1974 – Music’s greatest year?

If you think it was, then it was

by Rick Johansen

Every now and then, as Bonnie Tyler might have put it, I see a post on social media that I absolutely love. Not a collection of gurning ‘look-at-me-I’m-wonderful selfies’ or an excessive holiday photo dump, but something that makes me smile, that makes me think and makes we want to drill down a bit deeper. And, unsurprisingly, it was about music. A friend shared a list of top 40 hit singles from July 1974, the year she felt, represented music’s best year. It’s the list you see at the head of this blog. Do you think 1974 was music’s greatest year? The way I look at it, if you think it was, then it was. As another friend always says to me, “There’s no such thing as bad music, apart from Queen, obviously” (I may have added the last bit).

Before I work my way through the music of July 1974, let me offer my view on the music’s best year. Actually, it’s two views. First, music’s best year is 2024. That’s not to say that the best music of all time was all made in 2024 – plainly it wasn’t – but we have access to pretty well all the music that’s ever been made. We have more choice than every previous generation. And, in case you are wondering, 2024 is, unquestionably, a brilliant year for new music. If you are looking for one year where the stars aligned and we were treated to some of the best music of all time, then look no further than 1971.

In fact, buy David Hepworth’s book ‘1971 – Never A Dull Moment: Rock’s Golden Year – because he makes a near irresistible case. Allow me to list some of that year’s offerings:

  • Who’s Next – The Who
  • Electric Warrior – T Rex
  • What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye
  • Sticky Fingers – Rolling Stones
  • Led Zeppelin IV
  • Tapestry – Carole King
  • Hunky Dory – David Bowie
  • There’s A Riot Goin’ On – Sly and the Family Stone
  • Madman Across The Water – Elton John
  • Every Picture Tells A Story – Rod Stewart
  • Surf’s Up – The Beach Boys
  • Imagine – John Lennon
  • Bryter Layter – Nick Drake
  • A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse – The Faces
  • Teaser and the Firecat – Cat Stevens
  • Muswell Hillbillies – The Kinks
  • Meddle – Pink Floyd
  • LA Woman – The Doors
  • Aqualung – Jethro Tull

And that’s just scratching the surface. I would argue many of them, specifically the efforts of T Rex, Marvin Gaye, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Carole King, Sly and the Family Stone, Elton, Rod, John Lennon, the Beach Boys (setting aside Pet Sounds just for once), The Who and the Doors are career highs, the stuff of greatness.

That is not to say that everything in 1971 was perfect. Benny Hill’s wretched Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In the West) kept the T Rex banger Jeepster from number one. We also had Grandad by Clive Dunn and Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by Middle of the Road but just look at this wikipedia list of hits.

When it comes to the 2024 official singles chart, I have no idea what’s going on. I barely know a handful of songs in the Top 100 apart from the ancient ones. But that’s fine. That’s how it’s meant to be. The charts are for young people, not old codgers like me. It doesn’t mean, as some old folk suggest, that today’s music is all crap and everything was far better in, for example, 1971. We may prefer the music when we were young because all generations do that. I still buy tons of music, not all of which is brand new. Some of my most recently purchased albums were by Humble Pie, The Small Faces, Here We Go Magic, Sébastien Tellier, Radiohead, Talk Talk, The Move, Mike Oldfield and two Barry Gray albums featuring the music from Thunderbirds and Stingray. I like to think I buy records because they’re good and not because they’re new or old. Basically, I have a foot in both camps, old and new. But 1974. How good was it?

Well, album wise it was brilliant. David Bowie, Roxy Music, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company and so on and on. Better than 1971, maybe? As I said, if you think it was, then it was. So let’s go through the 40 singles from the 1974 list (I am not sure if it was the actual chart from any specific week).

There are some stone cold classics, among them Can’t Get Enough by Bad Company, Midnight at the Oasis by Maria Muldaur, Summer Breeze by the Isley Brothers, Rock Your Baby by George McCrae, Band On The Run by Paul McCartney and Wings, Diamond Dogs by David Bowie, Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me by Elton John (listen out for Beach Boy Carl Wilson on backing vocals) and the 1960s re-releases There’s A Ghost In My House by R. Dean Taylor and Young Girl by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.

The 1970s was big for novelty songs so in 1974 we have Ray Stevens’ The Streak, Liverpool Lou by The Scaffold, Jim Stafford’s My Girl Bill, yet another Wombles song and a Scotland World Cup Squad song which I don’t remember (mercifully).

The year also saw the arrival of the rock and roll revival band Showaddywaddy with their single Hey Rock and Roll. They had three or four years of huge success and are still going today, albeit with just the one original member, the wonderfully named Romeo Challenger (real name Romeo Challenger) and continue to tour the small halls around England to the delight of their fans.

While Showaddywaddy were just starting out, plenty of other acts were beginning the long decline and some were all ready well down it. Slade had long passed their peak, as had Gary Glitter (whatever happened to him?), Roy Wood, Suzi Quatro, Mott The Hoople (this was their last but one minor hit) and The Sweet, who to be fair still enjoyed some success in the late 1970s and were, in my view, one of the most underrated rock bands of the time.

I guess Charles Aznavour’s She was a classic of its genre and at least he could sing it properly, unlike – and this is only my opinion – Elvis Costello who, frankly, can’t sing at all, something he proved conclusively with his awful and wholly unnecessary cover version.

I didn’t care much for the Drifters, either, but I had to admire their longevity. They had already been going for 21 years in 1974 and are now in their 72nd year as a band, although I doubt very much if it’s the same line-up.

I could go on, but you wouldn’t thank me for it. Suffice to say, the 1974 list is wildly eclectic and it’s all the better for that. Today’s chart is not an a distant relation of the old charts because everything has changed. The way we consume music for one thing and what you see with the Top 40, say, does not reflect actual sales.  And when we run out of words to describe something properly, we add that it is what it is.

This ramble through 1974 – and I’m afraid this has been nothing better than a ramble: sorry – has been a lot of fun. There’s a great website called ‘50 albums from 1974 you must hear before you die‘ which is worth visiting, certainly before you die. It’s not necessarily definitive but then how could it be?

Music can take you a time and a place and that’s what my next, non-awaited, that second difficult book, is all about. I spend as little time as possible looking back because I have found that if you do that you tend to miss out on today and tomorrow. But with all this great music sometimes you just have to look back. That’s what this particular blog is all about.

 

 

 

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