Hero - Living in The Land of Oz

Hero  -Living in The Land of Oz/ Captain Video- Inter Planetary Records ‎IPR-001 (US 1977)

Featuring ex Hollywood Stars lead singer Scott Phares; Living in The Land of Oz is a rare non-LP outing by Hero. Living in The Land of Oz was originally the main theme song for the Aussie rock fantasy Oz (A Rock n Roll Road Movie). The movie is your typical groupie girl gets knock on head and wakes up in an alternative version of outback Australia, full of greasers, effeminate shop owners and town zombies in order to save the day. Written and performed by Daddy Cool main man Ross Wilson the original version of the song although raspy, kinda jars with its mock reggae beat. Hero’s version on the other hand is much more the real deal. 
The film itself was released in the US as 20th Century Oz in September 1977, so most likely the recording took place sometime earlier that year, Michael Lloyd approached Hero as the movie people wanted a US band to do the title track on the US release of the movie. However they didn’t have the will or budget to do a Mad Max dubbing job, as the distributor was probably just hoping for a quick cash-in for the upcoming release of The Wiz which came out the following year.
Anyhow the performance is a cool Glammy hard edged AOR meets Powerpop sing-along which is miles above the original. 


Hear a full version of Living in The Land of Oz