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Rating: The holidays are approaching, and many of you know that for a music enthusiast, choosing the records to take on a trip is as important as packing, (having) the car checked, and ensuring your documents are in order. I have decided not to bring any heavy-duty stuff with me: no suites, no symphonies, no odd tempos, no distortions, etc. I'm in the mood for pop music, preferably with a female voice. Actually, let's make it "exclusively" with a female voice. Hence, the pioneers of Europop, Middle Of The Road, couldn't be absent, with a beautiful double CD, "The RCA Years", which includes their first three albums and the bonus tracks of the Italian edition of their debut. Stop everything: pioneers?! Yes indeed, you read that correctly. Do you know that Swedish quartet with two women on vocals that sold just a few hundred million copies and inspired musicals, films, and museums? Guess who they were initially inspired by. If you don't believe it, listen to some singles by MOTR (Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum, Sacramento (What A Wonderful Town), Soley Soley, Samson And Delilah) and you'll agree too. If that's not enough (which at this point would mean denying the obvious), consider at least a cover in her native language by a solo Agnetha Fältskog of Union Silver and declarations of admiration from Björn Ulvaeus.
The Middle Of The Road story is a shining example of producer-driven pop, rather than author-driven, inter-European, where some Italians play a fundamental role: it's brothers Mario and Giosy Capuano, composers and arrangers, who discovered these four Scots in the summer of 1970 while performing in venues on the peninsula, and proposed them to Giacomo Tosti of the Italian division of RCA. After serving as session musicians on other people's tracks, Ken Andrew (drums), brothers Eric (bass) and Ian (guitar) McCredie, and the blonder-than-blonde and beautiful singer Sally Carr ignite the scene with a cover of a song already popular in these parts, Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by the quirky Lally Stott, another Brit seeking fortune in the Belpaese. The success is enormous not only in Italy, so Tosti entrusts them to the Capuano brothers for the music, while Stott is hired for the lyrics. They repeat the success with Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum, a rhythmic and delightfully childlike folk-pop, another global hit: in Italy, they're an institution; in continental Europe and Scandinavia (who would have thought?!) they have everyone at their feet, their initially inattentive homeland rediscovers and learns to love them, and they are well appreciated even in Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. Sensational numbers, both for a debut band and for two Italian composers who are teaching a thing or two to the world in pop, on par with renowned authors from our country like Giorgio Moroder and another pair of brothers, La Bionda (Italians do it better?).
The first album, conveniently titled "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep," includes, in addition to the aforementioned singles, a couple more competent covers, I Can't Tell the Bottom from the Top by the Hollies and Yellow River by Christie, and a varied set list for which the four's "bubblegum" group label, assigned in virtue of their carefree and youthful singles, is rather limiting. It's a set of beautiful songs that draw from pop traditions not only Anglo-Saxon but also local. Pay attention: listen to To Remind Me and The Sun is in Your Skin, try to imagine them sung in Italian, and then tell me if they would have been out of place at a Sanremo festival of those years. Well-made songs, yet the best comes when the Scots are more Brit than ever, as in the very Kinks-like Fate Strange Fate and in a Give It Time that would surely have pleased the Small Faces.
Barely a few months after their debut, Middle Of The Road returns with “Acceleration” at the end of 1971: they are still stationed in Italy, but American roots influences are preferred instead of the Italianisms mentioned above, and the band undoubtedly feels at home, as demonstrated by the ballroom country of Love Sweet Love and the sugar-coated triplet of the doo-wop era You'll Know What Love is For. The singles Sacramento, Soley Soley, and Samson and Delilah are included, which, as previously mentioned, are more Abba than Abba before Abba, and a wonderful little bunch of colorful pop gems: the sentimental piano ballad On this Land (Maestro Baglioni, thank you for the inspiration), a Queen Bee worthy of the most playful Joni Mitchell, the mocking music-hall number in Macca's Sgt. Pepper/White Album style The Talk of all the USA, the Lennon-esque with verve Try a Little Understanding, and a Medicine Woman that is an open window on the imminent future of pop-rock, from ELO to Fleetwood Mac's Buckingham/Nicks era. Sales are still extraordinary, 1972 is spent on tour, and the band moves from the Italian division of RCA to the international one, so...
... In 1973 "Drive On" is released. Another Brit with Italian ties, drummer Mike Shepstone of the now-disbanded Rokes, replaces Stott, while the Capuano brothers remain; the band nonetheless has more say and gets involved more often in the composing phase. The coordinates are the same as the previous album, but with a touch more maturity: the ballads are still gentle, but they reveal a more contemplative and, in a sense, adult tone, while the rhythmic tracks rock a little more than before (Honey No). There are a few lapses, like the single Kailakee Kailako, an unconvincing attempt to write another easily grasped hit. Nonetheless, the album is generally more than praiseworthy and reaches its peak with a piece entirely written by Ian McCredie, a Blind Detonation between Stones and Byrds that is a little masterpiece. This time sales are not as satisfying as in the past, and the partnership between RCA and Middle Of The Road ends, with the band moving to the German Ariola. But that's another story. For what's left of this summer, there's plenty to keep you occupied.
Let's go. Cheep cheep.
Tracklist and Lyrics
07 Sacramento (02:56)
There's something about the weather that ev'rybody loves
They call it the Indian spring of Sacramento
And when the sun is up in the sky
The wind is blowing by the riverside most ev'ry day
You're in Sacramento - a wonderful town
Sing, sing, sing, din-di-din
There's something about the people that ev'rybody knows
That gives you a tender feeling of confusion
You're feeling lonely but you don't know
Until this other feeling here inside you starts to grow
You're in Sacramento - a wonderful town
Sing, sing, sing, din-di-din
Now that spring is near again
And you're thinking if only you were not so lonely - boo-hoo
But you can ease your restless mind (ease your restless mind)
'Cos all the people are lovin' kind in Sacramento
There's something about the weather that ev'rybody loves
They call it the Indian spring of Sacramento
You're feeling lonely but you don't know
Until this other feeling here inside you starts to grow
You're in Sacramento - a wonderful town
Sing, sing, sing, din-di-din
Sacramento, Sacramento
Sacramento, Sacramento
Sacramento, Sacramento
Sacramento, Sacramento . . . [continue to fade]
08 Bottoms Up (03:14)
Bottoms up to people sit you down
Enjoy your living with the people sit you down
Singing bottoms up to people sit you down
Enjoy your living with the people sit you down
Take your mind off all your heartaches
And you'll find they're good as gone
Now the ball is on the uptake
Join the world and be as one
Bottoms up to people sit you down . . .
Tho' your mind is in the dog house
'Cos your wife has thrown you out
Don't be acting like a bog mouse
Take your lead off
move about
Bottoms up to people sit you down . . .
Take your mind off all your heartaches
And you'll find they're good as gone
Now the ball is on the uptake
Join the world and be as one
Bottoms up to people sit you down . . .
14 Yellow River (02:52)
So long, boy you can take my place
Got my papers, I've got my pay
So pack my bags and I'll be on my way
To Yellow River
Put my gun down, the war is won
Fill my glass, now the time has come
I'm going back to the place that I love
At Yellow River
Yellow River, Yellow River
Is in my mind and in my eyes
Yellow River, Yellow River
Is in my blood, it's the place I love
Got no time for explanations, got no time to lose
Tomorrow night you'll find me
sleeping underneath the moon
At Yellow River
Cannon fire lingers in my mind
I'm so glad that I'm still alive
And I've been gone for such a long time
At Yellow River
I remember the nights were cool
I still can see the water pool
And I remember the girl that I knew
At Yellow River
Yellow River, Yellow River
Is in my mind and in my eyes
Yellow River, Yellow River
Is in my blood, it's the place I love
Got no time for explanations, got no time to lose
Tomorrow night you'll find me
sleeping underneath the moon
At Yellow River
Yellow River, Yellow River
Is in my mind and in my eyes
Yellow River, Yellow River
Is in my blood, it's the place I love
20 Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (02:58)
Where's your mama gone? (Where's your mama gone?)
Little baby Don (Little Baby Don)
Where's your mama gone? (Where's your mama gone?)
Far, far away
Where's your papa gone? (Where's your papa gone?)
Little baby Don (Little baby Don)
Where's your papa gone? (Where's your papa gone?)
Far, far away
Far, far away
Last night, I heard my mama singing a song
Ooh-We, Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep
Woke up this morning and my mama was gone
Ooh-We, Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep
Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep, Chirp
Where's your mama gone? (Where's your mama gone?)
Little baby Don (Little Baby Don)
Where's your mama gone? (Where's your mama gone?)
Far, far away
Where's your papa gone? (Where's your papa gone?)
Little baby Don (Little baby Don)
Where's your papa gone? (Where's your papa gone?)
Far, far away
Far, far away
Last night, I heard my mama singing a song
Ooh-We, Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep
Woke up this morning and my mama was gone
Ooh-We, Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep
Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep, Chirp
Let's go now
Last night, I heard my mama singing a song
Ooh-We, Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep
Woke up this morning and my mama was gone
Ooh-We, Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep
Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep, Chirp
Altogether now
Last night, I heard my mama singing a song
Ooh-We, Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep
Woke up this morning and my mama was gone
Ooh-We, Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep
Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep, Chirp
One more time now
Last night, I heard my mama singing a song
Ooh-We, Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep
Woke up this morning and my mama was gone
Ooh-We, Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep
Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep, Chirp
Let me all sing it now
Last night, I heard my mama singing a song
Ooh-We, Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep
Woke up this morning and my mama was gone�
24 Soley Soley (03:06)
Just a little bit lonely
just a little bit sad
I was feeling so empty
until you came back
until you came back
until you came back.
Oh
Soley
Soley
Soley
Soley
Soley
Soley
Oh
Soley
Soley
Soley
ley
Soley
Soley
Soley
ley
Soley
Soley.
Just a little bit closer
can you lay by my side
can we get it together
lazing in the sand
lazing in the sand
lazing in the sand.
Oh
Soley
Soley...
35 Samson and Delilah (03:03)
Samson and Delilah
lived a long long time ago.
She was undecided
but man that hair just had to go.
Na na na na na...
On the Friday evening
things were going mighty fine
then he started sleeping
'cos she slipped something in the wine.
Na na na na na....
Ain't no glory in this fable
like the story Cane and Abel
Samson's gonna turn the table.
Samson had a feeling
that God would guide his feeble hand.
Man you should 've seen him
pushin' pillars from the stand.
Na na na na na.....
Ain't no glory in this fable
like the story Cane and Abel
Samson neatly turned the table.
Samson had a feeling
that God would guide his feeble hand.
Man you should have seen him
pushin' pillars from the stand.
Na na na na na...
Ain't no glory in this fable
Like the story Cane and Abel
Samson neatly turned the table.
Ain't no glory in this fable
Like the story Cane and Abel
Samson neatly turned the table.
39 Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum (03:13)
Do you recall
some years ago ?
Up in the mountains that were white with snow
inside a cavern
McDougal he was plannin'
there's gonna be a showdown with somebody he knows.
Well he's been there
a year or so
something will happen very soon I know
I hear him playin' his bagpipes every mornin'
I think that it's a warmin'
he's gathering the clan.
Soon you'll hear the sound of people shouting
you will see the claymores in their hands
if you knew the reason for their fighting
you would never understand.
Oh
Tweedle Dee
Oh Tweedle Dum.
The tune McDougal always used to hum
While he was fightin' his rival clan McGregor
Dishonour he would never
the tartan of his clan.
Do you recall
some years ago ?
Up in the mountains that were white with snow
inside a cavern
McDougal he was plannin'
there's gonna be a showdown with somebody he knows.
Soon you'll hear the sound of people shouting
you will see the claymores in their hands
if you knew the reason for their fighting
you would never understand.
Oh
Tweedle Dee
Oh Tweedle Dum.
The tune McDougal always used to hum
While he was fightin' his rival clan McGregor
Dishonour he would never
the tartan of his clan
40 Kailakee Kailakoo (02:54)
You say you're tired of TV Cartoons
Searchin' for taxis on wet afternoons
Telephones ringing and grey city streets
Sweet talking salesman in flashy boutiques
I think you're right and I want you to know
I've found a place where I think we should go
Ah Kailakee Kailakoo
An island near North Venezuela
On Kailakee Kailakoo
We'll spend the rest of our day
You'll do the fishing down by the shore
I'll build a home with a coconut floor
You'll find a parrot I'll teach it to speak
Tropical songbirds will sing you to sleep
Then when we think we're alone on this land
I'll find a footprint right there in the sand
Ah Kailakee Kailakoo
An island near North Venezuela
On Kailakee Kailakoo
we'll spend the rest of our day
Ah Kailakee Kailakoo
An island near North Venezuela
On Kailakee Kailakoo
We'll spend the rest of our day
When we get older we'll think of today
Laugh at the taxman who never got paid
Now that it's settled we'll call up our friends
Give them the things that we won't use again
I think you're right and I want you to know
I've found a place where I think we should go
Ah Kailakee Kailakoo
An island near North Venezuela
On Kailakee Kailakoo
We'll spend the rest of our day
Ah Kailakee Kailakoo
An island near North Venezuela
On Kailakee Kailakoo
We'll spend the rest of our day
Ah Kailakee Kailakoo
An island near North Venezuela
On Kailakee Kailakoo
We'll spend the rest of our day
Ah Kailakee Kailakoo
An island near North Venezuela . . . [continue to fade]
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