{"id":5526,"date":"2022-06-20T15:40:16","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T14:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=5526"},"modified":"2022-06-20T15:40:16","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T14:40:16","slug":"the-shape-of-things-ten-45s-released-between-september-1969-and-april-70-that-go-some-way-to-chart-the-developments-made-in-forging-music-for-a-new-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=5526","title":{"rendered":"The Shape Of Things \u2013 Ten 45s released between September 1969 and April \u201970 that go some way to chart the developments made in forging music for a new decade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>T<\/strong><strong>en 45s released between September 1969 and April \u201970 that go some way to chart the developments made in forging music for a new decade\u2026 as psychedelia became floral, bubblegum splintered into hard-rock and glam, proto-punk sprung from garage, easy went weird and pop bands went prog<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Argosy   Mr  Boyd 1969  - Roger Hodgson (SUPERTRAMP) , Elton John\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2uBca4l7GR8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>ARGOSY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Mr Boyd<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(DJM, UK, September 1969)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Neither the pre-Supertramp Roger Hodgson nor Elton John could\u2019ve known that five years after cutting this one-off 45 for publisher Dick James\u2019 DJM label they\u2019d be among the biggest-selling artists in the world. With hot session guitarist and Elton\u2019s future right-hand man Caleb Quaye and Plastic Penny\/Elton drummer Nigel Olsson on board, and a pair of exquisite Hodgson songs (flipside \u2018Imagine\u2019 is equally as good) that simultaneously bid a nostalgic farewell to post-<em>Pepper<\/em> psychedelic pop and pointed towards the sophisticated early \u201970s sound, \u2018Mr Boyd\u2019 bore all the hallmarks of a hit yet failed to make even the smallest splash.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Left Banke - Myrah\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/olAFQ3sF8TQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>THE LEFT BANKE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Myrah<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Smash, US, November 1969)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Were it not for the success of the evergreen \u2018Walk Away Renee\u2019 in the summer of 1966 it\u2019s unlikely the remnants of The Left Banke would still have been making records three years later. With Steve Martin delivering one of his most impassioned vocals and departed songwriter and reluctant driving force Michael Brown back in the fold, the pair fashioned this achingly beautiful swansong with Thomas Kaye (later to helm Gene Clark\u2019s\u00a0<em>No Other<\/em>) at the controls. Nobody was listening as it trickled out weeks before the end of the decade. Fifteen years later we adopted The Left Banke as our own.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"IT&#039;S ALL MEAT - feel it\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ut62k6iQ808?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>IT&#8217;S ALL MEAT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Feel It<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Columbia, Canada, November 1969)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This Torontonian band debuted in 1969 with this exceptional blast of proto-punk garage-rock. The old teenbeat tropes are in place, like singer Jed MacKay\u2019s parping organ (the Gibson G101), but Rick Aston\u2019s pounding bass, MacKay\u2019s snarling sexualised vocal and Wayne Roworth\u2019s searing fuzz rock solo, are closer in spirit to The Stooges, and even New York Dolls. This is the sound of garage band heading into the garbage of the filthy \u201970s, but still embracing the original punk snot of an earlier time. Of course, this featured on <em>Pebbles #9 <\/em>just over a decade later and became the epitome of the punkiest edge of the garage band spectrum. Mono Man and The Lyres clearly paid close attention. This is non-vegan, red blooded and on fire. The \u201960s may have come to a close, but the garage-punk sound kept on giving.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Seasons\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pktf6UZSmXw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>EARTH AND FIRE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Seasons<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Polydor, Netherlands, December 1969)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite inevitable comparisons to the then earth-conquering Shocking Blue (E&amp;F\u2019s Jerney Kaagman proving another formidable female presence and sounding not unlike Mariska Veres) Earth And Fire \u2013 led by blond bearded brothers Chris and Gerard Koerts \u2013 were closer in spirit to Dutch brethren Golden Earring, whose George Kooymans penned and played on \u2018Seasons\u2019, the Hague quintet\u2019s debut 45. Their accessible blend of progressive moves and pop hooks ensured instant success and \u2018Seasons\u2019 began an unbroken run of homeland hits that continued until the early \u201980s, by which time glitzy pop had become the order of the day.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tommy James And The Shondells &quot;Gotta Get Back To You&quot;\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1pnGoEMWjfM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>TOMMY JAMES &amp; THE SHONDELLS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Gotta Get Back To You<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Roulette, USA, February 1970)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only a year and a bit before this, pop sensation Tommy James\u2019 massive hit \u2018Mony Mony\u2019 was one of the bubblegum era\u2019s biggest hits. By \u201970 the short-lived genre was becoming <em>pass\u00e9<\/em>, its original audience having outgrown the pre-pubescent thrill of The Monkees, Archies and Lemon Fruitgum Expresses. James was there before, and after. \u2018Gotta Back To You\u2019 passed the flame of bubblegum into the rock era, with lyrics that mention junkies and hint at far more adult subject matter. The Osmonds would follow the template, taking groovy rock into the playground.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"In the Land of the Few (1999 Remaster)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cjVXG-GBkSM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>LOVE SCULPTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>In The Land Of The Few<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Parlophone, UK, February 1970)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having quickly outgrown their blues roots, Cardiff power trio Love Sculpture morphed into a progressive pop act with a penchant for deconstructing the classics that resulted in freak 1968 hit \u2018Sabre Dance\u2019. January \u201970\u2019s <em>Forms And Feelings<\/em> added Holst and Bizet to the brew but at its heart is a series of intelligent, commercial singles penned by \u2018Fire\u2019 hit-makers Mike Finesilver and Pete Ker including this densely-structured gem that positively overflows with twin guitar licks, rich vocal harmonies and more than a passing resemblance to JS Bach\u2019s \u2018Prelude &amp; Fugue In G Minor\u2019. Leader Dave Edmunds would end the year at #1 on the UK singles chart.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Slade - The Shape Of Things To Come\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/idoj0vu9TBU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>SLADE <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Shape Of Things To Come<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fontana (March 1970)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the May of 1969, when their debut single \u2018Genesis\u2019 was released, they were Ambrose Slade. For their October follow-up \u2018Wild Winds Are Blowing\u2019 they were\u00a0<em>The<\/em>\u00a0Slade. And by March 1970, when they released their third single, a tough-as-nails cover of the \u201968 Mann &amp; Weil composition \u2018Shape Of Things To Come\u2019 (originally written for fictional band Max Frost &amp; The Troopers in the movie\u00a0<em>Wild In the Streets<\/em>), they\u2019d simply become Slade, and were starting to make a proto-glam racket that would lead to a full-blown \u201970s sonic riot, both for themselves and their fellow brothers-in-glam. The original may have been recorded in the \u201960s, but Slade\u2019s cover truly was the shape of things to come.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Soul Desert (Single Version) - Can\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HqKq8R38csk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>THE CAN <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Soul Desert <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Liberty, Germany, April 1970)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a new decade loomed on the horizon, many of the key players in what we now think of as krautrock, a loose term that lumps together all manner of experimental extremists, were already unleashing severely singular sounds upon a German audience hungry for homegrown heroes who broke both from the past and the dominance of UK and US imports.\u00a0\u2018Soul Desert\u2019\u00a0was the topside of the first 45 by The Can from Cologne (still in possession of the definite article at this stage), its tortured vocal, locked-in drums and bass, and slow, brooding menace placing it at least 10 years ahead of its time.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Blue Serge Blues-single-The Pretty Things(1970)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tlpgPPtl71I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>THE PRETTY THINGS\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Blue Serge Blues<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Harvest, UK, April 1970)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou left me now in your justice \/ and then you watch me burn,\u201d howls Phil May in one of The Pretty Things\u2019 angstiest, most oblique tunes. Recorded just after the\u00a0<em>Parachute<\/em>\u00a0sessions had wrapped and hidden away on the flip of \u2018The Good Mr Square\u2019, the stop-start \u2018Blue Serge Blues\u2019 is an orphaned oddity \u2013 3:55 of burned melancholy that straddles the Pretties late psych and chest-out rock periods.\u00a0Lost in its own inner hell it keeps coming back to an obsessively-repeating dirge of harpsichord and undead harmonies, decorated with switchblade intensity by new guitarist Pete Tolson\u2019s scathing solos. Hippie horror music <em>par excellence<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bubbles - Free Design\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UmnnClDAmiU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>THE FREE DESIGN<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Bubbles<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Project 3, USA, April 1970)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Harmony pop wasn\u2019t a new thing, and \u2018Bubbles\u2019 was this band of brainy siblings 11th single. But<em> this<\/em> sound was new. The single\u2019s lyrics touching on religion, mindfulness and nonsense, veering from sweet vocal jazz into yelped Tropicalia. The groove of the funky accompaniment working on the same wah-wah Clavichord sound that Stevie Wonder later made millions from in 1972 with \u2018Superstition\u2019. There\u2019s also effective use of fuzztone and a driving bass and drum combination. Call it what you will, it still sounds utterly original. Happy mad. No wonder they giggle at the end.<\/p>\n<p><i>This article \u00a0ran in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/shindig-issue-98-pre-order-on-sale-5th-december-2019\/\">issue #98<\/a>. Order now to read the full feature.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to <i>Shindig!<\/i>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/subscription\/\">here<\/a> to read many more articles like this in our 100 page monthly print magazine<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Contributors: Hugh Dellar, Jon \u2018Mojo\u2019 Mills, Andy Morten, Thomas Patterson, Martin Ruddock<\/em><\/p>\n<span class=\"synved-social-container synved-social-container-share\"><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" 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September 1969 and April \u201970 that go some way to chart the developments made in forging music for a new decade\u2026 as psychedelia became floral, bubblegum splintered into hard-rock and glam, proto-punk sprung from garage, easy went weird and pop bands went prog ARGOSY Mr Boyd (DJM, UK, September 1969) Neither [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1009,7],"tags":[1028],"class_list":["post-5526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-music-videos","tag-1028","post_format-post-format-video"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5526"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}