i was staring at the 45 trying to figure out how they made that noise... seeing it now on video makes it more complicated and awesome ... we played it with 2 guitars because you cant play that with one ... thx video for the arse slap
After watching this in high school we couldn't wait to get back to school on Monday to talk about it. No cell phones lol. Peace from Northern Michigan.
Most bands invited to perform their biggest hit on a TV show with a limited amount of time ahorter than the actual song lenght would cut the "weaker" parts.. but not these guys! "Let's just speed everything up to fit the time frame we have!".. ridiculously amazing!
Focus is still playing, I saw the band with organist Thijs van Leer last month ( September 2023) in The Netherlands. And still…..so good. Drummer Pierre van der Linden is also still in the band. Guitarist Jan Akkerman is still playing and have a solocareer. The fist time I saw Focus live was in 1973😅
i only discovered these guys about 5 years ago and love it, all of them are brilliant musicians, when i listen to 'How Many Miles' i did wonder if it was still Van der Linden, if he hasnt been with them the whole time Thijs has a great ear for drummers!
I just saw these guys in Orlando about six weeks ago and they still sounded great! Sure, I would love it if Jan Akkerman was still with them, but I'll take what I can get!
I love that the Midnight Special uploaded the full version of this. There's been a cut-down version kicking around RU-vid for a decade, but now finally people get the see the whole performance.
I have a 24 DVD collection of the Midnight Special archives and its always bugged me that the full version wasn't uploaded, even if its only 30 seconds missing
this was the first focus video i saw. the second one was what i thought was this, but someone had overlaid it with really really well played badly played music (it was perfectly executed to make it sound like bad music but still perfectly in time in beat and verse, which in itself, is almost more clever than trying to play something correctly) and weird 'singing' that matched what was on video, such as a wheezing sound when thijs is yodelling, it was hilarious and i havent been able to find it for years nor can i remember what account it was from.
To think that they played the song in double time instead of cutting pieces out to adhere to V time limits. The guitarist at the time was considered one of the best in the world. Shredding in 1973, yet of course it's understandable to laugh. I had never heard of yodeling before I heard this song. Thanks for doing this reaction!!
No, it's not that much faster, that idea comes from the edited version of this which is about 4 minutes and 25 seconds. The full version used here is 6 minutes and 4 seconds while the original is 6 minutes and 43 seconds, so not that much difference ...but it sure sounds a lot faster.
@@russellmorgan5611 ill have to look up Ifield later, but we can’t simply dismiss Slim Whitman, yodeling influencer on radio since the 50s. Mars Attacks!
This is a prime example of hearing it on the radio and seeing it performed live is totally different. I’ve listened to this for years and really liked it but you can get lost with the yodeling. Seeing it live like that and see the pure musicianship of the entire group. Now I see how badass they all are!
Your reaction is Gold. This song is complete madness. Jan's play is amazing. It is not possible not to be in awe. Thank you for your reaction. So beautifull.
Makes you want to slap new artists. These guys were SOOO professional, and this is a masterpiece in composition and performance. A shame that they were kind of a one hit wonder.
@@kuolemanlaakso1696 technically, they are a one hit wonder. but that's nothing to be ashamed of. Chumbawamba embraced their one hit wonder status by wearing t-shirts printed "One hit wonder" during their concerts. They made lots of albums before and after the hit and they're still a legendary band. Same as Focus, by the way.
Hi, 74 years old hippie from the Netherlands =Floor, Irene, Simone, Anneke, Dianne & Arjen(Ayreon) Country= reporting in: I think Thijs van Leer is featuring in The Electric Castle (Ayreon) "The Barbarian & the Hippie". So, just to show you guys that in the early days we already had a very nice Prog Rock scene in the Netherlands ...!!! Shine on you all ... ✌
This song and reactions to it are my current rabbit hole. Evidently, they had five minutes left to play a 7-minute song. The album version is about 20% slower.
is it a shame tho? this version is the one most people hear first! best album is live at the rainbow with a bunch of slightly quicker/harder versions of their studio songs, but by that time Akkerman was apparently bored shitless of playing the same thing all the time, and intentionally throws a few things out through the gig so it has a couple of weird moments.
The vocal coach youtuber "Fairy Voice Mother" reacts to this song and she goes through just what effort is needed for this song and what he actually does. She is impressed, and if you want to know some of what is actually going on (and partly why his face looks like that) I really recommend it as well.
Jan Akkerman is the guitar player. He was recognized as being as good as Eric Clapton back then. Thijs van Leer is the singer, keyboard player. You can see him play the flute live in the Ayreon live concert The electric castle live and other tales. He’s well in his seventies then and a lot fatter. This song is played faster than normal here because of the limited time window of the tv show.
Yours in one of the best reactions I've seen to this song. The look on your face was priceless! 'Hocus Pocus' came out while I was in college, at a time when 'metal' was just beginning. Most people don't realize that their grandparents were way cooler than they think. In this clip, singer/keyboardist Thijs van Leer is a doppelganger for archaeologist Phil Harding, who worked on the original 20 years of the British series 'Time Team', starting in 1994.
One of the best songs EVER written !!!! I saw this live on the Midnight Special when I was a little kid, I was supposed to be in bed. I didn’t know what to think but I loved it because I was a beginning drummer at the time and that drummer absolutely blew me away !!
I haven't know about this song all that long, but I have listened to it a lot. It is just so much fun. Just an "it's all one big family" note that the singer, Thijs van Leer, has worked with Arjen Lucassen on the Ayreon project "Into the Electric Castle."
@@TheWolffAndTheMelody You sure gotta. Ayreon's a deep dive and you'll love it (focus.. on two Live concerts: Ayreon Universe Live in 2017 and "Electric Castle Live and Other Tales" from 2019). Here's good old Thijs van Leer (yodelist) making an entry in 2019: "Ayreon - Amazing Flight (Electric Castle Live And Other Tales)". Enjoy!
I commend you for finding the full version. It's probably been stated but they sped the song up so they could get it all in for their 4 minute time slot
Yo. Late to the party. So seeing this on TV at Midnight or later. In the military, barracks TV lounge. You think the TV folks went crazy. Navy SPs came thinking a brawl had broken out. No fighting they, left. Good Times
1:40 (ish) 'What is @%%@$# wrong with that guy? ' I personally believe that he is warming up his facial muscles. 💪 This is the most unique things I have ever seen.
Saw them each time they visited Australia in the early/mid 70's. I have all their vinyl from the 70's and some solo stuff, but I'm the only prog-rock fan in my family, so I listen when I'm home alone. I love it that Jan Akkerman laughs at how fast they're playing here.
Wonderful reaction! I'm glad you appreciate the talent of these musicians. Thjis van Leer was classically trained on flute, organ and piano at various musical academies in Europe. He's still performing live to this day with a new version of Focus... Jan Akkerman was voted World's Great Guitarist by Melody Maker in 1973, the year of this performance. Jan is a highly accomplished lutenist and classical guitarist, in addition to his electric playing.
Love watching people get their minds blown with this kind of music. 35ish years on from discovering the gold mine of incredible music from the late 60's and early 70's and so mutch of it still blows what came after it, out of the water! XD
Nice reaction man, I know them for several years now. This song, despite it beeing made mostly for fun, was not only a hit, but also a masterpiece and so 70's. The 70's (sadly before my time as I'm an 80's child) where incredible years as there was alot set for future music. I like to think metal was also born in the 70's (altough maybe already a bit in the 60's). I love all this progressive/experimental stuff because it's so real. Thanks for reacting to this. Greetings from a metal head.
This was the golden age of music. There was so SO many experimental and highly innovative bands and musicians around AND they got record deals... it's gone so into the dumpster since then. Always remember the Frank Zappa interview where he give his theory on why music industry is struggling and why musicians are struggling. Can be found on YT.. short clip from one interview. Guy KNEW HIS SHIT!
Subbed because I used to play this on my radio show back in the day. It was always a favorite. I would turn the studio speakers up so loud the office people would complain. Glad you discovered it for yourself. Enjoy!
I was lucky to hear Focus a few years ago live. Thijs van Leer has kept it together all this time. He's a hoot to hang with and very friendly. On Cruise to the Edge he jammed with Rachel Flowers in one of the lounges. It was a bucket list item for me, as I've been a Focus fan since I saw this on tv in 1973. Most consider Focus of that era in the prog genre. Look up Rachel if you are interested in musical prodigies.
I remember the first time I heard this on Top of the Pops "What the hell was that?" What a song to hear when you have not yet reached your twelfth birthday!
biggest hit, yes, but they didn't plan it that way. Apparently this, at regular speed, was what they used to warm up with. It helps that English isn't their first language, makes the cadences a bit different, but I loved it from the beginning. I was 24 at the time.
Yes they were frontrunners and an important inspiration for so many established and upcoming musicians. Jan Akkerman the guitarist was considered as one of the best in the business in 1973. Not only because his fastness but he was tapping and shredding as if it was nothing in those early days.
The Keyboardist and Drummer are still going strong have released their album Focus 50 for their 50th Anniversary and are still doing concerts, sadly almost all on the other side of the pond.
One person reviews this, then every moron on RU-vid has to fallow, thanks for the honest review. The fact that the original was 6.42 and Focus sped it up because they refused to cut it short shows what amazing musicians they are.
If u watch an interview with the singer from 2 years ago he said comedy was important to all the members in this song. So being blown sway by the talent and laughing at the same time is exactly what they were going for.
If you ever want to do a follow up on Focus, they have a genius level jam song called "Hamburger Concerto," and the absolute best version was on the Don Kirshner TV show. There's a good copy uploaded about 3 years ago of the "full performance," and you could skip past Hocus Pocus, & cue it up at the 6;10 mark. It sounds so good. I think the people in that studio audience may have heard the best sounding live music in history, and didn't know it. Lol.
Heh! Great reaction! One of the most entertaining reactions to a very entertaining song. The song was written and performed slower but they were given only so much time for television per song. Instead of deleting parts to meet imposed time limits, they sped the song up considerably. Amazing musicians.
On that video they were told by the tv producers that they had to cut that song almost in half but they said f#ck you and they played it at double time! I've been a guitar player for 56 years now and that's one of the hardest songs to play correctly that I've ever played!! I'm going on 64 years old now but at least I got to see the best bands including Jimi Hendrix when I was only 7 years old. You should check out Deep Purple do child in time if you think Focus blew your mind.
This was not supposed to be a major hit, but it was. I remember when they played the full 7 minute version on the Rock station. Thijs Van Leer is still performing‼️ The full length version is quite a piece of music. Also had another hit song “Sylvia “. Also a banger. 📻🙂
