Exploring pre-CD era pop music...

[pjme]

talk about your own favorites and why they are important to you:

Basically there is very little pop music (Schlager, rock, disco,soul...) that was "important" to me: it did not guide my path to adulthood or artistic/social discovery.
But its massive, "unescapable" presence formed one of the aural backgrounds of the sixties /seventies. And I loved dancing.

[71 dB]

Hey, if you don't feel it, you don't feel it.

James Brown, dead funk. New one on me! 
Night!

New day! 

It was new to me too. I thought he was the king of kings (and perhaps he is), but when I explored his music all I could say to myself was "I don't really like/enjoy this stuff. It is annoyingly jerky!" James Brown puts too much weight on downbeat I think. 70 % of the music happens during downbeat and the rest is almost silence in comparison, hence that go-stop-go-stop...jerkiness.

[71 dB]

As far as GOOD funk goes there was no shortage of it in the 70s. The late 60s/early 70s had probably the most funk bands of any era. Sure, there was plenty of junk but it was, more or less, the golden age of funk. It's why Hip Hop is full of more samples from that period than any other.

Yep.

Perhaps you should have titled the thread "Sunshine Pop Pre-CD" since it's obviously what you're really after.

I am after any music I like including certain kind of sunshine pop and funk. Half of the motivation of making this thread was my frustration of how so much of this 70's music is "vinyl only" stuff and so badly re-issued on CD if at all and often not available in streaming services either.

I just love the opportunity to talk about this era of music regardless of genre. It was a very fertile time creatively.

Nice to have someone here! Yes, 70's had some very interesting music, but sadly CD came a decade too late for us to have all this music better available digitally.

Another favorite funk album from that era ('74):

BT Express Do It Til Your Satisfied

Thanks! I'm 13 minutes into the album and it sound pretty good. 

Checked Amazon.de for this album on CD: Available from a marketplace seller for 24.68 euros, but there is red text: "This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location. Please choose a different delivery location." I get this text a lot. Finland is some kind of North-Korea where people don't sell much anything! Even if they did, the asked price is high. Of course I probably could find a copy cheaper somewhere else like ebay, but the point is collecting 70's music on CD is not always that easy! It can be like collecting valuable rare stamps! If we are lucky, there are cheap "5 classic albums boxsets" available. In fact I got one of those for covering Carly Simon's first 5 albums years ago. Great deal, but requires luck!

[71 dB]

Basically there is very little pop music (Schlager, rock, disco,soul...) that was "important" to me: it did not guide my path to adulthood or artistic/social discovery.
But its massive, "unescapable" presence formed one of the aural backgrounds of the sixties /seventies. And I loved dancing.

Well, I didn't "actively" listen to music in my childhood. I only heard music passively around me and very little of it interested me. At the time I didn't understand/know at all my music taste is weird meaning I rarely are into the most popular music. I had zero knowledge of "other" music existing that I might like much more. In my childhood I didn't have even money beyond small weekly allowance (which was spend on candy and Legos), so how would I have been able to buy much music even if I wanted?

I was in high-school when I finally got interested of music and I realised there are all kind of interesting music to explore, music I like but people around me don't care about. A decade or so later (late 90's) I started using the internet and I had much much better sources of information to explore music.

Americans may not understand this, but when you live in a country like Finland, about half of all music you hear around you are Finnish artists and the foreign artists that people listen to are mostly the biggest names (and also big hits play on radio). That's why my exposure to more marginal American pop music has been very limited. Artists like B.T.Express are "totally unknown" in Finland (means there are so little people knowing/liking that music that you probably never meet those people anywhere). Even Tangerine Dream and King Crimson have very limited fanbases in Finland! That's the reason why it takes me so long and so much effort to discover these artists. In the 70's the World wasn't as global and connected it is today and for example many American artists were popular only in the US. Those few artists who bothered to come to Finland to perform (e.g. Paul Anka) became popular here, because Finns were exposed to the music. Finland has always suffered from artists not coming here to perform because we are so remote and also a small country (not worth the effort). Some artists came here, because they had gigs in Stockholm and St. Petersburg and Helsinki is in between, but now due to the war in Ukraine that doesn't happen. We have our own domestic artists or course having tons of gigs, but I don't care about Finnish music really. A lot of it is metal anyway which is not for me.

Finland has sadly been culturally very racistic country. I have heard in the 70's DJs playing music on radio hated music by blacks and played mostly music made by white artists. Since funk is mostly made by black artists, Finns never learned to like that music due to the censorship.

[AnotherSpin]

It's not entirely clear to me what music is categorised as "pop" music. If we take into account that King Crimson and Tangerine Dream were mentioned in the first post, then the set scope is very broad, and rock music is included. If so, it is not clear to me how you can think the 70s was a bad decade for rock music. I think the 70s (and the second half of the 60s) is the best, and most unique time for rock music in general.
There are so many examples to name. Just a few: The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers Band, Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane (and Starship), Steely Dan, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, Moody Blues, King Crimson (yes!), Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Frank Zappa, Queen... oh, I better stop here, the list would be endless.

My all time favourite rock band is The Grateful Dead, I still refer to their immense recording archive quite often. The Dead were at their prime in 70s. There are hundreds of live albums of GD available, representing an incredible, wealth of creativity and freedom, which was second to none. One of the most famous GD's recordings from 70s is Barton Hall, 8 May 1977:

https://youtu.be/IC4QWv3doDE?si=T5QmnR3zommCFiIG

[DavidW]

It's not entirely clear to me what music is categorised as "pop" music. If we take into account that King Crimson and Tangerine Dream were mentioned in the first post, then the set scope is very broad, and rock music is included.

Yeah I always thought of them as prog rock and not pop.

[ando]

Half of the motivation of making this thread was my frustration of how so much of this 70's music is "vinyl only" stuff and so badly re-issued on CD if at all and often not available in streaming services either.

Well, 71, that's actually part of the fun of collecting vinyl. Ever think about a purchasing a turntable? It's its own pleasure; distinctly different from plugging in a cd or (definitely) streaming music.

[71 dB]

If we take into account that King Crimson and Tangerine Dream were mentioned in the first post, then the set scope is very broad...

King Crimson is prog rock
Tangerine Dream is electronic/synth/ambient music with rock influences

I mentioned them as some of my favourite music from the 70's.

[71 dB]

Ever think about a purchasing a turntable?

No and I have my reasons.

[ando]

No and I have my reasons.

Good luck.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

No and I have my reasons.

I would suggest (if you can do it) to try and acquire later CDs (remasterings) of music from that time period as the earlier ones (from the '80's) can be rather harsh-sounding.  Analogue, if recorded well, is, well, primo.     

Happy hunting!  Another name for you to check out:  Bonnie Raitt (absolutely love her first album in particular...kind of a combo of blues and folk); she's also a very good slide guitar player...and more.  

Another classic: 

But maybe this doesn't fit into your "pop" category?

PD

[AnotherSpin]

King Crimson is prog rock
Tangerine Dream is electronic/synth/ambient music with rock influences

I mentioned them as some of my favourite music from the 70's.

Thank you for enlightening me. I listened to King Crimson quite intensively in the 70s, on vinyl of course. My favourite albums were Starless and Bible Black, Red, Lizard, In the Court of the Crimson King, etc. I also had a pretty good knowledge of Tangerine Dream, I had Stratosfear, Rubycon, Encore, Force Majeure in my collection.

I was referring to your words: "I held the believe that the music of the 70's really suck". I guess you came too late to be able to appreciate all this.

[AnotherSpin]

I would suggest (if you can do it) to try and acquire later CDs (remasterings) of music from that time period as the earlier ones (from the '80's) can be rather harsh-sounding.  Analogue, if recorded well, is, well, primo.     

Happy hunting!  Another name for you to check out:  Bonnie Raitt (absolutely love her first album in particular...kind of a combo of blues and folk); she's also a very good slide guitar player...and more.   

Another classic: 

But maybe this doesn't fit into your "pop" category?

PD

I agree. I still believe that vinyls of 70s music have not been adequately transferred to CDs. Which, of course, makes it difficult to assess the quality of the music. Also, the whole culture has changed. It's unlikely that people who came to music in the following decades will be able to appreciate it sufficiently.

[AnotherSpin]

Yeah I always thought of them as prog rock and not pop.

I believe the term "prog" rock started being used much later than the 70s. Maybe in the 90s, not earlier. In the 70s we listened to King Crimson or Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Yes or Genesis or Manfred Mann's Earth Band or Electric Light Orchestra without thinking what term to use for categorising.

Why even have these labels? Each of the great bands of the 70s was unique in its own way, had little resemblance to other bands, and in a way was a genre in its own right. Nowadays it is impossible to distinguish some bands from others, the differences have been erased, the uniqueness has been lost.

[71 dB]

I also had a pretty good knowledge of Tangerine Dream, I had Stratosfear, Rubycon, Encore, Force Majeure in my collection.

That's a very fine microscopic Tangerine Dream collection. Their whole output is absolutely massive even without the unofficial releases. When I got into them in 2008, I bought 90 CDs of their music in just three years! After that the purchases were of course fewer, but my current TD collection is maybe 150 CDs + 15 concert DVDs. I am still missing a lot of their stuff... ...but with a collection this massive it doesn't matter much. There is so much to listen to from so many decades! This year alone I have bought these Tangerine Dream releases:

Raum
The Sessions boxset (8 CDs)
Firestarter soundtrack
Three O'clock High soundtrack
The Park Is Mine soundtrack
Shy People soundtrack
Strange Behavior soundtrack
Catch Me If You Can soundtrack*

That's 15 CDs all.   To be fair I bought only two CDs last year. It varies.

* Not the Spielberg movie scored by John Williams. Same name, different movie.

I was referring to your words: "I held the believe that the music of the 70's really suck". I guess you came too late to be able to appreciate all this.

It was the combination of total ignorance of music and the fact that I heard passively mostly music that has never been much to my liking. Now, after being into music for 35 years I know million times more and I know there are tons of music made in the 70's that rule in my opinion. That said, I have a lot to learn.

[71 dB]

I would suggest (if you can do it) to try and acquire later CDs (remasterings) of music from that time period as the earlier ones (from the '80's) can be rather harsh-sounding.  Analogue, if recorded well, is, well, primo.     

Often the newer remastered releases are easier to find anyway. I don't "care" much about the sound quality in this context. Getting this music is often hard to begin with and sometimes you have to celebrate if you can get it at all!

Happy hunting!  Another name for you to check out:  Bonnie Raitt (absolutely love her first album in particular...kind of a combo of blues and folk); she's also a very good slide guitar player...and more. 

Doesn't feel like being my thing. Too much blues and I'm struggling... sorry.

[AnotherSpin]

That's a very fine microscopic Tangerine Dream collection. Their whole output is absolutely massive even without the unofficial releases. When I got into them in 2008, I bought 90 CDs of their music in just three years! After that the purchases were of course fewer, but my current TD collection is maybe 150 CDs + 15 concert DVDs. I am still missing a lot of their stuff... ...but with a collection this massive it doesn't matter much. There is so much to listen to from so many decades! This year alone I have bought these Tangerine Dream releases:

Raum
The Sessions boxset (8 CDs)
Firestarter soundtrack
Three O'clock High soundtrack
The Park Is Mine soundtrack
Shy People soundtrack
Strange Behavior soundtrack
Catch Me If You Can soundtrack*

That's 15 CDs all.   To be fair I bought only two CDs last year. It varies.

* Not the Spielberg movie scored by John Williams. Same name, different movie.

It was the combination of total ignorance of music and the fact that I heard passively mostly music that has never been much to my liking. Now, after being into music for 35 years I know million times more and I know there are tons of music made in the 70's that rule in my opinion. That said, I have a lot to learn.

We were speaking about 70s, don't we? In 70s Tangerine Dream released 5 LPs of so-called charted albums accordingly to their official discography.

[71 dB]

I think these are their best years as a classic trio.

As someone who became a fan in 2008 I can appreciate their music from all decades and phases. Some more than others of course.  I REALLY like their music from the worst to the best.

[AnotherSpin]

As someone who became a fan in 2008 I can appreciate their music from all decades and phases. Some more than others of course.  I REALLY like their music from the worst to the best.

That's fine. I guess my interest to electronic popular music has been quite limited. Anyway, other musicians, like Vangelis, Klaus Schulze, Deuter or some more recent electronic artists like Alva Noto or Ryoji Ikeda were more interesting to me. Brian Eno too, of course.

[71 dB]

There's a Youtube channel named The45Prof that contains tons of old 45 rpm singles uploaded. I found several tracks by Maureen McGovern (the early stuff) and I definitely seem to like it, but as I have said, getting this stuff is really difficult. Well, now I noticed on the WOWHD site, that they have listen for pre-order a 2 CD set of Maureen McGovern, but the details are pretty much missing at this point. The CD is released November 17. I pray the set contain tons of the early stuff (1973-1975)! 

https://www.wowhd.co.uk/morning-after-can-you-read-my-mind-her-best/097037037161