UK 2 Tone band The Specials covered The Equals' "Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys" on their 2019 album Encore.
|
|
But the single Don't Let It Be (from the album Blue Eyed Boys) was also rather successful later and sold very well. From March to June 1981, Wallenstein went on their last tour; the group finally disbanded in 1982.
|
|
In June 1969, the group received a gold disc for a combined one million sales of the disc. A string of single releases followed, several of which charted in the UK, including two further top 10 hits, “Viva Bobby Joe” (1969) and “Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys” (1970). Their songs were written by Eddy Grant, with contributions from the Gordon brothers Pat Lloyd. Though the majority were on traditional teenage pop themes, some, such as “Stand Up and Be Counted”, “Police on My Back”, and the funky “Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys”, touched on social and political issues.
|
|
"Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys" is a song written by Guyanese-British musician Eddy Grant and recorded in London in 1970 by his band The Equals. Their recording, produced by Grant, reached number 9 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1971 and was the band's last chart hit. The Equals were noted for being one of the first ethnically-mixed bands in the UK. The song was described by journalist Chris Taylor as "a hymn to diversity" which "explicitly linked its racial theme with the anti-Vietnam war sentiment of the time". Chris Taylor, "Old music: The Equals – Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys", The Guardian, 15 November 2011.
|
|
Herman Lehmann lived with Quanah Parker's family on the Kiowa-Comanche reservation in 1877-78. Several people took notice of the white boy living among the Indians. Lehmann's mother still searched for her son. She questioned Colonel Mackenzie, the commanding officer of Fort Sill, whether there were any blue eyed boys on the reservation.
|
|
The second burning issue was that of casteism, a plague on Indian society, especially in Maharashtra. Tilak came from privileged stock, and Chitpavan brahmin males such as himself, were the blue eyed boys of Maharashtrian society. He saw the desperate and widespread situation in which there was no way out for those born into lower castes and who structurally served at the whim and fancy of caste-Hindu society, especially the brahmins (aka bhatjis) and banias (landed and moneyed trader caste which had profited from unprincipled moneylending).
|
|
Encore is the eighth studio album by the English ska revival band The Specials. It is their first studio album of original songs since 1998's Guilty 'til Proved Innocent!, and their first new material with vocalist Terry Hall since 1981's "Ghost Town" single. The album features three covers of older songs; "Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys" (originally by The Equals), "Blam Blam Fever" (originally by The Valentines) and "The Lunatics" (originally by Hall and Lynval Golding's group Fun Boy Three, released in 1981 as "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)").
|
|
The Equals released their first single “I Won’t Be There” in 1966,Frank Bangay, "Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys: Some Belated Praise for The Equals", DisabilityArtsOnline, May 25, 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2018 followed by “Hold Me Closer”, with “Baby, Come Back” as the B-side. It did not do well in the United Kingdom, but after DJs in Europe began playing “Baby, Come Back”, it went to the number one position in Germany and the Netherlands. The year 1968 saw the release of “I Get So Excited”, which reached the Top 50 of the UK Singles Chart. The subsequent re-issue of “Baby, Come Back” in early 1968 reached the top position in the UK, giving President Records its only number one hit.
|
|
The song was originally a single B-side to "Hold Me Closer"; a radio DJ in Germany flipped the single and it took off. The Equals scored two more top ten hits on President with "Viva Bobby Joe" and "Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys". President was also successful with a series of top 30 hits by Welsh vocalist Dorothy Squires, who charted with "For Once in My Life", "Till" and "My Way".Knocking On Heavens Door, Nick Talevski, Omnibus Press, In addition many psychedelic pop records released by President in the late 1960s have become collectable, notably Hat and Tie's "Finding It Rough", and Rhubarb Rhubarb's "Rainmaker"; latter day mod/sixties club favourites such as Watson T. Browne & the Explosive's "I Close My Eyes", and Lloyd Alexander Real Estate Band's "Whatcha Gonna Do", featuring future members of the progressive rock band Audience; and "Pawnbroker Pawnbroker" by the songwriter turned performer Barbara Ruskin.
|
|
Elton John experimented with the Philadelphia soul/disco sound while working with producer Thom Bell in 1977, sessions which eventually resulted in a UK #1 for John when "Are You Ready for Love" was re-released in 2003. The Equals (with Eddy Grant), who had come to prominence in the late 1960s playing Caribbean-influenced pop-rock, embraced harder funk sounds on their 1970s releases, most notably on their UK top 10 hit "Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys". Sweet Sensation were the first all-black British soul band to score a UK number one hit with their song "Sad Sweet Dreamer" in 1974. One of the key figures in Britain's soul and disco scenes during the 1970s was Biddu, an Indian-born British composer and producer who gained breakthrough success with chart-topping hits such as "Kung Fu Fighting" (1974) with Carl Douglas and "I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance)" with Tina Charles, while his own Biddu Orchestra records also appeared in the charts.
|
|