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Living in the 70’s (1974)

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Living in the 70’s

Clip description

The title track of the Living in the 70’s album, recorded during June and July 1974 at the TCS Studios in Melbourne. The album, produced by Ross Wilson from the band Daddy Cool, broke all previous sales records for an Australian album.

Curator’s notes

Great social and political changes were occurring in Australia in the 1970s. In 1972, Gough Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to victory after 23 years of the conservative Liberal Party in government. Australia withdrew from the Vietnam War and conscription, which was a dark spectre hovering over young men’s heads, ended in December 1972. As with any period of change, there is a feeling of instability – what was known has gone, and the shape of the future, and your part in it, is hard to predict. This sense of unease and dislocation is reflected in the lyrics of this track:

I feel a bit fragile
I feel a bit low
Like I learned the right lines
But I’m on the wrong show

I’m livin’ in the ’70s
I feel like I lost my keys
I got the right day
Got the wrong week…

I feel a little crazy
I feel a little strange
Like I’m in a pay phone
Without any change
I feel a little edgy
I feel a little weird
I feel like a schoolboy
Thats’s grown a beard

I’m livin’ in the 70’s
Eatin’ fake food under plastic trees
My face gets dirty just walkin’ around
I need another pill to calm me down

I feel a bit nervous
I feel a bit mad
I feel like a good time
That’s never been had
I feel a bit fragile
I feel a bit low
Like I learned the right lines
But I’m on the wrong show

I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I feel like I lost my keys
I got the right day, got the wrong week
And I get paid for just bein’ a freak

I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’m livin’ in the 70’s

I feel a little insane
I feel a bit dazed
My legs are shrinkin’
And my roof’s been raised
I feel a little mixed up
I feel a little queer
I feel like a barman
That can’t drink his beer

I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’ve just caught another disease
I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’m livin’ in the 70’s

I’m livin’ in the 70’s
Eatin’ fake food under plastic trees
My face gets dirty just walkin’ around
I need another pill to calm me down

I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’m livin’ in the 70’s

I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I feel like I lost my keys
I got the right day but I got the wrong week
I get paid for just bein’ a freak

I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’m livin’ in the 70’s