Nov 3, 2019 – willowdot21

This week Jim Adams has given us the prompt words :Around/ Down Sideways/Up. For Song Lyric Sunday post.

This week I have gone with a group I saw at the first live gig I went to. It was at the Albert Hall London. It was my thirteenth birthday and my amazing parents had arranged for a son of one of their friends to take me to the concert. He was about eighteen and must of been irritated by having to take a 13 year-old girl to a rock concert. Mind you he had the ticket and tube fare paid for, and the headliners were the Rolling Stones, and the support group was the Yardbirds. ….woo! Now my dad worked as a body maker for London Transport ( he covered and sewed the seats for buses and tube trains). Mum was a housewife looking after six children. Money was tight. I look back and I wonder how did they afford this. I can tell you I appreciated it then, I appreciate it even more now.

The Yardbirds an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band’s core lineup featured vocalist and harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist/bassist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samwell-Smith. The band is known for starting the careers of three of rock’s most famous guitarists, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, all of whom ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 100 greatest guitarists. The band had a string of hits throughout the mid-1960s, including “For Your Love“, “Heart Full of Soul“, “Shapes of Things” and “Over Under Sideways Down“. More information here on Wikipedia

“Over Under Sideways Down” is a 1966 song by. Apparently inspired by Bill Haley and His Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock”, Jeff Beck plays both the lead guitar and bass guitar. The song was released as a single in May 1966, two months before the group’s self-titled UK album (commonly known as Roger the Engineer and Over Under Sideways Down in the US and elsewhere). More information here at Wikipedia

I really love this song not only is unique and of its age but it reminds me of the excitement and delight of being a thirteen year-old at a huge rock concert.

“Over, Under, Sideways, Down”

Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Cars and girls are easy come by in this day and age,
Laughing, joking, drinking, smoking,
Till I’ve spent my wage.
When I was young people spoke of immorality,
All the things they said were wrong,
Are what I want to be.

(Hey)
Over under sideways down,
(Hey)
Backwards forwards square and round.
(Hey)
Over under sideways down,
(Hey)
Backwards forwards square and round.
When will it end, when will it end,
When will it end, when will it end.

Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
I find comment ’bout my looks irrelativity,
Think I’ll go and have some fun,
‘Cos it’s all for free.
I’m not searching for a reason to enjoy myself,
Seems it’s better done,
Than argued with somebody else.