COMMANDER CODY AND HIS LOST PLANET AIRMEN - "Lost In The Ozone" (1971)

 

"Lost In The Ozone" by Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen just might be one of the best Country Rock albums of 1971, or at least if it's not the best, it's a damn good one.

There were quite a few bands performing in the alt-country genre that year like The New Riders Of The Purple Sage, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Byrds and Poco, but Commander Cody really did the best job of getting real Western Swing into the act, or at least that's my humble opinion!

Judge for yourself! 

COMMANDER CODY AND HIS LOST PLANET AIRMEN - "Lost In The Ozone" 

JOE HENDERSON - "Page One" (1963)

 

"Page One" was the first album the brilliant saxophonist Joe Henderson ever recorded.

It came out in 1963 and along with Joe, it featured Kenny Dorham on Trumpet, and the freakin' amazing pianist McCoy Tyner, who only got a credit as "/Etc." on the cover. Wow! 

This album is pretty mellow by Joe Henderson standards, because a lot of the time, musically, Joe liked to color outside the lines.

This is the thing about jazz, if you don't like jazz, then you will probably not like this cut, but if you do like jazz, then you'll love it!

That's just the way jazz works! 

JOE HENDERSON - "Recorda Me" 

SOUL COUGHING - "Ruby Vroom" (1994)

 

Soul Coughing was from New York, started out in 1992, and disbanded in 2000, but reunited in 2024 to go on tour.

This is a unique band that did it their way, but I'm not sure the world was ever completely ready, but I've always enjoyed their quirky poetic style.

This album called "Ruby Vroom" was released in 1994, and here's just a small sample of their genius. 

SOUL COUGHING - "Down To This" 

PATRICK D. MARTIN - Computer Datin' (1981)

 

This self-titled EP by Patrick D. Martin came out in 1981, and is in the genre of Electronic, Minimal, New Wave, Synth-pop, and it lives up to all of that.

I was going to play a cool instrumental called "?" but I can't find it on Youtube, and I'm too lazy to do it myself, so this will work just fine. 

This is Quirky & Fun music!

PATRICK D. MARTIN - Computer Datin'

THE RED TYGER CHURCH - "Free Energy" (2004)

 

The Red Tyger Church was from Sacramento, California, and they came out with this release called "Free Energy" in 2004.

The name Angie has been used in at least four other songs since 1969 by Badfinger, Stevie Wonder, Helen Reddy, and of course, The Rolling Stones.

This song is ten or twenty times better than The Rolling Stones' "Angie." 

THE RED TYGER CHURCH - "Angie Vampyre"

GEOGRAPHY, SEX, AND ROCK 'N' ROLL (Michael Franks, "Popsicle Toes," 1976)

 

Rich here. I had never heard of Michael Franks until I heard my brother Mark's band play "Eggplant," a jazzy, sexy, slinky song written by Franks that talked about all the ways the singer's baby cooked her, ummm, "eggplant," and his declaration that sometimes he "just has it raw with mayonnaise." 

 

"Eggplant" was the sexiest song I'd ever heard. Yet, for as much as the entire song was steeped in sexual allusions, it never once mentioned sex or making love. 

 

And as I discovered when I rushed out and bought THE ART OF TEA, the silky, jazzy album featuring "Eggplant," Michael Franks was certainly no stranger to double entendre. Many of his seductive songs are slyly blanketed with analogies and euphemisms for having sex. In fact, you may remember "Popsicle Toes," his most well-known song from the mid-'70s that included sexy lines that never mention sex. But I don't think he's singing about geography, do you?

 

You got the nicest North America

This sailor ever saw

I'd like to touch your warm Brazil

And feel your Panama

 

With all those warm-climate allusions, are you feeling hot, yet?

MICHAEL FRANKS - "Popsicle Toes" 

WARUM JOE - "Sex Beat" (1986)

 

Warum Joe were from Paris, France and started out in 1979 as Rock'n'Verole. Here's a song that was only released as one of the songs on this 1986 various artists compilation album on the French New Rose label titled "Play New Rose For Me 100".

 

They had several more albums after that but it wasn't until 2025 that this single was on an album of their own, called "Horas Extraordinarias" on Smap Records

WARUM JOE - "Sex Beat"