ITT: /mu/ in 1976
ONCE I WAS A BOOGIE SINGERPLAYIN' IN A ROCK AND ROLL BAND
Anyone else voting for Carter? I ain't giving my vote to the guy who pardoned Tricky Dick.
it's only 13 years until Taylor Swift is born. enjoy it while it lasts.
YOU THINK PEOPLE WOULDA HAD ENOUGH OF SILLY LOVE SONGS
>>127589846Paul is so corny these days the critics were right about him and that John was always the real brains behind the Beatles.
The Fall is something else
SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE YOUR BOOTY, YEAH
Like its accompanying tour, this album, recorded and set in Miami, is a profit-taking throwaway but that is not necessarily a bad thing--Neil Young is always wise to wing it and the less that Steve Stills expresses himself the better. Also hearing Steve only sing lead vocals every other track is an exponential bonus. His "Make Love To You" sets up "Moonlight on the Bay", Neil's stupidest song in many a moon. But Neil's in a droll mood most of the time--title cut's a riot. Not bad for California rock. B
The proof of how desperate people are for new Springsteen is in how they'll settle for this, even. Songs such as "The Boys Are Back In Town" are the sort of thing that ends up in Bruce's wastebasket. If Irish teen traumas are as boring as Phil Lynott's descriptions of them, then it's no wonder the Irish have trouble keeping their birthrates up. And if they're as secondhand as Scott Gorham's guitar lines, then the Irish will probably end up preferring Springsteen, too. C
>>127590209fuck this faggot
>>127589787He seems very low energy
I love this record--love it, even though these boys flirt with brutality much like how "Midnight Rambler" flirts with rape. Not that they condone any nasties, mind you--merely hint that their music has some fairly ominous sources they tap into. It's also true that the references to Nazism do make me uneasy, but then it's always been my theory that good rock-and-roll had damn well better make you uneasy. It's clean the way the Stooges weren't, sprightly the way the Dolls weren't, and just plain listenable like Black Sabbath never were. And I hear it cost $6,800 to put on plastic. A-
>>127589884The song is making fun of dorks like you
>>127589646Good music is dead, it’s over.Picrel is the last good rock album ever made.
>>127590360>it's always been my theory that good rock-and-roll had damn well better make you uneasyWhatever happened to just having a good time?
Its over bros
>>127589884John is hiding out in a NYC apartment and probably laying on the floor next to a used syringe now.
*talks in guitar*
rock is dead and KISS urinated on the corpse. take me back to '69 when the music meant something.
>>127590401>John is hiding out in a NYC apartment and probably laying on the floor next to a used syringe now.But that's what probably 75% of New Yorkers are doing in 1976.
>>127590395It's brilliant satire. He's literally agreeing with all the critics who say modern rock is crypto-fascist but they're too dense to see it.
YOU DIRTY BASTARD
Speaking as a non-fan, I grant that this is their most substantial if not enjoyable lp--they clearly couldn't have written any of the songs on side one without caring deeply about their California subject matter. Problem is Don Henley is incapable of conveying a mental state as complex as self-criticism--he'll probably sound smug croaking out his last dying words ("Where's the coke?") Also I'd be curious as to what Mexican-Americans think of the title cut's Mexican accent. B.
>>127589646Germans are still crazy
>>127590360>I love this record--love it, even though these boys flirt with brutality>It's also true that the references to Nazism do make me uneasy,wtf is he even talking about?
holy shit
>>127590490I fucking hate the Eagles, man.
>>127590507did you even listen to it
>>127590063LOL STEPHEN STILLS SUCKS XD
My favorite drummer got his fucking legs broken, fuck!
Like most hard (not heavy) bands wildly favored by young teens (cf. Alice Cooper, BTO) these guys have always rocked harder than adults were willing to admit. Pro producer Bob Ezrin however merely adds bombast and melodrama. Their least interesting record. C
>>127590562>Pro producer Bob Ezrin however merely adds bombast and melodrama. Their least interesting record.another "excuse me?" moment
>>127590580tl;dr Detroit Rock City sounds too arena rock
>>127590562Even Alice Cooper was going soft by then. Oh and guess who produced him too...
Alright Peter, you win. I'll review your stupid album--it's only been in the top 20 all year. Now will you please go away? C-
>>127590624this is a circus act not a musician
>>127590539Yes, yes, he does.
As Joel's craft improves (I can recall four or five of these songs from their names) he becomes more obnoxious. The anti-idealism of "Angry Young Man" isn't any more appealing in tandem with the pseudo-ironic sybaritism of "I've Loved These Days." I do however catch myself in moments of identification with the three place name songs on side two, "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" moreso than the overrated "New York State of Mind." C+
Those who dismiss them as unlistenable miss the point entirely--they write tough, catchy songs and if they had a sly, Jagger-like singer up front they'd be a menace. But they're not a menace--as my sister, nephew, and niece assure me, the kids are in it for the burlesque. I mean, when the cartoon superhero commands the audience to reach into their pocket and whip out their rocket, don't they know this is a caricature of sex and macho sex at that? Maybe so, but I'm not getting on my knees to find out. C+
>>127590690underrated album
Their closed-system commitment to a robotic aura renders embarrassing questions about whether they mean what they're singing irrelevant, which is good. Too bad their pleasure in artifice doesn't wholly irradiate the patchy material here. Best hook--Blue Weaver's organ on "Subway." B-
Pack it up boys. Rock has been concluded. Also, did you know the spaceship is a GUITAR?!?!
>>127590825It doesn't seem to get played as much as his other albums for some reason.
Dave Hickey compares the teen crossover of the year to a Buick Roadmaster, and he's right--they've retooled Led Zeppelin till the English warhorse is all glitz and flow, beating the shit out of Boston and Ted Nugent and Blue Oyster Cult in the process. Wish there were a lyric sheet--I'd like to know what that bit about J. Paul Getty's ear is about--but (as Hickey says) the secret is the music, complex song structures that don't sacrifice the basic 4/4 and I-IV-V. A warning, though: Zep's fourth represented a songmaking peak, before the band began to outgrow itself, and the same may prove true for this lesser group, so get it while you can. A-
>>127590854>boomer bar music *yawn*Wake me up when Chicago Transit Authority’s on
>>127590882>boston>overproduced guitars>chicago >muh hornsThank you lads but for me it’s KANSAS
>>127590882Chicago have been commercial AOR slop for years by now.
https://youtu.be/19gCLq-Zmnw
This has been denounced by the pure-at-heart as a racist vulgarization and while I'll accept the idea that the real hook on "Play That Funky Music" is the phrase "white boy" rather than the instrumental track, I'll also argue that it's real hard to vulgarize Graham Central Station. The performance is admirably crude, but even so its relationship is more akin to that of Grand Funk and Cream than, say, Graham Parker and Sly Stone. C
Now they're rich boys and they've gone too far 'cos they don't know what matters anyway. C
>>127589884The Beatles were always a shitty Buddy Holly and The Crickets ripoff band.
F
>>127590978Not as good as s/t. Now that was prime white boi soul.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOu0orvpe5o
>>127590998>King's untimely death from complications of stomach ulcers on December 28, 1976 at age 42 was precipitated by stress from nonstop touring and living on mostly Bloody Marys instead of actual food.
>>127589646Music’s been dead since February 3rd, 1959.
It's priggish if not stupid to complain that Radio Ethiopia's "four chords are not well played." If they were executed with the precise attack of an Aerosmith, _then_ they would not be well played. For although there's no such thing as an unkempt heavy metal record--technocratic assurance is the soul of such music--unkempt rock and roll records have been helping people feel alive for twenty years. When it works, which is just about everywhere but the (eleven-minute) title track, this delivers the charge of heavy metal without the depressing predictability; its riff power--and the riffs are even better than the lyrics on this rockpoet experiment--has the human elan of a band that is still learning to play. A-
>>127591053another meh album that critics unnecessarily overrated. i listened. it's not as good as Rocks, it's not as good as Destroyer, it's not as good as Sad Wings of Destiny.
How the fuck are all are the black sabbath members still alive they will all be dead in 5 years.
Back from the nuthouse at last. It's been a long eight years, man.
>>127591071those are overrated too
As with James Brown, whose circa-1971 J.B.'s provided this band with its horns and rhythm section, there always seem to be waste cuts on George Clinton's albums. The difference is that Brown's are intended as filler even when they come out inspired, whereas Clinton's feel like scientific experiments even when they're entirely off-the-cuff. The title cut here, a thirteen-minute congas-and-keyboard reconnaissance decorated with a few chants, turns out to be fairly listenable. Which I noticed because it's preceded by a catchy march called "I'm Never Gonna Tell It," their greatest post-doowop experiment yet. Also out there: "Take Your Dead Ass Home!" Not to mention the horns and rhythm section. B+
This is trash. Time to hang up Lucy, Albert.
yeah they're washed
Pretty cool track... never heard anything like it before.... Jim 1971-74... Vietnam.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs3kKHhG4m0
>>127591127Congrats on regaining sanity, Aunt Rosie and...oh your sister just bit the dust. That sucks.
And wow, two in one year, the second no better than the first. I'm not trading my copy of Born On A Bad Sign for this, no thanks.
Originals and influentials they obviously are, but too often individual pieces of their unprecedented music aren't _necessary_. They didn't have time to get really silly here, so this is unusually consistent, but "Hots on for Nowhere" is as close as it comes to a commanding cut, and I prefer "Whole Lotta Love" and "Rock and Roll" and "Dancing Days." Nu? B
>>127589646I don't know what I think about it.Carter '76
Rock and Roll Over > Destroyer fight me
>>127591201>Betty Clooney passed away abruptly of a brain aneuyrsm in her Las Vegas home on August 5, 1976 at age 45. The Clooney sisters had initially dueted as part of the Tony Pastor Orchestra before going their separate ways in 1949. Unlike her sister, Betty did not make a full-time career out of music and devoted most of her time to raising a family, doing only occasional recordings and live performances. Her untimely demise led Rosemary to support charities to benefit stroke and aneurysm victims.
This is their best album since Sunflower, which is their best of this decade. Brian is aboard, if not in charge. But Sunflower or Wild Honey it's not. The oldies idea isn't itself the problem. But except for "Palisades Park" and "A Casual Look" the choices might have been more inspired, and the playful, goofy vocal intensity of the black music covers of their youth is often missing. I can deal with the Maharishi stuff by now--it simply underlines the group's public transformation from super-normals into harmless eccentrics--but never again should they commit an I-love-music song. In the current example, rock evolves from the Gregorian chant, an idea I do not consider a harmless eccentricity. B
Q: How do you tell American art-rockers apart from their European forebearers? A: They sound dumber, they don't play as fast, and their fatalism lacks conviction. The question of humor is still up for debate. Amusing as I find titles such as "Father Padilla Meets The Gnat" and of course "Leftoverture" itself, I find no parallels whatsoever in the music. D+
>>127591241yeah they're also washed
Pleased to meet you. I've been around for a long long year, stole many a man's (and woman's) soul and faith. I just ate Betty Clooney's soul, tried her sister too but didn't succeed with that one and just made her go nuts for a while. And I'm hunting some big game next year, won't tell you whose soul I'm going to consume but you'll find out next August. Until then...
Miraculously, Bowie's attraction to black music has matured; even more miraculously, the new relationship seems to have left his hard-and-heavy side untouched. Ziggyphiles can call it robotoid if they want--I admire the mechanical, fragmented, rather secondhand elegance of Aladdin Sane, and this adds soul. All of the six cuts are too long, I suppose, including the one that originated with Johnny Mathis, and David sounds like he's singing to us via satellite. But spaceyness has always been part of his shtick, and anybody who can merge Lou Reed, disco, and Huey Smith--the best I can do with the irresistible "TVC 15"--deserves to keep doing it for 5:29. A
Jaye P. Morgan's bizarre unreleased '76 yacht rock album.
Album eight is most impressive for the cunning with which Mitchell subjugates melody to the natural music of language itself. Whereas in the past only her naive intensity has made it possible to overlook her old-fashioned prosody, here she achieves a sinuous lyricism that is genuinely innovative. Unfortunately, the chief satisfaction of Mitchell's words--the way they map a woman's reality--seems to diminish as her autonomy increases. The reflections of a rich, faithless, compulsively mobile, and compulsively romantic female are only marginally more valuable than those of her marginally more privileged male counterparts, especially the third or fourth time around. It ain't her, bub, it ain't her you're lookin' for. B+
>>127591462good one and it also handily explains why Taylor Swift is shit. ie. nobody wants to hear a plutocrat singing about how rich she is and how many men she's fucked.
ok
This is a monstrous record. The "rock" star who broke the Broadway barrier seems to be thinking Big Musical, in the urban sentimental mode (complete with Evil, of course) that does such small justice to the challenge of New York. Although fellow urban sentimentalist Robbie Robertson can achieve an awesome (almost fulsome) fullness with rock instrumentation, his production is basically pop program music. Yet somewhere in my cockles I found Diamond hooking me as I listened for the last time and I had to admit that it takes a special kind of chutzpah to create a monster. C+
None of the few rockers on this impossibly weepy, impossibly excessive double-lp match any on the first side of Yellow Brick Road or Rock of the Westies. Or, as my wife, in total innocence of who was on, exclaimed, "What is this tripe?" C-
Taylor's commitment to the traditional soul style remains unimpeachable even when he accedes to material as modish as the likable but lightweight "Disco Lady." But to call him traditional is not entirely a compliment--he still lacks the kind of aggressive originality that can take a mediocre hook-and-lyric by the ear and drag it out of oblivion. Which is where too much of this album remains. C+
New York City's dangerous these days, don't go down there unless you have a knife in your coat or a can of mace.
>Boswell, part of the "original" girl group the Boswell Sisters (Connee, Martha, and Vet), one of America's biggest music acts in the Depression era, passed away in New York City on October 11 at age 68. The sisters, scions of a well-to-do New Orleans family, had numerous hit records in the '30s and were much in demand for live and radio performances as well as product endorsements. They disbanded in 1937 when Martha and Vet decided to get married but Connee continued as a solo singer and remained popular into the war years; Bing Crosby called her his favorite out of all the singers he had worked with. After World War II, Connee was nudged aside by younger girl singers such as Jo Stafford and Doris Day but continued to record until 1954.
These cats from Australia can rock>>127590209Wow I fucking hate this guy>>127590360Glad to see these kids from new york rock so hard Even this hack struggles to knock them. >>127590854Album of the year for sure this one is mindblowing
Side one is well-wrought heavy metal--tensile and clever, reminiscent of Deke Leonard only clearer. Side two is the usual frantic melodrama. B-
The biggest selling record albums of all time are The Sound of Music, Bridge Over Troubled Water, and Tapestry. The proof of how un-homogenous mass culture truly is is in how few consumers are likely to own all three. And as proof of how numbing Jane Olivor truly is, it's safe to assume she not only owns all three but would put them in her top albums of all time. She may as yet succeed but if so it will be by discarding the part of Barbra Streisand that Bette Midler put in the garbage. C
In the tradition of the best disco, side one has songs you can not only dance to but listen to as well. Also in keeping with tradition, side two is utter crap. C
I don't know how many KC albums the record lover need own. One may well be enough, but zero is certainly too few. This is less consistent than the second and more predictable than the first, but it's a close question: Casey and Finch are remarkably inventive within their unique little ambit. Like the others, this sounds so samey you think the riffs will never kick in--and then they do. B+
One of the artiest cover illustrations ever to come out of Nashville has misled casual observers into the belief that this is a concept album about George and Tammy's marital problems. What it is is a slightly better-than-average George Jones LP marred by a surfeit of conjugal-bliss songs. First by a country mile: "Billy Ray Wrote a Song," about two up-and-coming Nashville professionals, both male. B
>>127594457>>127594069yeah yeah Jews love their corny showtune bullshit. what about it?
WELL THERE MUST BE FIFTY WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVERFIFTY WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER
James Brown is my idol
In the great tradition of Grand Funk Railroad, Dylan has made an album beloved by tour devotees--including those who were shut out of Rolling Thunder's pseudocommunitarian grooviness except via the press. It is not beloved by me. Although the candid propaganda and wily musicality of "Hurricane" delighted me for a long time, the deceitful bathos of its companion piece, "Joey," tempts me to question the unsullied innocence of Rubin Carter himself. These are not protest songs, folks, not in the little-people tradition of "Hattie Carroll"; their beneficiaries are (theoretically) wronged heroes, oppressed overdogs not unlike our beleaguered superstar himself. And despite his show of openness, our superstar may be feeling oppressed. His voice sounds viscous and so do his rhymes, while sisters Ronee and Emmylou sound distinctly kid, following the leader as if they're holding onto his index finger. More genuinely fraternal (and redeeming) are the pained, passionate marital tributes, "Sara" and "Isis." B-
>>127594860but at this point James is a bit washed and making self-indulgent garbage nobody but himself would appreciate
Aretha vamping over competent-plus Curtis Mayfield tracks is sexy at worst, mixing rhythmic and emotional frisson, soul product as it should be, albeit deplorably post-verbal. Good late-night listening, I suppose--but not as good as Spirit in the Dark, or Super Fly. B
>>127594879He's having fun, son.
"I'm Black, I'm Back?" is how JB begins the commercial message on the jacket, and the title track is his biggest single in a year and a half. "I can see the disco now," he emphasizes, and even the blues and the ballad cultivate a groove designed to reintroduce him to that alien world he founded. But he sounds defensive because he has a reason to be--he can't hit the soft grooves the way he can the hard ones. When he starts equating himself with Elvis Presley (just before the fade on "I Refuse to Lose"), you know the identity problems are getting critical. B-
The only substantial talent in this group is bassist-producer Paul McCartney, and he's at full strength only on the impassioned "Beware My Love," although "Let 'Em In" and "Silly Love Songs" are charming if lightweight singles, and "She's My Baby" sounds like an outtake from the "white" double-LP by McCartney's former group, the Beatles. In any case, the supporting cast is disgracefully third-rate. The vocals of guitarist Denny Laine are even lamer than those of McCartney's wife and keyboard player, Linda. B-
>>127595013You're lying, Denny lane is great, the guy from moody blues whose name escaped just now, terrific fellow. Wings was fated due McCartney's larger than life status, but that doesn't mean they were no good, it's just that they couldn't have been a Led Zeppelin, much less the Beatles.
Oh my my my no, everyone could have seen this coming a mile away. Other side of the record...fitting song title, except the good times were never there to begin with.
>>127595143I mean the obvious issue was that Wings were 100% professional rock entertainers and none of them were really friends with Paul on a personal level or going to challenge any of his dumber ideas.
>>127594870OMIGOD HE SAID THE N WORD CANCEL HIM NOOOOWWWWWW
KISS fucking suck man, rock is dead.
More blatantly imitative of black-music rhythms and styles than any Stones album since December's Children, and also less original (if more humorous) in the transformation, this nevertheless takes genuine risks and suggests a way out of their groove. Lots of good stuff, but the key is "Hot Stuff," pure Ohio-Players-go-to-Kingston and very fine shit, and the high point "Fool to Cry," their best track in four years. Diagnosis: not dead by a long shot. A-
>>127590932Nobody will ever convince me that they wrote this stuff themselves.
only retards use letter grades for reviews
>>127595318F-
Ahh, New York. I remember Debbie Blondie when she was singing with nursery-rhyme breathiness for a group called the Wind in the Willows. Now she sounds flatly cynical against a very funny aural montage of girl-group and original-punk usages from the prepsychedelic era--less blithe, certainly, but more, you know, together. Which is what new-punk posturing is all about. Special award: best use of trash organ since "Light My Fire." B+
AOTYBOTYBelew guitarist of the yearBozzio drummer of the year
>>127590490I would almost count this as a 1977 release rather than a 76 release since it came out at year's end and was on the charts primarily in 77.
sucks that the Meters broke up but these guys will carry on
This fellow sounds as if he could use a band. Do you think Leon Russell can drum one up? C
>>127590874classic
MY SON DAVIDHE WAS JUST HIT BY A CAR
Touring the way this band does tears you up by the roots, until the digs at Rolling Stone assume an authenticity lacking in the tales of the Pan-Am Highway. But this is the first trio to hark back to country music as well as blues, and they're brawnier than anything that comes out of Austin. You think Kinky Friedman will cover "Arrested for Driving While Blind"? C+
one of the better one-off supergroups
>>127595410yeah yeah he was done after departing Apple for Atlantic, we all know
>>127590841I could do without the sax intro on Subway though.
Linda's always wanted to be a Real Country Singer, but RCS put out two or three LPs like this every year. You know--find some good tunes, round up the gang, and apply formula. Like the great RCS she can be, she comes up with some inspired interpretations: the flair of "That'll Be the Day" and "Crazy" do justice to the originals, and her version of the title song almost makes you forget its unfortunate title. But you cover Tracy Nelson's "Down So Low" at your peril even if you believe not one in ten of your fans remembers it, and the three Karla Bonoff lyrics make her (I mean Karla, but Linda too) sound like such a born loser that I never want to hear anyone sing them again. B-
Scaggs is criticized for his detachment, but I say it's subtlety and I say thank god for it. In the past, he's sometimes bought (not to mention sold) his own lushness, but this collection is cooled by droll undercurrents--white soul with a sense of humor that isn't consumed in self-parody. Inspirational Verse: "Gotta have a jones for this/Jones for that/This runnin' with the joneses, boy/Just ain't where it's at." A-
>>127595760>and her version of the title song almost makes you forget its unfortunate titlenice Karen Carpenter mimic
>>127595809I give Boz this, he was unapologetic about carving out his own niche of background music for urban yuppies who drink bad cocktails and brag about their summer vacation in Europe.
>>127590562Why are they dressed like women?
Although it sticks too close to heart songs, this comeback-to-basics statement is the best country album of the year and far surpasses the rest of Jones's recent work. I'm getting to like the over-forty Jones as much as the rawboned honky-tonker anyway--what's amazing about him is that by refusing the release of honky-tonking he holds all that pain in, audibly. The result, expressed in one homely extended metaphor per song (the only one that's too commonplace is "diary of my life"), is a sense of constriction that says as much about the spiritual locus of country music as anything I've heard in quite a while. A-
whole album was meh but at least achilles last stand is up there with their best shit.
>>127595877the 70s is prolly my favorite era of country
Although the rumors of a major new artist that began after the success of "Poetry Man"--still her sappiest song, although the lyrics here aren't what they call creative writing--originated with fuzzy-minded mongers, I'm pleased to report that her trademark melismatic quaver hasn't degenerated into a gimmick, and I acknowledge that this is a good record of its type. I just have my doubts about how good a jazz-folk mood-music record can be. Money isn't all that's "worthless/When your music's mirthless"--sometimes the music is as well. B
This is a generally catchy album by the sad standards she's settled for, but beyond Ashford & Simpson's gorgeous, mournful "Ain't Nothin' but a Maybe" and the seven intoxicating minutes of "Love Hangover" it's often catchy-annoying rather than catchy-compelling or at least catchy-fun. Major offenders: "Theme From Mahogany," the boop-nostalgia "Smile," and its clone, "Kiss Me Now," which captures her at her archest. (Catalogue number: M6-861.) B-
>>127596025>the boop-nostalgia "Smile,"wut
You can take the Doobies out of the country but you can't transform them into Three Dog Night. C-
>>127596046Pre-rock pop nostalgia.
Almost imperceptibly, album by album, they soften their Free-derived formalism--not only does this one include ten (why, that's almost eleven!) different tunes, but the dynamics shift and the tempos accelerate slightly and Paul Rodgers actually sounds a little soulful. Which needless to say is a mixed blessing. It's not just that the lyrics are dumb, although there are smarter ways of being dumb than this, but that Rodgers emotes these egregious hip-and-funky clichés as if he's never run across such sentiments before in his life. Ordinarily, that's what a (soulful) singer should do. This time, though, it adds a false note that endangers the entire illusion. B-
>>127596059Hey now I kind of dig "Don't Believe It."
>>127591127>I'm Not LisaThat was one song that didn't need to be acknowledged by covering it, no thanks.
>>127596025>the funky lounge tracks are good>the retro cabaret tracks are badAs if we totally didn't expect that.
>>127595494Styx fucking sucked, man. Music for people who resembled Steve Urkel.
I've never had much truck with Seger's myth--he's always struck me as a worn if well-schooled rock and roll journeyman, good for one or two tracks a year. But this album is a journeyman's apotheosis. The riffs that identify each of these nine songs comprise a working lexicon of the Berry-Stones tradition, and you've heard them many times before; in fact, that may be the point, because Seger and his musicians reanimate every one with their persistence and conviction. both virtues also come across in lyrics as hard-hitting as the melodies, every one of which asserts the continuing functionality of rock and roll for "sweet sixteens turned thirty-one." In one of them, the singer even has his American Express card stolen by a descendant of Ronnie Hawkins's Mary Lou, if not Mary Lou herself. Worrying about your credit rating--now that's what I call rock and roll realism. A-
>>127595152If I didn't know better I'd swear most of her post-60s stuff was just her and Thiele doing money laundering.
In which the daughter of the first king of crossover pop aspires to the grandeur of Lady Soul, with results that are more Chaka than Aretha and betray a soupçon and a half of Nancy Wilson. So where's Natalie? Serving her masters, ex-Independents Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy. B
>>127596430That is a pretty bad and almost nightmare fuel cover.
Who's up for a good old fashioned lawsuit? I know I am.
Don't let creative convolutions, misguided notions of feminism, or the idea that punk rock should transcend ordinary musical ideas tempt you--this is Kim Fowley's project, which means it is tuneless and wooden as well as exploitative. How on earth anyone could hang around El Lay for this long without copping a lick or two defies comprehension. The answer must lie in sheer perversity, which in of itself makes for the one truly perverse thing about the man. C-
>>127595879but boy they were sounding tired especially Plant
WORKIN' AT THE CAR WASH, AT THE CAR WASH YEAH
>>127589646I love kate bush
>>127596547Kate is just 18 in 1976 and hasn't yet released anything just recorded some demos.
>>127596503will they even play live again? it's been like 3 years since their previous album and they're all on drugs or drunk constantly.
>>127591305>track 6highly accurate description of living in my country in the 70s
>>127596581What shithole you from? There were a lot of countries like that back then.
has a bright future unless he drinks himself into a coma
>>127596489he didn't give a stellar review to a shitty punk album? now that's a first
>>127596764That is as much a "punk" album as Avril Lavigne's albums were.
>>127595152https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWwoh8q5DgMThis is like if someone read a book titled "How To Write A Disco Song."
>>127595152B-side's Teresa gets mopey. It's not _awful_.
>>127595286Just a bunch of groove and jam shit no real songs even if some of them are fun.
>>127597010This The Lime Popsicle guy is pretty damn demented to have all these playlists of Teresa Brewer tunes including late career garbage nobody bought.
>>127597158Two in one year she was a busy girl back then owning the scthick Teresa and Patti Page once did in the long ago.
>>127589646Can't believe Genesis is over now. They'll never manage without their genius.
Addicts of updated nostalgia and rock and roll readymades should find this a sly and authentic commentary on the evolving dilemma of Harold Teen. The songs are cute, the riffs executed with more dynamism than usual, and the singing attractively phlegmy. And like they say at the end of other cartoons, that's all, folks. B+
Hahaha this fanook reads the Village Voice.
>>127597214Tom Petty sucks btw.
The only reason people are disgusted with this record is that they're sick of Dylan--which is understandable, but unfair to the record. The palookas who backed him on this tour sure ain't the Band, and the music and arrangements suffer accordingly--these guys are folkies whose idea of rock and roll is rock and roll clichés. But the material is excellent, and on a few occasions--I gravitate to "Oh Sister" and "Shelter From the Storm"--Dylan sings very well indeed. B-
Emphasizing Dolly's perky, upbeat side, this doesn't offer a single must-hear track, but it's remarkably consistent. Songs like "When the Sun Goes Down Tomorrow" (country girl goes home) and "Preacher Tom" (saving in the name of the Lord) reprise old themes with specificity and verve, and the covers from Emmylou Harris and Merle Haggard broaden her perspective without compromising it. Intensely pleasant. B+
Not content with her corner on the wraith-with-a-twang market, some folk's favorite folkie manque has added funk and raunch and echo and overdub to her voice. The result is a record I play some, perhaps out of sheer surprise. Song selection also helps--an unforgettable Townes Van Zandt melody is unearthed, and the two Gram Parsons selections don't automatically shame themselves by recalling the originals. B
Except for "Mercy on Those," a quite remarkably tedious profession of self-righteousness that occupies the last 6:06 of side one, Snow's gifts as a singer and lyricist are finally channeled. The silly mystical ideas are way down below her overriding good sense; up above we find a fairly strong, direct, and happy woman who is by no means vegetating in her contentment, perhaps because she's too insecure ever to become complacent. She's rocking a lot more, correct practice for a content but uncomplacent person, and when her voice wavers it no longer sounds as though it wants to disappear altogether. And the three non-originals--"Teach Me Tonight," "Don't Let Me Down," and "Shakey Ground"--make quite a combo. B+
This is an impressive record, but a lot of the time I hate it; my grade is an average, not a judgment. Clearly Jon Landau has gotten more out of Browne's voice than anyone knew was there, and the production jolts Ol' Brown Eyes out of his languor again and again. But languor is Browne's best mask, and what's underneath isn't always so impressive. The shallowness of his kitschy doomsaying and sentimental sexism is well-known, but I'm disappointed as well in his depth of craft. How can apparently literate people mistake a received metaphor like "sleep's dark and silent gate" for interesting poetry or gush over a versifier capable of such rhyming dictionary pairings as "pretender" and "ice cream vendor" (the colloquial term, JB, is "ice cream man")? Similar shortcomings flaw the production itself--the low-register horns on "Daddy's Tune" complement its somber undertone perfectly, but when the high blare kicks in at the end the song degenerates into a Honda commercial. Indeed, at times I've wondered whether some of this isn't intended as parody, but a sense of humor has never been one of Browne's virtues. B
>>127597349>The shallowness of his kitschy doomsaying and sentimental sexism is well-knownso much projection
>>127597334That woman was a Jew, just so you know.
When informed that someone has achieved an American synthesis of Led Zeppelin and Yes, all I can do is hold my ears and say gosh. C
>>127596373Seger begins his descent into being lame MOR rock for suburban dads.
>>127597334>Except for "Mercy on Those," a quite remarkably tedious profession of self-righteousness that occupies the last 6:06 of side oneand I have no idea whatsoever what she's going on about there.
the good about the 70s was that there was absolutely no rap anywhere
>>127597633just 3 more years
>>127597633No just all the funk and soul songs rap will be built off stealing.
It's no accident that the rich, hortatory one-man music of "Love's in Need of Love Today" is counterposed against the more intimately devotional one-man music of "Have a Talk With God," or that when the theme turns sociopolitical in "Village Ghetto Land" Stevie's synthesizer turns from African sounds to an ironic (though elegant) string-quartet minuet--the calm detachment of which is rudely interrupted by a jazz-funk tribute from Stevie's Wonderlove band, which then moves into the danceable black-music tribute "Sir Duke." And in themselves the words are much funnier and trickier than the sociospiritual bullshit or Maurice White or Kenny Gamble; as validated by the wit, pace, and variety of the music, they come close to redeeming the whole genre. A
>>127597349>This is an impressive record, but a lot of the time I hate itChristgau in a nutshell.
>>127596458explain?
EW&F are the real black MOR, equivalent in their catchy way to the oh-so-expert Carpenters, though of course they're much better because they're black--that is, because the post-Sly and harmony-group usages they've had to master are so rich and resilient. Most of these songs are fun to listen to. But they're still MOR--the only risk they take is running headlong into somebody coming down the middle of the road in the opposite direction. Like the Carpenters. B
If these guys actually sounded as if their studio were located (as it is) in a Georgia industrial park--fluorescent light through the pines and so forth--the general improvement in clarity and inventiveness might be interesting. But it's industrial only in the most predictable sense--more product. Even Charlie Daniels obviously has something to sing about; the vocalist here--why should I bother to look up his name?--might just as well be cuttin' another dog-food spot. C+
>>127589646Holy Fuck. I just saw this band on the sunset strip. they were fucking phenomenal. the guitar player is unbelievable. hopefully they get signed one day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXCaK4_awPQ
>>127597864>hating ARSYou're not my friend, Bob.
I find it telling that Peter Yarrow's only success of the decade is an Olivia Newton-John clone, albeit one willing to admit she fucks around. C
Might drop some syd barret (what me and the guys called LSD) a little later and listen to some ‘Floyd
>>127597987Floyd didn't have an album out this year so they don't qualify for the purposes of this thread.
This is Stewart's most ambitious record since Never a Dull Moment four years ago, but its ambitions are only partly fulfilled. If he's gonna start doing big message numbers, he'd better rise above the pathetic liberalism of "Tradewinds," the most overblown song he's ever recorded 'cept maybe for the symphonic version of "Pinball Wizard." And if he's gonna break new ground thematically, as on the "gay" "Killing of Georgie," he'd better come up with slightly less Dylanesque melodies--in the course of comparing Stewart's song with its fraternal twin, "Simple Twist of Fate," I was reminded of just how precise an arrangement can be. B
>>127598019Hey man, chill out. You’re talking like a spaceman or some shit.
>>127598050Not the first or last album where the artist just threw on some low effort "We live in a society" tracks based on cliches to get critical points.
>>127597943that first song is so good. wtf
DON'T GO BREAKIN' MY HEARTI COULDN'T IF I TRIED
>Zappa only had one album out this year instead of the usual 5-6
Album #65 I think.
>>127590690Cunny
This well-made, rather likable rock and roll shows more pride and joy than the standard El Lay studio product--probably because the characters here assembled don't do this kind of thing all that much--and is a lot more listenable than Clapton's second Miami LP. The words are trite but the singing is eloquent and the instrumental signature an almost irresistible pleasure. When he's been great, however, Clapton has always been shaped by a concept, and I don't perceive one here. B-
>>127594413Fuck this guy. Not Bob, the guy he's reviewing.
>>127596810The accurate analogy is 70s Paramore, except not as smarmy and pretentious.
>>127598356i'd take their guitars over Paramore's any day though.
>>127597809They sued Mushroom Records for releasing a bunch of demos and outtakes without telling them first.
>>127594470That chick died pretty young, I guess too many drugs.
>>127598403>>127594470i remember "Turn The Beat Around" being still played a lot into the 90s, eg. being sampled in TV commercials but it seems to have disappeared since. same with Kool & The Gang's "Celebration".
This is marred by new what's-going-_on_-in-the-next-apartment distractions; again and again. Donna bids the object of her affections "come . . . come . . . come" before adding "to my arms," so that when she cries out "don't let go" you have to wonder of what. But it does boast two otherwise uninterrupted sides of baroque German disco fluff and proves that she can carry a tune as well as a torch. I can even imagine playing it at a party. B
>>127598403Died of cancer apparently. She was mixed black-white, maybe she didn't have the best genetics.
>>127594851Fair enough, a bit '76 hit but the actual album came out in '75 so we don't include it in the thread.
>>127594851Rosemary Clooney also covered this, kek, but next year so not inc. in the thread.
>>127590209>the Irish have trouble keeping their birthrates upDo we have a source for this? Because "irish only child" is an oxymoron.
>>127596025Diana definitely a bit directionless and still high off Billie Holiday fumes from that movie so she thought for a while that she was capable of doing torch songs.
>>127598486https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1976Actually a number of these including Love Is Alive, Fly Robin Fly, and Take It To The Limit were from LPs that came out in 75.
>>127598521right. that was why we didn't post the albums.
>>127598521The Year End Hot 100 charts aren't the actual calendar year but October to October, hence this one was the top singles from October 75 to October 76.
>>127590854>did you know the spaceship is a GUITAR?I...actually never knew or noticed.
>>127598521>Fly Robin FlyDumb song but fun as fuck, everything 21st century dance tunes are utterly incapable of.
>>127597943Jesus Christ. Ladies and Gentleman...here come the 1980s! (why the fuck that first somg never made it on an album god only knows. There has to be shit like this in the vault)
>>127598230I don't think anyone's ever listened to maybe more than 12% of his total discography.>>127595877In George Jones's case it's probably 10%.
>>127596404kind of pointless to cheap shot Teresa Brewer by this point when she was only making music as a hobby basically it's not like she was trying for top 10 hits anymore. if this was a 1955 thread you'd have more reason to cheap shot her.
>>127598596>In George Jones's case it's probably 10%it's Nashville they worked singers to the bone we know
It looks like an unused Robin Trower cover.
I'M GONNA COOOOM
>>127598672Poor Roy, reduced to making albums that sell 3 copies each and playing at county fairs in Oklahoma along with Jay and the Americans or something.
>>127590690>The anti-idealism of "Angry Young Man" isn't any morehe's saying you can't change the system and raging against it is pointless. sound advice.
Speaking of washed up...yeah nobody remembers any of the mediocre product Cash ground out in the 70s even if the title song here was a #1 country charts hit.
>>127598736He's gotta put in the obligatory trucker jokes because it was that era.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uErKI0zWgjg
>>127598102Yo it was! "Believe me" it's called, have they recorded it? That was heavy.
Miller's eccentricity--James Cotton harp amid the Sam Cooke amid the technologized ditties--has no center or even epicenter except for the pastoral antimaterialism so common among exurbanite rock tycoons. But in the end his borrowed hooks and woozy vocal charm are an irresistible formula. Finds good covers, too--"Mercury Blues" (copyright 1970 by K.C. Douglas, whoever he is) fits right in. B+
>>127594109not as bad as he makes it out to be but if you wanted rockers i could see why you'd be disappointed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73RYirgeLV4the time a porn star had a top 10 hit
>>127591163Their sound wasn't especially fresh anymore by 76 and this album proves it.
A lot of people are crazy about this record, but I find its bifurcation alienating. On the one hand, we have the usual unlikely borrowings, the most effective from Wilbert Harrison and the Everlys. And as usual, these are powerful, strange, and interesting--and often quite compelling. On the other hand, we have unlikely remakes of old Roxy Music material, much of it from the group's very first album. Although Ferry proves that he knows more about making records (and music) than he used to, the songs remain powerful, strange, and interesting--but not quite compelling. Add it all together and you get . . . two separate parts. B
>>127590562most versions of Detroit Rock City on Youtube omit the sfx intro
>>127599408Journey before they were Journey.
Tony keeps grinding out albums for the five people who are still interested.
>>127594413Most of the vocals on this LP are sung by Meatloaf, some of his best work.
>>127600502sauce? moar?
>>127590516Holy crap i feel like a marijauan plant right now, dude.....
it's only 18 years until Maggie Rogers is born. enjoy it while it lasts.
It took me a long time to hear that this forthright (not to say stentorian) black Englishwoman was anything more than a postfeminist Odetta, but it's clear in retrospect that Armatrading was reaching for something more colorful and less pompous even on her apparently folky 1973 debut, Whatever's for Us, produced by Eltonian concertmaster Gus Dudgeon. Two years later, on Back to the Night, she had shucked both the portentous prettiness of Dudgeon and the vague portentousness of lyricist Pam Nestor, but only here, with production from Glyn Johns, does she find a context forceful enough to give her own maturing lyrics an edge. Helps that she's more comfortable singing, too. B
>wow they're back, jerry is dialed in, the band is more rehearsed than ever. the string of shows at beacon was a trip -- i need a miracle for one of the Orpheum shows! can't wait to see you all there on this summer tour. the break was worth it!>>127591267all timer right here>>127591462why doesnt she just have a studio that's on the ranch?
>>127590624I used to like Frampton then I literally forgot he existed, one day I was totally shitfaced enough to remember.
Its finally clicked
Their third or fourth "live" double of the decade is the first one to contain all the sorry earmarks of the genre, namely a lot of stretched-out remakes. And believe me, the Dead can rilly stretch 'em out. C-
You can lead a Doobie to the recording studio, but you can't make him think. C+
>>127597943holy shit. what the fuck even is that?
>>127589787>Anyone else voting for Carter?I am. He knows whats up!
>>127608454cool shirt
>>127597943
>>127610960picture has the wrong date. He didnt paint the stripes on the guitar until 1977. He's also wearing the same shirt he has on on the album cover
>>127597943if that was in 2010s they would be some soi indie band who make the world's most boring music and tell audience to make sure to be vaxxed at all times and if you voted for Orange Racist you must leave this concert at once because it's our safe space
