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The O’Jays – Love Train

24th November 2020 · 1970s, 1973, Music

This clip caught my eye (and ear) because of the synchronicity – it’s The O’Jays performing Love Train on the TV show Soul Train. (more…)

Tony Orlando and Dawn sang the biggest hit of 1973 with this sentimental slice of cheese, Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree. (more…)

This is the third and final song in a trilogy that always come to my mind together: The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face, Killing Me Softly With His Song and Help Me Make It Through The Night. (more…)

The history of this classic romantic ballad is a long and complicated one, involving two English folk singers, an American schoolteacher, a screen legend – and a dead cat. (more…)

The story behind Killing Me Softly is a salutary tale of music-biz shenanigans and chicanery. (more…)

T. Rex – 20th Century Boy

19th November 2020 · 1970s, 1973, Glam, Music

I love the filthy fuzzed-up guitar squall that starts this song. Sleazy and crunchy; grunge before grunge. (more…)

The Emeralds (as they were first called) were a group of four brothers from Little Rock, Arkansas: the splendidly named Ivory, Cleophus, Raymond and Abrim, who wrote, arranged and produced their handful of hits. (more…)

The Faces and Rod Stewart were on borrowed time together when they reached their peak with Cindy Incidentally when it reached No.2 in February 1973. (more…)

This raucous, rousing rocker was Slade’s fourth number one, and another absolute belter. (more…)

Phil Lynott seemed the epitome of cool when I was a kid; there weren’t many black rock musicians in those days and Phil exuded a roguish, vagabond charisma that was the very opposite of the posh white boys I went to school with.

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