A I recollect about the past, I realize that there was a lot more going on musically than what was happening in my little suburban world. The 70’s became known as the era of classic rock, and that music still thrives today. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Eagles and many more bands and artists came into their own during this time. Some of that music managed to seep through, mostly because I had two older brothers who were in high school at the time. I would go through their record collections and find things like Led Zeppelin I & II, or The Beatles Abbey Road or Sergeant Pepper’s. I definitely remember playing 45s of Cream’s White Room The Jackson 5’s ABC, The Beatles Hey Jude/Revolution and The Cowsill’s version of Hair. I played them all. A Lot.
The first real rock album I owned from around this time was Wing’s Band on the Run, released in 1973. It was probably a Christmas or Birthday present. I really wanted the album that had Junior’s Farm on it – but Band on the Run was pretty cool, too. The title track and Jet were stand-outs and I played them over and over.
It was also around this time when I first heard Bruce Springsteen. My brother Ted was a huge fan of the New Jersey native and Bruce played a lot of local clubs and colleges back then. There was one summer when Ted was coaching little league for the Cramer Hill Boy’s Club. I would go with him and sit in his Volkswagen Beetle, and listen to The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle on his 8-track player. Mostly I remember Rosalita and the rambling lyrics about a rag-tag collection of friends like Little Dynamite and Big Bones Billy and a car being stuck in the “swamps of Jersey”. Jersey? Hey! New Jersey gets mentioned in a song! And I live in New Jersey! How cool is that!! Ted bought me the 45 for Born to Run for my birthday, probably in 1975, about a week after the album was released.
I would eventually make my way back to a lot of the music from this era and discover what I had missed. The Eagles were getting a lot of airplay during this time, especially when Hotel California came out in late 1976. Johnny Come Lately and the title track were AM mainstays, but before Hotel California, most of the Eagles’ hits reflected their “Soft Rock” side. Together with America, (And even a little Neil Young) there was a streak of acoustic guitar flavored rock that definitely had an appeal to me. I was still a few years away from my first guitar lesson, but this may have been where the seeds were planted!
Looking back it seemed that around 1975 -1976, R&B and disco were making more inroads into the Top Forty, driving fans of the rock flavored songs to FM radio, where you could find Steely Dan, Pink Floyd and others. But let’s return to those cultural sign posts – the K-tel collections!
The Music Express
The collection from 1975, Music Express marks the appearance of a singer and songwriter from New York, who would dominate the easy listening charts for the next 5 years. Barry Manilow’s break-through hit Mandy was everywhere in late 1974. In the break between Christmas 1974 and New Year’s we drove down to Walt Disney World for our family vacation. I think there was a foot of snow on the ground when we left, but it would be the vacation of a lifetime! We stopped at South of the Border the first night and St Augustine the second night before making it to Disney. But Barry Manilows’ Mandy was with us every mile down and every mile back. We couldn’t get away from that song and by the end of the trip we had had enough of Mandy. I still don’t care for that song, but I would eventually own all of Barry’s albums up through Even Now, including the big double record live set. Side 1
Love Will Keep Us Together – Captain & Tennille
Swearin’ To God – Frankie Valli
Get Down Tonight – K. C. & The Sunshine Band
Philadelphia Freedom – Elton John Band
Cat’s In The Cradle – Harry ChapinMandy – Barry Manilow
I’m Not In Love – 10CC
Poetry Man – Phoebe Snow
Chevy Van – Sammy Johns
Run Joey Run – David Geddes
Side 2
Rocky – Austin Roberts
Jackie Blue – Ozark Mountain Daredevils
The Rockford Files – Mike Post
Sky High – Jigsaw
Brazil – Ritchie Family
Get Dancin’ – Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes
Long Train Running – Doobie Brothers
My Eyes Adored You – Frankie Valli
Dynomite – Tony Camillo’s Bazuka
Black Superman –Johnny Wakelin & The Kinshasa Band
From this set I also like the song Rocky a maudlin tune about a husband struggling to deal with the death of his young wife. Interestingly, the year before, Seasons in the Sun which also dealt with premature death was also the first track on Side 2. And the year before that, in the same position on the Fantastic collection was The Morning After which the theme song from the Poseidon Adventure – a movie where a lot of people died tragically. Was this a recurring theme with the folks at K-tel? Nah, probably just a cosmic coincidence.
This also marks the first appearance of KC and the Sunshine Band on the list. They would be at the tops of the charts for the next 3 years and along with the Bee Gees, would become icons of the Disco era. Music from both bands still gets played today and often lands in movies. Forrest Gump used KC’s Get Down Tonight and Stayin Alive was used in Madagascar. Actually, right now (8/4/10 at 6:17 am) I have the TV on in the background. A commercial is on for the appliance/electronics store HH Gregg. Guess what song they’re using? Yup, it’s Get Down Tonight.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think the cultural battle lines were being drawn for the first time within the same generation. During the birth of Rock and Roll, the young, post-war kids latched onto to the likes of Elvis, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. The kids loved it, the parents hated it, and Colonel Parker milked it for all it was worth. Even in the sixties, From Dylan to the Beatles, and Hendrix to Woodstock, rock and roll music was the backdrop for the clash between youth and the establishment. But in the 1970’s there was an added twist. Sure, parents would always lament the popular rock and roll of the times. Hell, I’m a parent and I do it now. I mean Nickelback? Geesh that’s not music, that’s just noise!!!! But anyway, back in the 1970s the intra-generational war was shaping up between rock and Disco and for a while it looked like Disco would win out.
Next: Sidebar: Was There More to Life than the Radio?
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