Discussion: The board does the 1970s

[ten15]

Jul 18, 2023 10:25:46 GMT -6 dij22 said:

"Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five" is probably the best song of all time tbh

Don't agree with that, but it is my favorite song on the album.

[monasterymonochrome]

Took me a long time to come around on the Stones as a Great Album band, but wow did I come around in a big way. This one is basically perfect. Even its messiest moments are transcendent in gloriously shambolic ways (see: "You Gotta Move" aping the blues with a deliriously proto-White Stripes affectation). This was their first studio LP with Mick Taylor, and the results are a bit of a Back to the Basics approach. The rockers here are raw, streamlined, and rootsy (Brown Sugar, Bitch, Dead Flowers). It has their best country song (Dead Flowers), their best jammy blues track (Can't You Hear Me Knocking), and their best climactic ballad ("Moonlight Mile"... until they topped it a year later). The overall feeling isn't as sinister as their previous records - it just feels drunk and dirty. Fucked up on the come down. Idk if it was supposed to be a send-off to Brian Jones, but it sounds like one to me. The halcyon days were done. The satanic romp is over. Now it's time to dust off their bones, pick up the pieces, and head on down the road.

[monasterymonochrome]

Exile on Main Street - probably the Stones' most iconic record. Probably third on my personal Stones ranking (below Sticky Fingers and Beggar's Banquet), but it's a delightfully boozy listen. Honestly, I think I'm just hardwired to find overlong, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink records inherently charming. I mean, shit, Double Nickels and 69 Love Songs topped my 80s and 90s lists. So duh, I like this one. That said, I was always curious how the Critical Consensus crowned this one as the definitive Stones record. It's mad long. Has tons of filler. And didn't have any massive hits - at least not on the scale of their other records.* What it does have is an undeniably addictive vibe. Like sure there's filler, but I'll fight to include every "Turd on the Run" in this record. Sometimes those interstitial, seemingly minor moments are what elevate a record from a collection of good songs to a statement of purpose. Even if, like here, that purpose is wasted aimlessness. It's why I love The White Album and resist any urges to edit it down. Likewise, Exile is perfect just the way it is.

* I do want to note that it has 3 of my 10 favorite Stones songs (Tumbling Dice, Shine a Light, Loving Cup), the last of which was the song I listened to just before gettin' married. It just doesn't have any songs that have become Classic Rock radio staples.

[goodson]

Jul 18, 2023 8:48:31 GMT -6 Tweet said:

Just format your list correctly sometime between now and August 25 is all

okay great

[doso]

I think “Tumbling Dice” is a classic rock radio staple.

I also think there’s very little filler on Exile. For those of us who view Keef as the Stones’ beating heart and soul, this is the quintessential expression of what Keef wanted his band to be. It’s comparatively lo-fi, filled with mistakes/happy accidents, and it touches on all the great American music and sub-genres that informed the Stones’ version of rock and roll. Definitely my favorite (Sticky Fingers and Beggars Banquet are, of course, also phenomenal).

[monasterymonochrome]

Now I want to talk about "The Godmother of Freak Folk," Vashti Bunyan, and her sterling 1970 record Just Another Diamond Day. This is one of those minor miracle records - the kind that blow your mind and make you wonder a.) how the hell was someone so ahead of the curve, and b.) how the hell did the public drop the ball so hard when it was released? Honestly, maybe the real reason is the promotional ineptitude of Witchseason's Joe Boyd. So many artists on that late 60s-early 70s UK folk scene should have been so much bigger than they were (Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, Vashti, etc.). Thankfully, time has somewhat remedied these misdeeds. Vashti, here, is unbelievable. Delicate, lilting vocals - that are intimately hushed but also pushed so high in the mix that it sounds like she's whispering in your ear. It's the ultimate "my little secret" record and basically inspired the whole folk wave of the 2000s (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and Animal Collective - who recorded the lovely Prospect Hummer EP with Vashti). These songs are short and simple, usually accompanied by Vashti's deft acoustic playing - or some help from Fairport Convention alums Dave Swarbrick and Simon Nicol, among others. The melodies are distinctively British, sometimes falling in and out of lullabies and a-cappella sections. It's lovely - like a warm afternoon nap, or a float down a river. Vashti has put out two records in the 2000s, after retiring from music for more than 30 years. I also want to shout-out Mutual Benefit's great 2019 cover of this entire record. Vashti is basically the blueprint for that entire project, and it was cool to see him pay homage at that complete a scale.

[monasterymonochrome]

Time to knock off one of the heavy hitters. Rumours - not gonna look up the numbers, but almost surely the biggest selling album of the 70s. Arguably the most iconic album of all time, outside of maybe Thriller. Went from being Huge, to being kinda passe (I once had 3 copies that folks gave me for free), to being Cool again - to the point of being namechecked and referenced by half the indie-sphere. Is it poptimism to declare the Biggest Album of the 70s underrated? Or is it just contrarianism coming full-circle? Or maybe we should all worry about The Narrative less and just enjoy it as a really damn good album.

Fleetwood Mac is pretty baked into my musical DNA, for better or for worse. They're unquestionably my Mom's favorite band. She used to gripe all the time about Bill Clinton using her favorite song, "Don't Stop," at his inauguration (she was a lifelong Republican who had some sort of epiphany and became a hardcore Dem in the wake of 2016). So I've known these songs about as long as I've known music. And I feel the urge to be all "acktually, this one isn't as good as the hype," but it just is, damnit. The jangle stomp of "Go Your Own Way"? The flittering, hummingbird-esque rhythms of "Second Hand News"? Everything Christine McVie touches here? My favorite lately is Songbird - a perfect ballad. I'm honestly not very interested in the messiness of the album. I mean, it's interesting - I just think The Lore behind it has overshadowed the songs themselves. Like, yeah - "You Make Loving Fun" has a crazy backstory, but I wouldn't care about that if Christine's gravity-less chorus wasn't so divine, or if Lindsey's searing solo didn't rip so hard.

Honestly, the only knock on this album I can find is its ubiquity. Obvs, that's no fault of its own. But, like, - I'll just say it; I can't stand "The Chain." Idk, I just don't enjoy it anymore. I've heard it a million times and have heard a million people fawn over it. And the component parts should be something I like. The full-group harmonies or the whole outro. But I'd honestly rather listen to the harmonies of "I Don't Want to Know" or the slow-burn of "Gold Dust Woman". That's my only real complaint, even though it's largely irrational. Otherwise, it's a phenomenal record - sure to make my list, and it'll earn its eventually spot in the Board-wide Top 10 or so.

[nanatod]

I have 9 albums to go, and I'm proud that I haven't (and won't) have anything from Eagles, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, and Macca.

There's a couple of near misses, like for example, the Isley Brothers whose great songs are spread over a couple of albums, instead of being concentrated in one album I could list. And a couple of people like Marty Stuart, who didn't really get cooking until the 1980's.

[doso]

I’ll definitely have fukken Eagles on my list. My folks listened to a steady diet of Boston, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, Wings, Stevie Wonder, The Guess Who and Saturday Night Fever in ol’ Doso’s formative years. Baked into the DNA as monasterymonochrome says.

I also found Clinton’s use of “Don’t Stop” annoying.

[monasterymonochrome]

Jul 18, 2023 18:03:40 GMT -6 doso said:

I’ll definitely have fukken Eagles on my list. My folks listened to a steady diet of Boston, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, Wings, Stevie Wonder, The Guess Who and Saturday Night Fever in ol’ Doso’s formative years. Baked into the DNA as monasterymonochrome says.

I also found Clinton’s use of “Don’t Stop” annoying.

Oooh Jackson Browne is gonna be high up on my list too.  Gotta writeup Running on Empty and Late for the Sky soon.

[nanatod]

I have 3 to go. Tweet, does the Woodstock soundtrack, recorded 1969, but not released until May, 1970, count?

[The 2nd volume, Woodstock Two, that the producers wrongly thought of as not very good leftovers,* was not released until 1971, so I'm not concerned with that one].

*Theme from an Imaginary Western may be the best tune played at the festival, not including I'm Going Home. RIP Leslie West.

[monasterymonochrome]

Another strong contender for my Top 10. This album has been a mainstay of my listening over the last 3 years. Honestly, diving into the Richard Thompson universe has been incredibly rewarding as a whole - and I think this may be the best entry point (or Unhalfbricking, depending on your tolerance for trad folk). There's some magic alchemy going on here though - Richard and Linda conjuring up the lost spirit of The Band, Dylan's "thin, wild mercury sound," and Flannery O'Connor. Then running it all through a distinctively world-weary, perseveringly British filter. The result is the genius harmonies of "Down Where The Drunkards Roll," the desperate fanfare of the title track, and the oddly triumphant grindstone-worn march of "We Sing Hallelujah". Linda's voice is so gorgeous throughout, so full of pathos and perfectly complementary to Richard's heavily accented drawl. I mean, the way she sings the "You can be a sailor who never left dry land" on "Down Where..." or "No one wants to know anyone lonely like me" on "Has He Got..." just slays me.

And finally, I need to shout-out Richard's guitar playing. Unquestionably the greatest folk-rock electric guitarist - his work on "Calvary Cross" MUST be heard. Especially the spellbinding live versions. They'd routinely jam it out to 10-15 minutes during the mid-70s and it's honestly some of the best soloing you'll ever hear. He deserves to be on the pedestal with Jerry Garcia, Duane Allman, and Neil Young. I'll link my favorite below, but they're all worthwhile:

[monasterymonochrome]

John Martyn - Solid Air: A record that I used to think was merely okay, but I came around on in a big way after reading Mick Houghton's fantastic biography of Sandy Denny. Martyn was an integral part of that UK folk scene - part of Joe Boyd's Witchseason label, which was subsequently folded into Island Records. He hung around with the Thompsons, Denny, and other luminaries like Nick Drake, to whom this album's title track is dedicated. The sound is a pretty hard departure from that scene's hallmarks. It's usually called a "folk-jazz" record, and you can hear that with the fluid song structures, liquidy guitars, and prominent double bass.  Martyn's voice is a high, resonant croon - similar in lots of ways to Tim Buckley, but less angelic and more earthen.  The track "I'd Rather Be The Devil" exemplifies all those traits in a thrilling way, especially when it all dissolves into a cosmic goop at the end. I've said this before, but it has shades of what the Dead were doing around this time too (1973).  Solid Air honestly has more in common with Astral Weeks and Starsailor than anything, say, Fairport & Co. put out (tho the bright mandolin folk of "Over the Hill" is a big highlight).  It's a fascinating record and sort of a culmination of one of music's most interesting scenes.

[nanatod]

I had to re-number most of my list just now because I forgot about Sold American, which is an easy number 4 of the 1970's, maybe higher. only two left to go.

[monasterymonochrome]

Nick Drake - Bryter Layter: Fuck it, it's a UK folk day. A lot of ink has been spilt over Nick Drake in the 50 years since his death, so I won't add too much to it here. Each of his records is a masterpiece - much like Vashti Bunyan, one of those little miracles, little self-contained worlds that feel simultaneously ever-expansive and profoundly intimate. I went through a phase my freshman year of college where I listened to this album every night for like 2 months while I went to sleep. First, it was because I had a crush (Northern Sky), then it was because that crush didn't work out (One of These Things First). The songs here are incredible, Drake's guitar playing is astonishingly nimble. And I love the lush arrangements - especially John Cale's famous celeste solo on "Northern Sky". If not for "Poor Boy" lasting for 6-minutes, this would be a perfect album. His magnum opus, if it wasn't for the record that would follow it. I don't listen to it much these days - that kind of thing can happen when you play something to death during a formative period in your life. But it left its mark on my musical psyche, a gentle companion, a beautiful record.

[monasterymonochrome]

Another easy lock for my Top 10 - it's Pink Moon. I found this album when I was 15 or 16 - like, my sophomore year of high school. In retrospect, idk what I really had to be sad about, but I listened to Pink Moon a LOT. Every second of it has been imprinted on my brain, even more than a decade later. Every whispered confessional, every deftly plucked guitar stroke. Listening back to it - which I maybe do once or twice a year these days - every nook and cranny is uncannily familiar. But, like all great albums, it never loses its warmth. It never becomes ordinary - there is magic there. There's plenty of bleakness in Drake's lyrics - see the title track, or "Parasite" - and, of course, "Which Will". But there's hope there too, and I think that always made the album even more moving to me. "You can take a road that takes you to the stars, I will take a road that'll see me through." I wish Nick had made it through, maybe more than any musician I've ever listened to.

"So look, see the sights
The endless summer nights
And go play the game that you learnt
From the mornin'"

[nanatod]

Jul 18, 2023 17:39:55 GMT -6 nanatod said:

I have 9 albums to go, and I'm proud that I haven't (and won't) have anything from Eagles, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, and Macca.

And, I have finished this list, and I'm still proud that I don't have anything from the Eagles, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, and Macca.

[Tweet]

Jul 19, 2023 19:00:45 GMT -6 nanatod said:

Jul 18, 2023 17:39:55 GMT -6 nanatod said:

I have 9 albums to go, and I'm proud that I haven't (and won't) have anything from Eagles, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, and Macca.

And, I have finished this list, and I'm still proud that I don't have anything from the Eagles, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, and Macca.

counterpoint: man, what

[nanatod]

I was closer to adding a 1970's album from Donna Summer than I was to adding one from the Eagles or Billy Joel, Tweet.

[monasterymonochrome]

Earlier in this thread I claimed that Darkness on the Edge of Town has the best album cover of all time, but I'd like to throw Transformer into that discussion. Possibly the most iconic image in rock history, and - like Darkness - a perfect distillation of the artist at that point in time. I've had this album for ages now, probably before I even knew about The Velvet Underground. It was like the gateway to some secret, fantastical underworld of rock - a far departure from the classic rock and oldies I knew from the radio. Soon after I acquired Ziggy Stardust and then VU & Nico and ~14 years later, here we are.

Hard to argue with this record's perfection. Obviously there are the big hits. "Walk on the Wild Side," possibly the coolest song ever written. "Perfect Day," a sublimely sweet love song undercut with the "you're gonna reap just what ya sow" line. "Satellite of Love," with one of the GOAT outros, Bowie would've been a fucking genius if all he ever did was compose those vocal harmonies. But the deep cuts too! "Vicious" is low-key one of Lou's best songs - dude fuckin' ATE on his deliveries. The weird surrealism of "Andy's Chest". Plus all the quick, glammy rave-ups - Hangin' Round, Wagon Wheel, I'm So Free, etc. S/o too to Mick Ronson and Klaus Voormann for crushing it all over this record. Ahhh it's so good. An essential document from one of music's most essential figures. Delightfully queer and witty, incisive and self-aware. And cool as hell. Lou Reed forever.

[monasterymonochrome]

I guess the theme of today is: Albums Monastery Listened To a Bunch in High School. Here we have Randy Newman's Sail Away, which was a really eye-opening record for me. First time encountering a songwriter as dry and sardonic as Newman, while also infusing just enough heart into every track to hook you in. I was reading a lot of Kurt Vonnegut at the time. Watching Christopher Nolan movies. That kinda stuff. And look, all that stuff is still great (esp. Vonnegut), but it doesn't resonate as strongly with me these days. Thinking here of the more on-the-nose tracks like Political Science or God's Song. The ones that still hit for me are the more human-centric stories. "Memo for my Son" or especially "Old Man," one of the coldest, heartaching songs you'll ever hear. Randy's piano playing throughout sounds so full and rich, as do the arrangements. And he has one of the best voices in the singer-songwriter game. Obviously elements here wouldn't go over today (See: "Sail Away," a bitterly ironic ballad from the perspective of a slaver), and I'm not gonna touch Good Old Boys, tho I will say "Louisiana 1927" is his best song. I don't think I like this one as much as I used to, but that's okay! It's still a great record, and an essential part of my musical discovery.

[nanatod]

Jul 20, 2023 10:55:32 GMT -6 monasterymonochrome said:

 and I'm not gonna touch Good Old Boys

Good Old Boys was number 19 for me, and that's about as high as an album can go w/o being one of my all time favorites  ever  /  I've listened to it so much that it is part of my dna.

[monasterymonochrome]

Jul 20, 2023 10:55:32 GMT -6 monasterymonochrome said:

I guess the theme of today is: Albums Monastery Listened To a Bunch in High School. Here we have Randy Newman's Sail Away, which was a really eye-opening record for me. First time encountering a songwriter as dry and sardonic as Newman, while also infusing just enough heart into every track to hook you in. I was reading a lot of Kurt Vonnegut at the time. Watching Christopher Nolan movies. That kinda stuff. And look, all that stuff is still great (esp. Vonnegut), but it doesn't resonate as strongly with me these days. Thinking here of the more on-the-nose tracks like Political Science or God's Song. The ones that still hit for me are the more human-centric stories. "Memo for my Son" or especially "Old Man," one of the coldest, heartaching songs you'll ever hear. Randy's piano playing throughout sounds so full and rich, as do the arrangements. And he has one of the best voices in the singer-songwriter game. Obviously elements here wouldn't go over today (See: "Sail Away," a bitterly ironic ballad from the perspective of a slaver), and I'm not gonna touch Good Old Boys, tho I will say "Louisiana 1927" is his best song. I don't think I like this one as much as I used to, but that's okay! It's still a great record, and an essential part of my musical discovery.

Oh SHIT I did a whole write up for Sail Away without mentioning "Burn On" - unofficial Cleveland theme song!  Best song on the album.

[monasterymonochrome]

Jul 20, 2023 11:00:21 GMT -6 nanatod said:

Jul 20, 2023 10:55:32 GMT -6 monasterymonochrome said:

 and I'm not gonna touch Good Old Boys

Good Old Boys was number 19 for me, and that's about as high as an album can go w/o being one of my all time favorites  ever  /  I've listened to it so much that it is part of my dna.

Ya know I think I'll revisit it today anyways - it's been a while 

[monasterymonochrome]

One of the more complicated records I've ever wrestled with. The songs here are fantastic - Newman never wrote better melodies or arrangements. These tracks are very often beautiful, just check out the strings on "Birmingham" or "Louisiana 1927" or "Kingfish". It's also one of the more unflinching musical investigations of the culture of racism and white supremacy in the South (+ America writ large) ever attempted. It's basically a record written from the perspective of a sad, lonely, spiteful Alabama man named Johnny Cutler, in the midst of losing his wife Marie. Oh yeah, and there's a three-song interlude about infamous Louisiana populist politician Huey "Kingfish" Long (about whom Robert Warren's All the King's Men was written).

Newman here skewers his targets in his typical fashion, that is, writing with their own flawed, plainspoken voices. If you know one thing about this record, it's probably that Newman says the n-word 8 times in the opening track, "Rednecks". And, it's obviously a satire, but it's still not the easiest listen in 2023. That said, the 70s-80s were certainly the peak era of white singers utilizing the n-word in Social Critique songs (see: Patti Smith, John & Yoko, The Avengers, Gun Club), and at least here Newman isn't trying to repurpose in some hackneyed way. He - as Cutler - is just sayin' it. And we, the enlightened audience, is supposed to know the difference between the artist and his narrator. It's a lot of trust to have in one's audience - the likes of which you don't really see anymore. As to whether it's successful? Probably - Good Old Boys is a pretty barbed takedown of the Southern Man, probably more effective than Neil himself. Was it his word to use / his strategy to deploy? I mean, obviously no. But he did and here we are 50 years later - in political situations largely unchanged - still reckoning with it. I don't have the answers, I just know it's a good album that I don't feel the need to return to often, beyond the brilliant Huey Long trilogy.

If you want to dive more into the Discourse of this record, here's a Pitchfork longform review written about 3 weeks before the 2016 election. I found it an interesting read: pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22308-good-old-boys/

[nanatod]

I had this album since around 1978, before I sold it about 20 years ago to Reckless on Broadway and I don't know that I've ever known the narrator to be named Johnny Cutler.

[monasterymonochrome]

Jul 20, 2023 11:52:38 GMT -6 nanatod said:

I had this album since around 1978, before I sold it about 20 years ago to Reckless on Broadway and I don't know that I've ever known the narrator to be named Johnny Cutler.

Haha yeah it's a bit I just learned from that P4k article - apparently there were a bunch more songs written & cut from the record that fleshed out the backstory a little more.

[monasterymonochrome]

Where did we come down on this one? Paging Tweet to the thread. On one hand, it's a compilation (half the songs are Jimmy Cliff, but there's also fantastic cuts from Desmond Dekker, The Maytall, The Melodians and others. Plus it's a collection of singles - at least one of which was originally released in the 60s. OTOH, it's arguably the second most essential reggae release ever, was included on Pitchfork's 70s list, and it rules. One of my favorite LPs to spin, I've prolly listened to this LP more than any others in my collection. The Cliff cuts here are divine - lighter than air. Like, how can you listen to "Many Rivers to Cross" and not go, damn, that's one of the best vocal performances ever. The chorus of Sitting in Limbo is equally as revelatory. I'll get it if it's deemed ineligible - but I want to shout it out anyways. A fabulous record.

[krentist]

there's no way that doesn't count

[Tweet]

Jul 20, 2023 12:55:50 GMT -6 krentist said:

there's no way that doesn't count

Correct