The Braine Trust

With winter’s grip still upon us here in Columbus, it reminded me of cold and snowy Canada.  In addition, I owe it to my former Palo Alto condo roommate, landlord and long time friend Steve Fung to choose my top ten rock and pop artists from Canada during the 1960s and 1970s. Steve originally hails from Vancouver and has always reminded me of the greatness of all things Canadian. (As you will see from the list, I struggled to come up with 10 artists which perhaps suggests that Canadian musical “greatness” is a bit overrated, at least during the 60s and 70s.)

To qualify for this esteemed list, the group or artist must have had some significant part of its output from the 1960s and 1970s (so no Barenaked Ladies I’m afraid) and the majority of the group’s members must hail from Canada. So herewith is my list in approximate order:

1. Neil Young– “Southern Man” “Down by the River” “Heart of Gold” “Cinnamon Girl”-Is there any doubt that Neil Young is the greatest Canadian rock artist ever? His styles range from soft, socially conscious folk-rock (e.g. “The Needle and the Damage Done”) to hard guitar rock “Down by the River” with everything in between. His songs are brilliantly written with infectious melodies and he is a pretty darn good guitarist too.
2. Rush– “Fly by Night”; “Closer to the Heart”, “Limelight” “Tom Sawyer”- This Toronto based group became the preeminent progressive Canadian rock band courtesy of some brilliant rock songs. Admittedly some of their best output was in the early 1980s but they still had many good songs in the 1970s so they definitely qualify.
3. The Guess Who- “American Woman”, “No Sugar Tonight” “These Eyes” “Undun” – During the late 1960s and early 1970s, this Winnipeg based group rose to the top of the pop charts and were quite good, featuring Randy Bachman on guitar and Burton Cummings as a superb lead vocalist. It was a relatively short-lived success. During 1969-70 the group had six top twenty hits. Randy Bachman left in late 1970 and after that the group had only one top ten, the not-very-good “Clap for the Wolfman” in 1974. The group disbanded shortly thereafter.
4. Bachman Turner Overdrive-“Taking Care of Business” “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” “Roll on Down the Highway” “Hey You” – After the early 1970s demise of the Guess Who, Randy Bachman and fellow Canadian Fred Turner formed Bachman-Turner Overdrive in Vancouver. Between early 1974 and mid-1975, the group had their biggest hits with a nice hard rockin’ sound. However, they faded into obscurity soon thereafter.
5. The Band “The Weight”, “Up on Cripple Creek”, “The Shape I’m In”, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” – The Band was formed in Woodstock, New York in 1968 but with the exception of drummer/vocalist Levon Helm (born in Arkansas), the group members were all from Ontario. I always liked their mellow rock sound. They produced a number of good songs in their career which ended in 1976 with their last concert documented by Martin Scorsese in the movie The Last Waltz.
6. Steppenwolf – “Born to be Wild” “Magic Carpet Ride” “Rock Me” “The Pusher”- After an unsuccessful career as The Sparrows, three members of this Ontario group went to LA and recruited two Americans and formed the group Steppenwolf in 1967. They had their breakthrough success with “Born to Be Wild” in mid-1968, but their last good single and last top 40 (“Hey Lawdy Mama”) was only two years later. They were the first hard rock group to come from Canada.
7. Gordon Lightfoot “If You Could Read My Mind” “Sundown” “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” – While I don’t know much of Gordon Lightfoot’s music beyond his three big hits, those songs alone are good enough to qualify him. An excellent folk singer from Ontario, Lightfoot wrote great music with wonderful lyrics.
8. Joni Mitchell- “Help Me” “Big Yellow Taxi” “California”- I have very mixed feelings about Joni Mitchell. Some of her songs are great, but many seem so dreary to me that overall I am not much of a fan. Nonetheless, she certainly qualifies as one of the top ten Canadian artists of the 60s and 70s.
9. Anne Murray- “Snowbird” “You Won’t See Me” “Danny’s Song”. Anne Murray might rank as the top pop artist ever to hail from Nova Scotia. She has a very nice voice, but her country/soft pop style and her constant focus on covers of others songs never did much for me. But since she is one of Steve’s favorite artists ever I had to include in the top 10!
10. Five Man Electrical Band, Stampeders, and Lighthouse – These three groups came from Ottawa, Calgary and Toronto respectively. They are best known for only one hit each: “Signs” (“and the sign said long haired freaky people need not apply”), “Sweet City Woman” and “One Fine Morning” respectively. Fortunately, all three songs are excellent (and interestingly all of them came out in 1971). Of note, Howard Shore who played the saxophone for Lighthouse ended up being the first music director of SNL (Saturday Night Live) in 1975.

Dishonorable Mention: The Poppy Family (incl. the execrable solo #2 hit “Seasons in the Sun” by group member Terry Jacks, as well as unmemorable solo compositions by his wife Susan ) and Paul Anka (Known for such saccharin hits as “Puppy Love” “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” and the truly awful “You’re Having My Baby”).

Forty years ago at the beginning of 1979, I was hard at work at Stanford Business School finishing up the first-year core curriculum. ( ‘Cost Accounting’ ugh!). Meanwhile in 1979, popular music still was dominated by disco particularly in the first half of 1979 including the  The BeeGees “Tragedy” (#1 Mar.) and “Love You Inside Out” (#1 Jun), Rod Stewart “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” (#1 Feb.), Gloria Gaynor “I Will Survive” (#1 Mar.), Anita Ward‘s “Ring My Bell” (#1 Jun.) Amii Stewart‘s “Knock on Wood” (#1 Apr.), and disco queen Donna Summer “Hot Stuff” (#1 Jun.) and “Bad Girls (#1 Jul.). Though some of these songs were OK when the mood was right, I definitely preferred rock music. (Only the Village People‘s “In the Navy” (#3 Jun.) and “YMCA” (#2 Feb.) were remotely fun to listen to.)

Rock had inauspicious beginnings in 1979. It was to be an off-year for the Who and the Rolling Stones after successful albums in 1978. The four former Beatles had no new albums. Likewise there was nothing new from the Moody Blues or Yes which might have been a good development given how inadequate their 1978 albums were. Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Steely Dan were also on studio hiatus.

In fact there was really only one rock album (released at the very end of 1978) that dominated my attention in early 1979, the Doobie Brothers— Minute by Minute (Dec. ’78). But it was an album that I had decidedly mixed feelings about. The Doobies had evolved considerably since the early to mid 1970s and was no longer the group that produced such brilliant songs as “China Grove”, “Listen to the Music” or “Black Water”. Founder, lead singer and major songwriter Tom Johnston was forced to quit the group in 1975 owing to health problems and former Steely Dan member Michael McDonald became his replacement. In the 1976 album Taking it to the Streets the Doobies sound changed radically as the two hit songs from the album: the title track and “It Keeps You Running” – were both soulful songs by McDonald. With Minute by Minute this transformation was virtually complete. The album was dominated by Michael McDonald’s blue-eyed soul with six of the ten songs written by McDonald and most of them with his lead vocals.

The most famous track on the album “What a Fool Believes” (#1 Apr.) later won the Grammy for song and record of the year in 1979. It was an outstanding song, perhaps the best of the year. However, lyrically, it became a centerpiece of my bouts of temporary depression in early 1979 as the newness and excitement of California and new friends/classmates had worn off to some degree and my loneliness and yearning for my lost love only a year or so earlier. Lyrics such as “She had a place in his life, he never made her think twice. As he rises to her apology, anybody else would surely know. He’s watching her go”. spoke to my yearning for what had come and gone. Fortunately, this winter blues was quite temporary and other songs on the album did not evoke such memories. The whole first side of the record was quite good with “Here to Love You” a nice opening track, the aforementioned “What a Fool Believes”, the very interesting and soulful “Minute by Minute” (#14 Jul.), and more traditional sounding Doobies hit song “Depending on You” (#25 Sep.) a shared McDonald-Patrick Simmons composition and Simmons “Don’t Stop To Watch the Wheels”. Side 2 was not as strong but still included an excellent bluegrass instrumental composition by Simmons “Steamer Lane Breakdown” and another strong McDonald lead vocal “How Do Fools Survive?” co-written by Carole Bayer Sayer.

Fortunately, there were at least a few other rock and pop songs that were good as well that winter:

• “Hold the Line”- Toto (#5 Jan.) was released in late 1978 their first single be a major success with this catchy rocker.
• Robert Palmer– “Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)” (#13 Mar.)was the first Robert Palmer song I can remember hearing and a pretty good start to his career.
• The Babys had their first hit since 1977’s “Isn’t it Time” with “Every Time I Think of You (#13 Mar.) a nice soft rock ballad.

Summer in DC

By the late Spring/early summer, rock albums improved immensely as did my outlook and mood. One of my favorites was The Cars Candy O (June 1979). Though not quite as good as the group’s outstanding debut album in 1978, Candy O was still one of the best rock albums of the year. Side One of the album starts off with a bang fittingly with the excellent techno-rocker “Lets Go” (#14 Sep.) (“I like the night life baby”). The pace diminishes (but not the quality) with the next two yearning love songs  “Since I Held You” (“It’s been a long time”) and the outstanding “It’s All I Can Do” (#41 Nov.) (“To keep waiting for you”). The pace quickens again with another good song, the lyrically interesting “Double Life” (“It takes a fast car lady to lead a double life“). “Shoo-Be-Doo” livens things up further and nicely leads into the title track, the up tempo “Candy-O”. Side Two is not as good as Side One but still include three very strong tracks “You Can’t Hold Out Too Long” , the frenetic “Got a Lot on My Head” and closing with my favorite song on the album “Dangerous Type” (“She’s a lot like you“). Candy-0 was one of the first albums I bought when returning to Stanford/ Palo Alto in the fall. I eventually recorded the album onto cassette and it became a staple on my drive with my friend Kirk to and from Oregon on a short-lived ski trip ( I broke my leg on the first run down Bachelor Mt.) in early December of that year.

Breakfast in America (March 1979) by Supertramp was also all over the airwaves by the summer of 1979, a summer which I spent commuting by car from our group house rental in Chevy Chase, MD to US EPA headquarters in Southwest DC (401 M Street) for my internship for the Chief of the Economic Analysis Division. Thirty minutes in the car both directions meant I spent considerable time listening to DC 101 and other FM rock stations in DC and three songs in particular were played constantly “The Logical Song” (#6 June), “Goodbye Stranger” (#15 Aug.) and my favorite on the album and one of my favorites of the year “Take the Long Way Home” (#10 Dec.). In addition, another favorite “Breakfast in America” (“take a jumbo across the water, going to see America“) received significant airplay. Supertramp’s sound was pretty unique but unfortunately wore thin over time. This was to be their peak of popularity. Roger Hodgson (lead singer and group leader) left the group in 1983 and by the mid-1980s Supertramp was done.

Meanwhile, James Taylor–Flag (June) was also on the airwaves during that DC summer.  An enjoyable album by Taylor featured one of my all-time favorite covers “Up on the Roof”(#28 July) and two “lively” rockers (by Taylor standards) “Brother Trucker” (“You got to roll, roll, roll Brother Trucker”) and “Johnny Come Back”. Also of note were the two more conventional folk rock songs “I Will Not Lie for You” and “Rainy Day Man”.

By the end of the summer Led Zeppelin returned with a new studio album, their first in almost 3 1/2 years, – In Through the Out Door (Aug. ’79). It was to be the group’s final studio album. (In 1980, John Bonham the group’s drummer died and Led Zeppelin officially called it quits. ) While not quite up to the standards of the group’s early 1970s albums (and particularly the superb Led Zeppelin IV), it still boasted three excellent Zeppelin songs: (1) the hard rocking “In the Evening” (in which Jimmy Page plays his guitar with a violin bow making that unique sound in the opening part of the song) (2) “All My Love” and (3) the calypso sounding “Fool in the Rain” (#21 Jan. ’80) which employs Samba rhythms. I never bought the album, but heard these three songs on the progressive rock station by late that summer in DC and then more often back in Palo Alto in the fall.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse–Rust Never Sleeps (June ’79) was most noteworthy for two excellent tracks recorded live and overdubbed in the studio: the acoustic “My, My, Hey, Hey” (“Out of the Blue”)  and the lengthier hard rocking’ version of the same song “Hey, Hey, My My” (“Into the Black”)(#79 Oct.).

Meanwhile, the summer boasted a number of other very good rock and pop singles:

• “Dance the Night Away” (#15 Jul.)by Van Halen was one of my favorites by the group from the group’s highly successful Van Halen II album.
• Bad Company “Rock N Roll Fantasy” (#13 Jun.) was another solid rock song from this British quartet and their biggest single since their 1975 smash “Feel Like Makin’ Love”.
• Bob Seger “Old Time Rock N’ Roll” (#28 June) was a nice up tempo rocker much like “Hollywood Nights” from the year earlier (both from Seger’s  highly popular “78 album Stranger in Town ). 
• Cheap Trick had their first big hit with the excellent live rocker “I Want You to Want Me” (#7 Jul.). Later in the year, two more trademark songs were to reach the top 40, the unique cover of Fats Domino‘s “Ain’t That Shame” (#35 Sep.) and the interesting “Dream Police” (#26 Nov.).
• The most popular rock hit of the summer and the year was “My Sharona” (#1 Aug.) by The Knack.  Like many, I tired quickly of the song as it was played constantly, but it was catchy tune and had a nice rock beat ( Hmm. Its sounds like I am one of those teenage reviewers on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand in the 1960s).
• In the more jazzy realm, Ricky Lee Jones‘ “Chuck E’s in Love” (#4 Jul.) was a nice mellow tune which seemed to be played often in the various DC bars I visited during that summer (of course only occasionally :) ).
• “We Are Family” (#3 Jun.) Sister Sledge was also a favorite. Perhaps this was because it was more of dance song than disco. Or more likely, it was because it became the theme song for the Pittsburg Pirates winning the pennant and World Series, then my favorite NL team.

By early September, I gathered my belongings and headed back across country in my Toyota Corolla and unlike my previous two trips when I shared the driving with two different friends from Brown (Dave Dorsey Summer ’78, John Lum June ’79), this trip was a solo expedition. I stopped in Shaker Heights, Ohio where I had dinner with my eventual stepfather Ted Frost. Two nights later I stopped in Lincoln, Nebraska staying overnight with my friend Marty Michael’s parents (from the Stanford GSB). I remember going out for a run when I arrived despite the 98 degree heat. (Marty’s parents correctly thought that I was completely insane!). Next it was on to Denver visiting with the Grant family (second cousins of my mother’s side of the family) and then a special treat to go up and stay at their cabin at the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Forest the next night on my own.

After an interesting and harrowing back-road drive thru the Mountains the next day, (the map did say it was the most direct route!) and eventually a reconnection to Highway 70, I arrived in Glenwood Springs to stay two nights with classmate and friend K.C. Branscomb and her parents at their home about 20 miles from Aspen. This included an interesting hike to the summit of 12965 ft. Mt. Sopris with KC the next day, where I stupidly (in retrospect) pushed on to the open rock summit (leaving KC some 500 ft. below in the woods) during a sudden afternoon thunderstorm. This included my unintentional attempt at replicating Benjamin Franklin’s famous kite experiments by carrying my ice ax sticking straight out of the top of my day pack.

My trip finished with two more marathon drives from Glenwood Springs, CO to Ely, Nevada and from Ely all the way to Palo Alto. Throughout these last two long driving days, my tape deck was up at full volume – blaring out songs from the rock panoply of hits and artists from the 60s and 70s.

In addition to a happy social life in the Fall of ’79, Stanford GSB work was much more enjoyable as the core curriculum courses were largely over and I could focus on what I really liked Economics, Investments, Public Policy etc. Meanwhile, several of the best albums of the year were released during the fall of 1979.

• Eagles –The Long Run (Sep. 1979)- represented the sixth and last studio album by the group (until 2007) with the group breaking up in 1980 and not reforming until 1994. It was the first new album by the group in almost 3 years since Hotel California (Dec. ’76). Though not as good as the stellar Hotel California, it still boasted three very good songs: the rocking Heartache Tonight (#1 Dec.), The Long Run (#8 Feb. ’80) and the sad love song, “I Can’t Tell You Why” (#8 May ’80). Two other strong rockers Joe Walsh’s “In the City” and Henley-Frey-Felder’s “Those Shoes” nicely round out the album.
• Tom Petty –Damn the Torpedos (Oct. 1979) was also an excellent album and was Petty’s best until he released Full Moon Fever a decade later. It contains four of Petty’s best songs with “Refugee” (#15 Apr. ’80) “Even the Losers” ‘Here Comes My Girl’ (#59 June ’80) “Don’t Do Me Like That” (#10 Jan. ’80).
• Though not as good as their first album, the Police – Regatta de Blanc (Oct. 1979) was still not bad. The highlights were the US single  “Message in a Bottle” (#74 Dec.) (“I’ll send my SOS to you“) and the UK single “Walking on the Moon”.

The fall of 1979 also saw the release of another memorable album Fleetwood Mac—Tusk (October 1979). I’ll admit that this album became a favorite because it coincided with beginning of my now almost 40-year relationship with the love-of-my-life Anne.  I met her thru my condo mate Steve’s girlfriend Maureen who just happened to live with Anne in the same condominium complex in Palo Alto. Songs such as “Sara” (“Drowning in the sea of love”) became synonymous with my relationship with Anne and create fond romantic memories to this day. Having said this, Tusk still paled in comparison to Fleetwood Mac’s two previous stellar albums. Like many successful rock groups, Fleetwood Mac suffered from the dreaded disease, “double-album-itis”. The double album really contained about a single album’s worth of good songs, with the other half the album mediocre to bad. This was exacerbated by the fact that Lindsay Buckingham wanted to make the album very “experimental” and a bit more like the new wave/punk sound. Unfortunately like many research experiments, there were many bad results as a consequence. The exception is the excellent and totally fun “Tusk” (#8 Dec.) which even features the USC marching band. However, none of Buckingham’s other eight compositions are particularly noteworthy and only “The Ledge” is good.

Fortunately, the double album is bailed out to a degree by some excellent compositions and singing by Christine McVie and several very good songs by Stevie Nicks. Side One was the best and not coincidentally contains the most clicks and scratches on my vinyl version. “Over and Over” was a nice mellow McVie composition featuring her beautiful soothing voice to start the side. Next up is “The Ledge” Buckingham’s first experimental composition, and it works mostly this time. The third track is a stellar McVie composition “Think About Me” ( #20 May ’80) which is one of the three best tracks on the album. “Save Me a Place” another Buckingham composition is mediocre but fortunately short. The final track is the Stevie Nicks’ beautiful “Sara” (#7 Feb. ’80) which nicely rounds out Side 1. Side 4 is also good with “Honey Hi” and “Never Forget” both nice tracks from McVie and “Beautiful Child” an OK track from Nicks and Buckingham’s best composition the aforementioned “Tusk”.

Just in time for Christmas shopping season, Pink Floyd released their double album The Wall (November 1979). Unlike Tusk however, the album is still very good despite it’s one hour and twenty-minute length. The album’s tells the semi-autobiographical story  of a rocker named Pink (based in part on group leader Roger Waters early life as well as former Floyd member Syd Barrett). Pink loses his father during WWII, deals with abuse by teachers and an overprotective mother and eventually becomes isolated from society as signified by the Wall (“just another brick in the wall“). While many of the tracks are designed to tell this story including dialogue interspersed with music, the album is anchored by several outstanding rock compositions starting on Side One– “In the Flesh?” “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 1” a nice linkage with “The Happiest Days of Our Lives’ and then “Another Brick in the Wall Pt 2” (#1 Mar. ’80)(“We don’t need no education“), Side Two is not as strong but does have one of my favorite tracks on the album the rare Gilmour composition “Young Lust” (“Oooh I need a dirty woman”) as well as the very moody, acoustic and interesting “Goodbye Blue Sky”. Side Three starts off with the brilliant and eerie rocker “Hey You” (“Out there in the cold, getting lonely, getting old, can you feel me?“), the nice acoustic, mostly instrumental  “Is There Anybody Out There?” and the sad “Nobody Home”. The side finishes with the outstanding “Comfortably Numb” (“Hello, Hello. Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me”) perhaps one of the best progressive rock songs of all time and certainly one of the most popular among progressive rock listeners. Side 4 features a lengthier reprise of “In the Flesh” which nicely leads into to the excellent rocker “Run Like Hell” (#53 Jun ’80).

The fall/early winter also featured a number of very good rock songs:

• While ELO’s new album Discovery was heavily influenced by disco much to its detriment, it did boast one excellent song, one of my favorites of the year “Don’t Bring Me Down” (#4 Sep.). (I’ll admit I might be biased because it is one of those rare songs that constantly mentions my first name. “Don’t bring me down, Bruce!”).
• Jefferson Starship– Jane (#14 Dec.) was the group’s first hit featuring new lead singer Mickey Thomas after Marty Balin left the group in late 1978. Though certainly not a work of art, it is very catchy, uptempo rocker and became one of my favorites of the year.
• Styx had their first and only #1 hit, the ballad “Babe” (#1 Dec.), but I liked their earlier in the year rocker “Renegade” (#16 Jun.) even better.
• Journey– “Lovin’, Touchin’ and Squeezin'” (#16 Oct.) was the first top twenty hit for this San Francisco group that would become a mainstay of early ’80s rock music featuring the soaring and unique vocals of Steve Perry.
• John Mellencamp “I Need a Lover” (#28 Dec.)was the Indiana native’s first single and a pretty good one at that. Dubbed “John Cougar’ by David Bowie’s manager David DeFries, he recorded under that name until the mid-1980s.
• Though AC/DC album Highway to Hell came out in the summer, I don’t remember hearing the interesting hard rocking title track “Highway to Hell”(#47 Dec.) until later in the year when the single was released. Too bad as it would have been a perfect driving song thru the very hot and humid Midwest late that summer. (“I’m on a highway to hell!”)
• “This is It” (#11 Dec.) was Kenny Loggins best solo effort to date, though he would surpass it during the 1980s with “I’m Alright”, “Footloose” and “Danger Zone”.
• Queen “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love” (#1 Feb. 80) was initially released in October 1979 and became the first Queen song to hit number one in the US. This is just another of the many excellent Queen rock songs beginning with “Killer Queen” in 1975. (As well documented in the wonderful 2018 film “Bohemian Rhapsody“). Queen had many more to come with the release of the The Game in 1980 and its second #1 single “Another One Bites the Dust”.
• London new wave rockers The Clash released the London Calling double album in December 1979. While I wasn’t much of a fan of their brand of new wave at the time, I did like two songs from the album the title track “London Calling” and my favorite “Train in Vain” (#23 May ’80) (“Did you stand by me. No, not at all“).
• Fear of Music Talking Heads new album featured very unique rhythms and yes even weird sounds, but had one stellar song “Life During Wartime” (#80 Nov.).
• Soft rockers, Little River Band had two nice pop hits “Lonesome Loser” (#6 Oct.) as well as earlier in the year, “Lady” (#10 Apr.).

R&B, Jazz and Country

While I largely listened to rock, there were some excellent R&B, jazz and even country music that also commanded my attention during 1979:

• Earth, Wind and Fire had two great songs during 1979 with the up tempo and lively “Boogie Wonderland” (#6 July) and the slow soulful ballad “After the Love Has Gone”(#2 Sept.).
• Michael Jackson – began his independent solo career with the release of Off the Wall ( Aug.) and its first two singles the dance songs “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” (#1 Oct.) (which Michael wrote), and “Rock with You” (#1 Jan. ’80). While this wasn’t his first solo album, (he had four previous albums with Motown under the Jackson V franchise), it was the first released under the Epic record label where he had true creative control. Michael wrote three of the songs himself (including “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”) and co-produced them with Quincy Jones.
• Charlie Daniels Band had the country song of the year with “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” (#3 Sep.). Even though I wasn’t much of a country music fan, it was hard not to like the up-tempo fiddling and instrumentation and of course the interesting lyrics.
• The jazzy “Rise” (#1 Nov.) by Herb Alpert was the best instrumental of the year.

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While 1979 was not one of the better years for rock music, it did close out nicely with the Eagles, Tom Petty, the Police, Fleetwood Mac and Pink Floyd among others contributing some excellent new material. And 1980 was to bring my graduation and the beginning of my 16 year consulting career at ICF in Washington, DC. It also ushered in some interesting new music and artists. As always, rock and pop music were evolving and I was happy to go along for the ride.

Forty years ago, I had one of the best years of my life. 1978 was a year of change and excitement. It didn’t start out that way with a brutally cold and snowy winter in New York City and still mourning the end of my two-year relationship with my college girlfriend. But as Spring and early Summer arrived, I began to prepare for my escape from New York and my future at Stanford Business School.

In late June, I bought my first car– a Toyota Corolla, two-door sedan (only a 1.1 liter engine, with no AC and manual transmission to save money, but naturally a tape deck and stereo!).Then in August, I drove cross-country with my friend Dave Dorsey with all my possessions crammed in the small back seat and trunk of my car. Our trip was mostly on Route 80 across the GW Bridge thru the Delaware Water Gap, to Cleveland/Shaker Heights (my future stepfather’s home) to Buffalo Grove,IL (Dave’s parents house) to Sioux City, Iowa (friend of my mom’s) to Buffalo, Wyoming (Vassar classmate of my mom) to the Wind River Mts. for 3-4 days of hiking, to Elko, Nevada (first gambling experience) to Yosemite (another 3-4 days of hiking) to my final destination in Palo Alto, Ca. Within a day of moving into/renting a room in a condo in Palo Alto, I was off to San Fransisco with my new roommates to see the punk rock group The Dead Kennedys.

Disco Still Rules

Rock music was also undergoing significant change as well and mostly for the better,but like my personal life, music in 1978 did not start out that way. Saturday Night Fever, the soundtrack from the movie of the same name was atop the album charts for the first six months of 1978. Meanwhile, disco singles from the album dominated the charts. These included “How Deep is Your Love”(#1 Jan.), “Stayin’ Alive” (#1 Feb.) and “Night Fever” (#1 Mar.- May) by the Bee Gees, as well as “If I Can’t Have You” (#1 May) by Yvonne Elliman and Disco Inferno (#11 Apr.) by the Trammps.

I’ll admit “good” disco songs were catchy, generally upbeat and occasionally fun (“Stayin’ Alive” and “Disco Inferno” definitely fell into this category), but I found myself quickly yearning for rock music particularly after repeated listenings of these hit singles. But “Saturday Night Fever” had swept up America at least thru the Spring of 1978.

Rock Renaissance

However, rock was to rebound by the second half of 1978 with many of the best albums out in the summer of ’78. It was fitting as I enjoyed these songs while approaching the Rockies for the first time driving 75-80 MPH in states where speed limits were high and/or seldom enforced. (I would have driven faster but it was all my Toyota could physically muster unless heading downhill after mountain passes.)

Four albums emerged as standouts for the year. All were released during June-August of 1978:

My favorite album of the year was The Cars (June 1978) by The Cars. The debut album by this Boston area group is without question their best and perhaps the best album of the entire “new wave” of the late 1970s. It was my first purchase upon arriving in California just prior to my first year at Stanford Business School. I played it incessantly.

Side 1 begins with three superb tracks “Good Times Roll” (#41 Apr. ’79) , “My Best Friend’s Girl” (#35 Dec.)  and “Just What I Needed” (#27 Sep.) which not surprisingly were all released as singles. “Good Times Roll” signals that this album was going to be VERY DIFFERENT with a rock song melded into interesting techno-rock instrumentation and a slow driving rhythm. The pace picks up with the utterly fun “My Best Friends Girl” (“and she used to be mine, she’s so fine“) which immediately segues to the interesting rhythmic intro to the lively “Just What I Needed” (“I don’t mind you coming here and wasting all my time“). Wow! “”I’m in Touch With Your World” is next and although the weakest track on the album at least it provides a welcome respite. “Don’t Cha Stop” the most uptempo song on the album is just a pure rocker, not as interesting as the other songs on the album, but good nonetheless.

Side 2 is even better because ALL four songs are superb, while flowing together musically and lyrically which adds to their overall appeal. “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight” features a great new edgy techno-rock sound primarily using guitars and keyboards. Ironically, it ends lyrically with “I need you tonight” and then a six-note musical/lyrical reversal into the second track, “Bye Bye Love”, with bassist Benjamin Orr now singing lead “always with some other guy, it’s just a broken lullaby”, another great techno rocker. (I confess that for years I thought Orr was saying “always with some other guy, it’s just a fucking alibi”, which would have been a better line, but might NOT have been approved by the record company in the 1970s.) The crescendo of techno-rock ends with the same six-note sequence and moves more softly into “Moving in Stereo”, another great song that lyrically belies classification (“life’s the same I’m moving in stereo, except for my shoes”). The last song, another great tune, “All Mixed Up” fittingly provides at least some resolution of the tenuous, tempestuous relationship begun with “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight” (“she’s always out the window, when it comes to making dreams. It’s all mixed up”) but then it finishes (“she says to leave it to me, everything’ll be all right”).

Another excellent album was Who Are You? (August 1978) by the Who. The title track “Who Are You” (#14 Oct.) was the best song recorded by the group since 1971’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and in many ways was a throwback to that song’s style and message. It was a lengthy song, containing angry lyrics about fighting (allegedly an incident with the Sex Pistols at CBGBs ) and a hard rock style with an irresistible chorus and guitar hooks. Six and a half minutes of music heaven! But the album boasted much more. The self-deprecating rocker, “New Song” (“I write the same old song with a few new lines and everybody wants to cheer it….We sing the same old song  just like a vintage car, you can look but you never can drive it“) perhaps fittingly became an instant classic for Who fans. “Had Enough” was another excellent angry Who rocker in the mode in “Who Are You” but written by bass player, John Entwistle. (Entwistle wrote two other solid tracks on the album “Trick of the Light” and “905” ). “Guitar and Pen” was my second favorite song on the album, an autobiographical look at Pete Townshend life as songwriter and guitarist, as well as being an excellent catchy rocker. “Sister Disco” (“Goodbye Sister Disco with your flashy bright pants“) was also catchy, seemingly an homage to disco or an indictment, but according to Townshend, it was his view that the Who would never be part of the Bee Gees wave of disco popularity but instead remain British “old farts”. I choose to believe it was Townshend’s prescient belief that disco with Saturday Night Fever has peaked and would never be the same again.

Another favorite and also from the summer of rock heaven in 1978 was Some Girls  (June 1978) by the Rolling Stones. This was the Stones best single album since 1971 Sticky Fingers. The centerpiece was the disco influenced “Miss You” (#1 Jul.)  an excellent rock-disco song but my favorite was “Beast of Burden” (#8 Nov.) a song that reminded me of the rock-bluesy “Wild Horses” with Keith Richard’s ever extraordinary guitar work most evident. But the album had much more ranging from an excellent rock cover “Imagination” of the Temptations soul ballad “Just My Imagination”, a Jagger rock-rap “Shattered” (#31 Jan. ’79), and three more traditional but excellent rockers “Respectable”, “Lies” and “When the Whip Comes Down”. In fact, there was not a weak track on the album.

After three years, Bruce Springsteen emerged from his contract war with former manager Rick Appel with a new album Darkness on the Edge of Town  (June 1978). Though the album was not as good as Born to Run  (my favorite and arguably the best of Springsteen’s entire career), it was still quite good. The album was highlighted by the lively “Badlands” (#42 Sep.) and the rocker love ballad “Prove it All Night” (#33 Jul.). But “Adam Raised a Cain”, “Something in Night”, “The Promised Land” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town” were also very good songs. Springsteen with “Darkness…” continued to prove that you didn’t need to be a great (or even a very good vocalist) to produce excellent songs.

Boston‘s second album Don’t Look Back (August 1978) was not up to the standards of their superb first album. Nonetheless the album did boast several very good tracks: “Feelin’ Satisfied” (#46 Apr. ’79), “Party” and “A Man I’ll Never Be” (#31 Jan. ’79) all had nice tunes, strong vocals from Brad Delp and excellent, albeit very familiar, guitar licks from Tom Scholz. However, it was the more original and brilliant title track “Don’t Look Back”(#4 Oct.) that truly soared. Perhaps my favorite of all Boston songs, “Don’t Look Back” also had simple but very relevant lyrics to someone who was in the process of moving across country to where he knew absolutely no one. (“A new day is breaking. It’s been too long since I felt this way. I don’t mind where I get taken, the road is calling today’s the day”)

Foreigner‘s second album Double Vision (June 1978) was good as well, mostly due to the three excellent hit singles from the album. “Hot Blooded” (#3  Sep.) (“I’ve got a fever of 103“) , “Double Vision”(#2 Nov.) and “Blue Morning, Blue Day” (#15 Feb. “79)

By the fall, Billy Joel had a trio of excellent songs from his 52nd Street (October 1978) album including the catchy hit “My Life” (#3 Dec.), my favorite, the rocker “Big Shot” (#14 Mar. ’79) and the soft ballad “Honesty” (#24 Jun. ’79). 52nd Street went on to win the Grammy for album of the year in 1979.

New Groups and New Wave

In addition to the Cars, eight other new artists emerged or became popular in 1978 with the release of excellent albums and/or songs.

Outlandos D’Amour  (Nov. ’78) was the Police’s debut album and another headline of the new wave movement in 1978. All the songs on the album are interesting with “Truth Hits Everybody’ , “Next To You” and “Peanuts” particularly lively new wave rockers, with Police’s unique reggae-rock sound featured. However, three were standouts. “Roxanne” (#32 Apr. ’79) was the group’s first American hit and both “I Can’t Stand Losing You” and “So Lonely” should have been hit singles.  While “Roxanne” is perhaps the group’s most famous song from the first album, my favorite was “So Lonely”.

After two commercially unsuccessful albums, the New York city group, Blondie released Parallel Lines (Sep. ’78). The album spawned their first two hits in the US – the disco oriented “Heart of Glass” (#1 Apr. ’79) and my favorite, a pure rocker “One Way or Another” (#24 Jul. ’79) (“I’m gonna find you, I’m gonna getcha, getcha, getcha”). Blondie featured blond and beautiful, lead-singer Debra Harry whose soaring rock vocals continued a new trend started by Heart a couple of years earlier. Both a new wave and a pop-rock group, the group featured songs co-written by Harry and lead guitarist Chris Stein with several others from the album – “Picture This” “Sunday Girl”, “I’m Gonna Love You To” and “Hangin’ On the Telephone” – enjoying international success as singles.

While definitely NOT “new wave”, Dire Straits self-titled first album Dire Straits (Oct. ’78) first album demonstrated a unique rock style. The London-based group was described by Rolling Stone as “a groove band” with “low-key country blues rhythms”. I would describe Dire Straits as an all-guitar/ bass-rhythm section band with a very cool, mellow and unique rock sound.  It didn’t hurt that the group’s founder and lead Mark Knopfler was a great guitarist.  The album featured many good songs – no throwaway tracks on this album! I particularly liked “Down to Waterline” and “Southbound Again” and of course the best song on the album which put the group on the map  “Sultans of Swing”(#4 Apr. ’79).

A hard-rock party band from California, Van Halen burst onto the scene with their self-titled first album Van Halen (Feb. ’78). The album featured many of the groups most famous songs (though mostly in retrospect). These included most notably—“You Really Got Me” (#36 Mar.) a successful cover of the Kinks hit, “Runnin’ With the Devil” (#84 May), “Janie’s Cryin'” “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love” as well as the Eddie Van Halen electric guitar solo “Eruption”. I’ll admit it took until 1984’s “Jump” for me to become a full-fledged fan of the group, but it was their first album that remains their best.

“Surrender” (#62 Aug.) (“Mommies alright, daddy’s alright, they just seem a little weird”) was Cheap Trick‘s  first charting single and one of their best songs. The Illinois based new wave/rock group was to remain popular for much of the next dozen years.

Though Genesis had been around for about a decade, “Follow You, Follow Me” (#23 Jun.) was their first top 40 song in the US and a nice rock ballad at that.

Likewise, Warren Zevon had been working as a singer/songwriter/pianist since the mid-sixties but finally had a popular hit with the thoroughly enjoyable and catchy “Werewolves of London” (#21 May). I was learn more than a year later that this was one of Anne’s (my future wife) favorite songs. (“I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hands….Little old lady got mutilated late last night. werewolves of London again… Ah-hoo werewolves of London!” )

Scotsman Gerry Rafferty (former member of Stealers Wheel) released his second solo album City to City (Jan. 1978) which was his first popular album and rose to #1 on the US album charts. It also spawned a nice trio of mellow rock hits “Baker Street” (#2 Jul.)  , “Right on Down the Line” (#15 Oct.) and Home and Dry (#28 Feb. ’79).

Other Rock Hits

The Street Survivors (Oct. 1977) album was released Lynyrd Skynyrd in late 1977 just days before the plane crash on Oct. 20th that took the lives of 3 band members included leader and lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant. In addition to the group’s standards “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama”, three excellent songs from this album–“What’s Your Name” (#13 Mar.),  “That Smell”, and “You Got that Right” (#69 Apr.) – were receiving tons of air play on FM progressive stations during 1978.

Joe Walsh had his best solo effort (and most popular) with the utterly fun and at least partly autobiographical rocker “Life’s Been Good” (#15 Aug.) (“My maserati goes 185, I lost my license now I don’t drive” ).

Heart had another hit single with the rousing “Straight On” (#15 Nov.). Unfortunately the album Dog and Butterfly (October ’78) had little else to offer.

The comeback hit “A Rock n Roll Fantasy” (#30 Sep.) by the Kinks was the group’s first top 40 hit since 1970’s “Lola”. The lyrically interesting song (“He just spends life living on the edge of reality. He just spends his life living in a rock n’ roll fantasy“) contains nice vocals and a good rock tune.

New wave’s Talking Heads released their second album More Songs About Buildings and Food (July ’78) which contained a superb cover of Al Green’s song “Take Me to the River” (#26 Feb. ’79).

Styx  had two more catchy rock singles in 1978 –“Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)” (#29 Apr.) and “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)” (#21 Nov.).

Unlike many, I did not enjoy Bob Seger’s slow ballads  “Still the Same” (#4 Jul.) and  “We’ve Got Tonite” (#13 Jan. ’79) but I did like his hard rockin’ “Hollywood Nights” (#12 Oct.).

Soft Rock and Pop

While harder rock and new wave definitely were my favorite genres in 1978, several softer rock and pop songs were good as well:

• “Time Passages” (#7 Dec.) by Al Stewart was not as good as Stewart’s previous extraordinary hit “Year of the Cat” but a nice ballad nonetheless.
• “Feels So Good” (#4 Jun.) by trumpet player and band leader Chuck Mangione was definitely the instrumental of the year and spawned a popular career for Mangione which included some memorable “Is it live or is it Memorex (tape) ?” ads.
• “Whenever I Call You Friend” (#5 Oct.) by Kenny Loggins  was Loggins first solo top 40 hit and a very good tune at that, with a nice assist from Stevie Nicks singing harmony.
• “Ebony Eyes” (#14 Apr.) by Bob Welch – Though not as good as his earlier 1977 hit “Sentimental Lady”, Welch’s second hit song was still a nice pop tune.
• “Thunder Island” (#9 Mar.) – Jay Ferguson. Ferguson was the former leader of the band Spirit and his first solo hit was his best
• “Back in the USA” (#16 Oct.) was the highlight of Linda Ronstadt‘s new album Living in the USA. A nice up tempo version of Chuck Berry’s song which featured Ronstadt’s great voice.
• Kansas Point of Know Return (Oct. ‘77) album spawned the slow rock ballad  “Dust in the Wind” (#6 Apr.). A good song, but hopelessly overplayed on the radio and very difficult to hear when getting up in the morning (“All we are is dust in the wind”)
• John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John had a huge hit from the movie Grease “You’re the One that I Want” (#1 Jun.) which was definitely the movie’s musical highlight, though Frankie Valli‘s “Grease” (#1 Aug.) wasn’t bad either.

Rock and Pop “Misses”

Though most of rock and new wave music was excellent  in ’78, there were also several major disappointments. One of my favorite groups, the Moody Blues FINALLY put out their next album Octave (June ’78) after a more than 5 year hiatus. I couldn’t bring myself to buy it since it had nothing of consequence other than the modestly interesting “Steppin’ in a Slide Zone” (#39 Aug.) and paled in comparison to the Moodies previous 7 studio albums. Another favorite group of mine, Yes released Tormato (Sep. 1978). Though it contained two pretty good songs “Don’t Kill the Whale” and “Release, Release”, the album was a last gasp for the group and not as good as their previous effort Going for the One the year earlier. This was to be the last studio album for founder and lead singer Jon Anderson and organist Rick Wakeman until their comeback album 90125 five years later.

Meanwhile, Rod Stewart continued to veer far away from rock with the disco song “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” (#1 Feb ’79) which was on the charts for 21 excruciating weeks. Elton John had fallen even further off the tracks releasing A Single Man (October 1978) (minus Bernie Taupin as lyricist)  which though commercially successful was a critical bomb. I honestly don’t remember listening to a single song from the album at the time.

Paul McCartney and Wings London Town received decent critical reviews but unlike ALL of McCartney or Wings previous albums, I didn’t buy it (or for that matter ever listen to it). The headline song from the album “With a Little Luck” (#1 May) was a decent song, but nothing like past stellar McCartney songs such as “Band on the Run”, “Uncle Albert”, “Maybe I’m Amazed” etc.

Meanwhile, Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” (#1 Dec.) was so cloying it made me yearn for the early 70s Diamond and Streisand.

Disco, R&B and Funk

Quite a bit of R&B music seemed to be subsumed in disco music, of note was the newly crowned Queen of Disco Donna Summer “Last Dance” (#3 Aug.) and her first #1, the remake of Richard Harris’ “MacArthur Park” (#1 Nov.), though I can’t say I liked either song very much.

In contrast, Earth, Wind and Fire continued to put out excellent songs with 1978 being a particularly stellar year. It began with the lively and brilliant “Fantasy” (#32 Apr.) (“Our voices will ring together, until the 12th of never“)  which somehow only managed to barely make the top 40. Next there was the great jazzy remake of the Beatles “Got to Get You Into My Life” (#9 Sep.). Last the superb “September” (#8 Feb. ’79) (“Ba de ya, say do you remember, ba de ya, dancing in September“) closed out the year. EWF combination of a great funk rhythm section, a superb horn section, wonderful high harmonies and many excellent tunes made them the best R&B group of the late 1970s (and early 1980s) bar none.

Meanwhile, the Pointer Sisters had their biggest hit and first top ten with the slow, soulful “Fire” (#2 Feb. ’79), a Bruce Springsteen composition. But my favorite popular R&B song of the year was the lively disco/funk song “Le Freak” (#1 Dec.) by Chic which could even get me dancing.

Completely under the radar, a new promising 20-year-old artist from Minneapolis released his first album and charted his first single “Soft and Wet”(#92 Nov.) to little critical acclaim. But for Prince it was to be the beginning of a recording career which spanned almost four decades.

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1978 remains one of my favorite years for rock music, perhaps it was the mostly good memories the music evoked, or that the music was in many cases new and different. In either case, it was a nice revival for rock music which had been in the doldrums since the advent of disco in the mid-1970s.

Forty years ago in 1977, rock music was beginning to change. Likewise my life was changing. I began the year at Fidelity Union Trust Co. in a do-nothing job, but by the middle of the year I was a securities analyst providing buy and sell recommendations for the investment advisers to the bank’s trust and pension funds. My personal life was improving too. My distance relationship had become more settled at least for a time, and I started to interact more with friends in New York.

Changes in 1977 in rock music were mostly for the better, but rock still was playing second fiddle to conventional pop songs and disco in popularity. In fact, not one of the top twenty most popular songs of the year could be classified as a harder rock song.

Major British Artists “Missing in Action”

In 1977, most of the major British “classic” rock artists did not record any new material. The Rolling Stones had no top 40 singles for the first time since 1963 and no new studio albums either. The Who, Led Zeppelin and the Moody Blues recorded no new material either. Pink Floyd did have a reasonably good, new album Animals (loosely based on George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”) but it paled in comparison to the group’s previous two albums – the outstanding Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon.

Individual British artists fared no better with Elton John, John Lennon, George Harrison and Paul McCartney with no new studio albums. The lone positive note was McCartney and Wings release of its excellent live album “Wings over America” which included the release of one of my favorite songs  “Maybe I’m Amazed (live)” as a single. The album was also unique in that it was the first “live-concert” album from any of the four Beatles and included several Beatles tunes performed by McCartney.

While American rock artists were generally more active than the Brits, there was another year of no new Bruce Springsteen records (owing to his contract dispute) and the king of rock n’ roll,  Elvis Presley died 8/16/1977 at only 42 years of age.

Best Rock Albums

While British and hard rock music were mostly absent in 1977, rock albums were still quite good, albeit mostly on the softer side. In fact, there were ten very good new studio albums by existing rock/pop artists:

My favorite album was also the most popular album of the year: Rumours (Feb. 1977)  by Fleetwood Mac. Good songs often come out of breakups. In the case of Rumours, great songs came out of the breakup of John and Christine McVie’s marriage as well as the end of the long-running affair between Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham. This was a great album with emotional and catchy songs by each of the three main artists/songwriters (Nicks, Buckingham and Christine McVie), including the optimistic and happy “Don’t Stop” (“thinking about tomorrow”)  (#3 Sep.) and “You Make Loving Fun” (#9 Dec.); angry songs such as “The Chain” (“And if you don’t love me now, you’ll never love me again, I can still hear you saying you’d never break the chain!”), “Blue Letter”, and “Go Your Own Way” (“you can call it another lonely day”)  (#10 Mar.); and melan­choly songs such as “Dreams” (#1 June), “Songbird”, and “Never Going Back Again”. The album features excellent song melodies, compositions, guitar playing by Lindsay Buckingham, and a number of beautiful vocals by Christine McVie.

While there are many songs that Steely Dan has recorded that I like a great deal, Aja (Sept. 1977) was their only album where I enjoyed ALL the tracks. Aja is Steely Dan at their jazziest, though still fundamentally a rock-jazz fusion group. And I can remember listening to this album frequently in the months before heading west to California and Stanford Business School in the summer of 1978. The album starts with “Black Cow”, a wonderful song about rocky relationships (“I can’t cry anymore while you run around. Break away. Just when it seems so clear that it’s over now, drink your big black cow and get out of here”). The song features great saxophone, keyboards and guitar that fit the mood of the song brilliantly. Next, the title track “Aja” has a distinctly different Asian char­acter, albeit with equally jazzy instrumentation, a lengthy musical interlude in the middle and an extremely relaxed feel to it. In fact, it remains one of my favorite Steely Dan songs to this day. Side One ends with the single “Deacon Blues” (#19 June ’78), another excellent song and the third lengthy track on the side. Side 2 features the two excellent singles “Peg” (#11 Mar. ’78) and “Josie” (#26 Oct. ’78).

Going for the One (July 1977) represented a comeback album for Yes, after their previous two efforts, Relayer and Tales of Topographic Oceans, lacked the cohesiveness and musical completeness of their earlier albums. To be sure, Going for the One was still not as good as the superb Fragile, The Yes Album or Close to the Edge. Nonetheless it was a solid effort with the title track “Going for the One” and “Parallels” both excellent hard rock songs, while “Wondrous Stories” and “Turn of the Century” were two of Jon Anderson’s better soft ballads. The album benefitted significantly from the return of Rick Wakeman (keyboards) after a three-year absence from the group. Despite its length “Awaken” doesn’t meander and features Wakeman’s stellar keyboards and wonderful use of the church organ at St. Martin’s church in Switzerland. Call me sentimental, but this album evokes wonderful memories so will always be a favorite.

Running on Empty by Jackson Browne (Dec. 1977)  was Browne’s best album.  Its strengths were the singles “Running on Empty” (#11 Apr. ’78) and “Stay/The Load Out” (#20 Aug. ’78) as well as three other tracks “You Love the Thunder” (“and you love the rain”), “The Road” and “Cocaine”. This was Browne’s album about touring but it was much more upbeat and much less depressing than his former effort The Pretender which is probably why I enjoyed it much more. This album and particularly the superb “Running on Empty” became a bit of a theme song on my first drive across country during the summer of 1978 with friend Dave Dorsey, on my way to Stanford Business School.

Likewise, Billy Joel released his best album The Stranger (Sept. 1977) featuring the beautiful love song “Just the Way You Are” (#3 Feb. ’78) which was to become a soft rock/adult contemporary staple for years to come. However, the album had much more, most notably the lively hits  “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” (“Working too hard can give you a heart attack yak yak yak”) (#17 May ’78) and “Only the Good Die Young” (#24 Jul. ’78) as well as the slower and melodic “She’s Only a Woman”(#17 Oct. ’78). However, the hidden gem on the album was the brilliant “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” (“Bottle of red, bottle of white…I’ll meet you anytime you want at our Italian Restaurant”). The seven and a half-minute tour-de-force was about high school reminiscing and catching up. Lyrically and musically, it was exquisite.

In addition, Eric Clapton released Slowhand (Nov. 1977) which was his best album  since 461 Ocean Boulevard three years earlier. The album included the hit singles “Wonderful Tonight” (#16 Jul. ’78) and “Lay Down Sally” (#3 Apr. ’78) and two other classics: a brilliant remake of J.J.Cale’s “Cocaine” (“She don’t lie”) and “The Core”. While lesser known, “The Core” was one of my favorites: nine minutes in guitar heaven.

Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder was released at the end of 1976 and became very popular during 1977. I never bought the album, because my brother owned it and I taped many of the songs from his vinyl to cassette. The best songs from the album included the singles “I Wish” (#1 Jan), “Sir Duke” (#1 May), “Another Star” (#32 Sep.) and “As” (#36 Dec.) as well as the album cut “Isn’t She Lovely”. The latter song wasn’t released as a single but received a huge amount of airplay during 1977. The album is considered by many as Stevie’s best over his illustrious career and one of the best rock/R&B albums of all time.

Little Queen (May 1977) by Heart was a solid follow-up to the group’s debut album “Dreamboat Annie”. The album featured three excellent lively rockers, Barracuda (#11 Aug.), Kick it Out (#79 Dec.) and the superb “Love Alive” as well as the slower ballad “Little Queen” (#62 Oct.). Though lacking the dynamite of “Crazy on You” and “Magic Man” from the previous album (my two favorite songs by Heart), Little Queen still delivered.

Book of Dreams (May 1977) by Steve Miller was almost the equal of the previous year’s Fly Like an Eagle. It was highlighted by such excellent, catchy tunes as “Jungle Love” (#23 Sep.) and “Swingtown” (#17 Dec.) and my favorite by the group “Jet Airliner” (#8 July). This last song became my a theme song that I hummed/sang to myself on plane trips when returning home thru much of my working career. The album also had several excellent tunes that weren’t hits such as “Winter Time” and “True Fine Love”.

JT (June 1977) by James Taylor was his best effort since his 1970 Sweet Baby James album. This album represents the pinnacle of Taylor’s optimism with his then-marriage to Carly Simon no doubt at its happiest. The album exudes Taylor being head-over-heels in love featuring an excellent cover of a Jimmy Jones 1960 classic “Handy Man” (#4 Sep.) (‘That’s me, I’m your handy man“) and one of Taylor’s best love song compositions  “Your Smiling Face” (#20 Dec.) (‘Whenever I see your smiling face, I have to smile myself“), as well as a nice co-performance with Carly on”Secret O’ Life”. The up-tempo “Honey Don’t You Leave LA” (#61 Mar. ’78) adds nice variety to the album.

Rock Newcomers

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers self-titled debut album was released at the end of 1976 and began to get airplay in 1977. “Breakdown” (#40 Feb. ’78) was released as single at end of 1977 and also appeared on the album FM which put Petty on the map. Surprisingly, “An American Girl” the other standout song from the album (and a personal favorite) was never released as a single, but later became a staple on FM radio. Music critics such as Rolling Stone made much of Petty’s throwback sound to Roger McGuinn and the Byrds (both guitar and vocals) which is probably the reason his “new” sound appealed to me. This was the beginning of a lengthy and successful career for Petty until his too-early death this year.

Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell was the first album for this veteran of the cult movie of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and member of one of Ted Nugget’s road bands. To be sure, this was a very derivative album but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. My favorites of the album included “Bat Out of the Hell”, “All Revved Up With No Place to Go” and the classic duet “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”. This last song was notably performed live by Meatloaf and co-artist Ellen Foley including a live “make-out” scene on SNL  in late 1977.

Punk and New Wave

1977 was also the year that punk rock and new wave began to make its mark on a changing rock landscape. Punk was led by the Sex Pistols and their first and only studio album Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols. ‘It featured such rebellious songs as “Anarchy for the UK” and “God Save the Queen”. The Sex Pistols and its future imitators in punk rock was in-your-face hard rock music with little if any melody. Also from Britain, punk/new wave rockers The Clash released their first album The Clash in 1977. In the U.S. the new wave was led by the Talking Heads with the release of their first album  Talking Heads ’77 .  Much like punk rock, I didn’t get it at the time. I found a bit too “weird” for my liking, but that was to change, particularly as I grew to love the one single from the album “Psycho Killer” (#92 Feb. ’78) (“Qu’est que ce? You better run run away“). As the late ’70s move forward, I was soon to realize that some “weird” music could be excellent and the Talking Heads definitely fit that mold. Interestingly, the Talking Heads were formed at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1974 only a couple of miles from my dorm room at Brown at the time. Little did I know.

“We Will Rock You”

Many other rock songs were good as well.

A new group from New York, Foreigner first two singles were top 10 hits. Their first,  fittingly entitled, “Feels Like the First Time” (#4 June) was perhaps their best, a great rocker driven by stellar vocals and strong guitar from Ian McDonald. “Cold as Ice” their second hit (#6 Oct.) was a sign of what was to come with Lou Gramm’s soaring vocals a hallmark of the group during their heyday from the late 1970s through the 1980s.

Queen  News of the World album was nothing special except for the double-sided hit  “We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions” (#4 Dec.). The album version was excellent as it segued between “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” (“no time for losers”) and is still played this way on classic rock stations to great effect. Of course, these two songs have been subsequently been overplayed in sports arenas and stadiums, but when they first came out they were quite interesting to listen to and very different.

Electric Light Orchestra had a somewhat disappointing, double-album Out of the Blue  in 1977 after the excellent A New World Record in 1976. However, it did boast the interesting and catchy “Turn to Stone” (“when you are gone”) (#13 Jan. ’78) and my daughter Maryanne’s favorite ELO song “Mr. Blue Sky” (#35 Aug. ’78).

Canadian group Rush had their first charting singles, the excellent “Fly by Night” (#88 Jan.) and “Closer to the Heart” (#76 Dec.). The songs featured what would become the groups trademark rock sound and Geddy Lee’s high voice. I’ll confess that I only really started to listen to Rush a few years later after songs such as “The Spirit of Radio”, “Limelight” and my favorite “Tom Sawyer” were released and the group started receiving a lot more airplay on FM rock-oriented radio.

Hall and Oates had their first rollicking single “Rich Girl” (#1 Mar.) (“You can rely on the old man’s money”) and their first number one. This song was presaged the duo’s success in the 1980s with songs with more upbeat rhythms and melodies (e.g. “Out of Touch” and “Maneater”)

Dearborn, Michigan native Bob Seger had been on the charts since late 1968’s “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” , but it was the best song of his career “Night Moves” (#4 Mar.) that first got my attention. Later in the year, “Main Street” (# 24 May) and “Rock And Roll Never Forgets” (#41 Aug.) were good efforts. Though  I was never a big Seger fan, I did like some of his hits.

The Southern rock group, Marshall Tucker Band  had their biggest hit record “Heard it in a Love Song” (#14 June) followed by the even better  “Can’t You See” (#75 Sep.).

Best of Soft Rock/Pop

One of my favorite soft rock songs of the year was Carly Simon’s singing “Nobody Does it Better” (#2 Oct.) from the James Bond film “The Spy Who Loved Me” , continuing the series of great opening theme songs from Bond films. (E.g. “Goldfinger” “You Only Live Twice”, “Live and Let Die” etc.). This song showcases Carly’s unique vocal talents and has a melody that is irresistible. My apartment mate David Carroll came home one Saturday evening in late 1977 obviously drunk and singing the song, a personal memory that fortunately doesn’t blot out Carly’s version in my mind.

“Baby, What a Big Surprise” (“right before my very eyes”)(#4 Nov.) was another very catchy soft-rock hit by Chicago featuring stellar vocals by Peter Cetera. It was hard not to notice the unintentional and tragic irony, in that as the song was still being played on the radio in January 1978, Terry Kath (guitarist for the group) accidentally shot and killed himself.

Paul Simon had no new album, but he did have a nice single “Slip Slidin’ Away” (“the nearer your destination the more you’re slip slidin’ away”) (#5 Jan. ’78) which rose up the charts late in 1977.

Another good soft pop song, “Lonely Boy” (#7 June) by Andrew Gold had simplistic lyrics and theme, but the tune was excellent and it was very catchy.  

English art rockers, Supertramp had their first American top twenty with the tuneful and catchy “Give a Little Bit” (#15 Aug.).  However, their breakout year was to come two years later when “Breakfast in America” topped the album charts.  In a similar sounding vein, but from Chicago, Styx had their second top ten single “Come Sail Away” (#8 Jan. ’78) also a very catchy tune with Dennis DeYoung’s high-tenor vocals.

Strangely enough, 10cc  had a nice soft rock, love song “Things We Do For Love” (#5 Apr.) (“Like walking in the rain and the snow when there’s nowhere to go”) which was their first big hit since 1975’s “I’m Not in Love”. “Things…” was a much more conventional love song and far more upbeat both musically and lyrically than the brooding and psychedelic sounding”I’m Not in Love”.

In the blah category, there was “I’m in You” (#2 Aug.) by Pete Frampton, not a bad song (and interestingly, his top charting US  hit), but I found myself turning the radio dial. Then there was “Short People” (#2 Jan. ’78) by Randy Newman. A clever and catchy parody on discrimination but one that grew VERY tiresome after repeated listenings. Likewise, Bill Conti’s “Gonna Fly Now” (#1 Jun.) reminded us interminably of Sylvester Stallone training in the movie Rocky. Not a bad tune, but enough is enough.

In the ugly category, there were two more entries into the depressing, ‘I don’t want to hear this song’ category, particularly after the breakup of a two-year relationship with my girlfriend in November 1977. This included “Whatcha Gonna Do?” (#6 Aug) (“when she says goodbye“) by Pablo Cruse and “Baby Come Back” by Player (#1 Jan. ’78) (“And I just can’t live without you“). Eerily and depressingly, the latter song was hitting the charts just as my relationship ended.

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Fortunately, there were many fewer depressing songs than in 1976 AND good news was around the corner. In December 1977, I received a phone call from the head of Admissions at Stanford Business School letting me know that I had been accepted for the fall of 1978. This meant big changes ahead in 1978 which per usual seemed to parallel rock music moving in a more exciting direction. But that is the subject for my next music blog.