I Saw the Light With Some Help From My Friends, released by Columbia in 1972 (KC 31354) but recorded in August 1971, brings the Earl Scruggs Revue together with a guest list that captures the rock-and-folk worlds Scruggs had opened himself to after the Flatt and Scruggs dissolution — the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Linda Ronstadt, Tracy Nelson, Arlo Guthrie, and Bob Dylan (credited under a pseudonym). The conceit was a domestic music session at the Scruggs home; the album loosely realizes that frame across material ranging from traditional gospel to contemporary singer-songwriter songs. The Revue, anchored by Scruggs's banjo and his sons Randy and Gary, was steadily pushing the music into territory the old Foggy Mountain Boys would never have entered.
Tracklist
- 1 Lonesome and a Long Way from Home 2:35
- 2 Silver Wings (with Linda Ronstadt) 3:27
- 3 It's a Picture from Life's Other Side 3:38
- 4 Motherless Child Blues 4:29
- 5 Some of Shelley's Blues 2:45
- 6 Never Ending Song of Love alt version 3:20
- 7 Rock Salt and Nails alt version 3:22
- 8 The Banks of the Ohio 3:27
- 9 Ring of Fire Source Recording 2:12
- 10 Propinquity 2:19
- 11 Fireball Mail alt version 2:14
- 12 Tramp On the Street 3:27
- 13 The Cure 2:09
- 14 I Saw the Light alt version 2:43
