This is one of those albums I feel like we’ve been slowly building up to, even if this is a sort of out of nowhere smash for the mainstream rock world. Punk rock in its real time formation. This is the sort of rarified air of albums that just breaks shit and reforms it in a new image, much like The Stooges, Led Zeppelin, Paranoid, or Are You Experienced? - albums that canonize a particular sound in a particular moment in time. And yet, the reality of a lot of this is it’s looking back at the basic rock and roll that predates the Beatles - just really loudly and really fast. Or better known as the proper kick in the pants rock and roll needed in a decade of excess.
From American punks to British punks - The Clash play hard and are full of piss and vinegar on their debut. This album similarly flies by, but there’s a little something extra to them - yes power chords, yes blisteringly quick pace with shorter songs, but they bring a little more that gives them range - the two best tracks here for me are White Riot and Police & Thieves, one a pure powerhouse of punk rock and the other with elements of reggae on top of that. Great aggressive album.
Alright, still a bit of ‘76 to go and I am about to be away for a few days, so the list so far for ‘77 and awaiting your recommendations:
Grateful Dead - Terrapin Station
Pink Floyd - Animals
Steely Dan - Aja
Midnight Oil
Iggy Pop - The Idiot
The Sex Pistols - Nevermind the Bullocks, Here Comes the Sex Pistols
The Ramones - Rocket to Russia
Wire - Pink Flag
Television - Marquee Moon
Talking Heads - Talking Heads ‘77
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Exodus
The Clash - Give ‘Em Enough Rope
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
KISS - Love Gun
Foreigner
Meatloaf - Bat Out of Hell
Chicago XI
The Doobie Brothers - Living on the Fault Line
Jimmy Buffett - Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude
Peter Gabriel
Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
Tom Waits - Foreign Affairs
Neil Young - American Stars n Bars
Crosby, Stills & Nash - CSN
Marshall Tucker Band - Carolina Dreams
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors
Billy Joel - The Stranger
David Bowie - Low
Soundtrack: Saturday Night Fever
Brian Eno - Before and After Science
Brian Eno - Cluster & Eno
Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
Miles Davis - Dark Magus
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Big dramatic shifts, massive guitar riffs, and the epic vocals of Ronnie James Dio are all a big part of this Rainbow album. The comparisons to Deep Purple still readily apply here, as the band works at times at breakneck speed to bring some real intense hard rock that most of the time, if you are looking for this sound on any particular day, hits the mark quite well. The excess so big and unrelenting it has its own charm. Stargazer seems to be the biggest and baddest of the bunch, so we’ll settle there for the top song here. Fun if you let go of pretense.
For 77 you've listed Rocket to Russia but not Leave Home, te other Ramones album released that year. I recommend it, it's a more polished version of the self titled
Anders wrote:I do not have a «neoliberal assessment of geopolitics», so please stop writing that I do.
What a start after a short break!? AC/DC arrive loud as hell, and immediately drop any pretense in rock music. There’s no ethos, no deep concern, no blues - just a big riff and a kicking down of the rock ‘n’ roll altars - almost like the Kool Aid man busting through some brick wall. And yes, this is unrelenting hard rock, there’s still little surprises here, like bagpipes and whatever they are doing on The Jack. TNT is the well known track here, but the title track, Rock N Roll Singer and She’s Got Balls bring just as much to the party. Good times indeed.
The iconic title track is this band all wrapped up in a bow that you could show a friend in 4 minutes everything they need to know about AC/DC. Yet the album shockingly shows a bit of range for a band pegged as a one-trick pony. Big Balls is flat out ridiculous, but it’s a sonic departure from the formula, as is the slow jam Ride On, or the 7 minute builder Ain’t No Fun (Waiting Round to Be a Millionaire). Granted, there’s plenty of their rock and roll to keep things rolling, and one still wouldn’t necessarily call it adventurous in its departure, but hey, we all just need a few huge riffs and a good laugh sometimes.
This is one of those albums I grew up adjacent to because I had an older brother who loved KISS and played this album more than enough times that Detroit Rock City, Beth, etc. are sort of ingrained in my brain as who KISS are. Putting aside there may be less depth to this than even AC/DC’s brand of part rock (there’s a contrarian edge to that this doesn’t quite have), the opening trifecta of Detroit Rock City, King of the Night Time World, and God of Thunder that makes this album. Beth and Shout It Out Loud are other classics here for KISS that are solid, but that opening trio is all things KISS.
Between this and Destroyer, there’s a pretty significant drop off. There’s a thin line with KISS between easy cathartic party rock and clownish caricature, I think. If they didn’t cross the line over here, well there’s really really close. Calling Dr. Love is probably the most old school KISS song here falling into the former category while most of the rest falls into the latter category. Hard Luck Woman is really unfortunate, sounding more like a band trying to be serious but in a Rod Stewart ballad kind of way (I have largely railed against that enough on this thread). This one falls near the bottom for me.
I have very little exposure to this band outside their live album I discussed in the live albums thread a long time ago. I obviously know Jailbreak and The Boys Are Back in Town and enjoy those songs. The gems here on top of that are really Running Back, and Cowboy Song, each examples of this band blending a strong sense of storytelling with moderately propulsive rock. Certainly a good solid album.
It seems like a while since we last checked in with this band, and this album feels like an amalgam of classic southern rock, almost a combination of what made them and the Allman Brothers so damn great. The title track and Cry for the Bad Man are pure Skynyrd, while Every Mother’s Son, Roll Gypsy Roll, and All I Can Do Is Write About It have an almost pastoral feel that the Allmans had perfected on Brothers and Sisters. Double Trouble and (I Got the) Same Old Blues are also wonderful highlights here, but my favorite here that brings all these elements together is Searching. This is one of those albums that after it’s done, you appreciate the view that much more than listening in the weeds.
The Essential Track: Searching
Up Next: Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band - Night Moves
It seems like a while since we last checked in with this band, and this album feels like an amalgam of classic southern rock, almost a combination of what made them and the Allman Brothers so damn great. The title track and Cry for the Bad Man are pure Skynyrd, while Every Mother’s Son, Roll Gypsy Roll, and All I Can Do Is Write About It have an almost pastoral feel that the Allmans had perfected on Brothers and Sisters. Double Trouble and (I Got the) Same Old Blues are also wonderful highlights here, but my favorite here that brings all these elements together is Searching. This is one of those albums that after it’s done, you appreciate the view that much more than listening in the weeds.
The Essential Track: Searching
Up Next: Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band - Night Moves
Yes. So glad you liked this one. It’s by far their least popular and under appreciated. I consider this one their “dark” album. Not really any tunes about going out and having a good time or any real upbeat numbers. Most of the lyrics are about someone who has done him wrong. Gimme Back My Bullets being about the rights to his songs “bullets” being stolen from him. Cry For The Bad Man is the man that stole them. The songs about the business side of things were aimed at former manager Alan Walden. The band had fired him the previous year and retained the services of Peter Rudge, also The Who manager, who then convinced Van Zant that Walden took him for all he was worth. All his woman songs were aimed at his wife, who he had discovered was having an affair with the singer from Molly Hatchet. Apparently, it was a pretty open secret around Jacksonville that she was cucking Van Zant and he was planning on divorcing her when the plane crash happened.
The other subject matter of the album is far more existential than anything else in the Skynyrd catalogue. It makes for a quite unique blend of tracks for an album.
This album also only has two guitarists as third man Ed King had quit the band in the middle of the tour for Nothin’ Fancy. Also the first Skynyrd album produced by Tom Dowd.
I think you picked the right song for the standout. Great tune.
Let me tell you, Homer Simpson is cock of nothing!
- C. Montgomery Burns
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band - Night Moves
Bob Seger really feels like the center point of 70s rock. There’s some southern blues rock hanging in there somewhere, an ode to a more classic rock sound, and some good storytelling. He even has that raspy 70s rock vocal, and a burgeoning soft rock beard with flowing long hair. All the elements. The songs here are all pretty good, with the title track suddenly seeming almost Van Morrison like in its pastoral delivery, and with Mainstreet also a classic I didn’t realize was his. Rock and Roll Never Forgets seems like the perfect Bob Seger song., as is The Fire Down Below and Mary Lou. Solid album pretty much through.
It seems like a while since we last checked in with this band, and this album feels like an amalgam of classic southern rock, almost a combination of what made them and the Allman Brothers so damn great. The title track and Cry for the Bad Man are pure Skynyrd, while Every Mother’s Son, Roll Gypsy Roll, and All I Can Do Is Write About It have an almost pastoral feel that the Allmans had perfected on Brothers and Sisters. Double Trouble and (I Got the) Same Old Blues are also wonderful highlights here, but my favorite here that brings all these elements together is Searching. This is one of those albums that after it’s done, you appreciate the view that much more than listening in the weeds.
The Essential Track: Searching
Up Next: Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band - Night Moves
Yes. So glad you liked this one. It’s by far their least popular and under appreciated. I consider this one their “dark” album. Not really any tunes about going out and having a good time or any real upbeat numbers. Most of the lyrics are about someone who has done him wrong. Gimme Back My Bullets being about the rights to his songs “bullets” being stolen from him. Cry For The Bad Man is the man that stole them. The songs about the business side of things were aimed at former manager Alan Walden. The band had fired him the previous year and retained the services of Peter Rudge, also The Who manager, who then convinced Van Zant that Walden took him for all he was worth. All his woman songs were aimed at his wife, who he had discovered was having an affair with the singer from Molly Hatchet. Apparently, it was a pretty open secret around Jacksonville that she was cucking Van Zant and he was planning on divorcing her when the plane crash happened.
The other subject matter of the album is far more existential than anything else in the Skynyrd catalogue. It makes for a quite unique blend of tracks for an album.
This album also only has two guitarists as third man Ed King had quit the band in the middle of the tour for Nothin’ Fancy. Also the first Skynyrd album produced by Tom Dowd.
I think you picked the right song for the standout. Great tune.
Yeah, I made a small point about this but it I think fits that when you look back at the tracklist after the listen, it puts in context how good the album is even if you aren’t realizing it in the moment. I kept thinking oh this good, and then I looked back after and realized I really liked all of it.
This is one of those albums I grew up adjacent to because I had an older brother who loved KISS and played this album more than enough times that Detroit Rock City, Beth, etc. are sort of ingrained in my brain as who KISS are. Putting aside there may be less depth to this than even AC/DC’s brand of part rock (there’s a contrarian edge to that this doesn’t quite have), the opening trifecta of Detroit Rock City, King of the Night Time World, and God of Thunder that makes this album. Beth and Shout It Out Loud are other classics here for KISS that are solid, but that opening trio is all things KISS.
The Essential Track: Detroit Rock City
Up Next: KISS - Rock and Roll Over
I’m to the point on this one that I’m over most of the well known tunes from it. God of Thunder is the only one I can really listen to any more. Sweet Pain and Flaming Youth are much more interesting to me now.
Let me tell you, Homer Simpson is cock of nothing!
- C. Montgomery Burns
