50 Years Ago Today

[Halmyre]

Die-er Maker is a fun, bouncy song IMO but it's a pretty feeble attempt at reggae. Years ago, before I knew of the song's title being an allusion to the British coloquial pronunciation of Jamaica, I just thought it was supposed to be an ode to early Motown style pop. But, I do find its inclusion, along with the James Brown inspired The Crunge, to be somewhat dubious given that they left off the album's title track.

Black Country Woman, The Rover and Houses of the Holy were all dumped to make way for D'Yer Mak'er. Hell, even Walter's Walk (which ended up on Coda) would have been preferable.

See also In Through The Out Door, where 'Hot Dog' could easily have been replaced with three minutes of silence without loss of quality or content.

[Lopez]

I was 15 when that record came out. I was already into Cream and Hendrix. It was great having friends who were in bands and having two local college radio (Brown Univ. and Providence College) stations, all who kept up with the latest releases.