1974: Music Memories

Glam rock had been very big in 1972 and 1973. I was firmly attached to all that. I was a little bewildered to see things change in 1974. It was the early stages of 1970s soul and disco. As it happened, that music turned out to be much better, but it sounded a little odd to me at the time. I was still big into Gilbert O’Sullivan. I joined his fan club in 1974, but his success declined. I don’t know whether his 1974 song A Woman’s Place is in the Home had anything to do with it 😀.

I started second-level school in Autumn 1974. My school, Scoil Eoin Naofa, was spread across three Cork city locations in the mid-1970s. This was before several large new schools were built in Cork. I spent the autumn of 1974 in a building in Wellington Road. They closed the building that Christmas as a school, but it still exists. I sometimes drop up to see it. I’d like to go inside, but I suspect that it’s very different nowadays.

Former Scoil Eoin Naofa Building, Wellington Road, Cork

Two vivid memoriesof that building are the science teacher asking me to sing Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day by Gilbert O’Sullivan and the religion teacher asking us to write an essay justifying Roman Catholicism. I remember the priest complementing me on it. I made the point that when Protestants broke away, they were all divided among themselves. Looking back now, it doesn’t seem a very good point, because any denomination could say that those who aren’t in their specific denomination are all divided among themselves. But maybe it’s true that after the reformation there was much turmoil and fragmentation among Protestants. Some simply wanted something like the Roman Catholic Church, but national rather than Roman and with tweaks to make it more aligned to the Scriptural model. Others wanted to begin afresh from the ground up, and they differed on what precise shape the church should take.

They way I see it, you have your own personal relationship with God, you go to church to fellowship with others, and churches sometimes cooperate for training, mission work and so on. They don’t all have to be part of one overarching denomination.

I was brought up Roman Catholic. I left the church when I was 18, but it did provide me with foundational knowledge of the Bible. And people of all denominations have been a help to me over the years. Some say that we would be better without denominations, but I think people will always have different views on certain issues. Fragmentation can be very inefficient though. You might have a town with four small evangelical churches having to be subsidized by larger bodies. It might be better to have just one. And if people are interested in different movements, they can do all that online. That’s what I think anyway 😀. The big question is what the single church should be like.

I also bought my first cassette tape recorder in 1974. I used to tape the top 20 on the radio every week. I remember taping the audio of a TV show shortly after I got it – Dusty’s Trail, a comedy western series.

The 1974 Brighton Eurovision is perhaps the most memorable one ever, at least for me. Everyone in Ireland knew the Irish entry, Cross Your Heart. Abba won with Waterloo. And the UK and Dutch entries, Long Live Love and I See a Star where also major hits as was Gigliola Cinquetti’s Go (Before You Break My Heart), the Italian entry. And The Wombles appeared in the gap before the voting:

Anyway, let’s get to the Irish songs of 1974. I didn’t like Irish music, but it’s all nostalgia for me nowadays. I’ve heard the international hits so much in the intervening time that they rarely make me feel like I’m back in 1974. But I hardly ever hear the Irish songs, so when I do, I feel nostalgic. Here goes:

Some Irish Hits of 1974

• Thanks for the Memories – Danny Doyle
• Fall in with the Band – Ann Bushnell
  • I remember her performing this on the Late Late Show. I could never find it on YouTube. Maybe it’ll appear someday.
• I’d Love You to Want Me – Glen Curtain
• Liberty Boy – Brendan Grace
  • He was comedian as well as being a singer – a household name in the 1970s. Maybe some know him nowadays as the nasty priest in Father Ted.
• Goodbye My Love Goodbye – Joe Dolan
  • This was a cover of a Demis Roussos song
• Dreams are Good Friends – Gina, Dale Haze & the Champions
  • This was a cover of a Vicky Leandros song.
• Cross Your Heart – Tina Reynolds
  • Ireland’s Eurovision entry
• The Most Beautiful Girl – Roly Daniels
  • An Irish cover of a Charlie Rich song. Roly came from India originally.
• I’m Little But There’s Lots of Me to Love – Brendan Shine Superband featuring Johnny Dawson
  • Little Johnny Dawson was a short guy. I often searched for this one, but I can only find Hugo Duncan’s version.
• Bring them Home – The Barleycorn
  • This one was about the IRA members, the Price sisters, who were jailed in London. The Barleycorn were a republican ballad group from West Belfast.
• Any Dream Will Do – Joe Cuddy
  • Tony Kenny played Joseph in the musical, Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, but Joe Cuddy had the hit. I heard a clip of it in U2’s 2015 Paris concert. It was part of the introduction to Raised By Wolves, a song about the 1974 Dublin bombings. I remember the shops in Patrick Street in Cork being cleared around that time because of a bomb scare too. But there weren’t any actual bombings in Cork.
• Sweet Little Rockn’roller – Joe Dolan
• Losing You – D.J. Curtin & The Kerry Blues
• Satin Sheets – Murphy & The Swallows
• Old Love Letters – Big Tom & The Mainliners
• The Wedding Song – Kelley and the Nevada
• Paddy the Peddler – Brendan Grace
• Abbeyshrule – Brendan Shine
• My Elusive Dream – Ray Lynam and Philomena Begley
• Song of the King – Cahir O’Doherty & The Dazzle Band
  • Another one from the “Joseph” musical
• King of the Fairies – Horslips
• 19 Men – Dermot Hegarthy
  • A song about an IRA prison escape from Portlaoise prison. I couldn’t work out whether he was sympathizing with terrorists or mocking the Irish prison system for its incompetence. Few people in the Republic supported the IRA, but there was always a bit of a market for republican songs.
• If Ma Could See Me Now – The Swarbriggs
  • This was created in the style of Gilbert O’Sullivan. Lots of people even thought that it was Gilbert who sang it.
• Heffo’s Heroes – The Light Blues
  • A tribute to the Dublin Gaelic football team. We knew lots of soccer songs in the 1970s. It was unusual to hear one about Gaelic football or hurling. I suppose the GAA weren’t into pop music.
• The Lifes of Heffo’s Army – The Memories
  • So, we had two big hits about the Dublin football team in 1974.
• My Friend the Wind – Joe Dolan
• Calendar Girl – Magic
  • Magic was a showband star who had a suit that lit up. He covered a few old Neil Sedaka songs, including this one.
• Clap Your Hands – Fran O’Toole
  • Sadly, Fran O’Toole and several other members of the Miami showband were murdered by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) the following year.
• Simple Song of Love – Larry Hogan
  • Larry Hogan was an evangelical/charismatic Roman Catholic. He hosted a Christian music radio show on RTE in the early 1980s.
• Please Tell Him That I Said Hello – Dana
• Girl from Donegal – Margo
• Gilbert O’Sullivan, though Irish, had three international hits:
  • Happiness is Me and You
  • A Woman’s Place is in the Home
  • I’m Not Dreaming of a White Christmas

Who Played Cork in 1974?

The rock musical, Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat was big in 1974. The Irish version was staged in the Cork Opera House in April and July. My favourite verse from the story of Joseph is the following:

Gen 50:20
 ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

It’s a reminder that when bad things happen, they are permitted by God as part of a higher plan and purpose. The notion is touched on in the New Testament too, in this prayer by the early disciples following the death of the Lord Jesus Christ:

Acts 4:27-28
²⁷ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. ²⁸ They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

I was too young to attend concerts in 1974. I’m sorry that I missed some of these. I went to my first concert in December 1975 – Horslips at the Savoy

• January
  • Horslips – Savoy
  • Rory Gallagher – City Hall (Recorded for live album and film)
• April
  • The New Seekers – Savoy
  • Horslips – City Hall – Tickets 70p, 80p, 90p 😀
• May
  • Alan Stivell – City Hall
• July
  • Desmond Brown (Coloured singer) – The Island Room
    • Just a note to all my woke friends. It wasn’t me that called him “Coloured singer” – it was in the advert 😀. I think that I actually remember seeing that advert in 1974. And Stevie Wonder used the term in his 1974 hit “Living for the City”, so maybe it was OK to use back then. Anyone foreign seemed exotic in Cork in 1974.
  • Helen Shapiro – The Island Room
• September
  • Up With People – City Hall
    • Even when I was 12, I tended to despise enthusiastic young people, but they meant well. Two songs that I remember were Up With People and What Colour is God’s Skin.
• October
  • Horslips – City Hall
• November
  • Gary Glitter with the Glitter Band – Savoy
• December
  • Bay City Rollers – Savoy
  • Steeleye Span – Savoy
  • Leo Sayer – Savoy
  • Rory Gallagher – City Hall
  • Andy Stewart with Jimmy Blue and His Band – Top Hat, Fermoy

I didn’t go to any concert in 1974, but I did perform in the Cork City Hall 😀. But it wasn’t just me. I was in my school choir. Each year, schools would descend on the City Hall and sing. So, the audience was just other schools. For whatever reason, I remember learning this sung line from the mass in primary school in the spring of 1974, along with a few hymns.

Lord by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free,
You are the Saviour of the world.

That’s something that all Christians would agree with. But back then, I don’t think I understood the significance of it in detail. Maybe I thought that the death of Jesus just enabled us to have a “running chance” of earning a place in heaven by being religious and doing good works.

Later I learned that the death of Jesus secures a place in heaven for all those who truly repent and believe. It’s not about good works or being a member of a particular religion. And the Bible doesn’t teacher universalism, the notion that everyone just ends up in heaven anyway. Some hope that it’ll turn out like that, but sadly, there’s a lot to suggest that it won’t.

I created this diagram back in 2005. You often see that sort of thing in evangelistic literature. I wouldn’t have thought like this in 1974, but in 1975, as a 13-year-old, I started to investigate all this.

John 6:28-29
Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Genesis, who are currently one of my favourite groups, performed twice in Dublin in 1974.

Favourite Songs of 1974

Here I’ll list some of my favourite international hits of 1974. Maybe I wouldn’t have liked the middle-of-the-road stuff, such as The Way We Were much back then, but I do now.

• Solitaire – Andy Williams
• Goodbye Yellow Brick Road​ – Elton John
• All Of My Life​ – Diana Ross
• The Air That I Breathe​ – The Hollies
• Jet – Paul McCartney and Wings
• I Get A Little Sentimental Over You​ – The New Seekers
• Seven Seas Of Rhye​ – Queen
• Long Live Love​ – Olivia Newton John
• The Way We Were​ – Barbara Streisand
• I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)​ – Genesis
• Waterloo – Abba
• Rock And Roll Winter​ – Wizzard
• This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us​ – Sparks
• The Jarrow Song – Alan Price
• One Man Band​ – Leo Sayer
• She – Charles Aznavour
• Band On The Run​ – Paul McCartney and Wings
• You Make Me Feel Brand New​ – The Stylistics
• Amateur Hour​ – Sparks
• Smoke Gets In Your Eyes​ – Bryan Ferry
• You Little Trust Maker​ – The Tymes
• Far Far Away​ – Slade
• Gonna Make You A Star​ – David Essex
• Killer Queen​ – Queen
• Let’s Put it Altogether – The Stylistics
• Magic – Pilot
• Costafine Town​ – Splinter

These two are rarely heard today, but I found them particularly impressive in 1974

10 Movies of 1974

• Blazing Saddles
• Young Frankenstein
• The Towering Inferno
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
• Murder on the Orient Express
• Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
• Mame
• The Man with the Golden Gun
• The Great Gatsby
• The Four Musketeers

Some Albums of 1974

Pat Egan’s record store opened in Patrick Street, Cork, in 1974.

• Planet Waves – Bob Dylan
• Waterloo – ABBA
• Queen II – Queen
• Kimono My House – Sparks
• Diamond Dogs – David Bowie
• Fulfillingness’ First Finale – Stevie Wonder
• Walls and Bridges – John Lennon
• It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll – The Rolling Stones
• Caribou – Elton John
• The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway – Genesis
• Sheer Heart Attack – Queen
• Propaganda – Sparks
• Pretzel Logic – Steely Dan
• Old New Borrowed and Blue – Slade
• Slade in Flame – Slade
• Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Rick Wakeman

In 1974, I transitioned from getting compilation albums by fake artists to those by real artists. I think that the real artist K-tel LPs began around 1972. Generally, the songs would be a few months old, but they’d be the real artists. So, here’s the last fake artist LP and the first real artist LP. I might even have got these in early 1975 when I think about it, but I’m not exactly sure:

We got our first colour TV in 1974, for the World Cup in Munich. I remember watching a whole load of buses driving around the stadium for the opening. I can’t remember what they were for.

10 Key News Events of 1974

• Patricia Hearst Kidnapped (5 February) The daughter of U.S. publisher Randolph Hearst was abducted by the Symbionese Liberation Army, sparking a media frenzy and later controversy.
• OPEC Ends Oil Embargo (18 March) The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries lifted the embargo that had triggered the 1973 energy crisis, easing global fuel shortages
• Dublin and Monaghan Bombings (17 May) The deadliest attack of the Troubles in the Republic of Ireland. Four car bombs planted by the Ulster Volunteer Force killed 33 civilians and injured nearly 300.
• India’s First Nuclear Test (18 May) India successfully detonated its first atomic device in Pokhran, becoming the world’s sixth nuclear power
• Death of President Erskine Childers (17 November) Ireland’s fourth president died suddenly in office. He was succeeded by Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, who was inaugurated on 19 December.
• Carnsore Point Nuclear Power Plan Announced (24 April) The ESB proposed building a nuclear power station in County Wexford, sparking public debate. The plant was never built
• IRA Birmingham and Guildford pub bombings (November 21 and October 5) – The Birmingham bombing killed 21 people and injured over 180. The Guildford bombing killed 5 people and injured dozens. Also, in the M62 coach bombing (February 4) – an IRA bomb killed 12 people, including soldiers and civilians.
• Cyprus Coup and Turkish Invasion (July–August) A Greek-backed coup ousted President Makarios, prompting Turkey to invade Cyprus. The island remains divided to this day.
• Resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon (8 August) Amid the Watergate scandal, Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign. Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in the next day
• Haile Selassie Deposed in Ethiopia (12 September) The emperor was overthrown by a Marxist military junta, ending centuries of imperial rule

People Who Passed Away in 1974

• Georges Pompidou -President of France 2 April 1974
• Bud Abbott – Comedian, half of Abbott and Costello 24 April 1974
• Agnes Moorehead – Actress (Bewitched, Citizen Kane) 30 April 1974
• Duke Ellington – Legendary jazz composer and pianist 24 May 1974
• Juan Perón – President of Argentina 1 July 1974
• Charles Lindbergh – American aviator, first solo transatlantic flight 26 August 1974
• Ed Sullivan – TV host (The Ed Sullivan Show) 13 October 1974
• Nick Drake – British folk singer-songwriter 25 November 1974
• Jack Benny – Comedian and radio/TV entertainer 26 December 1974
• Tex Ritter – Country singer & actor 2 January 1974

Some TV Shows That I Would Have Watched in 1974

Hymns from 1974

Seems that 1974 was a good year for Christian choruses – the sort that I became familiar with in the early 1980s. Sometimes it’s hard to discern when these were first sung, but, if I remember correctly, I used the dates shown in Mission Praise for these. It could be that 1974 was when they first appeared in a hymn book.

The only one that I knew before I committed my life to Christ in 1980 was Our God Reigns. The melody reminded me of the chorus of the Jarrow Song, which I mentioned earlier in this post. I liked the song. Then, when I started attending the Upper Room Pentecostal fellowship in Cork, I was surprised to hear it sung. I thought that it was a Roman Catholic hymn. I think that it might have been written by a charismatic Roman Catholic, or at least someone who moved in these circles. But the Roman Catholic church generally doesn’t have any problem singing Protestant hymns. And I wouldn’t object to singing Roman Catholic hymns that are Scripture based.