''Living in the 70's'' is the debut album by Australian rock band
Skyhooks
Skyhook was a location technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in location positioning. Founded in 2003, Skyhook initially focused on geolocating Wi-Fi access points by wardriving for commercial purposes. Skyhook trans ...
, which was released in October 1974 via
Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival ...
. It spent 16 weeks at the top of the
national albums chart from late February 1975, and became the highest-selling album by an Australian artist in the country, eventually achieveing shipment of 375,000 copies. The second single, "
Horror Movie
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include monsters, apocalyp ...
" (1974), reached number one on the related national singles chart in 1975. In October 2010, it was listed at No. 9 in the book ''
100 Best Australian Albums
''The 100 Best Australian Albums'' (a.k.a. ''One Hundred Best Australian Albums'') is a compendium of rock and pop albums of the past 50 years as compiled by music journalists Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson and John O'Donnell. The book was ...
''. The album's eponymous track was ranked number 72 in 2018 on
Triple M
Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 45 radio stations with flagship stations broadcasting a mainstream/classic rock music format in Sydney, Melbourne, and B ...
's "Ozzest 100", the "most Australian" songs of all time listing.
Background
''Living in the 70's'' was recorded by the Melbourne-based rock band
Skyhooks
Skyhook was a location technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in location positioning. Founded in 2003, Skyhook initially focused on geolocating Wi-Fi access points by wardriving for commercial purposes. Skyhook trans ...
in June–July 1974 at the local TCS studios.
The line up was
Greg Macainsh
Gregory John Macainsh (born 30 December 1950) is an Australian former musician and songwriter. He provided bass guitar and backing vocals for pop rockers, Skyhooks from 1973 to 1980 and subsequently for various reformations. According to Austra ...
on bass guitar and backing vocals, Bob "Bongo" Starkie on guitar and backing vocals,
Graham "Shirley" Strachan on lead vocals, Imants "Freddie" Strauks on drums, backing vocals and percussion, and
Red Symons
Redmond Symons (born 13 June 1949) is an Australian musician and television and radio personality. He was the lead guitarist in the band Skyhooks, the snide judge of 'Red Faces' (a segment of the long-running variety show '' Hey Hey It's Satur ...
on guitar, backing vocals and
mandolin
A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...
.
[
* 1st edition nline
* 2nd edition ]rint
C mathematical operations are a group of functions in the standard library of the C programming language implementing basic mathematical functions. Different C standards provide different, albeit backwards-compatible, sets of functions. Most of t ...
[ n.b.: Brown was later known as Jenny Hunter Brown and then as Jen Jewel Brown.] The group had formed in March 1973 with only Macainsh and Strauks the remaining founders members.
Ross Wilson (ex-
Daddy Cool) saw an early performance and signed main songwriter, Macainish to a publishing contract.
Wilson recommended the group to
Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival ...
owner
Michael Gudinski
Michael Solomon Gudinski AM (22 August 1952 – 2 March 2021) was an Australian record executive and promoter who was a leading figure in the Australian music industry. Born and raised in Melbourne, Gudinski formed the highly successful Austr ...
.
''Living in the 70's'' is the first album Wilson produced,
"I knew that if they got some guy from a large record company they'd try to water down the songs".
Macainsh recalled, "We didn't know what to expect and to what extent we'd have to do things over and over.
ilson
Ilson Wilians Rodrigues (born 12 March 1979) is a Brazilian former footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, America ...
was a tough producer, but he knew what he wanted. The way we recorded it was pretty much the band playing live. We'd been playing those songs live for a while, and that's what we were aiming to get." It was released via Mushroom on 28 October 1974.
The artwork (external front and back, and internal gatefold) was painted by Niels Hutchison.
Two singles were issued from the album. Lead single "
Livin' in the 70's" (August 1974), peaked at No. 28 on the
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music historian David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July 19 ...
singles chart.
It was backed by a non-LP track, "You're a Broken Gin Bottle, Baby", which appeared as track 11 on the 2004 CD remastered version of the album. The second single, "
Horror Movie
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include monsters, apocalyp ...
"/"Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)" (December 1974) spent two weeks at the top of the
Australian singles chart in 1975 from late March to early April.
"Horror Movie" had been promoted on popular music show ''
Countdown
A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
'' as the first song on its first colour episode on 1 March 1975.
The group were "perfect for ''Countdown'', with their colourful costumes and theatrical showmanship" and they "appeared many times to promote" the album.
Due to sex and/or drug references, six tracks were banned by
Federation of Australian Commercial Broadcasters
Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) is the peak body for the commercial radio broadcasting industry in Australia. CRA was formed in 1930 as the Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters.
It provides representation and advocacy on common statuto ...
from Australian radio: "Toorak Cowboy", "Whatever Happened to the Revolution?", "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good in Bed", "Hey What's the Matter", "Motorcycle Bitch" and "Smut".
In defiance of this, however, the
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting
* Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
's new youth radio station in Sydney,
2JJ
Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...
, played "You Just Like Me 'Cos I'm Good in Bed" as its first ever song when it began broadcasting in January 1975.
Reception
''
The Canberra Times
''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times.
History
''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...
'' Tony Catterall generally praised ''Living in the 70's'', "it's a conccpt album that really takes the 70s apart. It opens up a new phase in Australian rock, that of musician as social commentator, but not an impartial observer".
However, Catterall was dissatisfied with two tracks, "Hey, What's the Matter?" and "Motorcycle Bitch", which were
"album filler" and with Wilson's uneven production.
Australian musicologist
Ian McFarlane
Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the ''Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017.
As a journalist ...
observed, "
tgarnered instant critical acclaim and commercial success. Aside from the impact of the music itself and the wry social commentary of the lyrics, part of the album's success was down to the fact that the Federation of Australian Commercial Broadcasters banned from airplay six of the album's cuts. Middle-class Australia cried outrage at the use of such words as 'stoned', 'arse' and 'dope' in the songs. Macainsh's songs were the perfect reflection of the times, and the young record-buying public reacted positively."
In October 2010, it was listed at No. 9 in the book ''
100 Best Australian Albums
''The 100 Best Australian Albums'' (a.k.a. ''One Hundred Best Australian Albums'') is a compendium of rock and pop albums of the past 50 years as compiled by music journalists Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson and John O'Donnell. The book was ...
''.
Its authors explained, "
t'sa unique fusion of glam, punk attitude... boogie-based rock and pop married with Macainsh's sharply observed and acerbic or explicit vignettes".
In the following year it appeared at number 75 on the
Triple J Hottest 100 Albums of All Time. In that same year, the album and title track were added to the
National Film and Sound Archive
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...
(NFSA)'s
Sounds of Australia
The Sounds of Australia, formerly the National Registry of Recorded Sound, is the National Film & Sound Archive's selection of sound recordings deemed culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant and relevant for Australia. It was fo ...
registry.
Curator, Tamara Osicka explained "
tbroke all previous sales records for an Australian album...
ndstayed in the top 100 for 54 weeks and became the best-selling album of 1975 in Australia".
The title track was ranked number 72 as part of
Triple M
Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 45 radio stations with flagship stations broadcasting a mainstream/classic rock music format in Sydney, Melbourne, and B ...
's "Ozzest 100", the "most Australian" songs of all time listing in 2018.
Track listing
1974 vinyl/cassette tape version
1984 CD version
Personnel
Skyhooks
*
Graham "Shirley" Strachan – lead vocals (all but "Smut")
*
Red Symons
Redmond Symons (born 13 June 1949) is an Australian musician and television and radio personality. He was the lead guitarist in the band Skyhooks, the snide judge of 'Red Faces' (a segment of the long-running variety show '' Hey Hey It's Satur ...
– guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals ("Smut"),
mandolin
A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...
*Bob "Bongo" Starkie – guitar, backing vocals
*
Greg Macainsh
Gregory John Macainsh (born 30 December 1950) is an Australian former musician and songwriter. He provided bass guitar and backing vocals for pop rockers, Skyhooks from 1973 to 1980 and subsequently for various reformations. According to Austra ...
– bass guitar, backing vocals
*Imants Alfred "Freddie" Strauks – drums, backing vocals, percussion
Additional musicians
* Liam Bradley –
vibraphone
The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...
,
marimba
The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...
,
xylophone
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African ...
* Greg Sneddon – synthesiser
* Peter Sullivan – vibraphone, synthesiser
*
Pat Wilson
Patricia Mary Wilson (née Higgins; born 11 June 1948) is an Australian singer and journalist. Wilson wrote for ''Go-Set'', a 1960s and 1970s pop music newspaper, under the pen-name "Mummy Cool" during 1971–1972. Wilson released several ...
, Ross Willson – voices
Artisans
* Adai – photography
* John French –
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
* Niels Hutchison – artwork
* Andrew Macainsh, Robert Gilbert – crew
* Ross Wilson – producer
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
{{Authority control
–
1974 debut albums
Skyhooks (band) albums
Mushroom Records albums