ITT: /mu/ in 1974

Don't let the door hit you on your way out, Tricky Dicky.

what's with these KISS guys? new band apparently and as far as i can tell just a cheap copycat of Alice Cooper and the Dolls. they'll be forgotten in 6 months.

Took me 3 hours to get gas this morning. When's this oil shortage gonna be over?

Now this really is an American band--confident, healthy, schlocky, uncomplicated on the surface and supporting all manner of contradictions underneath. I prefer the title cut, which bursts with a--you should pardon the expression--raw power they've never managed before, to "The Loco-Motion," where Mark sounds shaky. But how many bands get to record a ninth album, much less make it their best? B

>>126934658
>critics only loved GFR after they became commercial buttrock
Figures.

In which a man who has always turned his genuine if unendearing talent for image manipulation to the service of his dubious literary and theatrical gifts evolves from harmless kitsch into pernicious sensationalism. Despite two good songs and some thoughtful (if unhummable) rock sonorities, this is doomsday purveyed from a pleasure dome. Message: eat, snort, and be pervy, for tomorrow we shall be peoploids--but tonight how about buying this piece of plastic? Say nay. C+

>>126934658
yeah i don't think their cover of The Loco-Motion was all that either but Carole King got paid for it so she wasn't gonna complain

Hey, these Canadian kids are pretty nice. Just good old no frills heavy rock. Can't write decent lyrics for shit though.

>>126934658
For more information on the band Grand Funk, consult your local library!

The single almost made #1 on the billboard until its radar ran out of love and it got knocked off by Grand Funk's "The Loco-Motion." Yah, yah, our stupid-rock is better than your stupid-rock. Especially when yours comes from Holland. C

If Dave Crawford really wants to turn B.B. into a major "contemporary" soul singer, he shouldn't make him sing Dave Crawford's songs. Best cut: the instrumental. C

I wanted to call this the most readable album since Quadrophenia, but it's only the wordiest--two inner sleeves covered with lyrics and a double-fold that's all small-type libretto. The apparent subject is the symbolic quest of a Puerto Rican hood/street kid/graffiti artist named Rael, but the songs neither shine by themselves nor suggest any thematic insight I'm eager to pursue. For art-rock, though, it's listenable, from Eno treatments to a hook that goes (I'm humming) "on Braw-aw-aw-aw-aw-aw-dway." B-

>>126935090
I tried but didn't make it more than a quarter of the way through before giving up. Fuck man, can't we just listen to Golden Earring instead?

This is measurably stronger than Goats Head Soup, and I hear enough new hooks and arresting bass runs and audacious jokes to stretch over three ordinary albums--or do I mean two? I also hear lazy rhymes and a song about dancing with Father Time and two sides that begin at a peak and wind down from there and an LP title that means more than it intends--or do I mean less? B

>>126935299
the drugs were getting to them by this point

More shoogity-boogity. B

The Who, slightly plodding, is turned over to reveal. . .Black Sabbath, that's who, without the horseshit necromancy. And I'm loving every stolen riff, if not every original one. B

this was maybe the weakest year of the 70s. not much to sing about with the protest era done and the post-OPEC economic recession caused record labels to cut back and play it safe.

>>126934877
>>126934991
>>126935299
>>126935640
>the press's busiest music nerd

"You're So Vain" left a nice afterglow--as Ellen Willis says, it proves that rock and roll is so democratic that even a rich person can make a great single. But except for the startling "Mockingbird" (buy the forty-five if you must) the album's most interesting moment occurs when Simon whistles. Need I add that her whistling is flat musically and epistemologically? C

Holy shit. I wasn't sold on Aerosmith before, but this is amazing.

>>126935859
is this the first album cover to ever have a pregnant bitch on it?

AOTY coming through

New Scorpions just dropped and it's even better than the first one.

There's something that's easy to dislike about his relentless self-examination and even in the whiny thinness of his voice. But even "Ambulance Blues", an eight minute throwaway, is studded with great lines, one of which goes "It's hard to know the meaning of this song." And I can hum it for you if you like. A-

>>126936055
Neil as usual going on about nothing but hey the lyrics sounded good when you were stoned so who cares, right?

The critic in me has no doubt that this is their best album, although he notes that the male-bonding songs (which articulate an affirmative ethos) have more to say than the female-separation songs (which rationalize hostility into pity/contempt). And when the critic plays the record, the listener enjoys the Gram Parsons tribute "My Man," the MOR-oriented "Best of My Love," the vaguely anti-authoritarian "On the Border," the permanently star-struck "James Dean," and several others. But the listener is too turned off by what the band represents ever to put the thing on voluntarily. B+

>>126937405
>But the listener is too turned off by what the band represents
ie. they look like his high school bullies

>>126936130
"Vampire Blues" appears to be about the OPEC embargo. I think, anyway.

The title's as phony as the rest of the album, which despite the bought-and-paid-for goodies--an intro here, a harmony there, even a song somewhere or another--is mostly a tame collection of reshuffled platitudes. Especially enervating is "Oh, Camile," in which Graham lets us know he is morally superior to a doubt-ridden Vietnam vet. C-

>>126938348
I think he was a little too hard on albums clearly meant as filler because record labels demanded the artist have some product out regardless of whether they had material or not.

>Thrust
>Spank-a-Lee

Ok, bros, Herbie went full 101% funk schizo.
Good thing Zawinul and Shorter, the guys who were in In a silent way are still around and they will never betray me like that.
And less with Vitous in the line-up...
wait a second...

>>126938409
then again it's not like Graham Nash by his lonely had a lot to say anyway. dude was dumb as a brick.

>>126938409
he had reason to. back then you'd pay $7 for an LP (which was over $40 in today's money) that often was like 2 good songs and 8 filler tracks. and in '74 the economy was also total shit with over 10% inflation.

Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

These prognatheous New Englanders prove the old adage that if a band is going to be dumb it may as well be American dumb and here they provide a real treat for the hearing-impaired on side one. Pretty good sense of humor, too, assuming "Lord of the Thighs" is intended as a joke. With dumb bands it's always hard to tell. B-

Sure, "You're Having (My Baby)" is kind of cute. But the rest of the album is the usual abortion. C-

i agree that '74 was a weak year overall and the bad economy and resultant cost cutting by labels could be a reason for it

Still a better "Your Cheatin' Heart" than Kitty Kallen's. At least she had the cultural background for cuntray.

In a time when all the most prestigious music, even what passes for funk, is coated with silicone grease, Dylan is telling us to take that grease and jam it. Sure he's domestic, but his version of conjugal love is anything but smug, and this comes through in both the lyrics and the sound of the record itself. Blissful, sometimes, but sometimes it sounds like stray cat music--scrawny, cocky and yowling up the stairs. A

>>126934744
moron

Goodnight sweet prince.

I give up. Of course he's a machine, but haven't you ever loved a machine so much it took on its own personality? I was reminded of my first car, a '50 Plymouth. Then I decided Elton was more like a brand-new Impala I once rented on a magazine's money. Then I remembered that I ended up paying for that car myself. Yes, I hate the way he says "don't diszgard me" too, but "The Bitch Is Back" is my most favorite song. B+

He'll be fine

ok

Theoretically, I am encouraged by Barbra's abandonment of Richard Perry and Contemporary Material, and in practice I love the title song, one of those beyootiful ballads that are the gift of AM programming to the reprobate rock and roller. But my big theory has always been that we like contemporary material because it is, well, contemporary, and in practice most of these performances generate a pristine, somewhat chill unreality even as they simulate warmth, maturity, all that stuff. Plus I'm not humming any of them after half a dozen plays. B-

>>126940398
This. It's truly the end of an era.

...

>As überrock goes, this is diverting enough, ricky-ticking along through various moderately arresting sci-fi soundtrack noises, some of them melodies. But fondness for the machine does not necessitate separation from the body. Just ask Miles Davis. B-
Christgau never was one for cerebral music.

>>126941614
this one was not really a big loss tbqh

Joel's debut lp, Cold Spring Harbor, was recorded in the vicinity of 35 rpm reportedly to fit on all the material--he's one of those eternal teenagers who just won't shut up. Stubborn little bastard, too--after his bid stiffed, he worked a Los Angeles cocktail lounge soaking up Experience. Here he poses as the Irving Berlin of narcissistic alienation, puffing up and condescending to the fantasies of fans who spend their entire lives by the stereo feeling Sensitive. And then, just to show them who's boss, he hits them with a ballad in the manner of Aaron Copeland. C-

>>126941682
3/10 album

>>126940398
Too bad about that last album he did though.

Welcome Tom and Jerry (Dowd and Wexler) back--this isn't great Aretha, but it rocks steady even on the ballads. If she doesn't get away with "The Masquerade Is Over," she does renew "A Song for You" with a fresh electric piano part and a good helping of indiscreet interpretation. Guided indiscretion, that's the key--her great gift is her voice, but her genius is her bad taste. B+

>>126938411
Vitous was the real star of the group. I'm done with them.

Nice "passages" here, as they say, but what flatulent quasisymphonies--the whole is definitely less than the sum of its parts, and some of the parts are pretty negligible. I mean, howcum they didn't choose to echo Graeco-Roman, Hebrew, and African culture as well as the lost Indian, Chinese, Central American, and Atlantean ones? Typical hyperromantic exoticism is one answer, and everybody would know they're full of shit is the other. C

>>126941682
Where would supermarkets be without the title track?

>>126935920
Jack Douglas is a god.

>>126934744
Actually, I like David Bowie, and I think this is a good album.
Shame Mick Ronson isn't with him anymore.
I also like the whole concept of taking George Orwell stories and making concept albums.'I hope David Bowie keeps putting out good rock and roll albums like this, and that more bands discover George Orwell, and make concept albums.
Wouldn't it be great if Pink Floyd did that?

>>126934798
I think they need to replace their drummer.

>>126934877
This kind of record cover might be acceptable in Europe, but no way is any record store in the U.S. gonna carry this album.

>>126935299
Mick Taylor is the best choice The Rolling Stones made for replacing Brian Jones.
I think he's gonna stick with the band to the very end.

The proof that their formula has finally trapped them is the pitifulness of their attempts to escape--with string synthesizer, pedal steel, half-assed horns, and other catch-22s of the International Pop Music Community. Bob Welch sounds bored, which is certainly poetic justice, and even Christine McVie is less than perfect this time out. Their worst. B-

>>126935537
This is good, but have you heard THIS?

>>126935640
Sledgehammer is underrated

>>126941955
this was right before the Buckingham/Nicks lineup when they were kind of directionless

Most Americans don't know who Kraftwerk is, but, being stationed at Rammstein, I got to hear them a lot.
Personally I think this is a bit of a let down, but maybe this will be the album that will break them in The U.S.
Of course they'll have to edit Autobahn down to a five minute song to get radio airplay, but, if they can do that, then they'll be a huge hit stateside.

How about Fatso? D-

>>126941955
Wait why was there a naked child on the cover of that album?

Although the musical concept-theme that pops up here and there is unnecessarily explicit, the songs more than justify it. On the woman's side of the breakup, try "Washing the Dishes" (soap gets in your eyes) or "Sister's Coming Home"/"Down at the Corner Beer Joint" (going home to mother as non-joke); on the man's, "It's Not Supposed to Be That Way" (but it is) and "Pick Up the Tempo" (on the rebound). What's more, Nelson's combination of soft-spoken off-key and battered honky-tonk matches the bare, responsive country music Jerry Wexler has gotten out of the Muscle Shoals regulars. Payoff: the two Mike Lewis string arrangements are actually climactic. A-

They say this is the rock and roll of the future, which I find a depressing thought even though (or because) the amalgam is a moderately smart one. Straight-ahead art-rock, sort of--Queen without preening. Yes without pianistics and meter shifts. And "Bloody Well Right" documents a gift for the killer hook. Now if only "Bloody Well Right" weren't an impassioned plea for complacency. Maybe if we close our eyes they'll go away. C+

Wimpoid royaloid heavoid android void. C-

>>126942137
Their entire discography should be rated D plus.

>>126939373
year didn't have an obviously identifiable sound, every album sounds kind of like its own thing

They say this is the rock and roll of the future, which I find a depressing thought even though (or because) the amalgam is a moderately smart one. Straight-ahead art-rock, sort of--Queen without preening. Yes without pianistics and meter shifts. And "Bloody Well Right" documents a gift for the killer hook. Now if only "Bloody Well Right" weren't an impassioned plea for complacency. Maybe if we close our eyes they'll go away. C+

Maybe Elton kicked off his label with this signing because he sounds demented by comparison--I mean, the excitement on this album is provided by a Jackson Browne song. Nice and even promising, but so wholesome she'll take some getting used to. C+

>>126942348
that actually came out in '73

>>126942371
early pop country Olivia was cute but her turn to generic AC on the next album is a no

man I wish the Russians would leave my coun...

just brought me first house after a few shifts at the chip shop, wife is pregnant, just got offered a high paying job at a local company thats me sorted for life then.

>>126942472
that's all well and good for you, Clive, but buying any house in the land of the free in 1974 is not happening, not when there's fucking 11% inflation

>>126942500
cor... thats rough lad. You gonna have to stay renting at $100 a month for a 5 bedroom in a prime location. Feel for you lad

>>126942390
Looks like the post you were responding to got deleted.
Did somebody post House of The Holy?

It looks like The Stooges are finished.

Who the fuck is this bitch?
This is the worst thing I've ever heard, and I've heard The Shaggs.
The Hendrix cover sucks, and that guitar player, Tom whatever his name is, can't play for shit.

Piss Factory?
Don't piss your money away on this trash.
Nobody's gonna remember this next year.

>>126934330 (OP)
I’m gay. I like big black cock in my ass

>>126944420
I would rather smell the way boys smell--
>Oh those schoolboys the way their legs
>Flap under the desks in study hall
>That odor rising roses and ammonia
>And way their dicks droop like lilacs

What the FUCK did she mean by this?

>>126944816

>>126935731
Yeah, '74 still has some gems but there aren't really any all-time classic albums for the year (compared to years like '71 or '77 which had no shortage of legendary works)

I know that. Some of Cuckgau's columns for this period has him complaining about how there was nothing but trash out and he had barely anything to review.

"Jolene" proves that sometimes she's a great singer-songwriter. "I Will Always Love You" proves that sometimes she's a good one. Porter Wagoner's "Lonely Comin' Down" proves that sometimes she should just sing. Her own "Highlight of My Life" proves that sometimes she should just shut up. And the rest proves nothing. B-

>>126934330 (OP)
Ew it's the dorky part of the 70s. Wake me up when it's disco fever.

I would describe the performances here as spirited rather than inspired, but they're definitely not compromised, which makes this collaboration of genius an automatic collector's item. I suspect I won't play it as much as I do the Joe Turner/Otis Spann/T-Bone Walker session that Bob Thiele set up five years ago. But then, I never figured I'd play that one as much as I do. A-

>>126942527
underrated album

Except for the title tune, the only really interesting songs here are two by Porter Wagoner--Dolly's already done a whole album of "Take Me Back," and "Bubbling Over" is a lot more effervescent than "Gettin' Happy." Still, she repeats herself (and apes others) nicely enough. And blues strings followed by gospel medley rescues side two at the close. B

In which a self-admitted mean old man approximates a cross between the young Paul Anka and the post-Bennington Reparata and the Delrons, only his voice is higher and his lyrics more considered. The whole first side, ending with the cheerfully perverse "Little Brother," is perfect pop moderne, and that's not where you'll find my own pick hit, the cheerfully normal "Love Will Keep Us Together." B+

>>126941682
>Here he poses as the Irving Berlin of narcissistic alienation, puffing up and condescending to the fantasies of fans who spend their entire lives by the stereo feeling Sensitive.
so much projection

>>126946509
>I suspect I won't play it as much as I do the Joe Turner/Otis Spann/T-Bone Walker session that Bob Thiele set up five years ago
hol' up there. dddddid you say Bob Thiele?

The Burton Cummings side of this band always wanted it to be Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, and Gary Puckett and the Union Gap all rolled into one. This rather monstrous goal has finally been realized. Me, I preferred the part that wanted to be Bachman-Turner Overdrive. C

I wonder whether Murray, always my second-favorite clean-cut female singer, is going to do a Helen Reddy and begin to remind me of Patti Page despite myself. Well, not yet. I still enjoy her fresh-air sincerity and the sexy catch in her voice. But I wish she had better taste in material--the only standouts here are two (great) rock and rollers from a decade or more ago. B

>>126947595
Black and Blues was a tasty blues jam record though.

Switched-on Herbie jazzes it up one more time for all the Con Edison fans. C+

>>126947503
his weakest album of the period, filler done to meet a record contract's terms

Since a strong singer (Paul Rodgers, who's letting the hair on his chest grow out) usually dominates a strong guitarist (Mike Ralphs, who's devoting himself to Paul Kossoff impressions anyway), this is less Mott the Hoople without pretensions (which are missed) than Free poppified (but not enough, hit single or no hit single). B-