I clicked on the All Music Guide's "1977: The Year in Music" feature with a sense of both curiousity and pride. Curiousity because I feel, as they do, that 1977 was a particularly rich year for music and I am always curious to read about what other enthusiasts have to say on that subject. Pride because I tend to think of myself as someone who is a bit of an expert on the creations of that era. So it was quite the ego-deflator when I took one look at their list and realized...I barely know 1977 at all! Below are some albums mentioned in this article that I have heard of but never actually heard:
Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties!!
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel
Iggy Pop - The Idiot
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
Thin Lizzy - Bad Reputation
The Saints - (I’m) Stranded
Suicide - Suicide
Weather Report - Heavy Weather
Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
Below are some albums I have never heard but am pretty sure I never need to hear:
Boz Scaggs - Down Two Then Left
Rush - A Farewell to Kings
Barry Manilow - Live
Ramp - Come into Knowledge
Steeleye Span - Storm Force Ten
But then - but then! - are the albums I didn't even know existed. The legend himself, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, surely takes the cake with his list of "15 Overlooked LPs":
American Flyer - Spirit of a Woman
Amazing Rhythm Aces - Toucan Do It Too
Clover - Unavailable
Rick Danko - Rick Danko
Eddie & the Hot Rods - Thriller
Kursaal Flyers - Five Live Kursaals
Milk ‘n’ Cookies - Milk ‘n’ Cookies
Frankie Miller - Full House
The Motors - The Motors 1
Pezband - Pezband
Blue Ash - Front Page News
The Rubinoos - The Rubinoos
The Scruffs - Wanna Meet the Scruffs?
Shoes - Black Vinyl Shoes
Dwight Twilley - Twilley Don’t Mind
Milk 'n' Cookies? Pezband? What in the Jimmy Carter? I guess I just have to call it quits and bow down to the master. That said, here are my personal faves from that most entralling of years (and it's not quite as original a list as some people's, apparently):
David Bowie - Low
Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
The Damned - Damned Damned Damned
Billy Joel - The Stranger
Pink Floyd - Animals
The Ramones - Leave Home
Talking Heads - Talking Heads: 77
Wire - Pink Flag
Honorable mentions go to Nevermind The Bollocks, The Clash, and Rumours, which are all great albums that deserve the acclaim they've received but for some reason do not hold the same place in my heart as the ones listed above.
Wow, that's almost more than all my favorite albums from the '80s - combined.
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5 comments:
Funny, I was just thinking last week how many great albums came out in 1984. You've got Van Halen's 1984, Prince's Purple Rain, Madonna with Like a Virgin, Metallica's Ride the Lightning, Frankie goes to Hollywood's Welcome to the Pleasuredome, KMFDM's debut album Opium, Cyndi Lauper's She so Unusual, Weird Al's 'Weird Al in 3D', and of course Billy Ocean's Suddenly (ok, I keed on that last one)
Do you really have Van Halen's 1984 in your music collection somewhere or are you just being facetious?
Besides, everyone knows the best year for music was 1969:
The Beatles - Abbey Road
The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
The Who - Tommy
Led Zeppelin - I & II
CCR - Bayou Country, Green River, & Willy & The Poor Boys
Elvis Presley - From Elvis In Memphis
Johnny Cash - Live At San Quentin
Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline
Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Sly & The Family Stone - Stand!
The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
The Band - The Band
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma (kidding)
And probably some Miles Davis album I've never listened to
I do have 1984. The opening track, '1984', surprised me. It's this little synth piece, doesn't sound anything at all like Van Halen, and surprisingly sounds a lot like something from Futureperfect-era VNV Nation. Weird. Mr. Erlewine gives 1984 five stars buddy, deal with it.
I was being more facetious about Frankie Goes to Hollywood (though reading the allmusic review of it is pretty entertaining, sounded like some crazy phenomenon), and yes, I have that album too.
And I'm not saying that 1984 was the best year in music, sure I'll totally give you 1969, I'm just saying that in my humble opinion, there was a lot of good music in the 80s.
Here's a list of bad album covers; most of these look like rejects from the 70s.
http://fuzztime.com/?p=770
Some of those have got to be fake. Like Swamp Dogg. And Something Special From Jeff - he has a hook for a hand!
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