Day 0334 - Marcus Garvey

Burning Spear "Marcus Garvey" (1975)

 
I had a brief confusion over which was the artist name and which the album title. It turns out that the album is named after a black nationalist activist who championed a "back to Africa" movement to return African Americans to their countries of ancestral origin.

With the music, like I said for Bob's "Natty Dread", I find reggae enjoyable enough but a bit samey.  Like, at no point while listening to the album did I find it 'bad' but, every other song started with the same little drum fill and most had the same drum beat and whicky guitar on the off-beat etc. "Jordan River" had a bit of a different feel, but most of the music just acted as a pleasant background.

Apparently the record company remixed the album to make it more digestible to a white audience, which I would usually take to mean that they declawed it a little in the process?

Day 0333 - Young Americans

David Bowie "Young Americans" (1975)

A Bowie album that, oddly, I don't have.  Apparently somewhere in between Ziggy Stardust and the Berlin trilogy, Bowie got fully into American soul music and called his producer Tony Visconti across to London to bash out an album of it... really bashed it out, like apparently they wrote half of it in the studio.

Kind of a mixed album, quality-wise.  There are some great tracks on it, but I really love the original of "Across the universe" and Bowie's version here doesn't do it justice. "Fame" and the title track are clear standouts. "Somebody up there likes me" is a soul/gospel epic.

The album title ended up being apt, as the album went over nicely in the States.

Day 0332 - Toys in the Attic

Aerosmith "Toys in the Attic" (1975)

 
Aerosmith were on the bones of their arse by this stage.  They'd built up a great reputation as a live (mostly opening) band and had scored a recording contract at the same time as the New York Dolls. But the band had suffered through 2 commercially unsuccessful albums, with the band frequently being compared (unfavourably) to the Rolling Stones.  Joe Perry, in his autobiography stated that the producer on their first album was not great and left the band sounding 'flat', he knew that they could and did sound better.  So the band really needed to deliver the goods on this one.  Spoiler: they did.

The signature Aerosmith sound of big guitars, a bit of sleaze, a bit of glam and Tyler's wailing voice all come in to play, with the shining example being "Walk this way".  There are some other, different sounds too.  "Uncle Salty" almost sounds like Revolver/Rubber Soul era Beatles in places. "Big Ten Inch" has Tyler stretch his vocal to gravelly growls and a laid-back bluesy croon. "Sweet Emotion" and the title track feel like quintessential 70s 'classic rock' tracks. "You see me crying" is like a prototype for the later Aerosmith power-ballads.

The success of the album would eventually go on to revitalise the single "Dream on" from their first album, making it somewhat successful yadda yadda yadda Eminem.

Day 0331 - The Köln Concert

Keith Jarrett "The Köln Concert" (1975)

Crikey, this one was a drama.  I searched for it on YouTube, but all of the tracks I could find were "Köln Concert, interpretation by so and so" couldn't find a torrent... but ah the public library had a copy of the CD, excellent! I put it on hold but there was just a message "held aside by collections department" I gave it a week then enquired "oh that could mean anything, we'll send them an email to find out what they're doing then we'll give you an email".  Another few weeks passed, so I went looking online again and finally a torrent that was the original rather than someone else's interpretation of the piece! In the meantime I'd already listened to the next 15 odd albums on the list, so I'll feed them out.

Onto the music: it's essentially a recording of a live solo piano show from Jarrett, where he improvises throughout.  The concert was organised by Germany's youngest concert-promoter 17-year old Vera Brandes.  Jarrett had requested a specific type of piano but it was only discovered at the last minute that the rehearsal piano as brought in instead. The piano was old and required extensive tuning to get it ready for the show, and even then the high and low keys were relatively weak in tone. Jarrett took all of this in his stride and worked his improv to the piano's strengths (or lack thereof). Playing busily on the high and low keys and stretching out longer notes in the middle section. In one place he riffs back and forth between two chords for 12 minutes but you don't even notice.

This is a brilliant example of musical creation, with themes and melodies popping up that Jarrett himself (judging from his exuberant yells) was just as surprised and excited about as the crowd were.

Day 0330 - Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin "Physical Graffiti" (1975)

According to the book, Zep took a while to make this record.  John Paul Jones had been sick and the band had several stop-start attempts at recording, but couldn't seem to hold onto a studio for long enough to get things done.

Once they got going though, they were unstoppable, producing a double LP that explores all sorts of musical avenues, with the slide guitar-laden epic "In my time of dying" apparently nutted out more or less live in the studio. There's the hard funk of "Trampled under foot", the gargantuan "Kashmir" written after Page and Plant holidayed in Morocco.
There are proggy tendencies, light folk, there's sunny west-coast pop (meets country) in "Down by the seaside", old style rock n roll in "Boogie with Stu".

The guy who reviewed it in the book referred to it as Zep's last high point.  Even if you agree with that though, considering they only had 2 more albums (if you don't count 'Coda') after this, that's not really signalling a huge period of decline.

As a side note: 'graffiti' is a word I find stupidly difficult to remember how to spell.

Day 0329 - Neu! '75

Neu! "Neu! '75" (1975... rather obviously I guess)

Two ex-members of Kraftwerk formed their own famous Krautrock group Neu!.  The main problem with this was... one of them was a big fan of slowly evolving, washy soundscapes, and the other preferred punky pulsing drums. They seem to have compromised by making the album half and half washy-and-thumpy.  The album did fairly well commercially and critically, but they split up (for a time) after it was released.

Day 0328 - The Dictators Go Girl Crazy

The Dictators "Go Girl Crazy!" (1975)

 
Another of the early punk albums before the Ramones, the Sex Pistols et al really got going with it.

Like a few other punky bands back in the day, the Dictators fell apart through a mix of record company apathy (they were dropped by their label), in-fighting and bad tour planning.

I'm not overly wowed by the album. I can imagine that at the time it would have been a noisy revelation, but when compared to other early pioneers of the sound like Death, the Stooges and the Monks it's just 'okay'.  The surf guitar sound of the closing track adds a little something extra, but still...

Day 0327 - Another Green World

Eno "Another Green World" (1975)

Eno apparently came up with this album (or the concept for it) while convalescing after a car accident.  It seeks to delves deeper into the atmospheric properties of music.

What comes out of this experiment manages to sound like a mix of Eno's old band Roxy Music, Velvet Underground (John Cale is featured), spacey jazz fusion, and (with the track "the Big Ship") there are even hints of his work with U2.

As with his previous solo albums, it's an interesting mix between pop 'song' structures and ambient musical passages. The album would go on to get Bowie's juices running when it came to the making of his Berlin trilogy.

Day 0326 - Grievous Angel

Gram Parsons "Grievous Angel" (1974)

 
This was Parsons' last album before his untimely death.  The album is laden with sombre country tunes, many featuring gorgeous vocal duets with his muse and singing partner Emmylou Harris. Keith Richards was in charge of the studio sessions (edit, no he wasn't, they were just really good friends), which may have somewhat influenced the slightly rockier and snottier "I can't dance".

If you're looking for good country albums; this one is well worth listening to.

Fun fact: Parsons' band for the album consisted largely of members from Elvis' Vegas show band!

Day 0325 - Rock Bottom

Robert Wyatt "Rock Bottom" (1974)

 
According to the book, Wyatt wrote much of the album while relaxing in Italy.  His future wife (and album cover artist) Alfreda Benge was there to work on the film "Don't look now".  Wyatt was in the process of assembling musicians to make the album when he suffered a 4-storey fall and ended up paralysed from the waist down.
A quote from Wyatt suggests that it took some adjustment but that it wasn't an unhappy time for him. He married his partner Alfreda the day the album was released.

For me this is one of those "what the hell did I just listen to?!" albums.  I wasn't really familiar with Wyatt, but for some reason I thought he was going to be a sort of 70s rock type... this is an experimental jazzy/rock hybrid with random interludes of off-the-wall beat-poetry.
Great fun!

Day 0324 - Natty Dread

Bob Marley & the Wailers "Natty Dread" (1974)

Marley had recently lost long-time collaborators Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston to their own musical endeavours, there was talk that his music and his politics would be watered down as a result... neither was. Marley's revitalised band helped him create some great tunes over which he was not shy about speaking of poverty and hypocrisy.

Reggae is one genre that I've never been entirely convinced about.  It's often enjoyable, but to my ears it often gets a bit samey over the course of an album.  There are often similar drum parts with the same organ and scratchy offbeat guitar ...that being said, this album held my interest nicely.  There was a bit of variety, even when it stuck to the 'formula'

Apparently this was the first album to be credited as "Bob Marley and the Wailers" instead of just as "the Wailers"; Bob was taking centre-stage.

Day 0323 - Good Ole Boys

Randy Newman "Good Ole Boys" (1974)

This is not so much my jam.

Randy Newman's schtick kind of gets stale pretty quickly and some of his lyrics are a bit questionable.  The song 'Rednecks' he wrote as an attack on 'inverted liberal snobbery' because a segregationist governor was openly mocked and Newman drops the N-bomb fairly liberally.  It's probably a good thing that he's sequestered away now, busy working on Disney soundtracks and the like.

He's a competent musician and composer... it's just that most of what he does on his albums sounds kind of samey and it doesn't really really do much for me.

Day 0322 - Pretzel Logic

Steely Dan "Pretzel Logic" (1974)

 
I really enjoyed SD's first album on this list.  The second album was nice in a "play it in the background" sort of way.  This one bounds back to the foreground with an attention-grabbing selection of songs

Apparently the band decided to play around with various song genres.  A lot of older genres are explored, but mixed with more modern elements, including a ragtime track with steel guitar, tin pan alley with bursts of sunny Californian pop, calypso mixed with piano balladry.

This is my kind of jam! 

Day 0321 - No Other

Gene Clark "No Other" (1974)

According to the book, this album was an expensive one to make, and on its release was dismissed by many critics. For some reason the record company didn't bother promoting it at all (which is odd because that would be the best way to make their money back).  It's an album, like Neil Young's "On the Beach" that didn't see a re-release on CD until years later, after Gene's death in this case.

It doesn't deserve to have had such a negative reception, and unlike some albums of the 1001, it probably does deserve its place on this list. The album is an interesting 70s west coast pop album with touches of country, and Native American vibes, and utilising lavish studio techniques. Fleetwood Mac would in the next few years put out albums that touched on similar sounds and techniques but were much more successful, so in that respect Clark is something of a trailblazer.

I'd definitely say that I preferred this album to any of Clark's albums with the Byrds.

Years after it's release, an indie "supergroup" assembled to play several shows covering the album front-to-back, seeking to bring new fans to the music.

Day 0320 - The Grand Tour

George Jones "The Grand Tour" (1974)

I'm a bit of a casual fan of George Jones.  Here he lays down a mix of skitterish honky-tonk and mellow melancholic ballads.  I'm not usually someone who pays attention to lyrics in song, but George has got some good ones.

He and his country star wife Tammy Wynette divorced the year after this album was released (she later married one of George's collaborators on this album) and that building tension clearly feeds heavily into the tales of heartbreak and domestic sadness, such as in the title track.

Day 0319 - On the Beach

Neil Young "On the beach

Neil gets dark (even by his own standards) with songs of despair and nihilism. There’s even a song (“Revolution Blues”) where Young pictures himself going down LA's Laurel Canyon and killing the wealthy hippies who lived there. His touring mates CSN tried to convince him to drop this track, particularly with its Charlie Manson overtones.

Apparently Young came to dislike the emotional rawness of the album and delayed its CD release for some time.  This has led it to be lesser known by modern audiences, but popular with those who sought it out.

Day 0318 - Sheet Music

10cc "Sheet Music" (1974) - got it

Holy shitballs! 10cc were one of those bands whose name I was familiar with, but had no idea about their music. I had this idea that they were kind of a big dumb riffy rock band... nope, turns out that they're an eclectic and imaginative group.

The band have something going for them that I always love to see in bands: they're all multi-instrumentalists and all songwriters, so you get 4 different flavours to each track.  Because they play the different instruments, each member understands the role of each, rather than just waiting to play drums on a song that someone else wrote, or playing a bassline that someone else has come up with or whatever. The mix of musical viewpoints can either go totally wrong with everyone stepping on each other's feet and nobody agreeing on the direction things should take, or it can be entertaining and wonderful like it is here. "Clockwork Creep" in particular is brilliant, insane and occasionally theatrical.

The only song I was vaguely familiar with was the opening track "The Wall Street shuffle" and given that it's a bit of a rocker it temporarily made me worried that this might indeed be a big ol' rock album. Little did I know....

NB: after I listened to this for the list, I made a point of tracking down a copy.

Day 0317 - Sheer Heart Attack

Queen "Sheer Heart Attack" (1974) - got it

 
Queen really churned out the albums back then.  This one and Queen II in the same year (and Opera and Races the following two years).  Speaking of Queen II, I've noticed something interesting, I'm not sure if it's intentional, but Queen II ends with them singing "I do like to be beside the seaside" and SHA opens with "Brighton Rock" almost as if it's a direct continuation. You could possibly argue too that the opening piano of 'death on two legs' would fade up nicely from the aftermath of the explosion that closes this album.  Again though, this could just be me looking for connections that aren't there.

Sheer Heart Attack is definitely it's own thing, 'Brighton Rock' acts as a fantastic mission statement, chugging guitars, soaring vocals, nimble rhythm section, and then a nice big gap for Brian May to wank solo guitar through... all the more impressive because May was apparently quite sick during the recording so the rest of the band worked around him, laying down their parts for him to record over later.

The mystical and medieval lyrical vibes from Queen II are still present in songs like 'Lap of the Gods' and 'Lily of the Valley', but the songs start to lean towards more present-day concerns with tracks like "Flick of the Wrist", "Stone Cold Crazy" and the delicious "Killer Queen", a song that fully announced the Queen 'sound'.  Freddie's delicate voice and precise piano, Brian's clean complimentary lead parts, John's fiddly exploratory basslines, Roger's drums that can sit nicely in the back of the song or come charging to the front, and over all of it, those brilliant vocal harmonies with Roger's piercing falsetto sitting just above everyone else.

It's not a wall-to-wall success, "She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettos)" is probably my least favourite Queen song, and John Deacon (the songwriting 'secret weapon') hadn't really started firing on all cylinders yet.

With songs like 'Brighton Rock' 'Now I'm Here' and 'Stone Cold Crazy', the band showed that they could rock as hard and deep as acts like Sabbath and Zeppelin, while elsewhere they showed the same love of studio experimentation as Pink Floyd and the Beatles.

The album closes with the song that (until they released 'News of the World' with 'We Will Rock You' and 'We are the Champions') would close their shows for the next few years; the anthemic "Lap of the Gods... Revisited"

I really love the way that the songs segue into each other (they did it to a certain extent with Queen II as well) so you feel more like you're listening to "an album" rather than a random collection of songs, just gives things a touch more cohesion.

Day 0316 - Winter in America

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson "Winter in America" (1974)

When a street poet gets together with a talented keyboardist, you wind up with an album of gorgeous fusiony soul and blues. Gil mixes spoken word discourse with gentle soulful crooning to create an album that would see GSH name-checked as the godfather of rap.

Good, but not a lot else to say about this one.

Day 0315 - I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

Richard and Linda Thompson "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" (1974)

More goodness flowing from the Fairport Convention with ex-....er 'porter' Richard Thompson and his wife Linda (parents to folk/country/rock musician Teddy Thompson) producing this brilliant album.

The couple had met when Linda provided backing vocals for Richard's poorly received (though apparently critically reappraised) solo album "the Human Fly".

This album reunites Richard with some of his ex-Fairport bandmates to lay down a stunning collection of folk (both american and british styles), some almost Pogues-esque swaggering celtic sounds, alternative country and sombre ballads. It’s a really chill album that lets you sink into a somewhat pleasantly melancholic mood, but doesn't let you wallow too much.

Day 0314 - Crime of the Century

Supertramp "Crime of the Century" (1974)

According to the book, Supertramp were not in a good place at this point.  After their first two albums, half of the band split, and their benefactor wrote them off (luckily also writing off a pile of money that the band owed him). They regrouped with Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" producer and a cache of new songs to produce this album... which, as it turned out, saved their bacon and revitalised their career.

A brilliant and relatively diverse collection of songs.  It drew comparisons to acts such as the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Genesis and the Beach Boys, and repositioned the band on financially and creatively stable ground.

Day 0313 - Kimono My House

Sparks "Kimono My House" (1974) - got it

I always thought of Sparks as Queen's younger, crazy cousin... didn't realise they were actually around at the same time as each other. That also seems slightly derogatory to Queen as they are hardly a strait-laced, or boring act. Sparks is kind of like Queen meets Roxy Music with the humour and quirkiness turned up to 11.

Sparks had been operating in the US under the name Halfnelson but after getting some good responses in the UK, brothers Ron and Russell Mael moved across, recruited a new band and rechristened themselves as Sparks.

Ron wrote the music and the humorous, fun lyrics, Russell brought his... not entirely versatile, but definitely distinctive voice. Given that the rest of the band were essentially hired hands, this comes with cohesive 'band' sound. Either the Maels were good at communicating their musical needs or the band were all-in. The guitar sounds not a million miles from Brian May at times (the Maels had approached May about joining the band), the drums are thunderous and the music lurches between operatic rock, oompa music, art rock, touches of punk, and the power-rock to staggering anthemic lurch of "thank god it's not Christmas".

The band are slightly hit and miss (their 1980 disco album 'terminal jive' is not brilliant) but I love that they have held onto their quirkiness even through their more recent releases.

Day 0312 - Phaedra

Tangerine Dream "Phaedra" (1974)

TD were Krautrock contemporaries of Kraftwerk, though they were working with synthesizers even earlier than that group. In fact the Tangerine Dream leader Edgar Froese had told his record label "in a few years everyone will be playing synthesizers".  They scoffed at that and walked out... and then the 80s happened.  😉

These are some interesting synthy soundscapes that can be heard to lay the groundwork for future ambient electronica, and even the eventual development of genres like trance and techno.

Day 0311 - Country Life

Roxy Music "Country Life" (1974)

 
With Eno gone and less of a clash/challenge of musical ideas, Roxy Music's edges started to get even more rounded out.  There was more of the ir rock n roll and pop, and less room for their old art-rock sound and Eno's electronic contributions. 

I don' t find this quite as interesting as the first two albums, though the Teutonic "bittersweet" and the somewhat medieval "triptych" are great tracks.

The album cover, featuring two German RM fans (who also helped Ferry with the translations for "Bittersweet") was scandalous enough, especially with the suggestive finger placement of the model on the left, that it created a lot of buzz around the album, but also saw it being banned/repackaged in several countries.

Day 0310 - Queen II

Queen "Queen II" (1974) - got it

Another one that I don't really 'need' to listen to for the purposes of the list... but did, because it's been too long since I've listened to this and it's one of my favourite Queen albums.

In a weird way it sounds like a Queen album and doesn't sound like a Queen album at the same time. Brian's guitars and Roger's pounding drums are there, the vocal harmonies are there (though not as huge and omnipresent as they would eventually become), Freddie's voice is there, though again, less 'huge' and anthemic than it would later become. Even with John's bass, there are a few bits of twiddly bass-work to be found, but he seems to just follow the guitar-line much more than on later records.

The subject matter is also very non-Queen-esque too, with mystical ogre battles, black and white queens, fairyfellers and the blistering 'seven seas of Rye', as opposed to the love songs, tales of excess, self-aggrandising lyrics, and occasional laments on loneliness of their later albums.

There's something endearing about a huge, iconic band who are only just starting to find/slip into their signature sound.  I recently read a book that undertook a critical review of Queen and their music.  The contributors to the book "Queen: album by album" seemed to view II as a bit of a step backwards, if not an actual failure, preferring the albums on either side of it.  As stated above, this is a favourite of mine, so I don't particularly agree with what I perceive their rather narrow view of what queen were, or should have been.

Day 0309 - Court and Spark

Joni Mitchell "Court and Spark" (1974)

 
I don't have a lot to say about this one. It's one of my wife's favourite albums, and I can see why.  It's full of good songs in a range of styles. I love the subtle dalliances into old jazz/boogie woogie later in the album.

Day 0308 - It's Too Late to Stop Now

Van Morrison "It's Too Late to Stop Now" (1974)

 
Combines two things I'm 50/50 on: live albums, and double albums.

This one is a relatively pure live album. Apparently VM was so against the idea of doing re-records and overdubs on it that he cut his hit "Moondance" from the album because someone hit a bum note.  To my mind that would have given the recording a bit of extra character.

As a double album it still suffers that issue of song fatigue. A double album kind of needs to have an over-arching theme or enough variety to carry it through (or both).  Perhaps if I were attending the concert rather than listening to this as an album, the live vibe might carry me through.  As it is though, this ended up being a bit of an endurance test.  I could hear a whole lot of good bits, but they kind of just melted into this 'wall-of-music'.

You're a talented guy, Van, but 90 minutes of live recording is just too much in this instance.

Day 0307 - Autobahn

Kraftwerk "Autobahn" (1974)

Another one from the list I'm happy to visit.  I have a copy of "Trans-Europe Express" but had mostly only listened to excerpts of this one.
This is considered by many to be the first 'real' Kraftwerk album as it was the solidification of the sound and format (four man/robot band) most associated with them.

The album as a whole is a canvas painted brilliantly in synthesizer-scapes, with the 20+ minute title track feeling like a hypnotic journey along the titular highway.

Day 0306 - 461 Ocean Boulevard

Eric Clapton 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974)

After a long tour to support 'Layla and other assorted love songs', (resulting in a couple of live albums), and having kicked heroin, Clapton returned to the studio. The title of the album is the address of the house that Clapton rented near Miami to live in while making the album  Not surprisingly, the owners had to change the number of the house to avoid the fans who kept turning up to take their photo in front of it.

The music sticks to Clapton's usual mix of blues, pop and rock with a detour into reggae territory to cover Bob Marley's "I shot the sheriff"

Day 0305 - Fullfillingness' First Finale

Stevie Wonder "Fullfillingness' First Finale" (1974)

Ungainly title, but this another cracking album from Stevie.  The last of his four 1970s collaborations with synthesizer wizards Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil, delivering another great dose of emotive soul, deep tight funk and gentle ballads.  Just to mix things up, the Jackson 5 provide backing vocals on one track... the 'Superstitious'-esqe funk grind of "You haven't done nothin" (apparently lashing out at Nixon). The track "They won't go when I go" has a kind of jagged gospel to it that makes it sound like a precursor to 'pastime paradise' .

Day 0304 - Inspiration Information

Shuggie Otis "Inspiration Information" (1974)

The book refers to this one as being criminally underappreciated despite a 21st century CD re-release... and yep, I was not at all familiar with Shuggie Otis.

I likes what I hears! Smooth, interesting, lush funk grooves with a kind of Stevie Wonder/early Michael Jackson vibe, vague hints of psychedelia, and some extended smooth jazz interludes. 

Apparently Otis had his first brush with the charts in 1965 at the age of 12!! From there he went on to become a multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and all-round prodigy... but sadly he eventually faded into obscurity somewhat when his record company dumped him.

Day 0303 - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Genesis "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (1974)

Lamb has all the excess of Prog: it's a 92 minute double-album with a few 8+ minute tracks and high concept lyrics (though as usual, I haven't paid much attention to those, because I'm more about the music).  But this unlike many releases in that genre, this is not a musician's album.  Don't get me wrong, there are some nice instrumental passages here, but for a prog album it's relatively sparsely orchestrated and quite vocal-centric.

There was a rift between the band and Gabriel, he was being courted as a writer and ended up recording his vocals separately from his bandmates. Several of the band members were less than happy about the finished album... Gabriel loved it, and left after the tour promoting it, possibly realising that his band mates wouldn't again let him have quite so much artistic freedom as he had on this album.