The 1970's: Part Three - From The Immigrant to The Immigrant Song

The 1970's are remembered by  some as a sort of Golden Age in England. But the 1970's was a decade that style forgot when it came fashion, and one  probably best remembered for the Winter of Discontent, rampant inflation, unparalleled industrial strife, IRA atrocities, and Britain being dubbed 'The Sick Man of Europe.' It was the decade of my teenage years, and although there is much to look back on with fondness, there was much about the 1970's that was a struggle and not all that pleasant. The music was good, though.

One of the many things that my parents did not own when I was growing up was a record player, so for the most part, the music that we listened to at home during the 1970's came from the radio. At some point, my parents bought a radio-cassette player, but I didn't have one of my own until about halfway through the decade; by and large, I listened to what my parents wanted to listen to. BBC Radio 2 was my parents' station of choice, so mostly it was easy listening, middle of the road stuff. My Mum's favourites were Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, although my Dad sometimes branched out into light classical music and swing band tunes that he had enjoyed in his youth when he went to dance halls. If I had a preference it was for artists like The Carpenters - their Greatest Hits album was the first cassette I owned - and Neil Sedaka, whose songs, The Immigrant, and Solitaire were great favourites of mine. By the by, I only recently learned that The Immigrant - a Top 30 hit released in 1975 - was dedicated to John Lennon, who was embroiled in a dispute with U.S. authorities over his application for permanent residence in America. Some would say that the lyrics are as relevant today as were back then.

Neil Sedaka

There was plenty of musical diversity in the 1970's - from disco to glam rock, from prog to punk, there was something for everyone - and when the Sound Broadcasting Act 1972 was introduced, the BBC's monopoly over the airwaves was broken, and commercial radio stations began broadcasting. In London, that meant the London Broadcasting Company (LBC) for news and Capital Radio for music. They became my stations of choice. 

Capital had DJ's like Kenny Everitt, Tommy Vance, Nicky Horne, and Roger Scott, and they were the people informing my musical opinion, as they introduced me to types of music that my parents would never willingly have listened to. But it was at school - specifically the Sixth Form, which I entered in 1974 - where my musical tastes evolved. In the common room we had a record player and four LPs in permanent residence. Close To The Edge by Yes, Led Zeppelin IV, The Beatles' Abbey Road were on heavy rotation; the fourth album, a Gilbert O'Sullivan disc, was played rather less frequently. And students would bring in records from home, so I was soon exposed to bands like Genesis, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, and King Crimson.  My introduction to this sort of music was not auspicious; Close To The Edge did nothing for me initially, but after hearing it frequently - it got a spin most days - I learned to love it, and it was the first prog album that I bought. I'd gone from Sedaka's Immigrant to Led Zep's Immigrant Song in quick time.

Three of the albums we had in the Sixth Form. I can't recall which Gilbert O'Sullivan one we had.

Once I had started work, and had more disposable income, I started buying more records - and a music centre - and began going to gigs. The first band I saw live were Genesis, at Earls Court in 1977 - nothing quite like starting with one of the big guns - and that show remains one of the best I have ever seen, although Ian Dury and The Blockheads at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1979 runs it close; I always say it was less a gig, more a party with a live band. Dury was part of the new wave genre, and one of the few artists ostensibly part of the punk movement that I liked - The Stranglers were about the only other punk act that I listened to.

Genesis live at Earls Court. Photo: Andy Phillips

 

The late, great, incomparable Ian Dury

These days it seems that I rarely see a jukebox in a pub, but in the 1970's they were an integral part of the pub furniture, and my favoured watering hole, The Golden Lion in Romford, had a particularly good one. Most Friday nights I could be found in The Lion as it was known, listening to songs like Because The Night by Patti Smith, Are Friend Electric? by Gary Numan's Tubeway Army, Rod Stewart's Maggie May, Golden Earring's Radar Love, and Blondie's Heart of Glass which were, among others, an integral part of every one of those Friday evenings. Even now, when I hear any of those tracks I imagine myself back in The Lion. 

The Golden Lion, Romford. Photo: The Londonist

Music has the power to transport one back to the time when one heard a song regularly, or for the first time. Whenever I hear Hey Jude, or Michelle by The Beatles, for instance - songs which were actually released during the 1960's - I think of Romford FC's ground at Brooklands, where they were played regularly before games in the 1970's.

Brooklands, one time home of Romford FC

The 1970's also produced some of the popular Christmas records ever released. Songs like Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade, Wizzard's I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, and I Believe In Father Christmas by Greg Lake being just three released in that decade that still get serious airplay forty years on. As soon as you hear Noddy Holder scream, "It's Christmas!" - and every December you can be guaranteed to hear it pretty often - you know the festive season has begun. And the 1970's produced two of the top ten bestselling movie soundtracks of all time in Grease and Saturday Night Fever. For my money, the latter is one of the best albums of all time regardless of genre.

Naturally, not every song released during the 1970's was a timeless classic; for every School's Out (Alice Cooper)there was a Grandad (Clive Dunn), for every song like 10cc's I'm Not In Love there was something like Lieutenant Pigeon's Mouldy Old Dough. But music is an intensely personal thing; my opinions and tastes may not be the same as yours, but that makes neither of us right or wrong, just different, so if Grandad and Mouldy Old Dough are your thing, then good for you (just don't inflict them on me).

Without doubt though, it is during most people's teenage years that what becomes for them the most influential and memorable music is produced, the sort of music that generally sticks with people in later life, certainly in terms of style, even if newer artists producing those sort of sounds come along and are added to their list of favourite artists. For me, prog was the genre that I embraced, growing from that first less than favourable playing of Close To The Edge to today, when my collection is heavy with modern prog acts like Big Big Train, Frost*,  and Riverside along with bands like Genesis, and Yes who were huge in the 70's.

Next time: Work, Rest, and Play