There is, among a certain age group, a
tendency to dismiss all things 70's,
including the music, as a green shag carpet, that symbol of bad taste that
has come to represent an entire decade. While no one could reasonably
argue with the idea that there was a lot of schlock that passed for
pop music during those years, that has been true of each succeeding
decade as well, as witness 80's Hair Bands and the proliferation of
teen angst Nirvana imitators in the 90's. It may be too painful just
yet to talk about the aughts, so we'll leave that for a further
removed historical perspective, but along with some very exceptional
new stuff there was also some really icky music around, and you know
who you are.
I was reminded of all this over the
weekend, the soundtrack to which was
provided by, what else, a soundtrack,
from the movie FM. FM came at the end of
the 70's and so had almost the entire
stretch to draw from. Admittedly,
this film was not the best example of
American cinema, though it did highlight a
situation that had changed the on-air
musical landscape forever, that being that by the end of the decade
the positioning of business interests over programmers expertise and
intuition as the determining factor in how much airplay a song
or genre would receive was complete.
But back to the music itself.
Beginning with the ultra-cool "FM"
(still no static at all, of course) by Steely
Dan, the two discs take us through a
pastiche of hits from mostly the '75-'78
years. Some of the cuts, like Queens
"We Will Rock You" or "Cold as Ice" by
Foreigner received so much airplay back
then that it's still not easy to listen
to them (especially since, as a dee jay
for a few years during the period, I'm
partially to blame). But others, such
as the two songs from Becker and
Fagen, the aforementioned "FM"
as well as "Do It Again" from 73's
Reeling in the Years, showcase what was
arguably their best creative
period. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
"Breakdown" previews what would be a decade of tight ,tuneful rock and roll plus massive chart presence from that outfit, while
the lesser known "There's a Place in the World For a Gambler" is actually a
better song than any of Dan Fogelberg's later commercial successes. And as an
added bonus, listening to these might lead one to some real 70's gems, like
Patti Smith or Warren
Zevon. All highly subjective of course,
but there you have it:
the 70's weren't all bad.
Or maybe I'm just looking at green
shag through very large rose-colored sunglasses.
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