Joey Ramone once said that fun disappeared from music in 1974, so The Ramones reacted against the trend of big heavy self-indulgent prog rock bands that all tried to outdo each other in most complex licks and longest dramatic solos. Since 100b would literally not be if it weren’t for the Ramones, all things that helped the birth of the band – even a bad year in music – are in a remote, roundabout way responsible for this here blog as well. Now let’s have a peak at the year that sucked the fun out of music and consequently gave rise to a band that broke all the rules.
Here’s the Top 20 End Of Year US chart from 1974:
20. Blue Swede – Hooked On A Feeling
19. Blue Magic – Sideshow
18. John Denver – Sunshine On My Shoulder
Well, there you have it. These three tunes epitomize Joey Ramones claim that there is no fun in music this year. OK, “Hooked On A Feeling” does have the cool ‘hoogachakas’ at the start, but none of these songs make me want to start a revolution or at the least my own band.
17. David Essex – Rock On
16. Jim Stafford – Spiders And Snakes
I actually kinda like these two songs. “Rock On” is far from rockin’, but – in keeping with the seventies theme – it has a very cool vibe. The Jim Stafford song is just very light and silly and for some reason it reminds me of the Smokey And The Bandit movies.
15. Al Wilson – Show And Tell
14. Stylistics – You Make Me Feel Brand New
13. Maria Muldaur – Midnight At The Oasis
Two very slick seventies soul songs that do absolutely nothing for me and “Midnight At The Oasis”, which sounds cute at first, but inexplicably also makes me feel a bit dirty. I can imagine these three songs as the soundtrack to many a hot, seventies, backseat lovin’.
12. Kool & The Gang – Jungle Boogie
I LOVE this song. From the gong to the funktastic voices and guitar I love the whole thing. It’s impossible not to get swept away by that crazy, grunty, scatting guy. I first heard it as a sample in The Beastie Boys’ “Hey Ladies”, before I was even aware of Kool & The Gang. Feel da Funk y’all!!
11. Aretha Franklin – Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)
10. Mac Davis – One Hell Off A Woman
09. Elton John – Bennie And The Jets
It’s hard to believe that Mac Davis who wrote “One Hell Of A Woman” also wrote Elvis’ “In The Ghetto”. It’s so blah, he’s easily drowned out by the two music greats on either side of him. I think it’s interesting that “Bennie And The Jets” was written as a poppy protest against seventies music. Though it doesn’t make as much of a racket as The Ramones do.
08. Ray Stevens – The Streak
07. MFSB feat. The Three Degrees – The Sound Of Philadelphia
06. Grand Funk Railroad – Loco-Motion
I don’t know what to make of “The Streak”. It is the lyrical version of a Benny Hill skit and celebrates the popular seventies sport streaking. Remember when any outdoor activity or half-assed protest was reason for somebody to run around in their birthday suit? Aw, the “Loco-motion”! Growing up in the eighties, I first heard Kylie’s sweet version when we just knew her as the cute one from Neighbours.
05. Jackson 5 – Dancing Machine
04. Redbone – Come And Get Your Love
03. Love Unlimited Orchestra – Love’s Theme
Bean recently celebrated the Jackson 5 and though this song is not one of their best, it’s still superbly poptastic. The very first lines of that Redbone song sound vaguely familiar to me, because Cindy Lauper sorta stole some of it in “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, but she changed it to ‘hey now, hey now, what’s the matter with ya, girls just wanna have fun now’. Good times. And this instrumental song by Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra is commonly believed to have been a huge influence on the disco sound that came out the following year. So whether you love, hate or are indifferent of disco this song had a part in the making of it.
02. Terry Jacks – Seasons In The Sun
01. Barbra Streisand – The Way We Were
No offense to Terry Jacks’ fans, but does anybody else want to kill themselves when they listen to “Seasons In The Sun”?!? The line that does it for me is ‘Goodbye papa, it’s hard to die when all the birds are singing in the sun’. Barf. I do appreciate “The Way We Were” for its misty, water-colored movie connections, it is a classic and La Streisand at her best.
Alright, with the exception of some kool funkalicious bands and familiar pop greats, this was not the most exciting year in music. Especially rock ‘n roll, once resurrected out of sex, youth and rebellion, had lost its dangerous edge and boisterous spirit and turned into a boring, lazy, beast of burden. No wonder The Ramones were pleading for shock treatment to get themselves out of the musical cul de sac that was 1974. Two years later they brought back the fun with their short, choppy, energetic debut so jam-packed full of disorganized joy that it inevitably rang in a new era.
The Ramones – Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment
Filed under: Music, Those Zany Charts ...
