Lindisfarne‘s finest hour. (As a single, anyway.)

Lindisfarne: Lady Eleanor

I remember reading somewhere in the late 90s a complaint that “none of today’s bands have a knowledge of music that goes back more than ten years,” or words to that effect. In that case, I thought, why do Embrace sound like Badfinger?

I can’t remember which Embrace song it was but Badfinger’s was either, or both, of these.

Badfinger: Day After Day

Badfinger: No Matter What

Creedence was one of those bands that spanned the 60s/70s crossover. This is a song from 1971; towards the end of their chart run in the UK, but it barely made the top 40. I think it’s the descending bass line during the refrain that makes me like it so much. It’s simple but, to me, effective.

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

A late psychedelic classic?

This is another of those 1970s songs that feels 1960s. It’s a bizarre title for a single to have.

There is a wiki page about Tin Tin here.

Tin Tin: Toast and Marmalade for Tea

In my mind this is a kind of companion piece to Albert Hammond’s The Free Electric Band which also dealt with the attractions of a popular music career but this one is more about the frustrated dream.

Kevin Johnson: Rock And Roll (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life)

Edited to add:- the original video I had here is no longer available. The version above is not the one that was a single in the UK; this one contains a series of “doo-doo-doos” that was mercifully cut from that 45. Re-edited: the above is now a third version.

A Neil Young song with some SF imagery. It was a hit for Prelude whose cover had some nice harmonies.

I present both versions for comparison purposes.

Prelude: After The Goldrush

Neil Young: After The Goldrush

If The Troggs were my musical vice of the 1960s the band which took that role in the 1970s was The Sweet.

Their early hits were mostly rubbish created by the songwriters Chinn and Chapman (who also were responsible for the band Mud and wrote for Suzi Quatro among others) but The Sweet began to hit their stride when they moved away from directly appealing to the young “teenybopper” market in 1973 with the harder edged Blockbuster which started off their biggest run of chart success.

Examination of their B-sides – which they wrote themselves, and leaned toward heavy rock – reveals more than a degree of casual sexism: a feature mostly absent in the bands they aspired to emulate.

Some sources have it that lead singer Brian Connolly was related to the actor who played Taggart, Mark McManus. As Wiki says that Connolly was fostered this would not quite be the case.

The Six Teens was the most lyrically interesting of their big 1973/4 hits, referencing the disturbances of 1968, but it was the start of their popular decline.

The Sweet: The Six Teens, apparently live.

Medicine Head was a duo made up of guitarist John Fiddler who I think wrote the songs and Peter Hope-Evans who unusually played only mouth based instruments. They had a few hits in the early 1970s, mostly blues-based.

I couldn’t choose between them, so here are all four.

Medicine Head: One and One is One

Medicine Head: (And The) Pictures in the Sky

Medicine Head: Rising Sun

Medicine Head: Slip and Slide

I always liked this song. Its maybe the optimism of the thing. But the long sustained cadence over the word “skies” in the middle eight is quite a feat for a pop singer.

Johnny Nash: I Can See Clearly Now

I’€™ve finally found an embeddable clip of Chicory Tip’s Excuse Me Baby, the original version of which I featured over two years ago.

Listening to it now, with its hints of Trad Jazz, I understand why my brother liked this. (See my Friday on my Mind category.)

Chicory Tip: Excuse Me Baby