Five brilliant 1970s songs that blew your mind when you first heard them

“Do anything you wanna do” - Eddie And The Hot Rods

This song was where the lines blurred between high-energy pub rock and punk. Both came out of great live acts playing rocking tunes with loud guitars. Of course, there were differences, but there was a crossover. In their early days, Eddie And The Hot Rods played at the Marquee Club, London, with the Sex Pistols as their support band. There’s no surprise in that being total chaos with the pistols trashing the set.

“Do anything you wanna do” stood its ground against the punks when released in 1977. It became an anthem with a fresh sound of its own, but still clearly rock and roll based. It’s another where a great guitar riff kicks it off with the vocals strong and rebellious from the outset. Hooked from the beginning, the song then romps through a just under four-minute blast of great music. 

The band did admit to pinching a guitar sound from Bruce Springsteen, recording two guitars, tweaking one of the two, and blending them to sound like a 12-string. Neat trick, the guitars are great on the song and draw you into the rhythm. This was an early record for producer Steve Lillywhite who went on to work with U2 and many others. He’s helped add a great freshness to the record. Even with the studio adjustments, it’s a song that sounds amazing live too.

“Ballpark Incident” - Wizzard

Wizzard is where Roy Wood went after he walked out of The Electric Light Orchestra. He was also the founder of the Move before that. His new band's first single “Ballpark Incident” doesn’t get much of a mention now, it was pretty low-key back then too, the song didn’t even make it onto their first album, Wizzard Brew.

It was very glam rock though, with painted faces, lots of great costumes, and fooling about on stage. That doesn’t necessarily make a great record but “Ballpark Incident” is one of those. It blasts out a great tune from the off with its bar room boogie approach. Wood was always keen on a variety of instruments and sounds and this has guitar, sax, keyboards, and lots more. It's a bit old-style 1950s rock and roll mixed with those early ELO and the Move styles.

I remember being hooked by it when it first appeared on BBC Top Of The Pops. I had to go and buy the single. I couldn’t stop playing it. To the extent that I started to wonder if there was some form of subliminal messaging within it! 

The answer probably lies in not having many other records to play at the time and it just being a great song. Having bought it though I need to give a worthy mention to the B side, "The Carlsberg Special (Pianos Demolished Phone 021 373 4472)". It wasn’t the best song, but what a title! 

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