By the time the 1970's rolled around, a new and experimental phase of Rock that began life as a hybrid between Psychedelia, Classical and Free-form Jazz in the 60's, burst on the scene and took Europe by storm. In the States, it took a while. Shrugged off in the American press as pretentious, sterile and overly-intellectual, the genre had to find its audience by almost by word-of-mouth.

With such bands as Yes, The Nice (in the later 60's) and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, inroads were made that bridged the gap between a skeptical press and an eager audience. But still, the overwhelming majority of bands in the Prog-Rock genre were the exclusive property of "that" side of the Atlantic.

Genesis had been around since the late 1960's. With one early album (From Genesis To Revelation) showing promise, but lacking that winning spark. They eventually signed with Charisma Records, founded by former Manager-turned Label owner Tony Stratton-Smith and their fortunes soon changed. Getting a word of mouth and popularity in England and all over Europe (especially in Italy), they secured a license deal with Dunhill Records in the U.S. - they had made one or two brief tours of the U.S., primarily in the Northeast and, almost unbeknownst to the U.S. record industry, Genesis were gaining a huge popularity. When Charisma struck a label deal with Atlantic, and their maiden album with the new arrangement, Selling England By The Pound was released in 1973, Genesis took the record industry big-wigs completely by surprise and sold out every venue they were booked in during their first cross-country U.S. tour. Word-of-mouth paid off with dividends.

Tonight it's the opening track from that milestone album, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight.

Maybe you remember it - and maybe you've never heard it before.

Pull up a chair and have a listen for the next seven minutes.

(P.F. Sloan -aka: The Grass Roots - confusing, not really)

When the Grass Roots gained attention with their first single, Where Were You When I Needed You, there was one catch - there actually was no Grass Roots - just two songwriters who wrote songs and cut a bunch of demos with some session folks of which tonight's track was one of them and it hit #28 on the charts.

P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri were house writers for Dunhill Records, an L.A. label very big in the mid-1960's when folk-rock was just about hitting its peak. The had written songs for a number of artists at the time and had gained an insiders notoriety as a talented and edgy songwriting team.

So when the first single was a hit, the problem became what to do about putting a band together. Eventually one was assembled, but after this single and the subsequent album that followed, the band that became the actual Grass Roots had very little in common with that first incarnation. Certainly what made the early non-Grass Roots Grass Roots so appealing was the edge and bite to their songs. And even though they went on to become huge as a pop group, they abandoned their initial protest stance and opted for a more commercial sound and that lost their early fan base.

Certainly not the first time that's ever happened and certainly won't be the last.

But tonight it's the early, edgy Grass Roots - rather timeless.