Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Albums turning 50 in 2020

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Albums turning 50 in 2020

    I’m starting this thread more to learn from and enjoy what others might contribute than for my own selection. I was after all five and six in 1970, and possessed just one record, by Pinky & Perky. So everything below I’ve come to during the ensuing 49 years, and I’m conscious how restricted and subjective it is. Reading through Wiki’s list of albums released in 1970, there are so many famous names, artists I’ve managed not knowingly to hear in all those years, or certainly not enough to form an opinion. There are albums I know to be classics, but have failed to acquaint myself with for whatever reason.

    I’ve excluded The Beatles; it just seems wrong to put Let it Be in 1970, even though some of the following will doubtless have been put to bed before the end of 1969 too. Lastly, I was particularly pleased to learn that the first two on my list were released on consecutive days in late January. Good week.

    Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
    Van Morrison -Moondance
    Faces - First Step
    Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon
    Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory
    Bob Dylan - New Morning
    Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
    George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
    Last edited by Sits; 23-12-2019, 04:34.

    #2
    Black Sabbath released both Black Sabbath and Paranoid in 1970.

    Comment


      #3
      If the Simon & Garfunkel farewell album, released in January 1970 can be included, why not Let It Be, released in April (with Paul and George doing final tweaks in February)?

      Also in 1970:

      Isaac Hayes - The Isaac Hayes Movement*
      Donny Hathaway - Everything Is Everything
      Curtis Mayfield - Curtis
      Neil Young - After The Gold Rush
      Cat Stevens - Mona Bone Jakon AND Tea For The Tillerman
      Roberta Flack - Chapter 2
      The Chi-Lites - (For God's Sake) Give More Power To The People
      Santana - Abraxas
      Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead AND American Beauty

      I might also give a shout-out to Shawn Phillips' Second Contribution, but I acknowledge that it might not be universally regarded as a classic of its genre.


      *Along with Moondance and Bridge Over Troubled Water, possibly my favourite LP of 1970. In as far as "favourite" is ever applicable with music.

      Comment


        #4
        Nicely Out of Tune - Lindisfarne.

        Comment


          #5
          I do like quite a lot of the folk music coming out at around this time and so was pleased to find out that Fairport Convention's Full House and Mr Fox's debut album came out in this year. Led Zeppelin were at their folkiest in this year, with the release of III - my favourite of their albums. I find Loudon Wainwright's debut album a strangely compelling listen. Very different in tone to his later albums, where he got more jokey/comedic with each album. Also, quite a different sounding voice too.

          Originally posted by Sits View Post
          Faces - First Step
          I always thought this was credited to the Small Faces, despite it being a Faces line up, but only in the US apparently.

          Originally posted by Sits View Post
          Credence Clearwater Revival- Cosmo’s Factory
          They also released Pendulum in the same year.
          Last edited by Jon; 22-12-2019, 22:47.

          Comment


            #6
            The Stooges' Fun House and Loaded by the Velvet Underground jump out for me, strong indicators of an '80s indie kid.

            Comment


              #7
              The Who - Live at Leeds

              Crackling noises ok - do not correct.

              Comment


                #8
                Gotta also toss in Derek & the Dominoes - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

                Comment


                  #9
                  Stage Fright - The Band (my favourite of theirs)
                  Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd
                  Rod Stewart also released Gasoline Alley as well as the first Faces LP
                  David Bowie - The Man who Sold the World - though that was pretty well overlooked at the time.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    King Crimson - In the Wake of Poseidon

                    Not as good as Crimson King, to my ears at least, but it was always going to be a hard act to follow.
                    Last edited by Toby Gymshorts; 23-12-2019, 13:25.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Bitches Brew by Miles Davis might be the most influential album of the year

                      John Lennon and Yoko Ono both released albums called Plastic Ono Band

                      Five albums of material produced by Lee Scratch Perry credited to the Upsetters

                      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Upsetters
                      Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 23-12-2019, 22:30.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                        Five albums of material produced by Lee Scratch Perry credited to the Upsetters

                        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Upsetters
                        This explains so much. Whenever I put on a Ska playlist on Spotify, or my old Ska Classics CD, I find myself thinking how much I like that group called The Upsetters, and how prolific they were.

                        Originally posted by wittoner View Post
                        Rod Stewart also released Gasoline Alley as well as the first Faces LP
                        I noticed that on the list and realised I didn’t really know it, despite my love for Faces and Every Picture Tells A Story. So I gave it a listen yesterday; especially enjoyed the title track and his cover of Only a Hobo.





                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by G-Man View Post
                          Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead AND American Beauty.
                          Frequently cited by many as the only studio albums of theirs that are worth listening to; astounding that they did both in the same year.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Nico's Desertshore! Her most icily beautiful record.

                            Art Ensemble Of Chicago released six albums of music in 1970, including the soundtrack to film Les Stances a Sophie, which includes the magnificent 'Theme De Yoyo' with Fontella Bass' blazing vocal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PppJOrnVtkg)

                            Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band's Lick My Decals Off Baby too.
                            Last edited by delicatemoth; 24-12-2019, 15:53.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Christmas and the Beads of Sweat — Laura Nyro

                              12 Songs — Randy Newman

                              In My Own Time — Karen Dalton

                              There was a couple of Dylan albums, a Joni album and a Doors album this year. All worthy (except Self Portrait) but not the respective artist's top drawer stuff.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                New Morning was a bit of a sleeper for me. I bought it in a three-pack* and I have a feeling the other two may have been more impactful to start with. Over the years I’ve grown to really enjoy many of the songs. Not harmed, it must be said by my love of The Big Lebowski.

                                *back in the mid-90s I used to manage to wangle a work trip to New York once or twice a year, and Boston now and then. During this period I stopped buying paperbacks and CDs in the UK at all, such was the value available - and I liked the smaller US paperbacks. I used to go to a big HMV on the intersection of Broadway and... one of the big avenues, I’m sure it’s long gone. I bought six Dylan CDs in a day, packaged as three disc box sets, but apparently thrown together at random in terms of date. Not sure which were in which set but Bringing It All Back Home, John Wesley Harding, New Morning, The Times They Are A’Changin’, Nashville Skyline and Another Side were the six. Cheap too.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Lumme, I forgot The Move. Shazam and Looking On both released this year, very nice. And Soft Machine put out Third.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                    New Morning was a bit of a sleeper for me.
                                    Same here. It was pretty much panned on it's release (though not as much as its predecessor.) But in many ways it's one of his most accessible, if less challenging) albums. If Dogs Run Free and Winterlude are major earworms for me and have been for decades.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      One of my perpetually recurring earworms is from 1970: What Is Life? from All Things Must Pass.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Ditto. Hugely-infectious song.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Great opener to the second side of the album too, as it would have been heard in 1970.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                            New Morning was a bit of a sleeper for me. I bought it in a three-pack* and I have a feeling the other two may have been more impactful to start with. Over the years I’ve grown to really enjoy many of the songs. Not harmed, it must be said by my love of The Big Lebowski.
                                            I'll bore you with a New Morning and a Dylan (1973) story. From 1971 to 1976 I lived in Stavanger, Norway - an American kid who's dad worked offshore for a large oil company. We had numerous dinner parties and very often this meant that the guests would bring over their latest albums. It was pretty standard to own a reel to reel tape deck and make tapes from other folks albums. From my parents crowd this usually resulted in the likes of long tapes of Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Sinatra, Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Bert Kaempfert, James Last and Cal Tjader. However. a frequent guest was a late-20s single engineer from Texas who brought over albums from the likes of Jethro Tull, Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, Allmann Brothers, Loggins & Messina, Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Dylan and more.

                                            My dad culled though these LPs and I remember New Morning and Dylan making the grade and getting on the "rock" reel to reel tape. I had zero knowledge of Zimmie so I quite enjoyed all of both discs - how cool for a guy which such a rough voice to be successful! Later I learned from Dylan aficionados that the two albums in question were not all that highly rated which made me appreciate them all that much more. Ballad of Ira Hayes from Dylan and Day of the Locusts from New Morning were my highlights.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              After the Gold Rush and The Man Who Sold the World for me.

                                              Always felt that the latter is underrated (or at least rarely the subject of discussion). I've listened to it far more than the likes of Low and Heroes.

                                              Live at Leeds and Get Yer Ya-Yas Out are two of the best live albums ever recorded.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by Jon View Post
                                                Led Zeppelin were at their folkiest in this year, with the release of III - my favourite of their albums.
                                                ,

                                                Opinions are subjective, but I find the mostly acoustic second side of the album, while worthy and a brave departure from the sounds on the first two LPs, to be somewhat dull.

                                                On side one Immigrant Song is too short, excessive brevity not being a criticism you could often throw at Led Zep.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Both the old (Carl Wayne era) and new (Jeff Lynne joins) versions of The Move were represented in 1970 as Shazam and Looking On both turn 50 this year.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X