Joe Jackson’s first hit. From 1979.

Another football name from my youth has gone. The death of Peter Lorimer has been announced.

He came to prominence playing in that great Leeds United side of the late 60s and early 70s, managed by Don Revie.

I actually saw him play once. He even scored. It was in a World Cup qualification game against Denmark at Hampden in 1972. Denmark outplayed Scotland all over the park except in our penalty box. Everything kind of petered out just before they reached there. Scotland won two-nil.

In the finals Lorimer was involved in the most bizarre free-kick incident ever to have happened during a World Cup. It was Scotland’s first game, against Zaire. Lorimer was lined up to take it when the ref blew his whistle and a Zaire player rushed out of the wall. Lorimer hesitated, waiting for the ref to blow for the ten yard distance to be re-established. He didn’t, and the Zaire player kicked the ball upfield. Lorimer scored the first in a 2-0 win.

Peter Patrick Lorimer: 14/12/1946 – 20/3/2021. So it goes.

This is a song from 1967 but it wasn’t a hit until this performance live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra was released as a single in 1972, when it became Procol Harum’s third UK top thirty entry. There would be only one more.

I was so sad to hear of the death of Mary Wilson of The Supremes. The group had one of the signature sounds of the 60s more or less introducing Motown to British audiences.

Though she started the group Wilson was not given the post of lead singer, perhaps because Diana Ross began a relationship with Motown boss Berry Gordy. Ross was pushed so much to the fore that the group’s name was altered to feature her. When she left singing duties were shared more fairly.

This is one of those later post-Ross hits, where all three members took the lead.

Mary Wilson: 6/3/1944 – 8/2/2021. So it goes.

Manchester City’s best team may have been the one of the very recent past. Certainly in terms of trophies won it is the most successful. However City’s last great side, the one of the late 60s and early 70s, is worth mentioning in the same breath.

That side’s outstanding performer, one of the greatest players Manchester City ever had, if not the greatest, Colin Bell, has died. The only one of City’s players ever to be dubbed ‘the King’, in his case ‘King of the Kippax’, after the Kippax Street Stand at City’s old Maine Road Ground. He was also nicknamed Nijinsky after a famous race-horse of the time due to the seemingly effortless way he covered the ground. The team was an attacking force to be reckoned with and Bell was its driving creative hub.

His stature at the club was such that one of the stands at City’s new ground, the Manchester City Stadium, aka the Etihad, was named for him.

There was a fine appreciation by Simon Hattenstone of what the man meant to City supporters in yesterday’s Guardian.

By all accounts he was a decent man as well as a great footballer.

Colin Bell: 26/2/1946 – 5/1/2021. So it goes.

One more of 2020’s depredations.

Two days before Christmas the band Mountain‘s guitarist singer and songwriter Leslie West, died.

His guitar playing is credited with influencing heavy metal but to those of my generation in the UK his work is more familiar from this song:-

This is for the simple reason that part of Nantucket Sleighride was used as the theme for the ITV politics programme Weekend World. It always seemed a bizarre choice of tune for the programme’s usual subject matter:-

Leslie Weinstein (Leslie West;) 22/10/1945 – 23/12/2020. So it goes.

Something cheerful this week. In celebration.

One day last week we were woken up by a phone call where my and the good lady’s very happy eldest son told us of the birth, a little earlier than expected, of his baby daughter, our first grandchild, Isobel Skye, 6 lb, 6 oz. (All those years, over 50, of nothing but the metric system being taught in Scottish schools and we still announce birth weights in Imperial units!) Mother and child are both doing well.

A welcome good thing arriving in what has been a dismal year. Sadly due to Covid restrictions we have not met Isobel in person. Soon, we hope.

This song was a hit for Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel in 1976 (Richie Havens had also recorded it in 1971) but it was first heard on The Beatles album Abbey Road in 1969.

And the original:-

So this week it was Ken Hensley, keyboardist and chief songwriter for the metal band Uriah Heep, who has died.

I have featured the band twice before with Rain, which Hensley wrote, and Come Away Melinda.

They never troubled the British charts much (a no 76 and a no 85, both in 1983) but had more success in Germany.

This song was their first and biggest hit in the US. More representative of their œuvre I would say.

Kenneth William David (Ken) Hensley: 24/8/1945 – 4/11/2020. So it goes.

This makes a companion piece to last week’s offering in this slot as the two songs share a girl’s name.

Sad that nearly coincided with the death of Helen Reddy.

Reddy is famous for writing the feminist anthem I Am Woman. I always thought her voice wasn’t quite strong enough to carry that song though.

It was more suited to this, her only significant UK hit.

Helen Reddy: Angie Baby

Helen Maxine Reddy: 25/10/1941 – 29/9/2020. So it goes.

Nine years ago I featured Mac Davis, who died last week, at Reelin’ in the Years 22.

I suppose, though, that the song he wrote that most people will recognise would be In the Ghetto which was a hit for Elvis Presley who also recorded Davis’s A Little Less Conversation and Don’t Cry Daddy.

It wasn’t just Elvis who had success with Davis songs. Kenny Rogers and the First Edition had a hit with his song Something’s Burning (see Reelin’ in the Years 173) as well as Everything a Man Could Ever Need, a hit for Glen Campbell.

I see from his Wiki page Davis also wrote Rock And Roll (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life) which was a hit in the UK for Kevin Johnson and I had as Reelin’ in the Years 32.

Here is Davis himself singing In the Ghetto.

Scott Mac Davis: January 21/1/1942 – 29/9/2020. So it goes.