Although FM radio was beginning to play more and more album-oriented rock, it was usually through friends that I encountered the most exciting of this music. My old bass-playing friend, the kid who brought want-ad musicians into his living room for a jam, was always discovering the most abstract (or least played on the radio) music, though it didn't always appeal to me. He spun solo albums by people such as Robin Trower, from Procol Harum ("Whiter Shade of Pale"), who extended his guitar prowess in true Jimi Hendrix style. Or Stevie Winwood, from Traffic, joining Eric Clapton and other talented players from known bands to create new expressions in a short-lived group called Blind Faith.
"Wanna go to Hammond?" my friend would ask in his spontaneous decisions to stock up on more albums from a record store that was a bus trip away. There was always a steady stream of new music emanating from his bedroom turntable. On it, I heard bizarre, hippie comedy from a group called Firesign Theatre on a strangely named album, "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers." Or imagine the sounds of someone swatting a fly in the grooves of a disc named "Ummagumma", from a once-obscure group called Pink Floyd.
And how many artists, other than perhaps the Beatles, would really explore the vinyl creatively by putting a groove around the labels of one of their albums? If you just happened to have a manual turntable, a voice would repeat "Turn me over" at the end of the last cut. On the flip side, the words "Play me again" were a unique reminder to change the album sides! The James Gang, with Joe Walsh as it's most famous and humorous member, did it and my friend discovered it.
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