Teenage Kicks

With this mix, what I'm doing is an encapsulation of the sonic landscape of my world 1972 - 1975, compiling tracks that were played, owned and enjoyed regularly at my childhood home of 42 Eastern Ave Revesby.
There has been tons of amazing stuff that I have discovered from that period since then, but for the purpose of this mix I shan't cheat. 

The cool thing about being a teenager in the early 70's, in my neck of the woods anyhow, was that it was a perfect time to be a teenager in the 20th century. Well at #42 with three fairly hip older siblings, a loving and fancy free mother and a mostly invisible dad, we were free to be free a heck of a lot of the time. With the boom in the teenager market there was crazy cool stuff everywhere: movies, mini bikes, skate boards and rock mags, jeans, boardies and Golden Breed T's. Life was pretty nice. The beach was a constant. Music was essential.
You might say that stuff was already around, but my gen had more time to enjoy them.
Another thing about my world at that time was that there was an expansiveness in what people dug listening too. We didn't seem to have the same need, as in the US, to no longer listen to music a year or two older, we listened to a really wide range of musics, so it wasn't uncommon to have Relics, A Hard Days Night, Ziggy Stardust, a few Reggae and 60's pop singles and Close to the Edge sitting in the 'recently listened to' pile. There was very little discrimination between styles, you could easily listen to prog, glam, rock and country blues in one sitting. 
My big brother took me to his mate's five years older parties, where the Stones, Faces, Free, Cream, Hendrix and Zeppelin reigned. My own friends loved Bowie and Reed, Roxy and Mott, which were regarded as teenage music, but just about anything went if it rocked, or sent the right tingles. We'd go to the Horden, see Jethro Tull, Tangerine Dream and Uriah Heap. Go to the Liverpool Speedway to see the Doobie Brothers with the Aztecs, or Hush and Timepiece at the school dance. All of it was interconnected.
There, in my brother and my room, amongst the Barbarella, felt "glow in the dark", Pink Floyd and Easy Rider Posters, the wardrobes covered in beatnick, hot rod and Mad Magazine stickers and decals, were 2 turntables and an 8 track, which flashed its many coloured lights in the dark. This was our special world, excepting when the folks went away, then, the 3-in-1 in the loungeroom would be cranked up. Out would come the 7"s, fave LPs like Pet Sounds, Hunky Dory or even the Clockwork Orange soundtrack would fill the sweetly scented air. 

That said, this mix doesn't cover the whole gamut of sounds experience at #42, that mix would go for about six hours. All of the tracks are from significant albums released around this time period, with an emphasis on some of tunes that had a big effect on me at the time. 

The artists:
Led Zeppelin. One thing I loved about them was their sort of middle eastern/Celtic folk melody ideas fused with mellotron laced psyche. John Paul Jones' brilliant arrangements knitted this very unique combo of musician's work into something quite extraordinary. I've always loved lll and Houses of the Holy best, especially the more folky tunes.
Yes, one of my favorite bands of the time, have, since the late 70's, been tarnished with the brush of Prog excess, but, for me, then as now, I find their work, especially during the Wakeman period, to be sparklingly illuminated magic music, that also rocks like a mofo. 
The track I've chosen, though really long, is a fab example of them at their best, shifting from gorgeous folk through to fierce driving rock. No flummery or fanciness here. Chris Squire's bass and Bill Brufords drumming have hardly anything to do with the finger pointing and criticism one usually hears about this remarkable band.
Alice Cooper's School's Out was the first LP I ever bought, when I was twelve. I listened to that album endlessly. It's combination of Detroit Punk spirit, great songs, Alice's and the band's super cool presence and its spine tingling production made it one of my favorite albums. I could look at it's school desk cover for hours, an interesting juxtaposition to the fact it was my first year in High School, which was a thing I could not relate to, till the day I left, four years later. There was a big party after school finished in '75 for kids in my form and I'll always remember School's Out being played loud, big smiles and hugs. If only the previous four years had been that good. 
The Beatles and their subsequent solo albums were a major ingredient in my youth. From their first singles, going to the screening of 'A Hard Day's Night' and Help, through to Sgt. Pepper and on to Let it Be, the Beatles were our fave band. I've chosen a track from Let it Be as it was a 70's thing and I chose this track cos I've always loved it. It's not their best track but it's one that reminds me of the early '70s. I love the title, its absurdity. How do you dig a pony? I've also include a track from Imagine and All Thing Must Pass as well. Two major albums that were as present as air and water at the time. Both tracks (sadly/humorously) are predominantly about Paul McCartney. That's not why I chose them though, more their resonance, the way they transport me, as well as Phil Spector's production and their tingle value.
Marc Bolan and T. Rex were a thing a teenager could get. It was an education, not taught at school. It was about cool and about sex. You could do your slow Sharpie dance to it. You could lay back, staring at the cover, dreaming all those warm dreams of youth. The way Bolan sang and played was filled with all of the sparkly bits I hoped to one day acquire.
One of the more dangerous things I did in my youth was to pinch a cassette copy of Electric Warrior from a Hi Fi shop in Bankstown in '72. It was just sitting there. I had to have it. This may have enhanced the illicit nature of the music. Every one else could have Pilot and Marmalade, I had T.Rex! 
Lou Reed entered my life in '73, via big bro, quickly becoming one of my top faves. I'd buy the in between LPs he didn't have. This quickly led to discovering the Velvet Underground, a band I rate in the top 5 of all time. A major influence that I am still discovering more of.
The Lou track I've chosen, taken from Rock n Roll Animal, is definitely not the best thing he ever did, but the effect of Intro/Sweet Jane had an almost drug like effect on me every time the stylus hit the record (or the 8track clicking and shuffling into play). The dual guitars, the whistles and squeals of delight as Lou hits the stage, the grit of his voice, his New York swagger, electrifying me, shivers down my backbone.
Jethro Tull were and odd thing for a kid to be listening to, stories old snotty men and rabbits. I suppose with Monty Python and the Goons I already had some appreciation of absurdity, also there were a lot of old snotty men around. Their use of UK traditional folk marked their difference, combining it with raw blues, strange time changes, killer playing and ridiculous outfits. I loved them. The album Benefit was my first of theirs, less thematic than other later albums, it captured and intense and defiant spirit. The track here 'Son' was a fave. Its conjuring of imagery, the young boy, his yearning quashed, adults portrayed as the bastards they often are, denying the most rudimentary of natural needs. Great inspiration for a lad who saw this reality daily, to kick against the pricks.
Bowie, David Bowie, good lord, what an enormously huge effect he had on me and just about every one around me. Taking Japanese theatre, mime, theatre of the absurd, Rock and Roll, sexual androgyny, Brecht and Soul. He tunneled them all, creating personal visions, esoteric creations. A wonder, a mystery. You could be highly attracted to him, but not sexually. It was the alien other, the id. His songs from Space Oddity to Scary Monsters were as potently real and important as they were distant and unknowable. Rockin' good fun, yet disturbing. I've picked two tunes, 'Panic in Detroit' from Aladdin Sane, an album on high rotation at #42. This was a song, complete with the Bo Diddley groove, that shook your very foundations. Mick Ronson's guitar and arrangements, terrifying. In the background the voice of Linda Lewis, who I would discover decades later, making the most wonderful noises, tingle tingle. The other is from Man Who Sold the World, entitled 'All the Madmen'. This album was my private joy. Not a record that was commonly known, there were no hits and it's a very dark album, with a spirit returned to on Diamond Dogs years later. I loved having albums that, as far as I knew, no one else had (in my mind), listening to tracks, like this that took you to very strange places. The way it goes from the narrative, concluding with the little girl saying "can I keep him?" into Mick's slide, tearing across the speakers, back into Bowie's ode to madness. A theme he was to return to over and over.
Roxy Music appeared in my life one night when, whilst watching Night Moves on telly, strangely enough, with my dad in the room, Roxy Music came on and did 'Do the Strand'. Krikey! it sent me into a state of sheer exhilaration. It was way too poofy for dad, staring in disbelief. There was Brian Ferry, a totally new type of front man and, good lord, Brian Eno, resplendent in boas and sparkle, playing god knows what strange things, squelching and squidjing. The whole band was amazing to look at and that incredible song pushed me into a world of musical pleasure, with Roxy as a major fave and Eno and Phil Manzanera as key identifiers for record buying for decades to come. If they're on it it's gotta be good.
Mott the Hoople were another fave of the time, the Bowie connection I guess. Their sound was kinda similar but then again different to bands like Roxy, their 50's Rock n Roll influences, mixed with strange theatrical twist and turns. Ian Hunter's voice was really something, all close and taunting, manic laughter, rough yet beautifully soulful. I loved their shit.
Pink Floyd appeared in my life one day in '73 when my brother brought home an 8Track bootleg of Dark Side of the Moon. He took me out to his car, we settled in and he pressed the play button. Kapow! A Floyd fan was born. Pink Floyd and their oeuvre became a staple, colouring our surfing journeys down the coast, sunsets, daydreams and late nights. It was beautiful. The track I chose, from Obscured by the Clouds was always a fave, Dave Gilmour's guitar soaring like no other guitarist before of since, with its sub bass distorting the speakers, its sentiment, steeped in old age and death, heavy  shit in retrospect...I don't know, you can't think in adult terms when thinking about the young mind, I never really tried to figure out lyrics, I guess I just thought they were talking about stuff that was the stuff cool people figure out, so it's cool... and in actual fact, it was.
Frank Zappa entered my life in '73, when I asked my brother for a list of records to buy with my birthday money. He suggested Yessongs, Dark Side of the Moon and out of left field, Hot Rats. I went to Anthem, inside Town Hall Station and laid my money down. Accidentally I bought Waka/Jawaka, as it had Hot and Rats written on the tap handles on the cover. I took them home and cranked em up. Never having been exposed to any form of music like this crazy disc, I was most thrown. I persevered though and lo and behold I grew to love it. I then got the real Hot Rats, as well as Mothers Live at Fillmore East and as the '70's progressed, many more discs of his fab gear. This track is still a knock out, after all these years and the album still one of my Frank faves.
The Rolling Stones were always there, like the Beatles. I suppose for most of my youth the Beatles were the winner of that tired old battle, but as the 70's progressed, with Sticky Fingers, Goats Head Soup and Exile on Main St entering the picture, the Stones became more and more a part of our soundtrack. I always loved the ballads, even Angie, something about them was real, they touched deep. Yet the Stones were untouchable, ultra cool. Like all the older cats I admired, I thought they were something I'd be one day. Thank christ I didn't, another sad junky wanting to be Keef. This track, with it's gorgeous arrangement and de riguer Spector/Visconti style strings still sends lovely shivers.

 Enjoy your Teenage Blitz Mix


1. Led Zeppelin - Friends - Atlantic
2. Yes - Roundabout - Atlantic
3. Alice Cooper - Alma Mater - WB
4. John Lennon - How Do You Sleep - Apple
5. T.Rex - Ballrooms of Mars - EMI
6. Lou Reed - Intro/Sweet Jane - RCA
7. Jethro Tull - Son - Chrysalis
8. George Harrison - Wha Wha - Apple
9. David Bowie - Panic In Detroit - RCA
10. Roxy Music - Do The Strand - Virgin
11. Mott The Hoople - Marionette - CBS
12. Pink Floyd - Free Four - Harvest
13. Led Zeppelin - Over the Hill and Far Away - Atlantic
14. David Bowie - All The Madmen - RCA
15. Alice Cooper - Halo of Flies - WB
16. Frank Zappa - Peaches En Regalia - Reprise/Bizzare
17. The Rolling Stones - Moonlight Mile - Rolling Stones Records
18. T. Rex - Mambo Sun - EMI
19. The Beatles - Dig A Pony - Apple