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Showing posts with label In the 1970s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label In the 1970s. Show all posts

Sunday, March 8, 2020

70s Music Chart January 3rd 1970

Here are some brief news events that take you back to January 1970.   It was a time when the official population of the United States of America reached a grand total of  two hundred and three million and three hundred thousand odd. And sticking to the American point in sports Superbowl IV: Kansas City Chiefs beat Minnesota Vikings, 23-7.

The war in Biafra which was also known as the Nigerian Civil war had been going since 1967. Nigeria was formed by the British decades before and when they left in 1960 it became a civil war over religious and territorial  claims. With more British involvement the war came to an end after a December 1969 battle. The British at the time seemed to support one side only, and the small state of Biafra was engulfed back into Nigeria. The cost in human life for this war may be as high as three million people. There in the background of the dispute of course was oil.   It was the month that the US set off a nuclear bomb in the Nevada desert, and the US shows the film version of MASH at the cinemas starring Donald Sutherland. The Robert Altman film was set in Korea, but rang a big bell with Americans still suffering the problems in Vietnam. The film  also starred Robert Duvall and Eliot Gould.

 January 1970 Russia responds to the US NEVADA bomb with their own at Semipalitinsk.   Gadaffi becomes Libya’s Prime Minster and  in one form or another continued to rule Libya into 2011. His country would always be linked with terrorism and a dictatorship, he was never afraid to rub the British or the US the wrong way, and he usually won too.   London Heathrow welcomes the first commercial landing of the new Jumbo jet the 747. It was the month that Rhodesia claimed independence from the UK by Ian Smith making it a Rhodesian republic after eighty years of British involvement. Smith said  "Today is not such a tremendous day for us Rhodesians. Our Independence Day is the great day. Rhodesia did not want to seize independence from Britain. It was forced upon us." Rhodesia  stayed a republic throughout the 1970s, right up to 1979, when it became the African state of Zimbabwe. Ian Smith died in 2007. “Ian Smith lived an exemplary family life and in private was a down-to-earth, modest man. Ian Smith was not corrupt nor was he a megalomaniac. However whilst Ian Smith acted in what he thought were the best interests of then Rhodesia he made some disastrous political decisions as Prime Minister which directly contributed to the trauma that Zimbabwe is suffering from today... The policies of his Rhodesia Front party radicalized black nationalists and directly spawned the violent and fascist rule of Zanu PF.” David Coltartmember of the Zimbabwe Parliament (House of Assembly and Senate) since 2000.   We had a few well known deaths too in January 1970. The pioneer of quantum  mechanics Max Born, David McKay the president of the Mormon church.   Born in January 1970 was the actress Mini Driver famous for such films as Goodwill Hunting, another actress to share that month of birth was Heather Graham who appeared in the film Austin Powers:The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Let's take a look at the pop charts from January 3rd 1970, the music charts in the 1970s has the legacy of the 1960s included, so this makes it a very special chart indeed.
Let's look at the stars and the songs that we sang and danced to when the music charts meant something very important. These charts represent the British charts as broadcast by the BBC. The charts were compiled by the British Market Research Bureau. Part One Number Twenty To Number Eleven

Saturday, March 7, 2020

70s Artist Watch: Alice Cooper





Long before we entered the sensational 1970s, Vincent Furnier joined a group called Earwigs, a Beatles type group, and after a few name changes to the group, Vincent was inspired to call the group a name ”Alice Cooper”, who was Alice a person or a band?. The demon style dress was inspired by witches, Barbarella the film with Jane Fonda, also a bit of Emma Peel from the cult British TV programme "The Avengers" which was a huge hit in the US, and was part of that decades "British Invasion”, following on the tail end of the 1960s Beatles, Rolling stones and others.



Seventies Music: Football-Related Songs


1970


Back Home by the England football team
On the 16th May 1970 the "football song" was born with this sing along record from the England football team. I remember as a boy scout in Wales singing this with all my heart. Needless to say my singing did not help, as England in no way repeated the 1966 win.
But football music, amazingly had a hold on the British charts through the music of 1970s.


Some of the lyrics
Back home, they'll be thinking about us
When we are far away
Back home, they'll be really behind us
In every game we play
They'll share every goal we are scoring
Out there
We will still hear them roaring
And we'll give all we've got to give
For the folks back home

1971

Nice One Cyril by the Spurs football club (The cockerel chorus)

I have to admit it, but I think I would say this is my favourite football novelty record of the  hits of the 70s.
The record was to spur Spurs on with its huge star Cyril Knowles(Died 1991)
It was also an advertising campaign for bread too.

See the video here

Good Old Arsenal by Arsenal football team

Done to the tune of Rule Britannia, well sort of.

1972

Blue Is the Colour Chelsea football team

The first record I remember that was for a specific home team, as opposed to a country team.
The song included in its cast football legends Alan Hudson, and Peter Osgood.

See the video here


Leeds United by Leeds United

Gone and forgotten, and football music is rid of it.

1974

Easy Easy by Scotland world cup squad.

Must be the English in me but I do not recall it at all. 




1977

We Can Do It Liverpool football club

I suppose the Liverpool fans loved it, but honestly it was a terrible record.

1978

Ola Ola by the Scotland World Cup squad
With strong vocals from Rod Stewart , this record rubbed the noses of the English who did not make it into the World cup that year. Honestly despite its pedigree, it is a forgettable record of  the music of the 70s.





Some of the lyrics
When the blue shirts run out in Argentina
Our hearts will be beating like a drum
And your nerves are so shattered you can't take it
Automatically you reach out for the run
But there really isn't any cause for panic
Ally's army had it all under control
It's not merely speculations
It's not just imagination
To bring the World Cup home is Scotland's goal




Allys Tartan Army by Andy Cameron

Well this was a much more fun record for the Scotland team, and only got to no.6 in the charts, for the Scots comedian and TV and radio presenter and it was re-written for the Irish team in 1990, well you cannot keep a good record down?

Argentinian Melody by San Jose featuring Rodriguez Argentina

This was the world cup theme for the BBC for that year.
An instrumental all the way through.

Watch the video here



We Got the Whole World in Our Hands( Nottingham Forest) by Paper Lace

Paper Lace a few years before had a huge No1 hit with"Billy Don’t Be a Hero", and they were discovered on a TV talent programme. After this record their time was up.

Football or soccer, depending where you live in the world, is so linked to music. Maybe the 60s anthems that are sung on the terraces every Saturday pay homage to that.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

70s Artist Watch; Gary Numan



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Gary Webb born in 1958, he became Gary Numan just from picking his name from the phone book and made his impact late in the 1970s with "Are Friends Electric?", which he performed with his group Tubeway Army. The song was classified New Wave and it was something new for sure. I do not recall anything like it before and not much after either and that sound of synthesizers will always be associated with Gary Numan and New Wave and the best of the 70s.


Sunday, February 23, 2020

1970s Music Part Two



More nostalgia now, as we bring you more 70s music montage, sing a long.



70s Music Artist Watch: Judy Collins








This lady is pure music, she has been involved in so many types of music in her career, that its hard to put a label on her, so I wont. Suffice to say she seems at home in pop,classical music,folk and seems to have been influenced by everyone who is everyone during the 1960s, including Pete Seeger, Dylan,Joni Mitchell and on and on it goes.

After some albums in the 1960s, she moved effortlessly into the hits of 70s and appeared on the Muppet show too, singing "I know An Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly", along too with appearances on the children's TV programme "Sesame Street".



The Muppet Show appearance.


A former big smoker and a sufferer of Bulimia, and two marriages, Judy was and is a lady that really gets into life, especially during the 60s when she was an activist in many organisations.

Her album in 1971 was "Living" which had a song by Stacy Keach an actor who appeared in many films including "Jesus of Nazareth". Judy was having an affair with him at the time of making the album.

Another album in 1972 that included "Both Sides Now" and "Amazing Grace" which also appeared as her first hit single in the 1970 , and also from the album 1970 " Whales and Nightingales" with contributions from writers like Joan Baez and Pete Seeger and the one and only Bob Dylan.

Other hits in 1971 "Open the Door" and "Cook with Honey" in 1973, written by Valerie Carter and came from here album "True Stories and Other Dreams", another hit of the 70s.

But the biggest hit around the world in 1975 and in some regions 1977 was the "Send in the Clowns" from the album "Judith"The song from the 1973 musical "A Little Night Music" and was written by the great Stephen Sondheim and was also recorded by the man himself Frank Sinatra. Her version of the song was Song of the Year at the Grammy awards.

Incidentally the record of the year at that Grammy awards was "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain and Tenille. See video.

"Send in the Clowns", according to Sondheim, was really just about fools, and not directly related to Clowns, however when it appeared on the BBC Top of The Pops, the producers must have misread the title, as it was introduced with smoke, pretending to be "Clouds", so some people believed it was called "Send in the Clouds".

In fact one drunken night in the late 70s I remember phoning up a radio station with my friend Debbie, to ask the DJ what the title was. We did not get to air, but he did confirm on air it was "Clowns".

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Part of the lyrics
Isn't it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air.
Send in the clowns.
Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can't move.
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.
Just when I'd stopped opening doors,
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours,
Making my entrance again with my usual flair,
Sure of my lines,
No one is there.

1977 Judy released her album "So Early in the Spring" which included many of songs penned by herself, with help again from some famous friends like Tom Paxton and Leonard Cohen.

Judy Collins talks to Larry King on CNN



                



1970s Music Part One




Test your memory in this 70s music compilation, and just see how many you can remember.