Yeah, I heard a song off this album the other day, and I was thinking how I really couldn’t fit it into any other decade, it was so of its time. (And absolutely wonderful.)
It would be hard to imagine the 1970s without at least some kind of reference to the Eagles, so - Hotel California.
What awful power ballads? Aerosmith certainly released their share of those in later years, but I love those two albums from top to bottom.
“You See Me Crying” was one of them; I can’t remember the other. Each was at the end of side two of its album. If you don’t want to call them power ballads I won’t argue terminology, but they’re close enough in my book.
These immediately came to mind:
- Fool for the City - Foghat
- Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy
- Cat Scratch Fever - Ted Nugent
Mad Dogs & Englishmen/Joe Cocker, Leon Russell (etc…)
Totally agree with Frampton and Cheap Trick defining the 70’s.
Honorable mentions:
God Save the Queen/Sex Pistols
This is the Modern World/The Jam
1970s junior high had (The) Sweet who had a mess of hits and were everywhere for a time in the middle of the decade. Picking a single album would be tough as there were several different track listings between UK and American album releases (and later added bonus tracks).
And though not a rock album, John Denver’s Greatest Hits was a different take on defining the '70s.
Gotta be Frampton Comes Alive!. Everybody owned it and listened to it exactly once.
3 albums that were a big part of my 70s experience:
Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal - Lou Reed
Aja - Steely Dan
The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle - Bruce Springsteen
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
The Ramones, self-titled
Roxy Music, self-titled
Agents of Fortune, BOC
Joe’s Garage, Frank Zappa
Easter, Patti Smith Group
Brain Salad Surgery, ELP
Okay, I’ll buy that.
Best of the Doobies - The Doobie Brothers
Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin
Aqualung - Jethro Tull
Eagles - Greatest hits. Best selling album of the 70’s, I believe.
Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Definitely Dark Side of the Moon.
Queen - A Night at the Opera
Rush - 2112
Billy Joel - The Stranger
Saturday Night Fever
I fucked that up, didn’t I? Thats Disco!
Let’s say, Yes Fragile
My kid loves '70s and '80s rock. He once asked me “Hey, every Cheap Trick song I’ve ever heard was live. So… did they only play live?”
.
And let’s not forget the wussier side of rock… the “Singer/Songwriter” movement of the '70s.
Albums like Sweet Baby James, and Tapestry, and Blood On The Tracks, and Court and Spark…
A track off any of these immediately takes me back to high school and college (1970-1977).
Cheap Trick at Budokan is a great album, but it’s tame compared to the Live At The Whisky 1977 set released last year. One review described it as “…the power-pop icons at their most manic and muscular, sounding more like hungry punks than arena-ready heartthrobs.”
I think you’re fine. You can’t talk about 1970s music without mentioning disco.
Besides, it was an era of Top 40 radio, which would play anything if it pulled in listeners who would buy records and products advertised on-air. Didn’t matter what genre the music or artists belonged to, if it gathered listeners and charted, they’d play it. John Denver, KISS, Carly Simon, Aerosmith, Carole King, the Eagles, Elton John, Bachman-Turner Overdrive; and yes, the BeeGees and Donna Summer and the Trammps and disco—they all got airplay.
So I think your selection of Saturday Night Fever belongs.