PS

I’d have to go back and look it up to check his reasoning, but the overriding theme of the book is how loathsome we boomers are. He’s got a great chapter on the horror that is the modern funeral.

And BTW: The great and underrated David Lindley shows up on a lot of those 1970s LA records- and he did some good work as a solo, too.

For those of you who've taken first aid training lately, one is supposed to do chest compressions to the rhythm of “Staying Alive” Hmmm.

Artistically, the 70s were, as the great Larry David would say, “Pretty, Pretty Good”. Good music, and many good movies. Fashion-wise, at least for men, the worst.

“ Eddie, are you kidding?
I've seen you on my TV
Eddie, are you kidding?
The people always ask me
I saw your double knits
I thought they were the pits
You threw it in a bag
And then you sent me home--
What!?
Eddie, are you kidding?
No, no!
Eddie, are you kidding?
No, no!”

Frank Zappa

PS: Yes, Mr. Anon, the Bee Gees were at their best long before the disco era. However, it's the disco that made them the most famous and made them the biggest bucks, I guess.

PS has featured 2 of their older songs and at least I remember Massachusetts, or I should say, I remember POSTING "Massachusetts". There were "Gotta Get a Message to You", "I Started a Joke", and "Lonely Days, Lonely Night".

I like that "Nights on Broadway" along with "Don't Rock the Boat" (well before the Disco Strangler came along).

PS

"That "Jive Talking" for instance has a really good beat and sound. I just was used to people actually playing guitars not as percussion instruments, as the disco bands seem to do."

Indeed "Jive Talking" was a great song (I really liked that jangly guitar riff that runs through it). The Bee Gees of course wrote songs even before they became the public face of disco thanks to Saturday Night Fever. Like "Nights On Brodway", which has a timeless quality about it (for me, it evokes "The Great Gatsby" - the Roaring Twenties anyway - not sure why). The Bee Gees also wrote "If I Can't Have You" for Yvonne Elliman.

Another great song of that era, also not explicity a disco song, but which became popular in discos I believe, was "Rock Your Baby", written by Harry Casey and Richard Finch of K.C. and the Sunshine Band and performed by George McCrae. John Lennon thought it to be best song of 1974.

And while I'm at it, let's not forget "Don't Rock the Boat" by the Hughes Corporation.

PS: Mr. G, I'll have to check that out. Does he just mark his time for the beginning of the downfall by the time of the release of "Tapestry", or does he think it's a good example of the bad cultural things happening?

PS: I forgot to mention Joni Mitchell. Her songs was a little different, the later stuff being not nearly as mainstream, and she did have that thing about trying to fit long lines of lyrics where they couldn't really fit in the tune.

Mr. Anon, about the disco, that's a whole 'nother post that I already wrote before. It seemed long as a kid to put up with a 3 year hiatus (at most) from the good rock music (I mean, it's not like there was youtube around) for music that in hindsight was not too terrible. That is, as especially when compared to the (c)rap music that some listeners, for some ungodly reason, have been putting up with for DECADES! I guess time goes faster now.

That "Jive Talking" for instance has a really good beat and sound. I just was used to people actually playing guitars not as percussion instruments, as the disco bands seem to do.

Ya' gotta love those mirrored light balls too.

PS
Her voice was not the only thing that was pleasant and intriguing about Carly Simon- great set of gams! Hubba hubba.

Karla Bonoff didn’t have a great voice, but it was OK, and she wrote a bunch of really good songs- “Isn’t it Always Love”, “Home”, and “Trouble Again” come immediately to mind.

Many of the chick singers of the 70s used the same band on their records- Waddy Wachtel, Jim Keltner, Leland Sklar, etc. Warren Z used them, too.

I’d point out to our esteemed moderator that Joe Queenan points to the release of Carole King’s Tapestry as the beginning of the end for America. See his book Basalmic Dreams for further info

PS

I don’t know why, but I always confuse Carole King with Carly Simon. I did catch Carly doing an impromptu concert in the great hall of Grand Central Terminal one Saturday on my way to the office, like a typical American who lives to work.

When I first moved to Europe, there was an up and coming chanteuse named Alizée (of “Moi Lolita” fame) who has a voice way bigger than her diminutive frame and easily rivals Karen Carpenter, who is indeed an all time great. Alizée can also make love to a camera as well, if not better than Olivia Newton John.

PS

Yes, Karen Carpenter had a beautiful voice too. Carly Simon's, though not as smooth, was still pleasant and intriguing. Yvonne Elliman was another gifted singer of that decade. Likewise Donna Summer.

I don't know why the 70s aquired a reputation for bad music. I guess a lot of that was due to disco. But even a lot of what was perceived as "disco music" (it wasn't really, it was just pop music that one could dance to) was really good: The Bee Gees, Kool and the Gang, K.C. and the Sunshine Band.

PS Hey, funny cat videos are fine. Dogs and goats, too. As far as girls singing go, I don’t mind them doing it while they make me a sandwich.

PS: I had started by pasting in the Jazzman youtube code, Mr. Anon, but you know how you tube is - they had suggestions, and I remembered I liked this one even better.

Yes, the modern women singers just ululate (if that's the right term) on different notes, the tunes are not worth a damn, and they all sound the same to me. How did we know that the 1960's to early 1990's (some would argue of course) era of good pop music would just end.

I don't sell Karen Carpenter short either. ("Thin" maybe, but not short.) Carly Simon, Nicolette Larson, well, we could come up with dozens of excellent strong smooth-singing women singers, not even counting Country music.

PS

Music from the 70s now seems so...........innocent - sunny and optimistic.

Carol King didn't have the loveliest voice of 1970s chanteuses (that distinction falls to Olivia Newton John, Linda Ronstadt, and the two girls in ABBA), but she sounded like a real woman, unlike the auto-tuned strumpets of modern pop-music. Miss King was also a good musician and song-writer. My favorite song of hers was "Jazz Man".

Then there were the quirky, but not unpleasant, voices of singers like Maria Muldauer and Stevie Nicks.

The 70s - so much better than this age of crap.