Category b) Seventies [1970 – 1979]
1972 COUNTDOWN: #1
#1 DAVID BOWIE THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS When The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars was released on 16 June 1972 Bowie’s small but loyal London fan base were immediately enthusiastic. The colourful theatricality, the fizzing energy, the entire glam “look” of […]
1972 COUNTDOWN: #2
2 YES — CLOSE TO THE EDGE Some facts: Close to the Edge was released on 13th September 1972 as Atlantic Records SD7244. It was the band’s fifth album and was a critical and popular success, reaching the Top 5 of album charts in both the UK and USA. There are three pieces on the album: the […]
1972 COUNTDOWN: #4 — #3
4 NEU! — NEU! ‘Hallogallo’ fades in with a repeated guitar dot over a strange percussive clack. It insinuates itself into the room and your consciousness, an hypnotic groove, repetitive yet captivating. Welcome to the strange and wonderful world of Neu! The beginning of the Neu! story is part of the early Kraftwerk story. Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger […]
1972 COUNTDOWN: #7 — #5
7 WISHBONE ASH — ARGUS On this, their 3rd album, British guitar band Wishbone Ash managed to fuse contemporary rock sensibilities with both British mythology and progressive arrangements. The twin guitars of Andy Powell and Ted Turner, interweaving and harmonising, add a glistening melodic flow to songs that hint at medieval sketches without ever crossing […]
1972 COUNTDOWN: #10 — #8
10 DEEP PURPLE — MACHINE HEAD 1970’s Deep Purple In Rock and 1971’s Fireball set the bar high for British heavy rock. Yet Deep Purple managed to top those two fine records with their seventh long-player, Machine Head. Prosaically named after the metal gear arrangement that adjusts the tension on guitar strings, the music is […]
1972 COUNTDOWN: RECAP
72 FROM ’72 is reaching a climax. The top of the mountain, the pick of the bunch, the pinnacle of all things musical in 1972. The Top 10. As we launch into the final few posts, here is a list of all the albums covered in the countdown so far, with links to the original […]
1972 COUNTDOWN: #15 — 11
15 BIG STAR — #1 RECORD Antecedents: Beatles, Byrds. Contemporaries: Badfinger, Raspberries. Descendants: R.E.M., Marshall Crenshaw, Teenage Fanclub. Definition: Jangly chord-rich guitar rock with tight harmonies, off-beat lyrics, sing-along choruses and a middle eight to die for. Highlights: “The Ballad Of El Goodo”; “Feel”. Further Reading on Power Pop: Here Is A Sunrise [Released April […]
1972 COUNTDOWN: #20 — 16
20 ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND — EAT A PEACH Simultaneously a tribute and a stop-gap after the untimely death of Duane Allman, Eat A Peach is slightly schizoid. A big double album, it includes three unreleased studio tracks featuring Duane, three live tracks from the Fillmore concerts, and three new studio songs without Duane. Yet the […]
SPOOKY MEDITATION
Juilliard trained but restless, clarinetist Tony Scott left New York at the end of the 1950s to travel and absorb musical influences from around the world. After visiting Japan he released Music For Zen Meditation And Other Joys (1965). This album of gentle, spacious music features Shinichi Yuize playing koto and Hozan Yamamoto on shakuhachi. […]
SEVEN YEARS OF TEN YEARS AFTER
Guitar slinger Alvin Lee had been playing for several years before the group Ten Years After coalesced just in time to get a residency at London’s famed Marquee Club in late 1966. Having fleshed out their sound by adding piano player ‘Chick’ Churchill, the band signed with Decca’s progressive Deram label on the back of […]
GET UP, STAND UP
Having celebrated the Bob Marley boxed set just recently, I thought it would be a nice follow-up to share this piece, written for Discrepancy Records. * Singing along to “Is this love” or “I shot the Sheriff”, it’s easy to forget the music of Bob Marley and the Wailers is, at the core, a revolutionary […]
SOFT MACHINE 1975 – 1978
There is so much change and restless creativity in the Soft Machine catalogue it can take quite a while to get one’s head around it. Took me years. The first two albums explode with Sixties eccentricity, mischief, and brain-pinging energy. But then there is an apparent u-turn into the sprawling, magnificent Third; an album demanding […]
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