Apropos of nothing at all, but inspired by Natalie Weiner’s 1959 Project , I’m going to try and post either an album a day released in 1970 that has some importance or still stands up, or some other relevant thing for any particular day or week in that year. Natalie focused on jazz, and her blog is going to cost me a fortune, I predict, but I’m going to be more genre-indiscriminate and follow my tastes. These include jazz, but include rock and folk too, and whatever else takes my fancy.
1970 is in some ways arbitrary, though it resonates as it was exactly half a century ago. However, it was also when I first started to be aware of music (I had my tenth birthday in October 1969). My early interest was in the singles charts, mainly, but this is my blog and retrospect is allowed 🙂 Looking at the list of albums released in 1970, I’m amazed just how many I still listen to, or remember fondly, and I hope to share some of that.
I don’t remember things as being quite so compartmentalised by genre/marketing category back in 1970 (I wrote about that here) and as my horizons broadened I was more attracted by music than style. That’s why I remember being as happy to enjoy great pop music as to start listening to albums that increasingly went off the beaten track. I still am: I did one of those end of year things on Spotify, and though the band that came out on top was the Grateful Dead (2 killer albums in 1970), the song that came out top was Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn. Go figure.
The aim is to try and make a post every day. Pages will be found in a drop down menu as they are added.
I don’t promise any particular critical accuity or dazzling insight; my mind doesn’t work that way. Having said that, as the project continues, I may well come back and revise some of the entries as the mood takes me or as context and connections become apparent.
NOTE:- Album release dates given on Wikipedia are almost invariably the American release dates. This causes all sorts of issues trying to work out when UK releases are; it also means I get to comment on albums released in the US in 1969 but not out in the UK until 1970. This includes, for example, Hot Rats and Volunteers, and Willy and the Poor Boys.
I have tried to link to YouTube or Spotify for each entry. I’m aware of the issues regarding both and the payment of proper royalties to artists and would urge anyone who likes anything they hear to buy the music where possible.
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