Thinking About the Seventies
Mr. Disputations and Ms. Hall have declared their relief at no one being able to Google their college years. I fear if anyone had googled mine they only stood to die of boredom--you know the type-studious, not quite straight A, but curve breaker. My only real divergence is that every now and again I'd trot down to Commander Salamander's in Georgetown and get my hair spiked and done in a variety of non-natural,. but quite washable colors.
Dylan, Ms Huntley, Kathy the Carmelite, Gregg the Obscure and others have propounded lists of 70s favorites. That said, I thought I'd list a few of my favorite groups from the seventies, because I have a very difficult time with specific songs. Each of these artistes were such that I'd collected at one time every extant work, and still have a considerable number of them. I'd be interested in how many people know some of the more obscure members of this list:
Be-Bop Deluxe (loved everything from Axe Victim to Surreal Estate)
Bill Nelson
Ultravox!
John Foxx (his electronica of Pater Noster is fascinating)
Curved Air
Darryl Way
Camel (particularly Snow Goose and "I Can See Your House from Here")
Van der Graaf Generator
Pete Hammil (Especially 'In a Black Box')
Human League
Lene Lovich
Classix Nouveau
Ramones
Sex Pistols (PIL)
The Clash
The Dead Kennedys
Devo
Jethro Tull
Kansas
Kraftwerk
Klaus Schultze
Reichmann "Wunderbar"
Tangerine Dream
Edgar Froese
Pink Floyd
UK
OMD (Particularly the fantastic "Tesla Girls")
Genesis (only so long as the encompassed the then gigantic ego of Peter Gabriel--don't know what he's like now)
Kate Bush (Still a favorite)
Gentle Giant
Any Girl Group--from the GoGos on
Renaissance (particularly the adaptation of Albinoni's Adagio)
Gary Numan
David Bowie in all of his multifarious incarnations
The Residents (Probably my favorite group of all--saw them four times in Concert--advertised as "The Pre-Fab Four" Louisiana's Greatest Pop Band)
ELP
Roxy Music and even Brian Ferry ("More than This")
New York Dolls
GenX
Billy Idol (Rebel Yell and White Wedding--he could sneer with the best of 'em)
Brian Eno
Robert Fripp
King Krimson
Talking Heads and their spinoff The Tom-Tom Club
Spandau Ballet
Duran Duran (before they hit it big)
Human League (prior to major hit)
Forget the name of the group but one of their great songs "Les Soucoups Volants Verts"
Horslips (Particularly "Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part", "The Tain" and "The Book of Invasions.")
and last, but hardly least
The Tubes (who can forget "What do you want from life" and the immortal "White Punks on Dope." You shoulda seen 'em in concert--a real hoot--kind of like a less violent Plasmatics)
Enough--I'm just recalling that the 70s and early 80s were the last time I really was interested in what was happening in music. Been much out of the loop subsequently. I thought I didn't know much about the '70's, but then got to thinking about it and realizing, that's when I really started learning about popular music.
