SEPTEMBER 1977

 

This isn’t an autobiography or a memory test. Indeed I don’t really have anything to report between now and February 1978. Life ground on as tediously as I hadn’t been promised. In English class we mechanically read out Shakespeare plays, Steinbeck novels and West Side Story lyrics in the most affronted of monotones we could muster. Essay and exam marks seemed intent on cutting me down to size. Socialism, you see; don’t be brilliant at anything because it shows everybody else up. I don’t remember most of the rest of it, except Chemistry class which was ridiculous and Physics only marginally less so. More and more I looked outside school to find out and learn about things myself. Apparently that’s quite common (you can interpret that in either sense). I recall practically nothing of what I was taught at school, yet can remember exactly what records I bought out of Bloggs’ Records of St Vincent Street on which Saturday and how much each cost, and pretty much all of William Empson’s Seven Types Of Ambiguity, which I bought for 75p from Grant’s Educational after reading Eno talking about it in the NME of November 1977. I think the term is “autodidact” and that the other term is unprintable.

 

Notes on Text

 

“From New York To L.A.” was an adaptation of the music of Jean Vigneault’s 1964 song “Mon Pays,” which is commonly considered a “Québécois folk song,” but with a completely different set of English lyrics. Pretty controversial in Canada at the time, apparently.

 

 

3 September

 

THE JACKSONS FEATURING MICHAEL JACKSON: Dreamer/THE JACKSONS: Good Times (Philadelphia International/Epic EPC 4548)

 

 

 

Certainly sent me to sleep.

 

 

 

YVONNE ELLIMAN: I Can’t Get You Outa My Mind/I Know (RSO 2090 251)

 

 

 

I managed to get it out of my mind quite quickly.

 

 

 

THE BOOMTOWN RATS: Lookin’ After No 1/Born To Burn/Barefootin’ (Live In Amsterdam) (Ensign ENY 4)

 

 

 

Irish punk, apparently; sounds like Dublin pub rock to me with a singer who doesn’t half fancy himself. Not convinced.

 

 

 

MERI WILSON: Telephone Man/Itinerary (Pye International 7N 25747)

 

 

 

Vomit-inducing ooer missus tweeness. For people who think The Navy Lark is funny.

 

 

 

 

10 September

 

LA BELLE EPOQUE: Black Is Black (9:57)/Black Is Black (4:10) (Harvest 12 HAR 5133)

 

 

 

Despite the name, this girl group appear to be Italian, and their 5000 Volts/Boney M-style disco variation on the old Los Bravos chestbeater is so tacky it almost works; they cheer and “WOOOOO!!” around all the darkness and misery that the song itself outlines, as though they’re determined to quench both.

 

 

 

BLACK GORILLA: Gimme Dat Banana/Funky Jungle (Response Records/Pye SR 502)

 

 

 

Apparently they are German. To be fair this does sound a bit more authentic than "In Zaire" but it's dangerously stereotypical.

 

 

 

EMOTIONS: Best Of My Love/A Feeling Is (Kalimba/CBS 5555)

 

 

 

At last, a good record (I’d almost forgotten what good records sounded like)! Huge in the U.S.A. and clearly also bound to be huge here – what would the Supremes produced by Earth, Wind and Fire have sounded like? This is explosively joyous, brilliantly structured rhythmically and sung by women who MEAN what they sing. A monster hit to be and justifiably so.

 

 

 

 

17 September

 

STEVIE WONDER: Another Star/Creepin’ (Motown TMG 1083)

 

 

 

Not sure how big a hit this will be since surely everybody has Songs In The Key Of Life by now, but it’s the ecstatic Latin workout that concludes side four and is as brilliant as anything else on the record.

 

 

 

LEO SAYER: Thunder In My Heart/Get The Girl (Chrysalis CHS 2163)

 

 

 

For my money this is Sayer’s best disco record yet; galloping, thundering maximalism with a voice almost bursting out of the singer’s larynx, he puts so much pressure on it. Might be a little too raw to retain the “When I Need You” fans, but this is a great pop single whichever way you look at or dance to it.

 

 

 

PATSY GALLANT: From New York To L.A./Angie (EMI 2620)

 

 

 

Ridiculously catchy Canadian disco-pop which I’m told has been adapted from a Québécois folk song. I love it; it’s like the theme from The New Mary Tyler Moore Show if they ever brought that back.

 

 

 

"THE AMERICAN" RAM JAM "BAND": Black Betty/I Should Have Known (Epic EPC 5492)

 

 

 

Razor-sharp battering ram of bubblegum heavy rock, adapted from Leadbelly by the Kasenetz and Katz team (Ohio Express, Lemon Pipers etc.), with a phenomenal free-form gong-banging ending. Should prove massive.

 

 

 

 

24 September

 

BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS: Waiting In Vain/Roots (Island WIP 6402)

 

 

 

Seductive reggae-soul ballad. What that means is I found it a bit dull.

 

 

 

DANNY MIRROR: I Remember Elvis Presley (A)/I Remember Elvis Presley (B) (Stone SON 2121)

 

 

 

The tributes have started, I see, and this is as nauseating as it isn’t heartfelt. From the Netherlands but according to the label it’s the “Official Elvis Presley Fan Club Tribute Record.” Any of the great punk records this year are far closer to the spirit of the King than this cabaret in a basket mush.

 

 

 

YES: Wonderous Stories/Parallels (Atlantic K 10999)

 

 

 

If ELP can get a big hit single in 1977, why can’t Yes? That was obviously Atlantic Records’ thinking when they put out the latest in their Limited Edition 12” series and they seem to have been proved right – Jon Anderson’s voice and the band’s shimmering sands of sonic sandwiches will make an excellent addition to the top ten.

 

 

 

Tom Waits – Burma-Shave

Dictators – Search And Destroy