Totally stoned

A rather substantial timeslip moment today, dear reader - we've hurtled back into the mists of time half a century!

We're actually twice as far away in time from 1971 than that year was itself from World War II, so it's no wonder everything seems so unfamiliar. In January five decades ago, Britain was in its last throes of using the old pounds, shillings and pence currency system (decimalisation arrived in February) and "ready-reckoners" were in the newspapers and given away in shops everywhere [there was even a series of TV programmes] in an effort to get people to understand the new money and the price of their shopping. Strikes, immigration, terrorism, unemployment, the Cold War and the EEC were predominant throughout the year, but then so were prog rock, space flights, colour telly, Mike Yarwood, hot pants, The Generation Game, new motorways (including the infamous "Spaghetti Junction"), Upstairs, Downstairs, the Morris Marina, Dastardly and Muttley, T. Rex and the Blue Peter time capsule.

In the news headlines in January '71: the Ibrox football stadium disaster in Glasgow killed 66 men and boys, the Divorce Reform Act came into force and introduced "no-fault" divorce for the first time, Post Office workers went on strike, Egypt's Aswan High Dam officially opened, the so-called "Angry Brigade" of left-wing terrorists bombed the Secretary of State for Employment's home, infamous dictator Idi Amin came to power after a coup in Uganda, and the Open University was born. In our cinemas: Lust for a Vampire; Murphy's War; There's a Girl in My Soup. On telly: Oh Brother!, The Last of the Mohicans and Softly, Softly - Task Force; and Valerie Barlow was electrocuted by a faulty hairdryer in Coronation Street.

And in our charts all those years ago? To the nation's great relief, George Harrison and My Sweet Lord had booted Clive Dunn's Grandad off the top slot at last, and also present and correct were The Mixtures (Pushbike Song), The Kinks, Jackson 5, Dave Edmunds, the aforementioned T. Rex, Judy Collins, The Equals and Neil Diamond. However, just arrived outside the Top 10 was a number that was - although it never managed to unseat Mr Harrison - soon to dominate the scene for weeks to come...

Supremes - Stoned Love

Now I wanna tell you of a great love
Oh, it will light up
It will surely light up
The world
If you'll just believe

Stoned love
(Stoned love)
Mm-hmm
Mm-hmm
Stoned love
Oh, yeah

A love for each other will bring fighting to an end
Forgiving one another, time after time, doubt creeps in
But like the sun lights up the sky with a message from above
Oh, yeah, I find no other greater symbol of this love

Yeah, don't you hear the wind blowin'?
Mm-hmm
Stoned love, oh, yeah
I tell you, I ain't got no other
Mm-hmm
Stoned love, oh, yeah

Life is so short, put the present time at hand
Oh, yeah, and if you're young at heart, rise up and take your stand
And to the man on whose shoulder the world must depend
I pray for peace and love, amen

Can't you feel it?
Stoned love
I tell you, I ain't got no other
Uh-huh
Stoned love, oh, yeah

If a war 'tween our nations passed, oh, yeah
Will the love 'tween our brothers and sisters last?
On and on and on and on and

Mm, mm, mm
Stoned love, yeah
I tell you, I ain't got no other
Mm-hmm

It's not a song about drugs! Honest, officer...