Author:Kevan Furbank, Chris Salisbury, Andrew Mon Hughes & Grant Walters
I have to confess that I am a sucker for any book on prog, and this look at what was happening in the pivotal year of 1974 is therefore right up my street. Perhaps the last of the golden years of the genre, it offered rich pickings and here the author dissects twenty of the key releases, including The Lamb, Relayer. Red and Journey to The Centre of The Earth to pluck out just a few of the biggest ones. He also shines a welcome light on perhaps less familiar releases by the likes of Magma, PFM, Gong and Hatfield & The North. Each album is examined in detail, looking at the background of the bands, the recording process and most importantly of course the music itself. I really enjoyed this book and would certainly recommend it to any prog fan – what a year it was, when the discerning fan really was spoilt for choice and you could have spent your meagre weekly pocket money ten times over!
I really enjoy a bit of Skynrd, a band whose music from their seventies heyday has really stood the test of time. Of course, their career was curtailed for many years by tragedy and to be honest I never really listened to the later albums after they eventually picked up the pieces in 1987. Nonetheless, the albums they ctreated between 1973 and 1977 still sound as good today as they did half a century ago. This is a well researched and entertainingly written look at their music, song by song, and along the way it attempts to recount their complex history, of which even the band members themselves appear to have contradictory memories. A very interesting read and the perfect excuse, if one were needed, to sit down with a glass of Southern Comfort and dig out those vintage albums one more time.
I can’t say I’m a particular fan of the Brothers Gibb, although one seemingly couldn’t escape their ubiquitous presence in the eighties. Buoyed by the success of Saturday Night Fever at the end of the preceding decade (see the authors earlier book covering that period), it was very much a case of onwards and upwards for the threesome. With the airwaves already saturated with their own music, they turned their skills to aiding and abetting other artists, such as Barbara Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Rogers and Diana Ross, as well as giving a boost to their younger brother Andy. Remarkably, they also found the time to add a few more group recordings to the collection too, and the song You Win Again gave them the feat of being the first group to have a number one single in three consecutive decades. At over 300 pages, this is a very detailed and informative look at their work in this decade, and it’s one that the amount of care and attention marks it as being something of a labour of love for the two authors. I would say this is absolutely essential reading if you’re one of the group’s many fans.
Length of Read:Short
Might appeal to people who enjoyed…
Those interested in these subjects.
One thing you’ve learned
Was 1974 really over 50 years ago – surely not!
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