1973 in music. • Page 2

Best raw power mix:

 

Annie has an absolutely angelic voice.

I'm only more familiar with their later 70s work, thanks to my Dad, so this one is top of the list of records to check out this week.

 

My Dad got me into them as well. I’m not as huge a fan as he is (he got to see them live in their prime) but they’re just so unique. Nobody else can scratch that exact itch.

I was listening again yesterday while assembling my list to post in here and really appreciating John Tout’s gifts as a piano player too

 

Showcased right from the get-go on the opening track too. Gorgeous.

So funny - my Dad saw them live in the late 70s as well. You are 100% right about them scratching a specific itch with their sound, the medieval/baroque influences and her unique voice. It's working for me today, definitely been a while since I have listened to them.

 

Apparently they used to stretch “Ashes Are Burning” out to almost 20 minutes live with Jon Camp tearing off an epic bass solo. Have to imagine that would have been impressive to see

 

I always did it that way cause I feel like the album is the focus and should be first but for sake of uniformity I’ll do it the other way from now on, I’m not a sociopath I swear!

 

Listened to The Temptations Live in Japan, which is a live record from this year. It's a pretty good live recording, with the group harmonising excellently, and sounding raspy and impassioned. The band are energetic when they need to be, and tight and supportive for the more ballad-y numbers. The set list is great, including tracks like My Girl, Papa Was a Rolling Stone, and Just My Imagination.

My only gripe is that the audience are too quiet - you can't hear them at all for 95% of the tracks, being turned up in the mix right at the start and end of tracks. Having an audience that you can hear is what makes a successful live album in my books - makes it feel like you're actually there with them. Without that, it just doesn't feel quite the same.

Also, semi-interestingly, during the band introductions, they also introduce themselves with their Zodiac sign.

Good stuff, and a good collection of tracks, but not an all-time essential live record.

 

1. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent, The E-Street Shuffle
2. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
3. Bruce Springsteen - Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ

No one is surprised I'm picking two Bruce albums, right? The Wild, The Innocent is a glorious block party of a record that encapsulates the sound of summertime as well as any album ever recorded. Loose, spontaneous, and packed with youthful energy, it's an album that never fails to make me wistful for my younger days, from the fireworks exploding across the sky on "Sandy" to the romantic pomp of "Rosalita." A masterpiece.

Greetings is lesser, but not as much lesser as it's often written off as being. The sheer wordiness is often cited as a demerit, or as a sign that he was really chasing the "New Dylan" tag, but it's also part of what gives songs like "Blinded By the Light" or "Growin' Up" or "For You" their charm. If you got a shot like Bruce did, and had that (perhaps only) opportunity to show off what you could do, why wouldn't you pack the songs with a bright, big world of words and details and characters. The production is rough, but it's an album that I've come to love more over the years thanks to live takes, from the Springsteen on Broadway version of "Growin' Up" (never fails to choke me up) to the closing show bootleg from the 2009 tour, when, during Clarence's last-ever show with the band, they blasted through this record front to back. I even like the acoustic songs!

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is thrilling and fascinating. Packed with iconic singles, but it's also got that double album sprawl and all the indulgence and experimentation that comes with a 2xLP runtime. "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" is right up there with my favorite ways anyone has ever opened an album.

 

i would get it if it weren’t those two specific bruce albums haha

 

listened to innervisions. jesus fucking christ. he’s good huh? like, i guess he’s talented.

 

Innvervisions is honestly a stunner. It's so long, so you think the quality will dip, but good lord it does not

EDIT: I was thinking of the length of Songs in the Key of Life, Innervisions is normal length haha

 

Honestly his run from Signed, Sealed, Delivered to Hotter Than July is as good as anyone’s ever had

 

Rick Derringer - All-American Boy
Certainly doesn't hurt that it leads off with "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" which is a classic, but honestly it's really strong throughout. Some creative, memorable writing like "The Airport Giveth (The Airport Taketh Away)". Great variety between ballads and rockers. Excellent guitar playing. Kind of an overlooked little gem.

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery
They almost qualify as a guilty pleasure for me. There are moments where they have that super-thin sound that bothers me with trios and with a lot of prog. They also are insanely self-indulgent. But I can't help loving it, and when they fly, they REALLY fly. "Still...You Turn Me On" I know really well and is probably my favorite song of theirs and the "Karn Evil 9" suite is a masterpiece in "First Impression, Part One" and THE most prog song ever elsewhere. Also a ton of fun: "Toccata", which sounds like a spaceship that can't get its engine to turn over and has some insanely innovative use of synthesizers at a pretty early time.

Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
I'm really only familiar with later stuff from them, so the slashing glam guitar and grinding sax was a bit of a surprise. Gets a little too deliberately off-kilter at points, but even then, Bryan Ferry's singing still does it for me, so it doesn't hurt the record much at all.

John Cale - Paris 1919
This really took me by surprise. I really expected this to be a homework listen, since his more abrasive/experimental contributions to The Velvet Underground are decidedly not my favorite parts of their catalog. But he must have been jealous of Lou Reed making an accessible hit, because this thing is gorgeous. He's not much of a singer, but the band is phenomenal and the strings are lovely and very present, but tasteful. I'd need to dig more into the lyrics, but at first glance they have a very literary quality like Reed, Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen, The Mountain Goats, etc.

Jerry Jeff Walker - Viva Terlingua
This took me a few songs to really get warmed up to it, but by the end I was a full-fledged convert. I know there's this whole expansive Texas scene ("red dirt" and such) where he's an absolute legend. Recording live but without the audience really leads to some loose, swinging, funny country music. And the two songs where they do have an audience are a blast. @Craig Manning this might be a great one for you this week.

Tower of Power - Tower of Power
Listened because of "So Very Hard to Go", which deserved to be the monster single it was, but the whole thing is just a rock solid soul album. Obviously, the famed horns seriously bring it, but I never realized just how good a singer Lenny Williams was for them.

 

im always surprised when people say they’re only familiar with roxy’s latter stuff. the first three albums are borderline perfect glam rock.

 

I’m pretty sure I heard For Your Pleasure years ago and it went a little over my head so I didn’t really count it. Meanwhile, Avalon hit me like a ton of bricks immediately.

 

Anyone else been doing any first listens?

 

i got selling england on the docket today

 

way less submissions than usual, cmon people this is a great year!

 

1. Bob Dylan - Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid
2. Neil Young - Time Fades Away
3. New York Dolls

#3’s a toss up between Dolls and Heart Food by Judee Sill, but today I’m feeling more Trash than The Kiss.

Time Fades Away is so sticky, so prickly and hot. 5 really great songs too. It’s one of the Neil albums I listen to the most.

Likewise, I suppose Pat Garrett is a “minor” record in the discog, but it and New Morning are by far the Bob albums I listen to most. This one sets a mood I like to live in. I’m particularly fond of the ratio of instrumentals to vocal tunes. Great grooves from Booker T and Jim Keltner too

 

For something a bit different, I listened to Stravinski's Firebird, performed by Seiji Ozawa and the Orchestra of Paris, from 1973. I recently received a book of a series of conversations between Ozawa and Haruki Murakami, who is one of my favourite novelists, so taking this opportunity to hear some of Ozawa's work. He has a really wonderful performance of a piece called Sinfonietta with the Chicago orchestra that I've heard and loved as well as this.

I don't know too much about this piece, other than it was written for a ballet performance - I briefly read the synopsis on Wiki, but didn't really think about that while listening to it. It builds and builds to a really thrilling conclusion though, at one point near the end of the performance, the tempo of the strings builds and builds and a huge drumbeat smashes through everything, coming to a thunderous climax, which was exciting - and entirely worth listening to for that one moment.

I'm almost entirely in the dark when it comes to classical music, but it's something I'd like to start exploring more of. It can be quite daunting or overwhelming though (especially as I have no idea how to describe it, or what "genre" of Classical I may like), so if anybody has any recommendations for specific pieces or performances, I'm all ears!

 

If you dig Stravinsky some other early 20th century modernists you might also enjoy are

Shostakovich
Schoenberg
Aaron Copland
Prokofiev
Bela Bartok
Strauss

Since you have an entry point with Ozawa, you could stick with his work. That can be a fun way to wander into the wider world of classical

 

Also, I find I enjoy classical recordings from the 90’s onward quite a bit more, they honestly sound a lot better.

There are many, many notable performances from decades past, but they’re often tinny mono recordings and things that just aren’t as lush as newer recordings

 

I’ve only ever heard The Firebird in suite form, but in that version, it is absolutely stunning no matter who does it. Well, except Bernstein, who does it WAY too slow

 

1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
2. Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On
3. The Stooges - Raw Power

 

Listened to Burnin’ by Bob Marley and the Wailers this morning, while reading “A Brief History of Seven Killings”, which is set in Jamaica around this time period.

It basically feels like a Greatest Hits with the strength of the tracklisting. I don’t think I’ve heard this before, but I knew the majority of the songs here, with tracks like I Shot The Sheriff, Get up Stand Up & Small Axe amongst others. Marley was an excellent vocalist, with a great range and always able to carry the tune. The music while still recognisably reggae also clearly borrows from funk and soul sounds in America from around this period.

All the best songs are well known to me, but I imagine hearing this for the first time without knowing of them beforehand would have felt revolutionary in 1973.