How Sooty Hears the 70's: 1970

[Soot and Stars]

How Sooty Hears the 70's:

1970​

This is going to be an infinite project that I'm incorporating into my forum ritual. It won't be perfect but it'll be fun and a great experience. I know most people on here think that the 70's is the best decade ever. I can see why they like it as much as they do and while my heart is definitely into my era of music I've discovered some great gems from that decade, a lot more since joining this forum. What I want to do is go through the decade year by year listening to as many albums as I can locate through youtube or preferably Grooveshark based on the yearly album lists on Wikipedia. This is like I said a project that will never end but will be a fun ride as I go through tons of genres, artists catalogs that I know and don't know yet and give my perspective and turn up gems for myself. While my nights will still be filled with recent music this will give each night a great balance. Doing this I will only listen to studio albums and not live releases or compilations unless said compilation is the only way in which their music was released. Hopefully this jogs memories and becomes a fun way to talk about artist that aren't fresh anymore in a fresh way!​

 

[Tray73]

Great idea for a thread Sooty! Like you I have a more casual interest in 70's music in comparisson to a lot of the members here - I have a few favourites from the decade but the majority of my music collection is made up of post 80's bands and artists (with a few from the 80's and 60's). Since we have a similar taste in music I'll be interested to see your picks

 

[Mr. Bob Dobolina]

As someone with a more than casual love for the music of the 70s, I too am looking forward to where this thread takes us.

 

[ILoveJimmyPage]

I didn't get it when you told me about it but I get it now. Look forward to your insight Soots.

 

[Sox]

Nice one Soot, I'll be nipping in to check this out.

 

[Soot and Stars]

Wow, thanks guys! Didn't expect interest to start just with my intro but this'll definitely be fun. A lot of these artist themselves and their main hits won't be something I've been oblivious to prior but the specific albums will be very fresh to me and I love that. I'm going through them ALL in alphabetical order by album so even I don't know what's coming. The first entry will be very random actually and was a cool way to start the thread!

 

[Riff Raff]

Interested to seeing your thoughts on this decade.

 

[Soot and Stars]

The Ventures-10th Anniversary Collection

Let's start out with what I knew and didn't know I was getting into. I knew, or my hunch was right, that The Ventures were a surf rock like Dick Dale and the Deltones. What I didn't know is that they were only instrumental. After going back, after this album which was all covers, I noticed that they specialized in covers in general. All of them being done with their signature surf rock style. Even one of their biggest most recognizable singles, Walk Don't Run was originally done by a jazz musician prior.



Now hearing these you know why they were able to take this gimmick and run with it. As much as I love the blues these guys give a song like that more bite and flavor with that guitar style similar to what my generation likes in the way Marilyn does all his covers with the same style and adds an edge. Haha, I worked in Marilyn Manson in with the Vultures. Pretty slick, Eh!!!

Now before looking at the actual album I have to make a couple notes. I was looking and saw even the Hawaii 5-0 track was composed by someone else. Further research shows they had originals though overshadowed by the covers. It was one original that I thought was pretty damn cool because it paved the way for fuzzy distorted sounds that certain bands I love in the 90's used. This track was the first recorded use of the fuzzbox and I enjoy it. It showed these guys were innovators and had more than one trick up there sleeve.



So for the album, I listened to "most" of it before I researched the rest. Looking at the track list I was lie "Damn! It must of have been easier to license or cover songs at this time because even a 70's novice like me could tell they picked the cream of the crop. Here's the tracklist:

"Everybody's Talkin'" (Fred Neil, Nilsson)
"Sweet Caroline, Good Times Never Seemed So Good" (Neil Diamond)
"Medley: Who'll Stop the Rain / Bad Moon Rising" (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
"Michelle" (The Beatles)
"Good Morning Starshine" (Galt MacDermot from the musical Hair)
"Bridge over Troubled Water" (Simon & Garfunkel)
"Eleanor Rigby" (The Beatles)
"The Sounds of Silence" (Simon & Garfunkel)
"Strangers in the Night" (Wayne Newton, Frank Sinatra)
"Those Were the Days" (Mary Hopkin)
"MacArthur Park" (Richard Harris)
"Medley: Blowin' in the Wind / Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" (Bob Dylan)
"Up, Up and Away" (The Fifth Dimension)
"By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (Glen Campbell)
"Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" (B.J. Thomas)
"Let it Be" (The Beatles)
"Sugar, Sugar" (The Archies)
"Never My Love" (The Association)
"Delilah" (Tom Jones)
"Hey Jude" (The Beatles)
"Spinning Wheel" (Blood, Sweat & Tears)

Here's what was missing from my album experience due to availability issues:

Everybody's Talkin'
Bridge over Troubled Water
Eleanor Rigby
Sugar, Sugar
Never My Love

Well, does it work. I'd love to hear your opinions because from my fresh perspective which involved an initial listen and a couple follow through's it's passable. I mean I wouldn't think it would have been that different then as this seemed kind of a later career, throw out some tracks that'll draw people in just by prior adoration and love of the titles and add the same spin to all. It didn't feel like the "Walk Don't Run" cover which had a surging vitality. Most of these at this point seemed paint by number. At the worst end of the scope they sounded like elevator music versions and even cheesy like an 8-bit video game's music. Especially on "Sweet Caroline" :



At the best they exceeded some songs that weren't the most exciting songs initially. The Beatles "Michelle" was one of a couple songs I had to look up the original out of unfamiliarity. I thought it was a snoozer and preferred the instrumental:



I also thought they did well with certain tracks like "MacArthur Park" and "Sounds of Silence" where the style seems to be complimentary to the dreamy feel of both. It like daydreaming on a beach. It made me sad I couldn't hear the "Bridge Over Troubled Water" track.



All in all, there was good material in this album but as a whole it was just too much that didn't work and too much material for this style to feel compelling over a whole album. I prefer the group itself from what I've heard compared to this by the numbers cash-in album. ​

 

[METALPRIEST]

Yeah this is gonna be a cool thread to go through Sooty!!

 

[METALPRIEST]

This is one of my favorite VENTURES albums