Is great art born of adversity or contentment?
That's relevant to both artists and listeners.
I think great art and music is born of challenge in whatever form it takes.

I lived in the most adverse of societies, Northern Ireland in the 1970s.
So yes music was an escape in different ways.
Music also suggested a better way.
An Alternative Ulster.

And we always will.

How lucky we are to live in an age when we have recorded music, film and photographs to give life to our memories.

I was alive in the 1970s, it wasn't all sunshine and roses just because we had Bowie.


And me, my dad's favourite band of all time. I grew up listening to them and Bread, Supertramp, Mott the Hoople, and a wide variety of other stuff.
I was born in 1970 so obviously the first half of the decade isn't something I remember in any great detail, but I remember the music.

A very trite comparison.

Bowie is/was very much a contemporary artist in 2016; most of the reviews of the new Blackstar album (which were of course written prior to his death) suggested it was more current and adventurous than most other modern acts. In fact I would argue that Bowie was as much a 1980s or even 1990s act as a 1970s one.

It's human nature for pretty much everyone to feel that the music they grew up with is better than the music of today, regardless of what decade they grew up in.

Well I dont really, I didnt like some of the 80s computer generated stuff very much but also at that time I was quite into classical music, Vangelis, Mike Oldfield and stuff like that so I didnt listen to chart music a lot and also that was the time I started my business so I had a lot of other things on my mind too. Even so I wouldnt condemn vast swathes if the musical output of the 80s, just some of it, and to be honest I could also do that with the 60s 70s 90s and 00s.
I suspect you may have been in your late 20s early 30s at the time. Its been a bit of an observation of mine that at that time of life I think people do tend to be a bit more nostalgic and rally against whats being played as current, even hate it - it depends of course on when you were born. Ive noticed that with my son, whos 27 - he seems to regard a lot of whats around now as crud, whereas if similar songs came out 10 years ago he would have regarded them as great.

You mention 'Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep', but frankly every decade has had its fair share of dreadful novelty songs, not just the 70s. From the 60s Leapy Lee's 'Little Arrows' or Pat Boone's 'Speedy Gonzales' to the 80s 'Its 'orrible being in love when youre eight and a half, or the 90s 'Mr Blobby', Theyre all there.

nope...the 70's was 'my' era - i was 13 in 70 , i should have been well into the music.

but i wasnt.... 71-76 was dire for me as i simply really disliked the styles of music out at that time. everyones got a least favoured era - the 70s was mine.

ps... little arrows was a great pop song!

Wow interesting - there goes another theory! Or maybe the exception proves....

I was a year in front of you at 14, and I loved most of it, although not all - interestingly, I wasnt particularly a fan of punk, but even there I liked some of it.
Ive always been a bit of a fan of novelty records, especially those which are clever lyrically, just fun or dont take themselves seriously - 'Ernie' is a good example - so I admit, I like Little Arrows too

Which is better pop song than anything Ed Sheeran has ever come up with.

And Gilbert O'Sullivan's Clair, it's so suggestive

I was 12 in 1970-

I've heard Ernie twice on the radio this year already

Thanks for reminding me about the eight and a half song

ha ha! got me there!


when did you first get interested in music?... see, my mum had the radio on all day (as a housewife) so i grew up from a very early age with music constantly on. so i liked the music of the 60's... still do... but many/most of my classmates didnt have much of a clue outside the beatles/stones/monkees.

so when the 70's went all glam and philly soul, it was completely opposite to the sounds that caught me in the 60's. i couldnt stand the fashions..

but punk and new wave in particular bought me back to the styles i liked from the 60's. so i liked punk/new wave.

As someone from that era who was (and happily is still) alive at the right time to be part of Bowie's emergence into mainstream music, I've often felt sorry for the teens of today. Yes, there is some great music being made now, and yes there was also a lot of dross in the 70's, but the good stuff was titanic and the truly influential acts enduring; David Bowie, Kate Bush and The Eagles, for example.

This is one of the sad things about PC culture. When Gilbert O'Sullivan was in the charts singing 'Clair' it was celebrating the innocence of childhood and the entirely wholesome love of a father for a daughter.

Now, any act that released such a song would sound like a lament from a heinous kiddie fiddler.

lol..true.... there are other songs that wouldnt be allowed now (ok from the 60's) 'good morning little schoolgirl' and 'little children' for eg..

I must admit although my home life was rubbish in the 70's I went to some awesome gigs

Not really in my opinion.

As Welwynrose has just said, yes the gigs would have been awesome, however, when you live know, you have the pick of all the music from the past decades. 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, now, you can ignore the dross and get immediate access to the good stuff.

Can I ever see Bowie live? No, and that is a bad thing. Can I listen to him whenever I want and whatever track I want? Hell yeah!

My favourite ever era of music is the late 70's punk scene and I wasn't even born until 1980. On one hand, yes, I would have loved to have witnessed that, but on the other, I now have the whole scene available on the click of a button.

I bought this CD for a bit of a laugh and a nostalgia trip. It and the subsequent follow ups turned out to be one of the best buys I made.

Thanks for the memories.

The tediousness of long car journeys, doing the ironing, housework, etc, has been relieved many times over by putting these on and reliving the past.
Even 'old shite' as many have mentioned and which I thought at the time somehow turn into 'classics' with age.
As for Bowie, well unless you lived it you can't begin to believe the influence he made all round.
Surprised nobody has mentioned Queen!

I was born 2 days after Aladdin Sane was released. My very first memory of Bowie was Ashes To Ashes being no1, I would have been 7 at the time.

I'm just eternally grateful that people didn't routinely carry cameras around with them at that time, so there's almost no evidence of some of the hideous clothes I used to wear at that time.

and no evidence of some of the stupid stupid things I did

I agree Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy wrote a track called "Sarah" about his daughter a lovely song and very innocent too,its a sad state of affairs that these are now looked at in a different light to what was originally intended such is the way society has gone.

'Little Children'? The Billy J. Kramer hit? I remember this one well, my granny loved it. Sounds like you've never actually listened to it, and are making huge assumptions from the title. It's just an exasperated lad who wants to be alone with his girlfriend, but her younger siblings are always getting in the way. He's bribing them to go away, not to join in!

Little children
You better not tell on me
I'm tellin' you
Little children
You better not tell what you see
And if you're good
I'll give you candy and a quarter
If you're quiet like you oughta be
And keep a secret with me

I wish they would go away
Little children
Now why ain't you playin' outside
I'm askin' you
You can't fool me
'Cause I'm gonna know if you hide
And try to peek
I'm gonna treat you to a movie
Stop your gigglin'
Children do be nice
Like little sugars and spice

You saw me kissin' your sister
You saw me holdin' her hand
But if you snitch to your mother
Your father won't understand

I wish they would take a nap
Little children
Now why don't you go bye-bye
Go anywhere at all
Little children
I know you would go if you tried
Go up the stairs
Me and your sister
We're goin' steady
How can I kiss her
When I'm ready to
With little children like you around
I wonder what can I do around
Little children like you

oh how i hated early 70's - pre punk fashions.....


yep - great track!

So why did you say it wouldn't be allowed now?

because it could be construed a bit pervy...

ps it was only a light hearted comment