My Seventies Music

Tag: Seventies

  • Mi-Sex – “Graffitti Crimes”, “Computer Games” and “But You Don’t Care”

    Album cover of "Graffitti Crimes" by New Zealand band Mi-Sex (1979)

    Mi-Sex was a top New Zealand band that went to Australia in the late Seventies and had a lot of success there, culminating in their first album “Graffitti Crimes”, featuring the title track as well as songs like the Australian No. 1 single “Computer Games” and their recent other single from 1979, “But You Don’t Care”.

    I remember their predecessor band Father Thyme playing at dances in the “Old Woolroom” at Massey University in about 1977 or 1978.

    I distinctly remember they played “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” by Pink Floyd – or maybe it was “Welcome To The Machine” from the same album (not so distinct after all…), and I also remember chatting to the bass player, Don Martin, in the breaks.

    Mi-Sex, however, played quite a different style, quite New Wave, and when I was planning the 1980 Massey University Student Orientation (two weeks in February-March when term started in New Zealand after the summer vacation), I tried to hire them for a festival we were running – for NZ$10,000, a lot more than Father Thyme had commanded.

    Unfortunately they were already booked for that time, so it didn’t happen, and I had to be content with buying their album, which I think I bought in Germany, having gone there a couple of weeks after Orientation ended to write my M.A. thesis.

    As I said, the album, released in July 1979, was called “Graffitti Crimes”, here’s the title track:

    One of my favourites is the 1979 single “But You Don’t Care”:

    And finally the hit “Computer Games”, which wasn’t on all versions of the album:

    Mi-Sex disbanded in 1984, and unfortunately lead singer Steve Gilpin died after a car accident on his way home from a gig in 1991.

    But their music and the memory live on.

    Paul

  • John Paul Young – “Love Is In The Air”

    I’ll be quite honest – “Love Is In The Air” by John Paul Young used to really get on my nerves!

    But as I suppose it can be considered part of the legacy of the Seventies – it was a disco hit in 1977-1978 – I thought I’d include it here.

    John Paul Young was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and emigrated to Australia with his family, arriving on Australia Day (26 January) in 1962.

    “Love Is In The Air” was written by former The Easybeats members Vanda & Young, who also provided him with a number of other songs, and who played a role in the development of Australian hard rock band AC/DC (more on that another time).

    So without further ado, here’s “Love Is In The Air” from John Paul Young:

    Nuff said, i.e. I can’t think of anything else to say about this one…

    Paul

  • Gary Moore – “Wishing Well”, “Parisienne Walkways”, “Don’t Believe A Word” And “Still Got The Blues (For You)”

    Cover of 1979 Gary Moore album "Back On The Streets"
    As I mentioned previously, British (actually Northern Irish) rocker and guitar legend Gary Moore has made the Free track “Wishing Well” very much his own, and in fact, until the other day, I always thought he wrote it!

    Here is his studio version of “Wishing Well”

    This is Gary Moore playing “Wishing Well” live in Belfast, Northern Ireland (his home town) in 1984:

    And live in Sheffield, England, in 2007, as far as I can work out (in any case it’s Monsters Of Rock):

    In this 1979 clip Gary Moore plays a song by (and with) Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, “Parisienne Walkways”, which was included on his 1979 album “Back On The Streets”:

    As a contrast, here he plays another Phil Lynott track from 1976, “Don’t Believe A Word”, also on the “Back On The Streets” album from 1979:

    Anf finally, though written well after the Seventies, “Still Got The Blues (For You)”:

    I think this is probably my favourite Gary Moore song.

    What’s yours?

    Paul

    Update: Gary Moore died in February 2011. R.I.P. Gary, your sound will be remembered for a long time.

  • Linda Ronstadt – “When Will I Be Loved”, “You’re No Good”, “Blue Bayou”, “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” and “First Cut Is The Deepest”

    Linda Ronstadt single cover "Blue Bayou"
    Linda Ronstadt was a name you heard a lot in the Seventies, her biggest hits included “When Will I Be Loved”, “You’re No Good” and “Blue Bayou”.

    By coincidence, these are just about the only ones of her many songs I can recall…

    I found a couple more that I recognise though, but I can’t say now whether it’s just the songs themselves that are familiar or Linda Ronstadt’s versions of them!

    Songs like “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” and the Cat Stevens number “First Cut Is The Deepest”, best known in the Rod Stewart version.

    Whatever Linda Ronstadt sings, with her powerful voice she certainly makes it her own.

    Here are some of those songs –

    “When Will I Be Loved”, live in 1977:

    From the same concert in Atlanta, Georgia, the quieter track “It Doesn’t Matter Any More”, featuring Linda Ronstadt accompanying herself on acoustic guitar:

    “You’re No Good”, on the Midnight Special (with an introduction by Jose Feliciano):

    This is probably the Linda Ronstadt track I like the best, once again from that 1977 concert in Atlanta, “Blue Bayou”:

    And finally, “First Cut Is The Deepest”:

    “I’m going back in time…”

    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:

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