Category b) Seventies [1970 – 1979]
1975 COUNTDOWN | #75 — #66
Welcome to the sixth annual 50 year countdown. Beginning in 2020 with 70 FROM ’70 we’ve sampled music from each year and attempted to find the ‘keepers’. This year is no exception, though the fragmentation of rock music into sub-genres makes any attempt at ranking increasingly fraught. In this initial set we have keyboard-based prog, […]
1975 COUNTDOWN | PROLOGUE
What do you remember about 1975? Were you even born? Was your world dominated by mother’s breast, or were you starting your first job? Attending kindergarten or enrolling at uni? Doing calisthenics or marching against the Vietnam war? What music was rocking your world… or has wormed its way into your cultural landscape over the […]
ALBUM COVERS… MORE RECORDS
A further collection of album covers featuring vinyl records. * The southern hemisphere enters Spring, soon to be followed by Don’t-leave-vinyl-in-your-car season. This alternate melting moment cover from New Zealand is far superior to the original. Heat Wave — Too Hot To Handle [GTO 1976] * The original UK release of this compilation of the […]
ALBUM COVERS… WITH RECORDS!
A collection of album covers featuring vinyl records. * Let’s start globally, shall we? Van Der Graaf have it large with a record the size of the earth. VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR — World Record [1976] * Despite it being a record obsessive’s nightmare, I do love this cover (which is not by Hipgnosis). The […]
I RUN TO YOU
September 23rd is the forty-eighth anniversary of the release of Steely Dan’s Aja. ♥ From its striking cover—timeless in its enigmatic simplicity—to the fadeout of the final song, Aja resides comfortably in classic album territory. Several other ‘classics’ came out in 1977, commercial monsters including Fleetwood Mac Rumours and the Eagles Hotel California. But where […]
ROOTING FOR NUCLEUS
Overnight I received a text message from good mate and lifetime record collector, Mr 1537. No greetings or preamble necessary; like any true music tragic, Joe cut straight to the chase. “Are you familiar with this platter of pure delight?” he asked. I am, Joe, to a degree at least. And I agree with the […]
ALBUM COVERS | PASSPORT
German musician and band leader Klaus Doldinger formed Passport in 1970. With a strong jazz base, they were innovative and exploratory, creating a European jazz-rock with pronounced progressive tendencies. In addition to playing saxophone, Doldinger also played piano and was an early adopter of synthesisers in jazz. When pianist Kristian Schultze joined, the keyboard became […]
SUPERNAUT
High School was well and truly done before I acquired my first stereo. Sure, the family home had several devices capable of emitting music: a Bakelite mantle radio in the kitchen, my Father’s Elcon reel-to-reel tape recorder, the sideboard sized stereogram in the lounge, all polished wood and frowning classical records. But all of these […]
ALBUM COVERS | FLAPS 2
There were a couple of leftovers from the first “Flaps” album cover post. Add in some suggestions from the Wordiverse with a special shoutout to CB for the first entry here) plus one I remembered at 3am and voila! …Part 2 beckons. * The humble—and now, sadly, totally redundant—postcard has been used for album covers […]
ALBUM COVERS | FLAPS
They fold, they open, they arise, they reveal. Those hinged bits of a record sleeve that give you something to study—or play with—while the disc spins. Here are some favourites. * US rockers Grin featured Neil Young collaborator and (later) Bruce Springsteen guitar slinger Nils Lofgren. What’s behind the toothy smile? Why gums, of course. […]