My favorite songs and music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and more.
Why this blog ?
Hello, the aim of this blog is to share my musical tastes. I cover everything from the late 60s through the 90s—rock 'n' roll, hard rock, jazz-rock, pop, reggae, and many other styles—featuring bands primarily from the US, England, Europe, and around the world. I started listening to music in the 60s with my mother; she used to listen to the charts (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, etc.) on longwave radio stations like RTL and Europe 1. Later on, I would listen to radio stations at night on a transistor radio—specifically AM (amplitude modulation) broadcasts on the medium wave band. I was born in the late 50s; my brother, who was ten years my senior, used to listen to "Yé-yé" music on his record player, and I really enjoyed it. FM radio didn't arrive in France until 1981. I still enjoy listening to shortwave or medium wave radio stations using a WebSDR based in the Netherlands.
Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979 and replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who recorded three albums with the band, Heaven and Hell (1980), Mob Rules (1981), and their first authorised live album Live Evil (1983), the last two featuring drummer Vinny Appice replacing Ward. Following Dio and Appice's departures, Iommi and Butler recorded Born Again (1983) with Ward returning on drums, and Ian Gillan, then-formerly of Deep Purple, on vocals. By 1984, Butler, Ward, and Gillan had all departed, leaving Iommi to assemble a new version of Black Sabbath. For the next thirteen years, the band endured many personnel changes that included vocalists Glenn Hughes (another former Deep Purple member, who sang on Black Sabbath's 1986 album Seventh Star)[3] and Tony Martin, as well as several bassists and drummers. Of the vocalists during these years, Martin's tenure was the longest, joining in 1987 and recording three albums – The Eternal Idol (1987),[4]Headless Cross (1989),[5] and Tyr (1990) – before his initial departure in 1991.[6] That same year, Iommi reunited with Butler, Dio and Appice to record Dehumanizer (1992), though Dio and Appice both departed again by the end of 1992. Martin returned for two more studio albums, Cross Purposes (1994)[7] and Forbidden (1995),[8] and one live album, Cross Purposes Live (1995), before the band went on a one-year hiatus.
Led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles evolved from Lennon's previous group, the Quarrymen, and built their reputation by playing clubs in Liverpool and in Hamburg, West Germany, starting in 1960. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers before Starr joined in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after they signed with EMI and achieved their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the fan frenzy dubbed "Beatlemania", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four". By early 1964, the Beatles were international stars and had achieved unprecedented levels of critical and commercial success. They became a leading force in Britain's cultural resurgence, ushering in the British Invasion of the United States pop market. They made their film debut with A Hard Day's Night (1964)
The genre developed into a major form of popular music in the 1970s, with the Who, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple being joined by Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Kiss, Queen, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and Van Halen. During the 1980s, some hard rock bands moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock.[2][3] Established bands made a comeback in the mid-1980s and hard rock reached a commercial peak in the 1980s with glam metal bands such as Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and Poison, as well as the rawer sounds of Guns N' Roses which followed with great success in the later part of that decade.
In the late-1960s, the term heavy metal was used interchangeably with hard rock, but gradually began to be used to describe music played with even more volume and intensity.[9] While hard rock maintained a bluesy rock and roll identity, including some swing in the back beat and riffs that tended to outline chord progressions in their hooks, heavy metal's riffs often functioned as stand-alone melodies and had no swing in them.[5] In the 1980s, heavy metal developed a number of subgenres, often termed extreme metal, some of which were influenced by hardcore punk, and which further differentiated the two styles.[7] Despite this differentiation, hard rock and heavy metal have coexisted with one another, with bands frequently flirting with the boundaries of, or hybridizing the genres.[10]
Blues rock acts that pioneered the sound included Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the Jeff Beck Group.[5] Cream, in songs like "I Feel Free" (1966), combined blues rock with pop and psychedelia, particularly in the riffs and guitar solos of Eric Clapton.[22] Cream's best known-song, "Sunshine of Your Love" (1967), is sometimes considered to be the culmination of the British adaptation of blues into rock and a direct precursor of Led Zeppelin's style of hard rock and heavy metal.[23] Jimi Hendrix produced a form of blues-influenced psychedelic rock, which combined elements of jazz, blues and rock and roll.[24] From 1967, Jeff Beck brought lead guitar to new heights of technical virtuosity and moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band, the Jeff Beck Group.[25]Dave Davies of the Kinks, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Pete Townshend of the Who, Hendrix, Clapton and Beck all pioneered the use of new guitar effects like phasing, feedback and distortion.[26]The Doors' debut album, released in 1967, included songs like "Soul Kitchen", "Twentieth Century Fox", and a cover version of "Back Door Man", which were what music journalist Stephen Davis characterized as "enough hard rock tracks".[27] One track that stands out as especially heavy for its time is the last 1:10 of "I Feel Much Better" by the Small Faces, recorded in May 1967. The first 2:46 is typical psychedelic fare of the time, but then the song suddenly changes into a hard bass-and-guitar power chord with Steve Marriott's rhythm guitar and gut bucket singing, equal to the heaviest rock to be heard later. The Beatles began producing songs in the new hard rock style beginning with their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as the "White Album") and, with the track "Helter Skelter", attempted to create a greater level of noise than the Who.[28]Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic has referred to the "proto-metal roar" of "Helter Skelter",[29] while Ian MacDonald called it "ridiculous, with McCartney shrieking weedily against a massively tape-echoed backdrop of out-of-tune thrashing".[28]
Groups that emerged from the American psychedelic scene about the same time included Iron Butterfly, MC5, Blue Cheer and Vanilla Fudge.[30] San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a crude and distorted cover of Eddie Cochran's classic "Summertime Blues", from their 1968 debut album Vincebus Eruptum, that outlined much of the later hard rock and heavy metal sound.[30] The same month, Steppenwolf released its self-titled debut album, including "Born to Be Wild", which contained the first lyrical reference to heavy metal and helped popularise the style when it was used in the film Easy Rider (1969).[30] Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968), with its 17-minute-long title track, using organs and with a lengthy drum solo, also prefigured later elements of the sound.[30]
By the end of the decade a distinct genre of hard rock was emerging with bands like Led Zeppelin, who mixed the music of early rock bands with a more hard-edged form of blues rock and acid rock on their first two albums Led Zeppelin (1969) and Led Zeppelin II (1969), and Deep Purple, who began as a progressive rock group in 1968 but achieved their commercial breakthrough with their fourth and distinctively heavier album, Deep Purple in Rock (1970). Also significant was Black Sabbath's Paranoid (1970), which combined guitar riffs with dissonance and more explicit references to the occult and elements of Gothic horror.[30] All three of these bands have been seen as pivotal in the development of heavy metal, but where metal further accentuated the intensity of the music, with bands like Judas Priest following Sabbath's lead into territory that was often "darker and more menacing", hard rock tended to continue to remain the more exuberant, good-time music.[5]
In the early 1970s the Rolling Stones further developed their hard rock sound with Exile on Main St.[31] (1972). Initially receiving mixed reviews, according to critic Steve Erlewine it is now "generally regarded as the Rolling Stones' finest album".[32] They continued to pursue the riff-heavy sound on albums including It's Only Rock 'n' Roll[33] (1974) and Black and Blue (1976).[34] Led Zeppelin began to mix elements of world and folk music into their hard rock from Led Zeppelin III[35] (1970) and Led Zeppelin IV (1971). The latter included the track "Stairway to Heaven",[36] which would become the most played song in the history of album-oriented radio.[37] Deep Purple continued to define their unique brand of hard rock, particularly with their album Machine Head (1972), which included the tracks "Highway Star" and "Smoke on the Water".[38] In 1975 guitarist Ritchie Blackmore left, going on to form Rainbow and after the break-up of the band the next year, vocalist David Coverdale formed Whitesnake.[39] 1970 saw the Who release Live at Leeds, often seen as the archetypal hard rock live album, and the following year they released their highly acclaimed album Who's Next, which mixed heavy rock with extensive use of synthesizers.[40] Subsequent albums, including Quadrophenia (1973), built on this sound before Who Are You (1978), their last album before the death of pioneering rock drummer Keith Moon later that year.[41]
Emerging British acts included Free, who released their signature song "All Right Now" (1970), which has received extensive radio airplay in both the UK and US.[42] After the breakup of the band in 1973, vocalist Paul Rodgers joined supergroupBad Company, whose eponymous first album (1974) was an international hit.[43] UK band Foghat also found success throughout the decade with their boogie and blues style. The mixture of hard rock and progressive rock, evident in the works of Deep Purple, was pursued more directly by bands like Uriah Heep and Argent.[44] Scottish band Nazareth released their self-titled début album in 1971, producing a blend of hard rock and pop that would culminate in their best selling, Hair of the Dog (1975), which contained the proto-power ballad "Love Hurts".[45] Having enjoyed some national success in the early 1970s, Queen, after the release of Sheer Heart Attack (1974) and A Night at the Opera (1975), gained international recognition with a sound that used layered vocals and guitars and mixed hard rock with heavy metal, progressive rock, and even opera.[2] The latter featured the hit single "Bohemian Rhapsody".[46]
From outside the United Kingdom and the United States, the Canadian trio Rush released three distinctively hard rock albums in 1974–75 (Rush, Fly by Night and Caress of Steel) before moving toward a more progressive sound with the 1976 album 2112.[61][62] Also from Canada, Triumph released their debut album in 1976 before their breakthrough came in the form of the Just a Game album in 1979. Later, the band's streak of popularity continued with the Allied Forces album in 1981. The Irish band Thin Lizzy, which had formed in the late 1960s, made their most substantial commercial breakthrough in 1976 with the hard rock album Jailbreak and their worldwide hit "The Boys Are Back in Town". Their style, consisting of two duelling guitarists often playing leads in harmony, proved itself to be a large influence on later bands. They reached their commercial, and arguably their artistic peak with Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979).[63] The arrival of the Scorpions from Germany marked the geographical expansion of the subgenre.[30] Australian-formed AC/DC, with a stripped back, riff heavy and abrasive style that also appealed to the punk generation, began to gain international attention from 1976, culminating in the release of their multi-platinum albums Let There Be Rock (1977) and Highway to Hell (1979).[64] Also influenced by a punk ethos were heavy metal bands like Motörhead, while Judas Priest abandoned the remaining elements of the blues in their music,[65] further differentiating the hard rock and heavy metal styles and helping to create the new wave of British heavy metal which was pursued by bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Venom.[66]
In 1978, Van Halen emerged from the Los Angeles music scene with a sound based around the skills of lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen. He popularised a guitar-playing technique of two-handed hammer-ons and pull-offs called tapping, showcased on the song "Eruption" from the album Van Halen, which was highly influential in re-establishing hard rock as a popular genre after the punk and disco explosion, while also redefining and elevating the role of electric guitar.[71] In the 1970s and 80s, several European bands, including the German Michael Schenker Group, the Swedish band Europe, and Dutch bands Golden Earring, Vandenberg and Vengeance experienced success in Europe and internationally.
The opening years of the 1980s saw a number of changes in personnel and direction of established hard rock acts, including the deaths of Bon Scott, the lead singer of AC/DC, and John Bonham, drummer with Led Zeppelin.[72] Whereas Zeppelin broke up almost immediately afterwards, AC/DC pressed on, recording the album Back in Black (1980) with their new lead singer, Brian Johnson. It became the fifth-highest-selling album of all time in the US and the second-highest-selling album in the world.[73] Black Sabbath had split with original singer Ozzy Osbourne in 1979 and replaced him with Ronnie James Dio, formerly of Rainbow, giving the band a new sound and a period of creativity and popularity beginning with Heaven and Hell (1980). Osbourne embarked on a solo career with Blizzard of Ozz (1980), featuring American guitarist Randy Rhoads.[74] Some bands, such as Queen, moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock,[2][3] while others, including Rush with Moving Pictures (1981), began to return to a hard rock sound.[61] The creation of thrash metal, which mixed heavy metal with elements of hardcore punk from about 1982, particularly by Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer, helped to create extreme metal and further remove the style from hard rock, although a number of these bands or their members would continue to record some songs closer to a hard rock sound.[7][75]Kiss moved away from their hard rock roots toward pop metal: firstly removing their makeup in 1983 for their Lick It Up album,[76] and then adopting the visual and sound of glam metal for their 1984 release, Animalize, both of which marked a return to commercial success.[77]Pat Benatar was one of the first women to achieve commercial success in hard rock, releasing four consecutive US Top Five albums between 1980 and 1983.[78]
Often categorised with the new wave of British heavy metal, in 1981 Def Leppard released their second album High 'n' Dry, mixing glam-rock with heavy metal, and helping to define the sound of hard rock for the decade.[79] The follow-up Pyromania (1983) was a big hit and the singles "Photograph", "Rock of Ages" and "Foolin'", helped by the emergence of MTV, were successful.[79] It was widely emulated, particularly by the emerging Californian glam metal scene. This was followed by US acts like Mötley Crüe, with their albums Too Fast for Love (1981) and Shout at the Devil (1983) and, as the style grew, the arrival of bands such as Ratt,[80]White Lion,[81]Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot.[82] Quiet Riot's album Metal Health (1983) was the first glam metal album, and arguably the first heavy metal album of any kind, to reach number one in the Billboard music charts; drummer Frankie Banali said there was "no question" the band had "opened up the door for everyone else." [83][84]
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