england 1979 pop song query

Subject: england 1979 pop song query
From: GUEST,biff
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 06:02 PM

I was staying in Kilburn at the time. The landlords always made us free breakfast and the radio would be playing. I remember a pop song that went "everyone hates you when you're number one" and something like "waiting for my friend to come over and we'll get high."
This song was on the radio alot back then, fall of 79. A dumb pop song, but it was pretty and it stayed with me. Anyone know stats on this song, name and performers?

Subject: RE: england 1979
From: GUEST,Millindale
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 07:06 PM

The song is Living on an island by Status Quo. Never heard anything from Quo described as pretty before.

Subject: RE: england 1979
From: RTim
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 07:09 PM

Go look at the Hits by Years Web page:

http://www.onlineweb.com/theones/1950_sheet.htm

Tim Radford
(By 1979 I was TOTALLY into folk music!!)

Subject: RE: england 1979 pop song query
From: GUEST,biff
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 09:00 PM

the version of this song I heard was not a heavy metal song. It was lush with harmonies and yeah it was pretty.

Subject: RE: england 1979 pop song query
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 10:44 PM

Easy when you're number one, everybody say you're having fun
Smile in front of the public eye, when you're body say you wanna die
Living on an island, looking at another line
Waiting for my friend to come and we'll get high

Hugh he got a real nice place, Cruxie gonna be there soon
And I just wanna see his face, I'm getting lonely in my empty room
Living on an island, working on another line
Waiting for my friend to come and we'll get high

Passing time away in blue skies
Thinking of the smile in her eyes
Easy, it's easy

Living on an island, oh boy we're having fun
Living on an island, thinking about the things I've done
Living on an island, searching for another light
Waiting for my friend to come and we'll get high
Waiting for my friend to come and we'll get high
I said we're gonna get high
Yeah we're gonna get high
Gonna touch the sky


You can find publishing details at

http://www.cduniverse.com/lyrics.asp?id=12705297

Subject: RE: england 1979 pop song query
From: Smedley
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 03:06 AM

It was definitely Status Quo, and it was an attempt to diversify from their usual style into something more acoustic & melodic. It was one of their biggest hits but they still reverted to their usual rock default setting.

Subject: RE: england 1979 pop song query
From: GUEST,Curtis
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 03:49 AM

I'm not sure it was an "attempt to diversify". I think they were proving a point, because they always had tracks on their albums that didn't conform to the 3-chord 12-bar stereotype. Case in point: Quo are of course probably best known for the hit 'Rockin' All Over the World' from 1977. That came from an album of the same name which contained, for the time, some quite original and inventive rock music, and yes, a couple of introspective slower songs. Shame more of these didn't see the light of day as singles.

'Living on an Island' was written by Rick Parfitt about the band's year as tax exiles. The island is Jersey in the Channel Islands, and 'Cruxie' (Alan Crux) was one of their managers at the time.

Parfitt, by the way, was playing in London clubs with Alexis Korner as a teenager, playing chords you wouldn't necessarily associate with the Status Quo that has been incessantly (and ignorantly) derided as 3-chord morons for most of their career. They may have been an irrelevancy in rock and pop terms since about 1980, but there's no denying that they were a top-drawing act in Europe in the 1970s.

Subject: RE: england 1979 pop song query
From: GUEST,biff
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 04:04 PM

thanks for info. good song good memory

Subject: RE: england 1979 pop song query
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 04:24 PM

Another example of this kind of song by Quo was 'Rock & Roll' which, despite its title was a quiet, reflective and, yes, pretty song about the band's early days.