The song that introduced Alice to the UK

And the sound of summer 1972.

Alice Cooper: School’s Out

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.

Genesis: I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

This is one of those songs that is instantly recognisable. It is also one of those which is more known in retrospect than it was on its original release in 1978. It only reached no 87 in the UK charts. (A no 8 in Australia though, and no 21 in the US.) Its later use in a film helped keep its profile up though.

Warren Zevon: Werewolves Of London

You can’t mistake vocalist Roger Chapman’s distinctive voice. A Family signature.

Family: In My Own Time

Another 1970s songwriter gone.

Writing a love song, or at least a good love song, is a difficult trick to pull off. That Bill Withers managed to tread the line between enuine feeling and mawkish sentimentality on the right side speaks of his talent.

He had very few hits but the songs for which he’ll be remembered in the UK, Lean on Me, Just the Two of Us, Lovely Day and Ain’t No Sunshine, do just that. Lovely Day is one of the few examples of a feel-good song that is pitch perfect.

The last of those four seems more appropriate to mark his passing though.

Bill Withers: Ain’t No Sunshine

William Harrison (Bill) Withers: July 4/7/1938 – March 30/3/2020. So it goes.

The lead singer of Eddie and the Hot Rods died suddenly earlier this month. The Rods were a kind of precursor punk band more or less superseded by the likes of the Sex Pistols when they came along. Their brief heyday was in 1977 when this song – released under the name The Rods – became their biggest hit.

The Rods: Do Anything You Wanna Do

Barrie Masters: 4/5/1956 – 2/10/2019. So it goes.

Here’s that song containing the phrase “a twelvemonth and a day” which I mentioned a couple of posts ago.

Produced by Mike Batt this is Steeleye Span’s folk rock* take on a traditional 19^th century song apparently interpolated with lyrics from another song from the same era, Farewell He.

Steeleye Span: All Around My Hat

*Wikipedia seems to differentiate folk rock from electric folk.

Well here we go again. RIP Dale Griffin, the drummer from Mott the Hoople.

I thought I’d go for something a bit less obvious than the David Bowie song that gave them their big break.

Here is the group playing live:-

Mott the Hoople: All the Way from Memphis

Terence Dale Griffin, (“Buffin” Griffin) 24/10/1948 – 17/1/2016. So it goes.

A bit of festive cheer for the coming of 2016.

After all, 2015 wasn’t so hot was it?

Happy New Year everybody.

George Harrison: Ding Dong, Ding Dong

The roots of both ELO and Wizzard are evident in this, the last of the hits by Birmingham band The Move, which by this time had lost original members Carl Wayne, Ace Kefford and Trevor Burton and reeled in Jeff Lynne from The Idle Race. ELO’s first single 10538 Overture was released only a month or so after this.

The Move: California Man