OFF TOPIC with Steve Mixup. A place for me to tell the odd story or two about the post war rock generation. If they couldn’t change the world at least they brought us some wonderful music.
Although, if you search hard enough, a lot of the recorded musical cannon has found its way onto YouTube in some way or other there are obviously many pieces of music that have not. Demo’s, home recordings, live bootlegs and a few rare bits of vinyl no doubt.
However, even some regular mainstream artists won’t have all their musical output on the net. Take James Last for instance. I doubt whether all of his 400 odd albums are out there. Without knocking James Last, it is obvious a lot of middle of the road material might never make it onto a digital platform.
Now, vinyl “diggers” are always looking for the last great 60’s track or a forgotten gem to add to a playlist or DJ set and occasionally a reasonable song or piece of music can be found hidden on an otherwise forgettable record.
It is in this spirit that I offer this mystery song for you to ponder over. It isn’t a lost psych classic or northern soul stomper but a nice bluesy rock piece with some cool brass. It was released by a group in 1974 on an album on a recognised label (albeit a label that was bigger in the 60’s). I turned 16 in November 1973 so I can relate to this song and those days of the early 70’s oil crisis and electricity blackouts.
If you feel in quiz mode and want to partake then get in touch and tell me who it is and what the song is called. I won’t be surprised if someone points out that it is out there hidden away on someone’s obscure channel. If so, I apologize. Nevertheless it is a decent groovy number. Dec 2023.
Here are the lyrics:
late one evening the sun was going down
lying on my back feeling the rain come down
started to thunder and I ran to the car
I looked at my gauge I couldn’t go far
I shouda remembered
yeah, I shouda remembered
that 1973 would go down in history
gas station was seven miles away
night was down I couldn’t see my way
decided to take a bus instead of a hike
forgetting of course the busmen were on strike
I shouda remembered
yeah, I shouda remembered
that 1973 would go down in history
I shouda remembered
yeah, I shouda remembered
that 1973 would go down in history
things are going to get better I know I’m right
when the students have their say and the miners stop their fight
everybody will have a colour tv and things are done and not just said
but that won’t matter to me man because I’ll be completely brown bread
and they’ll remember woo hoo hoo
yeah they’ll remember
that 1973 was down in their books as history