My Seventies Music

Category: Seventies Progressive Rock

  • Mike Oldfield – “Tubular Bells”

    Cover of "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield (1973)

    Englishman Mike Oldfield released “Tubular Bells” in 1973 – the album was the first venture of Richard Branson’s new record label Virgin Records.

    The instrumental achieved particular fame when it was used as the theme of the movie “The Exorcist”.

    The album “Tubular Bells”, on which Mike Oldfield played over twenty different instruments, quickly entered the Top Ten of the UK album chart.

    It’s follow-up, “Hergest Ridge” (of which I have a copy), went to No. 1 for three weeks, before it was displaced by “Tubular Bells”.

    “Tubular Bells” was re-recorded by Oldfield, in 1992, 1998 and again in 2003.

    Here is the shorter version of “Tubular Bells” used in “The Exorcist”:

    And this is one of a number of live recordings of the longer version, here divided into three parts (you’ll need a bit of patience if you want to listen to these…):

    “Tubular Bells” live, Part 1:

    “Tubular Bells” live, Part 2:

    “Tubular Bells” live, Part 3:

    If you’ve listened to all of these you’ll now likely be very relaxed….. or asleep…

    Paul

  • 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

  • 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

  • Steely Dan – “Do It Again”, “Reelin’ In The Years”, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” “Pretzel Logic”, “Haitian Divorce” and “Hey Nineteen”

    "Steely Dan/greatest hits" album cover
    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

    Now that’s what I call “Reelin’ in the years”…

    Paul

  • Klaatu – “Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft”, “Sub Rosa Subway”, “Doctor Marvello”, “California Jam” and “True Life Hero”

    Klaatu/3:47 EST album cover

    I think it must have been about 1976 or 1977 when I bought an album by a Canadian band called Klaatu with, among others, the track “Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft” (which was covered by The Carpenters soon after it came out).

    It was rumoured that this was actually the Beatles in disguise, so to speak.

    Parts of the record certainly sounded like the Beatles, but you couldn’t be sure.

    Well, now you can. It wasn’t.

    The debut album “Klaatu” was actually called “3:47 EST” in Canada, but was changed by the US record label, so I guess I got the US version.

    The name Klaatu was taken from an extraterrestial (i.e. outer space person) played by Michael Rennie in the film “The Day The Earth Stood Still”. (I think Michael Rennie is also referred to by Richard O’Brien in the song “Science Fiction/Double Feature”, the title track of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.)

    Whatever, the music makes pleasant listening, Beatles-like or not.

    So without further ado, here are some tracks from that first album (there were more).

    “Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft”:

    “Sub Rosa Subway”:

    “Doctor Marvello”:

    “California Jam”:

    “True Life Hero” (sounds a bit like Juke Box Hero”, doesn’t it…):

    May the force be with you…

    Paul

    P.S. Sorry, wromg film. 😉

1770110956