Another British Invasion

The folk rock group Fotheringay was formed in 1970 by singer Sandy Denny upon her departure from Fairport Convention. The band drew its name from Fotheringay Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in England.

Two former members of Eclection, Trevor Lucas and Gerry Conway, and two former members of Poet and the One Man Band, Jerry Donahue and Pat Donaldson (bass), completed the line-up responsible for the quintet's only album. This folk-based set included several Denny originals, notably "Nothing More", "The Sea" and "The Pond and The Stream", as well as my absolute favorite versions of Gordon Lightfoot's "The Way I Feel" and Bob Dylan's "Too Much of Nothing". The album failed to match commercial expectations and pressures on Denny to undertake a solo career—she was voted Britain's number one singer in Melody Maker's 1970 poll—increased. Fotheringay disbanded in 1971 during sessions for a projected second set.

My wife accidently broke my album during the early days of our marriage and I mourned it for years. One day a few years ago, I mentioned this sadness to my kids and they suggested I look for the album on eBay. I found it! I bought it for $25 from an English vendor and it wasn't until it had actually arrived that I realized...I had no way to play it!

My mother bought me a CD player/turntable for Christmas in 2006, which allowed me to enjoy those great tunes again...I'll never forget the song "Too Much of Nothing" with its lyrics that could be torn out of today's headlines:

Now, too much of nothing

Can make a man feel ill at ease.

One man's temper might rise

While another man's temper might freeze.

In the day of confession

We cannot mock a soul.

Oh, when there's too much of nothing,

No one has control.

Another (Steve) Miller Moment...

My first two years in college (1971-1973) were in Spokane, which is just a few miles west of the Idaho border. Since the drinking age in the Potato State is only 18 (it's 21 in Washington), weekends would find young people traveling east to bars that dotted the state line. My favorite watering hole was the El Patio, a run-down (but cheap) venue that had one endearing feature--a long-term run by the Steve Miller Band.

Steve Miller moved to the burgeoning San Francisco scene in the mid-1960s and formed the Steve Miller Band. Miller and James Cook, bassist Lonnie Turner and drummer Tim Davis backed Chuck Berry at a 1967 gig at the Fillmore West that was released as a live album. Guitarist Boz Scaggs joined the band soon after, and the group performed at the Monterey Pop Festival in June.

Hits during this period and into the early 1970s included "Baby's Calling Me Home", "Key To The Highway", "Livin' In The USA", "Space Cowboy", and the track "My Dark Hour" which featured Paul McCartney (aka Paul Ramon) on bass. Steve was originally from the Ketchum, Idaho area and seems to have returned here to recuperate following an automobile crash.

The band hit the jackpot in 1973 with The Joker--their sound was slick and bouncy, and the title track became a number one single; the album was certified platinum (more than one million sales). Three years later, the Steve Miller Band returned with the album Fly Like An Eagle, which featured the hits: "Take The Money and Run", "Fly Like an Eagle" and "Rock 'N Me". Needless to say, they no longer played the El Patio.

Little did I know that my later life would take me "from Phoenix, Arizona/All the way to Tacoma" (like the song), or that I would look back on my nights in the crowd on the state line with nostalgia...

It Was Such a Beautiful Day

It's a Beautiful Day was a band formed in San Francisco in 1967, a unique blend of rock, jazz, folk, classical and world beat styles.

The band was the brainchild of violinist and vocalist David LaFlamme. Other members were his wife Linda (keyboards), Pattie Santos (vocals), Hal Wagenet (guitar), Mitchell Holman (bass) and Val Fuentes (drums). Although they were one of the earliest and most important San Francisco bands to emerge from the Summer of Love, It’s a Beautiful Day never quite achieved the success of their contemporaries such as The Grateful Dead and Santana, with whom they had connections.

The band's debut album, It's a Beautiful Day, released in 1969, featured the tracks "White Bird", "Hot Summer Day", "Time Is" and "Bombay Calling".

I still have the album in near mint condition as well as a poster from the band's performance at Gonzaga University in the mid-1970s.

"Those Were the Days..."

The tune for this 1968 hit single was running through my head a few weeks ago, and a knick knack I happened to spy in Cracker Barrel this afternoon attributed the song to Gene Raskin, who transformed the traditional Russian folk melody into an international blockbuster for Welsh vocalist Mary Hopkin.

During the early 1960s Raskin and his wife played Greenwich Village folk clubs under the name Gene & Francesca, releasing an album in 1962 which included "Those Were the Days," a tune of either Russian or Ukrainian origins traditionally known as "Dorogoj Dlinnoyu" and dating back to the turn of the 20th century. In 1966, while Gene & Francesca were headlining London's Blue Lamp Club, Paul McCartney caught their act and two years later, while assembling material for his protégé Hopkin's Apple Records debut, he suggested she record "Those Were the Days."

The resulting single topped the British pop charts for six weeks in the autumn of 1968; Hopkin subsequently sold eight million copies worldwide, with the song becoming Apple's biggest hit outside of the Beatles' own recordings.

If you were alive in 1968, then you probably remember--indeed, cannot forget--this song.