Seventies Style

Earlier this week I was in Belfast for a couple of days and built some time into my schedule to visit Time Slip Records in Botanic Avenue and some of the many charity shops in the same street (Charity Chic would love it, he should get himself over there as soon as the Boris Bridge is built).

In Save the Children I found a large collection of CDs that had been given away with the Daily Express in 2003 and 2004. All of them were called things like "Essential 70s" or "Classic 60s", and indeed all of them had seven or eight tracks from that decade. But all were padded out with loads of new recordings that they claimed were "in the style of" whichever decade it was. I was sufficiently intrigued to buy one of them. This one.

Here are two of the "new 70s-style tracks" from 2003. The first one picks itself, and I've chosen the second because The Micky Sharpe All Stars are the only one of the genuinely real acts to feature twice. There seems to be one more "z" in "Suzzanne" than is necessary. Maybe they did that deliberately to distinguish it from the much less funky Leonard Cohen tune.

"Disco Rodeo" - Teenage Sensations

"Suzzanne" - The Micky Sharpe All Stars

We'll finish off with one of the actual 70s hits. This one is just about as essential as they get.