I saw in the Guardian yesterday that guitarist Wilko Johnson has died.
I do remember reading during the 1970s about the most famous band he was in, Dr Feelgood. This was in music papers that had a London bias.
In many ways the band’s sound was against the times – of the early to mid-70s at any rate, being guitar and drum based and eschewing any Prog Rock or Glam Rock tendencies. They did, however, point to the revolution that was punk.
They did manage to have a top ten hit in 1978 with Milk and Alcohol but the first time I saw them (on television) was, I think, many years later (though it is possible I witnessed the original Old Grey Whistle Test appearance) in one of those retrospective shows the BBC is so fond of performing this song.
Wilko certainly had a stage presence.
Dr Feelgood: Roxette
John Peter Wilkinson (Wilko Johnson:) 12/7/1947-21/11/22. So it goes.
I saw in the Guardian earlier in the week that Dan McCafferty lead singer of Nazareth, one of those Scottish groups which found success in the early 1970s, has died – only a few months after the band’s guitarist Manny Charlton passed away.
McCafferty had the perfect voice for a singer of hard rock’n’roll. That voice was shown off to great effect on Love Hurts – see here.
I also noted a couple of the band’s cover versions in this post.
Here’s the band’s second UK hit, a no 10 in 1973 as performed on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
Nazareth: Bad, Bad Boy
William Daniel (Dan) McCafferty: 14/10/1946 – 8/11/2022. So it goes.
This is the track from which I first became aware of Genesis, though a schoolfriend of mine had seen them perform as support to Lindisfarne and came back raving about them.
This utterly sui generis song with its bizarre lyric was their first hit – a no 21 in 1974.
This is a live performance – possibly from that same tour.
Taken from one of my favourite Beach Boys albums, Holland, this is a track which apparently Brian Wilson does not like and never has. A bizarre attitude to my mind.
This classic song is yet another Lamont Dozier composition with the Holland brothers this time with Ron Dunbar. However, the credit on the label is to Edythe Wayne and Ron Dunbar. At the time the trio were in dispute with Motown (and had just set up their own record label Invictus) so required a pseudonym.
Hearing this always takes me back to the League Cup semi-final of 1970 when Dumbarton played Celtic at Hampden (twice.) At the first game – or the replay, I forget which – this came over the tannoy.
Freda Payne: Band of Gold
(There’s a clip of Payne singing this on a US TV show here but it’s followed by an extensive advert.)
The somewhat grandiosely named America (calling yourself after two continents? – that’s some cheek) had a sound that was unmistakably USian and had immediate success with this, their first single – a UK no 3 in 1972. They only ever bothered the UK charts once more though and that was with a no 43.
Another obituary in the Guardian. This time of Alan White, long-time drummer with Yes. Despite my liking for Prog Rock I was never into Yes. To me they seemed to take it a little too far.
Even without the Yes connection White would have had a notable career. He played on John Lennon’s Imagine LP and on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass.
He also drummed on this, released in February 1970:-
Plastic Ono Band: Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
