1973: Music Memories

That was the year that I had my confirmation. For those who don’t know what that is, in the Roman Catholic church, you’re baptized as a baby, but when you approach your teens, you adopt the Catholic faith in your own right. And confirmation is the sacrament in which you do that. Being honest, I went through the ritual, like we were all expected to, but I was more interested in the money that you’d get from your relatives when you visited them in your confirmation suit 😀. And so was everyone else.

The reception was poor, but even now, I enjoy finding old 208 radio shows on the web. I can even find some from 1973 on Mixcloud and rtlgreat208.

Funnily enough, my confirmation did influence my conversion in 1980 in two ways. Firstly, in school, in the run-up to my confirmation, we studied the New Testament. That, more than anything else, gave me an appetite for the Bible, particularly the New Testament. And with my transistor radio, which I bought with my confirmation money, I would often end up listening to Trans World Radio (TWR) Monte Carlo, which was an evangelistic station. It was so hard to find 208, that I’d often stumble on TWR or Radio Moscow. So, I was eventually going to become either a Christian or a communist, or both 😀.

I remember hearing the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London on TWR. In later years, I attended conferences in that church. I don’t think that they’d approve of my interest in pop music, but I do count them as a good influence. Regarding the confirmation ceremony itself, I think that it would be better if it were left to the individual to decide when he or she gets confirmed. They do that in the Church of England. I have an old book by Anglican evangelical, John Stott Your Confirmation. There he explains the Christian faith in depth to young confirmation candidates. John Stott is a renowned Anglican evangelical. I actually met him in All Souls Langham Place, London, back in 1982.

In Baptist circles, we only baptize people when they come to faith so there’s no need for confirmation. So, if I had been brought up Baptist instead of Roman Catholic, maybe I’d have missed out on getting a transistor radio! Lucky me 😀. I was baptized in Cork Baptist Church in 1981.

So, what about the music of 1973, I suppose I should start with the Eurovision. I was into that long before I was into pop music. I suppose that I was beginning to move on from it in 1973, but when I look at the list of 1973 songs, I fondly remember the Eurovision songs. Maybe it’s because I haven’t heard them much since then.

Ann-Marie David won that year with Wonderful Dream. I think that Luxembourg won that year and in 1972, but neither artist was from Luxembourg from what I remember.

I generally hated Irish music back in 1973. All the best songs were from the UK and USA. But nowadays, I get a little nostalgic when I remember the Irish hits. So, here’s a list of the ones that I remember. An astonishing number of Irish songs made the Irish charts. I don’t know when it happened, but there was some controversy about rigging the statistics around this time. Later in the 1970s, Irish songs became quite rare when you’d listen to the charts.

Some Irish Hits of 1973

• I Love You Still – Big Tom
• Don’t Forget to Say I Love You – Roly Daniels
  • I mentioned in my 1972 post that Roly was originally from India.
• Cushy Butterfield – Brendan Grace
  • Father Ted fans will know him as the bad priest, Father Fintan Stack.
• Sing Irishmen Sing – The Barley Corn
  • I always saw these as a Sinn Fein/IRA band, but when you look at the lyrics, it’s quite a nice song about peace in the future. Thankfully, the dream has come true – although maybe they’ll be happier if or when we have a united Ireland.
• Highland Paddy – The Wolfe Tones
  • Another republican group. The song is set in Kilkenny, Ireland, and centers around a meeting with Captain Brady, a leader of the Fenian Brotherhood—a 19th-century Irish republican group dedicated to ending British rule.
• Merry-go-round – Murphy and the Swallows
  • An Irish country song – not on YouTube
• Lead Us Through – Tommy Drennan
  • I remember the line “Jesus take our hand and lead us through” – I think it was a song about the troubles. Tommy, from Limerick, had a bigger hit with another song later that year – Beautiful Peace.
• Do I Dream – Maxi
  • The Eurovision song. Because of some dispute about the arrangement, she very nearly dropped out. She would have been replaced by Tina Reynolds, who was Ireland’s 1974 entry. But she did perform.
• Arkansas – Red Hurley
• It All Depends on You – The Swarbriggs
  • The Swarbriggs were Ireland’s 1975 and 1977 Eurovision entries. In 1977, they were joined by Nicola Kerr and Alma Carroll
• The Moon Behind the Hill – Brian Coll
• When Morning Has Come – Tina Reynolds and The Real McCoy
• Dearg Doom – Horslips
  • This might be better known for its incorporation into the Ireland 1990 World Cup song, Put ‘Em Under Pressure. Horslips were my first rock concert at the Cork City Hall in December 1975.
•  Randolph’s Tango – Thin Lizzy
  • After having a big hit with Whiskey in the Jar, Thin Lizzy faded until their 1976 hit, The Boys Are Back in Town. I saw them at the City Hall, Cork, in 1980.
• Where the Three Counties Meet – Brendan Shine
• Funny Face – Roly Daniels
• Dingle Bay Boat Song – Ronnie Griffiths
• Devil Among the Tailors – Mushroom
• Suffer Little Children – Canon Sydney McEwan and the Cork Children’s Choir
  • A delightful song. I remember being puzzled by the word “Suffer” but it’s basically an old world for “Permit” – It relates to the incident in Matthew 19 where Jesus reminded his disciples that the simple faith that you see in children is what God asks for.
• Dear John – Margo
  • Margo was big in the Irish country music scene in the 1970s. Then, in the 1980s, her young brother, Daniel O’Donnell came on the scene and is probably the biggest Irish country star ever.
• Daisy a Day – Danny Doyle
• Almost Persuaded – DJ Curtain & The Kerry Blues
• Love and The Country – Tommy Drennan and the Monarchs
• I’m Gonna Get You – Reform
  • One of the few Irish rock bands that I remember from the 1970s. They were from Limerick.
• I Never Said Goodbye – Red Hurley
  • I remember this one making me very sad even though, as I said, I generally wasn’t into Irish music apart from Horslips, Thin Lizzy and Rory Gallagher.
• Pal of My Cradle Days – Sean Dunphy
• Mountains of Mourne – Don McClean
  • An American artist but an Irish song! I couldn’t understand how an international artist would bother singing an Irish song. 😀
• Music from Across the Way – Sonny Knowles
• I’m Gonna Make It – Joe Cuddy
  • I can’t understand how all these old guys from 1973 are younger than me now. How did that happen? 😀
• Liberty Boy – Brendan Grace
• Julie’s Rock n Roll​ – The Swarbriggs
• Up and Away (The Helicopter Song) The Wolfe Tones
  • A song that seemed to celebrate the escape of IRA prisoners from Portlaoise prison. Few people in the republic supported the IRA, but you would get some who quietly sympathized with them.
• Sunday, Monday, Tuesday – Dana
  • I wouldn’t have admitted to liking this at the time, but it was very catchy. I searched on youTube for years for it and finally found it a few years ago.
• Beautiful Peace – Tommy Drennan
  • This was a very popular song about a letter to Santa asking for peace.
• Gilbert O’Sullivan, though Irish, had three international hits:
  • Get Down
  • Ooh Baby
  • Why Oh Why

Who Played Cork in 1973?

I was too young to attend concerts in 1973. I have this memory of Gilbert O’Sullivan coming to the Savoy and wondering if I should go. I can even visualize myself looking at the poster and price outside the cinema, but I can’t find any evidence of the concert. Maybe I’ll have another look through old newspapers sometime 😀. Here, I just list international or internationally known Irish groups. Lots of other Irish bands came regularly.

• January
  • The Tremeloes – Stardust (Later to become Sir Henrys)
  • Thin Lizzie and Cromwell – Savoy (I assume Thin Lizzy was meant)
• February
  • Brinsley Schwarz with Bees Make Honey – Savoy
  • Tir Na N-og with Duncan Brown, Neil Coll – Savoy
• March
  • Hawkwind – Savoy
  • Horslips – Stardust
  • Incredible String Band – Savoy
• April
  • Thin Lizzie with Chips – Savoy
• May
  • Horslips – Savoy
• July
  • Mungo Jerry and Frupp – City Hall
  • The Dubliners – Savoy
  • Tommy Makem – John Barleycorn Inn
• August
  • Josef Locke – Majorca Crosshaven
  • Tremeloes – Top Hat, Fermoy
  • Blackfoot Sue – Showboat Youghal
  • Christie – Showboat Youghal
• September
  • Blackfoot Sue and Gaslight – Arcadia
• October
  • The Dubliners – Savoy
• December
  • Skid Row and Thin Lizzy – City Hall
  • Thin Lizzy and Bay City Rollers – City Hall
    • Who’d have thought that Thin Lizzy and the Bay City Rollers would share a bill? Bay City Rollers didn’t really become big until 1974, but they were listed as Scotland’s Number 1 group.

Here are a few other clips from concerts in Dublin in 1973

And here are a couple of clips that feature my hometown, Cork in 1973. I’m not in any of them. No-one knew how great I was back then 😀:

General Personal Memories

I already mentioned that I had my confirmation in 1973, and I bought a transistor radio. As always, we went to Crosshaven for our holidays. I had a brief job putting newspapers through doors at Christmas to earn money to buy a model railway. I saw President De Valera going by in a car in Patrick Street. He went all the way back to the 1916 rising. He was born in the US but raised in Limerick.

Favourite Songs of 1973

Here I’ll list some of my favourite international hits of 1973

• Blockbuster – The Sweet
• Paper Plane​ – Status Quo
• You’re So Vain​ – Carly Simon
• Part Of The Union​ – Strawbs
• Sylvia – Focus
• Cum On Feel The Noize​ – Slade
• Power To All Our Friends​ – Cliff Richard
• God Gave Rock And Roll To You​ – Argent
• My Love​ – Paul McCartney and Wings
• Drive-in Saturday – David Bowie
• Giving It All Away​ – Roger Daltry
• See My Baby Jive​ – Wizard
• You Are The Sunshine Of My Life​ – Stevie Wonder
• Rubber Bullets – 10cc
• Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)​ – George Harrison
• Live and Let Die – Paul McCartney and Wings
• Life On Mars​ – David Bowie
• Angel Fingers – Wizard
• Joybringer – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
• Goodbye Yellow Brick Road​ – Elton John
• Ballroom Blitz – The Sweet
• Ghetto Child​ – The Spinners
• You Won’t Find Another Fool Like Me​ – The New Seekers
• Mind Games – John Lennon
• Why Oh Why Oh Why​ – Gilbert O’Sullivan

I liked a lot more, but I just swiftly picked 25 from another list that I happen to have.

And of course, several Christmas classics originated in 1973:

• Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade
• I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day – Wizzard
• Gaudete – Steeleye Span
• Step Into Christmas – Elton John

10 Movies of 1973

• The Sting
• Papillon
• Enter the Dragon
• The Way We Were
• Live and Let Die
• Robin Hood (Animated)
• Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
• Westworld
• Jesus Christ Superstar
• Godspell

I loved Live and Let Die, and the theme, which Paul McCartney wrote and sang. He performed it when I saw him in Dublin in 2010. I never saw Enter the Dragon, but I saw Fists of Fury that year. The star, Bruce Lee, sadly, died in 1973. We were all big into Kung Fu, but few took Kung Fu lessons, and those who did, swiftly got bored and have up.

Two films very loosely based on the life of Jesus were popular that year, Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. Most people that I knew were uneasy about them. I saw neither. I suppose there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and maybe they start people thinking.

Some Albums of 1973

• Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
• Elton John – Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player
• Rick Wakeman – The Six Wives of Henry VIII
• Rory Gallagher – Blueprint
• The Beatles – 1962-1966 (Red Album)
  • 1962-1966 (Red Album)
  • 1967 – 1970 (Blue Album)
• Perry Como – And I Love You So
• David Bowie – Aladdin Sane
• Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy
• Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells
• Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
• Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies
• Gilbert O’Sullivan – I’m a Writer Not a Fighter
• Band on the Run – Paul McCartney & Wings
• Horslips – The Tain
• Paul Simon – There Goes Rhymin’ Simon
• Stevie Wonder – Innervisions
• Queen – Queen
• Genesis – Selling England by the Pound
• George Harrison – Living in a Material World
• Rolling Stones – Goat’s Head Soup
• Ringo Starr – Ringo
• Mind Games John Lennon

I didn’t know what evangelical Christians were in 1973, but two of the albums above were done by artists who turned out to be evangelical Christians. Both were originally from church backgrounds and became more vocal about their faith later in life. Rick Wakeman made a few excellent prog albums in the 1970s and was also the keyboard player with Yes. He also did keyboards on David Bowie’s Life on Mars. We thought Alice Cooper was pretty much the wildest maddest guy back in 1973, though we liked his music.

Nowadays, he has openly shared his Christian testimony, speaks about his beliefs in interviews, teaches Bible classes, and integrates his faith into his personal and public life.

10 Key News Events of 1973

• Ireland joined the European Economic Community (EEC) on 1 January, alongside the UK and Denmark
• The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution was signed into law on 5 January, removing the “special position” of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland
• In Ireland Liam Cosgrave became Taoiseach on 14 March, succeeding Jack Lynch, and Erskine Childers was elected President of Ireland on 30 May, defeating Tom O’Higgins
• The Cod War escalated, with the Royal Navy deploying warships in May to protect British trawlers from Icelandic gunboats
• The Sunningdale Agreement was signed on 9 December, aiming to establish a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland
• Yom Kippur War: On 6 October, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel, leading to a major Middle East conflict and reshaping regional geopolitics
• Oil Crisis Begins: In October, OPEC imposed an oil embargo on nations supporting Israel, triggering global energy shortages and economic turmoil
• Roe v. Wade Decision: On 22 January, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide, sparking decades of legal and cultural debate
• Watergate Scandal Escalates: The Saturday Night Massacre on 20 October saw President Nixon fire key Justice Department officials, intensifying calls for his resignation
• Skylab Launched: On 14 May, the U.S. launched its first space station, Skylab, marking a milestone in space exploration

People Who Passed Away in 1973

• John Charles McQuaid – Former Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland, a dominant figure in Irish Catholicism. He died on 7 April 1973.
• Seán Ó Faoláin – Renowned Irish writer and editor, known for short stories and essays on Irish identity. He died in 1973.
• Bruce Lee – Martial artist and actor, died on 20 July at age 32.
• Pablo Picasso – Legendary Spanish painter and sculptor, died on 8 April at age 91.
• J.R.R. Tolkien – Author of The Lord of the Rings, died on 2 September at age 81.
• Jim Croce – American folk singer, died in a plane crash on 20 September at age 30.
• Bobby Darin – Pop singer and actor, died on 20 December at age 37.
• Lyndon B. Johnson – 36th President of the United States, died on 22 January at age 64.
• Edward G. Robinson – Romanian-American actor, died on 26 January at age 79.

Hymns from 1973

I didn’t intend this series to cover hymns, but here are a few that I became familiar with in the early 1980s were first published in 1973: