Young Hearts Run Free: The Real Story of the 1970s

‘Young Hearts Run Free’ is an antidote to ‘I Love the 1970s’; it is the real story of the 1970s from the critically acclaimed author of ‘Manchester, England’.
The 1970s is a decade frequently miscast; a parade of fashion disasters backed by a soundtrack of glam rock or frothy, mainstream disco. The generation who grew up in the 1970s remember the decade differently: inflation, strikes, and power cuts; the rise of the National Front; IRA terror campaigns on the British mainland; women’s liberation; ‘Mean Streets’; ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Apocalypse Now’.

‘Young Hearts Run Free’ tells the story of the 1970s, celebrating the musicians and songs that illuminated the ideas, fashions and sexual revolutions of the decade including: the politicised soul and funk of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye, the Punk explosion, New Wave, David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust, gay disco, the Stooges, Patti Smith, the Raincoats, Cabaret Voltaire, the Specials, and black British reggae.

‘Young Hearts Run Free’ uses in-depth research, drawing not only on interviews with musicians, writers, and artists but also a wide range of representatives of the 70s generation. They introduce us to life and music away from the mainstream: nothing bland, nothing obvious, definitely not Abba.

CHAPTERS Intro: Boogie Wonderland (Earth, Wind & Fire, 1979) One: Lolo (The Kinks, 1970) Two: Riders on the Storm (The Doors, 1971) Three: Freddie’s Dead (Curtis Mayfield, 1972) Four: All the Young Dudes (Mott the Hoople, 1972) Five: Raw Power (The Stooges, 1973) Six: Sad Sweet Dreamer (Sweet Sensation, 1974) Seven: Turn the Beat Around (Vicki Sue Robinson, 1976) Eight: God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols, 1977) Nine: Handsome Revolution (Steel Pulse, 1978) Outro: Everyone’s Happy Nowadays (Buzzcocks, 1979)