TRACK LIST:
With some of the other 1970s music compilations, there’s been criticism that much of the music was bland or middle-of-the-road. This CD collection has more of an edge. Who can forget the memorable line from Golden Earring’s “Radar Love”: “And the radio played that forgotten song/Brenda Lee’s comin’ on strong.” Some people love Grand Funk Railroad’s rendition of “The Loco-Motion” (and some hate it). They just don’t play songs like “Rambin’ Man” the way The Allman Brothers Band did. Are these songs from the 1970s more to your taste? GRADE: B+
| 1 | Joe Walsh | Life’s Been Good | |
| 2 | –Deep Purple | Smoke On The Water | |
| 3 | –Golden Earring | Radar Love | |
| 4 | –Nazareth (2) | Hair Of The Dog | |
| 5 | –Grand Funk Railroad | The Loco-Motion | |
| 6 | –Gary Glitter | Rock And Roll Part 2 | |
| 7 | –Bad Company (3) | Can’t Get Enough | |
| 8 | –Foghat | Slow Ride | |
| 9 | –The Rockets (5) | Oh Well | |
| 10 | –The Allman Brothers Band | Ramblin Man | |
| 11 | –The Kinks | Sleepwalker | |
| 12 | –Bonnie Tyler | It’s A Heartache |
A lot of songs that got played to death back in the 70’s to the point that I don’t really want to hear them again. Some odd choices. The Kinks Sleepwalker was not a song played very much then. Oh Well was originally and far better done by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. The Rockets version never got much airplay, not even in their home base of Detroit. And I thought Gary Glitter was pretty much banned now a days after his child molestation convictions. A lot of songs that were played by every bar band of the time that I am long sick of – Slow Ride, Hair of the Dog, Smoke On the Water. Prefer Little Eva over the clunky Grand Funk Railroad (. Not a bad collection, The only ones that hold up well for me are The Kinks, Golden Earring and The Allman Brothers Band. I’d give this a C.
Steve, you’re right about the odd choices from “name” groups on this CD.
All that 1970s jock rock and then, suddenly, Bonnie Tyler’s “It’s A Heartache”? Seems an odd juxtaposition. Not a huge fan of “Radar Love,” but Golden Earring had another song, “Twilight Zone,” that was excellent.
Deb, I’ll have to track down Golden Earring’s “Twilight Zone.”
I get a kick out of Joe Walsh doing “Life’s Been Good,” which he does at Eagles concerts. Also like the Bonnie Tyler, though I agree it doesn’t fit here. Gary Glitter is an incorrigible. He gets out of prison, then gets arrested again for the same crime.
Jeff, I’m with you on Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good.” I like Bonnie Tyler but as you and Deb point out she’s a little out of place on a FRAT ROCK CD.
An OK collection. Lots of songs I remember and still hear occasionally , but no bands I really love except The Kinks and The Allman Brothers. Although he doesn’t appear on compilations, and probably wouldn’t want to, nobody had a better decade than Neil Young, from “After the Gold Rush” in 1970 to “Rust Never Sleeps” in ’79. From the lovely folkie songs of “Harvest” to the raw, grungy rock of “Tonight’s the Night”, nobody in the 70s did it better, and he’s still around, attacking Trump for playing his music.
Michael, I’ll have to dig out my Neil Young CDs. I enjoyed his work with Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Somehow, Young ran into difficulties with his record company and he pretty much disappeared from radio in the late 1980s and 1990s.
I’m more of a child of the 60s. For me the 70s were pretty much a dead zone. The few songs here that I know are fairly decent and the Allman Brothers and The Kinks can do no wrong. Whenever I hear “Ramblin’ Man” I think of el presidente and change the title to “Shamblin’ Man.”
Jerry, do I have a CD for you! In a couple of weeks I’ll post about a 1960s music CD that will delight that child of the Sixties.
By the seventies, I was mostly listening to classical and jazz, thinking it was time to grow up. But I was relieved when my kids got into music, music from the mid eighties to the mid-nineties is my favorite now. Maybe not my favorite, but I like it better than heavy metal or disco.
Patti, same here. When Patrick and Katie got into pop music in the 1990s and I started to take them and their friends to concerts, my familiarity with the music of the era increased.
These songs are also mainly from the early 70’s. Nothing from the later part of the decade. Lot of great music was produced in the 70’s. Neil Young, Rolling Stones, Ramones, Talking Heads, Springsteen, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Pretenders, Lou Reed, Bob Seger, Eagles, Tom Waits, The Who, Pink Floyd, The Clash, Roxy Music, Lennon, McCartney. All better than any of the artists here except for The Kinks and Allman Brothers. A lot of these compilations tend to artists they can get on the cheap.
Steve, money is always a factor in the choices on these compilation CDs.
Why “Frat”?
Rick, I suspect these songs were played at FRAT parties in the 1970s.
Most of these aren’t really my type of music. I do enjoy the Joe Walsh number.
I used to like Twilight Zone until some idiot DJ decided to play it over and over and over until the station management must have stepped in. When they finally did (not soon enough), that DJ wasn’t the one who finished out the time slot.
Beth, I remember DJs playing songs over and over. Then, they got accused of payola.
I’m not familiar with all of these (at least by name) I like the ones most of the others have mentioned: joe walsh, allman bros, bonnie raitt, kinks (though that song isn’t
familiar to me.
I don’t remember hearing about gary glitter, and don’t remember him. I was more into music in the 60’s, but did the bar thing in the 70’s (until disco changed it for the worse)
Maggie, next week’s post about music features a song I know you’re fond of.
This is Bonnie Tyler not Bonnie Raitt. The Gary Glitter song was played constantly at sporting events.
Maggie, Wikipedia has all of the sordid details about Gary Glitter.