Wednesday, March 28, 2012

1975


                1975 a little bit better than ’74, although still not as good as the preceding years.  Really, it’s kind of a year of people starting to grope around for new (or in some cases old) sounds, but not finding anything too much yet.  Glam, for instance, is completely gone by ’74, with all of the still-active acts moving on to some other kind of sound.   Overall, this is a year with a few signs of things to come (disco, punk, and new wave), but also more of genres stagnating or fading. 
Being neither a 50 year-old club rat or an obscure-disco hipster, I can’t tell you much about what’s happening in disco proper in 1975.  I can say, though, that disco started to percolate into mainstream rock acts earlier than I realized.  The Bee-Gees are probably the most prominent rockers to go disco, so much so that their earlier folk-pop has been almost forgotten, but I didn’t realize they went disco so early.  Also going disco are the Electric Light Orchestra, with a song that you could swear was a Bee-Gees song (“Evil Woman”) and Roxy Music.  Disco seems to be a good fit for glam refugees, who have always grounded their artier impulses with a fairly simple backbeat. Substituting the mechanized beat of disco isn’t so different, at least for a band like Roxy.  I’m pretty grateful that Mott broke up rather than gracing us with a disco record, though.  Of course, they probably would have ended up sounding more like Bad Company anyway.
I’d always thought of disco as coming out of funk, but it’s actually pretty remarkably different.  Disco’s steady pulse actually puts me more in the mood of its later, even more mechanized, techno successors, or, if you’re looking for a forbearer, the motorik sound of Neu! and Kraftwerk (not that the Krautrockers are even remotely danceable).  Funk, on the other hand, is considerably looser and more anarchic.  George Clinton especially thrives on an anything-can-happen vibe, the kind of looseness that requires a really tight band.  So I’m also fairly pleased that Bowie is still playing in the realm of soul & funk rather than disco, although he puts out two singles and an otherwise pretty-dire album.  Still, “Fame” is remarkably credible funk for someone who was doing psychedelic folk-rock 8 years prior.  And “Young Americans” does a much better job of going soul than the rather dire attempts on last years’s David Live.  That awful Sanborn sax sound has, though, started to infect other parts of the music world, most notably the Beatles.  Both Harrison and McCartney take slight songs (“You” & “Listen To What The Man Says”) and slather a heavy coat of smooth mediocre sax on top, just to make sure they’re not only mediocre but dated.  This, for me at least, more than anything reminds me of being in the grocery store as a little kid in the 80s.  That's not a compliment.
Also interestingly starting to move into the realm of funk are Led Zeppelin.  Their double-lp this year, Physical Graffiti, was a hard one for me to contextualize, since Zep heretofore had always sounded much more in touch with what was going on around them, and now sounded much more backward-looking.  So upon further research, it explained a lot that the album was about half outtakes from III, IV, and Houses of the Holy.  A lot of the rest, meanwhile, sounds much more influenced by James Brown than anyone else.  This is especially the case for songs like “Custard Pie” and “Trampled Under Foot” (although the later also leans fairly heavily on the “Superstition” riff).  I seem to be comparing James Brown much more to rock artists than other funk artists.  But Zep, like Brown, are basically relying on the band hammering out a series of riffs for the lead singer to play off of in a much less structured way than, say, the increasingly prog-influenced and structured sounds of Sabbath or Deep Purple.  It makes me want to hear some live Zeppelin from this period of their career, instead of the earlier stuff that makes up all of their official releases to date.
Not that it sounds anything like Zeppelin, but since he was also a Yardbirds guitarist, it’s probably as good a place as anywhere to talk about Jeff Beck’s Blow By Blow, in which Beck trades in his forgettable heavy blues rock sound for some pretty fantastic (and all vocal-free) jazz fusion.  It sounds very much of its time, of course, somewhere between Billy Cobham and Stevie Wonder.  In its own weird way, between the Zep/Bowie funk moves and Beck’s fusion sound, the worlds of rock and R&B sound more in dialogue with each other in 1975 than at any year since 1966. 
If the glam artists have moved toward dancier sounds and away from 50s/60s rock & roll as their point of reference, other artists seem to have moved more into that space.  Both Lennon and Springsteen are doing their best to chase the Phil Spector sound, although Lennon cheats a little by actually hiring Spector to produce his rock & roll covers album.  Like virtually all covers albums, it’s pretty unnecessary, although Lennon does still have a good voice for this kind of material.  Springsteen unambiguously does better, though, with one of the best albums of his career.  It’s often described (including by the Boss himself) as a Dylan-meets-Spector sound, but for me Van Morrison still sounds like much more of a touchstone than Dylan.  This is most obvious on tracks that may as well be Morrison songs like “10th Avenue Freeze-Out”, but it’s more just that Springsteen, like Morrison, is much more of a soul-style belter than a Dylanesque (or, for that matter Lennon-esque) sneerer. 
You also hear pre-67 echoes among artists that will eventually be called punk, although I don’t think you’d describe either Joe Strummer or Patti Smith as “punk” if you heard them at the time.  Strummer’s pre-Clash band, the 101ers, basically sound like a bar band (or pub-rock band, if you want to use the nomenclature) who, like all good bar bands, really wanted to be the Rolling Stones circa 1965.  They’re sloppy & fun, but if Strummer hadn’t gone on to do bigger & better things, there’s absolutely zero chance than anyone would be listening to the 101ers 37 years later.  Patti Smith, on the other hand, with her connections in the NYC art & music world, and the fact that she made a pretty excellent album, would still be listened to.  We’ve already encountered Smith before, insofar as she was a lyricist/songwriter for Blue Öyster Cult, and what’s interesting listening to Horses in this context is that it makes sense.  I’d always heard Smith’s early stuff as early punk-rock, but it really does sound pretty close to what BOC were doing on albums like Secret Treaties, if somewhat artier.
If we’re starting to hear from punk rockers, we’re also starting to hear things that sound like New Wave.  The Talking Heads haven’t got a record out, but do have some demos, which sound a lot like the pre-disco Roxy Music, without the production and with a more nervy, less crooner-ish vocalist.  Also presaging New Wave is about half of Neu!’s last record.  With Neu! 75, they finally manage to make an overall solid album, instead of the mix of genius and barely-listenable tracks on their first two records.  Of course, it’s really more like 2 eps, one from each of the two  creative forces of a band about to break up.  Side One is a pretty solid continued exploration of the motorik sound.  Side Two is much more conventionally rockish, by Neu! standards at least: vocals and a backbeat, but with a synthetic sound that inevitably points more toward New Wave.
Kraftwerk, meanwhile, also manage to put out a cohesive album, and while I like Neu! better both for coming first and hitting higher highs, I have to grant that Kraftwerk make better albums.  Radio Activity is unjustly overshadowed by Autobahn and Trans-Europe Express, and doesn’t have a breakout single, but it might be my favorite of the three.  Autobahn got bogged down in less-than-thrilling side-2 experiments, but Radio Activity is made up of clever short pieces throughout.  Much like Eno, Kraftwerk have started packing their ideas into shorter packages, making a kind of prog that isn’t consumed with side-long suites but is no less ambitious.
Eno, meanwhile, is also starting to recall Neu! this year, but the more ambient Neu!  He hasn’t gone all the way ambient, as there are still real songs among the soundscapes.  By the joys of shuffling songs, I’ve also learned that “Another Green World” makes an odd but appropriate coda for Springsteen’s “Meeting Across The River”, but it’s overall much more languid and instrumentally-based.  And not too different from Pink Floyd, kinda.   Floyd are much more conventional in their soncis than Eno or Neu! (Gilmore never sounds more like Eric Clapton than on “Shine On”), but they’re similarly focused on languid and melancholy instrumental pieces.
Not nearly so strong a year for more conventional prog.  Crimson is gone, and Yes have decided to release a series of solo albums in lieu of a new Yes record.  I’ve heard the Steve Howe album (it’s alright, but not especially Yes-like) and I’ve heard good things about Jon Anderson’s, but even I’m not a big enough Yesfan to track down out of print albums by Patrick Moraz and Alan White.  I can say that Chris Squire’s lone solo album is well worth the time of any Yesfan, though, and sounds more like classic Yes than anything after Going For The One.  This isn’t too surprising, as most of the various Yesmen guest on it in various spots.  Also, Squire’s voice is thinner than Anderson’s but not too dissimilar.  His harmonies lean more toward the Beach Boys than CSN, though.
Tull are left therefore as more-or-less the standard bearers for classic prog, then, and they do pretty well with the first of what I think of as the “title-track” albums, a run where the title track is pretty unambiguously the best track on the record.  Minstrel in the Gallery moves back to a more classic Tull sound than last year’s glam experiments, with both more folk elements and more hard rock parts.  I can easily overstate the brief Tull-Sabbath connection, but I’ve always thought that the electric guitar parts on “Minstrel in the Gallery” are among the more Sabbath-sounding in the Tull catalogue.  Sabbath, meanwhile, have moved away from their classic sound, to something that’s harder and less heavy, sounding closer to, say, Deep Purple.  Deep Purple break up this year, and their most prominent successor group (Rainbow) put out their first album with future Sabbath singer Ronnie James Dio. 
The biggest news in prog/hard rock as far as I’m concerned, however, is that Rush are starting to take off.  Last year they were around but unremarkable in their Sabbath-Zeppelin sound, but now are starting to get worth noticing (not least because Neil Peart is involved).  I didn’t realize how late Rush were to the prog scene, and at this point they mostly sound like an ambitious hard-rock band rather than a prog band, but they do have a pair of 12+ minute epics that recall the early reach-exceeding-grasp work of Pink Floyd (although actually borrow more heavily from the Velvet Underground).   Also they release “Bastille Day,” a song I feel compelled to listen to every July 14.
The biggest news in rock generally, however, is undoubtedly the first really great Dylan album since 1967’s John Wesley Harding.  Blood On The Tracks sounds classic even out of context, but I gain a newfound appreciation for how great it must have sounded after almost a decade of genre experiments, deliberately half-assed records, soundtracks, and middling songcraft.  Even more to Dylan’s credit is that it’s not just a return to his classic sound.  If anything, it most closely resembles Neil Young in his acoustic-confessional mode (like the softer moments of After The Gold Rush or Harvest).  Unlike Young, however, Dylan’s moved beyond adolescent (if eloquent) self-pity to much more adult emotional content.  Really, the only other rock lyricist being similarly lyrically mature is Pete Townshend.  Realizing this gives me a newfound appreciation of The Who By Numbers, which I’d otherwise considered their weakest since their 2nd.  But goofy novelty song aside (and worth it for the scene in Freaks & Geeks), The Who By Numbers sees Townshend really writing some respectable lyrics.  I generally cringe at confessional-style songwriting, but I give Pete credit for not doing the adolescent self-pity thing, but really exploring more adult issues.  If I didn’t know how the Who’s story ended, it would make me extremely optimistic for them going forward.
Speaking of Neil Young, I should point out that Neil’s not guilty of any kind of adolescent self-pity thia year, although on at least one of his two albums this year, he’s by no means a happy man.  I understand why people respect Tonight’s The Night, but it’s such a wake of an album that it’s hardly much fun to listen to, nor does it have the energy of Time Fades Away.  Much better, in my mind, is Zuma, which is as close to an archetypal Neil Young album as you’ll find, with long rumbling guitar solos, cryptic lyrics, and a loping, grungy sound.  It also includes what, as far as I know, is the only “secret” CSNY reunion buried on any of the respective members’ albums.  “Secret” CSN reunions, where the other two appear on one’s solo album, seem pretty common - there’s one on Still’s solo record this year – and Young will appear on Crosby albums, or Nash on Stills albums or whatever, but as far as I know this is the only appearance of all four outside of a formal CSNY record.  The rest of CSNY, by the way, are looking much less impressive than Young.  Crosby & Nash have another duo record, and they’re definitely moving more toward the soft-rock side of things than the folk-rock end.  Stills is a little better on his solo record, and sounds good, but (apart from a Neil Young cover) the songs aren’t really there. 
Too bad for CSNY, as they’re seeing a major challenger to their soft rock/folk rock crown in the form of a revitalized Fleetwood Mac, with all the harmony singing and interpersonal drama of CSNY, even if their sound is a little more upbeat.  I’d say more produced too, but that’s not really the case when compared to the slick records from C&N and Stills this year.  Catchier songs, though.
Finally, no Stones record this year except for the odds & sods cash-in Metamorphosis, the first time since 1963, but there are a plethora of bands that want to be the Stones.  Lynyrd Skynrd obviously have been around for a while before this, but by ’75 they’ve moved to sounding much more like the Stones than anyone else, at least on rockers like the mixed-message pair of anti-gun “Saturday Night Special” and pro-bullets “Gimme Back My Bullets.”  It suits them well, especially since they sound dreadful on more straight-country fare (and they certainly sound nothing like the Allmans anymore).  Moving up the East Coast, Aerosmith have their big breakthrough record, which is called Zeppelin-like as often as it is Stonesy, but since Aerosmith can more credibly swing than Zeppelin, I’ve always heard them as Stonesy.  I don’t quite know what it says that a pair of America’s most prominent 70s rock bands tried so hard to sound like a British band that more than anything wanted to sound like Chicago blues acts, but there you go.  Outside of America, too, the Stones’ sound to my ears is a big influence on AC/DC, whose Australian debut is this year.  Of course, given their heavier beat, they also sound more like glam, which really wanted to sound like the Stones anyway.  But they’ve got a heavier version of Stones riffs and they can swing in their own way, so it all adds up to probably the most exciting debut of the year.
Song of the Year:  In almost any other artist’s hands, it wouldn’t work, but “Thunder Road” is Springsteen’s greatest single, so gets the nod.  Epic in all the right ways.
Album of the Year:  Blood on the Tracks isn’t my favorite Dylan album (it’s not quite as good as the Bringing It All Back Home – John Wesley Harding run), but I’d be lying if I didn’t’ say it has long been an album I’ve loved a great deal.  Honorable mention, though, to Jeff Beck’s Blow By Blow, which was pretty much the soundtrack to me doing math homework in college.  Despite that, I still love that one too…
Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  I know they just got marked down last year, but this year it’s Kraftwerk, who have moved beyond the motorik sound already and succeed where Neu! failed in making a cohesive album.
Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  Stephen Stills.  Based on his earlier records, I always kind of assumed I’d find it worthwhile to get more Still solo records.  It seems I was mistaken.  Not bad, but not really memorable either.  Still, better than the hippie self-parody Crosby & Nash have drifted into.
Album List
ABBA - Gold
AC/DC - AC/DC
Aerosmith - Aerosmith's Greatest Hits
Aerosmith – Toys In The Attic
Al Green - The Absolute Best
Black Sabbath - Past Lives
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks
Bob Dylan - Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances
Bob Dylan - Vol. 3: Rare And Unreleased, 1974-1991
Bob Dylan - Vol. 5: Live 1975 - The Rolling Thunder Revue
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Legend
Bob Marley & The Wailers – Live!
Brian Eno - Another Green World
Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
Bruce Springsteen - Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 [Live]
Bruce Springsteen - The Essential Bruce Springsteen
Chris Squire – Fish Out Of Water
Clifton Chenier - Bogalusa Boogie
Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - Carry On
David Bowie - Best Of Bowie
David Bowie - Changesbowie
Electric Light Orchestra - Strange Magic: The Best Of Electric Light Orchestra
Elton John - Greatest Hits 1970-2002
Fela Kuti - The Best Best Of Fela Kuti
Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac
George Harrison - The Best Of George Harrison
Goblin - Goblin
J.J. Cale - Very Best Of
James Brown - The Big Payback: 1971-1975
Jeff Beck – Blow By Blow
Jethro Tull – Minstrel In The Gallery
Jethro Tull - Original Masters
Joe Strummer - Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited (The 101'ers)
John Lennon - Imagine Soundtrack
John Lennon – Rock ‘n’ Roll
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - The Beserkley Years: The Best Of Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers
Kraftwerk – Radio Activity
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Leonard Cohen - The Best Of
Lynyrd Skynyrd - All-Time Greatest Hits
Neil Young - Decade
Neil Young - Tonight's The Night
Neil Young - Zuma
NEU! - NEU! 75
Parliament - Tear The Roof Off 1974-1980
Patti Smith - Outside Society
Paul McCartney - Wingspan: History
Paul McCartney - Wingspan: Hits
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Queen - Classic Queen
Queen - Greatest Hits
Richard & Linda Thompson - Hokey Pokey [Bonus Tracks]
Richard & Linda Thompson - Pour Down Like Silver
Rod Stewart & The Faces - The Best Of Faces: Good Boys When They're Asleep
Roxy Music - The Best Of Roxy Music
Rush - Chronicles
Sly & The Family Stone - The Essential Sly & The Family Stone
Steely Dan - A Decade of Steely Dan
Steely Dan – Katy Lied
Stephen Stills – Stills
Talking Heads - Sand In The Vaseline
The Ethiopians - Everything Crash: The Best of The Ethiopians
The Kinks - Celluloid Heroes
The Rolling Stones – Metamorphosis
The Staple Singers - The Very Best Of The Staple Singers
The Who - The Ultimate Collection
The Who – The Who By Numbers
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback V: Through The Cracks
V/A - Back In The Day Jamz
V/A - Pure Funk
V/A - Samba Soul 70!
V/A - Saturday Night Fever
V/A - Trojan Dub Massive Chapter I
Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger

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