I recently discovered a web site called Jive 95. It is dedicated to 95 FM KSAN in San Francisco. This station has been defunct since the late 1970s (at least in the format to which the site pays tribute). In short, KSAN was a very unique, eclectic, progressive and humorous station. Howard Hessman of the 70s/80s TV show WKRP in Cincinnati got his start as a real DJ at KSAN's first incarnation, KMPX.
One of the links on the Jive 95 site leads to a huge collection of actual audio broadcast segments from the late 1960s and 1970s. They include interviews and live, in-studio concerts by famous bands of the era. I've listened to a few of these and, even though I had never listened to the station in my life (its signal barely reached nearby Oakland, CA, much less South Dakota), it still gives me a huge sense of nostalgia to hear those voices from the era in which I grew up. One seven-minute clip in the interview section has especially stayed with me.
Late one night in 1973, DJ Norman Davis was in the middle of playing Van Morrison's "I Believe to My Soul" when "Teddybear," a somewhat stoned "acquaintance" of the station's employees walked into the sound booth with a message for the audience. Instead of kicking him out, Mr. Davis invited him to sit down and say what he had to say. Typical to the times, "Teddy" repeats over and over that God wants us all to love one another. The "speech" itself didn't do anything for me, but the very unusual song that Mr. Davis starts playing only a couple of seconds BEFORE "Teddy Bear" finishes, caught my attention. I consider it to have been an uncannily appropriate followup. The opening vocals almost perfectly compliment "Teddy Bear's" last two utterances. At first I thought Mr. Davis had made a subtly satirical choice of songs, but, as I listened, half way caught up in a nostalgic 1970s mood, I soon realized that he was probably being sincerely respectful to "Teddy Bear." The song is incredibly moody and almost poignant, especially when the horn and piano join in. Since I have strange tastes in music, I have grown to love it more and more each time I listen to it. Thankfully, the majority of the song plays before the clip ends.
Here is my problem: I have no way to identify the song. If there were lyrics, I could Google it, but there are no lyrics. To my untrained ear, it has elements of both jazz and blues in it, although I don't know if blues music always has vocals or not. It is also very reminiscent of a song from a movie soundtrack. I have written to the manager of the web site (who happens to be Norman Davis himself), but he has not answered me. So, it is up to one of you readers (whether in the civilian population or the NSA) to help me identify that song.
If you are of a mind to do so, please click the following link and listen for yourself. The song in question starts two minutes and fifty seconds into the clip; however, I recommend that you to listen to the entire clip because the last half of the Van Morrison song and "Teddybear's" speech really set the mood. In order to put yourself in an appropriate mood as you listen, imagine that you are lying awake in bed at 3:00 o'clock in the morning in 1973: God Stops By Late at Night. Click the song's icon in the upper-left corner and then click the play button at the bottom center of the page.
[Update 1/20/2008 -- Song Identified! I'm a little late in informing the void of my discovery. On May 6, 2005, I wrote an email to Norman Davis, the DJ who was on the air that night, and asked him to name the song and the artist for me. He didn't answer me until March 4, 2006, because he had lost track of my message among the many messages he receives. He informed me that the song is Cristo Redentor, but he neglected to name the artist. I was very excited at receiving this news, but I quickly learned that several artists had performed the song, and none of the Amazon sample clips are by the right artist. It took me quite a bit of searching on the internet before I finally found a Blogger blog (now apparently deleted) that not only named the original artist but also provided a link to a complete version of the song! I was elated. The artist's name is Donald Byrd, and the song is from his 1963 album, A New Perspective. Byrd later founded the Blackbyrds whose Walking in Rhythm was a top-40 hit in 1975.]
Update 02/02/2007 -- Here is a high-quality copy of Cristo Redentor.
