Despite the previous decade disappearing further into the past, there is a feeling, in terms of rock music, that most roads out of the 60s headed to and ultimately ended in 1975.
Although it produced some extraordinary albums, released in the main by artists (Bob Dylan, The Who, Neil Young, The Band, Paul Simon), each of whom had chronicled the changing times of the 1960s in their music, being smack in the middle of the 70s, 1975 sounds and looks like a year on the cusp – and this is before factoring the outrage caused by the Sex Pistols when they swore on UK television in December 1976.
Blood On The Tracks
Indeed, in many of the major works with a 1975 release date, there is an overriding sense of things coming to an end – be it marriages (Dylan, Simon), 60s idealism (Young), the early promise of rock being a source of liberation (Pete Townshend) and in the case of The Band, an entire career.
Which is not to say these records lack vitality or conviction, far from it; Dylan (‘Blood on the Tracks‘), Simon (‘Still Crazy After All These Years‘) and Young (‘Tonight’s the Night‘) can be labelled genuine masterpieces, (neither Dylan nor Simon would make albums of comparable stature for a long time afterwards).
Townshend, meanwhile, in similar vein to John Lennon when he largely skewed his own legend with the magnificent ‘Plastic Ono Band‘ (1970), poured out his troubled soul through Roger Daltrey on the utterly compelling ‘The Who By Numbers.’
Townshend, who ten years before had penned the 60s most armour piercing lyric in ‘hope I die before I get old‘, sounding conflicted and confused at being a thirty-year-old rock star.
The mid-point of the decade may have brought some dark days for the 60s old guard, but the intensity and purpose displayed in earlier work by Dylan and The Who had not been lost on an exuberant word wizard from New Jersey.
With ‘Born to Run‘, his third album, but first in eighteen months, Bruce Springsteen distilled the finest 60s rock traditions and then infused them with breath-taking originality in creating a street-opera – epic in both drama and scope.
Through eight absorbing tracks, it sounded like what may have happened had Phil Spector produced ‘Blonde on Blonde‘ – while on stage he and his E Street Band fused The Who with Elvis and James Brown as they developed into an exhilarating live act.
Springsteen was not the only one casting a glance backward in making contemporary statements – with the most original debut LP in years, New Yorker Patti Smith took inspiration from the Rolling Stones and The Doors in turning her beat poetry into eclectic rock songs, ‘Horses‘ an album that lacks nothing in excitement or sheer audacity.
Artistically raw it may have been, but ‘Horses‘ was not art-rock in the established manner, that particular market cornered in 1975 by ‘Sirens‘ the most engaging album Roxy Music had made by that point, their newfound accessibility in finding a wider audience echoed by David Bowie – who emerged in his ‘thin white duke‘ persona with ‘Young Americans‘.
Recorded with local musicians in Philadelphia, it showed Bowie to be as adept with soul and disco as he was with rock – Philly Soul also producing a home-grown gem as Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes weighed in with the outstanding ‘To Be True‘. But they were not alone in creating classy soul – ‘Al Green is Love‘ is simply masterful, poignant and uplifting in equal measure.
The singer-songwriter honours went to James Taylor for his impressive ‘Gorilla‘ set, with solo albums from the key players in two groups known for their political expressionism containing much to admire.
At times ‘John Fogerty‘ lacked the muscle of the Creedence Clearwater Revival rhythm section, but the high-quality songs showed Fogerty was still a major force.
On the UK side of the pond, ‘Squire‘ by Alan Hull was a worthy successor to his brilliant ‘Pipedream‘ of 1973, the Lindisfarne front man exploring politics, peace of mind and parenthood with equal aplomb.
Old warhorses Led Zeppelin and The Kinks showed admirable aptitude in continuing the good fight – ‘Physical Graffiti‘ might contain too much filler to make all four sides essential, yet with ‘Trampled Underfoot‘ and ‘Kashmir‘, Zeppelin not only added to their formidable canon, but produced two of the most sublime hard rock moments ever recorded.
On ‘Schoolboys In Disgrace‘ The Kinks brought their sequence of concept albums to an end with the pick of the bunch. Even those tiring of a need in Ray Davies to wrap his work in a conceptual theme could not deny the stand-alone brilliance of the reflective ‘No More Looking Back‘ and propulsive ‘The Hard Way‘ – an explosive rocker that showed The Kinks still had more in common with The Damned than The Doobie Brothers.
Los Angeles remained fertile territory as country rockers the Eagles (‘One of These Nights‘) and a Fleetwood Mac (‘Fleetwood Mac‘) reinvigorated by Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham joining the ranks, each made accomplished albums – their soft-rock stylings still welcome before over- indulgence blighted end of the decade releases.
Despite being a long-time devotee of Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan, places could not be found for ‘The Hissing of Summer Lawns‘ or ‘Katy Lied‘, each of which have a tendency to be overdrawn when compared to the exceptional efforts from both that proceed them.
‘Atlantic Crossing‘ (Rod Stewart), ‘A Night at the Opera‘ (‘Queen’) and ‘Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy‘ (Elton John) were all huge sellers, but for every minute of inspiration, a display of bombast was waiting in the next track. The cause of ‘Captain Fantastic‘ was not helped by a vision of Elton sitting at the piano performing a ballad while dressed as a crocodile – not something that Jackson Browne or Randy Newman were ever likely to do.
Pink Floyd also came up short with ‘Wish You Were Here‘. Most listeners accepted ‘The Dark Side of the Moon‘ (1973) would be impossible to beat, but on the follow-up did they really need to sound so bitter and pessimistic?
In fact, the two albums hardest to exclude were ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll‘ by John Lennon, a collection of 50s covers that might well have proved John had nothing profound to say at the time but was an enjoyable listen all the same – and ‘The Last Record Album‘ by LA funk-rockers Little Feat.
Written by slide guitar maestro Lowell George, it boasted the mesmerising ‘Long Distance Love‘, which earned a top five place in the 1975 ‘Festive Fifty’ of renowned BBC DJ John Peel, a man not to bestow such a placing lightly.
Including ‘The Basement Tapes‘ may appear a touch cheeky as the songs were mainly recorded eight years before, but as Dylan finally sanctioned their release in 1975 it feels a justifiable inclusion (had ‘The Basement Tapes‘ been released the year before or after, this wondrous double album would still have been in).
No guilt is felt either in Neil Young receiving a second placing for the magnificent ‘Zuma‘ – thus completing an astonishing hat-trick that began in 1974 with ‘On The Beach‘.
For all the emotive imagery Dylan conjured on ‘Blood on the Tracks‘, urban romanticism of Springsteen and glorious cinematic detail Robbie Robertson drew for The Band on ‘Arcadian Driftwood‘, (a superlative ‘Northern Lights-Southern Cross‘ cut) it is what, on first hearing, sounds a throwaway line from ‘The Who By Numbers‘ that now resonates as the most prophetic lyric of 1975.
In ‘They’re All In Love‘, Roger Daltrey sings:
‘Hey, goodbye all you punks, stay young and stay high,
Hand me my cheque book and I’ll crawl out to die.’
It is almost as if Townshend saw The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned lying in wait………
TWENTY GREAT ALBUMS OF 1975:
- BORN TO RUN – Bruce Springsteen;
- BLOOD ON THE TRACKS – Bob Dylan;
- STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS – Paul Simon;
- TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT – Neil Young;
- THE WHO BY NUMBERS – The Who;
- HORSES – Patti Smith;
- TO BE TRUE – Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes;
- THE BASEMENT TAPES – Bob Dylan and The Band;
- AL GREEN IS LOVE – Al Green;
- NORTHERN LIGHTS-SOUTHERN CROSS – The Band;
- SIREN – Roxy Music;
- GORILLA – James Taylor;
- ZUMA – Neil Young;
- JOHN FOGERTY – John Fogerty;
- YOUNG AMERICANS – David Bowie;
- SQUIRE – Alan Hull;
- SCHOOLBOYS IN DISGRACE – The Kinks;
- PHYSICAL GRAFFITI – Led Zeppelin;
- FLEETWOOD MAC – Fleetwood Mac;
- ONE OF THESE NIGHTS – Eagles;
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available as an AMAZON KINDLE book.
