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So following my trawl through the 50s and 60s, we finally reach the decade that gave us Showaddywaddy, The Love Boat, Pong, Margaret Thatcher, bell-bottoms, the three day week and... me.
As already established, this isn't my Top Ten Songs From The 70s (hence no Born To Run at #1), just songs about that dismal decade...
10. Josh Rouse - 1972
Let's begin in the year of my birth with this wistful ditty about two young lovers caught between smoking pot and playing pool in the afternoon, working nights at the drive-thru, and screwing in a motel room all the rest of the time. None of which I did myself in 1972, given that I was 0.
9. The Connells - 74-75
I was the one who let you know
I was sorry ever after
74-75
Don't look at me, I was just a toddler.
It amuses me that when you type "Connells" into wikipedia it takes you to a page about a British estate agent, with a small link saying "Do you mean the American rock band?" Their marketing team must be working overtime.
8. Alice Cooper - Teenage Lament 74
A song actually written and recorded in the year it describes, though the experience of being a teenager trapped in a home with squabbling parents and dreaming of rock 'n' roll escape is pretty much timeless (I'm sure Samuel Pepys covered it in his own teenage diaries).
I ran into my room
And I fell down on my knees
Well, I thought that fifteen
Was gonna be a breeze
I picked up my guitar
To blast away the clouds
But somebody in the next room yelled
"You gotta turn that damn thing down!"
7. Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
Billy Corgan is scary. Look at him in this video. No, look at him. Why has no one ever cast him as a vampire in a really scary horror film? Eh? Because it wouldn't get past the censors, that's why.
Even scarier is the pun-ishing name of the album this came from: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Ouch.
6. Chris Difford - 1975
Like Billy Joel's We Didn't Start The Fire, Chris traces his life as a songwriter, beginning in '75. It's a much more personal journey than Joel's This Day In History romp, and yet, through all the ups and downs of fame and fortune, Squeeze's top man still has to conclude, "I've never been so happy as 1975." There's a lesson there somewhere.
5. The Ataris - Summer '79
Ten years after Bryan Adams had his moment in the sun, the Ataris turn up to celebrate roller-rinks, air hockey tables and "We Are The Champions". Given that Bryan Adams was only 9 in the Summer of '69 and the Ataris didn't form until the mid 90s, they were probably foetuses duruing the year in question. Then again, I had some of my happiest times as a foetus...
4. Ryan Adams - 1974
From the underrated Rock 'n' Roll album - at the time, everybody said "it's not as good as Heartbreaker or Gold", but that's only because they hadn't heard some of the dreck he's released since. That said, given that this song is all about the year of Ryan's birth... he's still achieved a heck of a lot more with his life than I have, and I had a two year head start!
3. The Alarm - Spirit Of '76
Anthemic guitar pop from the valleys... could the Alarm be the 80s Manics? If you're in the right frame of mind, this song could bring a tear to the eye. If you're in the wrong frame of mind, those tears will be buffeted by laughter.
2. Ed Harcourt - Born In The 70s
Another autobiographical piece from another performer younger than myself...
I was born in the year punk broke
Days before the king was dead
I'm old enough to remember Elvis's death on the TV (though for some reason, Lennon's death a couple of years later failed to register). Ed Harcourt appears to view the 70s as the birth of the Me-Generation that would rise to power in the 80s...
Born in the '70s
(No, we don't really give a fuck about you)
Born in the '70s
(No we don't really give a fuck about you)
1. The Clash - 1977
And while Ed was crawling round in his nappies, Joe Strummer and co. were really not giving a fuck. There was no Elvis, no Beatles and no Rolling Stones in 1977 - just The Clash. And the toilet didn't work.
Anyone who leaves a "but I wasn't even born in the 70s, Rol, nyah nyah nyah" comment wins a very special price. A Silver Jubilee tankard. To the face.
But... what's your favourite Song of the Seventies?
