The 1970s was legendarily a time for rock ‘n’ roll excess, and as you’ll discover in this new magazine, we’re as vulnerable to that as any musician of that decade. We’re firm believers in giving an audience what they want, so we’ve brought you more. More pages! More archive interviews! More insights into the greatest music!
Inside you’ll find 500 albums reviewed and ranked. An interview with Ken Scott about his time in the studio with Bowie and other legends of the 1970s. There’s a revealing insight into the making of Sticky Fingers by Mick Jagger, and a witty and insightful account of life inside Television by guitarist Richard Lloyd. There’s also a look behind the curtain of Bob Dylan’s most personal album, Blood On The Tracks. It’s a tale of bitter words, strong drink and high stakes – and a completely compelling one.
Those are the marquee names, for sure. But the 1970s was such a boom time for music production and sales that we’ve been spending the years since trying to make sense of its riches. Reggae and dub. The widescreen take on what originated as “soul” music, now made epic in the hands of auteurs like Curtis Mayfield, the Temptations and Stevie Wonder. The new music from Germany, made by Can, Kraftwerk and Neu! Brazilian singer-songwriters. British innovators like Bowie, Fripp and Eno…
Impossible to make sense of otherwise, democracy has allowed us see how the years have acted on 1970s music. Clearly we now listen to a lot more jazz, and music from other countries. It’s also good to note that there’s been a changing of the guard. In a time when the 50th anniversary reissue of Dark Side Of The Moon offers no more surprises than the kind of box it comes in, I’m relieved that the big hitters of our Top 20 aren’t solely the albums you’d have found stacked in every older brother’s bedroom in 1974.
Here instead are artistic breakthroughs; albums to rally a cause, or mobilize a generation, and at least five which dismantle music to rebuild it from the ground up. All are worth your deep consideration because they have made it this far, and seem unlikely to be going anywhere. These are why we make charts. And why, even when we’re surrounded by great new music, we still can’t resist looking back for more.
The magazine is out tomorrow, but you can get your copy here today.
