Welcome to My Seventies Music – an ongoing and random selection of videos of great rock music from the 1970s – “My Seventies Music” – together with any commentary, reviews, associated information and anything else that seems relevant at the time.

Or not…

Anyway, to start the ball rolling, just for the fun of it, let’s begin with the letter “A” for “America”, and one of their big hits, “Don’t Cross The River”.

I saw America live in the mid to late Seventies (don’t remember exactly when…) in Wellington, New Zealand.

I do remember them saying the towels at the hotel were so fluffy they could hardly fit them in their suitcases.

Incidentally, while this blog is dedicated to music of the Seventies, occasionally you’ll see and hear live versions recorded in later years, and sometimes I’ll refer to bands or soloists I actually saw after the Seventies, but those were the years when they first made their name.

I actually did manage to see quite a number of acts in the Seventies themselves, as a student in New Zealand, and also a few while travelling around the UK and Europe in 1977/78 and again in 1978/79 (long summer vacation in New Zealand, winter in Europe).

From 1980 onwards the concerts I went to were almost all in Germany, where I lived until 2004, when I moved to Scotland.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy “Don’t Cross The River” from “America” as much as I do!

Thanks for dropping by,

Paul

In 1971 Dutch duo Mouth And MacNeal had a Number One hit in the Netherlands with “How Do You Do”.

They went on to hit No. 8 in the United States in July of the following year.

As someone has commented, Mouth And MacNeal seemed to like making videos of it, because they made a whole lot of videos of the same song!

Here is one video of Mouth And MacNeal singing (and “acting”) “How Do You Do”:

I’ll leave it at that.

Paul

The Les Humphries Singers were better known in Europe than the USA, but the one song of theirs that sticks in my mind is their 1972 hit “Mexico”.

It is actually an adaptation of the song “The Battle of New Orleans”, written by musician and school teacher Jimmy Driftwood (James Corbitt Morris) in 1936 to get his pupils interested in history, and popularised in 1959 by Johnny Horton.

There have been many versions of the original country-folk song, using the original title, but they appear to be have been mainly known in the United States.

The German-based multinational ensemble Les Humphries Singers, with their English leader Les Humphries, popularised the story, the lyrics and the melody internationally – apparently even going so far as to violate copyright when they credited the song to Humphries.

In any case, this is the only version I had ever heard until researching this just now.

I never knew the whole lyrics, just scraps of them – like “the British kept a comin” and “down the Mississipi to the Gulf of Mexico… Mexico… Mexico…”.

Definitely rousing stuff, especially when sung by a large group of people.

So here are the Les Humphries Singers singing “Mexico” in 1972:

And by way of contrast, this is Jimmy Driftwood singing the original “The Battle Of New Orleans”:

Actually, Jimmy Driftwood (sometimes Jimmie Driftwood), who wrote over 6,000 folk songs, is a pretty interesting character worth taking a closer look at – perhaps more interesting than the Les Humphries Singers…

Paul

It was the age of miniskirts and hot pants when Scottish band Middle Of The Road with lead singer Sally Carr had a string of pop hits in 1971 and 1972, including “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep”, “Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum”, “Soley Soley” and “Samson and Delilah”.

For some reason the lines

“Last night I heard my mama singing a song
Woke up this morning and my mama was gone”

came to mind, and the music was in my head.

I then discovered a few other songs I remember from the time were also by Middle Of The Road, so here they are…

“Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep” was a number one hit in the UK in 1971, here it is on Top Of The Pops:

Later that year, “Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum” reached number 2 in the UK:

Also in 1971, “Soley Soley” made it to No. 5 in the UK:

In 1972 “Samson and Delilah” only got to No. 26 in the UK, but it was No. 2 in Germany and No. 1 in the Netherlands:

Watching these old clips, there’s a lot to be said for hot pants and miniskirts…

Paul

Talk to me about daisies and I’m likely to respond with “I’ll Give You A Daisy A Day”… that was the title line of a song by a man called Jud Strunk in the early Seventies (1973 to be precise).

It’s a simple love song about a couple together from childhood to old age and beyond:

I’ll give you a daisy a day, dear
I’ll give you a daisy a day
I’ll love you until
The rivers run still
And the four winds we know blow away

(Didn’t even have to look that one up…)

Jud Strunk, who was mainly known for humorous songs like “She’s Got The Biggest Parakeets In Town”, died in 1981 at only 45.

His legacy is this simple song “Daisy A Day” with its simple message:

Not much to add to that.

Paul

In 1973 Dobie Gray sang the most popular version of “Drift Away”, sometimes known as “Give Me The Beat, Boys”, which had originally been recorded a year earlier, and has since become a classic ending song for concerts.

He took it to Number 5 in the USA, though it didn’t enter the charts in the UK.

To be honest, I had never heard of Dobie Gray until just now (at least not consciously), but I’ve heard the song “Drift Away” probably hundreds of times!

In fact I would go so far as to say this song is an icon of modern music.

This is Dobie Gray singing “Drift Away” live on the BBC in 1974:

And here he is singing “Drift Away” nearly 20 years later, in 1992:

Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock’n'roll and drift away…

Paul

Roy Wood and his band Wizzard had a Number One hit in the UK in 1973 with “See My Baby Jive”.

Roy Wood had previously been a founding member of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and was a particularly experimental musician, combining a range of genres in his music, such as classical and big band sounds.

This is evident in the clip here of “See My Baby Jive”, featuring orchestral instruments such as a cello and various horns as well as two drummers:

Gotta love the bass player on roller skates with angel wings and cricket pads on his legs (Rick Price), and the madly waving guy on keyboards – Bill Hunt, who apparently had a propensity to smash pianos…

Paul

One of the most memorable songs of the Seventies for me was actually written shortly before the decade began: “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, by Bob Dylan’s Canadian backing group The Band.

The song, written by Robbie Robertson and sung by Levon Helm (though he aparently claims to have contributed to the lyrics), was covered by Joan Baez in 1971 and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was the version I initially knew.

From the same album, “The Band”, came the track “Up On Cripple Creek”, which I have always liked. I only heard it for the first time some time in the Seventies

Another song by The Band that I got to know in the Seventies was also written around the same time, it was called “The Weight”.

Actually it was on the previous album, “Music From Big Pink”, which I picked up some time in the late Seventies. The album title referred to a big pink house The Band used to record in.

This version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is taken from the farewell concert (and film) “The Last Waltz” in 1978:

I thought I’d also include this studio version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, where the chorus sounds more like what I was familiar with, followed by the lyrics:

Virgil Caine is the name, and I served on the Danville train,
Til Stoneman’s cavalry came and tore up the tracks again.
In the winter of ’65, we were hungry, just barely alive.
By May tenth, Richmond had fell, it’s a time I remember, oh so well.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when all the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and all the people were singin’. They went,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na,

Back with my wife in Tennessee, when one day she called to me,
Said “Virgil, quick, come and see, there goes the Robert E. Lee!”
Now I don’t mind choppin’ wood, and I don’t care if the money’s no good.
Ya take what ya need and ya leave the rest,
But they should never have taken the very best.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when all the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and all the people were singin’. They went,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na,

Like my father before me, I will work the land,
And like my brother above me, who took a rebel stand.
He was just eighteen, proud and brave, But a Yankee laid him in his grave,
And I swear by the mud below my feet,
You can’t raise a Caine back up when he’s in defeat.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when all the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and all the people were singin’. They went,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na,

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when all the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and all the people were singin’. They went,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na.

And now, here’s “Up On Cripple Creek”:

This rendition of “The Weight”, which also featured in the movie “Easy Rider”, also comes from the 1978 concert and film “The Last Waltz”:

Whatever way you look at it, The Band played powerful music. It was powerful in the Seventies and it’s still powerful today.

Paul

The first solo Number One hit by Cher of Sonny and Cher fame was “Gypsys, Tramps And Thieves” in 1971. “Half Breed” and “Dark Lady” also reached the top spot in 1973 and 1974 respectively.

Cher has had any more hits over the years, but two of my favourites after the Seventies were “If I Could Turn Back Time” and “Just Like Jesse James”, both in 1989.

Ultimately though, if there is any one song that epitomises Cher for me, it is her first No. 1 hit “Gypsys, Tramps And Thieves”:

Here’s “Half Breed”, a No. 1 in 1973:

“Dark Lady” was big for Cher Bono, as she was still known then through her marriage to Sonny Bono, in 1974:

Beyond the Seventies, “If I Could Turn Back Time” reached No. 3 in 1989:

“Just Like Jesse James” made it into the Top Ten – No. 8 – in the same year:

Cher has definitely been a major factor in popular music, in the Seventies when she achieved her first successes, and through the decades that have followed.

If I were to sum it up with just one word, that word would have to be: iconic.

Paul

Although initially written and released on his second album in 1969, “Streets Of London” by Ralph McTell came out as a single in the UK in 1974, having earlier been successfully launched as a single in the Netherlands.

I remember when I flew into Britain for the first time a week before Christmas in 1977, when I was not quite 20, this song was in my head as we circled over London before landing – and as I descended the steps from the plane onto the tarmac (maybe it was concrete, who cares…).

And again the next morning as I leaned out the hotel window in the dark before the sun came up (behind clouds, I believe, but I didn’t care – I had returned to the land of my parents that I had dreamed of since childhood).

It came to mind tonight at dinner in a hotel in Bristol with my father, as he talked about having a cup of tea for a pound at London’s Victoria Station.

For that made me think of the old man in “Streets Of London”, and the woman with her carrier bags.

I had come across them at Victoria Station on a dreary Sunday in late 1980 as I waited in the station cafe for a train to the ferry that would take me back to the Continent.

His name was Mr Golden.

He had nowhere to go – he lived with his son, who had thrown him out, and had no money until his next pension payment.

I bought him a cup of tea – for a pound. And I kept him company as he passed away the time waiting for Monday.

It makes me quite teary eyed now just thinking about it.

As we sat there, the woman from the song with her carrier bags came by.

The whole situation was so surreal, and the irony is that I have just read that Ralph McTell actually based the stories in “Streets Of London” on characters in Paris, although he apparently drew on his hitchhiking and busking experiences in that city as well as London and elsewhere in Europe.

Which reminds me that I also used to see them in Frankfurt when I lived and worked there, the “old girl” in particular, with her carrier bags.

“Streets Of London” went to Number 2 on the UK singles chart over Christmas in 1974, at one point selling 90,000 copies a day.

Later I learned to play it on the guitar.

Although meanwhile covered over 200 times, the song became so closely identified with Ralph McTell that there was a sketch on British comedy show Big Train in which he plays “Streets Of London” and then attempts to perform “a new song”.

After expressions of shock and disbelief in the audience, who cannot conceive that Ralph McTell could play any other song, they force him (or rather the actor playing him) to segue into “Streets Of London” yet again.

So here it is, Ralph McTell with “Streets Of London”:

Does that take you in your mind to the streets of London?

Paul