I’m currently preparing an episode of my radio show “One Size Fits All” (it’s a Frank Zappa based 2 hour show named after the FZ album of the same name) –
– which will be an overview of the year 1975 (when FZ released OSFA).
What are your memories of music in 1975? In between psychedelia and prog and punk?
Supposedly a crap year but there are gems – like this –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDD5BQlv8iw
(George McRae – “Rock Your Baby”)
And I’m NOT going to play anything from Rumours or Physical Graffiti. And I WILL play a couple of tracks from The Last Record Album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUxJQlOKj38
Diddley Farquar says
Wet Willie? Bit of a personal question I know.
Not a crap year in my view. Jive Talkin’ by the Bee Gees I recall catching my ear, then there was Listen To What The Man Said off Venus and Mars by Wings – both top class.
What about Hurt So Good by Susan Cadogan. Brilliant,
Diddley Farquar says
Try again
Carl says
Two of my favourite bands at that time were – The Sensational Alex Harvey Band who released Tomorrow BElongs To ME that year. They always lived up to their name and were sensational live.
It included this – Give My Compliments To The Chef:
The other was Streetwalkers who released the superb Downtown Flyers that year. Again a great live band.
This is Burn It Down from that album.
The Who released Who By Numbers and also toured. I saw them at Bingley Hall Stafford and despite the shite venue, they were brilliant.
Moose the Mooche says
I can’t understand why Streetwalkers weren’t massive. Red Card is a classic album.
Mike_H says
The main reason was probably that Chappo was, and seemingly still is, such a difficult bad-tempered c**t.
SteveT says
Great shout for the Streetwalkers – do you they a decent compilation available? I had their first couple of albums on vinyl back in the day. Long since sold sadly.
Harold Holt says
I didn’t like being 8-18 in the 70s, and this (http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/top-100-1975.shtml) is a good enough explanation. Although it was my first exposure to Jasper Carrot, so only 99% bad as years go.
Tiggerlion says
I love 1975!
Bob Marley & The Wailers Live! I like Lively Up Yourself best but No Woman, No Cry ain’t Too shabby.
Lots of great tracks on Young Americans. Listen to Right again to see what I mean.
Curtis Mayfield was at a career peak, Al Green was L-O-V-E and Parliament tore the roof of the sucker.
Roxy Music released their two best singles, Love Is The Drug and Both Ends Burning, and Eno produced his definite album, Another Green World (later in the year he also unleashed Discreet Music!). Kraftwerk worried about Radioactivity.
John Lennon’s Rock ‘n’ Roll has a special place in my heart. I’d play Be Bop-A-Lula.
Best of all was Dr Feelgood. Both Down By The Jetty and Malpractice shook my world in 1975, fuelled by seeing them at Liverpool University. They vied with Little Feat and The Wailers for band of the year!
Moose the Mooche says
Rock’n’Roll is friggin’ top. I even like the hated Do You Wanna Dance. His best vocals since God….
Moose the Mooche says
… and Curtis. There’s No Place Like America Today is my absolute favourite album of his.
We had this at our wedding. First dance. (Well, Mrs M danced, I just kind of shuffled about, but it’s the thought what counts)
Tiggerlion says
Aww! You are such a sweetie. xxx
Twang says
Nutz released “Nutz Too” – hard riffin’ face pullin’ old fashioned guitar rock. Still sounds great to me.
Uncle Wheaty says
Nice intro.
Black Celebration says
In 1975 we seemed to have frequent long car trips up north and pop music was always on the radio for those journeys. Also, one day I remember hearing music from the toilet – and I know this was 1975 because it was the day that West Ham beat Fulham in the cup final. Townshend calls this “music from the spheres” and I haven’t experienced it since then. I know it sounds like bollocks but there you go.
Anyway, I was briefly obsessed with this song, Angie Baby by Helen Reddy. This clip is the first time I have seen it performed, I think. I knew it wasn’t a normal pop song – it was more a lot more grown up than Mud or Showaddywaddy. It appeared on nighttime radio shows and when it came on I tried to remember as much of it as I could.
When Suzanne Vega came about, I immediately thought of this.
Tiggerlion says
That reminds me. Emmylou Harris had an impressive year, releasing both Luxury Liner and Pieces Of The Sky.
Moose the Mooche says
1975 makes me think of one record straight away, one of my very favourites. I will refer to it by merely saying…
Mich, den Genius der Energie!!!!
Moose the Mooche says
With reference to the OP, isn’t OSFA the last album to use the Mothers moniker? Quite a milestone if that’s true.
Mike_H says
“Bongo Fury” is credited Zappa/Beefheart/Mothers, so not quite so for FZ pedants.
“One Size Fits All” though, is the last album featuring the “seriously musical” Mothers. The George Duke, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Tom Fowler, Ruth Underwood and Chester Thompson lineup.
Bargepole says
a taste of the Dead – from the Blues For Allah album released in that year
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqQ-0n2I-4o
Tiggerlion says
AWB followed up their white album with the not quite so good Cut The Cake. However, The Cate Brothers made up for the slight drop in quality with Cate Bros.
I Just Wanna Sing
Moose the Mooche says
Marcus Garvey!
Purists don’t like it. They can f*** right off.
Tiggerlion says
Kate & Anna McGarrigle began a music dynasty. If you haven’t heard their debut, you should. Here’s the whole thing. It only needs 36 minutes of your time! (On another thread I was demanding that much attention for just one track, so be grateful.)
http://youtu.be/yqQ3Bbw_ZUg
hubert rawlinson says
Musical Dynasty 2
it was 1975 when I first saw Richard and Linda Thompson in concert, 40 years later I saw Rand L T’s daughter Kami and her husband in concert with The Rails. Also in the band Rand L T’s grandson Zak on guitar.
Kaisfatdad says
Big Up for that Tigger!
Tiggerlion says
KC & Sunshine Band might have been the commercial kings of the dance floor but 1975 was the year Earth, Wind & Fire found their place in the music pantheon with one of their best LPs, That’s The Way Of The World.
Here’s the title track.
Number Six says
My favorite tune from 1975 and still one of the greats.
Kaisfatdad says
In 1975 everybody on the planet had that album and that wonderful single was omnipresent.
Good choice Mr Six!
Tiggerlion says
Best jazz album? Obviously, it’s Don Cherry’s Brown Rice.
Mind you, I didn’t actually hear it until about ten years later.
Mousey says
That’s amazing. Psychedelic jazz.
Tiggerlion says
I’m glad you like it. Pretty funky, too.
Vincent says
I was 14. My gigs (the first) comprised Supertramp in Brighton, Led Zeppelin at Earls Court, Alice Cooper at Wembley, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, again in Brighton. Some time in the late Autumn I also had my first cigarette, got drunk on cider, and kissed a girl – all the same evening. Life has never been the same.
Black Type says
As usual…
minibreakfast says
I was a babe in arms in 1975. Even then I had retro tastes and was enjoying this 1966 classic double:
http://www.discogs.com/Happy-Time-Nursery-Ensemble-Wally-Whyton-50-All-Time-Kiddie-Favourites/release/1999038
At a guess, I’d say my favourite cut would have been Ride A Cock Horse, or perhaps There Was An Old Woman Tossed Up In A Bucket.
Moose the Mooche says
You’re still a babe, in arms or not 😉
(you made it too easy for me with these song titles)
My only direct musical memory of 1975 is that record with those blokes yelling Bismillah all over the place. I went absolutely ballistic when it dropped off the top spot. Clearly as a grumpy Patrington toddler I was the record’s target market.
Black Type says
For girls of a certain age, 1975 was the year of Rollermania:
aging hippy says
Girls really do have a lot to answer for don’t they?
attackdog says
God they were just fabulous, weren’t they? When Scots music ruled the world.
I posted elsewhere about Scottish Music Hall, but I’d forgotten just how far that genre had progressed.
Really, in ’75 when you had the Rollers, who needed Zep, Bruce, The Dan, Bowie – Bowie? who he next to Les McKeown?
Tiggerlion says
There were still some freaky hippy types about. Robert Wyatt thought Ruth was stranger than Richard (I felt it was a huge letdown after Rock Bottom but it’s better than that). Weirdest of all was the Slapp Happy/Henry Cow collaboration which begat two albums in 1975. The first, Desperate Straights, was the best of the two. Here’s Some Questions About Hats.
http://youtu.be/yYzQrfz8g2o
fitterstoke says
Beautiful album….toughened up Slapp Happy a bit….added a refreshing melodic simlicity to ver Cow….perfect symbiosis….
fitterstoke says
….so here’s another….
Rigid Digit says
The Goodies had a fine 1975 – 5 hit singles and two albums, making Bill Oddie (possibly) the most successful British Songwriter of the Year (may not be 100% true, but the sort of pub trivia you “might” get away with).
And continuing the comedy theme, a folk singer turned comedian from the Midlands had a Top 10 hit with this:
Rigid Digit says
Sweet broke free from the Chapman/Chin Bubblegum production line and release their first self-penned single – Fox On The Run
The parent album, Desolation Boulevard, includes a pretty useful version of My Generation
Mike_H says
The Meters “Fire On The Bayou”
Jeff Beck “Blow By Blow”
Patti Smith “Horses”
Tom Waits “Nighthawks At The Diner”
Miles Davis “Agharta” and “Pangaea” live, and then retirement for the next 6 years.
Tiggerlion says
All of those are favourites now but I was completely unaware of them in 1975. Horses was the first on my horizon a year or so later.
Declan says
Loads of great stuff in 1975: post-Miles jazzrock from Weather Report (Tale Spinnin’), Return to Forever (No Mystery), Mahavishnu Orchestra (Visions of the Emerald Beyond), plus Steely Dan (Katy Lied), Little Feat (Last Record Album), Joni Mitchell (The Hissing of Summer Lawns), and whatever the ECM roster was doing at the time.
And this personal favourite
Zanti Misfit says
It’s the bloke hanging in the dungeon quietly clapping along that killed me in the cinema.
I saw this in a double bill with Blazing Saddles. Possibly one of the greatest afternoons of my life. I was only eleven years old. How was I allowed in?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfGpVcdqeS0
Moose the Mooche says
Ten years later I watched this AT SCHOOL.
That’s what I call a comprehensive education.
I will refrain from repeating any of the dialogue, because as we know quoting Python makes the ladies overexcited.
Phil Pirrip says
I was introduced to prog and happily waved goodbye to the pop charts for a few years
Moose the Mooche says
Peggy Lee made an album with Lieber and Stoller. Unsurprisingly, it was arguably the greatest record of her career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-tbH_fGnOw
Moose the Mooche says
It’s Hankie Herbcock!
I posted this on the “H” thread last week. I make no apology for posting it again, as it f***in’ kicks.
retropath2 says
Loved ’75! Left school and, after my first festival, Reading, enrolled at med school in Lambeth. On a heavy country tinge then, so hoovering up Burritos, Byrds and Emmylou from the record shop near the Halls of Residence. Think my first concert as a student was Fairport, with Sandy back in the ranks, but no Mattacks, at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, a venue to which I have yet to return….
Jed Clampett says
I dare you, I double dare you …
Jed Clampett says
Jed Clampett says
Nope, not that time either … I have forgotten how to do it.
It is Laurel and Hardy, Trail of the Lonesome Pine.
Declan says
Hit enter before the link, Jed!
BryanD says
Hello. I can’t let this thread go by without putting in a word for Ian Hunter Once Bitten Twice Shy. As great now as it was then.
eddie g says
Indeed.
Uncle Wheaty says
I was 10 in 1975 so I really do recall the Chopper bike, Spangles sweets etc kind of heritage stuff as a kid.
I cannot really add any musical thoughts though apart from liking ABBA.
Rigid Digit says
I was only 5, so my only true musical memory would be Mike Reid singing “The Ugly Duckling”
(Parents didn’t really “do” music beyond the Top Of The Pops albums and Bobby Crush)
LesterTheNightfly says
I was only 6 but two records that stick out from that year and I still really like them are “January” by Pilot and “Swing Your Daddy” by Jim Gilstrap
Always seemed to be on the radio on car journeys in that long, but not as famous as the following years, hot summer
LesterTheNightfly says
And this chap seems to remember it fondly
nickduvet says
Supposedly a crap year? Far from it, possibly the last great year for the era of classic contemporary music. Various musicians and bands at their peak, including Dylan (Blood On The Tracks), Joni (The Hissing of Summer Lawns), Led Zeppelin (Physical Grafitti), Springsteen (Born To Run) and Little Feat (Last Record Album).
And FZ released One Size Fits All, featuring material that remained in his setlist for many years and still sounds amazing today.
My greatest memory of 1975, part from LZ at Earl’s Court was the Reading Festival, which that year featured Yes, Hawkwind, Thin Lizzy, Wishbone Ash, Supertramp, Dr Feelgood, Robin Trower, UFO, Joan Armatrading and yes, the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
On Sunday nights, a bunch of us, boys and girls going through the fifth form at school, would go round to one of the girls’ houses. She must only have had two records because they just seemed to be on constant rotation. She chose well though, and whenever I hear Bowie’s Young Americans and Steely Dan’s Katy Lied, I am transported back to those Sunday nights in Alison’s bedroom.
Kaisfatdad says
“Sunday nights in Alison’s bedroom. ”
What a great name for a band!
nickduvet says
She lived along the road from the Case Is Altered pub in Eastcote, don’t know if you ever went there.
Tiggerlion says
There was more reggae than Bob Marley. Dennis Brown’s Deep Down is excellent.
Voice Of My Father
Lee Perry created Revolution Dub. He used ‘groundbreaking’ drums and bass. His most revolutionary act, however, was to praise a bald head, anathema to a rasta with dreadlocks.
Kojak
Mousey says
Thanks for all the suggestions. Some of them I have already and others I will add to the playlist thanks Tigger for those last two especially – might have to spread the 1975 concept over 2 episodes! And yeah OK it wasn’t such a crap year – apart from all the tracks above, here are a few more I’m going to play
Al Green – One Nite Stand – from “Al Green Explores Your Mind”
Labelle – Lady Marmalade
George McRae – Rock Your Baby
Also Cannonball Adderley and Oliver Nelson both died in 1975 so will play something from them
Blue Boy says
Blood on the Tracks, Hissing of Summer Lawns, Still Crazy, John Fogerty, Rock and Roll, Tonight’s the Night, Physical Grafitti, Luxury Liner – it was a fantastic year!
Blue Boy says
Forgot Born to Run. It was also the year that the Ozark Mountain Daredevils’ Jackie Blue was played to death on the radio. I remember going to see their first ever UK concert, at the Royal Court, Liverpool. The support was Andy Fairweather-Low, who had a hit at the time with Wide Eyed and Legless. Great gig….
Jackthebiscuit says
George McRae’s “Rock your baby” was actually from 1974.
(Sometimes I cant hold back my inner nerd even if I wanted to)
Tiggerlion says
Technically, Lady Marmalade was released in 1974 but only became a hit in 1975.
You have to finish with this:
http://youtu.be/qpJ0cyXbMbI
Cockney Rebel – Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)
My first real girlfriend adored it!
Tiggerlion says
Oh dear. The link failed. Try this instead.
http://youtu.be/6tcxhRLc9ms
Hot Chocolate – You Sexy Thing
aging hippy says
What? No Mahavishnu Orchestra? Colin must be on holiday.