Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1985 - (page 203)

OB1 said:
I don’t specifically have 1973 in mind as the zenith - I don’t know the answer and I am not well up on the technology involved; although I’ve been in one or two recording studios but not the big boys. My best friends recorded an album with a name US producer in Macclesfield!

However, there is an album from 1973 that I find it hard to imagine could have been recorded any better (which is not to say it couldn’t have been but…). Anyway, the one I am talking about should be apparent from my 1973 review. It’s not hard to guess but please don’t (guess out loud).
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When you look at 1973, there is some cast to choose from.
Two in particular come to mind that fit your bill.

I’ll obviously keep my powder dry until then.
 
OB1 said:
I just bought the 8 cd edition of the ‘77 Live album, the original album plus the three full gigs. An indulgence but my goodness they were a great live band at that point. You can touch the atmosphere on some songs.

I did see them around that time and saw the Frantic Four when they did a tour more recently, which was good. They did end up doing some naff stuff but at their peak…
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Hear hear, I worked with them 30 yrs ago, lovely geezers. I saw the Frantic 4 in Glasgow on the first reunion and Hammersmith on the second, the London show was absolutely fantastic.
 
threespires said:
It's pretty much provable that pop music has become less harmonically complex in recent years and there are a number of reasons for this; but this doesn't really kick in I think till the 90s so one for later discussion maybe.

Melodically it's interesting, it's arguable that the worlds current biggest artist puts zero effort into their chord progressions to the point they might as well have been chosen randomly chosen by the DAW but they can actually write a pretty interesting vocal melody.
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I watched a documentary on BBC4 a while ago about how a group of Swedish producers ended up producing huge numbers of No.1s back in the late 90s/early 2000s (think it was around then). Basically, what they found whilst DJing in clubs is that the simpler the riff, the more people liked it and they ended up doing a lot of songs where the riff/melody was very simple. As a result, they were basically giving people what they wanted - simple songs with simple catchy riffs in. Dance music emphasises the beat and simple riffs and you could probably argue that a lot of rap has little melody. I hope melody has become so unfashionable that it will soon return as all things come back into fashion eventually.

I can't ever imagine hearing bands like The Beach Boys, Beatles, Steely Dan, Yes etc nowadays as it requires effort, ability and a desire to push music to breaking point to make music that sounds - at first hearing - simple but is incredibly complex once you get into it.
 
As already noted, I have been listening the Wishbone Ash's Argus these last few weeks - what an album - why it isn't up there with the best albums of the era, I don't know. Probably because they don't have a showy frontman.

I also listened to Blue Oyster Cult's debut yesterday and I enjoyed that immensely. I will give a few more of their albums a listen.

Here are two really good albums that this thread has already given me from the 70s and we are only 3 years in.
 
RobMCFC said:
As already noted, I have been listening the Wishbone Ash's Argus these last few weeks - what an album - why it isn't up there with the best albums of the era, I don't know. Probably because they don't have a showy frontman.

I also listened to Blue Oyster Cult's debut yesterday and I enjoyed that immensely. I will give a few more of their albums a listen.

Here are two really good albums that this thread has already given me from the 70s and we are only 3 years in.
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Wishbone Ash suffered because of exactly that. No 'face' of the band, no leonine lead singer, no stage show to speak of. Just fantastic twin lead guitars (Andy Powell and Ted Turner) and a very competent rythm section. I loved Pilgrimage and Argus but imo they declined a little with their latter albums. The fact you like them and BOC, I think there are some similarities - they use dynamics well, write some great riffs but interspersed with strong melody and also have twin duelling guitars - Roeser and Bloom.
 
I haven't listened to all the playlist but will in time. For the songs I have listened to, Roxy, Bowie, Genesis and Yes are long term favourites. I liked the soul music, particularly the Temptations, Roberta Flack and Marvin. I wasn't as keen on the pure pop which, to me is weaker than many of the years in the 60's, a trend I suspect will continue as we head towards disco and the plethora of 'glam' pop groups. Hard rock was well represented by Purple, Wishbone Ash and Sabbath. The sheer technical brilliance of Yes and some of the other prog groups stands out. Will we ever see similar standards I wonder.
For me the year, whilst producing some brilliant albums doesn't quite reach the heights of 71 (or I suspect 73). Whilst its not really a sign of musical quality, the only 1972 album that made the top 20 selling albums of the 70's was S and G's greatest hits which was that years highest grossing album.
I was also a bit surprised at the lack of mentions for Exile on Main Street which to me is one of the finest rock albums made.
Great write up again.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
I haven't listened to all the playlist but will in time. For the songs I have listened to, Roxy, Bowie, Genesis and Yes are long term favourites. I liked the soul music, particularly the Temptations, Roberta Flack and Marvin. I wasn't as keen on the pure pop which, to me is weaker than many of the years in the 60's, a trend I suspect will continue as we head towards disco and the plethora of 'glam' pop groups. Hard rock was well represented by Purple, Wishbone Ash and Sabbath. The sheer technical brilliance of Yes and some of the other prog groups stands out. Will we ever see similar standards I wonder.
For me the year, whilst producing some brilliant albums doesn't quite reach the heights of 71 (or I suspect 73). Whilst its not really a sign of musical quality, the only 1972 album that made the top 20 selling albums of the 70's was S and G's greatest hits which was that years highest grossing album.
I was also a bit surprised at the lack of mentions for Exile on Main Street which to me is one of the finest rock albums made.
Great write up again.
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The seventies in general are my decade of nostalgia. I widened my horizons in the eighties and maybe into the nineties, but in general my interest waned as the blandness of a more modern sound developed.
I miss the live gutty immediacy of the seventies. That’s not to say that Prog et al wasn’t highly layered and very technically produced, but with the best of the seventies you just know these bands couldn’t survive if they could not reproduce or better their product live.

I have my mate in on this thread now.
He’s a Liverpool fan so, don’t worry, I won’t have him in here, but he’s loving picking the best of each year too.

It’s like us both reliving our youth.

Not sure how that will progress into the coming decades.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
The seventies in general are my decade of nostalgia. I widened my horizons in the eighties and maybe into the nineties, but in general my interest waned as the blandness of a more modern sound developed.
I miss the live gutty immediacy of the seventies. That’s not to say that Prog et al wasn’t highly layered and very technically produced, but with the best of the seventies you just know these bands couldn’t survive if they could not reproduce or better their product live.

I have my mate in on this thread now.
He’s a Liverpool fan so, don’t worry, I won’t have him in here, but he’s loving picking the best of each year too.

It’s like us both reliving our youth.

Not sure how that will progress into the coming decades.
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we already have a Liverpool fan on here. Your pal will be most welcome if he wants to join in personally.
Most of those 70's bands were better live than recorded in my opinion. There is something special about the music you grew up to that is very hard to capture in latter years.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
There is something special about the music you grew up to that is very hard to capture in latter years.
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I grew up with Buddy Holly, the Everley Brothers, Hank Marvin, Billy Fury, Adam Faith, Eddie Calvert, Eddie Cochrane and people like that. The likes of Perry Como were still about and did my head in! I was 15 when the Beatles ushered in the era of guitar led pop rock and they were my swansong in a way as I drifted away to pure blues and never returned. So our threads now are a bit thin from my pov.
I can see a few heads shaking wondering who the hell Billy Fury is.
 
KS55 said:
I grew up with Buddy Holly, the Everley Brothers, Hank Marvin, Billy Fury, Adam Faith, Eddie Calvert, Eddie Cochrane and people like that. The likes of Perry Como were still about and did my head in! I was 15 when the Beatles ushered in the era of guitar led pop rock and they were my swansong in a way as I drifted away to pure blues and never returned. So our threads now are a bit thin from my pov.
I can see a few heads shaking wondering who the hell Billy Fury is.
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KS55 said:
I grew up with Buddy Holly, the Everley Brothers, Hank Marvin, Billy Fury, Adam Faith, Eddie Calvert, Eddie Cochrane and people like that. The likes of Perry Como were still about and did my head in! I was 15 when the Beatles ushered in the era of guitar led pop rock and they were my swansong in a way as I drifted away to pure blues and never returned. So our threads now are a bit thin from my pov.
I can see a few heads shaking wondering who the hell Billy Fury is.
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In their day just as groundbreaking and influential as those that came after mate.
 
RobMCFC said:
As already noted, I have been listening the Wishbone Ash's Argus these last few weeks - what an album - why it isn't up there with the best albums of the era, I don't know. Probably because they don't have a showy frontman.

I also listened to Blue Oyster Cult's debut yesterday and I enjoyed that immensely. I will give a few more of their albums a listen.

Here are two really good albums that this thread has already given me from the 70s and we are only 3 years in.
Click to expand...

Argus was highly rated back in the day; although must confess I foolishly avoided them until much later in life.

BOC I have been a huge fan of for almost 50 years (probably in my top 30 bands, if I were to make a list).

My most recommended studio albums are:

Secret Treaties
Agents of Fortune
Fire of Unknown Origin

But everything through FOUO has something to recommend it and I think they played something of all those albums when I saw them recently.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
I haven't listened to all the playlist but will in time. For the songs I have listened to, Roxy, Bowie, Genesis and Yes are long term favourites. I liked the soul music, particularly the Temptations, Roberta Flack and Marvin. I wasn't as keen on the pure pop which, to me is weaker than many of the years in the 60's, a trend I suspect will continue as we head towards disco and the plethora of 'glam' pop groups. Hard rock was well represented by Purple, Wishbone Ash and Sabbath. The sheer technical brilliance of Yes and some of the other prog groups stands out. Will we ever see similar standards I wonder.
For me the year, whilst producing some brilliant albums doesn't quite reach the heights of 71 (or I suspect 73). Whilst its not really a sign of musical quality, the only 1972 album that made the top 20 selling albums of the 70's was S and G's greatest hits which was that years highest grossing album.
I was also a bit surprised at the lack of mentions for Exile on Main Street which to me is one of the finest rock albums made.
Great write up again.
Click to expand...

I suspect 73 is stronger than 72 but we‘ll find out soon enough.

I made myself a 1973 playlist, from my own music collection, and it’s over ten hours long; and I left stuff off.

Exile is a funny album - it generally lacks the “classics” of other albums but as a whole, it is superb. One of the greatest albums ever.

I’ve not had much time to comment on the ‘72 playlist but I have played it a couple of times did introduce me to songs I didn’t know and liked.
 
OB1 said:
Argus was highly rated back in the day; although must confess I foolishly avoided them until much later in life.

BOC I have been a huge fan of for almost 50 years (probably in my top 30 bands, if I were to make a list).

My most recommended studio albums are:

Secret Treaties
Agents of Fortune
Fire of Unknown Origin

But everything through FOUO has something to recommend it and I think they played something of all those albums when I saw them recently.
Click to expand...
Listened to BOC’s first four albums the last few days and all very good. I was going to make a comment about Agents of Fortune but I’ll save that until ‘76.
 
RobMCFC said:
Listened to BOC’s first four albums the last few days and all very good. I was going to make a comment about Agents of Fortune but I’ll save that until ‘76.
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Cool.

I’m sure I’ll comment on FOUO in 1981 but not started that one yet.

I am going to post 1973 a little early i.e. tonight because I am so busy with work. Still working at the moment!
 
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