Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1984 - (page 198)

One of the most influential albums in Rock and I don't think its been mentioned yet. Raw Power by Iggy and the Stooges deeply influenced Nirvana and the Sex Pistols. David Bowie was involved in its production.

Search and Destroy, Iggy and the Stooges

Selling England by the Pound is probably my favourite Genesis album. Although its already got a couple of tracks on the playlist I would like to nominate The Battle of Epping Forrest. Probably Gabriels best 'story' song and his vocals just spot on as he mimics the crimbo characters.

The Battle of Epping Forrest, Genesis
 
Saddleworth2 said:
The Battle of Epping Forrest, Genesis
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Since it is constantly neglected and underrated, I'd like to underline what a very good album their first*, Trespass, was. Although they went on to refine and expand their sound in the Gabriel years (my favourite, I'm afraid, by far), that sound is clearly already theirs and no-one else's on this, their first* LP. An astonishing debut, for a bunch of lads in their late teens not long out of public school (except for Phil Collins — R.I.P. — who was never part of the Charterhouse clique, and made a point of saying so).
And I was lucky enough to see it pretty much performed in its entirety at the Free Trade Hall, in that 6/— Charisma tour (yes, six bob for the three) that they did with Lindisfarne and Van Der Graf Generator, 30th January, 1971. Had to leave early to catch the last train back to Hazel Grove. It was no sacrifice, since I'd seen two riveting sets by Genesis, who were first on, and Lindisfarne, second on, and I always found VDGG a great bore, frankly (particularly the ego of Peter Hamill, which was capable of filling an entire stage).
Gabriel, an almost complete unknown, had a mesmerising stage presence, right from the start.
I could be wrong, but I think I'd first heard them on John Peel in the autumn and winter of 1970. As soon as I heard that sound and those songs, I sat up and took notice.
Love early Genesis. It is European classical, mixed with English folk, all blended in with the driving rhythms of rock.

Ah, the palmy days of Prog Rock Britannia…

*Edit: sorry, a couple of things wrong here. Trespass was their second album. And by then they were in their very early twenties.
 
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Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Since it is constantly neglected and underrated, I'd like to underline what a very good album their first*, Trespass, was. Although they went on to refine and expand their sound in the Gabriel years (my favourite, I'm afraid, by far), that sound is clearly already theirs and no-one else's on this, their first* LP. An astonishing debut, for a bunch of lads in their late teens not long out of public school (except for Phil Collins — R.I.P. — who was never part of the Charterhouse clique, and made a point of saying so).
And I was lucky enough to see it pretty much performed in its entirety at the Free Trade Hall, in that 6/— Charisma tour (yes, six bob for the three) that they did with Lindisfarne and Van Der Graf Generator, 30th January, 1971. Had to leave early to catch the last train back to Hazel Grove. It was no sacrifice, since I'd seen two riveting sets by Genesis, who were first on, and Lindisfarne, second on, and I always found VDGG a great bore, frankly (particularly the ego of Peter Hamill, which was capable of filling an entire stage).
Gabriel, an almost complete unknown, had a mesmerising stage presence, right from the start.
I could be wrong, but I think I'd first heard them on John Peel in the autumn and winter of 1970. As soon as I heard that sound and those songs, I sat up and took notice.
Love early Genesis. It is European classical, mixed with English folk, all blended in with the driving rhythms of rock.

Ah, the palmy days of Prog Rock Britannia…

*Edit: sorry, a couple of things wrong here. Trespass was their second album. And by then they were in their very early twenties.
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I like Trespass, it has a couple of excellent tracks on it, The Knife obviously a long term favourite, Visions of Angels, White Mountain. Steve Hackett brought another dimension to them I feel. The albums from Nursery Cryme to Selling England were the peak of the band imo. You aren't the only one to dislike VDGG and Hamill. Could never take to them or him especially. I saw PG most recently on his So tour and I felt he had lost his stage presence and was frankly going through the motions albeit the staging was technically brilliant and his band very good. That period though with Genesis and Yes at their very peak was something else.
 
Resurrection Joe... said:
not too sure I will be playing this one much, a bit too obvious in some selections, and im not big on prog!....still a good selection but it pales next to 70, 71 & 72..
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I kind of agree although I did like Prog.
Trouble is, there’s a lot of overly long pieces for a mix tape here.
Also, even as a kid, I never got Glam rock. I like it even less now listening to some of the offerings here.
Let’s hope ‘74 bounces back.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
I kind of agree although I did like Prog.
Trouble is, there’s a lot of overly long pieces for a mix tape here.
Also, even as a kid, I never got Glam rock. I like it even less now listening to some of the offerings here.
Let’s hope ‘74 bounces back.
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as my own tastes tend towards blues.jazz be bop etc, as the 7t's progress my interest will fade!...it has been great so far though..and opened my eyes to a good few tunes.
 
RobMCFC said:
As an adult, I don't get most of it. Maybe I had to be there? But I have enjoyed the T-Rex selections so far, most of which I have been familiar with anyway.
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I was never into Marc Bolan. I know he was huge at the time but I never got into that dress up and wear makeup and sing nonsensical lyrics like they’re profound.
Had his own show on in the afternoon too to capture the school kid audience.
Just never bought it.
A whole plethora of bands went that direction too.
Some were very good but chose the commercial route.
Some were shite and chose the popular route. Let dressing up cover their lack of talent.
I was ten in 1973, but very much saw this.
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
BBC - Sly Stone death

RIP Sly Stone - a pioneer and Sly & The Family Stone have been mentioned in here. They could write a tune and made some great songs and albums. Real pioneers.
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Indeed, what a pioneer. I had wanted to watch this 2025 documentary Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) put together by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, so I'll be catching it soon on the great Sly Stone and his remarkable influence in both music and groundbreaking styles.

en.wikipedia.org

Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I enjoyed Questlove's first directorial debut of Summer of Soul, which prominently featured Sly And The Family Stone among other acts that performed in Harlem in 1969, so I'm looking forward to this too.
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
BBC - Sly Stone death

RIP Sly Stone - a pioneer and Sly & The Family Stone have been mentioned in here. They could write a tune and made some great songs and albums. Real pioneers.
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Been playing with the amp cranked up since the news, family would probably be able to cope if it wasn't for me trying to harmonise with Sly on the high notes.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
I was never into Marc Bolan. I know he was huge at the time but I never got into that dress up and wear makeup and sing nonsensical lyrics like they’re profound.
Had his own show on in the afternoon too to capture the school kid audience.
Just never bought it.
A whole plethora of bands went that direction too.
Some were very good but chose the commercial route.
Some were shite and chose the popular route. Let dressing up cover their lack of talent.
I was ten in 1973, but very much saw this.
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Well I loved Bolan and the glam rock; still do.

People like Bolan and Sweet played their gigs like rock bands.

Bolan was a good rock guitarist.

I liked his lyrics too. Nonsense but poetic picturesque nonsense. Rather unique.
 
OB1 said:
Well I loved Bolan and the glam rock; still do.

People like Bolan and Sweet played their gigs like rock bands.

Bolan was a good rock guitarist.

I liked his lyrics too. Nonsense but poetic picturesque nonsense. Rather unique.
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Musical taste is individual.
You like what you like and don’t always know why.
 
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OB1 said:
Well I loved Bolan and the glam rock; still do.

People like Bolan and Sweet played their gigs like rock bands.

Bolan was a good rock guitarist.

I liked his lyrics too. Nonsense but poetic picturesque nonsense. Rather unique.
Click to expand...

T-Rex made songs that were incredibly catchy, great riffs and lyrics that were both nonsense yet brilliant. Above all else, if you make music that's melodic it transcends time. It's why The Beatles, Beach Boys, Abba, T Rex and others will be remembered for a long time - writing melodies people love is hard, and these make it sound easy.

Another reason people will always love T Rex (apart from my Dad) is because they rock and make it look fun! Bolan could play 100%!
 
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BBC - Brian Wilson death

In the great story of the history of rock, very few people have had the impact of Brian Wilson. In my opinion Good Vibrations is up there as the greatest piece of music recorded in the 20th Century. It pioneered the use of the studio, pushing pop into uncharted waters and inspired countless others.

A genuine musical legend without question.

RIP Brian and thanks for the music.
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
BBC - Brian Wilson death

In the great story of the history of rock, very few people have had the impact of Brian Wilson. In my opinion Good Vibrations is up there as the greatest piece of music recorded in the 20th Century. It pioneered the use of the studio, pushing pop into uncharted waters and inspired countless others.

A genuine musical legend without question.

RIP Brian and thanks for the music.
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A musical genius. Genuinely gutted at this news. One of my musical heroes. RIP Brian. You made heavenly music.
 
Notes on the 1973 playlist

  • DSOTM by Pink Floyd is the one of the clear and obvious highlight of this year. An album that dispenses with the idea of individual songs in favour of a glorified whole (although the selected "Time" and also "Money" are clear highlights for me).
  • The other highlight being all of the songs from Brucie's superb The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle album.
  • It's also the first time that I've listened to Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" and quite enjoyed it. However, it's probably not a track I'd listen to again due to its length and that bloke near the end who unhelpfully announces each instrument as it is played.
  • I know that @OB1 curates the playlist order carefully and I wonder did he purposefully sequence "Blockbuster" and "The Jean Genie" one after the other on purpose. It's the same basic song! I don't really mind who ripped off who because I liked neither :)
  • As has already been mentioned, I like rock music but there's something about a lot of the glam rock tracks here that just don't work for me - T-Rex excepted.
  • In some ways, listening to some of this music on this playlist (and the length of some of the tracks), I can understand the reasons why punk rock happened. It's just a pity that the music was worse than the type it aimed to displace, but there will be plenty of time to discuss that as the 70s wears on.
  • Billy Joel gets a bit of a slating in these parts but I like his 70s/80s songs and "Piano Man" is brilliantly constructed and performed.
  • Songs that I didn't previously know but enjoyed included:
    • the ELP tracks
    • "Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter group
    • "Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder
    • "Can't You See" by The Marshall Tucker Band
    • "Cradle Rock" by Rory Gallagher
    • "Pick Up The Pieces" by Hudson-Ford
    • "Dearg Doom" by Horslips (actually, I think I might have heard this in one of our playlist threads),
    • "Showdown" by ELO,
    • "May You Never" by John Martyn
    • "The Rocker" by Thin Lizzy
    • "We're An American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad
    • "My Old School" by Steely Dan
    • "Lady" by Styx
    • "Dream On" by Aerosmith.

My general feeling after wading through this playlist was that, despite a few notable exceptions, music was on a slight downslope after the 60s and the early years of the 70s.
 
RobMCFC said:
Notes on the 1973 playlist

  • DSOTM by Pink Floyd is the one of the clear and obvious highlight of this year. An album that dispenses with the idea of individual songs in favour of a glorified whole (although the selected "Time" and also "Money" are clear highlights for me).
  • The other highlight being all of the songs from Brucie's superb The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle album.
  • It's also the first time that I've listened to Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" and quite enjoyed it. However, it's probably not a track I'd listen to again due to its length and that bloke near the end who unhelpfully announces each instrument as it is played.
  • I know that @OB1 curates the playlist order carefully and I wonder did he purposefully sequence "Blockbuster" and "The Jean Genie" one after the other on purpose. It's the same basic song! I don't really mind who ripped off who because I liked neither :)
  • As has already been mentioned, I like rock music but there's something about a lot of the glam rock tracks here that just don't work for me - T-Rex excepted.
  • In some ways, listening to some of this music on this playlist (and the length of some of the tracks), I can understand the reasons why punk rock happened. It's just a pity that the music was worse than the type it aimed to displace, but there will be plenty of time to discuss that as the 70s wears on.
  • Billy Joel gets a bit of a slating in these parts but I like his 70s/80s songs and "Piano Man" is brilliantly constructed and performed.
  • Songs that I didn't previously know but enjoyed included:
    • the ELP tracks
    • "Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter group
    • "Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder
    • "Can't You See" by The Marshall Tucker Band
    • "Cradle Rock" by Rory Gallagher
    • "Pick Up The Pieces" by Hudson-Ford
    • "Dearg Doom" by Horslips (actually, I think I might have heard this in one of our playlist threads),
    • "Showdown" by ELO,
    • "May You Never" by John Martyn
    • "The Rocker" by Thin Lizzy
    • "We're An American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad
    • "My Old School" by Steely Dan
    • "Lady" by Styx
    • "Dream On" by Aerosmith.

My general feeling after wading through this playlist was that, despite a few notable exceptions, music was on a slight downslope after the 60s and the early years of the 70s.
Click to expand...
I echo all of that, even though T.Rex didn’t do it for me, I recognise their significance.
Your summary at the end mirrors where I am with the year.
I think there were some fabulous releases but chart-wise the trajectory, really not helped by glam rock, was heading downhill.

Edit: I even got three songs into your mentioned list. That’s a record for me I think.
 
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