A challenge – music from my favourite decade.

Colin from Colinology challenged me to come up with a post about the music of my favourite decade. Well, for me that would have to be the 70’s.  I’ll give my reasons at the end,  but for now, sit back, relax and enjoy some golden oldies in no particular order [coz I’m lazy]. 🙂

1978 : Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street. I love the sax on this track, and the musician-ship, and the story in the lyrics.

1973 : Pink Floyd – Money. Lots of synthesizer but also some gorgeous live instruments. In fact, most of the track is instrumental, highlighting the musician-ship of the band. See a pattern emerging?

1971 : Led Zepplin – Stairway to Heaven. No visuals on this clip but just listen to the intro. Melody, lyrics, muscian-ship. This song has it all.

1978 : The Doobie Brothers – What a Fool Believes. The Doobies didn’t write the song but they sure made it famous. I lived through a breakup listening to this song. 🙂

1971 : The Doors – Riders on the Storm. I can’t say I loved everything the Doors wrote but I did love this particular song for the same reasons I’ve given for all the others. Very jazzy with an emphasis on musician-ship. They were bad boys but they knew how to play… instruments. 🙂

http://youtu.be/dhBwJyr1-x8

1971 :  Yes – I’ve Seen All Good People. I came to Yes late and used to have great debates with my ex about which was the better band – Supertramp or Yes. I thought it was Supertramp but I can’t include a list of  the 70’s without at least this one song.

http://youtu.be/fgQFI-FxxnA

1974 : Supertramp – School. Crime of the Century is such a fantastic album it’s hard to pick just one track so, as I’ve already featured other tracks from the album,  I thought I’d include School this time. Same amazing musicianship I’ve gushed about before, but also a bit more rock. Love, love, love.

http://youtu.be/-w5sE82dKV0

1972 : Deep Purple – Space Truckin’.  No way I could create this list without Deep Purple. Another favourite track from their Machine Head album.

http://youtu.be/gbXds42ZOj4

1970 : Bobby Bloom – Montego Bay. Never heard of Bobby Bloom? Don’t worry just enjoy this nice, boppy little song that makes you feel good.

1979 : The Knack – My Sharona. Okay before you kill me, this is just a fun song that I remember with a lot of affection, and I thought it would be a nice low-brow end to the 70’s!

I grew up with classical music and didn’t discover pop/rock until my late teens. So while I love heavy metal and hard, driving rock, I tend to gravitate towards modern music that has its roots in classical. Most of the tracks I love the most feature great musicians who wanted to break out and do something new with their skills. And they did. 🙂

The 70’s was the decade when this kind of music was at its height, before production began to take over from musician-ship, and image superseded talent. There was some brilliant music in the 80’s as well – e.g. Eurythmics – but the times they were a-changin’.

Now I won’t name names, but I know some of you are really into music as well – in particular classic Aussie rock – so if you feel inspired, why not take up the challenge and let the world  know which was your favourite decade!

cheers

Meeks