Yeah, pretty much every song mentioned in here triggered a specific time/space continuum memory for me. I’d be hard-pressed to pick any single song… hell, any single GENRE… that sums up the 70s for me.
Billy, Don’t be a Hero
Hooked on a Feeling
It’s Magic
Rock the Boat
Saturday In the Park
Mandy
Oooga shocka!! 
hmmm, for me it’s either Free’s “All Right Now” or Foghat’s “Slow Ride”.
Aw, man. That’s just cold. Can I plead youthful ignorance? (I also once went to a Beach Boys concert in the 70’s mainly to see the billed opening act…Billy Joel. I was sorely disappointed when it was announced that he’d been replaced…until I heard the replacement act…Heart!)
That’s interesting. I went to see Heart only to see the opening act – John Cougar! c. 1982.
I’m thinking it would have to be something by either the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, or Jackson Browne. That’s the '70s sound in a nutshell.
If I had to pick one song, I’d go with “Take It Easy” by the Eagles.
I dunno, I’ve never seen them live, sometimes bands are much better live than recorded. (That said BTO is one of my least favorite bands and was really suprised when I heard that one or two of them used to be in The Guess Who.)
But Heart OTOH, I just saw yesterday and they totally rock live. It’s 100% different from the classic rock bands that only appear on PBS once a decade and have kept all the vocal range of William Shatner doing Gregorian Chant. The Wilsons have kept and expanded their musical abilities. If anything they sound even better live than on their records, and their version of Misty Mountain Hop and Battle of Evermore totally blow Zeppelin’s away (from LZIV, that is. I never saw zeppelin live 
)
This was the 47th post for heaven’s sake. You want an encaspulation of the '70s it has to be Do the Hustle!
I lived through it, I know. I just kept mumbling, “I will survive,” until that too became a disco catch phrase. You don’t have any idea how omnipresent disco was.
I think I want to change my answer. I’m going to go with:
"Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel
At Seventeen
The music from J.C. Superstar or Godspell.
Me and Bobby McGee (released in 1971 I think though written earlier).
The songs that bring me back to the 70s:
Till Victory (Patti Smith)
Talking Heads: Love --> Building on Fire
Sex Pistols: Anarchy in the UK
Yes, but it was easily replaced. For example, I’m surpised we got this far and Meat Loaf has not been mentioned Meat Loaf. (Not even me. :smack: ) Hey, when you yourself were 17 and heard the line about “we were barely 17 and we were barely dressed” from “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” didn’t you agree that it kind of blew all the other music–including disco–away?
“Ladies and Gentlemen, THE AMAZING BLUE OYSTER CULT!!”
Don’t Fear the Reaper
or Frampton-Do You Feel…
or Robin Trower-Bridge Of Sighs
LOVE HATE Anybody get this Meat Loaf reference?
I really like Desperado from the Eagles. The whole Eagle’s Live Album actually.
Super Tramp’s Breakfast in America album. Remember The Logical Song? I liked Jethro Tull playing while I read The Hobbit. Set the 8 track playing and it looped for hours. Heavy Horses and the like set the mood nicely for Middle Earth.
Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple at the start of the 70’s.
Rock and Roll All Night by Kiss in the middle.
Jamie’s Cryin’ by Van Halen at the end.
Miracles by Jefferson Starship puts me right back in high school every time I hear it.
I like it, but I think it needs more cowbell.
Alice Cooper had a large presence in the schoolyard.
I hate to say this for the reasons I am saying it, but I believe Heart could make mega millions with a big tour, if Ann were more svelte, because they do still rock.