JUNE 1974

My comments under the entry for “Beach Baby” sum up this miserable period of my younger life (one of many). It WAS of course some of the Beach Boys singing with Elton. “TOP SECRET” was a primary school comedy routine I did with Alastair Ferguson, who disappeared for a bit before I unexpectedly came back into contact with him around 1979 (I’ve no idea what happened to him after 1980). My father’s remarks on the Jarrow march proved to be fundamentally correct, historically. I had infinitely more tolerance for Ray Stevens then than I do now. Airdun refers to the employees of fireplace manufacturers and heating engineers of Alexander Dunn Ltd., formerly of Bothwell Road, Uddingston (more or less where the Tesco Superstore is now situated), where my father worked at the time. And both Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke turned up in Bad Company so I was right about that.

 

The “strange guitar” in “Liverpool Lou” was a prototype Gizmo, invented by 10cc members and Strawberry Studios co-owners Kevin Godley and Lol Crème and loaned to McCartney and the Scaffold; see also, obviously, “Gismo My Way.” The lead guitarist on “Ten Years After…” is (or was) Jimmy McCulloch. At the time Lynsey de Paul was going out with Roy Wood, who plays many of the instruments on “Ooh I Do,” so no wonder it sounds like Wizzard. These days, I know Ladbroke Grove like the back of my hand, and you still have to be bloody careful about crossing the road there. “I’d Love You To Want Me” was an independent reissue of a 1972 American number two hit which had flopped in the UK at the time on Philips. Scotland beat Zaire but could only equalise with Yugoslavia and Brazil so didn’t get beyond the first round of the World Cup.

 

I was right about the reborn-in-the-UK Drifters since lead singer Johnny Moore himself found singing these lyrics extremely awkward. But the British kept on buying their records so Moore and his colleagues were stuck with them. I think much more of Aznavour and “She” now than I did then, while Seven Faces Of Woman, with which I caught up later, was absolutely a series of its profoundly imperfect time. My subsequent meditations on “Beach Baby” can be read here.

 

Yet another sub for Gary G. I really ought just to post his fucking videos on a "look, you bought this, don't come crying to me fifty years later" historical completeness basis but the amount of hassle I'd get for doing so makes it so not worth doing. Oh, and "Liverpool Lou" was written by Dominic Behan, younger brother of Brendan.

 

Why "The Streak" should make me think of CCS; this reason is so obscure it cannot hope to penetrate beyond my mind but I remember seeing an In Concert thing on BBC2 with CCS around 1972 - in fact, my father taped it (sound only in those pre-VHS/Betamax days) and one of the songs featured was this epic balladic trawl through some tragedy or other, and my juvenile mind transposed that gesture into what I thought "The Streak" was going to sound like before I'd actually heard it, and I imagined Stevens in his serious "Mr Businessman" tone working up to an Alexis Korner-style climax wherein he'd exclaim "...but the Streaker had DIED!!" No, I don't understand it either.

 

Gary Puckett gets subbed too. Why not? It was one of the worst number ones to begin with. What is it about guys named Gary?

 

2 June

 

ELTON JOHN: Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me/Sick City (DJM DJS 302)

 

 

Yet another ballad but while Elton, or his record label, was in danger of sending the nation to sleep, this is a pretty gigantic-sounding one – for once he sounds as though he has something in stake, like he doesn’t want to die; well, who does? Big French horns and I think it’s some of the Beach Boys on backing vocals so maybe he doesn’t want the sixties to be forgotten. I think the seventies so far will be easily forgotten but doubt that Elton’s bank manager would agree.

 

 

 

THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Summer Breeze (Pt I)/Summer Breeze (Pt II) (Epic S EPC 2244)

 

 

Well, I know this one because my father bought the 3+3 LP because he liked it so much. He considers it jazz, particularly Ernie Isley’s guitar playing, therefore it’s good. Better to get the LP because then you get the whole song uninterrupted. However, I heard Johnnie Walker play the original version by Seals and Crofts and there’s a lovely diminished chord halfway through the verses – I looked for it on the piano using Ministeps To Music and it’s an A minor seventh - that you don’t get with the Isleys. Still a very fine version, though.

 

 

 

ALAN PRICE: Jarrow Song/Look At My Face (Warner Bros. K 16372)

 

 

Haven’t seen Alan Price in the charts for years, not since “Rosetta are you better are you TOP SECRET?” (no idea what’s happened to Alastair Ferguson), but this is very good and my father agrees; a bold brass band music hall song about marching to Parliament in the Depression of the thirties and a sad final verse where Price sings about nothing having changed since then. I don’t know enough about the history of the Jarrow march but my father said that the protestors got beaten up and arrested by the police because it’s their job to beat poor people up. He’s away off to an SNP meeting so I can’t ask him about that just now.

 

 

 

ARROWS: Touch Too Much/We Can Make It Together (RAK 171)

 

 

More American leather jackets to make it big on the glam scene, or what’s left of it – like Suzi Quatro but they are three guys and two of them come from New York. Typical Chinn and Chapman muddy bopper which the Sweet probably didn’t want. It’ll do OK.

 

 

 

RAY STEVENS: The Streak/You’ve Got The Music Inside (Janus 6146 201)

 

 

I saw this zooming up the Billboard chart and assumed it was some epic tragic ballad. Don’t know what made me think that – CCS, probably – but this is a zippy and zany uptempo comedy song with what sounds like canned laughter. "Boogity boogity" he sings, whatever that means.

 

 

 

 

9 June

 

THE PEARLS: Guilty/I’ll Say It Over Again (Bell 1352)

 

 

Bouncy, old-fashioned sixties girl group pop which the Paper Dolls could have done (and possibly did do) in 1968. Quite catchy but very dated production.

 

 

 

BAD COMPANY: Can’t Get Enough/Little Miss Fortune (Island WIP 6191)

 

 

It’s the latest rock supergroup with the singer and somebody else out of Free and it’s beery rock music for men who work at Airdun to sing out loud when they get drunk at the weekend. We hear them often enough downstairs and in the Main Street when it’s chucking-out time on a Saturday.

 

 

 

COZY POWELL: The Man In Black/After Dark (RAK 173)

 

 

Follow-up to the big hit which sometimes sounds like the music for the old Brut 33 commercials with doomy piano but the mileage has run out on this already, hasn’t it?

 

 

 

THE SCAFFOLD: Liverpool Lou/Ten Years After On Strawberry Jam (Warner Bros. K 16400)

 

 

I thought they’d split a long time ago, but they’re back with a straight singalong folk song. Produced by Paul McCartney which could explain the strange guitar that pops up in the middle. VERY odd B-side where the Scaffold reminisce in broad Scouse about their old days over what sounds like Wings rocking out in the background. Towards the end the lead guitarist quotes “Third Stone From The Sun”/”Dance With The Devil” again.

 

 

 

 

16 June

 

LYNSEY DE PAUL: Ooh I Do/Nothing Really Lasts Forever (Warner Bros. K 16401)

 

 

Another Wall Of Sound sixties-sounding epic production, suggesting that Lynsey’s been listening to some Wizzard.

 

 

 

LEO SAYER: One Man Band/Drop Back (Chrysalis CHS 2045)

 

 

The make-up comes off and what do you know, Leo’s just a regular, amiable guy, singing about busking in Ladbroke Grove and getting run over when crossing the road. Sounds a ghastly place.

 

 

 

LOBO: I’d Love You To Want Me/Am I True To Myself (UK R 68)

 

 

Drippy ballad from the “Me And You And A Dog Named Boo” guy. I preferred the dog one.

 

 

 

GARY GLITTER: Always Yours/I’m Right, You’re Wrong, I Win! (Bell 1359)

 

 

Well it’s uptempo for a change but he’s trying to do “Tiger Feet” now and what’s all this “sneaky, cheeky boy” nonsense; what is this, Mike and Bernie Winters? He’s supposed to be the Super Alien Glam Rock God from Space, not fourth on the bill at Blackpool Central Pier. It’s obviously going to go to number one but who will remember this, or maybe him, in a year’s time?

 

 

 

 

23 June

 

SCOTLAND WORLD CUP SQUAD: Easy, Easy/Scotland, Scotland (Polydor 2058 452)

 

 

It’s been number one in Scotland for weeks and finally the big charts catch up with it. Knocks the socks off “Back Home” and England aren’t even in it this time so they can shut up. “YABBA DABBA DOO WE SUPPORT THE BOYS IN BLUE!” The Flintstones meet the Bay City Rollers and what’s wrong with that? Will they win the Cup? If I said no I wouldn’t be Scottish, even if they didn’t win.

 

 

 

10cc: The Wall Street Shuffle/Gismo My Way (UK R 69)

 

 

The lady at Woolworths asked if I wanted this because we’d already bought the Sheet Music album from her. Well, complete is complete, my father said. Relatively straightforward stuff for 10cc except they’re singing about businessmen running out of money like it was a dance craze. I really like the dreamy instrumental B-side, which isn’t on the album.

 

 

 

ROY WOOD: Goin’ Down The Road (A Scottish Reggae Song)/The Premium Bond Theme (Harvest HAR 5083)

 

 

Roy Wood’s like a one-man Beatles! There’s nobody better or more creative than him at the moment except Stevie Wonder and Todd Rundgren. This is exactly what it sounds like, ceilidh reggae with bagpipes, Andy Stewart gone on holiday to Jamaica. Daft as a brush but brilliant. B-side is a serious attempt to do John Barry, more Persuaders than 007; somebody should sign him up to compose film soundtracks.

 

 

 

THE DRIFTERS: Kissin’ In The Back Row Of The Movies/I’m Feeling Sad (And Oh So Lonely) (Bell 1358)

 

 

David Hamilton plays this all the time so no wonder it’s such a big hit. But aren’t these men too old to be singing about picking up girls after school?

 

 

 

CHARLES AZNAVOUR: She/La Barraka (Barclay BAR 26)

 

 

“The Old Fashioned Way” has threatened to be a hit for several months and he’s finally broken through. Theme from Seven Faces Of Woman on Sunday night ITV which is apparently too grown-up for me to watch but this is a plaintive and sentimental ballad which will be number one before I’ve even finished writing this.

 

 

 

 

30 June

 

BOWIE: Diamond Dogs/Holy Holy (RCA Victor APBO 0293)

 

 

Well of course we got the album when it came out. Not sure I like it as much as Aladdin Sane but rock and roll, this is genocide, it’s scary Rolling Stonesy stuff but everybody’s got it already so not a big hit.

 

 

 

SUZI QUATRO: Too Big/I Wanna Be Free (RAK 175)

 

 

Slowed-down striptease music. Not immediate and no real hooks so fans only.

 

 

 

THE WOMBLES: Banana Rock/The Wombles Square Dance (CBS S 2465)

 

 

Keep Britain Tidy in a false Jamaican accent. Are they running out of ideas?

 

 

 

THE FIRST CLASS: Beach Baby/Both Sides Of The Story (UK R 66)

 

 

We haven’t had a summer here so far. It’s all been wet and cloudy. We aren’t even going to Blackpool for the Glasgow Fair this year. There have been arguments about money and things. I don’t feel good about this. “Beach Baby” is a spectacular record about trying to hold on to the old days but they’re just vanishing and never coming back. Hook after hook after hook – my father likes it because one of the hooks comes from Sibelius! – and the song just keeps on building and building like it’s trying not to die. The golden sixties versus the grim seventies. The Beach Boys versus the Bay City Rollers. If we actually had a summer this would go to number one but it looks like we’re not going to be allowed one this year, so it won’t.

 

 

 

GARY PUCKETT & THE UNION GAP: Young Girl/Woman, Woman (CBS 8202)

 

 

A reissue of a song that scared me when I saw it on Top Of The Pops six years ago. The B-side is equally horrible. What is it with British people that they punish themselves by buying the same miserable records over and over again? My father says it’s something to do with Queen Victoria.