1976 in music. • Page 2

a perfect song

 

The album I really wanna highlight from this year is Sincerely by Dwight Twilley Band.

It just misses my top 3, but it’s a great sorta skewed heartland record, a must listen for the Petty, Big Star, Shelter Records homies

 

Hell yes. Really good record

 

Checked out Rush's 2112, and unfortunately more evidence that Rush aren't for me at all, found this pretty difficult going at times, despite (thankfully) coming in under 40 minutes.

I'm sure they're very talented musicians, but I couldn't get past the vocals, which are really not my style at all, and didn't find anything of particular interest in the songs unfortunately. I don't want to be too critical, as it was only a first listen, and they have obviously have a good reputation, but not one I enjoyed.

Highlight was Apple Music automatically playing a Black Sabbath track after the album finished, and until I heard the vocals I thought it was Rush.

 

He mellowed from the early shrieking (which I still enjoy) when they got more mainstream. He’s much more palatable on Moving Pictures or my personal favorite Hold Your Fire

 

have you done moving pictures? it made the older stuff click more for me in context

 

they’re also extremely talented musicians. lifeson is easily the “worst” of the members and he’s an insanely underrated guitarist

 

Love his riffs and love him as a writer, but weirdly find him generally unmelodic as a soloist.

 

Sales pitches for sleepers:

Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees
Quite simply, one of the best soul albums of all time, "blue-eyed" or no. The members of Toto met while working as session guys on this album. "Georgia" is a straight-up perfect song.

England Dan and John Ford Coley - Nights Are Forever
Has a serious case for the best soft rock album I've ever heard. The two massive hits "Nights Are Forever Without You" and "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" are monsters, but "Westward Wind" and "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" and a bunch of others are just as good. If I wanted to convice someone of the worth of soft rock, this is one of the 3 albums I'd play them.

Stephen Bishop - Careless
This is also one of the 3 soft-rock albums I'd play someone to sell them on the genre. The hits "On and On" and "Save it For a Rainy Day" rule, but there isn't a single dud on it. He can really play the guitar, too, though he's never flashy. "Madge" is a real stunner.

Leon Ware - Musical Massage
Just pure, unadulterated sex music. He was on a peak from producing I Want You for Marvin Gaye and just kept going. Smooth, sweaty, sensual. Fucking great.

Al Stewart - Year of the Cat
If you can get past the lisp, the writing is just off the charts. The title track is a landmark, but the whole thing is full of sneaky hooks and great observations. "Broadway Hotel", "On the Border" and especially "If It Doesn't Come Naturally, Leave It" are favorites.

Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band
A disco masterpiece. They envisioned disco as an update on supper club big bands of the past and their singer has taste for days

Artful Dodger - Honor Among Thieves
If you're into power-pop, they're excellent and almost totally forgotten.

 

1. Billy Joel - Turnstiles
2. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Self-Titled
3. The Eagles - Hotel California

Turnstiles is my second favorite Billy Joel album, and includes many of his best songs, particularly "Summer, Highland Falls" which is probably somewhere in my top 50 songs of all time, by anyone. It's not quite the perfect pop masterpiece that The Stranger is, but it's close.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers is the arrival of one of the greatest bands of all time. My favorite Petty albums would come quite a bit later (I usually go back and forth between Wildflowers and Full Moon Fever in terms of my absolute favorites of his), but the energy and grit of those early albums makes them so exciting. Also, hard to think of a debut album with two singles as classic as "American Girl" and "Breakdown."

A lot of people dislike The Eagles, mostly for stupid reasons, but I'll always be a sucker for their sound--this album especially. Growing up, my uncle would always play and sing a bunch of Eagles songs when he'd bring his guitar to family reunions, so there is something deeply comforting to me about their melodies. The title track also still rips, I don't give a shit what anyone says.

 

love an eagle

 

A music discovery story that will stick with me the rest of my life:

Back in the days where you could find out-of-print albums just by googling blogs, I went looking for that Stephen Bishop album to check out. Had to click through quite a few dead ends before finding a site where the link was live, and in the notes was a comment that’s always stayed with me:

“This album always reminds me of us listening to it together at night. Those were the best days of my life. I think about them all the time. I loved you then and I love you now”

Just a message in a bottle he couldn’t really hope she’d ever see, attached to a long-forgotten album that was out-of-print. But that’s the power of music. I would have loved the album no matter what (seriously, it rules, listen to it) but it means even more to me now because of that.

 

1. Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life
2. Billy Joel - Turnstiles
3. Queen - A Day At The Races
4. Led Zeppelin - Presence
5. George Harrison - 33 1/3
6. Wings - Wings At The Speed of Sound
7. Bob Marley - Rastaman Vibration
8. Ramones - Ramones

first listens for me that I will revisit:

Bob Dylan - Desire
Blondie - Blondie
Carpenters - A Kind of Hush
David Bowie - Station to Station
Eagles - Hotel California
Eric Clapton - No Reason To Cry
Funkadelic - Hardcore Jollies
Funkadelic - Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
Earth, Wind & Fire - Spirit
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gimme Back My Bullets
Marvin Gaye - I Want You
Jorge Ben - Africa Brasil
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

 

1967 mix:

 

I listened to Stephen Bishop’s Careless this morning. Predictably, the highlights are the singles, I didn’t find anything else particularly remarkable, but it was a very pleasant way to start the day. At their best, some of these second tier legacy artists have tunes to offer that nicely complement the heavies of their era.

Also, this article brought these threads to mind:

Over 66% of all music listening in the US is now of catalog records, rather than new releases - Music Business Worldwide

 

Man, if Al Stewart didn’t have the lisp, “Year of the Cat” would be an absolute classic rock staple, on every hour. Shame that’s a hurdle for some people.

 

it’s incredible

 

Released 45 years ago as of tomorrow, I listened to Dolly Parton's All I Can Do. It's very much a solid Dolly Parton record, there's not necessarily anything in here that's new for her, just a solid collection of 10 tracks and 27 minutes of familiar music. There were a few moments where I though the record sounded slightly sped up somehow though, like I was listening to it on 1.5x speed, or on the wrong setting on the turntable. Not sure if that's how it sounds, or just what the version on streaming is like.

The highlights include a fantastic cover of Emmylou Harris' Boulder to Birmingham, and a few other tracks that feel a bit closer to gospel than country, including "Preacher Tom", which opens with a little spoken word introduction about the importance of faith and religion in Parton's life. There's nothing remarkable in here, or nothing that's an absolute must-hear - if you like her music, you'll like this record. If you've yet to check out her music, there are probably more essential places to start, but this is definitely good stuff.

 

Possibly - I know I’ve listened to a Rush album before this, as I had a negative impression of them, but it was such a while ago , I can’t remember for sure. Maybe I’ll re-listen when we get to that album in a few weeks or so.

 

Listened to Bob Marley’s Rastaman Vibrations this evening, which was pretty cool. Very politically conscious, with Marley singing about social injustice and poverty.

Musically, there’s a bit more synths and a bit more funk to it than you might expect, although it still is without doubt a reggae album. No big hits on this one, or at least none that I particularly recognised, but it’s a good collection of songs, and to make a bit of an awkward comparison, perhaps a bit like the Dolly Parton record I listened to earlier - if you already like Marley, this is without doubt enjoyable, but there are better records to start with.

 

1. Ramones, Ramones. Great record front to back and about as influential as they come.
2. Tom Waits, Small Change. His quintessential early-phase record. A lyrical master-class.
3. Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life. My favourite Wonder album.

 

i need to dive into Waits. is this the one to do?

 

I think you’re better off with something like Rain Dogs, Swordfishtrombones, or Orphans

 

It's a great one and still in his classic early style. If you don't do this, wait for Rain Dogs, when his junkayard bluesman persona hit its perfection.

 

1. Billy Joel: Turnstiles
2. ABBA: Arrival
3. Stevie Wonder: Songs In the Key of Life

Turnstiles is Billy Joel’s first masterpiece and the start of unbelievable run of albums. I also agree that Summer, Highland Falls is one of his best, and an all time great song. It gives me such a unique feeling that no other song comes even close to. But the whole album is packed with great songs.

I might like ABBA a little too much, but I simply can’t hear Dancing Queen, Fernando, Tiger, etc. and not have a great time. What more can you really ask for.

Songs In the Key of Life is the rare double album that actually justifies its length.

Honorable Mentions:
Blondie
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Wings At the Speed of Sound

Need to Listen To/Spend More Time With:
Ramones
Hejira
Stations to Stations
A Day At the Races

And I’ve never listened to the full album (or really intend to either), but Rich Girl by Hall & Oates has been a favorite song of mine since as long as I can remember