Ah yes, remember the 1970s?
Top Of The Pops, Pan’s People, The Generation Game, only three TV channels and The Old Grey Whistle Test. We did what people always do when things aren’t so great, we partied. Mind you, we didn’t know things weren’t so good, we were all young.
Before punk came along and spat in the eye of prog, when the sequins were falling off of glam and when everyone drove brown cars, we had Austerity Britain. Remember? Crisis? What Crisis?
Remember when Life on Mars was just a David Bowie song and when the ultimate in chic involved nose-bleed inducing platforms and more make-up than the Revlon counter in Boots? Yes, we had it all. The Three Day Week, Beige, orange and chocolate swirly carpets, bottled Double Diamond and Spangles (the sweets, I mean, not sparkly clothes, although we had those too.).
If you can’t remember a Vesta Chow Mein and a bottle of Mateus Rose as the height of fine dining, well, what can I say apart from “You wasn’t a student in the 1970s”.
So, in the spirit of retro austerity, I offer up a vague approximation of a Student Union disco night with this playlist;
No track listing – it’s a disco remember, not too many surprises here but if anyone wants to play “Name That Tune”, feel free.
Thanks for this Carole – I got to uni at the end of the seventies / early eighties but a lot of this music was still playing and as for the vesta ready meals…
1. Roxy Music – Do The Strand
I know most of the others but that was the one we really strutted our stuff to!
Oh and re no 4 – you wouldn’t have twelve dreams in droppable format, would you?
I could drop 12 Dreams in the week – I’ll let you know.
“Vesta Chow Mein and a bottle of Mateus Rose” – I was that man! With a Mr Kipling apricot tart for pud – if you could find one without fungus inside the cardboard, sorry, pastry enclosure. And a Party 7 if yer mates were round. But while we shared gastronomic tastes, our listening pleasures only partly overlap. It was more Mott the Hoople, Hawkwind and Van der Graf Generator at my students union. Whilst I share your enthusiasm for Steely Dan and Spirit, my Stateside pleasures at that time were Canned Heat, Paul Butterfield, Neil Young, Quicksilver, Airplane and Iron Butterfly. Thanks for the time warp!
So which one were you..?
Obviously I wasn’t a student in the 70s; it does sound considerably more fun than the late 80s…
Ah! Montrose! One of the bands I was five years too young to see.
The only Montrose / Hagar song that ever made it onto the turntables at my student discos was the live version of Space Station #5.
No Toto – Hold The Line, or Kansas – Carry On My Wayward Son, Carole? They’re the two that have come flooding back to memory from my (school age rather than Uni-era) disco going, mostly at pubs and house parties by the Dee in Chester.
Still In Love With You !! Cor, Joanne Judge, where are you now??
I could have done at least 30 songs – I had to leave things out.
I cannot lay claim to having gone to college in the 70′s, but I can admit (at last) to having hung out with that generation on a grand scale!
Its time the tale was told – as a chap with an older brother and sister, I consider myself fortunate enough to have spent years, when I was really ‘too young’, listening to the kind of stuff you’ve posted here Carol. You can say it was my musical formative years! On top of this (when I was still 14/15 years old) I used to attend the weekly ‘Uni’ disco at Leicester’s Percy Gee building, every week without fail. All my friends were older than me in those days – the opposite seems to be true today – and their music felt like mine for a good few years.
Therefore, im reasonably confident about the following:
1) Do the Strand – Roxy Music
2) Bad Motor Scooter – Montrose
3) Blowin’ Free – Wishbone Ash
4) Love has found a way – Spirit
5) Real Man – Todd Rundgren
6) China Grove – Doobie Brothers
7) I’ve got work to do – The Isley Brothers
8) Bodhisattva – Steely Dan
9) It’s gonna come down on you – Seals and Crofts
10) Still in Love with you – Thin Lizzy
It was particularly fine to hear the track from ‘Live and Dangerous’ again. Great times they were!
Nearly 100% there ‘Pus.
The only one you got wrong was 7) Right song but by The Average White Band.
Carol, I was torn on that one. Couldve listened again to both of course (to check) but it wouldnt have been as much fun! Thanks for the nice playlist.
How blinking brilliant that lot are. Swooning like Proust over cake.
My buddies and I at the LSE late 70s went religiously to see all Spirit gigs. A magnificent obsession. We also obsessed on Peter Hammill, Todd Rundgren, Viv Stanshall and Aswad – the latter would play the LSE every year. Great memories.
And how weird, I was strongly thinking of putting Real Man into Earworms. Great song.
Lovely stuff !