It’s time once again for another dive deep into the long-ignored waters of the albums of the 1960s and 1970s to remind you all of the great hidden music to be found there.

Classic rock stations are happy to overexpose you to the same two or three or four songs from a band’s repertoire that you know all too well.  You know the tired old format:  If they play Led Zeppelin, you can be sure it’ll be “Stairway to Heaven,” “Whole Lotta Love,” “Black Dog,” “Immigrant Song,” “Fool in the Rain” or “D’yer Ma’ker” (or, if you’re lucky, “Kashmir”).  But good God, there are another five dozen great Zep tracks just sitting there, waiting to be exhumed!

My job here, as I see it, is to select a dozen or so great “lost gems” from classic albums and entice you to dig them out, look them up, and savor their deliciousness.

I urge you to send me your suggestions of other excellent forgotten tracks I can include in future blog posts about these wonderful old songs.

Rock on, everybody!

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“It’s Up to You,” The Moody Blues, 1970

It’s no secret that guitarist/singer Justin Hayward has always been the songwriting wizard of The Moody Blues, one of the true pioneers of what became known as progressive rock.  Their collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra on 1967’s “Days of Future Passed” (including the eventual worldwide hit “Nights in White Satin”) was an unprecedented merger of disparate musical genres. By 1970, the band had already shown a keen knack for crafting album-length song cycles, and their #3-ranked LP “A Question of Balance” was the best yet, an intelligent, challenging musical lesson in coping with a world ravaged by war and environmental indifference.  Songs like the hit single “Question” and “Dawning is the Day” were Hayward compositions that asked sobering queries about our future, and the clincher, “It’s Up to You,” is the appealing, hopeful apex, urging us all to get involved and help save the planet from extinction.

“Georgia,” Boz Scaggs, 1976

Born in Ohio, raised in Texas, Scaggs met up with Steve Miller as a teenager, and they eventually collaborated in San Francisco on The Steve Miller Band’s first two albums, “Children of the World” and “Sailor.”  Boz went out on his own in ’69 with a self-titled debut that included the legendary 10-minute “Loan Me a Dime,” anchored by a smokin’ lead guitar performance by the late great Duane Allman.  Always rooted in R&B, Scaggs’ solo albums leaned toward blue-eyed soul, culminating in 1976 in the trendsetting #2 LP “Silk Degrees,” with four hit singles, most notably “Lowdown” and “Lido Shuffle.”  The LP also included Scaggs’ fine ballad “We’re All Alone,” made famous by Rita Coolidge.  The hidden gem on this album could be the sensual “Harbor Lights,” which is music to undress to, but I prefer the joyous, upbeat “Georgia,” which, by the way, is a tribute to a woman, not the state.

“Chain Lightning,” Steely Dan, 1975

You can make a convincing case that Steely Dan’s seven albums during its 1972-1980 period represented the most consistently excellent music of the Seventies.  By far the most underrated of the those LPs, in my opinion, is 1975’s “Katy Lied.”  The band’s songwriting masterminds, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, have forlornly disparaged the album because of a studio mishap that allegedly damaged the master tapes and rendered it “unlistenable” (to their audiophile ears), but frankly, I can’t figure out what they’re talking about.  To me, it sounds incredible, full of killer pop/jazz hooks, stunning vocals, standout instrumental passages (dig the Phil Woods sax solo on “Doctor Wu”) and some of the best dark-humor lyrics in the entire Dan catalog.  Almost any track would be a worthy candidate for this “lost gems” list, but I’m going with the sublime, blues-based “Chain Lightning.”

“On the Border,” Al Stewart, 1976

The singer-songwriter era — popularized by James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, Carole King and others — had peaked by 1976.  Still, there were promising acoustic-based artists in the US and England who continued to press forward, and Glasgow-born Al Stewart was one of them.  He had released four albums in Britain between 1967 and 1972, without much success, and two more LPs (1973’s “Past, Present and Future” and 1975’s “Modern Times”) saw modest exposure on US radio playlists.  And then came his seventh and best LP, “Year of the Cat,” in 1976.  Some found his distinctly nasal voice off-putting, but there was no denying his finely structured story-songs, beautifully performed and produced on this album, with nary a weak moment.  The title track fought through the relentless onslaught of disco music at the time to reach #8 on the Billboard charts, but the track that has always blown me away is “On the Border,” featuring the fine Spanish guitar work of Peter White.

“The Only Living Boy in New York,” Simon and Garfunkel, 1970

At the time of the January 1970 release of the award-winning “Bridge Over Troubled Water” LP, the primary buzz was all about the shimmering title anthem, and the interesting choices for follow-up singles, “El Condor Pasa” and “Cecilia.”  We’d already heard and embraced another album track, “The Boxer,” as a landmark single nearly a year earlier.  But there were three or four other outstanding songs on the album that got no airplay whatsoever, and the best of those, “The Only Living Boy in New York,” ranks among my top four or five Paul Simon compositions of all time.  It tells the story of Tom (a veiled reference to Art Garfunkel’s late ’50s persona, when the duo was known as Tom and Jerry) heading to Mexico to act in a movie (“Catch-22”), leaving his partner behind in New York to work alone on their next album.  It aggravated their tenuous relationship to the point where Simon chose to end it and go solo a year later.  But what a gorgeous final statement, only recently resurrected during the duo’s 2004 “Old Friends” reunion tour.

“Woman of Heart and Mind,” Joni Mitchell, 1972

Nobody can write an autobiographical confession song like Miss Mitchell, whose first six or seven albums (1968-1974) are a virtual diary of her love life and childhood reveries.  Usually with only spare guitar or piano accompaniment, Joni offered up searing portraits of herself and her various relationships on memorable songs like “Blonde in the Bleachers,” “I Had a King,” “My Old Man,” “See You Sometime,” “Little Green,” “A Case of You” and “Car on a Hill.”  It’s difficult to pick which one of her many poignant deep album tracks to bring out into the light here, but I’ve settled on the incredible “Woman of Heart and Mind” from her 1972 “For the Roses” LP.  Joni cuts to the bone by sizing herself up this way:  “You think I’m like your mother, or another lover, or a sister, or the queen of your dreams, or just another silly girl…”  It’s a devastatingly personal piece of work, and beautiful in its simplicity.

“Samba Pa Ti,” Santana, 1970

Mention the Santana LP “Abraxas” and everyone automatically thinks of the #1 hit “Black Magic Woman” (actually written and first recorded by Peter Green’s original version of Fleetwood Mac in 1968), or maybe the Latino-flavored “Oye Como Va.”  Carlos Santana had assembled a delicious brew of African-American, Caucasian and Latino musicians in San Francisco that enjoyed an explosive national debut at Woodstock in 1969, and “Abraxas” was a marvelous smorgasbord of their best work.  Often overlooked, though, was the band’s mellower side on smoldering instrumental tracks like “Samba Pa Ti,” where Carlos’s expressive guitar led the way through a sensual first part into a more upbeat second half that leaves listeners emotionally drained.

“Winter,” The Rolling Stones, 1973

Following the brilliant four-LP dominance of “Beggars Banquet,” “Let It Bleed,” “Sticky Fingers” and “Exile on Main Street,” the Stones found themselves pretty much out of songs, out of vibes and out of gas.  For their mostly disappointing 1973 LP “Goat’s Head Soup,” Jagger and Richards conjured up the acoustic gem “Angie” (which became yet another #1 single for them), and the horn-driven stomper “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker),” but the rest of the album seemed flat and uninspired.  The obvious exception was “Winter,” a compellingly melancholy collaboration between Jagger and second guitarist Mick Taylor, who ended up leaving the band a year later (replaced by Ronnie Wood).  Taylor’s layered-chord approach offered a striking contrast to the choppy riffs of Richards, who didn’t appear on the track at all.

“Within You Without You,” The Beatles, 1967

I remember, at age 13, pointedly skipping this strange, otherworldly song whenever I lowered the needle onto Side Two of the “Sgt. Pepper” LP, but years later, I developed a deep respect for George Harrison’s thoughtful, sitar-driven piece and its spiritually cosmic lyrics.  The colorful phantasm of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” wistful storytelling of “She’s Leaving Home,” communal warmth of “With a Little Help From My Friends” and unparalleled brilliance of “A Day in the Life” all combine to give the “Sgt. Pepper” album its legendary status as one of the best in rock history.  But take the time to consider Harrison’s boundary-stretching musical arrangement, and his all-knowing words derived from Eastern philosophy:  “Try to realize it’s all within yourself, no one else can make you change, and to see you’re really only very small, and life flows on within you and without you…” Many critics labeled the song as “the conscience of the album” and “its ethical soul,” and I’m inclined to agree.

“Kitty’s Back,” Bruce Springsteen, 1973

It’s hard to imagine the rock landscape without the dominance of Bruce Springsteen’s presence, but in 1973-1974, he and The E Street Band were still struggling mightily for exposure, recognition and stardom.  The Boss’s first LP had stalled at #60 on Billboard’s album charts.  His second LP, the magnificent “The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle,” was also largely ignored at the time, despite amazing, epic songs like “Rosalita,” “Asbury Park, Fourth of July (Sandy)” and “Incident on 57th Street.”  In the years since, “Rosalita” has been properly acknowledged as a titanic track full of Bruce’s early exuberance, but we mustn’t overlook the wonder that is “Kitty’s Back,” a seven-minute cauldron of simmering emotion and over-the-top joy, carried by a relentless beat and tight ensemble playing, led by Clarence Clemon’s monstrous sax riffs.

“Fire,” Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1967

What a firestorm Jimi Hendrix was!  The Seattle-born guitarist moved to London in 1966, formed his legendary trio, and recorded one of the most incendiary debuts of all time, “Are You Experienced?”  By mid-summer, the rock music world knew all about this virtuoso, thanks to a show-stopping appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival and the amazing music from that first LP.  The singles “Hey Joe,” “Purple Haze” and “The Wind Cries Mary” had all reached Top Five in the UK, but the fickle US singles market failed to embrace any of them. However, the rock music scene was changing that year, and fans began preferring albums over singles, and they sent “Are You Experienced?” to #5 on US album charts, the first of four consecutive Top Five LPs here before he died prematurely in 1970.  One of the most astonishing tracks, rarely heard on the radio, is the compact 2:34-length song “Fire,” which features The Experience’s guitar/bass/drums mix at its best, particularly the work of drummer Mitch Mitchell.

“When the Levee Breaks,” Led Zeppelin, 1971

By 1971, Led Zep had become the undisputed kings of hard rock, both on record and in concert, and they were eager for their fourth LP to blow everyone’s minds.  With “Stairway to Heaven” leading the way, the album — released without an official title, but known as “Zoso,” “Led Zeppelin IV” or even “Untitled” — is still regarded as their masterpiece.  The complicated syncopation of “Black Dog,” the rollicking onslaught of “Rock and Roll,” the band’s quieter acoustic side beautifully represented by the mandolin-heavy “The Battle of Evermore” and the Page/Plant tribute to Joni Mitchell, “Going to California” — it all came together majestically.  But for many true fans, the earthshaking moment on the LP is the seismic closer, “When the Levee Breaks,” a song which actually dates back to the 1930s and legendary blues woman Lizzie “Memphis Minnie” Douglas.  John Bonham’s drums alone — recorded in a cavernous stone atrium/stairwell in an English countryside castle — are unlike anything you’ve ever heard before or since.

More “lost gems” to come!  There are SO MANY waiting to be rediscovered!

I admit it. I’m obsessed with the music of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

In addition to the successful songs on the albums from those three decades, there were also many hundreds, even thousands, of deep tracks buried there, just waiting to be unearthed and discovered (or re-discovered) today in 2024. I call them “lost classics,” although some are probably too obscure to qualify as classic. They’re just GREAT SONGS I firmly believe are worthy of your attention.

I’ve posted nearly 500 of these gems, a dozen at a time, in more than 40 different blog entries since I first started “Hack’s Back Pages” in 2015. This current batch (#42 if you’re counting) is comprised of infectious uptempo tunes that just might have you boppin’ around your living room before the day is through. That’s the goal, anyway…

Oh yes: I have a heads-up to all my readers. I keep a list of songs I come across that are potential candidates to make one of my “lost classics” playlists…but I’m always looking for suggestions. If you’ve got a favorite deep track that’s been forgotten or never discovered by most people, by all means, let me know. I’m eager to hear it and put it on the list of possibilities!

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“Let It Roll,” Little Feat, 1988

One of the most underrated bands of the 1970s despite a fiercely loyal following, Little Feat was led by guitarist/songwriter Lowell George until his death in 1979, after which the group disbanded, but band members Bill Payne, Paul Barrère, Kenny Gradney and Richie Heyward continued to occasionally perform together and separately under different names. In 1988, they joined forces with singer-songwriter Craig Fuller, former founder of Pure Prairie League, and resurrected the Little Feat brand with a superb comeback LP, “Let It Roll.” I saw them tour behind Don Henley that year, turning in a fine performance, and the rollicking title track was a definite standout.

“City to City,” Gerry Rafferty, 1978

Regular readers here will know I am a big Rafferty fan, from his early work with Stealers Wheel (“Stuck in the Middle With You”) to his largely ignored later work. Most impressive in his catalog is his 1978 #1 LP “City to City,” which included his two biggest hits, “Baker Street” and “Right Down the Line,” and a lesser single, “Home and Dry.” The Scot’s husky-smooth voice and memorable melodies have appealed to me ever since, although he had an aversion to performing live, which hurt his commercial momentum. The title song “City to City” sounds like it might be about touring, but the lyrics are instead about riding the rails, as the “goodnight train is gonna carry me home.” The music, too, chugs along like a locomotive.

“High on Emotion,” Chris DeBurgh, 1984

British-Irish singer/songwriter DeBurgh started out in the ’70s in the art-rock genre but moved to a more commercial pop style in the ’80s, finally making inroads on both the UK and US charts in the process. The ambitious “Don’t Pay the Ferryman” crashed the Top 40 here in 1982, and by 1986, he scored a #3 hit in the US with “The Lady in Red,” which went on to be an international #1 and used in multiple film soundtracks. In between those two commercial successes, he released the appealing “Man on the Line” LP in 1984, which included great tracks like “Moonlight and Vodka” and “Much More Than This.” He just missed the Top 40 with the album’s catchy single, “High on Emotion.”

“Outskirts,” Bob Welch, 1977

Welch had been lead guitarist and singer/songwriter for Fleetwood Mac in the 1971-1974 period, keeping the band afloat between the Peter Green years and the Buckingham/Nicks multiplatinum years. Welch left to form the hard rock power trio Paris, who produced two middling albums before disbanding in 1976. The songs Welch was writing for a third Paris LP instead became his solo debut, “French Kiss,” which reached an impressive #12 on US album charts in 1977, thanks to three hit singles (“Ebony Eyes,” “Hot Love, Cold World” and a remake of his Fleetwood Mac song “Sentimental Lady”). There are other tracks here that you should know more about, including “Outskirts.”

“SWLABR,” Cream, 1967

Most of the original songs on Cream’s albums were written by bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, with lyrics by performance poet Pete Brown, who was known for his cryptic, drug-fueled images and wordplay. “Sunshine Of Your Love,” “White Room” and “Politician” offer intriguing examples of their work, but one of the more unusual Bruce/Brown collaborations was entitled “SWLABR,” a track from their “Disraeli Gears” LP in 1967. The title is an acronym for “She Was Like A Bearded Rainbow,” and Brown said the song is about a scorned ex-girlfriend who was so jealous of his new lover that she defaced photos of her by adding a beard and moustache to them.

“Cynical Girl,” Marshall Crenshaw, 1982

With roots in classic soul and Buddy Holly rockabilly, Crenshaw emerged from Detroit in the late ’70s when he was selected to portray John Lennon in the musical “Beatlemania” on Broadway and then in a national touring company. When he made his solo debut with the “Marshall Crenshaw” album in 1982, he earned radio exposure with the irresistibly catchy “Someday, Someway.” His songs combined new wave with jangly pop that, to my ears, should’ve brought him far more commercial success than he ended up getting. “Cynical Girl,” another earworm from the first LP, inexplicably failed to make the charts as its second single. He had five albums in the ’80s that are all worth exploring.

“Everything’s Coming Our Way,” Santana, 1971

The hot new sensation of the lineup at Woodstock in 1969, Santana went on to chart at #4 for their debut LP, followed by “Abraxas” (1970), which topped the charts. For their “Santana III” album, which also peaked at #1, they continued their string of Top 40 hits as well, following “Black Magic Woman” and “One Como Va” with “Everybody’s Everything” and “No One To Depend On.” Buried near the end of Side Two was “Everything’s Coming Our Way,” one of very few Santana tracks credited to guitarist/leader Carlos Santana, and it’s a favorite of mine. The group would then shift gears in 1972 with personnel changes and a new jazz-fusion direction for a few years.

“Right Now,” Stephen Stills & Manassas, 1972

Nicknamed “Captain Manyhands” for his multiple talents as a songwriter, producer, instrumentalist and singer, Stills earned his reputation as a studio control freak during the recording of the 1972 double album by his band Manassas. The 20 songs, all written or co-written by Stills, showcased the superb musicianship of the players (Chris Hillman, Al Perkins, Joe Lala, Paul Harris, Dallas Taylor and Fuzzy Samuels) as they finessed their way through rock, country, bluegrass, Latino and blues styles. A highlight is the rock groove found on “Right Now,” with lyrics that examine his difficult relationship with Rita Coolidge, who’d been swept away by ex-bandmate Graham Nash.

“Pretty On the Inside,” Swimming Pool Qs, 1986

From the same Athens, Georgia scene that brought us The B-52s and R.E.M. came this lesser-known band, categorized as “new wave/jangle pop.” Led by the songwriting team of multi-instrumentalist Jeff Calder and guitarist Bob Elsey and the singing of Anne Richmond Boston, The Swimming Pool Qs scored a modest hit with “Rat Bait” in 1979, which earned them slots warming up tours for Devo and The Police. They struggled on for the next decade with personnel changes and new record labels, never really making much of a dent in the charts, but in 1986, I was exposed to their “Blue Tomorrow” album, which included the compelling tune “Pretty On the Inside.”

“Waning Moon,” Peter Himmelman, 1987

Minnesota-born Himmelman is a guitarist-singer-songwriter best known for his work creating scores for such TV shows as “Bones,” “Judging Amy” and “Men in Trees” and movies like “Pyrates,” “Ash Tuesday” and “A Slipped-Down Life” in the 1990s and 2000s. He also created a well-regarded series of children’s albums designed to help kids suffering medical stress. Prior to that, he was in the indie band Sussman Lawrence in the 1980s and had a modestly successful solo career, gaining radio exposure for rock songs like “The Woman With the Strength of 10,000 Men” and especially “Waning Moon” from his 1987 LP “Gematria.” I learned about Himmelman when he warmed up for Dave Mason at a show that year.

“Sneakin’ Sally Thru the Alley,” Robert Palmer, 1974

Widely known for 1980s hits like “Addicted to Love,” “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” and “Simply Irresistible,” stylish British singer Palmer got his start in 1974 with his underrated debut LP “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley,” which established his penchant for combining genres like soul, funk, rock, reggae and blues. Much of the album was recorded in New Orleans with R&B funk band The Meters, who were leery at first of Palmer’s British roots until he started singing. Legendary New Orleans musician/producer Allen Toussaint wrote the infectious title track, which features an indelible bass line by George Porter Jr. and keyboards by Art Neville.

“Call Me, Tell Me,” Pure Prairie League, 1972

This popular country rock band was founded in 1970 in Ohio, with singer-songwriter-guitarists Craig Fuller and George Ed Powell leading the charge. Personnel changes between their first and second albums in 1972 hurt what little momentum they had, but Fuller’s iconic tune “Amie” picked up steam on college radio and finally became a hit in the spring of 1975. Meanwhile, the album it came from, “Bustin’ Out,” was one of the great unsung country rock albums of the ’70s, with songs like “Early Morning Riser,” “Falling In and Out of Love” and “Boulder Skies.” I’m partial to the album closer, “Call Me, Tell Me,” which features a spirited strings arrangement by (of all people) David Bowie’s then-guitarist, Mick Ronson.

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