So it’s
been a while since last I posted. I
could blame work or sickness, but honestly I think it’s clear that this blog is
more important than either my career or health.
Rather, it’s a function largely of how much I had to absorb in
1972. It’s not so much the best year
I’ve encountered (still ’68), but it’s got a lot of stuff going on , and a lot
of stuff that seems to be operating in separate discrete worlds. Even the previously unified world of R&B
is starting to splinter now. Earlier,
artists like James Brown and Sly & The Family Stone comfortably straddled
the worlds of soul and funk, but by now they’re starting to splinter into very
different sounding camps. I don’t want
to overstate this divide, since they still owe a lot to each other, but
Funkadelic sounds closer to Captain Beefheart in 1972 than to Isaac Hayes or
Curtis Mayfield. George Clinton and
Beefheart share a similar off-kilter sensibility, at any rate. In soul, on the other hand, I’ve talked about
a “cinematic soul” sound as early as ’66, but I mean it a little more literally
this time, as both Curtis Mayfield (Superfly)
and Marvin Gaye (Trouble Man) try
their hands at the blaxploitation soundtrack gig. They sound very similar, actually, although I
give the edge to Mayfield, since he wrote more actual songs, while Gaye tended
more toward writing a score, with recurring motifs and chiefly instrumental
songs. Who they both sound the most
indebted-to (as did Hayes last year) are the Temptations and their
psychedelic-soul sound. That sound,
incidentally, probably peaks this year with “Papa Was A Rolling Stone.”
Elsewhere
in soul, if Marvin sounds heavily influenced by Isaac Hayes and Curtis
Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, esp. on his 1st album of the year, sounds
like someone who’s been listening to a lot of What’s Going On. There’s
more funk in Stevie’s sound, and his lyrical concerns are more focused on
romantic love than the broader social concerns of Marvin, but especially on
“Superwoman,” the song structure shows a clear debt. Music
Of My Mind gets tagged a lot as Wonder’s great leap forward, and I
more-or-less buy it, but he really comes into his own on Talking Book, the first of three Stevie Wonder albums no serious
music collection can be without. Music had a synthesis of a lot of
Wonder’s broader influences, but Talking
Book brings it all together into
pop-song constructions worthy of the classic ‘60s Motown sides. Also, I’m not sure, but I think Michael
Jackson stole his little “hee-hoo!” exclamations from “Maybe Your Baby.” Jackson, by the way, has a big hit this year
with a love song to his pet rat.
My last
note on soul concerns Al Green, who I grow to appreciate more and more as a
natural continuation of that Stax sound into the ‘70s. One of the fun elements of this project is
learning where the influence runs differently than I thought it did. Being careless with my chronology, I always
assumed the horn line in “Love and Happiness” was indebted to Marley’s horn
charts circa Exodus¸ but it now
becomes clear that the influence probably went in the other direction. Not a lot from Marley this year, although a
couple of my favorite early-reggae gems are from ’72. The Heptones’ Meet The Now Generation sounds a lot like the early Wailers, and is
a minor gem, but ’72 is also the year of The
Harder They Come, which probably just about anyone would agree is the one
reggae album to own if you’re going to own one.
It’s also (I think) the album that first drew the attention of the
broader world to the Jamaican scene in a big way, so I’ll be on the lookout for
its influence in coming years…
In
rock, the biggest news is probably that this is the year glam breaks. Obviously T. Rex had been working this sound
for a few albums, but in ’72 we get not only more T. Rex, but also glam
makeovers of David Bowie, Mott the Hoople, and Lou Reed, plus Roxy Music’s
debut. For that matter, Elton John
rarely sounded glammier than on “Crocodile Rock.” It’s easy to see why glam made such a splash
when it did, since rock otherwise had been moving away from the 3-minute single
in a variety of prog, metal, roots, and
soft-rock directions, and glam is very much a return to pop-rock, a la the
pre-psychedelic ‘60s. What’s interesting
to me is how the artists under the glam label run the gamut from the
Stones-with-glitter sound of Mott to the arty, synth-y Roxy Music, with the
others falling somewhere in between.
Although Lou Reed probably deserves a special mention for how poorly he
fits with the UK glam acts. Obviously
the presence of Bowie & Mark Ronson on Transformer
means it has some common elements, but most of the best songs sound more like
(or in some cases actually are) Velvet Underground outtakes, and a lot of the
rest have a campier sound that the UK acts don’t really go for. Also, I don’t think any of the UK glam
artists had it in them to write a song like “Perfect Day,” at least not yet.
Also
probably worth noting is the glam-prog of the Electric Light Orchestra. Obviously Bowie and Roxy Music have
art-rock/prog inclinations, but ELO’s take is somewhat different, goofier, and
trashier, but still sounds not unlike the string sections T. Rex are
experimenting with on songs like “Children of the Revolution.” Prog itself might hit its peak in ’72, with
phenomenal records from both Tull and Yes, both of whom would slip into
self-parody next year, as well as the debut of Neu. Neu!,
like all of their albums, is far from perfect, as few of their downtempo
experiments work, but full credit for developing a sound that’s strikingly,
well, new. There are elements of bands
like the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and of course the more ragged Can/Amon Düül
krautrock, but this is, I think, the birthplace of the motorik sound, the
clean, mechanical pulse that both Neu and Kraftwerk (who were all the same band
until they splintered in ’71) would work with, and become a key influence on a
lot of the new wave, post-punk, and techno to follow. More conventionally, Thick As A Brick, Close To
The Edge, and parts of Fragile though,
are about as good as prog gets, although Tull & Yes don’t have much in
common sonically with each other apart from a fondness for complex song
construction. Tull continues to develop
its idiosyncratic hard-folk approach, while Yes (like Zeppelin last year) is
drawing from a wide range of contemporary influences. Their core sound continues to sound closest
to Deep Purple, of any contemporaries, but there are hints of Zeppelin, folk
guitar, maybe a touch of funk, and some decidedly CSNY-esque harmonies by Jon
Anderson harmonizing with himself.
Deep
Purple, however, have basically abandoned whatever prog elements lingered on In Rock, in favor of a sound that sounds
more like a harder version of Mountain than just about anything else going
on. It seems kind of odd to group them
together with Sabbath as metal, since the two sound pretty much nothing alike,
and I’m thinking that it’s only later, when bands start appearing influenced by
both of them, that they get retroactively grouped together. If anything, Mott the Hoople sound more like
Purple than Sabbath, at least on songs like the future Bad Company hit “Ready for
Love.”
If Mott
the Hoople and ZIggy Stardust-era Bowie’s basic sound is ’65-66 Stones with a
glam sheen on top, it’s interesting that the Stones themselves don’t sound
glammy at all. If anything, they’ve
never sounded as grungy and blues-country-soul-roots focused than they do on Exile On Main St. There are some similarities with the Kinks on
Everybody’s In Show-Biz, insofar as
both are bands adding a horn section and looking towards an older American
sound, consequently sounding out of place among UK rock acts. The Kinks, however, are looking much further
back, to Dixieland/music hall jazz, and also are deeply uneven in their attempt
(their first weak record since their first 3, sadly). The Stones, meanwhile, put out possibly
(probably) the best album of their career, and make a more lived-in version of
their Beggars’ Banquet. Honestly, the band the Stones most sound like
in 1972 are the Grateful Dead, an association I never noticed before now, and
which may explain why the ’72 is my favorite live Dead year. (if I were to reduce my live Dead collection
to a single album, it would undoubtedly be either Europe ’72 or Hundred Year Hall,
both from the same tour). The Stones are
of course harder and tighter (what with the horns and all), while the Dead are
mellower and jammier, but compared to the extremes of, say, Deep Purple and
Crosby & Nash, they sound very close together. Compare, say “Big Railroad Blues” to “Casino
Boogie,” and tell me you couldn’t hear either band playing the other’s
song. The comparison holds up even more
when you compare to other groups mining similar territory. The Flying Burrito Brothers, for instance,
end their career with a post-Gram Parson live album (no, I don’t acknowledge
the existence of the post-Parsons and
Hillman faux-Burritos which I think still exist). But the live Burritos, while competent
executors of a country-rock sound, don’t have the mélange of rock/soul/country/folk
influences that the Dead & Stones do.
Creedence, I suppose, also work a similar terrain, but honestly just
sound very bad on their breakup album this year. It’s not a problem of band democracy, since among
the worst songs are some of Fogerty’s compositions. Rather, their formula is just sounding tired,
I think, and increasing the country influence doesn’t help…
The Dead,
incidentally, sound better live this year than the Allmans, fill about half of
their Eat A Peach album with tracks
from the same show as last year’s Live At
The Fillmore. It’s a fitting tribute
for the deceased Duane Allman, except that it’s clear why this stuff was held
back from that album. On the other hand,
the first of the post-Duane tracks show great promise for the Allmans going
forward.
Another artist attempting to mine a
similar sound is Stephen Stills, on his Manassas
album (which, for what it’s worth, borrows the Stones’ bassist). It’s my favorite Stills album, and an
interesting concept, with a side each of rock, country, folk, and rock &
roll, but 1) it’s more interesting to hear these sounds mashed together into
something new and 2) the songs just aren’t really that memorable. An album I enjoy listening to, and respect in
its ambitions, but can’t really say I remember much in way of melodies off
of. So it loses the
best-CSNY-album-of-the-year title to Harvest,
Neil Young’s oft-maligned mega-hit.
Admittedly, the strings are a little goofy, but listening through this time,
I hear them as a last gasp of the orchestral sound Young played with in the
Buffalo Springfield and on his solo debut.
As for the remainder of CSNY, Crosby & Nash have joined together for
the first of a series of duo records. It’s…ok,
I guess. The Nash songs sound like Nash country-pop
songs and the Crosby songs are in a mellow “Guinevere”/”Déjà Vu” vein, not the
rockier side he’s flashed from time to time.
The bigger problem isn’t the unadventurous nature of the sound, though;
it’s that none of these songs, except maybe “Southbound Train” would have had
any chance of making it onto either Crosby,
Stills, and Nash or Déjà Vu. Although perhaps I should, as I’ve thought of
doing for the Beatles in their early solo careers, attempt to construct what a
3rd CSNY album would sound like if assembled out of their ’72 albums. For what it’s worth, I think Stills would be
the hardest-rocking one…
Elsewhere
on the softer side of things, we get the debut and breakout records of a pair
of acts that can probably be grouped together for their common approach of mixing
mellow sounds with deeply cynical, deceptively mean lyrics. Not that there’s a great deal otherwise in
common between the jazz-pop approach of Steely Dan and the more conventional folk-rock
sound of Randy Newman. Steely Dan are
the more interesting sonically, although they sound more conventional here than
they will on their later records, while Newman sounds like a missing link
between New Morning-era Dylan and the
sound of comeback Dylan in a couple of years (musically, not so much lyrically). Dylan himself, by the way, releases no new
music in a calendar year for the first time since his debut single way back in ’62. Combined with the release last year of his Greatest Hits, Vol. II, you’d be excused
for thinking that Dylan was done as a recording artist.
A couple
of notes on artists held up by later generations of alt-rockers as forerunners
outside of their time, who both offer a non-glam form of pop-rock. That tag doesn’t fit Big Star at all, who
sound 100% natural sandwiched between Zeppelin and CSNY, and whose sound
basically sounds like a mix of Zeppelin-esque rock and the folk-pop of the
Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. So good,
but hardly unconventional, except when measured against their Stax labelmantes. The Modern Lovers, on the other hand, do
sound strikingly out of place, mixing a sound that’s somewhere between the Velvets
circa Loaded and garage rock with a lyrical sentiment that would have sounded
cornball in the heyday of early ‘60s pop.
Sonically not tremendously innovative or anything, although I’m a sucker
for organ-driven rock. Maybe that’s why
I love Jonathan Richman’s confessionals, but get bored quick at brokenhearted
young people playing guitars with holes in them. Also, I’ll give credit to Richman for being
as much a lyrical original in his own way as Dylan or Reed, even if his rock
& roll naïf act would degenerate into shtick in his solo career.
And
while I may have not 4 sentences ago denigrated sensitive young people accompanied
by guitars with holes in them, that critique will not extend so far as Nick
Drake’s Pink Moon. Partly that’s because it’s more folk-based
(and actually folk-based, not just acoustic-guitar-based), and partly (mostly)
it’s because his lyrics and song construction reach a level of abstraction that
makes his closest peer sound probably like Van Morrison on Astral Weeks. Morrison,
incidentally, put out yet another record hewing to the Moondance template. It’s a good sound, and it suits him, even if
I miss Them, but it’s hard to say much about an artist that keeps working such
a narrow sonic template year after year.
Oh, and
I did promise to talk about Elvis this year, since this is the last year I have
(most of) an Elvis album. Elvis Now! is pretty good in a country-pop sound, lyrically-absentminded
cover of “Hey Jude” notwithstanding, but I don’t really have a lot to say about
it. Except that I do kinda love the
Band-sounding gospel of “Put Your Hand In The Hand” and the shuffling “I Was
Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago,” the song appearing as chopped up interludes
on Elvis Country. Also, non-album single “Burning Love,” while
derivative of Elvis’s young-man sound, is probably his last great single. Finally, speaking of artists moving past
their prime, the Beach Boys put out the odd-in-its-conventionality Carl And The Passions – ‘So Tough’.” If Surf’s
Up was probably the most distinctively Beach Boys-sounding record they’d
made since ’67, they’ve never sounded less
like themselves than on this one, where they decide to sound like an entirely
conventional 2nd string roots-rock band. It’s not bad, but it’s not what you listen to
the Beach Boys for, and it’s not a style that plays to their strength. Plus, they’ve drafted a pair of new members,
who contribute a couple of songs of their own that sound so little like the
Beach Boys (not even any Wilsons singing!) that it sounds like they were added
to the album by mistake…
Song of the Year: “Roundabout” – Yes. Fragile
isn’t Yes’s best album (that’s Close to
the Edge or The Yes Album), but just
about everything that made Yes one of my favorite bands is here: the seemless
shifting between moods, the nonsensically abstract lyrics, the virtuoso performances
in service of the song rather than showboating, the joyous energy. Not only my favorite Yessong, but I think my
favorite prog-rock song, skimping neither on the “prog” nor the “rock.”
Album of the Year: Exile on Main St. – The Rolling Stones. Maybe not the greatest rock album of all
time, but the greatest rock & roll
album of all time, and without a question in my mind the Stones’ peak. Also one of a bare handful of albums I refuse
to go more than a day or two without having on hand.
Artist Most
Benefiting from Reevaluation: Randy
Newman. I had a vague sense that he was
a worthy singer-songwriter, but in his focus on external concerns rather than
self-expression and his cynical sense of humor, Newman is more Dylan-like than
any of the other “new Dylans” that were hyped around this time. I think I need more of his albums…
Artist Most
Diminished in Reevaluation: Marvin
Gaye. Just one album after his artistic breakthrough,
Marvin’s in follower mode here. Trouble Man is pretty good, but it’s
nothing that Isaac Hayes or Curtis Mayfield didn’t do better on their
soundtracks, and it’s kind of a punt after the innovative and experimental What’s Going On?
Album List
Al Green - The Absolute Best
Big Star - #1 Record
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Soul Rebels [Bonus Track
Edition]
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Trenchtown Rock: The
Anthology 1969-78
Bruce Springsteen - 18 Tracks
Can - Ege Bamyasi
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Clear Spot
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - The Spotlight Kid
Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band -
Express Yourself: The Best Of Charles Wright
Chuck Brown - The Best Of Chuck Brown
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Chronicle, Vol. 1
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Mardi Gras
Crosby & Nash – Crosby & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - Carry On
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
David Bowie - Changesbowie
David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders
From Mars
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust - Live - Santa Monica 20th Oct.
1972
Deep Purple - The Very Best Of Deep Purple
Dennis Alcapone - Guns Don't Argue
Electric Light Orchestra - Strange Magic: The Best Of
Electric Light Orchestra
Elton John - Greatest Hits 1970-2002
Elton John - Wedding Songs
Elvis Presley - Elvis 30 #1 Hits
Elvis Presley - Elvis Now
Fela Kuti - The Best Best Of Fela Kuti
Funkadelic - America Eats Its Young
Isaac Hayes - Greatest Hits Singles
J.J. Cale – Naturally…
J.J. Cale - Very Best Of
James Brown - 20 All Time Greatest Hits!
James Brown - Make It Funky: 1971-75
Jethro Tull – Living In The Past
Jethro Tull - Original Masters
Jethro Tull – Thick As A Brick
John Lennon - Imagine Soundtrack
Joni Mitchell - Hits
Led Zeppelin - How The West Was Won
Lou Reed - Collections
Lou Reed – Transformer
Marvin Gaye – Trouble Man
Michael Jackson - The Essential Michael Jackson Disc 1
Miles Davis - Get Up With It
Miles Davis - Miles Davis In Concert: Live At Philharmonic
Hall
Miles Davis - On the Corner
Mott The Hoople – All The Young Dudes
Mott The Hoople - An Introduction To Mott The Hoople
Mott The Hoople - Greatest Hits
Neil Young - Decade
Neil Young – Harvest
Neil Young – Journey Through The Past
NEU! - NEU!
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Nick Drake - Way To Blue (An Introduction To Nick Drake)
Os Mutantes - Everything Is Possible!: The Best Of Os
Mutantes
Paul McCartney - Wingspan: Hits
Pink Floyd - Obscured by Clouds
Randy Newman – Sail Away
Richard Thompson - Henry The Human Fly
Ringo Starr - Photograph: The Very Best Of Ringo Starr
Rod Stewart & The Faces - Gold
Roxy Music - The Best Of Roxy Music
Steeleye Span – Below The Salt
Steely Dan - A Decade of Steely Dan
Steely Dan – Can’t Buy A Thrill
Stephen Stills – Manassas
Stevie Wonder - At The Close Of A Century
Stevie Wonder – Music of My Mind
Stevie Wonder – Talking Book
T. Rex - 20th Century Boy: The Ultimate Collection
The Allman Brothers Band – Eat A Peach
The Beach Boys - Carl And The Passions - So Tough
The Ethiopians - Everything Crash: The Best of The
Ethiopians
The Flying Burrito Bros. – Last of the Red Hot Burritos
The Grateful Dead – Europe ‘72
The Grateful Dead - Hundred Year Hall
The Heptones - Meet The Now Generation
The Kinks - Celluloid Heroes
The Kinks - Everybody's In Showbiz
The Kinks - The Kink Kronikles
The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street
The Rolling Stones - Forty Licks Disc 2
The Staple Singers - Be altitude,respect yourself
The Staple Singers - The Very Best Of The Staple Singers
The Temptations - Psychedelic Soul
The Who - The Ultimate Collection
Toots & The Maytals - Misc.
Toots & The Maytals - Time Tough - The Anthology
V/A - Beleza Tropical: Brazil Classics 1
V/A - Mp3
V/A - Pure Funk
V/A - Reservoir Dogs
V/A - Samba Soul 70!
V/A - Trainspotting
V/A - Trojan Dub Massive Chapter I
Van Morrison – St. Dominic’s Preview
Yes - Close To The Edge
Yes - Fragile
