Level 2 Update

Dear Friends of the Lost Chords,

Team New Zealand, with its 5,000,000 members, has done a fantastic job tackling this virus. It’s been with much hardship and sacrifice, and enormously distressing times for many people. Those hard times are not over, and, the struggles experienced by many will continue for some time. He waka eke noa – Kia kaha.

We will soon discuss with our Ceili venue partners – The Remuera Club and The Master and Apprentice Pub in Takapuna – what Level 2 is like for them, and with some relaxed crowd restrictions, and what it will be like under Level 1. Hopefully we can all be together soon making beautiful music!

Had we had a May Ceili, we would have launched another New Zealand bracket – we will have to save that for another time. I thought I’d focus on New Zealand music in this newsletter, and look at what are regarded as New Zealand’s top hits and also pick out a few NZ bands and songs that have been a part of the journey of my musical life.

Each May we celebrate New Zealand Music Month. This was first launched in 1997 as New Zealand Music Week and became a month-long event in 2001. This, in part, was an attempt to increase the profile and exposure of our own music. In 2000, New Zealand music made up just 10% of programming on commercial radio stations. By 2004 this number had risen to 23%

So, what are regarded as the best NZ songs ever? The answer is that there is more than one list of ‘the best’. In 2001, to celebrate 75 years of its existence, the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) invited its members and an academy to vote for what they believed to be New Zealand’s top songs of all time. The clear winner was Nature, written by Wayne Mason in 1969. His band, the Fourmyula, took this acoustic song to number one on the New Zealand charts in January 1970.

Ironically, the Fourmyula never once played the song live. One reason given by Mason was that local audiences at the time were unprepared for local bands to perform original material. “Playing our own music would never have filled dance halls … we never played our own songs on stage: it was all Tamla Motown, Arthur Brown and “Everlasting love”.’

The top 30 songs as voted by APRA and the academy in 2001 were:

1. ‘Nature’, Wayne Mason (Fourmyula, 1969)
2. ‘Don’t dream it’s over’, Neil Finn (Crowded House, 1987)
3. ‘Loyal’, Dave Dobbyn (1988)
4. ‘Counting the beat’, Phil Judd/Mark Hough/Wayne Stevens (The Swingers, 1981)
5. ‘Six months in a leaky boat’, Tim Finn (Split Enz, 1982)
6. ‘Sway’, Bic Runga (1997)
7. ‘Slice of heaven’, Dave Dobbyn (Dave Dobbyn with Herbs, 1986)
8. ‘Victoria’, Jordan Luck (Dance Exponents, 1982)
9. ‘She speeds’, Shayne Carter (Straitjacket Fits, 1987)
10. ‘April sun in Cuba’, Paul Hewson/Marc Hunter (Dragon, 1978)
11. ‘I got you’, Neil Finn (Split Enz, 1980)
12. ‘Whaling’, Dave Dobbyn (DD Smash, 1984)
13. ‘Not given lightly’, Chris Knox (1990)
14. ‘Pink frost’, Martin Phillips (The Chills, 1984)
15. ‘Jesus I was evil’, Darcy Clay (1997)
16. ‘Weather with you’, Tim Finn/Neil Finn (Crowded House, 1991)
17. ‘Blue smoke’, Ruru Karaitiana (Pixie Williams and the Ruru Karaitiana Quartet, 1949)
18. ‘Dance all around the world’, Corben Simpson/Geoff Murphy (Blerta, 1972)
19. ‘Lydia’, Julia Deans (Fur Patrol, 2000)
20. ‘Blue lady’, Graham Brazier (Hello Sailor, 1977)
21. ‘Drive’, Bic Runga (1996)
22. ‘Chains’, Che Fu/DLT/Angus McNaughton/Kevin Rangihuna (1996)
23. ‘Dominion Road’, Don McGlashan (The Mutton Birds, 1993)
24. ‘Glad I’m not a Kennedy’, Shona Laing (1986)
25. ‘I hope I never’, Tim Finn (Split Enz, 1979)
26. ‘Tears’, Fane Flaws/Arthur Baysting (Crocodiles, 1980)
27. ‘Be mine tonight’, Dave Dobbyn/Ian Morris (Th’ Dudes, 1978)
28. ‘I see red’, Tim Finn (Split Enz, 1979)
29. ‘Beside you’, Dave Dobbyn (1998)
30. ‘Home again’, Karl Kippenberger/Tom Larkin/Phil Knight/Jon Toogood (Shihad, 1997)

You will see some familiar names of composers and performers in the list with a number of them featuring in various Lost Chords brackets. There are more to come. A few years after this list appeared, another survey was conducted online with the following top 10 results:

1. ‘Loyal’, Dave Dobbyn
2. ‘Why does love do this to me?’, The Exponents
3. ‘Slice of heaven’, Dave Dobbyn
4. ‘Don’t dream it’s over’, Crowded House
5. ‘Sway’, Bic Runga
6. ‘April sun in Cuba’, Dragon
7. ‘Home again’, Shihad
8. ‘Victoria’, The Exponents
9. ‘Bliss’, Th’ Dudes
10. ‘I see red’, Split Enz

 

All great songs that have become part of our music culture. You can easily listen to the original performances of these by searching on YouTube.

 

So, what have been the NZ songs and bands that have been a part of my musical life. A number of them are in the two lists above. Like many of my friends, I played in bands from high school days and afterwards, and I remember trying to mimic the Formyula sound when Nature came out. Wayne Mason, keyboard player with the Fourmyula, wrote ‘Nature’ in 1969 – for those that can recall that time, it was the year of Woodstock, the film Easy Rider and the Beatles’ album Abbey Road.  I grew up in the Hutt Valley and remember Fourmyula – the band from Upper Hutt – creating hits in those days. Going back a few years before then though, and to some of my earliest music memories, I remember my parents and their friends often singing a hit of their day called Blue Smoke. I’ve written about that number in previous Lost Chords newsletters but perhaps that songs real fame was because, in 1948, it was the first song written by a New Zealander, and recorded and pressed in New Zealand. It was written by Ruru Karaitiana, performed by his quintet, and sung by Pixie Williams, and released on the new Tanza label.

 

Popular music, only performed on commercial radios, was featured in the weekly hit parades, the first Hit Parade starting in 1946 and rebranded as the Lever Hit Parade on the ZB radio network in 1955. Lever Brothers was the soap manufacturer, with their factory in Petone. In competition to the Lever Hit Parade, Coca Cola launched their own version in the early 1960s. Those radio programmes were compulsory listening, with frequent twisting of the dial back and forth between the ZB and the ZM stations.

 

One of the first NZ groups I remember listening to was the Howard Morrison Quartet. Their first big hit in the late 1950s was Hoki Mai. Their biggest successes however came from parody songs they wrote to the music of overseas tunes. The Battle of the Waikato was a satire of the New Zealand Wars, My Old Man’s an All Black was a commentary on the 1960 ‘No Maoris, no tour’ campaign, which opposed the exclusion of Maori players from a planned All Black rugby tour of South Africa.

 

Performers and bands from the 1960s that I remember listening to were Dinah Lee; Auckland guitarist Peter Posa; country-pop by Maria Dallas, John Hore, and Allison Durban; funky R&B by the La De Da’s and Bari and the Breakaways; the fabulous girl-group The Chicks; singers like Mr. Lee Grant and Shane; and psychedelic groups like the Formyula, the Avengers, and Ray Columbus and the Invaders.

 

What about the 1970s? Many listeners had abandoned radio for television. TV featured acts such as The Rumour, Hogsnort Rupert, and Craig Scott (remember his hit, Smiley). TV shows I remember were C’mon and Happen Inn. One of the contestants on an early one of these talent shows was Shona Laing. Her song 1905 became a huge hit in 1972.

 

Great bands to feature in the 1970s were Split Enz, Dragon, Hello Sailor, and Th’ Dudes, the latter featuring Dave Dobbyn. A major hit I remember from the early 1970s was L’Amour est l’Enfant de la Libertie. Composed by Shade Smith, and sung by his brother Gerard, it won the TV talent quest Studio One.  Earlier, Shade had won the 1969 Loxene Goldern Disc Award for his version of Saint Paul, a song about Paul McCartney. Another group of the early 1970s was Blerta.  In 1971 Blerta first performed Dance Around the World – a song inspired by a Margaret Mahy story and written on the first Blerta tour in the famous Blerta Bus. A great band, and with great musicians such as Bruno Lawrence and Beaver.

 

Some Maori and Pacific performers I remember of the 1980s into the 1990s, and following on from the Maori Show Bands of the 1960s, were bands such as Herbs, Aotearoa and Dread Beat, and Blood. These groups used the rhythms of Jamaica with words reflecting life in the South Pacific. In 1982 Dalvanius Prime wrote and recorded a song called Poi e, with the Patea Maori Club. This song, and the strength and solidarity of the people of Patea, has become a New Zealand legend. Another group that formed in 1985 and from the Hutt Valley – some members had been students at Heretaunga College – was Upper Hutt Posse. They were the first NZ group to record in the rap genre. Their big hit of 1988 was E tu. When the music video of this song was shown on the TV programme, Radio with Pictures (now that’s a memory blast from the past – featuring Karen Hay) the band became an instant hit. The chorus of the song “E tu, stand proud, Kia kaha, say it loud” was inspired by James Brown’s 1968 song “Say it loud – I’m black and I’m proud”. The ‘B’ side of this single was Invention, and has words about the French terrorists who bombed the Rainbow Warrior in 1985. Upper Hutt Posse have been described as New Zealand’s hip hop pioneers.

 

In the 1990s, bands that became mainstream in the NZ music scene were the Headless Chickens (George), the Mutton Birds (The Heater), the Exponents (Why Does Love Do This To Me), the Feelers (Supersystem), and Supergroove (Cruise Control). Other hits from the 1990s include Welcome to Our World (John Grenell), To Sir With Love (Ngaire Fuata), Trippin (Push Push), Of course, lets not forget Fred Dagg with We don’t know how lucky we are!

 

I know I have left out many fine performers and songs, however, as I said at the beginning, these are the ones that featured in my musical journey. So, we are now back in the 2000s, and back to the two lists earlier on in this newsletter showing the top NZ songs ever. Maybe I’ll save the last two decades for another rant at some other time.  Maybe it’s a sign of old(er) age and the need to be surrounded by familiar items, but I find myself going back to those earlier songs. They were ‘real music’, or at least songs I can remember some of the words to.

Stay strong, keep practicing, and we hope to see you all soon.

The Lost Chords