Pan's People & Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom (HQ) |TOTP 13-3-1975|

[evolutionist101]

LEGS!!



[aknowneemus]

did he just start the song on the 2nd verse?

[alcockell]

@aknowneemus Yes. The track is about 4.5 minutes long, possibly about 5. The Beeb shaved a lot of tracks down to about 2-3 minutes for presentation on TOTP, as they could then fit more into a 30-40 minute slot.

The full version would have been played out on Radio 1 at the time.

[kramnahillac]

Id like them to raise my flag pole, bowchicka bow wow

[slamwell]

The reason the audience looks totally disinterested it was probably the BBC floor manager telling them to stand around the sides watching.

[BONENECKLACE]

REAL HOT WOMEN WOW

[lindshirl2]

A student from a local dance school stepped in on this vid.

[ziggycat999]

Great performance from Pans Peolple but what's with the audience ??? they look totally uninterested....is that a British thing or something???

[ladyadriandangerous]

@ziggycat999 Brits are difficult to excite but they lack the true disdain for their surroundings that the French have. The alternative is the juvenile whooping and 'high-fiving' that is common in America I suppose. As a Dutchman, I find all of this interesting...! I'm sure that watching this my reactions would be significantly different, perhaps involving a police truck and life time ban of TV studios.

[lostkid19]

id still hit it

[jkantor267]

Those dancers are now 55-60 years old.

[mickeytipp]

@jkantor267 you mean 55 - 65 years old. The youngest members in the troupe at the time of this performance would have been Sue (then 19) and Cherry (20), the others Ruth, Babs & Dee Dee were close to pushing 30. In 2010 this would put Sue at 54, Cherry at 55 and the others around 65.

[newtonagrpluss]

Que video legal , ainda mais que a musica escolhida não podia ser melhor. PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM !!

[sameoldfitup2008]

Great!

[sammy1995]

damn these dancers are sexy!!

[chenlung1]

LOL didn't Elton refuse to go on?

[only1moore]

@chenlung1 He must've, which is weird because Sir Elton went on "Soul Train" in the US and performed the song there at the time.

[stacksovids12]

I love this song, it was a fav of mine back then and still is now. Elton has done some amazing work over the years, at his best he is hard to top.I prefer his 70's stuff though.

[matsui2001]

This was recorded using an EMI-2001 camera

onto 2 Inch quad VT.

[louluvscats]

One of elton john's best seventies song's by far!!! Cheerie and very catchy too! Nice quality vid footage with pans people dancing!!! The comment below with this young man yet again has no simplicity to it.Its as though its out to confuse by relating to present political newsreel, its as if he makes the reader of his comments inferior and himself superior.Where in fact he is needing to prove a point again,not to the reader,rather to himself. Wake up young man!!! Benja :-)

[stacksovids12]

the song is all about gay and lesbians, it refers to Philalelphias lax laws on such things back in the 70's when it was not openly engulfing things like now. The line "knee high to a man" refers to giving a guy a blow job, " a piece of mamma daday never had" refers to arse sex.

[louluvscats]

Thankyou,Interesting information stacksovids12! Clevely worded by Elton john and for his courage to sing about this back then,though alot of people would be unaware of this in 1975,due to the coding of the lyric's,and as it was seen as taboo,as you explained.Nice one!!! Benja :-)

[waldenhouse]

@stacksovids12 Sorry, bud, you're completely wrong - "Philadelphia Freedoms" were a team of Tennis players headed by Billie Jean King (ok who was a lesbian and a friend of EJ - but that's it) and the lyric is: "Gave me a piece of mind my Daddy never had" - which actually means that he was allowed to follow the team and the friendship of BJK, the strict morals of which his own Father dismissed. You must read more of the biographies.

[RobinCarmody]

One of the great redemptive moments in pop, and if the glittering prizes he went after seem horribly tainted now (whatever Obama might do, and he might yet do a lot) that only makes it all the more piquant. A rare glory here (which shimmers with particular power in *this* island context, of couse) before everything dissipated into the New Establishment.

[bgwcl]

What?