#70sTop30

A treat for you this morning with not one, not two, but three Dubhed selections. Nearly two hours of top tunes!

I've just completed #70sTop30, the latest musical challenge on BlueSky. If I'd been slightly more organised, I could have stretched thsi out over three posts, but no!

So, here's my 'unranked and random' selection in three rounds, each one running chronologically from 1970 to 1979.

The first selection can loosely be described as 'the hits', in that they all troubled the UK Top 40 singles in their respective year. 8th January could only have been a Bowie pick.

Rounds two and three is half-and-half well known and wilfully obscure, and the very last song is probably the only exception to the 'random rule' as I pretty much knew how I wanted to close the series pretty early on.

Given that I didn't give too much thought in advance about the overall selection and running order, it's not turned out too bad.

In keeping with previous 70s-themed posts, the cover art is a selection of UK Marvel first issues from my collection, most of which have been stored in a box and been unopened for years. As a kid, I loved how busy, loud and dynamic the comic covers were, demanding to be picked up from the newsagent's shelf, bought and read again and again.

Round One

1) Brontosaurus: The Move

2) Tokoloshe Man: John Kongos

3) Jungle Fever: Chakachas

4) Big City: Dandy Livingstone

5) Dance With The Devil: Cozy Powell

6) The Wild One: Suzi Quatro

7) Both Ends Burning: Roxy Music

8) Sound And Vision: David Bowie

9) Punky Reggae Party: Bob Marley & The Wailers

10) I'm Every Woman: Chaka Khan

Round Two

1) Clarence In Wonderland: Kevin Ayers & The Whole World

2) Gimme Shelter (Cover of The Rolling Stones): Ruth Copeland ft. Parliament

3) Sniffin' & Snortin' Pt. 1 (Vitamine C): Speed, Glue & Shinki

4) The Groover: T. Rex

5) At Home, At Work, At Play: Sparks

6) Jive Talkin': Bee Gees

7) Ninety-Nine And A Half: Trammps

8) Funtime: Iggy Pop

9) Dance Like A Star: The Human League

10) Spanish Bombs: The Clash

Round Three

1) Effervescing Elephant: Syd Barrett

2) Beautiful Brother Of Mine: Curtis Mayfield

3) Screaming Target: Big Youth

4) Willow's Song: Magnet

5) Fight Your Revolution: Keith Hudson

6) Koun'Toupack: Godchild

7) I Keep On Loving You: Susan Cadogan

8) Time's Up: Buzzcocks

9) It's The New Thing: The Fall

10) Memories Can't Wait: Talking Heads

Round One (40:43) (GD) (M)

Round Two (40:05) (GD) (M)
Round Three (34:38) (GD) (M)

There are a load of new musical challenges starting on 1st February. Time constraints being what they are, I'll likely only have time to participate in one. But which one?

#OrchestralManoeuvres 

Select your 28 favourite string arrangements in songs. Solo, full orchestra, electric, synthetic or sampled. Singles, b-sides, album tracks, live versions and remixes can all be included.

#Reverberations 

A month-long celebration of all things guitar. From 80s Indie and Alt-Rock, to Shoegaze and Grunge and beyond, up to the present day. Think My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Hüsker Du, Nirvana, DIIV, Just Mustard…

#StandaloneSingles 

Throughout February choose 28 of your favourite standalone singles. Post one per day, ranked or unranked. Lead tracks on EPs and singles tagged on to Best Of compilations can be selected, the main criteria is that they aren’t on an artist’s studio album.

#StrictlyInstrumental

Just post any instrumental song each day in February.

#WrongDisneySong

All February: for the Disney/Pixar film of the day (calendar provided)

Post a song that fits in some way — title, lyrics, theme, vibe, character — but isn’t from the actual soundtrack.

People All Over The World Join Hands, Start A Love Train

Side 1 of a mixtape recorded for Mrs. K on 21st March 2002.

No fancy sleeve for this one, just a generic TDK FE Ferric cassette sleeve with some neat, upper case lettering and a terribly punning but title, Disco? Get The Funk Out Of Here!

It does pretty much what it sets out to do, a mix of soul, funk and disco classics (mostly) from the 1970s and a nod to some of the club nights we used to go to in Bristol at the time.

 

The selection starts and (no spoilers) ends with What It Is from 1977 by Garnet Mimms & Truckin' Company, which seems to be Garnet's one and only single with the truckers, although a version also appears on Mimms' album from the same year, Garnet Mimms Has It All. It's a great song, written and produced by Jeff Lane and Randy Muller from Brass Construction.

 

I've included longer versions of classics by Curtis Mayfield, The O'Jays, Donna Summer and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes because...well, because, so the selection pushes past the original C90 side to come in at just under and hour. 

 

A couple of the songs - Bill Withers and Bobby Womack - were lifted straight from the Jackie Brown soundtrack, Womack's song also serving as the eponymous theme to 1972 film, Across 110th Street. Disco Inferno by Trammps appeared on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the version here edited down from the album's 11 minute behemoth to a more manageable three and a half.

 

Dance Your Pants Off is, as far as I can tell, a rare Sly & The Family Stone circa 1967 that I got with a freebie CD called Hippy Chic, attached to RCD Classic Rock Collection Vol. 11, in a clearance bin in the mid-1990s. The magazine was, well, pants but the CD was worth the 30 or 40p that I paid at the time.

 

The Joe Simon song appeared on the appallingly-titled Those Boogie Knights & Disco Divas (and, looking at my mixtape effort, that's saying something), another freebie CD with the late, lamented Vox magazine in 1998. 

 

If disco makes you sick, come back here tomorrow for the cure (or should that be The Cure?)

1) What It Is (Part I) (Single Version): Garnet Mimms & Truckin' Company (1977)

2) Dance Your Pants Off: Sly & The Family Stone (1967)

3) Freddie's Dead (Full Length Version): Curtis Mayfield (1972)

4) Love Train ("A Tom Moulton Mix"): The O'Jays (1977)

5) Disco Inferno (Edit): Trammps (1976)

6) You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) (Album Version): Sylvester (1978)

7) Hot Stuff (Album Version): Donna Summer (1979)

8) Feel The Need In Me: Detroit Emeralds (1971)

9) Who Is He (And What Is He To You?) (Album Version): Bill Withers (1972)

10) Get Down, Get Down (Get On The Floor): Joe Simon (1975)

11) Bad Luck (A Tom Moulton Mix): Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (1977)

12) Across 110th Street (Part 1): Bobby Womack (1972)

1971: You Want It, You Got It: 8

1972: Across 110th Street: 12

1972: Super Fly OST: 3

1972: Still Bill: 9

1975: Get Down: 10

1976: Disco Inferno EP: 5

1977: I Love Music / Love Train EP: 4

1977: Philadelphia Classics: 11

1977: What It Is EP: 1

1978: Step II: 6

1979: Bad Girls: 7

1993: Hippy Chic: RCD Classic Rock Collection Vol. 11: 2

Side One (55:42) (GD) (M)

Discollision!

Inspired by JC's disco diversion over at The Vinyl Villain yesterday, this is a You Tube recreation of a CD-R, compiled for my friend Kate in February 2006. Genuinely contains some of my favourite and most played songs.

1) Pop Muzik: M (1979)

2) Funky Town: Lipps Inc. (1979)

3) Relight My Fire: Dan Hartman ft. Loleatta Holloway (1978)

4) Stayin' Alive: Bee Gees (1977)

5) Love Hangover: Diana Ross (1976)

6) Moskow Diskow: Telex (1979)

7) Supernature: Cerrone (1977)

8) Everybody Dance: Chic (1978)

9) I'm A Man (Cover of The Spencer Davis Group): Macho (1978)

10) More More More: Andrea True Connection (1976)

11) Heart Of Glass: Blondie (1978)

12) Disco Inferno: Trammps (1976)

I should note that Loleatta Holloway was uncredited for her (epic) vocal performance on Relight For Fire. Similarly, Lene Lovich wasn't credited for writing the lyrics for Cerrone's Supernature but did her own version in 1987 for the Animal Liberation compilation.