The Arrows: Touch Too Much (a-side)

‘Touch Too Much’ is a 1974 top 10 UK hit by the Arrows.

The song was composed by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, and according to the ‘Songfacts’ website, the song was turned down by David Cassidy, Suzi Quatro and The Sweet.

The recording was produced by Mickie Most and released on RAK Records.
 
The Arrows: Touch Too Much

Bay City Rollers: Give a Little Love (a-side), Kenny: Fancy Pants (a-side)

Some songs you love because they are simply great songs. Some songs you love because they say something to you personally, or evoke memories of happy times.

Some songs you love for no real reason. And some songs you love but (even under torture) wouldn't admit to liking.

These are the so called 'guilty pleasures'. A whole industry has sprung up around this from compilation CD's to night clubs.

Here are two glam guilty pleasures of mine. But don't tell anyone.

Give a Little Love is a UK #1 by the Bay City Rollers from 1975.

Fancy Pants is a 1975 single by Kenny.

Bay City Rollers: Give a Little Love
Kenny: Fancy Pants

Life After Glam (part 2)

Roy Wood & Wizzard: Indiana Rainbow (a-side) released in 1976 this did not chart, a sign of things to come for ex glam rock artists.

Suzi Quatro: She's In Love With You (a-side) released in 1978 this ChinniChap song reached #11 but was her last big hit.

Mud: L, L, Lucy (a-side) released in 1975, reaching #10. Mud had a few more moderate hits, but then they too slipped into semi obscurity.










Roy Wood: Indiana Rainbow

Suzi Quatro: She's In Love With You

Mud: L L Lucy

Life After Glam (part 1)

So with the glam rock years slowly fading into memory - what music was produced by some of its guiding lights?

Slade: Nobody's Fool (a-side) released in 1976 - This song did not chart at all even in the UK, the first Slade song to do so. In fact they didn't have another top 40 hit until 1981.

Sweet: Stairway to the Stars (a-side) released in 1977 - As with Slade this song did not chart in the UK. They would only have one other major hit with Love is Like Oxygen in 1978.

T Rex: Dandy in the Underworld (a-side) released in 1977 - This also didn't chart. For Marc Bolan and T Rex it was a case of diminishing returns as far as chart action was concerned.









I guess the time for the big glam acts to have major hits was over. But I can't help thinking that had the above songs been released in 73 or 74 they would have been top 10.

Slade: Nobody's Fool

Sweet: Stairway to the Stars

T.Rex: Dandy in the Underworld

Sweet: Tom Tom Turnaround (album track), New World: Tom Tom Turnaround (a-side), Light Fantastic: Jeanie (a-side)

To put it in boxing terms; in the first round we had the Sweet vs. Tony Blackburn (see here); a knock-out to the Sweet and strictly lightweight.

To kick off round two we have the Sweet vs. New World and 'Tom Tom Turnaround'. I think a technical knock-out to the Sweet in this lower middleweight contest.

Round three puts the Sweet up against journeymen Light Fantastic and 'Jeanie' (see here). A fair result would be a draw.

But the heavyweight championship of glam songs pits the Sweet against king of the ring David Bowie. It’s the ‘slammer in the glammer’, a ‘Hitter in the glitter’ a ‘Shake up with the make up’, its 'Blockbuster' vs. 'the Jean Genie'.

It’s a points win for the Sweet by virtue of it reaching # 1 in the UK charts.

The opening riff of the song is not the only thing they have in common. Both songs were released in 1972 and both were on the RCA record label.

The Sweet's single, written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, was recorded and released slightly later than Bowie's song, but it went on to reach #1 in the UK charts while "The Jean Genie" could only reach #2.

When asked about the songs similarities, Nicky Chinn stated: "Oh, absolute coincidence. The ridiculous thing was, of course, they were both on the same record label (RCA). But I know we had never heard Bowie's 'Jean Genie' and to the best of my knowledge he hadn't heard 'Blockbuster'.

There was a lot of fuss about it at the time. I think it's interesting to note, and again it was not a conscious thing on our part, but the riff is extremely similar to 'I'm A Man' by The Yardbirds. Fortunately, we went to No. 1 and Bowie went to 2."  - Record Collector (1998) talking to Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman

Chinn went on to describe a meeting with Bowie at which the latter "looked at me completely deadpan and said 'Cunt!' And then he got up and gave me a hug and said, 'Congratulations” 

Sweet: Tom Tom Turnaround

New World: Tom Tom Turnaround

Light Fantastic: Jeanie

Cozy Powell: Dance with the Devil (a-side), Mud: Watching the Clock (b-side)

Here are a couple of glam rock instrumentals to check out.

Cozy Powell, was an English rock drummer who made his name with many major rock bands over the years.

Powell stopped playing in other bands long enough to record two singles including "Dance with the Devil" which reached #3 in the UK singles chart during January 1974. The track featured Suzi Quatro on bass.

 Cozy Powell died on 5 April 1998 following a car crash while driving his Saab 9000 at 104 mph (167 km/h) in bad weather on the M4 motorway near Bristol.

In 1978, the distinctive drum patterns, march breaks and chants formed the basis of Boney M's disco track "Nightflight to Venus" The chorus melody is taken from Jimi Hendrix's “Third Stone from The Sun” and would also be sampled for Right Said Fred's early Nineties hit "I'm Too Sexy."

After Mud had released "The Cat Crept In" in 1974 they also released another track from their album “Mud Rock”, a cover of "In the Mood". This was released under the name of Dum (Mud spelt backwards), but failed to chart.

The b-side to this was "Watching the Clock". This seemed to be a popular song for Mud who also released slightly different versions as b-sides on their singles ‘Oh Boy’ and ‘The Secrets that you keep’, where it was re-titled as ‘Still Watching the Clock’.

Cozy Powell: Dance with the Devil

Mud (Dum): Watching the Clock

10cc: The Dean and I (a-side)

"Humdrum days and a humdrum ways" so sang 10cc in 1973. 

Britain in the early seventies may have been endless days of blackouts, strikes and three day weeks, but glam rock was an attempt to add colour to the grey landscape.

Not that I noticed any of the depression of the seventies, the harsh realities of everyday life were for my parents to worry about. As a young boy I was more concerned with comics, football, bikes, and what colour ‘Slade’ socks to choose.

All of this during long endless summers and deep, snow filled winters. The world is great when you’re ten and even better when viewed through rose tinted shades riding a Raleigh ‘Chopper’.

Anyway 10cc consisted of four musicians/songwriters - Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Crème. They had written and recorded together for about three years, before assuming the "10cc" name in 1972.

"The Dean and I" is a song from their 1973 eponymous debut album, written by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. The song was released as the third single from the album in August 1973 and peaked at #10 on the UK Singles Chart.

“The song is written from the perspective of an American father telling his children about how he met and fell in love with their mother, with the first real line of the song being "Hey, kids, let me tell you how I met your mom. We were dancing and romancing at the senior prom". The epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton is mentioned in the lyrics. The later part of the lyric tackles the grim realities of middle-aged married life "...when the paint is peeling, and all the chips are down..."

Songfacts

 10cc: The Dean and I

Ava Cherry: People from Bad Homes (album track), Dana Gillespie: Andy Warhol (a-side), Lulu: Watch that Man (b-side)

Bowie's Babes

Someone else who liked a little “musical collaboration” with the ladies was Mr Z. Stardust himself:

Hardcore David Bowie fans are probably familiar with the name Ava Cherry, but for the benefit of everyone else, Ava was Bowie’s lover in the early to mid ’70s, as well as one of his backup singers in the Astronettes during the Diamond Dogs/Young Americans Tour. 

Bowie had plans for Cherry and the other Astronettes, producing an album for the trio that was ‘new wave’ before the term existed. It also ended up being shelved for twenty years when things with their mutual management MainMan went sour.

'People From Bad Homes' is taken from sessions in 1973 with Bowie as producer, where he wrote a number of new songs for her including this one. The title was later recycled for the lyrics to Bowies song 'Fashion' in 1980.

After performing backing vocals on the track "It Ain't Easy" from David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Dana Gillespie recorded an album produced by Bowie and Mick Ronson in 1973, called ‘Weren't Born a Man’.

Subsequent efforts have been in the blues genre, appearing with her London Blues Band. She is notable for being the original Mary Magdalene in the first London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar which opened at the Palace Theatre in late 1971. 

She also appeared on the Original London Cast album which was released the following year.

This is a 1971 version of the song 'Andy Warhol' that pre- dates the version on the 'Weren't Born A Man' album.

Lulu's 1974 release of Bowie's ‘the Man Who Sold the World’ has been featured on this blog elsewhere. The b-side to this single was another Bowie composition this time from ‘Aladdin Sane’ called ‘Watch That Man’.

Lulu herself has admitted that after her marriage (to Maurice Gibb of Bee Gees fame) had ended she had an affair with David Bowie. She adored him but was disturbed by his dark hedonistic life. She knew that if she stayed with him too long, she'd be trapped in a “fog of decadence”.

“I was crazy for Bowie,” she says.

“I worked with him; he’s a very charismatic man and way ahead of his time. His look could be feminine but that didn’t stop him being a major heartthrob in the Seventies, did it, girls!”

Ava Cherry: People From Bad Homes

Dana Gillespie: Andy Warhol

Lulu: Watch That Man

Paper Lace: The Black Eyed Boys (a-side), Pilot: Magic (a-side)

Last post we had bands that jumped on the glam bandwagon, this is where glam "jumped the shark".

Jumping the shark is a colloquialism coined by John Hein and used by TV critics and fans to denote the point in a television program’s history where the plot veers off into absurd story lines or out of the ordinary characterisations.   

The term was originally used for an episode of the American TV series ‘Happy Days’ where the Fonz uses water-skis to jump over a shark. Shows that have jumped the shark are typically deemed to have passed their peak.

You could argue that glam rock was born jumping the shark. Suddenly the serious singer songwriter, progressive musical hangover from the 60’s was given a pair of water-skis and a motorboat and told to head for the nearest shark infested fancy dress shop.

So it is with tongue firmly in cheek that I present the next acts that at some level attached themselves to glam rock’s fading glory. It was glam rock without the glitter and silver foil admittedly, but it still had a glam heart beating somewhere in the distance.

Paper Lace was a Nottingham based pop group who originally formed in 1969, but chart success didn’t arrive until 1974, when a victory on ‘Opportunity Knocks’ an ITV talent contest series (the 70's version of X-Factor) helped to give them the hits they were after. 

Thanks to that show, songwriters/producers, Mitch Murray and Peter Callender quickly signed them.

The smash hit "Billy Don't Be a Hero" spent three weeks at # 1 on the UK Singles Chart in March 1974. It was followed by an equally catchy story song, which reached the # 3 called "The Night Chicago Died". Another release, "The Black-Eyed Boys", took Paper Lace to # 11 in late 1974.

Pilot was a group, formed during 1973 in Edinburgh, Scotland by the former Bay City Rollers members, David Paton and Billy Lyall. Joined by Stuart Tosh and Ian Bairnson, the band recorded several demos during 1973 and 1974. They eventually signed to a worldwide recording deal with EMI Records.

The 1974 single "Magic" from their first album, produced by Alan Parsons and written by Paton, was a #11 in the UK and #5 in the  U.S. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in August 1975.  

The song "January" gave them their greatest success in the UK, securing the # 1 spot in the UK Singles Chart in January 1975. 

However, the group failed to make the Top 30 again. 

Paper Lace: The Black Eyed Boys

Pilot: Magic

Ringo Starr: Back Off Boogaloo (a-side), Slik: Forever and Ever (a-side)

The definition of jumping on the bandwagon is to “join a growing movement in support of someone or something often in an opportunist way, when that movement is seen to have become successful”.

So to kick off this post we have forever ‘ex-Beatle’ Ringo Starr who jumped on the glam bandwagon quite early with Back off Boogaloo.

Released in 1972 this was the second solo single by Ringo Starr. It got to # 2 in the UK and #9 in the US. 

Starr explained – “the song was inspired when he and fellow musician and close friend Marc Bolan had dinner one night, and Bolan used the word boogaloo multiple times in his sentences".

Midge Ure is better known for his success with Ultravox and the Band Aid single, but before all that he was singer and guitarist with glam hopping group Slik.

Slik were a Scottish pop group formed in the mid 1970s, remembered for their UK # 1 hit 'Forever and Ever' released in 1975. 

The band began with a glam rock image but soon changed their style to soft rock/bubblegum. In 1974 the band linked up with the pop songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, who were also writing for the Bay City Rollers at the time.

Ringo Starr: Back Off Boogaloo

Slik: Forever and Ever

David Essex: Stardust (a-side), Slade: Far Far Away (a-side)

Glam @ the Movies

You would think that glam rock was made for the movies, and to a certain extent it was. 

Movies were a big theme and influence in the whole glam rock sound and look. But in the great scheme of things it didn’t come out very well on the TV or on the big screen.

For a genre that was as bold and brash, bright and glittering as glam rock, most movies connected with it were grim and depressing or just plain crap.

How about this; crooner David Essex dying of a drug OD at the end of ‘Stardust’, and Slade in ‘Flame’ instead of a ‘Help’ style glam romp we got a gritty, cynical drama about the rise and fall of a Northern rock band. 

‘Never too Young to Rock’ was meant to be upbeat and colourful, but ended up being as lukewarm and greasy as the food served in the café shown in the film, even the real actors were bad.

Other films that have attempted to capture some essence of glam include:

Velvet Goldmine

Phantom of the Paradise

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Born To Boogie

Remember Me This Way

Side by Side

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

‘Stardust’ is the theme song from the movie of the same name and is a great 70’s pop song, with a fantastic Chris Spedding guitar solo, up there with the best of the decade.

The tagline to the movie was - “Show me a boy who never wanted to become a rock star and I’ll show you a liar”

Martin Gore of Depeche Mode who covered the song said:

“Firstly it was just a song from my youth. I was never a massive David Essex fan, but I liked a few of his tracks and stardust was one of them, and probably my favourite one. It’s a good emotional song and I think it does sum up, somehow the loneliness of being a rock star at times".

“Ah look what they’ve done to the rock n roll clown.

Ah rock n roll clown, look he’s down on the ground.

Well he used to high fly but he crashed out the sky.

In a stardust fling, hey rock n roll king is down”.

‘Far Far Away’ is a # 2 single from 1974, and is from the movie ‘Slade in Flame’.

From the ‘Songfacts’ website:

“Frontman Noddy Holder penned the song after a long period of touring when he was thinking of home. He told Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie on their BBC Radio 2 show that he was looking out of a hotel window overlooking the Mississippi with Slade's manager Chas Chandler when he uttered, ‘I see the yellow lights go down the Mississippi’ and Chandler said, ‘write that song, now!’ So he went next door and after half an hour he came back with the track”.

David Essex: Stardust

Slade: Far Far Away

Sweet: Chop Chop (album track), Tony Blackburn: Chop Chop (a-side)

Ah yes, songs about woodcutting, you don't get many of those nowadays.

It's the Sweet in a head to head with ex Radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburn singing a song composed by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn.

It seems that DJ's have always had a hankering to test the old vocal chords out on some song or other. It's hard to believe now but old Tony was seen as something of a sex symbol back in the early seventies. So it was inevitable that he would release a single at some point. 

I can see the headline now; "Superstar DJ shows audience his big chopper".

Chop chop is not one of 'Chinnichaps' greatest moments, but it has a certain charm I think.

The Sweet had already recorded this song for their 1971 debut album 'Funny How Sweet Co Co Can Be'. When Tony Blackburn recorded his version. 

The Sweet even played on the backing for the track, which is strange because at the time they didn't even play on their own singles.

Steve Priest said of the sessons, "Blackburn had no timing, we had to do the chorus over and over again until we virtually got it in time with him"

Blackburn would become a great supporter of the Sweet on his radio shows, and they returned to the studio with him again in 1972 to do more chinnichap songs.

This is from a review of the single in August 1971.

Tony Blackburn: Chop Chop (RCA) From the Chinn-Chapman current hitwriting team, a wee fantasy sort of song which suits Tony's style very well. It's into a bubblegum and rather undemanding sort of range, and the chorus is positively instantly catchy. The arrangement helps the story-line song along. I've a pretty confident feeling it's an upcoming chart-er.  (26 August 1971)

In 2007 Blackburn held a question and answer session for the BBC website, one of the questions was;

"If you could never hear one song again, what would it be"? 
His honest and simple answer was;

"My record of Chop Chop. It's atrocious".

All together now...."Timber, Timber"

The Sweet: Chop Chop

Tony Blackburn: Chop Chop

Brett Smiley: Va Va Va Voom (a-side), Hobnail: She's Just A Friend Of Mine (a-side)

Junk Shop Glam part 2

“Va Va Va Voom…A manic amalgam of vintage Marc Bolan and playful Bowie, brought to a shattering three minute climax by a brilliant Steve Marriott guitar solo and a characteristically dramatic Oldham production.

He was, to put it bluntly, beautiful. Pouting, blonde and so pretty in pink, 19 year old Brett Smiley exploded out of British TV one evening in fall 1974, and if the country had not already been deeply in love with glam rock, he would have started it off there and then. At a time when David Bowie was still most people's vision of androgynous perfection, Smiley made Ziggy look like a bricklayer."
Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 1996


This track can be found on Brett Smiley’s debut album or on the ‘Velvet Tinmine’ CD available HERE.

‘She’s Just a Friend of Mine’ by Hobnail was first released in 1972 on a bell records EP. In 2005 RPM Records released a 20-song compilation called ‘Boobs the Junkshop Glam Discotheque’ available HERE.

Brett Smiley: Va Va Va Voom
Hobnail: She's A Friend Of Mine

The Rats: Turtle Dove (a-side), The Sensation: Black Eyed Woman (a-side)

The next few posts are from a sub-genre of glam that came to be known as ‘Junk Shop Glam’.

“Flick through any 50p record bins/racks in charity shops and record fairs and you will find them. Lost gems from glam rock’s 1970s heyday.

They were the worst bands of the glam rock era, shifting so few singles they were swiftly forgotten – until now. They may remain worthless on the collectors market, but they are what Junk Shop Glam is about – a foot-stomping concoction of the trashy, the brilliant and the bizarre.

The more raucous bands combined the DIY roughness of punk with the teen war cries of classic glam. Indeed, the best of these lost singles reveal punk and glam to be two sides of the same coin, a prole liberation music blessed with the power to piss off parents and muso peers alike.

Fallen idols they may have been, but it’s their pop purity that captivates, in all its trashy, bargain-basement glory”.
Tim Cumming, the Guardian, Tue 19th March 2002.

'Turtle Dove' is taken from the album 'First Long Playing Record' a collection of David Kubinek (ex World of Oz) songs recorded by producer Adrian Millar with session musicians. This is the only single released off the album in 1974 on the Good Ear label.  

'Turtle Dove', is a classic Junkshop Glam single, and features on the compilation 'Boobs: The Junkshop Glam Discotheque' (RPM 298) available HERE.

'Black Eyed Woman' is an obscure single from about 1974. This version is also taken from the Junk Glam compilation 'Boobs: The Junkshop Glam Discotheque'.

I couldn’t find much info about this track except a little bit on Foob’s ‘Underrated Albums’ website.

“This is an obscure single I was lucky enough to find in a sell-out bin over 15 years ago. When I started writing reviews for this site, I tried to find out something about it. But nada! It proved impossible to find any information about this band on the Internet. It's not even possible to find out what year this was released (the record doesn't tell) or where the band came from. So, I'm sorry I can't tell you anything more about this.

My guess is this is a release dating back to inbetween 1968 and 1974. The style is the kind of Glam Rock that was popular at the time. Bands like T.Rex and Gary Glitter topped the charts with stuff like this. What's interesting about this single is that it contains simple Glam Rock but with such a high fun level that it'll put a smile on your face. While the Boogie Rocker 'Black eyed Woman' is the best of the two tracks, it's 'Baby' that's the funniest, as the lyrics simply go "Baby, Babe, Baby, Baby" from start to end. Times were simpler then”.

The Rats: Turtle Dove
The Sensation: Black Eyed Woman

Alvin Stardust: Red Dress (a-side), The Glitter Band: Goodbye My Love (a-side)

After the initial burst of glam activity from 1971 onwards, a whole host of second stringers got in on the act. Where the acts here (in my opinion) differ from the so called fake glam acts is in the sound and presentation of the music.

People like Alvin Stardust and the Glitter Band may have come late to the genre, but they are still unquestionably glam rock.

Alvin Stardust (or Shane Fenton) had been in or around the music scene for a decade before getting a ride on the glam rock bandwagon and finding success as Alvin Stardust.

His debut number 1 single was ‘My Coo-Ca-Choo’ in 1973. In total he had seven top ten entries during his chart career. ‘Red Dress’ is a single from 1974 Reaching number 7 in the charts.

He was also part of the Green Cross Code road safety campaign in 1976, directing children to cross the road safely. It came with his famous tagline of "You must be out of your tiny minds". 

 Remember; Be Smart, Be Safe

The Glitter Band initially worked as Gary Glitter's backing band before starting to release their own records in 1973. In total they had seven UK top twenty hit singles and three hit albums.




'Goodbye My Love' was a number 2 record in 1975.



Alvin Stardust: Red Dress

The Glitter Band: Goodbye My Love

Barry Blue: Do You Wanna Dance (a-side), The Rubettes: You Could Have Told Me (b-side)

Many people tried to jump on the glam rock bandwagon and many fell off. This next post is dedicated to the fake glammers, the ones who tried their best but never quite got it right.

Some artists such as Elton John still sold shit loads of records even without the glam influence, but he used it to kick start his career. Others such as the Bay City Rollers inspired the same teenage screams and wet knickers last seen at the height of T Rextasy.

Barry Blue is a singer, producer and songwriter from the UK. He is best known for the songs, ‘Dancing on a Saturday Night’ from 1973 and ‘Do You Wanna Dance’ a Gary Glitter inspired single that reached number 7 also in 1973.

Arriving at the tail end of the glam rock movement, the Rubettes were an English pop band, assembled in 1973 by the song writing team of Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington.


The songs are greatly influenced by doo-wop and 1950’s American pop. Their first release was ‘Sugar Baby Love’ an instant hit that was number 1 in the UK for four weeks in 1974. ‘You Could Have Told Me’ is the b-side to this song. Not really glam rock in style, but I like it.

Barry Blue: Do You Wanna Dance

The Rubettes: You Could Have Told Me

Forever: Roy Wood (a-side), Farewell: Ayshea (a-side)

I've had a few requests to re-post Roy Wood's single 'Forever'. Original post can be found HERE.

This made me think of a track that was released by Ayshea in 1973. Ayshea Brough was a British singer, model and actress who presented the 'Lift Off with Ayshea' ITV show from 1969 to 1974.

'Farewell' is a song written, produced and played by Roy Wood, and was written especially for Ayshea. The two had become friends when Roy Wood and Wizzard had appeared on her TV show. The single didn't perform very well chart wise, but is a good example of Roy Woods style at the time.

Farewell can be found on various 'Junkshop Glam' compilations and I will be featuring a few other songs from this glam sub-genre in the near future.

Lift Off with Ayshea also featured many up and coming glam acts during its time. One notable performer was David Bowie who performed 'Starman' in 1972. Although most of the memorable performances have been criminally wiped from tape, including this song.

Marc Riley formerly of The Fall, and now the BBC Radio 1 broadcaster Lard said:

"I first I saw Bowie performing ‘Starman’ was on a kids’ TV programme called Lift Off, presented by Ayshea Brough and an owl puppet called Ollie Beak. June 15th 1972 I believe. I’ll never forget the moment my friendly little mate Ollie left the screen and on came this… thing with his weird mates.

I was absolutely gob-smacked. My gran was shouting insults at the TV, and I just sat there agog. I was experiencing a life-changing moment. I know it sounds ridiculous - but it really did knock me for six. It was three weeks later when he popped up again on Top Of The Pops…and for the second time in my life I was transfixed by a bloke in a quilted jump-suit and red leather boxers boots!

There’s no doubt that Bowie’s appearance on Top Of The Pops was a pivotal moment in British musical history. Like the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester in ’76 - his performance lit the touchpaper for thousands of kids who up till then had struggled to find a catalyst for their lives.’

The tracks posted here, are as always, ripped from my personal collection at 128kbps. They will be left up for a few weeks and then removed. If you would like anything re-posted then just leave a comment.
Farewell: Ayshea
Forever: Roy Wood

Lou Reed: Satellite of Love (a-side), Iggy Pop: I Need Somebody (album track)

American Glam part 5

Much has already been written about the work that David Bowie did with Lou Reed and Iggy Pop in the early seventies, so I won’t add much more here.

‘Satellite of Love’ is taken from the album ‘Transformer’ a Bowie and Mick Ronson produced record from 1972. It was issued as the second single in February 1973. Transformer introduced Reed to a wider audience especially in the UK, with the record proving to be Reed’s commercial and critical zenith.

This was to cause resentment in Reed because of the shadow that the record cast over the rest of his career. After the records release Reed and Bowie had a fairly public argument that ended their working relationship for many years.

Mick Ronson, who was at the time the lead guitarist with Bowie's backing band, played a major role in the recording of the album, serving as the co-producer and primary session musician (contributing guitar, piano, recorder and backing vocals) and arranger, notably the lush string arrangement for 'Perfect Day'.

Reed has praised the beauty of Ronson’s work on the album. David Bowie, can be heard providing background vocals throughout the record, and especially on Satellite of Love.

Though this song first saw the light of day on Transformer, it dates back to Reed's previous band The Velvet Underground, and a version of the song recorded by The Velvet Underground surfaced on the ‘Peel Slowly And See’ box set.

Iggy Pop and David Bowie first met in 1971, and there is no doubt that Pop's career received a boost from his relationship with Bowie. The album ‘Raw Power’ was originally produced and mixed by Pop himself, unfortunately, Pop's first attempt wasn’t very good as he mixed most of the instruments into one stereo channel and the vocals into the other.

‘MainMan’ management demanded that the album be remixed, but Pop initially refused. So MainMan informed Pop that if the album were not remixed by Bowie, the album would not be released. Pop eventually agreed.
Due to budgetary constraints, Bowie remixed the songs (except ‘Search and Destroy’ which still retained Pop’s original production) in a single day in an inexpensive Los Angeles studio.

It is said that Columbia executives insisted on two ballads, one for each side of the record. These two "ballads" were 'Gimme Danger' and 'I Need Somebody', both much more ominous and menacing than traditional ballads.

Guitarists James Williamson and Ron Asheton have both stated that they prefer Bowie's original mix of the album to Pop's re-mastered version that appeared many years later. The version of I Need Somebody here is the Bowie mixed version.

After the albums release Bowie continued to support Iggy Pop, but drug abuse was again to blame for stalling Pop’s career for some time. Years later Bowie and Pop would relocate to West Berlin where Bowie helped write and produce 'The Idiot' and 'Lust for Life' during 1977. These became Pop's two most acclaimed albums as a solo artist.

Alice Cooper: Teenage Lament 74 (a-side)

American Glam part 1

In America, unlike the UK, glam rock (or glitter rock as it was known) was much less successful as a commercial genre. Bands that became popular on the US glam scene were a lot heavier and raw and less ‘bubblegum’ than their UK counterparts. Eventually Popular American glam rock acts such as Alice Cooper, The New York Dolls and Kiss rivalled the success of similar British artists such as David Bowie, by using a different stylistic and sound in their music.

Although glam rock is primarily a UK-centred genre and initially had a nebulous impact in the US (artists such as T Rex and Roxy Music had only a fraction of the success they had in the UK), glam rock rapidly influenced popular culture to the point where acts as disparate as The Osmonds and the Rolling Stones wore some glitter and makeup. Even though their music didn’t have much to do with glam rocks general themes.
......................................................................................................................Alice Cooper’s (real name Vincent Damon Furnier) career spans more than four decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors and baby dolls, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock, and fitted in perfectly with the emerging glam rock scene.

Alice Cooper was originally a band consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith.

The original Alice Cooper band broke into the international music mainstream with the 1971 hit "I'm Eighteen" from the album ‘Love it to Death’, which was followed by the even bigger single "School's Out" in 1972. The band reached their commercial peak with the 1973 album 'Billion Dollar Babies'.
"Teenage Lament" was a UK # 12 in 1974. The song features backing vocals by US divas Liza Minelli and Ronnie Spector. The song can be found on the 1973 album ‘Muscle of Love’.
Image taken from "Marvel Premiere" # 50 by Marvel Comics Group.