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1976 Just to put 1976 in context, let's recall that this was the year that The Captain and Tennille were, at the moment, superstars, with hit songs on the charts and their very own musical variety show. Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby sat high up on the charts, and the "disco sucks" backlash was just getting going. "Happy Days" and "Welcome Back Kotter", as well as "The Six Million Dollar Man" were weekly TV fixtures. In spite of a weakening economy, America seemed to want to mellow out; Watergate and the Vietnam war were now behind us. The 60s seemed rather far away, even though the cultural shifts which had been brought about now seemed to be spreading further. And the Bicentennial, with all of its hype and commercialism seemed to portend a hyper-commercialized future soon to come. At this time, popular music and rock and roll seemed to be at a crossroads. The big superstar acts like the Stones and Led Zeppelin, seemed, compared to past efforts, to be in a rut, just going through the motions. Queen released an LP which seemed a whole lot like its previous, massively successful LP (even their titles were similar). There also seemed to be more and more arena rock, with more bands seeming increasingly generic (not unlike the plethora of rap-metalers, boy bands and Brittany clones today). As suggested, there were various cleavages - disco vs. rock, hard rock vs. soft rock, experimental vs. mainstream, and then, punk vs. the rock establishment. This was the era of satin jackets, 20 minute drum solos (every drummer seemed to think that he was John Bonham) and record company cocaine expense accounts, i.e., an era of extremely self-indulgent artists playing the music that once belonged to the marginalized and oppressed. Looked at in terms of the growing divergence of style and attitudes, 1976 was, and is, a pretty interesting year. Of course, like with all years, there were some fine pieces of music being released. For example, Bowie, Dylan, Stevie Wonder, and even the likes of Billy Joel and Thin Lizzy did some fine work. This was also the year in which the Ramones begat a musical revolution with their self-titled solo LP, a record which was probably much cheaper to produce that than the cost of REO Speedwagon's satin jacket budget or the cost of an average weekend of the now soon to be irrelevant dinosaur Rod Stewart's coke consumption. Patti Smith contributed revolutionary energies with her excellent, free jazz and psychadelic influenced Radio Ethiopia. On the other side of the Atlantic, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned and other UK punks would also create some culture shocks. The Ramones and the many punks and new wavers that followed would, of course, have the last laugh, at least for the remainder of the decade. 1976 (Outstanding releases, in my view, marked with an asterisk; most significant or outstanding releases with a double asterisk) - Tom AC/DC - High Voltage ("It's A Long Way to the Top") (RIP, Bon!) AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap* Aerosmith - Rocks** ("Back in the Saddle," "Last Child") (classic Aerosmith) Kevin Ayers - Odd Ditties* Bad Company - Run With the Pack Beach Boys - 15 Big Ones ("Rock and Roll Music") Bee Gees - Children of the World ("You Should Be Dancing," "Love So Right") Big Youth - Natty Cultural Dread* Elvin Bishop - Hometown Boy Makes Good Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'n' Roll Blondie - Blondie* ("X Offender," "Rip Her To Shreds") Blue Oyster Cult - Agents of Fortune* ("Don't Fear The Reaper") Boston - Boston ("More Than A Feeling," "Long Time") David Bowie - Station To Station** ("Golden Years," "TVC15") (another excellent, very funky, Bowie album) David Bowie - Changesonebowie** (compilation) The Brothers Johnson - Look Out For #1* Jackson Browne - The Pretender Can - Unlimited Edition* Alice Cooper - Goes to Hell (Well, where else is he supposed to go? The Vatican?) Culture - Two Sevens Clash The Damned - Damned, Damned, Damned* ("New Rose") Charlie Daniels Band - High Lonesome The Doobie Brothers - Takin' It to the Streets (These guys lost all contact with "the streets" upon hiring smarmy lounge lizard Michael McDonald) Bob Dylan - Desire** ("Mozambique," "Hurricane") (perhaps Dylan's finest work of the decade) Bob Dylan - Hard Rain The Eagles - Hotel California ("Life in the Fast Lane," "New Kid in Town") (really overrated) Earth, Wind and Fire - Spirit* ("Getaway," "Saturday Night") Eddie and the Hot Rods - Teenage Depression ELO - A New World Record* ("Livin' Thing," "Do Ya," "Telephone Line") (delightfully Beatlesque) Firefall - Firefall Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action** Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive Funkadelic - Tales of Kidd Funkadelic Genesis - Wind and Wuthering Grateful Dead - Steal Your Face Hall and Oates - Bigger Than Both Of Us ("Rich Girl") Heart - Dreamboat Annie ("Magic Man," "Crazy On You") Henry Cow - Concerts Jefferson Starship - Spitfire Jethro Tull - Too Old to Rock and Roll, Too Young to Die Billy Joel - Turnstiles* ("Say Goodbye To Hollywood," "NY State Of Mind") Elton John - Blue Moves* ("Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word") Tiny Dancer: "Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance)" was also a discoish hit from this one. Luckily it was the last track, I often skipped it, it drove me insane! The rest of the album's solid, though, with the gorgeous "Tonight," "Chameleon," "Cage The Songbird," and "Someone's Final Song". And I still love "If There's A God In Heaven (What's He Waiting For?)" and "Shoulder Holster". Journey - Look Into The Future Kansas - Leftoverture ("Carry On Wayward Son") King Crimson - A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson** (compilation) The Kinks - Schoolboys in Disgrace* ("Jack the Idiot Dunce") Kiss - Destroyer* ("Detroit Rock City") (Kiss are cheesy fun, though not to be taken too seriously) Led Zeppelin - Presence Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains The Same soundtrack Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gimme Back My Bullets Bob Marley - Rastaman Vibration* Marshall Tucker Band - Long Hard Ride Steve Miller - Fly Like An Eagle* ("Rock 'n' Me", "Take the Money and Run") (fun and catchy record) Modern Lovers and Jonathan Richman - Modern Lovers and Jonathan Richman** ("Roadrunner") (A classic (actually recorded in 1971); whenever I go past a Stop 'N' Shop, I start humming "Roadrunner") Ohio Players - Honey* The Outlaws - Lady In Waiting Augustus Pablo - King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown* Graham Parker - Howlin' Wind* Parliament - The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers* ("Breakdown," "American Girl") (a terrific, Byrds/Dylan influenced debut) Piper - Piper Queen - A Day at the Races ("Somebody To Love") The Quick - Mondo Deco Ramones - Ramones** The Red Krayola - Corrected Slogans* Lou Reed - Rock and Roll Heart Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby* The Residents - Present the Third Reich 'n Roll Rolling Stones - Black and Blue ("Fool to Cry," "Hot Stuff") Roxy Music - Viva The Runaways - The Runaways ("Cherry Bomb") (unfortunately, a great song but a mediocre album; Joan Jett would move on to bigger and better things) Todd Rundgren - Faithful Rush - 2112 Santana - Amigos* Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees* ("Lowdown," "Lido Shuffle") (a much hipper lounge lizard that Michael McDonald) Sneakers - Sneakers (ep) (Chris Stamey and Will Rigby would go from this band to later glory as the dBs) Sparks - Big Beat Split Enz - Mental Notes* Steely Dan - The Royal Scam ("Kid Charlemagne," "Haitian Divorce") Al Stewart - The Year of the Cat Rod Stewart - A Night on the Town* ("Tonight's The Night," "The First Cut Is The Deepest") (his last terrific lp) Tiny Dancer: Great album and I'll add "The Killing Of Georgie (Part I & II)", a very important song to my young life. The Stooges - Metallic KO (featuring the rudest live version of "Louie, Louie" ever recorded) 10CC - How Dare You?* Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak* ("The Boys Are Back in Town") (that song's got one of the great guitar riffs) Toots and the Maytals - Reggae Got Soul* (it's got soul, got soul!) Triumph - Triumph (what was I saying about generic rock?) Robin Trower - Long Misty Days U Roy - Dread in a Babylon Bunny Wailer - Blackheart Man* Tom Waits - Small Change ("Tom Traubert's Blues," "Invitation To The Blues") Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life** ("I Wish, "Sir Duke," "Isn't She Lovely") (a masterpiece) ZZ Top - Tejas* Go to the next page for Tiny Dancer's additions. Choose a year or click on Next 1970/ 1971/ 1972/ 1973/ 1974 1975/ 1976/ 1977/ 1978/ 1979 
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