Can we agree that the worst decade for popular music was the 1970s?

Cafe Society
1

In 1990 Rhino released the first in its 25 Super Hits of the '70s: Have a Nice Day volumes of music from the ‘70s. While there are some rhinestones among the crap, it wouldn’t take much sifting to end up with albums full of contenders for “Worst Song of the '70s,” starting with Vanity Fare’s “Early in the Morning” and Mark Lindsay’s “Arizona,” which followed a half dozen songs from 1969 to make the album slightly less shitty. It ends with The Rockets’ 1979 cover of “Oh Well,” which I understand made Billboard’s Hot 100, but which I never heard and which says something about a song because I listened to far more Top 40 radio than I wanted to.

Other volumes include cannibalism’s greatest hit, The Buoys’ “Timothy,” the Mike Curb Congregation’s “Burning Bridges” (saved from total ignomy by its ironic use in the greatest Clint Eastwood movie that wasn’t a Western), the Five Man Electrical Band’s “Signs,” Lee Michaels’ “Do You Know What I Mean” (if you’ve heard it you’ve heard the entire album), and my own least favorite, Looking Glass’ “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl).” And we’re not even out of 1972!

And of course there is the perennial vote-getter for “Worst Song of All Time,” Terry Jacks’ “Seasons in the Sun.” Which is sad because it’s not bad in French and sung by a used up Jacques Brel instead of a whiny teenager. (Whadya mean, Jacks was 30 when he recorded it? He sounded half that age.)

In the 1970s American radio was not as splintered as it was later, and though there was a rise in FM non-Top 40 radio, there was still considerable overlap as the hippy stations got taken over by Big Radio. That, and I have a soft spot for the Flock of Haircuts music that infested both AM and FM in the '80s, and the '90s and later are off my radar because it was all crap. I asked my daughter, now 24, if I am unfair to the music of those decades, and she said, “No. It’s all crap.” Instead, I will pretend they never happened and stick by my contention that the 1970s were the worst decade in my life, and that includes the '50s. :eek:

2

I’ll match the “dead teenager” songs of the 1950s with Blondie from the 1970s. Yes, there was a lot of crap in the 70s, but the fact that someone made a compilation album of crap doesn’t make the 1970s the worst decade ever.

3

Of course you’re going to get an over-representation of schlock from those sets. (And hey, I like “Arizona.”) I’m looking right now at a “Boss 30” survey from May 20, 1970, and I notice some pretty damn memorable and credibly rocking stuff on the charts:

Joe Cocker: The Letter
CCR: Up Around the Bend
Guess Who: American Woman
CSNY: Woodstock
Neil Young: Cinnamon Girl
Moody Blues: Question
Simon & Garfunkel: Cecilia
Beatles: Let It Be *and *The Long and Winding Road
Chicago: Make Me Smile
Mountain: MIssissippi Queen
Norman Greenbaum: Spirit in the Sky
Santana: Evil Ways
Paul McCartney: Maybe I’m Amazed/Every Night

4

I am not a big defender of the 70’s in general even though it was the decade of my birth. People’s taste in everything was way fucked up to make the understatement of the year. However, I don’t think that applies to music. Sure, there was a lot of terrible 70’s music because new musical styles were still in their infancy and people in general were too screwed up back then to know what to like and what not to. That also applies to every decade to some degree.

However, I really like a lot of 70’s music and listen to it regularly. I am not sure what you consider pop music or not but I genuinely like ABBA, Blondie and even Terry Jack’s Seasons in the Son (I can see the criticism for this one because it has the worst lyrics ever but it falls into the ‘it’s so bad, it’s good’ category for me). You also had CCR, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, the Doobie Brothers and the Bee Gee’s just to give some representative examples of many different styles.

I would say the worst decade (or era) for Pop music is from roughly about 2002 until now with no end in sight. I am not making this criticism like a typical old fogie. The problem isn’t that it is offensive or loud, it is just the opposite. It is way too boring and overproduced. I can’t tell one pop star from another because they sound so similar and there is very little variation on the same formulas. Give me hippy music, heavy metal, gangster rap or good country music over that formula produced crap any day. Even the 80’s had better music the vast majority of anything you hear on Top 40 radio today.

5

Back then, I also listened to far more Top 40 radio than I wanted to but I do remember hearing The Rockets’ version of “Oh Well” and liking it. I don’t think it’s as good as the original by Fleetwood Mac but that’s only because it lacks the long Ennio Morricone-esque instrumental ending that sounds like it came from the score to a Spaghetti Western. That would’ve been hard to duplicate.

1970s were a come down from the 1960s and that’s reflected in the fact that the general quality of popular music seemed to steadily go downhill as the decade progressed. That does not mean that nothing of worth was produced during those 10 years. For example, I would consider the overall output of 1971 as among the best years ever and rank it favorably with 1967 and 1969.

6

Why do I keep torturing myself, looking through the track lists?

Carl Douglas (1974): “Kung Fu Fighting” Flo and Eddie asked the question of the ages, saying, "Why, that song really sucks. Y’know, that’s really interesting, that we can come from different ethnic groups, different races or creeds or backgrounds and stuff. We might not have anything in common, except for one thing: that song suuuuucks.

Johnny Wakelin and The Kinshasa Band (1975): “Black Superman - ‘Muhammad Ali’”

Wayne Newton (1972): “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast”

Morris Albert (1974): “Feelings”

Starland Vocal Band (1976): “Afternoon Delight” You can’t convince me that wasn’t originally for an ad for a new flavor of Boone’s Farm bum wine.

England Dan & John Ford Coley (1976): “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” Should be “I’d Really Love to Fuck You Tonight Then Tell You I’ll Call You But I Won’t Until I Get Horny Again.”

Engelbert Humperdinck (1977): “After the Lovin” If what he’s like afterwards is anything like how sweaty he gets in concert, I hope his plans include taking a shower.

Dan Hill (1978): “Sometimes When We Touch” “Sometimes when we touch the honesty’s too much?” What the fuck is that supposed to mean, other than you are too bad a poet to come up with something better? Which would be nearly anything, as long as it’s about him getting arroused.

7

Those stupid Top-40 hits (cocaine cocaine cocaine bribe bribe bribe) indeed were worse than the actual music of the decade. Most of us would just punch the radio button when Seasons In The Sun came on. That or hit the 8-track and listen to Cream. /old fogey rant

8

I never said there weren’t good songs on the charts, but utter shite was overrepresented. Those albums are fairly good slices of what was played on the radio, with good unbalanced by crap. And for good music, 1971 or '72 was the last year of the musically awesome 1968, which had begun in 1965 or '66. It was a long year with amazing changes every week of the 400 that made it up.

And “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road” stunk on ice. Insipid Paul shit that accurately predicted his unlistenable solo career.

9

No, we cannot!!!

Any decade that gave us Talking Heads, The Ramones, ELO, James Taylor, The Doobies, Steely Dan, and the vast majority of Classic Rock Anthems that we all know and love can’t be all bad!!

10

The 70’s were awesome. Drop dead.

11

Leo Sayers first two albums before he fell into easy listening hell are great. Neil Young, The Police, Carole King, War, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush…worst decade? Try best decade. Movies too.

Not to mention about a billion funk or RnB groups we haven’t mentioned. Rufus, Brothers Johnson, Stevie Wonder…

12

I raise you Coven (1971): “One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack).” That, and I’m sick of Classic Rock Anthems that I’ve heard daily for 44 years.

13

There was plenty of great music in the 70s. The Who did “Who’s Next,” “Quadrophenia,” and “Who Are You.” The Stones did “Exile on Main Street” (“Let It Bleed” was out one month before the decade began). Elton John did “Honkey Chateau” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” Traffic did “John Barleycorn Must Die” and “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys.” The Band had “Stage Fright,” “Cahoots,” and the live album “The Last Waltz.” War has “All Day Music,” “The World is a Ghetto,” and “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” Stevie Wonder did “Talking Book,” “Higher Ground” and “Fulfillingness’ First Finale.”

There were classic albums by the Ramones, Devo, the New York Dolls, Blondie, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, the Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, The Jam, Iggy Pop, the Clash (including “London Calling”), Cheap Trick, Squeeze, Funkadelic, Blondie, ELO, the B-52s, Marshal Crenshaw, Alice Cooper, the Go-Gos, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Ian Dury, King Crimson, McDonald and Giles, and Dire Straits. That’s an impressive list from any decade.

The dislike for the 70s is due to two factors: disco, which was only a small part of the music of the decade, and the fact that the best music was not on the top 40 stations. Top 40 was for teens and kids; once you got to college, you never listened to it.

14

Somehow we haven’t mentioned David Bowie and Queen yet.

15

This.

But then I like ABBA. :slight_smile:

16

Don’t forget Pink Floyd.

Also, I didn’t fully appreciate the campiness of disco until Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Now I “get” it. No, it’s not good music, but it’s fun, and funny. And the idea was to dance to it, not to learn anything from contemplating the lyrics.

17

Let’s see…my all-time favorite album (Quadrophenia) came out in 1973, so I must disagree with the OP.

18

The 720’s were worse.

19

I already said it. I love ABBA too and I am a straight white male. Do you know who else does?

Everyone! That is why they had a hit musical, Mamma Mia, based on their work. They rock. For that matter, so do Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow. How many flash-in-the-pan acts today do you think will still be able to pack arenas like that 30 - 40 years from now like they still can today?

20

I think the problem is that most of the classic bands which put out awesome stuff at the start of the decade hit the wall, hard, sooner or later, as the decade progressed, and that may have left a bad taste in some people’s mouths. I know that happened with a lot of my favorite artists of that era, such as Yes, Elton or Chicago, for example. Then punk came along and refreshed things, at least for a few years.

Sturgeon’s Law applies just as much, but not necessarily more than, to this decade as it does to any other.