1971 - Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year by David Hepworth (Dec 2018/Jan 2019)

[Susan]

Welcome to our December 18 Buddy Read of:

1971 - Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year by David Hepworth

The Sixties ended a year late – on New Year's Eve 1970, when Paul McCartney initiated proceedings to wind up The Beatles. Music would never be the same again.

The next day would see the dawning of a new era. 1971 saw the release of more monumental albums than any year before or since and the establishment of a pantheon of stars to dominate the next forty years – Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Rod Stewart, the solo Beatles and more.

January that year fired the gun on an unrepeatable surge of creativity, technological innovation, blissful ignorance, naked ambition and outrageous good fortune. By December rock had exploded into the mainstream.

How did it happen? This book tells you how. It's the story of 1971, rock’s golden year.

David Hepworth is a noted music journalist, who has written several excellent books on music.

http://www.davidhepworth.com/

http://www.wiyelondon.com/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

[Nigeyb]

Let's get this discussion underway.


Who has started 1971 - Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year?

What are you making of it so far?

Who has finished it?

What did you make of it?

Does it inspire you to read more books by David Hepworth?

What did you like about it?

What were you less convinced by?

Here's to another wonderful discussion.

[Nigeyb]

I hope to start this one early next week. I have an audiobook version to listen to. I can't wait. I loved the other book by David Hepworth which I've read, and I listen to all the Word In Your Ear podcasts which he co-helms.

[Susan]

I really enjoyed this and listened to the audiobook, read by David Hepworth. I do have his next book and have pre-ordered his new title, so I obviously do really like him!

Although I am not convinced that 1971 was the greatest year in music, I do quite enjoy volumes that centre around a particular period and have read similar titles about 1966 and other years.

[Story]

My husband is reading this right now and enjoying it so much he can't stop talking about it. So I'll feel like I've read it by the time he gets to the end....

[Susan]

It is funny the way he says that most music fans of the era were men - he says that once or twice. It made me think of a book I read called Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World in which another music journalist discussed Beatles fandom from a male perspective; something which annoyed a lot of female fans when I heard an interview with him, and which surprised the author immensely.

It made me think of the way men think of music very 'seriously' and fans are described sitting in virtual silence, musing on the music, at gigs in the book. For women, is it a different experience? Music is such a huge part of my life - as important as books (there, I said it!) - but, although David Hepworth is a bit tongue in cheek, it is obvious that, to him, rock music is a bit of a male preserve in 1971. Or, perhaps, that the music press is a male preserve?

I loved the way he talked about going to record shops to 'spend time with records.' I do think that, the way shopping has changed, means that most of our browsing is now online, as well. Is it a lesser experience?

I worked in Regent Street in the 80's and much of my time was spent in those HUGE record shops - Tower Records, HMV, Virgin... Absolutely loved it. Did anyone else use to go and see their favourites and tidy up the shelves as they browsed?! I always used to do that when I pottered around. Make sure the Beatles/solo sections were tidy :)

[Nigeyb]

I had a period working for Our Price records, including at their Oxford Street branch. That was 1981/82. Good times.

I think the key gender difference (and it's far from universal) is that males frequently like to know all the info - names of all the group, producer, every album title, all the ephemera. Females often respond in a more immediate and emotional manner. Often not particularly concerned about who is playing on the song, just how it makes them feel. That's my experience anyway.

Like you Susan, I did love to visit record shops and could spend hours browsing the racks.

I think David Hepworth is correct that rock music was a bit of a male preserve in 1971, but then so were most things back then. I don't think that necessary applies to music lovers though. Most clips I've seen of show from the early 1970s suggest audiences were often split evenly between the sexes.

[Judy]

I am surprised to hear Hepworth claim that it was mainly men who were keen on music in the 70s - I'm 10 years younger than him, so I was a child at this time and about to start swooning over David Cassidy a year or so later. I really got into music later in the 70s, but, then anyway, all the girls I knew were obsessed with music too, and we all saved up our pocket money to buy the then very expensive vinyl records, and listened to Radio Caroline on transistor radios under the covers at night.

I don't think many school pupils could buy a lot of albums as they might do now (and of course streaming has meant we also have access to huge amounts of music we don't own). As a young teenager, I would buy an album and listen to it non-stop for weeks or months before I could possibly afford another one!

I remember getting the triple (!) Paul McCartney and Wings album Wings over America as my main present for my birthday and Christmas combined in the mid-70s - much the same as a special edition PS4 game now price-wise in real terms, I would think.

[Susan]

I don't think he is claiming that only men liked music - rather that, as Nigeyb says, rock music was something of a male preserve.

I am obsessed with music trivia - although I would accept that I like music on an emotional level. I needed to 'like' the singer/band when young.

Judy, I also had the triple Wings over America album and am busily collecting the new, remastered Wings albums. I know "Wild Life," which always gets a bit of a bashing has just been re-released, but I am very fond of it :)

[Judy]

I couldn't resist picking this up from the library today and have now started reading it. It's very readable and I think it will be fun finding things to both agree and disagree with!

Right at the start of the book, I don't quite agree that there was no commercial radio in 1971 - there was Radio Luxembourg's English service, which was very popular despite dreadful sound quality at night and sometimes chopping off records before the end to play ads. I still remember some of those adverts off by heart! The chart show sponsored by Sunsilk hairspray.

[Susan]

I think it is quite a personal, quirky read, Judy. Obviously, David Hepworth has done his research, but much of it is the way he recalls the time and places he writes about.

[Judy]

Susan wrote: "I think it is quite a personal, quirky read, Judy. Obviously, David Hepworth has done his research, but much of it is the way he recalls the time and places he writes about."

Yes, that's the fun of it - both his memories and the way it brings back our own. :)

[Nigeyb]

Thanks Susan and Judy. Your comments have really whet my appetite. I can't wait to get to this now. Shouldn't be too long. I've got about two hours of my current audiobook to get through and then I can start.

[Judy]

Susan, thanks for mentioning those remastered Wings albums - they sound well worth checking out. I've recently been listening to the remastered pre-Wings McCartney and Ram albums - I have always really liked the McCartney album even though I know the critics didn't.

[Susan]

Me too, Judy. I like all those early, solo McCartney/Wings albums. "Ram," is, undoubtedly, my favourite of those.

[Judy]

I'm intrigued by the discussion of Carole King's Tapestry album, having recently seen a touring production of Beautiful, the musical based on her career.

I wanted to look up a list of all-time bestselling albums, to see where Tapestry ranks, but all the lists I can find contradict each other! I never owned a copy of Tapestry, but I did have Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon by James Taylor, which also featured the song You've Got a Friend.

[Susan]

I love Tapestry, Judy. I found the whole chapter on singer songwriters, very interesting.

[Judy]

Love this line about Humble Pie's manager Dee Anthony:

"There was nothing peace and love about Dee Anthony. He had three mottos: get the money, don't forget to always get the money, and remember not to forget to always get the money."

[Ruth]

Judy wrote: " I did have Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon by James Taylor, which also featured the song You've Got a Friend...."

I've still got that James Taylor LP on vinyl along with several others by him. I think I've got a cassette of Tapestry somewhere and also bought a download a couple of years ago. What does he say about Tapestry?

I'm finding this discussion very interesting and may have to see if I can get hold of a copy of this book!

[Judy]

Ruth wrote: "What does he say about Tapestry?..."

Great that you are being tempted to read this, Ruth. There is a lot about Tapestry, describing how it was made etc - a couple of his main points are that he thinks it helped to create a new market for albums and also attracted many young women to start buying and listening to albums.

Hepworth also says it is the oldest album to crop up on all-time bestselling lists, but I'm not sure this is 100% accurate as, when I did a bit of Googling, most of the lists I found (which all contradicted each other) included two or three Beatles albums! Not that that really matters anyway ... the point is that it is an album which has been phenomenally popular over the decades.

Mentioning the Beatles reminds me, when we finish this book, it will be interesting to see whether he has convinced anyone that 1971 really was rock's greatest year. I've just been discussing this with my husband and we both think 1967 is a contender, what with Sgt Pepper, the summer of love, Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin's debut album, etc.

[Nigeyb]

I'n uderway. Hurrah. I really like the opening where David goes through some facts about the year - typical wage, house prices, album price etc etc and loads of quite quirky information too. Marvellous stuff.

Judy wrote: "....when we finish this book, it will be interesting to see whether he has convinced anyone that 1971 really was rock's greatest year. I've just been discussing this with my husband and we both think 1967 is a contender, what with Sgt Pepper, the summer of love, Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin's debut album, etc."

I think David's point that we all remember the years when we were teenagers most vividly and fondly is spot on. As someone who mainly started buying albums during the punk era and beyond I would have to say 1978 or 1979 mean lots more to me that 1971 (great though it was and even though it does include my all time favourite album - Hunky Dory)

[Judy]

Well, I was only 6 in 1967 but the music from that era means a lot to me! I think the era I remember most fondly is the mid-1970s though, when I was a teenager.

[Susan]

I was a teenage in the mid-Eighties, but wasn't fond of the music. I am definitely stuck in the Sixties and Seventies. Any year that has a Beatles album in it is my favourite, personally :) However, David Hepworth makes a good point in the book about the Beatles solo work easily combining to make a new, and great, Beatles album.

I enjoyed his barbed comments about the year in which various members of the Beatles bickered, argued, played together, and two (at least) reunited for the Concert for Bangladesh.

[Brian E]

1971 has more good albums and music that suit my taste, as I turned 18 that year, but 1967 has more influential and seminal works in rock music. Other years have better albums but not in new or emerging rock genres. Besides the Joplin, Beatles and Hendrix that Judy mentions, these are 1967 albums that are first or nearly first albums in new or emerging rock music categories:

Avant Garde/Garage/Punk - Velvet Underground and Nico
Symphonic - Days of Future Passed- Moody Blues; Forever Changes - LOVE
Prog - Piper at the Gates of Dawn- Pink Floyd
Psychedelic - Surrealistic Pillow - Jefferson Airplane
Symphonic Folk- Pleasures of the Harbor- Phil Ochs

[Susan]

We could probably find a whole list of great records for every year from 1964, or so, all the way up to the end of the Seventies. I am looking forward to Hepworth's forthcoming book, which looks at the rise of the album, as opposed to the single. When I was young, I remember buying more singles, but then, they were more affordable.

Oddly, I brought most of my singles from an electronics shop around the corner from where I lived, which had a little records counter tucked away at the back, behind all the hoovers and plugs! Thinking back, that seems so strange now.

[Nigeyb]

I loved the chapter on the making of Carole King's Tapestry and its extraordinary and unexpected success. It's just one of those albums that everyone owns.

[Nigeyb]

I've now enjoyed the Bowie chapter and the Nick Drake chapter. This is a tremendous book. David H is brilliant at making numerous connections between apparently disparate events.

[Judy]

I was inspired by the Nick Drake chapter to listen to Bryter Layter via streaming last night - a lovely album which I had never heard before, but will return to.

[Judy]

Just to add, this is a great thing about reading books like this in the age of the Internet - you can find the music mentioned via Spotify, Amazon Music etc, even if you don't own the specific album.

[Susan]

Absolutely, Judy. It is so easy now to find even the most obscure artist online. However, the joy when you used to search for a particular record, or book, and finally found it, was something special!

[Nigeyb]

Judy wrote: "I was inspired by the Nick Drake chapter to listen to Bryter Layter via streaming last night - a lovely album which I had never heard before, but will return to."

All three of Nick Drake's albums are absolute gems. Truly a man out of time. He'd be stunned to know just how popular they remain given their inauspicious arrival into the world.

I really enjoyed Nick Drake: The Biography by Patrick Humphries when I read it about 15 years ago.

[Judy]

I will definitely listen to the others, thanks, Nigeyb.

[Susan]

Going back to January, I was interested in the chapter about live albums, and playing live. It was fascinating to hear how even really huge bands, such as Pink Floyd, would leave recording at Abbey Road and go and play at the student union bar :)

[Nigeyb]

Loving the chapter on Motown, Marvin, Stevie Wonder, Soul Train and Sly Stone.


I'm becoming quite persuaded by David's assertions about the significance of 1971.

[Nigeyb]

Splendid chapter on the Rolling Stones and how they took control of their destiny in the early 1970s.

And, of course, who can tire of reading about Mick marrying Bianca in a spectacularly misjudged wedding ceremony and celebration? Neither has ever repeated the experience.

[Susan]

I felt SO sorry for Mick Jagger's parents. Why did he not even make an effort to speak to them? Did he not even realise they were there?

[[deleted user]]

I was hoping to join in with this buddy read earlier but I have only just found my copy of the book as I have boxed up all my books while work is being done on my study. I was 14 at the beginning of 1971 and I had really discovered rock music the previous year. I am planning on reading one month a day and hope to join in with the discussions.

[Susan]

Sounds good, Andrew. That really is your era, isn't it?

[Nigeyb]

Great news Andrew. I only recently started reading it - and would be really interested in your thoughts

Andrew wrote: "I am planning on reading one month a day and hope to join in with the discussions."

Great idea. Be warned though, it's highly addictive, so you might find it hard to resist reading more than one chapter a day.

[Nigeyb]

Wonderful chapter on Cat, Marc and Rod


This really is most enjoyable

[Susan]

Good to hear you are enjoying it as much as I did, Nigeyb.

[Nigeyb]

So The Who's Baba O'Riley is the best song from the best album ('Who's Next') of the best year (1971) in the history of popular music.


Or so says David Hepworth

It's as fine a song as any to pinpoint as the high-water mark. The synth intro has always made me think of Donna Summer's I Feel Love and so David's claim of its prescience is spot on.

What do you think about David's assertion about Baba O'Riley?

[Susan]

To be honest, it isn't one of my favourite Who songs...

[Nigeyb]

Finished - I loved it


By any measure 1971 was an extraordinary musical year when many artists made their best work, and when the seeds of many future genres and trends were sown.

What also makes 1971 - Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year so enjoyable is that David discusses other things that were happening in his month-by-month dissection of the year and this embraces politics, television, social trends, cinema, attitudes and so on. It's really wide ranging and places all the wonderful music in context.

Click here to read my complete review

5/5

[Brian E]

Nigeyb wrote: "So The Who's Baba O'Riley is the best song from the best album ('Who's Next') of the best year (1971) in the history of popular music.

It works for me as a symbol of the time. My college reunion class once chose another 1971 song,"Maggie May" as best representing our college years. That works for me too.

[Susan]

Glad you liked it, Nigeyb. I love Hepworth's writing and intend to read more by him. I have read two by him now and have two to go.

[[deleted user]]

I have now read the first three chapters covering January, February and March and I am really enjoying this book. Just a couple of personal observations.

For January, and without going into his gender comments in too much detail, I would note that based on my experience at school in 1971, a serious interest in rock music was held by only a small minority of pupils and these were mainly boys. As well as enjoying the music itself we were also interested in who was playing on the record, the make and model of guitar or keyboards used and also where the album was recorded. Pure Geekdom.

I loved his discussion of live albums in March and must admit that Humble Pie "Performance Rockin' the Fillmore" is still one of my favourite live albums and I love their extended version of "I Walk on Gilded Splinters". Although I agree that they were not the most innovative group around.

[Nigeyb]

Thanks Andrew - wonderful to read your musings especially as you can actually recall the year in question.

I have only the haziest recollections as I was only nine years old. The main thing I can recall is Arsenal winning the double and especially the FA Cup Final that year.

[Susan]

I was five and can't remember it at all - certainly not in terms of music.

I agree his chapter on live albums was fascinating. There were live albums before though, obviously, but I suppose they just became popular then and it became possible to record them properly. George Martin actually considered making the Beatles first ever album a live one, but then he visited the Cavern and thought it would be impossible, as the conditions were so bad.

[Jan C]

I haven't picked up this book. Not sure if I would.

Tapestry - I still have the LP and I hope I still have the cd which came out a couple of years ago - hoping I didn't lose it in my move from Chicago but I haven't seen it since then. I really enjoyed her book, A Natural Woman: A Memoir. When the Broadway show came out a girl from my high school played the lead and her sister was the actress who replaced her, the Mueller sisters.

Record stores - I spent hours in them in the '60s-70s. I was surprised one day to see a friend of mine behind the counter - turned out that her father owned the store. I was so jealous.

I always noticed who was playing on each album. And then I noticed a schoolmate was the engineer on some albums, subsequently found out another did a lot of designs for covers, Including, I think, a couple of Michael Jacksons.