Early 1970's rock: Name some of your favorites


I've been listening to a local FM station a little more recently and have been enjoying some of the "flashbacks" that they've been playing. I'm primarily talking about stuff from Bowie, Roxy Music, Velvet Underground and yes, even the Stones, etc...

As such, i thought it would be neat to dredge up the past and ask some of you to contribute a "few" of your favourite albums from this time. This might also help others find some "gems" that may have been overlooked. Just remember, we're talking early to mid 1970's, not your favourite rock albums of all time. Sean
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sean
Ben, no need to explain. Your point is well taken and certainly valid.whFrankly, I wasn't sure of the dates myself until I looked them up, and I'm still not sure about early Styx and REO. I'm just happy to see that somebody else out there appreciates Bill Nelson; I paid big bucks on ebay for the CD reissue of 'Live in the Air Age', and I still think that the Yorkshire Landscape solo on there is one of the best and most unique solos in rock guitar history. I only wish I could have seen them live back then.
Looking back through the nominations, I see no one has mentioned Bob Marley & The Wailers by name. Collective ganja fog, no doubt...
Vegasears-There are 2 vinyl copies of "Restrictions" on eBay right now.
I didnt know Jeff Beck was in Cactus.Wow!
He wasn't. Double wow! (Jim McCartey was the ex-Yarbird guitar player.) Since the Cactus rhythm section was Tim Bogert and Carmen Appice - as in B(eck) B(ogert) & A(ppice) - the confusion is understandable.

From the "enlightened" vantage point of middle age (I'll be damned), I must say that Zaikesman's list--plus a Whitman's Sampler of other nominations--constitute the music from that period that I really love--especially Big Star, the New York Dolls, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Steely Dan, the Stooges, the Rolling Stones, and Neil Young.

However, it would be revisionist history to say those were my favorites then. Growing up in a very small North Carolina town, I hadn't heard of most of these artists, and wouldn't until the late 70s (and my late teens), when I discovered CREEM magazine and another world opened up for me. Of the aforementioned, the only songs I can remember hearing from that period are "Angie," by the Stones, "Reeling in the Years" by the Dan, and "Heart of Gold" by Young. Not even Morrison and Mitchell made it up into our neck of the woods, much less Alex Chilton or Iggy Pop.

The bands I really loved were Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, and Elton John. Then, in 1975, I discovered Kiss! And Fleetwood Mac! And puberty!

Anyone else out there ever join the Kiss Army? I did.

And this concludes this week's episode of True Confessions. Join us next week when we examine the disco era and blow dryers.

Darryl Way's Wolf, especially the Saturation Point Lp. John Etheridge who went on to Soft Machine after Holdsworth left really tears things up on all 3 Wolf records.

Hmmm...Kiss Army, shortly after that one came out a co - worker at Crystalship, (a Portland Ore. record store) took a sticker out of one of the sleeves and changed the K on the emblem to a P. Then he pinned it on his baseball cap to display the fact that he was a member of Piss Army. He wore the thing during his shift every day for months. He even wrote a letter to the Kiss fan club in an effort to convince Gene Simmons that he should drink lighter fluid or inject it into his bladder so that he could urinate fire into the front ranks of his adoring conscripts. Seems like a shame that Mr. Simmons missed this golden opportunity to live up to his full artistic potential.
I hate to admit it, but I actually went to a Kiss concert; of course we REALLY went to see the opening act--REO Speedwagon, again, way before "Keep on loving you" cr*p, and left before Kiss even started. Now having said that, I do think that there were some half-decent songs on (I think) the first Kiss album--Black Diamond and Strutter.
Yes, Kiss did have some half-decent songs, and even a half-decent album (Destroyer), but I must be just a couple of years younger than Waltersalas, and I can truthfully say (not pridefully say) that I didn't like them even a little back in the day. However, I was definitely a weird kid: grew up on The Beatles and Elvis, and was buying Howlin' Wolf records by the time I hit junior high school. Most hard rock from the late 60's onward (that I heard) didn't do it for me - in fact it turned me off. When all the other kids were heavy into Boston, Foreigner, Kiss, Frampton, Aerosmith, Bad Company, Led Zep, et al, I was digging back into the early Who and Little Walter. It was only when I first heard "Allison" and "Psycho Killer" on free-form FM that I became interested in what was going on in current rock. Of course, I wasn't listening to Iggy or The Dolls in the early 70's either, but my whole tolerance for hard rock and heavy metal slowly increased as I got more into Zep and especially Hendrix and latter-day Stones during high school (for better or for worse). It wasn't so much the sound (although I don't like guitar-wanking - I like songs and feeling) that kept me away, as it was the whole aesthetic of cock-rock posing and high-times lifestylin'(not to mention stupid lyrics), all of which made me a prime candidate for punk when I finally got exposed to it around the tail-end of the first British wave, which led back to Iggy and Lou, etc. But I still like '67-and-backwards the best, and The Beatles still make everything else sound stupid.

(BTW, one my fav bands as a kid and today, whose heyday began in '69 but covered the early 70's, is I believe not on the list yet: The Jackson Five. No matter what Michael has done since Thriller - J5 forever!)
Some favorites from those years:
Ducan Browne
Mick Abrahams
Spirit -Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
Renaissance -Prologue
Genesis -Selling England by the Pound
Tangerine Dream -Phaedra
David Crosby -If I could only remember my name
Dave Mason -Alone Together
Gentle Giant -Three Friends
Gong -Angels Egg
Arthur Brown -Journey
King Crimson -Lizard
Tonto's Expanding Head Band -Zero Time
Roxy Music
Van der Graaf Generator -Pawn Hearts
Johnny Winter And
Jethro Tull -Stand Up

And just for laughs...Firesign Theater!
Johnny winter And, nice pick Rzem. One great album most folks do not remember was Jethro Tull Living In The Past, sorry out of print. They replaced it with Living WITH The Past, Not even close. The new one is like greatest hits, vol 5 (like we really need anoth greatest..) They have the Song Living In The Past on the cd, but its not even close to the orginal, what goes through the mind of Tull to have that crummy version put on disc??? Most of the above i remember and like. Especially the song Little Wing by Hendrix performed by Derek & Dominios, great great song. Guitar awesome!!
Early 70's....Pink Floyd "DSOM" and "Meddle" and 17 year old ozzy on Sabbaths 1969 debut that sounded ahead of it's time.
Aereosmith "Self Titled" "Get Your Wings" ZZTop "Tres Hombres" "Fandango" Lynyrd Skynrd "Pronounced" Second Helping" Alice Cooper "Easy Action" "Love It To Death" "Killer" ' Billion Dollar Babies" Queens "self titled"[There only rock alblum imho] Robin Thrower "Bridge Of Sighs" UFO "Lights Out" Montrose "Self Titled" Uriah Heep "Demons And Wizards" Rush "Fly By Night" "All The Worlds A Stage" REO "live' Slade "Sladest" Genesis "Trick Of The Tale" AC/DC "Dirty Deeds" Jeff Beck "Blow By Blow" JGeils Band "live" Bob Segar "Live Bullit" Ted Nugent "Self Titled debut" Allman Brothers "Eat A Peach" Yes "Fragile" Humble Pie "Smokin" Neil Young 'Harvest" "After the Goldrush" "Zuma" Bob Dylan "Blood on the Tracks" Outlaws "Self Titled" Molly Hatchet "Self Titled" Golden Earing "Moontan" Alan Parsons Project "I Robot'

These are a few of my early 70's to mid 70's memories with Led Zep and others left out as i am sure they have already been mentioned......anyone have any conections at Sony music so we can get some of these on SACD before are ears give out?
Any of you guys remember a band called "Dust" ? I used to have two of their albums. One was called "Hard Attack" and i can't remember the name of the other one, which was the better of the two.

What made me think about this was hearing a Ramone's song on the radio. Marc Bell aka "Marky Ramone" was in Dust. The funny thing is, he looked exactly the same in 1972 as he did when he played with the Ramones. Probably still had the same jeans with blown out knee's and leather !!! : )

Judging by some of the nominations on this list, i can tell that some of you are highly experimental people. And i don't mean "just with music" either : ) Sean
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Hey Sean,
Thanks for the info, I never knew that about Marc Bell. I remember he was kind of a studio player on a few now obscure rock lps I had. I liked the 2nd record (Hard Attack) alot more. The original issue had a killer reproduction of one of Frazetta's best paintings on the cover. The cd I have on Repertoire sounds like a hack job on the digital transfer. Do you know what ever happened to Richie Wise (their #@%*** crazy guitar player)? Were you ever into Sir Lord Baltimore? Their 1st is one of the best head whompin' early 70's power trio records ever made. The 1st Patto kicks some serious ass too.
Sean I knew that about Marc after Bruce of the Record Stop told me about him about 18 years ago, have one of their LPs. Saw Dust in a free WNEW-FM concert in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, they opened for Flash (made up of the orginal members, guitarist and keyboardist of Yes) way back in 1971/72. (See my concert list post for dates)
I really like the band 'Kansas' and bought everything they ever made after hearing the album' Leftoverture'. Absolutely awesome musicians and songwriters. I recently picked up a two CD set which is very nice....can't remember the name now cause I lended it to a friend :(
Also liked 'Blue Oyster Cult' at the time and recently picked up a CD copy of Agents of Fortune (still have the LP).
Led Zeppelin was always and still is a favorite. I saw them at the Fillmore West in Frisco on their first American tour (1969) when they were second billing to Country Joe and the Fish, believe or not and later again in 1973 at Kezar Stadium in San Fran with Lee Michaels. That concert at the Fillmore, btw cost $3.00. That included 3 bands, 2 1hr sets each. Started at 8PM and got out at 2AM. Those were the days! Also saw Jeff Beck Group there when Rod Stewart was the lead vocalist, and also Deep Purple on their first American tour. Woo hoo!
all the above plus Can, Man, Lord Sutch, Fat Mattress, Fairport, Rick Wakeman, ELP, SRC, Amboy Dukes, JoJo Gunne, mc5, manfred mann, free, grin, mountain, ten years after, james gang, moody blues, alex harvey band, spooky tooth, frijid pink, traffic, trower, uriah heep, johnny winter, band, big star, deep purple, delany/bonnie, rick derringer, foghat, savoy brown, jgeils, grand funk, everything I could get my hands on in that cut-out bin at Murphy's or Woolworth's....a somewhat embarrassing list I must admit today....