British New Wave band Ultravox had a hit in 1980 with “Vienna”, but except for the singing of the title, to quote the song itself, “this means nothing to me”.
What I do recognise, however, is “Slow Motion”, from their 1978 album “Systems Of Romance”, which I have.
I haven’t played it for ages, but I remember “Slow Motion” because the band Snatch at the Majestic Hotel in Palmerston North, New Zealand, used to play it when I went there regularly around that time as a student.
I just listened to several of the other tracks from that album, most of them didn’t really resonate, but there were a couple that brought back memories.
Apparently the album didn’t sell that well at the time, but I bought it, on the strength of hearing the tracks that Snatch played.
Here’s “Vienna”, their first mainstream commercial success it would seem, just out of the Seventies in 1980:
This one’s more like it, “Slow Motion”, from 1978 album “Systems Of Romance”:
From the same album, “Maximum Acceleration”:
And another one from “Systems Of Romance”, called “I Can’t Stay Long”:
Stealers Wheel, the band formed in 1972 by Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan from Paisley, Scotland, had several hits in the early to mid Seventies, in particular “Stuck In The Middle With You” and “Everyone’s Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine”.
“Star” also reached the Top Thirty in both the US and the UK in 1974.
Meanwhile, Gerry Rafferty is more well known in his own right, with songs such as “Baker Street”.
From the first album, “Stealers Wheel” in 1972, “Stuck In The Middle With You” is probably the most familiar of the band’s songs:
Also from the first album was “Late Again”…
…”Another Meaning”…
…and “I Get By”:
The 1973 single “Everyone’s Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine” got quite a bit of airplay, at least enough that I remember it :-):
Also from 1973, “You Put Something Better Inside Me” (gets a bit boring towards the end I find):
“Star”, a 1974 single, doesn’t sound that familiar to me, but pleasant nonetheless:
And just because live is always nice:
Hope you enjoyed it more than some of those in the video seemed to…
Three Dog Night hardly wrote a song of their own, but they had numerous hits with the songs they covered, such as “One”, “Celebrate, “Eli’s Coming” and “Easy To Be Hard”, “Mama Told Me Not To Come”, “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song”, “Black And White” or “Joy To The World” (sometimes called “Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog” after the opening line).
I have a copy of one of their compilation albums, “Golden Bisquits”, from 1971, which includes five of these songs.
The name apparently refers to an article an associate of the band read about an Australian Aborigine custom of using the body warmth of a native dog (dingo) to keep warm on cold nights. A three dog night was a very cold night…
Some of the Three Dog Night versions of songs were actually more successful than the originals. Listen to these and you’ll understand why:
I have always treasured the two albums by Pavlov’s Dog I have on an old cassette, with tracks like “Julia”, “Late November”, “Fast Gun”, “Natchez Trace”, “Theme From Subway Sue”, “Of Once and Future Kings”, “She Came Shining”, “Gold Nuggets”, “Early Morning On” and “Did You See HIm Cry”.
The band from St. Louis, Missouri, features the most amazing voice of David Surkamp. I’ve never heard anything like it and get a kick every time I hear it.
Unfortunately these first two albums, “Pampered Menial” in 1974 and “At The Sound Of The Bell” in 1977, did not sell very well, so Columbia Records refused to release the third album recorded in 1977, and the band split soon after.
Thirty years later the album was finally officially released on a German label as “Has Anyone Seen Siegfried?” (although there had been a limited edition bootleg version in the 1980s made from stolen master tapes and released under The St. Louis Hounds instead of Pavlov’s Dog).
The band, except for original member Siegfried Carver alias Richard Nadler, who died last year, got back together in June 2004 for a concert in St. Louis, Missouri, and has since toured annually in Europe.
So, from “Pampered Menial”, recorded in 1974, here’s “Julia”:
This is “Julia” live in Munich in November 2009:
The second track on “Pampered Menial” is “Late November”:
Many (most?) of Pavlov’s Dog’s songs tell a story, and “Fast Gun” is no exception:
Another story from “Pampered Menial”, “Natchez Trace”:
“Theme From Subway Sue”:
“Of Once and Future Kings”, live in Karlsruhe in 2009 (the other video I found showed the film “Beowulf”, definitely not for the squeamish, so I thought I’d take this version!):
From Pavlov’s Dog’s second album “At The Sound Of The Bell”, “She Came Shining”:
“Gold Nuggets”:
The closing track from “At The Sound Of The Bell”, “Did You See Him Cry”:
Actually, I find every single track on those two albums a jewel, and Pavlov’s Dog have received nowhere near the critical acclaim and commercial success they deserve.
But I’d better leave something to the imagination… I heartily recommend you go and find more from Pavlov’s Dog!
And if I find they are playing not too far away, I just might go and see them.
In the early Seventies a band from New York (really a duo, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, with additional musicians) called Steely Dan began having a series of hits, such as “Do It Again”, “Reelin’ In The Years” and “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”.
At the end of the decade, or easing into the next one, “Hey Nineteen” reached No. 10 in the US and 11 in the UK.
There were of course others as well, but these are the ones I remember.
I have their compilation album “Steely Dan/greatest hits”, a double album from 1978, which also features “Pretzel Logic” (the title of another album as well) and “Haitian Divorce”. Like their other albums, this too was produced by Gary Katz.
Here’s “Do It Again”, from the album “Can’t Buy A Thrill”, live on the Midnight Special in 1973:
And “Reelin’ In The Years”, from the same album, also live on the Midnight Special in 1973 (introduced by comedian Bill Cosby):
From the “Pretzel Logic” album, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”, No. 4 in 1974:
“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” performed live over 20 years later in 1996:
And the title track of “Pretzel Logic”:
Two years later, in 1976, came “Haitian Divorce”, from the album “The Royal Scam”:
“Hey Nineteen”, from the 1980 album “Gaucho”, sung live here in 2006
