>London.
1969.

Ah, what blissfully innocent times they were….

You could write lyrics like

and no-one would bat an eyelid.

(Well, they wouldn’t, would they? This is the culture that gave us “The Life of Brian”…)

These days, you’d have the ACLU, the Teachers’ Union and every bastard and his brother (oops, sibling – don’t want to get flamed for sexism) ranting and raving.

And then

The Beatles? A religion?!

That’ll do to bring on the Vatican and loony Religious Right, burning records and putting hexes on everyone involved.

Blue Mink.

“Melting Pot”

You take some session musicians, a song writing team responsible (yes, RESPONSIBLE, as in “responsible for war crimes “) for “I’d like to teach the world to sing“, some flippant, warm fuzzies lyrics and end up at No 3 in the charts and stay in the Top 10 for months.

And what a pedigree the band had:

Madeleine Bell: Went to the UK as a performer in “Black Nativity”, session singer with Dusty Springfield, Cliff Richard, Tom Jones, Scott Walker, Long John Baldry, Joe Cocker, Elton John….

Roger Cook: Half of “David and Jonathon” (“”Michelle” cover? No? OK…), half of Cook-Greenaway with hit after hit after hit, the only British songwiter to be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Herbie Flowers: Bass line on Lou Reed’s “Walk on the wild side“, Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and Harry Nilson’s “Jump into the fire” (although this is Robin Zander’s version), member of Alexis Korner’s CCS and T. Rex.

Alan Parker: Guitar on Donovan’s “Hurdygurdy Man“