1972: David Bowie, T.Rex, Lou Reed, Stevie Wonder & more! | The Album Years Podcast
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- We are back (in our brand new studio!) with another monumental year in music history: 1972! In this first episode, up for discussion are genre defining glam rock albums by David Bowie and T.Rex, mainstream smash hits by Elton John, Stevie Wonder and The Rolling Stones and much more.
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1972 was a great year for music! I just unpacked, about 3 years ago, the first four Roxy Music albums - never played! They are a real treasure to have discovered. Elton's 1972 HONKY CHATEAU is one of my favourites: his new band line-up (Dee, Nigel, and Davey) on record helped EJ move into new creative directions. Agreed, that run of Elton albums up to and including the eclectic BLUE MOVES was a truly incredible run. Producer Gus Dudgeon was such a key factor in creating that classic Elton John sound. Love the podcast!
I love the first 5 Roxy Music albums. If you’ve not heard Siren, their fifth album, and you enjoy the first 4, then you must listen to it. A great, underrated band.
Roxy music were so far ahead of their time, people are STILL having to catch up to their wildly eclectic music that never failed to showcase inventive arrangements and highly listenable tunes that capture imagination and seekers of stylish, smart music!
I sneaked off school to get a ticket to see David Bowie in 1972 and was a big fan after 'Man who sold the world' album, so it was a great shock to everyone, when he said at the close of the concert, that he was dropping the Ziggy Stardust character. So you were right in saying that his huge success enabled him to change. In my view, though, it was a change for the worse.
Lol when Steven tells Tim to stop talking about albums from other years as they'll be there all year hahaha 😂😂😂
I often times play Transformer and Ziggy back to back 🤫
I've been a fan since 11-8-1975, when my late husband Rodney introduced me to Roxy Music. I was a Bowie fan prior & still. "How can you choose between Bryan Ferry and David Bowie? They"re both God's.". A line from movie entitled: "Flashbacks Of A Fool " ❤❤❤❤❤ hearing both❤ I never tire hearing their music or T-Rex, King Crimson, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop. I'm a Passinger to all their sounds. Spoke, Spoke
GREAT SOUNDS!
Terry Callier: Occasional Rain & What Colour is Love
As you say Elton John was on fire during the early 70s and Stevie Wonder‘s output at this time is also truly amazing. Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fullfillingness’ First Finale, Songs In The Key Of Life is a stunning run… 🫶
Schoolboy error alert. Stevie Wonders follow up to Talking Book was Innervisions, not Innerviews, and it’s my favourite of his!
Stevie Wonder album Music of my Mind is simply classic. The opening track "Superwoman" is simply amazing. This album led up to "Innervision" that started the major change from pop songs to more FM classic music. As always, thank you for sharing these masterpieces of music from 1972. Cheers from Indiana 👍.
The opening track is Love Having you Around.
@christophersalliss4283
Thanks for getting me square away. Track 2 Side 1 is Superwoman.
1972….Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book and Todd Rundgren’s Something/Anything. What a year.
Re : Paul Simon .Technically not his debut as he released "The Paul Simon Songbook" in 65 during his London Sojourn
Randy Newman. A misunderstood genius, precisely because he inhabits the innermost thoughts of some seriously damaged individuals while never denying their humanity.
One of the best years ever in music. The only thing that could have made it better is if the Ham put something out.
Milton Nascimento - Clube De Esquina. Album of the year!
I'm so over Crocodile Rock, but Elton's deep cuts are brilliant.
Bear in mind that the two albums preceding Talking Book were already showing the signs of his independence: "Music of my Mind" and "Where I'm Coming From" are brilliant. The first Paul Simon contains severakl gems: Congratulations with its lovely Larry Knechtel piano, Armistice Day and Peace Like A River are all standouts.
Ziggy Stardust was life-changing for me, and I know that cliché is much abused. I still remember hearing it for the first time as a 15-year-old kid in a stoner bus, thinking, "What the hell is this? It's nothing like anything I've ever heard before." And I'd been listening to all the other bands of the day, loving it all. But the spare, pristine arrangements, the brilliant blend of acoustic and electric guitars, the stellar songwriting (sorry had to use that one)... Sheer perfection. To this day after listening to it for 50 years it still sounds brand new every time.
Rock's best year. We all came out to Montreux ...
On the lake Geneva shoreline
Thanks for this. The review of The Slider and where it sits culturally is spot on. I don't think Bolan thought he was glam at the time; he was just being himself. (With the help of Visconti)
I like this podcast. It's a find for rock music buffs.
Wizzard (although originally billed as The Move) played one of the rock roll revival concerts - at Wembley with Chuck Berry etc. Nicely linking in with the glam rock connection.
Glam rock is something of a throwback sound with a slight modern twist, as many have pointed out. For me the first glimpse of this new direction comes from the Stones’ Let It Bleed album from 1969. “Live With Me,” specifically, has all the glam rock cliches that we would later recognize. The live version of the track from Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out sounds even more like glam.
The Stones then released in 1971 Sticky Fingers with both “Brown Sugar” and “Bitch,” which carry even more of this sound. And if you’ve seen the Stones’ live performance at the Marquee Club you’ll spot Jagger wearing a tiny golden jacket of sorts, again looking very much like the originator of this fad.
Because of this I have never understood why Jagger and the boys never get their dues when it comes to the glam sound and aesthetic.
Probably the best year ever:
Close to the Edge
Foxtrot
Harvest
Ziggy Stardust
Roxy Music
Thick as a Brick
Octopus
Trilogy
and many more
Shout out to American Gothic by David Ackles, featuring great production by Bernie Taupin.
Great Shout
Stevie Wonder came into his trust money from his earlier hits when he turned 21, shorted considerably by Berry Gordy shenanigans, according to Bob Margouleff, but that money allowed him to bypass Motown and record Music of My Mind at Electric Lady, with Bob and Malcolm. After it was completed he presented the finished work to Berry Gordy, who was astonished.
Stevie Wonder's "classic period" , then, began when he came of age, and could record using his own money. He repeated this with Talking Book, thus making far more money from those two releases than he would have otherwise.
Labi Siffre - Something Inside So Strong!
Elton - Tiny Dancer!
Just stumbled upon this video and thought maybe Foxtrot gets a mention. I was even much more surprised that Peter Hammill is so highly praised here. I had hoped that maybe Pawn Hearts would be mentioned (ok, I know it´s from 1971). Great, that someone appreciates PH. He´s so very very underrated.
And it took me a second visit to this site a few hours later, to realize that you are Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson. I´ve read about you, although i don´t know your work yet.
Milton and Lo; Cluba de Esquina my favorite album of that year. brazilian prog folk
I have owned nearly all these albums. Lou Reed was a commercial songwriter for Pickwick Records. Many of his songs sound like jingles apart from the lyrics. For me, glam hasn't aged well unlike prog. Most of its fans were teenage girls at the time. Most of my teenage male friends listened to hard rock and prog. Deep Purple, Free, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Allmans, and Alice Cooper were popular. Music of My Mind and Talking Book are the records I play the most of this lot.
Guys, you didn't mention Mick Ronson's essential contributions to Ziggy and Transformer!
I hope this year is 100 episodes long. Love the podcast. I’m discovering so much. Thank you
If Bowie’s Ziggy is his Purple Rain, which album is his Sign O’ The Times?
Station.
Low
This is one of my favorite years of all time in terms of album releases. Thanks for spending some time with these!
Two kinda turgid academic points:
I agree that Slate, Sweet, et al were carpetbagging into glam (as were lots of other would-bes from this year), although I’d argue that using the word “artifice” to denigrate the less successful glam acts is kinda funny considering that glam was all about artifice, striking a pose, or being something you’re not. Glam
was the opposite of prog/classic rock’s concern with the “natural,” and glam’s most successful and interesting artists understood this conceptually (all their interviews from this era tell the story better than I can), which allowed them to they put a commitment to artifice into practice in the most compelling ways. (I know you guys are just talking; this isn’t a doctoral dissertation, but it’s still a curious way to describe an album as arch and poised as Roxy’s debut-even Bryan Ferry’s screaming is mannered. Which is fantastic; I love it and it’s one of the greatest album debuts of all time. But I don’t think they would have touched “natural” with a barge pole.
Also, Steven-you’re right about everything you say pretty much all the time. But I gotta point out that Purple Rain was (self consciously) Prince’s Ziggy Stardust; not just in its being the right album/right artist/right moment, but also in its apocalyptic themes, its narrative structure, and its presentation of the artist as narrator as well as character in the unfolding story.
In his autobiography, John Peel says Bolan ghosted him after he went electric
I can't believe you are discussing iconic albums from 1972 with no mention of Joni Mitchell's For The Roses. Also,Machine Head, Thick as a Brick, Close to the Edge, Free at Last, Foxtrot, Octopus etc.
Schoolboy error with the Stevie Wonder album, it is Innervisions 😉
"Innerviews" good one, though. And Stevie was 22 in 72. Still impressive.
@@FuturePast2019Also, Steven said, ‘Music IN My Mind’. Can’t wait for 1976, ‘Songs In The Key of Death’? 😂
First LIKE, then I watch...
Out of the Denim and into the Spandex! I'd add one to Bowie & Bolan as someone who could wear a feather boa and not look daft - Jimi. A lot of the 'glam' thing borrowed heavily from Jimi, I think. Have to agree about The Slider & Electric Warrior too. Essential.
I'd only heard the Tin Machine version of "If There Is Something." Never realized it was a Roxy tune. BTW - what are your thoughts on Tin Machine? Oh, also - you mention the Diamond Dogs album - I often wonder what that one would have been like with Mick Ronson playing guitar instead of Bowie.
Brian Eno is still relevant.
Check out his collab With the Norwegian artists Auroa.
(A soul with no King)
the conventional nature of Ziggy is quite calculated. a spaceman comes to earth and uses rock'n'roll to stage his innocuous invasion. i've always felt the connecting aspect of Glam was the insouciant strut implicit in track after track.
did the stones make you take down the first release?
It’s well known that Tony Visconti took the photo on the cover of The Slider 😎
You guys should give Stiff by Brian Eno a bit of love.
Context understood, buy it still warrants acknowledgement on your channel
A fab watch as always but, c’mon Steve, let Tim answer a bit more! You still keep cutting him off when he’s on a roll… 🤷♂😅🤣Love you both though!
You failed to mention Leon Russell as a primary influence for Elton John and the songwriter for the Carpenters A Song For You.
I know they can't talk about every 1972 album, and hopefully there's another episode, but Aphrodite's Child's 666 deserves a mention to say the least.
Is “The Ham” a real life Brit jargon?
Never heard "The Ham" for PH either, or is it "The Hamm"?
Not long enough, Labi Siffre, really ! no ELP- Trilogy, Status Quo - Piledriver, Focus - Focus 3, Genesis - Foxtrot, and Argent -All together now ?
Massive Bowie fan, and Ziggy Stardust is still my favorite of his to this day. It's among my top, probably, 20 favorite albums to listen to still (not saying top 20 greatest albums, which I can't hardly make a list of, it's so hard to do). This dingus probably swears "Low" and "Heroes" are better. No fckn' way. Side one of "Low" is extraordinary, but side 2 is a mood listen. I think anyone saying they love both sides the same or close, are FOS. "Heroes" isn't that close to "Low", imo. And he likely would say "Hunky Dory" is better than "Ziggy", too, as I hear a lot. But for me, it's a little too fractured w/ the 8-line poem ramble; 'Quicksand' is rather arch word salad references; 'Fill Your Heart' is weak. 'Andy Warhol' is rather silly w/ some loony vocals, but a great guitar riff.
Harry Styles??🤔
No mention of Mick Ronson?! For me, Ziggy is the best of Bowie’s best run-Hunky/Ziggy/Aladdin Sane-and Ronson is absolutely key in terms of his pure rock n roll Les Paul attack but also his string arrangements too. A hugely underrated figure in Bowie’s evolution. I’d say that The late 70s ‘Berlin’ trilogy is overrated and pretentious (fight me) although Station To Station is excellent-again, the guitarists (Earl Slick and Carlos Alomar) stop proceedings from being too anaemic.
A bit late to the party, but I gotta say it:
Ziggy Stardust is one of the WORST-produced "Best Records" ever.
The drums sound like absolute cardboard shit, the guitars are both muddy and low-midrange-y ,and tinny at the same time, the bass is floppy and indistinct, and Bowie's vocals are way too plate-reverbed, as well as being EQ'd strange to my ears.
Don't get me wrong, the songs are iconic, and the 2012 remaster helped a bit, but still...
Listening to Exile On Main Street from the same year (with probably half the budget),
that album sounds much much better (though it is a lesser album song-wise IMO), and almost sounds like it could've been made yesterday.
1- hay un grupo porcentualmente no elevado a los que nos gusta el rock progresivo 2- a los amantes del rock progresivo nos gusta mucho porcupine tree y Steven Wilson 3- es extremadamente frecuente que a los amantes del rock progresivo nos encante como grupo favorito génesis ( alto porcentaje de seguidores de ese género) y 4- a Steven Wilson no le gusta génesis, ergo 5- ...
A lot of bollocks being talked here !
Never mind...
For me glamrock always has something fake, a kind of (real) ‘nothingness’ about it.
That’s not Bowie, Reed, Roxy Music or Elton John to me. But rather anything Bolan, Gary Glitter, The Sweet, Mud and perhaps Alice Cooper and Slade.
Stuff for 10-15 year olds and their nannies.
People like Bolan really had nothing to say with their music, but tried to imply otherwise.
The term Glam Rock was probably termed by the media and has since stuck. Sure the songs are about nothing, but they do represent a lighter side and are meant to be fun. Music was originally about fun and some bands and artists took it to a serious level. Both were able to coexist fine.
Sweet had horrible managers for a long time that pushed them into the glam thing. Check out Desolation Boulevard, that's just a great album.
Labi Siffre - Something Inside So Strong!
Elton - Tiny Dancer!