My Seventies Music

Month: April 2010

  • Roxy Music – “Virginia Plain”, “If There Is Something”, “Psalm”, “Pyjamarama”, “Love Is The Drug”, “Both Ends Burning”, “Still Falls The Rain”, “Dance Away”, “Over You”, “Oh Yeah”, “Same Old Scene”, “Jealous Guy”, “More Than This” And “Avalon”

    The somewhat controversial Roxy Music album "Country Life" (1974)

    With Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music I’m never sure where to start, there’s so much, and I keep discovering more.

    I mainly know some of their songs from the late Seventies and early Eighties, but I’ve also taken some of their work from the early Seventies here.

    In the early years Brian Eno was in the band, but he left after the second album, “For Your Pleasure”. From then on, Phil Manazanera and Andy Mackay began co-writing, but Bryan Ferry continued to write most of the material.

    The first single, which went to No. 4 in the UK in 1972, was “Virginia Plain”:

    Also in 1972, album track “If There Is Something”:

    Some of the guitar on this makes me think of the Beatles “Abbey Road” album. I like it. In fact, the more I listen to it, the more I like it!

    From the 1973 album “Stranded”, here is “Psalm”, quite a bit different from some of the later stuff:

    Also from 1973, Roxy Music’s second single “Pyjamarama”:

    A major single in 1975 that peaked at No. 2 in the UK was “Love Is The Drug”:

    Here is a somewhat later live version of “Love Is The Drug”:

    Also from 1975, “Both Ends Burning”:

    “Still Falls The Rain” was a track on the 1979 album “Manifesto”:

    “Dance Away” (UK No. 2 in 1979, also from “Manifesto”) just makes me melt away….

    I also quite like “Over You” (No. 5 in the UK, from the next album, “Flesh + Blood”):

    And this has got to be my favourite Roxy Music song ever…. “Oh Yeah” from 1980. I love it! I still remember hearing it on a stormy night in a pub in Broadford on the Isle of Skye off the west coast of Scotland. And in a small bar in Nuremberg below the castle, while waiting for a concert (might have been Led Zeppelin, not sure). “Oh Yeah”:

    “Same Old Scene” was the third single from the “Flesh + Blood” album:

    Shortly after John Lennon was shot, Roxy Music sang a tribute version of one of my favourite Lennon songs, “Jealous Guy”, taking it to No. 1 in the UK and Australia:

    They followed it with “More Than This” (No. 6)…

    … and “Avalon”:

    I’d better stop now…

    Paul

  • Klaus Doldinger And Passport – “Uranus”, “Schirokko”, “Mandragora”, “Ataraxia” And The Theme From The Movie “Das Boot”

    And now for something completely different – Klaus Doldinger and Passport, a German jazz formation that has been compared with the US band Weather Report.

    I won’t claim to know the individual tracks, I only heard Doldinger’s music for the first time in 1983, and liked it.

    Here are some tracks I have found from the Seventies (the band was formed in 1971) and the very early Eighties.

    “Uranus” (1971):

    “Schirokko” (1973):

    “Mandragora” (1973):

    “Ataraxia”, at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1980:

    For some reason that one reminds me a little of Deep Purple (as does the name of Montreux…. “We all came down to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline…).

    Klaus Doldinger produced the theme music of the 1981 movie “Das Boot”:

    More of “Das Boot” with pictures from the film:

    Hope you liked todays “change of tune”.

    Paul

  • Gary Numan – “Cars”

    Gary Numan single "Cars" (1979)

    At the very end of the Seventies, late 1979, I remember Englishman Gary Numan singing “Cars”, from his album “The Pleasure Principle”.

    In fact, whenever I hear it or think of Gary Numan or “Cars”, it reminds me of being in not a car but a Transit van, at 4 o’clock in the morning.

    We had just finished clearing up after a dance during the student orientation I was running at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

    Together with the people helping, we had stopped off at a service station, the only place still open, to get something to eat, and I vividly remember “Cars” playing on the radio as we got out of the van.

    That was actually at the start of 1980, so obviously the song still got airplay in New Zealand for a while (it was apparently released in August 1979).

    Here’s Gary Numan in the promotional video of “Cars”:

    I don’t really remember anything else by Gary Numan, but this one has stuck in my mind.

    Paul

  • The Clash – “Complete Control”, “I Fought The Law”, “London Calling”, “Train In Vain”, “The Magnificent Seven”, “Rock The Casbah” and “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”

    The Clash album "London Calling" (1979)

    The raw energy of the punk movement of the late Seventies was personified by UK band The Clash, whose most well known tracks include “Complete Control”, “I Fought The Law”, the iconic “London Calling”, “Train In Vain”, “The Magnificent Seven”, “Rock The Casbah” and “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”.

    1977 track “Complete Control” was actually a criticism of their record label CBS for releasing a track as a single against their wishes:

    From their debut album “The Clash”, “I Fought The Law” only appeared as a single in 1979:

    It was followed by the single “London Calling” from the definitive album of the same name:

    “Train In Vain”, from the same album, was only added at the last minute and not featured in the credits, yet became their first entry to the US Top 30:

    Another piece full of vibrant energy – “The Magnificent Seven”:

    Like many songs by The Clash, “Rock The Casbah” had a political background:

    And finally, “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”, which in more recent times was used in a parody of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. When it was re-released early in 1991 it gave The Clash their first and only Number 1 single in the UK, five years after they broke up:

    Some of the members continued to work together now and then, but years later The Clash frontman Joe Strummer (actually John Graham Mellor) died suddenly in December 2002, just weeks before the band was to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ending any possibility of a reunion.

    The legend lives on.

    Paul

  • Little River Band – “Help Is On Its Way”, “Happy Anniversary”, “Reminiscing”, “Lady”, “Lonesome Loser” and “Cool Change”

    Little River Band album "Diamantina Cocktail" (1976/1977) went Gold in the USA

    Probably one of the most successful Australian bands of the Seventies – or since – was the Little River Band, whose string of hits in the USA included “Help Is On Its Way”, “Happy Anniversary”, “Reminiscing”, “Lady”, “Lonesome Loser” and “Cool Change”.

    Can anyone say “harmonies”….

    And one of their most successful albums was “Diamantina Cocktail”, named after an Australian (Queensland) speciality made with Bundaberg Rum, condensed milk and an emu’s egg!

    “Diamantina Cocktail” was released in Australia in 1976 and with a slightly different lineup of songs internationally in 1977.

    The first two songs here, perhaps two of their most memorable hits, are from that album:

    “Help Is On Its Way”:

    “Happy Anniversary”:

    “Reminiscing”, from the Little River Band album “Sleeper Catcher”, went to No. 3 in America in 1978:

    Here’s Glenn Shorrock singing his hit “Reminiscing” 30 years later in 2008:

    “Lady”, from the same album, went to No. 10 in the States in 1978:

    And in 1979 “Lonesome Loser”, from the next album, “First Under The Wire”, peaked at No. 6 there:

    It was followed by “Cool Change”, another track on that album, that also reached No. 10, the Little River Band’s last hit in the Seventies:

    All I can say to this music is…. cool!

    Paul

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