![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse6.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey2.jpg)
With his room cleaning kit
A bit of family history here. Cozy Powell’s interview from 1979, where he talks about Rainbow, their new album, and the arrival of Bonnet and Glover into the band. Interesting to note, that neither Cozy nor the interviewer have any qualms describing the music he’s playing (and yeas, that includes Down to Earth) as heavy metal.
Thanks to Ritchie Blackmore Official for posting this.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Have to laugh at the subtitles, ‘shadow’ for Château and Dr Water for ‘duck to water’ ha ha ha. Karin, see how important Tea is, well especially for English people. Not coffee, Tea, Tea, Tea. Cheers.
June 8th, 2025 at 02:56Forgot to mention the ‘heavy metal’ tag, sheesh Cozy, ten years ago, heavy metal?????????????? GRRRRRRRRRR!
June 8th, 2025 at 03:02Time for a cup of tea me thinks. Cheers.
I love how dark humour was always running parallel to facts and reality when it comes to answering awkward questions.
June 8th, 2025 at 07:36Peace ✌️
CP: GB sang Mistreated better than RJD did… well…well…well.. could be true…………. or not.
June 8th, 2025 at 10:47I also thought about that at the time.. the same man who got RG kicked out of Purple is now asking him to join his band..
the old “forgive and forget” thing I guess.. No use still being bitter after all those years.. strike another match go start a new
as somebody once sang.
No one has yet communicated to me a 100% foolproof and accurate definition to delineate hard rock from heavy rock from heavy metal – other than the tried and trusted “I know it when I see it”. I find the whole discussion nonsensical. It’s easy to place extremes, we can all agree that Slipknot is heavy metal and Cream is (bluesy) hard rock (or hard blues rock?). So then Black Sabbath whose first two albums – deemed epochal by their fans – have a lot more in common with Cream’s output than with Slipknot’s aren’t metal either? It just doesn’t add up.
There are hundreds of bands that are difficult to categorize – Lemmy was hilariously steadfast in his claim that Motörhead were not heavy metal, I’d say most Kerrang! And Metal Hammer subscribers would disagree. 😌 AC/DC don’t want to be heavy metal either, while Saxon are proudly so, yet the way the two bands construct their songs bears a lot of similarities in the simplistic riffage they prefer. Saxon sometimes just play a little faster. KISS have always stated unequivocally that they are not heavy metal either, I’d imagine many people with a more pop taste in music would rub their eyes at this and I haven’t seen KISS booed off at any heavy metal festival either (just like DP and even Status Quo have had gloriously successful headlining slots at Wacken).
Often superficialities are employed in an attempt to discern the genres, like black leather, gun belts and studded wristbands indicate heavy metal … well Ashley Holt of Warhorse wore studded wrist bands already in 1971,
https://youtu.be/tFlival8uOc
does that then make Warhorse heavy metal, while Big Ian with Mk II wasn’t? Ted Nugent never wore black leather on stage (he preferred animal skins in natural colors but Bachman Turner Overdrive wore furs and brown leather on stage long before him) while Blue Öyster Cult were even earlier than Judas Priest in getting their black leather stage outfits from NYC gay shops,
https://opinion-images.wsj.net/im-87621149?width=3307&size=1.077
so that makes BÖC (who used the term frequently to describe their own music) heavy metal and Uncle Ted not?
Depending on your vantage point, it is perfectly legitimate to describe Burn as a hard rock, heavy rock or heavy metal song.
And the Heavy Metal Kids never played a heavy metal song in their life, they were early punky power pop.
https://youtu.be/_4_YoeCpF74
The first Monsters of Rock event ever featured – besides Bonnet era Rainbow – Judas Priest, Scorpions (who claim that they are not heavy metal), Saxon and Riot, that is four heavy metal bands (according to conventional wisdom at least) right there.
And Quo’s Francis Rossi once said in an interview “Alan (Lancaster) and Rick (Parfitt) both like heavy metal, but I don’t, can’t stand that stuff. The only exception for me is Rainbow, I listen to them, they have good melodies.” And he actually meant the Bonnet line up because via Pip Williams, the producer, there was a connection between Bonnet and Status Quo (who also guested on some of Graham’s solo albums). It goes to show that even musicians don’t really have a compelling definition for what heavy metal really is, it’s just a tag, more culturally than musically defined.
Re the interview: I always liked hearing and reading Cozy interviews, the man had a nice humor and pleasant speaking voice. The Marble’s Only One Woman was btw on a Cozy mixed tape they were all listening to when Bonnet’s voice caught their attention.
https://youtu.be/OuW5Z7mVIYY
And while Cozy had qualms whether it was right for Rainbow, he actually liked this song in the version of a South African all-female group that Bruce Payne played to him in his office with the instruction that “Rainbow needs a hit”.
https://youtu.be/vJcZn4OOSMs
Yet he refused to play a third take of his drum part on SYBG against Roger imploring him to give it another try because he hated recording it, which is the reason why Roger says that “the drums still sound a little stiff on the recording”.
Also: Ritchie had no intention initially to bring Roger back as a bassist – Roger had last played bass in a live setting in the middle of 1973 with Purple in Japan as Cozy rightfully states in the interview. Graham and Don were the first to ask “why Roger isn’t in the band” during the recording of DTE, Ritchie then warmed to the idea but only extended an invitation after having conferred with Cozy whether Roger would be alright with him. He was.
Though I always wonder whether Roger being Ritchie’s new foil in Rainbow did not a little bit influence Cozy’s decision to jump ship a year later. He didn’t leave Rainbow because of Don (whom he had brought in) and not because of Graham (whom he liked and brought into MSG subsequently – while his relationship to RJD always remained strained for reasons I don’t know) and even the initially derided by him SYBG became later on his signature tune he was proud to play in other bands.
https://youtu.be/RLfE3hXl2OM
Maybe he felt that Roger’s joint Purple heritage with Ritchie diminished his own role in Rainbow, Cozy always wanted to co-lead, be it Rainbow, MSG, Whitesnake, ELP, Black Sabbath or even Peter Green’s Splinter Group.
June 8th, 2025 at 15:23@ 5
Cozy always wanted to co-lead, indeed. And he also was the leader in Cozy Powell ‘s Hammer and in Bedlam. But what was his role in the Jeff Beck Group ?
June 8th, 2025 at 16:19The name “heavy metal”, originally likely taken from Steppenwolf’s Born To Be Wild and the “heavy metal thunder”
mentioned therein (and later on epitomized by Saxon
https://youtu.be/zW5v9jIxKqw ),
was already by the mid 70s well-established for all types of rock with a guitar emphasis, just look here:
https://www.discogs.com/release/1624466-Various-Heavy-Metal-24-Electrifying-Performances/image/SW1hZ2U6NTkxNDA0Mw==?srsltid=AfmBOooGxgscg4tjRq3nbo5csy3WuhYyUNmESj_ldQnndQSs-4UCaxI8
https://www.discogs.com/release/1624466-Various-Heavy-Metal-24-Electrifying-Performances
I had that Warner Bros double album back then in Zaïre, listening to it religiously because it introduced me to so many bands I didn’t yet know back then, it was pivotal for my music taste as it is today. It even contained an Eagles song as “heavy metal”
https://youtu.be/kdlpP2mMT9w
and you know what? They weren’t even that far off because by 02:20 that song develops into a double time hard rock tour de force reminiscent of something Uriah Heep might have done. The Eagles weren’t just soft country balladeers.
Someone calling DP “heavy metal” is to me like someone referring to a frog or a toad as a “reptile” or a spider as an “insect”, it’s not quite right, but you roundabout know what he/she means.
June 8th, 2025 at 19:14Rudy, Cozy once answered to an NME scribe’s question circa 1977 how it was to work for Ritchie: “I don’t work FOR Ritchie, I work WITH Ritchie! I worked FOR Jeff Beck for two years and it got me nowhere!”
June 8th, 2025 at 20:22Uwe must have enjoyed a few cups of strong coffee before his rant about eavy metl…………….! Sheesh is it that complicated, no it isn’t. Of course Cozy is going to call everything heavy metal, look how he plays and his drum set up says so too.. The real conundrum is who is Dr Water? Someone in stealth mode perhaps, Ritchie’s pseudonym maybe? A secret songwriter or producer perhaps. The mind boggles at that one. That is much more interesting. Seriously though Uwe, I thought Cozy has always said that he loathed the commercial pop rock aspect to some of those new Rainbow songs. That is why he left, not interested in pursuing the AOR game etc. Cheers.
June 8th, 2025 at 21:50Uwe, very good points. Particularly with the Cream and Black Sabbath comparison. When I listen to We’re Going Wrong by Cream I think a lot of Sabbath. Iommi mentioned Clapton as an influence on his playing but more with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, but personally I hear more of Clapton’s Cream era. Even with Bill Ward and Geezer as a rhythm section, I can hear a Jack Bruce/Ginger Baker influence in their playing as well especially on Sabbath’s first album and Paranoid.
June 8th, 2025 at 23:21The Steppenwolf song lyrics are just that, words within the context of the movie and the roar of heavy motorcycles etc. Musically speaking it was already a ‘common’ phrase used in the description of certain rock music. From what I have just read Sandy Pearlman used it to describe the Rolling Stones album in 1967. ‘the Stones have gone metal on this one’ or words to that effect. From the dreaded Wikipedia: “An early documented use of the phrase in rock criticism appears in Sandy Pearlman’s February 1967 Crawdaddy review of the Rolling Stones’ Got Live If You Want It (1966), albeit as a description of the sound rather than as a genre: “On this album the Stones go metal. Technology is in the saddle—as an ideal and as a method.”Another appears in the 11 May 1968 issue of Rolling Stone, in which Barry Gifford wrote about the album A Long Time Comin’ by U.S. band Electric Flag: “Nobody who’s been listening to Mike Bloomfield—either talking or playing—in the last few years could have expected this. This is the new soul music, the synthesis of white blues and heavy metal rock.” In the 7 September 1968 edition of the Seattle Daily Times, reviewer Susan Schwartz wrote that the Jimi Hendrix Experience “has a heavy-metals blues sound”. However, William S Burroughs used the term in the early 1960’s. “The origin of the term “heavy metal” in a musical context is uncertain. The phrase has been used for centuries in chemistry and metallurgy, where the periodic table organizes elements of both light and heavy metals (e.g., uranium). An early use of the term in modern popular culture was by countercultural writer William S. Burroughs. His 1961 novel The Soft Machine includes a character known as “Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid”. Burroughs’ next novel, Nova Express (1964), develops the theme, using “heavy metal” as a metaphor for addictive drugs: “With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms—Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes—And The Insect People of Minraud with metal music.” Inspired by Burroughs’ novels, the term was used in the title of the 1967 album Featuring the Human Host and the Heavy Metal Kids by Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, which has been claimed to be its first use in the context of music. The phrase was later lifted by Sandy Pearlman, who used the term to describe the Byrds for their supposed “aluminium style of context and effect”, particularly on their album The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968).
June 9th, 2025 at 00:25This discussion is interesting!
So Gary Holton’s Heavy Metal Kids likely got their name from William S Burroughs’ work.
And it confirms that ‘heavy metal’ was originally an American phrase/term. I went to an American school and in 1974 certainly knew that it stood for a certain type of music with a guitar riff emphasis. Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad and even the MC5 were all qualified as heavy metal by Mr at the time, I thought it was a cool term.
When I returned to Germany, however, in 1976 the same music was referred to by my classmates as “heavy rock” or “Hartrock” Yet in the British music magazines I read – mainly NME and Melody Maker (Sounds was somehow not easily available in Germany) – a band like Judas Priest was categorized as heavy metal already in 1977 – long before the advent of the NWOBHM. I remember a quote about a KISS album in the NME where it said “This album is proof that it takes less skill to play heavy metal passably than any other music known to man”. Mind you, even Rush (making their first waves in Europe with 2112) were referred to as heavy metal by the NME back then.
Here’s another enlightening article on the subject:
https://metalnprog.wordpress.com/tag/lester-bangs/
Anyway, that is why I do not get worked up if someone refers to DP, Rainbow, GILLAN or WS as heavy metal, it is to me a term for guitar riff-laden music projected with a certain energy and dedication and equipped with a staunch backbeat and a high tolerance for guitar solos otherwise not really prevalent in pop music anymore. Yes, DP fit that slot in a roundabout )pun intended) way.
One can also add that the core audience of heavy metal is chiefly young males though there are of course headbanger gurlz too. Just look at Karin! 😎
PS: I’m not really buying that “Cozy left Rainbow because the music changed from Dio era to DTE”-lore, Herr MacGregor, I think it was personal disappointment about how Ritchie ran the band and maybe Cozy’s diminishing role in it. MSG and WS were both not really heavier than Rainbow, ELP was even prog, Brian May had a healthy pop content and Peter Green was even blues, you can’t really say that Cozy always opted for the heaviest bands, Black Sabbath being the one exception. Cozy has never really had issues playing pop as long as it had some energy.
https://youtu.be/6SENIl8GIn8
First and foremost, however, Cozy was a demanding and impatient proud man who wouldn’t take shit from anybody which often led him to impromptu decisions of leaving bands in a huff, toys out of the pram, drum sticks away from the Yamaha set so to say! 😂 There are some indications that he came to regret some of those adhoc departure decisions in his career, may it be with Rainbow, MSG, WS (he could have been a part of the 1987 recording) or ELP (whose music he apparently enjoyed very much). Don only mentioned recently in an interview that Cozy made overtures to maybe return to Rainbow for the recording of DTC, but by then Blackmore had already integrated Bobby Rondinelli (who likely demanded less of a wage than Cozy).
PPS: Sidroman, you’re right, Geezer Butler adored Jack Bruce’s bass playing (and sounds like a stoner version of him) and Bill Ward shares a jazzy touch with Ginger Baker. Early Sabbath was hugely Cream’ish, just a bit more lumbering/slowed down.
June 9th, 2025 at 12:34The old ‘personality differences’ would be why Cozy left Rainbow. For whatever reason and as you said he was head strong the same as Blackmore was and it wasn’t Cozy’s band. Otherwise Blackmore would have been the one out the door. From the link to that ‘heavy metal’ article. “So, is it the musical style that is so repulsive or the image? Or is it just the term “heavy metal”? Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan has never liked the label. “Heavy metal is a term that is just unintentionally clumsy.” Very true indeed. I suppose what started as a few innocent reviews back in the late 1960’s has created a genre in itself, as things do. The fact that early on rock or heavy rock music was called that isn’t the point to me. The term has become a handy genre to throw almost anything into that, that resembles rock or more to the point heavy rock. So it is laughable and embarrassing to me when DP and Led Zeppelin especially are deliberately placed into that abyss. It is a wonder King Crimson are not in there as well, Robert Fripp’s heavy ‘dissonant’ riffs are some of the heaviest out there in rock music land. I noticed that DP were spared any indignation in that article and rightly so. The fact that LZ and a few others actually were very diverse in their compositions and didn’t really create a lot of ‘heavy’ music says a lot. Many rock music followers like their music harder. It is a primal energy thing, When Tobias the frontman from Ghost said recently that no one ever talks about Black Sabbath’s lighter side in their music, it is a shame. I guess that music isn’t hard enough for many, not primal in its delivery. Throw it all into the heavy metal genre and hang on to it for dear life. When I was being introduced to all this music as a younger teenager, I really like the quieter music too, not just the primal hard rock. Of course that (heavier music) had its appeal especially when younger, the rebellious nature of it all. However I was brought up listening to my father’s music, classical, male and female vocalists and musicals, it was the song and the music that mattered, not the genre etc. It is a fine line for some out there. To be Heavy or to not be Heavy, that is the question. Cheers.
June 9th, 2025 at 23:54Uwe, in reference to Cozy leaving Emerson, Lake & Powell, that was solely down to finances. Apparently the record company withdrew finances for the second album and dropped them like the proverbial hot spud. Greg Lake immediately withdrew. All was fine in that band up until that point. As this 2010 article shows, what Cozy allegedly said , “after working with Blackmore, Coverdale and Schenker, these two guys (Emerson and Lake) were almost a dream.” Knowing Cozy as any of us do, that could be taken any possible way, bless him. Cheers.
https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/emerson-lake-palmer-failures
June 10th, 2025 at 01:15Not sure GB’s Mistreated would be better than RJD but GB was miles better than JLT, if only he was a song writer as well. DTE is much better than anything that followed
June 10th, 2025 at 08:17I heard in a Keith Emerson interview that Greg and Cozy didn’t get along at all and that there were screaming tournaments between them. They were at loggerheads not for musical reasons, but because of different outlooks on life.
To Cozy’s defense: Greg Lake could be difficult with anybody.
Money likely played a role too.
June 10th, 2025 at 08:33I totally agree, David, Bonnet (and thus DTE) had real swagger (to my mind more than RJD), JLT – a fine singer – did not. Graham was live so uninhibited it made Rainbow a little dangerous. There was something “hell, I’m gonna do this now even if I get arrested” slightly irresponsibly laddish to him. I really liked that – Dio was always so perfectly in control of his voice and stage performance, while Graham sometimes did things that had you think “this can impossibly work” – and sometimes it didn’t, but that’s rock’n’roll for you!
Re Mistreated, lots of people can SING that song well – Ronnie, Graham & Glenn all did or do, even Joe could have -, but I think there is only one person who can credibly project the necessary wounded lion’s roar and hurt machismo behind it and that is the kid from Saltburn-by-the-Sea, it is HIS song as much as Child In Time is Ian Gillan’s song. Ronnie might have been singing about how his pet dragon ungratefully bit him while he was feeding him evil wizard jerkies when forming the words “I’ve been mistreated”, but he was really as unconvincing with it as Graham was singing lines from Stargazer or DC (the careful driver, non-speeder and generally all silly risks – wimmin excepted of course! – avoiding man) attempting Highway Star.
Deep inside, Ronnie knew it, he never liked to perform that song, only Ritchie wanted it. Among all the male singers who have also done it, Bonnet would probably be second best after young Coverdale because Graham has at least some manic desperation in his voice. Anyway, they wrote Love’s No Friend for him instead (which Joe initially also performed on the DTC tour and his version wasn’t t bad).
June 10th, 2025 at 15:10@17
June 11th, 2025 at 09:18I must admit, I’m not a big fan of Mistreated in general, the live-versions of course include some fine soloing in between the effortful vocal-excursions. I tend to like the Dio-versions more and I am not sure if RJD disliked singing it that much, as he even did it with his own band Dio – dispite not having written it – on tour in ’96/’97.
Musically, Mistreated is kinda lame, I agree. I know Blackmore opted for a “less is more” approach with it, trying to steer DP in a bluesier Free-like direction (the riff existed already during Mk II days), but somehow I prefer it when there is more movement in his riffs like in SOTW, Lazy, Burn, MOTSM or KAYBD, because he’s such a nimble and elegant player. Chordwise, there is not much going on either.
However, that is just me, I know the song and the riff mean the world to a lot of people though it is my least liked track on Burn … 🙈 and I did think that WS did a better job with it than Rainbow, WS’ version didn’t lumber as much.
June 11th, 2025 at 13:02Musically, Mistreated is kinda lame, I agree. I know Blackmore opted for a “less is more” approach with it, trying to steer DP in a bluesier Free-like direction (the riff existed already during Mk II days), but somehow I prefer it when there is more movement in his riffs like in SOTW, Lazy, Burn, MOTSM or KAYBD, because he’s such a nimble and elegant player. Chordwise, there is not much going on either.
However, that is just me, I know the song and the riff mean the world to a lot of people though it is my least liked track on Burn … 🙈 and I did think that WS did a better job with it than Rainbow, WS’ version didn’t lumber as much.
June 11th, 2025 at 13:03Agreed, Uwe. ‘The wounded lion’s roar…” exactly that! What on earth made GH sing it is beyond me. Of course he can sing anything – but why try to outdo DC on his signature tune? Ridiculously vain. Dio.did better but it wasn’t his at all. Bonnet’s Stargazer is a good example here – both never felt right. Does anybody remembet tenor Peter Hofmann doing House of the Rising Sun. The man could sing of course but it was just…so wrong.
June 11th, 2025 at 17:49He tipped well. Peter H I mean. During my student days I was fortunate enough to sometimes help out as the cashier of “Sauna 2000”, one of the finest Frankfurt establishments together with the legendary “Sudfass”. Herr Hoffmann was a good customer, a gracious man, very popular with the girls to whom he was charming and courteous. He always took a few of them to the bubble bath – as you would expect from a true Heldentenor.
I was young and I needed the money. Don’t judge me. 😎 I never forgot that peculiar mix of the scents of expensive musky bath gels, champagne and, of course, semen.
June 11th, 2025 at 21:02@ 22- “I was young and I needed the money.” That is what they ALL say Uwe. I am looking forward to Karin’s reply. Maybe it is time for a good ole ‘pile on’ in regards to Uwe’s younger days in the ‘Red’ light district. Everyone is welcome to add their take on this, keep some music in it though, because ALLEGEDLY Uwe was there being a DJ. So there may have been a little music involved, depending on the situation of course. “Hit me with your rhythm stick, hit me hit me”! That sort of music. Cheers.
June 12th, 2025 at 08:57Very interesting insight in the classical circuit, Uwe. So he did his version of House of the Rising Sun out of a deeper understanding – if to no effect sadly.
June 12th, 2025 at 14:12Karin has turned away in shock, despair and horror!
Come to think of it, my higher tolerance for funk and soul also come from my red light district days. I played a lot of rock during my shift (so much the girls called it laughingly “Rockpalast”), but also a lot of funk, rap, soul and popular disco. And if you listen to that music seven hours every shift, six days a week, bands like The Commodores, Chic or Sisters Sledge begin to grow on you.
June 12th, 2025 at 15:08@23
“I am looking forward to Karin’s reply”
– I still remain speechless 😄
June 12th, 2025 at 18:59@25
“Karin has turned away in shock, despair and horror!”
– well, not at all!
Unless that what was you wanted 😉
June 12th, 2025 at 19:51People live a very sheltered life in Jylland, somewhat secluded from and insulated against the moral decay of this world. We should not unduly unsettle poor Karin. Nor tell her that a younger Ian Gillan was once pictured on the inner sleeve of the Perfect Strangers album (and the corresponding tour program) with a bunch of ladies from Hamburg engaging in the same trade as the girls in Sauna 2000 did. So much in life is of transactional nature.
Max, you’re right, the Heldentenor conducting sociological studies in a house of the rising sun – I should have thought of that one! 😂 He wasn‘t the only celebrity I met there. Another one was a member of the extended DP Family whom the ladies of the night had lovingly and appreciatively nicknamed “der Indianer”. Alas!, a fallen angel who’d lost his wings, marooned in Germany and banished from the fold, but I’m of course not giving away names!
How did we get to unsavory themes such as this one? Ah, now I remember, Max started it!
https://youtu.be/RQa7SvVCdZk
June 12th, 2025 at 21:58@ 25 – “And if you listen to that music seven hours every shift, six days a week, bands like The Commodores, Chic or Sisters Sledge begin to grow on you.” I tip my hat to Uwe for surviving all that for that amount of time. A feat of endurance and dare I say it, discipline in itself. @ 26 -” – “I still remain speechless 😄” I can understand that Karin. This is a ‘innocent’ Deep Purple related site and at times we are dragged through Hamburgs Reeperbahn St Pauli area and god knows where else. However we remain vigilant and dare I say it, disciplined as much as we can be, in keeping one punter here on his toes at least. I just had to pull him up for a spelling error, what is this world coming to? Cheers.
June 12th, 2025 at 23:16Max is sowas von to blame. His sons didn‘t hold him back either.
https://youtu.be/SXUzJgCYZws
June 12th, 2025 at 23:18Uwe…no need for excuses here…I even came to like funk and soul without working in the…ahem… entertainment business. Go figure. But as a lawyer in later days I am sure you more than made up for your misspent youth… one good deed a day… at least.
June 13th, 2025 at 00:37As a poet known to us all put it: …and the good lord knows you’re all…saints and sinners
@28
“People live a very sheltered life in Jylland”
– indeed we do Uwe!
We are innocent, without dirty minds at all! So when I read stuff in here where I detect some double entendre, I always pretend that it’s not written for my innocent eyes 😌
“We should not unduly unsettle poor Karin.”
– thank you, I’m very grateful! (Still I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, but as usual I just nod and smile 😊
“Ian Gillan was once pictured on the inner sleeve”
– but this I would really love to see 😍
Well, life goes on, I’m told, and today I can inform you good people in here that summer has come to Denmark!
It is VERY nice 🥰
Later today I will go for a walk nearby where I know the wolves are residing!
June 13th, 2025 at 10:49I can’t wait to see them.
So if I’m not heard from again, Anton and I might have moved in with them, or have become their afternoon snack 😝😄
@29
“I can understand that Karin. This is a ‘innocent’ Deep Purple related site and at times we are dragged through Hamburgs Reeperbahn St Pauli area and god knows where else.”
– it’s perfectly ok MacGregor 🤗 remember I was raised with four wonderful, but, ahem, very masculine brothers, so even though I like to present myself as a innocent county belle, I’m not unfamiliar with whatever Uwe, Max or yourself present in here 😄😄
But when I plead the 5th amendment (hope this is remotely correct 😆) I only do it for my own protection and to keep my mind at ease ☺️😉
“However we remain vigilant and dare I say it, disciplined as much as we can be,”
– this is of great comfort for me ☺️😃
Btw MacGregor, you living in Tasmania, so I wonder if you have the cooler weather now?
June 13th, 2025 at 11:01I have some in-laws living in the Philippines and woah what they tell us about hurricanes and rain…. I’m quite content living in a peaceful country as Denmark.
But how is it right now where you live?
Gentlemen, does any of you know the ‘reason’ for this very romantic song:
https://youtu.be/7GeA_nCAyes?si=1Wy0Ld8BV7YqLABs
I’ve found it very interesting always, and it’s also quite intriguing but for the life of me (or is it death, never seem to remember) I can’t remember the background for it.
June 13th, 2025 at 11:23And I do seem to remember Ian once said he writes poetry because of someone or something.
So please help me 😊😗
@ 33- nice to hear Karin that your summer has arrived. And for those wolves too, have to love that. Winter has arrived here in this part of the world (a lot further south than the Phillipines), bleak but not as cold as up your way gets during the winter. Plenty of frosts and showers occasionally to keep the indoor ‘games’ busy. Games, I mean as in keeping an eye on the ‘sentinal’ here at THS. You know the one, he who resides south from you, the one who has a penchant for all that is leather and Harley Davidson motor bikes and ‘eavy metl’. He will get his fix in a couple of days at the Judas Priest concert, hopefully that will be good for him and we can all rest easy for a few days, he he he. He did well recently though sending the link to Rainbow’s Stargazer song, lyrics that even Uwe (aka, he who must be obeyed) cannot seem to get enough of. Be a good day. In regards to that Ian Gillan song, that was posted here recently from my memory. A good song it is too, I still enjoy it. Cheers.
June 13th, 2025 at 23:49@35
Ohh MacGregor, a concert with JP, Uwe’s all time favourites !
That explains why he has been so, and here I need a word in English, but in Danish the word is ‘utidig’ ☺️
Well it’s no secret that I prefer Purple with Ian as the vocalist ☺️ even though I have come to appreciate David C a great deal too!
Actually I saw ‘Mistreated’ – heard it too 😉 – in an early concert recording and his voice was really nice!
Not Ian Gillan-nice, but very good!
Poor you who has winter time now. But as my dad used to say: when winter is near, spring isn’t far away 🥰
June 14th, 2025 at 08:44If I Sing Softly is one of the worst IG ballads ever, incredibly forced, overcooked and pretentious. Never liked it. The whole Future Shock album does very little for me.
Danish summer is glorious! Both days. 😑
June 14th, 2025 at 12:54@37
🤣🤣🤣
Uwe, Uwe, Uwe!
Thank you for the in-depth analysis of ‘If I sing softly’
But that wasn’t what I actually asked for!
Nevertheless I’m deeply grateful and impressed with the many hours you must have used to come up with this:
“If I Sing Softly is one of the worst IG ballads ever“ 😂😂
Ohh and I will certainly not forget to mention this gem among your superb outpourings:
“Never liked it” 🤣🤣
I love the song!
I love the lyrics, and I certainly adore Ian’s voice, he seems to be tormented, he really sounds like he is in pain because he is deeply in love but don’t know if his loved one wants him or not.
That really touch my girlish heart 🥺
What I do would like to know is the story behind the song!
That’s all 😃
And yes, we enjoy soooooo much the two-days summer we’re almost certain to enjoy every year 😉
June 15th, 2025 at 14:58You bet I‘m tormented too when I have to listen to “If I Sing Softly”. Ian then touches me like my dentist during root canal treatment. For people who don’t like IG, I imagine he must sound like that all the time. 🤣
I’ve been “utidig” all my life, no need for imminent JP concerts to trigger me, but I will be – like I always do – happily pounding my chest and yelling “I’m made of metal, my circuits gleam, I am perpetual, I keep the country cleaaaaaaan!”
https://youtu.be/yMVV_HsHcX0
https://gifdb.com/images/high/terminator-arnold-schwarzenegger-hand-skin-peel-off-kn1yhdm3eui6oncw.gif
But I’m also a lover of sensitive poetry. The quote of your daddy, Karin, about winter announcing imminent spring, had me reminisce about this beautiful German saying supportive of the underestimated libido of balding men past middle-age:
“Wo am Gipfel schon die Gletscher leuchten, ist im Tal immer noch Frühling.”
Which roughly translates as:
“Where the glaciers at the summit shine, there is still spring in the valley.”
I wanted to deliver the goods on that!
https://youtu.be/72iwZLKqH2s
June 15th, 2025 at 16:42If I Sing Softly is one of Ian Gillan’s better songs, well I should say better sung songs with so much haunting drama involved in it. A very good song it is to my ears with a trifecta of (co) songwriters, Gillan, McCoy and Torme involved. Probably the best track on Future Shock to be honest. It was the early 80’s after all with all that angst etc. They (Gillan) were an aggressive rock band, what are they supposed to sound like, Madonna or someone else? No need for uncle Bob to be involved at all in that, sorry, Saint Bob. Once again, it sounds like Uwe is putting the ‘production’ before the song, oh dear. Calling it pretentious says a lot, not to worry, each to their own for those old tired horses trundling around that old worn out course. Cheers.
June 15th, 2025 at 22:35If I may suggest softly: a good, maybe even great song it is – but it sounds pretty awful. As almost everything on Future Shock. And for me No laughing in Heaven is the stand out track. Even sounds best.
June 16th, 2025 at 06:27well why we are at it, the devil is in the detail, so to speak. Gillan and Future Shock over at Louder Classic rock.
https://www.loudersound.com/music/albums/gillan-future-shock
June 16th, 2025 at 07:07Well, root canal or not!
I love that song ❤️🩹
MacGregor, you’re right: it is haunting, but the good way.
Max, you think it sounds awful? Ok, I can only hear the intense pain in his voice 🥺
June 16th, 2025 at 09:20And you’re right: No Laughing in Heaven is superb.
Karin, in an attempt not to provoke any reaction of eternal wrath by the powers that be I agreed to you about the quality of that song…while on the other hand I gave Uwe his due concerning the sound of the record and Gillan’s voice on the track in question.
June 16th, 2025 at 19:10Mr. MacGregor provided a rather interesting piece via a link where each and everyone can get their view on Future Shock agreed on. From masterpiece to sonic murks.
Murks being a lovely german word that means something not done very proper. An rather old fashioned one that is surprisingly current this time and place.
That was a good link, Herr MacGregor, danke, it always interests me how other people rate an album.
It is mostly the weak and abrasive – even for GILLAN standards – production that kills this album for me. That and the so-so songwriting. There is not a truly compelling song on the record, both Glory Road and Double Trouble Studio feature much better song material. NLIH is a goodnatured spoof-number but you wouldn‘t have put it on Sgt. Pepper, would you?
June 16th, 2025 at 21:02I remember Future Shock being ravaged in Musikexpress, especially “If I Sing Softly” about which the journo wrote it “has all the romance of a finger imploring the nose to finally be allowed to pick a bugger”.
I didn’t like the album (a disappointment after Glory Road which I dug), but even I thought that was mean! Not nice, nein. What would have Karin thought and all. Better not tell her.
To me Future Shock sounded mainly one thing: rushed (out). It came out only eight months after Glory Road and the recording sessions of the two were only seven months apart, why all the haste? It also didn’t have enough Colin Towns songs on it either and those it did feature weren’t as strong as what he usually provided.
June 17th, 2025 at 03:03@44
“not to provoke any reaction of eternal wrath by the powers that be”
– 😆😆
Max, if you knew me personally, you’d soon find out that everything Uwe is saying about me, is not true!
Actually I am a 😽
I know the word ‘murks’, (German people tend to yell it at me whenever I try to speak German ☺️😉)
However I do tend to get some irrational twitches when people around me can’t hear what a magnificent voice Mr Gillan possesses ☺️
June 17th, 2025 at 04:28I heard a man hum a birthday song once, and he was actually better than Ian, but besides him, Ian has the best voice I have ever heard.
@40
“They (Gillan) were an aggressive rock band, what are they supposed to sound like, Madonna or someone else?”
– 😂😂
This is a brilliant remark!
UWE: take notes from MacGregor, will ya?!
And at the same time, get a lesson or two from Max too!
I agree MacGregor, re not putting the production over the lyrics/singing!
I often imagine being at the impressive and interesting ‘desert island’, and thinking what do I need most here: and that is not an overly well produced song or album, but lyrics that moves me and a voice that can get the hair on my head a severe need for some hairspray…. (So to speak!)
I really like Jeff Lynne and Electric Light Orchestra, and compared to this song (‘If I sing softly’) it’s easy to detect that JL overproduced well everything.
Not that he isn’t fantastic at what he does (I guess the prominent survivors of the Beatles wouldn’t have had him produce their ‘Free as a bird’, the whole record (wasn’t it white? 😉) and also their solo albums) but what I really don’t like about JL (even though his voice is NICE!) is that I’m never sure if it really are real instruments or some nifty computer/synth magic I hear.
And the fact that it is simply too perfect…. A little dirt has never hurt anyone ☺️
What gives me chills up and down my spine are not necessarily a well-produced song, but a singer where I can feel his pain, his joy, love etc.
Those emotions seem to vanish when producing takes over.
In other words: I love to think of how it will sound sitting around a bonfire, with my loved one, and Ian with a guitar and his marvellous voice, singing a nice song, while we can hear the wolves howling in the background ( yes on my desert island there do live wolves!), the chickadees and singing, the fire is cracking ever so gently, and you can feel the warmth in front of you, and the coolness at your back, and now and then a coconut drops in the sand, the sky above shows the qadrazillion stars (we can’t see proper because of all that light cities all over produce all the time), the moon is hanging up there and seems to be winking at us, the smells of beautiful flowers and coffee brewing in a pot, and everything is just so nice and lovely 😍
To cut this short: Inhalt über Form!
June 17th, 2025 at 05:44The intro of If I Sing Softly could very well be “inspired” by some early tune of a band Ian was to join just two years later…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8jchyQpylw
June 17th, 2025 at 07:09😀 @48 😀
June 17th, 2025 at 08:35Just brillant Karin! To cut this short…
I agree wholeheartly with Inhalt über Form! And most of that other points you come up with.
What on earth makes a girl of wit and wisdom that digs Gillan and Baird like the likes of Jeff Lynne is beyond me though. Free as a Bird? I seem to only remember the first few bars of that sonic tranquilizer… and ELO had me close to breaking up with my first love back in school – if only she had agreed to a relationship with me …
@50
😄
Jeff Lynne?
I tell you why! His voice…
I have a deep and almost dangerous interest in voices.
Cute – re the almost relationship 😂😂
Wit and wisdom…. (HEY UWE – it’s this I think you can learn a GREAT deal of from Max ☺️) (maybe he’ll tutor you…)
Well I don’t know Max, I also like Fleetwood Mac, in my very young years I was completely fascinated by Stevie Nicks.
I still like FM, and Lindsey Buckingham. But yeah, Purple, Baird and the likes of those (David C ) are closest to my ❤️
I take it you don’t like Beatles either?
June 17th, 2025 at 11:04@49
Thanks Tillythemax! I get your drift!
I have to admit I’m not the greatest connoisseur in BS’s music.
June 17th, 2025 at 13:04I like a lot the ‘Born Again’ album (well most of it anyway), mostly because Ian is singing in his erfrischend way ☺️
QUOTE
@40
“They (Gillan) were an aggressive rock band, what are they supposed to sound like, Madonna or someone else?”
– 😂😂
This is a brilliant remark!
UWE: take notes from MacGregor, will ya?!
UNQUOTE
😑😑😑😑😑😑😑
GET READY TO RRRUMBLE !!!
No, it‘s not a brilliant remark, it‘s sound-nihilist rrrubbish that only my deep love, respect and reverence for Herr MacGregor as a a person prevents me from qualifying in more drastic terms.
And there is more artistic craft in the production of 10 seconds of any Madonna song than on all GILLAN albums combined which were plainly badly recorded, badly produced and badly mixed. Ian and his merry band of hearing-impaired minstrels could have learned something from Ms Ciccone on how you can project your songs aurally so that they become timeless classics:
https://youtu.be/zpzdgmqIHOQ
https://youtu.be/79fzeNUqQbQ
https://youtu.be/XS088Opj9o0
And “Inhalt über Form …” – let’s reserve that for a blind black blues artist coming up with a good song in a one microphone Mississippi shack in 1920, ok? And not apply it to an ex-Deep Purple millionaire unable to keep his money together and at the mercy of hastily recording his music in substandard studios with no or little input from people who know the trade, just because he stubbornly wants to do things his way.
Plus speaking of “acoustic guitars around a bonfire and Ian strumming it singing along with his marvelous voice”: If that acoustic guitar sounded only remotely as bad as the one “captured” (I wouldn’t call the applied process “recording”) on “If I Grate Softly” (aka “The Parmigiano Song”), I’d hope that one of the bonfire communards would get up and say “Ian, your voice is lovely, but that acoustic guitar sounds like crap, get a new one please!” 🤣
[Mind you, getting an acoustic guitar down well in a studio is actually one of the more challenging tasks when recording. On GnR’s Appetite For Destruction for instance all the acoustic guitar overdubs sound terribly plastic and pasted on, no ambience.]
June 17th, 2025 at 15:13@50
https://youtu.be/s0sBfXjudDM?si=Su-dHQDPSP-SlAB6
Enjoy Max 😊
John Lennon’s voice is really something else!
June 17th, 2025 at 15:39Jeff Lynne did not have a very nice recording to get it from. So if you like this, which I guess you don’t particularly 😉, it’s pretty awesome Jeff Lynne could make this.
Pah! The only thing Gillan ever stole from that bunch of Brummies was Geezer’s Ford. And even that went terribly south.
June 17th, 2025 at 15:51“I know the word ‘murks’, (German people tend to yell it at me whenever I try to speak German ☺️😉)”
That’s a blatant, propagandistic lie, Karin, whenever our neighbors to the north dig out their Germanic roots, we’re deeply moved, Danish accents are cute/sødt!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvHgEOu6ocI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqOUIPN52B8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O30iggYXKZU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKVnjMtksxs
Whenever we hear you speak German, we well up inside, have an urge to put on our travel boots and make you part of us!
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/W-Feb20-Denmark-FEATURED.jpg
June 17th, 2025 at 17:24@1
“Karin, see how important Tea is, well especially for English people. Not coffee, Tea, Tea, Tea. Cheers.”
😂😂
I do not agree MacGregor!
But you knew that, didn’t you?
Coffee is very important to the rest of the world 😅
June 17th, 2025 at 17:50https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMRBh9wycA0
June 18th, 2025 at 00:18@53
I feel so sorry for you Uwe 🥺😥 (noooooo I don’t, or maybe a little..)
Have you completely lost the ability to enjoy the ‘small pleasures’ of life?
“but that acoustic guitar sounds like crap, get a new one please!”
– I’ve been at such a bonfire, where the guitar was out of tune, and the singer was certainly no Ian… but we had a wonderful time, enjoyed ourselves immensely 🥰 laughed, telling jokes, kissed a bit, sang along with the banjo-player, couldn’t remember the lyrics, but that wasn’t the point of being there! It all was about being alive and loving life ❣️
I would prescribe you some free time in nature, in one of the beautiful forests you have in that lovely country of yours, and take shoes and socks of, and dig your toes into the ground, and just sit there and be!
You live way too much in your head 😊
And when you come back from the forest, you don’t need to thank me…. I’m here to help ☺️
‘Inhalt über Form’ ANYTIME 😃
June 18th, 2025 at 04:47@56
“That’s a blatant, propagandistic lie, Karin, whenever our neighbors to the north dig out their Germanic roots, we’re deeply moved, Danish accents are cute/sødt!”
– well that is because most of us are pretty sweet ☺️😉
But I have to say you surprise me a great deal here, Uwe!
I wasn’t aware that you know each and every German person there lives!….!
I can tell you that some years ago we were on einen Urlaub in Germany. We were passing by some cities, and stayed at a hotel, adorable, in a small town called Oberahr, and in the morning I asked the charming Hostess of this hotel if I could get some strawberries for breakfast.
Oh yes indeed I could!
And then this sweet woman spend several minutes trying to teach me to pronounce Erdbeere correctly! And she did add:
‘Bis Sie den Namen richtig aussprechen können, bekommen Sie keine Erdbeeren.’ 😄
I did get strawberries, but I think it was because she ended up feeling sorry for me or because she had a lot of other chores to take care of 😅
June 18th, 2025 at 05:47Well Karin, Flleetwood Mac is another story altogether, Stevie Nicks is indeed adorable. I mean, even her voice! The Mac came from a bllues background, led by Peter Green (of Cozy Powell fame 😀 ) and developed into a classic pop-rock outfit with that huge Rumours album. Maybe the ultimate collection in that genre. ELO on the other hand … but tastes differ and there are some acts I cannot stand for the life of me. And no, the Beatles are not among those – of course not. I have to confess that they never really did much for me but some of theier songs I do love and their work was groundbreaking. BTW: I don’t think Uwe can learn anything from me. He ist a lawyer after all – I work in the marketing apartment. So we’re both trying to sell them an X for an U as Germans say. (Did that sayong get across?) Talking of Germans: That Erdbeer story … I do apologise. Bad behaviour in Oberahr. Should be renamed Unterahr.
Uwe, you made my morning (oh, and coffee did of course as I may add hastily…):
“”And “Inhalt über Form …” – let’s reserve that for a blind black blues artist coming up with a good song in a one microphone Mississippi shack in 1920, ok? And not apply it to an ex-Deep Purple millionaire unable to keep his money together and at the mercy of hastily recording his music in substandard studios with no or little input from people who know the trade, just because he stubbornly wants to do things his way.””
It is a real pity so many great albums do sound real weak. And then there are recordings from the 50s. 60s, 70s that make you feel like you’re sittinmg there right between those musos. Strange but true. Same with movies. There’s 50s movies as clear as they come and 80s stuff you can barely watch.
June 18th, 2025 at 08:55“And then this sweet woman spend several minutes trying to teach me to pronounce Erdbeere correctly! And she did add:
‘Bis Sie den Namen richtig aussprechen können, bekommen Sie keine Erdbeeren.’ 😄“
If she wasn’t pulling your leg, then this is terrible. But I think she was, German humor, not always understood by others, German humor sometimes needs an instruction manual.
https://youtu.be/UeGjQHwpzJA
But I think the fact that she spent even some time with you bantering about the correct pronunciation shows that she was actually charmed by your attempt at “Erdbeeren” – were easily flattered.
Re the simple things in life: I actually live directly by the woods, they are only a couple of meters away right across the street. We get regular visits from foxes, raccoons, martens, herons, woodpeckers, Eurasian jays, grass snakes and slow worms! I have no issues with the proximity of nature at all, I like all types of critters, I once wanted to become a zoologist.
June 18th, 2025 at 12:46@61
Oohh yes Max, Stevie was indeed adorable! But I have to say that all the bad blood between her and Lindsey Buckingham got really tiring!
At the concerts where she looked like she tried to kill him with her eyes…. Ohh man, play the music, sing your songs why don’t you, and leave all the domestic drama away from the stage ☺️
Max, you do strike me as a great guy, (and I can certainly see in here how much Uwe appreciate you ☺️) please tell me why Jeff Lynne rubs you the wrong way! I mean, have you ever really listened to his first recordings?
Allow me to present some tunes for you, and please take a listen ☺️
This one, Thightrope (a favourite of mine so please be gentle☺️)
https://youtu.be/Oy91SQ5jPtU?si=P85Z9SIkE0M2c8Fa
This one, Do Ya, another favorite (and yes, it is Bev Bevan behind the drums, later on known for bashing away with BS)
https://youtu.be/jKC-weHQCUQ?si=AAfEt5kvXQbHPc-F
This one is breathtaking, that voice – ohh breaks my heart a little bit. Actually I lately heard this man hum a birthday song, without a doubt the best voice I ever have heard in my life! Number 2 is Ian, and I have to say that with this song, Ticket to the Moon, Jeff is number 3!
https://youtu.be/ZXBiPY8wDT0?si=TKvq4v3fIm5-AlpU
This one, Showdown, from their best album, On the Third Day
https://youtu.be/dV0-Cho26IY?si=Z5SbrmPbe4BJHux9
I do think that with the albumDiscovery from ‘79, they became too commercial, but their first recordings were neat!
But then I wonder, when you don’t like Jeff Lynne, do you like this guy then?
https://youtu.be/Ey-owHvAigc?si=gcOeC859NFPQMK1c
I do have to show you Jeff Lynne when he still worked with Roy Wood:
https://youtu.be/jnp_Qg-MNzU?si=3egSabGBS3r9iXwg
In my ears there is a little of ‘Anyone’s daughter’ in this ☺️
I do appreciate Roy Woods voice too btw 😊
This one:
https://youtu.be/IuXXyCntQtQ?si=eVDLyOodj_YZvBD3
Ohh I like it very much 🤩(Jeff isn’t at this though 😊)
And finally this one:
https://youtu.be/mQEPYfXWWnI?si=MU2vfprL5M04iIz2
Please look at that guy who plays the saxophone, not Roy Wood, but the other guy, and tell me if he isn’t the spitting image of the saxophone guy in the Muppet Show 😅
This guy actually
https://youtu.be/CgfZVNv6w2E?feature=shared
Ok, sorry I just so easily get carried away…
I seem to remember Uwe mentioned that you used to like Smokie.
June 18th, 2025 at 14:47So did I, (actually I still like them very much) but do you mind to show me which were your favourite songs with them?
@61&62:
I do believe the very nice hotel lady wasn’t making fun of me 😃
June 18th, 2025 at 15:07She was adorable the whole time we stayed there, and she took excellent care of us.
If she was making fun of me, well, then she must have laughed at me trying hard not to dislocate my poor tongue 😅
@62
Well at least I didn’t commanded her to say Rødgrød med fløde! 😄
Uwe, it’s one thing to live very close to a forest and see endearing animals now and then….
Completely different to let the brilliant lawyer-brain at ease and just savour the moment and be alive!
I love to walk in our little forest every day, and I tell you, the scents, the birds singing, the swift movements from small animals underneath the trees, and then just concentrating on breathing and sense the world around you….
Get Edith, a cup of coffee, and listen to this one:
June 18th, 2025 at 15:23https://youtu.be/opJyRioBHp8?si=DjKdWAHx_pcMp55W
I promise you, you’ll feel so refreshed 😃
Yes, Smokie, call it guilty pleasure. I was like 12 when I first saw and heard Chris Norman on german telly, must have been the then popular show ‘disco’. If you think you know how to love me…
June 18th, 2025 at 17:51I thought the title complicated, I had just begun to get english lessons. But the song and especially the voice I liked. In fact I still do. Another fave: Wild wild Angels
Did you know Norman worked with Tony Carey in later years? It’s a pity his music more often than not just doesn’t only border kitsch but is kitsch. Nice chap, great voice.
@66
Well, Chris Norman certainly had (has? Does he still perform?) a dear voice!
I don’t recall ‘If you think you know how to love me’. But I’ll certainly check it out.
In Randers, many moons ago, a nifty little radio station started, the first name was UpFront, but later it was called ABC. Well this station had a formidable host/disc jockey named Peter Bernöe. And he played oldies, but very very GOOD oldies, and it was he who played ‘Lay back in the arms of someone’, had never heard that song before, and I tell you I was mesmerised, big time ☺️
I knew Smokie from my very younger years, but you know, it was a different time! If you needed to listen to a song, you had to call in to such a show and ask them to play it (ohhh man kids now must be LOL hearing how we older folks endured life before the WWW! 😄
Peter Bernöe also played this one:
https://youtu.be/tkYkeeM8qIA?si=j2R3Co2RsFZRy4SM
I loved it 😃
Such ‘happy go lucky’ songs, they may not be life altering but fun and pure hygge for a moment.
This one:
June 18th, 2025 at 20:41https://youtu.be/0S-t45AGIpc?si=Ajc8aE_PcSYSNxlw
Cute and sweet….(the drummer was really cute 😄)
@ 61 – “It is a real pity so many great albums do sound real weak. And then there are recordings from the 50s. 60s, 70s that make you feel like you’re sitting there right between those musos. Strange but true. Same with movies. There’s 50s movies as clear as they come and 80s stuff you can barely watch.” I agree regarding the movies too, technology has actually ruined many things in this modern world and that is a very good example Max. With modern music, that is because of the simplicity of it all way back in the day and there isn’t any distortion to deal with. One of the banes of well recorded music is the over driven noisy guitar. It gets in the way big time. Ruining all the natural sonics, plus certain vocalist going off and drum kits going over the top big time. There you go Uwe, I even had ago at the modern drummer and their drum kits. What about bass guitarists, yes some of them used distortion too. Even some keyboard players………. there seems to be no end to this audio massacre…….. oh well, not to worry, it has its moments. Music was so much more natural back in the good old days. Until the long haired scruffy mob turned up, and here we are still trying to deal with it all. Remember this old classic from 1944. Come on Karin, sing along now, he he he. Cheers.
You’ve got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qk9o_ZeR7s
June 18th, 2025 at 22:30@62
“German humor sometimes needs an instruction manual.
https://youtu.be/UeGjQHwpzJA”
🤣🤣😆
That was REALLY funny!
I wonder if I could move to Germany! Think our sense of humour is quite alike 🤓
June 19th, 2025 at 05:51@68
“Come on Karin, sing along now, he he he. Cheers.
You’ve got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative..”
😅😄 well MacGregor, that’s my theme-song in life ☺️
June 19th, 2025 at 10:12That is actually a pet theory of mine, Germans have humor, but very often one that stops at the border being comprehended, even by Austrians and Swiss who fail to see what’s funny about Loriot whom everyone in Germany finds hysterical.
A lot of what is perceived as non-humor by other nations is actually Germans reacting with German humor to a situation – which nobody else gets.
**********************
The Smokie sound was extremely formatted – like everything that came from the Chinn/Chapman stable. But inside there was a good band lurking trying to get out. There is a live album from the late 70s of Smokie (still with Chris Norman) that shows that they could actually get their sound across on stage – with a lot more grit and authenticity:
https://youtu.be/d1Yae1XVDY4
And unlike Sweet whose telltale high backing vocals were manufactured in the studio via speeded up tapes, the Smokie harmony vocals were actually real and so good they sang – uncredited – on other artists’s albums too.
Underrated band, bordering a bit on the tragic. But it’s close to impossible re-establishing yourself as a serious musician if you had your first success with the Chinn/Chapman stable which was essentially commodity music aimed at a teenage market. Sweet, Mud, Quatro, Smokie, Racey … they all struggled to get away from it, most failed, Suzi probably did best in the long run though a lot of her 80s and 90s releases were approaching terrible. Ever since her son took over the reins as her producer and songwriter, things have greatly improved.
Mind you, Mike Chapman, once disassociated from Nicky Chinn, was also instrumental in the successes of Pat Benatar and Blondie. He turned Debbie Harry and her men from an off-key garage band with a très hot chick into a pop icon with a series of worldwide hits (even Ritchie liked Blondie!).
June 19th, 2025 at 14:19@ 71 – “(even Ritchie liked Blondie!)”
Ritchie still like blondie.
June 19th, 2025 at 23:03@71
“Germans have humor..”
Indeed you have! I already know a couple of you who certainly make me giggle endlessly 😃
I have a little joke:
Due to the rising costs of medical tests, all you can do is pee under a tree and wait a bit:
– if ants gather = diabetes
June 20th, 2025 at 06:51– if grass dries up = high salts
– if it smells like BBQ = high cholesterol
– if you forget to pull up your pants, you got Alzheimer’s
@73
Thanks, I almost pissed myself laughing. 🙂
June 20th, 2025 at 07:43@74
Another sign of dementia ☺️😉
June 20th, 2025 at 08:34Karin, I fear that this forum sees urine bad company …
You weren’t like this in the beginning! You were this bashful Jylland-lass shyly and self-consciously knocking at the door here, but now …
The forces of corrosion are everywhere. Furchtbar. When a child goes bad, it’s no cause for celebration.
June 20th, 2025 at 18:02