1973 featured the OPEC oil crisis, the Yom Kippur War, and the death of Salvador Allende. But it was also a great year for albums – I had no room for personal favourites like Tom Waits’ Closing Time, Paul Simon’s…
Talking Heads emerged from the mid-1970s CBGB scene, along with Blondie, The Ramones, and Television. Neurotic frontman David Byrne formed the band with drummer Chris Frantz. When the new band was unable to find a bass player, Frantz’s girlfriend Tina…
The Sex Pistols weren’t the first punk band to release an album – The Ramones beat them by 18 months. But Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook, and Sid Vicious became the face of punk in the UK. Manager Malcolm…
In November 2021, ABBA released their ninth studio album Voyage. It was the Swedish quartet’s first studio album in almost 40 years – an unprecedented gap in output for a superstar group. It’s not the longest gap between releases –…
Formed by London architecture students in 1964, Pink Floyd are one of the most beloved classic rock bands. Stadium-rock blockbusters like Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall enjoy the most attention, but they enjoyed a lengthy career on either side of the…
For some bands, it’s fun to argue what their best album is. Do you prefer Abbey Road, Revolver, or Sgt. Peppers? Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie? But other bands have a canonical best album that’s hard to debate against –…
Steely Dan released a string of quality records in the 1970s that blurred the lines between rock and jazz. They started the decade as a self-contained rock band and ended as the duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, supported…
Based on his radio hits I once classed Bruce Springsteen as a lame rocker, responsible for lowest common denominator anthems such as ‘Born in the U.S.A.’. But of course, there’s a reason why he’s so respected, and 1984’s huge-selling Born In…
I spent my teenage years enamoured by the pop tunes of Billy Joel. Joel has a touch of show-tune about his work, and his work has never been as critically acclaimed as his more celebrated contemporaries like Bruce Springsteen or…
Neil Leslie Diamond is adored by mature women and ironically enjoyed by sports crowds singing ‘Sweet Caroline’. Indoctrinated at an early age, however, I appreciate him as a fascinating character. Diamond is one part sequined stadium-filling entertainer and another part…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 1 Mississippi by Pussycat Topped the NZ chart for 11 weeks from 19 March 1976 ‘Mississippi’ is a country song by the Dutch band Pussycat. It pushed Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ off the top of the…
Bread struck AM gold in the early 1970s, with a sentimental string of soft-rock hits written by David Gates. David Gates had contributed to the rich tapestry of 1960s music – he wrote The Murmaids’ #3 hit ‘Popsicles and Icicles’…
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been covering The Beach Boys’ solo careers – albeit only two of them. Brian Wilson’s solo albums of new material, starting with 1988’s self-titled record, show flashes of brilliance, although they often suffer…
Sparks are the world’s longest-running cult band. The only constant members are siblings Ron and Russell Mael, who grew up in Pacific Palisades, California. They emerged with the glam movement of the 1970s. Their single ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough…
Despite releasing their first album in 1968, Creedence Clearwater Revival weren’t hippies. Frontman John Fogerty represents blue-collar America, addressing working-class issues like the Vietnam War, while there’s a heartland warmth to their swampy rock. The band sounded like they came…
Warren Zevon was born in Chicago, the son of a Ukrainian-born bookie who worked for mobster Mickey Cohen. Zevon briefly studied with Igor Stravinsky, composer of ‘The Rite of Spring’. In his teens, he moved to L.A. to pursue a…
General elections are held every three years in New Zealand, and they’re due soon. Our electoral system is known as MMP – Mixed Member Proportional. Everyone gets two votes – one for a party and one for an electorate MP…
To what extent was punk rock an expression of dissent?
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die describes Gram Parsons as “Keith Richards’ citrus-heir drug-buddy”. Parsons blended rock and country into “Cosmic American Music”. I was initially taken aback by Parsons’ music. It’s not the commercially oriented country offered by…
Ron and Russell Mael grew up in Pacific Palisades, where their father was a graphic designer and caricaturist for Hollywood Citizen-News. The pair surfed and modelled for mail-order catalogues. They gravitated towards English bands like Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, The…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 6 Mull of Kintyre by Wings Topped the NZ chart: for 7 weeks from 29 January 1978. Sir Paul McCartney endured a rollercoaster 1970s after an unimpeachable 1960s. In The Beatles, his rivalry/partnership with Lennon…
I’ve enjoyed reading other blogs‘ fifty-year retrospectives of 1974 albums. It got me thinking about my own list. 1974 was the year of Watergate and the Rumble in the Jungle. It’s also my favourite year for albums, with two of…
Curtis Lee Mayfield started his recording career in the 1950s. He was a member of The Impressions, whose first single, ‘For Your Precious Love’, was released in 1958. He emerged as a songwriter in the 1960s with hits like ‘People…
Curtis Mayfield was born in Chicago, where he sang in a gospel choir. As a teenager, he joined the vocal group The Roosters. The Roosters became The Impressions, releasing their first single in 1958. When Jerry Butler left the group,…
Creedence Clearwater Revival released their first album in 1968. They seemingly emerged from a Florida swamp but actually came from El Cerrito in California. Rebelling against the psychedelic rock of the late 1960s, Creedence began their career playing stripped-down and…
English folk singer-songwriter Nick Drake barely sold a record during his lifetime. But since his premature passing in 1974, at the age of 26, his acclaim and legend have grown. His gentle delivery, virtuoso fingerpicking, poetic lyrics, and sophisticated lyrics…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 3 Paloma Blanca by George Baker Selection Topped the NZ chart: from 1 August 1975 for five non-consecutive weeks Dutch musician George Baker scored hits in three different decades. 1969’s ‘Little Green Bag’ is an…
In 2021, I assembled a list of my ten favourite Billy Joel songs. It included big hits and deep cuts, taken from his 1976-1983 prime. There’s been a lot of Billy Joel discussion in my household recently. My nine-year-old daughter’s…
Karla Bonoff emerged from the same LA scene as musicians like Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and the Eagles. She watched those artists quickly graduate from Monday open mic nights to stars. But Bonoff had to bide her time. It wasn’t…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 9 Fernando Topped the NZ chart: from 4 June 1976 for 9 weeks 1976 was the year of ABBA in New Zealand. The Swedish quartet topped the singles chart for 15 of 45 possible weeks…
Karla Bonoff was born in Santa Monica, California. She played at The Troubadour, alongside future stars like Jackson Browne and the Eagles. Her career, however, is most closely entwined with Linda Ronstadt’s. She formed Bryndle with other singer-songwriters on the…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 3 Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree Topped the NZ chart: from 1 June 1973 for 10 weeks The past is a foreign country. It sounds irredeemably corny now. But ‘Tie a…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 3 Star Crossed Lovers Topped the NZ chart: from 12 June 1970 for 4 weeks (non-consecutive). I’d never heard of Craig Scott before. But apparently he was a heartthrob for New Zealand woman of a…
It’s unusual for a solo artist’s work to overshadow their work with their previous band. But there’s a strong argument that Gabriel’s solo catalogue eclipses the progressive rock albums that he made with Genesis in the 1970s. Leaving Genesis after…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 9 Joanne Topped the NZ chart: from 25 December 1970 for 1 week. One of the more surprising number one hits in New Zealand was ‘Joanne’. It’s a 1970 single from former Monkee Michael Nesmith.…
Musicians used synthesizers before Kraftwerk. Karlheinz Stockhausen experimented with them in the 1950s, while Switched-On Bach reached the top ten in 1968. Synths popped up on 1960s rock records by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, while Stevie Wonder also…
Düsseldorf’s Kraftwerk helped to popularise electronic music in the 1970s. While the use of electronic instruments was pioneered by composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in the early 1950s, Kraftwerk’s minimalist arrangements and catchy tunes helped to take them to the pop charts.…
With his warm voice, pretty guitar-picking, and introspective songwriting, James Vernon Taylor was the figurehead of the singer-songwriter movement in the early 1970s. The son of a physician, his four siblings all became professional musicians. Introduction Taylor’s 1968 debut album on The…
There were a lot of 18/20s in last week’s quiz, but a couple of contestants made it to 20/20 – NostalgicItalian and Eclectic Music Lover – with the latter having the fastest time. This week’s challenge is to link adjectives…
Elton John became a superstar in the early 1970s. But to my mind, he was more of a singles artist than an album artist. He released a series of irresistible singles, incorporating glam rock and Americana into his piano-based pop.…
James Vernon Taylor became the figurehead of the early 1970s singer-songwriter movement. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine with the headline “the face of the new rock”, where he was compared to Heathcliff and to a “cowboy Jesus”.…
New York’s Talking Heads are one of my favourite bands of the new wave era. David Byrne was the nervy frontman, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth were a funky rhythm section, while Jerry Harrison filled out their sound on keyboards…
California’s Tom Waits is effectively the patron saint of this website. My Waits album ranking was the first post from this site to become popular, and it’s still one of its most-visited posts. With recently accounted reissues of Waits’ peak…
Nic Jones emerged in the fertile folk scene of the late 1960s. While contemporaries like Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, and John Martyn ventured into pop and rock music, Jones remained stubbornly traditional. His first two albums, 1970’s Ballads & Songs…
Ron and Russell Mael grew up in Pacific Palisades, California, surfing and modelling for mail order catalogues. They both studied film in college, but gravitated to music, recording their first record as Halfnelson in 1971, with Todd Rundgren producing. The…
Original Eagles bassist and vocalist Randy Meisner passed away last week. It wasn’t a surprise – he’d been battling physical and mental health issues, as well as alcoholism. It was as though he still carried the baggage from leaving the…
The four members of 10cc were all veterans of the 1960s music scene. Graham Gouldman was a successful songwriter, penning The Hollies’ ‘Bus Stop’ and ‘For You Love’ for The Yardbirds. Eric Stewart played with Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders.…
Despite writing hit songs in the late 1960s and her induction into the rock and roll hall of fame, Laura Nyro is a niche figure compared to contemporaries like Joni Mitchell and Carole King. But the piano playing singer-songwriter from the Bronx made some…
Born in Kent, Nic Jones grew up listening to Ray Charles, The Shadows, and Chet Atkins. School friends encouraged him to frequent folk clubs where he heard artists like Bert Jansch and Shirley Collins. He joined The Halliard, releasing two…
The members of The Cars were all experienced musicians when they formed. Drummer David Robinson had already played with another famous Boston act, Jonathan Richman’s Modern Lovers. The band’s two vocalists – bassist Ben Orr and songwriter Ric Ocasek –…
My favourite Jackson Browne song is the title track to his third album, 1974’s Late for the Sky. I’ve never fully understood its meaning. There are dark themes throughout the album – the closing track ‘Before the Deluge’ is apocalyptic.…
The late Tom Petty was a great singles artist – tracks like ‘The Waiting’, ‘Refugee’, and ‘Free Fallin” sound terrific blasting from cars and on classic rock radio. Petty had so many enjoyable hits through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s…
As I’ve noted on this site before, it’s remarkable how Genesis transformed from a smalltime band to commercial heavyweights. By 1971, they’d found their classic quintet of vocalist Peter Gabriel, drummer Phil Collins, keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist Mike Rutherford, and…
Harry Hosono recruited keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto and drummer Yukihiro Takahashi to record a quickie cover of the 1950s exotica tune ‘Firecracker’. The trio quickly became superstars in Japan, and influential elsewhere. The austere electronica of Kraftwerk was a major influence,…
The late Scott Walker was one of the most fascinating artists of the rock era, successful as both a crooner and as an avant-garde composer. Accordingly, this list of Walker favourites is scattershot, ranging from easy listening covers to his…
Congratulations to Max Badfinger, who scored 27/30 on last week’s trivia quiz. This week you need to link the 1972 song to the artist. I scored 20 Can you beat me? There’s a lot of 1970s cheese on the…
The band Television emerged from the same CBGB scene that produced Talking Heads, The Ramones, Blondie, and Patti Smith. The group was started by Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell, and drummer Billy Ficca. Verlaine and Ficca were childhood friends, while Hell…
It’s local election season here in New Zealand. In my home city of Lower Hutt, we have the now standard blend of people running for mayor. Some pleasant community-minded citizens, interspersed with a few conspiracy theorists – a bush-faced gentleman…
Congratulations to boppinsblog, who beat kingclover for bragging rights in last week’s quiz. We’re staying in the classic rock era for this week’s quiz. You need to guess the song based on AI-generated art. I scored 15/15 with 5:18…
Congratulations to Rich Kamerman, who just pipped Eclectic Music Lover for the fastest time in last week’s Cat Stevens titles quiz. Here’s a live version of my favourite song from the quiz, ‘Sad Lisa’, if you don’t know it already:…
The grandson of a Titanic survivor, Haruomi Hosono was the bassist for the Japanese band Happy End. During a jam session with Happy End, Hosono took a double-sized hit on a joint. The joint was tainted and triggered panic attacks.…
Manchester post-punk band Joy Division appeared so ordinary – in their music videos they look like four young civil servants playing music in their work clothes. But the music that they created was unique and deeply unsettling. Steven Morris’ drumming…
Ringo Starr had the most to lose from The Beatles‘ breakup. John Lennon had already launched a solo career with ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and ‘Cold Turkey’. George Harrison had a stockpile of songs that would form the basis of…
Judee Sill was a 1970s singer-songwriter from California. Her gentle songs were at odds with her tumultuous lifestyle. She spent time in prison for armed robbery and learnt music while serving as a Church organist at a reform school. She…
Thanks to everyone who played last week’s first album/last album quiz. Congratulations to Sheik Yerbouti, who finished fastest, in less than a minute. This week you need to identify the artists behind some 1970s albums. The artists are pretty well-known,…
It wasn’t surprising that Paul Simon launched a successful solo career after leaving Simon and Garfunkel, given that he wrote all of the group’s original material. A school of thought enjoys Simon and Garfunkel but dislikes Simon’s solo career, a mindset I…
After recording 1969’s landmark folk-rock album Liege & Lief, Fairport Convention splintered. While the band continued with Richard Thompson, bassist Ashley Hutchings departed to form the more traditional Steeleye Span while vocalist Sandy Denny left to spread her wings as…
It’s difficult to discuss this enduring 1970s acoustic soul singer without referencing one of my favourite jokes, so let’s get it out of the way first, shall we? How do you turn a duck into a soul singer?Put it in the…
Jimmy Webb wasn’t the only prominent person to enjoy success as a songwriter in the 1960s before launching a career as a singer. Isaac Hayes, Carole King, and Neil Diamond all followed similar paths. As a songwriter, I rate Webb…
Richard Thompson left Fairport Convention after 1970’s Full House, his reputation secured as an excellent songwriter and guitarist. He released a spectacularly unsuccessful solo album, Henry the Human Fly, in 1972. He then married Linda Peters and they released six…
His birth certificate says Steven Demetre Georgiou and he later went by the name of Yusuf Islam, but he’s best known by his stage name Cat Stevens. He started his career as a handsome teen idol in 1967, scoring pop…
Sandy Denny is best-known to rock fans for her guest vocal on Led Zeppelin’s ‘Battle of Evermore’, and her contribution to acclaimed Fairport Convention records like Liege & Lief. But she also carved out a solo career as a singer-songwriter…
David Weigel is a journalist – he’s known for his coverage of the conservative movement in the US. He once riled Donald Trump enough that the then-president called for Weigel’s firing from The Washington Post. Weigel’s also the author of…
Congratulations to KingClover, who scored the only 10/10 in last week’s quiz. A lot of contestants, including myself, didn’t recognise Motown’s Mary Wells. This week there’s a list of members from 30 well-known 1970s bands that you need to identify.…
Neil Young was born in Canada in 1945, where his father was a notable sports broadcaster. Before fame, Young played in the Mynah Birds, with a young Rick James, before relocating to Los Angeles. There he joined Stephen Stills in…
In New Zealand we have a sporting cliche, “a game of two halves”. This certainly applies to Tom Waits’ musical career. For the first ten years of his recording career, he was a singer-songwriter, often on the piano, but with…
Brian Eno started his musical career as a member of Roxy Music, where he used his synthesiser to treat Phil Manzanera’s guitar and Andy Mackay’s saxophone and oboe. After leaving Roxy Music he built up an impressive catalogue as a…
Philadelphia-born Todd Rundgren is outrageously talented. He’s a skilled musician on multiple instruments, a strong vocalist with a hint of blue-eyed soul, a gifted studio technician who’s produced landmark albums from The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, The Psychedelic Furs, Meat Loaf,…
Rock and roll’s perpetual underdog, Thomas Earl Petty was born in Gainsville, Florida, in 1950. His interest in rock and roll was sparked when he met Elvis Presley in 1961, and was cemented when he saw The Beatles on the…
Van Morrison began his career as the vocalist for the Belfast garage-rock band Them, scoring hits with ‘Gloria’ and ‘Here Comes The Night’. After Them disbanded, Morrison’s career stalled with a stint on Bang records, where artistic frustration caused him…
The four original Eagles played their first gig together at Disneyland, supporting Linda Ronstadt. Starting as a country-rock outfit, they became one of the most commercially successful bands of the 1970s – their 1976 compilation Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) is…
Led Zeppelin was hastily formed by Yardbirds’ guitarist Jimmy Page to tour to fulfil contractual obligations. Page grabbed another session veteran, John Paul Jones, on bass, and recruited singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham from a local band. Given…
Originating from an unsuccessful 1968 album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp, guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles enlisted vocalist and bassist Greg Lake, multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, as well as lyricist Peter Sinfield to form King Crimson.…
Born Carol Klein, Carole King was the most successful female songwriter of the second half of the 20th century in the U.S., writing more than 100 Billboard 100 hits. King grew up in New York, and attended Queens College, where…
Sir Elton Hercules John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, in London. He learned the piano as a child and started his career in the R&B band Bluesology as a teenager. In 1967 he began a songwriting partnership with lyricist Bernie…
Progressive rock behemoths Yes emerged from London in the late 1960s. Starting out as a psychedelic pop band, they became one of its leading exponents of the emerging genre of progressive rock. Despite a revolving crew of members – bassist Chris Squire…
As he helpfully informs us in his song ‘Leningrad’, Billy Joel was born in ‘49, a Cold War kid from Long Island, New York. As a teenager, he enjoyed the music of The Beatles and Traffic and began playing in…
Emmylou Harris started as a folkie – born in Alabama, she dropped out of college to perform folk songs in Greenwich Village. She recorded an unsuccessful debut album, 1969’s Gliding Bird, and as a divorced solo mother she dropped out…
Joni Mitchell emerged at a time when the women’s rights movement was still building steam. She had to fight for recognition as a serious artist. Her image was often defined in terms of whom she was dating – a Rolling Stone…
I wasn’t planning to make more bad lyricist lists, but lots of people enjoyed the New Order list. Two obvious candidates for a bad lyricist list share a first name or a last name with Bernard Sumner, but this time…
Joni Mitchell isn’t always given the respect she deserves. In her prime she was often discussed for her famous boyfriends rather than her music; Rolling Stone infamously labelled her the Queen of El Lay in a 1971 piece. There’s also a perception of…
In the mid-1980s, Genesis and its spin-off projects – Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, and Mike and the Mechanics – were enjoying hit singles galore, with hits like ‘Sledgehammer’, ‘The Living Years’, ‘Invisible Touch’, and ‘Sussudio’. But before their mid-1980s chart dominance…
Stevie Wonder is one of the most outrageously talented figures to emerge from the popular music era. His first song to hit number one was recorded when he was 12 years old, and he continued to have hits through the…
In the 21st century, Queen have emerged as the most-loved band from the classic rock era. They enjoyed little critical respect and struggled to sell records in the US for much of their career, but they now outperform more acclaimed…
David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash were all members of famous 1960s bands before linking up as a trio. Crosby was a member of The Byrds, fired when his countercultural songs like ‘Triad’ were rejected by the group. Nash…
The Eagles achieved stratospheric success in the 1970s, effectively bridging the country rock and soft rock styles that were popular in the early 1970s. Songwriting team Don Henley and Glenn Frey pumped out a ton of popular singles, and their…
