{"id":24544,"date":"2023-02-14T05:30:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T10:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24544"},"modified":"2022-12-14T15:47:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T20:47:11","slug":"take-5-dick-wagner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/14\/take-5-dick-wagner\/","title":{"rendered":"Take 5: Dick Wagner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Guitarist Dick Wagner would have celebrated his 80th birthday on December 14. He is best known as a longtime collaborator of Alice Cooper. Wagner excelled at producing, playing guitar, arranging and songwriting, and was a key component of Cooper\u2019s success; most notably co-writing one of his biggest hits, \u201cOnly Women Bleed\u201d (<i>Billboard<\/i> #12 in 1975). But the Iowa-born musician \u2013 who passed away in 2014 \u2013 has a long list of other impressive credits. Here are five notable tracks featuring Dick Wagner.<\/p>\n<p><b>The Frost \u2013 \u201cJennie Lee\u201d (1969)<\/b> Frost Music Wagner\u2019s first band, The Bossmen recorded six singles between 1964 and \u201867, achieving some local success in Michigan. But his next band, psychedelic foursome the Frost made a bigger impression, earning a reputation as one of Detroit\u2019s best and hardest-rocking bands. Wagner wrote all of the songs on the band\u2019s first LP (1969\u2019s <i>Frost Music<\/i>), but \u201cJennie Lee\u201d is the most well-known track.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N0ABFJ9ShaI\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Ursa Major \u2013 \u201cLiberty and Justice\u201d (1972)<\/b> Wagner\u2019s next group didn\u2019t last long, but recorded one memorable self-titled album. The term \u201cpower ballad\u201d wasn\u2019t in use in 1972, but this tune is an exemplar of that style. Fun fact: an early lineup of Ursa Major featured Billy Joel on keyboards, but he was gone by the time the band entered the studio and does not appear on any of its recordings. The Wagner-penned \u201cLiberty and Justice\u201d was the album\u2019s lone single.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4Qrwi3FTxWs\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><b>Lou Reed \u2013 \u201cIntro\u201d (1974)<\/b> The twin guitar attack of Wagner and Steve Hunter provided a thrilling instrumental introduction to Lou Reed\u2019s concerts in 1973 as featured on the live album <i>Rock N Roll Animal<\/i>. \u201cIntro\u201d remains a highlight of the set even though Reed doesn\u2019t appear on the track; the audience can be heard applauding as he walks on at the song\u2019s end, launching into the Velvet Underground\u2019s \u201cSweet Jane.\u201d Wagner is on your stereo\u2019s right channel; Hunter\u2019s on the left.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KqpWTC-rvhQ\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Aerosmith \u2013 \u201cTrain Kept a Rollin\u2019\u201d (1974)<\/b> Tiny Bradshaw\u2019s jump blues classic had found its way into the repertoires (and discographies) of many artists before Boston-based hard rockers Aerosmith cut their version. The 1951 single was covered by Johnny Burnette and his Rock &amp; Roll Trio in 1956. The Yardbirds cut their version with Jeff Beck on lead guitar in 1965, and re-recorded it the next year \u2013 this time with Jimmy Page on guitar \u2013 for Michelangelo Antonioni\u2019s film <i>Blow-Up<\/i>. Page added the song to the set list his next group, Led Zeppelin. For Aerosmith\u2019s cover, Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter played the guitar parts. Released as a single, it failed to chart, but went on to become an audience favorite.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PWsPwNlclg0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Kiss \u2013 \u201cBeth\u201d (1976)<\/b> By 1976, Kiss was one of the most popular rock bands in the world. Their brand of hard rock found a huge following, most notably with teenage boys. But this atypical tune from the band\u2019s fourth LP <i>Destroyer<\/i> \u2013 featuring vocals by drummer Peter Criss \u2013 earned the cartoonish costumed band a wider following. Originally released as a b-side of \u201cDetroit Rock City,\u201d this song soared to the #7 spot on the <i>Billboard<\/i> singles charts, making it the group\u2019s most popular single ever. Other than Criss, none of the members of Kiss played on the session. And though he\u2019s not credited on the record, Wagner plays acoustic guitar. After Criss was out of the band, new drummer Eric Carr replaced his vocals on the track for a greatest-hits release. This is the original recording.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cWFc1yUy1lM\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guitarist Dick Wagner would have celebrated his 80th birthday on December 14. He is best known as a longtime collaborator of Alice Cooper. Wagner excelled at producing, playing guitar, arranging [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[677],"class_list":["post-24544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-dick-wagner","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24546,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24544\/revisions\/24546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}