1975 in music.

Neil Young's On the Beach won 1974. Let's see who wins 1975. Definitely a bit of a bounce back year.

Billboard chart-topping albums of 1975:
Elton John - Greatest Hits (cont. from '74)
Ohio Players - Fire
Linda Rondstadt - Heart Like a Wheel
Average White Band - AWB
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Olivia Newton-John - Have You Never Been Mellow
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffitti
Chicago - VIII
Earth, Wind and Fire - That's the Way of the World
Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Dirt Cowboy
Wings - Venus and Mars
Eagles - One of These Nights
Jefferson Starship - Red Octopus
The Isley Brothers - The Heat is On
Janis Ian - Between the Lines
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
John Denver - Windsong
Elton John - Rock of the Westies
Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years
Chicago - IX

Billboard chart-topping singles of 1975:
Elton John - Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
Barry Manilow - Mandy
The Carpenters - Please Mr. Postman
Neil Sedaka - Laughter in the Rain
Ohio Players - Fire
Linda Rondstadt - You're No Good
Average White Band - Pick Up the Pieces
Eagles - Best of My Love
Olivia Newton-John - Have You Never Been Mellow
The Doobie Brothers - Black Water
Frankie Valli - My Eyes Adored You
Labelle - Lady Marmalade
Minnie Riperton - Loving You
Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
BJ Thomas - Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song
Tony Orlando - He Don't Love You
Earth, Wind and Fire - Shining Star
Freddy Fender - Before the Next Teardrop Falls
John Denver - Thank God I'm a Country Boy
America - Sister Golden Hair
Captain and Tennille - Love Will Keep Us Together
Wings - Listen to What the Man Says
Van McCoy - The Hustle
Eagles - One of These Nights
Bee Gees - Jive Talking
Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds - Falling in Love
KC and the Sunshine Band - Get Down Tonight
Glen Campbell - Rhinestone Cowboy
David Bowie - Fame
John Denver - I'm Sorry
Neil Sedaka - Bad Blood
Elton John - Island Girl
KC and the Sunshine Band - (That's the Way) I Like It
Silver Convention - Fly, Robin, Fly
The Staples Singers - Let's Do It Again

What are your top three albums for 1975? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:
1. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
2. Neil Young - Tonight's the Night
3. Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN MUSIC • forum.chorus.fm

 

Rest of the Top 10:
4. Neil Young - Zuma
5. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
6. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
7. Queen - A Night at the Opera
8. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
9. Patti Smith - Horses
10. David Bowie - Young Americans

other honorable mentions:
Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
Alice Cooper - Welcome to My Nightmare
The Band - Northern Lights-Southern Cross
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Bob Seger - Beautiful Loser
Brian Eno - Another Green World
Eagles - One of These Nights
Emmylou Harris - Pieces of the Sky
Glen Campbell - Rhinestone Cowboy
Grateful Dead - Blues for Allah
Hawkwind - Warrior on the Edge of Time
James Taylor - Gorilla
Jethro Tull - Minstrel in the Gallery
Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Nuthin’ Fancy
Neu - 75
Rush - Fly By Night
Steely Dan - Katy Lied
T. Rex - Bolan’s Zip Gun
Thin Lizzy - Fighting
Waylon Jennings - Dreaming My Dreams
The Who - By Numbers
ZZ Top - Fandango!

stuff to check out:
Earth, Wind and Fire - That’s the Way of the World
Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Elton John - Rock of the Westies
Emmylou Harris - Elite Hotel
Guy Clark - Old No. 1
The Isley Brothers - The Heat is On
John Cale - Slow Dazzle
John Denver - Windsong
Parliament - Chocolate City
Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years
Rainbow - Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow
Tangerine Dream - Rubycon

 

bruce will be inevitable on this dumb site and it will make me mad

 

1. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
2. Queen - A Night At The Opera
3. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

(con’t)
4. David Bowie - Young Americans
5. ABBA

Great songs from other albums:
10cc - I’m Not In Love
Donna Summer - Love To Love You Baby
Captain & Tennille - Love Will Keep Us Together
Heart - Crazy On You
John Lennon - Stand By Me
KC & The Sunshine Band - Get Down Tonight
Brian Eno - St. Elmo’s Fire
Don Cherry - Brown Rice
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion

 

Life's tough. Get a helmet. And then properly appreciate Born to Run. Haha

 

it’s a great album. it just isn’t top 5 this year, let alone top 1 ever like some people around here go red in the face yelling about

 

Man, Chris with the Boy Meets World reference AND the necessary defense of Born to Run. My dude.

 

1. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
2. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
3. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

Others will say things more eloquently about Bruce, but this was the easy choice at #1, and a basically perfect 39 minutes of rock n roll.

Dylan's Blood on the Tracks would win most other years, a beautiful and poignant album about the end of a marriage. There's a real simplicity to these songs, a casual genius that is often imitated, but rarely done better than this. I also think "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" is my favourite of Dylan's narrative / storytelling songs.

Joni Mitchell's The Hissing of Summer Lawns is a difficult, challenging album, that eschews the accessible folksy brilliance of her earlier albums, and the first few times I heard it, it really didn't work for me. It really grew on me though, a bold and innovative album, and you can hear it's influence on the likes of Kate Bush and Bjork. Also apparently, "The Jungle Line", is the first piece of released music to contain sampling, which I did not know.

Honourable mentions;

Patti Smith - Horses: A brilliant, proto-punk / garage rock record, with songwriting ability that few could match. Worth making sure you check out a bonus track live cover of My Generation, that's as hardcore and punk rock as anything.

Bob Dylan and the Band - The Basement Tapes: I have to be honest, I don't often make it all the way through this in one sitting, but there are some incredible pieces of Americana and rootsy country in here - favourite of which is probably "Going to Acupulco", which is one of my favourite Dylan songs in general.

Paul Simon - Still Crazy after All These Years: Nothing groundbreaking, but another example of how brilliant a pop musician and songwriter Simon was.

Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey: Only heard this recently for the February New Music challenge thing, but I've been back to it often. An explicitly political soulful reggae album.

Again, a slightly smaller year for me, in comparison with some of the previous ones, but still plenty to love, and I'm sure plenty to discover.

 

1. Pink Floyd - Wish you Were Here
2. Queen - A Night At The Opera
3. David Bowie - Young Americans

...a very British year for my top 3.

 

Making a start to first listens, I went for Smokey Robinson’s A Quiet Storm. It actually spawned a little radio sub genre of sorts, named Quiet Storm, which was popular for the next decade or so. I didn’t know about that, so that was interesting reading.

It’s light and smooth, very soulful easy listening sort of thing. Smokey Robinson is a fantastic talent, even if the arrangements sometimes feel a little light and underwhelming to me - his voice is so good that it doesn’t really matter. There are some more lively tracks, like the synthy bassy Love Letters, which was where I found the album at its best.

Sounds like the sort of album Luther Vandross would have loved, which is A-OK with me.

 

Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here
Aerosmith- Toys in the Attic
Black Sabbath- Sabotage

 

1. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
2. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
3. Jefferson Starship - Red Octopus

Excruciating cuts:
Spinners - Pick of the Litter
Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby
Earth, Wind, and Fire - That's the Way of the World

Others I love:
Bob Dylan and The Band - The Basement Tapes
The Outlaws - The Outlaws
Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Electric Light Orchestra - Face the Music
Bob Seger - Beautiful Loser
Tony Bennett and Bill Evans - The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album
America - Hearts
Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Zuma
Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac
Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
Willie Nelson - Read-Headed Stranger
Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Art Garfunkel - Breakaway
The Allman Brothers - Win, Lose or Draw
Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes - Wake Up Everybody
Justin Hayward and John Lodge - Blue Jays

Good ones:
Parliament - Mothership Connection
Dan Fogelberg - Captured Angel
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Kiss - Alive!
Gary Wright - The Dream Weaver
Eagles - One of These Nights
The Meters - Fire on the Bayou
Queen - A Night at the Opera
Al Jarreau - We Got By
Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years
James Taylor - Gorilla
The Isley Brothers - The Heat Is On
Guy Clark - Old No. 1
Jorge Ben - Solta O Pavao
Labi Siffre - Remember My Song
John Fogerty - John Fogerty
Fela Kuti - Confusion
Ohio Players - Honey
Wings - Venus and Mars
Smokey Robinson - A Quiet Storm
Orleans - Let There Be Music
Neil Young - Tonight's the Night
Steely Dan - Katy Lied
Rush - Fly by Night
Al Stewart - Modern Times
John Denver - Windsong
Sweet - Desolation Boulevard
Fairport Convention - Rising for the Moon
Gordon Lightfoot - Cold on the Shoulder
Emmylou Harris - Elite Hotel
Rufus featuring Chaka Khan - Rufus (feat. Chaka Khan)
Linda Ronstadt - Prisoner in Disguise
Thin Lizzy - Fighting
Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust
Toots and the Maytals - Funky Kingston
Leon Redbone - On the Track
Patti Smith - Horses
Elton John - Rock of the Westies
John Lennon - Rock n Roll
Rush - Caress of Steel
Spinnerw - Live!
ABBA - ABBA
Thin Lizzy - Johnny the Fox
Yvonne Elliman - Rising Sun
Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben - Gil e Jorge
ZZ Top - Fandango
Eric Carmen - Eric Carmen
The Deadly Nightshade - The Deadly Nightshade
Carpenters - Horizon

Not a fan:
Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey

Targets for listening:
David Bowie - Young Americans
Joe Cocker - Jamaica Say You Will
Commodores - Caught in the Act
Commodores - Movin' On
Herbie Hancock - Man-Child
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes - To Be True
Bonnie Raitt - Home Plate
Roxy Music - Siren
War - Why Can't We Be Friends?
Eno - Another Green World
Fela Kuti and Africa 70 - Expensive Shit
Bad Company - Straight Shooter
Elvin Bishop - Struttin' My Stuff
The Doobie Brothers - Stampede
Foghat - Fool for the City
Head East - Flat As a Pancake
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Nuthin' Fancy
Nazareth - Hair of the Dog
Ted Nugent - Ted Nugent
The Who - The Who by Numbers
Peggy Lee - Mirrors
Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco - Tremendo Cache
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Alice Cooper - Welcome to My Nightmare
Renaissance - Schehrezade and Other Stories
The Band - Northern Lights - Southern Cross
Grateful Dead - Blues for Allah
Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today
The Tubes - The Tubes
Dion - Born to Be With You
Andy Fairweather Low - La Booga Rooga
Allen Toussaint - Southern Nights
Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Four-Wheel Drive
C.W. McCall - Black Bear Road
K.C. and the Sunshine Band - K.C. and the Sunshine Band
Major Harris - My Way
Jessi Colter - I'm Jessi Colter

 

Hissing Of Summer Lawns demos are so good

 

Nice to see some Jefferson Starship love. They seem to be a bit of an overlooked band

And Koln Concert! Incredible record

 

Also nice to see some Orleans appreesh. I work for their manager, which means like 50% of my wardrobe is Orleans merch

 

Sales pitches for sleepers:

Jefferson Starship - Red Octopus
Honestly, them becoming a career band rather than artists in the zeitgeist was the best thing that could have happened to them. Maintains the core three of Balin, Slick and Kantner, but augments them with legitimate guitar hero Craig Chaquico and the real special sauce, Papa John Creach on fiddle. "Miracles" is absolutely gorgeous and deserved to be the big hit it was, but "There Will Be Love" is one of my favorites of the era.

The Outlaws - The Outlaws
Better than Skynyrd. There, I said it. "Green Grass and High Tides" is "Free Bird" for grown-ups. At the outset, they had three guitarists and songwriters working at the same time, and it led to just a slew of excellent songs. All three are good, but Hughie Thomasson in particular is an absolute god on the Strat.

Bob Seger - Beautiful Loser
The Silver Bullet Band hadn't made his sound into the amazing juggernaut it would be, but these songs feel very intimate and personal. He rocks the fuck out on "Nutbush City Limits" and the live staples of "Beautiful Loser" and "Travelin' Man" stand out, but the quiet introspective stuff like "Jody Girl" is just as wonderful. The minor masterpiece he had to make to level up to being one of the greats.

Art Garfunkel - Breakaway
If you enjoy smooth, this album is that, plus some. Art has an absolutely angelic tenor voice and the light, accomplished arrangements really suit him. A song like "Disney Girls", which sounds overworked by the Beach Boys, sounds perfectly wistful in his hands.

Orleans - Let There Be Music
Just a polished-til-it-shines soft rock record. Great playing, great harmonies, pristine production. "Let There Be Music" is catchy as hell and "Dance with Me" is just outright lovely.

 

idk, this band kinda sucks.

 

Huh no shit. See above ^. Haha

That's really cool.

 

More Jefferson Starship shiz, there are these early 90’s solo Paul Kantner shows I kinda dig that have a massive vibe.

def not for everybody, but it’s Kantner ranting and singing angry hippy songs about killing republicans backed by immaculately cheesy synths like tinny pianos, cheap string sounds, woodwinds drenched in reverb etc. I think his acoustic guitar might have chorus on it too. It’s amazing.

I dunno what it is, but it catches a very specific flavor in amazing detail. Like that early 90’s intersection of aging hippy culture and the (brief) utopian promise of the internet. It reminds me of early 90’s computer games and Magic Eye and Mondo 2000 and Commodify Your Dissent and ROX and hippy sellouts and gen X discontent.

There’s a sadness to it, a bitter sense of loss from a guy at the center of the 60’s moment who’s seen the counterculture co-opted and emptied out. He’s abrasive and uncharismatic, but very humanly so. It’s a trip

 

I checked out Tom Waits live record, Nighthawks at the Diner.

Rambling, with what feels much more like spoken word than singing. It’s an incredibly intimate record, loose and laid back, with Waits almost rapping through this - it’s certainly very Gil Scott Heron, though with that distinct Waits vibe. It sounded like it was recorded at 3am, with everyone half drunk and melancholy - basically exactly the vibe of The Heart of Saturday Night.

Waits is in great form throughout, very relaxed and confident, ad-libbing his way through the tracks and making the audience laugh constantly in his distinctive style. He opens the record by letting the audience know that “I’m so goddamn horny, the crack of dawn better be careful around me.”, and from there the audience are eating out of the palm of his hand. The imagery in his lyrics and off the cuff remarks is really wonderful and evocative.

Really great stuff, should have listened to it years ago - it’s much more than a live album, basically feels like a comedy album at some points.

 

1. Spinners - Pick of the Litter
2. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
3. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

 

Traitor!!!

 

1. Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac
2. Joan Baez: Diamonds & Rust
3. Wings: Venus + Mars

Maybe it's kind of basic to pick Fleetwood Mac here, but that album has not one but two songs that would make my list of favorite songs of all time (Rihannon and Landslide). It's not quite Rumours, but Monday Morning, Say You Love Me, and World Turning are definitely not hurting it's case, and the whole thing is a solid offering from a new lineup of the band finding their footing.

Diamonds & Rust is the first album from Joan I ever heard. At the time I did not realize that it came 15 years into her career, so I only appreciate it more now with the additional context. Some really beautiful originals here, especially the title track, and covers as strong as ever make this one of her most well rounded offerings.

I really don't know why of all the non-Band On the Run Wings albums, Venus + Mars is the one I love so much, but it just really works for me, despite the fact that I would argue this is when he really starts getting kind of corny (and never stops again). And like Magneto and Titanium Man? It goes off. Plus Listen To What the Man Says stands among the best of his post-Beatles output. I will most likely not have another album from him in the top 3, so let me just say one last time that I adore this man.


Cuts:
Patti Smith: Horses
Burce Springsteen: Born to Run
David Bowie: Young Americans
Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years
ABBA: ABBA


Really excited to re-listen to:
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks
Joni Mitchell: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

I listened to Blood On the Tracks several years ago but only once or twice and I was not nearly as into him at the time, so it just kind of went over my head, but I'm very excited to hear this one again given how everyone talks about it.

It hasn't been as long since I've listened to Hissing of Summer Lawns, but I've only heard it once or twice and, again, I'm much more fond of her now than I was when I listened.

Also excited to check out:
The Basement Tapes
Elton John: Captain Fantastic
Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti
Black Sabbath: Sabotage
Willie Nelson: Red Headed Stranger

 

Picking just 3 is so hard!!!!

 

what is spinners