#DeloreanRadio 1971 Zeppelin, The Who, Stones, John Prine, Isaac Hayes, Rod Stewart

In London 1963, a band called The Yardbirds formed and ultimately launched three of the biggest and best guitarists of all time: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Page joined in June 1966, initially to fill in on bass, and then to fill in for the ailing Beck on guitar. For a few months, Beck and Page both played guitar and the group recorded some truly groundbreaking psychedelic rock. Dissatisfied for several reasons, Beck left that November to form The Jeff Beck Group and Page continued as sole lead guitarist until the band broke up in 1968. Page formed a new band with Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham called The New Yardbirds, later changed to Led Zeppelin. In their first few years, Zeppelin toured the US and UK several times and released four self-titled albums, each containing a different "zoso" rune referring to one of the band members. Their stagecraft and personas grew ever more theatrical and esoteric, with flamboyant moon-and-stars outfits, lasers and mirror balls, and routinely destroying their hotel rooms (and sometimes whole floors) in debaucherous, motorcycle-fueled mayhem. Their music was hugely influential in hard rock and heavy metal, but also album-oriented rock and stadium rock.

Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle grew up in west London in the 1950s and formed a trad jazz band called the Detours in 1959. Daltrey and Entwistle both built their own instruments from scratch, the latter shifting to bass because his large fingers made playing fast guitar difficult. The band later renamed themselves The Who and adopted "mod" styles and fashion, although their stage presence was wild and unconventional: Daltrey would use his mic cable like a whip onstage and dive into the crowd, Moon would throw his drumsticks in the air in mid-beat, and Townshend would make machine gun and windmilling motions with his arms while playing guitar. They also destroyed their instruments onstage so often it became part of their signature style. In fact, when Jimi Hendrix followed them onstage at Monterey and smashed his guitar, Townshend accused him of stealing their act. Keith Moon in particular loved blowing up toilets on the road with cherry bombs. After releasing their concept musical album Tommy in 1969, they were working on a sci-fi musical follow up called Lifehouse but the project got complicated and Pete had a breakdown. They retooled for a studio album which had many hits, among them "Baba O'Riley", an homage to two of Townshend's heroes, guru Meher Baba and minimalist composer Terry Tiley. Of course, you probably think of it as "Teenage Wasteland".

John Prine was playing open mike on Chicago's North Side in 1970 when Roger Ebert caught him and wrote a glowing review. His popularity grew and the next year, Prine released his debut and opened for Kris Kristofferson in New York. Jerry Wexler caught that show and signed Prine to Atlantic the next day. So began a career spanning five decades, 18 studio albums, 5 Grammys, and countless collaborations with legends. Sadly, in March 2020, Prine and his wife developed COVID. She recovered, but he did not. He died on April 7, 2020 at the age of 73. John was perhaps the first celebrity to pass away from COVID. His last recorded song, "I Remember Everything", was released posthumously in June 2020, featured prominently in the first night of the DNC convention in August, and scored John his last two Grammys. John had a tenderness, directness, and sense of humor that was uniquely Irish, probably because his wife Fiona is from Ireland and they had a home in Galway.

Most people under 35 probably only remember Isaac Hayes as Chef from South Park. Before that, he was one of the most influential black songwriters and producers of all time. As noted, he started as a session musician for Stax Records in the 60s and wrote Sam & Dave's two big hits, "Soul Man" and "Hold On, I'm Comin". His big break came in 1969 with the album Hot Buttered Soul. Stax Records' biggest star, Otis Redding, had died in a plane crash in 1967 and they lost their back catalog to Atlantic in 1968. As a Hail Mary play, Stax called for 27 new albums to be completed in summer 1969. Hayes' album was the most successful of the 27. By this time he had crafted his signature shaved head, sunglasses, gold jewelry, and lush orchestral sound. In 1971, Hayes wrote the theme to the ultimate blaxploitation movie Shaft. For many, it was the soundtrack of the 1970s and of black empowerment in America.