Around the Cape. Music from the long days and nights at sea as the outside world seeped into the clan shelter and the roof and walls disappeared.

 

Graney, '74 Right.........

  

As far as teen years went I never experienced much live music. Having a younger brother and sister and a mother and father who worked nights ( as well as days) to get everybody through school meant that I was often home looking after my younger brother and sister. This was mostly OK as not many musicians toured the country towns then ( and now) although I was annoyed when all my mates went to see AC/DC at the South Gambier Football club in 74 and I had to stay home.
The music I heard all over town when I was a young teen was the Rolling Stones . Every party seemed to have Black Sabbath Vol 4 or Status Quos "Piledriver" in the collection. The radio was something you had on at home. Pop music was stuff you heard outside the house.I was mainly into blues. Country and city blues. I loved Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters and Fred McDowell and Son House. This period saw a lot of reissuing of music from the forties and fifties.The best event was in 75 when Alligator records put out Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers. (This is what Jon Spencer wants his act to be like). The record came out and then they were in Australia. Of course, I couldn't see them but it was great to see that kind of music actually happening at the same time that I was.

  
Hound Dog Taylor

I had a bunch of mates who were all music snobs. We hated commercial stuff and we gave Steve Miller hell when he bought Bruce Springsteens "Born to run". Import records were the best.
I remember "Natty Dread" having a huge impact when it came out. Along with Toots and the Maytals "Funky Kingston".
David Bowie was undeniable in the quality of his output, even though the same girls who put Donny Osmond on their lockers would have Bowie there as well. "Diamond dogs" was a fave. The first three Roxy Music albums ( everything up to "Viva" actually), everything Lou Reed did were the glam representatives. Garland Jeffreys was there because Lou said he was cool. The Blue Oyster Cult were evil and mysterious and had the classic aura that we really dug. Mad Al drove the car while we sat and drank beer and smoked dope. Al had left school early to become a fitter and turner and had more cash to buy records. He ( and so, we) were big on the Allman Brothers and all their solo offshoots. Greggs 74 tour, Duanes' anthology. A group of nobodys who guested on their records called "Cowboy" were also big. Joe Walsh and the James Gang were cool for a year. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Little Feats early albums were given a major thrashing too.The only local acts who made it were Company Caine, Ayers Rock, the Dingoes, Ariel and Sid Rumpo.
1975 was a big year for the Rolling Stones with their previous two records "Goats head soup" and "it's only rock'n'roll" at every party I went to. There was also the big long wait and all the expectation that went with the release of "Physical Graffitti" by Led Zeppellin. It was given a thorough pounding. Foghat, Humble Pie and Rory Gallagher were also around the scenes.

  

Gregg Allman
I said that the radio was a thing that was just on at home. You'd never expect to hear anything cool on it. It was, in other ways some sort of Golden Age as compared to now. The golden age of disco pop for a start. Candi Staton, Shirley and Company, Stevie Wonder Joe Tex, A taste of Honey, Vickie Sue Robinson , Donna Summer. Its possible to find any sort of disco compilation from this early to mid 70s period and have two sides of classic tracks. There was also a lot of extremely crass AOR type top ten hits as well. The gruesome Harry Chapin and Jim Croce come to mind. Compared to now, radio seems quite sophisticated in its boldness and breadth of material. Perhaps the fruitiest singles were out in the year before punk rock came along. The Starland Vocal band with the sexy " Afternoon delight" and Starbuck with "Moonlight (feels right)" top that list.
  
Punk rock came into the picture in 1976/77 with Dr Feelgood and Eddie and the Hotrods "teenage depression" (perhaps the best record cover of the era. The music couldn't live up to it.) The Saints album was released locally and all my pals at university in Adelaide were going to see Radio Birdman whenever they came to town. I was in Mount Gambier working in a timber mill. At the end of a long conveyor belt which shot long pieces of wood at me. I had to grab them and sort them into sizes. It was night work. I would sit in my room during the day and listen to Eno and John Cale. I travelled to Adelaide to see Bryan Ferry in 1977. He had a big hit with "stick together" and "the price of love". The gig was at Apollo stadium, a basketball court. There were several dudes with slick black hair and white tuxedo jackets in the crowd.
I kept ordering each Sex Pistols single as it came out from the shop which sold mainly electrical goods. They were released in Australia on the Wizard label. The man in the shop screwed up his face whenever he had to mention their name. It was great. I wore out "God Save the Queen " and "pretty Vacant". The b sides were fantastic too, especially their version of the Stooges "No Fun". In the middle of the year I took a drive from Mt Gambier to Cains in my old FC Holden. It was a long time, 3 months) by myself. I stopped outside Palings in Brisbane so I could finally listen to "never mind the bollocks" on headphones in the shop. As I drove through Sydney, Fleetwood Mac were doing a big show at a racetrack. I went to see Rose Tattoo in a bar called "Checquers" in the city. You got served cans of beer by waiters with trays. (Whats happened to the music scene?). I also went to a punk rock show at the Paris theatre in Oxford street. Johnny Dole and the scabs, James Griffin, Simon and the Reptiles. It was pretty ordinary but interesting to see punk people in the flesh. ( Actually, anybody with a short hair cut was stared at in the street). The Foreday Riders and the Mangrove Boogie Kings were also playing at Frenchs Tavern across the road. A year or so later I was living in Adelaide and playing my first gig, at a party.