Thanks For The Memory (Honey & Meat) May 1975

Polydor Records - 2058-585




Thanks For The Memory was censored upon release because the BBC took offence at the line...
"Have a love smell on your sheet"
As Top Of The Pops was extremely important to the success of a single release in 1975, Noddy re-recorded the vocal as....
"Have some honey with your meat"  (I thought wheat, hard to tell?)
...for TV broadcast. I thought this was only for TV until recently. *A fan produced a 7" single with the 'Honey & Meat' recording that is visually no different. The 7"s are identical to look at but my original Thanks For The Memory is stamped and etched in the run-out groove with...
2058585 A//1 M 11 3

KAPTIN KOFF

The B-Side has...
2058585 B//1 M 11 6 (or b)


The 'Honey & Meat' 7" is stamped and etched with...
PR 2058585 A//1 M 11 1
PORKY


The B-Side is stamped
2058585 B//2 M 1 3 3
That's is the only visible difference but obviously it's not visible to you cos it's etched and molded or stamped into the vinyl run out. I know, it's serious anorak stuff, sorry?


The track has of course, always been sought by the completist fans and the 1975 compilation, Ronco presents 20 Blazing Bullets, was the answer for those in the know.


Ronco Records RTL 2012

With funky artwork by Bob Searles and mastering by Melvyn Abrahams, we have the fabulous Gordon Smith to thank for this compilation. I'm assuming of course, that as the man with the responsibility of compiling the album, he was the person who chose to include the 'Honey and Meat' version.




Side 2: Track 10 Thanks For The Re-cut

It turns out there was a 'promo' version too, which comes as no surprise. I guess this was the copy that got shipped out to the BBC disc jockeys, etc. I've never actually seen a copy although I'm told it's not particularly rare.

Acetate

German - Polydor - 1975.




The video for the single release was made by Richard Loncraine and Gavrik Losey, both of whom worked on the 1974 Slade in Flame film. British film director, Loncraine, received early training with the BBC and New York born producer, Losey, worked on the Beatles tv movie, 'Magical Mystery Tour', amongst others, although that may not be something he shouts about.

divider

*Big shout out to 'Nomis' for making this copy available for me to share. Thanks also to Chris for talking it through. A sharper promo image and readable album rear cover would be appreciated?

Slade on "Shang-A-Lang", performing the "Honey & Meat" version in 1975.


next page


Thanks For The Memory (Wham Bam Thank You Mam) (Honey & Meat)
(Noddy Holder & Jimmy Lea)

Como estas chickadee
Have a housemaid on your knee
Eat an apple everyday
An onion keeps everyone away

Have an athlete on your feet
Have some honey with your meat
Eat an apple everyday
The doctor has gotta keep away

He'll tell you
Thanks for the memory
Thanks for it all
Wham bam thank you mam
Thanks for the ball

Have a burglar alarm
Have a milkmaid on your farm
Can you raise a ballyhoo
If only there's nothing else to do

Have some butter with your fly
They said bananas could get you high
Eat an apple everyday
For the doctor has gotta earn his pay

He'll tell you
Thanks for the memory
Thanks for it all
Wham bam thank you mam
Thanks for the ball

Come a-west us chickadee
Tap the water on your knee
Eat an apple everyday
The doctor has gotta keep away

He'll tell you
Thanks for the memory
Thanks for it all
Wham bam thank you mam
Thanks for the ball
He'll tell you
Thanks for the memory yeh
Thanks for it all
Wham bam thank you very much mam
Thanks for the ball

Thanks For The Memory 1975

Polydor - 2058-585

Released 09/05/1975

German Picture Cover of "Thanks For The Memory ( Wham Bam Thank You Mam )".



A standalone non-album single, sandwiched in-between two albums, it reached No. 7 in the UK, remaining in the charts for seven weeks.
  • Thanks For The Memory (Wham Bam Thank You Mam)
  • Raining In My Champagne






French Picture Cover of "Thanks For The Memory", 7", Vinyl, Single.

Belgium - Polydor - 1975.

Italy - Polydor - 1975.

Netherlands - Polydor -.1975.

Portugal - Polydor - 1975.


Spain - Polydor - 1975.

Yugoslavia - Polydor - 1975.

Rhodesia, 1975 - 7", Vinyl, Single.
Polydor - PS. 407 / 2058 585.
Thanks For The Memory ( Eat An Apple Every Day ) :-
( In Rhodesia, they chose a less-bawdy subtitle to go inside the brackets! )


For further information about this 1975 single, go straight to the


The Download Link is here: Download
Filename: Slade Archive 02.rar Filesize: 15.01 MB

Lyrics courtesy of John Simmons and Kev Money via the excellent Weer All Crazy Slade discography site.

Thanks For The Memory (Wham Bam Thank You Mam)

(Noddy Holder & Jim Lea)

Como estas chickadee
Have a housemaid on your knee
Eat an apple everyday
An onion keeps everyone away

Have an athlete on your feet
Have a love-smell on your sheet
Eat an apple everyday
The doctor has gotta keep away

He'll tell you
Thanks for the memory
Thanks for it all
Wham bam thank you mam
Thanks for the ball

Have a burglar alarm
Have a milkmaid on your farm
Can you raise a ballyhoo
If only there's nothing else to do

Have some butter with your fly
They said bananas could get you high
Eat an apple everyday
For the doctor has gotta earn his pay

He'll tell you
Thanks for the memory
Thanks for it all
Wham bam thank you mam
Thanks for the ball

Come a-west us chickadee
Tap the water on your knee
Eat an apple everyday
The doctor has gotta keep away

He'll tell you
Thanks for the memory
Thanks for it all
Wham bam thank you mam
Thanks for the ball
He'll tell you
Thanks for the memory yeh
Thanks for it all
Wham bam thank you very much mam
Thanks for the ball


[ N.B. There are also several indecipherable / inaudible lyrics in the song. In a brave attempt to decipher them, Nigel Sartin has come up with these on his Slade In Wales website! : - Lyrics? ]


Raining In My Champagne
(Noddy Holder & Jim Lea)

Yeah … I got a hole burnin' in my pocket
I got a gu-itar that wants to rock
I got a tune an' I wanna sock it
With electrical shock, yeah

I got some ants in my pants an' they're a-jumpin'
I've gotta get a shot of rhythm 'n' blues
I've got some hot stuff inside an' it's a-pumpin'
Down to my shoes, yeh yeh

It's raining down on me champagne
Let it rain, let it rain
It's raining, raining, raining champagne
It's gettin' into my brain, let it rain in my brain, again

I've got some soul burnin' in my pocket
I've got a hard workin' ol' mojo
I've got a gu-itar an' I wanna rock it
So come on let's go, go

Now there are some think a smile is smashin'
An' there are some who will never get two
An' there are some who really like it crashin'
How about you, you … you

It's raining down on me champagne
Let it rain, let it rain
It's raining, raining, raining champagne
It's gettin' into my brain, let it rain in my brain, again

I've got a hole burnin' in my pocket
Got a guitar an' I wanna rock it
I've got a tune and I wanna sock it
With electrical shock, yeah, yeah

It's raining down on me champagne
Let it rain, let it rain (let it rain, let it rain)
It's raining, raining, raining champagne
It's gettin' into my brain, let it rain in my brain, again

It's raining down on me champagne
Let it rain, let it rain
It's raining, raining, raining, raining
It's gettin' into my brain, let it rain in my brain, again
It's raining down on me champagne
Let it rain, let it rain
It's raining, raining, raining, raining, raining champagne
It's gettin' into my brain, let it rain in my brain, again

School Leaver: (Part 1)

UK, May 1975

School Leaver Volume 6, Number 5 1974-5
(A Dominion Press Publication)

SCHOOL
LEAVER
ASSIGNMENT
DAVE HILL
EXCLUSIVE


A Miranda Ward Interview

Head Puts The Block On Slade!?

HELP!
If a Junior School Headmistress had had her way there might never have been a SLADE!
"I wanted to play recorder at school and I remember Mum writing in and asking if I could. I didn't really like the recorder but it was a way of learning about music - even learning how to read it! But she (the Head) put the block on that right away - 'No chance!' she said!!"
School Leaver had managed to catch up with the busy lead guitarist of Slade - DAVE HILL - whilst he was on one of his flying visits to do a "Top Of The Pops" at BBC TV's Television Centre in White City.
"There was no chance either at Secondary School of saying 'I would like to learn to play guitar'; that wasn't even accepted as an instrument in the orchestra! It was always the violin or something like that. I didn't really fancy the violin anyway - I had a go once, it was an awful sound in my ear - Screeching - it reminded me of the dentist - you know, those awful drills!! 
And I never did learn to play the recorder." He laughed. "However Dad was a fanatic on music and he always used to have 'Friday Night Is Music Night' on the radio. We never had a telly, so it was a case of having to listen to that or nothing else. 
I've always loved orchestrated pieces - it's so opposite to what we do. I think I would have loved to play concert piano, or been a conductor..." and he stood up to demonstrate... "In the front room with your ruler, turning the radiogram full up... heavy orchestrated pieces - pretending to be the conductor and getting into it that way. I always dreamt of playing a conductor in a movie - like Leopold Stokowsky in Fantasia - with the wild hair swinging out all over the place!"
With that demonstration over, Dave calmed down and began thinking about the old days...
"My mates from school seem so sort of distant now, married and kids, there seems a hell of a lot of difference between them and me. It's like a brick wall between us. If you try to buy one of them a drink it's 'Flash Git!' But dare you ignore any of them - it's like you get slagged blind.
The thing is with this business that for all you get, for all you lose - and you lose an awful lot if you're going to be a personality in music, if you are going to be known. There's a lot of things you can't do any more. Like taking a walk down the local road or going to the cinema."

He started reminiscing...
"I used to do an awful lot of things, go to the bowling alley or have a game of table tennis. But now its a case of saying 'I'll buy a table tennis set and have it installed in my home'. But it loses something because you can't mix with people . . ."
But Dave hasn't even tried to cut himself off from his roots; he hasn't followed the trend of moving to London...
"I personally like to live up in the Midlands. I know it so well and there are still a few people I can actually see. I haven't got to live up to anything with them. There are one or two friends who would do things for me - like if there was ever a time when I couldn't afford to pay or something they would turn a hand to help me. Which I could never rely on from the pat-on-the-back-set down here in London! 
The only reason I'd live in London is because of convenience but otherwise there's too many people saying 'Great!' 'Great!'- it's always 'Great!'. People I know up North are more likely to give you a straight opinion on what you're doing. Down here you don't get straight answers... and we can do without the flash big-heads in the business."
Dave certainly does not appear to have had his head turned by success - but then stardom came the hard way for SLADE...
"A lot of people do seem to think that in this business it is an overnight success. Our film 'Flame' should open up a lot of eyes. It shows the pressures and the short cut to success. Like the guy who comes along and says 'I'll make you a star. But I get 90% of your money!' 
I must admit that when I was 14 or 15, if someone had come along and said 'I'll get you a hit record and you'll be on TV and I'll give you £10 a week,' I would probably have said 'Yes'. To me, the thought of being on TV would be the only thing I could think of. I know there are a lot of groups in this business who have been through the 'Flame' thing. A lot of people at the premiere were saying: 'It doesn't half look like me...' 'It reminds me of what I've been through..."

A relaxed Dave Hill talks to SL's Miranda.

I then asked him if it helped having an experienced manager. (Chas Chandler & John Steele - Slade's management - used to play with that successful band of the late 60's, The Animals, along with Eric Burdon and Alan Price.)
"Yes. They've been through it and can say things like 'Watch out here!' or 'Look out there!' They try to stop the dodgy things that happened to them, happening to us. That's experience!!  
I used to rebel against teachers and grown-ups when they said 'Don't do this', but you can benefit from someone else's experience when you are young. You don't listen to everything that's told you - you've got to do a lot of things for yourself. If someone came along and said 'Look here's a guy... whatever he tells you to do, DO!' it wouldn't be you to agree. You've got to learn, and the only real way you can think for yourself is by listening, taking advice and going through some of the experiences.  
"In the group we all discuss things, throw ideas round, and Chas is there for his experience to advise us. But our individual selves have to come through. And that's what it's all about-Chas always lets us be ourselves and that's always the best thing." 
He then went on to reflect on the hard times before they were able to benefit from Chas' worldly experience ... 
"It couldn't have been any worse than when we were sent out to the Bahamas. It sounds fantastic, but we were stuck out there for three and a half months-away from home (and we had never been away from home before!) and we weren't even getting paid… the kids around were having to help us out!!  
We had to get to know each other really well in that time, that we thought 'Well, nothing can be worse than this'. 
I think most successful people that I know have certainly had to go through all the muck before making it. It's really the grounding-that's really what it's all about. If you are not suffering, if you aren't going through all that, then I can't see that the end thing can be any achievement. You've got to start with a spade and you've got to work up and then you finish with a tractor. And I think you can appreciate your tractor more because you've started that way and had to work for it . . ." 
And Dave has certainly got himself a good tractor-thinly disguised as a gold Silver Cloud Rolls Royce!!!
"And I've got this incredible registration number - YOB 1. Yobby! I've had it for years as well. I bought this old car and it had it on the back and I didn't even realize. Then this bloke comes out of this pub and goes "say! I say! Yobby!'. We got called 'Super Yobs' in the end! I thought it was great when I got the Rolls, sticking YOS 1 on the back of it." 
And he chuckled gleefully!


Dave on stage with Slade. Photo: Julian Ruthven.

Slade's success has brought the usual luxuries of pop stardom-the flash car, the large house… But, with all of this comes the inevitable large tax bill . . .
"Tax is a drag. I mean we're taxed so much that it's not worth working - but f just go along with it now. It's like if I want something I'll probably just go out and buy it, and if I can't afford to pay for it-so what?!" 


Miranda watches as Slade rehearse for 'Top of the Pops'. 
Photo: Julian Ruthven.

I went on to ask him if he wouldn't think of leaving the country for a year to clear up tax problems as many other musicians have done (members of the Stones, Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, etc.).
"No! I wouldn't consider leaving England-even for that ... it always appears greener on the other side, but it ain't. And like England may appear to be having a rough deal at the moment, but it's no better anywhere else, and I've been everywhere else! I don't care if England goes down-I'd still go down with it, coz I like England! I just like the people.  
I think that's why we associate with the fans so much. We can relate to them and they can relate to us. We can talk to anyone who comes up and talks to us… 
The trouble is we don't get much chance to really sit down and talk with them . . " 
And that gave
Dave
his brain-wave.
"Hey! Maybe the people who are reading this don't agree with what I'm saying . . .  
Maybe they've got comments to make ...  
Maybe they want to ask me questions ...  
'I'm just talking to you, and I've no idea what they think or how they are reacting. Can you ask them to write in and then I can see from their letters how they feel. I'll do my best to answer them ... that would be great."
OK. Over to you then! How about it? 
This is your chance to put Dave Hill on the firing line. 
You can write to him, care of: 

School Leaver, 
Dominion Press, 
Grand Buildings, 
Trafalgar Square, 
London 
WC2N SHJ. 


NEXT MONTH

Dave Hill talks about
life at school
parent problems
and working for a living.

'School Leaver' thank the BBC and 'Top Of the Pop,' for their kind co·operation in the preparation of this feature. 



My thanks to Langdon Comprehensive School careers dept. for making this magazine available to us pupils back in 1974. I certainly would not have looked at it without having it thrust in my face?