1970


An earlier post reminded me of a conversation I had a few days ago. I was asked if I wanted to go to the movies, so I took a look, and nothing appealed to me. And the reply was "You wish it was 1970, eh?"

I was born over a decade later, so it isn't nostalgia, but I thought about that year, and thought about comparing it to the last 30-35 years.


Five Easy Pieces
Patton
M*A*S*H
The Landlord
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Claire's Knee
Little Big Man
Love Story
Ryan's Daughter
Investigation of a Citizen Under Investigation
There Was A Crooked Man
Kelly's Heroes
The Conformist
El Topo
Brewster McCloud
Airport
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Gimme Shelter
Performance
Tristana
Woodstock
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Catch-22
Two Mules For Sister Sara
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
The Boys in the Band
Zabriskie Point
Chariots of the Gods
Scrooge
Let It Be



MUSIC
The Beatles (and their solo albums)
Pink Floyd
The Doors
Led Zeppelin
Rolling Stones
The Who
Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
David Bowie
Genesis
Jethro Tull
Elton John
Neil Young
Fleetwood Mac
Black Sabbath
CCR
Santana
Three Dog Night
Supertramp
Miles Davis
Blind Faith
Grateful Dead
Simon & Garfunkel
Cat Stevens
CSNY
Van Morrison
James Taylor
The Moody Blues
Joni Mitchell
James Gang
Syd Barrett
The Beach Boys
Steppenwolf
Alice Cooper
Curtis Mayfield
Carpenters


The work speaks for itself. Gosh -- I'd take that ONE year of music vs. ALL the music in the last 35 yrs. And it's still unbelievable. Those who just wanna pretend their generation is the greatest will lose because that type of thinking (trending now) only breeds conformity, and a knee-jerk reaction. Honestly, I could go on, but I have carpal tunnel...

reply

I was a drummer in a rock band that year and definitely addicted to my music. I had albums of virtually every artist or band you mentioned. Some other favorites of mine which belong in that list were:

Grand Funk Railroad
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Deep Purple
Buddy Miles
Uriah Heep
Black Oak Arkansas
Iron Butterfly
Mountain


I think I could go on as well.

reply

Very cool - I'm a musician myself, started on the drums when I was 11.

I mentioned CCR, but I'm a big fan of most the others as well... Don't know how I forgot The Stylistics, probably many others. I still remember "Belda Beast" on Side 2 of the record, little things like that... Some of my favorite bands started a little bit after -- Steely Dan, America, ELO, Eagles, Queen, etc.

The sad thing is, there's no reason why the BEST stuff isn't out today.. You can make a movie with a phone. You can upload a movie on YouTube. You have the internet and big sites to find people and projects. The technology is there, but when it comes to the essentials, such as the writing, it's not there.. And if the audience doesn't believe in the actors, they won't go to the movies.

reply

In the 80's I worked at a major university. We often hosted rock bands at the huge fieldhouse and I found myself working alongside the roadies setting up the concerts. Some I worked on were :

Chicago, J. Geils Band, Stray Cats, Joan Jett, Ronnie Milsap

reply

Very cool, thank you for sharing... I just listened to "Till We Meet Again" by Chicago about 5 minutes ago.

I got tired of musicians who weren't good enough and/or punctual... So when I was in my early 20's, I built a studio and played all the instruments myself with an 8-track Tascam with a CD burner included. Seems like there's no market for instrumentals.

reply

Chicago was phenomenal ! They sounded every bit as good live as in their studio recordings.

I forgot to mention Huey Lewis & the News. I thought his ending was so cool and clever. He announced, " I'm Huey Lewis and you just heard.....THE NEWS !

reply

today's music is terrible

reply

Yes it is, and I've given it way many more chances than it deserved!

reply

Music is very subjective.

The music you listed is some of my favorites.

Not all of today's music is "bad".
A lot of the "good"music never makes it to the radio. That's why I don't listen to the radio.
I go to about 50 concerts a year. Some older music some newer.
I never have a problem finding newer music that I like.



reply

Could you direct folks to some of that great music being made today? I believe it's out there as well, but I have yet to actually hear any of it.

reply

First we need a definition of new.
The OP listed music from the 70's.
Is anything after that new? last 20 yrs. last 10 years?

Spotify is a great way to find new music. I've found countless music on there and
have found some great bands and went on to see them when they come around.
Having said this I enjoy almost ALL types of music. Not just one specific type.

What kind of music do you like?

reply

Good, crunchy, funky metal (not throat gargling about burning churches and shit...)

reply

lol.

Ok, so no Necrophobic or Vomitory.

Closer to Disturbed and Seether type stuff ?

reply

Listening to the radio sucks. You can find good modern music that's not mainstream.

reply

I certainly don't mind movies and music from before I was born, but I don't see what's so great about that particular year.

reply

I have a different perspective because the kind of music I'm into is House/EDM where it's sort of a golden age right now with the numerous genres under House rapidly multiplying and pumping out more wicked beats and bootlegs than can even be listened to.

The mainstreaming of the underground dance scene to a worldwide audience over the last few decades is responsible for all the great music being produced today plus all the re-sampling of the many classics from the 60s, 70s, and 80s into those new beats. It's how many of those musicians, some of which you mentioned, are increasing their earning in spite of not producing new music in decades, they're taking a cut from the demand to resample their tracks into beats while gaining new younger audiences exposed to their work.

The result is some of the best stuff being produced today where the sound is constantly evolving. I honestly think part of the reason you're seeing the drop off in quality is that the talented new generations of musicians are focused on other types of music outside of rock.

reply

sampling, cheating = its awful..... they should grow some balls, and some talent, and learn to do something without auto-tune and a "drum machine"

reply

You sound like an angry old man.

reply

You sound untalented and very unoriginal. Go practice.

reply

I wasn't trying to insult you, I was just being honest. Of course I don't know whether you are an angry old man, but you definitely sound like one.

Angry old men are too stubborn to recognize that the world has passed them by. In your case it's your failure to appreciate or recognize any value in music outside of your favorites, and your assumption that musicians that don't fall into your category lack 'talent'. It's the myopic world view of an angry old man who fails to recognize a world of musicians brimming with talent because you're too stuck on the sounds of the past.

reply

where did you paste that from?

reply

Paste what from? Looks like you're going senile too.

reply

Glen Campbell

reply

Yup. Glen Campbell was pretty good. Too bad he got Alzheimers disease and passed on. I have to admit that his politics were way too far to the right for my tastes, but I enjoyed listening to his music, and he was very handsome, back in his younger days.

reply

Having been born in the early 1950's, and a teenager during the 1960's, there were some movies and rock groups of 1970 that I liked rather well myself:

Movies:

Mash
Catch 22
Gimme Shelter
Garden of the Finzi-Continis (although this was an extremely sad movie)
Ryan's Daughter
Little Big Man.

As for "Woodstock", I felt that this film wasn't honest enough; There was quite a bit of violence, many sexual assaults that went unreported, as was prone to happen during those days, there were many bad drug trips, and at least three people died; One from a burst appendix, one from getting run over by a tractor truck as he was sleeping in his sleeping bag to get out of the rain, one or two heroin overdoses, and another due to falling off the scaffold. All of that was deliberately cut out when the original 1969 "Woodstock" was made into a movie.

"Gimme Shelter", on the other hand, was much more honest, because, imho, it was a more rounded-out, accurate portrayal of what really and truly went on during rock concerts during that period.

Rock Groups:

Beach Boys
Steppenwolf
Simon & Garfunkel
Three Dog Night
The Doors
Joni Mitchell
Cat Stevens
Elton John
The Who
Rolling Stones
Neil Young
James Taylor
CCR
(the Beatles of the mid-1960's)

reply

Great reading this, since you were around... I'd love to read stories by people who were actually around.

reply

Thank you, BillHicksFan.

reply