"Back Street Luv" is a song by British

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

Curved Air Curved Air are an English progressive rock group formed in 1970 by musicians from mixed artistic backgrounds, including classical, folk, and electronic sound. The resulting sound of the band is a mixture of progressive rock, folk rock, and fus ...

, written by band members Ian Eyre,

Sonja Kristina Sonja Kristina (born Sonia Christina Shaw; 14 April 1949) is an English singer, best known for starring in the seminal 1960s musical '' Hair'', and for being the lead vocalist of the 1970s progressive rock band Curved Air.''Rocking the Classi ...

and

Darryl Way Richard Darryl Way (born 17 December 1948 in Taunton, Somerset, England) is an English rock and classical musician who was a founding member of Curved Air and co-writer of their Progressive Rock seminal albums from 1970 to 1976. He is best kno ...

. It was included on the '' Second Album'' and released as a single in July

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

. It reached number 4 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

on 18 September. Warners also released it as a single in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. In 1975 a considerably more intense live version appeared on Curved Air – Live and was released as a single in the UK by Deram, but it failed to make any commercial impact.Joynson, Vernon (1995)
''The Tapestry of Delights''
. London: Borderline Books. Rock critic Dave Thompson called "Back Street Luv" "one of the band's own finest moments" and "also one of the crucial singles of the early 1970s". …''It’s also one of the crucial singles of the early 1970s.'' In 1997,

Salad A salad is a dish consisting of mixed, mostly natural ingredients with at least one raw ingredient. They are typically served at room temperature or chilled, though some can be served warm. Condiments and salad dressings, which exist in a va ...

covered the song on the Childline charity album.

Track list

Personnel

Original studio version

—

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Francis Monkman Francis Monkman (born 9 June 1949, in Hampstead, North London, England) is an English rock, classical and film score composer, and a founding member of both the progressive rock band Curved Air and the classical/rock fusion band Sky. He is ...

—

EMS VCS 3 The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analog synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (London) Limited (EMS) in 1969. EMS released ...

Hohner pianet The Hohner Pianet is a type of electro-mechanical piano built by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany and designed by Ernst Zacharias. The Pianet was a variant of his earlier reed-based Hohner electric piano, the Cembalet, which, like ...

, guitar,

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

* Ian Eyre — bass *

Florian Pilkington-Miksa Florian may refer to: People * Florian (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * Florian, Roman emperor in 276 AD * Saint Florian (250 – c. 304 AD), patron saint of Poland and Upper Austria, al ...

—

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

(

, though the chief writer of the song's music, does not play on the original recording.)

Live version from Curved Air - Live, 1975

* Darryl Way — VCS3, electric piano * Sonja Kristina — vocal * Phil Kohn — bass * Florian Pilkington-Miksa — drums * Francis Monkman — guitar, organ

Live version from Alive, 1990

* Darryl Way —

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s, backing vocal * Sonja Kristina — lead vocal * Florian Pilkington-Miksa — drums * Francis Monkman — guitar, bass

Editions

* 1971 — '' Second Album'' (3:36, WEA International * 1971 — ''Second Album'' (5:56, Collectors' Choice Music) * 1975 — ''Live'' (3:47,

Repertoire A repertoire () is a list or set of dramas, operas, musical compositions or roles which a company or person is prepared to perform. Musicians often have a musical repertoire. The first known use of the word ''repertoire'' was in 1847. It is a l ...

) * 1976 — ''Best of Curved Air'' (Warner Bros.) * 1994 — ''Progression'' (Alex Records) * 1995 — ''Journey to the Edge: Progressive Rock Classics'' (3:35, Music Collection) * 1995 — ''The No. 1 70’s Rock Album'' (3:40 Alex) * 1995 — ''Progressive Pop: Inside the 70’s'' (3:50, See For Miles Records) * 1999 — ''Rock Festival'' (Insight) * 2000 — ''Alive, 1990'' (4:26, Mystic Records) * 2006 — ''Absolute 70’s'' (Crimson Productions) * 2006 — ''Classic Rock Presents Prog Rock'' (3:37, Gut-Active) * 2006 — ''Good Morning Vietnam 2'' (3:50, Disky) * 2006 — ''My Sounds Rock'' (Disky) * 2007 — ''Head Full of Rock'' (3:36, EMI) * 2007 — ''The Prog Rock Album'' (3:38, Crimson Productions) * 2007 — ''The Sound of the 70s'' (3:35, Warner Strategic Marketing) * 2008 — The Best of Curved Air (Repertoire) * 2008 — ''Legendary Rock'' (3:48, MP Records) * 2010 — ''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (3:33, Rhino)Back Street Luv
- www.allmusic.com.

References

{{authority control 1971 singles Curved Air songs 1971 songs Warner Records singles