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

Turn another page on the Teenage Rampage Now!

Fellow blogger “Steve Does Comics” ran a post a few weeks ago about how certain songs reminded him of comics that he had bought.

One of my own posts explained how I associate Sparks ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us’ with The Avengers # 100 and a holiday in Great Yarmouth.

So with that in mind I thought I would put together my own list of the glam rock songs that remind me of certain comics, magazines or books.

1. Avengers UK # 28 – March 1974

Ah yes the joys of playing truant from school and buying a comic to read in the bus station while Roll Away the Stone by Mott the Hoople plays on someone's portable radio. (Don’t do it kids, besides I got caught so no pocket money for weeks).

Who could resist the kung fu-tastic Shang-Chi bursting through the comic cover and into my young life. And all for 6p.

2. Shiver and Shake – 1973

Rockin and boppin with Frankie Stein and Sweeny Toddler to Mud’s Rocket.

 

3. Raven Sword Mistress of Chaos – 1978

The first book didn’t come out until 1978 but it always reminds me of Bowie’s Rock and Roll Suicide from the Ziggy Stardust album.

There’s nothing like a classic Bowie album on the stereogram and a book about a half naked woman with a sword. I was 15; young; hormones and all that. A great cover illustration by Chris Achilleos was a bonus.

4. Look In - 1973 onwards

The classic British TV related picture and story magazine and the Glitter Band’s Angel Face.

 5. Spider-Man Comics Weekly UK # 109 – March 1975

Great cover – well worth the wait to see the Black Widow in her new and improved costume. Anyway this always makes me think of the Sweet’s Teenage Rampage.

 6. The Three Investigators: The Secret of Terror Castle and others

I bought all this series of books as a kid. My friend Brian and I even tried to set up our own investigating agency. Never quite worked out, The Mystery of the Rickety Gate didn’t have the same ring as the above.

But we enjoyed listening to My Friend Stan by Slade while we were dreaming of becoming great detectives.

"Childhood is a journey through another land, lost to us now, to be found only in memory"

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

Suzi Quatro: The Wild One (album track), Sweet: Fox on the Run (album track)

Sometimes a song can take on a whole new sound and personality just by a little bit of re-styling and re-mixing. A once lacklustre album track can be turned into a big and bold 45 RPM release.

Here are two good examples of that. These are the original versions of the respective songs; note how different they are from the ones that were eventually released.
 

The original post for ‘The Wild One’ can be found here. 

The production on the single version is a lot brighter, and the original version has a more prominent male backing vocal.
 

This version of ‘Fox on the Run’ can be found on the “Desolation Boulevard” album from 1974 produced by Chinnichap. In 1975, Sweet went back into the studio to re-arrange and record a more pop-oriented version of the track.
 
It was Sweet's first self-written and self produced single. The single reached #2 in the UK.
 

Suzi Quatro: The Wild One (album version)
Sweet: Fox on the Run (album version)

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

What's in a name?

A little name changing didn't hurt in the glam rock world.

David Robert Jones - David Bowie Marc Feld - Marc Bolan
Bernard William Jewry - Alvin Stardust
Paul Gadd - Gary Glitter
Barry Ian Green - Barry Blue
Frederick Bulsara - Freddie Mercury
Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice - Steve Harley
and best of all

Luther James Grosvenor - Ariel Bender (guitarist with Mott the Hoople)

Tyrannosaurus Rex - T Rex
The Sweetshop - The Sweet
Ambrose Slade - Slade

A couple of classic album tracks, a lost 45 and a Bowie out-take to check out.





'Baby Boomerang' taken from the album 'Slider' 1972
'How Can It Be' taken from 'Old New Borrowed and Blue' album 1974
'Turn It Down' was a single released in 1974 reaching #41 in the UK charts
'Sweet Head' is an out-take from the 'Ziggy Stardust' album in 1972

Re-post/Re-mix/Re-wind

This is an edited repeat of the very first post on this blog for any one who missed it the first time around. I just wanted a bit of a re-cap about the philosophy behind the blog. The Sweet's live 1976 version of Ballroom Blitz has been added for good measure.

I bought my first 7" record in September 1973. I was ten years old. It was the Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz". I obviously had a lot of pocket money that week as I went out the next day to buy two more; "Angel Fingers" by Wizzard and "Life On Mars"? by David Bowie. That was only the beginning.

Glam Rock had some great music, (it also had lots of crap music) songs that would stand the test of time. But even at it's worst, it could still entertain, but with tongue firmly in cheek. Glam gave pop back to the kids after years of progressive rock doodling and fret-wank. To many it was a beacon of light in a country that was literally in the dark.

In most respects glam rock is totally fake, but to young kids like me it was real and alive. It may have been "Brickies in eyeliner" but to the kids it was "stardust for the dudes"?

This blog isn't here to give total insight into the glam rock genre and it's protagonists, it's here to give a taste of the sights and sounds of that era. The forgotten A-sides and album tracks that weren't fully appreciated the first time, and the equally forgotten and long lost B-sides that were the flip-side of what glam was all about.
I have tried to restrict myself to sharing songs from the period 1971 - 1975, these are considered to be the main glam rock years, but I'm sure songs either side of these dates will sometimes creep in. Others have walked through, and flirted with the glam world; the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart to name two. For every Bowie and Bolan there was an Alvin Stardust or Barry Blue. But even some of these 'second generation' glam artists could produce a decent song or two.
Of course I am looking back on all this from the perspective of a 46 year old man; wife, children and all that comes with that, but when I write this blog I am ten years old again and it's perpetually 1973. So I guess I will always have my rose tinted specs firmly on when looking back at that time.

I have loved other music with a greater passion since, but not with the same youthful joy, or with such a sense of longing and nostalgia when I hear it played. And now 36 years after buying that first single I sit here writing this.

I think that maybe when you find yourself, like me, at 45 RPM in life, your mind naturally returns to the past and your own inner groove.

"Are you ready Steve? Aha!
Andy? Yeah!
Mick? OK!
Alright fellas, lets go"

Sweet: The Six Teens (a-side)

This song is often regarded as the best track written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman for The Sweet. It details the lives of six teenagers who have to deal with the change from the idyllic and idealistic 1960's to the more confronting 1970's.

It was also the last Chapman and Chinn song to feature on a Sweet single release. It shows a more plaintive side of the songwriters usual glam rock stomp. When released in 1974 it got to #9 in the UK charts.

Sweet: Rock & Roll Disgrace (b-side)

“Rock & Roll Disgrace” is the B-side to “Ballroom Blitz” a number 2 single by the Sweet released in September 1973.

Sweet - Spotlight (b-side), Jeanie (b-side)

Poppa Joe: The Sweet
It’s funny the way music can polarize normally sane and level headed people. Glam rock was seen as a joke at the time by many so called serious music fans. Why listen to Slade or T.Rex when you could bore the pants off everybody by playing The Grateful Dead at 2 o clock in the morning.

One of the greatest dividers of musical taste in the early 70’s was The Sweet. They had a slow start in the UK charts; and it was not until they teamed up with songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman (commonly known as Chinnichap) that they started having top ten hits. At heart Sweet were no nonsense rockers and at times some of the ‘bubblegum’ songs Chinnichap were providing was at odds with their true musical identity.
It was not until 1972’s Wig Wam Bam that the group even started to get a harder edge to the sound. In fact this was the first song where the band had actually played their instruments. On all earlier singles the backing music was played by session musicians, something which always pissed off the band as they were all accomplished musicians in their own write.

They (Brian Connolly, Andy Scott, Steve Priest and Mick Tucker) had always written and played on the B-sides of their records, so it was only a matter of time before they began to write and produce the A-sides as well. This signaled a heavier, rockier Sweet sound. The first of these self written singles Fox on the Run was released early in 1975, but by then the glam rock boom had almost run its course.

It may be time for a Sweet re-appraisal. One of the biggest sellers in the glam era but also one of the most underrated. Maybe it was because of the way they looked or because they didn’t play the instruments on their early recordings, who knows. Ask anyone for a list of their favourite ‘Glam’ anthems and I’m sure a Sweet song will be in there somewhere. Blockbuster, Hell Raiser, Ballroom Blitz, the list goes on.

Spotlight is the B-side to Alexander Graham Bell which reached number 33 in 1971. Written by the band members it is not as heavy as later B-sides penned by them, and shows a lighter musical touch.
Jeanie is the B-side to Poppa Joe a number 11 from 1972. This is almost as ‘bubblegum’ as the songs Chinnichap were writing for them. A light hearted love song to ‘Jeanie’ not much more to say other than its bright and ‘poppy’ and I used to play it more than the A-side.
The two B-sides highlighted here are from their earlier Chinnichap singles. As with most glam rock the music and lyrics would never win any awards for being sophisticated, intellectual or philosophical. Still, writing a song about the guy who invented the telephone has got to get some praise and kudos. In their own way the lyrics are quite tender and poetic.
“A candle flickers in a window
Two thousand miles away she waits there
There's a young man thinking by a window
How was she to know just how much he cared
The sun rises early in the morning
Millions of people still unaware
of something he discovered without warning
so he could show a girl just how much he cared”Alexander Graham Bell – Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman 1971.