Never Mind The Bollocks ~ The Sex Pistols. I still recall a heated debate in a high school English class around this time. A younger and ostensibly gifted student derided the whole punk rock movement. Here's kinda what all the fuss was about: "God Save The Queen"
Let There Be Rock ~ AC/DC. They're a good listen but I could never get over the schoolboy get-up but hey that's just me. Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be still crunches nicely: link.
Rumours ~ Fleetwood Mac. Just now noticed the British spelling. Everybody and their uncle loved the 'Mac. My best friend's prom date even patterned her dress after Stevie Nicks' on the album cover. Some of it holds up well in my opinion but I let my subsequent opinions about Stevie Nicks get in the way I guess. Ditto for The Eagles.
Cheap Trick and In Color ~ Cheap Trick cut their teeth playing the Cheddar Circuit of clubs in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. They hit the big time with these two albums.
Hard Again ~ Muddy Waters. Johnny Winter did for Muddy Waters what the Rolling Stones couldn't actually do: he got in there and helped the man instead of just living off him. Listen for yourself: Mannish Boy.
Terrapin Station ~ Grateful Dead. Love it. Still. I know many Dead Fans can't stand the "Godchaux era", but screw 'em. PigPen was long gone by then though
George Thorogood ~ He's always been on my radar but I was never a hardcore fan which is odd. Maybe because I never saw him play live? I just now realized reading his wiki bio that he was originally from Wilmington, Delaware.
Animals ~ Pink Floyd. When I think of Pink Floyd around this time, I think of some of the reasons punk rock took hold: as an expression against some of the bloated excess success of the time. I was disappointed in this album after Wish You Were Here.
Aja ~ Steely Dan. This was an interesting album for its time and a bit cross-over in the sense that a few great jazz musicians made cameo appearances here.
Even In The Quietest Moments ~ Supertramp. I wrote about a song from this album here.
Singles:
Watching The Detectives ~ Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Barracuda ~ Heart. The Wilson sisters tried to strike lust in young men's hearts but they mostly failed. They rolled through Madison around this time. The song's guitar and especially drums on Barracuda are utterly derivative of Led Zeppelin's Achilles' Last Stand.
Stayin' Alive ~ The Bee Gees. OK, the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever was the biggest seller of that year. The Bee Gees died for somebody's sins but not mine.
News Of The World ~ Queen. I was bored with Queen by this time. Still love all their stuff up to and including Night At The Opera.
Paradise By the Dashboard Light ~ Meat Loaf. OK I included this here because I know that Michael Haz likes this song.
Lust For Life ~ Iggy Pop stage dives into the punk world.
Psycho Killer ~ Talking Heads. Qu'est que c'est? Just remember that Pere Ubu were already doing this. Tina Weymouth rocks on bass (the best since Carol Kaye) and probably inspired a generation of others including Kim Deal and Kim Gordon.
Margaritaville ~ Jimmy Buffett Had to include it here too. For my F-I-L.
Not to be forgotten:
Black Betty ~ Ram Jam
Like a Hurricane ~ Neil Young
Hot Legs ~ Rod Stewart
Lay Down Sally ~ Eric Clapton
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The Sex Pistols? Good, but the Clash defined punk rock with their epic album London Calling, released in the UK in December 1979 and in the US in January 1980.
ReplyDeleteTheir music was original, combative, fiery and most of all good, very good. It re-defined punk rock.
The Clash's music endures where other punk rock has faded. Listen first to the original cut of London Calling", raw and visceral. If you hear it once, you'll know what it is next time after hearing just the first two bars.
Now listen to a version performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. It is one the few covers of other artists' songs that Springsteen performs as close to the original has he can, without the Springsteenian riffs and extended solo runs.
And last, look at this version of London Calling performed by The Clash's founder and lead(the late)Joe Strummer.
What changes in each version? Nothing, except the addition or subtraction of a few instruments. London Calling was perfect as it was originally composed and performed. No other artists could make it better, nor would any dare try.
Punk rock died along with many of its original performers. It became copied, unoriginal, suburban, even, the stuff of high school dances where middle-class white kids could pretend to be angry.
Punk morphed into grunge rock, a self-indulgent emo rock performed by progressives form the Pacific Northwest who forwent grooming and dressed like lumberjacks.
RIP punk rock.
The Sex Pistols? Good, but the Clash defined punk rock with their epic album London Calling, released in the UK in December 1979 and in the US in January 1980.
ReplyDeleteTheir music was original, combative, fiery and most of all good, very good. It re-defined punk rock.
The Clash's music endures where other punk rock has faded. Listen first to the original cut of London Calling, raw and visceral. If you hear it once, you'll know what it is next time after hearing just the first two bars.
Now listen to a version performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. It is one the few covers of other artists' songs that Springsteen performs as close to the original has he can, without the Springsteenian riffs and extended solo runs.
And last, look at this version of London Calling performed by The Clash's founder and lead(the late)Joe Strummer.
What changes in each version? Nothing, except the addition or subtraction of a few instruments. London Calling was perfect as it was originally composed and performed. No other artists could make it better, nor would any dare try.
Punk rock died along with many of its original performers. It became copied, unoriginal, suburban, even, the stuff of high school dances where middle-class white kids could pretend to be angry.
Punk morphed into grunge rock, a self-indulgent emo rock performed by progressives form the Pacific Northwest who forwent grooming and dressed like lumberjacks.
RIP punk rock.
Thanks for the great comment Michael. I love the Clash too. I already had them written into my 1978 review next with "I Fought the Law." And of course the slightly later stuff will be covered too when I get to those years.
ReplyDeleteThe Clash certainly made Punk accessible and in some respects respectable which was kind of anti-punk ethos IMO.
We'll probably disagree a bit about early to mid 80's bands. There certainly was a lot of intersting stuff going on in LA, NY and Minneapolis and elsewhere that predated the Pac NW. All in good time.
Thanks again!!