The 1970s are the Rodney Dangerfield of recent history; they get no respect, no respect at all. The eighties are fast becoming the runner-up in the go-to joke decade category, but the seventies are still way out in front. In some ways, deservedly so; there were some truly awful crimes committed in the name of fashion, although that’s one area in which the 80s may actually surpass them. Also, there were a lot of ideas about race, gender and culture which seemed pretty progressive at the time that now tend to induce heavy-duty wincing, however well-intended they may have been.
I think the seventies often get a bad rap, though. It was an awkward time – people were trying to process all that went on during the sixties, dealing with the fallout of all the cultural and political upheaval and getting on with their lives. Choices were made – some of them good, some less so.
Honestly now, has there ever been a time in which that last sentence wouldn’t be true?
It’s easier to reduce complex issues to stereotypes and clichés, so that’s the route we often use. Take, for example, the music of the 1970s. The media would have you think that it was nothing more than an endless stream of cheese-tastic pop, what is now unfortunately referred to as “classic rock”, and lots and lots of disco. Films, books and television programs all tend to use the same cultural shorthand, to the point where some folks who weren’t there at the time (by virtue of not having been born yet) start to take it all to heart. I’ve found that when I ask people what they think of when the think of 70s music, it’s usually a variation on those three clichés.
In fact, the 70s were an incredibly rich time for music. In addition to the aforementioned flavors, there was krautrock, prog, reggae, country, jazz (fusion and otherwise), funk, soul, punk, metal and a dozen other genres and sub-genres. It’s time to raise their profile a bit.
And so it is that in a perhaps futile attempt to balance public perception a bit, I’ve begun the blog you are now trawling with your own two eyes. My purpose here is to re-examine some of that wonderful stuff from back in the day, drag it out into the light and maybe poke it with a stick a little. As The Tubes once put it, a mighty important crusade.
The title of this blog is shared by the opening track of Blue Öyster Cult’s Agents of Fortune album. You know, the one with “Don’t Fear the Reaper” on it. It’s not their best tune (please, don’t make me choose just one… alright, “Before the Kiss, A Redcap”. There. Are you happy now?), but it does kinda tie into what I’d like to accomplish here. “This ain’t the Garden of Eden / There ain’t no angels above / And things ain’t what they used to be / and this ain’t the Summer of Love”. The music of the sixties has been examined and re-examined ad nauseum for lo these forty-some years now, but the seventies are (relatively) ripe for the plundering. Plus, as I said earlier, there are some stereotypes that need to be addressed.
Let me now state right here, for the record, that I am in no way saying or implying that the 70s were a better time for music, or that the tunes of the time are/were inherently superior to current releases. There is good music and, um, less good… oh, alright, bad music. It was so then, it is so now and will be so in the future, right up until the point where we blow everything up and the cockroaches take over the planet. Roaches don’t make music, so far as I know. Maybe they’ll evolve over the millennia they’ll have as overlords of whatever is left of Earth and end up sounding like The Residents. That is a prospect that’s alternately too cool to contemplate and too frightening for me to be thinking about this close to bedtime. Also, it’s somewhat beside the point: there was bad music in the 70s – spectacularly bad music, actually – and good music, just as there is now.
Please don’t mistake this as some sort of “best of” list. I have an aversion to such lists. While they may be irresistible reading (or so I’m told), compiling them is a sucker’s game, and my mom drowned all the dumb kids. While I’ve certainly got an inflated view of my own opinions, even I’m not pompous enough to claim I’ve got a lock on the definitive “best of” this or any other decade. Leave that to the other blowhards.
Let me put it this way: while I believe Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks to be one of his very best albums, I doubt I’ll be writing anything about it here. Never say never, of course, but really, what else is left to say about it at this late date? On the other hand, Spirit’s The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus is just about perfect as far as I’m concerned, yet it doesn’t get anywhere near the recognition it deserves. So, not so much a “best of” list as a list of personal favorites. If I happen to omit your fave rave, write about it yourself.
Yes, that’s right. I am very earnestly seeking collaborators in this endeavor. I will mostly be writing about rock, since that’s what I know best, and will be venturing into soul and funk (and probably fusion jazz, too). I have one firm commitment for the occasional essay (from someone I greatly respect and am quite happy to have on board) and a couple of tentative responses from some other folks. If things shake out the way I think they will, these co-conspirators will also be covering rock & roll. That’s fine & dandy, but I’d also like to see some of the other genres of the time covered. I know next to nothing about the jazz and country of the 70s, for example, and it would be a shame to leave them unrepresented. So please, if you’re at all inclined to submit something, do so. Send your piece to me here. Be sure to mention either the title of this blog or the word “seventies” in your subject line so I don’t accidentally delete it as spam.
There are two main rules I ask you to abide:
1) It must deal with music made during the seventies. You can write directly about a band, tell an anecdote about how a certain album affected your life, base a piece of fiction on a song, etc. Go nuts. (Nothing that will expose either of us to slander/libel laws, please.) But the meat of the piece must deal with music from the 1970s.
2) It must also be music that you genuinely like. No irony, no camp, no “it’s so bad it’s good”. None of that. Also I’d like to avoid the strictly negative hit piece. We all know that The Eagles suck dead donkey ass through a Crazy Straw. There’s no need, twenty-some years on, to point that out yet again. (If, however, you wish to write a totally sincere, well-thought-out defense of that band, I’m willing to at least consider it.) No genre is off limits; while I’ve never had much time for disco myself, it was a part of the 70s sound and should probably be represented.
Credit where it is due: the fantastic banner was designed by iconomy, with contributions by the lovely and talented Science Girl. If anybody can hook me up with a script that will let me rotate a few different banners, that would be great. Explain it as you would to a five-year-old and I might get it.So there it is. I don’t know how often I’ll be updating. So long as it’s just myself (and the one definite collaborator), it may not be more often than once a week and might be less than that. I have a few things in mind, and I’ve got some pieces I’ve previously posted here and there that I could retool for this site. Really, though, the more the merrier. In the words of the O’Jays:
Please don't miss this train at the station
'Cause if you miss it, I feel sorry, sorry for you
People all over the world, join hands
Start a love train, love train
And now, on with the show…
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