This is usually my first post in the New Year. I love tradition so here we are again!
Next to Auld Lang Syne this is my favorite New Years’ Song. A favorite of mine from one of my favorite bands. Everyone… I wish you a Happy New Year in 2023.
You didn’t have to read my blog but you did and I really appreciate it…I want to thank all of you for reading and commenting in 2022.
This song sounds like it should have been a hit but it was never pushed as a single at the time. It was the B side to Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914) which is an experimental song and was a big surprise to the band that it was picked as the first single. Both are from the great album Odessey and Oracle in 1968. There are several songs on this album that could have been in the charts but Time of the Season was the only one that made it and it was a year after the album was released.
Bruce Eder of AllMusic gave the album five stars out of five, calling it “one of the flukiest (and best) albums of the 1960s, and one of the most enduring long-players to come out of the entire British psychedelic boom”.
On recording Odessey and Oracle…Rod Argent:
“We had the chance of going in and putting things down in the way we wanted people to hear them and we had a new studio, we walked in just after The Beatles had walked out [after recording Sgt. Pepper]. We were the next band in. They’d left some of their instruments behind … I used John Lennon’s Mellotron, that’s why it’s all over Odessey and Oracle. We used some of their technological advances … we were using seven tracks, and that meant we could overdub for the first time. And it meant that when I played the piano part I could then overdub a Mellotron part, and it meant we could have a fuller sound on some of the songs and it means that at the moment the tour we’re doing with Odessey and Oracle it means we’re actually reproducing every note on the original record by having extra player with us as well.”
This Will Be A Year
The warmth of your love
Is like the warmth of the sun
And this will be our year
Took a long time to come
Don’t let go of my hand
Now darkness has gone
And this will be our year
Took a long time to come
And I won’t forget
The way you held me up when I was down
And I won’t forget the way you said,
“Darling I love you”
You gave me faith to go on
Now we’re there and we’ve only just begun
This will be our year
Took a long time to come
The warmth of your smile
Smile for me, little one
And this will be our year
Took a long time to come
You don’t have to worry
All your worried days are gone
This will be our year
Took a long time to come
And I won’t forget
The way you held me up when I was down
And I won’t forget the way you said,
“Darling I love you”
You gave me faith to go on
Now we’re there and we’ve only just begun
And this will be our year
Took a long time to come
Yeah we only just begun
Yeah this will be our year
Took a long time to come
Happy new year! Butcher’s Tale is a bizarre single choice – if the record company wanted something psychedelic, ‘Hung Up On A Dream’ would have been better.
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Happy New Year! I agree that was a bad idea and I can’t believe a record company would pick that song… I do like Hung Up On A Dream…
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Happy New Year.
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Happy New Year! Thanks for reading!
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Hope this will be your year too. 😉
Very good song by the way.
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Happy New Year Max and to your family!
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Same to you man! I’m finishing up your Retro Throwdown right now.
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Thanks for watching Max!
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You make it interesting dude.
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Happy New Year! This is a great theme song for your day.
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This is a great song to kick off the New Year and it is my second time listening to it today.
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A good start to the year! I went with tradition for my first post of the year too. This is an album I should get.
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Once again you introduce me to a song I don’t know! Great start to 2023!
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It’s a great one Randy off of a great album.
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Once again, Happy New Year, Max. This is a beautiful tune. Even though I’m sure I’ve listened to “Odessey and Oracle” in its entirety, surprisingly, I cannot seem to remember it. Here’s to another year of great music blogging! 🙂
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Happy New Year Christian! Sometimes I don’t understand why a song wasn’t a hit or well known….this song is one of those songs. It’s catchy with good lyrics.
I’m looking forward to this year.
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HAPPY NEW Y’AR, MAX!
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Happy New Year George/Tref!
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Good start to the year- disinterred another dusty one from the long forgotten vaults here Max.
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This is another one that baffles me on why it wasn’t a minor hit anyway.
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It’s a good’n, Max. I think you first told me about this album and I now have it 🙂
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Simple, but perfect. Happy New Year!
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