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

[Judy]

I've just read the chapter about the Rolling Stones, which I found interesting but thought it was a bit shallow and even with a slightly sneering tone at times.

I was also surprised to see the author airily claim that the Stones did nothing more that was really important after 1972 - I seem to remember the slightly later albums Goat's Head Soup, Black and Blue and Some Girls all attracting a lot of interest at the time (and being listened to endlessly by girls at my school!)

[Judy]

PS I was 10 in 1971 - just found a list of the top 100 singIes of the year in the UK, and I do remember most of them, but am not sure how many of them I caught up with later! I'm glad that many of these don't feature in the book (or I'm guessing they won't!)

http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/...

[Judy]

For instance, Ernie by Benny Hill, Grandad by Clive Dunn, Bridget the Midget by Ray Stevens and Leap Up And Down (Wave Your Knickers In The Air) by St Cecilia. I'll stop now! ;)

[[deleted user]]

Judy wrote: "PS I was 10 in 1971 - just found a list of the top 100 singIes of the year in the UK, and I do remember most of them, but am not sure how many of them I caught up with later! I'm glad that many of ..."

I have just had a look at this list and it brought back some memories, not all of them good. If anyone wanted to argue that 1971 was not the best year for music Clive Dunn's "Grandad" would be a good one to go for.

[Nigeyb]

Judy wrote: "I was 10 in 1971 - just found a list of the top 100 singIes of the year in the UK, and I do remember most of them, but am not sure how many of them I caught up with later! I'm glad that many of these don't feature in the book (or I'm guessing they won't!)

For instance, Ernie by Benny Hill, Grandad by Clive Dunn, Bridget the Midget by Ray Stevens and Leap Up And Down (Wave Your Knickers In The Air) by St Cecilia. I'll stop now! ;) "

I can confirm none of your examples make it into the book.

Part of David H's argument is that 1971 was the year when album sales really took off, and that is the focus of the book. Singles acts, like say T.Rex, whilst still clocking up impressive sales figures, were nowhere near as lucrative as the big albums of the year (e.g. Tapestry)

[[deleted user]]

I finished reading this a couple of days ago and I loved it. I liked the way that David Hepworth put the music in context with the events and culture of the year. I do have a problem with books that try to say that a certain year was the best year for something or the most important but he does make a good case for 1971 being rock's golden year.

The book certainly brought back memories for me. I particularly remember buying budget sampler albums as a way to discover rock music. There was little on the radio then.

Finally, Black Sabbath's "Master of Reality" really had a big impact on me when I first heard it and I was pleased to see that David Hepworth described it as "The 1971 recording which has had most impact on subsequent generations of music makers".

I will definitely be reading more of David Hepworth's books.

[Judy]

Nigeyb wrote: "Part of David H's argument is that 1971 was the year when album sales really took off, and that is the focus of the book ..."

Good point, Nigeyb. I remember the singles better because I was only 10, but, looking at that list, you can see how big the gap between singles and albums was - apart from all the novelty singles, the singles list also features things like Coco by the Sweet, two hits by Dawn ... and at the other end of the scale, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Perry Como, etc.

[Val]

I had started buying albums instead of singles by 1971, but it took me so long to save up for them that I could only buy one or two a year. I did buy one of those singles, Soldier Blue by Buffy Sainte-Marie.

[Val]

These are listed as the bestselling albums in the UK that year.
Top albums of 1971
1 Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
2 Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
3 Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
4 Various - Motown Chartbusters vol 5
5 T Rex - Electric Warrior
6 Paul & Linda McCartney - Ram
7 Carole King - Tapestry
8 Moody Blues - Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
9 Andy Williams - Greatest Hits
10 James Taylor - Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon

[Nigeyb]

Thanks Val. Very interesting.


I was barely buying singles then. I did buy Electric Warrior later in the decade.

[Jan C]

Val wrote: "These are listed as the bestselling albums in the UK that year.
Top albums of 1971
1 Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
2 Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
3 Rolling Stones - St..."

I still have 5 of those albums.

Tapestry - just about everyone had this album. A bit like Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly - my brother and I gave this to each other for Christmas - was that '72? But these were the albums everyone had.

[Val]

Everybody in the US probably did Jan, I think Tapestry was a bit slower to take off in the UK, but it made the top ten and David Hepworth makes the point that women bought it (although I think he over-emphasises the 'rock fans were all hairy men' stereotype).
The only album he has mentioned so far which I am fairly sure I bought in 1971, instead of some years later when I had more money, is Meddle. I had been a Pink Floyd fan since going to see this ballet with a school group: http://www.rambert.org.uk/performance...

P.S. I took an early look at his list of 100 albums and Meddle is the only one I would have bought that year, unless you count The Concert for Bangladesh, which was released in 1972 in the UK and I bought then. There are another nine or ten albums I bought later, plus four I taped from friends' copies and even later bought on CD.

[Val]

From the Guardian archive: https://www.theguardian.com/music/201...

[Nigeyb]

That Peel article is a great period piece. Thanks Val,

[Val]

I wasn't listening to John Peel's late night programme under the bedclothes with a transistor radio against my ear in 1971, but I was a few years later.

[Judy]

Great list of top albums, Val. I think American Pie by Don McLean must have been one of the top ones in 1972, carrying on the singer-songwriter theme. That was the first album I bought (though I bought it secondhand off another girl at school!)

[Val]

I don't think I ever bought that on vinyl Judy. I do have a CD version.

[Jan C]

I bought a cassette tape of American Pie and now I have the best of Don McLean on CD - but since America Pie is on there twice there must not have been too many "bests".

[Susan]

What is more interesting is how those records, and artists, are still making money for both them, and their record companies. They say that computer games now outsell both DVD's and music generally; especially with streaming. If you think about it, the music that still generates the most income are the older bands/singers, whose audience will still buy CD's and who can command large audiences on tour. David Hepworth told an interesting story about Pink Floyd leaving the studio to play live, as that was where the money is, but I suspect it still is.

[Nigeyb]

Now the music business model is reversed compared with the 1970s. Back then albums were where the big money was made, with tours being loss leaders.

Now the majority of money is made in touring and merchandise.

[Susan]

Perhaps live music was the 'bread and butter' of the 1970's? Certainly, touring is big business now, but it is hard to see which of the newer acts will be able to fill those big stadiums. I do think that Hepworth is correct in saying that he was around at exactly the right time, as a music fan.

[Nigeyb]

I agree. There's the occasional new act who captures a mass audience (e.g. Adele) but the vast majority can't hope to have the same pull

[Judy]

I've picked this up again and have just been reading about Janis Joplin and Leonard Cohen - I was never aware that Chelsea Hotel #2 was about her until it was mentioned in his obituaries.

I was slightly startled here to see Hepworth describing the line "We are ugly but we have the music" as "disingenuous" because they and other singer-songwriters weren't really "ugly" - well, maybe not, but neither of these two were conventionally beautiful, and the power of the line is that it reaches out to other people, to the listeners who don't think they are beautiful either.

I've just read an article about their brief relationship in Rolling Stone, which quotes the whole verse:

And clenching your fist for the ones like us 

Who are oppressed by the figures of beauty 

You fixed yourself, you said, “Well, never mind …
We are ugly but we have the music”

The verse transformed the song. It managed to reanimate the fire and ice of Joplin’s psyche—her brash braggadocio and her insecure vulnerability—and provided a universal rallying cry to lonesome misfits the world over.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/mu...

On a Leonard Cohen website there is a video of him talking about another line "I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best," and a video of him singing the song with slightly different lyrics - instead of "ugly", it's "you said, 'We aren't pretty, but we have the music", and at the end of the song the lyrics are changed to "That's all, my little darling, I don't even think of you that often."

https://cohencentric.com/tag/chelsea-...

[Susan]

I knew it was about her, Judy, but I can't remember where I read it.

I have been reading about Robbie Williams and Jimmy Page's row over building works.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...

If true, it seems unbelievably childish.

[Judy]

Wow, Susan, what a bizarre story about Williams and Page. If there's any truth in it, how pathetic!

[Judy]

PS just noticed I missed two links out of my post about Leonard Cohen and Janis Joplin, so have now added them in!

[Susan]

Thanks for the links, Judy. Very interesting.

[Judy]

Glad you liked them, Susan. I love the singer-songwriters from this era - I've been listening to Cat Stevens today, and reading what Hepworth has to say about him.

[Nigeyb]

I think Cat's early work really does have a timeless quality - as does a lot of the music that David H discusses

[Susan]

I like Cat Stephens too, but my day has been spent mainly reading about Dickens :)

[Judy]

Glad to hear you both like Cat Stevens. I think it's moving to hear him singing Father and Son now that his real voice is the older one.

Are you enjoying the Dickens bio, Susan? I've now switched from listening to Cat Stevens to a folk favourite, Ralph McTell - I got a double album by him for Christmas, All Things Change: The Transatlantic Anthology, which is all tracks recorded between 1967-70

[Susan]

I am enjoying it, thanks. I like Ralph McTell too, but was playing Badfinger while cooking lunch today :)

[Judy]

I've just been reading about Badfinger today, and must give them a listen too. :) I'm just listening to Morning Dew, a track where Ralph McTell sounds like an old bluesman, but he must have been about 23!

[Nigeyb]

As David mentions, Badfinger's Baby Blue was the final song on the final episode of Breaking Bad. I was not familiar with it until I saw it on BB. It's great.

[Judy]

I've picked this up again and have almost finished it now, belatedly! I've quite enjoyed it and it will definitely lead me to listen to some of the many artists he covers who I don't really know.

Have to say, though, I am puzzled as to why the lists of tracks at the end of each chapter seem a bit random and often don't include the songs he has discussed at greatest length. I suppose the idea is to broaden the scope out further.

I'm just wondering, for anyone who read this book, which artist or album that you like from this "golden year" wasn't featured? I was a fan of Melanie at in the early/mid-70s and I see she released The Good Book in 1971, which includes the epic Birthday of the Sun. Just interested to know what other albums from this period people like?

[Nigeyb]

Well done for finishing it Judy - it is indeed an inspiring and passionate book

Judy wrote: "II am puzzled as to why the lists of tracks at the end of each chapter seem a bit random and often don't include the songs he has discussed at greatest length. I suppose the idea is to broaden the scope out further."

I think he was just trying to define the year musically by giving a spread of what he thinks were the key tracks.

Judy wrote: "I'm just wondering, for anyone who read this book, which artist or album that you like from this "golden year" wasn't featured?"

I need to ponder that one Judy

I do like Melanie though - however can see why she wasn't included

[Susan]

I was too young in 1971 to be buying albums - I didn't buy my first single until I was about 7 or 8, Many of these artists I first heard through 'Best of,' compilations, rather than the original albums and I was never mad on lots of artists he raved over and have never particularly liked Pink Floyd. I know your husband does, Judy, so forgive me.

Of the albums Val listed, I adore "Ram" and love all McCartney's early solo albums - even if the critics slammed them! The only other album from Val's list I have is "Tapestry," which I play sometimes - mainly while cooking for some reason. With the Stones I like some of their songs, more than albums, but I do have "Sticky Fingers," in vinyl somewhere. I also like Rod Stewart, but, oddly, have nothing by him on my iPod, or on CD, and need to rectify that pretty quickly. Off to iTunes!