Two-Lane Blacktop is about two drifters with a ’55 Chevy race car who eventually get into a cross-country race with another driver. Taylor was cast as a character known only as the Driver. Four days before principal photography began, Hellman still didn’t have Taylor’s co-star cast. He eventually settled on Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, figuring Wilson’s real-life experience with cars would translate into his on-screen role as the Mechanic. Completing the cast were 16-year-old Laurie Bird as the Young Girl, and Hollywood veteran Warren Oates as GTO, the driver of the other car in the race.

Two-Lane Blacktop was shot on location across the country, and it shows an America that no longer exists, one of small-town diners, full-service filling stations, and hitchhiking as reliable transportation.

“ You can't stay with the same high forever, right?
” Warren Oates as GTO Like many youth films of the ’70s, there’s not really much of a story to it. The atmosphere of lonely alienation is the point of the film — the Driver and the Mechanic are silent as much as they speak, and while each of them seems to have an interest in the Young Girl, neither one does much to communicate it to her. (GTO is a livelier character, spinning a variety of tales about who he is and where he’s going, depending on who he’s talking to.)

Read much more about the movie here and see some terrific stills from the production, too.

Here’s the trailer.

Experience more Rock Flashbacks.

Two shows were presented at Madison Square Garden in New York on August 1. Forty years ago this week, the soundtrack album from the concerts was released.

Like Harrison’s All Things Must Pass a year before, The Concert for Bangla Desh covered three vinyl albums. Top tracks from the album include full-band versions of “My Sweet Lord” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” along with “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry,” sung by Dylan and backed by Harrison, Starr, and Russell.

The Concert for Bangla Desh reached  #1 in the UK and #2 in the States. In March 1973, it won Album of the Year at the Grammys, beating out an impressive list of nominees, including Nilsson Schmilsson, American Pie, the Broadway cast soundtrack of Jesus Christ Superstar, and Neil Diamond‘s Moods. The album and the concert film raised millions of dollars for UNICEF, although the money was tied up in tax litigation for years. If you buy a copy today, the proceeds still go to UNICEF.

Here’s the trailer for the 2005 DVD release of the concert film, which came out originally in 1972.

Experience more Rock Flashbacks.

After a late night listening session that included a few too may drinks, Harry Nilsson woke the next morning trying to remember a tune he wanted to include on his Nilsson Schmilsson album.

“After sobering up the next day, I said, ‘What was that Lennon tune we were listening to last night?”‘” Nilsson said to Dick Clark in a radio interview. “We went through a bunch of (Beatles) albums and couldn’t find it. Finally I said, ‘No! It wasn’t the Beatles, it was another group. It was Grapefruit or something.”

Nilsson finally did divine that it was Badfinger writers Bill Ham and Pete Evans who had written “Without You.” Under the auspices of producer Richard Perry, Nilsson recorded “Without You” and released it in early 1972.

By February 19, the song had kicked Al Green from the top spot and garnered Nilsson his only #1 hit, a spot he occupied for four weeks.

Lyrics

No, I can't forget this evening
Or your face as you were leaving
But I guess that's just the way the story goes
You always smile but in your eyes
Your sorrow shows, yes, it shows

Get the rest on MetroLyrics »

 

 

Check out more songs that were “#1 with a Bullet.

Today Last.fm Trends sees how the legendary songwriter’s tracks have been scrobbled of late.

The graph above for the past year shows a festive peak likely down to “Wonderful Christmastime,” with weekly listeners returning to around 12,000 outside the holidays. Interestingly, Christmas hasn’t provided quite the boost to his popularity this year that it has previously, but it’s not clear whether this means new material would be preferred, or if listeners are simply looking elsewhere.

Scrobbles for “My Valentine” can’t be counted yet, but the shoutbox indicates a positive fan reaction so far. February will reveal the whole love story, and show how McCartney’s first solo rock album in five years will fare.

Learn more about Paul McCartney at his Last.fm page. Meanwhile, Last.fm Trends brings you the news in scrobbles every weekday.

While the song doesn’t mention Iran or any other Islamic nation, specifically, it tells the story of a Middle Eastern nation where rock music is banned, then goes into a fantastic account of how the people defy the order and rise up to dance in the streets. The military is sent out to stop them, but instead join in the revolt, fighter pilots playing rock music in their cockpit radios.

It is one of the very few songs in rock’s discography to deal (however tangentially) with Middle Eastern affairs and the rising tide of faith-justified totalitarianism in the region in a light-hearted manner. Even so, the fact that a punk band was dealing with any ideology other than anarchism was unusual. Still, the Clash were more political than most punks, and became known as ‘the Thinking Man’s Yobs.’

“Rock the Casbah” appeared on the album Combat Rock, and became the band’s only Top-10 hit, reaching #8 on the U.S. charts. According to the liner notes, the song had its genesis when manager Bernie Rhodes heard the Clash record an excessively-long album track and complained ‘Does everything have to be as long as this raga?’ (referring to the Indian music style known for long, complex songs). Joe Strummer wrote the opening lines of the song “The King told the boogie-men ‘you have to let that raga drop’” and the rest came soon after.

The video below for “Rock the Casbah” is typical of the Clash’s low-budget efforts, but for all that, it comes off pretty well. Filmed in Austin, TX, it features local actors playing an Arab and Jew rocking through the streets (as well as being followed by an armadillo). The U.S. Air Force became an unwitting participant when two jets landing at a nearby air base were caught on film and used to accompany the line ‘the king called out his jet fighters.’

After the first vid, check out a version of the song as it was performed live, which sounds substantially different from the studio version (even allowing for the relatively low quality of the tape).

Add your thoughts to the comments below or take a look at Video Classics past…

In the Christmas Spirit was released in October 1966. The album is a showcase for keyboard player Booker T. Jones, whose playing ranged from warm and sweet to funky and insistent, and for guitarist Steve Cropper, who continued his twin habits of never playing a lick more than necessary and always putting them in precisely the right spot. Don’t sleep on the work of Donald “Duck” Dunn, either, whose bass anchors the groove when the band is groovin’ and snuggles up tight on the slower numbers. Drummer Al Jackson spends a great deal of time working brushes and percussion instruments other than drums (and shaking the sleigh bells), but he, too, is always in the pocket.

In the Christmas Spirit runs only about 34 minutes, but no other album I can think of lends itself so well to the “repeat” function. It sets a holiday mood like nothing else does.

Here’s the album’s lead single, “Jingle Bells,” in which all four members of the band get their turn in the spotlight, and one subtle change in the tune makes it extremely funky.

Experience more Rock Flashbacks.

Bowie’s previous album, The Man Who Sold the World, was a hard-edged record full of songs with futuristic lyrics. Hunky Dory was more pop-oriented and melodic. Despite being only a mid-range chart hit, “Changes” would earn a place on radio playlists that it has yet to surrender. “Andy Warhol” and “Oh! You Pretty Things” were early Bowie classics; “Life on Mars” would earn a second life nearly 40 years later as the theme to a British TV series and its American version.

Hunky Dory didn’t become a major hit in the UK until 1973, following the release of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. It made #93 on the American charts, also boosted by Ziggy. Since its release, Hunky Dory has collected plenty of accolades, including a ranking among Rolling Stone magazine’s top 500 of all time, and Time magazine’s top 100.

Here’s a British TV performance of “Oh! You Pretty Things” recorded in 1972.

Experience more Rock Flashbacks.

The Electric Light Orchestra formed out of the dissolution of the Move, a band far more successful in the UK than in the States. They intended to fuse rock music with classical instruments. But ELO’s debut album features two different visions of the rock/classical fusion: that of Jeff Lynne, which owed more to rock, and that of Roy Wood, who bent in a more classical direction. Wood left the band after the first album, leaving Lynne to drive the band squarely in the direction of the Beatles‘ melodic innovations with great success throughout the 1970s.

But what about that hilarious misunderstanding? The first Electric Light Orchestra album was self-titled in its British release. When the album was being prepared for American release, somebody from United Artists records called ELO’s manager to verify the title. The manager didn’t pick up on the other end, however, so the person placing the call jotted the words “no answer” on the slip of paper with the manager’s number. Due to a complete bureaucratic failure at United Artists, the first ELO album ended up being titled No Answer in its American release.

The words “no answer” don’t appear anywhere on the album package. Nevertheless, it’s a good thing the secretary didn’t write, “Couldn’t Get Through, Will Try Again Later.”

Here’s a vintage video for the album’s big British single, “10538 Overture.” The band’s stated intention to pick up where “I Am the Walrus” left off was never clearer than it is here.

Experience more Rock Flashbacks.

From December 2011 through January 2nd, 2012, bands can go to http://CBS.com/band  to upload a video, which can be voted on by music fans from around the world.

Submissions will be initially divided into the following regions: Pacific, Mountain, Midwest, Middle Atlantic, New England, South Atlantic and South.  The voting will begin on Jan. 3, 2012 and close Jan. 16, 2012.

From the uploaded bands, a finalist will be picked from each region for the second round of voting, which will start Jan. 17, 2012 and close Jan. 23, 2012.  A final winner will be chosen on Jan. 24, 2012.

For more details on how to enter and nominate a band, watch the video below!

Think you have what it takes to win? See Official Rules for details at cbs.com.

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Tune In To GRAMMY Radio

Don’t forget to watch the 54th GRAMMYs Feb. 12th, 2012 9/8c only on CBS

10. The Sundown Playboys

Formed by Lionel Cormier in 1945, Apple released the single, “Saturday Night Special,” on Apple 1852 in November 1972.

9. The Modern Jazz Quartet

Two albums by the legendary MJQ came out on Apple in 1969: Under the Jasmine Tree and Space.

8. The Black Dyke Mills Band

Before they worked with Peter Gabriel, they released a single of the Beatles’ “Thingumybob” (backed with “Yellow Submarine”) in 1968.

7. Mary Hopkin

One of Apple’s more prodigious artists, Hopkin released 13 singles on the label, including her best known, “Those Were the Days.”