Yes, my bad, should have seen those, not sure how I missed them!
Was 1971 the high point of popular music?
All these albums were released in 1971.
"Imagine" by John Lennon
"Sticky Fingers" by Rolling Stones
"Blue" by Joni Mitchell
"Meddle" by Pink Floyd
"There's a Riot Going On" by Sly & The Family Stone
"Fragile" by Yes
"The Yes Album" by Yes
"Killer" by Alice Cooper
"Ram" by Paul McCartney
"Live at the Filmore East" by Allman Bros. Band
"Who's Next" by The Who
"What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye
"Hunky Dory" by David Bowie
"Aqualung" by Jethro Tull
"Master of Reality" by Black Sabbath
"Songs of Love and Hate" by Leonard Cohen
"Shaft" by Isaac Hayes
"Every Picture Tells a Story" by Rod Stewart
"Madman Across The Water" by Elton John
"LA Woman" by The Doors
"Led Zeppelin IV" by Led Zeppelin
"Tapestry" by Carole King
"Pearl" by Janis Joplin
"Live-Evil" by Miles Davis
" Journey in Satchidananda" by Alice Coltrane
"Teaser and teh Firecat" by Cat Stevens
"Deuce" by Rory Gallagher
"Santana III" by Santana
"Weather Report" by Weather Report
"Tupelo Honey" by Van Morrison
"Surfs Up" by The Beach Boys
"John Prine" by John Prine
"Wild Life" by Wings
"Where I'm Coming From" by Stevie Wonder
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- 76 posts total
I was led to Jazz by "jazzy" Rock and by the fact that I grew bored with Rock's melodic and harmonic limitations. The liner noted in one of the many reissues of "Kind of Blue" mentioned that the Allman Bros.were avid fans of modal Jazz. Listening to them and the Dead seemed to ease the way for me into Jazz. I don't tend to think of Rock as "dead" anymore than I regard Jazz as "dead". As long as there are recordings in these genres I enjoy, that's "alive" enough for me. I don't see where Rock could've gone. Punk attempted to drag it away from corporate slickness and Steely Dan probably took it as far in a Jazz direction as possible without it crossing over into Fusion.
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@stuartk good points, especially about the "melodic and harmonic limitations". From around 1956 to 1976 we had 20 years of experimentation and creativity on display within those parameters. That’s 20 years of music. Today, much is simply derivative of stuff that has already been done. (The same can be said for much of TV programs and movies). Maybe we are just old and "been there, done that" so we look upon new tunes that are more of the same old, same old, "three chords and the truth" as not being up to snuff. |
Seems that there are a lot of similarities in how our individual musical journeys have affected our current tastes. We were lucky to have been there in the beginning in the late 60's and early 70's, but maybe unlucky in that we developed very high standards in what constituted good music. It also gave us a broad spectrum of musical genres to enjoy when you consider popular music included bands like the Allman Bros., ELO, The Eagles, Steely Dan, Bowie, Black Sabbath and Joni Mitchell. Then things changed.
Please keep in mind that these are gross generalizations, only meant to illustrate how I see musical history. There is still a lot of current music that remains vital and innovative, but musicianship is still in short supply. The result of this is that my current musical taste includes a large amount of vintage jazz, as well as a love for opera. Both genres feed my need for instrumental and vocal sophistication and both require you to use your brain. The added benefit is that jazz and classical records just sound better and allow good equipment to shine. |
- 76 posts total