FREDA PAYNE – "Band Of Gold"

For the record, I’d give it a 9.

I always thought this record to be much later ( 1977 was Saurday Night Fever ! ) and always associated it with ” Disco”. I think it could be argued that this may be the first # 1 disco tune ?

I never thought of it as disco. It was one of the Holland-Dozier-Holland productions on their new Invictus label, along with Chairmen of the Board, after falling out with Motown and the great bass line carries on the Motown sound.Freda Payne’s sister was in the post-Diana Ross Supremes, though Freda herself always sounded more of jazz than soul on most of her records.

“Feel the Need” is a great record and definitely a big early disco favorite. Peter Shapiro usually gives the first-disco-record crown to the Temptations’ “Law of the Land,” also from ’72.

Musically, this was one of the more interesting songs of the early 1970s. The electric sitar perhaps makes it sound a little dated by today’s standards, but still, the recording provided a truly interesting mix of ingredients. The beat might foreshadow disco, but no one would have thought of this then–I agree with those who describe it as late Motown. On top of that, it’s truly catchy and has great hooks, all the ingredients for the perfect pop hit.

That being said, what can’t be ignored are the lyrics. As I recall, they were the subject of great debate among my friends. It was obviously about a honeymoon during the course of which something went really, really wrong and he left. But what??? We were all quite sure that it couldn’t be THAT, because you just couldn’t discuss THAT in a pop song–maybe in some “underground” thing that would only be played on a small FM station at two in the morning (were some really outrageous things could be heard every now and then) but not on Top 40 stations. And anyway, it all sounded too, well, decorous to be about anything controversial. What was even stranger is that the disc jockeys didn’t even joke about it–and puerile bad jokes were (still are) the stock and trade of Top 40 disc jockeys. (Ah, please make those gibbering fools read Freud’s Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious.)

But nowadays I realize that it means EXACTLY what everyone thought it meant. Sometimes the obvious explanation is the correct one. I suppose this was some sort of breakthrough in terms of what could be said on mainstream radio. Music-wise, it spearheaded a new trend in crossover pop/soul (which is what Invictus might have been attempting to achieve). Lyric-wise, I can’t remember anything else quite like this that attempted to be, ahem, in relatively good taste.

I now know why I thought “B of G” was disco. As it’s been looping in my head in true ear-worm fashion, I kept hearing it fade to ” Standing In The Shadows of Love “. Why ? K-Tel ! I had a ” hooked on ” LP that must have been “Hooked On Motown ” or something that set all these songs against a steady thump – thump that was meant to simulate disco and supply a continuous beat to a bunch of songs.

Did you have K – TEL ? in the UK or ” Hooked On ” series of music ?

Jim Morrison was the one suffering from a reptile dysfunction in 1970.

Oooh – I’ve had my eye off the ball for a week or so and you’re back! And some good stuff to come back with. I like the poll – in this case 8 is about right, and I’d have given Tears of a Clown a 9, borderline 10, as it’s one of my favourites from round about this time. But then I was bathed in a warm fuzzy glow – back from a summer in France where I discovered sex for the first time!

um, i’m not sure that Portsmouth Sinfonia was a send-up as such, more a kind of art “what is music?” statement…

also i really like stars on 45, but i realise i’m very much in the minority here, but it’s certainly how i came to know (small bits of) so many beatles songs…

In my world “Band of Gold” is more serious, less frivolous, more credible (also more “cred” if that’s different) more listenable, more fun, and just downright *better* than stinky old “Black Night”.

Erithian, if the battle for “music’s soul” took place on the territory you describe then thank goodness the right side won.

(Side note: poptimism gets characterised as panglossianism, which it needn’t be, but rockism seems to be at its core contra-panglossian, even to the point of grabbing a sense of defeat from what could sensibly be seen as victory, but this is just a random thought and not really aimed at Erithian, or anyone else for that matter.)

Ha ha, I thought somebody would take me to task over “Black Night” v “Band of Gold” before long. Honestly, I didn’t mean to categorise all four Number 1s in that list as frivolous – it was just that the “Strawberry Fields” discussion came to mind when noticing four Number 2 hits that in my opinion would have greatly improved the year’s stock of Number 1s if they’d won out in their respective battles. I’ll defend my preference for Purple over Payne, Tim, but neither of us are wrong, it’s just a matter of personal taste. The other record blocked by (the admittedly fine) “Band of Gold” was “You Can Get It If You Really Want” by Desmond Dekker, which will no doubt have its backers!

I was always more a rock fan than a soul one, but in discussion with a soulboy friend the other day I acknowledged that at the same time as my cool friend down the street was introducing me to Purple, Sabbath and Heep (!), I would be bopping away to the Detroit Emeralds at the school party and thoroughly enjoying it. Mind you the chart battle really kicks in later in the decade when it’s new wave versus cheesy disco – I despised the moronic “Let’s All Chant”-type stuff. [dons tin helmet]

This is a 10

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maybe wait until it comes up before putting in spoilers?

Yes I know, but the number 2 lists aren’t so well documented, even though they can be found, and you and I know what they are/were anyway. I just think there’s a nice serendipity in discussing what else was in the chart at the time of a particular chart-topper when we get to it so that we get all the “goodness me!” “blow me down!” etc…

OK, point taken Marcello, and indeed I had a little whinge about people talking about unconsummated marriage songs before the “Band of Gold” entry had been posted! It was just that one or two of us were getting so worked up about Purple v Freda, and I noticed a pairing coming up that must have aroused Ultravox-esque rage among many at the time. I agree about the serendipity, so let’s leave it there. (and leave Ultravox alone for now as well…)

I look forward to an account of how “Shaddup Your Face” prevented “Vienna” from reaching No. 1 with unseemly relish

Speaking of Black Night by Deep Purple, it’s a rip of We Ain’t Got Nothing Yet by the Blues MacGoos. However, that riff was lifted directly from Ricky Nelson’s version of Summertime and the Living is Easy (can’t recall the correct name)—ain’t pop music history fun?

Freda Payne is Anne of Cleves.

I swear that there’s a mid-70s version of this (artist unknown) which turns the whole thing into knowing sitcom – there’s a constant toot/whistle rhythm track reminiscent of Popeye cartoons, and I recall that the singer finally extends (albeit somewhat irritably) an olive branch to her other half – “WON’T YOU STOP THAT WHISTLING, STANLEY, AND COME IN HERE!!! – I ain’t gonna BITE ya…” Googling hasn’t helped with investigations, but I’m sure that it isn’t a rarebit dream of mine. Can any of you fine folks help?

Don’t give up: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/if-at-first-desmond-dekker-you-can-get.html Ta for reading everyone!

Maybe it’s been said already, but what you’ve heard as guitar, I’d swear to be sitar, Tom. Maybe I’m wrong? And it was only a couple years ago I figured out the song’s about what it is about, so melodically cheerful I’d thought it when I was a kid.

Don’t know how many readers you get from the U.S., but I’m one who discovered you a few years ago via The Singles Jukebox blog and have enjoyed your insights no matter a profound philosophical difference or two (am a politically conservative capitalist Christian, but I’d like to think I know good music criticism when I read it, too).

Critic watch:

1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die, and 10,001 You Must Download (2010)
Bruce Pollock (USA) – The 7,500 Most Important Songs of 1944-2000 (2005)
Dave Marsh & Kevin Stein (USA) – The 40 Best of the Top 40 Singles by Year (1981) 9
Michaelangelo Matos (USA) – Top 100 Singles of the 1970s (2001) 81
Rolling Stone (USA) – The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2004) 391
Stylus (USA) – Seconds: One Song Essay Every Week
2FM (Ireland) – Top 100 Singles of All Time (2003) 82
Mojo (UK) – The Ultimate Jukebox: 100 Singles You Must Own (2003) 14
New Musical Express (UK) – The Top 150 Singles of All Time (1987) 54
Paul Roland (UK) – CD Guide to Pop & Rock, 100 Essential Singles (2001)
Q (UK) – The 1010 Songs You Must Own (2004)
Q (UK) – The Ultimate Music Collection (2005)
Zig Zag (UK) – Gillett & Frith’s Hot 100 Singles (1975)
STM Entertainment (Australia) – The 50 Best Songs Ever (2007) 49
Giannis Petridis (Greece) – 2004 of the Best Songs of the Century (2003)

Lazarus @ 49: it was, as I recall, one of the initial releases of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s shiny new Invictus Records and as such got a lot of publicity and airtime from the start. So no, not a NS kind of thing. But I may be a meringue.