I think **DiosaBellisima ** had a good idea, so I’m stealing it in hopes of learning about the great songs and artists from a slightly later period.
Breaking things down by genre if possible would be nice.
For the 1970s, have a look at the songs listed in the Have a Nice Decade collection from Rhino. For the 1980s, try the list of songs on Like, Omigod: The 80s Pop Culture Box. Again from Rhino. Each has a good survey of their respective decade’s music, and should serve as a good starting point.
Punk: I’m a big Dead Kennedys fan. I’m not really sure which album to recommend. Probably Plastic Surgery Disasters/In God We Trust Inc., which showcases both their humor and fury. Then again, their first album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, has what might be their two best songs in Holiday in Cambodia and California Uber Alles.
New Wave or something: I only have one Talking Heads album, but I also have one DVD. That DVD is Stop Making Sense, and I recommend it very, very highly. It’s not a concert DVD, it’s an amazing theatrical presentation of music, and the songs kick ass. It’s got just about all of their hits, but the lesser-known tracks are also outstanding.
The B-52s: I only have their debut album, but it has Rock Lobster and Planet Claire. The former is especially awesome.
And to repeat what I said in Diosa’s thread…
I’m a big fan of Bob Marley and the Wailers for reasons I probably don’t have to get into. If you’re looking for albums, Exodus is probably the one to start with. I think my favorite might be the new(ish) double-CD version of Live at the Roxy, a concert from the Rastaman Vibration tour. The second encore of Get Up Stand Up>War>No More Trouble>War>Get Up Stand Up (about 23 minutes in length) is one of the most powerful pieces of music I’ve ever heard.
I tentatively suggested David Bowie in that other thread; I’ll unabashed recommend him in this one. He released a string of classic albums from 1971 to 1983. If you don’t have the budget or inclination to buy them all, there are a multitude of Bowie compilations available. Or just do what all the kids do these days and buy individual tunes. Some highlights:
Hunky Dory (1971): Life on Mars? and Quicksand - lushly melodic. Both deal with a longing for understanding and meaning, the first from the view of an ordinary girl stuck in a mundane rut, the second from a man immersed in mysticism and the occult. Andy Warhol - a tribute/satire to the pop art icon. Changes - started out as a throwaway parody of a nightclub song and turned into a youth anthem with typically weird Bowie touches (the stream of warm impermanence?). Queen Bitch - a Velvet Underground Pastiche.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust: Belongs on any short list of seminal/best/influential/whatever rock albums of the ‘70s. Spawned or at least kickstarted a genre (glam rock) and in Ziggy gave us the best-known rock and roller never to have lived. Ziggy Stardust and Suffragette City are great rock and roll. Moonage Daydream is sci-fi psychedelia with a metallic edge.
Aladdin Sane: This is sometimes dismissed as Ziggy in America and often considered a lesser effort, but Bowie really stretches himself in a couple of places, notably the title track. Aladdin Sane alternates softly crooned vocals and instantly accessible melody with jumpy jazz piano courtesy of Mike Garson. Jean Genie is a rockin’ earlier (and better) version of “Rebel Rebel.”
Young Americans: Heavily influenced by Philly soul, Bowie referred to this as his “plastic soul” album. Notable for Young Americans, a celebratory and deprecatory song that shows up constantly in ads for movies that are supposed to have something to say about young Americans, and Fame, a collaboration with John Lennon.
Station to Station: Station to Station gave us another famous Bowie character, the “Thin White Duke,” and hearkens back to the mysticism of Quicksand. But he’s a dark, chilly mystic and the song is sprawling and fragmented. Word on a Wing is a more accessible song of spiritual yearning, while Stay and Golden Years are closer to the plastic soul of the previous album, but with more edge. Wild Is the Wind is a soaring romantic ballad that Bowie didn’t write. I don’t care for most of his covers at all, but this one gets me.
Low: Early electronic, heavily influenced by Brian Eno, who was a co-writer and musician on the album and introduced Bowie to composition techniques employing a deck of cards and a dartboard. It’s the first album to feature instrumental tracks, which are largely disposable. I want some Bowie in my Bowie songs, dangit. Pick a couple of these at random to get a flavor of the album: Sound and Vision, Breaking Glass, What in the World? and Be My Wife. They’re all good, but it’s hard to pick a standout.
Heroes: Another largely instrumental collaboration with Eno, this one a bit darker, rougher, and more human sounding. Heroes, inspired by the sight of two young lovers kissing in front of the Berlin Wall, manages to be intensely romantic and nihilistic at the same time and is one of Bowie’s best. Try to get the album version, not one of the severely abbreviated single versions.
Lodger: The final Bowie/Eno album of the '70s, this one features more conventionally structured songs. [DJ] is the standout track. Boys Keep Swinging is a fun romp playing on sexual stereotypes (the video featured Bowie in three different drag getups).
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps): An amazing response to his stylistic imitators. Considered by some to be Bowie’s last great album. More than one subsequent release has been hailed as his "best album since Scary Monsters. Listen to the first five tracks in order at least once. Scary Monsters combines a smoothly sinister lyric with blistering, screaming guitar. The lush Ashes to Ashes is a mournful deconstruction of his 1969 hit, Space Oddity. B]Fashion** still shows up at fashion shows, despite its sardonic lyrics.
Let’s Dance: Now often dismissed as a lightweight sellout, this was Bowie’s most popular album and the one that launched him from the fringe into mainstream superstardom. Let’s Dance, always struck me as a particularly dark song masquerading as a simple dance tune. Cat People is another standout, although I prefer the soundtrack version. China Girl is one of my favorite songs and one of very few I’ve ever been persuaded to perform in a Karaoke bar. It’s interesting to contrast this track with the much different version on Iggy Pop’s The Idiot (the song was co-written by Iggy & Bowie).
Thanks for the links and ideas everyone. (and for taking the time to do a song by song breakdown of so many albums TWDuke.
Here’s what I liked then and still do – I had damned good taste as a teenager if I do say so myself.
You’ll know about Zep and Skynyrd already of course, and how the Stones were at the height of their greatness then… Some may yell “cliche”, but they’re just being grazers if they do --because those guyswere fuckin’ great
SOUTHERN-FRIED AND WIDE-EYED
Black Oak Arkansas especially Ain’t Life Grand, High On The Hog, and Raunch’N’Roll LIVE.Their first album still holds up too. Imagine the Great God Pan incarnate as a hillbilly hippie with a silver buzzsaw in his throat dancing around in lame pants so tight you can almost count the hairs on his nuts, backed by a bunch of young barbarians frying on acid, wired on Black Beauties and lit up on that ol’ mountain dew all at the same time.All of 'em tough and sexy and having a fucking ball playing that devil music
The Allman Bros-Statesboro. Whippin Post. Midnight Rider. Gregg came up crummy and turned ratfinkwhen the heat was on, but the music stands
The OutlawsGreen Grass and High Tides, and one of the best takes on Ghost Riders In The Sky ever
Marshall TuckerCan’t Ya See
ZZ Top: their first three albums
Little FeatTexas whiteboy junkie blues with a nice lysegic overlay and country chili spice.
PROTO-METAL THUNDER!
The Godz. 714s. Rock’n’Roll Machines. So much hot scary shit on two albums that you just couldn’t stand it.
Nazareth
Uriah Heep
Golden Earring. No, not that one lame damned thing you always hear on Klassik Rok stations. That song bites it. I mean the Switch album. You never heard anything like it. I hadn’t.
Alice Cooper-don’t get me wrong, I still love the crazy mofo’s music and think it’s utterly admirable how he’s still doin’ it and there’s a 30-year spread of Alice fans out here right now, but his early-to-mid-70s output, the Glenn Buxton era, was his golden age. The first Greatest Hits album is absolutely essential.
Blue Oyster Cult, in particular the Tyranny and Mutation album
Black Sabbath – of course
KISS had their moments. Shut up – they did.I never really bought into their whole metaprogram, but there was some genuine rock’n’roll fire under the corny makeup and choad-stroking bombast they threw out to the kiddies.
**Lou Reed’**s earlier solo work, albuns like Transformer, Rock’N’Roll Animal, and Sally Can’t Dance, come in here, in a place of greatness that hasn’t much to do with the two genres or metagenres I’m placing him between right here. GodDAMN, but the man was good back then
.
PALEOPUNK -PASSION! POISON! POWER!
When the heroes and giants of the Age Of Thunder And Fire began to age and weaken and falter, and we thiought ourselves doomed by perfidious pop, this unholy sacred energy suddenly burst forth, saved us from the twin pestilences of disco (it really did suck, BTW) and the Singer-Songwriters.
The New York Dolls
JOHNNY FUCKING THUNDERS
Radio Birdman
Iggy, when he was young, strung and beautiful
Patti Smith–the first two albums Horses and Radio Ethiopia were and are jawdropping heartstopping slabs of genius and poetry and fire and glass and Satan and speed and razors. The next two are pretty damned good with moments of brilliance, and also moments of ominous near-lameness and slack stupidity. It was a sad foretelling of the rest of the story; she gave up poetry and rock and magick to go be a mom; when she came back it couldn’t be the same.
Then the Sex Pistols came along. And when I heard Never Mind The Bollocks for the first time it was one of thosde moments. Like the first time I heard Patti Smith. Like the first time I heard Roky Erickson.** Flesheaters. Royal Trux. Monster Magnet**. Things weren’t ever going to be the same time after that.
And then all those other great fucking bands came. Talking Heads, the Ramones, the Damned, James Chance/White/Whoever with his Contortions/Blacks?Whatever. The Runaways. But I’ve taken up too much of your time already and ain’t gotten out of the 1970s. Maybe I’ll be able to get my shit together tomorrow and do the my hit on 80s for you the same way but it’s late and I type 2-fingered and I can’t promise anything…
Black Flag, Damaged album, circa 1981 (?). Listen to it during the day and then lull yourself to sleep with Rollins’ audio memoir of the period, Get in the Van. Do this and you will become a goddamned sexual tyrannosaurus, just like me.
Are there specific genres you want to know more about? The 70’s had a number of best-selling acts that were actually good, once you get past the biases folks had about them. The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The BeeGees, Donna Summer, Peter Frampton - you get the idea. Couldn’t be more different than punk, emerging metal and a variety of other genres, but the commercial stuff was quality in its way. Prince was just getting started, The Knack had a perfect pop album, The Replacements were drinking their way to songwriting brilliance, U2, Metallica and Madonna were beginning what have turned out to be epic careers. Pick a direction and go - and there is plenty to see wherever you travel.
I got a bit too much overloaded in my brain to try to just set up and knock down the 70’s and 80’s.
Hmm, I guess rock/southern rock*, punk. I’d like to know more about the reggae of that time too. I have Prince covered. Were there any more people producing things of his quality in that style?
I know that doesn’t narrow things all that much, and it would take forever to cover every great act between 70 to 85, or so. Don’t feel confined by those parameters though. If someone was so great that they just have to be mentioned, I’d like to hear about it.
*Which I see **DLux ** has covered.
I’d recommend having a look at the early 1970s catalog of Elton John in particular. Disclaimer: It’s all opinion from here on.
Beginning with Empty Sky in 1970 (that was the UK release; the US release wasn’t until 1974), and continuing until Captain Fantastic (1975), it was obvious that Elton hadn’t really found his musical footing. As a result, he experimented a lot, and his 1970s albums show it. Not in a bad way either; he was then, as now, extremely talented; and could put Bernie Taupin’s lyrics to suitable music. Add a terrific producer (Gus Dudgeon) and a talented band (Dee Murray, Davey Johnstone, Nigel Olsson, among others), and some real gems start to appear. Some real turkeys too, but those are to be expected. Anyway, here’s a rundown of his work during those five years:
Empty Sky: Worth exploring, but don’t judge it by its single (“Skyline Pigeon”). Still, that does give hints of what is to come.
Elton John: Look into this fully. It gave us the popular “Border Song,” and the still-popular “Your Song,” but in the less-heard tracks, we start to see Elton rock a little more on such songs as “Take Me To The Pilot.” Also, listen for him to experiment with vocal range and timing on “The Greatest Discovery,” “Sixty Years On,” and “First Episode at Hienton.” The latter should be noted as being among the most tasteful treatments of a girl losing her virginity in rock/pop history.
Tumbleweed Connection: Elton tries country–sort of. Yes, steel guitar is played on the album, but Elton and his band are not Hank Williams. Some duds here (“Love Song”), some so-so experiments (“Talking Old Soldiers,” “Son Of Your Father”), and some that are worthwhile. Personal recommendations would include “Burn Down the Mission,” and “Amoreena.”
Madman Across the Water: Now, we’re getting someplace. This is the album that gave us “Levon” and “Tiny Dancer,” but don’t stop there. Try “Holiday Inn,” Elton’s recollection of an exhausting US tour; or the title track itself. Especially with the latter, you’ll hear Elton progress musically from a straight rock or ballad style to something just a little … off. Hey, in the early-to-mid 1970s, artists tried stuff like that–just ask David Essex of “Rock On” fame.
Honky Chateau: Another worth a listen but I wouldn’t recommend getting too hung up over it. Certainly, refresh your memory with the best-known songs from it (“Honky Cat,” “Rocket Man”), but spare a few moments for “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” too. Actually, spare more than a few moments for that one.
Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player: This is where “Daniel” and “Crocodile Rock” come from, but try also “Teacher I Need You” and “Elderberry Wine” for rock, “Blues for Baby and Me” for a ballad, and “High Flying Bird” for no particular reason except I know at least one person who bought this album for that one song. Maybe you’ll hear what she did.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: I can’t say much about this album that hasn’t already been said. I will take the time to recommend some often-overlooked songs however: “Ballad of Danny Bailey,” where Elton again plays with the music’s timing and again succeeds; “Sweet Painted Lady” for a ballad, and “All The Young Girls Love Alice,” which crosses between a ballad and some kind of synth-rock.
Caribou: This gave us “The Bitch is Back” and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” but it also gave us gems like “Ticking,” a 7:48 story of a madman with a gun in a building under siege; and “Dixie Lily,” which sees Elton edging towards Dixieland jazz, but not quite getting there.
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy: Not nearly as experimental as the others, this album is a bit of biography and a reflection on what Elton and Bernie achieved to date. Lyrically and musically, nothing is done here that they haven’t done before, but listen closely–Bernie still makes great use of imagery in his lyrics (“sleepy subway trains” are featured in “We All Fall in Love Sometime”); and Elton is still writing music for them. Still, this album represents the end of one era–Elton’s beginnings and experimentation–and the start of his next phase.
Anyway, there you go. Today, Elton John is so much of a star–and sometimes, so predictable–that it’s hard to believe that he got where he is without poppping out hit after hit. But as a survey of his early stuff shows, he did experiment a lot, and sometimes he succeeded; but sometimes he didn’t. Interesting to hear these old songs though–they do help with understanding how his style developed into today’s style.
Nice write-up, **Spoons ** - Elton’s early stuff is entirely worth a deeper look. I would add **Blue Moves **to your list as the last great one before he was adrift for a long time…
unfortunately, I am just swamped at work right now - I haven’t the time to formulate anything deep and pithy.
Misfits. Try Walk Among Us (1982), Earth A.D. (1983), Static Age (1997, recorded in 1978), or Evillive. To me the vocals were kinda weird at first but it really really grew on me. Glenn Danzig almost reminds me of an evil goth Elvis, he’s got a great voice.
You’re welcome. I get a little obsessive about Bowie music, sometimes. Here are some other '70s/'80s artists I haven’t seen recommended yet. Most of these are still active to some degree but they did something especially noteworthy in the period you asked about.
Laurie Anderson is a very strange case: a New York City performance artist who accidentally became a minor pop star with an 8-minute, minimalist work inspired by a 19-century opera. Although it’s references to answering machines and smoking sections may date it a bit, the line “here come the planes: they’re American planes, made in America,” has gotten more chilling. The compilation “Talk Normal” includes that and my favorite Anderson track, “Gravity’s Angel” (with backing vocals by Peter Gabriel).
Blondie’s output ranged from punk to disco to rap. (The spoken-word part of “Rapture” is very silly, dealing with a guitar-eating Martian, is very silly, but it is considered the first rap-influenced single to go #1 on the pop chart.) Compilation: Best of Blondie.
Bauhaus was at the forefront of the goth movement, providing a darker alternative as punk gave way to New Wave. Look for the compilation called “Crackle.” Noteworthy tracks include “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” and “She’s in Parties.”
I understand Kate Bush is a full-blown pop icon in the UK, although she puts out music only sporadically, but over here she’s something of a cult figure. Lyrically, she covers subjects political, literary (her first UK hit was “Wuthering Heights”), and mystical. Her composition and production is usual experimental in nature, but she’s capable of creating a simply beautiful song when she feels like it (“The Man With the Child in His Eyes”). She cracked the U.S. charts with “Running Up That Hill” in the early '80s. Her first decade or so of singles are compiled on “The Whole Story.”
The Cure is a dark, brooding band (or a dark, brooding Robert Smith and whoever he’s getting along with at a given moment) that has occasionally dabbled in lightweight pop. But even their bubblegum usually has some bitterness to it. “The Walk,” “The Lovecats,” and “Let’s Go to Bed” were all popular singles on college and alternative radio stations in 1982-83, although The Cure’s masterpiece album, “Disintegration,” was still a few years away.
Eurythmics showcased Annie Lennox’s powerful and expressive voice, but her aggressive androgyny, as seen in the video for “Sweet Dreams” probably got her as much attention.
Oingo Boingo combined punk, ska, and a few other things into a sound that was unique and immediately recognizable. Their Halloween shows were an LA tradition for several years. They had their biggest commercial success in 1985 with “Dead Man’s Party,” but hipsters already knew them for such classics as “Wild Sex in the Working Class.” Lead singer Danny Elfman provided the singing voice of Jack Skellington and is the go-to soundtrack guy for Tim Burton.
Peter Gabriel gave up his gig as front-man of the British art-rock band “Genesis” in the '70s. His first solo single was “Solsbury Hill,” an uplifting, optimistic song about saying goodbye to an old life and heading into the unknown. Another standout song is the dark, troubling, proto-industrial “Shock the Monkey,” from his fourth album. He hit it huge in the early '80s with the funky, hard-driving “Sledgehammer” off the album “So.” His first decade or so as a solo artist is encapsulated on “Shaking the Tree.” The two-disc collection “Hit” is a more comprehensive collection.
Siouxsie and the Banshees is a post-punk band that strongly influenced The Cure (Robert Smith was briefly a member). They were never commercially huge in the US, but “Spellbound” and “Arabian Knights” got a lot of airplay on KROQ Los Angeles, at least, and they have a lot of admirers and imitators in goth and alt-rock circles.
CCR, of course. The Cosmo’s Factory album (released July 1970) gave us “Up Around the Bend”, “Lookin’ Out My Back Door”, “Run Through the Jungle”, “Long As I Can See the Light”, and their incisive cover of “Heard it Through the Grapevine”. Pendulum (released December 1970) gave us “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” and “Hey Tonight”.
Also look into:[ul]The Doobie Brothers; in particular, “Listen to the Music” and “Rockin’ Down the Highway” from Toulouse Street (released June 1972), “China Grove” from The Captain and Me (May 1973), and “Black Water” from What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (February 1974).
[li]John Hiatt; “Drive South” from Slow Turning (August 1988).[/li][li]The Moody Blues; “Driftwood”, “Blue Guitar”, and “Highway” from Anthology (1998). “Blue Guitar” was originally released as a single in 1975 and “Driftwood” was originally released as a single then on Octave (June 1978),[/li][li]The Flying Burrito Brothers; “Wheels” from The Gilded Palace of Sin (February 1969).[/li][li]The Stray Cats; “Hotrod Gang” from Rant N’ Rave with the Stray Cats (1983).[/li][li]Duane Eddy (yeah, he’s more '50s & '60s but fits in well here); “Rebel Rouser” (1958 single) and “Forty Miles of Bad Road” (1959 single).[/li][li]Paul Revere and the Raiders; “SS 396” from The Legend of Paul Revere (April 1990).[/li][li]Kevin Johnson; an Aussie bloke most famous for “Rock and Roll I Gave You the Best Years of My Life” (1973 single).[/li]Mike McClellan; an Aussie bloke most famous for “Song and Danceman” from Ask Any Dancer (1974).[/ul]
Sorry for the bump, but just wanted to say thanks again to everyone for the suggestions. I’ve been slowly working my way through your lists.
Looking back at the beginning of the thread - were you thinking of the entire 70s and early 80s? I kind of assumed you wanted late 70s/early 80s and skipped what would have otherwise been a long post about the Allman Brothers. (Lucky you.)
I’d be interested in reading it. In looking up information on the band, I see that they’re still around. How’s the quality of their newer stuff?
Excellent points (and recommendations) for Gabriel, and I’d add “Down the Dolce Vita” from his first solo album to the list. Also, though I can’t remember which of his album(s) they’re on right now, try “Biko” and “Games Without Frontiers.” On each, Gabriel tries to say something, but I’m unsure if he makes the points he’s trying to. “Games” is particularly odd; imagery of children at play in a geopolitical context (“Adolf builds a bonfire and Rico plays with it”) is a little jarring at first listen.
But Peter Gabriel brings up a genre the OP might want to explore a little further: progressive rock. Here, certain bands seemed to do nothing but experiment-- musically, in the music itself and with various instruments (most notably, synthesizers) outside of the standard guitar-bass-drums; and lyrically, using imagery to invoke various mythologies and abstract ideas and such. The 70s were a good decade for this, and noteworthy bands would include:
Genesis (in the Peter Gabriel years) which gave us such albums as Nursery Cryme, Selling England by the Pound, and Foxtrot; as well as their magnum opus, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
Yes. Try Tales from Topographic Oceans and Fragile. John Anderson of Yes would, in the early-to-mid 1980s, would do some work with Vangelis (who was experiencing a bout of popularity due to his musical work on the films *Blade Runner * and Chariots of Fire), and Anderson and Vangelis would eventually produce The Friends of Mr. Cairo, which you may want to check out too.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer. You can’t go wrong with Welcome Back My Friends, though Works I and II deserve a listen too.
There are other progressive bands from that time, of course (Moody Blues, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, and Pink Floyd are usually considered prog rock, though this sometimes depends on who you talk to), and they deserve consideration too; but the above are the ones that I feel deserve special consideration. I’d recommend trying them first, then moving on to explore the others.
Just thought of another one:
Pure Prairie League; “Two Lane Highway” from the album of the same name (1975).