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Post by berkley on Mar 30, 2024 20:29:31 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974 #6 - Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown
The album that changed Gordon Lightfoot from a successful songwriter in to a star. The album went to number one. The title track topped the charts and "Carefree Highway" went to number 10 on the pop chart and topped the AC chart. I spent a lot of years not caring a bit about Lightfoot (other than The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, I always loved that song). But his work has grown on me more and more and this is just a super solid album. It was the pinnacle of his singer-songwriter period before he started using more electric instruments. And the album is really more than the two big hits. "High and Dry," "Somewhere in the U.S.A.," and "Circles of Steel" are solid, catchy folk-rock tunes. I've never really listened to the whole album but love the two big hits. Carefree Highway in particular is one of the greatest road songs, so evocative of that feeling of leaving things behind (edit: and looking forward to who knows what?) Great guitar picking too.
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Post by berkley on Mar 30, 2024 20:32:01 GMT -5
Favorite Albums of 1974
#7-- Can't Get Enough-- Barry White
What can I say about "The Walrus of Love?" This was Mr. White's third studio album, hot on the heels of Stone Gon', released roughly 10 months prior. Can't Get Enough rocketed quickly through the charts to reach #1 on the Billboard pop charts and R&B charts, carried primarily by two #1 singles, which we'll get to momentarily.
I think the thing I've always liked the most about Barry White is that he is one of those artists that is a complete package. Writer, vocalist, producer, arranger, and A&R man all wrapped up in one neat king-sized polyester suit. The only other R&B artist that I can think of that encompassed all aspects of the record business is Isaac Hayes.
This album is strictly a mood record-- chill atmosphere, dim-lights, brandy snifter in hand, intimate setting, you get the picture. The string arrangements are of course, Barry's Love Unlimited Orchestra, a 40-piece outfit that over the years has included some stellar members, among them, Wah Wah Watson, Lee Ritenour, Ernie Watts, Ray Parker Jr. and a very young Kenny G., none of which are necessarily individual favorites of mine, but all extremely competent musicians.
Folks in my neck of the woods generally refer to Barry White's solo output as "baby-makin' music", and it's not difficult to see why. I had a friend in high school (the same one with the '65 Mustang mentioned in my last post) who said that if he came home from school and there was a Barry White record playing on the stereo, that was a cue for the kids to leave the house for the evening-- as it meant "adult time" was on the menu for his parents that night. I suppose there are worse ways to get the message across that mom and dad want some "alone time", but as teenagers it kind of nervously creeped us out... you mean parents actually do that sort of thing?
I didn't get my copy of the album until I was a Junior in High School, which was about 4 years after it was released. I bought the vinyl copy, but still lived with my parents, so I didn't get to test the aphrodisiac properties of the album until I got to college. If I had been smart, I would have sprung for the more portable 8-track version as well, for obvious reasons.
Here are the two singles that took this record to the top... the rest of the record is more of the same.
You're the First, the Last, My Everything-- (1974 live performance right after the album was released)
Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe-- (footage is from the same performance, but studio recording has been mixed in)
I only know the radio stuff but always have liked his sound. Very nostalgic for me as it was on the radio so much in the early '70s.
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Post by berkley on Mar 30, 2024 20:35:29 GMT -5
I hope it's not a faux pas to post this before Slam, but I'm just about to go out to play a gig and won't be back til the early hours, when I'll likely be too tired to check in on the forum. So, I'm just gonna dump today's 1974 pick now. #6 - Radio City by Big StarToday's choice is another album that sold almost nothing in its day, but which has since become revered as a key power pop record. Big Star are one of those cult bands who sold very few records, but who ended up influencing lots of far more successful acts, like Kiss, R.E.M., The Bangles, Teenage Fanclub, and Primal Scream, to name just a few. Radio City is the band's second album and, while it doesn't quite reach the sublime heights of the previous year's #1 Record, it's really good nonetheless. Hailing from Memphis, Tennessee, the band really wear their Beatles/Stones/Byrds influences on their sleeve, while adding in a dash of blue-eyed Memphis soul grit. The band's main songwriter Alex Chilton (formerly of the Box Tops, who had a hit with "The Letter") is probably among the most gifted pop-rock composers of his era, though he was not recognised as such at all in the early '70s. Standout tracks from Radio City include "Mod Lang", Way Out West", "I'm in Love with a Girl", and the sublime power pop anthem "September Gurls" (which I first heard via the Bangles' very good cover in the mid-80s). This latter track is the one that I've chosen to showcase. It's just a great song – all ramshackle crunchy guitars and swaggering, Beatle-esque melody, with bittersweet lyrics about lost or unrequited love. I have no idea what a September girl is or what the line "December boys got it bad" means, but I sure feel it when they sing it…
I have one of their albums on cd, not this one. I remember buying it ungheard based on a description I read somewhere of their style - which turned out to be not inaccurate but still for some reason I have never really become a huge fan the way I thought I might. I like this song, September Girl better than I remember liking the cd - which I haven't played in quite a while so maybe I should dig it out and try it again.
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Post by tartanphantom on Mar 30, 2024 22:15:01 GMT -5
I hope it's not a faux pas to post this before Slam, but I'm just about to go out to play a gig and won't be back til the early hours, when I'll likely be too tired to check in on the forum. So, I'm just gonna dump today's 1974 pick now. #6 - Radio City by Big StarToday's choice is another album that sold almost nothing in its day, but which has since become revered as a key power pop record. Big Star are one of those cult bands who sold very few records, but who ended up influencing lots of far more successful acts, like Kiss, R.E.M., The Bangles, Teenage Fanclub, and Primal Scream, to name just a few. Radio City is the band's second album and, while it doesn't quite reach the sublime heights of the previous year's #1 Record, it's really good nonetheless. Hailing from Memphis, Tennessee, the band really wear their Beatles/Stones/Byrds influences on their sleeve, while adding in a dash of blue-eyed Memphis soul grit. The band's main songwriter Alex Chilton (formerly of the Box Tops, who had a hit with "The Letter") is probably among the most gifted pop-rock composers of his era, though he was not recognised as such at all in the early '70s. Standout tracks from Radio City include "Mod Lang", Way Out West", "I'm in Love with a Girl", and the sublime power pop anthem "September Gurls" (which I first heard via the Bangles' very good cover in the mid-80s). This latter track is the one that I've chosen to showcase. It's just a great song – all ramshackle crunchy guitars and swaggering, Beatle-esque melody, with bittersweet lyrics about lost or unrequited love. I have no idea what a September girl is or what the line "December boys got it bad" means, but I sure feel it when they sing it…
This is a fantastic pick. It makes my top 20 for the year, but barely missed my top 10. I am slightly partial to #1 Record (first release), but you can't really go wrong with any of the three "official" Big Star albums.
I've often said that I view Big Star to be the American parallel to Badfinger, not only in their catchy pop/rock sensibilities, but also in their terrible streaks of bad luck-- both in business and in terms of personal tragedy.
With the right promotion, I think Big Star could have been really big, but they were really hampered by under-promotion and the totally crap distribution deal from Stax, (whose own financial troubles were just beginning to show, but would take years to culminate in the collapse of the company). Then, there was the untimely death of Chris Bell (freak car accident), which basically ended the possibility of any future records. Without Bell, anything after that would basically have been a glorified Alex Chilton solo album.
Nevertheless, in the short lifetime of the band, Big Star gave us three brilliant albums, which still stand up to repeated listening today, much like the outstanding three-album run that Badfinger gave us (Magic Christian Music, No Dice, and Straight Up) in the early '70s.
They even "borrowed" from the store logo for the first album cover-- see for yourself:
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Post by tartanphantom on Mar 30, 2024 22:29:50 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974 #6 - Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown
The album that changed Gordon Lightfoot from a successful songwriter in to a star. The album went to number one. The title track topped the charts and "Carefree Highway" went to number 10 on the pop chart and topped the AC chart. I spent a lot of years not caring a bit about Lightfoot (other than The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, I always loved that song). But his work has grown on me more and more and this is just a super solid album. It was the pinnacle of his singer-songwriter period before he started using more electric instruments. And the album is really more than the two big hits. "High and Dry," "Somewhere in the U.S.A.," and "Circles of Steel" are solid, catchy folk-rock tunes.
Another one that made it into my top 20 but missed the top 10, good solid work by Lightfoot during his ascendance in American popularity. Of all of his output, my quirky taste still prefers his earliest material on United Artists-- the first four albums before If You Could Read My Mind (aka Sit Down Young Stranger), which was his first release on Reprise.
The earlier material is more folkish, and his voice is so strong and clear. The United Artists Collection is a two-disc set that fully compiles his first four records in chronological order, and contains my all time favorite Lightfoot deep cuts-- well worth seeking out. Still in print, I believe.
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Post by tartanphantom on Mar 30, 2024 23:31:31 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974
#6-- Nightlife-- Thin Lizzy
I have an affinity for this band the way Slam_Bradley has an affinity for Jason Isbell & 400 Unit.
This group, along with another individual artist (which will be revealed in my #1 favorite for '74) have long been my top favs of popular music since I was a teen. Most Americans know very little about this band outside of the Jailbreak album from 1976, and even in the UK they were something of a puzzler in terms of success.
Nevertheless, Thin Lizzy had great success on the global stage, especially in Germany, France, Sweden, Japan and Australia. Even so, I don't expect this record to pop up on the radar of very many people at all. It's definitely a deep-dive album, and usually only appeals to the most ardent of Lizzy fans. Like it or not, I happen to fall into that category, sooooo...
Nightlife is the fourth studio album by Thin Lizzy, and by many standards is also their most enigmatic. It was the first album to feature a twin guitar line-up, as the first three albums found the band in power folk/prog trio mode. After the abrupt departure of their original guitarist, Eric Bell (literally in the middle of a gig), Phil Lynott, the band's leader, songwriter and bassist/vocalist decided that never again would he be held at the mercy of a single guitarist. So, taking a cue from groups like the Allman Brothers and Wishbone Ash, Phil decided to fill out the band with two guitarists, who could each hold their own in the role of lead or rhythm. Interestingly, this direction took the band from being a purely Irish outfit to a more cosmopolitan makeup, as he hired a Scotsman and a Californian as his new young guns.
The album is real bridge between Lizzy's early progressive folk/blues direction and their later straight-up rock tendencies. As the primary songwriter for the group, Phil Lynott has always had the penchant for combining the sneer of early Elvis-style attitude with the romanticism of the classic Irish Poets. It clearly shows throughout the record, with only a couple of hard-rocking numbers balancing out an album largely comprised of string-laden ballads, straight-up blues, and a dash of R&B swagger. Even at this early stage, the musicianship is spot-on, even if the production values are lackluster.
There are no hits or singles on this album, but I'll showcase a few cuts for the sake of diversity.
Still In Love With You-- this slow blues lament is the closest thing to a hit on the album, as it became a live-concert staple for the band, and was even re-recorded a couple of times. This track was actually recorded slightly before the rest of the album, and features future blues legend Gary Moore on lead guitar, and Frankie Miller in a duet vocal trade-off with Lynott on the lead vocals.
Night Life-- The title cut (albeit spelled as two words instead of one), This is a bit of funky blues rock that also borrows part of the chorus from Willie Nelson's song of the same title, made popular by Ray Price in the early 1960's. You'll know it when you hear it. The verses are all Lynott, though.
It's Only Money-- and to show that they hadn't gone completely soft, this is one of a couple of tracks that demonstrates the edgier side of the band that most people associate with them.
Not an album for everyman's taste, it is still relevant to me and the development of my music experience as both a writer and performer. Not recommended as an entry point to the band's catalog due to its haphazard lack of focus in terms of both writing and production.
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Post by berkley on Mar 31, 2024 1:46:11 GMT -5
Thin Lizzy's another band I knew mainly through the radio. But I always liked them and in the early 1990s, when I finally caved in and started buying cds, a Thin Lizzy compilation called Dedication was one of the first few I bought - though I can't remember now why I went for a compilation instead of one of their actual albums, which would have been my usual instinct in cases like this. I can only guess that perhaps it was an impulse buy, something I saw and picked up on the spur of the moment. Anyway, that collection did include "Still in Love with You", but in a live version, not the one from Night Life. I never have gotten around to checking out their albums, so this is a reminder to keep an eye out for them.
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Post by berkley on Mar 31, 2024 5:34:56 GMT -5
I'm already starting to second-guess myself after saying earlier that I thought I had my ten decided but anyway here's my first pick, going by wikipedia's chronological list of 1974 album releases:
Here Come the Warm Jets - Brian Eno (Feb 1974)
This is Music, with a capital M - that's what I remember feeling, more than thinking, on my first listen to this record. I didn't hear it in 1974 but a few years later - hard to pin it down exactly, I suddenly find as soon as I make the attempt - probably around 1977 or 78, at a guess. What I think I felt was, even though it sounded like nothing I'd ever heard before, it captured and transformed many of the effects I had experienced previously or would later in music - from the high energy of the punk that was yet to come to the experimental prog that had come before - and yet still sounding like none of the above.
I also think it might be one of the best assembled albums in terms of how the various tracks are arranged - sometimes when I hear this record I think it should have been the soundtrack to a movie that's never been made.I don't think I had ever heard anything with quite the same unique energy of the first one, Needles in the Camel's Eye, and then the following tracks kept surprising me with a completely different kind of novelty. Anyone listening for the first time and not reading along the song list on the album cover would think the elegaic Some of Them are Old must be the perfect and therefore obvious and appropriate ending but then the title track succeeds it, unexpectedly bringing back the upbeat tempo of the opener but with a subtle nuance of all the varied emotional tones of everything that's happened in between. The crazy thing is, this isn't even the best album Eno released this year.
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Confessor
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Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on Mar 31, 2024 6:08:45 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974 #6 - Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown
I have a criminal lack of familiarity with Gordon Lightfoot's music, despite a couple of my good friends being big fans of his. I know Bob Dylan really rates him highly as a songwriter too, which is obviously high praise indeed. Listening to that song you posted, I do quite like it, so I should definitely check out his stuff more seriously. Also, is it just me or does he sound a little like Paul Stookey from Peter, Paul & Mary vocally?
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Mar 31, 2024 6:19:35 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974
#6-- Nightlife-- Thin Lizzy Wow! Those songs you posted are VERY different to the Thin Lizzy stuff I know. I'm one of those listeners who only really knows the big hits like "The Boys Are Back in Town", "Whiskey in the Jar", and "Don't Believe a Word", along with the Jailbreak album. The songs from Nightlife sound much more like slick mid-70s soft rock than the better known stuff. I almost hear similarities with mid-70s Hall & Oates. I have a lot of time for Phil Lynott though, he was a big talent.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Mar 31, 2024 6:29:47 GMT -5
Here Come the Warm Jets - Brian Eno (Feb 1974) The Brian Eno stuff that I'm familiar with is his slightly later ambient albums, such as Another Green World, Music for Airports and Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. Those records are very different to this, judging from "Needles in the Camel's Eye", which I just had a listen to. You can still really hear the Roxy Music connection in this music, though with even more art-rock stylings. Interesting... I might need to hear more of this.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 31, 2024 7:18:54 GMT -5
Ah, yes. Thin Lizzy. Ireland's greatest contribution to world music? Possibly...
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Post by commond on Mar 31, 2024 7:36:47 GMT -5
Ah, yes. Thin Lizzy. Ireland's greatest contribution to world music? Possibly... I dunno, Rory Gallagher, Van Morrison, the Pogues, Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers, and My Bloody Valentine say hello.
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Post by driver1980 on Mar 31, 2024 7:41:10 GMT -5
Ah, yes. Thin Lizzy. Ireland's greatest contribution to world music? Possibly... I dunno, Rory Gallagher, Van Morrison, the Pogues, Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers, and My Bloody Valentine say hello. Great list, my friend, and I’ll add U2 to it…
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Post by tartanphantom on Mar 31, 2024 8:55:56 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974 #6 - Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown
I have a criminal lack of familiarity with Gordon Lightfoot's music, despite a couple of my good friends being big fans of his. I know Bob Dylan really rates him highly as a songwriter too, which is obviously high praise indeed. Listening to that song you posted, I do quite like it, so I should definitely check out his stuff more seriously.
As a songwriter yourself, it sounds like you have a some "required reading" ahead. It can't come quick enough. I put Lightfoot in the "masterclass" category along with Dylan when it comes to folk/troubadour/folk-rock styles.
An example of his mid-60's stuff-- this one is a bit long but totally worth the listen--
Canadian Railroad Trilogy--
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