The 1970s: counterculture, music, peace & struggle

Hi,

I think this is a factor of the biggest place where things can sell, and that would be the United States, and then Great Britain, and both countries catered big time to the economic side of the music, something that many other countries did not do well. I suppose Italy and France are ... a bit weird in this department ... and their own languages seemed to be way more important than the English versions ... Ange never did anything in English that I can recall. I think that PFM hurt itself when it felt is had to do English so it could sell in America ... and surprise ... the imports did better when one considers all the years in between. Italy, however, had a massive history of music via opera like no one else ... so hearing things in Italian was never a surprise, but hearing them done in English was!!!

The USA, has an issue with foreign languages, and it took several artists in the 70's take that one ... remember Linda Ronstadt that went full Spanish ... and it not only sold but became well known ... she went after the Hispanic folks in the South and Southwest ... the record company was not happy, but they lost that battle when things sold ... and since then, the majority of the Latino/Hispanic folks have enjoyed a fairly good amount of sales. And, at the time, you did not hear any of them on the FM Radio, or on regular AM radio ... 

The bad attitude was visible during the Space Pirate Radio days ... but Guy had a funny way of getting people to not worry about the language issues ... it's like watching a Fellini movie without the subtitles ...  and a lot of fans enjoyed that kind of humor and then the bands being played. I don't think there was a single album, by PFM, Banco, Le Orme, Ange, AD2 (and just about all Krock folks), Granada, Mona Lisa, Sadistic Mika Band, and so many others that it would be nearly impossible for me to list ... that did a lot of their work in their own language ... and the kicker of it all was when the English version of Felona and Serona did not sell as much as the original ... which was an "import" that was really big and is still a favored album.

I think the German thing, could have roots to WW2 ... and it might have been better to leave it behind ... and of course, most of the schlagger was in German, and we know via Guru Guru ... that the new God of music was rock music, not the stuff without the feedback! That song, in TANGO FANGO is really important in its incredible levels of satire ... but it would be good for us to remember that in those days, the Short Wave Radio was massive all over Europe blasting the other side with Beatles and a lot of rock music which might have been the greatest inspiration for the younger generation being forced to eat schlagger. At that point, I imagine that German is not at all favored ... but that's just a thought.