Tag Archives: 70s prog
1975 COUNTDOWN | #30 — #21
#30 NEIL YOUNG — ZUMA After the grim soul scouring of Tonight’s The Night, Young reformed Crazy Horse with new guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro replacing Danny Whitten. Zuma blends wistful reflection with raw electric power. “Don’t Cry No Tears” and “Barstool Blues” evoke rough-edged tenderness, while “Cortez the Killer” stands among his finest works—a thunderhead […]
PROG BOT: VINYL CONNECTION DIVES INTO AI
I’ve been playing around with ChatGPT, the AI language program everyone is talking about lately. Having read Bill Pearce’s thoughtful piece at pinklightsabre this morning, I thought I’d check out its facility on the topic of rock music. First I asked for the top Rock albums of 1973, thinking that perhaps I could short circuit […]
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… #60—#56
MANFRED MANN’S EARTH BAND — GLORIFIED MAGNIFIED The 1972 debut album by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band was a kind of rock ’n’ roll stew, with a range of styles. Country rock, blues rock, a ballad or two, AOR… it’s fine, but lacked focus. So it’s great to report that the follow up found the quartet […]
ECHOES
Piper At The Gates Of Dawn A Saucerful Of Secrets More Ummagumma (½ live–½ studio) Atom Heart Mother Meddle Meddle (1971) was the first Pink Floyd album I owned. Purchased second-hand from Bentleigh Sewing & Records, probably in late 1973 or early ’74, its centrepiece, the side-long “Echoes” mesmerised me as I sat in the […]