Glam – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Sweet – The Ballroom Blitz

In the early seventies, I noticed a single that my sister had. It was on Bell Records, a band called The Sweet, and the song was Little Willy. The more I heard their hits, the more I couldn’t believe it was the same band. This song is explosive, yes, but it’s also tight, controlled chaos.

It kicks off like a scene from a glam rock horror movie. “Are you ready, Steve?” Andy Scott answers, “Uh-huh,” and one by one, they check in like a gang about to knock over a ballroom. Then BOOM, you’re punched with that guitar riff, drums, and the Sweet launch into one of the most over-the-top rock singles ever recorded.

This song was inspired by a real onstage attack. The Sweet were playing at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock, Scotland, when the crowd went into an almost riot and started hurling bottles at the band. Most acts might’ve run for cover or written a moody ballad. The Sweet? They wrote a glam rock anthem with more drama than a Saturday night punch-up at a neighborhood pub.

This band seemed to sound like a different band on many of their singles. They were rock, glam rock, pop, some disco, and bubblegum rock. This song has been covered by several different artists. I first heard the song by Krokus in the 1980s. The song peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in the UK in 1973. Their other well-known songs were Little Willy, Fox on the Run, and Love is Like Oxygen.

This was written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who wrote many glam songs. They also wrote Sweet’s Blockbuster, Suzi Quatro’s Devil Gate Drive, and Tony Basil’s Mickey.

The Ballroom Blitz

Are you ready, Steve? Uh-ha!

Andy? Yeah!

Mick? Okay.

All right, fellows, let’s go!Oh, it’s been getting so hard

Livin’ with the things you do to me, ah-ha

My dreams are getting so strange

I’d like to tell you everything I see, mmOh, I see a man at the back as a matter of fact

His eyes are red as the sun

And a girl in the corner, let no one ignore her

‘Cause she thinks she’s the passionate one

Oh yeah, it was like lightning
Everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing
And they all started grooving
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

And the man at the back said: “Everyone attack”
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
It’ll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz

Oh, I’m reaching out for something
Touching nothing’s all I ever do
Oh, I softly call you over
When you appear, there’s nothing left of you, ah-ha

Now the man at the back is ready to crack
As he raises his hands to the sky
And the girl in the corner is everyone’s mourner
She could kill you with a wink of her eye

Oh yeah, it was electric
So frantically hectic
And the band started leaving
‘Cause they all stopped breathing
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

And the man at the back said: “Everyone attack”
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
It’ll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz

Oh yeah, it was like lightning
Everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing
‘Cause they all started grooving
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

It’s, it’s a ballroom blitz
It’s, it’s a ballroom blitz
It’s, it’s a ballroom blitz
Yeah, it’s a ballroom blitz

T-Rex – Baby Boomerang

It seems to me to dreamIs something too wildIn Max’s Kansas CityYou a belladonna child

I like joining in Jim’s Song Lyric Sunday when I can. I wanted to this weekend, and when I saw the subject (a Song that mentions your name), the answer should have been easy…Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. One problem: I don’t like it, and I only post songs I like. I searched around and found many songs that have my name, but this one I really liked.

Now, what was Max’s Kansas City? It was a well-known nightclub, restaurant, and music venue in New York City, located at 213 Park Avenue South. It operated from 1965 to 1981 and became a central meeting hub for artists, musicians, and the counterculture. It was famous for being a meeting place for Andy Warhol’s Factory crowd, the punk rock movement, and early glam rock acts.

This song was on the album The Slider, released in 1972, and was written by Marc Bolan. It was never released as a single, but the album did really well. The album peaked at #4 in the UK, #11 in Canada, and #17 on the Billboard 200. It was their highest charting album in America and Canada.

T. Rex was huge in the UK starting around 1970 but then declined in 1974. They did have a documentary made about them, produced and directed by Ringo Starr, called Born to Boogie. Some have credited Bolan with starting Glam Rock.

He went on to host a musical TV show called Marc, in which he hosted a mix of new and established bands and performed his own songs. Marc’s final show was recorded on September 7, 1977, with special guest David Bowie, who was a friend of Bolan.

Baby Boomerang

Slim lined sheik facedAngel of the nightRiding like a cowboyIn the graveyard of the night

New York witch in the dungeonOf the dayI’m trying to write my novelBut all you do is play

Mince pie dog-eyeEagle on the windI’m searching through this garbageLooking for a friend

Your uncle with an alligatorChained to his legDangles you your freedomThen he offers you his bed

It seems to me to dreamIs something too wildIn Max’s Kansas CityYou a belladonna child

Riding on the highwaysOn the gateways to the southYou’re talking with your bootsAnd you’re walking with your mouth

Baby BoomerangBaby BoomerangYou never spike a personBut you always bang the whole gangThank you ma’am

Slade – Coz I Luv You

Long before Prince started to mess with titles to songs…Slade was doing it in the early seventies. When I think of glam rock…I don’t think of this band but they were indeed considered glam rock.

Slade was very successful in the UK with 6 number ones, 16 top ten, and 24 top 40 singles. They could not duplicate their success in America where they only had two top forty singles…Run, Runaway, and My, Oh My both in the 80s. Quiet Riot covered Slade’s songs Cum On Feel The Noize and Mama, Weer All Crazee Now, and had hits in the 1980s.

This 1971 song was Slade’s first number-one single and solidified their status as one of glam rock’s biggest bands in the UK. Chas Chandler (formerly Jimi Hendrix’s manager and Animals bassist) encouraged them to write their own songs and they ended up writing a lot of hits.

The song was written by lead singer Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea. They wrote it during a rehearsal they used to tune Lea’s violin. The song grew from there.

Slade was not like The Small Faces who never toured the US. They toured extensively with bands like Humble Pie, ZZ Top, J Geils Band, Black Sabbath, Santana, and Aerosmith opened for them in a few places until Toys in the Attic hit…and then they reversed it.

They even did a movie called Slade In Flame that came out in 1975. It was what went on behind the scenes in rock at the time. It wasn’t a spoof because Holder fought against that.

Noddy Holder: “We thought ‘Because I Love You’ was a wet title for a song and so we used the spelling that would be on toilet walls in the Midlands and that made it more hard-hitting.”

Noddy Holder: “We didn’t like how the title would look on vinyl: ‘Because I Love You.’ It didn’t fit Slade’s image. In the studio, I had the lyric sheet written out phonetically in Black Country dialect which is how we used to write on bog walls. Chas Chandler, our manager, saw the lyric sheet, and said, ‘Why don’t we use that?’ It caught on and had such an impact.”

“Of course, you got Prince doing it in the ’80s, then all the hip-hop artists later on, so we started something. The education authorities got onto us for influencing the youth for bad spelling.”

Noddy Holder: “He (Chas Chandler) told us to write a hit song, just like that, and that’s not very easy to do. Jimmy and me wrote ‘Coz I Luv You’ in 20 minutes and Chaz was raving about it. We felt that it wasn’t rocky enough for Slade so we added all the handclapping and boot-stomping, which made it much more commercial and became our trademark.”

Jim Lea: “Our first hit, Get Down And Get With It,’ was a cover. Chas kept ringing up saying we needed a follow up, fast. We’d started trying to write in pairs – Don [Powell] and I, Noddy and Dave [Hill] , but the other two weren’t coming up with anything. Bolan was big at the time and all his songs were slinky and sexy. That seemed to be what it took to get a hit, so I had an idea to do something softer. At the time Nod and I used to jam along to [’30s French jazz violinist] Stéphane Grappelli and [Belgian jazz guitarist] Django Reinhardt, so I went over to his folks’ house to work something up with him. I’d already got the structure and 20 minutes later we had ‘Coz I Luv You.’ It romped to #1. I had to turn round to Don and say, ‘Look, we’re going to have to keep this going.'”

Cuz I Love You

I won’t laugh at you when you boo-hoo-hoo
Coz I luv you
I can turn my back on the things you lack
Coz I luv you

(Chorus):
I just like the things you do mm
Don’t you change the things you do mm

You get me in a spot and smile the smile you got
And I luv you
You make me out a clown then you put me down
I still luv you

(Chorus)

I just like the things you do mm
Don’t you change the things you do mm

Yeah

When you bite your lip you’re gonna flip your flip
But I luv you
When we’re miles apart you still reach my heart
How I love you

(Chorus)

I just like the things you do mm
Don’t you change the things you do mm

Only time can tell if we get on well
Coz I luv you
All that’s passed us by we can only sigh hi-hi
Coz I luv you

(Chorus)

I just like the things you do mm
Don’t you change the things you do mm

No, no, no.

(Repeat to fade)
la la laa la la laa, laa, laa..

T. Rex – Telegram Sam

The first single released from The Slider, and the third No.1 U.K. hit for T. Rex, “Telegram Sam”

The song peaked at #1 in the UK, #67 in the Billboard 100, #66 in Canada, and #19 in New Zealand in 1971. It’s surprising to me he didn’t do better in Canada and America. My only guess was that glam music never was as big in America as the UK. They did tour in America in the early seventies as a supporting act for bands such as Three Dog Night, Poco, and The Doobie Brothers. Opening up for those bands in America…it’s easy to see how they could not find their target audience.

T-Rex leader Marc Bolan wrote this as an ode to his manager, Tony Secunda. “Telegram Sam” was Bolan’s nickname for his Secunda. Other people who show up in the song were Jungle-face Jake who was Sid Walker, Secunda’s assistant, and “Bobby” is Bob Dylan.

Telegram Sam was the first single to be issued by Marc Bolan’s own T.Rex Wax Co. label, and was released on 21 January 1972.

The B-side featured two songs in the UK, “Cadilac” (as printed on the EMI label of the original single) and “Baby Strange”, the latter also included in the album The Slider.

From Songfacts

When Bolan referred to Secunda as his “Main Man,” it brought the phrase into popular culture.

The goth-rock group Bauhaus covered this song In 1980.

In 1977, on the “Dandy in the Underworld” tour, Marc Bolan sang “Third vision and the David Bowie blues” instead of “3D vision and the California blues” – hinting at David Bowie’s depressive tendencies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xl32HEJ8DE

Telegram Sam

Telegram Sam Telegram Sam
You’re my main man

Golden Nose Slim Golden Nose Slim
I know’s where you’ve been
Purple Pie Pete Purple Pie Pete
Your lips are like lightning
Girls melt in the heat

Telegram Sam
You’re my main man
Telegram Sam
You’re my main man

Bobby’s alright Bobby’s alright
He’s a natural born poet
He’s just outta sight
Jungle faced Jake
Jungle faced Jake
I say make no mistake
About Jungle faced Jake

Automatic shoes
Automatic shoes
Give me three D vision
And the California blues
Me I funk but I don’t care
I ain’t no square with my corkscrew hair

Telegram Sam, Telegram Sam

I’m a howlin’ wolf