Note: Lyrics are below. Albert Hammond - OBE (Order of the British Empire) (born 18 May 1944, London, England) is an English-Gibraltarian singer, songwriter and record producer.
Hammond was born in London, where his family had been evacuated from Gibraltar during World War II. His family returned to Gibraltar shortly after his birth, and there he grew up. In 1960, he started in music with Gibraltarian band 'The Diamond Boys', which had no real commercial success, but played a part in Spain's introduction to popular music. The Diamond Boys performed at the first nightclubs in Madrid to stage modern bands alongside Spanish rock and roll pioneers such as Miguel Ríos. In 1966 Hammond co-founded the British vocal group The Family Dogg, scoring a UK Top 10 hit with \"A Way of Life\" in 1969.
He also wrote songs for others with frequent collaborator Mike Hazlewood. These include \"Little Arrows\" for Leapy Lee, \"Make Me An Island\" (1969) (which Hammond himself re-recorded in 1979, in a Spanish disco-style version), and \"You're Such a Good Looking Woman\" (1970) for Joe Dolan, \"Gimme Dat Ding\" for The Pipkins in 1970 (itself a cover from the Freddie and the Dreamers album, Oliver in the Overworld), \"Good Morning Freedom\" for Blue Mink, \"Freedom Come, Freedom Go\" for The Fortunes in 1971 and \"The Air That I Breathe\" which was a hit for The Hollies in 1974. In 1971. Hammond also sang on Michael Chapman's fourth album, Wrecked Again, and worked briefly with The Magic Lanterns on recordings of his and Hazlewood's songs and other material.
He then moved to the United States, where he continued his professional career as a musician. He is known for his hits of the 1970s, released on Columbia subsidiary Mums Records, such as:
1.\"It Never Rains in Southern California\"
2.\"The Free Electric Band\" (the only single of his to chart in the UK)
3.\"I Don't Wanna Die in an Air Disaster\"
4.\"I'm a Train\"
5.\"Down by the River\"
Lyrics:
The Free Electric Band (A. Hammond - Mums Records/Columbia/Epic)
My father is a doctor, he's a family man
My mother works for charity whenever she can
They're both good clean Americans who abide by the law
They both stick up for liberty, and they both support the war
My happiness was paid for when they laid their money down
For Summers in a Summer camp, and Winters in the town
My future in the system was talked about and planned
But I gave it up for music and the free electric band...
I went to school in hand-washed shirts with neatly ordered hair
The school was big and newly built and filled with light and air
And the teacher taught us values that we had to learn to keep
And he clipped the ear of many an idle kid who went to sleep
My father organized for me a college in the East
But I went to California, the sunshine and the beach
My parents and my lecturers could never understand
Why I gave it up for music and the free electric band...
Well, they used to sit and speculate upon their son's career
A lawyer or a doctor or a civil engineer
Just give me bread and water, put a guitar in my hand
'cause all I need is music and the free electric band...
My father sent me money and I spent it very fast
On a girl I met in Berkeley in a social science class
Yes, and we learned about her body
But her mind we didn't know
Until deep rooted attitudes and morals began to show
She wanted to get married, even though she never said
But I knew her well enough by now to see inside her head
She'd settle for suburbia and a little patch of land
So I gave her up for music and the free electric band...
