December 1971

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Contemporary bluesman Taj Mahal plays for the men on death row at Wilmington State Penitentiary.
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The Montreaux Casino burns to the ground during a show by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. The incident is immortalized by opening act Deep Purple in their song "Smoke on the Water" from their Made in Japan album, which will become a major U.S. hit (#4) in 1973.
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Sly and the Family Stone's "Family Affair" begins a three-week reign in the Number One spot atop the pop chart. It is their third and last Number One record, and their last to make the Top Ten. They will have two more minor hits in 1972, "Runnin' Away," which will reach #23, and "Smilin'," which will reach #42. "Family Affair," like the album from which it came, There's a Riot Goin' On. There's a Riot Goin' On stood in stark, dark contrast to the optimistic racial-unity themes of the band's earlier work. Fittingly, it was around this time that Sly's behavior would become increasingly erratic, precipitating the imminent departure band's original bassist, Larry Graham, and original drummer, Greg Errico, in 1972. For now, though, "Family Affair" is also Number One on the soul singles chart, and There's a Riot Goin' On is the #2 soul LP and #2 on the Top 100 LPs chart. In two weeks, it will reach Number One on both charts.

Island Records releases Traffic's album The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. The twelve-minute-long title track will become a big favorite of FM radio, and will help make the album one of the group's best sellers.
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Ten Years After has a gold album with A Space in Time, the last big LP for the blues-rock quartet. "I'd Love to Change the World" becomes TYA's only U.S. Top Forty hit.
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Godfather of Soul James Brown has his thirty-second album released this week. Revolution of the Mind, subtitled Live at the Apollo, Volume 3 and released by Polydor Records, opens with a song whose title only James Brown could have come up with: "It's a Brand New Day So Open Up the Door and Let a Man Come In to Do the Popcorn."

Blood, Sweat and Tears lead singer David Clayton Thomas is among the performers making public service announcements and press statements in support of the Canadian "Save the Seals" campaign, which will try to prevent the annual slaughter of baby seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the spring of 1972. Other performers contributing to "Save the Seals" included Canadian blues-rock band Crowbar, and Canadian folk-singers Murray McLauchlan and Luke Gibson.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono perform at a benefit in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for left-wing activist John Sinclair, ex-manager of Detroit's legendary guerilla-rock band the MC5, who was arrested for possession of marijuana in 1969 and was sentenced to ten years in prison. After being told about Sinclair's plight by radical politico Jerry Rubin, Lennon composed "John Sinclair."
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Deal Records, a subsidiary of Mercury, releases Joe Tex' bawdy funk disc "I Gotcha." In late January of 1972 the song will reach #2 on the pop chart, becoming Tex's biggest hit since his 1964 #5 hit "Hold What You've Got." A big factor is the success of "I Gotcha" is Tex' slurred delivery of the line "Told you not to play with my affection," which causes millions of teenage girls to mistake the last word for erection.
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Gloria Steinem's feminist magazine Ms. premieres in preview form, featuring such articles as "The Housewife's Moment of Truth," "Why Women Fear Success" and "I Want a Wife," which satirically explains why women need a wife as much as men do.
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Critics aren't the only music-industry people who hate Grand Funk Railroad. In today's Billboard, Grand Funk's manager, Terry Knight, claims that "we are virtually devoid of radio play in major markets. Our only airplay comes from the ordinary stations that the major markets snicker at." This, Knight adds, despite the band's string of gold records and sell-out tours and a recent platinum LP, E Pluribus Funk.
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In an antiwar protest, 17 Vietnam veterans lock themselves inside the Statue of Liberty. Two days later, they are ordered to leave and do so.
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Keith Moon emcees a concert for one of his favorite acts, Fifties revivalists Sha Na Na.
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In an effort to move government policy out from under the veil of "national security interests," columnist Jack Anderson begins a weeklong series of articles publishing classified government memoranda.
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The Band performs at New York City's Academy of Music, recording their New Year's Eve concert for later release as Rock of Ages.

Most popular music, books and film - 1971: Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World" (pop single); Carole King's Tapestry (pop album); Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff" and Sly & the Family Stone's "Family Affair" (three-way tie for R&B single); Charley Pride's "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'" (C&W single); Erich Segal's Love Story (fiction); David Reuben's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (nonfiction); Fiddler on the Roof (film).
  


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