Roy Wood and his band Wizzard had a Number One hit in the UK in 1973 with “See My Baby Jive”.
Roy Wood had previously been a founding member of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and was a particularly experimental musician, combining a range of genres in his music, such as classical and big band sounds.
This is evident in the clip here of “See My Baby Jive”, featuring orchestral instruments such as a cello and various horns as well as two drummers:
Gotta love the bass player on roller skates with angel wings and cricket pads on his legs (Rick Price), and the madly waving guy on keyboards – Bill Hunt, who apparently had a propensity to smash pianos…
One of the most memorable songs of the Seventies for me was actually written shortly before the decade began: “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, by Bob Dylan’s Canadian backing group The Band.
The song, written by Robbie Robertson and sung by Levon Helm (though he aparently claims to have contributed to the lyrics), was covered by Joan Baez in 1971 and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was the version I initially knew.
From the same album, “The Band”, came the track “Up On Cripple Creek”, which I have always liked. I only heard it for the first time some time in the Seventies
Another song by The Band that I got to know in the Seventies was also written around the same time, it was called “The Weight”.
Actually it was on the previous album, “Music From Big Pink”, which I picked up some time in the late Seventies. The album title referred to a big pink house The Band used to record in.
This version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is taken from the farewell concert (and film) “The Last Waltz” in 1978:
I thought I’d also include this studio version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, where the chorus sounds more like what I was familiar with, followed by the lyrics:
Virgil Caine is the name, and I served on the Danville train,
Til Stoneman’s cavalry came and tore up the tracks again.
In the winter of ’65, we were hungry, just barely alive.
By May tenth, Richmond had fell, it’s a time I remember, oh so well.
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when all the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and all the people were singin’. They went,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na,
Back with my wife in Tennessee, when one day she called to me,
Said “Virgil, quick, come and see, there goes the Robert E. Lee!”
Now I don’t mind choppin’ wood, and I don’t care if the money’s no good.
Ya take what ya need and ya leave the rest,
But they should never have taken the very best.
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when all the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and all the people were singin’. They went,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na,
Like my father before me, I will work the land,
And like my brother above me, who took a rebel stand.
He was just eighteen, proud and brave, But a Yankee laid him in his grave,
And I swear by the mud below my feet,
You can’t raise a Caine back up when he’s in defeat.
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when all the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and all the people were singin’. They went,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when all the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and all the people were singin’. They went,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na.
And now, here’s “Up On Cripple Creek”:
This rendition of “The Weight”, which also featured in the movie “Easy Rider”, also comes from the 1978 concert and film “The Last Waltz”:
Whatever way you look at it, The Band played powerful music. It was powerful in the Seventies and it’s still powerful today.
The first solo Number One hit by Cher of Sonny and Cher fame was “Gypsys, Tramps And Thieves” in 1971. “Half Breed” and “Dark Lady” also reached the top spot in 1973 and 1974 respectively.
Cher has had any more hits over the years, but two of my favourites after the Seventies were “If I Could Turn Back Time” and “Just Like Jesse James”, both in 1989.
Ultimately though, if there is any one song that epitomises Cher for me, it is her first No. 1 hit “Gypsys, Tramps And Thieves”:
Here’s “Half Breed”, a No. 1 in 1973:
“Dark Lady” was big for Cher Bono, as she was still known then through her marriage to Sonny Bono, in 1974:
Beyond the Seventies, “If I Could Turn Back Time” reached No. 3 in 1989:
“Just Like Jesse James” made it into the Top Ten – No. 8 – in the same year:
Cher has definitely been a major factor in popular music, in the Seventies when she achieved her first successes, and through the decades that have followed.
If I were to sum it up with just one word, that word would have to be: iconic.
Although initially written and released on his second album in 1969, “Streets Of London” by Ralph McTell came out as a single in the UK in 1974, having earlier been successfully launched as a single in the Netherlands.
I remember when I flew into Britain for the first time a week before Christmas in 1977, when I was not quite 20, this song was in my head as we circled over London before landing – and as I descended the steps from the plane onto the tarmac (maybe it was concrete, who cares…).
And again the next morning as I leaned out the hotel window in the dark before the sun came up (behind clouds, I believe, but I didn’t care – I had returned to the land of my parents that I had dreamed of since childhood).
It came to mind tonight at dinner in a hotel in Bristol with my father, as he talked about having a cup of tea for a pound at London’s Victoria Station.
For that made me think of the old man in “Streets Of London”, and the woman with her carrier bags.
I had come across them at Victoria Station on a dreary Sunday in late 1980 as I waited in the station cafe for a train to the ferry that would take me back to the Continent.
His name was Mr Golden.
He had nowhere to go – he lived with his son, who had thrown him out, and had no money until his next pension payment.
I bought him a cup of tea – for a pound. And I kept him company as he passed away the time waiting for Monday.
It makes me quite teary eyed now just thinking about it.
As we sat there, the woman from the song with her carrier bags came by.
The whole situation was so surreal, and the irony is that I have just read that Ralph McTell actually based the stories in “Streets Of London” on characters in Paris, although he apparently drew on his hitchhiking and busking experiences in that city as well as London and elsewhere in Europe.
Which reminds me that I also used to see them in Frankfurt when I lived and worked there, the “old girl” in particular, with her carrier bags.
“Streets Of London” went to Number 2 on the UK singles chart over Christmas in 1974, at one point selling 90,000 copies a day.
Later I learned to play it on the guitar.
Although meanwhile covered over 200 times, the song became so closely identified with Ralph McTell that there was a sketch on British comedy show Big Train in which he plays “Streets Of London” and then attempts to perform “a new song”.
After expressions of shock and disbelief in the audience, who cannot conceive that Ralph McTell could play any other song, they force him (or rather the actor playing him) to segue into “Streets Of London” yet again.
So here it is, Ralph McTell with “Streets Of London”:
Does that take you in your mind to the streets of London?
While I wasn’t really a follower of U.S. Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd at the time, I became very familiar with three of their tracks from the early Seventies, namely “Gimme Three Steps”, Free Bird” and “Sweet Alabama”.
This was largely through working with a band in Germany called Nuthin’ Fancy who were big fans of Lynyrd Skynyrd – in fact I have only just learned that they took their name from their idols’ third album…
“Gimme Three Steps” didn’t chart when it was released as a single in 1973, but the debut album it was on (“Lynyrd Skynyrd (pronounced ‘lĕh-‘nérd ‘skin-‘nérd)”) went to No. 1 – here it is:
Also from that 1973 album was what was to become Lynyrd Skynyrd’s signature song, “Free Bird”, which reached No. 19 as a single in 1974, making it their second Top 40 hit.
After the tragic plane crash in October 1977 in which several band members, including singer Ronnie Van Zantz, were killed, “Free Bird” was only played as an instrumental for many years.
This is “Free Bird”, live in July 1977, just months before that defining event (takes a little while to get going, but it’s worth it):
Previously, Lynyrd Skynyrd had their first chart hit, at No. 8, with “Sweet Home Alabama” from their second album, “Second Helping”.
The response to Neil Young’s songs “Southern Man” and “Alabama” was somewhat controversial because of lines about the state’s governor, which some took to be an endorsement of his segregationalist views, an endorsement put down to a misunderstanding and denied by band members.
“Sweet Home Alabama” is another of those songs that has meanwhile become a rock anthem:
I think “Sweet Home Alabama” is one Lynyrd Skynyrd song that I did actually hear back in the Seventies already, and it’s definitely one you remember.
When did you first hear it?
Paul
P.S. Lynyrd Skynyrd is really hard to spell right consistently!!
