Sweet - Blockbuster

[Howyoudoin]

Apropos of nothing, this song just came into my head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y64211sjSko

HYD

[bungeejumper]

LOL, it must be a generation thing. In my cynical 23 year old head, in 1974, the Sweet were one of those bands that just seemed kind of embarrassing somehow. Loveable Europop mopheads, borrowing a guitar riff from Bowie (probably Jean Genie, 1972?), and stomping about in their glitter platform boots while squeaky-clean Tony Blackburn cheered them on. And all this at a time when Led Zeppelin were at their dirty peak.

Still, let's call an Easter taste truce, shall we? It certainly says something that the tune is still bringing back memories 45 years on. And good on them for that. Now here's a TOTP earworm from that era that I'll be glad to get out of my head for ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSNSTerj2Kc . Watch it at your peril.

BJ

[tjh290633]

In my view, pop music ceased to be of interest when guitars and amplifiers came in. Nothing really beats the old Glenn Miller lineup.

Not only that, singers sang recognisable tunes. Doris Day and Jo Stafford were the biggest female singers, while Sinatra and Crosby led the male side. Nowadays it needs musical theatre to find something worthwhile.

Nurse! Where's my wind up gramophone?

TJH

[dionaeamuscipula]

LOL, it must be a generation thing. In my cynical 23 year old head, in 1974, the Sweet were one of those bands that just seemed kind of embarrassing somehow. Loveable Europop mopheads, borrowing a guitar riff from Bowie (probably Jean Genie, 1972?), and stomping about in their glitter platform boots while squeaky-clean Tony Blackburn cheered them on. And all this at a time when Led Zeppelin were at their dirty peak.

Still, let's call an Easter taste truce, shall we? It certainly says something that the tune is still bringing back memories 45 years on. And good on them for that. Now here's a TOTP earworm from that era that I'll be glad to get out of my head for ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSNSTerj2Kc . Watch it at your peril.

BJ

Having seen Sweet in concert, accidentally (they were on at the student union, and we were in the building any way, so...), I can say that live they were really brilliant. See also Slade and Mud.

DM

[stevensfo]

LOL, it must be a generation thing. In my cynical 23 year old head, in 1974, the Sweet were one of those bands that just seemed kind of embarrassing somehow. Loveable Europop mopheads, borrowing a guitar riff from Bowie (probably Jean Genie, 1972?), and stomping about in their glitter platform boots while squeaky-clean Tony Blackburn cheered them on. And all this at a time when Led Zeppelin were at their dirty peak.

Still, let's call an Easter taste truce, shall we? It certainly says something that the tune is still bringing back memories 45 years on. And good on them for that. Now here's a TOTP earworm from that era that I'll be glad to get out of my head for ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSNSTerj2Kc . Watch it at your peril.

BJ

a TOTP earworm from that era that I'll be glad to get out of my head for ever

I remember one even worse! My little sister dancing to the record c.1971. It was famous for years. Be warned, not for the faint-hearted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g47K7V7Ub6w

Steve

[bungeejumper]

I remember one even worse! My little sister dancing to the record c.1971. It was famous for years. Be warned, not for the faint-hearted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g47K7V7Ub6w

Huh, I'll raise you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4aQiFaCod8 . Or anything by Ken Dodd, or Rolf Harris.

Or if you really want to feel the squirm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPMpeNDIGdk. How did anything that pretentious ever find its way onto vinyl?

BJ

[zico]

Brilliant lyrics though from Blockbuster.

You better beware, you better take care
You better watch out if you've got long black hair

[Howyoudoin]

Brilliant lyrics though from Blockbuster.

You better beware, you better take care
You better watch out if you've got long black hair

Ha ha ha, brilliant isn't it?

I guess this is why some musicians, like Elton John, only write the music to their songs and delegate the lyric writing to someone a bit more eloquent.

HYD

[Slarti]

Or if you really want to feel the squirm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPMpeNDIGdk. How did anything that pretentious ever find its way onto vinyl?

Pretentious? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNq_DTmVCWs

Slarti

[bungeejumper]

In my view, pop music ceased to be of interest when guitars and amplifiers came in. Nothing really beats the old Glenn Miller lineup.

Yes, I suppose Glenn Miller was the pop musician of his day? Along with hundreds of corny (and quite often slyly obscene) music hall singers who gave the wartime working men and women what they wanted? For me, the turning point came after 1945 with bebop jazz, which wasn't any of those things unless you count the obscenity. But when it came to electric guitars, I'd make an exception for Les Paul, who pretty well invented them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkGf1GHAxhE

My parents used to have this one on 78 rpm, and as a sixties teenager I still loved it, even though it was corny old rockabilly. Actually the guitar was multi-tracked, probably six or eight times over - another thing that Les Paul invented - so the video is just a mime to the studio recording. Pop would never have evolved at all without that sort of stuff. And we'd still be stuck with the Andrews Sisters.

BJ

..

[stevensfo]

Another to add to the list, though only for the amazing choreography.

I remember this appearing on a regular basis in TMF. One comment that sticks in my memory is about how, the original dance choreographer having fallen sick, a local Primary school teacher was happy to oblige.

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

Steve

[JamesMuenchen]

Brilliant lyrics though from Blockbuster.

You better beware, you better take care
You better watch out if you've got long black hair

Ha ha ha, brilliant isn't it?

I guess this is why some musicians, like Elton John, only write the music to their songs and delegate the lyric writing to someone a bit more eloquent.

HYD

Eloquent like...
If I was a sculptor, but then again, no
Or a man who makes potions in a travelling show

Gimme "Foxy fox on the run" over that any day

[tjh290633]

In my view, pop music ceased to be of interest when guitars and amplifiers came in. Nothing really beats the old Glenn Miller lineup.

Yes, I suppose Glenn Miller was the pop musician of his day? Along with hundreds of corny (and quite often slyly obscene) music hall singers who gave the wartime working men and women what they wanted? For me, the turning point came after 1945 with bebop jazz, which wasn't any of those things unless you count the obscenity. But when it came to electric guitars, I'd make an exception for Les Paul, who pretty well invented them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkGf1GHAxhE

My parents used to have this one on 78 rpm, and as a sixties teenager I still loved it, even though it was corny old rockabilly. Actually the guitar was multi-tracked, probably six or eight times over - another thing that Les Paul invented - so the video is just a mime to the studio recording. Pop would never have evolved at all without that sort of stuff. And we'd still be stuck with the Andrews Sisters.

BJ

..

I'm with you about Les Paul and Mary Ford. But he was a musician.

TJH

[AsleepInYorkshire]

AiY has left the building My bad

I kinda like the sex in this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsXjCp_f1h4

AiY

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Quick quiz (Hyd style)

This film was the first part of a trilogy and was released in 1985. The star played the guitar in a scene towards the end of the film. Of course he mimed the guitar chords.

On the 17th July 2016, a mere 31 years later, he played the same song live at the MetLife Stadium. He didn't mime.

Name the film?
Name the actor?
Name the song?
Name the band who he played the song with?
The actor clearly taught himself to play the guitar in that 31 years. Nothing remarkable in that. But the act of playing the guitar on stage was remarkable. Why?


Spoiler alert (answers below) After link - link will give you answers too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVy8tz54_JA



































































Back to the Future
Michael J Fox
Johnny B Goode
Coldplay
At the age of 30 in 1991 he was diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease

AiY

[monabri]

" # Do yah wanna be in my gang, my gang? "

er..no, Gary, no!

[zico]

I'm the man who put the bang in gang

Even at the time this lyric sounded a bit iffy!

[DiamondEcho]

Scroll through a list of 1970s No.1s and in retrospect it shines a light on the discombobulated post-Woodstock era.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U ... _the_1970s

Perhaps it's simple now to point at Gary Glitter like 'it was so obvious'. It wasn't, there wasn't the web, there wasn't any mainstream coverage of music beyond Top of the Pops where hit bands got a 3 minute slot to (usually) mime their songs. Until The Damned, long after it had become perversely tired, broke that style of ToTP presentation for good. It was also before the modern virtue-touting technology-enabled inquisition mob, who these days can, usually wrongly, identify, shame and torch the house of a perceived wrong-doer before morning tea.

Chart-topping at the dawn of the 1970s; Rolf Harris - Two little boys. Elvis, Woodstock, and Clive Dunn (from Dad's Army, singing 'Grandpa we love you'). And this before 'I'd like to teach the world to sing', the end of the Vietnam war, the Osmonds, Cassidys or Jacksons...

There was good music back then too, plus the throwaway chart-pop hits that people enjoyed during those hard times, including Sweet, Mud, Slade, Wizzard, Status Quo and so on.

From 'Woodstock' through punk, bookends to often depressing and desperate times; 'kids these days have no idea...'