Believe it or not, Seventies rock has a bad name in certain quarters.
Those quarters include most of the mainstream media, which is staffed by elderly former punk rockers. That makes the narrative difficult to challenge. But we’re made of sterner stuff, so we’re going to challenge it anyway.
1. Concept albums are all about hobbits
In fact, very few concept albums can be described as Tolkien-esque. Only one springs to mind, in fact: Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings by Swedish musician Bo Hansson. This, as the title implies, was an instrumental album, so there was no scope for lyrical flights of fancy. On the metal front, the only overtly hobbity album was German power metallers Blind Guardian’s Nightfall in Middle Earth, but that was released in 1998 and is therefore beyond the scope of this list.
In fact, the best – and best-known – concept albums tend not to be fantasy-based. That’s true of all the later Pink Floyd albums, from Animals to The Wall, which are grounded in political allegory. The nearest those arch-pastoralists Jethro Tull got to Middle Earth was probably 1977's Songs From the Wood, which is more rooted in folklore. And nobody really knows what the hell Genesis’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is about.
That’s not to say that individual songs haven’t been inspired by Tolkien. Robert Plant in particular is a huge fan and this has been reflected in his Led Zeppelin lyrics, notably 'Ramble On' and 'Misty Mountain Hop'. But the Hobbity jibe tends to come from detractors who know not of what they speak.
2. Solos went on for hours
OK, there is a small amount of truth to this. Back in the ‘60s, pop musicians tended to be intimidated by jazzers, who would extemporise for hours given half a chance. But by the latter part of that decade, they were keen to show off their chops. Guitar greats like Jimi Hendrix stretched out on the likes of ‘All Along the Watchtower’ and the lovely ‘Little Wing’, while drummers such as Cream’s Ginger Baker were eager to show their mastery of technique on compositions like the iconic ‘Toad’.
Some guitarists built entire careers on one innovative solo – like Alvin Lee of Ten Years After (now there's a band you don't hear about anymore), whose performance of ‘I’m Going Home’ at Woodstock caused jaws to drop at its speed and accuracy, and provided a template for generations of shredders.
By the Seventies, it seemed as though everyone was keen to get in on the act, including musicians of dubious talent – which is what gave the practice a bad name. But there were still plenty of brilliant guitar solos by the likes of Jimmy Page ('Stairway to Heaven'), Don Felder and Joe Walsh ('Hotel California') and Eddie Van Halen ('Eruption').
Drum solos also expanded, especially in a live setting. Notable examples include the Allman Brothers’ sprawling 34-minute 'Mountain Jam', which takes up two sides of 1972's Eat a Peach album. As their shows got bigger, prog rockers were seen as the worst offenders. Keith Emerson’s flying grand piano at the 1974 California Jam festival is often cited as an example of 1970s excess – but wouldn’t you have loved to be there?
The advent of punk made musicianship unfashionable and excessive soloing slowly died out, though some of the older bands, such as Deep Purple, keep the practice alive to this day. There is, however, rarely an excuse for the bass solo.
3. Everybody wore capes
No, that was just Rick Wakeman (pictured top), who’s become something of a lightning rod for 70s haters. Actually, to be fair to Rick, he always looked pretty good in a cape. Lately, he’s decided to lean into it with his Return of the Caped Crusader classic album tours, which have proven a great success.
4. Disco killed rock
'Disco sucks!': up went the cry, as hordes of rockers gathered to blow up disco records in the USA in 1979. They needn’t have bothered, as the short-lived disco movement popularised by Donna Summer and the Bee Gees burned itself out pretty quickly. Most rock and prog bands simply carried on as though nothing was happening, which proved the wisest course of action. Those acts who chose to rather desperately embrace disco, such as KISS ('I Was Made for Lovin’ You') and – alas – the Stones ('Miss You') wound up looking pretty silly – and swiftly returned to rockin’. (I quite like 'Miss You' - Ed.)
5. Punk killed rock
According to all the self-appointed rock historians, when the filth and the fury swept in during 1976 rock was killed off overnight as the expectorating punk hordes stormed the citadel. Not being able to play your instrument became fashionable, and anyone who could do so was viewed with suspicion by the music press.
Things were certainly hard for those lower down the ladder, or for bands just starting out who didn’t conform to the new orthodoxy. But for the most part, rock simply carried on. Big outdoor festivals like Knebworth were headlined by the likes of Genesis, Frank Zappa and Led Zeppelin during the punk years. The album charts were dominated not by the Sex Pistols or The Damned but by ELP, Wings, Pink Floyd, Yes, the Eagles and Abba.
Sections of the press soon seemed to realise that they were in a dead end. ‘Why this man is not ashamed to look like this in 1978’, ran the headline on the cover of Sounds on February 25 1978, above a photograph of a long-haired Geddy Lee of Canadian proggers Rush.
Waiting in the wings, meanwhile, was a new generation, dubbed the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Bands like Iron Maiden and Saxon flew the flag for traditional rock values and musicianship, but were not afraid to steal the energy of the punks, who soon faded into the insipid ‘new wave’. The lesson from all of this is that whenever anyone says “X is the new rock’n’roll”, they are invariably wrong.
6. The 1970s was all about corporate rock
You’re kidding, right? In the early part of that wondrous decade, record companies clearly didn’t have a clue what they were doing. They were also still haunted by the story of The Man Who Turned Down the Beatles and were eager not to be next in the firing line. As a result, a plethora of weird and wonderful acts, who wouldn’t receive a second look today, wound up getting record contracts.
Bands like Magma, Faust and Van Der Graaf Generator were not only signed but given several albums on which to find their feet (and their audience). Cue some of the decade's (and rock's) most delightfully off-kilter, boundary-pushing music. Certainly, belt-tightening had an impact later in the decade, but even bands that made a fortune for the record companies, like Fleetwood Mac and Journey, often had patchy track records.
7. Seventies rock is humourless and po-faced
People who say this tend never to have heard 'Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?' or, indeed, anything by Frank Zappa. But Uncle Frank wasn’t alone. Dr. Hook may have been best known for their hit lachrymose parody song 'Sylvia’s Mother', but their catalogue was filled with fun, from 'The Cover of Rolling Stone' to 'If I’d Only Come and Gone'.
Their chief songwriter at this time was Shel Silverstein, who released an excellent solo album entitled Freakin’ at the Freakers Ball. This included such classics as 'I Got Stoned and I Missed It', which had Seventies freaks guffawing into their beards.
But even bands and musicians routinely accused of pomposity knew how to have fun. ELP’s 1973 masterpiece Brain Salad Surgery includes the enjoyable Greg Lake/Pete Sinfield composition 'Benny the Bouncer', which precedes the epic 'Karn Evil 9'. And prog japester Rick Wakeman’s Criminal Record from 1977 has 'The Breathalyser', sung by Goodie Bill Oddie and sandwiched between 'Birdman of Alcatraz' and the epic 'Judas Iscariot'.
Pics Getty Images
