David Pearce – Popular Culture and Personal Passions

It’s 1973!

1973 was a year where the exuberance of the charts was in direct contrast to the increasingly depressed state of UK politics and certain sectors of society. It is an overplayed, and largely inaccurate, argument that the 70s were a grim decade, but they certainly had their share of difficulties.

Understanding the world around me

The troubles in Northern Ireland and the strikes in UK industries became common knowledge for a set of young people like me, for whom John Craven’s Newsround, first shown in 1972, was a window on to the world. It is actually impossible to overstate how groundbreaking it was at the time. We were trusted to understand ‘adult’ news, but it was presented to us in language we could grasp. John Craven, who was instrumental in bringing it to the screen, was perhaps the only person who could have made us feel safe despite the sometimes unpleasant nature of what he was telling us. It gave me a lifelong interest in politics and current affairs and the fact that it’s still going on the BBC website and as a morning edition is just a marvellous testament to an idea that’s almost 50 years old.

Glam hits the charts!

For those of you who might not know I suppose I should give you an idea of what Glam Rock was. In essence, Glam Rock was music that was played by groups who favoured outrageous costumes, make-up, especially glitter, which for some musicians, such as Dave Hill of Slade, Steve Priest of Sweet and Rob Davis of Mud became a dei facto competition to see who could take it to the extreme, large hair and platform shoes. The music itself was an antidote to the more serious approach of certain artists in the prog rock genre and the proliferation of acts that would now be described as middle of the road. It favoured the themes and approaches of 60s pop married with heavy guitar riffs and a ‘wall of sound’ that just seemed impossibly exciting at the time. Even at the time there were arguments about which groups were part of Glam Rock, and some actively disliked the label, so this is just my take on it.

The first new Number 1 of the year was one of my favourite glam rock singles, and still a favourite of mine many years later, Blockbuster by The Sweet. It showed the heavy edge that a lot of Glam favoured and had an introduction with a crunching blues guitar riff, influenced by Bo Didley, that was immediately recognisable. The song itself had a chorus that was chiefly memorable for the contrast between lead singer Brian Connolly’s powerful delivery and bassist Steve Priest’s simpering ‘We just haven’t got a clue what to do’. Priest got into trouble for his Top of the Pops appearance with a swastika armband. Not having a clue what it meant I also got into trouble for drawing one on my hat at the time! Music was clearly already a huge influence for good or for bad!!

A Striking Single!

Just after that made Number 1, a very different song entered my consciousness and my increasing repertoire of, probably off key, songs that I knew virtually every word to. The Strawbs were definitely not Glam Rock, and in fact were a branch of Prog Rock, having Rick Wakeman on keyboards for a while, before settling on a harder edged sound that gave them their only big hit ‘Part of the Union’. It was a song unashamedly in support of the Trade Union movement and it became the unofficial song for many a strike around the time. The lyrics for the second verse give an insight into the politics of the song.

‘When we meet in the local hall
I’ll be voting with them all
With a hell of a shout, it’s “Out brothers, out!”
And the rise of the factory’s fall.’

It was a real singalong with a tune that deliberately reflected the union band style of the time and it resonated with children and picket line protesters alike.

He Who Must Not Be Named

In 1973 a colossus of the music scene of the 70s had four hit singles, two settling at Number 2 and the other two making Number 1. He had eleven Top 10 singles in a row from his debut hit ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Parts 1 & 2’, influenced artists from Mark E. Smith of The Fall and Sisters of Mercy to Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Ce Lo Green. His backing band had seven Top 20 hits of their own. He was known as ‘The Leader’ and for nearly three years was an integral part of Glam Rock. If you were around at the time, you will know exactly who I am talking about, but if you have not delved into the history of the music scene in the early 70s you will probably not have heard of him, so completely has he been airbrushed from history. I am talking about the tin foil clad elephant in the room, Gary Glitter. His crimes, which I will leave you to Google should you wish to, made him a pariah and his appearances on many of the Top of the Pops shows at the time have meant that they can no longer be broadcast. This is quite understandable and entirely justifiable. However, for many of us he was part of the soundtrack to our childhood, and it would be ridiculous not to acknowledge that. His songs of that year are instantly recognisable, especially his two Number 1 records ‘I’m the Leader of the Gang (I am)’ and ‘I Love You Love Me Love’. The former was a stomping statement of intent with a catchy tune and lyrics that were just made to be chanted. The latter was a smoother tune with more overtly romantic lyrics and became his most successful single selling over a million copies. If anyone else had recorded it, it would be a staple of the nostalgia radio stations because it was an excellent piece of music and many a young boy would sing it thinking of that crush they had on that girl in their class – or perhaps that was just me!

You’ve Been Slade!

The only Glam Rock act of the year who outdid Gary Glitter were Slade, four lads from Wolverhampton, who took the genre to new heights and set chart records in an era when competition was as fierce as it has probably ever been. During that year Slade had three Number 1 singles, which was impressive enough, but all three of them went straight in at Number 1, a feat unheard of since the heyday of The Beatles. Even if they had been Slade’s only Number 1 singles, Cum On Feel the Noise, Skweeze Me, Pleese Me and Merry Xmas Everybody would have cemented their reputation as all time greats. The misspellings which caused great irritation to English teachers in particular were actually transliterations of their Wolverhampton speech patterns and as such give an interesting insight into the mindset of a group who were fiercely proud of where they came from.

Cum on Feel the Noize exploded into my consciousness with the opening shout of lead singer Noddy Holder, ‘Baby, Baby, Baby!’ in February 1973. This introduction was never supposed to be on the song. It was just a microphone test for the recording session, but Holder realised that it was actually a brilliant hook. The original title was Cum on Hear the Noize, and it was supposed to reflect their live performances, but Holder remembered that during the concerts it was in fact a sound that he could feel in his chest as it came in waves from the audience. Maybe a minor point, but it gave the song a different vibe that I don’t think the original title would quite have managed. It was not a hit in the US, but ten years later, US Heavy Metal band Quiet Riot went Top 5 with their version, much to the irritation of Jim Lea, Holder’s songwriting partner. Although Oasis also found success with their version more than 20 years after its initial release, Slade have otherwise resisted pretty much all requests from artists wishing to cover their original songs. That is, with one seasonal exception!

Merry Xmas Everybody was a deliberate attempt to cheer the country up after a pretty miserable year of strikes and unrest. Noddy Holder even put in the line, ‘Look to the future now, we’ve only just begun’ to encourage people to face 1974 with more optimism.

Lea and Holder wrote it on the request of their manager Chas Chandler but were originally very reluctant to do so. Lea remembered the tune Buy Me a Rocking Chair written by Holder from their earlier incarnation as the N’Betweens. The original was a psychedelic number that had very little success and, indeed, was not rated by Holder himself. Lea beefed it up and asked Holder if he could do something with it. The result was a pop and Christmas classic for the ages that nearly 50 years on still brings in £500,000 a year for the two writers! Apparently, the point at which they knew they had something special was when Holder set down the lyrics,

‘Does your granny always tell ya that the old songs are the best?
Then she’s up and rock ‘n’ rollin’ with the rest!’

It was recorded in New York in a heatwave in July, but the original recording was deemed to not have enough of an echo on the chorus in particular, and it was shelved. After a lot of argument with disbelieving sound engineers who were used to bands requiring the tighter sound of the studio, Slade were allowed to record the chorus in the corridor outside with the equipment set up to capture the required echo. As ever, Slade’s understanding of what would be a hit was unerring – or was it? In fact, only Jim Lea was convinced by the song before the recording. The other three, even Holder himself who loved his lyrics, thought that they were setting themselves up for a fall!   

Even now, love it or hate it, it’s impossible to imagine Christmas without it!

A Prisoner and a Detective

My final two songs from this year could barely be more different from the excesses of Glam Rock. Tony Orlando and Dawn were an American group who seemed to specialise in over complicated ways for people to express their affection! Their previous hit asked the object of Orlando’s affection to

‘Knock three times on the ceiling if you love me. Twice on the pipes means you don’t want to know’!

Quite why she couldn’t say yes or no directly to his face remains a mystery!

There was, however, more logic to ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree’ as a prisoner returning home after a three year sentence for an unspecified crime wanted his love to perform that duty if she still wanted him. It was a song that was ubiquitous throughout 1973 and the first time I heard it I remember getting very involved with the story and how it was going to end. The final lines are a euphoric rush of relief that was mirrored by my younger self! It demonstrated that the charts still had room for a huge variety of songs, a fact that was amply reinforced by the Number 1 that sold a million copies despite being intended a piece of library music. Library music is recorded by a production company that then license that music to TV and film producers whilst keeping all the copyright.

In 1973, a new detective series set in Amsterdam called Van Der Valk, needed a theme tune. London Weekend Television used a piece of library music called Eye Level by the Simon Park Orchestra as the theme, probably expecting it to be incidental to the success of the show. In fact it completely dwarfed the cultural impact of the show itself, which very few people remember these days, and got to Number 1 for four weeks, selling over a million copies! It was a piece of music that was based on a Dutch nursery rhyme which gave it the sound the TV company were looking for, but the orchestration was lush and the string section with a memorable harp just lifted the song out of the ordinary even in a golden age for TV theme tunes.

Coming up in Part 3

That then is 1973 and I ended up writing way more than I expected (!) so I’ll stop there and leave 1974, with Showaddywaddy and The Wombles amongst others to part 3 of this musical journey. Once again, many of the tunes mentioned will appear on my You Tube playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYNHCBtlxb88oIwiPOwre4aE1OnmyD24T

See you next time!

Junior Choice, Top 20 and Top of the Pops

What do I look for in a song?

When I look back on the music that has stayed with me, the common factor with most of the tracks is the narrative. I don’t mean that every single song I listen to has to have a clear storyline, although that helps, but I start by looking for some sort of connection with the character or the emotions of the song. I can fall under the spell of a song with lyrics that take second place to the tune, but it is always the lyrics that are my gateway into a song. You may notice the strength of the lyrics in many of my choices because it is the one thing that, looking back, has never changed. Let me take you on a trip through my earliest and strongest musical memories.

Once you have finished reading you can go onto my YouTube playlist where you will find the songs from this blog all in one place, although once you’ve read through my choices you might decide to steer well clear of it or at least do a lot of skipping!

It is very important to me that this tour through my musical background is an entirely truthful one. For that reason I am including songs that may seem embarrassing to modern ears, not least mine! However, these are the songs that helped form my musical landscape as it is today and to all these songs I owe a debt as they shaped the person I became in musical terms.

So, here is the Playlist for you to browse at your own risk!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYNHCBtlxb88oIwiPOwre4aE1OnmyD24T

Junior Choice

The first Number 1 of 1971, and the first I can really remember, was a song called Grandad by Clive Dunn. Clive Dunn was a 50 year old actor at the time playing Corporal Jones, a character significantly older, in the very popular BBC comedy ‘Dad’s Army’. He challenged Herbie Flowers, a multi-talented musician, whose performing credits read like a musical history lesson, to write a song for him and, along with Kenny Pickett he wrote Grandad.

To my modern ears it sounds like the type of novelty record that I might run a mile from, but that is mainly because of the chorus, which is a fairly repetitive dirge. However, when I first heard it on Junior Choice, presented by Ed Stewart and an absolute must listen for me at the time, it was the verses that really fascinated me.

They are very cleverly written to reflect the passing of time and the way that, to an extent, the past is where he feels most at home. Take those away from the chorus and you have a sympathetic and insightful piece of song writing. The first verse gives you a flavour of this.

I’ve been sitting here all day thinking.
Same old thing ten years away thinking.
Now my days are gone, memories linger on
Thoughts of when I was boy.

I suppose it set the tone for me for the rest of my musical life. Similar story songs featured on Junior Choice included ‘Two Little Boys’ by Rolf Harris and ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ by Peter, Paul and Mary and they created pictures in my mind that remain indelible. For those of us of a certain age it was a musical education as it looked backwards to songs from the late 1920s onwards and introduced me to a huge range of musical styles.

The Top 20 Countdown

Every Sunday night Radio 1 would broadcast the Top 20 and I was an avid listener. from about the age of 6. I used to insist on sitting in front of our big radio at home and listening to the Top 20 rundown in complete silence apart from when I was singing along! I used to be fascinated by the movement of songs up and down the charts and when a song or a group became a favourite of mine I was incredibly invested in their journey.

One of the first songs I can remember ‘cheering on’ was ‘Blue is the Colour’ by Chelsea FC, my favourite football team at the time. It got to Number 5 in early 1972 but stalled there, much to my disappointment. To this day, however, it ranks very near the top of the somewhat chequered history of football songs.

The first ‘grown up’ song that I really fell in love with was one that dealt with disappointment, rejection and suicide, not that I realised at the time! That song was ‘Vincent’ by Don McLean, also from 1972, and to this day it is a song I never tire of listening to. It is of course about Vincent Van Gogh and references his ‘Starry Night’ painting. I hadn’t seen the painting then, but I was already entranced by the idea. ‘Vincent’ was the first song I have a clear memory of listening to with my grandparents who I stayed with during the school holidays. My Nana in particular loved music and encouraged me in my discovery of all different kinds including watching the choir that she used to sing in. I think that she saw a light go on when I listened to the song and she was very happy to encourage that light. It also introduced me to one of my favourite painters, an artistic two for the price of one! I may not have fully understood the song, but who could fail to be entranced by lyrics like this?

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand.

It also gave me a closeness to my Nana who was always happy to listen to the records that I bought and who had very eclectic tastes for someone of her generation.

Top of the Pops

I really started watching Top of the Pops regularly in 1972 and it became an non-negotiable part of my Thursday night for my childhood, teens and into my twenties. The records I chiefly remember from that year were the softer songs – glam would come stomping into my life the following year! – and again they had either a narrative or clearly defined characters, with perhaps one major exception. Despite being a boy, I was a huge fan of The Osmonds, and Donny in particular, because there was something almost other worldly about his voice. It was like nothing I had ever heard before with its beauty and clarity and I was immediately entranced. His first solo Number 1 was ‘Puppy Love’ which was originally written and recorded by Paul Anka. This song just exuded longing in a way I couldn’t grasp at the time, but it just bypassed my mind that was looking for a story and told me that in some cases the voice was enough to draw me in to a song. A similar effect happened when I first listened to ‘Clair’ by Gilbert O’Sullivan. It is a very cute little song about a man babysitting a friend’s child, but it was that completely different delivery and vocal performance that really entranced me and, I am sure, many others.

Every Thursday night, Top of the Pops bought music into our home. It wasn’t always music I enjoyed, but it helped to shape my taste for the rest of my musical life.

Next Time

Slade, Glam Rock, Showaddywaddy and The Wombles!