I bloody hate this song and always bloody did. It’s the dirgiest dirge in Dirgeville and it’s almost as long as American bloody Pie. Which is odd for a song that’s supposedly inspirational and optimistic in its message.

 

It seems to consist almost entirely of its ponderously chanted chorus, while musically it’s built around a plodding military-marching-style bassline that, in one clip I’ve seen, inexplicably requires some poodle-haired prannet with a porn-star ‘tache to play on a double-necked guitar.

 

One for each note, I’d be tempted to say, except that I can only hear one.

The sole good thing about it is that the single version is “only” three minutes long, compared to the interminable six-minute version on the album which, inevitably, sounds exactly the same apart from more of the dire church organ sound that Rod Argent produces from his keyboard.

 

He was formerly in The Zombies and this song, sung by Russ Ballard, reached No.5 and sold a million copies, demonstrating that there has never been any accounting for the taste of the British public, even decades before Brexit and the last General Election.

 

I now notice that this song reached its peak chart position on 1 April – April Fools Day – in 1972, along wih the only even worse song to be a hit that year – Desiderata (holding off a strong run from American Pie).

 

That record didn’t last long. A fortnight later the charts were topped by Amazing Grace. Bad enough in itself – but a thousand times worse when played on the bloody bagpipes by the Pipes and Drums and the Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.