Rocket from the Tombs - The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs (1975)

"Seventeen" by Rocket from the Tombs


Girly Machine, and many other of Ohio's Columbus punk scene, owe a lot to Cleveland's punk scene of the mid-70s.  A lot of these bands released their debut recordings on the Datapanik label, a label that got its name from a Pere Ubu single.  Of course, the fountainhead of the Cleveland punks was proto-punk band Rocket from the Tombs.  Although Tombs never released a proper album, their 1975 bootleg recordings played an important role in mapping out the development of early punk music (especially outside of the New York scene).  Rocket from the Tombs released a compilation of these recordings in 2002.

Here is the discography surrounding Rocket from the Tombs's debut album:

WMMS Live (1975 radio performance)
Ain't It Fun (1975 single)
The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs (2002 compilation of 1975 recordings)

"Search & Destroy" by Rocket from the Tombs


"30 Seconds Over Tokyo" by Rocket from the Tombs


"Never Gonna Kill Myself Again" by Rocket from the Tombs


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Shoes - One in Versailles (1975)

"One in Versailles" by Shoes


Spooner's early recordings were made with the aid of members from another midwestern power pop band called Shoes.  Brothers John and Jeff Murphy and friend Gary Klebe settled on forming a band after they graduated from high school in Zion, Illinois.  They taught themselves to play their own instruments over the course of a year where John picked up bass and Jeff and Gary both picked up the guitar.  They formed Shoes and immediately set to recording music.  Not yet capable enough to take the traditional route of playing covers on the local bar circuit but still impatient to lay down their own material, they taught themselves how to record and produce their own songs on a simple four-track system in their bedroom.

Shoes's first recording was the acetate 10" Heads or Tails of which only four copies were made in 1974.  They followed it up quickly in 1975 with their first proper-length album One in Versailles which John and Jeff wrote and recorded with temporary drummer Barry Schumaker while Gary was studying abroad in Versailles.  The album is clearly the work of young men working on their craft, but it's clear even so soon after starting to play music that Shoes already have a strong sense of songwriting.  Their debt to The Beatles can't be overstated, but they still break out of the pop mold to experiment with various structures and different sonic styles.  Even amidst the amateur quality of production and craft, they surprise with their musical sincerity.

Here is the discography surrounding Shoes's debut album:

Heads or Tails (1974 EP)
One in Versailles

"Do I Get So Shy" by Shoes


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Natalie Cole - Inseparable (1975)

"Inseparable" by Natalie Cole


Natalie Cole is Nat King Cole's daughter and Freddy's niece.  Although not an instrumentalist like many, many others in her family, she did perform from a young age as a singer (including with her father) though it's not clear if that was her intended career path early in life.  Only after university did she start performing in night clubs.  She usually disappointed her audiences because her name implied the sophisticated jazz of her father when Natalie was more a student of gospel and Janis Joplin rock and roll.

Through these gigs however, she met up with producers Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy who saw promise in her act.  Together, Natalie'd cut demos for potential record labels while Jackson and Yancy lent her their songs to perform.  Her demos were turned down by most labels but one Capitol Records, or "The House that Nat Built".  The trio would polish the demos for Natalie's 1975 debut album Inseparable that featured many gospel and soul inspired ballads tinged with the sound of the times, funk and proto-disco.  Her hit single "This Will Be" shot up the charts to be followed by her album and second single, "Inseparable".  For her instant fame and success, her initial burst of a career was capped with two Grammys: one for "This Will Be" (Best Female R&B Vocal Performance) and one for Best New Artist.

Here is the discography surrounding Natalie Cole's debut album:

This Will Be (1975 single)
Inseperable
Inseperable (1975 single)

"This Will Be" by Natalie Cole


The 1975 Grammy for Best New Artist


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Patti Smith - Horses (1975)

I've listened to three live sets by Patti Smith: two from 1975 and one from 2006. All three times during Patti Smith's meandering story interludes she mentions Television in some manner of awe that falls between reverence and deification. Specifically, Smith has strong friendships with Neon Boys/Television founders Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine formed in the heart of the New York punk scene, the CBGB. Tom collaborated with Patti in songwriting ("Break It Up") and played guitar as a session musician on her debut album.

Inspired to form her own band after attending a Neon Boys/Television concert, Patti Smith started playing at the CBGB with guitarist Lenny Kaye in 1974. She recruited bassist Ivan Kral, drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, and pianist Richard Sohl to round out the Patti Smith Group with Patti leading the quintet with her vocals, guitar, lyrics, and her intellectual approach to rock. They released their first single (funded by curator Sam Wagstaff), a rendition of "Hey Joe" that included a spoken word section about Patty Hearst. The group's growing popularity led to their signing to Arista Records by legendary producer and record executive Clive Davis.

By the end of 1975, the Patti Smith Group released Horses to reasonable chart success and universal critical acclaim. The album highlighted Patti Smith's unique take on rock and roll that meshed feminist, poetic, and jazz influences. Of course, Patti was also an important player in the punk scene, and Horses holds the seed of punk. The album's only single, a unique take on Them's "Gloria", came out in 1976 to not chart. The song featured new, more personal verses by Smith alongside the classic G-L-O-R-I-A chorus. The album's cover by Patti Smith's ex-boyfriend Robert Mapplethorpe has, alongside the album, gone on to become an icon of rock and roll.

Here is the discography surrounding Patti Smith's debut album:

Hey Joe (1974 single)
Horses
Gloria (1976 single)



If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

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