1975 in music. • Page 2

There’s a video of me singing “Just As Long As We Have Love” as a 5 year old

 

ok that's rad, i'll give it a listen tomorrow

 

You asked me what they were when I mistakenly thought they were a '73 album and I gave you a spiel, too. Haha

 

It makes me very mad how often The Spinners have been nominated for the Rock Hall and missed. Always at the bottom of the fan vote with Chaka Khan/Rufus, Chic, etc. Hmm....what do they have in common?

 

ah okay yeah that's ringing a bell now. I'll throw both on.

 

1. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
2. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
3. Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac

It's probably no secret that Born to Run is my favorite album ever. I've written a lot about it over the years. What to add that I haven't said already? Here's a little snippet of a piece I pitched about it for an essay series about '70s albums. The pitch wasn't accepted, but I think what I wrote captures pretty well why I loved this album when it first hit me like a lightning bolt in 2008, and why I continue to love it now.

Blood on the Tracks is not an album I could ever listen to even half as often as Born to Run, because it puts me into a pretty melancholy space when I do play it. But it's my favorite Dylan album, packed so full of nuance and heartbreak and life that it's hard not to view it as the prototypical breakup album. That Jakob Dylan quote, about how this album, to him, is like "[his] parents talking," encapsulates what makes it so devastating and so human.

Fleetwood Mac feels a little like a test run for Rumours, and the latter overshadowed it for a long time for me, just because Rumours is one of the most perfect pop records of all time. I've come to love it over time, though, especially for being such a remarkable coming out party for Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Imagine joining a long-running band and having such musical magnetism and chemistry that you immediately redefine their sound, for the better. And in the case of Nicks, imagine joining a band and then immediately delivering two all-time songbook staples on the level of "Landslide" and "Rhiannon." Just mind-boggling.

 

Bang on about Born to Run. It continues to mean different things to me over time (just like The Wild, The Innocent does). But it never fails to set me on fire and make me want to dream, or create, or love.

 

1. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
2. Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac
3. Bob Dylan and The Band - Basement Tapes

honorable mention to Zuma which is my favorite rock Neil studio work and really captures the massiveness of live Crazy Horse.

It’s tempting to want to decide BTR isn’t actually a top 2 Bruce record and or is generally overrated but I can’t do it. It’s just about perfect, and literally half of it are songs that could be argued are in his top 5 most iconic. The band is an obvious highlight (and at their best splitting the difference between the goofiness of wild innocent and the coolness of darkness) but I also think lyrically Bruce tightens things up just slightly when compared to the first two albums and that’s what really elevates it. It’s one of those rare completely unabashed in swinging for the fences albums that fully connects and is better for how seriously it takes itself and it deserves virtually all of the recognition it has received over the years.

Last, interesting Dylan year. I think he was pretty much at the peak of his songwriting powers on both records. Both imo though suffer a little bit from choices made in the studio. Probably the two Dylan albums most improved by the bootleg series, or maybe most revealed to be masterpieces by the bootleg series. I give the edge to basement tapes here because I think it’s closer to ideal in its ‘75 form than BOTT was.

 

David Bowie - Young Americans
Well, shit. That may just be my favorite Bowie album. I've heard him do '80s dance-y, stiff robo-funk, but this is honest-to-god funky. And his vocals match the vibe. He's such vocal chameleon. Ending with "Fame" is just a huge flex. Only knock is the Beatles cover is a pretty big whiff for me.

Renaissance - Schehrezade and Other Stories
Yeah, this is their best record. Especially on the second side, which is just the one titular suite/song, they really show you the potential of what prog can do. They always had classical ambitions and influences, but the incorporation of the orchestra (and the orchestrations by Tony Cox) are really stunning. The climactic ending of the 20-minute song where Annie Haslam is just hitting absolutely insane notes made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

 

I had Pick of the Litter listed as 76 in my iTunes, oops! Would have definitely made my honourable mentions list, otherwise.

 

stuff im most surprised by so far:
queen’s best, two of neil’s best, aerosmith’s best, physical graffiti, willie’s best and young americans all being in single digits

wish you were here being right there with bruce and bob. not that it isn’t deserving. this site just doesn’t seem to have a big floyd contingent

 

@irthesteve post your list and playlist

 

Things I’m surprised by:

someone saying an album other than Rocks is Aerosmith’s best

 

Sorry, been traveling. Home this afternoon, will pop in

 

It makes me feel like I can fly. Can’t say that about a lot of albums.

 

is this a joke

it’s a great album but cmon

edit: rolling stone magazine’s top 500 agrees with me. idk if this helps or hurts my argument.

 

spinners album rules

 

1. Queen - A Night at the Opera
2. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
3. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Finally a year where I love enough albums to take part lol.

 

That’s a great description of a very cool and unusual album.

You might dig this record by Tom Waits accomplice Chuck E. Weiss, who happens to have died last week. He was kind of like a scene urchin who lived at the Tropicana at the same time as Waits and traded in the same kind of late night miscreant tales.

Also he’s mentioned a few times in Nighthawks:

 

1. Queen - A Night At The Opera
2. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
3. Wings - Venus and Mars
4. Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
5. Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
6. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
7. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
8. Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac
9. George Harrison - Extra Texture (Read All About It)
10. Patti Smith - Horses

albums I heard for the first time, but would be contenders to make it on my list

Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
Carpenters - Horizon
Earth, Wind & Fire - That's The Way of the World
America - Hearts
Elton John - Rock Of The Westies
Parliament - Chocolate City
Parliament - Mothership Connection
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Nuthin' Fancy
Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years
Funkadelic - Let's Take It To The Stage
The Who - The Who By Numbers

 

and my 1975 mix!

 

Released on this day 46 years ago, I checked out Free Hand, by a band called Gentle Giant, who I hadn't heard of until an hour ago.

It's prog, with all the bells and whistles, sometimes literally, with the opening track sounding like it has a bike horn and tin whistle on it, plus a synth solo. The next song opens with A Capella chanting and harmonising, backed with a little bit of a Xylophone. It feels like a prog parody at points, even including the Renaissance fair style track, with a lute or some shit.

It's all far too messy for me, songs with multi-parts and various different instrumental breaks. Every now and then there's a cool bit, but it never lasts. Can sort of respect the ambitious and sprawl of it - but it doesn't make for an easy listen.

Probably won't be back to this, but at least it was 35 minutes not 75. Happy birthday to it, but not for me.

 

Rocks is significantly better, imo

 

I would think they’re the 2 equally great, consensus classics of the early era

Rocks is a bit darker and has an unusual sound, but they’re not that different