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1968…whew, what a year

#41
TyBo said:
"Nothing of value", you described the Beatles' output after 1968 ... I notice you completely skipped over the group's last couple albums with that statement, which is quite an omission. Also ignored Harrison's output in initial comment and in response diatribe.
Which leaves Lennon and McCartney, post Beatles. I wouldn't claim it's groundbreaking, but I'd say there was music "of value" from both. "Imagine" is a tune many people relate to, "Beautiful Boy" is a beautiful song, Instant Karma kinda hits, and so on. McCartney was generally not going deep lyrically with his solo music, but he did write a lot of catchy tunes (his specialty ^_^). "Live and Let Die" sits in that niche, imo, as does "Band on the Run", "My Love", and even, yes, "Silly Love Songs" (I like that arrangement, with the voices weaving, and the imelodically insistant bassline). So, this is a very subjective matter, but we simply disagree on this point.
Btw, I WAS there 😊, I remember that stuff, and a certain lull in the 70's at times, as FM radio became more restrictive or narrow with playlists. I was more into jazz at that point anyway, listening to hours and hours of classic stuff, going all the way back, as well as more contemporary artists.
And, my nephew loved Thomas the Tank Engine, glad to see that given mention. 🙂
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Don't take me too seriously... I'll admit I took a somewhat polarising standpoint on purpose. I wasn't around until 68, so I missed all the actual Beatles stuff, but did have to grow up with the sacarine McCartney stuff on the radio being told how great it was... Harrison's output is far better, but didn't have the reach of L & M's big post Beatles hits.

Yes, there are some things that are OK, but to tone down my initial claim a little, I think its more reasonable to say that by 1968 the Beatles were reaching the end of their time, and that the work they produced as individuals in the 70's would never reach the quality and influence of what they had produced in the 60's. While there may have been a couple more albums and some solo things worthy of mention there glory days were behind them.
 
#42
IanStephenson said:
Don't take me too seriously... I'll admit I took a somewhat polarising standpoint on purpose. I wasn't around until 68, so I missed all the actual Beatles stuff, but did have to grow up with the sacarine McCartney stuff on the radio being told how great it was... Harrison's output is far better, but didn't have the reach of L & M's big post Beatles hits.

Yes, there are some things that are OK, but to tone down my initial claim a little, I think its more reasonable to say that by 1968 the Beatles were reaching the end of their time, and that the work they produced as individuals in the 70's would never reach the quality and influence of what they had produced in the 60's. While there may have been a couple more albums and some solo things worthy of mention there glory days were behind them.
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It's certainly fair to say that the individuals' post-Beatles work did not have the quality or influence that was seen in their earlier group work. How could it? One of the most influential bands ever, who turned the world on its ear and didn't let up for the better part of a decade. So yeah, that much is true.
I'll note also that Harrison stumbled into an impressive career as a film producer when he mortgaged his house to fund Monty Python's "Life of Brian" (one of their best, imo). He'd read the script and wanted to see it on screen. "Making for the most expensive cinema ticket in history," his pal Eric Idle joked. George also produced Terry Gilliam's "Time Bandits", among other notable films, one of my favorites.
And of course Ringo's presence is still seen widely, entertaining even at 85 with his All Starr Band, still bouncing around the stage. Everybody loves Ringo!
 
#43
I read this book a little.while back, good read.
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#44
Can't read about post-Beatles Beatles without putting these here.
Still a bit of the magic solo.





-Gotta check out that Born/Dazed book.
And, I'm in total agreeement, as noted in a couple of comments above, that college radio and few other community radio/non-commericial FM stations (e.g. the now-gone KRAB in Seattle) were about the only ones that played much of anything worth hearing after the early 70s.
 
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#45
LowWay said:
Sorry boomers. Music didn't stop being creative and fruitful in 1975.
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It's not a matter of generational competition.
There are always, somewhere, musicians and artists of all types doing innovative work.
It's more a question of overall Zeitgeist, and aspects of popular culture with things like rock music.
There seem to be creative peaks and nadirs that cycle, rising and falling over decades, and now increasingly inflected by the commercial market.
And I think that it also reflects what's going in the culture overall.
A similar thing happened in film during those years.

Tangentially, something brought to memory earlier and again the by the '91 list:
I ran into a friend back then who was in one of the bands and albums listed. He was really excited, the album had just been written up in Trouser Press or something. He was really proud of the fact that the review had compared it with another album, saying that is was as innovative and creative as....Thick as a Brick.

Edit: as has already been remarked by others above, there was a creative expansion in the early 80s, sometimes it just seems to be in the air. New sound, totally different. And then - relatively - things close down again.

And...as far as the Beatles, Lennon and McCartney, as songwriters versus their work solo. There's are some great pieces on that. That combination was distinct, and their work alone was missing the element that the other would bring.
There might be a freely-accessible version of this somewhere....https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/07/the-power-of-two/372289/
 
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#47
TyBo said:
McCartney was generally not going deep lyrically with his solo music, but he did write a lot of catchy tunes (his specialty ^_^). "Live and Let Die" sits in that niche, imo, as does "Band on the Run", "My Love", and even, yes, "Silly Love Songs" (I like that arrangement, with the voices weaving, and the imelodically insistant bassline).
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At the risk of further derailling this thread, I'll say that I will die on this hill:

McCartney's Ram album is not only the best album he ever released, it's also better than a number of Beatles albums.
(And I generally hate McCartney's solo output!)
 
#48
BassicJazzy said:
Wow, and I thought we were living in Bizarro World right now. Can you imagine what the Monkees thought backstage when they heard Jimi take the stage? I remember a story which Robert Fripp told in an interview of having the headliner band's guitarist pull the power from his stage when KC was opening for them. He said "suddenly, we were playing in silence." Not sure, but I think it was Dusty from ZZTop? Apologies in advance, Dusty, wherever you might be, if I got that wrong.
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I have some trouble imagining King Crimson opening for ZZ Top.
 
#49
turf3 said:
I have some trouble imagining King Crimson opening for ZZ Top.
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I had to go back and look it up. Yes, they did, in 1974. And yes, they pulled the plug on the stage for KC. Here's a post I just copied from a Reddit user from that time, but I read the original story in an interview with Fripp years ago:

"I was at the June 1974 gig in Denver CO when ZZTop pulled the plug on the stage just as THE TALKING DRUM was about to explode into LTIA II. Let’s back up a moment. I was 19 and worked in a music shop. I was so excited about seeing King Crimson that I purchased tickets for four friend and my younger brother. Boy was I psyched up. One of my friends wandered off between Golden Earring and KC. Three songs into the KC set a guy with a red-cross armband showed up and tugged on my sleeve and motioned I needed to follow him. My pal was in the infirmary. The fool had, unknown to the rest of us, taken something he ought not should have. I got back to my seat to catch some of STARLESS and THE TALKING DRUM which was building with the long crescendo the nothing. The crowd were totally confused about what had happened as the lights came up. ZZ-Tops stage manager came out and scolded “prima donna” guitarists, ie, our Robert-o. The situation was just beyond belief.
 
#50
Bob_Ross said:
At the risk of further derailling this thread, I'll say that I will die on this hill:

McCartney's Ram album is not only the best album he ever released, it's also better than a number of Beatles albums.
(And I generally hate McCartney's solo output!)
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And yet, it wasn't received well at the time, so much so that even McCartney began to doubt if was any good.
I read an interview with him a little while back in which he talked about re-visiting it years later, and from that perspective thinking, "What we did was actually pretty good."
 
#52
Passinwind said:
In a similar vein, I saw the original lineup Mahavishnu Orchestra open for T. Rex in 1972. Check out some of the other bands they opened for that year: Invalid Link Removed
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I saw them in Chicago as the only act on the bill at a high school auditorium in north side of Chicago. Never heard them, or heard of them before. My guitar-playing friend who introduced me to playing bass in '72 dragged me there. For $10 I sat on the floor about 50 feet in front of a slightly elevated stage, and had to look for my socks afterwards, because they had been blown off.

There is a Super8 short of that concert, that he emailed me a few months ago. I should have saved it, but I did not. Perhaps it's available somewhere on YouTube. Only about 45 seconds long, close-up of John shredding, Billy demolishing the drums in back of him.
 
#53
I was 18, graduating from an all boys Catholic high school in East Los Angeles looking to avoid Viet Nam through college. While all the tunes you mention played on AM radio mostly as FM was still to develop, there were several tunes that marked that year from the Soul/RnB genres including

Otis Redding's Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay
Aretha Franklin's Chain of Fools and Think
Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through the Grapevine
James Brown's Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud
  • Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell: "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By".
  • Aretha Franklin: "(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone" and "The House That Jack Built".
  • The Temptations: "I Wish It Would Rain" and "Cloud Nine".
  • Sly & The Family Stone: "Dance to the Music".
  • The Intruders: "Cowboys to Girls".
  • Archie Bell & The Drells: "Tighten Up".
  • Clarence Carter: "Slip Away".
  • The 5th Dimension: "Stoned Soul Picnic".
  • Hugh Masekela: "Grazin' in the Grass".

It’s a reminder of the width and breadth of our musical heritage. I played these tunes to urban audiences, White Room not so much.
 
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#54
BassicJazzy said:
I saw them in Chicago as the only act on the bill at a high school auditorium in north side of Chicago. Never heard them, or heard of them before. My guitar-playing friend who introduced me to playing bass in '72 dragged me there. For $10 I sat on the floor about 50 feet in front of a slightly elevated stage, and had to look for my socks afterwards, because they had been blown off.

There is a Super8 short of that concert, that he emailed me a few months ago. I should have saved it, but I did not. Perhaps it's available somewhere on YouTube. Only about 45 seconds long, close-up of John shredding, Billy demolishing the drums in back of him.
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They played at one of my local high school’s auditorium in Westport CT too, and I dragged quite a few of my unitiated friends along. It was actually a great sounding room with good sight lines and had a deep history of very famous acts playing there.
 
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#57
BassicJazzy said:
I saw them in Chicago as the only act on the bill at a high school auditorium in north side of Chicago. Never heard them, or heard of them before. My guitar-playing friend who introduced me to playing bass in '72 dragged me there. For $10 I sat on the floor about 50 feet in front of a slightly elevated stage, and had to look for my socks afterwards, because they had been blown off.

There is a Super8 short of that concert, that he emailed me a few months ago. I should have saved it, but I did not. Perhaps it's available somewhere on YouTube. Only about 45 seconds long, close-up of John shredding, Billy demolishing the drums in back of him.
Click to expand...
They played the Campus Center at UMass when they were new. Some Lou Reed influenced band opened for them. I didn't get either of them at the time. I was impressed with the playing, for sure, and appreciated that they were doing something different. There was a lot of that back then, doing something different. Maharishu were certainly part of that!
 

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