Another New Zealand band in the Seventies I remember was a young outfit called Golden Harvest with their single “I Need Your Love”.
I don’t recall whether they had any other successes, but this one sticks in my mind.
In any case the chorus is definitely catchy and I found myself singing it this evening, having located the video a couple of days ago, so I thought I’d just put it up today.
I also have no idea whether the track ever got any airplay outside New Zealand, so this may be completely new to you.
For some reason the name Golden Harvest makes me think of a commercial fishing boat down the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island. I’m pretty sure it was a boat that I saw down there once.
In this video of Golden Harvest playing “I Need Your Love” on New Zealand TV show Ready To Roll (of which I also have fond memories, as with Radio With Pictures, that used to come on at about 11 o’clock at night) you can see a bit of fancy guitar work – the guy plays it with his teeth…
I could listen to Carlos Santana playing “Samba Pa Ti” for hours, and yet for years I didn’t even know what the song was called – I just knew that I loved it!
Actually I could listen to anyone playing it, as long as they played it well.
My main Seventies memory associated with this song, off the 1970 Santana album “Abraxas”, is the Awapuni Tavern in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
We used to go to all kinds of student functions there, but also just to hear whoever was playing. It was quite a way out of town, so you had to make an effort to go there.
Usually it was worth it…
So here it is, “Samba Pa Ti” by Santana, the original:
Here’s a live version of “Samba Pa Ti” in 1988, in Zagreb, Croatia:
And “Samba Pa Ti” live in Carlos Santana’s home country of Mexico:
I particularl enjoy the way the song starts off really slowly and then builds to a crescendo.
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.
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.
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…
“Cry Baby” was one of Janis Joplin’s iconic numbers, full of the energy and passion that characterised all her music.
Janis Joplin only just made it into the Seventies – she died 40 years ago in 1970, on October 4th, aged 27.
But her music kept her name alive through the Seventies and beyond nonetheless.
Here’s a live video from that year, “Cry Baby”, filmed in 1970 in Toronto:
My first encounter with Janis Joplin was in 1971, as a young teenager, when I heard one of the last two songs she had recorded, less than a year earlier: “Mercedes Benz” on the posthumously published album “Pearl”.
I was staying at someone’s place in Wellington, New Zealand, waiting for a lift the few hundred miles to my home – the younger brother of a friend of my parents.
Many years later I was to meet up with him again in Frankfurt, Germany, where I also lived at the time, but almost all I remember of his flat in Wellington was “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me, a Mercedes Benz, my friends all drive Porsches, I must make, amends”, and that album cover…
Janis Joplin's posthumously published album ""Pearl"
By coincidence, as I was locating this video, I discovered it was Janis Joplin’s birthday just a day or two ago (depending on where you live): January 19th.
So here’s a belated “Happy Birthday” Janis. I see you got your Porsche in the end…
“Rocky Mountain Way” by Joe Walsh of The James Gang fame has always been one of my favourites from the Seventies.
Definitely a touch harder than the “America” tune we had yesterday….
If you’re into blues/slide guitar and all kinds of effects, then this piece from the album “The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get” is for you.
In fact I like it so much that I decided to do videos of more than one version today. 🙂
So first here he is after moving on from The James Gang, with his band Barnstorm, still looking quite young:
In 1977 Joe played “Rocky Mountain Way” with the Eagles, to whom he brought a somewhat harder touch… (this was the year of their giant hit album “Hotel California”). Unfortunately the video of that one has been removed “due to a copyright claim by Eaglesrecordingcompany”…
So instead, much more recently, here Joe still shows how it’s done:
I first heard this song and the album “The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get” with its iconic cover at a student party in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Actually I don’t remember the rest of the album, but these guitar riffs and the image of the old biplane have stayed with me ever since…
Hope you like it too!
Paul
P.S. While updating the videos I just came accross a collection of over 75 Joe Walsh tracks you might like to check out, including “Life’s Been Good” (warning though, there are ads for things like Heinz ketchup in between some of the tracks!):
