fictional liver bird, which is the city's symbol.  (Although the "live" in "Liverpool" rhymes with "give", the "live" in "liver bird" and "Liverbirds" rhymes with "hive".)  For most of their run (1963-1968), the band consisted of guitarist/singers Valerie Gell and Pamela Birch, bassist/singer Mary McGlory, and drummer Sylvia Saunders.  This year, McGlory and Saunders recorded a new version of Diddley Daddy, a Bo Diddley song which the band had covered in 1965, with new featured guitarist/singers Molly-Grace Cutler and Lisa Wright.  According to the YouTube page, additional guitar parts were provided by Kerstin Sund.