Ok, let's give song this a proper write-up now with some time.
Supertramp's "School" later on that decade during middle school for me was one of their first songs I've really loved and have fond memories of singing along to with my school buddies in that late 70's time period when we found this.
Best part of the song that still gives me chills with that guitar and lyrics:
Maybe I'm mistaken expecting you to fight
Or maybe I'm just crazy, I don't know wrong from right
This jazz fusion opener to their album Crime of the Century was an early favourite song of theirs. It was often played on AOR FM stations and was a great song enjoyed by my group of middle school friends. Even though Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies have their own vocally led songs, it is really a unique aspect of this band where they both have that back and forth vocals that really works, and this track is a prime example. It was predominately a Hodgson song, but Davies wrote both the piano solo and a good deal of the lyrics. The unmistakable harmonica led intro into the girl's scream into the guitar playing was just simply an iconic beginning. Hodgson said of the girl's scream: "Everything, especially that scream that you're talking about just before the band comes in, does represent a lot... I mean, you know, school is a wonderful place. Obviously, it's a school playground but that scream does represent a lot more."
At the age of 7, what do I remember about 1974? I don't remember much about Nixon resigning as Ford was the first US President I have conscious memories of. Most first graders would probably not either. From a football point of view, it wasn't that year's World Cup, it was the American football during the fall of 1974 where my childhood team of the Pittsburgh Steelers would have a great season at 10-3-1 and go on to win their first ever Super Bowl after that season in early 1975. I remember watching the season over many Sundays that fall.
From a music point of view, I wasn't yet buying records, but I still have memories of heavy doses of AM/FM radio in the DC market while traveling to my grandparents on weekends. "Jackie Blue" was one of those songs, but there were plenty others too. I'll go with this song from a Canadian artist who for the longest time as a child I thought this song was from Neil Diamond. This artist had several hits from 1968 to 1971, but had not had a single since then, and as a result had been without a record label since early 1973. He ended up forming his own label, and personally financed the recording session that produced this song. He only could afford to record two sides, and deciding the second side was good enough to be an A-side, he put an instrumental of the track on its B-side.
Is this song cheesy? You betcha, but it represents a memory at that time of what I recall listening to that year from the radio.
"Rock Me Gently" - Andy Kim
