My Seventies Music

Category: Seventies Soft Music

  • Arlo Guthrie – “City Of New Orleans”, “Alice’s Restaurant” and “Coming Into Los Angeles”

    Arlo Guthrie, the famous son of the famous American folk singer Woody Guthrie, was already a legend himself by the early Seventies when “City Of New Orleans” hit the airwaves.

    In particular he had made his name with the 18 minute 34 second long “talking blues song” “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, better known simply as “Alice’s Restaurant”, the title of the 1967 album and the 1969 film.

    Last year he said in an interview that this satirical protest against the Vietnam war draft is more an “anti-stupidity” song than an anti-war song.

    Whatever, although from the Sixties, I recall this song from the Seventies, when it was still being played a lot in New Zealand. In fact, to this day, many people in the US listen to “Alice’s Restaurant” every year on Thanksgiving Day!

    The “City Of New Orleans”, though, was just as present in my consciousness and the radio playlists, and I can still sing along at least with the chorus! Here’s a live version shortly after it came out, with a still young Arlo Guthrie:

    And here, many years later, is a grey but long haired Arlo Guthrie singing “City Of New Orleans” at the Boston Pops; musically you can hardly tell the difference:

    Also many years later, Arlo Guthrie still sings a slightly updated version of “Alice’s Restaurant”. Here’s a great performance from 2005, in the same church. The video shows Arlo singing live, with scenes from the film interspersed throughout:

    Again with the Boston Pops, celebrating 40 years of the Woodstock festival, “Coming Into Los Angeles”:

    And, as a contrast, the original Woodstock performance of “Coming Into Los Angeles” by the young Arlo Guthrie, where he played before over a million young people, many of whom were indulging in the substance he was singing about, as the film very clearly shows:

    Remember, you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant…

    Paul

  • Kansas – “Dust In The Wind” and “Carry On Wayward Son”

    “Dust In The Wind” from Kansas features strongly in a short story I once wrote that takes place in a bar in (then West) Berlin, which in turn always reminds me of a Kate Bush song that begins with the line “You’ll find me in a Berlin bar in a corner, brooding” (“Saxophone Song” from her first album “The Kick Inside”.)

    Last time I went back to that bar, some years ago, it had turned into a bright, slightly sterile pizzeria. No atmosphere and certainly no “Dust In The Wind” playing.

    Anyway, back to “Dust In The Wind” itself.

    This is the studio version accompanying what appears to be a privately made music “video” filmed on 8 mm film in 1977 and recently salvaged by the filmmaker’s son:

    A live version of “Dust In The Wind” from 1982:

    And finally “Dust In The Wind” unplugged:

    There have been numerous cover versions of this song, for example by Guns ‘n’ Roses and the Scorpions.

    Meanwhile I just found the band’s other big hit I had forgotten about, “Carry On Wayward Son”, which was the closing song to the 1977 movie “Heroes”, featuring Henry Winkler (“Fonzie” or “The Fonz” from the hit TV series “Happy Days”) and Sally Field (whom I always associate with “Gidget” and “The Flying Nun”, presumably the namesake of New Zealand record company Flying Nun).

    Here’s “Carry On Wayward Son”, live in 1976 (although apparently only the vocals are live and the music is a studio version):

    And this version of “Carry On Wayward Son” seems a lot more recent, the sound of the recording is definitely crisper…

    Just goes to show, you can’t keep a good song down!

    Paul

  • Nazareth – “Love Hurts” and “Dream On”

    In 1975 Scottish rock band Nazareth released their version of the Everly Brothers track from 1960, “Love Hurts”.

    It was the only version of several to become a hit.

    Here’s the video recording of the studio version:

    This is a version of “Love Hurts” that Nazareth later did with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra:

    And here’s a slightly older Nazareth singing “Love Hurts” live in Glasgow:

    While we’re at it, here’s another one from the same show that I had completely forgotten about, “Dream On”:

    Hope that didn’t hurt too much…

    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

  • Bee Gees – “Stayin’ Alive” and “Words”

    Last night in the car listening to someone talking on a CD I picked up the words “staying alive” and my mind immediately turned to the Bee Gees – born on the Isle of Man, they spent their childhood near Manchester, England and in Redcliffe on the outskirts of Brisbane, Australia, before going on to become one of the top acts in the USA.

    Saturday Night Fever album cover

    The Bee Gees were really a Sixties band who reinvented themselves in the Seventies, beginning with “Jive Talkin’”, “Nights On Broadway” and “You Should Be Dancing”, and really taking off with songs like “Night Fever”, “Stayin’ Alive”, “How Deep Is Your Love” and “More Than A Woman” from the hit film “Saturday Night Fever” starring John Travolta.

    Best of Bee Gees album cover

    The first album I ever bought was “Best of Bee Gees” (I thought it was in 1968, but apparently the record was only released in 1969), with classics like “Words”, “First of May”, “New York Mining Disaster 1941”, “Spicks and Specks”, “To Love Somebody”, “Massachussetts”, “I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You”, “I started A Joke”, “I Can’t See Nobody”, “Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You”…

    And the first track, “Holiday”.

    I particularly remember this track because it had a scratch on it!

    Unfortunately “Best of Bee Gees” was one of the records that had disappeared from my collection by the time I retrieved them from New Zealand to Germany in January 1987.

    By that time the Bee Gees had moved on musically to become the personification of the disco sound, with their soundtrack to the movie “Saturday Night Fever”.

    Here’s the song I mentioned at the beginning, “Stayin’ Alive”, from 1977

    Unfortunately only two of the brothers, Barry and Robin Gibb, have stayed alive.

    Younger brother Andy, who had hits in his own right, died in 1988 only days after his 30th birthday and just before he was due to become part of the band.

    Maurice, the third Bee Gee, passed away in January 2003 while waiting for emergency surgery.

    Until today I never knew the Gibb brothers were not born in Manchester, but on the Isle of Man. When we first moved to Scotland, for nearly a year we could see the Isle of Man from the fishing village we lived in.

    I also learned today that it is a myth that the name Bee Gees stands for “Brothers Gibb”.

    Rather, by coincidence, “BG” were the initials of the two men in Australia who “discovered” them, DJ Bill Gates and racetrack promoter Bill Goode, who had seen them perform at Brisbane’s Speedway Circuit and then introduced them to the radio man.

    For me, despite their later development, the Bee Gees will always remain associated with that black, red and above all yellow album cover.

    And from that album, one song stands out for me as the quintessential Bee Gees track, the classic “Words”:

    I was reading that in this original version they got the stereo mix wrong, increasing the vocals so much the percussion can’t be heard.

    I think it’s fine the way it is – probably because that’s how I’ve always known it – but don’t take my word for it…

    Paul

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