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Post by tartanphantom on Mar 26, 2024 20:36:31 GMT -5
I'd play along, but '71-74 were so loaded with good albums, I don't know that I could narrow down top 10 favorites for any of those years. Would they need to be ranked, or just top 10 favorites unranked?
Yeah, those are probably some of the peak years for myself as that's around when I started buying records. Also, I was probably reading more about music through the decade of the 1970s than at any other time of my life so I'm more aware of stuff from that time plus the late 1960s than I am of anything that came after. But I'll have a look at the wiki list for 1974 and if I think I can narrow it down to a top ten maybe I'll play along as well.
Come on in, the water's fine, and Slam_Bradley hasn't even cannonballed into the pool yet.
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Post by tartanphantom on Mar 26, 2024 20:40:08 GMT -5
Ha! Oh OK. I don't remember that, but I'm sure you're right. Nice collectible there.
Believe it or not, I bought that copy of American Flyer for $1.00 in a used-record shop in Memphis back when I first moved there in 1985. That's why it's not personalized to me... I have no idea who "Francis" (or Francine?) is, but it's been mine ever since!
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Post by berkley on Mar 26, 2024 20:47:29 GMT -5
OK, Slam_Bradley and Confessor , after much debate I've compiled my top 10 favorite albums from 1974. The top 5 were fairly easy to rank, it was the bottom 5 that gave me trouble.
I think this list will give you an idea of how absolutely wide a net I cast in my musical preferences, and truthfully I've been that way since I was a small child. I got my first "record player" at 3, and my parents didn't limit my records to the usual kiddie fare such as Teddy Bear's Picnic, The Little Engine That Could, or Mother Goose songs.
No, thanks to my parents (mainly my father, who was a music aficionado himself) at the wise old age of 3 I was already listening to Herb Alpert, The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Dukas, Dvorak's New World Symphony, The Village Stompers, and even Grandpa Jones as well. Thanks to my mother, who was a teacher, I also began basic reading around the same age. By the time I hit the 10th grade, I had already amassed a collection of around 250-300 albums, larger than my father's own collection. Today, it's well over 3500 if you count all formats (vinyl, cd, digital).
If anything, my musical tastes have expanded with age, which is directly inverse of the norm for most people. No genre is off the table for me-- good music is good music, and it refuses to be pigeonholed by convention.
Which leads me to Album #10 from 1974--
While Stafford is usually musically typecast along with Ray Stevens as a "funny guy", his debut record made a big impact on me as future songwriter. I realized that songs could be entertaining and fun. His first record, contains some of his biggest hits, several of which crossed over and charted simultaneously on both the Pop and Country charts (he was generally considered a country artist).
Stafford wrote most of his own material, and had a real knack for comedic double entendre and catchy earworm melodies. As a kid, I was completely enthralled by the storytelling aspects of songs like Swamp Witch and Wildwood Weed. And then from the very same album, we got the catchy, seductive hook of Spiders and Snakes, and the groundbreaking (for its time) suggestive My Girl Bill.
I remember Spiders and Snakes and My Girl Bill very well as they got a ton of airplay on our local AM radio station at the time.
One thing seems a bit strange: I see that according to wikipedia Wildwood Weed was just as big a hit in Canada as those other two songs but the title doesn't ring a bill and after giving it a listen on youtube I find no memory of ever having heard it before. Swamp Witch, however, I have heard before, so I wonder if that was a regional difference between our local radio station and the rest of Canada or if either wiki or my memory is in error.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 26, 2024 21:35:42 GMT -5
Which leads me to Album #10 from 1974--
While Stafford is usually musically typecast along with Ray Stevens as a "funny guy", his debut record made a big impact on me as future songwriter. I realized that songs could be entertaining and fun. His first record, contains some of his biggest hits, several of which crossed over and charted simultaneously on both the Pop and Country charts (he was generally considered a country artist).
Stafford wrote most of his own material, and had a real knack for comedic double entendre and catchy earworm melodies. As a kid, I was completely enthralled by the storytelling aspects of songs like Swamp Witch and Wildwood Weed.
And then from the very same album, we got the catchy, seductive hook of Spiders and Snakes, and the groundbreaking (for its time) suggestive My Girl Bill.
That’s outstanding. I haven’t listened to Jim Stafford in eons. I absolutely remember both “Spiders and Snakes” and “Wildwood Weed” being on the radio back in the day.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 27, 2024 9:37:31 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974
#9 - Kris Kristofferson – Spooky Lady’s Sideshow
This was Kristofferson's fifth solo album and the first one to be a substantial financial and critical dud. In 1973 Kristofferson was on top of the world. Coming off a string of successful albums, the hottest song-writer in music and having appeared in the film Pat Garret and Billy the Kid. Kristofferson was viewed as being excessively focused on Hollywood rather than on writing songs.
The subject matter of the songs in the album seemed destined to make it a bummer. The focus, while still on Kristofferson's general themes of freedom, The Devil and the Redeemer, is through a lens of drug and alcohol use and general decline. This album...well...it's a bummer. What saves it, is that Kristofferson was still one of the great wordsmiths of the time. But it was the beginning of the end of a short period in which he was the biggest songwriter not just in Nashville, but in the world.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Mar 27, 2024 10:36:22 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974 #9 - Kris Kristofferson – Spooky Lady’s Sideshow
I'm not familiar with this album, but I do know that it was made during a period when Kristofferson was writing songs with Roger McGuinn of The Byrds and Bobby Neuwirth (an old friend of Bob Dylan's). Looking on Wikipedia, I can see that there are two songs written by the three of them on the album, including "Rock and Roll Time", which McGuinn himself included on his 1976 solo album Cardiff Rose.
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Post by tartanphantom on Mar 27, 2024 10:48:22 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974 #9 - Kris Kristofferson – Spooky Lady’s Sideshow
This was Kristofferson's fifth solo album and the first one to be a substantial financial and critical dud. In 1973 Kristofferson was on top of the world. Coming off a string of successful albums, the hottest song-writer in music and having appeared in the film Pat Garret and Billy the Kid. Kristofferson was viewed as being excessively focused on Hollywood rather than on writing songs. The subject matter of the songs in the album seemed destined to make it a bummer. The focus, while still on Kristofferson's general themes of freedom, The Devil and the Redeemer, is through a lens of drug and alcohol use and general decline. This album...well...it's a bummer. What saves it, is that Kristofferson was still one of the great wordsmiths of the time. But it was the beginning of the end of a short period in which he was the biggest songwriter not just in Nashville, but in the world.
And to think that before he was "discovered" as a songwriter, he literally lived the "King of the Road" cliche' for years in Nashville-- pushing a broom to survive.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 27, 2024 11:00:11 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974 #9 - Kris Kristofferson – Spooky Lady’s Sideshow
This was Kristofferson's fifth solo album and the first one to be a substantial financial and critical dud. In 1973 Kristofferson was on top of the world. Coming off a string of successful albums, the hottest song-writer in music and having appeared in the film Pat Garret and Billy the Kid. Kristofferson was viewed as being excessively focused on Hollywood rather than on writing songs. The subject matter of the songs in the album seemed destined to make it a bummer. The focus, while still on Kristofferson's general themes of freedom, The Devil and the Redeemer, is through a lens of drug and alcohol use and general decline. This album...well...it's a bummer. What saves it, is that Kristofferson was still one of the great wordsmiths of the time. But it was the beginning of the end of a short period in which he was the biggest songwriter not just in Nashville, but in the world.
And to think that before he was "discovered" as a songwriter, he literally lived the "King of the Road" cliche' for years in Nashville-- pushing a broom to survive.
It was a bold choice for a Rhodes Scholar who had taught English at West Point.
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Post by tartanphantom on Mar 27, 2024 11:18:59 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974
#9-- Electric Light Orchestra -- Eldorado
I'm a huge fan of Jeff Lynne. I think he's got the magic touch when it comes to popular music, whether it be as a musician or a producer. The guy literally watched every move the Beatles made, then applied his own talents to the same formula. The end-result was ELO, with or without Roy Wood. In fact, I think it was the divergence of their musical ideas that actually made ELO more successful after Wood bowed out.
Eldorado is the fourth studio album by the group, and the one where the band would really begin to gel in concept and in their highly recognizable sonic signature. While the album is technically a concept project, several of the cuts can stand on their own without any need of knowledge of the underlying premise. In other words, the concept is loose enough that the songs can be enjoyed at face value. There's a little bit of everything here-- a nice balance of sweeping neo-classical movements, ballads, and mid-tempo electrified rockers. Although I despise the label "prog rock", this record is what I would call "completely digestible prog rock." Unlike many of its contemporaries, the record doesn't meander into endless wheedly-deedly keyboard or guitar solos, and Bev Bevan's drums and percussion are no-nonsense and rock-solid throughout.
Perhaps the most important aspect of this record is that it sounds like ELO as we came to know it throughout the '70s and early '80s-- Lynne has emerged from the musical wilderness and found his real voice as a songwriter, lyricist, composer, arranger and lead vocalist, and the strings have congealed into a solid, substantial and recognizable unit.
Eldorado is to ELO what Echos was to Pink Floyd in the post-Barrett years-- a premonition and signal of what was to come.
Who would have thought that you could have so much fun with cellos and guitars in the same room? And where else can you find a polka with a fanfare intro, which segues into an upbeat pop tune? (Boy Blue clip below). As much as I love the records that followed, I return to this album frequently, like an old friend.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Mar 27, 2024 12:10:28 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974 #9-- Electric Light Orchestra -- Eldorado I have to say, I'm not a huge fan of Jeff Lynne and ELO, which is kinda surprising, given what a big Beatles fan I am. I know the song "Can't Get It Out of My Head" from this album though and it certainly is VERY Beatley sounding in places.
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Post by tartanphantom on Mar 27, 2024 12:18:35 GMT -5
I have to say, I'm not a huge fan of Jeff Lynne and ELO, which is kinda surprising, given what a big Beatles fan I am. I know the song "Can't Get It Out of My Head" from this album though and it certainly is VERY Beatley sounding in places.
Well, I suppose that the fact that Lynne is a Brummie and still has remnants of that funny characteristic rising accent probably works against him with other Englishmen. My understanding is that it's the most disliked local accent in Britain.
Different strokes though... ELO is not everyone's cup of tea, and were arguably more popular in the US than in their home country.
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Post by berkley on Mar 27, 2024 12:32:32 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974
#9-- Electric Light Orchestra -- Eldorado
I'm a huge fan of Jeff Lynne. I think he's got the magic touch when it comes to popular music, whether it be as a musician or a producer. The guy literally watched every move the Beatles made, then applied his own talents to the same formula. The end-result was ELO, with or without Roy Wood. In fact, I think it was the divergence of their musical ideas that actually made ELO more successful after Wood bowed out.
Eldorado is the fourth studio album by the group, and the one where the band would really begin to gel in concept and in their highly recognizable sonic signature. While the album is technically a concept project, several of the cuts can stand on their own without any need of knowledge of the underlying premise. In other words, the concept is loose enough that the songs can be enjoyed at face value. There's a little bit of everything here-- a nice balance of sweeping neo-classical movements, ballads, and mid-tempo electrified rockers. Although I despise the label "prog rock", this record is what I would call "completely digestible prog rock." Unlike many of its contemporaries, the record doesn't meander into endless wheedly-deedly keyboard or guitar solos, and Bev Bevan's drums and percussion are no-nonsense and rock-solid throughout.
Perhaps the most important aspect of this record is that it sounds like ELO as we came to know it throughout the '70s and early '80s-- Lynne has emerged from the musical wilderness and found his real voice as a songwriter, lyricist, composer, arranger and lead vocalist, and the strings have congealed into a solid, substantial and recognizable unit.
Eldorado is to ELO what Echos was to Pink Floyd in the post-Barrett years-- a premonition and signal of what was to come.
Who would have thought that you could have so much fun with cellos and guitars in the same room? And where else can you find a polka with a fanfare intro, which segues into an upbeat pop tune? (Boy Blue clip below). As much as I love the records that followed, I return to this album frequently, like an old friend.
This might be on my list too, I still haven't made the final cuts. I only got to know the album as a whole in the 1990s when I bought the cd, it wasn't one of the ELO records we had in our house growing up, though I did love the single, Can't Get It Out of My Head. Great tunes throughout.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 27, 2024 12:33:07 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1974
#9-- Electric Light Orchestra -- Eldorado
I'm a huge fan of Jeff Lynne. I think he's got the magic touch when it comes to popular music, whether it be as a musician or a producer. The guy literally watched every move the Beatles made, then applied his own talents to the same formula. The end-result was ELO, with or without Roy Wood. In fact, I think it was the divergence of their musical ideas that actually made ELO more successful after Wood bowed out.
Eldorado is the fourth studio album by the group, and the one where the band would really begin to gel in concept and in their highly recognizable sonic signature. While the album is technically a concept project, several of the cuts can stand on their own without any need of knowledge of the underlying premise. In other words, the concept is loose enough that the songs can be enjoyed at face value. There's a little bit of everything here-- a nice balance of sweeping neo-classical movements, ballads, and mid-tempo electrified rockers. Although I despise the label "prog rock", this record is what I would call "completely digestible prog rock." Unlike many of its contemporaries, the record doesn't meander into endless wheedly-deedly keyboard or guitar solos, and Bev Bevan's drums and percussion are no-nonsense and rock-solid throughout.
Perhaps the most important aspect of this record is that it sounds like ELO as we came to know it throughout the '70s and early '80s-- Lynne has emerged from the musical wilderness and found his real voice as a songwriter, lyricist, composer, arranger and lead vocalist, and the strings have congealed into a solid, substantial and recognizable unit.
Eldorado is to ELO what Echos was to Pink Floyd in the post-Barrett years-- a premonition and signal of what was to come.
Who would have thought that you could have so much fun with cellos and guitars in the same room? And where else can you find a polka with a fanfare intro, which segues into an upbeat pop tune? (Boy Blue clip below). As much as I love the records that followed, I return to this album frequently, like an old friend.
I've got a good friend who is a huge ELO fan, so I've listened to them a fair bit over the years, beyond what you'd have found on the radio back in the day. I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan, but I generally won't turn them off, which is fairly high praise from me when it comes to prog or art rock of that vintage.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Mar 27, 2024 13:07:41 GMT -5
Favourite albums of 1974 continued... #9 - Winter in America by Gil Scott-Heron and Brian JacksonGil Scott-Heron's fourth album was co-credited to keyboardist, flutist and his long-time collaborator Brian Jackson, due to his sizable contributions to the music on the album. The record is less jazz-funk flavoured and far more sombre than Scott-Heron's previous efforts, with most of the songs dealing with themes of disillusionment and social breakdown in America's inner-city ghettos. It also leans further into mid-tempo jazz territory than its predecessors, creating a mellow, almost comforting ambience on several tracks, despite their harsh lyrical content. A notable exception to this more laid-back vibe is the standout track "The Bottle", which I believe was released as a single. This up-tempo commentary on alcohol abuse in the inner-cities has a killer groove, some great vocals from Scott-Heron and beautiful flute playing from Jackson (check out the video below). There's a bit less of the spoken word, proto-rapping that he was known for too, although the track "H2Ogate Blues", which hilariously skewers Nixon and the Watergate scandal, still features this spoken aspect of Scott-Heron's style to fantastic effect. Overall, Winter in America is probably a bit more patchy than Scott-Heron's earlier albums, but at least half of it is still top notch, with his poetic, politically charged lyrics being as inciteful and sharp as ever.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 27, 2024 13:14:43 GMT -5
Favourite albums of 1974 continued... #9 - Winter in America by Gil Scott-Heron and Brian JacksonGil Scott-Heron's fourth album was co-credited to keyboardist, flutist and his long-time collaborator Brian Jackson, due to his sizable contributions to the music on the album. The record is less jazz-funk flavoured and far more sombre than Scott-Heron's previous efforts, with most of the songs dealing with themes of disillusionment and social breakdown in America's inner-city ghettos. It also leans further into mid-tempo jazz territory than its predecessors, creating a mellow, almost comforting ambience on several tracks, despite their harsh lyrical content. A notable exception to this more laid-back vibe is the standout track "The Bottle", which I believe was released as a single. This up-tempo commentary on alcohol abuse in the inner-cities has a killer groove, some great vocals from Scott-Heron and beautiful flute playing from Jackson (check out the video below). There's a bit less of the spoken, proto-rapping that he was known for too, although the track "H2Ogate Blues", which hilariously skewers Nixon and the Watergate scandal, still features this spoken word aspect of Scott-Heron's style to fantastic effect. Overall, Winter in America is probably a bit more patchy than Scott-Heron's earlier albums, but at least half of it is still top notch, with his poetic, politically charged lyrics being as inciteful and sharp as ever. That's a great album. Objectively better than many that I'll have on my list. It's just not one that I want to listen to nearly as often. I think the only album that Scott-Heron did that's in the same ballpark is 1971s "Pieces of a Man."
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