Thread: A gem from 75

Even tho the 70s is my era .. I missed the later years, away in another country. Little River Band made it while I was away. Sometimes, to hear things like this is fantastic ... cuz I'm hearin it for the first time ... Haaaa.

Glenn Shorrock .. he was in Axiom ... I have one of theirs .. It has an anti-war song on it that was just hitting the big time when I was heading overseas. Arkansas Grass.

I still sing it to myself to this day .... I know all the words .... Haa


Axiom (Brian Cadd) - Arkansas Grass - Original Promo Clip 1969 - YouTube


cool bananas ... Greg

Well you missed a lot of good stuff in that case Greg. It was the era when, more in England than here, they band was given a nice fat cheque and "come back when you've got something for us". It was just perfect for creativity.

Nowadays I think the band/muso has to worry about everything else too much and the creativity is being stifled. The 70s and first half of the 80s was just brilliant for new music. Maybe that's when the accountants got more involved.

Cheers
Brett

Yes .. I did. But have since caught up with a lot of it.

I was in asia/middle east. To make a phone call home required going to a capital city, making a booking, being given a slot 6 weeks in advance, usually at 02:00am in the morning .. you were allowed 2 minutes and even that would blow my meagre budget. miss your slot and the process had to be repeated. So for me, there was no music from the western world. Thank god for Bill Gates ... Haaa

I got home again in 1980.

There was music, and some of it good .. tho at first very irritating to the western ear. At one point I was coming down thru a mountain pass, the Vale of Kadisha, on foot, alone. I saw below someone coming up. This country was at war, violent civil war, and I did not know if he was friend or foe. He had a rifle, I was unarmed .. I waited, no where else to go.

I waited, my heart thumping, ready to leap down the gorge .. he approached, reached inside that crazy arab dress and pulled out a cassette tape .... He said, in that guttural arab accent, 'Elvis Presley dead .. now, today'. My whole body relaxed, I was taut. It was the 17-Aug-77 and tho incorrect, that day marks Elvis's death for me ...

The cassette tape he handed to me saying, 'this is good music, you listen'. And then he passed on. It was an LP called 'Magic' by Demis Roussous .. haaaa ... never available in the western world. I don't think you can get it even today.

Here are two songs from it ... a bit sentimental ... but, these are some of what you missed ... Haaa

Hope you like at least one.

Before the Storm

Sister Emeline

Greg

Had a chance to look at the vids this morning.

Remember Arkansas Grass very well. That's Shorrock limping around (sporting a mo).

I never did understand why the Tent Man didn't use a different first name professionally. I mean ter say, he wasn't even Semi, let alone Demi !

In the 70s I was a computer operator, and one of the shift leaders was a part-time singer, and a big fan of Roussos. This had the unfortunate effect of putting me right off the big fella, mainly because Jeff would wander around the Computer Room singing Roussos stuff non-stop. Plus the fact that Jeff was a bit of a dill, the combo just wasn't working for me!

Also at the time I was heavily (and still am) into Prog Rock....Yes, ELP, Tull, et al, and was also turning on to Jazz Fusion from the likes of Weather Report (whom I had the great luck to see live in Sydney), Stanley Clarke, Michel Colombier. At that time it seemed that every session musician in the US was putting out their own solo album with a stellar bunch of session guys behind them. I bought a lot of these albums unheard, and on the strength of the cast - got a few duds (coz they're players, not writers), but plenty of crackers in there as well (Colombier for one - the list of musos is astonishing - but not quite as out-there as Santana's line up at the 2004 Montreux Festival (that lineup beggars belief). If you see that Montreux DVD - just buy it. Not sure who would stock it near you - maybe try up at Crows Nest .

Or not.

Anyway, had a look at the Demi-Semi vids that you posted, and I certainly have a better appreciation for him these days.