1976 at 40

At the beginning of 1976 there was Queen and David Bowie. I was trying to find something else contemporary that worked for me but kept going back to the music and style of the previous decade which still felt more exciting than the runkerchunker boogie rock and emerging disco splodge. At the end of 1976 I was a punk rocker after seeing a ten minute story on the Sex Pistols on Weekend Magazine.

David Bowie - Station to Station
The first Bowie album I bought new. It sounded odd as the gang at school were pooling their Bowies so that we had them all on cassette or LP. This was unlike anything around it, even considering I was hearing the albums 69-76 all at once. Bowie was the element that kept me from despairing that any contemporary rock music would fail against that of the previous decade which I was heavily investigating. This sounded 70s with its brutal grooves, Gregorian funk, giant ballads and worrying 60s glottal backing vocals. It took a while but it became indispensable. Still a wonder. Not bad for an album Bowie professed to have forgotten making.

The Beatles - Rock n Roll Music
A compilation of oldies but important as it offered a look at a major musical influence focusing on their rockier output. It was patchy (lots of covers  and b-sides offered as LP firsts) but true to its title. More importantly, it got us all talking and learning. I knew a lot of them anyway but the bulk approach gave us a concentrate to mix in with our listening and the flavour was rich. We were hearing a lot of this for the first time.

Queen - A Day at the Races
After the sheer joy and rush of the previous, market-busting A Night at the Opera this felt very patchy. A Slade-like rocker, Love of My Life's creepy stalker brother, a lost Beatles coo-fest, campy waltzes, metal history lessons, a big gay gospel hymn, a typically great Roger Taylor rocker, and a Freddie ballad. I could leave it on but, even at fourteen, tuned out for a lot of it, keeping a Queen-sounding carpet of tone in the ether.

The Rolling Stones - Black and Blue
I liked this later. At the time I thought they were just old bods and didn't care. There was a huge Rolling Stones poster in a classroom at school where a huge head of Mick Jagger was superimposed over a group shot of the rest of the band. That just drove me further away. Later that year I bought a compilation of their early to mid 60s singles and was completely wowed. But the band on the record didn't seem to be the same one in the poster. Have enjoyed this album of extended second guitar auditions since borrowing a copy in the 80s. Probably the last full length Stones LP I like.

Led Zeppelin - Presence
This unloveable album of cold but bright guitar tone and a desperate sounding Robert Plant has some real highlights. The epic of Achilles' Last Stand and the bouncy Hots on for Nowhere are real pleasures. The rest of it is largely heard in context rather than track by track. At the time I liked more of it than I do now and, as the only Zep album I bought new, assigned a place of prominence. It was a kind of ticket into musical sophistication, especially since I heard it before the siblings who'd guided me to the band.

Wings - At the Speed of Sound
An exercise in band democracy flopped like every other band's similar attempt. Some fine work (Beware My Love, which I wanted as the next James Bond theme) but so much dreck. This is what convinced me that the ex-Beatles weren't The Beatles.

Blondie - Blondie
Unknown until the following year's In The Flesh whose Australian success gave the band it's first hit anywhere. Side one is brash, exciting and delicious. More experimental Side two fizzles too often but contains deathless gems like Rip Her to Shreds and Rifle Range. Restless powerpop with all the New York attitude you can eat in Harry's characterisations.

The Eagles - Hotel California
I'll admit to liking the title track when I first heard it and then begrudgingly liking New Kid in Town but when a schoolmate lent me the disc I only really noticed those two, pricked up my ears for Life in the Fast Lane but then got lost in all the flavourless custard of the rest of it. More recently, a friend lent me his copy of the DVD-Audio version with a 1 hi-res 5.1 mix, praising the quality of the playing and audio. That's about as far as I could get into it. With all the revisionism around late 70s soft rock like this band or the Nicks/Buckingham Fleetwood Mac and the unconvincing claims of ironic old bland equalling new edge this one has probably long been adopted by the hipster core. They can have each other.

The Ramones - The Ramones
I didn't have this until much later but was aware of it and had heard some tracks. Just before new of the Sex Pistols it wasn't called punk rock nor carried the stigma in mainstream radio. It reminded me of the Saints except it seemed to have a lower IQ. I was soon to learn that the last part of that was image. One of the most influential rock sounds around to this day.

Instead of a 10th album I'll remember singles. These show pretty clearly how this year changed a few perspectives:

Ted Mulry Gang - Crazy: Terrific tightly arranged rock song with a Beatlesque vocal and harmonies. Still like it.

Supernaut - I Like it Both Ways: This song about bisexuality caused the regulation number of sniggers in the classroom but everybody loved it.

The Angels - Am I Ever Going to See Your Face Again: A great rocker with a melancholy mood which not even the evolved crowd chorus comeback can ruin for me. In a year an a bit they were repackaged as a kind of punk act (words chosen carefully there) but they revisited this song a few times.

Heart - Magic Man: A cool and spooky rhythm with a phased guitar glissando and a vocal that went from a whisper to a solid wail. They had more in them but I lost interest after the second LP.

Split Enz - Late Last Night: I loved the song Maybe from the year before with its Beatlesque vocals and odd key change in the chorus. Late Last Night was like a mini cabaret show (not that I knew that at the time but the potted palms in the video seemed to suggest that)

Cliff Richard - Devil Woman: Cliff was from before my time and I put him in the same place as anything from the 50s like Elvis or cheesy teen movies. This had a kind of horror movie vibe and a chorus with a metal progression played clean which I liked for its strangeness.

Bohemian Rhapsody: As varied as a rock opera and as intriguing with amazing instrumental pyrotechnics and heavenly vocals. Still one of the best singles ever.

The Saints - (I'm) Stranded: Didn't know to call it punk rock at the time, just loved the force of it, the big buzzsaw guitars and that compelling me-first vocal. Never found a copy in a shop.

Boston - More Than a Feeling: Every cliche of 60s influenced 70s pop and pushed a few bridges further. Pure joy. Anyone who says they hate this song is a liar.

Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the U.K.: From a brief airing on Weekend Magazine and then a single one on the end of year Countdown this was the one that got me signing on to the noise that was to come. Nowhere in shops at the time, I had to wait until the album came out the next year (what an endless wait that was) but then it blew me away all over again.

Damned - New Rose: Heard it in the year that followed on a flexi disc that came with a RAM magazine edition. Neanderthal rock at its biggest and best.

The Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear the Reaper: From the dark 60s guitar arpeggio to the Gregorian harmonies and the horror movie words I longed to hear this on the radio. I finally found the single and played it till it was raw. Still a favourite. Still glad I didn't buy the album at the time as nothing on it came close to this.