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Rock music peaked in 1971


Al Krow

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12 hours ago, skankdelvar said:

Perhaps Mr Daltrey has been reading David Hepworth's book 1971 - Never a Dull Moment which (surprise) asserts that 1971 was the greatest year for rock music. Mr Hepworth's core contention is that  '1971 saw the release of more monumental albums than any year before or since' and when one scrutinises the list of albums (and singles) released that year it's difficult to disagree with him. 

Clearly, this doesn't mean that no significant albums were released in other years. IMO, 1969 was a pretty good year. Jon Savage makes a persuasive case for 1966 as being a pivotal year for pop music.

Perhaps one might compromise and say that 1965-1977 were the golden years of rock music as an un-ironic, non-self-referential cultural force. Before then it was all Larry Parnes showbiz pop and thereafter it was downhill into re-cycled posturing for cash with some good music thrown in.

I'd definitely agree with that summing up......

You have to respect Roger Daltry for his status in the genre and role in one of rocks greatest bands, but it was a very subjective and sweeping statement for him to make.  ¬¬

On the basis that Led Zeppelin are generally regarded as the greatest rock band ever, probably most of their fans would say they had peaked by 1971 - though my personal favourite album of theirs is Presence (1976).  And you'd have to say that Robert Plant has evolved as a musician more successfully over recent decades than Roger D 

 

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Don't agree at all. Lots of classic rock bands appeared and peaked after that. Deep Purple peaked with Made In Japan 72-73, Led Zep, Rainbow, Rush, AC/DC, ZZ Top, Sabbath and then you have the Metal bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica etc  there are far too many to list.

For me Rock music peaked around 74-76 altho for some it would be the Iron Maiden era i reckon.

Dave

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Interesting that a number of folk are saying that rock peaked a little later in the mid-late 70s.

In which case, although old Roger wasn't precisely on the money, he also wasn't a million miles off either i.e. if he'd said the 1970s rather than a more precise 1971, and tying it a little arrogantly to one of the Who's albums, I suspect there would be a lot more agreement with him.

Well here's the thing. I'm glad he made such a provocative statement 'cos I'd always felt that in terms of great music the 60s or the 80s were peak decades. But actually for rock music the better answer may actually be somewhere in between! :)

 

 

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On 5/31/2018 at 23:35, Al Krow said:

Roger Daltry thinks rock might have peaked with The Who’s fifth album "Who’s Next" in 1971. “Pete [Townshend] was so far ahead of his time, people are still catching up.”

If 1971 was the year when things started going down hill for rock music then that means that there were more great bands playing and great albums written before 1971 than after.

Do you agree with him?

 

Not at all. And he strikes me as someone who overestimates his own importance/contribution...

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I've always thought the Roger comes across well. By all accounts a very nice guy, and extremely down to earth. 

Amazing career, and does some extremely important charity work. Recently gave his time to open a new cafe at the end of the railway near here. 

....and that's before you get to the list of songs performed , and brilliant vocals recorded with The Who. 

At least his point has got people talking about rock....even if the consensus is that he wasn't that far off. 

Incidentally, I love The Who By Numbers, 4 years after the...ahem...peak!

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Maybe what he meant was that Rock was a more popular music of that era and it declined on TV progs like TOTP or even OGWT for various reasons many of the bands didn't want to play on TOTP and back in late 60's to earlier 70's album sales were huge compared to the years after that. Perhaps the fact that people tended to watch TV more than listen to radio or albums had an effect. Who knows ........am i trying to justify his comment now 😊

I didn't get into proper rock music until 74 ish and that's probably why i think it peaked then. I was listening to bands mainly from that era. It has to be different for everyone i guess.

Dave

 

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On 31/05/2018 at 23:35, Al Krow said:

Roger Daltry thinks rock might have peaked with The Who’s fifth album "Who’s Next" in 1971. “Pete [Townshend] was so far ahead of his time, people are still catching up.”

If 1971 was the year when things started going down hill for rock music then that means that there were more great bands playing and great albums written before 1971 than after.

Do you agree with him?

No.

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On 01/06/2018 at 14:32, Al Krow said:

Mostly just 4 chords in the 50's

Nothing much really decent since 2000 :D

 

Only Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Kings of Leon...

Think for a minute what came after 1971 - Led Zeppelin IV, Never Mind the Bollocks, Back In Black, London Calling, Master of Puppets, Appetite For Destruction, Nevermind, OK Computer... rock music has never peaked. 

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I've always said the Summer of '70 was the greatest time for great RnR when everybody was still alive and most of the best hard bands were established or gearing up to become big names. a few unknown favorites like Captain Beyond, DUST and Budgie were a year away from their beginnings but most of the asskickers were stomping around the globe making a Rock n Roll racket that had never been heard before or since.

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40 minutes ago, The59Sound said:

Only Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Kings of Leon...

Think for a minute what came after 1971 - Led Zeppelin IV, Never Mind the Bollocks, Back In Black, London Calling, Master of Puppets, Appetite For Destruction, Nevermind, OK Computer... rock music has never peaked. 

The only thing around here that's peaked is most of us!

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3 hours ago, The59Sound said:

Only Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Kings of Leon...

I do love Muse!! But if that's the 'best of' post 2000, I think you've made my point for me. This lot are undoubtedly good, but don't hold a candle to some of their illustrious forebear 'greats'.

Edited by Al Krow
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On 01/06/2018 at 12:11, Al Krow said:

To be fair, he did manage to hook-up with one of the all time greatest bass players called "John". In fact I can't think of a better bass player called John, can you?

 

On 01/06/2018 at 12:34, Hobbayne said:

John Paul Jones?

 

On 01/06/2018 at 13:46, Leonard Smalls said:

John Patitucci?

 

On 01/06/2018 at 14:05, Belka said:

John Francis Anthony Pastorius?

 

On 01/06/2018 at 14:39, Meddle said:

John Wetton. A far more musically talented bassist with a far better ear and approach to the instrument. Entwistle was loud and fast, and a consistent over-player. Great for getting into bass, but there isn't exactly a lot of practical bass skill to be learned from working out Entwistle's six or so stock licks and phrases. 

 

On 01/06/2018 at 14:44, scalpy said:

John Giblin? 

How could I forget and how come no else has mentioned the amazingly talented (and often under-rated) Queen's John Deacon and Duran Duran's John Taylor?!

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1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

I do love Muse!! But if that's the 'best of' post 2000, I think you've made my point for me. This lot are undoubtedly good, but don't hold a candle to some of their illustrious forebear 'greats'.

 

debatable...

what you call greats may not look that great to others.

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2 minutes ago, mcnach said:

debatable...

what you call greats may not look that great to others.

I agree that my 'greats' may not be the same as yours, but I'm sure we can ALL name four bands that are widely recognised as being collectively better than: Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Muse and Kings of Leon.

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3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

I agree that my 'greats' may not be the same as yours, but I'm sure we can ALL name four bands that are widely recognised as being collectively better than: Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Muse and Kings of Leon.

Maybe, but I bet we couldn't all agree on the same groups.

But for me they would all be after 1971, after which music got better 

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12 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Maybe, but I bet we couldn't all agree on the same groups.

But for me they would all be after 1971, after which music got better 

For sure. 

Let me put it another way, how many of us would genuinely include these four standard bearers of post 2000 music in our top four bands of all time? If you had to take any four albums onto a desert island... 

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6 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

For sure. 

Let me put it another way, how many of us would genuinely include these four standard bearers of post 2000 music in our top four bands of all time? If you had to take any four albums onto a desert island... 

Some days I would, some days I wouldn't. I am pretty changeable. Certainly there aren't any pre 1971 Albums (note not necessarily groups that had started there) that would be on the desert island, and on the list nothing from 1971 or before that would be necessarily below a queens of the stoneage album.

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There was also a more limited style or "labelling" of Rock before 71 compared to what is classed as Rock today therefore more bands were playing similar styles of Rock.

Prog was going in late 60's but recognized as peaking in mid to late 70's.

Today we have Rock, Classic Rock, Prog Rock, Heavy Rock, Indie, Metal, Thrash, even Folk rock and probably more that i can't think off at the moment. 

My point being that back in 71 it was all more or less classed as simply Rock and may have seemed like there were more "Rock" bands about

What do fellow BC'ers class as Rock music ?

Dave

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