Last time around I was checkin' out what made 1968 and 1972 so great for music, according to the one record shop dude I know. I went into detail about 1968 and concluded that yes, indeed, that was a killer awesome year for music. This is where it gets a bit more confusing. When I did my digging to see if 1972 was great, nothing stood out in the same way. Or put another way, there were fine moments, there were not so fine moments, but it all averaged out to seem so-so.. as if you could pick any other year and find similar amounts of good and bad. At least for 1968, it seemed overwhelmingly obvious that it was awesome.
Don't get me wrong, plenty great stuff happened in '72 musically, it just seems that to isolate it over say, '73 '74 or '75 or whatever doesn't hold much grain.
Here a little list of some standout albums of the the time: (* denotes timeless classic you should probably own, though all these albums are pretty darn good...)
Al Green-'Let's Stay Together'
Aretha Franklin-'Young, Gifted and Black' and 'Amazing Grace'
James Brown-'There It Is'
O'Jays-'Backstabbers'
*Curtis Mayfield-Superfly OST
Gil Scott-Heron-'Free Will'
War-'The World Is a Ghetto'
Big Youth-'Screaming Target'
Seals and Crofts-'Summer Breeze'
Dr. John-'Dr.John's Gumbo'
*Neil Young-'Harvest'
Arlo Guthrie-'Hobo's Lullaby'
Allman Bros. Band-'Eat a Peach'
Nick Drake's-'Pink Moon'
Todd Rundgren-'Something/Anything?'
Jethro Tull's-'Thick as a Brick'
*Deep Purple-'Machine Head'
ZZ Top-'Rio Grande Mud'
Wishbone Ash-'Argus'
Blue Oyster Cult-s/t
Captain Beyond-s/t
Uriah Heep-'The Magician's Birthday'
*Black Sabbath-'Volume 4'
Hawkwind- 'Doremi Fasol Latido'
Capt. Beefheart 'The Spotlight Kid' and 'Clear Spot'
*David Bowie 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars'
*Roxy Music-s/t
*T. Rex-The Slider
*Mott the Hoople-'All the Young Dudes'
Eagles-s/t
Alice Cooper-School's Out
Buddy Guy and Junior Wells- 'Play the Blues'
Yes-'Close to the Edge'
The Osmonds-'Crazy Horses'
Slade-'Slayed?'
Edgar Winter-'They Only Come Out At Night' and 'Roadwork'
*Lou Reed-'Transformer'
Frank Zappa-'The Grand Wazoo'
Herbie Hancock-'Crossings'
Can-'Ege Bamyasi'
Faust-'Faust So Far'
Groundhogs-'Hogwash', 'Who Will Save The World?'
Neu!-s/t
Night Sun-'Mournin' '
Atomic Rooster-'Made In England'
General trends we see developing include a greatly increased popularity in progressive and experimental rock, more use of synthesizers and atmosphere, and a more 'soundtrack-y' sound to many albums (some actual soundtracks themselves). There are a lot of stories or concepts behind the albums instead of 'let's just plug in and rock like hell.' A tiny bit of the gritty bluesy rock n' roll is rubbed off and polished smooth for a more cerebral and ambient composure in the music. Soul and funk and other black music styles continue to be popular. A genre known as Krautrock is big (experimental German prog...note bands in list such as Neu!, Faust, Can.) Long jams and jazzy snazziness are big ideas. Space rock is noticeable (think Hawkwind). There's a lot of folk continuing onward as well. Glam is one style that really starts to take off, especially with artists like David Bowie, Mott the Hoople, T.Rex, Slade, and the fresh and hip Roxy Music.
Some less than ideal things that have happened by or during '72: Jim Morrison's dead, Jimi Hendrix is dead, Janis Joplin's gone, the Beatles have broken up, CCR puts out their first mediocre album (and their last album ever) and breaks up, The MC5 break up, the Velvet Underground break up, and Led Zeppelin has a concert canceled in Singapore because they have long hair and aren't allowed off their plane by tightwad authorities.
So '72 wasn't all bad I guess, maybe not as killer as '68...but DEFINITELY better for music than shitty 2011, at least in terms of mainstream or widely known stuff.
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| Neil Young in rare shot |
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| Al Green gets fonky |
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| Part of the cover artwork by Roger Dean of Uriah Heep's 'The Magician's Birthday' |
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| Slade, experts in atrocious fashion |
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| Old school ZZ Top |
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| Gil Scott-Heron. Helped invent Rap. |
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| Alice Cooper and his motley crew |
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| Neu! are now quite old.... |
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| Early Eagles.. |
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| Lou Reed, post Velvet Underground mode |
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| Wishbone Ash rockin' out |
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| Allman Bros. |
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| Nick Drake in weirdo poet mode |
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| All that glitters....a young Roxy Music |
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| The enigmatic Can |
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| Hawkwind....spaced out |
