1978 in music. • Page 2

The thing on Spotify that irritates me with that is that they often will label the year of a reissue / remaster , as the year that it came out. It should always default to original release year - and then they could put (2021 reissue) or whatever in parentheses after the album title.

 

A mistake that’s compounded by a failure to label things as bonus tracks. Like if you went to check out Nina Simone Sings the Blues right now, how could you reasonably be expected to know “Blues for Mama” is the last track?

 

Listened to Siouxsie & The Banshees' The Scream. I'm pretty sure this isn't a first listen, but a first listen in a very long time. It's kind of fascinating how quickly post-punk appeared after punk broke through, and how it took punk bands almost no time at all to move away from "classic" punk sounds, at least the British variety. An extremely short lived, but long impactful, little moment in time.

This is clearly taking that punk attitude, but blending in very different rhythm structures, and the big gothic influence, that you can see was clearly a big influence on the likes of The Cure or Joy Division. The songs are really interesting, comfortable slower, with what feels like a slightly off-kilter rhythm section. The guitar work is really inventive and cool sounding too.

There's also a great snarling cover of Helter Skelter too, full of that punk energy, "You might be a lover, but you ain't no fucking dancer".

Great stuff, I certainly don't remember enjoying it this much last time, but really enjoyed this.

 

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to cross reference Wikipedia when building playlists since we started this series of threads. Lol

 

I guess related to post punk, I watched a documentary about Joy Division last week and there was a fantastic quote about punk and what came after that, by Tony Wilson from Factory Records;

“Punk enabled you to say 'fuck you', but somehow it couldn't go any further. It was just a single, venomous one syllable, two-syllable phrase of anger. Sooner or later someone was going to want to say more than 'fuck you'. Someone was going to want to say 'I'm fucked'. And it was Joy Division who were the first band to do that, to use the energy and simplicity of punk to express more complex emotions."

I really like that, even if it’s not exactly accurate / fair to lots of other interesting bands.

 

1. Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians
2. Cheap Trick - Heaven Tonight
3. The Cars - The Cars

Big Star - Third
The Police - Outlandos d’Amour
The Only Ones - The Only Ones
Wire - Chairs Missing
The Jam - All Mod Cons
The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
Pere Ubu - Dub Housing (havent listened in a bit tho)
Doobie Brothers - Minute By Minute

i guess i really like 1978 cuz ive listened to all of these albums in the past couple weeks

 

Total jam here.

Not.... underrated per se, but definitely was a blind spot for me for many years, I don't think I discovered Buzzcocks until I was almost 30.

 

One of the best. I haven’t listened to Different Music and Love Bites in a while, but that changes today

 

Opposite end of the spectrum (kind of?) - never really gave this full record a try, but damn if this song doesn't hold up as one of the best tracks of the 70s just for the guitar work alone....

 

Album is fine. That song is a masterpiece

 

Orgasm Addict is the best Buzzcocks song and one of the best songs period

 

Yep that checks out

 

I forgot about Devo. That’s pretty high up there

 

Genesis - …and then there were three…
Fantastic. No idea how anyone ever viewed this as a sellout. The prog is still complex and epic, it just has more memorable melodies. Mike Rutherford really excels across the record.

Dr. Alimentado - Best Dressed Chicken in Town
Pleasant but didn’t leave much impression on me. I think I’ll be very selective with reggae in the long run. The two instrumentals were actually my favorite tracks.

Joe Ely - Honky Tonk Masquerade
This is excellent. I figured it’d be good because he’s an influence on Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle and it did not disappoint. Equal parts Townes-esque ballads, genuine honky tonk, and barroom rock and roll, with some very up-to-the-minute lead guitar. Can’t wait to keep listening and unpack the songwriting.

Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous
Obviously a classic. Take one of the best rock bands of the ‘70s, assemble a dream setlist, and play it louder, faster, and with more attitude. Plus some welcome Phil Lynott stage banter.

The Only Ones - The Only Ones
I…don’t understand why these guys are lumped with first wave punk, but this may just be my favorite album of the subgenre thusfar. Great sense of melody and song construction, legitimate variety in styles leading to a really dynamic sequence of songs, production that’s clean enough to hear their chops without surrendering grit. Loved it.

 

@Craig Manning Are you a Seger fan? I feel like anyone who loves Bruce that much is only a skip and a jump from loving Bob

Oh and that Joe Ely album would probably be extremely your shit

 

seger album is fun as hell, grabbed it used on vinyl in pristine condition a few years back

 

Short list of songs in the world I like more than “Brave Strangers”

 

I checked out So Alone by Johnny Thunder, who wasn’t a name I recognised - from the New York Dolls, who I know a little bit.

This was fantastic though, better than any impression I had of New York Dolls. It’s a blend of a few little things, partly Springsteen-esque heartland soulful rock, partly 50s rock n roll, partly late 60s garage, and a whole lot of that snarling punk scorn. Great songwriting and instrumentation, sounds a lot like The Replacements in parts, so no doubt they were fans of this too.

A really pleasant surprise.

 

yesssss

truly great album. i knew him from the dolls first but this album blows his stuff with them out of the water. check out LAMF too. it’s more of a full band record but closer to so alone than the NYD stuff. richard hell co-wrote several of the songs.

 

Hell yeh on So Alone. What a record

LAMF is just as good, a grimier album

Also check out The Only Ones, some of whom played on So Alone

David Johansen’s solo album also from 1978 is charming, but the first song Funky But Chic is by far the best.

 

1. John Prine - Bruised Orange
2. Tom Waits - Blue Valentine
3. Joe Ely - Honky Tonk Masquerade
4. Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
5. Townes Van Zandt - Flyin Shoes

 

this year is much closer than i think anyone would have guessed. the gap between the first place album and last is 9 points. five albums within one first place vote of each other at the top.

 

Whoah. Music for Airports is hypnotic and gorgeous.

 

oh wow. how much eno do you know?

 

It’s a good one