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The Next 100 Songs from 1975, aka Sanbornpalooza. #1: Black Friday (1 Viewer)

I just listened to Marvellous Moses - that's some really good stuff. I'm intrigued.
I’d never heard Nektar until someone from my other music/sports geek board picked Recycled in the 1970s album draft we did. Side 2 of Recycled hooked me, then I explored the rest from there.

 
Do tell...
Rotojunkie, now known as Rotojunkiefix with the url of rjbullpen.com. In The Sports Bar, their equivalent of the FFA, we would do music, movie and TV drafts from time to time. On other threads I’ve referred to the Neil, Beatles/solo Beatles and Rolling Stones drafts I’ve done there. 
 

It’s not very active these days and there hasn’t been a draft in a while.

 
Rotojunkie, now known as Rotojunkiefix with the url of rjbullpen.com. In The Sports Bar, their equivalent of the FFA, we would do music, movie and TV drafts from time to time. On other threads I’ve referred to the Neil, Beatles/solo Beatles and Rolling Stones drafts I’ve done there. 
 

It’s not very active these days and there hasn’t been a draft in a while.
That's too bad it's not too active anymore, although we could easily say the same thing about this board compared to where it used to be. :(

 
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That's too bad it's not too active anymore, although we could easily say the same thing about this board compared to where it used to be. :(
This place is party central compared to there.

It’s all a function of the people who got into fantasy sports when the internet was new growing older and having different priorities, and the younger people into fantasy sports preferring means of online communication other than message boards.

 
The original lineup's six albums from 1971 to 1975 are all outstanding, particularly A Tab in the Ocean (1972), which sounds like a more intricate version of prime Deep Purple, Remember the Future (1973), a concept album about a clairvoyant blind boy that gained them a cult following in the US in part due to some spectacular Floydian instrumental passages, and Recycled, their 1975 output.
Thanks for this. I will give these a listen.

 
Pip's Invitation said:
54. Letting Go -- Wings (from Venus and Mars)

Tim took the two successful singles from this album, I'm taking the less successful one (which still made the lower rungs of the top 40). Paul McCartney wrote this song about his wife and bandmate Linda, wondering whether he wasn't letting her pursue her own interests enough. (Is this what led to Cook of the House on the next album?) But it's the music that earns it a spot here. It may be the most Stones-y Paul ever sounded. The guitars are thick and grinding, the rhythm is a flexible take on blues, and Paul's vocal is quite forthright. 

Even better is the slightly faster and much louder live version from the Wings over America live album and Rockshow concert film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7frF7Ir2oA. This version is what made the song a favorite. 
OH:  "This song is everything I hate about rock music.  No, not everything, but a particular boring, overworked tunelessness.  It sucks so bad.  You know when you see old rich people who spend a ####load of money to dress really poorly, like a $400 Cosby sweater, or Donald Trump with really expensive ####ty suits?  That’s what that song reminds me of."

 
53. Marvellous Moses -- Nektar (from Recycled)

Nektar was a much-underappreciated prog/hard rock band who released a bunch of fascinating albums in the '70s. The members were from the UK but the band formed in Germany in the '60s after each original member had made his way to Hamburg to try to follow in the footsteps of the Beatles. By the time of their debut album in 1971, they had grown into something much louder and more complex than British Invasion music. The original lineup's six albums from 1971 to 1975 are all outstanding, particularly A Tab in the Ocean (1972), which sounds like a more intricate version of prime Deep Purple, Remember the Future (1973), a concept album about a clairvoyant blind boy that gained them a cult following in the US in part due to some spectacular Floydian instrumental passages, and Recycled, their 1975 output.

Recycled is another concept album, this one about environmental devastation. On both sides, the songs all run together (and were originally labeled just as "Recycled Part 1" and "Recycled Part 2"; the same had been the case for Remember the Future). Side 1 details a future in which only "recycled energy" remains and the human race is on the brink of extinction. Side 2 ponders how we might have gotten there via excessive tourism and overuse of the wilderness. The album expands the band's use of synthesizers and its influence can be heard in latter-day prog-influenced bands from Ozric Tentacles to Umphrey's McGree. 

Marvellous [sic] Moses and another song from side 2 (It's All Over) are more distinct as individual songs than the rest; they date from at least early 1974 (they appear in the Remember the Future tour setlists) and thus were probably written before the others. Marvellous Moses makes great use of synthesizers, set to a backdrop of a bouncing rhythm and memorable melody. It sticks in my head frequently.

Unfortunately, the band were unable to build on the achievements of this record. Burned out from their frantic touring and recording pace from '71 to '75, singer/guitarist Roye Albrighton quit the band in '76. They carried on with a new frontman but gained no traction. When Albrighton returned in 1980, musical trends had changed and their output struggled to balance their old sound with the new landscape, leading to a breakup in 1982. The band reappeared in 2000 and has continued with various lineups since then, even after Albrighton's death in 2016. 
i believe i saw them with my tiny doppelganger (same face, hair, posture then but huge difference in height, quite weird), Mike Kamen - of New York Rock & Roll Ensemble and soundtracker of many films, most notably Terry Gilliam's - and, if i'm remembering correctly, it was he who invited them over to America for a big-fuss NYC showcase gig.

 
i believe i saw them with my tiny doppelganger (same face, hair, posture then but huge difference in height, quite weird), Mike Kamen - of New York Rock & Roll Ensemble and soundtracker of many films, most notably Terry Gilliam's - and, if i'm remembering correctly, it was he who invited them over to America for a big-fuss NYC showcase gig.
Said NYC gig is on Youtube in its entirety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSf5exe-plY

One of the FM stations there started playing Remember the Future and it caught on with their listeners. 

 
Said NYC gig is on Youtube in its entirety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSf5exe-plY

One of the FM stations there started playing Remember the Future and it caught on with their listeners. 
yeah, i'm pretty sure that's it, cuz they open with a rock&roll-y thing and that's sumn that Mike (one of the first American progsters) would have responded to cuz he hated that prog had forgotten to be rock&roll most of the time and they woulda known that. i would have been backstage for at least a part, tho i don't remember where it was or meeting the boys. it wouldnt have been @ Julliard, who loved Kamen but were still really stuffy, but it was a proper hall.

 
yeah, i'm pretty sure that's it, cuz they open with a rock&roll-y thing and that's sumn that Mike (one of the first American progsters) would have responded to cuz he hated that prog had forgotten to be rock&roll most of the time and they woulda known that. i would have been backstage for at least a part, tho i don't remember where it was or meeting the boys. it wouldnt have been @ Julliard, who loved Kamen but were still really stuffy, but it was a proper hall.
It was at the Academy of Music. 

And they were definitely a rock and roll band*. Their first three albums were more rock than prog, only with Remember the Future did the balance start to shift a bit. 

* - which they further proved in this set by doing a medley of '50s rock and roll covers in the encore. 

 
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51. Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While) -- The Doobie Brothers (from Stampede)

The Doobie Brothers' string of successes in their original format, tightly crafted guitar boogie mostly written and sung by Tom Johnston, was coming to an end in 1975. A sign was that the best song on Stampede was a cover. But they did a hell of a job with this Motown standard, first performed by Eddie Holland (who wrote it with his usual collaborators Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier) and made famous by Kim Weston. The Doobies add rock and roll punch but maintain the swing of the Motown versions, and the strings enhance rather than detract from the arrangement, which was not always the case when used on rock songs in the '70s. 

Johnston fell ill and was unable to tour, so to fill out the sound and help out on vocals, the Doobies brought in some keyboardist named Michael McDonald, who had played with Doobies guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter in Steely Dan. By 1976, their sound, and the shape of what we now call yacht rock, would be changed forever. 

In case you were wondering

I'm not going to have Black Water in this countdown because I can't find any evidence of when it started to be promoted as a single. It appeared on the 1974 album What Once Were Vices Are Now Habits and was released as the B-side to that album's first single, Another Park, Another Sunday. Some DJs decided they preferred the B-side and started playing it instead. As a result, at some point, the label started promoting Black Water, and it topped the Hot 100 in early 1975. But I can't find anything that tells me whether its A-side status started in 1974 or 1975. If I ever do a 1974 thing, I'll have it there if Tim doesn't.
 
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johnnycakes said:
After seeing some of these picks, I am holding out hope for

Love Itis by the J Geils Band.

https://youtu.be/LxEyM47Xd0E
hey I don’t need to be the thread police but maybe put spoiler tags on anything that might be upcoming?

I’m holding out hope for a Midwest band that didn’t release an LP in 1975 but re-issued a previous album & scored their biggest single that summer. but they were a true regional thing, back when that still was a thing, so unlikely.

 
hey I don’t need to be the thread police but maybe put spoiler tags on anything that might be upcoming?
I’m not changing my list, so I don’t see any reason for others to hide discussion of songs that haven’t been picked yet. It’s not going to influence me. My request was to spoiler-tag songs that I have already mentioned will not be on the list in my spoiler-tag posts, if people have seen those posts and are reacting to them. If they haven’t seen them and are speculating, I don’t think it’s a big deal.

 
I’m holding out hope for a Midwest band that didn’t release an LP in 1975 but re-issued a previous album & scored their biggest single that summer. but they were a true regional thing, back when that still was a thing, so unlikely.
I grew up in Philly and was 4 years old in 1975, so my knowledge of Midwest regional bands from the era is not great. But the list does have bands like Nektar that most people haven’t heard of, so we’ll see.

 
I grew up in Philly and was 4 years old in 1975, so my knowledge of Midwest regional bands from the era is not great. But the list does have bands like Nektar that most people haven’t heard of, so we’ll see.
Through 1974 they self-produced, played mostly Big Ten/MAC towns.1975- they were on a major label and were popular on both coasts and the Deep South. Faded badly in the ‘80s but their hits remained cultural institutions on AOR classic rock stations.

 
Through 1974 they self-produced, played mostly Big Ten/MAC towns.1975- they were on a major label and were popular on both coasts and the Deep South. Faded badly in the ‘80s but their hits remained cultural institutions on AOR classic rock stations.
Let us know who they are at the end of the countdown if they don’t come up.

 
Today we will have funk, R&B/soul and pop with touches of those things.

50. Fire on the Bayou -- The Meters (from Fire on the Bayou)

New Orleans funk doesn't get much deeper than this. The Meters' profile was raised in 1975 when they opened for the Rolling Stones -- but it didn't translate much into album sales, as their label had no idea how to promote them. Which seems crazy given how influential they were to later funk and jam bands. This song, with a hard groove and prominent percussion, is as good as any to start with if you want to investigate. 

 
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Here are the songs I considered for but cut from the list by artists appearing in spots 59-50. In spoiler text for those who don't want to know what's not on the list.

The Doobie Brothers:

I Cheat the Hangman (from Stampede)

This expressive ballad from Patrick Simmons is arranged like a fusion of America (the band) and outlaw country. Love the subtle guitar work from Simmons, Tom Johnston and Skunk Baxter, and how the song builds up to the fast part starting around 4:30.

Nektar:

Sao Paolo Sunrise/Costa del Sol (from Recycled)

This pair opens side 2 of Recycled and offers spectacular riffs and instrumental flourishes. They flow together seamlessly so I've always considered them as one. They comprise the linked file from the start to 7:09, with the split occurring at 3:05.

James Taylor:

I Was a Fool to Care (from Gorilla)

This heartbreaking ballad is pretty soulful by Taylor's standards, and features a fantastic string arrangement. 

Wings: 

Medicine Jar (from Venus and Mars)

Co-written and sung by guitarist Jimmy McColloch, this anti-drug song turned out to be ironic, as McColloch died from an OD in 1979. This song has a driving '50s-style beat with gritty Stones-style rhythms and a fantastic guitar solo. McColloch turns in a charming vocal with phrasing not all that different from Ringo Starr.
 
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OH:  "This song is everything I hate about rock music.  No, not everything, but a particular boring, overworked tunelessness.  It sucks so bad.  You know when you see old rich people who spend a ####load of money to dress really poorly, like a $400 Cosby sweater, or Donald Trump with really expensive ####ty suits?  That’s what that song reminds me of."
I gave it a like before clicking the link to listen to the song.

Was a massive Beatle nut in high school and hadn't heard the song in ages.

I heard these lyrics:

Ah, she tastes like wine
Such a human being so divine
Oh she feels like sun
Mother nature look at what you're done

Oh I feel like letting go
Oh I feel like letting go.

Ah, she looks like snow
I want to put her in a broadway show
Ah she'll dance and dine
Like a lucifer she'll always shine

Oh I feel like letting go
Oh I feel like letting go.

Oh I feel like letting go.

Ah, she sings it so
I want to put her on the radio
One day and there you are
Ladies and gentleman -
A brand new star.

Oh I feel like letting go
Oh I feel like letting go


High Fidelity - Cosby Sweater

 
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49. It Only Takes a Minute -- Tavares (from In the City)

Another one from when soul and funk were on the cusp of morphing into disco. The synth bass is awesome and the vocal arrangement is fantastic. While the strings hint at disco, there's no evidence of the formulaic blah that was to come in that genre. 

Eventually the Brits caught on, making a hit out of the cover by boy band Take That. 

 
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50. It Only Takes a Minute -- Tavares (from In the City)

Another one from when soul and funk were on the cusp of morphing into disco. The synth bass is awesome and the vocal arrangement is fantastic. While the strings hint at disco, there's no evidence of the formulaic blah that was to come in that genre. 

Eventually the Brits caught on, making a hit out of the cover by boy band Take That. 
Always loved this one, though.......

It seems like the verses and chorus were written for two different songs.

ETA: I mean the lyrics, not the sound

 
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48. Wind on Horseback -- Mandrill (from Solid)

Mandrill in their early years was one of the most dynamic bands in America. Basically a funkier Santana. They mixed and matched genres and executed them effortlessly. Their first five albums, issued between 1971 and 1974 on Polydor, are all outstanding and all worth hearing (the most consistent is the second, Mandrill Is). 1975 was a huge year of change for the band. The leaders, multi-instrumentalist brothers Carlos, Lou and Ric Wilson, reshaped the band's personnel and sound, moving to United Artists and bringing only keyboardist Claude Cave with them. Solid, the first record for UA, had a more streamlined funk sound but retains some of the instrumental showcases and eclecticism that made their early albums essential. Subsequent albums plunged more fully into disco, as was the fate of many a funk band at that time.

The grabber from Solid is Wind on Horseback, an almost mystical 6-minute slice of funk with a very soulful lead vocal and flute jamming (both from Carlos Wilson), eerie strings, persistent congas and chunky guitar lines. It will make you want to ride with the rhythm of the wind. 

 
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Listening to a 1975 album rn. Side A was one song, Side B is also one song.

IDK where it ranks for the year but some sources have it as a Top 100 album for the decade and Top 500 of All-Time.

Will post links after the draft if it doesn’t show up.

 
47. Who Loves You -- The Four Seasons (from Who Loves You)

In Tim's thread I alluded to how I like this song much better than the other hit from this album, December 1963 (Oh What A Night). It's perfectly crafted rhythmic pop from a source you wouldn't have expected in 1975. From the high hat parts at the beginning to the driving bass lines to the funky instrumental breakdown about 2/3 of the way through, this is a perfect distillation of the musical trends of '75. This was nothing like the falsetto-driven early rock and roll Four Seasons of the '60s. Frankie Valli was still around to handle the lead on the verses, and Bob Gaudio had moved to a behind-the-scenes role, producing and co-writing the album (and playing keys on a few songs but not doing concerts or other public appearances), but everyone else was new. The song is a triumphant reminder that anyone can make a comeback if they have the right material. 

The B-side was a "disco version," but it was the exact same track as the A-side with the instrumental break spliced in a second time. Gotta love cheesy marketing gimmicks. 

This was an important enough song to the band's history that it was used as the closer in the Jersey Boys musical. 

 
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46. Symptom of the Universe -- Black Sabbath (from Sabotage)

The riffage is killer, as are Bill Ward's drum fills when Ozzy screams "yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" at the end of each verse. Tony Iommi crams a lot of notes into his solo without disrupting the flow of the song or devolving into wankery. And then all of the sudden, when you'd thought you'd figured out what kind of song this was, acoustic guitar shows up on the bridge and the rhythm shifts to something light and flexible. This is as good an example of any of why Sabbath was such a big deal to some people. 

 
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47. Symptom of the Universe -- Black Sabbath (from Sabotage)

The riffage is killer, as are Bill Ward's drum fills when Ozzy screams "yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" at the end of each verse. Tony Iommi crams a lot of notes into his solo without disrupting the flow of the song or devolving into wankery. And then all of the sudden, when you'd thought you'd figured out what kind of song this was, acoustic guitar shows up on the bridge and the rhythm shifts to something light and flexible. This is as good an example of any of why Sabbath was such a big deal to some people. 
Hell to the yeah. One of the underrated gems in the vast Sabbath repertoire. 

 
And now we go in the other direction.

45. Diamonds & Rust -- Joan Baez (from Diamonds & Rust)

I've always thought this to be one of Baez' best songs, namely due to her strong, compelling vocal. The song is about the memories that are triggered after she received a phone call from a lover of a decade ago. It's not explicitly confirmed in the lyrics, but the ex-lover is Bob Dylan. "You were so good with words/and at keeping things vague" -- who else could that be? Another connection was that on this album she included a cover of Dylan's then-new Simple Twist of Fate, which made Tim's list. 

Maybe this is not quite so jarring an entry coming after Sabbath: It spawned a well-known cover by Judas Priest, which led to subsequent covers by Blackmore's Night, SOD and Great White. 

 
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And now we go in the other direction.

46. Diamonds & Rust -- Joan Baez (from Diamonds & Rust)

I've always thought this to be one of Baez' best songs, namely due to her strong, compelling vocal. The song is about the memories that are triggered after she received a phone call from a lover of a decade ago. It's not explicitly confirmed in the lyrics, but the ex-lover is Bob Dylan. "You were so good with words/and at keeping things vague" -- who else could that be? Another connection was that on this album she included a cover of Dylan's then-new Simple Twist of Fate, which made Tim's list. 

Maybe this is not quite so jarring an entry coming after Sabbath: It spawned a well-known cover by Judas Priest, which led to subsequent covers by Blackmore's Night, SOD and Great White. 
What a voice - among the best female vocalists in history IMO.

 
Between the main riff and Ward's drum fills, this song is almost too good to be real.  This is top notch stuff, even by Sabbath's lofty standards. :headbang:
This is one of my favorite Sabbath songs of all time.  Live versions tend to be better than the studio.    The opening riff still gives me goosebumps.   So simple.  So GD good.  

 
48. Who Loves You -- The Four Seasons (from Who Loves You)

The B-side was a "disco version," but it was the exact same track as the A-side with the instrumental break spliced in a second time. Gotta love cheesy marketing gimmicks. 
Now that I think about it, the title and lyrics may themselves be a cheesy marketing gimmick. They were inspired by Telly Savalas’ catch phrase “who loves ya, baby,” which was popular shtick at the time. 

 
44. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go -- Bob Dylan (from Blood on the Tracks)

I did not set out to follow a Joan Baez song about Bob Dylan with a Bob Dylan song, but that's how it fell. This is another touching song from Blood on the Tracks about the end of a relationship and the resulting self-pity from the narrator. Which includes a verse with some of the most Dylan lyrics ever:

Situations have ended sad
Relationships have all been bad
Mine have been like Verlaine's and Rimbaud
But there's no way I can compare
All them scenes to this affair
You're gonna make me lonesome when you go


&

Next: An artist whom I did not see in concert until 2006, and only then due to a last-minute invitation. 

 
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