Artists
Musicians featured in this piece are:
David Byron – lead vocals
Mick Box – guitar
Ken Hensley – keyboards, organ, Moog synthesizer
Paul Newton – bass
Iain Clark – drums
Written by David Byron & Ken Hensley. Produced by Gerry Bron, recorded July 1971 at Lansdowne Studios, London. Released on Look at Yourself (Bronze Records, September 1971); a live version was later issued as a single in the US and Japan.
Written in the key of C minor, “July Morning” is often held up as Uriah Heep’s answer to Deep Purple’s “Child in Time” — a sprawling, ten-and-a-half-minute epic built around Ken Hensley‘s dramatic organ and synthesizer work, with a lengthy instrumental coda that became a showcase for extended live improvisation. It’s remained a fixture of the band’s live sets for decades and is closely tied to Bulgaria, where a massive annual “July Morning” gathering — inspired directly by the song — is held on the Black Sea coast every year at sunrise; former Heep singer John Lawton performed the song at these events, backed by a Bulgarian band, until his death in 2021.
Uriah Heep – July Morning Lyrics
There I was on a July morning
Looking for love,
With the strength of a new day dawning
And the beautiful sun
At the sound of the first bird singing
I was leaving for home
With the storm and the night behind me
And a road of my own
With the day came the resolution
I’ll be looking for you
La la la la…
I was looking for love in the strangest places
There wasn’t a stone that I left unturned
I must have tried more than a thousand faces
But not one was aware of the fire that burned
In my heart, In my mind, In my soul
La la la la…
In my heart, In my mind, In my soul
La la la la… La la la la…
There I was on a July morning
Looking for love,
With the strength of a new day dawning
And the beautiful sun
At the sound of the first bird singing
I was leaving for home
With the storm and the night behind me
And a road of my own
With the day came the resolution
I’ll be looking for you
La la la la…
To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 13 program and the full program, click here.