Posted in 1970s, Music, Reelin' In The Years at 12:00 on 20 November 2015
It’s that time of year again. I was in a shopping mall yesterday and over the tannoy came the sound of I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day. It was the nineteenth of November!
Still, it got me to thinking about the band that recorded it, Wizzard, a project that Roy Wood had (ahem) moved on to from The Move following a brief stint with the earliest incarnation of ELO.
I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day never made it to no 1, among other things having the relative misfortune to be first released in the same year as Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody. I don’t suppose Roy Wood will complain. The residuals he gets every year for I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day must keep him in mince pies well enough.
This was the world’s introduction to Wizzard. Their first single.
Wizzard: Ball Park Incident
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Posted in 1970s, Music, Reelin' In The Years at 12:00 on 18 September 2015
Another example of Al Stewart’s lyrical eclecticism.
This one is about the Great Patriotic War.
Al Stewart : Roads To Moscow
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Posted in 1970s, Lyrics, Music, Reelin' In The Years at 12:00 on 11 September 2015
Not the only “pop” song to be about the Spanish Civil War but the subject certainly marks it out as lyrically unusual. But then Al Stewart’s lyrics tended to the eclectic.
This is a live version.
Al Stewart: On the Border
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Posted in 1970s, Linguistic Annoyances, Reelin' In The Years at 20:57 on 4 September 2015
More Steely Dan.
Pity about the poor grammar in the title.
Steely Dan: Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More
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Posted in 1970s, Reelin' In The Years at 12:00 on 28 August 2015
Steely Dan’s second UK hit – but it only achieved the heights of no. 58. Though their singles got a lot of airplay I suppose they were more of an albums band this side of the pond.
Steely Dan: Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
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Posted in 1970s, Music, Reelin' In The Years, Television at 12:00 on 7 August 2015
Taggart’s wasn’t the first TV theme tune Maggie Bell had taken on. From the previous decade here’s her version of the Hazell theme.
Maggie Bell: Hazell
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Posted in 1970s, Events dear boy. Events, Music, Reelin' In The Years at 12:00 on 3 April 2015
A belated recognition of the passing of Andy Fraser, Free’s bassist.
It’s also an almost follow on to the “Jack” songs I posted over a couple of weeks not so long ago.
There’s some good mellotron on this too.
Free: My Brother Jake
Andrew McLan Fraser: 37/1952 – 16/3/2015. So it goes.
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Posted in 1970s, Music, Pink Floyd, Reelin' In The Years at 14:00 on 20 March 2015
Not a single; and two tracks which run together on the LP but the second one seemed appropriate for today.
Pink Floyd: Brain Damage and Eclipse
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Posted in 1970s, BBC, Music, Reelin' In The Years at 12:00 on 27 February 2015
Another TV theme from the (very) early 1970s – for the first BBC drama series to be broadcast in colour, Take Three Girls – except it wasn’t just a theme as it became a minor hit for the folk band Pentangle.
Pentangle: Light Flight
For completeness here is the title sequence from the first series of Take Three Girls.
Take Three Girls Titles
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Posted in 1970s, Music, Reelin' In The Years at 12:00 on 20 February 2015
Arthur of the Britons, starring Oliver Tobias, was an agreeably gritty early 1970s TV series made by the Welsh ITV company Harlech and broadcast in the children’s “hour.” The theme was written by prolific film composer Elmer Bernstein. I always thought it had similarities to the theme of my mother’s favourite soap Emmerdale Farm (which only became Emmerdale in 1989.)
Arthur of the Britons theme tune
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