Popular '77

I’ve enjoyed talking and reading about these songs more than I’ve enjoyed listening to them, which is maybe symptomatic of a year of transition. Surprising number of duds, on reflection. And two songs I’d not knowingly heard before they came up here.

TOUGH TITTY

Donna Summer.

I wasn’t even born yet in 1977 (give me another six months and I would be with you from the start, if it weren’t for infantile amnesia).

And also – as a native Swede – I have heard most of Abba’s offerings throughout my childhood. Abba may not have had any more actual pop/street cred in Sweden than in the UK, but on the other hand they were accepted by the… establishement, or parental generation, or whatever you might like to call it. They were always there, in the background if nothing else.

Oh, my English writing skills are rusty. It’s been a long time since I wrote anything in English.

But Donna Summer.

Sometime in 1992 I was exposed to Messiah’s rave version of ‘I Feel Love’. There was something about it that stuck with me. I had no idea that it was a cover version of a much older song, but I liked it. (I am, for the record, something of a closet anglophile – otherwise I would probably never have heard that track, nor would I have been following Popular for that matter).

I can still remember the first time I heard the original Donna Summer/Moroder version being played in a club, sometime in the late ’90s. It was almost… transcendental. Something like a déjà vu, or rather déjà visité phenomenon – the feeling of arriving at an unknown place and still perfectly knowing your way around it.

My English writing skills are rusty. And I’m drunk. This may not make much sense.

But still, if I were forced to pick just one song from the entire string of ’70’s #1’s and forget all the others, I’d choose ‘I Feel Love’. It’s as close to perfection as you’ll ever get.

By the way – I did rather like ‘Show You the Way to Go’ by the Jacksons. I never heard it in my life until it was featured here, but I’d say it’s my second choice of Popular ’77.

A bad crop, but it could’ve been worse. In Ireland they suffered When Benjy Wrapped His Tractor Round The Old Oak Tree by Brendan Grace at no.1 while we were luxuriating in I Feel Love. To make up for this, they also placed Carly Simon’s Nobody Does It Better, The Carpenters’ Calling Occupants and Olivia Newton John’s Sam at the top. All worthier cases than three quarters of the votes from the UK jury.

In retrospect (now that I know about punk) I can heap praise on “White Riot,” “Complete Control,” “Rockaway Beach”…but at the time I loved “Mahna Mahna” by The Muppets and “King Tut” by Steve Martin.

My three favorites that didn’t make #1 – “Sound and Vision” by David Bowie, Heatwave’s “Boogie Nights” and “Strawberry Letter 23” by Brothers Johnson. All 10s in my book.

Like others I am really looking forward to 1978!

re: #7

A drunken Swede writes more elegant English than most English people. As ever, the Scandinavians put us to shame.

Once on holiday in Denmark, clutching my Berlitz phrasebook (because you have to make an effort don’t you?) I tried to exchange some traveller’s cheques in a Danish bank. Trying to make myself understood by following the supposedly phonetic guide in the book, I eventually gave up. ‘I’m so sorry to do this,’ I lamented, ‘but do you speak any English’.
‘Yes,’ she replied in very lightly accented English, ‘I have a smattering’.
I realised with a sickening sense of my own limitations that I could live a thousand years and would never know the word ‘smattering’ in any other language.

Wasn’t he a downhill skiier?

NME Readers’ Poll for 1977, ‘Best single’ category;

1. The Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen
2. The Sex Pistols – Anarchy In The UK
3. Elvis Costello – Watching The Detectives
4. Tom Robinson – 2-4-6-8 Motorway
5. ELP – Fanfare For The Common Man
6. The Sex Pistols – Pretty Vacant
7. David Bowie – “Heroes”
8. Eddie & The Hot Rods – Do Anything You Wanna Do
9. The Stranglers – Peaches
10. The Clash – Complete Control

Well, 5 are the same, 1 artist different track, leaving:

Elvis Costello – Watching The Detectives
Tom Robinson – 2-4-6-8 Motorway
Eddie & The Hot Rods – Do Anything You Wanna Do
The Clash – Complete Control
on the NME list, not on the MM, and

Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill
Genesis – Spot The Pigeon
Thin Lizzy – Don’t Believe A Word
Deep Purple – Smoke On The Water (eh?)
on the MM list, not on the NME

I make that 3-2 to the NME there.

This is grand news. We’ll be right at the forefront for when something which had to happened happened, although, of course, TOTP plodded on regardless. Interesting times to be a teen.

And RIP, Andrea.

#20, just seen that, splendid news. Voted for 12, including both Souls and Man Tran, but not Leo, Julie or Floaters. A little surprised to see Wings up there in mid-table given that their average score to date is about 3.5. Obviously more people are doing this bit than marking individal songs – both are equally fun.

The first TOTP of 1977 – 06/01/77
Sheer elegance – light entertainment at its best (bland but with some energy)
10cc – a bit too studied for my tastes
Tina Charles – a weak song, but there’s something winning about TC
Smokie – Dr Hook wannabes – and who wants to be Dr Hook?
Gladys Knight & The Pips – wonderful voice; wonderful performance
Jethro Tull – I enjoyed this for its quirky energy
David Soul – drippy ballad made slightly more interesting by Legs & Co
Drifters – efficient if unengaging
Clodagh Rodgers – making a clean breast of her feeilings
Boney M – great performance, what’s it called again?
Yay! Donna Summer! she introduces the number 1! ‘Well done!’ say Kid! Jensen
Johnny Mathis – can’t remember the words at first – when he does I wish he would forget them again
Abba – we are the 99%

Is “Oh dear” for Putin or for Smokie?

I wasn’t sure where to post this but Marcello asked me to tell you that he is currently in hospital recovering from a mini-stroke and is making a good but slow recovery. He will be back when he is ready to start writing in the meantime, but he has to get back to his computer first, of course. Thanks, everyone.

I will, and I will let you all know when he will be back home. Thanks so much!

Oh shit – scary news indeed. Please pass on my very best wishes for a full and speedy recovery and I hope he’s back in the fray very soon. Oh, and make sure he has plenty to keep his mind occupied. It’s no fun cooped up in hospital otherwise.

Don’t for get to tell him the old bat is very concerned with the well-being of her little caramel wafer 😉

Aw, get well soon, Marcello. What you do is very much appreciated, and we all think of you and Lena with great affection.

I will see Marcello tomorrow and pass along all best wishes and messages to him. I really appreciate them and I know he will, too!

My very best wishes for a speedy recovery too. We’ve never met, but I have long greatly appreciated and valued (at FT and elsewhere) the man’s remarkable way with words and his insights.

Yes, get well very soon, Mr. Carlin. Best wishes from the guy in Portugal that wrote about The Blue in the Air.

Hi everyone, thanks for your support, M knows about all your good wishes and I know they are helping him recover. He is yet to get up and move around but he is definitely seeming more like himself and is eager to come home! He just has to get up and moving and get his digestive system back to normal (always a hospital bugbear) and then he will be fine. Thanks again for your kind thoughts!

Get well soon to the author of the excellent Then Play Long.