For instance, a couple of readers (and myself) thought that there was a good chance that Born to Run by Springsteen might make the cut. It didn't, despite listening to it several times. Similarly, Mothership Connection. Why not?
I'll write a little about the worst albums - especially if they are from people you'd expect to do better.
The rest? Well, they'll still be a few records that I just find worthy of note - even if they're not 'the best'.
Why Not?
Let's get something obvious out of the way before we say anything else. Part of these judgements is taste pure and simple. I like a funky baseline more than I like a bitchin' guitar solo; similarly, I'm a pop kid at heart, so all things being equal, I'll go for hooks over something chin-stroky and interesting every time. Taste is always going to be part of my judgement - it doesn't mean I'm right.
Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
Let's note this first - Born to Run is great, it established Springsteen as a great talent and force in popular music. It has at least two cast iron monster tracks in the title track and Thunder Road. It will always be in my CD collection.
But the headline is, aside from the tracks mentioned, I just don't feel as invested in the rest of the album. I know that a big part of Springsteen's draw is the small town narratives he paints, as a non-lyrics guy, these are likely getting passed over. If Bruce is going to make it to my top ten, but his tunes are going have to engage me 100%, and sadly, several of them don't. Night, for instance, is another mid-tempo rocker - it's fine but I'm not rushing back for more. Backstreets makes me remember how good The Band are.
Despite the status of Born to Run, there are other Springsteen albums I love more (The River, Nebraska). Time will tell whether they make the cut in their respective years - I suspect that one won't, but that the other might. We'll have to wait and see!
Parliament - Mothership Connection
Given my love of funk, a few people assumed that this would be a shoo-in for any list I had in mind. It's commonly regarded as one of George Clinton's finest works - one of the archetypical pieces in the P-Funk canon. It has an incredible list of players too - Bootsy Collins, Fuzzy Haskins, Bernie Worrell, Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker. It also has some of the finest, funkiest riffs to be found on any of the Parliament/Funkadelic albums.
But, damn, if this isn't the point that they all got stupid too... Take the opening track, P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up). It has a great bassline, the coolest chorus. But throughout it all, it's all silly voices, and the rhythm is at the service of the 'narrator' (which is, as James Brown said: talkin' loud and saying nothing), in that it stops for extended periods for noodling and more wittering. The title track is better, the groove is even more infectious and the sinewy chorus is undeniable - but dammit if Clinton won't just shut up! I wish 'Star Child' would just be quiet for a while...
There's a LOT to love here. I truly love pretty much anything Clinton did prior to this, but this album marks the point where the P. Funk universe begins to become an exercise in the trade off between silly narratives and amazing funk. There's enough awesome grooves here for me to still love this record, but it is diluted a little. Later on, it got worse...
Patti Smith - Horses
When I first knocked up the long list for 1975, this was one of a number of wild cards. It had been years since I last listened to it, but it's reputation was formidable. The album is regarded as one of the first fruits of the New York scene that ultimately begat Talking Heads, Television, Ramones and so on (even if Patti Smith's own background was far richer than many of her CBGBs peers). According to acclaimedmusic.com, it is the 23rd most acclaimed record ever made!
Much like the other records in this section, there's a lot to love here. Smith, of course, is a poet and her presentations of these songs are captivating. The music and production (by John Cale) is stark and austere, but never less than interesting and engaging.
So why not? For all it's beauty and art, it sits on the side of admirable - it's just not as much fun. A bit like my image of Patti Smith herself, it feels a little prickly and difficult. It is rightly confident of its importance, and listening to it again now, I'd happily defend that - but am I enjoying it as much as the records that made my list? - sadly no.
The Worst?
A bit of team-effort...
Serge Gainsbourg - Rock Around The Bunker
Jane Birkin - Lolita Go Home
I love Serge. L'Histoire De Melody Nelson was one of my favourites from 1971. He had a career stretching back to the 50s and was still releasing interesting albums into the late 1970s. But 1975 was evidently a weird year for Mr. & Mrs. Gainsbough. As we know, Serge took pleasure in being iconoclastic, a provocation - he was not deterred from trying to find the lines of transgression. Frankly, while he sometimes got it right (Je T'Aime, of course), he just as often got it wrong (Lemon Incest). As weird and creepy as the latter track was (check the video...), I'd still recommend it over this record, Rock Around the Bunker.
It is an album dedicated to or poking fun at the Third Reich. I'll quote a little from allmusic, which gives a more positive reception than I'm inclined to:
"..an album which can be (and indeed has been) described as either a European reclamation of the pop potential of the Third Reich, following the success of Mel Brooks' The Producers, or an acerbic reclamation of a Jew's own humanity 30 years after the Nazis forced him to walk the streets in a bright yellow star. Or, and seen within the context of its maker's entire oeuvre, it might just be the slaughter of another of the sacred cows which Gainsbourg found so irresistible."It's really hard to know what to make of it. It's either hilarious or jaw-droppingly offensive. Perhaps neither, or both. I really don't know. But with song titles like Nazi Rock, Yellow Star and a cover of Eva Braun's favourite song (apparently) Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - which here manages a macabre double meaning.
I'd be more forgiving except that I really don't enjoy the music that much. It is pastiche rock and roll and not of the good sort. If I could buy into the lyrics (which are in French) or into the concept more, perhaps I'd at least see the funny side...
And talking of bad music, sadly his wife wasn't doing any better. Jane Birkin is not a great singer and her 70s albums are in many respects not much more than side projects for Serge, but a couple of her records are pretty good (never great - at least not until much much later in her career - see Arabesque). Sadly, though, this is just poor. It's weak as soft rock, it's weak as disco, it's weak as tarted up filth (Love For Sale).
Other albums I'd like to mention
Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
This is an album that I love very much - consider it utterly brilliant - but don't think I can honestly call it one of my favourites. I pick it up once every bunch of years, and when I do, when I am in the right mood, I adore it. In truth, however, if I put it on and I am not in that place, then not so much.
This is largely because of the nature of the album and there is a whole story that I'll sort of skip (but is worth investigating if this is your thing). In short, it is an hour long concert of improvised piano playing. Given that the piano in question is slightly out of tune forcing Jarrett to stick to the middle keys (that 'whole story' again), it is incredible the range of feeling that is brought out. It is a beautiful record and essential in the field of that sort of thing.
(16th most acclaimed album of 1975 according to www.acclaimedmusic.net, by the way!)
Willie Nelson - Red-Headed Stranger, Emmylou Harris - Pieces of the Sky & Elite Hotel
If there's one genre that has been given pretty short shrift over the years to date, it's country. Aside from Larry Jon Wilson, there has been nothing that could be categorically described as fitting that template and even then, it's a little leftfield. Part of what makes this an odd omission is that (a) I quite like a bunch of country records and artists; and (b), there have been some monster examples of the genre between 70-75. 1975 in particular has three stone cold classics (in addition to Wilson), and truth be told, probably more. My collection is under-representative here.
All the same, I really couldn't decide which of these three to highlight here - they all have things to recommend them. Willie Nelson's Red-Headed Stranger is a career high in a career that could justifiably be described as mountainous. It's simple, stark - almost all of it could be reproduced on a back-porch, and yet as song-cycle it is beautiful and affecting. Emmylou Harris made her debut in '75, having transitioned from a folkie to a country girl in apprenticeship to Gram Parsons. Her arrangements are fuller - closer to the Nashville stereotype of country music. But these two albums prove that she learned well what makes this Good Ol' Music tick. If you need proof of her talent and why she's regarded as one of the greatest female artists in Country along with Dolly, Tammy and Loretta check out her own Boulder to Birmingham on Pieces of the Sky. It was one of her earliest classics.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack
I am not a big musicals guy but there are one or two that have managed to burrow into my cold, dead heart and make a home there. Predictably, they (virtually) all date from the mid-70s (when I was most susceptible to such things, I'd guess). In honesty, I was in my teens when I first heard the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and back then it was all Time Warp, Sweet Transvestite and pretend transgressions. My friend Justina had the 'Audience Participation' version of the soundtrack, which she recorded for me and I listened to more than I'd be willing to admit. Anyway, over those many many many listens I grew a deep love of a bunch of the songs and the weird, twisted pastiche of rock'n'roll they presented. Susan Sarandon singing Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me, the Rose Tint My World suite, Tim Curry's I'm Going Home. These are all scratched like graffiti into my psyche whether I like it or not. (As well as the dumb-ass things that the audience shout out - thanks, Justina!)
Steve Harley & The Cockney Rebel - Best Years of My Lives
I've only recently dug into this guys records. I started with this one and worked backwards, picking up the first two Cockney Rebel disks - the ones with the guys that he sacked and then sung about on his one song, Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me). They're all still growing on me and so I still don't quite know where they will land in the final analysis.
Of course, his one song is incredible and rightly has claimed its place in the pantheon of great 70s songs. But there is a plenty of invention and creativity where Harley stretches and adapts what rock music can do. Unsurprisingly, there is a family resemblance with Bowie and Roxy Music. I'm not regretting rediscovering Cockney Rebel (of both iterations) - I'd definitely give them a whirl if you've not heard them.
Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes - Expansions
Throbbing Gristle ironically named their third (and best) album 20 Jazz Funk Greats. Having had many conversations with Bernard (who has a handful of years on me), I know the reputation that jazz funk had gathered by the end of the 70s and it wasn't a good one. I can't say what or why, but I'll wager my mother's grave that they had not been listening to THIS jazz-funk. Because it's awesome! (It only just missed on the top 10.)
It leans heavily on Latin rhythms and the spiritual jazz popular in New York and Chicago. It was on Bob Thiele's cool as a cucumber mid-70s jazz label, The Flying Dutchman. It has real echoes of Alice Coltrane's masterpiece Journey to Satchidananda or Leon Thomas' work with Pharoah Sanders, but in each case, keeping a foot more firmly in the funk camp. When Smith sings that we should expand our minds, this record was sure going to help!
For the record, 1976 is well under way... See you then :-)
