Odds and Sods....

I know, I know. I am a boring old f*rt, but I've long been convinced that the early 70's were the creative hotbed that gave rise to everything we listen to and enjoy now, and yet so much is overlooked these days. Here are a few of my favourite oft-overlooked tracks fron the early 70's - so thoughtfully upped onto youtube by people with more time than I have. Enjoy.

Stay With Me - The Faces

This was my first proper single, and it had a deep influence on me. Note that in these days, Rod Stewart was 'just' the vocalist, not the lycra-panted disco diva of later years. And it was OK and a bit cool to like the Faces in the early 70's.

I never really went for the heavy end of the rock spectrum (hell, we didn't even know that heavy rock existed then, only later did the name tags and genres come) but I remember liking the sound of the guitar. And I've stuck with Ronnie Wood as my favourite guitarist through all these years simply for that slide guitar sound. And in later years, for being a role model for growing old disgracefully. Anyone who can claim to have persuaded Keith Richards to climb a tree that he subsequently fell out of is OK in my book....

Water - The Who

The 'Oo were the soundtrack to my early teens, and Charlton in 1976 was probably responsible for my slight hearing issues today. This song, an outtake from Who's Next, eventually made it onto the B-side of 5:15, which is how it is a favourite...

In the Street - Big Star

This is probably better known as a cover version by Cheap Trick and used as the theme to "That seventies show". I never felt I was swimming against the tide with my taste in music, but I could never understand why Big Star weren't bigger than they were. But then again, I suppose you can say that about so many bands through the years - perhaps they fell behind with the payola payments.

Get Down and Get With it - Slade

(The version on Slade Alive Volume 1). If anyone ever questions what was so great about Slade, play them this track - loud. If they don't smile, they aren't human. Don't try this with pets, obviously, as they aren't. And small children, whilst human, will be frightened at Noddy's vocal equivalent of an air-raid.

So much has been written about Sir Noddy, nothing I can say can add to the man's vocal genius. I want him knighted.

Bless The Weather - John Martyn

Sadly, John is no longer with us. This is the finest legacy anyone could leave behind. A true pathfinder - which is a polite way of saying he was way ahead of his time. I quite often think when I listen to guitar work that I could have a go at playing it, but John's work just issues me with a 'cease and desist' order from the first bar; I just enjoy listening to it instead. So should more people. For further listening, try the album 'Bless the weather' and maybe 'Solid Air'.

Please Stay - Marvin Gaye.

Another dead star, here at the absolute peak of his prowess. I grew up with my Mum's copy of this album (which is a bit freaky, thinking about this - either I had a right-on parent, or she didn't listen closely to the lyrics...) and I never got to dismiss the beauty of the arrangements as cheesy like so many other songs of the genre. It also provided me with two things: the first is a lifelong love of soul music, and the second was the basis for every shag tape I ever made. Hmmmm - a separate blog I feel.

Halleluhwah - Can

Hmmm, Happy Mondays in 1971. Well, perhaps Sean's mind altering intake turned him into a time traveller? It does get a bit Interstellar Overdrive after a bit, but persevere with it.

Superstar - The Carpenters

There is a version of this by Sonic Youth, and much as I am a fan of the dissembling noodle-fest of Kim and Thurston (first name terms there for irony, OK?), this song reminds me of my first pair of flares and learning to walk on my first pair of platforms without looking like a complete dork. Tough call, and more praise should be due to those who mastered it. I believe that as a sop to parental concern about the damage to my feet, they were from Clark's and were a 4 inch heel, a 1 inch sole and had uppers of ox-blood, black and burnt ochre. Hardly peacock colouration, but subtle enough to get away with them for school. The song is a perfect piece of pop orchestration, and is still evocative of the era today, which is a powerful attribute. You couldn't say that about Peters and Lee or Vicky Leandros, could you now?

The Bewlay Brothers - David Bowie

I think this was the first time I listened to a song and was impressed with the wordplay in the lyrics. My desk lid at school had this tatooed/inscribed into it in turquoise ink. Took me months and then I had to move classrooms. Gah...

That Lady - The Isley Brothers

This song has the dirtiest fuzz guitar sound going. I've never found it anywhere else. Anyway, another parental record, I think I'm trying to endow them with good taste, but really you should see the rest of the collection. This track then - a bit of vocals between one of the longest guitar solos I have ever heard. A toss up between this and Summer Breeze really, but this is the road less travelled I think. An interesting point is that in 1981 I furnished my old Russian Bouquet bandmate Roy with a tape with this on, and some years later, he gave us a pastiche of the solo in 'Miss You Blind'...two Ern's don't make Hay while the sun shines. Or something like that....

Hypnotised - Fleetwood Mac

It might be just me, but the early seventies Fleetwood Mac seemed directionless - not blues, or rock, yet not pop. Small wonder then that there was an 'alternative' Fleetwood Mac put together and almost sent out to tour by their management. This track, from 1973, shows that it wasn't just the arrival of Buckingham and Nicks that sent Fleetwood Mac scampering for the FM market, that was the direction they seemed to be experimenting with on this track.

So, before they disappeared in a flurry of cocaine and divorce lawyers, this track (and 'Come a little bit closer' from a later album) showed their eventual direction years before they took it.

Roxette - Dr Feelgood

As a one time resident of a tributary of what is now fondly called the Canvey Delta by idiots who never properly understood, and also mispronounced Sarfenonsea, I was never allowed - yessss, too young - into the pubs that Mickey Jupp and his ilk were playing in - even with the platforms. I remember being ejected from one (The Jellicoe? Or the Grand?) after me and a few chums attempted to watch Dr Feelgood (who were so loud we just stood outside and listened). Roxette was my first introduction to stripped bare R&B. God bless, Lee.

Marketing Consultant FAIL

My favourite picture of last year. I know it isn't a term widely used over here, but most us know what a Diaper in America is?

I wonder if this is the start of a new line in meat products?

Pamper's Pork?

Dr Whites' Duck?

Huggy's Pull-up Lamb?

Anyway, I laughed until I stopped. And now I am sharing it with you. Wave at the van if you see it out and about in East Anglia.

Whither the violin in Rock?

Where has the electric (and acoustic) violin gone in rock? And why has it disappeared?

The 70's were a hotbed of experimental sounds and saw the violin accepted into the fray - largely, I suspect as a result of John Cale's viola noodlings on the early Velvet Underground LPs. Jim Lea of Slade achieved a number 1 with "Cos I Luv You" with a jaunty violin lead, whilst at around the same time, Daryl Way was spicing up Curved Air's prog-tastic offerings (note to self - no crude Sonja Kristina gags, or indeed references to Stewart Copeland's brief sojourn as the drummer), and the very kings of glam rock, Roxy Music were rarely seen live without Eddie Jobson on the violin ("Out Of The Blue" on "Country Life" is a great example). Cockney Rebel's Judy Teen was based around a pizzicato violin and as for ELO - well, let's not, shall we?

It seemed that every 70's band had a solo violin (or viola) - Caravan, UK, The Who, Zappa, King Crimson, Hawkwind - until Kevin Rowland did his Celtic nonsense in the early 80's and then nothing. Why? Should we blame Kevin for the demise of the violin (although they were 'fiddling' in a folk style more than using it in a rock context), but is there another reason, perhaps?

Well, I blame the rise and subsequent dominance of the synthesiser. Suddenly, every note that needed infinite sustain was available at the tweak of a knob and the flick of a switch. It is odd really, that the violin didn't really continue it's journey in rock - an instrument easily learnt and widely taught in schools should really have achieved greater prominence.

Did the association with prog-rock dinosaurs stick it in a coffin as punk dawned? Did Mr Rowland carry it to the church? Did Billy Currie of Ultravox lower it into the ground on "Vienna"?

I miss it.

Born Free and everywhere he is in chains

As it is over 30 years since the fateful winter of '79 and the cabinet minutes of the time are being made available, I thought I'd drag out possibly the most politically charged album of recent years out and give it a listen with fresh ears. Well, quite jaded ears, really - I've been listening to the revelations about James Callaghan's last days in office.

JC was about to legislate against Trade Unionism using the Canadian model, mobilise the Army against picket lines, and generally clamp down on everything and everyone that he had allowed to walk all over the government since he had taken over from Wilson in 1976. And try to win an election at the same time. Poor sod, he didn't stand a chance. They were amateurs, by Hattersley's own admission.

What interests me about this era is that I was there, and I was becoming politically aware all through 1978, although I wouldn't be old enough to vote at the next election. But politics isn't just about the vote, it is about sensing the mood of the country, and it was in a pretty foul state at the time. I was becoming aware of this quickly as this 'realpolitik' was landing quite nastily on my doorstep.

On the radio of the time - 1978 - The Pistols, The Clash and the Damned were doing whatever they did to make punk that bit scarier to the older generation, but only Tom Robinson had a grasp of the politics of the time. Listen to it closely, and it is no wonder that the album was placed on a censored list by Capital Radio. I'm no social historian, but I was there and I remember all too well the feeling of radical change in the air. It was palpable in late 1978. I had to leave school and go out to work to help support my family because of pay restraints and rampant inflation (admittedly, my set of circumstances were unique, widowed mother and 4 siblings to bring up) were threatening to erode what little income we had. Everyone signed up to the (laughably named) "Social Contract" (Rousseau turned in his grave as they robbed, one assumes), yet we got nothing - literally - back in return, except higher prices and fewer services. One of JC's worries of the time was that there would be a marxist coup. I wonder how close to the precipice of revolution the country was at that time? It certainly felt like "Something Better Change" as Hugh Cornwell sang at the time.

"The National Front was getting awful strong" sang Tom, and he was right - it was in the same position as the BNP is today. The only thing he didn't foresee was Thatcher jumping so far to the right that she picked up the NF sympathisers and effectively neutered that particular menace's threat. And if history is to repeat itself, is 'dave' (capitalisation intended) going to swing to the right just before this election to neuter the BNP?

Listen to 'Power In The Darkness' and tell me if you have ever heard anything as overtly political since? TRB were regarded as 'lightweight' by the music press. Oh sure, they were Birchill's darlings for a few months, but they were never quite The Clash, whose political sensibilities extended to being "Lost in a Supermarket" and covering Junior Murvin songs badly. No, once the press realised Tom meant everything he wrote, he was consigned to live in the field of tall poppies, and sure enough, by 1979 they were a spent force.

Sleevenotes, for the younger readers : "Supercharged Fizzies on the Asphalt" refers to the Yamaha FS1e, a popular 49cc moped of the time (although supercharging one would be problematic, at best...) and "The Kids are coming in from the cold" refers to a Ready-Brek (an oat based breakfast cereal of the time) advert. I am sure there are more cultural references, but that'll do for starters....

Tom Robinson was a powerful antagonism in my nascent political thinking, but I wonder - where are the outspoken disaffected of today? Where and who is their voice? Even the MPs that used to speak out - Clare Short, for example - have all succumbed to the whip. Where is our voice these days - are we truly reduced to only being able to wield a vote at the ballot box now?

Thirty years on though - Tom's words appear prophetic. "Whitehall up against the wall" was how it turned out in the winter of discontent, but does whitehall have us up against that same wall now?