Born in the Seventies…
Driving into work this morning, there was a discussion on the local radio about which decade would you most have liked to have lived through.
The fifties were winning -but more to do with people’s perception of fifties America which has been shaped by Grease and Back To The Future, apparently; and absolutely sod all to do with living in a Britain where rationing was still in place, and austerity was the name of the game (don’t laugh folks, cos all cliches turn full circle).
I on the other hand, rang in -and got to hear my dulcet tones on air (apparently I sound much more scottish on air than in real life, according to my friend Keith who heard me) -and said the seventies.
Now, I’m well aware that the seventies had their downsides - and I don’t mean fashion either - but for music it would have been awesome.
Well, not Tony Orlando and Dawn or Peters and Lee or Demis Roussos (like duh) but this would have been awesome to see.
Sex Pistols -’Anarchy In The UK.’ mp3
Althea and Donna -’Uptown Top Ranking.’ mp3
Dead Kennedys -’California Uber Alles.’ mp3
Bob Marley -’Waiting In Vain.’ mp3
Cure -’10:15 Saturday Night.’ mp3
Clash -’Complete Control.’ mp3
Television -’Marquee Moon.’ mp3
Mind you, there’s younger folk who are envious of me seeing Radiohead and Pulp at Glastonbury in the nineties, and Jeff Buckley…
Firstly, I said Scottish, I didn’t say dulcet
Secondly, I lived through the 70s. There were many good things about it, but Althea and Donna would not be on that list.
You sounded good though mate.
Hi keith
Dulcet was my own description, not yours
And I love that track - there would have been other music I wanted to hear from that decade, certainly not just white boys with guitars!
I was born 1964. I would be six or seven years older to be teen at the early 70’s, the golden days of progessive rock!
Prog rock had it’s moments, good and bad. And then the seismic change of Punk. Not a bad decade to choose, though every decade has heaps of good stuff, it’s not easy to plump for any particular one. Was it the punk that swung it for you?
Bits of prog I’ve grown to love -King Crimson, for example and Pink Floyd. And what the Germans had - Faust, Can, Neu!, Harmonia was even better.
the less said about ELP and Yes, the better…
I loved the Yes Album, fairly early on and before they got too wanky (and before Rick bloody Wakeman) Later on, too many notes, showing off in tedious ways and stupid lyrics
The very best thing about the second half of the decade musically was that you would come home with at least one 7″ single every week and go ‘you have to listen to this’.
In terms of singles 76 to about 81 was awesome.
The clash weren’t bad live either
but that’s showing off.
It is very interesting for me to observe how you from UK and USA “renegade” the progressive rock. Here in Brasil bands like Genesis (P.Gabriel years), Yes, ELP, P. Floyd, so on, German and Italian bands also, were loved for most of the rock fans. The punk scene has only a few fans on the work class in Sao Paulo. We didn’t have singles culture here because the record stores sold them as a regular price of a vynil album or cd, bastards! (laughs)
Forgive my english mistakes.
Don’t worry, my English isn’t perfect either, and my grammar often gets picked up on by my family.
Because of my age, Prog-rock was something that we were meant to be deeply suspicious of. Bits are OK, but even now I love the energy of punk!
Enaldo weren’t ‘The Ramones’ huge in Brazil? I seen to recall a couple of huge concerts they played
Hi, Cogstar. Greetings!
Ramones has lot of fans here, but most of their fans only listen just one or two albums (laughs). It is completely different of prog rock fans who are used to hear all cds and videos of their favourite bands.
I think the most loved band of the eighties here is U2.
Thanks for the comment.