It’s easy to assume the 1970s rock scene was dominated entirely by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac and Queen.
Beneath the stadium lights, however, a galaxy of brilliant, bizarre, and boundary-pushing bands faded into obscurity. These groups – like the chilling psych-folk of Comus, the medieval prog eccentricities of Gryphon, and the operatic rock of Pavlov's Dog – often possessed immense talent and unique vision, yet failed to achieve lasting success.
Why did they miss out? Usually due to poor management, label collapse, or simply being too far ahead of their time. This list celebrates those unsung heroes whose complex sounds and singular creativity still offer thrilling discoveries, proving that the decade's greatest musical treasures weren't always the most famous.
1. Pavlov’s Dog
Poor luck plagued these superior canine-fixated St. Loius rockers from the outset. Their splendid debut album Pampered Menial was first released by ABC Records in the US in April 1975. An ambitious blend of rock, classical and folk music, it deserved to sneak under the wire before the punk explosion. But the band quickly signed to Columbia and the album was reissued with a slightly different cover design, which only served to confuse potential purchasers.
Undeterred, Pavlov’s Dog released a follow-up, At the Sound of the Bell, in 1977. This was a less fanciful affair, in keeping with the times, and featured the great Bill Bruford (King Crimson, Yes) on drums. Alas, however, their moment had passed. Brilliantly, mainman David Surkanp (vocals, guitar, chief songwriter) is still out there are still doing it with a new incarnation of the band that includes no other original members.
Start here: Pampered Menial (1975)
2. Poco
Buffalo Springfield are today best known as the band that was the incubator for the talents of Neil Young and Stephen Stills. But there was a third member of that band who went on to greater things, too. Enter Stills’ old chum, guitarist Richie Furay, who contributed distinctive lead or co-lead vocals to many of Buffalo Springfield’s songs.
After Springfield split, Furay and Jim Messina (later a renowned producer) went on to found ace country rockers Poco. Furay lasted until 1973 and later converted to Christianity, rejoining that band briefly for the Legacy album. His Poco bandmates includes bassist Timothy B. Schmidt, who later completed the circle by joining the Eagles.
Poco never achieved the commercial success (or critical acclaim) they so richly deserved, but their legacy is an excellent run of albums from the country rock of Pickin’ Up the Pieces (1969) to the smooth AOR of Inamorata (1984), all of which are ripe for rediscovery. And ‘Rose of Cimarron’ remains the best song the Eagles never wrote.
Start here: Crazy Eyes (1973)
3. Touch
They earned a place in history as the first band on stage at the very first Castle Donington Monsters of Rock festival back in 1980. Minutes later, they earned another place in history when bassist Doug Howard became the first and – so far as we know – only musician to swallow a bee live onstage at the festival. Hey – don’t laugh. These things can be fatal.
Fortunately, Doug survived, though the fate of the bee is not recorded. Anyway, that was pretty much it for Touch, who originally formed in 1978. They split up a couple of years later, eventually reforming in 2014. Which is a shame, as their self-titled debut album is something of a lost prog/psychedelic masterpiece.
Keyboard player and songwriter Mark Mangold later worked with the then-unknown Michael Bolton and co-founded the equally impressive Drive, She Said. Before the reunion, Doug Howard wound up as a member of Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, and is not thought to have had any further run-ins with flying insects.
Start here: Touch (1980)
4. Sir Lord Baltimore
Many bands claim to have invented heavy metal. But few have as strong a claim as this Brooklyn trio, who boasted that rarity in metal – a singing drummer. Their debut album Kingdom Come, released in 1970, laid down the foundations of the genre, but today is tragically forgotten by all but devoted disciples of metal.
Start here: Kingdom Come (1970)
5. Trapeze
Originally signed to the Moody Blues’ Threshold liable, Trapeze are best remembered today for giving the world future Deep Purple bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes. They certainly laid the foundations for his subsequent solo career with their brand of heavy funk rock, which is showcased to best effect on 1972's You Are the Music... We’re Just the Band.
In fact, all the key members of the band went on to greater things. Guitarist Mel Galley joined Whitesnake and drummer Dave Holland was a member of Judas Priest for a decade (later being imprisoned for attempted rape and indecent assault).
Start here: You Are the Music... We're Just the Band (1972)
6. Y&T
Founded in 1972 and originally known as Yesterday & Today (after the Beatles album released in North Anerica), these great Californian rockers never really achieved the breakthrough they so richly deserved, though they came close with the Van Halen-esque ‘Summertime Girls’ single in 1985. Brilliantly, they’re still out there, their excellent current incarnation still fronted by founder member Dave Meniketti, and are thoroughly recommended to anyone who yearns to see a stadium-sized band on a club budget.
Start here: Earthshaker (1981)
7. Black Widow
One of the first theatrical occult rock bands, Black Widow started out under the decidedly non-Satanic name of Pesky Gee! (their exclamation mark). In 1970, after a wise name change, they released the quite brilliant Sacrifice album. It's not metal, as you might have expected, but rather an unsettling and accomplished collection of jazz-prog-folk songs with an occasional Wicker Man vibe, the best known of which is the single 'Come to the Sabbat' with its catchy chanted chorus: "Come, come, come to the Sabbat/Come to the Sabbat - Satan's there!"
Alas, they suffered a subsequent run of bad luck. The album entered the chart at number 32 and was expected to go higher, but every vinyl pressing plant in the country was busy churning out Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water. The resultant shortage benefited Black Sabbath, to whose debut album anyone asking for 'that Satanic album was promptly directed. Then an American tour was pulled because promoters felt that it was probably unwise to put an overtly occult rock band on the road in the wake of the Manson murders.
Unimprovably named Antiguan drummer Romeo Challenger wound up in Showaddywaddy. Today, Sacrifice is rightly revered by young black metal and occult bands around the world (Tobias Forge of Ghost is a huge fan), sparking tribute albums and covers. A German TV recording of the band’s original ritual performance was released on DVD in 2007.
Start here: Sacrifice (1970)
8. Comus
Pagan folk-rockers Comus are now lauded by everyone from metalheads (Mikael Akefeldt of Opeth is a huge fan) to hipsters, but back in the early seventies they couldn’t get arrested. Indeed, they were part of the Dawn Records Peeny Tour, which, as the name implies, cost a princely one (old) penny to get in.
Their brilliant debut album First Utterance (1970) is highly recommended. A chilling, hypnotic blend of psych-folk and avant-garde progressive rock, it eschews conventional rock structures for a disturbing soundscape marked by twisted, pagan lyrics, feral vocals, and eerie acoustic instrumentation.
The use of violin, flute, and percussive guitar conjures a dark, woodland ritual atmosphere – equal parts beautiful and unsettling. It remains a definitive cult classic that radically pushed the boundaries of both folk and prog rock.
Start here: First Utterance (1970)
By the way, the pastoral, haunting track 'The Herald' is unlike anything else on the album - and one of the most atmospheric slices of freak-folk we have ever heard. Have a listen:
- First Utterance features in our list of 21 obscure prog rock albums you must hear
- Or why not try our list of the 21 greatest prog rock albums of all time?
9. Lucifer’s Friend
Best remembered today as the band who bequeathed vocalist John Lawton to Uriah Heep, Lucifer’s Friend are another of those early 70s bands who straddled the border between heavy metal and progressive rock. But their creative restlessness probably cost them dear, as each album sounded different to the last. At best on their 1971 debut, they were a clear influences on later doom metal acts.
Start here: Lucifer's Friend (1971)
10. Mother’s Finest
Founded in Georgia in 1970, mostly black American funk-rockers Mother’s Finest have always suffered from assumptions about the music they ought to be playing. Broadly speaking, they wanted to rock, while record companies persisted in shoving them into ethnic pigeonholes. They finally got their way with the excellent 1981 album Iron Age and later released the equally brilliant, combatively titled Black Radio Won’t Play This Record (1992). Still fronted by Joyce 'Baby Jean' Kennedy, they continue to challenge assumptions more than 50 years on.
Start here: Iron Age (1981)
11. Blackfoot
Founded in 1970, Native American southern rockers Blackfoot seemed assured of a commercial breakthrough with 1981’s brilliant Marauder album. But it was not to be, and they subsequently succumbed to record company pressure to record more commercial material, to ever-diminishing commercial returns. Frontman/guitarist Ricky Medlocke eventually rejoined Lynyrd Skynyrd, with whom he had originally played drums.
Start here: Marauder (1981)
12. Atomic Rooster
Great British keyboard-led prog-rockers founded by former members of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown: keyboard player Vincent Crane and drummer Carl Palmer (who swiftly left to co-found Emerson, Lake and Palmer). They released a string of excellent albums in the early 1970s, the most successful of which was 1970’s Death Walks Behind You, and even enjoyed a hit single with the splendid ‘Devil’s Answer’.
Diminishing returns led to Atomic Rooster disbanding in 1975, but they got back together five years later, releasing the splendid Headline News (with guest appearances by David Gilmour and Bernie Torme) in 1983. Crane’s death in 1989 seemed to put paid to Atomic Rooster, but a new line-up with no original members recently put out the band’s first album in more than 40 years, Circle the Sun.
Start here: Death Walks Behind You (1970)
13. Gryphon
Mediaeval/Renaissance prog-folkers Gryphon unleashed their krumhorn and bassoon wig-outs in the early Seventies, releasing their brilliant Midnight Mushrumps album in 1975 and supporting the likes of Steeleye Span at the height of their fame. Sadly, they split in 1977, having felt they’d lost momentum as punk was in the ascendant. An inevitable reunion and more albums have ensued, the latest being Get Out of My Father’s Car in 2020.
Start here: Midnight Mushrumps (1975)
14. Leaf Hound
Great British proto-metallers whose key album is their 1970 debut. They split up shortly after its release, but vocalist Peter French has put together a new incarnation of the band which continues to tour and record.
Start here: Grower of Mushroom (1970)
Top pic: David Surkamp, Pavlov's Dog singer
Pics Getty Images
