1976 in music. • Page 3

1. David Bowie - Station To Station
2. Queen - A Day At The Races
3. Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life

(con’t)
ABBA - Arrival
Ramones
Led Zeppelin - Presence

Great songs from other albums:
Eagles - Hotel California
Blue Oyster Cult - (Don’t Fear) The Reaper
Bee Gees - You Should Be Dancing
Max Romeo & The Upsetters - Chase The Devil
The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner, Pablo Picasso
Wings - Let ‘Em In
Roy Ayers - Everybody Loves The Sunshine
KC & The Sunshine Band - Shake Your Booty
Thelma Houston - Don’t Leave Me This Way
Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town
The Nerves - Hanging On The Telephone
The Beach Boys - It’s OK
Tom Petty - American Girl

 

1. David Bowie - Station to Station
2. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - S/T
3. Aerosmith - Rocks


Will post honorable mentions later!

 

1. Ramones
2. Tom Petty
3. The Rolling Stones - Black And Blue

Shout out The Quick, Modern Lovers, BOC, and Joan Armatrading!

 

i'll leave it open a few more hours since it's gotten kind of close

 

1. Desire
2. Boston

 

1. Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon
2. Tom Waits - Small Change
3. Bob Dylan - Desire

 

stevie won. i don’t have the exact totals in front of me but i believe it was by 9 votes with station to station and turnstiles as the other two in the top 3.

 

Stevie deserved it, his masterwork

 

Very rewarding times ahead. My favourite pure songwriter, but certainly not for everyone. You could do worse than just starting with the first couple of tracks on Small Change.

I started with Rain Dogs and it took a while to click but is now a top-five all time album for me (as you can probably tell). You can split his discography into eras, and start wherever you think will be most palatable for you:

1. Smooth jazzy singer songwriter -- Closing Time, Heart of Saturday Night.
His voice hasn't been ravaged yet and is actually really nice. These are mostly piano ballads but many of the songs are brilliant -- try Hope that I Don't Fall in Love With You and Secondhand Serenade.

2. Gruff jazzy singer songwriter -- Nighthawks/Small Change to Heart Attack and Vine.
Still mostly piano ballads but now his voice is rough. If you can't get into his voice here that's probably where your Waits journey ends. He ran this sound into the ground but Small Change is good and Heart Attack and Vine branches out in new directions. The albums in between are okay, there are some fantastic songs sprinkled in -- again, try the first two tracks on Small Change, and maybe Jersey Girl.

3. He is weird now -- Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years
Here's where Waits becomes an icon. THE Trilogy. He introduces wild old-timey instrumentation, his lyrics become more abstract, and his music becomes cacophonous. Like someone let a deranged street preacher lead a carnival band, and he spat out some of the greatest poetry ever. Oh and in between all that there are a handful of more traditional sounding songs that would reduce the most hardened folks to tears -- for wild Waits try 16 Shells from a 30.6, for his more traditional sounding work in this period try Downtown Train.

4. He is still weird but now in some different ways -- Bone Machine to Real Gone
Bone Machine is actually the Waits album that I would personally recommend as a starting point. It has a bunch of weird tracks, it has a bunch of his finest ballads, and is maybe the single greatest example of "atmosphere" being a key aspect of a record. Instead of the mainly old-timey instruments used in the trilogy, the music here is even more out there (the opener has percussion that sounds a lot like human bones). It's apocalyptic, but is to me at least a bit more approachable for a newbie than the few records preceding it. Mule Variations is not quite as strong but possibly even more inviting.

Or if you really wanted, you could work backwards as his final album (so far) Bad As Me is a real mix of all his styles with the most straightforward songwriting he has exhibited since probably the '70s.

And if you ever want to dive really deep he has a bunch of other records too. His theatrical works Alice, Blood Money and The Black Rider all have great moments. His B-sides album Orphans has 46 songs.

Even I haven't listened to Night On Earth yet, it's a mostly instrumental soundtrack. Then there is a treasure trove of live material. And finally his interviews are must watch (and apparently inspired Heath Ledger's Joker).

It's a hell of a lot. A good sampler might be:
I Hope that I Don't Fall In Love With You
Tom Traubert's Blues
16 Shells from a 30.6
Downtown Train
Earth Died Screaming
Come on Up to the House

 

wow thanks so much!

 

1977 in music. • forum.chorus.fm

1977 thread.

 

Whoops missed the year. The Pretender would easily be my #1