An Alternative History of "Pop" Music

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Parliament - Come in Out of the Rain



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBF47BtgmAg

A funky hippie protest anthem from George Clinton and co. Released as a single in 1972. Didn't chart. You can find it as a bonus track on the reissue of their debut album Osmium.

[daf]

Hazy Osterwald Jet Set - Swinging London



Released in Germany on the 1972 double album Hazy Osterwald Jet Set.



Each side is themed - this one kicks off the 'The Jetset - Worldwide' side. The three other sides being 'In The Discotheque', 'Between Sylt And Wörthersee' and 'Live'.

[daf]

The George Fischoff Keyboard Komplex - Ping Pong



Released in May 1972 - did not chart.

Composer George Fischoff is a former student of Rudolf Serkin and a Juilliard graduate. He is well known for composing the 1960s pop music hit "Lazy Day," performed by Tinkerbells Fairydust.

In 1970, Fischoff was the youngest composer on Broadway with the Tony-nominated musical "Georgy!". "Shepherd!", a one-man-show based on the story of King David and written and performed by Fischoff, is the longest running one-man-show based on the Bible in Broadway history.

Bizarrely, the single featured a mono mix on the flip-side - which would seem to defeat the whole gimmick of the track!

[jamiefairlie]

Friends - Come Inside

https://youtu.be/lXhNud-f8MA



From 1968 to 1974, amateur songwriters Peter Howell and John Ferdinando crafted a series of privately-issued albums.
Over the years these records sold for astronomical sums due to their rarity, quality plus attribution to semi-fictitious groups including Ithaca and Agincourt. The Friends LP Fragile, was yet another vehicle for their music. Fragile was abandoned at acetate stage after Peter joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop full-time.

[Brundle-Fly]

Count Me In - Blue Mink Released on Regal Zonophone in 1972.



Fuck all changes.

Blue Mink was a British five-piece pop group, that existed from 1969 to 1974.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkGixGIoFtk&feature=emb_logo

[daf]

Elvis Presley - Sylvia



Released as a single in 1972 - reached Number 1 in Brazil

"Sylvia" was recorded on the last day of the prolific Nashville recording sessions in June 1970. Possibly saving it for a single release, RCA Victor did not include the song either on his 'That's The Way It Is' album in 1970 or on the 'Love Letters from Elvis' album in 1971, though it was recorded during the same sessions and was thematically appropriate for both these albums. It eventually appeared on 'Elvis Now' in 1972.

Never heard anyone talking about this track, but I absolutley love it - as did a fair few Brazilians it seems!

[daf]

Gerald Moore - Pilgrim



Recorded in 1972 - unreleased

Gerald Thomas Moore started playing about the age of 14 at the English Martyrs Youth Club, Tilehurst. The first band was called The Missing Links but they quickly changed the name to The Muddy Waters and then to The Delta Sound. After moving to Maidenhead to go to Art School and later to London, Moore experimented with his own solo band. His first solo recording was 'I Wouldn't Mind' on the folk blues compilation 'Firepoint' released in 1969.

In this same period Moore met Roy Apps and Tony Pook at the Dolphin folk club in Maidenhead, and with them formed the band Heron. Their first album is most notable for the fact that all the music was actually recorded outdoors in a field by the River Thames. In 1971 they got in to the delicious Pye Studios for their first studio recording, a maxi single with a version of Bob Dylan's 'Hobo'. The second album was released as a double album at the price of one. Like the first album, it was again recorded outdoors, this time outside a Devon country cottage, which gives the album a unique atmosphere.

Having got a solo deal with Jonathan King's label 'U.K. Records', he released the single 'Song Of America' (b'w 'Wake Up') in October 1972. 'Pilgrim' was most likely recorded during sessions for this single, along with producer Peter Eden, but remained unreleased at the time.

[jamiefairlie]

The Free Design - Canada in Springtime

https://youtu.be/6ixnoEwpEpI



The last Free Design from me, taken from their last album, until Cosmic Peekaboo nearly 30 years later.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Elvis Presley - Sylvia

The King looking admirably sanguine there for a man whose horrifically misshapen penis has been grafted to his right leg.

[jamiefairlie]

Steeleye Span - Sheep-crook And Black Dog

https://youtu.be/6gH_X2efRdI



From their fourth album, Below The Salt, and nearing the end of their prime era. By this point, Ashley Hutchings had left the band, leaving Tim Hart and Maddy Prior as the only remaining founding members.

[daf]

Clive Dunn - Wonderful Lily



Released in April 1972 - did not chart

Clive Robert Benjamin Dunn was born in Brixton, South London. While still attending school, he appeared with Will Hay in the films Boys Will Be Boys (1935), and Good Morning, Boys (1937).

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Dunn joined the British Army in 1940. He served as a trooper in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars. Dunn fought in the rearguard action at the Corinth canal in Greece in April 1941. However, the regiment was forced to surrender after it was overrun. Dunn was held as a POW in Austria for the next four years.

After the army he returned to acting. From early on in his career, his trademark character was that of a doddering old man. This first made an impression in the show Bootsie and Snudge, a spin-off from The Army Game. At 48 Dunn was one of the younger members of the Dad's Army cast when he took on the role of the elderly butcher.

 

His first single, 'Such A Beauty' was released in 1962. His second, 'Grandad', topped the chart in 1971, but he failed to reach the charts with any of his subsequent releases.

[jamiefairlie]

Ithaca - Dreams

https://youtu.be/N_cGvLNGpuE




From their sole album, A Game For All Who Know.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Aphrodite's Child - The Four Horsemen



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVExlaxaweo

"Laurence...Angela likes Demis Roussos, Tony likes Demis Roussos, I like Demis Roussos, and Sue would like to hear Demis Roussos: so please, do you think we could have Demis Roussos on?"

Aphrodite's Child were a Greek progressive rock band formed in 1967 by Vangelis Papathanassiou (keyboards, flutes), Demis Roussos (bass, acoustic and electric guitar, vocals), Loukas Sideras (drums and vocals), and Silver Koulouris (guitar). The band's career ended shortly after release of their most impactful album, 666, which has appeared on a number of lists of the top progressive or psychedelic albums of all time

666 was created as a concept album, telling the story of Revelation, the Apocalypse of John. The album goes through a number of famous passages and themes, including the Whore of Babylon (Rome), The Beast (Nero), and in this case the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The song went on to be covered or sampled by a number of bands. It influenced Beck's Chemtrails, which has a similar structure, and The Verve's The Rolling People, which quoted the "fa fa fa" chant. The chorus was also sampled, in a slowed-down fashion, on Daniel Lopatin's A7, from Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1. The song is very popular among metal and techno acts, forming a significant list of covers and samplings.

[daf]

The Fortunes - Storm In A Teacup



Reached #7 in January 1972

The Fortunes were formed in 1961 in Birmingham. Originally backed by an instrumental group known as The Cliftones, they signed to Decca in 1963. Their first single, "Summertime, Summertime", was credited to the Fortunes and the Cliftones. However, vocalists, Rod Allen, Glen Dale, and Barry Pritchard picked up guitars, added Andy Brown on drums, and Dave Carr on keyboards and The Cliftones were given the boot. 

The follow-up disc "Caroline", became the signature tune for the pirate radio station, Radio Caroline. Their fifth release, "You've Got Your Troubles", reached Number 2 in the UK in 1965 and was also a Top 10 hit in the US. When Glen Dale left in the summer of 1966 he was replaced by Shel McCrae.

 

Their final hit, "Storm in a Teacup" was written by Lynsey de Paul (credited as 'Rubin') and Ron Roker.

[Brundle-Fly]

Flash - The Duke Of Burlington.  Released on Joker in 1972. (but apparently a re-release so this should be 1970 but sod it, it's going in)





Another collectible album from the easy listening scene of the 1990s.

Mario Battaini with the name The Duke of Burlington in 1969 he achieved great international success by rearranging and playing in person, as a man-orchestra (it was not a common practice in the 60s that a musician alone played all the instruments separately in the recording studio and then unite the tracks) the song "Flash", a cover of the homonymous piece of the 1968 Marquis Of Kensington.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_dXvCBVEGQ&feature=emb_logo

[Brundle-Fly]

The Fortunes - Storm In A Teacup



Reached #7 in January 1972

You can tell we've left the sixties now.

[daf]

Acid - Hipguard



Released as a non-album single in 1972

Rock band Acid were founded by Robert Ponger and achieved great popularity in Austria after winning the Show-Chance talent competition in 1972. They released three albums : 'Acid' in 1974, 'More Acid' in 1975, and 'Acid Age' in 1978, before splitting up in 1980.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Stavely Makepeace - Slippery Rock '70s



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAzd5uqNoD4

We've already had a bit of the Stave in their Lieutenant Pigeon guise (see daf's post on page 48 for more info). Let's have some more of these DIY oddbods.

Their 1972 single Slippery Rock '70s was recorded as the "slightly rocky" backing to a track named Fan It. When Woodward and Fletcher attempted to add vocals to the track, they agreed it would sound better without singing.

A chance meeting with Spark Records' Bob Kingston, who heard the backing track by accident when listening to a tape of the band's material, believed it to be a completed instrumental and told the band it was impressive enough to release as a single, although a name was needed. Fletcher named it Slippery Rock after the borough in Pennsylvania where he had recently stayed. The "70s" suffix was added by Spark. Uncut felt the song "glimmered with authentic strangeness."

The producers of the 2007 comedy film Hot Fuzz decided to use Slippery Rock '70s on the film's soundtrack after hearing it on the Scrap Iron Rhythm Revue compilation. Fletcher paid to see the film to see if the instrumental was used and was pleased to hear it used in its entirety. It was the first time that Fletcher had been asked by others to use a Stavely Makepeace track in a project, and it helped raise the band's profile, with the Coventry Telegraph calling it their "big break".

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Alligator Man - Stoneground Recorded in 1972. Reissued in 2009 on BSX.

I watched Dracula A.D. 1972 for the first time in ages recently - it's a whole lotta stupid fun - and I was struck by how great that Stoneground track is. In fact that whole party sequence is fantastic, it's the pure essence of '72.

[Brundle-Fly]

I watched Dracula A.D. 1972 for the first time in ages recently - it's a whole lotta stupid fun - and I was struck by how great that Stoneground track is. In fact that whole party sequence is fantastic, it's the pure essence of '72.

Last night, I found this 2019 low budget horror movie trailer with a couple of Dracula A.D.1972 stars involved and other scream queens. Initially, I scoffed but thought, "no, fuck that cynicism", they look like they're having loads of fun and somebody has made an enormous effort to make this dream/ folly or whatever happen. Good on them. It's always the sound that lets these things down though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O4YT_

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Aww shoot, Brundle, that video is 'unavailable'. For me anyway. It sounds intriguing!

[Brundle-Fly]

Aww shoot, Brundle, that video is 'unavailable'. For me anyway. It sounds intriguing!

I thought you lived in the UK?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I do, so it's all a bit odd.

[Brundle-Fly]

Baffling.

[daf]

Ambros Seelos - Hangman's Rope



Released in Germany on the double album 'Ambros Seelos' in 1972

[Brundle-Fly]

Topless Rock - The Tits . Released on Capitol in 1972.



Getting into 'Eh, lads?/ Phwoarr!!' rum do territory here but all the music in this clip rules.

NSFW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5_c9aR4d44

[jamiefairlie]

Midwinter - Winter Song

https://youtu.be/ilKIjmUbf60



Second and last appearance from the Great Yarmouth folk-rockers.

[daf]

Third Ear Band feat. Cheggers - Fleance



Featured on the album 'Music From Macbeth' released in 1972

Keith Chegwin was born in Walton, Liverpool, in 1957. He entered an end-of-the-pier talent competition in Rhyl, North Wales, and later joined 'The Happy Wanderers', a concert party that toured the pubs and clubs of the North West. While at school, Chegwin auditioned and gained roles on TV, film and stage. He appeared in Children's Film Foundation productions, including as 'Egghead Wentworth' in The Troublesome Double in 1967, and Egghead's Robot in 1970. His most prestigious acting role was that of 'Fleance' in Roman Polanski's 1971 film Macbeth.

   

For the film score, Polanski employed the Third Ear Band. The band composed original music for the film, by adding electronic music to hand drums, woodwinds and strings. In the scene where King Duncan is entertained as Macbeth's castle, lutes are played, and Fleance sings "Merciless Beauty" by Geoffrey Chaucer.

The Third Ear Band were formed from the merging of two bands, both featuring percussionist Glen Sweeney : the duo 'Giant Sun Trolley' and 'Hydrogen Jukebox' - a four-piece that included a trombonist and guitar. After a concert at the Middle Earth Club in July 1969 when a lot of their equipment was stolen by breadheads, the guitarist called it a day, but the rest of the band decided to continue as an acoustic band, developing a style of music rooted in the medieval, but with Eastern ethnic elements and avant-garde rock.

[jamiefairlie]

"Cheggers Plays Fleance!"

[daf]

Arthur Lowe - How I Won The War



Released as the B-side of the single 'My Little Girl, My Little Boy' in November 1972 - did not chart

Arthur Lowe was born in Hayfield, Derbyshire. His father worked for a railway company and was in charge of moving theatrical touring companies around Northern England and the Midlands, using special trains. He joined the British Army on the eve of the Second World War but not before experiencing his first brush with acting, by working as a stage hand at the Manchester Palace of Varieties. Lowe served in the Middle East with the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry and took part in shows put on for the troops. At the end of the war he was discharged from the army, having served as a radar technician in the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers reaching the rank of Sergeant.

He worked with various repertory companies around the country and became known for his character roles, which included parts in the West End musicals Call Me Madam, Pal Joey and The Pajama Game. An early brief film role was as a reporter for Tit-Bits magazine, near the end of Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). By the 1960s, Lowe had made the transition to television and landed a regular role as draper/lay preacher Leonard Swindley in the northern soap opera Coronation Street.

 

His character became sufficiently popular with viewers for him to appear in the spin-off series, Pardon the Expression in 1966, and its sequel Turn Out the Lights in 1967. In 1968, Lowe was cast as Captain Mainwaring in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army. Lowe had a clause written into his contract, specifying that he would never have to lose his trousers.

 

Like his Dad's Army collegue, Clive Dunn, he ventured into the recording studio - releasing an album, Bless 'Em All!, in 1969, and a flop single in 1972.