Best 12 British albums of the 70s – listed | Music | Entertainment | EUROtoday

1970

Black Sabbath – Paranoid

‘Finished with my woman cos she couldn’t assist me with my thoughts…’ I used to be 15 after I noticed Black Sabbath performing Paranoid on Top Of The Pops in September, 1970. Ozzy seemed demented and the driving, angst-filled anthem excited a era of bored youngsters. Black Sabbath didn’t simply widen my tastes, they modified fashionable music eternally by creating the cornerstone for a brand new sort of rock – heavy metallic. Out went middle-class hippies, in got here one thing tougher, meaner, and altogether extra all the way down to earth. Paranoid was Sabbath’s second album, launched half a 12 months after their self-titled debut. Although written shortly, the eight tracks embrace revered classics like War Pigs, an superior and nonetheless related anti-war anthem full of uncooked energy and delivered over gradual, ominous, brutal guitar. Iron Man was equally darkish, constructed over Tony Iommi’s iconic riff, the lyrics (written by bassist Terry ‘Geezer’ Butler) foresaw a time traveller “turned to steel, in a great magnetic field”. The sooner, catchier Fairies Wear Boots, shifted tempos and delivered baffling lyrics – mentioned to be both a dig at skinheads or a dig by skinheads at Ozzy’s lengthy hair, plus unrelated drug references. Geezer’s bass traces are terrific and Bill Ward’s drumming manages to be each tight and versatile. The music impressed by these working-class yobs from the backstreets of Birmingham, continues to thrive worldwide to today.

Elton John launched two of his most interesting albums this 12 months too: his self-titled second LP and Tumbleweed Connection. Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) broke large within the USA with the beautiful Tea For The Tillerman. And Deep Purple In Rock stayed within the UK charts for greater than a 12 months.

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1971

Jethro Tull. Aqualung. Blending laborious rock, folks music, social commentary, and progressive rock, Tull’s fourth studio album broke the band in America the place it went triple platinum; it was a Top 5 hit right here. It featured a few of their stand-out songs corresponding to Locomotive Breath, the place singer and songwriter Ian Anderson addresses the runaway practice of inhabitants progress over a rhythm that echoes a dashing locomotive. The epic title monitor is Ian’s “guilt-ridden” however richly descriptive lyrical portrait of a perverted homeless man. It adjustments from a gradual, heavy opening riff to an acoustic bridge earlier than accelerating into the second verse adopted by Martin Barre’s distinctive guitar solo. Other stand-out tracks embrace My God, which criticises organised faith, accusing the world’s church buildings of ‘locking Him in his gilded cage’and which morphs from an acoustic guitar intro into rockier passages and a center 8 that alternates between Anderson’s flute and Gregorian-style choral singing. Continuing the theme Hymn 43 is “a blues for Jesus, about the gory, glory seekers who use his name as an excuse for a lot of unsavoury things”; whereas the extra menacing Cross-Eyed Mary tackles teenage prostitution. All of Tull’s strengths are right here – intricate musicianship, intelligence, daring and cynicism. No surprise their followers vary from John Lydon to Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris.

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1971

Led Zeppelin. IV.

Up there with Led Zep II as their best album, this eight-track magnum opus packs in laborious rock, folks, stormy blues, and mysticism. As nicely as the long-lasting eight-minute anthem Stairway To Heaven, there are awesomely intense high-volume rockers like Black Dog and Rock And Roll, and their mystical mandolin-driven masterwork The Battle Of Evermore, that includes Robert Plant’s bewitching duet with Fairport Convention’s Sandy Denny and lyrics dipped in Tolkien mythology. Going To California, one other dreamy basic, showcases the band’s emotional depth and is Zeppelin’s tribute to Joni Mitchell. Robert Plant sings tenderly over Jimmy Page’s acoustic guitar and John Paul Jones’s mandolin. He’s dreaming of a lady ‘with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair’ and will get a punch on the nostril as a substitute. Stairway To Heaven is the crowning glory after all, slowly constructing from its mild acoustic ballad begin to a ferocious conclusion. Jimmy Page’s stunning solo, performed on a 1959 Telecaster, is among the most interesting ever recorded. John Bonham’s drumming is prime class all through.

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1971

Rod Stewart. Every Picture Tells A Story.

Already a star from his success with the Faces and the Jeff Beck Group, Londoner Rod broke through to solo success with his third solo album, laying the foundation stones for his subsequent super-stardom. Every Picture came loaded with timeless classics like Maggie May – written by Stewart and Steamhammer’s guitarist Martin Quittenton – his own Mandolin Wind, and a sublime cover of Tim Hardin’s (Find a) Reason To Believe. The nine tracks captured Rod’s unique blend of rock, folk and soul and built on his image as a likeable rogue, the modern-day troubadour first seen on Gasoline Alley. Reason To Believe was the first hit from it, but was outsold by B-side Maggie May which topped the charts worldwide, selling two million copies in the USA alone. The album kicks off with the hard-rocking title track, co-written by Rod and his Faces comrade Ronnie Wood, which is still a live favourite. Other gems include his covers of The Temptations (I Know) I’m Losing You, Bob Dylan’s Tomorrow Is A Long Time, Ted Anderson’s Seems Like A Long Time, and Arthur Crudup’s That’s All Right which segues into a tasteful blues take on Amazing Grace. Released in November it showcased Rod’s unique vocals, a rare mix of raspy grit and soulful tenderness dubbed ‘gravel over velvet’, and sold seven and a half million copies worldwide. He followed it with 1972’s Never A Dull Moment, co-writing the Number One single, You Wear It Well, with Martin Quittenton which again highlighted Stewart’s signature mix of mandolin, fiddle, and acoustic guitar, and reinforced his reputation as a storyteller.

1971 also gave the world The Who’s magnificent Who’s Next and the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers which blended blues-rock and country with maximum swagger.

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