When I’m not admiring my many degrees, being superior, dissing journos from The Australian, arguing that aliens abducted Marilyn Monroe and took her to a planet where she’d finally get the love and respect she deserved, I like to listen to music from the 1970s. In case you don’t recall, the 1970s were the best decade EVAH (superior blog speak for “ever”) for fashion, music and politics. How could anyone not love flares, Rod Stewart singing “Maggie May” and Bob Hawke in his union leader days. Incidentally, being divorced from the real world is really lovely. Now please excuse me while I get my servant to fetch my slippers, pipe and a copy of The Australian.
Hmmm, the cat never does what she’s told.
Anyway, the clip features Marianne Faithfull singing “Broken English”.
My cats flatly refuse to bring me a cup of tea.
I love 70s music too Darlene. It’s got some really awesome echo chamber effects going on.
Marianne Faithfull! Ah she transcends the decades!
Yes, cats are actually quite smug and superior and not given to bringing cups of tea
Haven’t quite worked out what it is that cats do, but I suspect it’s similar to writing opinion columns.
Love an echo chamber effect. Hope you’re having a good Friday evening. Your avatar is so chic.
Indeed she does, Kim. Broken English the LP could’ve been released in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s etc. Just an extraordinary work.
Many thanks for your priceless gift, Darlene.
Words fail me.
Darlene @4: “Broken English the LP could’ve been released in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s etc.”
Indeed. Could have come through, any time
Rhythm section for that one fell through a time warp from 10 years in the future.
Flares? I only like the hot, bright, shiny ones.
Rod Stewart: give me Rod singing Morning Dew in 1967, any day. Before he became a travesty. Found a youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se8OmYL5br0 but not embedding the link since it seems to wreck the preview.
Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Van der Graaf Generator, Yes, Genesis with Gabriel, all in their prime. The singer-songwriters: Bowie at his best, John Martyn, Roy Harper hitting their peaks. Nick Drake still alive. Too few high-profile women (Marianne and Joni and Janis honourable exceptions): Kate Bush and Bjork still at school…
And in My Youth In The West That Is Forgotten ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H the UK, real Free Festivals. Glastonbury when you could actually go there. Stonehenge before the Beanfield.
Back in the mundane world, the alternating double-act Prime Ministers: Heath of the Heaving Shoulders, Conductor, Yachtsman and mentor of She Who Must Not Be Named, and pipe-chomping Wilson of the White-Hot Technology. Dinner by TV-free candlelight due to rolling power cuts in the Oil Crisis. Walking to school in the dark in the Double Summer Time Experiment. No security cameras telling you to pick up your litter.
Above all, the music.
There has been some good stuff since, but…
The derivative 70s? Yeah, OK. Rick Wakeman (before he turned grumpy), ELP and Black Sabbath did turn me on; but …, hey, is what turns me on their treatments of Bach’s Toccata etc in D minor, “Did those feet in ancient times” (best ever version) and “Danse Macabre”? Oh yeh, and Pink Floyd.
I’m thirteen. Sunday arvo, top of the American pops on radio (because my “little sister” demands it to balance my classical addiction … When your baby leaves you Instant goose pimples! In the next couple of weak-at-the-knee minutes I hear music the likes of which I’ve never heard before. A stunningly different sound. Melbourne Olympics will come & go, we’ll be bitten alive by Mozzies standing/ lying around scanning the skies for the moving pin-pricks of light that are Sputnik, Telstar, Yuri Gargarin, Valentina Tereskova; before I feel that exciting skin chill, until …
Wild, stunning guitars herald in “Surfing” Sound: Pipeling, Bombora … the soundtrack to “55 Days in Peking”. The 60s have arrived.
1964, Beatles Mania! 1965 I’m in a dinky boring little town, no TV, listening to the radio … I once had a girl … Those vocal intervals raise the greatest goose pimples ever! The first of the R&B 60s; but by no means the last. And not just The Beatles. Fans sleep out in queues waiting for the first copies of every new album; because somewhere on every new one will be a tone, a cadence, an interval, a riff, an instrumental arrangement we’ve ever heard before. On a cool June morning in 1967 it will be Skip the light fandango /Turn cartwheels cross the floor. Sure it owes something to JS Bach’s “Wachte auf!” and John Donne’s poetry, but this JSB-JD tragic knows “owes” is all. Pop, not just for screaming kids but classical buffs as well - born with “Norwegian Wood” - has come of age. The Doors channel Aldous Huxley and William Blake.
It seems the whole world wants to go “to San Francisco” wearing flowers in its hair & those boots “made for walking”. Listening to copies of “Sergeant Pepper” sent by OS friends (Oz’s are stuck in the Suez Canal, closed by the Israeli-Arab “7 Weeks War”) we know that it has changed the nature (and covers) of Albums. Whispers from USA are of raunchy hippy “Hair” - Rock Opera has arrived! Saturday night at the pictures, “Blow up” blows our minds.
Meanwhile, our PM wants to go “All the way with LBJ”, while young and old take to the street, marching, sitting on tramtracks. Bolte tells motorists to “Run the bastards down”.
1968, I’m marooned in Central Qld when youth takes to Paris’s streets and topples De Gaulle; everyone heads for Prague for the “Spring of Freedom”. But spring dies as the tanks roll in - a grim omen for a grim year. The Vietnam War drags on, claiming LB Johnson’s presidency. Dr ML King and Bobby Kennedy are gunned down, and the awful “Tricky Dicky” Nixon is elected USA President, “Macarthur Park is melting in the dark…” and “The Graduate” shocks staid audiences, while its sound-track changes the way music is used in non”Musical” films … it will take until “Ally McBeal for TV to adopt the genre.
Another year another posting to different wilds … The world stops to watch Armstrong take “One small step” on the Moon - we’ll have colonies there and on Mars by the end of the century for sure! The names on everyone’s lips are Jimmy & Janice, Jefferson Airplane & Grateful Dead, Creedence CR & Blood S&T, Santana & Sly, CSNY& The Who (Arlo & Joan Baez if you’re into folk}, and 60s’ euphoria peaks in Woodstock’s muddy fields … and dies along with so much of the 60s.
Suddenly it’s the 70s. “So it’s bye-bye Miss American Pie … The day the music died”.
70s music. Yeah. I still play the albums. But the “Greatest EVAH”??
Only if you missed one of the all-time greatest decades evah in the whole history of music - the 60s. YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!
Great comment Andy, Joni and Janis were queens. Old Rod was probably at his best with “The Killing of Georgie”, which was perhaps one of the first songs to discuss homophobic violence. But his even earlier stuff was good too.
Actually, there’s good music in every generation, just don’t really listen to anything but RN these days. Sigh.
Okay, okay, the 1960s. Great political and musical context to the times, Dee. Nothing beats Janis singing “Piece of my Heart”. The raw rage of the wronged woman and all the politics of the era.
Of course, Marianne sings John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” on her Broken English album. One of the angriest and most perceptive songs ever. That song was from 1970s, so it can be said to encompass both periods.
The Graduate actually shocked audiences, hey?
1976. patti smith. horses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3coSfks4rQ
patti was more for the kool kids.
the early seventies:
black dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl_h586Ep9M
rocket man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyha5dFtog4&feature=related
a whole post on david bowie and the seventies wouldn’t be enuff:
starman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4XanKGvr3w&feature=related
space oddity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhSYbRiYwTY
Patti is tourning out Australia shortly, Jo.
Yes, Patti was more for the kool kids. She was quite intense.
Good old Elton. He and ol’ Bernie wrote some classic songs in those early years: Rocket Man, Goodbye Norma Jean, Your Song etc
To show that I’m not a kool kid, I’d like to link to this beautiful song by Judy Tzuke:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDLfNkwLr1U
devil gate drive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vFTksaposs&feature=related
ballroom blitz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrBDivsSe3k
DeeCee, ,thanks for the memories (and a smile on my face). Darlene, please don’t be offended, but “Georgie” was from after Rod had turned into a wanker. He’s _never_ done anything since to equal what he did with the Small Faces, and when he worked for Jeff Beck.
Is Patti Smith coming again? Cool. The last time I saw her was in about 2000, when she was supporting Bob Dylan. She was great, but we bloody nearly walked out on His Bobness - muddy mix, too loud, not playing at his best.
sorry for the early 70’s walk down glam rock lane, just one last dodgy satin trousered hit.
oh, garth!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl1ydqS4bFQ&feature=related
the 70’s like every decade had a number of genres and scenes happening concurrently, disco and punk were supposedly in a death roll for the second half of the decade.
lou reed in sydney in 1974. the interview at the end is v. funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npqGHknpbyM&feature=related
love to love you baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ArZEFwRsY&feature=related
A couple of 1979 tunes that still sound fine
The Sports - Don’t throw Stones
Lenel Lovitch - Lucky Number
70s as bass-slapping-est music decade evah:
Brothers Johnson
Strawberry Letter 23 1977
Suzi Q, way to go. What an important role Ms Q played for women in rock.
Tee hee, so there is a pre-wanker and a post-wanker Rod.
Well, I still think some of the wanker Rod songs are good.
Saw an ad for Ms Smith in The Age this morning. Such an interesting gal.
“sorry for the early 70’s walk down glam rock lane, just one last dodgy satin trousered hit.”
Never apologise for an early 70’s walk down glam rock lane.
Both great songs, Ag. The Sports were so underrated. Not sure if Lene had another hit.
“Something tells me my Lucky Number’s gonna be changing soon Something tells me Lucky Number’s gonna be oweoweoweoweoweowe.”
And it was the 1970’s when we learnt that cool stuff actually comes from freaking brisbane:
know your product
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0jUZ9GdFc8
and not just freaking melburn:
shivers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toFF3OvBR94
Absolutely everything cool came out of Brisbane: the Saints, the Go-Betweens, ummm, the Saints, the Go-Betweens. Love that Nick Cave song…”I think I’ll just act bored instead and contain the blood I would’ve shed” (or something like that).
Gunna keep this 70’s music thread staying alive! Thanks for putting it up Darlene, I consequently spent most of last night on youtube. Memories…(1973).
Did you check out the ‘Love to Love You Baby’ clip @ 16 - forgot to mention that the main dancer in that clip is where the character of ‘Bob Downe’ must have been part-modelled on - too funny. “I Feel Love” is a better song and the clip has Giorgio banging away…but super daggy 70’s TV show dancing is hard to go past.
And always loved this one:
love don’t live here anymore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imKKClp8FTk
Well since, for reasons which surpass all understanding, this thread has suddenly been reawakened like The Mummy, here’s some classic 70s pop/dance I still fondly recall.
Wizened old pop pros with one last teenage disco opera left in them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJJQpSzDgC0
And what people forget about 70s disco bands is that quite a few were real bands who’d worked up the Gamble ‘n’ Huff sound in their own right. And sometimes with cool foxy bassists playing and singing cool foxy songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTgCUlw5ZrM.
Then there’s this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APtTBODUfd8
The original title was “Fuck You” as written by Nile and Bernie in high dudgeon late one night after being turned away from some club because they weren’t famous or well-suited enough at the time. One of America’s greatest ever songwriting and arranging teams certainly got their revenge there. Not to mention one of the all time great smooth and funky bass solos when you’re not having a bass solo - between 1.55 and 2.30 in the above clip.
And here’s one of Rogers and Edward’s masterpieces, an eternal wedding reception party standard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ2L4iPvdIk
For all America’s faults, it consistently produces the world’s best party and social bonding music.
And for those of you who do appreciate fine foxy ladies with take no shit attitude who can really play, here’s Taste Of Honey live.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUclIoNpPO0
Check the short but perfectly formed quitar solo played by a svelte afro amazon fron 1.57 onwards.
I defy anyone to provide a link to a sexier four and half minutes of a band live fronted by not one (1) but two (2) charismatic female performers. OK, at least Heart wrote 2 (two) hit singles compared to to Taste of Honey’s one (1). But Heart were Canadian and therefore had a sexiness bypass.
On the other hand, this does still hold up well as an actual song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyR-HmJS2qQ
However the Wilson sisters are no Janice Johnson and Carlita Dorhan when it comes to playing live.
Arrgh! Takes me back to “The Golden Dragon” in Suva in the late seventies, it does me hearties.
Also, I suspect I’m the only person on the whole planet who prefers the B side of the 7″ single of Rose Royce’s “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore”.
Which was “Over And Over”, a riproaring melange of rock and r’n'b with a charging guitar riff, funky drumming and full throttle vocals by Ms Rose Norwalt.
Sadly it does not seem to be accessible anywhere online. Though I’d loved to be proved wrong.
And speaking of Rose Royce, I’ve heard at first hand from some on screen in the production in question, that both the song and script for “Carwash” were written pretty much simultaneously and that the song had more lines.
Which didn’t stop the film from being a freewheeling improvisational and observational slice of deadpan urban comedy drama that still holds up bloody well now. And with a funking great soundtrack. Which is more than you say in any way of the Get Smart remake or anything by Mike Meyers lately.
Really. Watch Carwash again. It does scrub up well.
“I’m more man than you’ll ever be and more woman than you’ll ever get.”
Umm…that above was a quote from Carwash and not my signature line, you dig?
“Sadly it does not seem to be accessible anywhere online. Though I’d loved to be proved wrong.”
Do you run Soulseek Nabs?
Unlike lots of P2P networks, you seem to mostly run up against virus-free collections of well-named high-res files, and lots of folks with excellent collections.
Anyway, this is to play when me and the Lady Friend get married next summer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cetbFN4NvmM&feature=related
And this… well… this used to be pop music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zoi6O-cq9I
King Crimson were never cool, but among my favourites.
[Link]
They were, however, cooler than Van Der Graaf Generator. I think.
[Link]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM
Aw yeah. That’s what Ah’m talkin’ bout.
(h/t lgf)
“You abandoned me, love don’t live here anymore”. That song is on my iPod. Great tune. Dirty old Donna Summer, who I believe became a born-again Christian many years ago. Thanks, Jo. I love a bit of nostalgia.
Nabakov, I didn’t know that Rose Royce had another song besides Love Don’t Here Anymore
“I’m more man than you’ll ever be and more woman than you’ll ever get.”
Ouch, that’s got to hurt. Great line.
Of course, the best band of the 1970s (for my then demographic) were Abba.
Japerz - so Little Green Footballs are good for something eh?
That’s an awesome clip. Not a bad track either. My science-nerd hip-hop loving woman will surely be slotting into her award-winning youtube VJ set, somewhere between Silver Convention and Iron Maiden.