The first impression I got of the songs era was European, 18-19th century. Boys in blue could only be french, therefore I surmise the song stems from the Napoleonic wars.

Toy wooden horses doesn’t fit 19th century America, but certainly with Europe. Young boys weren’t conditioned or expecting war between the states years before. Young boys in Europe always knew war was inevitable and it always came from England. if you look at 6 nations rugby every country in that competition has been plundered by or fought long hard campaigns against the English. Therefore you do not have to work hard to find cultural signifigance at all. In fact you could write at least a 1500 word referenced essay as a tertiary project. Also, the boys may have been well bought up as suggested by having a toy horse each and a comfortable lifestyle is subtly hinted at. The boys may well have been upper class and groomed as calvary officers as their forebears were. The whole piece speaks of nobility, gentility, bravado, dashing heroics of the officer class. Who knows, it could possibly have been interpreted from the French!

Speaking of GE, well, they’re downright redoubtable. They’ve been together since 1961 (with the same basic lineup since 1970) and are still performing, which, I think, beats the Stones in the longevity category.

“Stars on 45″ is truly unforgivable, but, in the most technical sense, it did return “Venus” to the charts as part of the medley.

Doc – I thought “Sylvia” was a terrific single and “Hocus Pocus” not far behind. Of course the other Dutch band in the early 70s UK chart was Golden Earring, whose cred was rather spoilt by their former drummer Jaap Eggermont later being the evil genius behind “Stars on 45”.

Rolf did shoot a promo film for the song which depicted him walking through the WWI trenches and the cemetery at Ypres.

strangely i’d also thought this. i suppose it kind of maybe makes sense that it’s a civil war of some sort, otherwise how would they know each other. also it must be from a time with cannons, but when horses (obv) were still in use…

…also i seem to recall Oink! comic doing a skit of it which as well as marvellously changing the first lines to:

Two little boys had two little toys
Each had a wooden geegee
Gaily they played each summer’s day
Except when they stopped for a weewee

showed the boys in American Civil War uniforms in the later panels.

Onto Rolf anyway - for some reason I always assumed this song was about the American Civil War, although I realise that this makes no sense at all. At the risk of overplaying the family thing, this was the first record my uncle ever bought, which I don’t think he mentioned in his indie-band days. I don’t feel an instant urge to hear this again, and yet I wouldn’t be able to say I didn’t ever want to hear it; it’s sort of comforting to know it’s there, and as has been so astutely noted, it’s very difficult actually to dislike anything Rolf does (at least musically).

1. So when would I rave about Focus? Surely THEY never had a UK #1 (although stranger things have happened). I might also ask why I would rave about Focus? With the exception of Jan Akkerman, whom I respect as a serious musician, I found them to be an irritating mixture of pretension and absurdity. (HotK was Akkerman’s, I believe.)

2. But what I really want to know is what indeed is the link between Alma Cogan and Myra Hindley?!?!?

One last Beatles link to see out the decade. Rolf was the compere of the Beatles’ 1963 Christmas show, and told Q magazine about a run-in he’d had with them: “They stood in the wings with a microphone and made silly comments during one of my songs… I came storming off the stage and shouted, Get some bloody professionalism into you! Jesus! You don’t muck around with somebody else’s act! Don’t ever bloody do that again! And after that they didn’t bloody do it again, I can tell you.” Way to go, Rolf.

I stumbled upon “Popular” last year (while researching the link between Alma Cogan and Myra Hindley for a quiz!!) and it’s been an essential read ever since. Well done Tom and here’s to the 70s.

Well she would, wouldn’t she?

You’re quite right, Tom–SB and some of the other Nederpop groups (or Nederbeat, take your choice) were far better than they’re given credit for being.

Why I “remember” this song I never heard is that (if I recall correctly) it kept Shocking Blue’s “Venus” from hitting the top of the UK charts. (I believe it was #1 on some charts, perhaps Disc and Music Echo? At any rate, it was #1 in the US in January 70. Ik ben half Nederlands so I was interested in the so-called “Dutch invasion” that never really happened.)

Personally, I’m sorry this one prevailed. It would be more interesting to talk about “Venus,” that quirky European one-off that had nothing to do with Eurovision, a song that seems to have more lives than any cat.

“Waterloo Sunset” made it to #2, I think Sandie Shaw or The Tremeloes kept it from getting to the top.

Has Tony Blair been on Desert Island Discs yet?

Even those who plan to piss on Thatcher’s grave have to give her this: if her Desert Island Discs were focus-grouped, they got a weird bunch of freakazoids into said group.

A distant cousin of this, in the noosphere in my head, is “Almost Four” off the Captain Beaky album.

It’s a cover version (from the turn of the century) itself, no?, but presumably it was Rolf’s version they had in mind when Billy Connolly did a police brutality skit called “Two Little Boys In Blue”, and when Splodgenessabounds had a pop.

Once was enough.