So what duz dis say bout' da new genr-ation?
Posted on 12/01/2009 6:35:59 PM PST by Starman417
A few months ago one of my Aunts passed away and I drove up to Jersey for the funeral service. At the lunch afterward one of my cousins was kind enough to give my brother and me a mix of some some CD's he had burned. They were a compilation of the best of Stiff Records - a bunch of punk / new wave / underground music from the 70's. It featured bands like Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Devo, and Elvis Costello.
Everybody has a favorite era in music - it usually coincides with when you come of age. I would get into this debate constantly with friends in Tampa who thought that the 90's made the best music, or even the 70's. I was forced to correct them, because as everyone knows, the greatest era in music was the 1980's. The 80's saw an amazing revolution in pop, the rise of MTV, the CD, and the beginnings of digitalization. From the ashes of punk, alternative rock and Thrash Metal would develop. The best of the best from earlier eras, such as The Stones and The Who would still hold their own against upstarts, and of course, we saw the rise of heavy metal. The decade kicked off with AC/DC's landmark album, Back in Black, the start of the decade also saw the debut albums of the "Four Horseman" of thrash, Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallactica, and Slayer. One could add a fifth horseman if you want to consider the perennially underrated Overkill. Metal also branched out, not just with the heavier thrash, but also building on the groundwork laid by Kiss to give bring Glam Metal mainstream. And last but not least, this decade gave us the greatest album in the history of creation, Iron Maiden's 1983 release Piece of Mind, which is well documented here.
I had always written off the previous decade with The Stones' simple title of "Sucking in the 70's". But when I listened to this mix I came to realize something. The 70's, no less than the decades before it, were a critical decade in rock music's development. These bands broke new ground and influenced the greats who are my favorites, and without them my favorite era could not have happened. Music is always evolving and changing, and one band's creation is not an end point, but a journey along a road built by their predecessors. It's easy to take for granted the music that we hear from a certain era while overlooking all of that era's predecessors and those who were our favorite bands' influences. For example:
Buckcherry would never have been able to tell about a crazy b*tch if it weren't for George Michael.
George could not have wanted your sex if it weren't for Prince.
Prince could not have told us about Darling Nikki if it weren't for The Stones.
The Stones could not have suggested spending the night together if it weren't for The Everly Brothers.
The Everly Brothers could not have urged Little Suzie to wake up if it weren't for the R&B acts that preceded them.
You get my point - it's easy to see how things are today and accept it as the natural order of things. It's easy to take for granted everything that took place beforehand and all of the hard work that created today's conditions. The insights that I got from Stiff records got me thinking about us as a nation and society.
So how does this relate to America today?
Simply put, we have become a generation of trust funders.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...
Stevie.
Ray.
Vaughan.
(& Beethoven).
I read your full column and it’s interesting you would cite the 70’s era music as the impetus for your coming to appreciate where we are today. I came of age in the 70’s and it was perfect preparation for dealing with where we are now.
Those of us born in the mid to late 50’s felt the full tsunami impact of the radical changes of the 60’s. We were raised in one world of morals and they were all drowned out by the time we were teens. Were we supposed to be nice girls without reputations or sexually “free” feminists? Should we be “open minded” to experiment with pot and other drugs or “closed and repressive” and abstain? There were suddenly too many choices about matters we had been raised to believe were clear cut. Popular culture was oppressive.
Unemployment was rampant when I graudated in ‘74. Why go to college when with a HS diploma I was earning the same minimum wage as the people with Masters Degrees working in the same positions, and who were thankful to have those jobs?
There was gas rationing, and depending on your license plate you could only buy gas every other day. We spent hours waiting in lines at gas stations. It was crazy. President Carter told us to accept the “fact” our country’s best days were behind us, turn down the thermostat and put on a sweater.
Things are bad now but I am glad to see Americans finally standing up and saying, No - we’re tired of our culture being attacked and we’re going to stand up for our way of life. I miss the America I grew up in before the radicals cut loose and I hope together we can help bring it back.
The 80’s????!!! Uugghhh!!!!! Disco Sucks! The early to mid 70’s was a great era for music.
You whipper snappers. Big Band is the cat’s meow.
The late 70’s had a resurgence of good ol’ rock amd roll. The Stiff tours were great. Elvis Costello brought in needed energy. Nick Lowe was pure R+R with a little country background. Joe Jackson followed with a fabulous debut album in 79’. The Clash put out Rolling Stones 80’s album of the decade, London Calling, in 79’.
Bob Dylan.
Just rediscovered two of his records from the 70’s:
Street Legal and Desire.
Great songs, more declaimed than actually sung. Full of poetry and imagery. The song about Reuben Carter is still good—manic energy, moral outrage born of naivete just starting to crack. The klezmer fiddle was a nice touch.
And the tightest drummer I’ve ever heard, dead on.
I’m serious, listen to “Changing of the Guards” and “Senor” on Street Legal. You might also check out Patti Smiths version of Changing of the Guards, a nice contrast.
I guess I consider Dylan the greatest. His phases, development seem closest to our age.
Yes stevio, I’ll agree with that! I LOVE the Big Bands and the Swing era, and jazz overall.
This whole article is worth the read, lots of food for thought.
The best decade for popular music was 1925-1935—the advent of electrical recording to the start of the Swing Era. Although a lot of good music came out in subsequent years—and I even like a couple of songs from the 2000’s—I hardly listen to anything recorded after 1963.
A lot of us are looking at “Working at the Carwash”, “Working at the Carwash, yeah!”
So what duz dis say bout' da new genr-ation?
>>So what duz dis say bout’ da new genr-ation?<<
Tomorrow Comes Creepin
Rock 70’s Grand Funk Railroad Hey, everybody won’t you lend me your ear,
There’s something to fear, it’s here, and that’s clear.
Men gettin’ rich off rapin’ the land,
I can’t understand, why we don’t take them in hand.
Woah, oh ... Lord, I don’t want to be their fool no more.
I don’t want to be their fool no more.
Open eyes, but you’re sleepin’,
You best wake up ‘fore tomorrow comes creepin’ in.
‘Fore tomorrow comes creepin’ in.
Feel that our lives are in the hands of fools,
Loosin’ their cool, it’s us that they rule.
Too many people sittin’ dead on their ass,
They ain’t got no class, people, this time must pass.
Woah, oh ... Lord, I don’t want to be their fool no more.
Hey ... I don’t want to be their fool no more.
Open eyes, but you’re sleepin’,
You best wake up ‘fore tomorrow comes creepin’ in.
‘Fore tomorrow comes creepin’ in.
Woah, oh ... yeah, tomorrow comes creepin’.
Oh ... hear me cryin’ ‘cause the people like me,
That long to be free, are not actually.
Please everybody won’t you hear this song,
Help a country that’s wrong, to someday be strong.
Woah, oh ... Lord, I don’t want to be their fool no more.
No! Lord, I don’t want to be their fool no more.
Open eyes, but you’re sleepin’,
You best wake up ‘fore tomorrow comes creepin’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGA8al0AL_Y
No, no, there was a good music in the 70’s. Some of us never listened to disco.
Marshall Tucker, the Allman Brothers, Johnny & Edgar Winters, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Humble Pie, Mott the Hoople, ZZ Top, Zepplin, etc. Great stuff. And, don’t forget Siouxsie Sioux & the Banshees, Susie Quatro, Heart... and on and on. Great time for music.
And, Stevie Ray. The best.
damn I could add to that list....
The early roots of punk emerged from the transition team of the British invasion with David Bowie, Marc Bolan, and Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno with Roxy Music. In the Village in New York Lou Reed and Nico fueled the embers for what would become the NY/Hoboken punk scene of the 80's with the likes of the Bongoes and the Feelies.
The Beatles went solo, and Harrison's triple LP All Things Must Pass of work he couldn't release while they were together remains one of my favorite collections of music.
The 70's weren't all Disco any more than the 60's were all Bubblegum.
The 80’s????!!! Uugghhh!!!!! Disco Sucks! The early to mid 70’s was a great era for music.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It’s all in the drugs of the era.
The Golden Age of Rock and Roll, the late 60’s - early 70’s, was characterized by the use of hallucinogenics, esp LSD. Expansive, highly creative music - Grateful Dead, Allman Bros, late Beatles, the best Stones and the best Who, Hendrix, Joplin, the Doors, CCR, the best Santana, Led Zepp, the best Jefferson Airplane. Far, far and away the best era of Rock and Roll, likely not to be repeated. Melodic stuff with excellent lyrics. Volume was used as an accent, not a constant necessity.
Music since then has been increasingly driven by speed, meth, coke - fast shallow highs, percussion driven, meaningless lyrics. Splintered followings because of the internet, almost territorial in quality. Sad in a way. Some bands try, but there is just so much garbage out there.
That cat spent its last 9th life a long time ago. =)
Lol. No, that’s my album collection. Decorating two walls of my home office now. I loved the album art. CD cases just aren’t big enough to allow for the artwork.
Great music, though. And, Lynard Skynard. Can’t forget them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.