1970s – Page 91 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Gary Numan – Cars

This song was released in 1979 was one of many signs a change was coming in music. The song peaked at #9 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the UK and #1 in Canada. The song was keyboard driven with a synth riff.

Gary Numan on the inspiration of the song. “A couple of blokes started peering in the window and for whatever reason took a dislike to me, so I had to take evasive action. I swerved up the pavement, scattering pedestrians everywhere. After that, I began to see the car as the tank of modern society.”

Numan has stated that he has Asperger syndrome, which is a mild form of autism, but until he was diagnosed, he had a lot of trouble relating to other people.

From Songfacts.

Even though the message of this song is that cars lead to a mechanical society devoid of personal interaction, it didn’t stop automakers from using it in commercials. Both Nissan and Oldsmobile have used it in ads.

A more clever approach came from Diehard, who created a commercial where Numan played the song on 24 car horns powered by just one of their batteries. Numan has no problem with his song being used in commercials, telling us, “I’m up for that, actually. I think any use of it at all. It would be great if it happened again.”

In the UK, this was used in an American Express commercial in the ’80s, as well as an ad for Carling beer that ran in 1996. The beer commercial gave the song new life in the UK.

TV series that have used this song in some form include The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park and Two and a Half Men.

Numan made a video for this with special effects that look ridiculous now, but were cutting edge in 1979. When MTV went on the air in 1981, it was one of about 200 videos they had, so they played it over and over. This made the song a hit in the US.

Numan explained to Rolling Stone how he came up with this song’s synthesizer hook: “I have only written two songs on bass guitar and the first one was ‘Cars.’ I had just been to London to buy a bass and when I got home the first thing I played was that intro riff. I thought, ‘Hey, that’s not bad!’ In 10 minutes, I had the whole song. The quickest one I ever wrote. And the most famous one I’d ever written. More people should learn from that.”

Numan took his surname from a plumber in the telephone directory called Neumann Kitchen Appliances. He told NME he tried to find a two-syllable name, “because my real name Webb didn’t seem very cool.”

Cars

Here in my car
I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
It’s the only way to live in cars.

Here in my car
I can only receive
I can listen to you
It keeps me stable for days in cars.

Here in my car
Where the image breaks down
Will you visit me please
If I open my door in cars

Here in my car
You know I’ve started to think
About leaving tonight
Although nothing seems right in cars.

The Five Stairsteps – O-o-h Child

Great seventies soul song from 1970. The Five Stairsteps were formed in Chicago in 1965 and comprised of Burke family members Clarence Jr., James, Aloha, Kenneth and Dennis.

They got their name when their mom noticed that her kids looked like stair steps when stood next to each other according to age. The song peaked #8 in the Billboard 100 and #3 in Canada.

Since Dear Prudence is the B side of the single I’ve included it at the bottom of the page. Very interesting cover of the Beatles song.

Another Guardian of the Galaxy song…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-o-h_Child

Ooh Child

Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get brighter
Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get brighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll get it together and we’ll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter
Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna be easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get be brighter
Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna be easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get be brighter

Some day, yeah
We’ll get it together and we’ll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll get it together and we’ll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter
Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get brighter
Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get brighter
Right now, right now(You just wait and see how things are gonna be)

Always had a Bean Bag

I have had a bean bag in my place of residence ever since I was a teenager. They are very handy to throw somewhere and sit. When you play guitar or want to watch a movie it’s a comfortable place to sit. They are also affordable and can be a good alternative sometimes to chairs.

The only part of owning one I don’t like is the inevitable end when the white small styrofoams like “beans” (expanded polystyrene) start coming out and going everywhere.

I would like to get an original leather bean bag one day.

According to some historians, bean bags were first invented by the ancient Egyptians sometime around 2000 B.C., and for thousands of years, they were used to play games and for other recreational diversions. The first bean bags were small, round and made of leather. They were most likely filled with dried beans or pebbles.

The first bean bag chairs as we know them were developed in the sixties. They were first called a Sacco chair, and released in 1969. They were designed by Cesare Paolini, Piero Gatti, and Franco Teodoro who were commissioned to create the piece by Zanotta Design in Italy.

Bean bags were huge in the 1970s and they were at first usually made of leather and filled with PVC (short for PolyVinyl Chloride) pellets. Soon nylon and polyester were used with expanded polystyrene (EPS) for filler. That combination proved to be more durable.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the popularity of bean bags declined greatly in popularity, but they were still being manufactured by several companies.

Now they are now experiencing a strong resurgence in popularity. You can get a regular bean bag or one pre-formed into a chair or couch. They are being sold for use as pet beds.

Mott the Hoople – All The Young Dudes

All the Young Dudes was written and produced by David Bowie. Mott The Hoople had a cult following in England and Bowie was a big fan but they were about to break up. To stop them from breaking up he offered to produce their next album and give them a song…this song.

Mott the Hoople does a great job on this. This era is my favorite of David Bowie… All the Ziggy Stardust music (which this was originally written for) and the Hunky Dory album…not that any era of Bowie is bad.

David Bowie on writing the song for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars album

“Ziggy was in a rock ‘n’ roll band, and the kids no longer want rock ‘n’ roll,” Bowie explained to Rolling Stone in 1974. “There’s no electricity to play it. Ziggy’s adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, ’cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this, and there is terrible news. ‘All the Young Dudes’ is a song about this news. It is no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite.”

The song peaked at #37 in the Billboard 100 and #3 in the UK in 1972.

All The Young Dudes

Billy rapped all night ’bout his suicide
How he’d kick it in the head when he was 25
Don’t wanna stay alive when you’re 25

Wendy’s stealing clothes from unlocked cars
Freddy’s got spots from ripping off stars from his face
Funky little boat race
The television man is crazy
Saying we’re juvenile delinquent wrecks
Man I need a TV when I’ve got T. Rex
Hey brother you guessed I’m a dude

All the young dudes
Carry the news
Boogaloo dudes
Carry the news

Now Jimmy looking sweet though he dresses like a queen
He can kick like a mule
It’s a real mean team
We can love
Oh we can love
And my brother’s back at home
With his Beatles and his Stones
We never got if off on that revolution stuff
What a drag
Too many snags
Well I drunk a lot of wine
And I’m feeling fine
Gonna race some cat to bed
Is this concrete all around
Or is it in my head
Oh brother you guessed I’m a dude

All the young dudes
Carry the news
Boogaloo dudes
Carry the news

Wiffle Ball was a Blast

I had almost as much fun playing wiffle ball as a kid as I did little league. I was completely into playing baseball with friends or for years in leagues until I was 16. In my front yard, we would play wiffle ball until dark. If only one friend was over that was enough… we could still play. Hit it over the house, a home run…hitting a window, a double, in the creek a triple… etc.

You didn’t have to worry about breaking a window or knocking your buddy out while pitching as fast as you could. You would learn how to grip it and you could make it curve, rise, or sink a ridiculous amount. We would play for hours until night or until the ball was stuck on the roof or in a tree.

In the late 70s and 80s it was a fun alternative to playing baseball when not enough friends were around or you had to play in a neighborhood full of houses with nice big windows.

In 1953, David N. Mullany was watching his 12-year-old son and some friends playing a baseball-like game with a perforated plastic golf ball and a broomstick in their backyard. The boys tried throwing curveballs and sliders but with no success. They couldn’t use a baseball because of the trail of broken windows and upset neighbors.

Mullany, who had been a semipro pitcher himself, knew all too well what thousands of Little Leaguers have had to painfully learn. Nothing shreds a young arm quite as effectively as throwing breaking balls. Mullany set about trying to save the boys’ shoulders and elbows by creating a ball that would curve and bend on its own.

He tried a hard plastic ball that served as packaging for Coty perfume. After having the boys experiment with various designs, Mullany hit on the Wiffle Ball we now know and love.

Mullany’s son and his friends referred to strikeouts as “whiffs.” Since the new invention made knee-buckling curveballs a breeze to throw, pitchers started racking up the strikeouts. Mullany named the product the Wiffle Ball to honor its strikeout-friendly breaks.

When they started to advertise them they would use old photographs of MLB players. The Mullanys later explained in interviews that doing actual photo shoots with the players would have been too pricey, so they just negotiated with players’ agents and then used any old photograph.

The slots on one side make the ball curve and rise. Just like a real baseball…the more scuffs a ball has the more it can curve. They have Wiffle Ball leagues now where players play competitively.

http://www.wiffle.com/pages/welcome.asp?page=welcome

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

This first premiered on November 20, 1973, on CBS and won an Emmy Award. Great Thanksgiving special as always with the earlier Peanuts.

The Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Peanuts specials I always looked forward to. The way their world was only for kids where grownups were heard but only as noise in the background.

It starts off with Lucy tempting Charlie Brown with that football. Just one time I wanted to see Charlie kick the football…or Lucy at times.

It’s Thanksgiving and Peppermint Patty invites herself and Marcie over to Charlie Brown’s house but Charlie and Sally are ready to go to their grandmothers. Charlie talks to Linus and he suggests having two Thanksgiving dinners.

The only thing Charlie can come up with is feeding his friends toast and cold cereal which does not make Peppermint Patty happy whatsoever. She lets Charlie have it bad until Marcie remind her that she invited herself over.

Not going to give it away for those who have not seen this wonderful holiday cartoon. The music by Vince Guaraldi is excellent and makes every Peanuts cartoon special.

Pink Panther

In the 1963 feature film The Pink Panther starring Peter Sellers, the Animated Credits opening featured our first look at the Pink Panther.

The cartoon series was made by DePatie-Freleng studios…the first short, “The Pink Phink,” won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject…the first time an animation studio had won one with its very first cartoon.

What adds to the Pink Panther is Henry Mancini‘s popular theme music. The cartoon would not be the same without it. I bought the set years ago and showed them to my 6-year-old son at the time. He liked it as much as I did.

I watched it as a kid and it is probably the reason I ended up liking silent movies so much. Each show’s story has no dialog and is centered around the Pink Panther and “the little man” along with Mancini’s music.

There were 124 Pink Panther shorts were released between 1964 and 1978…there were some tv specials after the original series ended.

They tried having him talk in two episodes. It didn’t work and ruined the effect.

Black lights and Black Light Posters

My sister went through a phase in the seventies when she had black lights and posters. I liked the effect and love some of the blacklight poster artwork. I claimed some of her posters when I got older. I did NOT claim her Osmond posters though. I left them to rot somewhere in a 1970s crawlspace. I loved the glowing effect of the black light posters and still do…

I’ve bought a few blacklight posters at yard sales through the years but they are getting harder to find all in one piece.

The black light poster has its roots in the 1950s with the introduction of fluorescent paint to the mass market. By the mid-1960s, fluorescent paints, and products found a massive audience in the psychedelic music scene.

For a while, this poster art was considered a relic of the 60s and 70s but according to Wiki, sales have surged since 2007 and five different companies are producing new posters now.

William H. Byler is credited with inventing the black light in 1935, and according to the University of Central Missouri, Byler graduated there in 1927 with a major in chemistry and physics.

These phosphors are what make things glow while under the light.

A blacklight poster is a poster printed with fluorescent inks which glow under a black light. The inks used contain phosphors which cause them to glow when exposed to ultraviolet light emitted from black lights.

I’ve seen vintage black light posters go between 100 – 600 dollars online.

If you have a burning desire to know more about black lights…go to the site below.

http://www.blacklightworld.com/Black%20Lights%20Everything%20You%20Need%20To%20Know.htm

10cc – I’m Not In Love

I always thought this was a clever song. The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the UK, and #1 in Canada. The overall wash sound was achieved by a total of 256 vocal overdubs in the background.

It was written by Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman. Eric Stewart came up with the song by his wife telling him that he didn’t tell her he loved her enough. Eric said if I say it too much it would not mean anything.

From Songfacts.

“I met this gorgeous girl called Gloria at Halifax town hall. I was 18. She was 16. Three years later, we got married. A few years after that, Gloria told me: ‘You don’t say ‘I love you’ much anymore.’ I told her that, if I said it all the time, it would sound glib. But I started wondering how I could say it without using those actual words. So ‘I’m not in love’ became a rhetorical conversation with myself – and then a song.

I wrote the lyrics in a couple of days. The line, ‘I keep your picture up on the wall, it hides a nasty stain’ was about the crack in my bedroom wall at my parents’ house in Manchester. I’d put a photograph of Gloria over it. When I took the song to the band, they said: ‘I’m not in love’? What the f–k is that? You can’t say that!’ But Graham Gouldman, our bass-player and chord-master, agreed to work on it with me. We both liked The Girl From Ipanema, so we gave it a similar bossa nova style. Then Kevin Godley, our drummer, said it was crap.

We were about to scrap it and wipe the tape but, as I walked around the studio, I heard the secretary singing it and the window-cleaner whistling it. I knew we had a tune: we just hadn’t captured it properly. Kevin suggested doing it again, but with banks of voices. I thought that meant hiring a choir, but Lol Creme, our keyboard player, said we could do it using tape loops.”

I’m Not In Love

I’m not in love
So don’t forget it
It’s just a silly phase I’m going through
And just because
I call you up
Don’t get me wrong, don’t think you’ve got it made
I’m not in love, no no, it’s because..

I like to see you
But then again
That doesn’t mean you mean that much to me
So if I call you
Don’t make a fuss
Don’t tell your friends about the two of us
I’m not in love, no no, it’s because..

I keep your picture
Upon the wall
It hides a nasty stain that’s lying there
So don’t you ask me
To give it back
I know you know it doesn’t mean that much to me
I’m not in love, no no, it’s because..

Ooh you’ll wait a long time for me
Ooh you’ll wait a long time
Ooh you’ll wait a long time for me
Ooh you’ll wait a long time

I’m not in love
So don’t forget it
It’s just a silly phase I’m going through
And just because I call you up
Don’t get me wrong, don’t think you’ve got it made
I’m not in love
I’m not in love

Gregg Allman – Midnight Rider

This is from Gregg Allman’s album Laid Back. Gregg started the album when the Allman Brothers were making Brothers and Sisters. He was having some problems with them and decided to make this one at the same time. The Allman Brothers originally performed Midnight Rider on their second album Idlewild South in 1970 but it wasn’t released as a single.

Gregg released this song in1974 and it peaked at #19 in the Billboard 100 and #17 in Canada.

Gregg Allman from his autobiography My Cross to Bear… Kim Payne was an Allman roadie.

On “Midnight Rider,” which is the song I’m most proud of in my career, I had all but the last part—so, as I like to say, I had the song by the nuts, I just had to reel it in. The third verse is really important because it’s kind of the epilogue to the whole thing. Basically, you state the problem in the first verse, you embellish on the problem in the second verse—like “let me tell you what a bitch she really is”—and then you usually have some music, to let you think about the words for a while and also get lifted up by that music.
The bridge from the music to the third verse is when you want to be different, but you don’t want to go all the way from A to Z. You want something that contrasts things a little bit—kind of like matching a shirt with a pair of pants. You want it to be a little different, but not clashing. The bridge is where you say what you want to do about the problem, or what you’re damn sure going to do about it. Then the third verse is, like I said, the epilogue to the whole thing.

It might sound like I’m giving you a formula to write a song, but I’m not, because it’s never that simple. On “Midnight Rider,” I needed something to start the third verse, and Kim Payne came up with “I’ve gone by the point of caring,” which was exactly what I needed. “I’ve gone by the point of caring”—fuck it—and then, “Some old bed I’ll soon be sharing.” I’ve got another buck, and I ain’t gonna let ’em catch my ass, and then it’s just kinda off into the sunset.

Midnight Rider

Well, I’ve got to run to keep from hidin’,
And I’m bound to keep on ridin’.
And I’ve got one more silver dollar,
But I’m not gonna let ’em catch me, no,
Not gonna let ’em catch the Midnight Rider.

And I don’t own the clothes I’m wearing,
And the road goes on forever,
And I’ve got one more silver dollar,
But I’m not gonna let ’em catch me, no
Not gonna let ’em catch the Midnight Rider.

And I’ve gone by the point of caring,
Some old bed I’ll soon be sharing,
And I’ve got one more silver dollar,

But I’m not gonna let ’em catch me, no
Not gonna let ’em catch the Midnight Rider.

No, I’m not gonna let ’em catch me, no
Not gonna let ’em catch the Midnight Rider.

The Marmalade – Reflections of My Life

This song peaked at #10 in the Billboard 100 in 1970 and #3 in the UK. The Marmalade were more successful in the UK by placing 10 top 10 singles in the UK charts but only charting Reflections of My Life in the Billboard top ten. It’s a song I heard many times when I was younger but didn’t know anything about it.

From Songfacts.

This dramatic ballad from the Age of Aquarius finds the singer describing a very bleak outlook on life and the times. The song was sort of a hippie version of the blues. >>

The Marmalade were a Scottish pop group who enjoyed several hits in the UK between 1968 and 1976. Originally a band called Dean Ford & The Gaylords, they changed their name to Marmalade in 1967. They are best remembered in Britain for their cover of the Beatles song “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” which topped the UK charts around Christmas 1968. In 1969, they signed to Decca Records, and their contract gave them complete freedom to write and produce their own records. The fruits of this arrangement was the recording of this song with its distinctive backwards guitar break, which was their only American hit.

This song was written by vocalist Dean Ford and the band’s main songwriter, keyboardist Junior Campbell. Campbell went on to pen the theme from the British TV series Thomas The Tank Engine, which was narrated in its first two seasons by Ringo Starr.

Reflections of My Life

The changing of sunlight to moonlight
Reflections of my life
Oh, how they fill my eyes

The greetings of people in trouble
Reflections of my life
Oh, how they fill my eyes

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying)
Feel I’m dying, dying
Take me back to my own home

I’m changing, arranging
I’m changing
I’m changing everything
Everything around me

The world is
A bad place
A bad place
A terrible place to live
Oh, but I don’t want to die

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying)
Feel I’m dying, dying
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Thanks A Lot Mr. Kibblewhite: My Story Roger Daltrey

I just finished the audio version of this book. I’m a huge Who fan and I was looking forward to it. It was nice to hear the book narrated by Roger himself. It’s a solid book but I have only one complaint that I will get into below.

The positive about the book is you find out more about the different personalities of the Who and the reason they fought. Pete the artist, John the dark one, Keith the lunatic, and Roger blue-collar man of the band. We all knew those descriptions before but Roger tries to explain how it worked and didn’t work as a band. If you want to know The Who’s impact on rock music and culture go to Pete Townshend. If you want to get straight to the point with just the highlights…Roger is your man.

Roger is grounded, avoided most of the pitfalls in his profession, hard-working, and loves interpreting Pete’s music to the world. He goes into how he changed his singing style with Pete’s writing. How he became Tommy and the mod in Quadrophenia. He hits the highlights of The Who and his life without the Who in the 80s and part of the 90s.

The strongest part of this book is about his childhood and his collection of relatives. Roger seems very approachable, likable, and down to earth. Roger was the one constant in the band that you didn’t have worry about his on tour activities. He does talk about the high points of the Who and his acting career.

My biggest complaint is the book is too short. You get the impression that he didn’t think that anyone would want to hear any details whatsoever. He does give you some good stories but touches a subject and quickly leaves. It’s almost a cliff notes version as he didn’t dwell in any period long.

It is a quick and enjoyable read but leaves you wanting more.

Supertramp – Give a Little Bit

This is an extremely catchy song by Supertramp off of the album Even in the Quietest Moments… This was before their classic Breakfast In America. The song was inspired by “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles.

The song peaked at #15 in the Billboard 100, #29 in the UK, and #8 in Canada in 1977.

The song was credited to Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies but Roger Hodgson wrote it. Roger Hodgson’s quote. “The song itself is such a pure, simple message that I think is really especially even more powerful today when the world has even more problems and it’s even more difficult sometimes to be compassionate and caring because we’ve got to put up all these barriers to survive; that it’s a song that really inspires people to give a little bit, not give a lot, just give a little bit and see how it feels and show that you care, and I know for me, every time I play it in concert, there’s something about that song.
I look out and people just start smiling straight away and sometimes they hug each other and they start singing with me. It’s a very unifying song with a beautiful, simple message that I’m very proud of and really enjoy playing today.”

From Songfacts.

Supertramp singer/guitarist Roger Hodgson wrote this song when he was a teenager, but didn’t record it until much later. It was about five years between when he wrote the song and when he brought it to the band. When we spoke with Hodgson in 2012, he explained: “I think it’s a great song. I didn’t realize it was when I first wrote it. It actually took me six years before I even brought it to the band. But I wrote it I think around 1970. That time, the late ’60s, early ’70s, was a very idealistic time, one of hope, a lot of peace and love and the dream of the ’60s was still very alive and maturing if you like.

That song has really taken on a life of its own, and I think it’s even more relevant today than when I wrote it. Because we really are needing to value love in a much deeper way, and also we’re needing to care. The song is basically saying: just show you care. You know, reach out and show you care. So in concert, it’s the perfect show closer because what I try to do in my show over two hours is unify the audience and unify all of us. So that at the end, when everyone stands up for ‘Give A Little Bit,’ they’re open and ready to open their hearts and sing at the top of their lungs and go away with a smile on their face. And that song really does, it has a very pure energy. The moment I start, people just start smiling. It’s amazing.”

Give A Little Bit

Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
Give a little bit
I’ll give a little bit of my love to you
There’s so much that we need to share
Send a smile and show you care

I’ll give a little bit
I’ll give a little bit of my life for you
So give a little bit
Give a little bit of your time to me
See the man with the lonely eyes
Take his hand, you’ll be surprised

Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
I’ll give a little bit of my life for you
Now’s the time that we need to share
So find yourself, we’re on our way back home

Going home
Don’t you need to feel at home
Oh yeah, we gotta sing

Ringo or Robin Ltd RoR

Ringo Starr and Robin Cruikshank formed a partnership in 1969 and they were located in the Beatles Apple building on Savile Row. In 1972 relocated with Apple to 54 St James Street.

Robin had originally worked for Ringo to design a stainless steel fireplace for Ringo and his wife Maureen. Ringo started to give Robin some suggestions and the two started to worked together on furniture and different designs for years after that. The partnership lasted until 1986 and after that Ringo let Robin use the name so Cruikshank could continue different projects.

If you ever run across anything made by RoR you probably have something very valuable.

Below was designed by RoR. I can’t imagine what it would have cost. I would take it in a second.

I remember seeing the below item on the news. Very expensive because they didn’t use reproduction parts…they all had authentic Roll Royce grills.

Here are some tables by RoR.

Below is Robin’s website featuring his new designs plus much more history.

http://rorint.com/

They worked with Disney to produce some mirrors with Disney characters on them.

Below is a video on some history of RoR

Chicago – Saturday in the Park

I’ve always liked early Chicago when Terry Kath was part of the band. Love the intro to this song and it takes me back to when I first heard the song. Saturday in the Park peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in Canada. Robert Lamm who wrote the song openly admits he based the melody on The Beatles “You Won’t See Me.”

Robert Lamm on Saturday in the Park

“Saturday in the Park is a prime example of how I take from what I experience in the world. It was written as I was looking at footage from a film I shot in Central Park, over a couple of years, back in the early ‘70s. I shot this film and somewhere down the line I edited it into some kind of a narrative, and as I watched the film I jotted down some ideas based on what I was seeing and had experienced. And it was really kind of that peace and love thing that happened in Central Park and in many parks all over the world, perhaps on a Saturday, where people just relax and enjoy each other’s presence, and the activities we observe and the feelings we get from feeling a part of a day like that.”

From Songfacts.

Chicago’s main songwriter, Robert Lamm, wrote this after a particularly exhilarating 4th of July spent in New York’s Central Park, where there were steel drum players, singers, dancers and jugglers. Lamm and Peter Cetera sang lead on the track.

like most Chicago singles, this didn’t chart in the UK. In America, however, it was their biggest chart hit to that point and also their first gold single, which at the time meant selling more than a million copies (“25 Or 6 To 4” somehow was never certified gold).

This song contains some of the most famous nonsense singing in rock: after Robert Lamm sings the line, “Singing Italian songs,” he sings some made up words approximating the Italian language.

Saturday In the Park

Saturday in the park,
I think it was the Fourth of July
Saturday in the park,
I think it was the Fourth of July

People dancing, people laughing
A man selling ice cream
Singing Italian songs
Everybody is another
Can you dig it (yes, I can)
And I’ve been waiting such a long time
For Saturday

Another day in the park
I think it was the Fourth of July
Another day in the park
I think it was the Fourth of July

People talking, really smiling
A man playing guitar
And singing for us all
Will you help him change the world
Can you dig it (yes, I can)
And I’ve been waiting such a long time
For today

Slow motion riders fly the colors of the day
A bronze man still can tell stories his own way
Listen children all is not lost, all is not lost, oh no, no

Funny days in the park
Every day’s the Fourth of July
Funny days in the park
Every day’s the Fourth of July

People reaching, people touching
A real celebration
Waiting for us all
If we want it, really want it
Can you dig it (yes, I can)
And I’ve been waiting such a long time
For the day, yeah yeah

Hoo hoo oh
Hmm hmmm
Hmm hmmm