Signs - Five Man Electric Band | Andy & Alex FIRST TIME REACTION! 

Saw a sign outside a restaurant recently. "Due to labor shortages, long haired freaky people may now apply." Brilliant. Thanks A&A. This one brings back many memories of being a long haired guy in the late 60s. Peace and love to all.

In the sixties and early 70s there was absolutely a delineation between long and short hair on men, even no matter how successful or good you were. This song was BIG!

The original version! Yay.

Haven't heard this in ages and still know every word.

I really love that you guys don't stop the song to comment. Let it play out, then do your reaction. I love watching you enjoy the music 🎵🎶

as a Late 60's long hair, there were lots of fist fights and near fist fights - long hair on a man was NOT an acceptable form of expression for maybe 18 months in Southern California. I remember my dad taking me to a hardware store, sending me in to buy something, them clerk took a look at my hair and told me to get out. My dad went in, came back out, and told me to go back in and get whatever it was. I went in and the guy didn't say a word, just sold it to me and handed me my change. I was pretty happy about it and when i got to the car dad asked if the guy apologized. I told him he didn't. Dad went back in and came out. He told me to go back in and buy a can of 3 in 1 oil. I did, and the guy said "sorry about before". Dad ALWAYS used to make me fight my own battles, but this ONE thing... this bias against long hair... really got to him. BTW, dad was no fan of my long hair either and we argued plenty about it... maybe he did all that because he knew I thought it meant something. post script - I am 70 and my hair is past my shoulder blades and nobody gives a fuck about.

I was born in 1960, you can NEVER understand the influence the music of the 60s and 70s have had on my soul and life!

Thank you lord for thinking bout me I’m alive and doing fine…🩵✌🏼🩵

I loved the hippies and freaks. Teenager in the 70s, and the long-haired guys were the coolest, cutest and the easiest to get along with.

The last line still gets me choked up. "Thank you Lord for thinking about me, I'm alive and doing fine."

Another great CANADIAN Band from back in the day tat we still listen to up here !!!!

Glad to see the young generation kicking back and appreciating the music of our generation. The 70s was an incredible time to be young and alive

A friend of mine from Ontario Canada sent me a photo of sign a farmer posted on his property line which was located in the Ottawa region back at that time in the late 60’s and it read “Any trespassers will be shot on sight”. I am told one of the band members of Five Man Electrical Band saw the sign as he was driving by and it became the inspiration for the song.

I'm 73 so I lived through it. The feeling between short hair/ long haired was NOT reciprocal. Those with long hair were disdained/frowned upon, yet while in the Air Force, I and friend took leave and went to Woodstock. Despite being the very rare "short haired" people there we were totally accepted, looked upon, and treated as a kindred soul.

RIP Bill Walton. He was a long haired hippie playing basketball in Portland in the 70s.

In the late 70s just out of high school I applied for a job cleaning out the inside of airplanes. They said I’d have to cut my hair. I said why there’s no one on the plane but me. Needless to say I didn’t cut my hair or get the job. The song “almost cut my hair” by CSNY helped me take a stand. Definitely no regrets.

In the early '70 my band was finishing a gig in Ft. Lauderdale and went to this all-night restaurant called The Egg & You. As we were walking in the Allman Brothers was coming out and they warned us to be aware that people were hassling them about their hair. - That was a very common thing in those days.

1971 was an incredible year for music!

Remember it well. Now I'm 70 years old and I haven't cut my hair since I happily retired 15 years ago. Spark Up My Pipe 3-4 times daily for over 57 years of smiles.

First. Great tune. Nice doo Andy. The long hair thing was what Bob Seger was talking about in Turn the Page. Is that a woman or a man. That was a grave insult back then.

Or think of the Bob Seger song Turn the Page. The line “is that a woman or a man” about when he goes into a diner. Seger had real long hair back then.

sortly after i got back from vietnam i was growing my hair. my wife and i went to rent an apartment from a business owner in town. he told me he won't rent to me because i had long hair. he said he would never hire anyone for his factory with long hair either. a few years later i saw a picture of him in the paper and he had semi long hair and long thick sideburns.

A band from the 80s Tesla, covered this and was a huge hit for them.

You two do very well. Signs was recorded in 1970. Man alive I was your age back then. I was a hippie and the world was so much different then. Revolution was in the air. Vietnam was hated. This song was an A.

Love it when the music transports me back to the 60s/ 70s

This song has touched me for many years, especially the line where he makes his own sign. i am going through some major issues right now, including two hospital stays and major surgery. I have been thanking the Lord for thinking about me and being alive. A+ for me

I assembled the Fender-Rhodes Electric Piano used on this song, and hundreds more between 1972- 78 on the "Keyboard" Dept... 54 people and 17 of us never cut our hair. A great place to work at that time. The place ROCKED with product testing.

Happy that you guys are finally reacting to this song. This has to be one of the greatest songs from the 70's. S tier in my humble opinion!

Fit right in on the radio with Spirit in the Sky and Hair....

Don't know if you've done or heard this song before, but Charlie Daniels' "Long Haired Country Boy" is a great tune. Also, since you mentioned Easy Rider try Daniels' "Uneasy Rider" on for size.

Andy's friend had a point: there are simply songs (and albums) that will never even make it to an A&A poll, songs that even if mentioned in the comments may only garner a few likes. But there are SO many great ones out there of that certainly warrant your listening to. ("Signs" is a perfect example). I wish there was less reliance on polls - and that you could venture out into the unknown a little bit more, even if it's just a couple folks saying, "you gotta hear this one!" Not a poll, but maybe a thread topic: "Songs, albums and artists that really had an impact, or were a favorite of yours, but were not necessarily popular." Maybe you could enlist your old friend Adam to maybe pre-listen to a few and go, "Yeah, you really need to listen to this Brian Protheroe (or Aztec Two Step or Nina Hagen) song or album." ❤

It can take visitors to Hawaiʻi a while to notice that there's something they're *not* seeing: billboards. The hugest and most obnoxious of signs are not allowed to ruin the landscape in Hawaiʻi, nor in Alaska, Maine, and Vermont.

At the high school I went to, the principal got tired of telling the boys to cut their hair. One day, he rounded up all the longhairs, herded them into a school bus, drive them to the barber shop, and paid for all of them to get their hair cut. That was 1968, and it made all the local papers. Try that today and there would be violence, multiple lawsuits, and bloodshed at School Board meetings.

Oh, the battles we had with our parents... Early seventies, early teen years, all we wanted to do was grow our hair long.

Just an observation: Five Man ElectricAL Band. Well done, guys.

The follow-up “Absolutely Right” is even better.

One of the best signs I ever read was at the boarding gate of the Koh Samui, Thailand airport in the late 90's. There was an oil drum full of sand and the sign above it read "Please fully discharge your firearm before boarding the aircraft"

1971: The year before I graduated from HS - still the greatest song ever written/performed. By Canadians, no less -- well, they were letting our draft-age men come up there.

One of the early singles I ever bought. Actually from the early 70s and not the 60s.

You guys were born too late. Glad you’re enjoying it all now.

Somehow I still know every single lyric of this song. Made such a huge impression on me in my childhood. I’ve been so lucky 😊 to have grown up hearing what I heard.

I was 10 years old when this song hit the radio and have liked it ever since. Thanks for the memories.

Damn we had a lot of great music growing up. And an allusion to Woody Guthrie's verse that doesn't get taught in elementary school: As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there And that sign said "No trespassin'" But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin! Now that side was made for you and me! - from "This Land Is Your Land."

LOVE THIS SONG!!!! The ultimate protest song.

I loved this one as a kid! In 71, I was just 8 years old when this song came out. I remember thinking I was so cool because I understood the concept

I find it hard to believe that this song hasn't been requested/mentioned on your channel, previously. This was a huge song, when it was released. It was a Hippie Anthem. It's still played, a lot, on classic rock radio.

I was raised in the Hudson Valley and remember all the Hippies going to Woodstock. There were 2 songs that I loved from that time. One was “Signs” and the other was “Hair”. Both iconic songs from the era!

I was maybe 6, in Houston, and my parents or my aunt -- can't recall -- took me to the theater. It was the '70's, so when I had to use the restroom during the movie, I went on my own. I didn't know where it was so I asked at the concession counter. They pointed me to the girls' room, because I had long blond hair, but I said loudly, "I'm a boy!" They insisted though, that if I had long hair I had to use the little girls' room. So I did, and never thought twice about it. I had similar trouble in school until later when I was bussed across town to the ghetto for school. Nobody cared about my hair there, just my skin color.

This band was from my hometown (Ottawa, Canada) and this song was HUGE here back in the day. Thanks for listening to this one, dudes.

Les Emmerson, who wrote this song and was a member of the Five Man Electrical Band, taught me how to play guitar! The Five Man Electrical Band were formed out of Ottawa (my home town) and after they retired, Les went on to open the Campbell Music School in Ottawa which, coincidentally, was located a few blocks away from my house. When I first started learning guitar, I had no idea who he was or who the Five Man Electrical band were. My dad quickly filled me to their legendary status in Canada. Les passed a few years back and I always cherish the countless hours we had, one on one, while he was showing me the ropes of guitar playing. :)

I can still recall my parents calling the Beatles hippies because of their long hair…..in 1965. They look so wholesome now with their “Beatle” cuts.

The Five Man Electrical Band originated as a band from Ottawa, Canada called the Staccatos. They were very popular. Their biggest hit as the 5 Man was a song called "Signs" which charted strongly.

We fellas solved this dilemma in the 80's with the freedom of the "mullett" with a pony tail.

As a kid, I lived in Portland OR from '65 to '71. Long hair and beards were definitely discriminated against. My friend's older brother was running to catch the bus to get to his classes at college. He was stopped by the cops who saw some "long hair" with a knapsack running and wanted to know why he was running. He missed his bus. My dad took part in an office beard-growing contest which he won. My mom liked his beard so he showed up for work on the Monday and everyone else had shaved theirs off. He eventually shaved his off because he had to go to pulp & paper mills as part of his job and he could tell his beard was not going over well with the very conservative rural Oregonians. As soon as we moved back to Canada, he grew his beard back and only shaved it off once in the mid '70s. My mom, sister, and I all told him to grow it back.

Haven’t heard this for absolute ages!!

I grew up out in the country in Missouri, and was one of those long-haired freaky people in the late 70s. As a junior and senior I worked at a full service gas station, and the head manager and our mechanic were always joking that they were going to take into the back of the garage and cut all my hair off. I’ve always loved this song, and still know all the words even though I’ve not heard it for two or three decades. Thanks for the good tunes!

Great song. Love this!

I love the intro to this song!! Reminiscent of Moody Blues "Ride My Seesaw"....fantastic.

Another fine Canadian band from the early 70s. This was all over the radio airwaves, when I was a child. Loved it. ---OronOfMontreal

Many people referred to hippies simply as "Long-Hairs" back then. And "long" meant anything touching or below your ears.

I got my mom a reissue Beatles live album on vinyl for Christmas this year, and as we sat around the record player listening to it, I swear to God I felt the magic of what it was like in her era, getting together with whichever friend first bought the new album you were all excited for, listening together for the first time. Thanks for bringing some of that magic here. Great stuff

This band’s follow-up single, “Absolutely Right” is a real banger.

Thanks for hitting this one! This turned up on the endless ramdom jukebox that plays in my head a couple weeks ago. Always loved this tune and sentiment.

What memorable music came out of the late 60"s and early 70's. And were still listening and loving it today.

Whole World is going Bonkers! Been away from the channel for about 14 months and come back to see clean cut Andy has turned into a Hippie!!!

Yes, as others have said, this song was an anthem that we all lived during the 70's. VERY COOL. I'm glad you finally heard this after all this time but at the same time, I am surprised that you haven't heard till now!

Five Man Electrical Band - Absolutely Right - I'm a Stranger here

I remember singing with everyone on school bus😂 I still know all the words, graduated high school 1977😊 ✌️

Five Man Electrical Band had one more minor hit - “Absolutely Right”. Keep up the marvelous work 😊

I love that in-your-face cymbal and other surprises at this early era of isolated recording techniques.

A band from my home town, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. They, Paul Anka, Bruce Cockburn and The Cooper Brothers are some of the excellent bands and musical artists that hailed from Ottawa. Bryan Adams grew up here, but wasn't from here, and Dan Aykroyd was born here, but is better known as an actor than as a musician.

One more of the more underrated bands from Canada (formed in Ottawa). Even some Canadians don't realize they're a Canadian band.

One of my all time favorite songs.

I remember one time when I was 5yo, we were riding home and this song came on and I was so excited because it was my favorite. On that same car ride I remember "Green eyed lady" played and I was wondering if my green eyed mom had a magical side to her that I didn't see.

When my son was two years old, this was his favourite song 😊❤!

I grew up in the time that this song came out. Growing your hair long was everything. They even made a musical about it...."HAIR".

Man, this song got played so heavily on Canadian AM stations back in the day.

LoveEd this song Played it on the jukebox in the diner all the time!!!

This was a big hit!!! I was a young teen when this came out on the radio.❤️

Haha, haven't heard this in prolly 50 years!! Was in Jr. High. 72-73? Wow what a decade, honestly.....wow.

AWESOME lightning in a bottle song. Been trying to get you to hear this for a while. Great nod to the song with your hat Alex. Such great lyrics. Give those boys an S-tier. It was a great song from a Canadian band.

Love this band. The Five Man Electrical Band (known as The Staccatos from 1963-1968) is a Canadian rock band from Ottawa, Ontario. They had some hits (as The Staccatos) including "Half Past Midnight" & "Small Town Girl" & then (as The Five Man Electrical Band) "Absolutely Right", "I'm A Stranger Here", "Werewolf", "Signs" etc.

I bought this .45 as soon as it hit the stores in 1970. In the original he said "f-ing" sign in one of the lyrics ..

Of the many times I've heard this song, I don't think I've ever heard the intro until now.

Speaking of long hair...Andy, love it! So different from the days you did reactions from your bedroom. ❤😊

It was a sign of the times. They were a changin. Long hair striped bell bottoms, motorcycles. My parents and all their cousins bought dirt bikes. we would campout in a hippie tent circle on the pipeline and ride dirt bikes by day, campfire stories all night. No Drugs just Beer and Jambalaya. Louisiana here.

I love this song so much.its so nostalgic great reaction

You never know when this song will be sung in my house! ♥️😂

Five Man Electrical Band had another banger, "Absolutely Right," a few months after "Signs."

A song from my teen years.... thanks for the memories.

As I remember, this song created quite a stire when it came out. Both for the lyrics and for the catchy tune! Ah, the early 70's!

Great Canadian Band in the 70s. They had a lot of big hits here in Canada 🇨🇦. ❤ Signs was their biggest. #3 in the USA and #1 here in Canada 🇨🇦

Im 78, and I still LOVE LONG HAIRED DUDES! To hell with "high and tight"

Number 1 song around 1972.....I would have been about 12 !!! One of my teenage favorites ...the 1st sing I ever heard in stereo on a FM station

I forgot how much this one kicks ass, especially at that time! Thank You!! I dated a musician with hair to his waist. That meant, for me, I had to have mine longer! lol 20 yrs later, my hair is also to my waist and it was living through that time that made me feel the way I do about hair.

Always loved this song, great story telling about freedom man !!!

I love this song, reminds me of Junior High School, it was very popular.

Great song. Love your exploration into early rock, even though this was released in 1971. It does capture the tenor of the era. It is great musically and lyrically. Keep exploring early rock, and the R&B, funk, folk, blues and jazz that all came together to inspire it, and a generation that enjoyed it. It was an incredible time to come of age. Some much creativity and innovation in music

The inspiration for the song "signs" came when the writer, Les Emmerson was driving on route 66 in California and the scenery was obscured by all of the billboards along the road.

The Band- TESLA- is known for their Great Cover of this song 👍💯✌️