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Did The Seventies Really Happen?
For those of you who weren’t there (yes you, Mona and Lisa), one of the film clips that reminds you the 70s really did happen, here’s Amii Stewart with “Knock on Wood”:
I was relieved when Punk came along and finally put the nail in the coffin of Disco!
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119 Replies
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Lol…. Though I was a child in the 70s, teenager in the 80s, some 70s music wasn’t all bad, I cringe more at the colours schemes and most of the fashion themes of the time. I did like some of the disco stuff as I love to dance and sing, but I agree not all disco stuff was cool….
Funny how I found many years later 2 instances where in the 70s 2 particular songs I loved but didn’t realize who sang them at time ( the significance of these 2) until I became really into their music and started researching their music past…. Lol… Vince Gill and Cass Elliot… Yes, Cass’ song ” If You ‘re Gonna Break a Heart” (well she didn’t originally write it-just changed the lyrics slightly to suit her), I had not realized the significance of that song until I had bought a CD of Cass solo stuff and I was listening to it, and then…. Eureka… That song came on… Bingo the familiar bells of my 70s childhood came back music wise… With Vince Gill, it was the song he sung when he was with Pure Prairie League that stuck out for in the 70s-“Let Me Love You Tonight”… Lol… Fast fwd years later, when I got into Vince Gill music, and was doing research of his past music wise… Eureka moment struck again…. Lol… So as I see it, as a child, I seemed to pickup on liking good music and best singers… They both made an impact on me from the 70s and I’ve always enjoyed Manas and Papas too. I do enjoy though Cass’ solo stuff, her and Michelle ‘s backup vocal efforts on Denny’ s “Waiting For A Song ” album…. That’s my 2 cents worth for this particular forum topic…
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My one experience of playing drums was when my garage band covered Eddie Floyd’s version of this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92NpzXXpQtg P.S. How do you get the video to show up on this screen and not just the link?
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I’m not knocking the seventies Jacki. There were heaps of great singers and bands. The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Little Feet, Yes, The Allman Brothers Band, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Black Sabbath, The Who, Bruce Springsteen, Jethro Tull, Joy Division, Steely Dan, Frank Zappa, Elvis Costello, Grateful Dead, Kraftwork, George Harrison, Supertramp, Genesis, Roxy Music, Santana, Queen, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Wings, Bob Dylan, T. Rex, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Van Morrison, and Blue Oyster Cult to name a few. Maybe because I wasn’t into dancing like the John Travoltas of this world I wasn’t into disco music and was therefore pleased when disco was swamped by New Wave bands that morphed from punk music just after the mid seventies.
I actually like the Amii Stewart video. She is a stunning looking woman with beautiful, smooth brown skin and I like the very colourful choreography.
Some of the fashions of the time were outrageous and we all wore platform shoes and flared pants with wide belts! Colourful wide ties were fashionable too in paisley and floral colours, especially during the late sixties and early seventies.
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Yep, it really did !!!
as i was born in 57, the 70’s were my most proactive years, at 14yrs i left school and started work, this gave me a new found freedom of : 1) having my own money, 2) being my own keeper ( no more “time for bed – school tomorrow”) , 3) my own front door key ( the best ever) .
Working for my uncle i started as a printing apprentice, but the bonus was he was also a weekend Dj, so for most weekends I was with him at pubs, clubs and private party’s, grooving to all the crazy sounds of the 70’s but also being educated on a whole variety of music and getting into he tech side of music and sound systems.
My Uncle was in his mid 20’s so he was a child of the 50/60’s with knowledge of all the early greats and a fantastic record collection.
He also had the fortune of growing up with some of Birmingham’s (UK) early greats, he and his brother were schoolmates of Roy Wood, The Move & Wizard, and Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath. so when we wasn’t working or DJing we would go to ropey old pubs where these great would be playing live to an audience of only a few, mingling after with a few beers and messy jokes.
The bands and music were basic, they were just finding their way but the atmosphere and excitement was electric, even then they had a charisma and appeal that was to grow them into the greats they became.
Birmingham in the 70’s was as ignited as Liverpool was in the 60’s with pubs and clubs awash, the majority of the better venues were based around the old city centre area, Broad St and “The Jewellery Quarter” only 5 mins from the town centre and an old 1930’s housing area converted to small workshops and businesses.
On Broad St, we had “Barbarella’s” and ” The Rum Runner” home to many local and visiting bands, in the “Jewellery Quarter” we had “The Cedar Club” another top venue for all and many.
Some of the Bands/Artists I’ve had the privilege and pleasure to see live before they were famous were:
Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Rod Stewart, Denny Lane (Paul McCartney – Wings), Stevie Winwood, The Commodores, The Drifters, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Slade, and many more.
Yes the 70’s were real and it happen’d in Birmingham !!!!
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Oh the 70’s definitely happened! I liked the 70’s with the exception of that dreadful Disco music. As well as being a 60’s fan I’m a fan of the rock/hard rock music from that era, it’s mostly what we played in the bands I was in at the time. We had a LOT of rock clubs in my area and my friends and I used to go out all the time. Sadly, one by one they started turning into discos and that ended my going out for the most part. From then on I’d only go out to see major concerts in the big places. There is one club still around here, “The Chance” which hosts major acts and local acts. Bowie has even played there. Another theater that fairly famous here is the Bardavon. Bob Dylan has used it for rehearsals on several occasions.
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Yeah the 70s I believe really did happen. Was born in 1954 and was a teenager and 20s back then, best times and most fun in my life. Was a sound man for a band for several years and played percussion, a lot of partying and some hazy times that is for sure. I somehow managed to survive it, but have some great memories .
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- I’m told the 1970s really happened!!!! I was 16 at the advent of the 1970s and 26 when I left the 1970s. From 1971 to 1976 I was in college and from 1976 to 1979 I was in grad school……..and being in universities during the 1970s was “interesting”. Musically, I was in a garage RnR cover band in the early 1970s and by 1971 I was in a folk duo for a time and then another duo by the end of the 1970s. It was just for fun and we never did get paid…….but I learned so much from it. Then in 1979 a radical change came with an 8 to 5 grown-up office job. Very strange road looking back on it.
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Oh yes the 70’s was indeed a musical time for me. I was in my teens and high school, but I remember a lot of great music happening then. For me there were the Beach Boys, and Beatles, and having two older brother I got to experience all their records they use to buy. Peter Frampton, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Al Stewart, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Moody Blues, Chicago… come to mind from my oldest brother.
With my friends we use to listen to a lot of Elton John, Eagles, Doobie Brothers, ELO, Steve Miller Band, REO Speedwagon etc…
And then there was my other brother who was 3 years older than me and was into the harder rock and was in a rock band in high school. He and his band use to get together and play in the basement (I swear many nails must have come loose in the house in the few years they use to play when the parents went out). BTO was one of their favorites and remember hearing this one all the time they use to do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4sI5DG5sjc
Do you remember the long hair was all the rage.
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I can’t hear this song anymore without thinking of this scene from The Simpsons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iPJqVVGxx8
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Nice video Jung. They would have been a great band to see live. The long hair, of course, started in the sixties, around the time of the early Beatles. I still remember being pulled up by teachers and headmasters and told to get a haircut. The same thing happened in the early seventies in my first job working in a bank. I was constantly in trouble for the length of my hair and my not conservative enough dress fashion. I was constantly threatened with being sent into the army to be ‘sorted out’ and this actually happened when I was drafted into National Service in 1972. On the advice of a friend who had recently returned from service in Vietnam and was now a hairdresser, I had my hair cut before my induction so I didn’t have to suffer the indignity of all the other long-haired recruits having their hair shorn by Army barbers! Of course, my hair cut wasn’t good enough and the Army barbers ‘improved’ the job. What an extreme culture shock!
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Howard, with the kind of shave cuts they do to the army recruits, it must have been quite the traumatic shock! I guess back in those days the draft was a reality for a lot of young people. In Canada there was no draft ever that I can recall, but the South Korean government sent draft notices out for my brothers and our uncles in Korea had to get the records straightened out to show we were no longer residents there and all became Canadian Citizens.
My favorite Canadian rock band was The Guess Who. Those guitar riffs! MLT could do wonderful justice to this one in a live jamming session.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkqfpkTTy2w
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I well remember this song being played on the radio in the mid-seventies. However, In another case of misheard lyrics, at the time I never realised he was singing “Stand Tall”. Not sure what I thought it was, probably Sentor, or something like that.
Burton Cummings (formerly of The Guess Who), “Stand Tall” (1976).
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That’s a great song Howard. I never really payed enough attention to Burton Cummings as a solo artist, but he wrote some great songs like this one. Just listened to the lyrics carefully here to this song for the first time and a nice message in it.
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When I conducted my initial reconnaissance of 60’s music after discovering the Beatles, “Undun” by the Guess Who quickly became one of my favorites.
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Lol… The things we thought we heard when listening to songs… Sometimes, I find myself singing the misheard stuff… It’s funnier…. But it does make more sense when one properly hears a song… Also, sometimes it’s one’s voice that makes it hard to distinguish what’s being said on top of the instrumentation, as I have hearing issues a little, I can attest to this theory….
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Technically the 70’s happened for me too, but I was just 14 when they ended, so my memories are only formative. My siblings were all younger, so I didn’t even get to overhear any cool music. Pretty much all I was exposed to were the sanitized versions of songs on TV variety shows (Sonny and Cher, Donny and Marie, The Captain and Tennille, etc.)
The only 70’s group I’ve ever really grown fond of is ABBA. I’m surprised they haven’t been mentioned here, because I can’t think of any group whose sound is more similar to that of MLT. If Lisa and Mona ever decide to follow up “Starman” with further 70’s covers, they should be able to channel ABBA effortlessly.
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I should have noted that some of the kids’ TV shows I watched in the early 70’s contained some well-crafted pop songs that probably could have charted if they had been marketed to an adult audience. Here’s exhibit A:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrc-B-su2gU
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And this one, featuring Denise Nickerson (Violet from Willy Wonka) and introduced by Morgan Freeman. (Look for Rita Moreno too!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtVnNdFWG0Q
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Well David, Abba is not MLT’s cup of tea musically. Lisa briefly comments about Abba in one of the interviews with Billy Butler.
While Abba was very commercially successful with many hits from the 70’s, they were more of a dance band, survivors from the disco era and evolved over the years. There were some songs of theirs that stood out at the time, but were not in the same musical realm for me as the Beach Boys, Beatles or the Rolling Stones.
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