Te Papa plinths

 

Let these times show you that you're breaking up the lines

Thursday music corner: Karen Dalton (1937-93) was a gravel-voiced American folk singer-songwriter whose struggles with alcohol and drug addiction during her lifetime limited her commercial success, but whose reputation has only grown with time. She released two studio albums, 1969's It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best, and 1970's In My Own Time. Something On Your Mind was the opening track on the latter album, and was composed by Quicksilver Messenger Service singer Chet Powers under his stage name of Dino Valenti.

Karen Dalton - Something On Your Mind (1970)

See also:

Music: Karen Dalton - A Little Bit of Rain (live in Colorado, 1970)

Music: Fred Neil - The Dolphins (1966)

Music: Quicksilver Messenger Service - Pride of Man (1968)

How the 'heads' of London lived circa 1970

It was still possible for heads to live a low-budget life in London in 1970. Although student numbers were rising steeply as the baby boomers left school, higher education was still only available to 8 per cent of the population (today it nudges 50 per cent). This comparatively privileged group had their education financed by a grant from their local authority, money from their parents if they were lucky, and whatever they had managed to save from a holiday job, which usually involved some form of hard physical labour. With a loaf of bread costing 5p (or one shilling - this was the last year of pounds, shillings and pence), a packet of Embassy cigarettes 20p and a Wimpy hamburger 10p, most of their daily requirements could be covered easily. In many respects the world seemed as economically stable as it had done in the fifties. But 1970 was one year before the decision to take America off the gold standard and the subsequent rise in the price of oil ushered in an era when inflation became endemic. In 1960 the rate of inflation had been 1 per cent. By 1975 it was running at 25 per cent. 

In 1970, heads sharing a flat in central London would expect to pay around £7 each per week. If they were prepared to settle for cheaper areas like Muswell Hill and Finsbury Park Time Out's Book of London predicted they could get a three-room flat for £15. Most of their entertainment was cheap. If they had gone to see Five Easy Pieces, which opened in London at the end of September, they might have paid 30p for their cinema seat. Most of the pleasures and diversions London offered to the tourist were too expensive for heads. They didn't eat out. They never took a taxi. The Time Out guide to alternative London advised that if you had difficulty getting back to the suburbs after a night at Middle Earth you could hitch a lift on one of the lorries leaving Fleet Street in the early hours to deliver the morning papers to the distributors. Credit cards were strictly for the adult world. Banks didn't open at weekends. When they were open they made it clear that they disapproved of anyone taking out any money. Anyone with as much as five pounds on their person was bent on some sort of blow-out.

- David Hepworth, A Fabulous Creation: How the LP Saved Our Lives, London, 2019, p.48-9.

See also:
London: The grooviest place on the planet, 16 July 2018
London: Earl's Court 1968, 16 April 2014
London: Denmark Street, 18 January 2010

Dapper cat

Dickensian Bookshop, Featherston, 30 March 2024

 

They don't believe that it is sinning when you are winning

Thursday music corner: Lawrence Arabia, the stage name of Christchurch-born, Auckland-based performer James Milne, has released five albums of erudite, well-crafted pop in the mold of Harry Nilsson since 2006. His 2009 single Apple Pie Bed from his second album, Chant Darling, won Milne and co-writer Luke Buda the APRA Silver Scroll for single of the year, sandwiched between OpShop's One Day (2008) and The Naked & Famous' international hit Young Blood (2010). 

A Lake is the opening track from Milne's 2016 album Absolute Truth. Brain Gym, another track from the album, was played by the legendary Iggy Pop on his BBC 6Music radio show.   

Lawrence Arabia - A Lake (2016)

See also:

Music: Lawrence Arabia & the Erotic Threads - Apple Pie Bed (live, 2007)

Music: Lawrence Arabia - Brain Gym (2016)

Music: Lawrence Arabia - The Developed World (2022)

Hamilton Gardens