
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin at the Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois (Photo by ... [+]
WireImageAs a devout music fan/historian who has written about the subject for over three decades I consider the ‘70s the greatest decade for music. The diversity of that era, when the rock of Led Zeppelin, Queen, Aerosmith and KISS, the soul of Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Al Green and Marvin Gaye, the pop of The Carpenters, Barry Manilow, Olivia Newton-John and Neil Diamond, the singer/songwriter style of James Taylor, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne, when Donna Summer, George Clinton, Black Sabbath, The Ramones and more all co-existed on the charts is, in my opinion, unrivaled.
Fittingly the best decade for music reached its pinnacle at the midpoint, in 1975. A look at the Billboard year-end album chart is like a who’s who of legendary artists. The top 10 alone includes Elton John, The Eagles, Earth, Wind & Fire, John Denver and Led Zeppelin. In the next 10 Newton-John, The Temptations, The Who, Knight & The Pips and David Bowie.
The list of iconic albums is endless. Neil Young’s Tonight’s The Night; Fleetwood Mac’s eponymous album with the debut of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham; Paul Simon’s Grammy-winning Still Crazy After All These Years; Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here; Aerosmith’s Toys In The Attic; ELO’s Face The Music; Queen’s A Night At The Opera; Parliament’s Mothership Connection; Steely Dan’s Katy Lied; The Isley Brothers’ The Heat Is On; Alice Cooper’s Welcome To My Nightmare; Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Live; Donna Summer’s Love to Love You Baby and countless more.
To me though, there are four albums that best defined the year. Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run, Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, Patti Smith’s Horses and Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti. In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of this quartet of the greatest records of all time I am looking at each of them again.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Born To Run
Of course, by now the story is lore. Hailed as a cross between Dylan and Elvis, the New Jersey rocker had great moments on his first two albums. However, he did not have the commercial breakthrough yet. The massive, cinematic Born to Run comes out and lands him on the covers of Time and Newsweek in the same week and he goes on to be America’s greatest rock star for five decades. Five decades later all of the majesty of the eight-song cycle remains as impressive as ever. From the opening “Thunder Road” through the sweeping epic closer “Jungleland” Springsteen and the E Street Band take listeners on an incredibly vibrant, gritty and realistic journey into musical scenes that look like a Martin Scorese movie. The true testament to the enduring nature of the album is how much of the album remains a centerpiece of the current live show. The epic piano ballad “Backstreets” is arguably the heart of the three-hour live show. The album’s rocking title track remains, for my money, the single most joyous live song in music as tens of thousands scream along with every word. “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” is equally joyous and has become a moving tribute to the late saxophonist Clarence Clemons. Though not played as often, the ferocious, Bo Diddley-influenced “She’s The One” and “Jungleland,” with Clarence’s nephew Jake Clemons taking over the seminal sax solo, are both live favorites. Fifty years later, this is a masterpiece and an important piece of music history.
Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
In the singer/songwriter pantheon, Dylan’s brilliant testament to vulnerability stands, alongside Joni Mitchell’s Blue, at the apex. Dylan establishes his poetic storytelling at his best on the classic opener “Tangled Up In Blue,” and follows that up with the equally poignant and direct “A Simple Twist of Fate.” Throughout the 10 songs over 51 minutes, Dylan is stunningly open. On the beautiful “You’re A Big Girl Now,” he sings, “I hope that you can hear, hear me singing through these tears.” The two major departures are the upbeat narrative, “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts” and the vicious “Idiot Wind,” where Dylan laments stupidity by singing, “You’re an idiot, babe/It’s a wonder that you still know to breathe.” But the majority of the album follows the path of sweetness, reaching a crescendo with the aching “If You See Her, Say Hello,” my vote for Dyan’s best work, which puts it in the top five songs ever written. Five decades later it is still as powerful, heartbreaking and tender as it was in 1975. Just like Dylan’s timeless poetry on this classic.
Patti Smith, Horses
“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine,” New York priestess of punk Patti Smith sings in one of the most famous opening lines in music. And with that stunning statement begins a Hall of Fame career that would stand as one of the greats in music and an album that remains essential. Showing the same energy and defiance on songs like “Free Money,” the reggae-infused “Redondo Beach,” the stunning “Birdland,” and more, Smith and her band establish themselves as a poet, a visionary, an uncompromising artist and a legend. The album’s climax is the furiously paced nine-minute punk anthem “Land: Horses//Land of a Thousand Dances.” Nearly five decades later when she does the song live it makes people from their teens to their 70s pogo and lose their collective minds in appreciation. It is one of the most inspiring moments in live music from a true inspiration.
Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti
The most commercially successful of this quartet of albums, spending six weeks at number one in 1975, this double album might be the least heralded of the four, only because the other three are consistently ranked as among the greatest of all time. But when Zeppelin, with Jason Bonham filling in for his deceased father, John, played London’s O2 Arena in 2007, the highlight of the show, in my opinion was not the more famous “Stairway to Heaven,” “Black Dog” or “Whole Lotta Love.” It was this album’s riveting “In My Time of Dying,” a gospel and blues-tinged fevered rocker. For others it was the Middle Eastern-themed “Kashmir,” off this album, which even Zeppelin members have said they wished was their signature song. The run of songs, starting with “The Rover,” including “In My Time of Dying,” the electrifying “Houses of the Holy,” “Trampled Under Foot,” and ending with “Kashmir,” is as impressive as any on any rock album. Yet, for my money, none of those is even the best song on the album. The wistful “Ten Years Gone,” which builds with this underlying musical tension into one of Zeppelin’s most powerful songs gets my vote. Such is the strength of the album as a whole that 50 years later the question is up for debate. What is not is the importance of the album.