1975: The Year the Music Died

(and that said, 1975 was a FAR better year than people give it credit for... I'd be doing the 1975 CDR Go! if Daddino wasn't already)

"How Long (Betcha Gotta Chick On The Side)" by the Pointer Sisters. Only the greatest song ever.

"Sky High" by Jigsaw

Neu '75

Eno Another Green World

Man, what a shitty year. Music certainly died that year.

Still, Donna + Stock Aitken & Waterman = Pop Heaven.

There really should be a snopes page on this.

Apparently, Donna Summer never said such a thing about AIDS being a curse against homosexuals by God.

Over the years Donna has quietly contributed her time and money to various organizations. What follows is a list of just a few who have benefited from Donna's generosity:

Music For UNICEF for whom she donated the proceeds of Mimi's Song.

Youth With a Mission which helps children with AIDS.

Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang which helps terminally ill children.

Music Cares which is an organization with contributes to AIDS research.

AMPHAR-AIDS for whom she did an art exhibition in a gay nightclub called Time Square.

The Neil Bogart Memorial Fund for Cancer & AIDS for whom she has a special memorial set aside for her mother.

The Gay Men's Health Crisis for whom she did a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall and raised over $400,000.

[snip]

Donna & the gay controversy

I had turned to God because I just couldn't cope, and I think things started when a few journalists saw what a great story it was that this girl that had shocked the world with her outrageous sexy records and costumes was now saying, 'I've changed'. I read reports that I was refusing to sing any of my old records because they were too rude, that I wasn't going to do any gay clubs any more because I'd found the Lord, that I'd lecture young people about the evils of the music business... It didn't really affect me particularly, because I was used to the press saying all sorts of things about me that were silly and ridiculous. I'd lost count of the times I'd read that I was actually making love when we recorded LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY, or that I was a transvestite. But a rumour started to crop up that I'd said that AIDS was God's plague on gay people for her wickedness, which was the most hurtful thing anyone could have printed. Not only had gay people built up my career, not only were a huge proportion of my friends gay, but worst of all, in the mid-80s, many friends of mine started dying of this disease. (Donna Summer, 1995)

God that decade sucked.

x-post
damn, I missed all the Rob Halford hilarity.

Okay, but the same story as applied to the Bros boys is true, right?

Hmm...still trying to work out what Ned said about God being created by Homosexuals?

Instead, God was a curse invented by homosexuals against AIDS

I'm not sure what this means, but it sure sounds good. Let me think about it some more.

"Off the peg, noodle. Sometimes the clichés are true."

Personally I think it depends on what you're actually referring to as "the actual music".

If you just mean the lowest-common-denominator mindless thrashing of Oi!, Hardcore etc. which is generally identified as "punk", then I think you have a point of sorts.

If you mean the all the different types of music that came out of the "sociological phenomenon" that was Punk then I think you're talking complete bollocks.

Uh huh?

Well, I can understand why you might not like the 'Pistols music but still respect their significance as part of the "sociological phenomenon".... that doesn't really answer my question 'though.

What about (just off the top of my head) Adam & The Ants, Alternative TV, Blondie, Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Cure, The Damned, Devo, The Fall, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, The Jam, Joy Division, Magazine, The Monochrome Set, Penetration, Pere Ubu, Patti Smith, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Slits, Talking Heads, Television, Ultravox!, Wire, X-Ray Spex, XTC...?

NME Albums 1975
1. Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan
2. Natty Dread - Bob Marley & The Wailers
3. Live - Bob Marley & The Wailers
4. The Last Record Album - Little Feat
5. Nils Lofgren - Nils Lofgren
6. The Basement Tapes - Bob Dylan
7. Young Americans - David Bowie
8. Pieces Of The Sky - Emmylou Harris
9. The Hissing Of Summer Lawns - Joni Mitchell
10. The Who By Numbers - The Who
11. Tonight's The Night - Neil Young
12. The Sun Collection - Elvis Presley
13. Horses - Patti Smith
14. John Fogerty - John Fogerty
15. Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin
16. Party Down - Little Beaver
17. Rock 'n' Roll - John Lennon
18. Marcus Garvey - Burning Spear
19. Still Crazy After All These Years - Paul Simon
20. There's No Place Like America Today - Curtis Mayfield

NME Singles 1975

1. No Woman No Cry - Bob Marley & The Wailers
2. I'm Not In Love - 10cc
3. Shame Shame Shame - Shirley & Co.
4. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
5. Third Rate Romance - Amazing Rhythm Aces
6=. Fame - David Bowie
6=. Young Americans - David Bowie
8. King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown - Augustus Pablo
9. Lady Marmalade - Labelle
10=. A Fool In Love - Frankie Miller
10=. Welding - I. Roy
12. Do It Again - Steely Dan
13=. Shoorah Shoorah - Betty Wright
13=. Hurt So Good - Susan Cadogan
15. Born To Run -Bruce Springsteen
16. 18 With A Bullet - Pete Wingfield

17=. Mendocino - Sir Douglas Quintet
17=. Love Hurts - Jim Capaldi
19=. Swing Your Daddy - Jim Gilstrap
19.= Dance With Me - Orleans

On the contrary, all of those bands were about and making records by 1979 at the latest and were absolutely part of the Punk scene as and when it happened.

The thing that happened retrospectively was the creation, introduction and enforcement of a narrow definition of "Punk" as a single specific type of music, based on some of the more obvious qualities of some of the more highly visible bands within the scene; this resulted in all of the stuff that didn't fit in that narrow definition being re-labelled as "New Wave", "Post-Punk", "Goth", etc. etc. etc.

Punk (both as a "sociological phenomenon" and as music) was great. The introdution of this definition of punk as a musical genre came a year or two later. There is a lot of shit music that has (usually erroneously) been labelled "Punk" and which wouldn't exist if that definition hadn't happened first. That doesn't retrospectively make Punk shit.

Our argument might simply be semantic then, and perhaps we really agree. But in my mind, a band like Joy Division wasn't punk. It started off punk, then kind of turned into something else and in fact kick-started a different kind of genre. The New Wave bands drew on punk but drew on other things as well - krautrock and Bowie, for example, who once declared that punk completely passed him by. But perhaps, as you say, my idea of what punk is is too narrow - for me it's a movement that happened in 1976/1977, exemplified by the Pistols, Damned, etc.

Dude, at least replace "music" with "Rock" here (I'd still disagree w/you anyway - "Blood On The Tracks"! "Born To Run"! "Siren"! - but at least that would acknowedlege that there was quite an awful lot of music being made that year by R&B and lounge and Country artists that a) wasn't sounding stale at all in 1975 and b) couldn't give a flying fuck about the Ever So Important Punk Genre.

This is really what I've been trying to ascertain....

"But perhaps, as you say, my idea of what punk is is too narrow - for me it's a movement that happened in 1976/1977, exemplified by the Pistols, Damned, etc."

That's a common misconception.

Joy Division like many other supposedly "New Wave" and "Post Punk" bands were originally part of the Punk scene.

Many of these bands had never fitted into the narrow definition that the media later created of what "Punk" was supposed to sound with to start with.

Many more deliberately changed what they sounded like so as not to be identified with that narrow media definition and the hordes of bandwagon-jumpers that suddenly appeared adopting both an approximation of the punk sound as it had now been defined and the word "Punk".

I agree absolutely with what you're saying, but why there? Since the premise of the entire thread was about "both Zeppelin and Sabbath", shouldn't we make that substitution from the title downwards?

1 Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here 66 448
2 Gentle Giant - Free Hand 43 287
3 Camel - The Snow Goose 42 266
4 Van der Graaf Generator - Godbluff 36 246
5 Hatfield & The North - The Rotter's Club 35 245
6 Steve Hackett - Voyage of the Acolyte 41 232
7 Jethro Tull - Minstrel In The Gallery 36 202
8 Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti 37 192
9 Magma - Live/Hhai 25 168
10 Queen - A Night At The Opera 29 158
11 Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All 28 148
12 Chris Squire - Fish Out of Water 27 141
13 Kansas - Song For America 22 135
14 Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn 18 110
15 Renaissance - Scheherazade & Other Stories 21 108
16 Henry Cow - In Praise Of Learning 16 103
17 King Crimson - USA 16 94
18 Kansas - Masque 13 90
19 Steve Hillage - Fish Rising 17 81
20 Area - Crac! 14 76
21 Triumvirat - Sparticus 13 75
22 Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow 15 74
23 Black Sabbath - Sabotage 14 70
24 Crucis - Crucis 9 60
25 PFM - Chocolate Kings 9 57
26 Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks 9 54
27 Tangerine Dream - Rubycon 11 53
28 Steely Dan - Katy Lied 10 53
29 Nektar - Recycled 9 49
30 Alan Parsons Project - Tales Of Mystery & Imagination 11 48
31 Soft Machine - Bundles 8 48
32 Hawkwind - Warrior On The Edge Of Time 8 45
33 Mahavishnu Orchestra - Visions of the Emerald Beyond 11 43
34 Quiet Sun - Mainstream 9 43
35 Ambrosia - Ambrosia 6 41
36 Robert Wyatt - Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard 8 40
37 Atoll - L'Araignee Mal 7 40
Roxy Music - Siren 7 40
39 Rush - Fly By Night 10 38
40 Brian Eno - Another Green World 8 37
41 Harmonium - Les Cinq Saisons 6 37
42 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing Of Summer Lawns 5 36
43 Wigwam - Nuclear Nightclub 7 35
44 Tubes - The Tubes 7 32
45 Carpe Diem - En Regardant Passer Le Temps 7 31
46 Eloy - Power and the Passion 6 31
47 Rush - Caress of Steel 9 30
48 Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Banco 5 30
49 Rick Wakeman - The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur 8 29
50 Finch - Glory Of The Inner Force 7 29
51 Supertramp - Crisis? What Crisis? 5 28
52 Ralph Towner - Solstice 4 28
53 Alice Cooper - Welcome to my Nightmare 8 27
54 10CC - Original Soundtrack 7 26
55 Tony Williams Lifetime - Believe It 5 26
56 Miles Davis - Agharta 4 25
Who, The - The Who By Numbers 4 25
58 Roy Harper - HQ 3 25
Slapp Happy / Henry Cow - Desperate Straights 3 25
60 Sloche - J'Un Oeil 4 24
61 Return To Forever - No Mystery 3 24
Trettioåriga Kriget - Krigssång 3 24
63 David Sancious - Forest of Feelings 4 23
Styx - Equinox 4 23
65 Lenny White - Venusian Summer 3 23
Seventh Wave - Psi-Fi 3 23
Todd Rundgren's Utopia - Another Live 3 23
68 Apoteosi - Apoteosi 5 22
69 Finnforest - Finnforest 4 22
Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart - Bongo Fury 4 22
Klaus Schulze - Timewind 4 22
72 Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run 7 21
73 Espiritu - Crisalida 4 21
Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac 4 21
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Tonight's the Night 4 21
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Zuma 4 21
77 Armageddon - Armageddon 3 21
Maxophone - Maxophone 3 21
Terje Rypdal - Odyssey 3 21
80 Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music 4 20
81 Kraan - Live 3 20
82 Arti & Mestieri - Giro Di Valzer Per Domani 5 19
83 Gilgamesh - Gilgamesh 4 19
84 Popul Vuh - Einsjager & Siebenjager 3 19
85 Ash Ra Tempel - Inventions for Electric Guitar 3 18
SBB - 2 3 18
Strawbs - Ghosts 3 18
88 Pavlov's Dog - Pampered Menial 5 17
Tangerine Dream - Ricochet 5 17
90 Eagles - One of These Nights 3 17
Jan Hammer - First Seven Days 3 17
92 Electric Light Orchestra - Face the Music 4 16
93 Anthony Braxton - Five Pieces 1975 2 16
Archimedes Badkar - Badrock For Barn I Alla Aldrar 2 16
Transit Express - Priglacit 2 16
96 Czeslaw Niemen - Katharsis 4 15
97 Todd Rundgren - Initiation 3 15
98 Kayak - Royal Red Bouncer 2 15
Ragnarok - Ragnarok 2 15
S Vremena Na Vreme - S Vremena Na Vreme 2 15
Synergy - Electronic Realizations For Rock Orchestra 2 15
Weather Report - Tale Spinnin' 2 15
103 Pulsar - Pollen 4 14
104 Grits - As the World Grits 3 14
Steeleye Span - All Around My Hat 3 14
106 Caravan - Cunning Stunts 2 14
Novalis - Novalis 2 14
OHO - Vitamin OHO 2 14
109 Aerosmith - Toy In The Attic 3 13
Vangelis - Heaven & Hell 3 13
111 Modry Efekt - Modry Efekt and Radim Hladik 3 12
112 Yezda Urfa - Boris 2 12
113 Area - Are(a)zione 2 11
114 Kiss - Alive 4 10
115 Be-Bop Deluxe - Futurama 3 10
Fusioon - Minorisa 3 10
Neu! - Neu! 75 3 10
118 Jefferson Starship - Red Octopus 2 10
Triana - Triana (aka El Patio) 2 10
120 GOMA - 14 de Abril 1 10
Julius Hemphill - Coon Bidness 1 10
Mandalaband - Mandalaband 1 10
Ross - The Pit & The Pendulum 1 10
Victor Peraino's Kingdom Come - No Man's Land 1 10
125 Fruupp - The Prince Of Heaven's Eyes 3 9
Yes - Yesterdays 3 9
127 John Abercrombie/Dave Holland/Jack DeJohnette - Gateway 2 9
Uriah Heep - Return to Fantasy 2 9
129 Clearlight - Forever Blowing Bubbles 1 9
Grobschnitt - Jumbo 1 9
Justin Hayward/John Lodge - BlueJays 1 9
Kraftwerk - Radio Activity 1 9
Råg I Ryggen - Råg I Ryggen 1 9
134 Jean-Luc Ponty - Aurora 3 8
135 Shadowfax - Watercourse Way 2 8
136 Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit 1 8
Grateful Dead - Blues For Allah 1 8
John Abercrombie - Timeless 1 8
Vytas Brenner - Jayeche 1 8
140 Bob Dylan and The Band - The Basement Tapes 2 7
Embryo - Bad Heads and Bad Cats 2 7
Fermata - Fermata 2 7
Richard and Linda Thompson - Pour Down Like Silver 2 7
144 Charles Mingus - Changes Two 1 7
Daevid Allen - Good Morning 1 7
David Bowie - Young Americans 1 7
Deep Purple - Come Taste The Band 1 7
Greenslade - Time and Tide 1 7
Loudon Wainwright III - Unrequited 1 7
Michal Urbaniak - Fusion III 1 7
Sweet Toothe - Testing 1 7
Tai Phong - Tai Phong 1 7
153 Robin Trower - For Earth Below 2 6
Steve Howe - Beginnings 2 6
Thin Lizzy - Fighting 2 6
Trace - Birds 2 6
157 Gary Wright - The Dream Weaver 1 6
Herbie Hancock - Flood 1 6
Invisible - Durazno Sangrando 1 6
Keith Jarrett - Koln Concert 1 6
Larry Coryell & The Eleventh House - Level One 1 6
Lula Cortez E Ze Ramalho - Paebiru 1 6
Maneige - Maneige 1 6
Passport - Cross-Collateral 1 6
Peter Hammill - Nadir's Big Chance 1 6
Sparks - Indiscreet 1 6
167 Argent - Circus 2 5
Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy 2 5
Jukka Tolonen - Hysterica 2 5
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow - Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow 2 5
171 Abba - Abba 1 5
Crusaders - Chain Reaction 1 5
Gryphon - Raindance 1 5
Leroy Jenkins & The Jazz Composers Orchestra - For Players Only 1 5
Split Enz - Mental Notes 1 5
Truk - Tracks 1 5
177 UFO - Force It 2 4
178 Air - Air Song 1 4
Charles Mingus - Changes One 1 4
Dalton - Argitari 1 4
Dictators, The - The Dictators Go Girl Crazy 1 4
Fripp & Eno - Evening Star 1 4
Iraklis - Se Allous Kosmous 1 4
Osamu Kitajima - Benzaiten 1 4
Rainbow Theatre - The Armada 1 4
Yellow - Keltakuma 1 4
187 Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Tomorrow Belongs To Me 2 3
188 Berits Halsband - Berits Halsband 1 3
Biglietto Per l'inferno - Il Tempo Della Semina 1 3
Blue Öyster Cult - On Your Feet or on Your Knees 1 3
Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey 1 3
Cherry Five - Cherry Five 1 3
Focus - Motherfocus 1 3
Ian Hunter - Ian Hunter 1 3
Kestrel - Kestrel 1 3
Patti Smith - Horses 1 3
Piirpauke - Piirpauke 1 3
Steel Mill - Green Eyed Good 1 3
Steeleye Span - Commoner's Crown 1 3
Ted Nugent - Ted Nugent 1 3
201 Cecil Taylor - Silent Tongues 1 2
Electromagnets - Electromagnets 1 2
Il Volo - Essere O Non Essere 1 2
Kevin Coyne - Matching Head and Feet 1 2
Procol Harum - Procol's Ninth 1 2
Spilld Mjölk - Svart Mjölk 1 2
Status Quo - On The Level 1 2
Tabula Rasa - Tabula Rasa 1 2
Tommy Bolin - Teaser 1 2
Toubabou - Attente 1 2
Ulf Lundell - Vargmåne 1 2
212 Druid - Toward The Sun 1 1
Funkadelic - Lets Take It To The Stage 1 1
Goblin - Profondo Rosso 1 1
Granada - Espana Ano 75 1 1
Groundhogs - Crosscut Saw 1 1
Hector - Liisa Pien 1 1
Ivor Cutler - Velvet Donkey 1 1
Joy Unlimited - Minne 1 1
Kebnekaise - III 1 1
Klaus Schulze - Picture music 1 1
Los Jaivas - El Indio 1 1
Lotus - Vera Oflera 1 1
Malicorne - Malicorne (second) 1 1
Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Nightingales and Bombers 1 1
Michael Mantler & Carla Bley - 13 & 3/4 1 1
Sahara - For All The Clowns 1 1
Soffgruppen - Soffgruppen 1 1
Zao - Shekina 1 1

This I don't regret selling.

Augustus Pablo - King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown
Bunny Scott [Rugs] & The Upsetters - To Love Somebody
Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey
Cedric IM Brooks & The Divine Light - From Mento To Reggae To Third World Music
Cornell Campbell - Natty Dread In A Greenwich Farm
Bob Marley & the Wailers - Natty Dread
Dennis Brown - Just Dennis
Hugh Mundell/Augustus Pablo - Africa Must Be Free by 1983
Jacob Miller - Who Say Jah No Dread
Joe Higgs - Life Of Contradiction
Johnny Clarke - Put It On
Keith Hudson - Torch Of Freedom
King Tubby - Dub from the Roots
King Tubby & Jacob Miller - Who Say Jah No Dread Dub
Larry Marshall - I Admire You
Lee Perry & The Upsetters - Kung Fu Meets The Dragon
Lee Perry & the Upsetters - Return of Wax
Max Romeo - Revelation Time
Morwells Unlimited Meet King Tubby's - Dub Me
Pablo Moses - Revolutionary Dream
Ras Michael & Sons Of Negus - Rastafari
Susan Cadogan - Hurt So Good
The Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari - Tales of Mozambique
Twinkle Brothers - Rasta Pon Top
Vin Gordon & the Upsetters - Musical Bones

More:
1971-76 The Ethiopians - Train To Skaville Anthology
1972-77 Yabby You - Jesus Dread
1972-79 Joe Gibbs - Love of the Common People
1975-76 Gregory Isaacs - The Prime Of Gregory Isaacs
1975-77 Linval Thompson - Ride on Dreadlocks
1975-78 Junior Byles & Friends - 129 Beat Street Ja-Man Special
1975-80 Rod Taylor - Ethiopian Kings

Lee Perry produced the Susan Cadogan, but it's pretty straightforward, with few of his signature effects. It's not an amazing album, but enjoyable enough for those open to reggae influenced by pop and soul. In fact, the success of the single helped in part to fund the construction of Scratch's Black Ark studio.