Dec. 28, 1974 review: Top albums of 1974
What would the end of a year be without a year-end
list?
Dec. 28, 1974
Rock: Styled Hair, Traded Jeans in ‘74
THIS WAS THE YEAR that everyone went pop and pop went clean. It’s almost as if the music
styled its hair and traded its jeans for something dressier.
This also was the year that radio turned chicken. Playlists
kept getting tighter and less inventive, but good orchestration, as Joni
Mitchell proved early on, could get you in anywhere once you made it in
Unlike 1973, however, there wasn’t that much bizarre and
beautiful stuff that deserved to get a break and didn’t. Sometimes it took a
couple months to happen, but many of the albums I cherished through 1974 became
enormously popular.
Here’s the big 10 and some reasons why, plus 20
alternatives that were almost good enough:
1 – Joni Mitchell, “Court
and Spark.” A bold and brilliant plunge into the depth of alienation (“Twisted”)
and the need for love without pain (“Help Me.”)
2 – Stevie Wonder, “Fulfillingness’
First Finale.” An affirmation of faith in survival and all things that make
survival better – honesty (“You Haven’t Done Nothin’”) and desire (“Boogie On
Reggae Woman”).
3 – Steely Dan, “Pretzel
Logic.” A dark, jazz-influenced exploration of how to retain a small piece
of sanity in these paranoid times: “Rikki, Don’t Lose That Number.”
4 – Bad Company,
“Bad Co.” A superstar collaboration on the hardest-rocking session of the year.
It was nearly impossible to get enough of “Can’t Get Enough.”
5 – Tavares, “Hard
Core Poetry.” The intricate beauty of their five-part harmonies matched by
the crisp but lazy beauty of the Lambert-Potter songs they sing. “She’s Gone,”
however, was written by Hall & Oates (see 8).
6 –
7 –
8 – Daryl Hall &
John Oates, “War Babies.” Two more young singer-songwriters find their
necessary grit via Todd Rundgren on a haunting concept album about a burnt-out
rock star coping with the ‘70s and the weight of the past.
9 – Elton John, “Caribou.”
Pure ‘70s escapist fun. What were we doing during the climactic days of
Watergate? Dancing to “The Bitch Is Back.”
10 – Tymes, “Trustmaker.”
Nothing like an old-time
11 – Robert Klein, “Mind Over Matter.”
12 – Charlie Daniels Band, “Fire on the Mountain.”
13 – Graham Central Station, “Release Yourself.”
14 – Randy Newman, “Good Old Boys.”
15 – Roxy Music, “Stranded.”
16 – Millie Jackson, “Caught Up.”
17 – Linda Ronstadt, “Heart Like a Wheel.”
18 – Wendy Waldman, “Gypsy Symphony.”
19 – Phoebe Snow, “Phoebe Snow.”
20 – Deep Purple, “Stormbringer.”
21 – Jesse Colin Young, “Light Shine.”
22 – Earth, Wind & Fire, “Open Our Eyes.”
23 – Minnie Riperton, “Perfect Angel.”
24 – Jesse Winchester, “Learn to Love It.”
25 – Ashford & Simpson, “I Wanna Be Selfish.”
26 – New Riders of the Purple Sage, “Brujo.”
27 – Franklin Ajaye, “I’m a Comedian, Seriously.”
28 – Lee Kottke, “Ice Water.”
29 –
30 – Elvin Bishop, “Let It Flow.”
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE: Here are all my biases in full array –
singer-songwriters, old school R&B, a little funk, a couple comedy albums
and some leftover ‘60s faves like Jesse Colin Young. Who the heck were Dalton
& Dubarri? Turns out they’re Southern California guys who got dropped by
Did outstanding stuff get short shrift? Sure. Are big
ones missing? Absolutely. And for good reasons. Those top two LPs
on Rolling Stone magazine’s top 25 for 1974 – Eric Clapton’s “461 Ocean
Boulevard” and Jackson Browne’s “Late for the Sky” didn’t pass muster for me. (I
thought Clapton, despite “I Shot the Sheriff,” was less than exciting and Browne, except
for “Fountain of Sorrow,” didn’t improve on his earlier work.) Their list has
Randy Newman at #3 and Joni Mitchell down at #4. Not good enough for Joni. "Court and Spark" was a crowning achievement, excellent from start to finish, which can’t
be said about too many albums in 1974 or any year.
For instance, Rolling Stone’s Top 10 also includes Labelle’s
“Nightbirds,” which led off with “Lady Marmalade” and sank after that, and
Leonard Cohen’s “New Skin for the Old Ceremony,” far from his best, as the years have proven. And further
down are artists I love, but not enough at this moment in time – the John Hiatt
debut, “Hangin’ Around the Observatory,” Tom Waits with “The Heart of Saturday
Night” and Genesis’ classic, “The Lamb Lies Down of Broadway.”
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