Back in April I released Part 1 of my celebration of the 50th anniversary of some notable musical releases of 1974. In the United States 1974 was a pivotal year, as Richard M. Nixon became the first (and to date only) president to resign the office. As a 13-year-old at the time I remember being transfixed by the Watergate hearings that hastened Nixon's downfall, which led to social isolation because I could not find other kids my age who cared all that much.
What occupied a weird 13-year-old consumed with Watergate? Books, comic books, and music of course! Before even starting high school I found myself taken with the satirical brilliance of Kurt Vonnegut, the mysticism of Herman Hesse, and the bleak plays of Sam Shepard. For some reason I enjoyed comic books with mystery and horror themes. (Maybe I saw them as a metaphor for the national nightmare that was Watergate.).
Record albums were fairly inexpensive in the 1970s, but I was unemployed, budget-less, and did not have my own room with my own turntable to retreat to. Thankfully, FM radio was still in top form in 1974, and even the top-40 AM stations were (unlike today) more than listenable. For example, the top-ten hit songs on the Billboard charts for the week ending June 15, 1974 were: "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods; "You Make Me Feel Brand New" by The Stylistics; "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot; "The Streak" by Ray Stevens; "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney and Wings; "Dancing Machine" by the Jackson 5; "Be Thankful For What You Got" by William DeVaughn; "The Entertainer" by Marvin Hamlisch; "For the Love of Money" by the O'Jays; and "Midnight at the Oasis" by Maria Muldaur. Not one awful tune in the bunch.
I've decided to organize Part 2 of the notable albums of 1974 into 5 categories: Timeless, Groundbreaking, Iconic 1970s, Transitions, and Metal Mishmash. Hopefully the reasons for each will be clear as we proceed. Let's get started!
Category 1-Timeless Albums
In this category I include albums that, while readily identifiable as 1970's creations, are not stuck in that time period. Lyrically, thematically, and musically, these records maintain a fresh quality capable of attracting new audiences in any time period. They include:
26. Dolly Parton, "Jolene": I've always found Dolly Parton to be a remarkable entertainer and humanitarian, but it wasn't until her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 that I started listening to her recordings that date back to the 1960s. I came to the realization that she's been a prolific songwriter. The "Jolene" album is one of her best, packed with tunes that have been covered by numerous other artists.
Dolly Parton: I Will Always Love You
25. Steely Dan, "Pretzel Logic": The third album by one of the most unique and innovative bands of all time; dudes with jazz and blues chops who could somehow write and perform commercially appealing music without giving off even a hint of selling out. What I personally like most about "Pretzel Logic" is the great Donald Fagen's vocals, which fill up the speakers in a way more distinct in comparison with the band's first two albums.
Steely Dan: Rikki Don't Lose That Number
24. Bob Marley and the Wailers, "Natty Dread": Reggae never quite caught on in the United States, but "Natty Dread" was a definite breakthrough. Watching and listening to Bob Marley get White Europeans and Americans to connect with pan-African, anti-colonialist, pro-revolution themes was something that later got me to understand the magical power of this thing called Rhetoric.
Bob Marley: Them Belly Full But We Hungry
23. The Grateful Dead, "From the Mars Hotel": The Dead famously disliked studio recording, but this album featured a number of songs that remained in their live playlist for decades (most notably "U.S. Blues," "Scarlet Begonias," and "Ship of Fools.") One sign of an album's timelessness is a 50th anniversary release. According to rock journalist Michael Gallucci:
Grateful Dead will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their Mars Hotel album with a three-disc "Deluxe Edition" that includes bonus tracks.
In addition to the remastered original LP from 1974, the expanded 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition includes two demo recordings from the era and a complete, previously unreleased concert from that year's tour in support of the album.
22. John Denver, "Back Home Again": If it's true that John Denver wrote "Annie's Song" (one of the greatest love songs in all of recorded history) in ten-and-one-half minutes while riding on a ski lift to the top of Aspen Mountain, the lesson is that when the heart's on fire one doesn't need much time to create a timeless classic. John Denver = Legend.
21. Gordon Lightfoot, "Sundown": This was the Canadian singer/songwriter's ninth album, but the first and only one to reach #1 on the USA charts. At 13-years-old I had absolutely no idea what romantic relationships were all about, but I remember hearing the title track "Sundown" for the first time and thinking something like, "He's not getting along with his girlfriend right now." Years later I found out that Lightfoot wrote the song in a pissed off mood, angry that he was home alone writing songs while his girlfriend was out at the bar with friends. Thankfully the next song on the album, "Carefree Highway," is about learning to chill when you think your romantic partner has let you down.
Category 2-Groundbreaking Albums
This category includes albums that were not necessarily the best or even most well known works of the artists in question, but had cutting-edge qualities that impacted later music. They include:
20. Kraftwerk, "Autobahn": In the mid-1970s the German electronic band Kraftwerk looked like nerdy college professors. No one could have predicted that the wizardry of their techno-music brand would inspire compositions in virtually every popular music genre to follow.
19. Sparks, "Kimono My House": Profoundly original group founded by the brothers Ron and Russell Mael, Sparks were known for producing quirky, danceable tunes that--for better or worse--became the prototype for what came to dominate Music Television (MTV) in the 1980s.
Sparks: This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us
18. 10 CC, "Sheet Music": One of the most underrated albums by one of the most underrated bands in rock history. 10 CC were musically adventurous, in a way that inspired better known artists like Queen, David Bowie, and scores of others. The adventurous quality of "Sheet Music" can be found later in the British New Wave of the late 1970s, much of the MTV pop of the 1980s, the indie-rock boom of the 1990s, and the Britpop wave of the 1990s and 2000s.
10 CC: The Worst Band In The World
17. The Bee Gees, "Mr. Natural": This might be the least well known recording in the entire Bee Gees catalogue, mostly because it yielded no hit singles. Its significance resides in it having inspired the "Blue Eyed Soul" genre of pop that normalized the idea of White musicians performing Black soul music. Later in the 1970s the Bee Gees would evolve further down this road with the soul/disco classic "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack. "Mr. Natural" was the first step on that path, a path that scores of White artists have followed ever since.
16. Frank Zappa and the Mothers, "Roxy and Elsewhere": What I always loved about Frank Zappa was his ability to mix musical chops and comedy. That mix reached its zenith on "Roxy," an album that remains as a testament to the idea that it is possible to compose and perform musical compositions that are sophisticated, provocative, and comic. The contemporary artist most closely resembling Zappa on these fronts is Father John Misty, who told The New Yorker magazine in Zappaesque fashion that he seeks to be "authentically bogus rather than bogusly authentic."
Category 3 - Iconic 1970s
These are records that SCREAM "1970s" as soon as they blast through your speakers or headphones.
15. Average White Band, "Average White Band": In the 1970s you could get five White guys from Scotland playing Black music while announcing themselves as the "Average White Band" and have the result seen and heard as a form of cross-cultural unification. Musically, this first album by AWB was anything but average, and the hit "Pick Up The Pieces" remains as one of the ultimate funk classics.
14. David Bowie, "Diamond Dogs": Bowie's last album in the ultra-1970s "Glam Rock" genre, lyrically inspired by the writings of George Orwell and William S. Burroughs. The '70s was a time when a substantial audience actually gave a shit about those kinds of influences in art. This album actually got me into Orwell, whose writing style I've been trying to imitate for almost 50 years now.
13. Mott The Hoople, "The Hoople": Speaking of glam rock, Bowie acolytes Mott The Hoople released an absolute masterpiece of the genre in 1974. The song "Marionette" IMHO is one of the great achievements in rock history, a terrific metaphor for all who pay the price for resisting the corporate hegemony that reduces us to mindless puppets.
12. Randy Newman, "Good Old Boys": In the early 1970s, thanks to the influence of the Beatles, the Who, and other classic rockers of the 1960s, it was common for artists to release "concept" albums in which the entire 35-40 minutes of vinyl explored a theme. At its best, the concept album genre gave us provocative and intelligent music like Randy Newman's "Good Old Boys." The album is an observation on the Deep South in the United States. Newman's classic song "Rednecks" laments the persistence of racism and the legacy of slavery in the south, but it also lambasts Northern hypocrisy. (The song references a famous appearance by racist Georgia Governor Lester Maddox on the Dick Cavett Show.).
11. Aerosmith, "Get Your Wings": There are some amazing jams on this, Aerosmith's second album. But its lyrical misogyny and sexism has a distinct early 1970s feels to it, a prototypical example of the pre-#metoo era garage rock genre. Still, Aerosmith's cover of "Train Kept a Rollin'" is the definitive version of that great old tune originally recorded by R & B artist Tiny Bradshaw in 1951 and remade as a rock tune by The Yardbirds in the 1960s.
Aerosmith: Train Kept A Rollin'
Category 4-Transitions
In this category we have artists at the end of a phase in their career; albums clearly recreating the artists' familiar formula--but just as clearly signaling a desire to move on to something different.
10. Cat Stevens, "Buddha and the Chocolate Box": British folk rocker Cat Stevens had been on an obvious spiritual quest for several albums preceding this one, and not too long after "Buddha and the Chocolate Box" he would leave the music business entirely, returning years later as the Muslim missionary "Yusuf."
9. The Rolling Stones, "It's Only Rock and Roll": By 1974 the Stones were in somewhat of a musical midlife crisis. Their previous album "Goats Head Soup" was the most poorly received in the history of the band, and so "It's Only Rock and Roll" became somewhat of a "return to our roots" effort with "Satisfaction" style riffs and a few "Ruby Tuesday" style ballads. But the most important song on the album was "Luxury," a reggae-inspired tune that symbolized the band's desire to move in new directions.
8. Bob Dylan, "Planet Waves": Even though he was only in his 30s, by 1974 Bob Dylan was treated as the elder statesman of popular music, an image that never sat well with him. When in need of recharging musically, he would seek out help from Robbie Robertson and The Band. "Planet Waves" is a high quality collaboration between Dylan/The Band, but like Cat Stevens in the same time period, Dylan is seemingly searching for something new. By the late 1970s he would be converting to Christianity and flirting with gospel music.
7. Linda Ronstadt, "Heart Like A Wheel": This was Linda's breakthrough album, winning her all kinds of awards and spending extended time on the charts. Yet the album boxed her into the commercial pop music formula, which was beneath her talent. Years later she became more musically adventurous (e.g. recording albums in Spanish, moving beyond folk and pop, etc.) without losing her core audience, and solidifying her reputation as one of the great singers of her generation.
Linda Ronstadt: When Will I Be Loved
6. Elton John, "Caribou": This album had the misfortune of being the follow-up to "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," Elton's signature recording and one of the classics in rock history. Anything after that was bound to disappoint. We now know from the biopic "Rocket Man" that Elton was struggling with alcoholism and substance abuse through most of this period, and it would not be until 1990 that he got sober and found a new direction in life and music. "Caribou" is not my favorite Elton John album, but "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" off the album is probably my favorite EJ song.
Elton John: Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
Category 5: Metal Mishmash
Inspired by the "progressive" rock movement, heavy metal bands in the 1970s were moving beyond mere loudness, high pitched vocals, and guitar hero theatrics. This last category features some of the defining metal of the era.
5. Deep Purple, "Burn": For Deep Purple fans, the "Mark 3" era featuring David Coverdale on vocals and Glenn Hughes on bass/vocals is as divisive as the Roth/Hagar debate over which version of Van Halen was better. (Mark 2 Deep Purple featured the great Ian Gillan on vocals and gave the world the mega-hit "Smoke on the Water."). Mark 3 Deep Purple did not last very long, but their initial release "Burn" is an important milestone in metal history. Ritchie Blackmore's guitar takes a funkier turn, the rhythm section (bassist Hughes joined by Jon Lord on keyboards and Ian Paice on drums) is as tight as ever, and the vocal back and forth between Coverdale and Hughes is unique in metal history.
4. Blue Oyster Cult, "Secret Treaties": BOC were still a few years away from their monster hit "Don't Fear The Reaper," (the ultimate cowbell song) but "Secret Treaties" is actually their best album. Just a rocking good time from start to finish, with a style that greatly impacted the New Metal movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Blue Oyster Cult: Dominance and Submission
3. King Crimson, "Red": Guitarist Robert Fripp, bassist/vocalist John Wetton, and drummer Bill Bruford all had success before this album, but "Red" solidified their status as progressive metal legends. This is one more example of an album that was only able to be heard because FM radio did not suck at the time. "Red" is kind of like the "thinking person's metal."
King Crimson: One More Red Nightmare
2. Bachman Turner Overdrive, "Not Fragile": Most people don't realize that BTO, featuring the immensely talented guitarist Randy Bachman, were one of the most popular touring bands of the early to mid 1970s. Part of the attraction was the band's blue collar image, and another part was that they figured out a way to give metal a radio friendly sound that would appeal even to listeners who did not care for metal.
BTO: You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
1. Robin Trower, "Bridge of Sighs": One of my personal favorites, featuring Robin Trower's soaring guitar and James Dewar's supremely soulful vocals. Robin Trower at the time was often brushed aside as being nothing more than a Jimi Hendrix imitator, which was and is utter bullshit. There's clearly a Hendrix influence in his music (spoiler alert: Hendrix influenced ALL guitar based rock that followed him), but what's even clearer is that Trower expanded the reach of the Fender Strat in directions that no one--not even Hendrix--previously traveled. "Too Rolling Stoned" is one of the most incredible blues-metal jams in the history of the universe.
I hope you enjoyed this post! Rock On!
