By cave 
Ladies beware: Lou Reed is in the air!!!
And straight away he runs off with the first gold medal of the year! “(I Am) A Gift (To the Women of the World)” (#1) by good old Lou, taken from Coney Island Baby, radiates calm and self-confidence to infinity. The line more or less became a parlando slogan that I myself liked to trot out during my student days in Ghent, back in the “nightlife” era. Lacking success, I rather quickly switched to another tactic! With just as little success, by the way! And that regularly felt exactly like the song by The Kinks that landed at #2: “Jack the Idiot Dunce”! One of the delicious tracks from Schoolboys in Disgrace.
Over the next six months you can expect a track from Bob Dylan’s Desire every single time! With “One More Cup of Coffee” (#3), ol’ Bob reaches the absolute maximum that’s possible here! Slightly against my will, because ever since the gentleman sent his cat to collect the Nobel Prize for Literature, I’ve been looking at him with a somewhat suspicious eye. But the music naturally takes precedence, resulting in a high score for this wonderfully eclectic duet with the finely attuned Emmylou! Every now and then—consciously or not—she slips slightly beside the beat, but somehow it works brilliantly!
The rest of the top 10 is once again packed with artists who had already been making all the running in the final months of ’75 (David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Patti Smith, Raymond, Kris De Bruyne…). At #11 we find “Women of Ireland,” or back then still in Irish, “Mná na hÉireann,” a folk gem by The Chieftains that had completely escaped my notice. The Folkies released it as early as 1973, on their fourth album. A few years later the song also ended up on the soundtrack of Barry Lyndon, which put its popularity into fast forward. It wasn’t until Kate Bush’s graceful cover in 1996 that “Women of Ireland” truly caught my attention—and by now it has burned an indelible mark into my Celtic heart! Woeha!
Meanwhile, the earliest vanguard of the British punk league has arrived: The Count Bishops! With their Speedball EP(#23), these punks are still very much disguised in rock ’n’ roll clothing, but the brevity of the songs and the sheer intensity with which everything is attacked promise great things!! With Be-Bop Deluxe (#29) and Chris Spedding (#27) nearby, the first steps toward a new approach in pop music are clearly being introduced.
Quite a bit of non-English babbling this month as well: alongside the aforementioned Chieftains, January 1976 can also boast the German lads of Kraftwerk (#20) and two Italian contributions. Angelo Branduardi makes his first stately appearance here with “La Luna” (#17). Later in the year, his real breakthrough would follow with the album Alla Fiera dell’Est. Goblin is the second Italian group (“Profondo Rosso” #32). Essentially a more or less symphonic prog-rock combo, they were keen to let that era linger just a bit longer. In the second half of the ’70s they mainly focused on supplying soundtrack scores.
And we almost forgot the two French contributions this month: France Gall with “Samba Mambo” (#21), the B-side of the single “Comment Lui Dire.” “Samba Mambo” still sounds just as fresh, infectious, and contemporary as it did half a century ago. The same can’t immediately be said of Gérard Lenorman’s “La Ballade des Gens Heureux” (#36), but that song has other charms. Which ones, I’m still trying to figure out—for now I’ll chalk it up to lots of sentiment, and something involving waving candles from left to right and back again! 😉
(Jan VH)
Playlist
1 – Lou Reed – A Gift
2 – Kinks – Jack the Idiot Dunce
3 – Bob Dylan – One More Cup of Coffee
4 – David Bowie – Station to Station
5 – Bruce Springsteen – Jungleland
6 – Neil Young – Cortez the Killer
7 – Patti Smith – Redondo Beach
8 – Raymond van het Groenewoud – Gelukkig Zijn
9 – Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel – White, White Dove
10 – Kris De Bruyne – Ik Wil Wel (Met Je Meegaan)
11 – Chieftains – Mná na hÉireann (Women of Ireland)
12 – Bad Company – Simple Man
13 – Electric Light Orchestra – Waterfall
14 – Roxy Music – Whirlwind
15 – Queen – I’m in Love with My Car
16 – Sutherland Brothers & Quiver – Arms of Mary
17 – Angelo Branduardi – La Luna
18 – Cat Stevens – Banapple Gas
19 – T. Rex – Chrome Sitar
20 – Kraftwerk – Radioland
21 – France Gall – Samba Mambo
22 – Horslips – T. Snow That Melts the Soonest
23 – Count Bishops – Beautiful Delilah
24 – 10cc – Lazy Ways
25 – Joni Mitchell – In France, They Kiss on Mainstreet
26 – Fleetwood Mac – Landslide
27 – Chris Spedding – Jump in My Car
28 – Frenzy – Poser
29 – Be-Bop Deluxe – Ships in the Night
30 – Killer Kane Band – Mr. Cool
31 – Hollies – Write On
32 – Goblin – Profondo Rosso
33 – Golden Earring – Sleepwalkin’
34 – Chris White – Spanish Wine
35 – Gallagher & Lyle – I Wanna Stay with You
36 – Gérard Lenorman – La Ballade des Gens Heureux
37 – Roger Cook – Here Comes Our Love Song
38 – Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance – Don’t Try ’n’ Change My Mind
39 – Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart – I Remember the Feeling
40 – Bellamy Brothers – Let Your Love Flow