I was born in the early 1980s. While that makes me old to many readers, it also means I am too young to have experienced (in my opinion) the greatest decade for rock: the 1970s. The 1950s created rock, the 1960s introduced seriousness and experimentation, but it was the 1970s in which this art form took off.
Established groups like The Rolling Stones and The Who achieved a new level of greatness. Newer acts like David Bowie and Yes became commercially successful off of weird and/or complex music. And jazz directly influenced rock sensibilities through fusion works by Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and others. More importantly, the album was dominant, something unimaginable now in the age of Itunes and Pandora.
If I could pick one word to describe 1970s rock, it would be grandiose. Complex arrangements, long songs, serious themes, even concept albums that told a story worthy of a novel (although they were often pretty confusing).
Coming of age in the 1990s, the influential acts then never seemed to compare to the stuff I heard in my dad’s record collection (although I would argue The Smashing Pumpkins came close). With the excesses of the 1980s and the cynicism of the 1990s, the earnest grandiosity of the 1970s was something I always missed, even if I could only miss it indirectly.
So it’s worth looking back at that grand era, and some of the albums that made me angrily ignore the Top 40 station in high school.
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14 Comments
Brilliant article.
But grandiose music still exists if you know where to look!
At time of writing, a *double album* sits at the top of the charts. It’s by Biffy Clyro, and even if you don’t like them, you have to admit that such a feat is supremely impressive in these days of iTunes and Pandora.
Also try Celebration Rock by The Japandroids; Octopus by Amplifier; Hurry Up We’re Dreaming by M83; Stay Positive by The Hold Steady and anything by The Mars Volta.
Grandiose. I finally have a catch-all term to describe the music I like. Thanks!
thanks for your comment- great points. I’d thought about mentioning some contemporary torchbearers (as a Decemberists fan I wanted to mention Hazards of Love). Good to highlight the grest stuff still being released, even if the broader market doesn’t seem to get it
But did the broader market ever get it? Beyond the grandiose rock, jazz and funk highlighted in your article, the 70s was also a decade big on punk, disco, folk and understated singer-songwriters. Perhaps it’s the case that the reason the albums in question seem so remarkable is that they were also remarkable at the time?
I love The Decemberists – especially The Crane Wife. Maybe a followup article is due or those bands and artists today worthy to take up the torch?
yeah, that’s true. Although they still sold relatively well, right? And good idea for a follow-up, I’ll have to think about that…
No Stones? Still a cool list.
thanks. yeah, it was tough deciding who to include. Which Stones album do you think you’d put on the list?
I’d say exile on main street.
yes- good call
Hi Peter — linked to your fun article through a posting on Facebook. I was in college during the 70′s, and while in England during my junior year I spent a lot of time listening to the following albums. Not sure if they qualify as grandiose, but here they are: Crime of the Century, Supertramp; The Song Remains the Same, Led Zeppelin; Rick Wakeman, White Rock; Wind and Wuthering, Genesis.
thanks. And that’s a good list-I haven’t actually listened to much Supertramp, but will check that album out.
Nice article! Great trip down memory lane…kind of makes me want to pull out my album collection. But no Led Zeppelin or Meatloaf?
thanks. Yeah, not including Zepp was tough, although it’d be hard to pick just one album…
Other worthy mentions:
Amon Duul – Tanz Der Lemminge
Tangerine Dream – Alpha Centauri
Henry Cow – Unrest/In Praise of Learning
Egg – The Civil Surface
Colonel Bagshot – Oh! What a Lovely War
Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Brain Salad Surgery
Jethro Tull – Benefit
…and pretty much any album from Colosseum, Grand Funk Railroad, the Mothers of Invention, Captain Beefheart, Groundhogs, the Modern Lovers, Can, King Crimson, Mountain, Three Dog Night, Soft Machine, Status Quo,… etc.
One song in particular I’ve recently been listening to a lot is the 15 minute epic “Living in the Heart of the Beast” by Henry Cow; a fine combination of obtuse & staccato-like movements, almost timeless.
Great List BTW, now there’s a few more albums to add to my ever-growing collection. Thanks!
I’ll gladly admit that I like “Lady.” I like it even more than “Come Sail Away” or “Mr. Roboto;” I’d even go as far as to say that it’s Styx’s best song.
Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell definitely deserves a place on this list, if even just for the title track. Meat Loaf gets mocked a lot for his physical size and the grandiosity of his music, but there’s no denying that “Bat Out of Hell” is a great, epic song.
When I think of ’70s rock, though, I think more of epic songs than I do epic albums; I think of songs like Heart’s “Magic Man;” Boston’s “Don’t Look Back;” Three Dog Night’s “Eli’s Coming;” George Thorogood and the Destroyers’s “Who Do You Love?;” all of BTO’s work; Steely Dan’s “Do It Again;” Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” and “Jailbreak;” Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road”… things like that. Maybe some of them aren’t musically complex (“Magic Man” certainly isn’t), but they all carry an epic flavor to them.