40 Year Itch: Du är Mitt öde, Mitt Waterloo

  

On February 9, 1974 everything changed for Abba. They  performed "Waterloo" in Swedish andwon the Melodifestivalen contest to choose Sweden's entry for that year's Eurovision Song Contest.

     They'd win Eurovision with an English version of the future #1 hit in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland and the UK. "Waterloo" peaked at #6 in the US. In France ( despite Abba recording a version with French lyrics), "Waterloo" stalled at #4.  Some garcons and filles must have been wondering why so much of the world was taking such joy in a song about their most famous military defeat.

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40 Year Itch: 1974's Most Difficult Masterpieces

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The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage, released February 8, 1974 demands its listener's full attention, patience and indulgence. This isn't background music for cleaning the house or driving to work. This requires old school album listening: a room with just enough light to read the lyric sheet, a set of good headphones and something that will help alter the mind.

   

     With the help of his former band, the UK Art rockers Van Der Graaf Generator, and ex-Spirit guitarist Randy California on "Red Shift", prog rock's most theatrical singer, Peter Hammill, invites us into a dark, mad world. Will you enjoy your visit? Read this review, give the 12-minute epic track " A Louse is Not a Home" a listen, and then make your decision. We will not judge you.

Also on this date: 

   Todd Rundgren played "A Dream Goes on Forever", a new song from his double album Todd,  on the Midnight Special. The single would stall at #69 on Billboard's Hot 100. 

     Todd's fans already had a sense of this amazing artists's attention deficit disorder on 1973's A Wizard/ A True Star. Here,on Todd,  you get everything from Rundgren's pure pop tunes to experimental electronic freak outs like "The Sparks of Life" to Gilbert and Sullivan. The poster that came with the album had 10,000 names of Rundgren fans printed on it.

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40 Year Itch : Bowie in Amsterdam

In February of 1974, David Bowie was in the midst of creating a new persona to replace Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. With a flame red mullet and an eyepatch, Bowie spent the weeks leading to the February 15th release of the single "rebel Rebel" as the toast of the town in Amsterdam.  With wife Angie and son Ziggy often within reach, he accepted awards , posed for photos and made the strange TV appearance below. 

These were probably frustrating times for the Thin White Duke. He had spent months working on a musical adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 but was denied the rights by Orwell's wife. ( He should have used my grandfather's technique to help the CIA buy the rights to Orwell's Animal Farm. He introduced the widow to Clark Gable) Diamond Dogs , out in April, is a reworking of the failed musical. Bowie would spend most the year on tour in America where he became infatuated with soul music. The result, Young Americans, awaits us in 1975.

David, Angie and Zowie at the Amstel Hotel, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Taken February 7th 1974. (Photos by Gijsbert Hanekroot)

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40 Year Itch : Those Marvelous Motown Anthologies

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Advertised as "the most comprehensive collection of classics ever assembled", Motown followed up its 1973 Temptations Anthology in February of 1974 with sets from Gladys Knight and the Pips and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Each of these multiple-record set came with a 12 page booklet, brimming with color photos.

In the months to follow more two record sets would follow from the likes of Diana Ross and the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas  and Jr Walker and the All Stars.

 For Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops and Stevie Wonder, whose Looking Back was released in 1977,  the anthologies would fill three records.

   Motown did a great service to the public and their own bottom line. Casual fans had all the hits and a sampling of the best tunes from the artists' best albums. And any of these anthologies charted in 1974. But Motown has also failed the artists and fans by letting so many of their best albums go out of print. Can we begin by bringing back the Temptations's All Directions?

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40 Year Itch : Genesis a Roma

 In February of 1974 Genesis returned to the country that first embraced the band ...as part of their seven month Selling England By the Pound tour. It was the Italians who truly championed Genesis as early as 1972. As Tony Banks said of the '74 tour:

It was kind of strange for us, as over here ( in England) we had receptive audiences but normally quite small. Then we went out to Italy and we were playing the Palasport in Rome to 20,000 people. 

That show, on February 5, 1974,  is considered by fans to be one of the ten best in the history of Genesis




   If you listen to the best of the Italian progressive rock bands from the early 70's (Premiata Forneria Marconi, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Le Orme)  you can hear the arty, melloton heavy influence of the 1972 Nursery Crime tour.



In the years that followed, Genesis had developed into the band that would win Melody Maker's pop poll for Best Live Act of 1974. As Tony Banks told their ace reporter Chris Welch, he wasn't sure Genesis was making loads of money on these tours.

It costs us such a lot to put on our big stage show, considerably more than we get for it. It would be nice to do a show without theatre, but people expect it and would be disappointed if we didn't.

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40 Year Itch : Tearful Eyes

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   Just six weeks after finishing Ass, Badfinger was back in the studio trying to fulfill the Warner Brothers contracts their agent Stan Polley set up for them, which came with a reported $3 million advance. The money was supposed to go into an escrow account for the band. That was the good news. The bad news was that Badfinger had to knock out two albums and two extra singles every year. It didn't begin well and it would only get worse.  Badfinger, originally titled For Love Or Money, was written and recorded in the studio with producer Chris Thomas. At the same time, the members were dealing with depositions from Apple lawyers. The result is an album of slight tunes and punch-less pop, their lowest-charting album.





The album's February release was timed with an American tour in which they often played nightclubs befitting local bands. Warner Brothers made no effort to promote the band's single "Shine On". After the tour, Badfinger had to get back into the studio for their second album of 1974, and one of their very best, Wish You Were Here.

  But by then all the money in the escrow account had vanished and Warner Brothers had filed a lawsuit against Polley. The experience took a dreadful toll on the band. Both Pete Ham and Joey Holland quit Badfinger and in 1975, destitute,  and awaiting the birth of a second child,  Ham hanged himself in the garage of his Surrey home.

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40 Year Itch: Everpresent Everywhere

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   Recorded in both California and London with the ultra tight 11 piece Caledonia Soul Orchestra in the Summer of '73, Van Morrison's superb double live album It's Too Late to Stop Now was released in February of 1974. The string and horn section --and Van's fiery delivery--give even Morrison's Them era tunes an epic quality.

     The 1973 tour was put together to promote Morrison's first disappointing album, Hard Nose the Highway. (Only "Warm Love" can stand next to the high achievements of the man's early 70's work). Van pays tribute to his favorite soul artists by covering soul standards "Ain't Nothin' You Can Do" ( Bobby Bland) "I Believe To My Soul" ( Ray Charles),  " Bring It On Home To Me " ( Sam Cooke) "I Just Want to Make Love To You" ( Muddy Waters), "Help Me" and "Take Your Hands Outta My Pocket" ( both by Sonny Boy Williamson II)

   Morrison's goal: to make the best truly live album ever recorded. That meant no overdubs. And no "Moondance" because of a single bum note.

        This is Van Morrison at the peak of his form. But it wouldn't last. A restless and irritable bandleader, Van broke up the Caledonia Soul Orchestra after the '73 tour, divorced Janet Planet  and moved back to Belfast for the first time since 1966 where he wrote the 1974 album Veedon Fleece.

   But that doesn't come out until October so let's take a moment to relish the live album that marks the zenith of Morrison's  concert career.

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