Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 09:58:49 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Toppermost of the Poppermost - UK Number Ones : part 3 - The 1970s

Started by daf, August 02, 2021, 01:55:00 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

daf

Quote from: gilbertharding on October 04, 2021, 02:21:07 PM
Three different spellings of 'Ansel' there, Daf (including on the record sleeve).

Yes - Ansil is wrong, but unavoidable as it's on the record sleeves / sheet music. Someone must have realised the mistake, as they tried to fix it . . . but then went and bunged in an extra 'L' - Doh! :



Wikipedia has it as both "Ansell" (on their Dave and Ansell Collins page), and "Ansel" on their Ansel Collins page. I suspect the 'single L' version is probably correct, so I'll tidy up the notes to reflect that.

gilbertharding

I figured the spelling was a bit fluid...

The TotP link posted by DAF has Blackburn introducing it - I realise he's professionally obliged to big everything up, but he seems keen enough.

I know you can't generalise, but I think a lot of 60s mods transitioned very easily from soul to ska. Bloke I knew who *was* a mod in the 60s reckoned that the white British bands we think of now as mod bands were seen as very much second best.

Now I think, I also remember my big sister (who was a 22 year old NME reading Led Zeppelin fan at the time) condemning the 80s ska revival scene because it was 'mods'.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: gilbertharding on October 04, 2021, 03:19:27 PMNow I think, I also remember my big sister (who was a 22 year old NME reading Led Zeppelin fan at the time) condemning the 80s ska revival scene because it was 'mods'.
There may have been some crossover, but my (limited from reading about it, as I wasn't born till '81) understanding was that both, say, the Jam and Madness had a huge crossover with working class youth who might not have really bought into the "mod" aspects, being a bit young to have the scooters, suits, drugs etc. Hence them having all the huge hits while the "proper" mods like Secret Affair were lower in the charts.


bigfatheart

FUCKING. QUALITY.

Re: Blackburn and reggae, wasn't it mentioned on Chart Music (possibly the one from when he introduced Double Barrel as number one) that in the early 70s he used to slag off reggae at every opportunity? He was a bit embarrassed about it in later years but was very much not keen at the time.

daf

Quote from: gilbertharding on October 04, 2021, 03:19:27 PM
The TotP link posted by DAF has Blackburn introducing it - I realise he's professionally obliged to big everything up, but he seems keen enough.

"Hot Rex!!"

kalowski

Double Barrel is one of those tracks that has literally nothing bad about it whatsoever. It's incredible.
Always preferred late 60s early 70s ska and blue beat to the slowed down snoozefest of reggae.

daf

299b. (NME 307.)  The Rolling Stones – Brown Sugar



From :  12 - 18 May 1971
Weeks : 1
B-side : Bitch & Let It Rock (live)
Bonus 1 : Take 1
Bonus 2 : stereo mix
Bonus 3 : Top of the Pops 1971
Bonus 4 : Live 1972

The Story So Far : 1971 - 1972
QuoteOn 23 April 1971, The Rolling Stones' 11th U.S. and 9th UK studio album, Sticky Fingers, was released in the UK. The album's artwork emphasises the suggestive innuendo of the Sticky Fingers title, showing a close-up of a jeans-clad male with the visible outline of his knob.



The cover of the original vinyl LP release featured a working zipper and perforations around the belt buckle that opened to reveal an image of white underpants, rubber-stamped in gold with the name of American pop artist Andy Warhol. While the artwork was conceived by Warhol, photography was by Billy Name and design was by Craig Braun. Braun and his team had other ideas, such as wrapping the album in rolling paper, but Jagger was enthused by Warhol's cover with a zipper. After retailers complained that the zipper was causing damage to the vinyl, the zipper was "unzipped" slightly to the middle of the record, where damage would be minimised.



The cover photo of a male model's 'fun-bundle' clad in tight blue jeans was assumed by many fans to be an image of Mick Jagger, but the people actually involved at the time of the photo shoot claim that Warhol had several different men photographed (Jagger was not among them) and never revealed which shots he used. Among the candidates, Jed Johnson, Warhol's lover at the time, denied it was his likeness, although his twin brother Jay is a possibility. Those closest to the shoot, and subsequent design, name Factory artist and designer Corey Tippin as the likeliest candidate. Warhol "superstar" Joe Dallesandro also claimed to have been the model.

Although sessions for Sticky Fingers began in earnest in March 1970, The Rolling Stones had been recording at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama in December 1969, where they cut "You Gotta Move", "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses". "Sister Morphine" cut during Let It Bleed's sessions earlier in March of that year, had been held over from this release.

Mick Taylor : "It's interesting because a lot of the songs they did before Beggars Banquet were singles geared more towards pop – things like Ruby Tuesday or Let's Spend The Night Together. But really, the Stones had always been a blues band. So in one sense, I was on very familiar ground, but in another way it was a real departure for me. Once I'd joined and we'd recorded Let It Bleed and Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, I was a part of the band. Being an improviser, I noticed there would always be a space for a guitar solo, which had not always been the case on Stones records."

In Spain, the original cover was censored by the uptight Franco regime and replaced with a "Can of fingers" cover, designed by John Pasche and Phil Jude, and "Sister Morphine" was replaced by a live version of Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock".



Other songs featured on the album included : "Sway", "Can't You Hear Me Knocking", "I Got the Blues", "Dead Flowers", and "Moonlight Mile".

Mick Jagger : "We made (tracks) with just Mick Taylor, which are very good and everyone loves, where Keith wasn't there for whatever reasons... People don't know that Keith wasn't there making it. All the stuff like Moonlight Mile, Sway. These tracks are a bit obscure, but they are liked by people that like the Rolling Stones. It's me and (Mick Taylor) playing off each other - another feeling completely, because he's following my vocal lines and then extemporizing on them during the solos."

Mick Taylor : "Unlike Exile On Main St, we didn't labour over it day and night, month after month. Most of it was done in the studio, though some of it was done at Jagger's house, Stargroves in Berkshire. I had an influence on them. I mean, would Sway have existed without my contribution? Probably, but not the way it does. And the same goes for Moonlight Mile. I remember Mick writing that one in a train carriage on the way from Paddington to Bath. Touring in those days, even with the Stones, was often like that. We didn't have private planes or trains. I remember it vividly. He started playing the song on acoustic guitar. Sway was done very quickly. Mick actually played rhythm guitar on that; Keith wasn't even around when we did that. I don't think Keith is on Moonlight Mile either. I started playing the solo in an open tuning, which is why it sounds off the wall. And Paul Buckmaster did the string arrangement based on the riff I came up with."

When Decca informed The Rolling Stones that they were owed one more single, they cheekily submitted a track called "Cocksucker Blues", which was guaranteed to be refused. Instead, Decca released the two-year-old Beggars Banquet track "Street Fighting Man".



[engineer] Andy Johns : "The whole thing with the Stones is the groove. They might settle into a groove, they might start to get a groove going but what they're looking for the whole time is that fuckin' ROLLING STONES groove. It drives you fuckin' nutty 'cause they are SO good but they can sound like the WORST fuckin' band in the world. Keith can be out of tune, Charlie will miss a beat, everyone will play too loud, and Wyman will give up in frustration. But when they do get a take, everything converges into one."

[engineer] Glyn Johns : "Keith's whole idea is that it doesn't matter who's in the control room because if the Rolling Stones are in the studio it will be great. The Stones always produce themselves; they know what they want."

'Sticky Fingers' hit the number one spot on the British charts in May 1971, remaining there for four weeks before returning at number one for a further week in mid June. In the US, the album hit number one within days of release, and stayed there for four weeks. The album spent a total of 69 weeks on the Billboard 200.



In a contemporary review for the Los Angeles Times, music critic Robert Hilburn said that although Sticky Fingers is one of the best rock albums of the year, it is only "modest" by the Rolling Stones' standards and succeeds on the strength of songs such as "Bitch" and "Dead Flowers," which recall the band's previously uninhibited, furious style.

Jon Landau, writing in Rolling Stone, felt that it lacked the spirit and spontaneity of the Rolling Stones' previous two albums and, apart from "Moonlight Mile", is full of "forced attempts at style and control" in which the band sounds disinterested, particularly on formally correct songs such as "Brown Sugar."



With the end of their Decca contract, The Rolling Stones were finally free to release their albums as they pleased. However, their departing manager Allen Klein dealt the group a major blow when they discovered that they had inadvertently signed over their entire 1960s American copyrights to Klein and his company ABKCO.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Following the release of 'Sticky Fingers', the Rolling Stones left England after receiving advice from their financial manager Prince Rupert Loewenstein [full name : Rupert Louis Ferdinand Frederick Constantine Lofredo Leopold Herbert Maximilian Hubert John Henry zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, Count of Loewenstein-Scharffeneck!!]. He recommended they go into tax exile before the start of the next financial year. The band had learned, despite being assured that their taxes were taken care of, they had not been paid for seven years and the UK government was owed a relative fortune. The Stones moved to the South of France, where Richard rented the Villa Nellcôte and sublet rooms to band members and their entourage.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On 12 May 1971 Mick Jagger and Bianca Morena de Macias marry in St. Tropez, France. Keith Richard is best man and the entire group is present, as are Paul and Linda McCartney, Ringo and Maureen Starr, Roger Vadim, Eric Clapton, Ron Wood and the other Faces, and Stephen Stills among many others.
 
Keith Richard : "I think (Bianca) has had a bigger negative influence on Mick than anyone would have thought possible. Mick, Anita and I used to go around an awful lot before he met Bianca. Mick marrying Bianca stopped certain possibilities of us writing together because it happens in bursts; it's not a steady thing. It certainly made it a lot more difficult to write together and a lot more difficult to just hang out."



In late September 1971, Bill Wyman and Astrid Lundstrom holiday in Los Angeles and Miami. Wyman co-writes and records songs with Stephen Stills' Manassas in Miami.

Astrid Lundstrom : "Bill had given up smoking cigarettes and we were told the police would never bust our houses as they had Stones homes in England. It was like pressing a button - I've never seen anybody smoke hash like him - he would have a joint before his morning cup of tea. And quickly he was chain-smoking pot, because Bill has a very addictive personality. He got completely into it, but his life changed from being very organized, predictable and rigid into a slide. If he'd had one or two joints a day it might have been a different story, but this was all the time! The change was extreme and after a year of substituting pot for cigarettes he realized he'd become too laid back and unproductive. He went and buried his remaining hash in the garden and said: That's it! It was amazing he could give up just like that - but that's Bill. He said he would never try cocaine or stronger drugs because if he liked them he would do that all the time too."

In October 1971, Keith Richard has his guitar collection stolen at his home Nellcote in France.
 
Keith Richard : "When they put the documentary together for Exile, they showed me some footage, and there I am, holding my favorite stolen guitar, a 1964 Telecaster. It was like, Oh baby, don't rub it in. There she was. Had a lovely sound. I just got used to that one, you know? I can play almost any Telecaster, but the more you play just the one, the more it becomes attached to you. I almost went into a blank after the guitars were stolen. I didn't want to think about it. But I slowly started to build up a new collection since then. I haven't lost one since. I learned my lesson: don't leave them hanging around on a Saturday night!"



In March 1972, Keith Richard flies to Switzerland with Anita Pallenberg and enters a drug clinic in Vevey, where he treats his heroin addiction.

Keith Richard : "Around now, with a tour coming up, was the first time it really hit me. I'd reached the end of the rope. I didn't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with no stuff (heroin). That was the biggest fear. I'd rather clean up before I went on the road. It's bad enough cleaning up by yourself, but the idea of putting the whole tour on the line because I couldn't make it was too much, even for me."

In April 1972, Anita Pallenberg gives birth in Switzerland to her and Keith Richard's second child, a daughter, Dandelion.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In May 1972 "Tumbling Dice", (b/w "Sweet Black Angel"), was released as a single, peaking at #5 in the UK charts.



"Tumbling Dice" was initially composed without lyrics being written by Jagger and Richard beyond a few simple phrases. The basic track for the song was recorded on 3 August 1971. That recording featured Mick Taylor playing bass, due to Bill Wyman's absence, and Jagger playing rhythm guitar.

Keith Richard : "I remember writing the riff upstairs in the very elegant front room, and we took it downstairs the same evening and we cut it."

The lyrics were fully written by Jagger after speaking with a housekeeper about gambling in LA.

Mick Jagger : "she liked to play dice and I really didn't know much about it. But I got it off of her and managed to make the song out of that."



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In May 1972, The Rolling Stones' released their 12th U.S. and 10th UK studio album, 'Exile on Main Street' - their first double album. Jagger wanted an album cover that reflected the band as "runaway outlaws using the blues as its weapon against the world", showcasing "feeling of joyful isolation, grinning in the face of a scary and unknown future".

As the band finished the album in Los Angeles, they approached designer John Van Hamersveld and his photographer partner Norman Seeff, and also invited documentary photographer Robert Frank. The same day Seeff photographed the Stones at their Bel Air mansion, Frank took Jagger for photographs at Los Angeles' Main Street. The location was the 500 block near the Leonide Hotel. At the time there was a pawnshop, a shoeshine business and a pornographic theatre (The Galway Theatre) at the location. Still, Van Hamersveld and Jagger chose the cover image from an already existing Frank photograph, an outtake from his seminal 1958 book 'The Americans'.




Named "Tattoo Parlor" but possibly taken from Hubert's Dime museum in New York City, the image is a collage of circus performers and freaks, such as "Three Ball Charlie", a 1930s sideshow performer from Humboldt, Nebraska who holds three balls (a tennis ball, a golf ball, and a "5" billiard ball) in his mouth; Joe "The Human Corkscrew" Allen, pictured in a postcard-style advertisement, a contortionist with the ability to wiggle and twist through a 13.5-inch hoop; and Hezekiah Trambles, "The Congo Jungle Freak", a man who dressed as an African savage. The Seeff pictures were repurposed as 12 perforated postcards inside the sleeve, while Frank's Main Street photographs were used in the gatefold and back cover collage made by Van Hamersveld, which features other pictures Frank took of the band and their crew.



The Rolling Stones started preliminary sessions for 'Exile on Main Street' at the basement of Keith Richard's villa in Villefranche-sur-mer in June 1971, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Unit.
 
Keith Richard : "Recording at my place was a necessity. The idea was to find another place to record like a farmhouse in the hills. But they couldn't find anywhere, so eventually they turned around and looked at me. I looked at Anita and said, Hey, babe, we're gonna have to handle it. Anita had to organize dinner sometimes for something like 18 people. We redid the basement kitchen into the studio."

In July 1971, Jimmy Miller and Andy Johns arrived at Keith Richards' home. During the sessions, the band record "Ventilator Blues", "Casino Boogie", and "Rocks Off".
 
Mick Jagger : "We were just winging it. Staying up all night... Stoned on something; one thing or another. So I don't think it was particularly pleasant. I didn't have a very good time. It was this communal thing where you don't know whether you're recording or living or having dinner; you don't know when you're gonna play, when you're gonna sing - very difficult. Too many hangers-on. I went with the flow, and the album got made. These things have a certain energy, and there's a certain flow to it, and it got impossible. Everyone was so out of it. And the engineers, the producers - all the people that were supposed to be organized - were more disorganized than anybody."

Bassist Bill Wyman recalls the band working all night, every night, from eight in the evening until three the following morning for the rest of the month.

Bill Wyman : "Not everyone turned up every night. This was, for me, one of the major frustrations of this whole period. For our previous two albums we had worked well and listened to producer Jimmy Miller. At Nellcôte things were very different and it took me a while to understand why."



By this time Keith Richard had begun a daily habit of using heroin. Richards' substance abuse frequently prevented him from attending the sessions that continued in his basement, while Jagger and Wyman were often unable to attend sessions for other reasons. This often left the band in the position of having to record in altered forms. A notable instance was the recording of one of Richards' most famous songs, "Happy".

Keith Richard : "Happy was something I did because I was for one time EARLY for a session. There was Bobby Keys and Jimmy Miller. And we were in the South of France, it was at the time we were recording Exile. We had nothing to do and  had suddenly picked up the guitar and played this riff. So we cut it and it's the record, it's the same. We cut the original track with a baritone sax, a guitar and Jimmy Miller on drums. And the rest of it is built up over that track. It was just an afternoon jam that everybody said, Wow, yeah, work on it."



Thousands of pounds' worth of heroin flowed through the mansion each week, along with visitors such as William S. Burroughs, Terry Southern, Gram Parsons, Spud from The Brumbeats, John Lennon, and Marshall Chess, the son of famous blues impresario Leonard Chess, who had been recently recruited to serve as president of the Rolling Stones' new eponymous record label.

Keith Richard : "Personally I don't think (my heroin use) affected my productivity at all. I was taking smack and getting into it during Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers. Productivity? I did Exile On Main Street when I was heaviest into smack and that was a fuckin' double album. You really can't say smack contributed to me not being able to function anywhere. I even got skiing together when I was a junkie. I wonder how many people have done that?"

Andy Johns : "I remember Gram Parsons sitting in the kitchen in France on day, while we were overdubbing vocals or something. It was crazy. Someone is sitting in the kitchen overdubbing guitar and people are sitting at the table, talking, knives, forks, plates clanking. Sometimes the band would get mad but they didn't have much choice. Keith would say, Just going to put Marlon to bed, and then disappear for four or five hours. At 1:00 AM he'd reappear, ready to go. Everyone else would be bored to death or tired of waiting for Keith. Then Keith would want to work for the next eight hours."

Gram Parsons was asked to leave Nellcôte in early July 1971, the result of his obnoxious behavior and an attempt by Richard to clean the house of drug users as the result of pressure from the French police.

Keith Richard : "(There are a lot of ) songs that Gram taught me. There's a few cuts by George Jones that were written by Dallas Frazier. Say It's Not You, Apartment No. 9. Sing Me Back Home by Merle Haggard. Six Days on the Road. And a couple of Jerry Lee's things. She Still Comes Around to See What's Left of Me. (Laughs) I used to spend days at the piano with Gram, you know, just singing. I did more singing with Gram than I've done with the Stones. He taught me all the Everly Brothers stuff and the cross harmonies and shit like that."



The album featured two covers - "Shake Your Hips" by Slim Harpo, and "Stop Breaking Down" by Robert Johnson. Other songs recorded for the album included : "Sweet Virginia", "All Down the Line", "Soul Survivor", and "Rip This Joint".

Keith Richard : "Rip This Joint was the fastest track the Stones ever cut - until Flip the Switch, which is a couple of beats faster. There's something about that speed when you cut it in half and the acoustic bass plays that tempo. I just love the air that you get. Same as the acoustic guitar. There's a power you can get from an upright bass if you record it right. It just has a different feel than electric bass. It doesn't thump so much. And it doesn't have such a precise note sound. There's a wider, fatter bounce on it. It puts the roll back into the rock."

Jimmy Miller : "I think that was Keith's album. Mick was always jumping off to Paris 'cause Bianca was pregnant and having labor pains. I remember many mornings after great nights of recording, I'd come over to Keith's for lunch. And within a few minutes of seeing him I could tell something was wrong. He'd say, Mick's pissed off to Paris again. I sensed resentment in his voice because he felt we were starting to get something, and when Mick returned the magic might be gone."

Mick Jagger : "France is alright, as long as you can get out. Like I've been in France longer than I've ever stayed in England. There's fuck-all live music here, there's Jacques Brel and electronic music. Even the accordion players are dead."

In November 1971, Jagger, Richard and Mick Taylor flew to Los Angeles to continue work on 'Exile on Main Street'. In December, the Rolling Stones, recorded new tracks such as "Turd on the Run", "I Just Want to See His Face" and "Torn and Frayed".



Although Jagger was frequently missing from Nellcôte, he took charge during the second stage of recording in Los Angeles, arranging for the keyboardists Billy Preston and Dr. John and the cream of the city's session backup vocalists to record layers of overdubs. The final gospel-inflected arrangements of "Tumbling Dice", "Loving Cup", "Let It Loose" and "Shine a Light" were inspired by Jagger, Preston, and Watts' visit to a local evangelical church where Aretha Franklin was recording what would become the live album/movie 'Amazing Grace'.

Mick Taylor : "I liked Shine a Light. I played bass on that. There are quite a few things I played bass on. I used the band's Fender Jazz bass for these because Bill wasn't there; he was late, and nobody bothered to wait. That used to happen a lot, actually. I don't mean that Bill was late a lot; we didn't always get there at the same time. If we felt like playing, we would."



Mick Jagger : "This new album is fucking mad. There's so many different tracks. It's very rock & roll, you know. I didn't want it to be like that. I'm the more experimental person in the group, you see I like to experiment. Not go over the same thing over and over. Since I've left England, I've had this thing I've wanted to do. I'm not against rock & roll, but I really want to experiment. The new album's very rock & roll and it's good. I mean, I'm very bored with rock & roll. The revival. Everyone knows what their roots are, but you've got to explore everywhere. You've got to explore the sky too."
 

 
'Exile on Main St.' was not well received by some contemporary critics, who found the quality of the songs inconsistent. Reviewing in July 1972 for Rolling Stone, Lenny Kaye said the record has "a tight focus on basic components of the Stones' sound as we've always known it," including blues-based rock music with a "pervading feeling of blackness". However, he added that the uneven quality of songs means "the great Stones album of their mature period is yet to come".

Richard Williams of Melody Maker was more enthusiastic and deemed it the band's best album, writing that it will "take its place in history" as the music "utterly repulses the sneers and arrows of outraged put down artists. Once and for all, it answers any questions about their ability as rock 'n' rollers."

Geoffrey Cannon of The Guardian agreed, stating: "Exile On Main Street will go down as [the Stones'] classic album, made at the height of their musical powers and self-confidence."



Keith Richard : "Exile was a double album. And because it's a double album you're going to be hitting different areas, including 'D for Down', and the Stones really felt like exiles. We didn't start off intending to make a double album; we just went down to the south of France to make an album and by the time we'd finished we said, 'We want to put it all out.' The point is that the Stones had reached a point where we no longer had to do what we were told to do. Around the time Andrew Oldham left us, we'd done our time, things were changing and I was no longer interested in hitting Number One in the charts every time. What I want to do is good shit—if it's good they'll get it some time down the road."



Mick Jagger : "Exile is not one of my favourite albums, although I think the record does have a particular feeling. I'm not too sure how great the songs are, but put together it's a nice piece. However, when I listen to Exile it has some of the worst mixes I've ever heard. I'd love to remix the record, not just because of the vocals, but because generally I think it sounds lousy. At the time Jimmy Miller was not functioning properly. I had to finish the whole record myself, because otherwise there were just these drunks and junkies. Of course I'm ultimately responsible for it, but it's really not good and there's no concerted effort or intention."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 
In June 1972, the Rolling Stones opened their 1972 North American Tour with a swing through the West Coast, performing 12 concerts in Vancouver (Canada), Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego. The band traveled in their own aeroplane for the first time, and Stevie Wonder opened the concerts.
 
Mick Taylor : "I nearly saw Mick and Keith have a fight in a seafood restaurant in Seattle. Keith was really pissed off 'cause Jagger had thrown this beautiful leather jacket into the audience at the end of the gig. At the dinner table they were yelling across at each other. After that I don't think Keith lent Mick anything to wear onstage."

On 4 July 1972, the Rolling Stones performed an Independence Day concert in the US's capital, Washington D.C., at RFK Stadium.
 
Mick Jagger : "The Washington concert was pretty frightening and a bit weird. it's difficult for me to say what it was like for the people who were there, but I guess it sounded alright to the people who were there, if you were no further than halfway back. There was trouble in front, people sitting on the stage, grabbing at your legs, getting tangled in the mike cables... Just a few loons, really, among the 40 000, but still, I couldn't do my thing. I would have liked video blowups or something because there was no way for me to reach all them people, it being night and me unable to see them. It felt even bigger than Hyde Park, where there were more people, but at least it was daylight."



On 26 July 1972, Mick Jagger's 29th birthday, the group hosted an end-of-tour party at St. Regis Hotel in New York City, with live music by Muddy Waters and Count Basie. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, Carly Simon, Stevie Wonder, Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, Carly Simon and Zsa Zsa Gabor were among the guests.
 
Mick Taylor : "It got a bit pathetic. I'd been on the road before and knew what it was about; surrounded by hangers-on and a lot of phony people. That's a side of the business. What I always liked about the Stones was their ability to see the funny side and never take it too seriously. It's a very absorbing occupation. And it certainly takes a lot out of you. But anything you love is a 24-hour thing. It was very hectic and chaotic, but it was fun. I don't know anyone who's ever been associated with the Stones and never recovered (laughs).  But it takes a long time."

Charlie Watts : "I got off the plane in '72 and said No fucking more because I don't actually like touring and I don't like living out of suitcases. I hate being away from home. I always do tours thinking they're the last one, and at the end of them I always leave the band. Because of what I do I can't play the drums at home so to play the drums I have to go on the road, and to go on the road I have to leave home and it's like a terribly vicious circle that's always been my life."



On 27 July 1972, the Rolling Stones held a band meeting in New York City, to discuss their tax problems if they return to England and problems in France related to drug investigations on Keith Richard.

Keith Richard : "I cleaned up for that tour. But not for the whole tour. I did take a bit (of heroin). Playing wasn't quite as much fun on smack. But that's a difficult one 'cause it's not always true. It's coming OFF the road and dealing with the withdrawal and expenditure of energy that does it. That absolute cut-off after two or three months on the road is difficult to adjust to. Coming back to a completely different rhythm was hard. And I found that smack made it very much easier for me to slow down, very smoothly and gradually. Otherwise I'd find I'd be glad to get home but I was still so hyper. I really wanted to enjoy relaxing at home. But I'd spend months wanting to enjoy, trying to enjoy but I couldn't. The one thing I can't handle very well is that sudden change in pace of living. I can handle it through slowing down or speeding up; that's easy. But I just haven't got any brakes. And THAT became the easiest way to put my foot down and just whew..."

On 9 August 1972, Keith Richard, Anita Pallenberg and their children moved into a home in Villars, Switzerland, the country that would become their homebase for much of the next four years. While there, Keith Richard learns how to ski.
 
Anita Pallenberg : "It was actually quite nice. We had this little chalet and we used to ski to the front door. We had the drugs and a good connection in Geneva, and we had friends in Geneva, and we used to drive around in Ferraris and Bentleys... It was fun. We always had people in the house and friends would come and visit us."

On 4 December 1972, Heroin and other drug possession charges are laid on Keith Richard and Anita Pallenberg in France. Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor fly to the Bahamas for a holiday. Richard and Pallenberg stay in Jamaica, settling on the north coast in Mammee Bay. They undergo heroin withdrawal when supplies run out.

The Single :
Quote"Brown Sugar" was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richard, and recorded by The Rolling Stones.



Though credited to Jagger–Richard, "Brown Sugar" was primarily the work of Jagger, who wrote it sometime during the filming of Ned Kelly in 1969. According to Marsha Hunt, Jagger's then-girlfriend and the mother of his first child Karis, he wrote the song with her in mind. Former 'Ikette' Claudia Lennear disputes this claim, saying that it was written about her because she was dating Jagger when it was written.

"Brown Sugar" was recorded over a three-day period at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, from 2 to 4 December 1969. The song was not released until over a year later due to legal wranglings with the band's former label. The Stones debuted the number live during the infamous concert at the Altamont Speedway on 6 December 1969.

Mick Jagger : "The lyric was all to do with the dual combination of drugs and girls. This song was a very instant thing, a definite high point."

"Brown Sugar" was released in April 1971 as the first single from the album 'Sticky Fingers'. While the US single featured only "Bitch" as the B-side, the British single featured that track, plus a live rendition of Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock", recorded at the University of Leeds during the 1971 tour of the UK.



The lyrical subject matter has often been a point of interest and controversy. The scandalous lyrics featured references to taboo subjects, including slavery, rape, interracial sex, cunnilingus, sadomasochism, lost virginity, and heroin.

Mick Jagger : "God knows what I'm on about on that song. It's such a mishmash. All the nasty subjects in one go... I never would write that song now. I would probably censor myself. I'd think, 'Oh God, I can't. I've got to stop. I can't just write raw like that."

In more recent times Jagger has changed some of the more controversial lyrics when performing the song live. For example, the first verse line 'I hear him whip the women just around midnight' has been replaced with the more simple 'you should have heard him just around midnight.'



It became a number one hit in both the United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it reached #2 on the stuffy old official chart, but topped the elegantly wasted NME chart for a week in May 1971.



Other Versions includeLittle Richard (1971)  /  Living Guitars 1971)  /  "Azucar negrita" by Las Moskas (1971)  /  Triton (1973)  /  "Brunt socker by Kal P. Dal (1978)  /  The Party Boys (1984)  /  "The Hot Rocks Polka" by "Weird Al" Yankovic (1989)  /  "Hei pepe!" by Clifters (1989)  /  Thunder (1990)  /  The Count (1993)  /  Armitage Shanks (1996)  /  Collin Raye (1997)  /  Rangzen (2000)  /  Ryan Adams/Beth Orton (2001)  /  Honeywagon (2005)  /  Déjà vu (2010)  /  Alice Russell (2011)  /  Gov't Mule (2015)  /  Danny McEvoy (2015)  /  "Ground Shook Here" by ApologetiX (2017)  /  Steven Tyler & Nuno Bettencourt (2018)  /  8-Bit Misfits (2018)  /  Lullaby Baby Trio (2019)  /  the inevitable Primal Scream (2019)  /  a robot (2019)

On This Day :
Quote12 May : Mick Jagger marries model Bianca Pérez-Mora Macias at St Tropez Town Hall, France
13 May : Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane seriously injured in a car accident
14 May : Pope Paul VI issued his latest steamy bonk-busting Apostolic Letter Octogesima adveniens - Phwoarr!!
14 May : Sofia Coppola, director, born Sofia Carmina Coppola in NYC, New York
15 May : "70, Girls, 70" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 35 performances
16 May : Rachel Goswell, musician (Slowdive, Mojave 3), born Rachel Ann Goswell in Fareham, Hampshire
16 May : Benjamin Britten's opera "Owen Wingrave" premieres in Aldwych, London
17 May : Stephen Schwartz' musical "Godspell" premieres off-Broadway

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote

daf

The Story So Far & Further :  1973 - 1974
QuoteIn January 1973, the Rolling Stones opened their 1973 Pacific Tour by performing three concerts in Honolulu, Hawaii.
 
Mick Jagger : "Charlie will stay in the South of France all the time. I just don't. Even two weeks in one place gets to be a maximum. The only time we stay anywhere longer is to finish off an album. I could go back to South of France but I never liked it there; soon as we cut the first album we left; I left im-ME-diately. I vist Ireland a lot; I had a house there for six months, and I prefer London, but I can't go there. So I'm very happy moving every two weeks. I've got it down."
 


In April 1973, Keith Richard returned to London, England, and on the same day Anita Pallenberg was arrested for cannabis possession in Jamaica and jailed. She was eventually released and returned to London.

Anita Pallenberg : "While Keith was away I'd be starting to get off heroin, really trying, but then he'd return and he'd get me on it just as bad as before. People who used to be friends began to get very bitchy toward me. Keith had this entourage of hangers-on who were always around the house, came for a weekend, stayed on for weeks and months, always a house full of freeloading sycophants, Yes, Keith, yes, anything you say, Keith, no private life, no time to talk, the suppliers bringing us the heroin, but that's all we had in common."



On 26 June 1973, Keith Richard was arrested at his Cheyne Walk home in London for possession of cannabis, heroin, mandrax and an unauthorized gun.

Keith Richard : "You see, I don't really give a damn what they - what the media or whatever you call 'em - write about me. You know, I'd just like to see all those c*cksuckers spending an hour onstage doing what I do, and see how they stand up to it. I just presume they have nothing better to do, or that they're hard up for a story, or whatever. It still goes on and I just go along with the Bad publicity is better than no publicity idea. I mean, if they wrote about me as the sweet, gentle, loving family man, it would probably do me more damage. And be equally untrue. They don't know anything anyway. They'll just blow anything up out of all proportions like that Ron Wood to replace Keith Richards story which started off as a mildly funny drunken joke we thought up at Tramps one night, and which Fleet Street got hold of and blew up. Same with the busts. Everyone thinks I've been busted hundreds of time when in fact this now is only the second time I've even been brought up before a court. I mean Mick Jagger's been busted more than I have, but because you're a celebrity or whatever, everyone gets to hear about it."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On 17 August 1973, the Rolling Stones released the single "Angie" (b/w "Silver Train"), which reached #5 in the UK and #1 in the US.
 


The song was credited, as most Rolling Stones songs were, to both Mick Jagger and Keith Richard, but it was acknowledged to be almost completely written by Keith Richard. "Angie" was recorded in November and December 1972 and is an acoustic-guitar-driven ballad characterizing the end of a romance. The song's distinctive piano accompaniment, written by Richard, was played on the album by Nicky Hopkins.



There was speculation that the song was about Dave Bowie's first wife Angela, Keith Richard's newborn daughter Dandelion Angela, the actress Angie Dickinson, and others. In 1993, Richard said that the title was inspired by his baby daughter. However, in his 2010 memoir, Richard said that he had chosen the name at random when writing the song.

Keith Richard : "I just went, 'Angie, Angie.' It was not about any particular person; it was a name, like 'ohhh, Diana.' I didn't know Angela was going to be called Angela when I wrote 'Angie'. In those days you didn't know what sex the thing was going to be until it popped out. In fact, Anita named her Dandelion. She was only given the added name Angela because she was born in a Catholic hospital where they insisted that a 'proper' name be added."



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Rolling Stones' 13th U.S. and 11th UK studio album, 'Goats Head Soup', was released on 31 August 1973 in the UK, and on 12 September 1973 in the U.S. The album cover was designed by Ray Lawrence and photographed by David Bailey, a friend of Jagger's who had worked with the Rolling Stones since 1964. Jagger was shot enveloped by a pink chiffon veil, which Bailey said was meant to look like "Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen".
 


The album was the last to be produced by Jimmy Miller who was a key architect of the Rolling Stones sound during their most acclaimed period which began with 1968's 'Beggars Banquet'. Miller had developed a debilitating drug habit during the course of his years spent with the Stones.

Keith Richard : "Jimmy Miller went in a lion and came out a lamb. We wore him out completely... Jimmy was great, but the more successful he became the more he got like Brian... He ended up carving swastikas into the wooden console at Island Studios. It took him 3 months to carve a swastika. Meanwhile, Mick and I finished up Goats Head Soup."

Work on the album began in November 1972 when the band relocated to Kingston, Jamaica's Dynamic Sound Studios.



Keith Richard : "Jamaica was one of the few places that would let us all in! By that time about the only country that I was allowed to exist in was Switzerland, which was damn boring for me, at least for the first year, because I didn't like to ski ... Nine countries kicked me out, thank you very much, so it was a matter of how to keep this thing together ..."

[president of Rolling Stones Records] Marshall Chess, : "We used to book studios for a month, 24 hours a day, so that the band could keep the same set-up and develop their songs in their free-form way, starting with a few lyrics and rhythms, jamming and rehearsing while we fixed the sound. It amazed me, as an old-time record guy, that the Stones might not have played together for six or eight months, but within an hour of jamming, the synergy that is their strength would come into play and they would lock it together as one ..."

Mick Jagger : "Songwriting and playing is a mood. Like the last album we did (Exile on Main St.) was basically recorded in short concentrated periods. Two weeks here, two weeks there – then another two weeks. And, similarly, all the writing was concentrated so that you get the feel of one particular period of time. Three months later it's all very different and we won't be writing the same kind of material as Goats Head Soup."



Bass guitarist "Boring" Bill Wyman only appears on three of the album's ten tracks, but the rest of the Rolling Stones, lead vocalist Mick Jagger, lead guitarist Keith Richard, guitarist Mick Taylor and drummer Charlie Watts, play on every track, with the exception of "Winter", which does not feature Richard. In addition to the main band, the album features contributions from saxophonist Bobby Keys, organist Billy Preston, and pianists Nicky Hopkins and Ian Stewart.

Keith Richard : "The album itself didn't take that long, but we recorded an awful lot of tracks. There were not only Jamaicans involved, but also percussion players who came from places like Guyana, a travelling pool of guys who worked in the studios. It was interesting to be playing in this totally different atmosphere. Mikey Chung, the engineer at Dynamic, for example, was a Chinese man – you realise how much Jamaica is a multi-ethnic environment."

The band attracted controversy with "Star Star", which was banned by the BBC in September due to its fruity lyrics. The song was originally titled "Starfucker" until Atlantic Records owner Ahmet Ertegün insisted on the change.

Mick Jagger : "I suppose we ask for it if we record things like Star Star. Christ, I don't do these things intentionally. I just wrote it. If girls can do that, I can certainly write about it, because it's what I see."

Other songs featured on the album included : "Coming Down Again", "Hide Your Love", and "Can You Hear the Music".

Mick Jagger : "I really feel close to this album, and I really put all I had into it ... I guess it comes across that I'm more into songs. It wasn't as vague as [Exile on Main St.] which kind of went on so long that I didn't like some of the things. There's more thought to this one. It was recorded all over the place over about two or three months. The tracks are much more varied than the last one. I didn't want it to be just a bunch of rock songs."



While 'Goats Head Soup' reached number one in both the UK and US charts, it received mixed reviews from critics and audiences and is generally seen as the beginning of the band's decline after a string of critically acclaimed albums.

Nick Kent of the NME found the record lacking in originality, stating, "on Goat's Head Soup the Stones have really nothing to say, but somehow say it so well that the results transcend the redundancy of the project in the first place". He called the album "truly great", giving praise to "Dancing with Mr. D" especially, and recommended that listeners "listen to it carefully".

By contrast, Lester Bangs derided the album in Creem, saying, "There is a sadness about the Stones now, because they amount to such an enormous 'So what?' The sadness comes when you measure not just one album, but the whole sense they're putting across now against what they once meant."



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 
The Rolling Stones' autumn 1973 European Tour followed shortly after the album's release,  with concerts in Vienna, Austria; and Mannheim (for the first time) and Cologne in West Germany. Four slots in the set list were given to the new material: "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)", "Star Star", "Dancing with Mr D" and "Angie".
 
Mick Jagger : "I know when I've given a lousy performance and I know when I'm great. I've worked myself into a state where I know I'd never ever give a very, very bad performance, but concerts vary and I think it's amusing that most writers can never really distinguish between a mediocre gig and a great one. Like those Wembley concerts, where I just wasn't on form - almost everyone said how great I was when I knew I wasn't doing my best. I mean, the first show there was horrible! But then there were concerts like the first show at Birmingham - were you there? - now that was a great one, because the audience just stayed rigid in their seats and I found myself playing to the air which was beautiful in a way. I perform for anyone who's putting out some kind of reaction, and if there's no perceivable reaction I'll perform to the air. And that's sometimes when my finest moments happen."

Keith Richard : "Right now, I'm sticking pretty much to playing rhythm onstage. It depends on the number actually, but since Brian died, I've had to pay more attention to rhythm guitar anyway. I move more now simply because back when we were playing old halls I had to stand next to Charlie's drums in order to catch the beat, the sound was always so bad. I like numbers to be organized - my thing is organization, I suppose - kicking the number off, pacing it and ending it. Either I fuck it up completely or it really comes together."



On 19 September 1973, Gram Parsons died of a drug overdose in California.
 
Keith Richard : "It was (a shock), because Gram was one of my closest friends. Unfortunately many of my closest friends have died suddenly. It's like they've always been very compulsive people and Gram was no exception. Maybe it's the attraction of opposites? While they were with me, I could always hold them down... I could take care of Gram. But once he'd moved back to L.A. or whatever to form his own band, I started hearing stories... oh shit."

On 23 September 1973, as a reaction to learning of Gram Parsons' death, Keith Richard travels from Innsbruck to Munich, Germany to find and start a relationship with German actress and model Uschi Obermaier.
 
In late September 1973, Keith Richard is reported to have undergone a heroin addiction cure in Switzerland through a system changing his blood.

Keith Richard : "Someone asked me how I cleaned up, so I told them I went to Switzerland and had my blood completely changed. I was just fooling around. I opened my jacket and said, How do you like my blood change? That's all it was, a joke. I was fucking sick of answering that question. So I gave them a story..."

Andy Johns : "Keith is the only fuckin' guy I know who manages to keep some semblance of reality going on when he's smacked out. The guy is so strong it's ridiculous. We were in a hotel room one day in Amsterdam around '73. There were four or five of us and Keith laid out some speedballs. And I said, C'mon let's do another one. And Keith said to me, Andy, you've really got to try to keep this under control. And I thought, fuck me, KEITH RICHARD is telling ME to cool out. I MUST be going overboard."
 
On 14 October 1973, the courts in Nice, France, find Keith Richard and Anita Pallenberg guilty of possession of cannabis, heroin and cocaine at their Nellcote villa in 1972. They are fined and given suspended sentences, and banned from entering France for two years.



On 19 October 1973, the Rolling Stones end their European tour with a concert in West Berlin, West Germany, their last ever concert with Mick Taylor as a member. 

Charlie Watts : "It's hardly a financially successful operation. The last time we toured Europe we actually lost money. Can you imagine that? Having to slave around playing all these places and then finding out you've lost money. This might just be the first European tour we make any money on, though I don't know. Really, I'll be the last one of all to know about it."

Keith Richard : "I can't live without being on the road. Every minute spent off the road I either turn into an alcoholic or a junkie 'cause I've got nothing else to do. It's just a waste of time. I can turn into anything: a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a psychedelic treat, a Jehovah's Witness, a junkie - anything can happen 'cause I'm not doing THAT. That's what I do."

On 24 October 1973, Keith Richard and Anita Pallenberg appear in court in London for their Cheyne Walk bust in June. Keith Richard is found guilty of posession of cannabis, heroin, mandrax and unregistered guns, and fined and given a conditional discharge. It is his first British conviction. Later in the evening, Richard and Pallenberg accidentally set fire to their London hotel bedroom - the gormless twats!
 
Andy Johns : "People are saying, Fuckin' great, Keith got off again, and all of a sudden smoke starts coming in. We rush into the other room and one of the beds is completely aflame. One side of the double bed was on fire. It was incredible, we'd already been to court, Keith nearly got done, and here we are and the kids nearly get it. I thought, I'm getting out of here, man! People are running up and down the corridor calling us fuckin' rock and roll bastards, screaming we're trying to kill them all."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In May 1974, "Boring" Bill Wyman released his album, 'Monkey Grip' - the first solo album by a Rolling Stone.



Boring Bill Wyman : "I'd always been aware that I was no Jack Bruce or Stanley Clarke, but I was feeling really cramped by the material we were doing and what was left for me to actually perform on. I wanted to play with some different musicians and instruments... The Rolling Stones have gotten so big that it's just not practical for us to mess about and experiment with new instruments. If you want to mess on piano, Billy Preston or Nicky Hopkins is there. If you want horns, you have to have a horn section. After I'd done those two albums I felt very differently about playing and recording with the Stones. I became much more confident and unafraid of experimenting in the studio, rather than sticking only to the safely solid. I could experiment more and see what the guys thought."

Two flop singles were released from the album : "Monkey Grip Glue" (b/w "What A Blow") in June 1974, and "White Lightnin'" (b/w "Pussy") in September 1974.



Keith Richard : "I don't mind Bill doing one album but I don't see the point of copping it a second time. You don't make the same mistakes twice. You can print this 'cause I told him. Do the same thing again and people question your motives. Bill is a great bass player. With Charlie, he's a great rhythm section. But it's the Mick Taylor syndrome. OK, you're a guitar player, but that's not enough. Then you also want to be a great songwriter. Suddenly it's not enough to be a musician. It's the case of someone who can do something REALLY well insisting they can do lot of others things well. And they can't. There's no point in forcing it."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On 26 July 1974, the Rolling Stones' released the single "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)", (b/w "Through the Lonely Nights"), which peaked at #10 in the UK charts.



The song had an unusual creation - the basic rhythm track had been laid down by members of The Faces, including Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and drummer Kenney Jones, during a jam session with Mick Jagger, Dave Bowie from The Dave Bowie Band, and bassist Willie Weeks. Jagger liked the song so much, he brought the basic track to Richard, who added some guitar overdub.

Ronnie Wood : "Mick and I worked out I Can Feel the Fire and after we'd done that, he said, Help me with this song, It's Only Rock n Roll, 'cause I wanna see how it turns out. So, say on a Tuesday evening: two guitars - Mick and I - and Mick singing lead vocal and David Bowie and myself on backup vocals. Then I overdubbed the rest of the instruments last and it sounded like a good demo. So the next night, we wanted to put it in a more presentable shape so we got hold of Kenny Jones who plays the drums on the actual record. Ah... I ended up with just my acoustic guitar that I laid originally. Keith replaced - RIGHTLY SO - the guitars that I'd done electrically."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Rolling Stones' 14th U.S. and 12th UK studio album, 'It's Only Rock 'n Roll', was released on 18 October 1974. It was the last Rolling Stones album to feature guitarist Mick Taylor. The recording sessions were attended by Belgian painter Guy Peellaert, who Mick Jagger invited to do the album cover after seeing his work in the book Rock Dreams, which featured illustrations of various rock musicians. Peellaert eventually painted the band as "rock deities," descending a temple staircase, surrounded by young girls and women worshiping them in Grecian clothing.



Production began in November 1973 at Munich, Germany's Musicland Studios. The album was at first developed as a half-live, half-studio production with one side of the album featuring live performances from the Stones' European tour while the other side was to be composed of newly recorded cover versions of the band's favourite R&B songs. Covers recorded included a take of Dobie Gray's "Drift Away", Jimmy Reed's "Shame Shame Shame", and the Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud to Beg". Soon the band began working off riffs by Richard and new ideas by Mick Jagger and the original concept was scrapped in favour of an album with all-new material.



Though it wasn't as successful as their previous albums, 'It's Only Rock 'n Roll' was an important transitional album for the Rolling Stones. Following the departure of long-time producer Jimmy Miller, the album was self-produced by guitarist Keith Richard and singer Mick Jagger under the pseudonym "The Glimmer Twins".

Keith Richard : "I think we'd come to a point with Jimmy where the contribution level had dropped because it'd got to be a habit, a way of life, for Jimmy to do one Stones album a year. He'd got over the initial sort of excitement which you can feel on Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed. Also, Mick and I felt that we wanted to try and do it ourselves because we really felt we knew much more about techniques and recording and had our own ideas of how we wanted things to go. Goats Head Soup hadn't turned out as we wanted to – not blaming Jimmy or anything like that... But it was obvious that it was time for a change in that particular part of the process of making records."

The song "Luxury" showed the band's growing interest in reggae music, while "If You Really Want to Be My Friend" continued their immersion in ballads. Other songs featured on the album included : "If You Can't Rock Me", "Dance Little Sister", "Short and Curlies", and "Fingerprint File".

Keith Richard : "We finished off writing the songs that hadn't been completed lyricwise, because a lot of them had been written in a very loose framework to start with - maybe just a chorus, a hook line, or something. Then we got on and did the vocals and I left Mick for a couple of weeks to do his solo vocals, because he often comes up with his best stuff alone in the studio with just an engineer. Then he doesn't feel like he's hanging anybody up."

This was Mick Taylor's last album with the Rolling Stones, and reportedly had made songwriting contributions to "Till the Next Goodbye" and "Time Waits for No One".

Mick Taylor : "The best one - for a guitar solo, anyway - is Time Waits for No One, which is the first song we recorded for It's Only Rock 'N Roll. We hadn't seen each other for about 3 months, and it was done in one or two takes. We had done a bit of a layoff because we'd finished an American tour, and everybody went to different parts of the globe and had a rest. I went to Brazil, which is possibly why there is a little Latin influence there."

Similar to receiving no writing credits on the Stones' previous album, Taylor was disappointed to find that all the original songs listed on the record cover were credited to Jagger/Richard.

Mick Taylor : "I did have a falling out with Mick Jagger over some songs I felt I should have been credited with co-writing on It's Only Rock 'n Roll. We were quite close friends and co-operated quite closely on getting that album made. By that time Mick and Keith weren't really working together as a team so I'd spend a lot of time in the studio."



Initial reviews for 'It's Only Rock 'n Roll' were mixed. Lester Bangs disparaged the album in The Village Voice, saying, "The Stones have become oblique in their old age, which is just another word for perverse except that perverse is the corniest concept extant as they realized at inception... Soup was friendly and safe. I want the edge and this album doesn't reassure me that I'll get it, what a curious situation to be stuck in, but maybe that's the beauty of the Stones, hah, hah, kid? This album is false. Numb. But it cuts like a dull blade. Are they doing the cutting, or are we?"

Greg Shaw of Phonograph Record considered the record to be better than its predecessor, but felt there was a pervading "nonchalance" throughout the album: "A certain amount of thought and care is put into each song, but not enough to weight it down or divert anyone's attention from the groove."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Between 25 and 28 October 1974, the Rolling Stones joined Keith Richard to discuss plans for the next year. Following an argument, Mick Taylor leaves after a day.

Mick Taylor : "It was inevitable. I was becoming so depressed and frustrated that it was rubbing off on the group. I had a lot of personal problems which had nothing to do with the group. I was bored. Not bored with the Rolling Stones but bored with myself. I knew I had a lot more inside me, and it needed to get out. I was actually getting very bored with the inactivity and the lack of direction. You know, for a whole year we just really didn't do anything. We didn't see each other and nothing was happening. And there were all sorts of things going on that had absolutely nothing to do with the band and being on the road and making records, which, I think, interfered with relationships within the band. I think if I'd have been a little older, I don't think I would have left actually. You know, I don't REGRET that I left, but because I hadn't been involved with them right from the beginning, there was much more of a sense of urgency about needing to do something else, inside me, you know. Whereas with the rest of them, they always knew inside themselves that no matter how difficult things were or how crazy things were, they'd sort of always be together, they'd get through it."

Bill Wyman : "Taylor felt he was wasting his time. He didn't like spending ten hours working on a track he could master in three hours."

Alexis Korner : "When Mick Taylor joined the band his attitude was It's OK getting the money and playing with the band but I'm splitting after 18 months to do my own thing. I told him to join but I told him it was ridiculous to believe he'd leave within 18 months. Once you get used to the Stones and a life of ease with various habits there's no getting out."

And Taylor wasn't the only one in the band to get itchy feet . . .

Bill Wyman : "Around the time Mick Taylor quit I just wanted to leave. I couldn't see myself standing it any longer. But I didn't want to be the person who caused the breakup of the band."



On 12 December 1974, the Rolling Stones officially announced the departure of Mick Taylor from the group. 
  


Mick Jagger : "Living with someone like that for five years, being with them so much, makes you very close to them. So, as far as we're concerned, he was just as close as anyone else in the band. There's no question of his being frozen out of the group or anything like that. Five-and-a-half years is a long time to spend with one band, especially these days, I think. And people talk about him not having a kind of Stones image. I think it's only Keith and me to a certain extent, who have what you'd call that kind of image. Mick and I used to get on very well, and we used to go around a lot together. I think it's just that he has a lot of ideas and he wants to try them out. And I hope he does. I don't want to say goodbye to him. I hope I can work with him again."

Keith Richard : "My playing relationship with Mick Taylor was always very good. There is no way I can compare it to playing with Brian, because it had been so long since Brian had been interested in the guitar at all, I had almost gotten used to doing it all myself - which I never really liked. I couldn't bear being the only guitarist in a band, because the real kick for me is getting those rhythms going, and playing off of another guitar. But I learned a lot from Mick Taylor, because he is such a beautiful musician. I mean, when he was with us, it was a time when there was probably more distinction, let's say, between rhythm guitar and lead guitar than at any other time in the Stones. More than now and more than when Brian was with us, because Mick Taylor is that kind of a player; you know he can do that."

Taylor's place in the band was quickly filled by Ronnie Wood.

Mick Taylor : "Ronnie Wood is an old friend of mine. He's probably the guy that I've known longest. I know him since I was 15, we used to play together when he was in the Birds. I always knew that Ronnie Wood was going to take over from me when I left...  I went to his house first because I knew Ronnie, and then Mick and Keith started coming out there. I don't actually think they knew Ronnie that well. They knew Rod Stewart and they knew the Faces, they knew Ronnie a little bit but they didn't know him that well. But him and Keith became good friends."



Keith Richard : "You know with Ronnie we seem to be able to get back to the original idea of the Stones, when Brian was with us in 1962, '63. Two guitars has always been my particular love because I think there's more that can be done with that combination thean almost any other instrument. But what screws most of that up, and this is the bag I fell into with Mick Taylor - whom I love deeply and I think is one of the most incredible guitar players in that kind of music you'll ever get a chance to hear - is that there's this phony division between lead and rhythm guitar. It does not exist. Either you're a guitar player or you're not. And if you are a guitar player with another guitar player, there's no point in designing one thing to one... there's no freedom there. This way with Ronnie is more like what it was with Brian, because we had basically the same ideas about guitar when Brian was still very interested in guitar. It's two guitar players and one sound."

Ron Wood : "I remember learning 150 of their repertoire (laughs). I gave up trying to remember which key each one was in or the chord sequence to a lot of them. I did a lot of it by feel in the end, you know. Had to, it's impossible to log all of those songs. It was intense - to get hit with all of those Mick Taylor lines, to echo what Brian had done, then to add my own bluesy input to it all."



Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Previously :
173.   It's All Over Now
182.   Little Red Rooster
190.   The Last Time
202.   (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
205.   Get Off Of My Cloud
210b. 19th Nervous Breakdown
215.   Paint It, Black
251.   Jumpin' Jack Flash   |  Part 2
274.   Honky Tonk Women  |  Part 2
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

gilbertharding

Bonus: Mick showing Ike and Tina Turner how it goes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UzGATX2ymg

Lovely song to learn how the open G tuning works.

kalowski

I quite like Brown Sugar, and Sticky Fingers, but album wise it's Exile all the way for me.
One of my all time favourite albums.

gilbertharding

Quote from: kalowski on October 07, 2021, 06:11:10 PM
I quite like Brown Sugar, and Sticky Fingers, but album wise it's Exile all the way for me.
One of my all time favourite albums.

See, for me, Exile took me a while to get into, and I still don't absolutely love it. It comes with all the CLASSIC ALBUM baggage nowadays, but I can easily see why contempory reviews could tend towards the luke warm.

daf

300.  Dawn – Knock Three Times



From : 9 May – 12 June 1971
Weeks : 5
B-side : Home
Bonus 1 : Promo Video
Bonus 2 : Mono Mix

The Story So Far : 
QuoteMichael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey, and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.

Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at the age of 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to write songs in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US with the hit "Halfway To Paradise" (b/w "Lonely Tomorrows") in March 1961.



Tony Orlando : "When I started at sixteen I had an opportunity to work with one of the greatest songwriters of all time and that's Carole King. She wrote my first hit. She was eighteen. I was sixteen years old. The first hit I had, she had. We had it together. She arranged a thirty piece orchestra on that session. In those days we cut four tracks. It was amazing when I think of that. And we had our first hit record together. It was called "Halfway To Paradise".



Tony Orlando : "Then the second hit record was a record called "Bless You", written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil."



Released in August 1961, his second single, "Bless You" (b/w "Am I The Guy"), reached #5 in the UK chart.



Further drippy singles included : "Happy Times (Are Here To Stay)" (b/w "Lonely Am I"), released in October 1961; "My Baby's A Stranger" (b/w "Talkin' About You") in December 1961; "I'd Never Find Another You" (b/w "Love On Your Lips") in March 1962; and "Chills" (b/w "At The Edge Of Tears") in June 1962.



Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in November 1962, the song was picked up by The Beatles who included it in their set lists on their Winter tour of 1963 supporting Helen Shapiro.

Orlando was hired by Clive Davis as the general manager of Columbia Records' publishing imprint, April-Blackwood Music in 1967, and by the late 1960s had been promoted to vice-president of Columbia / CBS Music. In 1969, Orlando signed Barry Manilow to his first recording contract with Bell Records, co-writing with him and producing Manilow's earliest tracks.

In March 1969, as 'Bllly Shears', he released the single "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)"  (b/w "Moments From Now, Tomorrow").

Tony Orlando : "I was working for Clive Davis at CBS' April Blackwood Music publishing arm from 1966 through 1970. I wasn't even making records at that point in time. I received a call from Bo Gentry to do him a favor and come downstairs to the studio to record a demo for Frankie Valli. So I did what I thought was a Frankie Valli impression, Kenny Laguna did the falsetto part and then I left. The next thing I know, they put the record out and told me that the record is a hit. Then they asked me for another favor, to put my voice on some album cuts. I told them, "I work for Clive Davis. I really don't want to have a career as a singer anymore. I'm doing quite well behind a desk and I don't want to do anything to jeopardize that, but I'll come down and do you this favor." So I went downstairs again and recorded more songs so that they could have a full album."

Orlando recorded two further singles under the name 'Wind' : "Make Believe" (b/w "Groovin With Mr. Bloe") in August 1969, and "Teenybopper" (b/w "I'll Hold Out My Hand") in November 1969.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In 1970 Hank Medress of The Tokens and Dave Appell were producing a song called "Candida" for Bell Records. For the first recording of the song, the lead vocal was done by blues singer Frankie Paris, in a style reminiscent of the Drifters. Paris's performance was deemed unsatisfactory, and a new singer was sought for the track. Medress believed that "an ethnic feel" would suit the song well. He asked his friend Tony Orlando, whose heritage is Puerto Rican and Greek, to perform its lead vocal.

Tony Orlando : "Then a year later, similarly, Hank Medress came into my office and asked for a favor. He played me a demo of "Candida" which ended up being the song people know, but without my voice on it. I called the head of Bell Records and told them that I think that Hank has a potential hit for them. It worked. They loved the record and I thought that was the end of the favor, that Hank's song would be recorded on Bell. Then Hank visited me again and said that Bell wouldn't release it unless he changed the lead voice on the record as they didn't like the singer. I told him that he should find a lead singer. Hank asked, "How about you?" I said, "Oh, Hank, come on. I can't do that." Hank said, "I swear. I promise I won't say that it is Tony Orlando." You were called Wind, maybe I should try with a similar name but spell it R-E-I-G-N?" I told him, "I don't care what you call it. I just don't want to lose my job"."

Orlando was reluctant to perform on a Bell Records single, as he did not want to jeopardize his job at Columbia. Medress reassured him by saying they would use a band name for the release, and that nobody would know who the singer was.

Tony Orlando : "He promised to keep it a secret. Hank booked time in the studio and let me know what day to be there. When I went into the studio, I did not know the full song. I asked, "What's the first line?" Then we recorded the song line by line until we got to the chorus, which I knew. We finished it within the hour that Hank had booked at the studio on an evening after I got off work. Keep in mind I received no recognition or money for the Wind record, which was fine with me. I was about to become the Vice President of CBS Music at the age of 23 and I didn't want to risk that."



Background vocals were done by the Tokens' Jay Siegel and Toni Wine - who wrote the song with Irwin Levine. By different accounts, additional background singers may have included Ellie Greenwich, Robin Grean, Leslie Miller, and Linda November.

Tony Orlando : "I asked Hank if he decided on a name for the group and if it was going to be Reign. He said, "Well, the Bell Records promotion man's daughter's name is Dawn. I think if I name the group Dawn, he might push the record a little harder." So he named the group Dawn and lo and behold, the record came out and became a Top 5 gold single nationally and I didn't tell anybody. I didn't tell my wife. I didn't tell my friends. I didn't want to lose my job at CBS."

Under the name of "Dawn", the middle name of the daughter of Bell records executive Steve Wax, "Candida", (b/w "Look At ..."), was released in June 1970 and became a worldwide hit, reaching number one in five countries, and the top ten in many others, including #9 in the UK and #3 in the United States.



In November 1970, Dawn, with Wine and November again singing backup, released the single "Knock Three Times", which became a #1 hit.

Tony Orlando : "I was driving around New York City and heard Bruce Morrow announce that the song was No. 1 on WABC AM. Soon after, Hank Medress came back in my office, like Bo Gentry did with the Wind album and asked me to cut the follow up single. I said, "You guys are really a pain. I can't tell anybody about this." He asked, "Do want a deal? How about a penny a record?" That's what I got paid for "Candida." He played me "Knock Three Times." I said, "Knock three times on the ceiling if you want me. Twice on the pipe if the answer is no. This song will only be a hit in Brooklyn. In the Midwest, Hank, they don't have exposed pipes for steam heat. These are in tenement buildings. Okay. I will cut it for you because it won't be a hit.""

The group pictured on the early single sleeves were just a random bunch of blokes who had no connection to the musicians who sang or played on the actual record.



Bell Records was desperate to have a real-life act to promote Dawn's records. Orlando asked former Motown/Stax backing vocalists Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson, whom he had hired to work as background vocalists while producing Barry Manilow in the late 1960s, to become Dawn. The threesome then went on the road in 1971, on the success of "Candida" and "Knock Three Times". After a tour of Europe, Hopkins and Vincent assumed background vocal duties in the studio, first recording on the late 1971 album 'Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando'.


The Single :
Quote"Knock Three Times" was written by L. Russell Brown and Irwin Levine, and performed by the group Dawn who consisted of singers Tony Orlando, Toni Wine, and Linda November.



The composers were thinking of the song "Up on the Roof" and they wanted to write something, with a similar lyrical flavour, about tenement living.

L. Russell Brown : "One night, Irwin Levine and I, my late songwriting partner, used to take the bus into New York City all the time, but we never wrote together. And, after two years ... he took me up to meet the producer Hank Metters. ... He said, "Well, go to Irwin's house and write me a song. I need a follow-up for 'Candida', if you think it's a hit." I said, "It's a hit!" It was No. 70, but I knew it was a hit. So, I went to Irwin's house and Irwin said, "Let's talk about how you grew up in the housing projects." I said, "Well, we only had one phone in the building, but we had radiators with steam heat. And, if you lived on the second floor, someone with the phone would hit (the radiator) twice, bing, bing, and you would know the phone call was for you." Irwin said, "I love that idea. Let's write a song about that." So, he created the title 'Knock Three Times,' and he wrote this lyric about a guy dreaming about a girl one floor below him. And he writes a string with a note and some insane kind of beautiful idea of a man dreaming of a girl who just one floor below he hears the music and he's envisioning everything.

In the song, the singer has fallen in love with a woman who lives in the apartment directly below his but has no clue as to her interest, so he asks her to respond by either knocking three times on the ceiling (yes) or banging twice on the pipe (no), and the chorus includes sound effects of the two choices.

L. Russell Brown : "We took it into the producer who asked us to write. He flipped out. I thought it was kind of like a "teenybopper" song, because I was into the Doors. And I liked the rock music, you know, and the Stones. I just thought it was a little cutesy, but I was playing, doing the best I could to keep the excitement up. You know, it's the first time I ever wrote on the piano, by the way. I wrote every other song on the guitar. I used the three chords I knew on the piano to write this song."



Tony Orlando was, at the time of the recording, working as a producer/singer for a rival record label, and first heard the tune recorded by another artist and immediately knew the song could be a hit if produced as he envisioned. Orlando cut the track discreetly under the name "Dawn", hoping that his current record label would not find out.

Tony Orlando : "That record came out and it seemed like in a week or two it was the biggest record in the country and that No. 1 single ended up selling four million records, so between those two singles, they sold six million copies and no one knew it was me. I finally went to Clive Davis and said, "Clive, something has happened and I will need to leave the company." He looked at me and said, "Why, because you are Dawn?" I asked, "Do you know this?" He replied, "It is the worst kept secret in show business. Of course, I know. I tell you what Tony, this has been your dream since you were a little boy. You go find your dream and you can always come home if it doesn't happen for you." I left the general managership, about to become Vice President, at the age of 23 to become Tony Orlando and Dawn."

Upon release, the song became a great success, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1971 and eventually sold six million copies. Outside the US, "Knock Three Times" also claimed the No. 1 spot on the UK Singles Chart.



Other Versions include"Klopf dreimal" by Bernd Spier (1970)  /  Carl Lewin (1970)  /  Billy "Crash" Craddock (1971)  /  David Rogers (1971)  /  Wayne Kemp (1971)  /  Lynn Anderson (1971)  /  The Upsetters (1971)  /  James Last (1971)  /  Winston Cole (1971)  /  Tribes (1971)  /  Living Brass (1971)  /  The Tropical Islanders (1971)  /  "Bussa dai" by Anna Maria Izzo (1971)  /  "Kolmesti" by Kisu (1971)  /  Brent Dowe (1971)  /  Jacky Ward (1972)  /  Benny Hill (1972)  /  Black Lace (1984)  /  Deborah Gibson (feat. Tony Orlando) (2001) [wow - what a tremendous stinker!]  /  Jan Keizer (2003)  / 'Ol Dead-Eyes Daniel O'Donnell (2004)  /  Punk People (2006)  /  Danny McEvoy (2012)  /  Lymie Murray (2014)  /  Stomp N" Holler (2017)  /  Dave Monk (2020)  /  Chris Townson (2021)  /  Jessie Ampo (2021)  /  Dan and James Duo (2021)

On This Day :
Quote9 May : Guigsy, bass player (Oasis), born Paul Francis McGuigan in Manchester
9 May : First Women's FA Cup in England, Southampton Women's F.C. defeated Stewarton Thistle, 4 to 1
10 May : Kosmos 419, the Soviet Union's probe intended to explore Mars, fails to leave Earth's orbit
12 May : Mick Jagger marries model Bianca Pérez-Mora Macias at St Tropez Town Hall, France
13 May : Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane seriously injured in a car accident
14 May : Pope Paul VI issued his latest steamy bonk-busting Apostolic Letter Octogesima adveniens - Phwoarr!!
14 May : Sofia Coppola, director, born Sofia Carmina Coppola in NYC, New York
15 May : "70, Girls, 70" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 35 performances
16 May : Rachel Goswell, musician (Slowdive, Mojave 3), born Rachel Ann Goswell in Fareham, Hampshire
16 May : Benjamin Britten's opera "Owen Wingrave" premieres in Aldwych, London
17 May : Stephen Schwartz' musical "Godspell" premieres off-Broadway
19 May : Ogden Nash, American humorous poet, dies aged 68
19 May : USSR launches Mars 2, 1st spacecraft to crash land on Mars
20 May : Waldo Williams, bardd Cymraeg, a fu farw yn 80 oed
21 May : Chelsea win the 11th European Cup Winner's Cup against Real Madrid 2-1 in Athens
23 May : American rock group Iron Butterfly disbands
23 May : Jackie Stewart won the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix.
27 May : Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, singer (TLC), born Lisa Nicole Lopes in Philadelphia
27 May : Paul Bettany, actor, born in London
27 May : John Lennon records the song "Imagine" at Tittenhurst Park
28 May : Paul McCartney releases "Ram", his 2nd solo album
28 May : USSR Mars 3 launched, 1st spacecraft to soft land on Mars
30 May : Zowie Bowie, film director, born Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones to singer Dave Bowie and his partner, Angie Jones
30 May : US Mariner 9 1st satellite to orbit Mars launched
1 June : "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" opens at Golden NYC for 31 performances
4 June : Kosmos 426 was launched by the Soviet Union
5 June : "Marky" Mark, singer and actor, born Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg in Boston, Massachusetts
6 June : Soyuz 11 takes 3 cosmonauts to Salyut 1 space station
10 June : Michael Rennie, English actor, dies aged 61
11 June : Ambrose, British bandleader and violinist dies aged 74
12 June : President Nixon's daughter Tricia Nixon married attorney Edward F. Cox at the White House Rose Garden.

1) This Dave Barker track produced by Lee Perry is a banger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZYXTNGLg4A&ab_channel=SavereoJohn

2) "Chelsea win 11th European Cup Winner's Cup against Real Madrid 2-1 in Athens". Should be "the 11th" to show it wasn't "their 11th".

3) "John Lennon records the song "Imagine" at Tittenhurst Park" - fuck my hat: the piano in the video is not the one on the recording (they tried the one in the video but the acoustics were off).

daf

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on October 09, 2021, 02:56:45 PM
2) "Chelsea win 11th European Cup Winner's Cup against Real Madrid 2-1 in Athens". Should be "the 11th" to show it wasn't "their 11th".

Ta - just fixed it.

daf

300b. (NME 309.)  Free – My Brother Jake



From :  9 - 15 June 1971
Weeks : 1
B-side : Only My Soul
Bonus 1 : Stereo Mix
Bonus 2 : TV Performance

The Story So Far : 
QuoteIn July 1970, despite their name, Free were the only advertised band to decline to perform for free for the ailing Phun City festival - according to promoter Mick Farren they "heard the deal and fucked off without even getting out of the car."

In August 1970, Free headlined the Isle of Wight Festival, and appeared destined for superstardom . . .

Simon Kirke : "In the summer of '70, we had "All Right Now" climbing to the top of the charts. So, we were invited on the best night, which was Saturday. The marquee night, as it were. You know, it was Sly and the Family Stone, Ten Years After. I mean, the bands were amazing. We did get there a little early in the afternoon; I believe we were gonna go on around seven or eight o'clock. We waited and waited, and it was chaos; people had broken down the barriers. Many, many thousands of people had broken in and were not paying. So, it was really a very chaotic scene. And as such, our spot kept getting pushed back. Half an hour, then another half an hour, and so on and so forth. So, really, by about 10:30, which is over three-and-a-half hours that we were due to go on, we were a little bit tired. We had been having a little sip of beer; a little smoke of something. I certainly wasn't in the condition, and we peaked, as it were. You get all geared up to go on at a certain time and you're ready to go, and suddenly that gets pushed back, and again gets pushed back, and so on. And we were a little bit frayed around the edges and nervous. [Manager] Chris Blackwell, to his credit, said, "You're not gonna go on tonight, fuck this. I'm gonna speak to the promoter. You're gonna go on tomorrow morning when everyone is fresh, the crowd will be fresh, and the weather is gonna be good." It was a very smart move because we came back around 11:30 or 12:00 the next day; it was a beautiful, sunny morning on a Sunday. We hit the stage and it was really an amazing set that we did. I'll never forget it. And 600,000, anything above 400,000, you're just really guessing. But the parameters were between 400,000 and 600,000. It was just a complete sea of people. An ocean of people."



Andy Fraser : "To play in front of what I am told exceeded half a million people requires matching the vast energy thrust towards you and returning it in performance. We were exhausted afterwards. I never met Hendrix, but he is still the best guitarist of all time I think. Among others met Tiny Tim. Man – what planet is he from?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Their fourth album, 'Highway', was recorded extremely quickly in September 1970 following the band's success at the Isle of Wight Festival, but with an attitude of relaxation - the band having achieved worldwide success with their previous album 'Fire and Water' and the single "All Right Now".



From a writing point of view 'Highway' continued in the same vein as previous albums, with vocalist Paul Rodgers and bassist Andy Fraser collaborating on most of the songs, including : "On My Way", "Be My Friend", "Sunny Day", "Ride on a Pony", "Bodie", and the album closer, "Soon I Will Be Gone". Drummer Simon Kirke and Rodgers co-wrote "Love You So".

Guitarist Paul Kossoff, who co-wrote "The Highway Song" and "The Stealer" with Fraser and Rodgers, found their sudden fame around this time difficult to deal with, and remembered the aftermath of "All Right Now" as being "a great increase in pressure from every angle".

Andy Fraser : "Kossoff was a born comedian. Because it was cold in UK, Koss would often wear a very long coat. He could go into character, for example "Ena Sharples" from the long running English series "Coronation Street" – an old woman with an attitude, and proceed to take any of us apart, by telling the truth, but in character. The funniest thing!! I remember driving home from one gig, me and Koss in the back, PR in front passenger seat, where PR was going on and on about Koss over some little issue, and Koss, just casually rummages through his bag, brings out a mirror, turns on the overhead light and puts it in front of PR's face, until even he had to laugh at himself."

Much to the band's disappointment, the album reached only No. 41 in the UK Albums Chart and No. 190 in the US. The single release "The Stealer", (b/w "Lying In The Sunshine"), failed to chart in the UK, but reached No. 49 in the US.



"The Stealer" had not been Island Records boss Chris Blackwell's first choice: he had wanted to release "Ride on a Pony", but this was changed at the band's insistence. Some, such as engineer Andy Johns, blamed the album cover which was a bit boring compared to previous releases and did not prominently display the band's name.

The album's failure contributed to the emotionally insecure Kossoff's growing drug addiction and the band's temporary split, from which it never truly recovered. Some, including drummer Simon Kirke, also cite the death of Kossoff's idol Jimi Hendrix (which occurred during the sessions for this album on 18 September 1970), as an important factor in his eventual breakdown.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

They returned to the studio in early 1971 and managed to record four tracks before they eventually split in April 1971, after fulfilling contracted tour dates. One of these tracks included the single "My Brother Jake", which reached #4 on the official chart, and #1 on the NME chart in June 1971.



Simon Kirke : "We made a follow-up album called Highway – the follow-up to Fire and Water – and both didn't chart. They were critically well-received, but they just didn't sell. And that really was enough for Paul Rodgers, who was at the forefront of saying, "Look, I've had enough. I need a break." Instead of saying, "Look, let's just take six months off," [Paul] and Andy decided to quit the band and basically break the band up. It was during the recording session, me and Koss arrived, and there was this dreadful silence in the control room. Andy and Paul sent the engineer out, and said, "Look, guys, I know we're gonna do Japan and Australia next week. But the last show in Australia will be the last show that we do." And me and Koss looked at them like, "What?" And that was it. So, we went to Japan and Australia knowing that within a couple of weeks, the band would be over. It was a horrible thing to bear, and tensions were so torqued between the four of us. Really, there were two camps; there was Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser, and me and Koss. The ones who didn't want to break the band up and the others who did."

Andy Fraser : "We were grounded in Blues, rock, and wanted to keep it as an underlay to more original things. That was our first step in a forward direction. Not always successful, but generally moving in the right direction to something that was totally us. We kept reaching for the horizon until we imploded."



Paul Rodgers : "I think a lot of the pressure was internal. We were living together so closely for long periods of time, travelled together in a truck for 8 hours going to shows. We loved each other like brothers but after a while it gets to a point where you are together for too long and you just need time apart. I wouldn't blame record company pressures or anything like that, it was simply we needed to separate for a while. I think looking back if someone had said go and take a break it might have been OK but once the split had happened it was like the air had gone out of it. The magic had gone out of it a little bit at that point. You need a safety valve like on a steam train but we didn't have that."

Simon Kirke : "After that, we sort of shook everyone's hand. I was very sad. We went our four separate ways. And Koss got really into drugs to dull the pain, and never really recovered, quite honestly. About, 18 months later, maybe two years, we reformed to try to get him out of this slump; this dreadful drug situation that he got himself in. But he never really recovered."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Their next album 'Free Live!', was released by Island Records in June 1971 to commemorate the band, who had broken up a few months earlier.



The album was recorded from gigs played in the UK at both The Locarno, Sunderland in January 1970, and Croydon's Fairfield Halls in September 1970 - both places where Free had strong followings.

Engineer Andy Johns could only use two tracks from the Sunderland gig ("The Hunter" and "All Right Now"), but used crowd noise from it frequently to create seamless links between tracks. Other songs featured on the album included : "I'm a Mover", "Be My Friend", "Fire and Water", "Ride on Pony", "Mr. Big", and "Get Where I Belong" - which was actually a studio recording from their last session in March 1971.

Possibly because of the publicity caused by their breakup the album was a hit, reaching #4 in the UK Albums Chart, and No. 89 on the Billboard chart in the US.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In 1971, Andy Fraser formed a trio called Toby

Andy Fraser : "FREE had become unglued. Paul and myself were going in different directions. He thought I acted like an emperor, and decided he was now gonna run things. I think it was the beginning of him wanting to do a Bad Co. type thing. Get a manager that broke legs, and be a less subtle, striped down, stadium ready version of FREE. I wanted to keep moving forward creatively, not formulate a cash machine. All the while Koss was becoming a junkie. We had basically broken up. As spokesman, it fell to me to announce it. I was viewed as the one leaving. TOBY was my first start at learning to get confidence in my voice. A long process, which I chose as opposed to forming a 'supergroup' to cash in. A feeling of starting again at the bottom."

Meanwhile, drummer Simon Kirke and guitarist Paul Kossoff had formed the snappily titled Kossoff Kirke Tetsu Rabbit, with Japanese bassist Tetsu Yamauchi and keyboard player John "Rabbit" Bundrick, releasing a self-titled album in April 1972.



Simon Kirke : "When we broke up for the first time, I really thought that was it. Because I know Paul Rodgers, and when he puts his mind to something, that really is it. We all got our own separate bands. Me and Koss formed a band called Kossoff/Kirke/Tetsu/Rabbit, and we did an album together with the hope of going on the road with it. Andy Fraser formed his own band called Toby; Paul had just formed his own band called Peace. After a while, none of these ventures came close to the popularity that Free had. There's a lot of affection for Free in England. Basically, our solo efforts were not really doing much at all."

After breaking up in April 1971 due to differences between singer Paul Rodgers and bassist Andy Fraser, the band had reformed in January 1972. All members of the band made a concerted effort to work smoothly and efficiently for guitarist Paul Kossoff's sake as he was suffering due to an addiction to Mandrax.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Released in May 1972, 'Free at Last', their fifth studio album, was recorded between January and March 1972



Simon Kirke : "So, when Koss got really strung out, obviously, word got back to Paul and Andy. And I think the desire to see their little mate smile again and get back into the swing of things, coupled with the fact that, "Come on. Our individual projects are not really doing that much," it conspired to the four of us getting back together again; to great joy amongst the English public. I mean, there were banner headlines ... "Free reforms." It was wonderful."

In a symbolic gesture, all tracks on the album were credited to every member of the band regardless of who actually wrote them. The attitude to the songwriting was also vastly different, there are no outright rock songs at all, and the three songs that contain fast-paced moments all have slower, more introspective moments.

Songs featured on the album included : "Catch a Train", "Soldier Boy", "Magic Ship", "Sail On", "Travellin' Man", "Guardian of the Universe", "Child", and "Goodbye".

The album peaked at No. 9 in the UK Albums Chart making it their most successful UK studio album since 'Fire and Water' in 1970. The single "Little Bit of Love" reached #13 in the UK charts in May 1972.



However, problems began again when the band was then expected to tour to promote the album, as Kossoff was faced with a task for which he was not physically capable. Gigs had been disastrous, with Fraser remembering that "you could see people in the audience crying for him, longing for him to be all right". Unable to continue, Fraser left the band permanently, aged just 20. Kossoff also pulled out of the tour in order to seek treatment for his drug addiction.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After quitting again in June 1972 Fraser formed Sharks, with guitarist Chris Spedding, Canadian thunderstick Marty Simon, and singer Steve 'Snips' Parsons. They released their debut album, 'First Water', in 1973.



To promote the band, whilst touring, Chris Spedding customized his Pontiac Le Mans, fitting a shark fin on the roof and fibreglass teeth on the grill. On 19 February 1973, on the way back to London from a gig in Cleethorpes, the car skidded and hit a tree. Fraser suffered injuries to his wrist and, during recuperation, had second thoughts about the band.

Andy Fraser : "I thought it sucked. That whole band I have to take responsibility for allowing myself to drift into a situation that I shouldn't have. I had been at home working on new songs and strengthening my voice when Marty Simon, a very good drummer by the way, got himself invited down, we jammed, and it was good. We thought let's get a guitarist, which ended up being Chris Spedding, a good guitarist BTW, and I thought we were gonna do my songs, and I would continue working on my voice. Somewhere along the line, someone decided my singing wasn't strong enough, and before I knew it Snips was the singer, who I never got along with. The whole thing started off kilter from the start, and I was suddenly being asked by the press about this new band I formed. I felt stuck in a very bad situation. Fortunately, on the way home from a gig, Spedding for no reason at all at 5 miles an hour drove the fucking Sharkmobile into a tree. I twisted up my thumb and couldn't play for a while, and suggested they get another bass player. That was my out."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Their sixth, and final studio album, 'Heartbreaker', was recorded in late 1972 after bassist Andy Fraser had left the band and while guitarist Paul Kossoff was ailing from an addiction to Mandrax.



'Heartbreaker' features a different line up from previous albums. Tetsu Yamauchi was brought in to replace Fraser, while John "Rabbit" Bundrick became the band's keyboard player to compensate for the increasingly unreliable Kossoff. Both Yamauchi and Bundrick had played with Kossoff and drummer Simon Kirke on the album 'Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu & Rabbit' during that period in late 1971 when Free had broken up for the first time.

One immediate effect of Fraser's departure was the loss of the Fraser/Rodgers songwriting partnership that had hitherto provided the bulk of the band's catalogue. Hence many of the songs were written solely by Rodgers, including : "Come Together in the Morning", "Heartbreaker", "Easy on My Soul", and "Seven Angels".

Paul Rodgers : "I thought it was pretty good actually. We did some really good things, like Come Together In The Morning that I think is the best record we ever made, I know I said that earlier. Rabbit, Tetsu, Koss and Kirkey, everybody played so well on that record, it's just fantastic. We did some good things but it definitely changed the sound of the band as we had a full on organ player but I thought that was great and we did do some good things together. Wishing Well is on there too and I wrote that and shared it with the band to make everyone feel cohesive like a band again."

Bundrick wrote two of the album's eight tracks : "Muddy Water" and "Common Mortal Man". Some songs are credited to the entire band as a symbolic gesture, including "Travellin' in Style" and the single "Wishing Well" which, backed by "Let Me Show You", reached #7 in the UK charts.

Simon Kirke : "So, we got back together. But unfortunately, that form of gathering around your sick friend doesn't really do anything. He should have gone to rehab; he should have cleaned up. Back in those days, drug addiction was not treated like it is nowadays. But maybe 50 years ago, that just wasn't the case. I have to say, prior to Heartbreaker, there had been Free At Last, which we just managed to get through because Koss was so bad. We did a tour of America that was canceled after three shows because Koss never showed up. So, he was really in a terrible state. Nowadays, he would have been in rehab before he could blink. So, it did nothing to help him. In fact, it fueled his drug-taking; he just couldn't take the pressure of doing these shows and he did more and more drugs. The results were just dreadful. Heartbreaker, we sacked [Koss]. Basically, we didn't ask him to come in to finish the album. We got "Snuffy" Walden to come in and finish the guitar. That really was the end of Free, in 1973."



Meanwhile, Paul Kossoff was extremely resentful of "Snuffy" Walden being brought in as a session musician to provide guitar tracks when the other band members' patience began to break. This exacerbated his problems even further, but on those occasions where recording went well he produced some notable work; he is in fact far more prominent on this album than on the previous one. He is uncredited on the hit single "Wishing Well", however, the lead guitar on the track is unmistakably Kossoff's.

Simon Kirke : "I'm amazed that Koss does not get a mention in the credits. No, categorically, [Walden] did not play on "Wishing Well." Koss actually managed to pull out his best solos on "Wishing Well". He had it together that day. I know Koss played on "Wishing Well;" "Come Together in the Morning;" "Travellin' In Style;" "Heartbreaker." Not quite sure if he played on "Muddy Water;' I think not. "Common Mortal Man," I think he played on. I only have to listen for ten seconds and I'll tell you...yeah, Koss played on "Common Mortal Man;" I can tell straight away. So, I'm not quite sure which tracks Snuffy played on, quite honestly. Everything was a little topsy-turvy. I think "Muddy Water." I'm kind of at a loss, quite honestly. But I know that Koss played on just about everything except "Muddy Water." There were also a couple of other tracks that never made it to the album, and I think that Snuffy might have been on some of those. [Snuffy] didn't come in for very long; I do remember that."



The album became their third top-ten album in the UK, reaching #9, and No. 47 in the US. But, despite the success of the album and impending tour of America, it finally became apparent that the band had passed the point of no return. Kossoff spiralled to his lowest ebb and was unable to go to America; he was replaced, for the tour, by Wendell Richardson from Osibisa, against Rodgers' instincts. Richardson proved to be the wrong choice, and once the tour ended the band finally gave up.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke formed Bad Company with Mick Ralphs (formerly of Mott the Hoople) and Boz Burrell (formerly of King Crimson). They released their first single, "Can't Get Enough" (b/w "Little Miss Fortune") in May 1974, which reached #15 on the UK chart, and Was a Top 5 hit in the US.



Paul Rodgers : "What I did was put a little three piece together and called it Peace as that's what I was looking for, a little bit of peace of mind. I wanted to get away from all of the tension and stress and bad vibes and just play music. Then I met Mick Ralphs and we started to write songs and thought that we should put a band together so we pulled in Kirkey and we started to look for a bass player. It was really hard trying to find a bass player so we were so lucky to find Boz as he was such a great bassist and we had a great combination in Bad Company."



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Paul Kossoff formed his own band, Back Street Crawler, with Mike Montgomery, Terry Wilson, Terry Wilson-Slesser, and Tony Braunagel. Their first album, "The Band Plays On", released in 1975, was well received, and during live dates in the UK in 1975, and USA in 1976, Kossoff regained his playing form.



Simon Kirke : "He was a cheeky little bugger. I had a lot of affection for him. Even though he was younger than me, he was very worldly wise. He was a city boy and I was a country boy, so I wasn't very worldly wise. He had a girlfriend who was five years older than him. She had her own apartment, her own car. He drove. I mean, he was a real Jack the Lad. He used to do all the driving, he was the only one who could drive, so he used to do these mammoth drives across England after a show, and it would be our job to take turns keeping him awake and talk to him. He was an amazing driver of the car. And yet within three years, he became this wreck of a human."

The guitarist died of a Pulmonary Embolism on board a plane bound for New York on 19 March 1976, at the age of 25.



Simon Kirke : "One of the lasting images of Paul Kossoff was when he came in from the studio into the control room having done that solo on "All Right Now". We were just floored. I listen to him now, and I think, "Wow." And I just didn't appreciate how damn good he was back then. So, him being mobbed, well, if you call four people mobbing him – the engineer, me, Andy, and Paul Rodgers – crowding around him and slapping him on the back."

Paul Rodgers : "I'm so proud of what we have achieved. We made some great records. So many bands that I bump into say they were so influenced by Free, especially in their early days. Lynyrd Skynyrd for example and Bryan Adams, even Queen tell me how much they were influenced initially by our Fire and Water album. It's amazing as we ourselves held other artists in high esteem like Wilson Pickett, Howlin' Wolf and B.B King and all those Soul and Blues guys like Sam Moore and The Four Tops. We were also heavily influenced by Cream and Jimi Hendrix. I remember Koss and I looking at each other saying that was the sound we wanted to get. So it is great to be seen as a big influence on so many bands in the same way as the bands we loved influenced us."

The Single :
Quote"My Brother Jake" was written by lead singer Paul Rodgers and bass guitarist Andy Fraser from the band Free.



The song was the second chart success for Free, reaching number four in the UK Singles Chart in 1971 and remaining in the chart for 11 weeks. It also topped the NME chart for a week in June 1971

Andy Fraser : "It was written about a friend, a guy called Horace Faith. He was a great singer and around that time we were great friends. It was basically a sentiment to him, but I thought 'My Brother Jake' sounded better than 'My Brother Horace'."



Other Versions includeTop of the Poppers (1971)  /  Quincy Conserve (1973)  /  Thunder (1998)  /  Paul Rodgers & Jools Holland (2004)  /  Gamber (MK II) (2010)  /  Potter (2013)  /  Richie Arndt (2014)  /  Danny McEvoy (2015)

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Previously :
288b.  |  Free – All Right Now

gilbertharding

#166
I know it's not their fault, but: Tony Blair's favourite record band, innit?

daf


gilbertharding

Quote from: gilbertharding on October 11, 2021, 02:07:19 PM
I know it's not their fault, but: Tony Blair's favourite record band, innit?

Shit - sorry!

All Right Now, I think.

daf

300c. (NME 310.)  Tony Christie – I Did What I Did for Maria
+        (MM 251.)  Tony Christie – I Did What I Did for Maria



From :  16 - 22 June 1971  |  19 - 25 June 1971
Weeks : 1
B-side : Give Me Your Love Again
Bonus 1 : Promo Film
Bonus 2 : Disco (German TV)

The Story So Far : 
QuoteAnthony Fitzgerald was born in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire in 1943.

Tony Christie : "I always had my ear glued to the radio, listening to whatever was around at the time. My dad was stationed out in Egypt and India in the air force for a long time, and he came back with a fantastic collection of old 78s of big bands of the 40s, so I was brought up on Glenn Miller, Harry James and Frank Sinatra. I wish I had those 78s now. When all my mates were into Elvis Presley, I was really getting into the big bands. I actually got into rock and roll very late."

The teenage Anthony honed his craft quietly. He and a friend would perfect their Everly Brothers routine as they walked to and from school.

Tony Christie : "I left school when I was 15 and I started working in an office. My father was an accountant, and wanted me to do the same thing. I was at night school studying accountancy and I absolutely hated every minute of it. I started doing close harmony stuff with my friends, sort of like the Everly Brothers. I did little pub nights with jazz trios and quartets, and I was eventually spotted by a band who wanted me to go pro with them."

In 1961, aged 18, he joined a local and popular amateur group called The Counterbeats, making his first stage performance with them. Three years later he changed his name from Tony Fitzgerald to Tony Christie after seeing the film Darling, starring Julie Christie, and fronted his own group called Tony Christie And The Trackers.

Tony Christie : "We became Tony Christie And The Trackers, and I stayed with them for about three years before I was spotted by a guy called Tommy Sanderson at a club in Wales. I used to play rhythm guitar, but I realised that it limited my performance and I couldn't concentrate on the vocals so much."



In 1966 they moved down to London where he was spotted by mod-guru and Who producer Shel Talmy. Tony Christie And The Trackers recorded the single Life's Too Good To Waste", (b/w "Just The Two Of Us"), which featured Jimmy Page on guitar.

Tony Christie : "I was still with them when I did my first record, Life's Too Good To Waste. He used to do various BBC radio programmes, and he dragged me away from the band and took me down to London. I virtually lived on doing these late night broadcasts for the BBC for a while."

Managed by Harvey Lisberg, he struck out on his own and released the single "Turn Around" (b/w "When Will I Ever Love Again") in November 1967;  followed by "I Don't Want To Hurt You Anymore" (b/w "Say No More") in March 1968; and "My Prayer" b/w "I Need You") in October 1968.



Tony Christie : "I was married at that point, but it wasn't exactly sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. I was never into the drugs, but maybe the booze – which is a natural thing on the road. I don't like not being in control, so I can't have a drink and then go on stage. In the early days I needed a couple of stiff ones before I had the nerve to get on stage, because I was a very shy person. At that particular point, I hadn't had any hits and I was just getting nowhere. I wasn't earning anything, really, although I was always working. I always carried my own backing band, and I often finished up earning just about enough to pay the band, so I would have been better off working a day job. I was married with a little baby, and I thought – this is just crazy. I was almost on the point of giving up the business completely. A friend of mine was actually in the process of looking for a job for me as a bingo caller. I didn't know what else I could do. Don't forget, I was a top headliner in the cabaret circuit long before I had any hits, although I wasn't earning. But I invested in my musicians and it paid off, and that's how I got the reputation and people want to come and see me."

He signed a solo recording contract with MCA Records in 1969, and attracted the interest of songwriters Mitch Murray and Peter Callander, who penned his next single, "God Is On My Side" (b/w "A Thing Called Love") in June 1970, and provided Christie with his first UK Top 30 entry, "Las Vegas" (b/w "So Deep Is The Night") - which reached #21 on the UK charts in January 1971.

Tony Christie : "I was bored and nothing was happening, so I went back on the road and got my band together again, and I was spotted by 10cc's manager. It took a while before things took off, but they put me together with two songwriter/producers called Mitch Murray and Peter Callander, who immediately came up with a song called Las Vegas. And that was it – my first Top 20 hit."



His next single, "I Did What I Did for Maria", reached #2 on the official UK chart, and topped both the Melody Maker and NME charts for a week in June 1971.

He released his debut album, 'Tony Christie' in 1971. As well as his two charting singles, the album featured more songs penned by hitmakers Murray and Callander, including : "Frankie", "Give Me Your Love Again", and "Walk Like A Panther".



His next single "(Is This The Way To) Amarillo" (b/w "Love Is A Friend Of Mine"), released in October 1971, peaked at number 18 on the UK chart. The single sold more than one million copies by September 1972, and was awarded a gold disc.



His next two singles missed the charts : "Don't Go Down To Reno" (b/w "Sunday Morning") released in April 1972, and "My Love Song" (b/w "Celia") in October 1972.



Tony Christie : "Things just exploded from that point, because they came up with I Did What I Did For Maria, Don't Go Down To Reno and Avenues And Alleyways. Of course, in the meantime, my manager met Neil Sedaka at his apartment in New York and asked him if he had any material. Sedaka played him Amarillo, although it wasn't quite finished at that point. My manager brought me back a tape of it, and we played it to Mitch and Peter, who immediately said it was a smash. So we went into the studio and did it quickly before anybody else could do it. You can smell a hit, although I've missed a few as well."

"(Is This The Way To) Amarillo", and "Don't Go Down To Reno" were featured on his second album, 'With Loving Feeling', released in 1973.



Despite regular airplay as the theme to the ITC series The Protectors, and being one of the best songs ever recorded, his next single "Avenues and Alleyways", (b/w "I Never Was A Child"), shockingly only managed to reach #37 on the UK charts in February 1973.



Tony Christie : "Avenues And Alleyways is really special because I love singing it and it's a geezer song, isn't it? All the gangsters like that song. It was the theme to the TV series The Protectors and the whole of the film Love Honour And Obey was written around that song. Right from the early days, I always seemed to have a lot of gangsters as fans. I actually did shows for them in Marbella in the 80s, although I didn't realise that it was for them when it was booked. I only knew when I ended up talking to a few of them at the bar after the show, including Ronnie Knight, who was very charming. I found out later that I was also talking to a guy called Jimmy The Weasel. It sounds like something out of The Sopranos, doesn't it? I was standing there with all these guys with broken noses, and they all stood at one end of the bar, and their wives were at the other end. They didn't mingle together at all."

His other singles released in 1973 were : "Love And Rainy Weather" (b/w "Life Without You") in May, and  "You Just Don't Have The Magic Anymore" (b/w "By Tomorrow") in September 1973 - both failed to chart.



Further flops followed, including : "A Lover's Question" (b/w "Underneath The Covers") in March 1974; "Happy Birthday Baby" (b/w "Who Am I Fooling?") in September 1974; "If I Miss You Again Tonight" (b/w "A Man Will Cry For His Woman") in April 1975; and "Easy To Love" (b/w "Now My World Is Yours") in October 1975.



He finally got back in the charts with "Drive Safely Darlin'" (b/w "Sweet Summer Souvenirs") which peaked at #35 in January 1976 - his final chart entry of the 1970's. The song was written and composed by Barry Mason and Geoffrey Stephens. In that year, he also sang and played the role of Magaldi on the original 1976 album recording of the musical "Evita", by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.



In 1976, he was part of the UK selection contest to be chosen on TV as an entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest. He sang: "The Queen Of The Mardi Gras" but his entry only came third. Backed with "Wall Of Silence", it was released as a single in March 1976, but failed to chart.

Further singles included : "On This Night Of A Thousand Stars" (b/w "Bewitched") in January 1977; "Smile A Little Smile For Me" (b/w "It's Good To Be Me") in April 1977;  and "Stolen Love" (b/w "First Love, Best Love") in August 1977.



Once the hits dried up in Britain, he concentrated on the German market.

Tony Christie : "I just carried on doing it somewhere else. It wasn't a step down for me, but it was a different market, because I was used to being a sort of sophisticated cabaret performer in the late-60s and 70s, so I went on to do a lot of tours abroad and a lot of corporate stuff. I was just earning a living. You do what you've got to do, I suppose."

At the end of the 1970's, Tony began a song-writing partnership with Graham Sacher, leading to his continental hit "Sweet September" (b/w "I'm Not Chained To You") released in 1979, and "Train To Yesterday" (b/w "Summer In The Sun") in 1980.

 

Further German singles included : "Mexico City" (b/w "What A Little Love Can Do") in 1980; "Summer Wine" (b/w "I'm Coming Home") and "Put A Light In Your Window" (b/w "Paradise") in 1981; and "Long Gone" (b/w "Time") in 1982.



Tony Christie : "Music people these days tend to dismiss us as cheesy, they forget that's how music was in those days. You had to be slick. You had to be able to talk to an audience and hold them. You couldn't just shuffle on stage, play your songs and leave. Being a crooner in the 40s and 50s used to be cool. They used to call Sinatra and Dean Martin crooners, so it's not that bad."

The Single :
Quote"I Did What I Did for Maria" was written by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander, and sung by Tony Christie.



The song is about a widower who, on the eve of his execution, recalls how he remorselessly avenged his dead wife, the mad bastard!

While it only reached #2 on the official UK chart, it topped both the mint Melody Maker and skill NME charts for a week in June 1971, and was also a number-one hit in New Zealand, number two in Ireland, and also peaked at number three in Australia.



Other Versions includeTop of the Poppers (1971)  /  Peter Vee (1971)  /  "Jeg gør hvad jeg kan for Maria" by Poul Rudi (1971)  /  "Tein mitä tein vuoks Marian" by Kisu (1971)  /  Roberto Blanco (1972)  /  Wynners (1974)  /  Paper Lace (1974)  /  Marty Robbins (1976)  /  Danny McEvoy (2012)  /  bobjking (2020)  /  Bojan J. Trontelj (2020)  /  THE MUSIC OF CHARLES (2021)

On This Day :
Quote16 June : Tupac Shakur, rapper, born Lesane Parish Crooks in East Harlem, New York
16 June : Lord Reith, BBC Director General dies aged 81
17 June : U.S. President Nixon began the "War on Drugs"
18 June : Nigel Owens, Welsh rugby union referee, born in Mynyddcerrig, Carmarthenshire
18 June : Social Democratic and Labour Party and Nationalist Members of Parliament refuse to attend the state opening of Stormont (North Ireland Parliament)
21 June : 50,000 attend Celebration of Life, rock concert in McCrea, Louisiana
21 June : Britain began new negotiations in Luxembourg, led by Geoffrey Rippon, for EEC membership.
22 June : Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell's 4th studio album "Blue" released
23 June : United Kingdom's enters into the Common Market
24 June : The Kosmos 428 military reconnaissance satellite was launched by the Soviet Union.
25 June : Neil Lennon, footballer, born Neil Francis Lennon in Lurgan, Northern Ireland

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote

daf

301.  Middle Of The Road – Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep



From : 13 June – 17 July 1971
Weeks : 5
B-side : Rainin' 'N Painin
Bonus 1: Top of the Pops
Bonus 2 : TOTP Audience Dancing (NSFW)
Bonus 3 : German TV 1971
Bonus 4 : German TV 1972

The Story So Far : 
QuoteThe Electrons were formed in 1964 and consisted of brothers Ian and Eric McCredie, formerly of The Dominos, and drummer, Ken Andrew (former The Talismen Beat Unit). They later changed their name to the Douglas Boys and backed Glasgow singer, Jan Douglas. By 1967, they had changed their name to Part Three, and when Sadie Carr, under the stage name Sally Carr (formerly from The Southerners), joined the group as a replacement lead singer, the group became Part Four.

Sally Carr : "I've always sung. When I left school I became a hairdresser in Glasgow. One day I was home. I was making my bed and there was a painter working on the outside of the house. You don't believe it. As always I was singing. The painter said, "You know you have a very good voice!" No one had ever said that to me. Since then I only wanted one thing: to earn a living by singing."

As Latin American numbers featured heavily in their live act, their management encouraged them to reflect this in their name, so Part Four became Las Caracas in 1967 and they became resident at the Vega, Glasgow.

Sally Carr : "We were swinging maraccas and samba balls and wearing those fake costumes that all Latin groups work in nightclubs. We worked mainly in cabarets and clubs in Scotland."

In 1968 they appeared in ATV talent show, Opportunity Knocks with Hughie Green. The band won many of the heats, and released a four-track EP 'Viva Los Caracas'.



In 1969, the band turned professional, and had plans to move to Argentina, but delayed their decision to play on a cruise ship to the Caribbean. A new name was necessary and drummer Ken Andrew suggested Middle of the Road. All agreed and the band was launched.

Sally Carr : "Our drummer told us to call ourselves that. It's the expression they use in America for the kind of music that everyone listens to: not too daring or experimental music, some evergreens, chart numbers, just calm, enjoyable music. It's a good name, I think."

They were discovered during their stay in Rome. Unfortunately, the promoter who brought them to Italy for a number of performances turned out to be a thieving bastard.

Sally Carr : "After four weeks, he disappeared with the money. There we were, without a penny. We then rented a house just outside Rome and started looking for work ourselves. It went pretty easy."

Left stranded and penniless they worked the local restaurants. The group was heard by an RCA A&R executive, who invited them to Rome for a recording test. Things went well and they recorded three songs 'Yellow River', 'I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. The company liked them so much, they included these recordings later on their first album.

One of their first recordings was with an unknown Italian singer called Jordan. "Lo schiaffo" was an entry to the San Remo Song Festival in 1971 and the group performed it with Jordan live on TV.

Described on the record label as 'Vocal Group Middle Of The Road, the band backed actress Sophia Loren on the single "Anyone" (b/w "There Is A Star") - taken from the 1971 film 'The Priest's Wife'.



RCA Italiana teamed the group with Italian producer, Giacomo Tosti in 1970 who found "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep". The single became their first UK hit - reaching No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1971, staying there for five weeks.

Sally Carr : "We recorded it and it was a small success in Italy. That was in January 1971. But after that the single started to hit the ground running in Belgium and the rest of Europe. Since then we have been traveling continuously through Europe."



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Their second single, "Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum" (b/w "Give It Time"), reached #2 on the UK chart in September 1971.



At the time, Fiat were launching their mini hatchback, the Fiat 127, and were producing a short film for release in cinemas all over Europe. RCA struck a deal with them to feature "Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum" and the band in the film. The foursome, who were still living in Rome, had pleasure of seeing themselves on the big screen, quite by accident, when they visited their local cinema one evening to see "Love Story". Both singles were included on the debut album, 'Middle of the Road', released in 1971.



Other songs featured on the album included : "El Condor Pasa", "Do Not Cry", "Happier Than I", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", and "Places".

Their next single "Soley Soley" (b/w "To Remind Me") was written by a Spanish songwriter, Fernando Arbex, with lyrics co-written by Sally herself and produced by Giacomo Tosti.

Sally Carr : "We record all our records in Rome. The people in the studio know us there by now. Mario Capuano writes a lot for us. He is a great musician who plays vibraphone, organ and mellotron. He didn't write 'Soley soley', but arranged it from a Spanish song. "Soley" is also the only song not recorded in Rome, but in Madrid. We were there to record a Spanish version of 'Chirpy', and we had to make a new single. We had brought Mario's written arrangement with us and when things went well in that studio we did it there."



It became a summer hit for Europe that year, and reached #5 in the UK in December 1971.



Released in March 1972, "Sacramento (A Wonderful Town)" (b/w "Love Sweet Love"), reached #23 in the UK chart. Their final charting single, "Samson And Delilah" (b/w "Try A Little Understanding") reached #26 in the UK chart in July 1972.



All three singles were featured on their second album, 'Acceleration', released in late 1971.



Other songs featured on the album included : "Queen Bee", "On This Land", "Then, You'll Know What Love Is For", "Louise (My Little Ship)", and "Medicine Woman".



Sally Carr : "We are now working continuously. We hardly have a day off. Performances, interviews, radio, television, recordings. It's quite tiring. I'll be happy when it's January. Then we have two weeks of vacation. I will then go to America to look around. I'm going to visit the headquarters of our record company RCA. To see what they do with the money they earn thanks to us. I've always wanted to go to America. I sometimes find it difficult to be the woman in a group. The boys are married. I'm still alone. If we are in a foreign city, they can go out more easily than I can. I often sit alone in a hotel room. Then I get very depressed. Then I get homesick. Then I want to go to my flat in Glasgow. I am very afraid of cameras. Basically I am very shy, and nervous. Just look at my nails."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Further singles included the perky "Bottoms Up" (b/w "See The Sky") released in October 1972; "The Talk Of All The USA" (b/w "Eve") in March 1973; and "Union Silver" (b/w "Blind Detonation") in June 1973.



The singles "Bottoms Up" and "Union Silver" were included on their next album, 'Drive On', was released in 1973.



Other songs featured on the album included : "Universal Man", "Wheel Of The Season", "On A Westbound Train", and "Nothing Can Go Wrong".



Three further singles from the album were released in Europe : "Yellow Boomerang", "Honey No", and "Kailakee Kailako".



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After 3 highly successful years with RCA the band jumped ship to German record label, Ariola Eurodisc. The release of their first German album, 'Music Music', was timed for the 1973 Berlin Radio Fair in the late summer.



Songs featured on the album included : "Bloody Monday", "Life's Train", "Baby Man", "Pop Star", "Music Music", "Don't Send Me Roses", "Queen Of Rock 'N' Roll", "Hard Woman's Comin'", "I Want You For Myself", and "Don't Leave Me Now".



A Latin style song from Fernando Arbex, "Samba D'amor" (b/w "Winter's Sun"), was released as a single, and became a minor hit in Europe in September 1973. In 1974, early Bay City Rollers member Neil Henderson joined the band on guitar. He wrote the single "Rockin' Soul" (b/w "Gone's The Time").



The single was included on their next album 'You Pays Yer Money and You Takes Yer Chance', along with : "Tell Me", "My Story", "Hang In There", "Read Between The Lines", "Country Bus", "Give It A Try", "Shotgun Mama", "Gentle Moments", "Hooch Wagon", and "You Pays Yer Money And You Takes Yer Chance".



Their next album, 'Postcard', was their second to be released in 1974. Songs featured on the album included : "Bad Girl", "One For The Road", "It's Alright", "Dry Gulch Charlie", "Hang Ups", "Picture Machine", "Writing On The Wall", "Whisky And Freedom", and "Thank You Lord".



They released the single "Bonjour Ҫa Va" (b/w "Jitter Buggin' Jildy") in 1974, followed by "Hitchin' A Ride In The Moonlight" (b/w "Do You Wanna Be With Me") in March 1975.

Written by the band's lead guitarist Neil Henderson and long time writing partner Ricky Peebles, the single was a vigorous recording which brought back the groups more recognisable sound. Not only was it a song more suited to Sally's voice but the old group harmonies were once again in evidence. However, it looked as though either the group and/or the record company were no longer in favour with the UK music scene and the single flopped. Once again Europe demonstrated its loyalty to the group and the single was a minor hit there.



The single was featured on their album 'Dice', released in 1975. Other songs featured on the album included : "Heaven Ground", "Drive In Movies", "Find The Key", "Far Away", "Look Out The Lover", "You Got It Coming To You", "But Tomorrow", "It's The Rain", "Every Day Every Night", and "D.J. Song".



In April 1975 they released the German single "Happy Song", followed by "Everybody Loves A Winner" (b/w "Flying High") iin 1976.



Despite serious attempts to reconfigure their musical style, the band had no further success. The individual sound of their vocals, in particular Sally's voice, was being compromised by material that really did not suit them. In short they had lost their way – at least as far as the record company was concerned. With no releases reaching the top ten anywhere, Ariola appeared to lose interest in the band.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Their final album, 'Black Gold', featuring the single "Bubblegum Baby" (b/w "You Never Leave Me Alone"), was released in 1976 on the French record label Trema.



Other songs featured on the album included : "Back On My Back", "What's That", "Out Where The Sun Is Shining", "Lonely Girl", "Lu Lu Lu Love", "Summer Days", "Need Your Love", "Mama", "Fat City", and "Send Her To Me".

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In 1977 Sally left to the band to follow a solo career.

Sally Carr : "I was really devastated. I was at the end of my rope. I didn't like it at all anymore. During that hit period, the whole world wanted to see us. We sometimes traveled around the world twice in one week, because success has to be milked down to the bottom. That's what I thought at the time, so I hobbled along, not knowing that I was going to break mentally and physically. In the long run you only live on pills. Pills to sleep. Pills to stay awake. To put the necessary enthusiasm into the show, you had a few drinks. In short, no one can sustain such a thing. At least not me."



Ian and Eric McCredie, formerly of The Dominos, and drummer, Ken Andrew

A year later drummer Ken Andrew left, while Ian and Eric McCredie continued to tour with a new singer, Linda Carroll. Finally, they settled on a line up consisting of an almost look-alike blond, Lorraine Felberg, fronting the band, Ian on guitar, Eric on bass, and Ian's son, Stuart, on keyboards and programming. Signed to the OK label, in October 1980, they released the single "Steal A Piece Of My Heart" (b/w "Lonely"), followed by "Jingle Jangle" (b/w "I Love My Guitar") in 1981.



"Scotland's Coming Alive Again" (b/w "Scotland's For Me"), was released in 1985 "in celebration of Alloa Breweries 175th anniversary", and "One More Night" (b/w "The Feeling's Right") in 1989.



In 2017, Middle of the Road with Sally Carr released their first single in over 20 years, a live recording of their 1970s hit "Soley Soley", performed in front of 20,000 people in Berlin's Waldbühne amphitheatre.

Sally Carr : "Agnetha covered two of our hits in Swedish, before she joined Abba. And the two boys Benny and Bjorn, on live television interview, said that they used our sound as a guide for their sound. Your grannies and your mums and dads, and your wee tots know Chirpy. They might not remember the name of the group, but by God do they remember the name of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep. And I always laugh and say, 'Yeah, I'm chirpy, but I'm not cheap.'"

The Single :
Quote"Chirpy Chirpy, Cheep Cheep" was written by Lally Stott and recorded by the Scottish band Middle of the Road.



Teamed up with Italian producer, Giacomo Tosti, he began the search for suitable material to launch RCA Italiana's latest signing.

Songwriter Lally Stott, had already had a hit with his version of the song in Italy but Stott's record company, Philips, was reluctant to release the song overseas, and apparently offered it to two other groups: Scottish folk-pop group Middle of the Road, who were working in Italy at the time, and the Trinidadian brother-and-sister duo Mac and Katie Kissoon. Despite reservations from Ken, Ian and Eric, Sally thought it was really catchy and finally the boys agreed to do it on condition that the recording session was supported with a supply of Bourbon to keep the spirits up.

Ken Andrew : "We were as disgusted with the thought of recording it as most people were at the thought of buying it. But at the end of the day, we liked it."



Middle of the Road's version initially became a hit in continental Europe only, but later grew in popularity in the United Kingdom, thanks to DJ Tony Blackburn, who favoured this version over the one by Mac and Katie Kissoon. While the Kissoons' version only reached #41, Middle of the Road's recording eventually reached #1 in the UK and stayed there for five weeks in June 1971.

Sally Carr : "In Britain we made the Guinness Book of Records with Chirpy for being the longest single in the top 100. It was there for a year. We were on Top Of The Pops five times. It was Tony Blackburn who interviewed us the first time. He actually thought we were Italian. Ken turned round and said to him: 'Don't be stupid, we're Scottish'."



Other Versions includeLally Stott (1970)  /  "Un africain à Paris" by Gregory Ken (1970)  /  House (1971)  /  Chris Roberts (1971)  /  Claude Ciari (1971)  /  The 3 Jacksons (1971)  /  "Nejdu, nejdu ven" by Vlaďka Prachařová (1971)  /  "Táta Jan" by Věra Špinarová (1971)  /  Anthony (1971)  /  "Eerst zien en dan geloven" by Joe Harris (1971)  /  Koivistolaiset (1971)  /  Tina Charles (1971)  /  Hajo (1971)  /  Los 3 de Castilla (1971)  /  La Pandilla (1971)  /  Peter Osgood (1972)  /  The Jay Boys (1972)  /  Claudius Alzner und seine Solisten (1973)  /  Katy Stott (1978)  /  Lush (1990)  /  Cartoons (2000)  /  Soul Control (2010)  /  Jasmine Thorpe & Danny McEvoy (2012)  /  Middle of the Road - J-Art 2k13 Edit Mix (2013)  /  Angi, Laau Tschi & Marion Anna  (2016)  /  Micky Modelle (2016)  /  Siegfried Schlag (2017)  /  Kylie Minogue (2018)  /  Middle of the Road featuring Sally Carr (2018)  /  The Cat and Owl (2020)  /  Malinda Herman (2021)

On This Day :
Quote13 June : Members of the Orange Order march through the mainly Catholic town of Dungiven, County Londonderry, causing a riot
13 June : In Australia, Mrs. Geraldine Brodrick of Canberra became only the second person known to give birth to nonuplets
13 June : Elections were held in Iceland for the 40 seats of the Althing. While Hafstein's Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn retains its 15 seat plurality, his coalition partner, the Althithuflokkurinn lost five seats, leading to Hafstein's resignation and the creation of a new coalition led by the Framsóknarflokkurinn of Ólafur Jóhannesson.
14 June : Norway began oil production in the North Sea at the Ekofisk oil field
14 June : The first Hard Rock Cafe was opened, at London, by American entrepreneurs Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton.
16 June : Tupac Shakur, rapper, born Lesane Parish Crooks in East Harlem, New York
16 June : Lord Reith, BBC Director General dies aged 81
17 June : U.S. President Nixon began the "War on Drugs"
18 June : Nigel Owens, Welsh rugby union referee, born in Mynyddcerrig, Carmarthenshire
18 June : Social Democratic and Labour Party and Nationalist Members of Parliament refuse to attend the state opening of Stormont (North Ireland Parliament)
21 June : 50,000 attend Celebration of Life, rock concert in McCrea, Louisiana
21 June : Britain began new negotiations in Luxembourg, led by Geoffrey Rippon, for EEC membership.
22 June : Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell's 4th studio album "Blue" released
23 June : United Kingdom's enters into the Common Market
24 June : The Kosmos 428 military reconnaissance satellite was launched by the Soviet Union.
25 June : Neil Lennon, footballer, born Neil Francis Lennon in Lurgan, Northern Ireland
26 June : "Man of La Mancha" closes at ANTA Washington Square Theater NYC after 2329 performances
27 June : Elections were held in Japan for the 126 of the 252 seats of the House of Councillors, the upper house of the Japanese parliament.
27 June : "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" closes at Golden NYC after 31 performances
27 June : Jo Frost, British TV personality (Supernanny), born Joanne Frost in London, England
27 June : U.S. concert promoter Bill Graham closed the legendary Fillmore East venue
28 June : US Supreme Court overturns draft evasion conviction of Muhammad Ali
28 June : Elon Musk, entrepreneur and inventor, born Elon Reeve Musk in Pretoria, South Africa
29 June : Rolling Stones Mick Jagger & Keith Richard sentenced on drug offences
30 June : Crew of Russian space mission Soyuz 11 (Viktor Patsayev, Vladislav Volkov and Georgy Dobrovolsky) found dead upon arrival on earth - they were the only people to die in outer space.
1 July : Missy Elliott, rapper, born Melissa Arnette Elliott in Portsmouth, Virginia
2 July : The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards was formed at Holyrood
2 July : Wimbledon Women's Tennis : In an all-Australian final, Evonne Goolagong beats Margaret Court 6-4, 6-1
3 July : Wimbledon Men's Tennis : John Newcombe of Australia beats American Stan Smith 6-3, 5-7, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
3 July : Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, born Julian Paul Hawkins in Townsville, Queensland, Australia
3 July : Jim Morrison, singer (The Doors), dies of heart failure aged 27
4 July : Koko, sign-language gorilla, born Hanabiko in San Francisco Zoo, California
4 July : August Derleth, American writer, dies of a heart attack aged 62
5 July : 26th amendment to the US constitution certified - reducing voting age from 21 to 18
5 July : Simon Gray's "Butley" premieres in London
6 July : Louis Armstrong, jazz trumpeter and singer, dies of a heart attack aged 69
6 July : Bjorn Ulvaeus weds fellow Swedish singer-songwriter Agnetha Faltskog
7 July : Ub Iwerks, Original Mickey Mouse animator dies aged 70
8 July : Neil Mavers, drummer (The La's), born in Liverpool, England
8 July : Charlie Shavers, American jazz trumpet player, dies aged 50
9 July : The Australian Aboriginal Flag was first flown, on National Aborigines Day, at a land rights rally in Victoria Square in Adelaide, South Australia.
9 July : Dani Behr, Model & TV Presenter, born in Mill Hill, London
9 July : Kelvin Grant, guitarist (Musical Youth), born in Birmingham, England
11 July : John W. Campbell, American sci-fi writer, dies aged 61
16 July : Corey Feldman, actor (Stand by Me), born Corey Scott Feldman in Reseda, California
17 July : The 1971 British Grand Prix motor race at Silverstone was won by Jackie Stewart.
17 July : Cliff Edwards ("Ukulele Ike"), musician, dies aged 76

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote

gilbertharding

Cor - are we up to June '71 already?

I'm always amused by the fact that this record was number 1 when my brother was born - whereas I was born under Honky Tonk Women.

If these facts could possibly have had anything to do with the way our lives have turned out, it would explain a lot (he maintains that he has never heard this song - or at least couldn't say whether he has or not).

daf

302.  T Rex – Get It On



From : 18 July – 14 August 1971
Weeks : 4
B-side : There Was A Time / Raw Ramp / Electric Boogie
Bonus 1 : Top Of The Pops
Bonus 2 : Disco (German TV)
Bonus 3 : Midnight Special 1973

The Story So Far & Further :  1971 - 1972
QuoteIn 1971, the completion of T. Rex's move to electric guitar rock coincided with Bolan's more overtly sexual lyrical style and image. Having already begun standing up onstage to perform electric songs, Bolan also incorporated more physical showmanship, such as struts, dances and poses, into his stage act. The group's new image and sound quickly attracted a new audience much to the despair of the band's early fans. Some of the lyrical content of the old Tyrannosaurus Rex remained, but the poetic, surrealistic lyrics were now interspersed with sensuous grooves, orgiastic moans and innuendo.

Marc Bolan : "This last tour has been the one, because this has been so dangerous at many points, which is very odd. The sweetest thing of all is we didn't try to hype anyone of the Press about anything and slowly people were saying like, "what's going on?", you know, and four or five of the papers came to some of the gigs and they couldn't believe it, because you knew they were going to say, 'Wow! Beatlemania!', or whatever, that sort of stuff. But we didn't want to say that, because I don't feel it is that, I think it's a whole new thing, very different sort of thing, more involved, more personal, more involved with music but also with personalities--like you see all the chicks have got Marc Bolan T-shirts, or Marc Bolan hair and so on, very freaky to see. I mean, hairdressing shops, they do a Marc Bolan hairstyle. It's weird! It's very flattering."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In July 1971, T. Rex released the single "Get It On" - which became their biggest selling single, and the band's only top-ten US hit. In the United States, the title was changed to "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" to distinguish it from Chase's song "Get It On", which was also released in late 1971.

Bill Legend : "We were touring the States at the time and we came to the West Coast and we laid some tracks down, including "Get It On" and maybe two or three other tracks. But I had no idea of what we're actually doing in the sense that this is gonna be such-and-such an album. I always sat down and played what I thought was the right thing for the song. I had no idea what was going on."



This was the song that virtually ended the once-solid friendship between Bolan and John Peel, after he failed to play his advance white-label copy on air.

John Peel : "Marc came along to the BBC one evening with an acetate of I think it was Get It On, or a white label, and left it at reception for me to play on the programme. And I took it up to the studio just before going on the air and listened to it and I thought to myself, "Well, if this wasn't Marc I'd not play it." And then I thought to myself, "Well, if that's the case, then I mustn't play it." Because you have to be sort of true to yourself, in a rather fanatical way. And so I didn't play it, and that was really pretty much the end of that."

Bolan was said to have been offended by this and broke off all contact with Peel, who even complained on air that he was being snubbed by his former friend.

John Peel : "When Marc saw doors he'd been banging on for so long suddenly start to open, he did go a bit mad. It was one of those things where I phoned up to see what we'd be doing next weekend, and somebody answered the phone and said, "Look, Marc's very busy. Can he call you back?" And then he never did. You feel mildly offended, but life's too short. It's a difficult area for me this, because Marc and his first wife June had been best friends with my wife Sheila and myself for quite some time. We'd done a lot of things together. But you know how very few friendships last for more than like a few years and people drift apart and people's priorities change and so on and you suddenly find you have less and less in common. And as Marc became more and more well known, he just started to run with a different crowd. And there wasn't any kind of row or disagreement or argument at all, but I just saw less and less of him. And it happens quite a bit really in the glamorous world of showbiz, you know, because I'm not a showbiz type and over the years I've lost one or two friends to showbiz, and I suppose that's one of the reasons I don't have a great deal to do with it now, because you get involved with people and then they suddenly disappear out of your lives and it can be quite upsetting, I suppose."

Marc Bolan : "I was very unhappy with the way that we were really being ignored by the media of all sorts and the papers and the radio and that.It was upsetting me, it was something new. I'd hear something like a new Dylan record or a new Beatle record or a Who record and I'd know that I was as funky as them, you know, it was not an ego number, I mean, Pete Townshend was the first dude to come up to see me and say that Desdemona was amazing. We did a tour with them in Germany, he blew his mind, you know. And I knew I was on that sort of level of being an artist I felt should be reaching people. I had a cottage in Wales at that point. I'd rather stay at home and record on my Revox and send them out as albums, you know. And I felt that I was doing it and not really reaching the people."

Tony Visconti : "They had a very limited audience, who were mostly John Peel fans. They wanted the most underground thing going and they wanted to preciously hang on to that. We know how many of those people there were: it was 20,000. We always hit the ceiling at 20,000 album sales. Marc fancied himself as a Bob Dylan or a Donovan. He wanted to be seen as a folk-rock poet, but once teenage girls started screaming at the shows he had to become a pop star. People like John Peel, who had adored him as a cute hippy boy, completely dropped him."

Marc Bolan : "John played all the last album, he played seven tracks from that, but I know what you mean, you're going to get people that do that, but I think that many of the people that have said that I've sold out, many of those letters have been so ill-informed. 'Why did Marc go electric?'. Three quarters of Beard of Stars is electric, so obviously the person that wrote that never listened to Beard of Stars anyway. Because there's a lot of electric stuff, very heavy, in fact probably heavier than the album which followed, the T.Rex album. Many of the people that come to the concerts have been with us for a long time, obviously it's probably seventy-five per cent chicks now, and they throw knickers on the stage and all that stuff but one can appreciate that, that's cool. All I know is I do half an hour of acoustic numbers, right, and it's dead quiet, totally quiet, they sit there listening to the music, you know, they're listening, they'll be quiet for half an hour."



Others were disturbed by the singer's behaviour, including Peel's manager Clive Selwood, who had never shared the DJ's high opinion of Bolan's talent and personality, and former Tyrannosaurus Rex manager Peter Jenner.

Peter Jenner : "Bolan himself was a complete arsehole, the way he turned over Peel, and everything else. Quite clearly he was just a very ambitious little kid who wanted to become a pop star. He was feeding all the rest of us this bullshit which we bought. He'd sussed that the way through for him was by being a little hippie. He used me and he used John Peel. Peel's investment was far deeper, a personal commitment. He waved the flag for Bolan all the way through, until Bolan became huge and then Bolan gave him the old heave-ho in such a cynical fashion."

Bolan and Peel only spoke once more before the former's death in 1977.

John Peel : "At that time, Marc was more of a friend with Bob Harris actually, who was on the radio at the time, and used to see more of him. In fact, I only saw him once more from then until his death and that was on a record review programme I think or somewhere, I don't remember exactly where. Anyway, we were perfectly friendly there, but in a sense it was like meeting someone you'd not met before or like somebody's older brother or younger brother – it didn't seem to be the Marc that I'd known particularly well."



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

T. Rex released their second album, (and Bolan's sixth), 'Electric Warrior' on 24 September 1971 by record label Fly in the UK and Reprise in the US. The cover artwork was designed by British art design group Hipgnosis, based on a photo taken by Kieron "Spud" Murphy at a T. Rex concert. Murphy also took the photo of the band that was used for the poster that was included with the first issue in the UK and Germany. The inner sleeve artwork, portraits of Marc Bolan and Mickey Finn, was drawn by artist George Underwood.



The album marked a turning point in the band's sound, moving away from the folk-oriented music of the group's previous albums and pioneering a flamboyant, pop-friendly take on electric rock & roll known as glam rock.

Tony Visconti : "He was very secretive about his demos. He never brought a demo to the studio; he would teach everyone the song on the spot. Marc was terrified of being ripped off; he would have never handed demos out to anybody. Everything you hear on a T. Rex record was a live recording; nothing was replaced later on."

Publicist BP Fallon coined the term "T. Rextasy" as a parallel to Beatlemania to describe the group's popularity. The album still recalled Bolan's acoustic roots with ballads such as "Cosmic Dancer" and the stark "Girl".

Tony Visconti : "Marc recognised my string writing early in the Tyrannosaurus Rex days and that was my domain exclusively; he wouldn't question anything or have any suggestions. What he loved was that I would pick up on his riffs and some of his solos and use some of those ideas in the arrangements. For Cosmic Dancer I had about 25 string players. We had the budget because we had the hit, of course. I was trained classically; I'm a classical guitarist and I studied some writing at school, but I was largely self-taught. I'd have a reel-to-reel and fiddle around with my classical guitar and work the parts out then write them down. It took me ages to write those parts. Now I could do the arrangement for Cosmic Dancer in about three hours; at that time it might have taken three days."

Other songs featured on the album included : The number 1 single "Get It On", "Jeepster", "Mambo Sun", Monolith", "Lean Woman Blues", "Planet Queen", The Motivator", and "Rip Off".



Marc Bolan : "I think Electric Warrior, for me, is the first album which is a statement of 1971 for us in England. I mean that's... If anyone ever wanted to know why we were big in the other part of the world, that album says it, for me."

Tony Visconti : "I think Electric Warrior is my favourite T. Rex album, partly because of the different ways we recorded and how we worked in a lot of studios – New York, LA and several in London. Marc was on tour so I had to catch him on the road to record. All the strings and mixing were done at Trident Studios in London. It took a lot of work to put the whole album together. I think it was a masterpiece, but I also like the following two albums, The Slider and Tanx, very much."

The album went to number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, staying there for 8 weeks. The album remained in the UK chart for a total of 44 weeks. In the US, Electric Warrior reached number 32 in the Billboard 200 chart.



In a positive 1972 review for Rolling Stone, Ben Gerson noted Bolan's transition from his earlier fairytale lyrics, noting that now "his targets are your common rock & roll cliches, as well as your common pseudo-poetic, pseudo-philosophical rock & roll cliches [...] What Marc seems to be saying on Electric Warrior is that rock is ultimately as quaint as wizards and unicorns, and finally, as defunct." Gerson concluded that the album established Bolan as "the heaviest rocker under 5'4″ in the world today."

The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was reserved in his praise : "A freak hit turned [Bolan] into a singer of rhythmic fairy tales for British pre-pubes, exactly what he was always suited for, and the great 'Bang a Gong' extends his subject matter into the rock myth itself, which has its limits but sure beats unicorns. Now if he'd only recycle a few more pop readymades I could stop complaining about fey."

Soon after, Bolan left Fly Records and signed with EMI, where he was given his own record label in the UK, the "T. Rex Wax Co."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In August 1971, Fly had released a promo single featuring "Jeepster" to promote the album. In November 1971, without Bolan's permission, the single was dusted down and given a full release.



Backed by another album track, "Life's A Gas", it peaked at #2 in the UK chart, #28 in Australia and #73 in Canada. Due to some suggestive lyrics ("I'm going to suck you"), the single was banned in South Africa.



Marc Bolan : "Jeepster--which is not even the official single, we didn't release that, Fly records put that out--it's not the follow-up to Get It On at all, because that's something else that is coming out. I didn't want that released even, in fact, that's done 350,000 already in 9 days. And I can't relate to that, I don't, you know, because a normal hit record in England does 100,000 to 150,000 a biggy, you know, and it's like we've doubled the sales of people, treble almost, which to be in a group that 2 years ago was told would never sell a record by alot of people...'Well, you've got a funny voice, Marc', and 'I'm sorry kid'. And that's what's been freaky, it's gone so much more than I anticipated and that's amazing, you know, like I didn't expect to be this big, honestly."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In May 1972, Bolan's old label Fly released 'Bolan Boogie' - which was an odds and sods collection of LP tracks, singles, and B-sides - many of which had not appeared on previous albums. It reached number 1 in the UK Albums Chart.



Songs featured included : "Get It On" and "Jeepster" (Electric Warrior - 1971); "Beltane Walk" and "Jewel" (T. Rex - 1970); "The King of the Mountain Cometh" and "Woodland Rock" (Originally the B-sides of "Hot Love" - 1971); "She Was Born to Be My Unicorn" (from Unicorn - 1969); "Dove", "Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart" and "By the Light of a Magical Moon" (from A Beard of Stars - 1970); "Ride a White Swan" (single A-side - 1970); "Summertime Blues" (Originally the B-side of "Ride a White Swan"); "Raw Ramp" (Originally the B-side of "Get It On"); and "Hot Love" (non-album single)

The Single :
Quote"Get It On" was written by Marc Bolan and recorded by his band T. Rex.



Following the success of T. Rex's single, "Hot Love", the band went on a tour of the United States. While in New York in March 1971, Bolan asked drummer Bill Legend to help him brainstorm drum patterns for a song idea that he was working on.

Bolan claimed to have written "Get It On" out of his desire to record Chuck Berry's "Little Queenie", and said that the riff was taken from the Berry tune. A slightly edited line  - "And meanwhile, I'm still thinking" - from "Little Queenie" is said at the fade of "Get It On", which according to producer Tony Visconti, was an unscripted ad-lib by Bolan during recording.

Tony Visconti : "Bang a Gong didn't have a written string part. Marc wanted to go without the strings, but I said that as we'd had a few hits with strings already, maybe we should add some to this one, because, as you say, it was identifiable as his sound. This discussion was taking place while the string players were sitting in their seats. Marc looked slightly terrified at that remark. He said, 'Well, what can we do?' I simply asked the string players to all play the root note of the three chords in the chorus – G, A and E. It was so simple but it was very effective."



The track was recorded at Trident Studios, London, and the piano on the record was mainly performed by the improbably named Blue Weaver, with Rick Wakeman contributing the piano glissandos that feature several times throughout the song. Wakeman, who was desperate for work at the time to pay his rent, had bumped into Bolan in Oxford Street, who offered him the session. Wakeman pointed out to Tony Visconti that the record did not actually need a piano player. Visconti suggested that he could add a gliss. Wakeman said that Visconti could do that, to which Bolan replied, "You want your rent, don't you?" Wakeman did, and earned £9 for his efforts.

Rick Wakeman : "I did "Ride A White Swan" - "Get It On" - In fact, at the time when Marc was really at his height, when T.Rex were just selling shedloads of stuff, I was sitting up at Regal Zonophone with him and Tony Visconti and Marc was having a huge argument with the record company. He was so fed up with them. And he had this song he wanted to record and, for whatever reason, the record company didn't want him to record it. And he said, "Sod it. I'm going into the studio, let's record it." And Tony Visconti, who was the producer, said: "OK, but the record company won't release it." So we went in and recorded this track. He only pressed up, I think it was 5,000, and it came out under the band name 'Dib Cochran And The Earwigs.' And it was only way after his death that it came out that it was Marc. I wish I had one. I mean, they've been going for five thousand dollars on eBay if you can find one, they're so collectible."

During a performance of the song on Top of the Pops, Elton John mimed the piano.



Comedy rock duo Flo & Eddie (Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan formerly of The Turtles) provided backing vocals.

Tony Visconti : "We all had a go at the backing vocals. Marc had the idea for Flo and Eddie to sing the chorus an octave higher. They cooked up that arrangement between the three of them. They were alumni of Zappa, and I think some of the oohs on the chorus may have come from their time with Frank. Marc and I loved old doo wop, as did Zappa."

Saxophones were played by Ian McDonald of King Crimson.

Tony Visconti : "He played all the saxes, one baritone and two altos. I kept the baritone separate but bounced the altos to one track. I bounced the backup vocals to two tracks, making an interesting stereo image."

"Get It On" spent four weeks at the top of the charts in the UK, and was the group's biggest hit overall, with Bolan claiming that it sold a million. It peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 10 and at #12 in the Cash Box Top 100 in March 1972, becoming the band's only major US hit. The song also reached No. 12 in Canada in March 1972.



Other Versions includeTop of the Poppers (1971)  /  Gloria Jones (1976)  /  Witch Queen (1979)  /  Blondie (1979)  /  The Joe Perry Project (1983)  /  Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1985)  /  Satan Jokers (1985)  /  The Power Station (1985)  /  Karlowy Vary (1985)  /  Gary Glitter (1987)  /  Martin O'Sullivan (1988)  /  Ladyland (1990)  /  Bus Stop featuring T-Rex  (2000)  /  Danielz  (2001)  /  The Neanderthal Spongecake (2002)  /  Jean-Baptiste Mondino (2005)  /  Maya Albana (2006)  /  På Slaget 12 (2006)  /  "Cactus" by Dave Bowie and the Dave Bowie Band (feat. Dave Bowie) (2010)  /  Santana featuring Gavin Rossdale (2010) [the dream-team together at last!]  /  "Gideon (Man of God)" by ApologetiX (2010)  /  Danny McEvoy (2012)  /  8BitUzz (2012)  /  Billy Idol (2013)  /  FUNFICTION (2015)  /  Culture Club (2017)  /  Mystic Prophecy (2018)  /  Benji Webbe (2020)  /  David Johansen (2020)  /  U2 feat. Elton John (2020) [the dream-team together at last!]  /  Naudo (2020)  /  The Night Owls (2021)

On This Day :
Quote18 July : 58th Tour de France : Eddy Merckx of Belgium wins for a third time
19 July : U r s Bühler, tenor singer (Il Divo), born U r s Toni Bühler in Willisau, Lucerne, Switzerland
19 July : Vitali Klitschko, Ukrainian boxer, born Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko in Belovodskoye, Kyrgyzstan
20 July : The first McDonald's in Japan officially opened
21 July : Fiddler on the Roof becomes the longest-running Broadway musical with its 2,845th consecutive performance,
21 July : Charlotte Gainsbourg, actress & singer, born Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg in London
23 July : Alison Krauss, musician, born Alison Maria Krauss in Decatur, Illinois
23 July : Van Heflin, American actor, dies from a heart attack aged 60
26 July : Diane Arbus, American photographer, commits suicide aged 48
26 July : Apollo 15 launched : Destination Moon
30 July : US Apollo 15 lands on Moon at Mare Imbrium. David Scott and James Irwin collect some moon-rocks for 18 hours while Alfred Worden orbits, sitting in a tin can, far above the moon
30 July : George Harrison releases single "Bangladesh"
31 July : Apollo 15 astronauts piss about for 6½ hours driving an electric car on Moon
1 August : Concerts for Bangladesh (2 shows) take place at Madison Square Garden, NYC
3 August : Paul McCartney announces formation of his group Wings
7 August : Apollo 15 returns to Earth
7 August : A Catholic man is shot dead by a British soldier in Belfast
8 August : A British soldier is shot dead by the Irish Republican Army in Belfast
10 August : Roy Keane, footballer, born Roy Maurice Keane in Ballinderry Park, Cork, Republic of Ireland
12 August : Pete Sampras, tennis player, born Petros Sampras in Washington D.C., USA
13 August : King Curtis, saxophonist, murdered during an argument with some drug dealers outside of his NYC home aged 37
14 August : Bahrain proclaims independence after 110 years of British rule

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote

The Culture Bunker

It's a very sexy #1, which I mainly put down to Bolan himself (his singing and guitar playing) as the song itself is a bit slight - when (for instance) the Power Station do it, it just sounds like a load of shite. But Bolan at this point knew how to take something that was a bit naff and make it work - I always like the way the guitar chugs on those big T-Rex hits, so fuck whatever John Peel and those other smelly hippies thought.

daf

A rare lapse in taste for Peel - this electric stuff is clearly miles better than Bolan's weedy old Wizard & Fairy bollocks.

What's odd is, at virtually the same time, Peel would become pals with The Faces - who were following a not too dissimilar heads-down no-nonsense electric boogie path.

I suspect the problem might have been less musical, and more that Bolan was no longer willing to drop everything for one of Peel's gigs - while The Faces were up for a pint and game of footie.

- - - - - - -

I'm not exactly sure what happened with the Get it On single - Wikipedia say Peel "made clear his lack of enthusiasm for it on air after playing his advance white label copy." whereas Peel's comments indicate that he decided not to play it on air after hearing it (before the show). That's the version I've gone with - as it's from the horses mouth.

I read somewhere that it was a comment he made on a Round Table-type programme (it might even have been Round Table if they were doing it in '71) - "Get It On?  I couldn't wait to get it off".

EDIT - From Peel's biography Margrave Of The Marshes:  "John had admitted on air that he was less than enamoured of the latest T Rex single-"Well that was called "Get it on" he said, but I couldn't wait to get it off". Written by Sheila Ravenscroft.

famethrowa

Enjoyed finding out Flo & Eddie were responsible for those high harmonies.... I always assumed they were by a pretty lady.

Captain Poodle Basher

In my dissipated youth, a FoF had some recordings which had been, ahem, 'liberated' from Bolan's house the day after he died by members of his fan club. Said FoF having met one of the looters some years earlier in the mid '80's when they shared the same grotty bedsit-land in South Kensington.

Anyways, one night, while sitting in an Irish version of a grotty South Kensington bedsit, this FoF put on one of the tapes. It featured Bolan mucking about on an acoustic guitar and chatting with A. N. Other who sounded remarkably like one David Bowie of Dave Bowie and the Dave Bowie Band (feat. Dave Bowie) fame.

The recording was supposed to be circa 1971-72.  I wish I could recall more about it but I was rather stoned at the time.

daf

302b. (NME 313.)  The New Seekers – Never Ending Song of Love
+         (MM 254.)  The New Seekers – Never Ending Song of Love



From :  18 - 24 August 1971  |  21 August - 3 September 1971
Weeks : 3
B-side : Cincinnati
Bonus 1 : Top of the Pops
Bonus 2 : German TV
Bonus 3 : Albert Hall 1972

The Story So Far : 
QuoteThe New Seekers were formed in London in 1969 by Keith Potger, a member of the recently disbanded 1960s Australian group The Seekers. The original line-up featured Laurie Heath, Chris Barrington, Marty Kristian, and Eve Graham.

Eve Graham : "My parents loved music and were definitely an influence on me. After singing with small Scottish groups, I auditioned for Cyril Stapleton in London who, together with Joe Loss, led the big orchestras in the 60s. I was a 12-year-old kid when my career started. Cyril asked me to sing with his orchestra in the ballrooms and that led to other engagements. I then sang as part of the band The Nocturnes, with Lyn Paul, and it was her mum who said we should apply for a new group called The New Seekers."

Also featured were Sally Graham (no relation), who was a member of The Young Generation, and Keith Potger himself.

Eve Graham : "It was Keith Potger's idea for forming the group years after The Seekers had split up and he didn't want the same thing to happen again. With us you had two girl singers and three boys who could sing and take over the lead vocals as well so that if any one member left there would still be a group. With the original Seekers, when Judith Durham left, the boys were out of a job. So, Keith didn't want that to happen again as it did with him, Bruce Woodley and Athol Guy."

They released their first single, "Meet My Lord", in November 1969 - which failed to chart.

Eve Graham : "In the UK the first record we had out was called "Meet My Lord" and you could really hear sounds of the original Seekers in it, very much a follow on from the original group."

The single was included on their debut album, 'The New Seekers, released in January 1970. The album featured a mix of cover versions and original tracks, two of which, "Not as Good as the Real Thing" and "Zarzis" were written by Laurie Heath and another two, "Hello Again" and "One More Sunny Day" by Marty Kristian.



Covers included : "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart", Chip Taylor's "Angel of the Morning", Bob Dylan's "Too Much of Nothing" and Joni Mitchell's "Night in the City". Other songs featured on the album included : "Betty Brown / Zip a Dee Doo Dah", "Illinois", and "Rhythm of Life".

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Despite only having released one album with no commercial success, ITV's Scottish Television gave the group their own TV series 'Finders, Seekers'. Produced in colour, the show was given a prime-time slot, starting on Good Friday, 27 March 1970, and continuing for seven shows. The public did not take to the show, with several complaints seemingly targeted at the band. Despite the complaints, the series was shown on several ITV channels, sold to Canada, Australia and Sweden with interest from other countries as a result of being shown at the international television market in Cannes.

Following the series failure, later in 1970, Heath, Barrington, and Sally Graham left, and the line-up was reworked to comprise : Eve Graham, Marty Kristian, Peter Doyle, Paul Layton, and Lyn Paul.

Lyn Paul : "We were one of the original manufactured bands and it was the first time they'd put girls in a band - up til then it'd been all boys, with girls hurling themselves at them. We were told exactly what to do, when to do it, how to do it, how to think, what to think, what to say. We were very manipulated - I was a young 21, still scared if my mum shouted at me, so I just did as I was told. It was only later that we started questioning things - to start with, we were having too much fun."

This line-up found instant success with their debut release, a cover of Melanie Safka's "What Have They Done to My Song, Ma" (b/w "It's A Beautiful Day"). Released in June 1970, it became a #14 hit in the US, #2 in Canada, #3 in Austalia, but only a minor one in the UK - peaking at #44.



Eve Graham : "I had sung the lead on "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma" and it had done well in America. It was the music of Melanie, though, who just launched us from what The New Seekers were intended to be originally."

The hit single was included on their second album 'Keith Potger and the New Seekers', released in November 1970. The album cover photo was taken shortly after the new line-up was in place during the group's summer season of concerts at Great Yarmouth - the picture features them standing under the town's pier.



Original songs featured on the album included : "All Right My Love", "Roundelay", "Anything You Might Say", and "Evenings Make Me Blue". Covers included : "Gentle on My Mind", "I'm a Train", "Follow the Wind" penned by Barry Gibb, "Mrs. Robinson", and "Here, There and Everywhere"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In December 1970, they released "When There's No Love Left" (b/w "Shine People Shine") in the UK. In the US, the B-side was the Melanie Safka song "Beautiful People", where it reached #67 on the Billboard pop charts.

Eve Graham : ""When There's No Love Left" was continuing with the religious, folky style of the original Seekers. It was the intended A side of the single and "Beautiful People" was on the flip side and that's because we followed up with a Melanie song after "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma" and we were trying to resist the idea of featuring another Melanie song as our A side."

The record label credited the song to The New Seekers Featuring Eve Graham.   

 

Eve Graham : "There was no idea for me to stand out as a lead singer, so after "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma" became successful in America, the idea was to play down the lead singer idea a bit, although with "When There's No Love Left," I was singing the lead as well, but it was a different kind of song. In fact, that had been recorded earlier. We had done the Melanie one as well, although that was on the flip side. The public had liked "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma" so much that they wanted more of the same and "Beautiful People" came right to the forefront with the disc jockeys and the public and it sort of established my style. "When There's No Love Left" probably wouldn't have established my style in the same way as it was a different type of song, where with "Beautiful People," it just cemented the idea that I was the lead singer, and this was the style of The New Seekers and I still sing it all the time."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Another Melanie penned song, "Nickel Song" was released as a single in March 1971. While it failed to chart in the UK, the single reached #81 on the US Billboard chart, and #67 in Australia.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"When There's No Love Left" was featured on their third album, 'Beautiful People', released in May 1971.

Songs featured on the album included : "One" by Harry Nilsson, "Look What You Have Done", "There's a Light", Roy Wood's "Blackberry Way", "Eighteen Carat Friend", "Ain't Love Easy", Elton John's "Your Song", and "I'll Be Home" by Randy Newman.

The US version of the album differed from the UK release with a slightly different track listing, including the singles : "All Right My Love" and "Look What They've Done to My Song Ma". This was the group's first album release there and reached #136 on the US album charts.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In June 1971 they released their breakthrough hit, "Never Ending Song of Love", the first of their hit songs to be produced by David Mackay. The song became a big hit in the UK, spending five weeks at No. 2 in the singles chart and was one of the biggest selling singles of the year. It also topped both the NME for a week, and Melody Maker charts for two - with the first week being a rare 'joint Number 1' - shared with Diana Ross.



This was their last single released on the Philips Records label. The huge success of this single was mildly ironic in that prior to the single's release, the group were dropped by Philips and had signed with Polydor Records.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

They released their fourth album, 'New Colours', in September 1971. The album was released while "Never Ending Song of Love" was still in the top 20, but as that song had actually appeared on the group's previous album, 'Beautiful People', rather than 'New Colours', it failed to chart.



Other songs featured on the album included : "Doggone My Soul (How I Love Them Old Songs)", "Evergreen", James Taylor's "Something in the Way He Moves", "Move Me Lord", "No Man's Land", "Child of Mine", "Tonight", "Lay Me Down", "Too Many Trips to Nowhere", and "Boom Town".

Their first single for Polydor was "Good Old Fashioned Music" (b/w "Sweet Louise"), released in October 1971, which they promoted on television, including an appearance on Top Of The Pops, but it failed to chart.


The Single :
Quote"Never Ending Song of Love" was written by Delaney Bramlett, and, according to some sources, by his wife Bonnie Bramlett. It was released as a single by The New Seekers in June 1971.



"Never Ending Song of Love" was originally recorded with their band, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, in 1971 on the album Motel Shot. Released as a single by Atco Records the same year, "Never Ending Song of Love" became Delaney & Bonnie's greatest hit on the pop charts, reaching a peak of #13 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #16 in Australia.

A cover version by The New Seekers was a major hit in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 1971. It spent a few weeks at No. 2 in the Official UK charts, a week at the Top of the NME chart and two weeks topping the Melody Maker chart. It also reached Number 1 in the Irish charts, and #25 in Australia.



Other Versions includeDelaney & Bonnie & Friends (1971)  /  Dickey Lee (1971)  /  Mayf Nutter (1971)  /  The Dealians (1971)  /  Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn (1972)  /  Skeeter Davis (1972)  /  Lynn Anderson (1972)  /  Earl Scruggs (1972)  /  The Statler Brothers (1972)  /  Ray Charles (1972)  /  The Carter Family (1972)  /  The Grasscutters (1972)  /  Agnes Chan (1972)  /  Denise Freeman (1972)  /  "Otcova hůl" by Plavci (1972)  /  "So kann es hundert Jahre weitergeh'n" by Ulli Martin (1972)  /  "Nekonečná láska" by Jana Kocianová (1972)  /  Ray Stevens (1973)  /  George Jones & Tammy Wynette (1973)  /  Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (1973)  /  Herbie Mann (1973)  /  "Mun on niin hyvä olla" by Lea Laven (1973)  /  Lester Flatt (1974)  /  New Strangers (1974)  /  "Un amour qui ne veut pas mourir" by Renée Martel (1978)  /  The Osmond Brothers (1982)  /  Crystal Gayle (1990)  /  Daniel O'Donnell (1993)  /  Shania Twain (1993) /   Rice, Rice, Hillman & Pedersen (1999)  /  Alan Munde Gazette (2004)  /  Die Campbells (2004)  /  Eve Graham (2005)  /  Patty Loveless (2005)  /  David Dover Band (2007)  /  John Fogerty (2009)  /  BJ Blue with Brittany Allyn (2010)  /  Gary Brewer & The Kentucky Ramblers (2010)  /  Danny McEvoy & Jasmine Thorpe (2015)

On This Day :
Quote18 August : Australia and New Zealand announced the withdrawal their troops from South Vietnam
18 August : The Aphex Twin, Cornish electronic musician, born Richard David James in Limerick, Ireland
20 August : David Walliams, TV funnyman and Children's author, born David Edward Williams in Wimbledon, London
21 August : Liam Howlett, musician (The Prodigy), born Liam Paul Paris Howlett in Braintree, Essex
22 August : Richard Armitage, actor (The Hobbit), born Richard Crispin Armitage in Huncote, Leicestershire
23 August : Shamu, Sea World killer whale, dies aged . . . unknown!
25 August : Ted Lewis, American bandleader, dies of lung failure aged 81
26 August : Thalía, singer, born Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda in Mexico City, Mexico
26 August : Francesco Santoliquido, Italian composer, dies aged 88
27 August : Lil Hardin Armstrong, jazz musician and former wife of Louis Armstrong, died of a heart attack aged 73
28 August : George Hislop organized Canada's first gay rights demonstration, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
31 August : Britain's transition to decimal currency was completed as the old penny and the threepence were taken out of circulation
31 August : Chris Tucker, comedian, born Christopher Tucker in Atlanta, Georgia
31 August : Pádraig Harrington, golfer, born Pádraig Peter Harrington in Dublin, Ireland
31 August : John Lennon leaves England for the final time, moving to New York City
1 September : The Rolling Stones sue manager Allen Klein
1 September : The Irish Republican Army set off a series of bombs across Northern Ireland injuring a number of people
3 September : Michael McConnell and Jack Baker, a librarian and a law student, became the first-ever legally married same-sex couple
3 September : Qatar regains complete independence from Britain
3 September : The embalmed body of Eva Perón, concealed by Argentina since 1955, returned to Mr. Perón in Spain.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote

daf

303.  Diana Ross – I'm Still Waiting



From : 15 August – 11 September 1971
Weeks : 4
B-side : Reach Out I'll Be There

The Story So Far & Further : 
QuoteIn 1970, having just left The Supremes after a decade of serving as that group's lead singer, Diana Ross went through a difficult situation trying to piece a solo album together.



With Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson writing and producing for her, and Paul Riser arranging, Ross recorded "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)", which carried a heavy gospel influence, and was one of the few songs the singer recorded to express her social conscience, previously experimented with Supremes singles such as "Love Child" and "I'm Livin' in Shame".

Valerie Simpson : "Reach Out and Touch" was actually started in a big studio that had a Hammond organ. I don't play organ but, like I say, it's hard to resist any keyboard. I jumped up on it and tried to work it with my feet and the next thing I knew I was playing those chords and Nick came over and we started that chorus. It felt churchy. It had, like you say, a waltz feeling to it, so we tried to slow the waltz thing down so that you didn't notice you were going [snaps] "one-two-three, one-two-three". In the end, it turned out to be her first single and even though it wasn't a huge huge hit at the time, it has stood the test of time. It's played at all kinds of affairs, churches, arenas, and it has the quality in the lyric to bring people together because that's what we're saying — "Make this world better" — so right now we surely need those kinds of songs because we're in a fix! [laughs]"



Backed by "Dark Side Of The World", the single peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #33 on the UK Singles Chart in August 1970.



Diana Ross : "I like songs that are positive and say something inspirational and make a difference in people's lives. Songs like "Reach Out and Touch," "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." I like songs with a melodic sound – something you can sing in the shower. A lot of the Motown records had this, especially in the early days. They really connected with your brain and they stuck there."

The single was included on her eponymous solo debut album 'Diana Ross', released on 19 June 1970.



The ultimate test to see if the former Supremes frontwoman could make it as a solo act, the album was overseen by the songwriting-producing team of Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, who had Ross re-record several of the songs the duo had recorded with other Motown acts.

Valerie Simpson : "I think we were chosen to do Diana's solo album because Berry trusted us. He trusted us to point Diana in a different direction than the one she had been in with the girls. That was a big move because most of the albums were co-produced. It was usually three or four people involved in an album and everybody was contributing, so for him to give us the whole album really spoke volumes. It put a lot of pressure on us, but we liked it and it made us work a little harder I think."

Johnny Bristol, producer of her final single with The Supremes, contributed on The Velvelettes cover "These Things Will Keep Me Loving You".

Valerie Simpson : "We always had a little bit of a rivalry going with Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua because they started the relationship with Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, producing our songs. We had to fight to get "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" out. They had to do it and we had to do it, and it had to be decided which one was better! I actually like Johnny Bristol very much but boy, creatively we had a battle going on! We really did."



Other songs featured on the album included : "Now That There's You", "You're All I Need to Get By", "Something on My Mind", "I Wouldn't Change the Man He Is", "Keep an Eye", and "Where There Was Darkness".

The album reached number 19 on the US Billboard 200 and would later go on to sell 500,000 copies in the United States.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Diana Ross & the Supremes recorded a version of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", which was more faithful to the Terrell-Gaye original version, as a duet with The Temptations on the 1968 a joint album 'Diana Ross & the Supremes Join the Temptations'.

In spring 1970, after the Top 20 success of her first solo single, Ashford and Simpson had Ross re-record "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

Valerie Simpson : "The lyric for "Ain't No Mountain" is real interesting because it's not the love song that it sounds like. It's so much more and I think the "more" is what people get and why it's lasted through the years because there's the empowerment in that thought. Nick was walking down Central Park West and he said the buildings looked like mountains and he was so determined that New York wasn't going to do him in. He came here and he was homeless, but he was determined that he was going to be a success. He said "ain't no mountain high enough" looking at the buildings. "There ain't no valley low enough. Ain't no river wide enough to keep me from making it." Then we changed it to "to keep me from getting to you". I think people, when they're going through something, sense that meaning that's deeper than just "keep me from seeing you" or "keep me from loving you". It does empower people because it was born into the lyric."



Initially, Ross was apprehensive, but was convinced to make the recording. The remake was a complete reworking of the song, featuring a style similar to gospel with elements of classical music strings and horns, and spoken word passages from Ross.

Valerie Simpson : "We were trying to make use of Diana's speaking voice. We wanted to use everything and things that she didn't get a chance to use when she was with the girls. She had a very sexy speaking voice so Nick wrote those extra words for her to say and we extended it. We come from that church background — "build it up, build it up, make it big". We wanted it to be long like Isaac Hayes' songs at that time, which were longer than our three-minute ditties that we were writing. We wanted one of those. It fit that description — that we could build all of that into this production. I must say Paul Riser did a fantastic job with the arrangement. It's probably one of my proudest productions that we've ever done."



Motown chief Berry Gordy did not like the record upon first hearing it. He hated the spoken-word passages and wanted the song to begin with the climactic chorus/bridge. It was not until radio stations nationwide were editing their own versions and adding it to their playlists that Ashford and Simpson were able to convince Gordy to release an edited three-minute version as a single.

Valerie Simpson : "Berry had problems with "Ain't No Mountain". He gave us fever! We had done all this work. We thought we had a masterpiece and he was like, "Oh no no no!" It's hard to argue with a songwriter. Berry's a hit songwriter, too, and the president of your company so what are you supposed to say when he's like, "I think you should put the back to the front. It takes too long to get there. You're taking me through too many steps before we get to the punch! It's just not right. We listened quietly and we said, "Well, we'll think about it." We didn't just say no. We thought about it. Sometimes you got to stick to your guns and just go with what you believe. He said, "Well, I can't make it the first release." We said, "You got to do what you got to do, but we can't change it." Berry went with "Reach Out and Touch". It did a little something something, but not what we wanted at that moment. Then the disc jockeys heard "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and they felt what we were doing. I remember Nick had the best line to Berry, though. He said, "This is like having sex. It's a climax. You don't just have it right away. You let it build!" I thought I'd fall out the chair! It was too funny."



An edited version of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (b/w "Can't It Wait Until Tomorrow") was released in July 1970. The single reached number 1 on both the pop and R&B singles charts in the US, and #6 in the UK charts in September 1970. Ross received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Valerie Simpson : "There's nothing quite as exciting as a number one record ... and to be able to tell the boss "I told you so!" [laughs] That was very special. Of course we didn't really say that — I'm not that tacky — but he knew that we had won that battle. I think things work out like they're supposed to. Maybe something would have went wrong if "Ain't No Mountain" had come out first. I always believe things happen as they should and in the time that they should, so it was just the right time for that song to come out."



Her third single, "Remember Me" (b/w "How About You") was released on in December 1970. Written and produced by Ashford & Simpson, it peaked at number 16 on the Billboard chart and her third top 10 charting single in Cash Box, peaking at number 8. Overseas, the single reached #7 in the UK charts in April 1971.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After her self-titled debut and its accompanying two singles, Motown rushed the release of its follow-up. Musicians Deke Richards and Hal Davis were commissioned to produce the album as slightly more pop than her soulful debut with Ashford & Simpson.

Deke Richards : "All I remember is Berry [Gordy, Jr., Motown founder] said he wanted something different. Problem is he wanted it yesterday."

Her second solo album, 'Everything Is Everything' was released on 3 November 1970. The album reached number 42 on the US Billboard 200, selling over 200,000 copies



Lead single "I'm Still Waiting" became a number-one hit in the UK in 1971, while follow-up "Doobedood'ndoobe, Doobedood'ndoobe, Doobedood'ndoo" reached number 12 in May 1972.

Deke Richards : "I hadn't finished the lyrics when I cut the track. All I had was the 'Doo-bee' part, so I put that down on the session notes as a dummy title...The original title was going to be 'I Just Started Livin'.'"

Ross' rendering of Aretha Franklin's "Call Me (I Love You)" was nominated for a Grammy in 1971 in the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category.

Other songs featured on the album included the Beatle covers "Something", "Come Together" and "The Long and Winding Road", plus "My Place", "Ain't No Sad Song", "Everything Is Everything", "Baby It's Love", and "(They Long to Be) Close to You".

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Later in 1971, Ross starred in her first solo television special, 'Diana!'.



Choreographed by David Winters of West Side Story fame, the special featured performances by The Jackson 5, and also included Michael Jackson's solo debut, performing Frank Sinatra's "It Was a Very Good Year", which drew laughter as its adult-themed lyrics were changed to fit his age.



A soundtrack album was released in March 1971, which also featured guest spots by the Jackson 5, Danny Thomas and Bill Cosby.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Her third solo album, 'Surrender', was released on 6 July 1971 by Motown Records. The album saw her reuniting with writer-producer team Ashford & Simpson who had overseen her self-titled debut album in 1970.



As with her first album, some of the tracks that Ross recorded with the duo had previously been recorded by other Motown artists, including Gladys Knight & The Pips ("Didn't You Know (You'd Have to Cry Sometime)?"), Rita Wright ("I Can't Give Back The Love I Feel For You"), and the Four Tops ("Reach Out (I'll Be There)").

Valerie Simpson : "I think one of the fondest things I can recall about working with Diana is that she would push herself if you pushed her. For whatever reason, I think she gave us some of the best singing I've ever heard her do. She had great ad libs and, like you say, she was in the stratosphere and perfectly toned. We never had to go back. We never had to fix anything. She was just a joy. It's like when you have a chemistry. We were like a real trio. As a singer myself, I would not sing for her because then she would be offended. She wanted to prove that she could do it and she did it. Often many people would accuse me, "Oh Valerie, you must have done ..." I didn't have to do nothing. Girl was ready and she knew I could sing a little bit, so she was going to sing a lot! [laughs]"

Released as a single, "Surrender", (b/w "I'm A Winner"), reached #10 in the UK chart in October 1971.



Other songs featured on the album included : "And If You See Him", "A Simple Thing Like Cry", "I'll Settle for You", "All the Befores", and "Did You Read the Morning Paper?".

Valerie Simpson : "Richard Monica worked on that song with us. It was his title and then we worked it up. I didn't watch soap operas but we always sounded like we were writing one! [laughs] I always believed in taking liberties. Everything can have some complexity to it if you can work it in without it sounding complex. You want it to still sound simple even though there's a complexity there. "Did You Read the Morning Paper?" is one of those songs."

The album reached number 56 on the US Billboard 200, selling over 200,000 copies, and reached #10 in the UK, earning a silver disc for UK sales in excess of 60,000 copies. Following the massive success of the #1 single "I'm Still Waiting" in the UK, 'Surrender' was reissued under that title, and the hit single was added to the track listing.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In 1971, Diana Ross began working on her first film, 'Lady Sings the Blues', which was a loosely based biography on singer Billie Holiday. Despite some criticism of her for taking the role, once the film opened in October 1972, Ross won critical acclaim for her performance in the film.



Jazz critic Leonard Feather, a friend of Holiday's, praised Ross for "expertly capturing the essence of Lady Day". Ross's role in the film won her Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. The soundtrack to 'Lady Sings the Blues' became just as successful, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200, staying there for two weeks, and selling two million units.



"Good Morning Heartache" (b/w "God Bless The Child"), taken from the film soundtrack, was released as a single in March 1973, and reached #34 in the Billboard chart.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In June 1973, She released her fourth studio album, Touch Me in the Morning'



The album contained the hit title track, "Touch Me in the Morning", which became Diana Ross' second number 1 single on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. In the UK, the single reached #9 in the UK charts in July 1973.



The second single from the album, "All of My Life", also peaked at #9 in the UK in January 1974.



The album included the first tracks Diana would personally produce on one of her albums, "Imagine" and the medley "Brown Baby/Save the Children".

Other songs featured on the album included : "We Need You", "My Baby (My Baby, My Own)",  the Richard Rodgers' standard "Little Girl Blue, "I Won't Last a Day Without You", released a year prior to The Carpenters' hit version, and a cover of The Fifth Dimension's "Leave A Little Room".



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In October 1973 Motown issued 'Diana & Marvin', a duet album with fellow Motown artist Marvin Gaye.



Initial plans to make the Ross/Gaye duet album began as early as 1970, but due to Gaye being in a personal lull following the death of Tammi Terrell, Motown failed to bring the two together and instead focused on Ross' emerging solo career.

In mid-1971, Gaye returned to the charts with the 'What's Going On' album, which redefined his career and direction. Due to this, Gordy again approached him on doing a duet album with Ross. Though Gaye had insisted he wouldn't record any more duet albums, he later wrote that he felt the move to do a duet album with Ross would increase his popularity with Ross' wider audience.

Recording sessions proved to be difficult as Ross had her baby and laid low following Rhonda's birth. She had also finished work on the movie, 'Lady Sings the Blues'. Gaye, in the meantime, was busy on other projects putting future recording sessions in limbo. Due to this, Motown decided to do record them separately.

Marvin Gaye : "I'm not sure I handled the situation very well. Musically I may have overplayed my hand. I was too cavalier. I should have done everything in the world to make Diana comfortable. After all, she was making movies, recording two or three albums a year, starring in her own TV specials, and about to have a baby. I could have been a little more understanding. But I went the other way. It's hard for me to deal with prima donnas. We were like two spoiled kids going after the same cookie..."

In the States, Motown issued three singles: "You're a Special Part of Me" (#12), "My Mistake (Was to Love You)" (#19) and "Don't Knock My Love" (#46), the latter song went to number one in Brazil. In the UK, two singles were released and they were both covers of Stylistics songs. The first, You Are Everything", became a smash reaching number 5 in March 1974; and the second "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)", reached number 25 in August 1974.



The album would feature the last Ashford & Simpson production for Motown, "Just Say, Just Say". Other songs featured on the album included : "Love Twins", "Pledging My Love", "I'm Falling in Love With You", and "Include Me In Your Life".

Despite a huge promotional push, the album was only a modest success in the U.S. reaching number 26 on the Billboard 200, selling over 500,000 copies in America. It was far more successful in the United Kingdom, where Gaye and Ross had substantial fan bases, reaching number 6 on the UK albums chart and was certified gold for sales in excess of 100,000 copies.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Her sixth studio album, 'Last Time I Saw Him' was released in December 1973.



The album yielded the title track single "Last Time I Saw Him", which reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #35 in the United Kingdom. The song was a bit of a musical departure for Ross, with a sound combining country with Dixieland jazz.

"Sleepin'" was the second U.S. single, but despite a vocal performance that had shades of Billie Holiday, only reached #70 in the US charts. In the UK, the chosen second single was the ballad "Love Me" - which peaked at #38. "Behind Closed Doors" - previously a US #1 Country hit for Charlie Rich - was also released as a single and reached number 14 in South Africa, as well as climbing as high as #2 on the singles chart in Zimbabwe.

Other songs featured on the album included : "No One's Gonna Be a Fool Forever", "You", "Turn Around", "When Will I Come Home to You", "I Heard a Love Song (But You Never Made a Sound)", and "Stone Liberty".



The album had a disappointing chart run, reaching #52, and would be the last studio album Ross issued in the next three years until the Diana Ross album, released in 1976.

The Single :
Quote"I'm Still Waiting" was written and produced by Deke Richards and recorded by Diana Ross.



Deke Richards : "I wrote the original basic chart, which I wanted to be simple and unassuming...Diana liked the song but the soft, vulnerable style took her by surprise. I had to hold her back at times, especially on the chorus.  Her tone and timber were too strong. In the verses I had to keep her from anticipating lines and certain simple syncopations without overdoing it."

The song first appeared on Ross's 1970 album 'Everything Is Everything'. Although it was initially intended only as an album track, BBC Radio 1 disc jockey Tony Blackburn featured it heavily on his morning programme, and persuaded EMI—which at the time issued all Tamla Motown material in the UK—to release it as a single.

Deke Richards : "Tony Blackburn at BBC Radio played 'I'm Still Waiting' so much that public demand persuaded Motown to finally release if there as a single. After a few short weeks it went to No. 1 and stayed there for weeks. It became one of the U.K.'s biggest-selling records of all time."

It reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for four weeks in August 1971. It also reached number one in Ireland. However, it was only a modest success in the US, reaching No. 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and No. 40 on the R&B chart.



Other Versions includeTop of the Poppers (1971)  /  Sonia (1990)  /  Courtney Pine featuring Carroll Thompson‎ (1990)  /  Danny McEvoy (2012)  /  The Flirtations (2015)  /  Amanda Zullo (2015)

On This Day :
Quote15 August : Bahrain gains independence from Britain
15 August : The SDLP announce a campaign of civil disobedience in response to the introduction of Internment in Northern Ireland
15 August : Jackie Stewart clinches his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship at the Austrian Grand Prix at Österreichring
15 August : Paul Lukas, Hungarian actor, dies of heart failure aged 76
15 August : Thomas Wayne, American rockabilly singer, dies in a car accident aged 31
15 August : LGBT rights organization, Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin, founded in West Berlin, West Germany
15 August : LGBT rights organization, Frente de Liberacion Homosexual, founded in Mexico
16 August : Elsie Baker, actress, dies aged 78
18 August : Australia and New Zealand announced the withdrawal their troops from South Vietnam
18 August : The Aphex Twin, Cornish electronic musician, born Richard David James in Limerick, Ireland
20 August : David Walliams, TV funnyman and Children's author, born David Edward Williams in Wimbledon, London
21 August : Liam Howlett, musician (The Prodigy), born Liam Paul Paris Howlett in Braintree, Essex
22 August : Richard Armitage, actor (The Hobbit), born Richard Crispin Armitage in Huncote, Leicestershire
23 August : Shamu, Sea World killer whale, dies aged . . . unknown!
25 August : Ted Lewis, American bandleader, dies of lung failure aged 81
26 August : Thalía, singer, born Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda in Mexico City, Mexico
26 August : Francesco Santoliquido, Italian composer, dies aged 88
27 August : Lil Hardin Armstrong, jazz musician and former wife of Louis Armstrong, died of a heart attack aged 73
28 August : George Hislop organized Canada's first gay rights demonstration, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
31 August : Britain's transition to decimal currency was completed as the old penny and the threepence were taken out of circulation
31 August : Chris Tucker, comedian, born Christopher Tucker in Atlanta, Georgia
31 August : Pádraig Harrington, golfer, born Pádraig Peter Harrington in Dublin, Ireland
31 August : John Lennon leaves England for the final time, moving to New York City
1 September : The Rolling Stones sue manager Allen Klein
1 September : The Irish Republican Army set off a series of bombs across Northern Ireland injuring a number of people
3 September : Michael McConnell and Jack Baker, a librarian and a law student, became the first-ever legally married same-sex couple
3 September : Qatar regains complete independence from Britain
3 September : The embalmed body of Eva Perón, concealed by Argentina since 1955, returned to Mr. Perón in Spain.
4 September : Concorde made its first transatlantic crossing - from Sal Rei in the Cape Verde Islands to Cayenne in French Guiana in South America in two hours and two minutes
6 September : Edward Heath meets with Irish Taoiseach Jack Lynch at Chequers to discuss the situation in Northern Ireland
6 September : Dolores O'Riordan, musician (The Cranberries), born Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan in Ballybricken, County Limerick, Ireland
8 September : Martin Freeman, actor, born Martin John Christopher Freema in Aldershot, Hampshire
9 September : John Lennon releases his "Imagine" album
9 September : Henry Thomas, actor (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), born Henry Jackson Thomas Jr. in San Antonio, Texas
11 September : Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet premier, dies of a heart attack aged 77
11 September : Johnny Vegas, TV funnyman, born Michael Joseph Pennington in Thatto Heath, St Helens, Lancashire
11 September : Richard Ashcroft, musician (The Verve), born Richard Paul Ashcroft in Wigan, Lancashire
11 September : "Two By Two " closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 343 performances

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Previously :
181.  |  The Supremes - Baby Love