We’re very keen round these parts to discuss “the greatest year in rock music”, whichever that may be on a particular day according to a particular person.

After reading extensive discussions about Lord Hepworth’s année de choix, I decided to check out 1971 in detail, which led me to compile my own chronology, which I then felt need expansion to encompass a couple of key years on either side. So I have ended up chronicling the half-decade from 1969 – the year the “Sixties” died, in more ways than one – to 1973, when Pink Floyd finally arrived on the Dark Side and Bowie killed Ziggy.

In the process of so doing, it became apparent that this was indeed a tumultuous period in the development of rock, pop and soul – even, perhaps, THE most tumultuous. The rise of Led Zeppelin to juggernaut status; the transmogrification of the post-Jones Stones; the redistribution of Cream’s constituent elements; the emergence of the solo singer-songwriter as a real force in popular music; not to mention the prolonged and painful dissolution of The Beatles and the reappearance of Dylan…

Moreover, I had the amazing realisation that many significant events which we normally view as » Continue Reading.