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My 50 Favourite Things from 1973

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Way, way back in January this year, I pledged to create a list celebrating my 50th birthday this year – my 50 favourite things (books, songs, albums, films, etc) from the year of my birth, 1973. I’ve linked to the post here where I was asking for suggestions about what what to include (and very interesting all your suggestions were).

As is the way of things, life got in the way and I forgot all about it. But the recent re-releases of Dark Side of the Moon and Larks’ Tongues in Aspic have reminded me what a great year it really was for music, which has prompted me to finish my list.

So, apologies in advance for indulging me, but I’m going to go through my list now, in reverse order, one entry a day, until I reach my top choice just before Christmas. Feel free to chip in, slag me off, express incredulity, applaud my choices or remind me what I’ve missed out (spoiler – don’t wait for Tom Waits or Steely Dan to make an appearance).

Unlike Kid Dynamite’s current massive list project, I pledge to at least try and finish this in the time promised (one entry a day). And also unlike Kid Dynamite, my tastes are a bit more mainstream so you’ll probably recognise a lot more stuff! 🙂

Anyone who ever follows my comments on here (there must be somebody) can probably guess what my number one will be. But don’t spoil it if you know.

I’ve tried to limit it to one entry per artist/act/person, but there’s a couple of exceptions which I felt I couldn’t ignore and had to include more than once.

So here goes! First entry in the comments!

https://theafterword.co.uk/great-things-from-1973/

4

Comments

  1. (50) Space Ritual (Hawkwind) – I felt I needed to include this as it was released the day I was born, so I do feel connected to this album. Not one of my favourites, however, or it would have been a lot higher. But I admire the vision and the intensity (and the wonderful cover). It’s all very cosmic, truly one of a kind.

  3. (49) Home Thoughts from Abroad (Clifford T Ward) – The song, not the album (never heard the album). Sickly sweet? Maybe. But it gets me right THERE, and has a wonderful innocent simplicity you can’t beat. Pretty sure this was an inspiration to a young Kate Bush, as the piano style is very reminiscent of her first album, particularly The Man With The Child in His Eyes.

  4. Some musical groups (that I’ve heard of) formed in 1973:

    AC/DC
    Academy of Ancient Music
    Azymuth
    Bachman-Turner Overdrive
    Bad Company
    Butts Band
    Cabaret Voltaire
    Caledonia Soul Orchestra
    Cold Chisel
    Devo
    The Dictators
    The Glitter Band
    GRIMMS
    Harmonia
    Heart
    Hudson Ford
    Irakere
    Jack The Lad
    Journey
    Kansas
    KC and the Sunshine Band
    Kiss
    Klaatu
    Kokomo
    Kronos Quartet
    The Kursaal Flyers
    L.A. Express
    Los Lobos
    Montrose
    Old & In The Way
    Pilot
    Quiet Riot
    Racing Cars
    The Roches
    Rose Royce
    The Rubettes
    Runrig
    Sailor
    Showaddywaddy
    Starry-Eyed And Laughing
    Sweet Honey In The Rock
    The Tallis Scholars
    Television
    Third World
    Ultravox
    Utopia
    Vardis
    The Winkies
    The Wombles

  5. The downside of ’73?

    The OPEC Oil Embargo had us all queueing for petrol and caused an acute vinyl shortage, leading to unsold records being melted down in order to make new ones.
    Neil Innes recorded this little ditty about it (in 1974, though).

    • I actually didn’t really include TV – just didn’t get round to it and had to draw the line somewhere. Probably a few TV shows might have made the cut if I had bothered to look into it!

  7. 1973 was a good year! We had a deputy head during my time in the 5th form, with a lax sense of discipline, meaning lots of out of bounds trips to hostelries after hours. Also went on a schools cruise, on the SS Nevasa, where I learnt most of my bad habits.
    This was the only song at the over 16s disco I was willing to “dance” to:

  8. (48) Godspell (film) – Christian rock! With clowns and mimes and the twin towers! Maybe an odd choice, but I tend to love films that are brave and bonkers. And I genuinely love the songs. It maybe helped that my (Christian) parents had the LP and the songs were ingrained into my consciousness from a young age.

          • I take it you’ve heard of it at least? It’s basically the gospel story (the story of Jesus), which might not mean much to you if you’re not religious (I had a religious upbringing – in the parlance normally used I’m a “lapsed Catholic”) – but acted out by a bunch of hippies in (bizarrely) an empty Manhattan (was filmed in and around the Wall Street area on weekends, I believe). So I think the intention was to somehow appeal to modern audiences, but it has a bizarre dreamlike feel to it.

            I do genuinely like the music in it (well crafted tunes, if a little showbizzy – I’ve only just noticed that it’s the same guy who wrote the songs for Wicked??) and I love the weirdness of it. The Jesus character is a bit like Leo Sayer (in a Superman shirt).

            • I’ve heard of it, Arthur – indeed, I’m well familiar with Jesus Christ Superstar – but for some odd reason have never seen Godspell (I also had a religious upbringing and, for all practical purposes, I’m also lapsed – Methodist, then C of S in my case).

              Is it worth seeing?

              • Also methodist upringing here 🙁 My condolences.

                Vaguely remember both but Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat were bigger in our Sunday School.

              • Honestly I’m loathe to recommend it. It has a place in my heart but my desire to praise it is being severely diluted by having to justify why I like it. 🙂 The lower echelons of my list are a bit wayward… hang off until maybe the top 25!

                  • I’m all in favour of “wayward” ! (Now there’s a surprise!). So I look forward to the quirkier stuff.

                    You piqued my curiosity about Godspell.

                    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070121/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_godspell

                    It all started as a student project and then moved to Off-Broadway.

                    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godspell

                    The guy who wrote the songs was Stephen Schwarz.

                    When it came to London it had several future stars.

                    “1971: London, England

                    Godspell opened at the Roundhouse Theatre in Chalk Farm, London on November 17, 1971. This London production featured Jacquie-Ann Carr, Julie Covington, David Essex, Neil Fitzwiliam, Jeremy Irons, Verity-Anne Meldrum, Deryk Parkin, Tom Saffery, Gay Soper, and Marti Webb. After a successful run at the Roundhouse Theatre, the production transferred to the Wyndham’s Theatre, also in London, on January 26, 1972.[18] with Barry Stokes.”

                    Here’s Julie Covington from the soundtrack album.

                    • @kaisfatdad – the “All for the best” music above is very familiar to all Swedes of a certain generation (that would be mine) and none of us knew it was from Godspell originally! It was given new lyrics in Swedish by Magnus & Brasse for the sketch “Bäst att ta sig ett glas” from the album of the “krogshow” Varning för barn which we all listened to and laughed at growing up. In fact, I only just now, when clicking on Arthur’s video, learned where they took it from! Very different lyrics however, with Brasse playing the devil trying to convince Magnus to have some alcohol, and Magnus trying to resist.
                      The song part of the sketch start at 2:26 (but it’s very much part of a larger context, so feel free to listen to all of it).

                      Not sure if it’s still funny today…very much the humour of the 70s I’d say.

                    • Thanks @Locust. Once again you’ve come up with a fascinating nugget from Swedish pop history.

                      Here in Bagarmossen, Magnus and Brasse are anything but forgotten thanks to Fem Myror which we still watch!

              • Me neither, not seen or heard it. No particular reason, just never been exposed to it. I too know JCS well though. Sang bits of it in a show actually.

    • Is it best to know a musical before you see it? Went to a touring production of “Chess” last year, and found it all a bit mystifyingly tedious, as I could barely tell what was going on – luckily SFWIC was so disgusted by the standard of performance that when she suggested we leave at half-time, I was happy to accede.

  9. Probably Frank Zappa’s best-ever touring and recording band was around in ’73-’74.
    Jean-Luc Ponty, George Duke, Ruth Underwood, Ian Underwood or Napoleon Murphy Brock, Sal Marquez, Bruce Fowler, Tom Fowler, Ralph Humphrey or Chester Thompson (sometimes both of them!).

    • Turned 16 in 73 and saw that Zappa touring band. Went by myself. Bit out of my depth for that band’s music at the tome. A month or so later the Stones played in Melbourne , another peak line up. Showcased Exile and Stick Fingers. Seriously excellent.
      Then a few months after that Santana’s best band showcased Caravanserai and Welcome.
      So for me 73 was a very good year.

      • FZ, Jean Luc Ponty, Tom Fowler, Ralph Humphrey, Ruth Underwood, Ian Underwood, George Duke, Bruce Fowler, Sal Marquez (late March – July).

        This iteration of The Mothers toured from February to September ’73.
        Sal Marquez left in July after completion of their June-July Australian dates.
        Ian Underwood left in September ’73, as did Jean-Luc Ponty.

        Napoleon Murphy Brock and Chester Thompson joined for the next ’73 tour from October to December ’73.

  10. (47) Matching Tie and Handkerchief (Monty Python) – I love Monty Python so wanted to include something from them, but they didn’t do much in 1973 apart from their live shows. This record, however, is a fascinating artifact, it’s most notable feature being that side two was pressed with two concentric grooves so when you played it it was chance which determined which “side” you were going to hear. The world’s first three sided record.

  11. (46) Fluff (Black Sabbath) – (song)
    Black Sabbath fans will probably hate me for not including their album from this year, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Sorry.
    The truth is I’m not a Black Sabbath fan at all. I’m afraid to me most hard rock/ metal just sounds like a poor substitute for Led Zeppelin.
    I’ve picked out this individual track however, as it’s the one thing I love that the band have done. It goes against type by being an instrumental acoustic ditty, and just hits the spot for me. I love its simplicity and lack of pretentiousness, just a sweet little tune that probably anyone could learn on guitar with a few days practice.

    • That’s a curveball. You can actually make a really good album out of the acoustic Sabbath tracks:

      Planet Caravan
      Orchid
      Solitude
      Laguna Sunrise
      Fluff
      Don’t Start
      Supertzar
      She’s Gone

  12. (45) Live and Let Die – film
    Not the best Bond, and not Roger Moore’s best, but I have a lot of time for him (as the Bond I grew up with) and I think he did a sterling job here taking on an iconic role and making it his own.

  13. (44) Killing Me Softly – Roberta Flack (song)
    I didn’t actually realise this version wasn’t the first recording of this song. However, I think it’s probably the definitive one. Consummate soul pop.

  14. (43) Jonathan Livingston Seagull (film and Neil Diamond LP)
    Maybe this is another idiosyncratic (idiotic?) choice, but I think it’s an important artifact of post-60s individualism and new age thinking. Bonkers it may be, but the book felt like a revelation to me reading it as a teenager. If you haven’t read it, it’s about a seagull discovering a higher purpose and having a spiritual awakening. And I think it’s fascinating how it led to such a bizarre, hypnotic film. With music by Neil Diamond, no less. But to me it’s got a unique pull, despite the cynicism of adulthood. I don’t think you would ever get a mainstream film like this today.

    These days the film is almost totally forgotten about, and hard to find. However, multiple copies of the soundtrack LP are available for a quid in every bargain bin of every second hand record shop.

    • I absolutely loved both JLS and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (and another one by Richard Bach, though even looking now at his bibliography, I can’t remember which) when I was a kid. I’d largely forgotten about them but seeing your mention of JLS has made think I’d like to read them again and see what I think now.

      • Messiah was the first one I read, which led me to Seagull as well.

        I hesitate to use the term “guilty pleasure” as I know a lot of people on here don’t like that term (!) but I like the books in the way that I kind-of-know-they-are-pseudobabble-nonsense … but something in me (the spiritual side of my nature?) loves the idea of things like this being true (enlightenment, purpose, transcendental awakening, whatever).

        (Same reason I love the lyrics of Jon Anderson probably)

        I do think there’s a place for this in our psyche. We can pretend all we want that we are rationale and scientific beings, but we all still secretly and naively crave to grow mental wings like Jonathan and fly beyond the limits of daily life. Don’t we??

        I’ve got one of Richard Bach’s later books sitting here waiting to start – called “A Gift of Wings”, it sounds from the cover blurb like he plunged deeper into quasi-religious babble in his later career: “Richard Bach’s unique vision… touching with magic the drama of life across all its limitless horizons”… But I’ll reserve judgement until I actually read the thing.

  15. (42) Badlands – film
    Terrence Malick went on to do better things, I believe (I think his high tide mark was Thin Red Line, The New World and Tree of Life) but he certainly hit the ground running with Badlands, his debut. Cementing the careers of Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, this story of young killers on the run is a dreamy and nihilistic delight.

    • It is such a stunning movie to watch. So beautiful and delicate, in contrast to the horror in the plot. I always felt Jack Fisk, the ‘art director’ deserved more credit.

      I have a beef over the outcome for Holly but I don’t want to give away any spoilers over a fifty year old film 😉

      • Fisk has had a wild career. His resume includes Badlands, Days of Heaven, Carrie, The Thing Red Line, Straight Story, Mulholland Drive, The New World, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Tree of Life, The Revenant, and currently Killers of the Flower Moon.

        He also has the distinction of being Mr Sissy Spacek. They met on Badlands, still together.

  16. My second favourite movie of all time. So beautiful.

    You are the only person I have ever heard describe Tree of Life as Malick’s high water mark, and I say that as someone who loves Tree of Life. Kudos.

    • I love it! When I’m feeling especially Malicky, I like the extended cuts of Tree of Life and The New World. Not for the faint hearted – LOTS of long, lingering shots of nature in magic hour light.

      • Tree of Life was the last film I saw in the cinema, walked back out, bought another ticket and watched all over again.

        I get why people hate it, but it really flicked a switch.

        • Have you seen the extended one, the Criterion BluRay? Definitely worth a watch, although loses a bit of the focus of the original. (“Focus” doesn’t seem the right word to describe such a meandering film though….)

          One thing I love about Terrence Malick is the music he chooses. I’ve got into quite a few classical pieces due to him, mainly Holst, Wojciech Kilar and some Mahler and Ravel stuff. And anyone who doesn’t come out of The Thin Red Line with a love of Melanesian choir music has no soul!

          (By the way, Terence Davies is also another fantastic curator of great music in his films)

          • I used to love Terence Malick, Badlands and Days of Heaven being a young Reto’s favourites. I sort of rated The Thin Red Line, proclaiming it better than the much the same time Saving Private Ryan. To be fair, SPR has aged better and I was being a ponce. But Tree of Life? Absolute ineffable gubbins. 10 hours of unmitigated boredom and tommyrottery.

            • Ah, that’s interesting. For me, The Thin Red Line has aged quite brilliantly, whereas I watched SPR again recently and once you get beyond the superb opening 40 minutes what’s left feels like a high end TV movie.

  17. (41) The Three Musketeers – film
    I always found Richard Lester’s directorial style quite similar to Blake Edwards and Robert Altman. A rambling, improvisational feel with a keen eye for understated physical comedy. I think Lester is probably under-rated for his erratic output, but there’s a through-line of marvellous, characteristic work from A Hard Day’s Night, to this, to drawing out the underlying comedy in the Superman films in the early 80s. I think he made rollicking, joyous movies, and the The Three Musketeers he had one of the classic adventure stories to have fun with. I even like the sequel from 1989.

    • Not forgetting the Four Musketeers which was filmed at the same time as The Three Musketeers.

      Though it was not without a problem.

      During production on The Three Musketeers, the producers realized that the project was so lengthy that they would not be able to complete it as initially intended — as a roadshow epic with intermission — and still achieve their announced release date. The decision was therefore made to split the project into two films, and thus the two halves were released as The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers some six months apart. Most of the actors were incensed that their work on the long shoot was used to make an entirely separate film, while they were only being paid for the work of one. Lawsuits were filed on behalf of those contributing to the film to gain the salaries and benefits associated with a second film that was not mentioned in the original contracts. All SAG actors’ contracts now have what is known as the “Salkind clause”, which stipulates how many films are being made.

      Roy Kinnear died during the making of The Return….

  18. (40) Goats Head Soup (Rolling Stones)
    Putting this at number 40 is likely to annoy both the fans (“why not higher?”) and the haters (“why include this at all?”).
    I love the Stones… up to this point. I think here is the exact point they started becoming a bit of a parody, a rock institution. There’s just something intangible missing, some sort of songwriting edge or zeitgeist nous that I just feel was burned into Sticky Fingers and Exile and is just AWOL from this point onwards.
    I find it unsatisfying as an album, and I don’t listen to it much, but it merits inclusion here because some of the songs are still decent. It is still the Stones, and long into their twilight they could still pull off a good single or two. I like the obvious tracks, the ones that were on the Rewind compilation: Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) and Angie.

    • Cuh! How very dare you dis The Goat!

      Keef was pretty much out of it, struggling with drugs post Exile. The only country these reprobates were allowed in was Jamaica. Bill Wyman scarpered when he encountered local hoodlums. The album is mainly Jagger and Taylor led and is all the better for it I say.

      Try 100 Years Ago and Hide Your Love for extraordinary Stones tracks you won’t find the like anywhere else in their catalogue.

      • Angie is Keith is it not and a smash hit? A real proper tune. There are some interesting things elsewhere. 100 years ago is one of them. It really takes flight in exciting fashion. Keith is less present apparently and the quality drops. I wonder why? A connection there?

  19. (39) The Long Goodbye (film)
    I mentioned Robert Altman above, when talking about Richard Lester, and here is the man himself. I love Elliot Gould’s laconic performance here. It’s a great update to the classic Raymond Chandler story. And for a plot so labyrinthine and confusing it’s amazing how leisurely a pace Altman sets: I haven’t watched it for a while but I seem to remember the first 10 minutes or so revolve around Gould trying to feed his cat. But somehow it all ties itself up very satisfyingly in the end.

  20. (38) Rock On – David Essex (Song)
    A minimalist masterpiece by the (often underrated) David Essex and producer Jeff Wayne. Definite shades of John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band stuff in it’s stripped down feel, and the immense slap-back echo probably puts it in the glam-rock category, but it’s got its own thing going on.

  21. (37) The Ghost of Thomas Kempe – Penelope Lively
    I don’t know how well known this book is these days, but it deserves to be remembered as a children’s classic. It’s the story of a young boy who is haunted by a pesky poltergeist, but it takes a couple of surprising turns and in the end becomes a poignant story about the passage of time.

  22. (36) Love’s Theme – Barry White/ Love Unlimited Orchestra
    Those strings! There are fewer sounds more luscious than Mr White conjures up here, a soaring, exhilarating blend of pure joy over a Shaft-style wah-wah and hi-hat backing. I feel White’s “walrus of love” reputation almost turned him (unfairly) into a joke figure, as this smooth soulful sound was co-opted by a million disco producers and eventually descended into kitsch and parody. But Love’s Theme remains towering and perfect. To my mind, it hasn’t aged a bit.

  23. (35) The Day of the Jackal (film)
    A textbook example of the type of slow-burning thriller you rarely see any more, this is the kind of film that phrases like “gripping tension” were invented for.

  24. (34) Also Sprach Zarathustra – Deodato (song)
    Always teetering on the edge of cheesiness (like many of the best songs), this wins you over with it’s sheer joy and force of purpose. The “theme tune from 2001” to a jazz funk beat, extended to nine minutes with a Fender Rhodes electric piano workout? Sounds obvious in hindsight, doesn’t it? What’s not to love! One of the happiest tunes in the universe, only a churl would deny the urge to dance to this.

  25. (33) That’ll Be The Day (film)
    David Essex again? Well, he was rather ubiquitous in 1973, wasn’t he? I didn’t really like this film when I first watched it, because it wasn’t what I expected. I thought it was going to be about a young guy forming a band and getting famous, but he doesn’t pick up a guitar until the very last shot.
    It’s more of a social message, with a bit of nostalgia (the seventies looking back on the fifties across the chasm of the sixties). Teenage rebels and wasters can no doubt relate to our young anti-hero and his existential crisis of impending adulthood, probably more so if you grew up in the actual era portrayed.
    The sequel the following year was also brilliant. Two films that have been a bit forgotten these days.

    • I watched both fairly recently after having not seen them for decades. They stand up well. Stardust is the more interesting film, but they work well together as one piece, the continuity spoilt only by Ringo Starr somehow morphing into Adam Faith.

  26. (32) The Dark is Rising – Susan Cooper (book)
    The second children’s book in my top 50, which perhaps says something about my reading taste… But (as I’ve mentioned on these boards before) I find a lot of times children’s fiction has a directness and brevity that more “complex” adult fiction lacks. So no apologies from me.
    This is a fine, spooky tale with folk horror and fantasy themes, and makes sense in its own right outside the whole five book “The Dark is Rising” cycle (this is book two). It’s not the best of the five, and I’d recommend reading the whole series.

    • I used to really like this series of books, but when I reread them a few years ago they really annoyed me. The difference between then and now is that I’ve developed a substantial allergy towards King Arthur, when used in other works than the Arthurian legends!

  27. (31) Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade (song)
    Aren’t we all sick of this song by now (those of us in the UK at any rate)? Well, quite. It’s been rather diluted over the last five decades by being wheeled out again EVERY Christmas. But try (if you can) to listen with fresh ears: it’s a marvellous tune, festive with a hint of melancholy. And Noddy Holder’s singing is a quite astonishing thing: I don’t know how he manages to create that “roar” in his voice (I think multi-tracking his vocal a few times is part of it? He sounds like a one man football sing-a-long). This is a uniquely memorable song from a band who still don’t really get the credit they deserve.

    • Not sick of it in the slightest and my 7″ will soon be getting its regular annual plays over the festive period. I agree that it’s a marvellous record, and it used to annoy me that people were snooty about it until I realised that the people being snooty about it were just snooty in general. It’s the working class Xmas song, for people whose houses aren’t big enough to accommodate extended families (“Are you sure you’ve got the room to spare inside?”) and whose grandparents get a bit drunk at family gatherings. Great stuff.

      • ^ This is correct.

        I think my lack of aversion to the Christtmas staples comes from never having worked in a pub or shop where they’re on the radio all the time. And also I’m a sentimental old coot.

  28. (30) Mean Streets (film)
    Not Scorsese’s best, but definitely his breakout film that first marked him as a genius. I love the man, one of my favourite directors, and Mean Streets has a definite aura about it. No doubt helped by early standout performances from Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel.
    My favourite Scorsese film overall is hard to choose – with all due respect to the classics (Raging Bull, Goodfellas…) I think my personal favourite would be a toss up between King of Comedy, The Color of Money and The Departed.

    • I was extremely surprised to hear Mark Kermode mention, in his review of Killers of the Flower Moon on YouTube, that Thelma Schoonmaker corrected his pronunciation, insisting it’s not the Americanised “Score-say-zee” but “Score-say-say”. According to the rules of Italian pronunciation she’s quite right. But even Italians call him the Americanised way. I’d feel self-conscious and pretentious using the Italian pronunciation when I’ve never heard anyone else doing so ever.

      • The “correct” pronunciation of things can cause problems at times. When I was once in New York I had a mortifyingly embarrassing encounter (well, felt like that to me anyway) when I tried to buy a croissant from a deli. The Noo Yawker behind the till had no idea what I was trying to say (and my Scottish accent didn’t help) until I pronounced it “crah-SONT” with a hard R and T, rather than my lilting gallic “correct” pronunciation.

      • I first heard the correct pronunciation in the Band documentary where his old friend Robbie Robertson used it – so presumably it is the way Scorsese says his name.

        Surely the most mispronounced surname is J K Rowling’s. One of the most famous people in the world and yet you can see a story on the news about her, and a reporter will say it correctly, then it’s back to the studio where the presenter gets it wrong.

        But changing the subject to a complete non-entity, myself, my real surname is often mistaken for being German, and well-meaning people pronounce it in that way, even when they have heard me say it. Used to happen to my dad as well – leading to jokes when he was serving in the navy in the war- at least he’d be alright if they were sunk and taken prisoner.

  30. (29) Mind Games – John Lennon (song)
    You’ll see on a few occasions I’m going to choose a specific song rather than a whole album. It takes a lot for me to be impressed by an album as a whole, unless it’s really good from start to finish. This is a good example. The Mind Games album as a whole is… decent but a bit dull. However, the title track is a wonderful, soaring thing – it all hangs on that high string note (not sure if it’s an orchestra or a string synthesiser) holding a nagging major third (musicologists please don’t correct me if I’ve got that wrong), giving the song a yearning, unresolved feel. Beautiful stuff. That Lennon guy was pretty decent sometimes.

  32. (28) American Graffiti (film)
    Back in the days when George Lucas was a promising young director of the new Hollywood wave in the 70s. This film is funny and bittersweet in just the right proportions, and has an excellent lazy feel to it, with an engaging cast of youngsters.
    I still find it unbelievable that this was a film which came across as a period drama about a long lost and far-off innocent time, yet was only made 11 years after it was set (1962). A film made today about 2012 would hardly have the same impact. Just a reminder of how astonishing the sixties were and how much they were a watershed for the western world. (Not that I would know – I wasn’t there).

    • It depicts the Kennedy era as a lost Eden. A myth of course, but a very seductive one – see also The Nightfly and John Stewart’s I Remember America.

      The soundtrack album is unremittingly fantastic.

  33. (27) If You Want Me To Stay – Sly and the Family Stone
    Sorry, not the album Fresh, but for me the joy of Sly Stone in 1973 boils down to this one song. A marvellously compressed little groovy ball of funk, with a bass line to die for.

  34. (26) Future Days – Can
    A teeny bit similar to Pink Floyd, 1973 was the year that Can’s avant garde experimentation coalesced into something a bit more tuneful and something you might conceivably play to a normal person.
    It’s all about the title track for me, which bubbles along with a kind of In A Silent Way type groove, every band members simultaneously locked into their own personal trip but still playing off each other in a delightful way. Spray is a bit more experimental, Moonshake is delicious space funk, then over on side B they stretch out with a big lovely long jam, Bel Air.
    “Krautrock” as a name for this genre barely does this album justice. It has psychedelic touches, latin rhythms, jazzy sounds and an overall sense of trippiness that started to die out around this time into something a bit harder and shinier and seventies-ish. I think Future Days belongs in that glorious sunshine period of experimentation before the 1970s started in earnest.

    • I can’t comment as I’ve never heard anything by Can but I am wondering, is their name Can as in “a can of Coca-Cola” or is it Can as in “yes, we can”? Or is that ambiguity an essential aspect of their moniker? Or does it mean something completely different in German?

      Edit: I just checked my iTunes and I have one song by them. Last Night’s Sleep on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders’ film Until The End Of The World. I love that soundtrack, but don’t remember that track at all. I think I probably always skipped it. It certainly didn’t make it onto any of my playlists, unlike the rest of the album.

    • “Krautrock” was always an inadequate term – lazy 1970s journalism. Consider the musical range and diversity of all the bands labelled as Krautrock – the main thing they had in common was that they were interesting…

      • It’s especially nonsensical if you consider how atomised or “non-centralised” German music scenes were in those days and maybe still are, and they didn’t seem to have much exchange between them – Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze and later DAF were in West Berlin, which might as well have been on a different planet from Dusseldorf. (actually it was on a different planet from everywhere, but ya knowarramean)

      • Yeah totally.

        I still remember the time I first got into Can, back in the good old days of the early nineties when you had to seek music out and actually buy it. If I remember correctly, Mark E Smith was on Radio 1 – was it with Mark Radcliffe maybe? – and going through some of his favourite records. One he chose was Can’s Vitamin C – my friend at uni taped if off the radio and it blew us away. We went on a search to buy what we could find by this mysterious German band we had never heard of.

        Mixed results: Flow Motion and Saw Delight were patchy, Ege Bam Yasi and Tago Mago were good but a bit weird, but Future Days was definitely the bomb as far as I was concerned.

  35. (25) You’re So Vain – Carly Simon
    A bit of a cheat, as the song dates from the previous year, but it was released and charted in the UK in 1973, so I’m taking it. Just looking up more info about it now, I’ve only just become aware the bass is played by Klaus Voorman. I always loved that little sinister bass run that opens the song (“Son of a gun”). But the song as a whole is driving and infectious, with a killer cryptic puzzle in the lyrics. Jim Gordon on drums as well, a great rhythm section.
    And that ironically self-defeating chorus: “You’re so vain, I bet you think this song is about you”… rock lyrics rarely get as witty and catchy as that! The whole thing just makes me smile how perfectly it all hangs together. Then realising you also have Mick Jagger on backing vocals is just the icing on the cake (especially when you then start to wonder if he’s the vain one the song is (not) about).

  36. (24) “Red” and “Blue” albums – The Beatles
    Oh how timely. I promise I wrote this list much earlier this year, before I even knew these albums were being re-released this year and before we started discussing them at depth here.
    Cheap cash-in albums? Allen Klein trying to wring as much money as he can out of his new clients? Maybe. But like many people, I suspect, these two albums were my gateway into a wider Beatles world, and made me realise what an astonishing career they actually had. Cheap and slightly tacky the covers and packaging might be, but in their own way they are iconic.
    It was my uncle who had these two LPs (in red and blue vinyl, no less) and I taped them off him one afternoon. (Long story, he and my cousins were living with us temporarily after their house got repossessed – but you don’t need to hear all that! For me at least it was an opportunity to mine his LP collection).
    I had already dipped my two in the later Beatles through my dad’s LP collection, but the red album in particular was the one that was a revelation to me here: I still remember the sheer thrill of hearing A Hard Day’s Night, Eight Days A Week and We Can Work it Out for the first time.
    I Am The Walrus was another firm favourite – I’d never heard anything like it.
    And strange to say, since it now seems the song is stale and ubiquitous, this was the first time I heard Hey Jude. Ooooof – that adrenaline thrill when it kicks into the coda section. I treasure that memory!
    And that was it for me, the door was opened. They became my favourite band in the world (I occasionally wander but I always come back).

    • I like the packaging. One of the masterstrokes for me (steady!) with these was that Mad Day Out photo in the gatefold. Kind of strange and enigmatic, but also showing the Fabs as men of the people.

      Most people in 1973 wouldn’t have been familiar with the Get Back image AKA “the Beatles have just thrown you to your death and are laughing because they know they will get away with it”

      • Yes, totally, I love the covers as well – sorry, I was writing that quickly and glossed over that aspect and maybe sounded as if I was being disparaging. I kind of meant they are SEEN as quite cheap and tacky, and were obviously thrown together in a hurry (the fonts are horrible) – but despite all that they definitely work as covers, and have become iconic. And totally, the inner sleeve photo was cryptic and amazing.

        • As a kid I was obsessed with that photo – there’s a “clone” of every single member of my family in it! I was sure it had to mean something important…but what? I could never come up with a theory that managed to convince the rational side of my brain, so I just stared at the photo with a mix of excitement and fear. 😀

    • For many years, the Red and Blue LPs were all the Beatles I owned – and, in fact, all the Beatles I needed. I own more Beatles material now – but I suspect that I could still be happy enough with just the Red and Blue albums. Mind you, I’m not a Beatles specialist…

  37. (23) Street Life – Roxy Music
    I might annoy some Roxy fans on here in saying this, but I could never find one of their albums I liked all the way through. To me they are a singles band, and this single in particular is a marvellous distillation of what makes them so good. Operatic, frenzied, driven, with a trademark histrionic vocal from Ferry. I love it.

  38. (22) The Exorcist
    In an age when the horror genre relies a lot on jump scares and gore, it can be quite a shock to watch The Exorcist again and realise how sedate it is for a great proportion of its running time. The flagpole moments that everyone knows gives the impression the film is a rollercoaster of shouting priests, head-spinning, floating and blasphemous language, but it’s not like that at all.
    I love how much of a slow burn it is. You get really invested in the family, and really connect with them as they are dragged into a nightmare, and then things really ramp up in the last half hour. Horror films that have a bit of weirdness and bit of religion tend to be my favourite, and this is the daddy of them all. (For the record, I find it much more immersive and less showy than The Omen, which it tends to get lumped in with).

    There’s only one thing I really resent about the film, and it’s that the theme tune (a certain proggish instrumental by a young genius which might well make an appearance on this top 50 list) has become synonymous with the film. I think that’s an American thing: that album (as I understand it) was big in the UK and Europe before The Exorcist came out, but only got really big in the USA when it was used in the film. It’s created this lazy cliche of that style of music being thought of as “horror film” music (and therefore being endlessly copied and recycled for that reason. Truth is, it’s not really “horror film” music at all, and to be honest The Exorcist isn’t even really a “horror film” when it comes down to it. It’s in a class of its own really.

    • Yes! Still the best, scariest horror film ever. My favourite scene isn’t a horror scene. It’s when Chris (Ellen Burstyn) meets with Father Karras in the park. She is so clearly distraught and shattered and barely managing to hold herself together.

      Chris: But… could you see her?
      Karras: Yes, I could. I could see her as a psychiatrist, but I can’t see her…
      Chris: Oh, not a psychiatrist, she needs a priest! She’s already seen every fucking psychiatrist in the world and they sent me to you, now you gonna send me back to them? Jesus Christ, won’t somebody help me?

    • I watched this twice at the cinema upon it’s release. The first time with my then current girlfriend and the second time with a bunch of fellow art students all of us tripping out our gourds. Needless to say I remember very little about the second viewing except a lot of stifled laughter and our relatively quick ejection from the premises by da management. I do have better recall of the first viewing though. The tension in the auditorium was palpable probably caused by the advance publicity the film had garnered and the sight of members of the St. john’s Ambulance noticeably in attendance both in the auditorium and the cinema foyer. There was some nervous laughter during the early scenes then a palpable silence punctuated by the occasional stiffled girlish squeal as the film progressed but I stopped giving vent to my pent up tension in that manner after being given a quite painful dig to my ribcage from my girlfriend’s elbow.

      • I only saw it when the ban on it was lifted and it was re-released in cinemas in 1998 for the 25th anniversary. I saw it at a midnight screening at the Odeon in Renfield Street in Glasgow, and I remember it was packed. You’ve reminded me that a lot of people were snickering in the audience all the way through it! Philistines, the lot of them 🙂

        • It was a full house when my girlfriend accompanied me for a romantic evening’s entertainment that first time. I recall glancing behind me as the film commenced and seeing a group of three girls were sat behind us. Glancing back some time later in proceedings the three girls had visibly shrunk back into their seats as far as it was possible and were holding one another’s hands.
          I dig it out from my late wife’s dvd/blu ray collection very occasionally and it still holds up as a film. Possibly it holds up even more all these years later due to the brouhaha surrounding it upon it’s release being no longer present and the true strengths of the film get to shine through. It’s a film with a good script and some fine performances. It doesn’t shock anymore but it is still unsettling in it’s steadfastly downbeat atmosphere.

    • You’re making a great point about Tubular Bells being copied by lots of subsequent horror soundtracks. However, one reason for that may be that the approach works so well. I remember reading that early screenings of Halloween were not going so well, so John Carpenter went away and came up with that soundtrack (which surely owes a debt to Tubular Bells) which immediately made the film scarier.

      • Yeah, I think personally I just never associated that tinkly Tubular Bells motif with horror (The Exorcist was banned in the UK when I was wee, and I was a good boy who didn’t watch pirate videos or horror movies). To me it says childhood, awe, beauty, pensiveness… but not “ooh scary”. So it irks me that it has become associated with that.

        But I’m well aware I’m pushing against the tide. As I do a lot. Sigh.

  39. (21) Ooh La La – The Faces (song)
    I have a bit of a confession about this song – it was only relatively recently I realised it wasn’t Rod Stewart singing on the original. I’ve no idea why Ronnie Wood sang it (it suits Rod’s voice very well, as his 1998 cover proved), and once I found it it was him it sounds totally obvious. I have no idea why I thought it was Rod: my brain must have just filed it and didn’t question it. Or some weird Mandela effect parallel reality going on.

    Anyway. The song is just terrific. Nothing about it is particularly outstanding when you break it all down (quite an obvious chord sequence, lyrics ever so slightly cheesy and trite, nothing outstanding from a musicianly point of view), but it has that intangible magic that the best Faces stuff has. It just seems to tap right into your happiness nerve and put a smile on your face. Few songs sound as effortlessly joyous as this one.

    • (And I’m going to stop apologising for choosing a single song rather than an album whenever I do that, as it just encourages annoyance from the more dedicated fans than me. It’s my list and I can’t please everyone 🙂 )

      • This one makes a lot of sense because the album is very patchy but the title track is great fun.

        Never apologise for what you like. Unless you like Kenny G, I’m which case hand yourself in at the local police station immediately.

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