At a recent Doobie Brothers gig in London I was enjoying the pre-show music very much. It was 45 minutes of what I imagined an early ‘70’s FM Radio Rock station sounded like: Little Feat, Doobies, Zeppelin, Mountain, Grand Funk, Purple, Poco, early Fleetwood Mac, Cream, ZZ Top, Chicago, etc
They were playing my record collection and I was a pig in muck.
I vowed to create my own 3-hour radio playlist for a fictional FM station in 1974; I started it yesterday.
One thing soon became clear; there was a lot more British acts in it than American.
I rationalised it by the fact that we had very little contact with American Rock in the early’70’s, so my record purchases were almost exclusively British acts. So I did some research to see who I was missing.
I found an excellent website which holds all of the Billboard Top 200 Album Charts for every year I was looking at; ‘67 to ‘74 and, guess what?
I’m really not missing very much.
Grateful Dead
The Guess Who
Blood Sweat & Tears
That’s about it.
So my contention is that, in the late 60’s and early’70’s there wasn’t much good rock in the USA.
What say you?
Here’s the U.S acts I have so far:
Allmans
Byrds
Chicago
Bob Seger
America
Creedence
Mountain
Delaney & Bonnie
Doors
Little Feat
Edgar Winter
Todd
Joe Walsh
Montrose
ZZ Top
Jimi
Neil Young
Jo Jo Gunne
Jackson Browne
Eagles
Gregg Allman
Stephen Stills
Three Dog Night
James Gang
Steppenwolf
Poco
Santana
Skynyrd
Canned Heat
No Springsteen?
That’s a pretty solid list for “ not much good”.
It’s not the quality so much as a lack of quantity.
Quicksilver Messenger Service should be in there. Even though it’s only “Happy Trails” that I rate. Maybe Love for their first two albums and Four Sail. Perhaps Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band.
And The Jimi Hendrix Experience could just as easily be classed as a British band, having started out over here with a British bassist and drummer. Their success originated in the UK.
In no way shape or form can Hendrix be assigned to the British list.
British acts:
Blind Faith
Bad Company
Cream
Faces
Zeppelin
Derek & Doms
Purple
Free
Who
Tull
Traffic
Sabbath
Uriah Heep
T.Rex
Yes
Robin Trower
Elton
Heads Hands & Feet
Badfinger
The Stones
Fleetwood Mac
Frankie Miller
Humble Pie
Dave Mason
Queen
Rory Gallagher
Ten Years After
Mott
Bowie
Family
Rare Bird
Macca
Lennon
George
Ringo
Beatles
Nazareth
Wishbone Ash
Roxy
Small Faces
Wings
Procol H
Van
Supertramp
Clapton
Brian Auger
Rod
Groundhogs
Fight
Savoy Brown
Climax Blues Band
Lizzy
MM Earthband
Joe Cocker
Spooky Tooth
Moodies
The Floyd
Atomic Rooster
Eric Burdon
The corollary is that your Brit list is at least 50% crap. Gimme quality any day.
Harsh but true
I think that’s a bit uncalled for. I do agree that some of these acts are quite obscure to the average listener, but I’d happily listen to a playlist of this stuff. Some of those acts would make it more interesting to play, because it wouldn’t all be obvious songs.
Niall – keep ‘doing you’.
And ELO.
Plus The Move!!!
Derek & The Dominos can’t really be classed as British. Eric Clapton was the sole Brit present. American sound and almost entirely American members. Incidentally, Rita Coolidge strongly asserts that it was her who wrote the piano coda to “Layla” and not her then-boyfriend Jim Gordon.
Isn’t the conventional history that essentially British acts, post-60s invasion, essentially invented stadium rock in the USA in the early 70s — Stones, Zep, Who etc — and then American rock acts stepped up to fill in the gaps when the British big guns weren’t touring — Aerosmith, Nugent, Kiss etc — so American mainstream rock really started flourishing around 73-74.
Well Guess Who, Neil Young and Steppenwolf are Canadian so even less I guess! Carlos Santana is Mexican.
In general UK wins for groups, US/Canada wins for solo acts.
Carlos Santana became a US citizen in 1965!
All I can say in relation to this is that Stephen King was *very* fond, onceuponatime, of quoting Rawk Anthem lyrics in his books; barely a copyright page existed that didn’t express gratitude for permission to use something or other and almost always, they were songs I hadn’t a clue about.
So much of that stuff didn’t travel. I suppose it’s understandable; an act could ‘make it’ in America and, frankly, that was quite enough to keep you in ivory backscrathers until you shuffled off to join the choir invisible; over this side of the pond, since around, oh, February 1964 ‘breaking america’ is something everybody wants to do.
I would add Alice Cooper and Steely Dan to your list as you’re going up to 74 and early Dan is a bit rock.
I had this discussion with a former colleague twenty years ago at work.
North America = better solo artists and duos, Europe (I’m not as UK-centric as the rest of the Afterword…) = better bands.
It made sense to me at the time, I don’t know if I still agree, but I don’t know if that’s because America produces more bands now, or Europe less… 🙂
I think there’s something in this theory, and maybe there’s a semi-obvious reason. The US had a well-established session musician culture, way above what we had in the UK. So, solo artists could go into a studio and be backed up by a top quality band who could churn out radio-friendly stuff. This in turn comes from the movie industry being mostly over there, which needed musicians and studios.
It’s a good talking point anyway.
67-74? Velvet Underground/Lou Reed
Velvets do include one Welshman though!
I’d say CSN&Y were large in those years 3/4 American.
The Band however only 1/5 American.
CSNY 2/4 American
Of course maffs was never my strong point.
Canada no longer part of (North) America?
Indeed it is but the post says Ain’t No Rock in the USA so we were treating them separately.
Generally you don’t call Canadians Americans, North Americans maybe but nobody does
Generally I do, to annoy with my pedantry, but I catch your drift. So, similarly, by my reckoning, Santana was American both before and after 1965.
North America is a geographical area. Bit like called Irish people “British” because they are part of the British Isles
No, they would be British Islanders, as (Great) Britain is something different.
Yes USA is different too and they are Americans. With relations between the 2 countries at their lowest point for about 150 years it is tone deaf to call Canadians “Americans”
I note Rory Gallagher is on the British list above.
Stephen Stills’ Manassas – fantastic band.
Were they all American? Probably. I can’t be bothered to check.
I’ve always thought US acts have tended to be rather more adventurous and ambitious, not blighted by rather twee indulgences and inconsistencies as UK acts have been. A generalisation but some truth in it. Even in the new wave era you have Talking Heads and Television in something of another league. Who can stand against Steely Dan or Dylan in the UK to name but a few. Especially in the field of lyrics. Hmm.
Perhaps a British reluctance to be intellectual. Anyway, Big Star.
Well – there’s the whole British progressive contingent, routinely castigated for being too clever by half or “not authentic downhome rawkers” – perhaps they fall outside the parameters of this thread?
That’s the wrong kind of clever. Then there’s the lack of taste and judgement to consider. I mean Steely Dan were the right kind of clever. I do like UK bands too. Just if we take the creme de la crime of the USA it’s pretty clear the superiority, in the main.
Bollocks, IMHO (Pardon my freedom, DF…). “The wrong kind of clever”? I do realise that I set myself up for your response – but, even so…
…and I really like Steely Dan – but they’re smart-arses, “clever-clever” rather than just clever, not that I have a problem with that…
Yes they’re smart-arses but it’s more than that of course. I mean it’s like literature, deep and meaningful as well as clever. Not to mention the music which is made without compromise and reaches the highest standard.
I was being funny with wrong kind of clever, well it amused me, that’s the main thing.
Good point Didds
Bachman Turner Overdrive?
No, Canadian …
Foghat?
No, British …
Derek & The Dominoes?
40% British
Lynyrd Skynrd?
Knew I’d find one sooner or later
Some pretty good US rock bands from this period have survived the test of time, including:
Jefferson Airplane
The Stooges
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company
It’s a Beautiful Day
Electric Flag
Country Joe and the Fish
Frank Zappa
Dr John
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Steve Miller
Leon Russell and the Shelter People
Moby Grape
H.P. Lovecraft
Buffalo Springfield (with one Canadian)
The Tubes
Todd Rundgren
Bruce Springsteen
Sparks
Survived the test of time? All the way down to Steve Miller before I can agree …
After that only Brooce survives
and Sparks
Dems just plain weird – never understood the devotion they inspire but, hey, it’s only rocknroll
If they tour Longuedoc – take a chance. You’ll love em.
Early Steve Miller was pretty good. He did have a rapid descent, though, after his opening salvo.
Spirit
Jefferson Starship’s Caroline was a big FM playlist hit in ’74 and you haven’t got them on your list.
Grin/Nils Lofgren, maybe?
Thanks everyone. I’m not quite sure how the thread became a discussion on who was Canadian and who was American but, perhaps it was me.
The premise was a fictional FM station in 1974 playing album tracks from the rock genre. Of course Canadian acts qualify. Perhaps my statement should have been ‘there wasn’t much good rock outside of the U.K.’
Thanks for the suggestions:
@Mike_H, QSM is a good shout. I’m not sure how much of the Captain would be on KW74FM.
@chinstroker thank you for your contribution
@Uncle-Wheaty ELO is a good shout
@Leffe-Gin, Of course, The Move. Thanks for your support.
@dai Thanks and they are all in
@BryanD Alice and The Dan, absolutely
@Locust Steve Van Zandt says that the night before The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, there were no guitar bands in America. The day after, there were thousands.
@dai Thanks for the VU and Lou but I can’t stand either, for a host of reasons.
@hubert-rawlinson, I had The Band and CSNY but missed them off the list
@duco01 Of course Manassas; thanks. Grin/Nils? How could I forget. Ta.
@Diddley-Farquar Big Star, ta.
@fitterstoke Prog was a sticking point. I used to listen to AFN Radio from the American military bases in the relevant years and they would play a bit of Yes, King Crimson and Tull but no Genesis or Floyd.
@Rigid-Digit BTO, deffo. Lynyrd Skynrd, yes. Ta.
@Munster Great list. There’s quite a few that I’m not a fan of but there’s also some gold. Ta.
@chilli-ray-virus I’ve never given Spirit the time of day. Time to change that.
@dwightstrut Good song, ta.
If you get a playlist sorted, please share it…
They are still playing “Aqualung” on a daily basis I believe.
Bungle in the Jungle is favoured over here at least on SiriusXM satellite radio
Midnight at the oasis may be my fave one hit wonder (cue some smart arse … I think you’ll find) 😂
George Thorogood? Still pretty popular in the US of States. Maddison Blues would fit on an FM playlist.