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1971 - the miracle year for music

gassor

gassor

There may be more posts after this.
According to David Hepworth (critic) 1971 is unsurpassed as the year of most landmark albums.

"This is the year of Hunky Dory, Sticky Fingers, Every Picture Tells A Story, Pink Floyd's Meddle, Elton John's Madman Across the Water, Who's Next and Led Zeppelin IV. Those are just the British ones. Think about it. If there had been a Mercury Music Prize in 1971 these would have been on the shortlist."

Mind you it did produce "What's Going On, Tapestry and Blue" as well as Andy Warhol's Velvet Underground Featuring Nico by The Velvet Underground.

http://whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/1971-was-annus-mirabilis-of-rock-album.html
 
Hey D, I was born in '73 and that seems to have been a truely vintage year too with albums by Bowie, Floyd, Stevie Wonder, Roxy Music and many more artists of that quality. I'm too tired to try to put up a proper list as I'll be retiring soon, but I've looked at this before it was a good year for sure :)

p.s. I hope your antipodean trip went well ;)
 
Also T. Rex Electric Warrior, Can's Tago Mago, the first Kraftwerk album, Tangerine Dream's Alpha Centauri, the first Ash Ra Tempel album, Miles Davis A Tribute To Jack Johnson and Live Evil, Hawkwind's In Search Of Space and Amon Düül II's Tanze Der Lemmings. It was certainly doing something right! It did not however produce the first VU album, that was 1967 IIRC.
 
and for prog...

Van der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts
Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink
Gong - Camembert Electrique
 
Gong prog?! I've no idea what it is (aside from great fun), but I'll go with hippie stoner jazz.
 
Tony L said:
Also T. Rex Electric Warrior, Can's Tago Mago, the first Kraftwerk album, Tangerine Dream's Alpha Centauri, the first Ash Ra Tempel album, Miles Davis A Tribute To Jack Johnson and Live Evil, Hawkwind's In Search Of Space and Amon Düül II's Tanze Der Lemmings. It was certainly doing something right! It did not however produce the first VU album, that was 1967 IIRC.
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The VU album above was not the first one, but a compilation of the early albums produced to cash in on Andy Warhol's growing reputation.
 
One of Roy Harper's best - "Stormcock" was a 1971 album too, as was Laughing Len's " Songs of Love and Hate".
 
In his book 1971, David Hepworth expands on this theme. He rightly identifies a lot of good albums from that year. He also points out that some popular music's less wholesome trends date back to 1971, such as charity concerts (Concert for Bangladesh), and artists content to just tour their greatest hits (Elvis).
 
For me the best ever year for music was 2016, said nobody ever.

More music legends have died this year than there have been albums likely to prevail more than a year or two.
 
Colonel_Mad said:
For me the best ever year for music was 2016, said nobody ever.

More music legends have died this year than there have been albums likely to prevail more than a year or two.
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Do you honestly think a lot of these 1971 releases will last beyond those who bought them at the time. a few will, most will sink into oblivion some 30 years on.

I really do not get people thinking that music they like is beyond time and will be forever popular. It is often taken as something personal when this is suggested but look at history of music from the past. Sure classical will remain popular, not sure to what extent though, and who exactly buys music pre 1940's and in what quantities.

Happy Crimbo


Bloss

PS: I did buy a fair few records from 1971 at the time and considerably more prior.
 
1991 was a great year for music. Better than 1971 in fact. Here are a few you missed.

Primal Scream - Screamadelica
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque
Electronic - s/t
Carter USM - 30 Something
LFO - Frequencies
The KLF - White Room
Orbital - Orbital 1
St Etienne - Foxbase Alpha
808 State - Ex:el

radamel said:
To me 1991 is even more impressive:


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_in_music

Nirvana- Nevermind;
Pearl Jam- Ten;
REM - Out of Time;
Metallica- Metallica;
Guns N' Roses- Use your illusion I and II;
Slint- Spiderland;
U2- Achtung Baby;
RHCP- Blood Sugar Sex Magic;
My Bloody Valentine- Loveless;
Massive Attack- Blue Lines;
Smashing Pumpkins- Gish...

Wow!!!
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blossomchris said:
I really do not get people thinking that music they like is beyond time and will be forever popular. It is often taken as something personal when this is suggested but look at history of music from the past. Sure classical will remain popular, not sure to what extent though, and who exactly buys music pre 1940's and in what quantities.
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I'm pretty sure much rock, pop, soul, funk, electronica etc will take a similar trajectory to jazz, i.e. appeal to a dedicated enthusiast market who buy stuff that was often released long before they were born. As an example I'm a huge Miles Davis fan, I now have the vast majority of his recorded work (around 80-100 CDs worth I guess), yet as a 53 year old I'd only have been able to catch him live right at the tail-end of his performing life - the landmark stuff all happened long before my time. Same goes with the vast majority of key Blue Note, Impulse, Riverside, Verve, Prestige label releases etc, of which I have hundreds. Similarly whenever I visit a record shop folk in their 20s seem just as likely to be walking to the counter with a Nick Drake or Pink Floyd album as they are with Beach House, Tame Impala or whatever else is fresh at present. One thing the internet seems to have done is to remove the tribal aspect of music. For those with the core intellect to look beyond manufactured X-Factor junk everything in the history of recorded music is only a few mouse-clicks away from sampling, thus I suspect many people's tastes are very diverse.
 
madmike said:
1971...The Yes Album (January) and Fragile (November)
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In the Land of Grey and Pink by Caravan and The Polite Force by Egg were two of my '71 faves. And of course Nursery Cryme by Genesis and Broken Barricades by Procol Harem and Faust by Faust were also out then—all fantastic albums.

Everything seemed possible in music in '71.

Stephen
 
If you haven't read it then David Hepworth's book is a great read. Unfortunately my children didn't take the hint before my birthday at the end of the summer so I had to buy my own copy.

With each month David recommends a set of classic tracks and/or albums that were released that month.
 
'Surf's Up', 'Moving Waves', 'Nilsson Schmilsson', Himself', 'Straight Up' (well ok released in 1972 in the UK, it was recorded in 1971 according to Wiki)
 
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