My Seventies Music

Category: Country Music

  • Lobo – “Me And You And A Dog Named Boo”, “How Can I Tell Her About You”, “I’d Love You to Want Me”, “Stoney”, “Hope You’re Proud Of Me Girl”, “It Sure Took a Long, Long Time”, “Don’t Expect Me To Be Your Friend”, “Standing At The End Of The Line” and “Goodbye Is Just Another Word”

    Lobo album "Calumet" on Big Tree Records

    When I was about 16, I used to listen to Lobo over and over again. Songs like his big hit “Me And You And A Dog Named Boo”; “How Can I Tell Her About You” and “I’d Love You to Want Me”. Or “Stoney”, “Hope You’re Proud Of Me Girl”, “It Sure Took a Long, Long Time”, “Don’t Expect Me To Be Your Friend”, “Standing At The End Of The Line” and “Goodbye Is Just Another Word”.

    Seems he had one hit after another in the early Seventies, and as I was looking through his songs, one after another came back to me.

    The words, and the melodies.

    I’m not going to comment on them individually, just let you listen and enjoy them one after another.

    This was his first big hit, in 1971, “Me And You And A Dog Named Boo”:

    “I’d Love You to Want Me”went to No. 2 on the U.S. singles charts in 1972:

    “Don’t Expect Me To Be Your Friend” reached the Top Ten that year:

    “It Sure Took a Long, Long Time” made it to the Top 30 the same year:

    And in 1973 “How Can I Tell Her About You” did too:

    In 1974 “Standing At The End Of The Line” peaked at 37:

    The next three songs were album tracks –

    “Stoney”:

    “Hope You’re Proud Of Me Girl”:

    “Goodbye Is Just Another Word”:

    OK, so I did coment on (some of) them after all…

    I must admit I was surprised how much I still like these songs.

    Hope you do too.

    Paul

  • Linda Ronstadt – “When Will I Be Loved”, “You’re No Good”, “Blue Bayou”, “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” and “First Cut Is The Deepest”

    Linda Ronstadt single cover "Blue Bayou"
    Linda Ronstadt was a name you heard a lot in the Seventies, her biggest hits included “When Will I Be Loved”, “You’re No Good” and “Blue Bayou”.

    By coincidence, these are just about the only ones of her many songs I can recall…

    I found a couple more that I recognise though, but I can’t say now whether it’s just the songs themselves that are familiar or Linda Ronstadt’s versions of them!

    Songs like “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” and the Cat Stevens number “First Cut Is The Deepest”, best known in the Rod Stewart version.

    Whatever Linda Ronstadt sings, with her powerful voice she certainly makes it her own.

    Here are some of those songs –

    “When Will I Be Loved”, live in 1977:

    From the same concert in Atlanta, Georgia, the quieter track “It Doesn’t Matter Any More”, featuring Linda Ronstadt accompanying herself on acoustic guitar:

    “You’re No Good”, on the Midnight Special (with an introduction by Jose Feliciano):

    This is probably the Linda Ronstadt track I like the best, once again from that 1977 concert in Atlanta, “Blue Bayou”:

    And finally, “First Cut Is The Deepest”:

    “I’m going back in time…”

    Paul

  • Michael Martin Murphey – “Wildfire”

    Michael Martin Murphey is another one of those names that would have meant nothing to me if you had asked me about him – until just now when I came across the 1975 hit “Wildfire”. Then I knew who he was.

    I used to love that song.

    “Wildfire” is about a horse, as the video here underlines, actually about a ghost horse and the ghost of a woman who rode it:

    And here is “Wildfire” live, with an explanation from Michael Martin Murphey of how the song came about:

    We once had a horse called “Wildflower”, so there is an added affinity there. 🙂

    If you like horses, western music or just beautiful melodious songs with a story, you’ll probably like this one.

    I’ve just learned a little more about Michael Martin Murphey, including that he wrote songs for The Monkees (for his friend Michael Nesmith), Kenny Rogers, Bobby Gentry and John Denver, and that he has become a champion of the nature of the American West.

    If you’d like to learn more too, you can do that here: Michael Martin Murphey.

    Time to saddle up…

    Paul

  • Emmylou Harris – “Shop Around”

    Back in about 1976 I heard country singer Emmylou Harris for the first time, I particularly remember her singing “Shop Around”.

    I also connect her with Bob Dylan, I think it was duets or backing on his “Hurricane” album.

    And I know I had an album by Emmylou Harris – I figure it must be one of the ones that went missing from my collection by the time I took all my records from New Zealand to Germany a decade later.

    Here is a live version of “Shop Around” by Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band:

    Shop till you drop!

    Paul

  • John Denver – “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, “Sunshine On My Shoulders”, “Grandma’s Feather Bed” and “Rocky Mountain High”

    Driving down country roads in New Zealand in my late teens, often the melody of the John Denver song, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” would come to mind, and I’d find myself singing it as I drove along.

    I say late teens because I sold my car to go on my first trip to Europe just before I turned twenty. In fact, I had my 20th birthday on the plane back home a couple of months later.

    Because of the time differences and the international dateline, I actually only had about an hour of birthday, at Honolulu International Airport in Hawaii.

    Anyway… I used to find the song particularly appropriate when I was driving home from university along State Highway 50, actually a series of practically empty back roads that run the length of Central Hawkes Bay parallel to the main road, State Highway 2.

    It follows a range of mountains and crosses numerous rivers…

    As you are perhaps aware, John Denver lost his life in a plane crash, flying solo, in 1997. Long before then, this had become one of his signature songs.

    Here is a live version of “Take Me Home, Country Roads”:

    And this is one of the many videos of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” with scenery from West Virginia (at least I think it is, that’s what the sign at the beginning says – another one turned out to be pictures of Canada!)

    Now you may or may not be familiar with another version of the song. It has “West Jamaica” instead of “West Virginia”, and a few other localisations from the Carribbean island:

    Toots And The Maytals sing their own West Jamaican “Take me Home, Country Roads” in this video:

    Back to John Denver, I found this video of his Number One hit “Sunshine On My Shoulders”, with a selection of shots from various specials – I just love the Muppets scenes, especially with Miss Piggy:

    Speaking of the Muppets, take a look at this Muppet version of “Grandma’s Feather Bed:

    There are a number of other songs linked with the name of John Denver, such as the hit he wrote for Peter, Paul and Mary, “Leaving On A Jet Plane” (I hadn’t realised he wrote it), “Annie’s Song” (penned in ten minutes on a skilift for his first wife), “Calypso” (about the research ship of marine scientist Jacques Cousteau) and “Thank God I’m A Country Boy.

    But it is probably safe to say that if John Denver has another signature song, it is “Rocky Mountain High”:

    “Rocky Mountain High” is meanwhile one of the two official state songs of Colorado. If being in or seeing awesome high mountains gets you high, you’ll probably enjoy this song too.

    See you in Colorado…

    Paul

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