Tuesday 8 December 2020

Shag, anyone?


I wonder if anyone's written a thesis on bubblegum? It wouldn't surprise me. Disposable pop music as an art form. Though maybe not that disposable - much of its canon from the 70s has endured to this day and is still, annoyingly, as catchy as ever nearly half a century later. 

Acclaimed music critic Lester Bangs may have been on to something when he described bubblegum as  'the basic sound of rock and roll, minus the rage, fear and violence.' Which is probably why I still get a kick out of hearing songs like this. (BTW - look at the classic chart countdown in the background while the record's playing.)

Shag - Loop-di-Love (1972)

But if Jonathan King is too much for you to stomach, here's the original version sung, a year earlier, by Juan Bastos. Imagine the Pied Piper being followed through the streets of Amsterdam not by rodents but instead by nubiles in calf length boots and hot pants. Well it was 1971.

Juan Bastos - Loop-di-Love (1971)



16 comments:

  1. I thought this post might refer to "There Ain't Nothing Like Shagging" by The Tams.

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    1. No, but please don't let me stop you from writing about it...

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  2. There was another that Kershaw played with the line The Shag is totally cool

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    1. You're right; drop me off in '71 (or '72) and I wouldn't wanna come back.

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  4. The TOTP clip is absolutely priceless. Some of the worst dancing ever captured on film in human history, happening in front of massive photos of Clodagh Rodgers, Perry Como and East of Eden - you couldn't make it up. Marvellous.
    I'll travel back to 1966 for my themed suggestion, the groovy 'Hide Away' by The Shags, produced, it should be noted, by the magnificently monikered Trod Nossel.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X01ykBvabg

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    1. I quite like that, TS; very 1966.
      Also, and it jumped off the label at me, a record that lasts precisely 2:22. I love records that last two minutes twenty two seconds.

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  5. I had to turn the sound off, it's a terrible song. But a quality video, and now I am trying to find who/what Walter de los Rios was

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    1. And that got in the Top Ten? Then again, wasn't it that year that that bagpipe-y Amazing Grace was the best selling single of the year? Or got to number one?

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    2. Interestingly, the clip is from 1971 (it's a 1971 chart rundown), but Shag's version of Loop di Love didn't chart till 1972. The audience, therefore, were probably dancing to something else entirely.

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  6. Fantastic in every way. Enjoyed both clips. Juan Bastos has the world on a string.

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    1. I'm becoming slightly obsessed with 1972, Brian; this evening I found myself watching Manchester City v Manchester Utd from November of that year; not knowing the result I watched the whole thing as if it was live. And I loved every minute of it.

      Juan was having a great time doing that video was he not? One can only wonder how that day panned out for him...

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  7. A couple of great clips there. The era of bib and brace hot pants, feather cut hairstyles and tanks tops. Didn’t the girls always look so miserable though in the TOTP studio. I remember all the acts in the chart rundown but not this song. Yes, I wouldn’t mind journeying back to 1972 at the moment but I think we have selective memories and just remember the good stuff. None of this malarkey back then!

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    1. I saw a few smiles in there...

      Let's put it this way - in 50 years time no self respecting time traveller is gonna want to come back to 2020!

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