In 1973 Dobie Gray sang the most popular version of “Drift Away”, sometimes known as “Give Me The Beat, Boys”, which had originally been recorded a year earlier, and has since become a classic ending song for concerts.
He took it to Number 5 in the USA, though it didn’t enter the charts in the UK.
To be honest, I had never heard of Dobie Gray until just now (at least not consciously), but I’ve heard the song “Drift Away” probably hundreds of times!
In fact I would go so far as to say this song is an icon of modern music.
This is Dobie Gray singing “Drift Away” live on the BBC in 1974:
And here he is singing “Drift Away” nearly 20 years later, in 1992:
Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock’n’roll and drift away…
Paul
