ENGLAND WORLD CUP SQUAD 1970 - “Back Home”
(#286, 16th May 1970)
It wasn’t the first football record by a long way, but “Back Home” ticks all the genre’s traditional boxes. Rousing tune graspable by fans between 8 and 80 - yes. Heavy involvement by actual players - yes. Doughty message of hope - oh yes.
This last was a slight twist on the football songs of the 60s, generally knocked out around Cup Final time (though the Cup Final song’s 70s and 80s heyday postdates “Back Home”). In a Cup Final the odds of victory are greater so the tone of the song can be more triumphant, presenting the team as an unstoppable machine destined to win. At the start of a World Cup campaign - even this World Cup campaign, which England began as defending champions and with a squad apparently thought superior to the ‘66 team - hubris is to be avoided, so the team songs tend to be a little more humble, stressing effort not achievement. “Back Home”, with its emphasis on heroic and selfless scrapping, certainly fits this bill.
The song’s particular pivot though is the gap, and the link, between the team and the fans watching in England. This neatly touches on something exciting about the 1970 world cup. The England team had travelled to South America before, but only in the pre-Telstar days of radio broadcast. Now the “folks back home” would watch colour pictures, beamed live from the other side of the world (well, Mexico), at a time when the booming travel industry was bringing exotic locations tantalisingly closer. For good measure, the 1970 squad’s Mexican adventure fell foul of some familiar foes of Brits abroad - dodgy tummies and run-ins with local law enforcement - but some of what makes “Back Home” charming is the vicarious thrill of travel. 4
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Erithian on October 3rd, 2006
Blount (re post 16) – an odd time to be discussing the Christmas Number 1 phenomenon, apropos of a springtime World Cup record, but just a few thoughts: seasonal-themed No 1s go back as far as Let’s Have Another Party or Christmas Alphabet in the 50s, and certain Beatle songs bring Crimble to mind for many (as the Beatles had three consecutive Xmas No 1s, only matched by the Spice Girls). But I guess it really became important when the Christmas Top of the Pops became an established BBC fixture just ahead of the Queen’s Christmas broadcast. The ultimate Christmassy chart was probably ’73 (Slade, Wizzard, Elton) just as the TV ratings peaked. More on that when Tom gets there.
When marketing strategies changed in the 90s so that records usually entered at their highest position, the Christmas No 1 became a one-week race so the record companies splurged all their marketing on those seven days of maximum sales – which is why there’s such an obsession over it now. The tendency to gift the Xmas No 1 to whoever’s won Popstars or X Factor is marketing laid bare. Nowadays every chancer you can imagine tries their luck with a Christmas single – the same, especially post-“Three Lions”, goes for football tournaments. I’m still hoping the sight of Neil and Christine Hamilton’s World Cup record was just a bad dream.
FT's Tom on October 3rd, 2006
The tendency to gift the Xmas No 1 to whoever’s won Popstars or X Factor is marketing laid bare.
This is *slightly* unfair - reality TV singles tend to sell well whenever they’re released, as byproducts of popcult phenomena far more popular than ‘pop music’ as a whole is. So aligning the release of the Shayne Ward single with Christmas may be ‘marketing laid bare’ but he’d have got to #1 anyway.
A more interesting example of Xmas single marketing was the Darkness/Gary Jules race in 2003 (which pushed the Pop Idol single out of the running). The Darkness spin was “At last a proper Christmas single like Slade used to make!”. The Gary Jules spin was “Wouldnt it be amazing if this moody single beat the tinselly tat?”. Both good solid marketing propositions and a very close (and lucrative) race.
markgamon on October 3rd, 2006
Rousing tune?
Funny. I can’t remember how it goes.
I can remember the Dana one. And even Zager and Evans. But not this drivel.
FT's Tom on October 3rd, 2006
“Rousing” needn’t mean “Memorable 35 years later”, obviously.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on October 3rd, 2006
the entire concept of “rousing music” falls well outside almost ALL present-day habits of cultural approval, doesn’t it? drinking songs? seachanties? hymns? songs before you go into battle? viz songs which “get your blood up” for important upcoming physical (or spiritual) effort
Marcello Carlin on October 3rd, 2006
vindaloo
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on October 3rd, 2006
are they all basically marching songs? i think “back home” gets a bit fiddly for this — but its fiddliness is one of the things that’s wrong with it
Marcello Carlin on October 3rd, 2006
It tries timidly to be reggae just like Puppet On A String did, but there is a 25th-anniversary-of-VE-Day residual bring-the-boys-home air to the record.
markgamon on October 3rd, 2006
I can remember ‘Land of Hope and Glory’. That’s pretty rousing.
Marcello Carlin on October 3rd, 2006
Especially when Tim Brooke-Taylor used to stand to attention to it in his Union Jack Y-fronts in every episode of The Goodies.
Erithian on October 3rd, 2006
Where on earth is the reggae element in “Back Home”??
Mark M on October 3rd, 2006
Or Puppet On A String, whose rhythm is surely oompah?
FT's GeorgeB on October 4th, 2006
Yes, it’s not really a marching song, is it? A bit too fiddly as you say, and the sentiment isn’t at all harsh or martial. It doesn’t brag - which is a surprise as they were champs and expected to win the thing again. It is rousing in a nice and simple kind of way, though. Incidentally, the final track on the LP is “There’ll Always Be An England”, but as they’ve run thru things like Ob-La-Di, Sugar Sugar and the rest, it can’t really be a serious attempt to inspire a certain kind of patriotic support. Sort of linking this with a previous entry - didn’t the fans of Wolverhampton Wanderers sing the Lee Marvin song as “I was born under a Wanderers scarf”? Further, West Ham fans sang “(Bobby Moore) Viva Bobby Moore” and everybody used Yellow Submarine in some way. Twas truly a go(a)lden age!
intothefireuk on October 4th, 2006
I still have that Esso world cup coin collection - how sad is that ? This is the Mother of all football songs being the first one to gain popularity outside of the football community. Shortly after this we had ‘Blue is the colour’ and ‘Good old Arsenal’ respectively from Chelsea’s and Arsenal’s squads in the charts. All of these mass sing-a-longs keep their hooks very simple for ease of use by the fans.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on October 4th, 2006
haha i still have some petrol-station WHITE PLASTIC* BUSTS of footballers — was this from the 1974 world cup tho?
*the plastic has started to denature into goo on some of them — apparently it mustn’t touch rubber or their FACE MELTS
“blue is the colour” is rousing AND memorable and A LOT BETTER than poxy old “land of hope and glory” (which like a lot of poorly designed public hymns has too wide a vocal range for non-singers to comfortably manage) (grumpy ex-choirboy mumble mumble)
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on October 4th, 2006
actually i am mad no i do not STILL have them — they were in turn damaging the rubber of thr MUCH MORE IMPORTANT figurines* so i binned em
*don’t ask or i will TELL
Marcello Carlin on October 4th, 2006
Can’t have been 1974 ‘cos England didnae qualify in ‘74 UNLIKE SCOTLAND
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on October 4th, 2006
also i would have “too old” for such nonsense oh wait
jeff w on October 4th, 2006
mark’s heads probably from a year or two earlier? I remember collecting plastic busts of Famous American Indians (Cochise etc.) in the early 70s - tho’ whether they came from a petrol station or out of a cereal box I don’t recall now.
Chris Brown on October 4th, 2006
Dragging us back to Christmas here - I presume the idea of scheduling Shayne Ward for Christmas was to maximise sales. 2004’s X-Factor single actually came out on the 20th December, which was too late for a Christmas Number One anyway. In fact, the disadvantage (for them) of running these shows so close to the end of the year is that they can’t get an album out in time for Christmas, which is where the money is.
Oh, and ‘Christmas Is All Around’ was released as a single in real life, but only got to 26.
Forgive my ignorance, but was it ‘74 or ‘78 when England didn’t qualify? They didn’t have a hit in either year, which seems odd given the size of their hits either side of the decade.
Mark M on October 5th, 2006
England didn’t qualify in ‘74 or ‘78, a shocking decline after ‘66 & ‘70 (although admittedly it was a 16 team tournament in those days).
Mark Grout on October 5th, 2006
The b-side “Cinnamon Stick” is bizarre. A song about seeing a girl at a cafe sucking a cinnamon stick is rendered strange by everyone singing it, as if the whole squad were taken by her charms..
Oh.
Zoe on January 19th, 2007
Are the links broken here? I am desperately trying to get hold of a download of this song for a project - can anyone help me?
FT's Tom on January 19th, 2007
There aren’t any links to song downloads on Popular, because it’s not an MP3 blog - it’s reviewing very well known songs in general.
Email freakytrigger@gmail.com though and I’ll see if I can help.
FT's alext on January 19th, 2007
b-b-but how is something allowed to be on the internet without having any illegally distributed copyright material attached to it!!
Caledonianne on July 16th, 2007
Marcello is right. This is bilge. 1970 was the last time wee Scots boys would collect England world cup medals. After the 1974 General Elections even Esso wouldn’t be so crass.
lesley rees on August 21st, 2007
I live in perth western australia and I would like to know if anyone can tell me where I can get the song back home from.Please email me back if anyone knows where I can buy it from,whether it is in england or australia.
regards
lesley