does music from the 70s have any worth?

[Provost Harrison]

You can say that about any era Pekka, believe it or not, if you dig deep enough...

[SlowwHand]

The only taste some of you have is in your mouth.

[Dinner]

Take a look at this picture and then tell the 70's are not best forgotten.

[Provost Harrison]

Sometimes I think some of you had a gestation period of 60 years

[The Mad Monk]

The Eagles

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Blondie

Jackson Browne

Billy Joel

Jethro Tull

Jim Croce

Meatloaf

The Pretenders

...need I continue?

[Buck Birdseed]

Mainstream music pretty much died in 1970 or so, with a lot of actually decent sixties bands turning into bloated, horrible prog-rock monsters. Take Pink Floyd- lovable but awful art-rock scalliwags in the late sixties, enormous, ponderous dinosaurs churning out the most horrible, streamlined bore-rock imaginable just a few years later. Others lasted a few years more- the Stones until 1972, the Kinks 71- but I can't really think of an established sixties band/artist that actually succeeded in productiong nervy, interesting stuff well into the seventies, except possibly Dylan.

No, the decade belonged to much more unlikely heroes. Britains Glam Rockers ruled for a few years, producting at least two earth-shattering acts (T-Rex and David Bowie) plus a number of other decent ones, Philadelphia International kept producing excellent Soul, Bob Marley and Lee "Scratch" Perry were in full swing, but most of the good stuff belonged firmly in the underground.

Like Krautrock, some of the most influential and inspirational music ever. It's not a coincidence that many rate Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" as the most influential album ever- without it, we wouldn't have Hip-Hop, Electronica, Techno...

And, of course, like the huge legacy of Punk and it's predecessors. The Stooges were astounding in the decade's early parts, leading to the evolution of everything from The Dictators to Television, a veritable deluge of astounding mid-seventies bands.

And Power-Pop! is there really any other seventies act quite as marvellous as Big Star? Some of the more commercial stuff in the genre is quite good too, I've got a secret love for Greg Kihn for some reason.

And that's before we get to Funk, to Dub, to Neil Young and Gram Parsons, The Clash, the Talking Heads, to dancehall, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Al Green, The Staples Singers, Barry White, Sly Stone, Dr. John, The Temptations, Charlie Rich... It was a brilliant ****ing decade. Not as good as the sixties, but miles better than the eighties.

[JohnT]

F! Lost a rather long post.

In essence:

Soul and funk, . Great for getting laid, and some pretty badass tunes as well. Didn't anybody read the earlier 70's music thread?

Disco: Cheezy, but fun. Music for dancing and clubbing, but not music you listen to while driving or in the company of sober people. Nice thing about disco is that it has no pretensions to being anything other than music to get f*cked up to.

Hard Rock: When all that mattered was the music and the lifestyle. True sex, drugs, and rock and roll that can never be duplicated by glossed out hairbands, whiny grungers (and I like grunge), or the usual flow of teeny-boppers. "Man, we're rock stars! Let's party!!!!"

Right now I'm listening to Barry White "Never gonna give you up", when I started the earlier post, Love's Unlimited Orchestra, Love's theme (one of the cheesiest instrumentals ever).

[JohnT]

What Buck said.

[Buck Birdseed]

What it lacked was good commercial music, except some of the Soul. I don't really mind Disco compared to much of the eighties and nineties stuff, but certainly there were many, many Boney M style Eurodisco trash acts that ****ed over the good stuff (Earth Wind and Fire, Chic, etc.) royally. But remember, the mainstream commercial music of the early-to-mid-seventies was even worse- The Osmonds, The Carter Family, The Carpenters, ABBA... *shudder*

It's all a bit strange, 'cause the break from good to bad music in pure pop is pretty much cleanly along the 1969/1970 divide. Innocent, well-produced bubblegum suddely became crass, exploitative tat practically overnight.

[SlowwHand]

Disco, was not designed to be merely listened to.
It was for dancing, and while I'd hardly place it among my all-time favorites, it served it's purpose well.

[Provost Harrison]

Now look what you've done, you've set Snapcase off!

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
What it lacked was good commercial music, except some of the Soul. I don't really mind Disco compared to much of the eighties and nineties stuff, but certainly there were many, many Boney M style Eurodisco trash acts that ****ed over the good stuff (Earth Wind and Fire, Chic, etc.) royally. But remember, the mainstream commercial music of the early-to-mid-seventies was even worse- The Osmonds, The Carter Family, The Carpenters, ABBA... *shudder*

It's all a bit strange, 'cause the break from good to bad music in pure pop is pretty much cleanly along the 1969/1970 divide. Innocent, well-produced bubblegum suddely became crass, exploitative tat practically overnight.

You are spot on accurate. The... white bread music, for want of a better term, was horrible.

"Don't Give Up on us Baby", "Seasons in the Sun", "Muskrat Love", "Philadelphia Freedom", "Rhinestone Cowboy", "Wildfire" ... John Denver. Ugh.

[Jeltz]

Some of you got to be kidding!? The 70's was the time when rock music and especially hard rock was really born.
*cough* Does anyone remember Deep Purple? The very same band, on which modern (hard)rock is widely based. Rainbow, another good example. And the ones already mentioned!

[SlowwHand]

John, why don't you dwell on the negatives for a while?
Any era has crap music. So did the 70's. But good, too.

[Provost Harrison]

Thankyou SlowwHand, that is all I was trying to say...there is good and bad in every era...I mean, the 70s had punk, how could you fault that?