An Alternative History of "Pop" Music

[daf]

The Punkettes ‎– Going Out Wiva Punk



Released in November 1977 - did not chart

[daf]

Elizabeth ‎– God Save The Sex Pistols



Released in May 1977 - did not chart

[Phil_A]

Godly & Creme - 5 O'Clock In The Morning

Consequences is the debut album by English pop artists Godley & Creme. It was released in 1977 as a boxed triple-LP.

Created as a concept album, it incorporates a play, with all characters voiced by comedian Peter Cook, and singing by Sarah Vaughan, who was brought into the project by Phonogram after trying to secure Ella Fitzgerald.

The album was released in two abbreviated, single-album versions: an eight-track album, Musical Excerpts from Consequences (1977) and a 10-track album, Music from Consequences (1979). A single was also released, "Five O'clock in the Morning" / "The Flood".

A website devoted to the album explains that the main action of the play takes place in the office of the increasingly drunken solicitor Mr. Haig; he is negotiating the divorce between Walter Stapleton and his French wife Lulu, represented by Mr. Pepperman. They are continually interrupted by Mr. Blint, an eccentric composer, who lives below; when the building was redeveloped he was the only tenant who refused to sell and a hole remains in Mr. Haig's floor which is, technically, Blint's attic; it is through this hole that Blint addresses them.

The litigants are unaware that larger forces are at work; the world is being threatened by a meteorological disaster. Weather is possibly being used as a weapon in a global war, and eventually it dawns on them that only Mr. Blint can save them, with his arcane knowledge of pyramids, music and the number 17.

Godley has since admitted the pair realised even before its release that the album would be a commercial flop, because of the sudden popularity of punk rock:

"There was a seismic, paradigm shift. I knew we were doomed. We emerged blinking into the light, and everyone was wearing safety pins and bondage trousers. We'd been working on a semi-avant-garde orchestral triple album with a very drunk Peter Cook and me singing with Sarah Vaughan, while outside it was like a nuclear bomb had dropped."

[famethrowa]

Godly & Creme - 5 O'Clock In The Morning

I dare say by now you've got so cross...you've thrown the fucking record out the window and smashed it,


(actually that wasn't too bad. always heard it talked about but never heard it before)

[daf]

Gabby & Kase ‎– The Jubilee Song (Elizabeth)



Released in June 1977 - did not chart

[Hooverbag Sherlocks]

Renaissance - Back Home Once Again
Released September 1977. Did not trouble the hit parade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v73E5l1T1j8



Extended version of their theme for ITV series The Paper Lads which followed the ruthlessly benign adventures of some children delivering newspapers in late 70s Tyneside. The following year, progressive folk-jazz-rockers Renaissance would go on to have a top ten hit with 'Northern Lights' in which singer Annie Haslam yearned (beautifully) for home and her beloved sweetheart, Wizzard's Roy Wood. Each to their own. To my mind, the opening bars of 'Back Home...' are very reminiscent of the theme from the BBC's ill-fated flagship soap dud Eldorado but that's still 15 years away. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.   

[daf]

Neil Innes - Silver Jubilee (A Tribute)



Released in June 1977 - did not chart

In 1975, Innes wrote original songs for the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and appeared in the film as a head-bashing monk, the serf crushed by the giant wooden rabbit, and the leader of Sir Robin's minstrels.

 

After Monty Python finished its original run on UK television, Innes joined Eric Idle on the series Rutland Weekend Television, which ran for two series in 1975–76, and spawned The Rutles in which Innes portrayed the character of Ron Nasty, a character based on John Lennon. The songs written by Innes so closely pastiched the original source material that he was consequently taken to court by the owners of the Beatles' catalogue - the humourless twats!

Jesus . . I mean, what was he thinking? Come back Legs Larry Smith, all is forgiven!

[SteveDave]

Jesus . . I mean, what was he thinking? Come back Legs Larry Smith, all is forgiven!

Mmmm white reggae about the Queen.

[Brundle-Fly]

Love And The Single Girl - Roogalator  Released on Virgin in 1977.





Nostalgia for the 1950s/ early 1960s continues through the beer soaked filter of 1977.

Roogalator was a pub rock band formed in London in 1972, by the US-born guitarist Danny Adler.[1]

Earlier that year, Adler recorded demos with 10cc's Graham Gouldman at Strawberry Studios. Prior to Roogalator, Adler had also played with Smooth Loser, a band formed with Jeff Pasternak, the brother of BBC disc-jockey Emperor Rosko. Bass guitarist Tony Lester, guitarist Chris Gibbons and drummer Malcolm Mortimer (G.T. Moore and the Reggae Guitars), were members for a time. Mortimer returned to Adler for an early incarnation of Roogalator before leaving to join Ian Dury in Kilburn and the High Roads .

In 1977 the band released a one-off single, "Love And The Single Girl", on Virgin Records. They declined a recording contract with Virgin who had insisted that they also sign a publishing contract in addition to a recording contract. The band returned to the BBC for a third and final session with Peel on 16 August 1977.

The band released their debut album, Play It by Ear, in 1977 on manager's Scott's Do It Records label, essentially an opportunity to preserve the band's repertoire on vinyl. The album was well-received but sold poorly.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To3VmOM6pPI&feature=emb_logo


.

[daf]

Supermax - Lovemachine



Featured on the 1977 'World Of Today' album - Reached #4 in Germany in August 1978

Supermax were founded in 1976 in Frankfurt by Austrian musician and producer, Kurt Hauenstein, best known for the 1979 hit "It ain't easy", and "Lovemachine", which peaked at #6 in Switzerland, #9 in Austria and #96 in US.

   

The first members of the band were Kurt Hauenstein (Mini Moog, vocals), Hans Ochs (guitar), Ken Taylor (bass guitar), Lothar Krell (keyboards), Peter Koch (percussion), Jürgen Zöller (drums) and the singers Cee Cee Cobb and Jean Graham.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Kinks - Father Christmas



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

It's that most wonderful time of the year...

Father Christmas is a flop 1977 single by The Kinks. It tells of a department store Father Christmas who is beaten up by a gang of poor kids who tell him to give them money instead of toys, as toys are impractical; and asks that the toys be given "to the little rich boys." At one point, a child asks the narrator to give his/her father a job for Christmas—or, if he must deliver a toy, a machine gun.

[daf]

Gordon Giltrap – Heartsong



Released in November 1977 - reached #21 in the UK chart in January 1978

Gordon Giltrap was born in the village of Brenchley, Kent, England. He started to play the guitar at the age of 12 and received no formal tuition, choosing to develop his own style and technique. Giltrap's career took off in the 1960s while performing in the folk music scene in London. At 18, Giltrap signed with Transatlantic Records and released his debut studio albums, 'Gordon Giltrap' in 1968, and 'Portrait' in 1969.

While popular on the folk and university circuit, Giltrap reached a turning point and received greater recognition during the 1970s. During this time Giltrap started to concentrate on more purely instrumental pieces, and in 1976 released the album 'Visionary', based on the art and poetry of William Blake.

   

The follow-up album 'Perilous Journey' was named one of the best albums of 1977 by The Sunday Times. It peaked in the UK Albums Chart at No. 29. A single taken from the album, "Heartsong", received extensive airplay and reached No. 21 in the UK Singles Chart. The track was later used as the theme tune of the BBC TV series Holiday. Another of Giltrap's tracks, "The Carnival", was specially commissioned by ITV for the theme tune to ITV's holiday programme Wish You Were Here...?.

Cue close-ups on random beach boobs!

[jamiefairlie]

Talking Heads - Love → Building on Fire

https://youtu.be/olf0o3jfhns



Formed in New York in 1975 and eventually splitting in 1991, this is their debut single.

[jamiefairlie]

Aw Man, I thought for  a second that Cliff Michelmore was singing that Holiday tune, that would have been special.

[daf]

I tell you - if I could have found any of those "20 superb tracks" from that album on Youtube, I'd have posted it here like a shot!

[Brundle-Fly]

The Quick & The Daft - Electric Light Orchestra. Unreleased track from Out Of The Blue from 1977.





If Jeff Lynne had composed the Dr. Who theme (with titles)?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcdBtIJHtp0

[daf]

The Bad City Band ‎– Batman 77



Released in 1977 - did not chart

[daf]

Jeremy Taylor ‎– Prawns In The Game



Released in October 1977 - did not chart

Jeremy Taylor was born in Newbury, Berkshire. After moving to South Africa, he began performing in clubs and coffee-bars such as the Cul de Sac in Hillbrow, Johannesburg in the 1960s and succeeded with the comedic song "The Ballad of the Southern Suburbs", also known as "Ag Pleez Deddy", in 1961. The song was a surprise hit. In performance in Chicago, he explained that while teaching South African children English, he was "enchanted" by their patois and their lust for Western European luxuries like Pepsi Cola, Canada Dry, Eskimo Pie, popcorn, chewing gum and flicks like Tarzan, and other products.

 

Taylor mimicked their accent in the song, in which a child begs his father to take him to different places and buy these treats. It was frowned upon by the government because the song mixed English and Afrikaans – a practice of which the Nationalist government disapproved, feeling all languages should be kept "pure", the daft racists!

   

After returning to Britain in 1964 he performed in 'Wait a Minim!' in the West End, and joined the British folk music circuit. Later in the 1960s, he taught at Eton College while a political exile, and was a long-term collaborator and performer with Spike Milligan - recording a live album with him entitled 'Spike Milligan and Jeremy Taylor: An Adult Entertainment' in 1974.

[Brundle-Fly]

Air Cushion - Alessi. Released on A&M in 1977.



One of my favourite choruses. Imagine hearing it play on your car stereo while waiting for the emergency services to arrive after crashing headfirst off a sharp bend into a tree?

Identical twins Billy and Bobby Alessi were born on Long Island in 1954. They write, produce and arrange their songs themself, as well as for other artists. "Oh, Lori" was their biggest hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzYOcm4CH4U&feature=emb_logo

[daf]

Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop - Let's Eat



Recorded live on tour in October-November 1977, and featured on the album Live Stiffs Live - released in February 1978

Stiff Records was formed in London by Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera. Established at the outset of the punk rock boom, Stiff signed various punk and new wave acts such as Nick Lowe, the Damned, Lene Lovich, Wreckless Eric, Devo, Elvis Costello and Ian Dury.

Robinson and Riviera had arranged package tours ‒ such as the 1975 Naughty Rhythms tour ‒ for acts they managed before forming Stiff. The first tour, known as the Live Stiffs, from 3 October to 5 November 1977, comprised five bands: Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Wreckless Eric and The New Rockets, Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop, and Larry Wallis's Psychedelic Rowdies.



Having signed all the named artists as individuals, bands had to be formed in order to tour: these were largely based on the session musicians used for the artists' solo records. There were 18 musicians on the tour, several doubling up, e.g. Dury playing drums for Wreckless Eric while the last two "bands" had the same line up (Nick Lowe, Larry Wallis, Dave Edmunds, Terry Williams, Pete Thomas and Penny Tobin).

The original idea was that the running order would rotate each night, but Dury and Costello were clearly the strongest acts. Costello played mostly new material and cover versions, rather than numbers from his recently released album My Aim is True, so the gigs usually ended with most of the artists on stage performing Dury's "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll".

   

The tour was enough of a success that Stiff put out an album & film called 'Live Stiffs Live', the highlight of which was Nick Lowe's furiously hilarious "Let's Eat," a 50's-style rock song done up at punk speed, dominated by Penny Tobin's organ and some merciless drumming by Rockpiler Terry Williams & Attraction Pete Thomas. With Dave Edmunds providing harmonies and a quick crazy guitar solo, it's one Nick Lowe's all-time greatest hooks, and almost totally irresistible on every level.

Wonder if Kenny Loggins had a copy of this!

[Brundle-Fly]

That's one tour I'd loved to have attended!  All of them today would be so unmarketable. Real shame.

[famethrowa]

Air Cushion - Alessi. Released on A&M in 1977.

I like that these feather-haired yacht boys ended up getting very modern and electronic on the Ghostbusters soundtrack!

Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop - Let's Eat

I also like that Terry Williams started out in these dingy pubs and ended up playing one of the world's most famous drum intros. Good drummer, him

[SteveDave]

That's one tour I'd loved to have attended!  All of them today would be so unmarketable. Real shame.

That Stiff tour documentary is on Amazon Prime (or was) and you can actually smell the bus through your computer screen.

[Brundle-Fly]

That Stiff tour documentary is on Amazon Prime (or was) and you can actually smell the bus through your computer screen.

Is that the doc where Captain Sensible tells the story of somebody drunkenly pouring lighter fuel on a sleeping Costello on the bus and then sets him on fire?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Ice Cream Man (Live)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK6j78mHpRc



Utterly delightful. One more time!

Jonathan Richman is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970, he founded The Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key acoustic and electric backing. He now plays only acoustic to protect his hearing. He is known for his wide-eyed, unaffected, and childlike outlook, and music that, while rooted in rock and roll, is influenced by music from around the world.

[daf]

Maynard Ferguson - Gonna Fly Now (Theme From Rocky)



Released in April 1977 - reached #28 in the US on the Billlboard chart

Walter Maynard Ferguson was born in Verdun, Quebec, Canada. Encouraged by his mother and father, he started playing piano and violin at the age of four. At nine years old, he heard a cornet for the first time in his local church and asked his parents to buy one for him. He won a scholarship to the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal where he studied from 1943 to 1948 with Bernard Baker.

In 1948, Ferguson moved to the United States, intending to join Stan Kenton's band, but it no longer existed, so Ferguson played with the bands of Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey, and Charlie Barnet. In January 1950, Kenton formed the Innovations Orchestra, a 40-piece jazz orchestra with strings - which Ferguson joined. When Kenton returned to a more practical 19-piece jazz band, Ferguson continued with him. In 1953, Ferguson left Kenton and spent the next three years a session musician for Paramount Pictures, appearing on 46 soundtracks, including The Ten Commandments.

   

After leaving his long-time recording contract and the end of his main club gig, Ferguson moved his family to the Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook, New York in November 1963 to live with Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, and their community from Harvard University. He and his wife Flo used LSD, psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs. They lived at Millbrook for about three years, playing clubs and recording several albums.

[jamiefairlie]

The Slits - Newtown

https://youtu.be/zQLotWx2jVI



Originally an all-female lineup, formed in London in 1976 by  Ari Up (Ariane Forster, who's mother later married John Lydon), Palmolive (Paloma Romero, who played briefly with Spizzenergi and later left to join The Raincoats), Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt.

One of the great things about punk was that it was (uniquely within popular music) unconcerned with sex and glamour, indeed it was openly scornful. This encouraged women to become involved free of the pressure of playing stereotypical roles. We've already seen examples in Penetration and X-Ray Spex, and The Slits were an even more powerful case..

John Peel first saw them supporting the Clash and remembered:
"They were the purest essence of punk: banging, shouting and shrieking, unhindered by any discernible musical ability. We thought we must record them right now before the moment passes."

This from their first Peel session in September 77 and it showcases their initial free spirited sound. Sadly, by the time they released their debut album the following year, they had lost a great deal of that spirit and become a safer, more polished and less challenging proposition. One of the great what-ifs of music.

They released three albums in total before splitting up in 1982.

[Brundle-Fly]

Go Buddy Go - The Stranglers. B-side. Released on United Artists in 1977.



Probably, not The Slits favourite band of their punk peers. Revered and reviled in equal quantities. I loved 'em. And The Slits.

The fantastic 7" inch sleeve image I've uploaded was for the Netherlands market. According to Discogs, it once sold on there for £469-88p!!

The Stranglers are an English rock band (New Wave, Punk, Rock), formed as the Guildford Stranglers on 11 September 1974 in Guildford, Surrey, UK. etc etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJS5r41Mgdg&feature=emb_logo

[daf]

Meco - Theme From Close Encounters



Featured on the album 'Encounters Of Every Kind', and released as a US single in December 1977 - peaked at #25. The UK single, released in April 1978, did not chart.

Domenico Monardo was born in Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania, to parents of Italian descent. His father played the valve trombone in a small Italian band, and through him Meco got his first musical education. Meco wanted to play the drums, but his father convinced him that the trombone was the right instrument, and at nine that was the instrument with which he was to stay.

After serving in the US Army, Meco moved to New York City and joined Kai Winding's four-trombone band, and then from 1965 to 1974 he went on as a studio musician. Around 1973, Meco and Tony Bongiovi were part of a trio that formed the production company Disco Corporation of America. From 1974 to 1976, Meco worked as a record producer.

In May 1977 Meco watched Star Wars on its opening day. By the following night, he had seen the film four more times, and attended several more screenings over the weekend. He then got the idea to make a disco version of the score by John Williams and contacted Neil Bogart at Casablanca Records to pitch the project. Meco rejoined with Tony Bongiovi as well as Harold Wheeler and Lance Quinn. In a matter of just three weeks they arranged and recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk'. The single, "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band", extruded from the album reached Number 1 in the US and #7 in the UK charts in October 1977 - a couple of months before the film opened in the UK.

Meco : "Tony and Lance are the two guys who would not let me be "too musical". Tony would say: "It's not dumb enough—It's too good." Tony is a frustrated drummer and Lance is a guitar genius, so they would make sure the rhythm section was always "smoking" under the very sophisticated arrangements and concepts that Harold and I started with."

   

The follow-up Encounters Of Every Kind as released in the Autumn of 1977. In contrast to the previous album, the album featured mostly original songs by Harold Wheeler using the concept of the 'Meco Time Machine' to visit different time periods thoughout history in song. The music from Close Encounters - representing 'the future' only appears at the very end of the album.

Love the chord changes he lays under the film's familiar five-note theme towards the end (starting around 2:50) - making it sound like something wistful by Jimmy Webb.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Scruffs - My Mind



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pO96LtQ3Bo

I'll be punting quite a bit of power pop during our voyage into the Eighventies. So I hope you lot like that sort of thing.

The Scruffs are an American power pop group formed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1974 by writer/guitarist/vocalist Stephen Burns along with guitarist David Branyan, bassist Rick Branyan, and the brilliantly named drummer Zeph Paulson. Although their line up has changed many times over the years, The Scruffs, centered around Burns, have continued to release records up through the 2010s.