tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.comments2023-09-06T02:38:57.320-07:00Music Sounds Better With TwoLenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912525192415808946noreply@blogger.comBlogger245125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-28389880959174336382020-12-24T10:43:42.758-08:002020-12-24T10:43:42.758-08:00The concept of "manufactured outrages" i...The concept of "manufactured outrages" in the 1970s is interesting - certainly large swathes of the British Left (including, I would have thought, Corbyn & McDonnell both at the time and now) have always felt that the idea of a crisis at this point was certainly manufactured, that it was only the elite who were suffering and the mass were more comfortable and secure than in most other eras. I've had friends active on the Left at the time, separated from that sense of paranoia among the privileged (related to which, and to Thatcher, Diana, Cameron & Johnson, is an NME number two from the summer of 1976) who told me that they initially couldn't believe Thatcher could possibly get away with it, and only realised her motivations twenty years later when they read up on how frightened the ruling class were feeling.<br /><br />But the mass isn't exclusively white, and wasn't even then, and the Old Left's biggest fault is its tendency to write out of history what Britain's BAME population were going through, something which unlike the travails of the rich *is*, or at least should be, a natural concern of the Left. Some of the same people, alas, deliberately choose to forget what Savile et al did, because it doesn't fit their agenda and glossing up of history - that tendency very much comes to mind when you hear that line now. As Marcello rightly acknowledged on his piece on the Streisand retrospective which topped the UK (and indeed US) album charts on the brink of Thatcher's coming to power, the context of this version of "The Way We Were" is much more defensible than the original because of the heavy irony of applying such sentiments to the Black experience, and Gladys sounds much more self-aware than Streisand, much less smug, and obviously much less entitled and much less privileged. Streisand, I fear, would never have known that such sentiments are a folly, despite her own Jewish experience (though there will be no Corbynism whatsoever on *that* matter from me, here or elsewhere).<br /><br />We're pretty much at the point of the EEC referendum now and it's a deep shame that neither Kraftwerk nor Bécaud are part of your story (nothing that peaked that low on the official chart seems to have got that high on Luxembourg's chart, which I don't think was based on actual sales) - but that might tell its own story of the long road to what eventually happened, disproportionately powered by those who could remember 1975 and felt, on some level, that when they went in those polling booths to vote Leave they were getting one over on those of the old establishment who had confined pop to the poor audio of 208 and 247 while Radio 3 had FM.Robin Carmodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825645880870474801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-55929885930326947282020-11-30T12:56:00.540-08:002020-11-30T12:56:00.540-08:00Must apologise and correct myself here - Tim Brook...Must apologise and correct myself here - Tim Brooke-Taylor *does* of course get a mention in this piece.Robin Carmodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825645880870474801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-17472605533685461222020-11-10T18:16:01.383-08:002020-11-10T18:16:01.383-08:00Always haunting to see that TOTP performance where...Always haunting to see that TOTP performance where Shelley appears with an Old English Sheepdog, a breed that boomed spectacularly then and has bust equally spectacularly now (like the Irish Setter, which "Shannon" was, only more so).<br /><br />There aren't many other eras in which a song as drippy and insipid as "Love Me Love My Dog" could be such a big hit - a likely culprit would be the BBC's financial crisis which had Radio 1 once again merging with Radio 2 during the afternoons, so it had to be even safer than usual (though the relevant presenter, David Hamilton, did play a lot of contemporary pop when he was on Radio 2 in the 1980s, until the BBC was put under pressure to distinguish the stations so Radio 2 went back to a Light Programme approach and he left: if only they had gone the other way, and made Radio 1 younger, as they eventually did when under similar pressure in the 1990s).<br /><br />I do hope you blog faster now: I would have hoped you'd have got to "Heartbroken" at least by this point! My great regret for spring 1975, with the referendum in which Corbyn was blatantly on the wrong side approaching, is that Gilbert Bécaud's "A Little Love and Understanding" - always skipped by POTP; it's hard for them to cope with because it was considered "Radio 2 music" when it was new, so seems too old for their target audience now - didn't get high enough, somewhere, for you to write about it.Robin Carmodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825645880870474801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-83671661837851329102020-07-10T01:04:57.640-07:002020-07-10T01:04:57.640-07:00I think they were singing the song ironically. Mo...I think they were singing the song ironically. Most of their songs were about inclusion, hope, bringing the world together, but the underlying message of Banner Man is more of a warning. The Banner Man and the brass band in the song are almost certainly a Protestant Orange march - and this was at a time when the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland were coming to a head. The message of the song is how a young boy is naively inspired by a Nationalistic display of religious righteousness - the complete opposite of Blue Mink's usual message.<br /> Myrddin Janushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10911189511113690473noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-63187004398810185512020-06-18T17:52:49.582-07:002020-06-18T17:52:49.582-07:00Feel like a lot of the non-played songs from this ...Feel like a lot of the non-played songs from this era which aren't by Gadd or King (and don't have lyrics which get too close to the bone when it comes to the memory of what those people did, like Smokie's "Oh Carol") are the ones dependant on archaic regional stereotypes: Brighouse & Rastrick (which you'll be getting to), Brian & Michael, Tony Capstick (OK that was strictly 1980s but come on, and it's pre-Falklands after all), Chas & Dave (see above re. the crossover), and of course the group who were played at number one in 1976 in last Saturday's POTP. The last may not be quite the same thing for some, because racists on the Right often believe that areas only change when they have a huge BAME population (the first three mentioned above to some extent, the last to a massive extent) and their mirrors on the Left often believe that areas only change when they go through de-industrialisation (the first three mentioned above to a huge extent obviously, and the disappearance of the London docks plus the Wapping dispute are similar), but those of us who actually live in such areas know that there has been as deep and as profound a language change and disappearance of the traditional working-class accent in the shires as in any cities, and indeed greater than in some cities, and that the mayor of Lydney does *not* speak for the *young* of such areas in any sense whatsoever.<br /><br />Those records speak of what was a residual culture then, and their disappearance - other than on the likes of POTP which increasingly tells a very different story from the revisionist one of other radio shows; nothing from the endlessly-streamed 'Rumours' will ever get played unless they dip outside the Top 20 - is a sign of how archaic their world now is. But your general point is accurate considering that a lot of commercial FM stations, including one in my area, which mixed old and new are now becoming Greatest Hits Radio, a recognition that the contemporary pop audience increasingly has fled to Spotify and YouTube and the audience for neither era wants to sit through the other.<br /><br />I think I may have said this before, but is there any chance that the entry for "Jeans On" - an NME number two hit - could be a high-concept piece imagining how the young Diana Spencer, David Cameron and Boris Johnson reacted to it, considering the paranoia they must have sensed from their elders that their class was under threat and the ludicrous equation of pop with communism which they may also have imbued, blissfully unaware of how it actually was treated in such countries? You could even throw Prince Andrew into it; now *there's* a thought ...Robin Carmodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825645880870474801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-29796298044797280632020-06-18T17:39:40.759-07:002020-06-18T17:39:40.759-07:00Clare Torry was one of the most prolific session s...Clare Torry was one of the most prolific session singers of her generation, sometimes (though not always) in an accent which made her boarding school education clear - a *load* of advertising jingles, plus the version of "Love to Love You Baby" used in Abigail's Party (the original, of course, not played even on the chart rundown) and the version of Dolly Parton's "Love is Like a Butterfly" used to introduce the similarly-titled sitcom. And obviously the Dark Side of the Moon contribution for which she justifiably made a successful legal claim for royalties, and the contribution to the Alan Parsons Project's creepily-conceived 'Eve' album which sold in vast, vast quantities everywhere except her, and their, home country. She was probably one of the most-heard voices that even people who have this era deep in their hearts don't always know by name.Robin Carmodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825645880870474801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-87983870706262025562020-06-18T17:32:52.499-07:002020-06-18T17:32:52.499-07:00Problem was: others also wanted to "smash, sm...Problem was: others also wanted to "smash, smash, smash the social contract" and the hard Left's obsession with so doing left the door open for those others to succeed in it from entirely the other starting point. I fear I'll be sneered at as a "Starmer centrist", but I remain convinced that the English working class, at least, would be far stronger today had the Conservatives been in power at *this* point (but not when they were in power later, if indeed FPTP had survived).<br /><br />Was Cardew thinking of the November 1976 Clash interview in a Melody Maker I have (by Caroline Coon - I cannot bring myself to check if it's on Rock's Backpages) where they disparage the concept of the job for life - making it clear that they knew computerisation was coming - and the old ideas of pride in the union, seeing them as just another form of conservatism? Needless to say, the strong Brexit and then Johnson vote by many of just the sort of people they were disparaging comes to mind now on thinking of that, but the way that punk is now invoked by the most reactionary forces to justify the idea that Dave or J Hus aren't "really" working-class, and don't "really" represent a reversal of the Will Young / James Blunt years, doesn't reflect well on its legacy either.<br /><br />It does say something about how much the Goodies' musical career was the work of their one non-public-school member, and the only one who didn't become a staple of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, that there is no mention here at all of the first of the gang to die.Robin Carmodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825645880870474801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-18948517380585011302020-05-16T02:27:01.663-07:002020-05-16T02:27:01.663-07:00Great to see this return! Hope you are both stayin...Great to see this return! Hope you are both staying afloat amid the turmoil.<br />WillWillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17094230727091307343noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-64570902309948437342020-05-04T09:44:05.932-07:002020-05-04T09:44:05.932-07:00Looking back at the charts for the two weeks when ...Looking back at the charts for the two weeks when this sat at #3, it was a particularly weak chart for the mid-70s. It was early February, and the post-Christmas clearout took rather longer back then. The "new" releases from January were beginning to take up space on the charts (10 of the top 20 debuted on the chart dated 18/01/75), but very few major acts had yet released anything in 1975, and a few records performed rather better than expected, pretty much by default. (Tymes, Glitter Band, etc.)<br /><br />As an aside, there is an early Bjork solo bootleg from 1994 called "Sugar Candy Kisses", but thankfully she doesn't cover the track.vinylscothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00259111838061545593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-73660834676621417992020-05-04T08:16:37.292-07:002020-05-04T08:16:37.292-07:00I have no recollection of this single but after re...I have no recollection of this single but after reading the end I remembered that I got to see Katie twice during Van's 1978 tour when she was a backing singer and, to my chagrin, got to sing Moondance. I think the second time I used it as an opportunity to go to the loo. Welcome back, Lena!David Belbinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-45828793721232113862019-08-26T06:31:55.154-07:002019-08-26T06:31:55.154-07:00Thank you, Lena for sticking with the project and ...Thank you, Lena for sticking with the project and giving me the promise of new posts to anticipate. I have been endlessly checking in to see if we would make it into 1975 much like I have been dreaming of further TPL entries from yourself and Marcello - a but like those times in the past when you flick through the sections of your favourite artists in record shops willing some undiscovered gem of an album into existence!Karl Parkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07173453465510224420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-10820894187650681652019-08-22T11:46:07.407-07:002019-08-22T11:46:07.407-07:00Thank you, Lena for sticking with the project and ...Thank you, Lena for sticking with the project and giving me the promise of new posts to anticipate. I have been endlessly checking in to see if we would make it into 1975 much like I have been dreaming of further TPL entries from yourself and Marcello - a but like those times in the past when you flick through the sections of your favourite artists in record shops willing some undiscovered gem of an album into existence! <br />Karl Parkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07173453465510224420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-80365738968816383022019-08-21T10:12:48.035-07:002019-08-21T10:12:48.035-07:00Of all the versions of this song, I am most drawn ... Of all the versions of this song, I am most drawn towards Sinead O'Connor's glacially sad reading - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daMRHfMH9t0<br /><br /> From a very unfestive EP released at Christmas 1994, also featuring cover versions of 'House Of The Rising Sun' and Bob Dylan's 'I Believe In You'. The three songs work very well together as a kind of desolate devotional blues.<br /><br /> Billy Smarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11808866217501456210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-49579320142514096632019-08-06T18:28:15.589-07:002019-08-06T18:28:15.589-07:00Hurray! Welcome back.Hurray! Welcome back.Allen Baekelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06969310354954742838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-29350235183196798122019-08-05T06:06:30.681-07:002019-08-05T06:06:30.681-07:00Wonderful to have you back, Lena.Wonderful to have you back, Lena.oh, nevermindhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03203554925042917942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-32886874015073105002019-06-18T05:02:45.206-07:002019-06-18T05:02:45.206-07:00Are you ever coming back?Are you ever coming back?victorvectorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11002548621799546367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-10853016853675238042018-04-07T15:37:41.866-07:002018-04-07T15:37:41.866-07:00Will you start up again sometime soon? Your husba...Will you start up again sometime soon? Your husband is catching up.victorvectorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11002548621799546367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-51947433756572120592017-10-25T07:52:40.772-07:002017-10-25T07:52:40.772-07:00As I understand it, R Dean Taylor's fugitive i...As I understand it, R Dean Taylor's fugitive in "Indiana Wants Me" does indeed die, as suggested by the volleys of gunfire crackling out as the record fades. The tension had been building, the desperation of the wanted man was palpable, and he was firmly resigned to his fate as the cops closed in. Surrender was not an option - he dies.Sir Wotalot I Gotalothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09273523794803151073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-42745512989137932862017-09-04T21:35:16.827-07:002017-09-04T21:35:16.827-07:00...Are you familiar with Don & Dewey' s or......Are you familiar with Don & Dewey' s original 1950s version of " I'm Leaving It All Up To You "? I.e., it was a revival when Dale & Grace recorded it. Perhaps more later, but anyway, this is a fine blog - as is Then Play Long, it' s a shame you no longer feel up to doing them, perhaps you'lyou'll feel up to doing them again someday, I hope. Well, anyway - WALTERHankPymhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09674887283305793892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-7942596953875359602017-08-10T10:59:50.397-07:002017-08-10T10:59:50.397-07:00I fear this won't be the case (the Left-libera...I fear this won't be the case (the Left-liberal media very often pretends that until Cameron - and some of them insist even after him - everyone on the Right believed absolutely and unswervingly in the primacy of classical music over all other forms whereas nobody on the Left did, a Big Lie which avoids their confronting certain inconvenient truths) but the Long Read in next Monday's Guardian (50th anniversary of the MOA) really should be: "Ever wondered why Labour, even under its current leadership, hasn't re-invoked the spirit of the Arts Council and the Third Programme any more than it did under Blair? This is why ..."<br /><br />Psychologically, the MOA haunts the Labour Party still, and is the reason why the grip of the cultural Left and economic Right (as opposed to the cultural Right and economic Left which dominated the post-war consensus) is, in terms of broadcasting policy at least, no weaker under Corbyn than it was under the leaderships of the previous 20 years. Certainly, I'd be astounded if Corbyn *didn't* know someone, at school or university, who was inspired by Wilson's modernity rhetoric at 14 but ended up voting Tory at 21 because of it. Obviously Corbyn himself wouldn't have done that, but knowing people who did is an overwhelming, overriding factor in having been born in 1949 in Britain, just as knowing people who were inspired by Blair's modernity rhetoric at 14 but ended up loathing him fervently (again, even if you didn't yourself take that path) is an equally overwhelming and overriding factor in being my age, 30-odd years younger. I don't think it's even possible to be a British babyboomer and not to have known at least one person who took the path I've described. And you see the echoes - the absolute desperation and fervour that nothing comparable should ever happen to Labour again - in Corbyn's tributes to Bowie & George Michael, his association with JME, his appearance at Glastonbury. That is probably a far greater tribute to offshore radio's influence than its influence on Blair, Corbyn's other views being so much further from those of Oliver Smedley.<br /><br />The thing about offshore radio is that a great many of its DJs were impeccably middle-class and were in that respect attracted to it at least partially because of its challenge to the post-war consensus. I often think that Smashie & Nicey stand comparison to the famous Beyond the Fringe sketch 'The Aftermyth of War' in that they made it much harder to take a whole way of speaking seriously; Blackburn et al had been brought up to speak very much in the manner which is pilloried in that sketch (and had obviously lost much of its credibility because of Suez, Profumo etc.) and now found they could not be taken seriously, so adopted a new manner of speaking which was itself, ultimately, mocked in a similar way. Horrible to bring a certain child molester from Leeds into it, but his natural accent had had its credibility enhanced by the 1960s, so the fact that he could speak as he was brought up to speak on TOTP/Radio 1 more easily than DJs from middle-class, public school backgrounds could was the first time it had ever been that way round on the BBC, and now of course it is that way round in quite a few other aspects of BBC output. Westwood, obviously, is the sole bridge between it and the second great wave of unlicensed UK broadcasting, which finally broke through in terms of number one and number two singles at the turn of the century, then got pushed back underground again, but happily not forever.Robin Carmodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825645880870474801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-74750453222356617062017-04-30T03:49:52.276-07:002017-04-30T03:49:52.276-07:00...There was a draft in the U.S during the post-Ko......There was a draft in the U.S during the post-Korea/pre-Vietnam period , though you appear to state otherwise .HankPymhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09674887283305793892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-32517448395856976572017-04-06T08:48:36.109-07:002017-04-06T08:48:36.109-07:00I was just wondering whether the single release in...I was just wondering whether the single release in 1974 was related to the song's appearance in the film (and soundtrack album) "Stardust" which is where I first heard the song but the dates don't seem to match up. Great article, Lena. Rob Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00976633269865252626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-71166555834354725952015-10-04T06:55:29.915-07:002015-10-04T06:55:29.915-07:00Having lived through the 70s, I agree that the cur...Having lived through the 70s, I agree that the curated version bears little resemblance to the real thing. Much of the music that is now lauded as the essence of that decade was listened to only by those in the know. It's quite legitimate simply not to want to listen to Dawn, or Mud, or the Rollers, but asinine to pretend that everyone in 1973 was listening to Lou Reed album tracks.<br />This thought first struck me watching the first series (probably the first episode, I gave up pretty quickly) of Life On Mars, when the two cops visit various establishments (pubs, shops etc) all playing a CSM/Farren/Kent soundtrack, rather than the melange of glam, pop and soul that was actually the sound of the early 70s.Front of Storehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15565716120262706975noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-20684601798700105822015-10-01T09:06:20.016-07:002015-10-01T09:06:20.016-07:00It may only have been a brief union, but I'm s...It may only have been a brief union, but I'm sure Roy thought it significant or he wouldn't have gone to all this trouble. Bob Stanleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18148756622365431327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-3796214291860992182015-09-25T11:50:50.712-07:002015-09-25T11:50:50.712-07:00An incredible song that was a massive hit at the t...An incredible song that was a massive hit at the time. Considering it was so "different" to everything else back then, it was popular with almost everyone I knew whether they were into heavy metal or soul music. Thank you for your thoughtful and perceptive evaluation.David Ellishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07291874644237496313noreply@blogger.com