It's now become an annual ritual here at Media Rants to celebrate some of the great music released fifty years ago. I do this for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that wading through the classics helps me prepare for "The Rhetoric of Rock" class I teach every few years. In addition, almost all the music celebrated represents artists and albums that I actually listened to back then, and so writing these posts helps me relive my youth in a not-at-all dysfunctional or senior-life crisis kind of way.
Maybe the major reason for celebrating fifty-year-old music is I sincerely believe the recognized albums deserve to be heard by younger generations. I'm not one of those old guys who trash modern music and pine for the old days. If you are willing to take the time to search, you'll find music today every bit as good as what I celebrate in this post. The problem is that in our algorithmic culture, the great stuff is generally hidden while you're fed a steady diet of what you've indicated preferences for.
It turns out that 1975 was a pivotal year for popular music. Some of the older, established stars from the 1960s were still recording terrific tunes and still getting radio play. Their days were numbered though; by the late 1970s disco, punk, British new wave, and early hip-hop would dramatically change the musical landscape. In 1975 FM radio still saw itself as a space for youth counterculture, and except for disco (which offended the hard-core rock audience), FM DJs would pretty much play anything. My students today find it hard to believe there once was a time when commercial FM radio was so great that a young person could listen to it for hours at a time without getting bored or feeling overwhelmed by obnoxious commercials.
I'm going to highlight twenty-five albums of 1975 in this post, and then twenty-five more in another later in the year. So much amazing music was released that year that some classics will be left off. My bias is towards albums that I listened to extensively back then, and/or those I grew to respect over time. I'm going to break the initial twenty-five into five categories:
- Rock and Roll Theater
- Empowered Women
- Progressive Pop
- Breakthrough Albums
- Guitar Heroes
A number of the albums cut across several categories, but I think I am mostly accurate in what I identify as the dominant groove of each.
Without any further ado . . . .
Rock and Roll Theater
Rock music of the late 1960s and early 1970s tended to be connected deeply to social movements. Artists wrote and performed songs that had some kind of civil rights, anti-war, youth rebellion, or other movement message. As the movements waned, the rock genre became a space for vivid theatricality. Artists like T-Rex and David Bowie pioneered rock-and-roll theater in the early 1970s. Here are five iconic 1975 representatives of the genre:
Queen: A Night At the Opera. Queen's perfect album, and perhaps one of the most consequential of all time; up there with The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" and The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" in terms of the enormous impact it had on so many future artists. The classic track "Bohemian Rhapsody" remains one of the most extraordinary accomplishments in the history of recorded popular music.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack. Susan Sarandon, Oscar winner for "Dead Man Walking" (1996) and star of a number of prominent films, claims that the only movie she is consistently asked about is "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." RHPS is not only the ultimate cult classic, but is now the longest running theatrical release in movie history. Audiences for it are known to show up in costumes, and usually have the lyrics to the songs memorized. Musically, the tunes are a glorious mishmash of 1960's rock styles, performed with humor and high energy. As Paul Simon might say, it's still crazy after all these years.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Time Warp
Kiss: Kiss Alive. If you want a yardstick with which to measure Kiss' popularity, try looking at the names of bands that have OPENED for them over the years. That list includes rock gods Sammy Hagar, Anthrax, Guns N' Roses, Rush, Judas Priest, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, Tom Petty, and many others. The original Kiss (Paul, Gene, Ace, and Peter), which I was fortunate to see at Madison Square Garden in the 1970s, was truly something to behold; perhaps the essence of rock and roll theater.
Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare. Born Vincent Furnier in 1948, Alice Cooper found a way to pair metal music with props and stage illusions, ultimately becoming The Godfather of "Shock Rock." His stage antics, which had "pro-family" groups up in arms, were tame by today's standards. "Welcome to My Nightmare" became one of his most popular albums, with songs that stayed in his concert set list for decades. Below is the title track performed in 1989.
Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare
Parliament: Mothership Connection. Legendary funk/dance band. Mothership Connection was added by the Library of Congress to the National Recording Registry in 2011. LOC declared that the album "has had an enormous influence on jazz, rock, and dance music." For our purposes, Parliament's stage show at the time was one of the most over-the-top happenings in the history of music, with a literal spaceship prop lowered to the stage as the band performed.
Empowered Women
In the 1960s the notable exceptions like Janis Joplin and Grace Slick only seemed to prove the rule that the rock genre was primarily a male dominated affair. In fact it really wasn't until the 1990s that women artists fronting bands and/or getting top billing was generally perceived as the new normal. Some powerful women of 1975 did the hard work necessary to lay the groundwork for that. They included:
Heart: Dreamboat Annie. The Wilson sisters, vocalist Ann and guitarist Nancy, in 1975 released one of the most memorable debut albums ever. "Dreamboat Annie" featured songs that persist on classic rock FM radio to this very day.
Linda Ronstadt: Prisoner in Disguise. It takes guts to perform cover versions of iconic songs. On this album Ronstadt tackled, among others, classics like "Tracks of My Tears" by Smokey Robinson, "Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas, and "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton. She somehow found a way to bring new life to all of them. Remarkable vocalist.
Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac had been around as a moderately successful blues-rock band since the 1960s. In 1975 guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks joined, giving the band a new rock/pop sound that was a breath of fresh air on top-40 radio while at the same time edgy enough for the FM dial. Keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie had already been in the band, but the arrival of Buckingham and Nicks helped her find her voice and write some amazing songs. Nicks and McVie inspired generations of female rock and pop stars.
Fleetwood Mac: Landslide (featuring Stevie Nicks)
Fleetwood Mac: Over My Head (featuring Christine McVie)
Betty Davis: Nasty Gal. This album by jazz icon Miles Davis' ex-wife (he said he had to break up with her because she was "too wild") flew under the radar in 1975 and is still mostly unknown. And yet it's difficult to listen to this album without seeing later connections to Madonna, Lady Gaga, Cardi B and literally all sexually assertive artists of the last 40 years. The entire album rocks.
Dolly Parton: The Bargain Store. I was not the biggest Dolly Parton fan in my teens, but became an admirer in the years since. The Bargain Store is noteworthy in part because some country stations would not play the title track. The song uses a discount retail store as a metaphor for a woman hurt in a bad relationship. Some country stations thought the line "you can easily afford the price" was a subtle reference to prostitution.
Dolly Parton: The Bargain Store
Progressive Pop
The late sixties and early 1970s were the high point of so-called "progressive" rock. The legends of the genre, like Pink Floyd and Yes, produced lengthy songs that found a home on FM stations. The 1975 bands mentioned here were also part of that progressive rock movement, but they found a way to make pop songs out of it that could be played on top-40 radio too.
10 CC: The Original Soundtrack. Great album by one of the most underrated bands in pop music history. "I'm Not In Love," with its Beatles-esque harmonies and tearful tone, is a progressive rock classic.
Electric Light Orchestra: Face The Music. If progressive rock started with the Beatles 1967 Sgt. Pepper album (a debatable claim), no band stayed more true to that form than ELO. Guitar player/composer Jeff Lynne was admired by every member of the Fab Four, and after listening to "Face The Music" it becomes clear why.
Chicago: Greatest Hits. I'm generally not a fan of greatest hits packages, but this 1975 compilation by jazz-rock icons Chicago was actually my introduction to the band. I loved every song on it, especially the opening guitar chords of "Beginnings."
Paul McCartney and Wings: Venus and Mars. McCartney's 1970s output was closer in style to the mid-1960s Beatles than anything recorded by John, George, and Ringo. In a religion class at my Catholic High School, a teacher asked us all to come to class with the name of a song that had something to do with God. I can't recall what my suggestion was, but I distinctly remember some kid saying "Listen to What the Man Said" by Wings.
Paul McCartney and Wings: Listen To What The Man Said
David Bowie: Young Americans. A remarkable thing about David Bowie was the way he constantly reinvented himself as a representative of whatever were the dominant trends of a period. "Young Americans" had flashes of pop, soul, funk, and disco, all of which were big (or in the process of becoming big) at the time. But he even recognized his roots by bringing John Lennon out of semi-retirement to sing backing vocals and play guitar on "Fame."
Breakthrough Albums
With one exception (The Outlaws), this category features albums by artists/bands that had been around for a few years, but their 1975 recording either greatly expanded their audience (Springsteen, Nazareth, Aerosmith), established themselves in a fresh genre (Beck), or set a standard for a particular genre (The Outlaws).
Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run. Bruce's first two albums went nowhere commercially, but "Born to Run," with its epic stories and working class persona, established him as the new Bob Dylan. The song "Jungleland," a kind of Shakespearean tragedy featuring a heart stopping Clarence Clemons sax solo, is his all-time greatest song in my opinion.
Nazareth: Hair of the Dog. Arguably the greatest hard rock band of all time from Scotland, Nazareth had been touring and recording extensively for years before finally hitting pay dirt with "Hair of the Dog." The cover of the Everly Brothers' "Love Hurts" became the band's signature tune, but I think a song like "Changin' Times " better represents where the band was at in 1975: Dan McCafferty's howling vocals and Manny Charlton's roaring guitar help you look past the misogynist lyrics. The entire second half of the song is a glorious jam session, the likes of which almost no band attempts today (hard to get downloads and shares for long jams, apparently.). These guys are not in the rock and roll hall of fame, but really should be.
Aerosmith: Toys in the Attic. The band's third album, and still their most commercially successful. "Sweet Emotion" is an FM radio staple all these years later, while "Walk This Way" ended up as the tune that broke down the walls between rock and hip hop.
Jeff Beck: Blow By Blow. Rock guitar icon Jeff Beck hinted toward jazz for a number of years, but did not finally make the plunge until "Blow By Blow." What an incredible piece of music; sounds every bit as vital and fresh today as it did in 1975. The real brilliance of the record is how it does not sacrifice Beck's blues roots, but weds them with modern jazz.
Outlaws: Outlaws. Back in the day most bands did not break through with their first album. Not so with The Outlaws. Largely on the strength of the classic "Green Grass & High Tides," this album became an immediate hit. "Green Grass & High Tides" is yet another example of a song that was only possible because of the excellence of FM radio at the time. It would be hard to imagine an almost 10-minute jam getting much of a listen today. That's our loss. The song and album set a pretty high bar for southern rock, a bar the Outlaws themselves had difficulty meeting in their follow-up albums.
Outlaws: Green Grass & High Tides
Guitar Heroes
In 1975 the influence of the late Jimi Hendrix could still be heard in a wealth of rock albums. Great guitar players abound today (think Jack White, Seasick Steve, John Mayer, St. Vincent, and Orianthi to name just a few off the top of my head) though their inspired riffs have difficulty competing with electronic dance beats in the logic of the streaming algorithms. The albums in this category feature rip-roaring guitars played at a time when the guitar riff was the essence of the rock brand.
Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti. Maybe Zep's greatest achievement. Four vinyl sides of Jimmy Page taking the guitar to electric and acoustic spaces that are mysterious (as in "how the fuck does he get that sound?") and consistently mesmerizing. The song "Ten Years Gone," in my view, is the one that brings together all of Page's guitar wizardry in one track.
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Nuthin' Fancy. In 1975 you could not find a more intense guitar duo than Skynyrd's Gary Rossington and Allen Collins. "Saturday Night Special" might be my all-time favorite Southern rock song.
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Saturday Night Special
Deep Purple: Come Taste The Band. When guitar god Ritchie Blackmore announced in late 1974 that he was leaving Deep Purple, most critics assumed the band would not survive. Refusing to throw in the towel, the remaining members recruited Tommy Bolin to replace Ritchie. Bolin had hard rock roots with the James Gang, and played on Billy Cobham's jazz fusion classic "Spectrum." "Come Taste The Band" ended up being one of Purple's better albums, with Bolin's guitar perfectly complementing the soulful vocals of David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes. Bolin started a solo band around the same time, and after opening for guitar icon Jeff Beck in Miami on December 3,1976 he tragically overdosed on heroin.
Deep Purple: You Keep On Moving
Rush, Caress of Steel. The legendary Canadian power trio released two great albums in 1975 ("Fly By Night" and "Caress of Steel"). "Caress" was not commercially successful at the time, but has grown in stature as fans found within it the roots of the hard rock/progressive style that would feature heavily in their big hits of the 1980s. Guitar player Alex Lifeson really deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Page, Clapton, and Beck when the discussion of all time great axe men comes up.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Zuma. Why is Neil Young called "The Godfather of Grunge?" In part it's because of the guitar style he introduced with his band Crazy Horse, especially in the 1975 Zuma album and 1979's Rust Never Sleeps. Zuma includes "Cortez The Killer," one of the greatest rock jams ever.
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