Category: Seventies Hard Rock

Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Gimme Three Steps”, Free Bird” And “Sweet Alabama”

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!!
Cold Chisel – “Khe Sanh” and “Goodbye (Astrid Goodbye)

Going out on a limb here: I don’t actually know any songs by Australian rock band Cold Chisel, who I saw live in Auckland, New Zealand as support act for Alice Cooper in April 1977, so I’m just going to present what I have read is their signature tune from the Seventies, “Khe Sanh”, and another of their live favourites, which U2 apparently also played on Australian tours, “Goodbye (Astrid Goodbye)”.

While Jimmy Barnes is familiar to me, I hadn’t realised he was the singer for Cold Chisel, at least most of the time.

Anyway, as you will discover if you listen closely to the lyrics, “Khe Sanh” is a song about Australian Vietnam veterans:

Like Jimmy Barnes and the Adelaide band as a whole, this one’s kinda wild – “Goodbye (Astrid Goodbye):

The song and the singers still rock nearly 30 years later:

That’s what I call rock and roll…

Paul
The Guess Who – “American Woman”, “No Sugar”/”New Mother Nature”, “Hand Me Down World”, “Runnin’ Back To Saskatoon”, “Share The Land”, “Seems Like I Can’t Live With You, But I Can’t Live Without You”, “Laughing”, “These Eyes” and “No Time”

The driving beat and grinding vocals of The Guess Who track “American Woman” is something that sticks in your mind for a long time.

I don’t remember when I first heard it, but I associate this and other Guess Who songs with the year 1975, and lying ill in bed at boarding school when everybody had the flu.

Songs like “No Sugar”, “Hand Me Down World”, “Runnin’ Back To Saskatoon”, “Share The Land”, “Seems Like I Can’t Live With You, But I Can’t Live Without You”, “Laughing”, “These Eyes” and “No Time”.

The Guess Who were the first Canadian band to have a Number One hit in the United States.

Here are two totally different looking performances of the same song by The Guess Who in the same year – totaly different in particular in how the band looks, hardly recognise some of the band members from one clip to the other…

“American Woman” live in 1970:

And again “American Woman” live in 1970, with a considerably shorter haired Burton Cummings, and more focus on lead guitarist Kurt Winter (died 1997), who had replaced original member Randy Bachman (who went on to further success with Bachman-Turner Overdrive):

The B side of that hit single, also on the album, was the Randy Bachman song “No Sugar” (coupled with Cummings’ “New Mother Nature” to make it longer for the record company):

Yet another song I thought I didn’t know… until I heard it again. 🙂

Shortly after replacing Bachman in The Guess Who, Kurt Winter was soon writing for the band, e.g. “Hand Me Down World”, here in the studio version from 1970:

Together with Burton Cummings he co-wrote the very Canadian track “Runnin’ Back To Saskatoon” from 1972, here coupled with the Cummings song “Share The Land”, from 1970:

From the 1974 album “Flavours” (the only one I actually have), here is “Seems Like I Can’t Live With You, But I Can’t Live Without You”:

Many of the Guess Who songs that I associate with the Seventies were actually written in the Sixties already, and most of them have remained evergreens to this day.

With “These Eyes” the band reached the US Top Ten for the first time in 1969, reaching No. 6:

“These Eyes” has remained a classic into the 21st century:

In 1969 “Laughing” (here from 1968) peaked at No. 10 in the US and reached No. 1 in Canada:

“No Time” featured on two albums, here is the earlier version from the “Canned Wheat album of 1969:

This appears to be the re-recorded, more up tempo and better known version of “No Time” from the “American Woman” album:

“No Time” live in Toronto in 2003:

What can you say to that!

Paul
Puhdys -“Ikarus”, “Ikarus II” and “Mephisto”

I first came across the East German band Puhdys back in either 1978 or 1979 on a trip to Germany (before I lived there) and bought their album “Pudhys 5”, with tracks like “Ikarus II”, “Mephisto” and “Wilde Jahre” (Wild Years).

Pudhys, who were heavily influenced by artists like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, were the first “Ostrock” or East German rock band allowed to visit West Germany.

As you can imagine, there is not a lot of video footage from back then, so I have mainly only been able to find film of them playing in more recent times – it appears they are still going strong.

This is “Ikarus”, live in 2006, I’m not sure if it’s the same song as “Ikarus II” on the album I have, it’s a bit hard to tell (this is just music without lyrics):

Here is a live version of “Ikarus II” from 1993 (takes a while to get going and the video quality is not that great):

This version of “Mephisto”, also on “Puhdys 5”, is the studio version:

Actually I did turn up a couple of videos from the Seventies after all, but I found them a bit boring so I’ll leave it at that and play the record again some time to find the ones I do like.

Paul

P.S. On coming back to this page some time later and playing the first Ikarus video, I have now actually found a live version of “Ikarus” from 1979 (audio only sorry) that brings across the feeling of hard rock behind the Iron Curtain when this music first came out:
Roger Daltrey – “Giving It All Away”

It’s my birthday today, so I thought for this post I’d pick a singer also having a birthday today:

Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who, with “Giving It All Away”, from his first solo album “Daltrey” in 1973.

I’ll feature supergroup The Who separately, this one’s just for Roger…

And here it is, first the studio version of “Giving It All Away”:

And this is a video of Roger Daltrey singing “Giving It All Away” in 1973:

Happy Birthday Roger!

Paul