Forty Five Hundred Times

"Forty Five Hundred Times" is a song by British rock band Status Quo. It is the final track on their 1973 album Hello!, almost ten minutes long and regularly performed live. The group's frontmen, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, have said it is one of their favourite songs by the band, with Parfitt using a special dropped tuning. While never released as a single, the song was #1 as voted by fans.[1]

"Forty Five Hundred Times"
Song by Status Quo
from the album Hello!
Released1973 (Hello!), 1977 (Live!) 1991 (Rock 'til You Drop)
GenreHard rock, prog rock, blues rock
Length
  • 9:54 (Hello! version)
  • 17:10 (Live! version)
  • 12:56 (Rock' til You Drop version)
LabelVertigo Records
Songwriter(s)Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt

Composition
Rick Parfitt playing with Status Quo in 2007

The song was one of the few that members Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt wrote together.[2] Rossi recalled, "Each time we'd get something good Rick would try to improve it and we'd lose track of where we were. It was like pulling teeth, which is among the reasons why we stopped writing together."[3] Parfitt sang lead and played rhythm guitar using an alternative tuning with the top and bottom strings retuned from E to B.[4] He discovered the tuning while randomly playing around with the tuning pegs on his guitar after "a few glasses of wine".[5] To get the required sound, he replaced the bottom string with a 60-gauge one from a bass guitar. The song features a time signature change from 4
4 to 6
8 partway through, before reverting to 4
4 at the end. Jazz pianist John Mealing played as a guest on the track.[4]

Rossi later said it was one of his favourite Quo songs (along with Hello! as an album generally),[6] as did Parfitt, who enjoyed the improvised jam at the end of the track and declared it his favourite guitar moment with the band.[7] He recalled, "The amps were all around the room, and we just sat in a circle and vibed with each other. Nobody knew where anybody was gonna go, and in those days, you didn’t give a fuck about overspill, so the amps were cranked. It was magical".[7]

Of the title, Rossi remarked: "Rick and I were in a Yankee phase at the time… In 'real' English it would've been called 'Four Thousand, Five Hundred Times' – which doesn't quite work, does it?"[8]

Release

The song was first released in 1973 as the last track on Hello!.[9] When that album was reissued on compact disc in 1987, as a double set with the earlier Piledriver, "Forty Five Hundred Times" had to be dropped owing to space reasons.[4]

The original studio version has been included on several compilation albums.[10] It was re-recorded for the album Rock 'til You Drop (1991).[11]

Live performances

The song was not performed live when Hello! was first released, but was introduced into the set around 1975.[4] For concert performances, Parfitt used a custom Gibson SG tuned specifically for the song, leaving the bottom B string slightly flat.[5][12] It was subsequently played frequently, extending in length to 17 minutes on 1977's Live!, recorded at the Glasgow Apollo.[2] It was performed at the "Frantic Four" concerts in 2013 featuring original Quo members Rossi, Parfitt, Alan Lancaster and John Coghlan.[13] A 20-minute version was performed at the NEC Arena in 1982 at a charity concert for The Prince's Trust, with Coghlan's replacement Pete Kircher reinterpreting the original drum parts. This rendition was subsequently released in the expanded version of the album Live at the N.E.C. in 2017.[14][15]

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gollark: - lightweight & customizable- AUR provides a gazillion packages somewhat more conveniently than manual install- pacman is nice I guess- amazing docs
gollark: It would arch.
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gollark: Or which is better. Arch is obviously better always

References
  1. https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A8622731
  2. Wall, Mick (10 July 2016). "Status Quo: the story behind Quo Live!". Team Rock. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  3. Dave Ling (15 February 2016). "The 13 best Status Quo headbangers from 1971–1981". Team Rock. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  4. Stroud, Graeme (2017). Status Quo: Song by Song. Fonthill Media. p. 86.
  5. Ram Samudrala (20 February 1997). "Interview with Rick Parfitt". Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  6. Michael Andrews (2003). Peter Buckley (ed.). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. p. 1005. ISBN 978-1-858-28457-6.
  7. Henry Yates (28 March 2016). "Status Quo on riffs, grooves, punch-ups, prison and Kit-Kats". Music Radar. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  8. Ling, Dave (October 2013). "The stories behind the songs – Status Quo, Forty-Five Hundred Times". Classic Rock #189. p. 30.
  9. "Hello! – Status Quo". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  10. "Forty Five Hundred Times". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  11. "Rock 'Til You Drop". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  12. "STATUS QUO: The Party Ain't Over Yet documentary – Part(y) Two". John Keeling. 18 July 2017. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  13. "Music review: Status Quo: The Frantic Four Ride Again, Manchester Apollo". The Independent. 7 March 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  14. "Status Quo Live at the NEC". Record Collector. December 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  15. Live at the NEC (Media notes). Virgin EMI. 2017. 5777089.
  • Lyrics from Status Quo official website
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