My Seventies Music

Tag: Beatles

  • The Sex Pistols – “Anarchy In The UK”, “God Save The Queen”, “Pretty Vacant” And “Holidays In The Sun”

    Cover of The Sex Pistols album "Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols"

    The late Seventies were the years of punk rock, and although not the first punk rock band, The Sex Pistols were the epitome of the movement, with songs like “Anarchy In The UK”, “God Save The Queen”, “Pretty Vacant” and “Holidays In The Sun”.

    I didn’t actually get a (taped) copy of their only album, “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols” (1977), until a few years later, when I lived in Germany.

    Or maybe I did get it before leaving New Zealand, I just remember playing it in the car of a band I wrote some stuff with in Germany, shortly after I met them in December 1980. The bass player and singer of the ZZ Top/Lynrd Skynyrd type band didn’t like The Beatles, so I played him The Sex Pistols…

    This is the studio version of “Anarchy In The UK”:

    “God Save The Queen”, also the studio version:

    Sex Pistols classic “Pretty Vacant”:

    “Holidays In The Sun”:

    Having experienced the Berlin Wall on numerous occasions while living in Germany – from both sides – the lines in this song about it took on particular significance for me at least in the 1980s.

    Now the Wall is gone and so are The Sex Pistols, though the Berlin Wall actually lasted longer…

    Nevertheless, the “cultural” legacy of The Sex Pistols lingered on well after the actual demise of the band.

    Whatever one may think of their music, they were a catalyst for many great acts that followed.

    Paul

  • Ringo Starr – “Photograph”, “You’re Sixteen” And “Six O’Clock”

    "Ringo" by Ringo Starr (1973)

    In 1974 while visiting my older brother in Invercargill at the very bottom of New Zealand’s South Island, I bought the Ringo Starr album “Ringo”, featuring the single “Photograph”, which went to No. 1 in America.

    Another song from the album, also a Number 1 hit in the USA, was “You’re Sixteen”.

    I also rather like “Six O’Clock”, penned by Paul McCartney.

    Here is the album version of “Photograph”, which was co-written by another former member of The Beatles, George Harrison, and produced by Richard Perry:

    I’m not sure when this live version of “Photograph” was performed, it is Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band, featuring John Entwistle of The Who on bass, Billy Preston on keyboards and Ringo’s son Zak Starkey on drums (at least I think it is, I had to change the video, this one is 1995 apparently):

    As both John Entwistle and Billy Preston are no longer alive, it must have been a while ago.

    And here is “Six O’Clock”, not a hit, but I like it:

    I have found an interesting connection with Ringo Starr: a fellow (earlier) graduate of Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, the late Dave Jordan, wrote one of the songs on his 1976 album “Rotogravure”.

    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

  • Harry Nilsson – “Without You”, “One”, “Everybody’s Talkin’” and “I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City”

    Cover of 1971 Harry Nilsson album "Nilsson Schmilsson"

    The Harry Nilsson song that stands out in my mind is his version of the Badfinger song “Without You”, which went to Number 1 across the charts (U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland…) in 1971.

    “Without You”

    For a long time Harry Nilsson, who became close friends with the Beatles (in particular John Lennon, with whom he collaborated to produce the 1974 album Pussy Cats”, and Ringo Starr) was better known as a songwriter than a singer.

    Especially among other artists, and many of his songs are more familiar in other versions, such as the Three Dog Night hit “One”.

    Here is Harry Nilsson’s own version of his song “One”:

    Nilsson, who died in 1994, was not only successful at providing other musicians with songs, he is also known in theatre and as a provider of film music.

    Most well known here is perhaps his singing of “Everybody’s Talkin’” in the 1969 movie “Midnight Cowboy starring John Voight and Dustin Hoffman.

    “Everybody’s Talkin’”:

    Here are the opening scenes of “Midnight Cowboy” underscored by “Everybody’s Talkin’”:

    Nilsson had actually written his Top Ten hit “I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City” as a contender for the movie:

    A few years ago (2006) there was a documentary “Who is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)”.

    I guess there is a reason “everybody’s talkin’” about him.

    Paul

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