I felt guilty because of my total lack of knowledge of Gram Parsons. So I downloaded his music then continued on with more 70’s stuff. I need more ideas. I’d like to think I have the obvious music handled, I need more quality but lesser known stuff, like Gram Parsons. I was alive in the 70’s, but not really aware of modern music.
I’ve got a good handle on early punk (Elvis, Patti Smith, talking heads, etc) and I don’t really want to go full disco. Other than that, anything from the 70’s.
Please help with artists and albums, not necessarily specific songs.
Van Morrison, Moondance
The Meters, Very Best of the Meters
Sly and the Famiky Stone, Higher!
Steeleye Span, A Parcel of Rogues
Neil Young, Decade
Linda Ronstadt, Heart Like a Wheel
Rush, A Farewell to Kings
Leo Kottke, Best of Leo Kottke
Stevie Wonder, Innervisions
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours. Yes, it’s pop music. But it demonstrated that pop music can be great.
I’d also recommend checking out early Bruce Springsteen, like Born to Run and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Springsteen’s a genuine seventies artist - ie he didn’t emerge from the sixties.
If you enjoyed Gram Parsons and like country rock in general, check out acts like Poco, Gene Clark, Pure Prairie League, Michael Nesmith (yes, the Monkee) or the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and of course Emmylou Harris’ wonderful seventies albums.
Too late to edit: Re Gram Parsons, not to forget the Flying Burrito Brothers first two albums, especially The Gilded Palace Of Sin (ok, that’s from 1969, but don’t miss it, it’s a masterpiece).
Excellent choice! Believe it or not, I was going to recommend Cymande. I discovered them thanks to a compilation CD called Soul Gets Psychedelic, which also features acts like Shuggie Otis (“Strawberry Letter 23”), Mandrill (“Kofijahm”), Terry Callier, and Minnie Riperton.
If the OP wants to go international, there’s the delightful 70s Brazilian mix CD Beleza Tropical, collected by David Byrne in 1989 – a prototype for all those Putumayo collections from the 1990s and beyond.
Getting back to Parsons-ish stuff, my favorite Eric Clapton album is probably 1974’s 461 Ocean Boulevard.
For lesser-known 70s folk music, I’d recommend Gordon Bok’s Ways of Man (US) and Clannad’s Clannad 2 (Ireland). Also maybe Old and In the Way, a sort of Jerry Garcia side project.
For something completely different, try Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman,” a downtown Manhattan late-70s song that points to the future, but is actually a pleasure to listen to, unlike future hubby Lou Reeds’s aforementioned (with tongue in cheek, surely) Metal Machine Music.
And for more folky music from across the pond, everything from Richard Thompson (with or without Linda), Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention’s seventies albums.
There was a lot of cross-pollination left in the wake of Gram Parsons’ solo work as well as his time with The Byrds (it’s from 1968, but Sweetheart of the Rodeo is generally recognized as the first country-rock album – highly recommended if you haven’t heard it yet).
For example, Chris Hillman of The Byrds was in the aforementioned Flying Burrito Brothers as well as **Manassas **with Stephen Stills and The Desert Rose Band (which was an 80’s country rock band, but I love their stuff – excellent musicianship). In addition, he was in the Souther Hillman Furay Band with J.D. Souther and Richie Furay (who helped form the aforementioned Buffalo Springfield and Poco).
Souther is a top-notch songwriter, but his solo stuff in the 1970s (You’re Only Lonely is a beautiful song from 1979) is well worth checking out.
One of Manassas’ biggest hits was It Doesn’t Matter, which was co-written by Hillman, Stills and Firefall’s Rick Roberts (who was also in Flying Burrito Brothers). I absolutely love Firefall – not just their hits like You Are the Woman and *Just Remember I Love You *-- all of their albums are worth exploring (and they also recorded It Doesn’t Matter).