The Bargain Store - Dolly Parton

The Bargain Store - Dolly Parton

2:44
The Bargain Store, 1975

Written by Dolly Parton

The narrator of this song compares herself to used merchandise in a discount store, her past making up the old detritus and second-hand goods found in such markets.  She invites a prospective lover to offer her a new love she can trade her broken heart for, much the same way one might bargain for older goods: "Take these old used memories from the past / And these broken dreams and plans that didn't last / I'll trade them for a future, I can't use them anymore / I've wasted love but I still have some more."  Hilariously, the song was dropped from a number of some radio stations when programmers decided the line "You can easily afford the price" referred to prostitution!  Dolly sings it in a breezy style that belies the melancholy lyric.

Wake Up Everybody - Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes

Wake Up Everybody - Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
7:32
Wake Up Everybody, 1975
Written by John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen

Let's celebrate Juneteenth

This is the longest song ever posted to the blog.  Its album is the last to include Teddy Pendergrass before he left the group for a solo career.  This soul anthem is uplifting and positive. Rather than preaching politics, it asks teachers, doctors, and leaders to do better, trusting that the next generation will respond in kind: "Wake up, all the teachers, time to teach a new way / Maybe then they'll listen to whatcha have to say / Cause they're the ones who's coming up, and the world is in their hands / When you teach the children, teach 'em the very best you can."  The arrangement is as uplifting as the message. Shimmering keyboards, lush strings, bright horns, and a gently insistent rhythm build into something both grand and graceful. As the song gathers momentum, Teddy Pendergrass' husky vocal takes command, starting quietly before building into a near-sermon.  It's one of the great soul vocals of the 1970s.

What the Hell I Got - Michel Pagliaro

What the Hell I Got - Michel Pagliaro

3:20
single, 1975
Written by Michel Pagliaro and Allen Workman

Listed wrongly on Spotify as "What the Hell I've Got," this catchy pop anthem is from the point of view of a man who is leaving his love, for reasons even he cannot fully articulate: "Don′t know what the hell I got / Whatever it is, it′s an awful lot / Hey, I'm gonna lose control / From my liver to my very soul."  There's an interesting line that indicates he's not fully in control of the situation.  "Never ever wanna answer the phone / Time and time again I've tried / But someone answers and I know he lies."  He's probably not talking about the "baby" he addresses in the song; it seems as if he's referring to himself, watching himself unable to stop destroying his relationship with lies.  So he must leave.  Recorded in 1975, it's musically ahead of its time, with a real '90s alt-rock sound to it.  

Classified - C.W. McCall

Classified - C.W. McCall

2:39

Wolf Creek Pass, 1975

Written by C.W. McCall and Chip Davis

McCall is best remembered for "Convoy;" this talking-country novelty track shows the same deadpan humor and storyteller's twang. It's about a guy answering a newspaper ad for a '57 Chevy pickup, only to discover a jerry-rigged heap of scrap metal held together by hope and baling wire. The seller proudly rattles off its features — a bent shaft, a leaking rear end, a missing key ("use a nail as a starter,"), plus an ominous "whirrin' sound" — but other than that, it's "cherry."  Naturally, the narrator buys it for twenty-eight bucks.  Sonically, it's classic mid-'70s country kitsch: a shuffling beat, a little guitar chug, and McCall's dry, half-spoken delivery driving the joke home. It lands in the same comic lane as Johnny Cash's "One Piece at a Time," a lightweight but cheerful tall tale about a junker.

Have Another Drink - The Kinks

Have Another Drink - The Kinks

2:42

Soap Opera, 1975

Written by Ray Davies

The album this song comes from is a concept album about a rock star who changes places with an ordinary bloke, settling down with the wife, working his 9 to 5 job, and drinking with mates in the pub.  The song enumerates various social ills ("Terrorist bombers on the left / Fascist plots on the right / Mass destruction and homicide"), and then the tedium of office life ("Facts and figures / Filling out forms"), ending with the chorus which tells us that only one thing cure your worries: having another drink.  It's got a country tinge to the pop, and while it's a bit repetitive with a simple message, it's enjoyable enough.

Easy Does It - Supertramp

Easy Does It - Supertramp

2:18

Crisis? What Crisis?, 1975

Written by Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson

Rick Davies, founder and vocalist of Supertramp, died four days ago, and I guess I missed it,  While I only knew the songs they played on radio, I did enjoy them a lot, so it doesn't feel like saying goodbye to a stranger.  I think it's only logical to pick a song that gives a little bit of joy to remind us of all Davies' talents.  On this track, after over thirty seconds of ambient noise, a car horn, and idle whistling, the song begins.  Over raga-influenced synths and guitar, Davies softly croons a brief but beautiful song extolling listeners to be confident, grab life while they can ("And if we had the time / The time's so hard to find"), and take charge of their own destiny ("You are your own superstar / And only you can shape the movie that you make").

Southern Nights - Glen Campbell

Southern Nights - Glen Campbell

3:00

Southern Nights, 1977

Written by Allen Toussaint, 1975

The album this song is on went to number one on the country charts.  Yet again, what I hear is soft rock, or singer-songwriter like Randy Newman or Jim Croce.  This song, at least, is country by name only.  The song is inspired by Toussaint's visits to his childhood home in Lousiana, and Campbell adapted it to his hometown of Arkansas.  "Have you ever felt a Southern night? / Free as a breeze / Not to mention the trees / Whistlin' tunes that you know and love so."

Sure Feels Good - Elvin Bishop

Sure Feels Good - Elvin Bishop
2:48

Juke Joint Jump, 1975

Written by Elvin Bishop?

I thought I'd give Elvin Bishop another try after the first time.  This song is less soul and more laid-back country rock, evoking some of the soft rock of the 1970s, again relying on strong female backing choruses.  And, as with "Rock My Soul," there's a bright-eyed optimism here.  "I never seen such a beautiful day / Looks like everything is coming my way / Feel like a bird just leaving a cage." What I've heard so far from Bishop is pleasant, catchy enough, but ultimately lightweight. Certainly, neither of the songs I've posted here have any narrative punch.  Stoners would groove to it.

Poker - Electric Light Orchestra

Poker - Electric Light Orchestra

3:32

Face the Music, 1975

Written by Jeff Lynne

I know very little about ELO; I've barely even paid attention to the big hits.  However, this seems to be one of their harder-rocking moments, a track that rips through the band's glossy orchestral sheen with raw power.  Bass player Kelly Groucutt (a man, it turns out) takes lead vocals, lending an edge to the song lacking in Lynne's typically soft vocals. There's pounding drums and fast guitar rocketing out of the gate, supported by moog‐synth arpeggiations and layered keyboards that give urgency. The contrast between the frenetic verses and the more spacious, melodic bridge is one of its strengths. Lyrically, the song leans into metaphor: gambling, risk, deception, high stakes: "The dream in every player's heart / To win it all not part."  

One Of These Days - Emmylou Harris

One Of These Days - Emmylou Harris

3:03

Elite Hotel, 1975

Written by Earl Montgomery, 1972

This song was first recorded by George Jones, but Emmylou Harris made it a hit, taking it to number three on the country charts.  Her version embodies quiet resilience rendered in luminous sound. The song is an unhurried meditation on endurance and the passage of time, and Harris approaches it with characteristic restraint, her voice soft but unflinching.  The arrangement, anchored by pedal steel and brushed percussion, moves with the patient inevitability of sunrise. Glen Hardin's piano and James Burton's guitar weave around her vocal, never crowding it, just coloring in the emotional contours.  Harris has always had a gift for transforming simple songs into small revelations. Here she finds the spiritual ache beneath the plainspoken lines ("One of these days, and it won’t be long / You'll look for me, and I'll be gone") and delivers them with the bittersweet clarity of someone who's known loss but refuses cynicism.   There's no Nashville gloss or formula here, just a catchy blend of traditional country instrumentation and California folk-rock warmth.

Green Grass & High Tides - Outlaws

Green Grass & High Tides - Outlaws

9:51

Outlaws, 1975

Written by Hughie Thomasson

I had to consider a while before putting this song on here, because of its absurd length (which it reaches by including not one but two indulgent Southern-rock guitar noodling solos).  But then I thought, well, it's a classic, a very famous song, and I don't know about it.  And Thomasson's unique voice is quite engaging.  The title, an inverse of the famous Roling Stones greatest hits compilation, refers to rock legends gone too soon: "All my stars of love who died / Came from somewhere beyond the scene you see / These lovely people played just for me."  The line about "castles made of stone" might be a reference to Hendrix, another inverse to his gone-too-soon song about castles made of sand.

Mexico - James Taylor

Mexico - James Taylor

2:59

Gorilla, 1975

Written by James Taylor

A shaker, conga, and some salsa-infused vibraphone give this wistful country-rock song an appropriately Latin tinge.  David Crosby and Graham Nash provide backing vocals.  The song is a paean to Mexico, painted as a sweet-sounding paradise with "a sleepy señorita with her eyes on fire."  The joke of the song is that the narrator admits "I've never really been / So I don't really know."  It's little wonder that laid-back tropical jokester Jimmy Buffett covered it.

Ophelia - The Band

Ophelia - The Band

3:32

Northern Lights - Southern Cross, 1975

Written by Robbie Robertson

This is a funky throwback Dixieland shuffle, with New Orleans style sax lines and Levon Helm on lead vocal. sounding regretful but undeterred.  The lyrics tell of the narrator's attempt to find the titular Ophelia, who has left town, apparently in a hurry ("Boards on the window, mail by the door / What would anybody leave so quickly for?").  Some critics see Ophelia as a black woman in a Southern town, forced to flee because of Southern attitudes towards interracial relationships with the white singer: "Honey, you know we broke the rule / Was somebody up against the law?"  The line "Please darken my door" seems to further support this interpretation.  

Fighting My Way Back - Thin Lizzy

Fighting My Way Back - Thin Lizzy

3:11

Fighting, 1975

Written by Phil Lynott

This guy in this song's had some hard times.  He's sick, unsure, in a real state, there's nothing in his past that's a shining exemplar of good decisions.  Maybe he drank himself to sleep too many nights.  But he's not giving up!  "I'm tough, rough, ready and I'm able / To pick myself up from under this table."  This song is a thundering rocker, a cross between Springsteen and AC/DC (the latter especially in the beginning chant of "fight!").  Lyrically, it's got the mix of self-deprecation and bombast of both those acts, and musically, it's a double-guitar anthem with wah-wah strumming and drummer Brian Downey's assured groove. 

Gratitude - Earth, Wind & Fire

Gratitude - Earth, Wind & Fire

3:27

Gratitude, 1975

Written by Philip Bailey, Maurice White, Larry Dunn, and Verdine White

The album this song comes from is a mostly live, double LP that spent three weeks on the Billboard charts and is triple platinum.  And here's me, a music guy, having never heard a note of it.  Truly, there are entire worlds we never know no matter how much we try to master a subject.  Anyhoo, this is a serious slice of funky soul, with some jazzy elements as well.  The lyrics are secondary, just evoking general gospel-like injunctions to be grateful.  "Open up your heart, let your body find / Freedom in your stride, love and peace of mind, yeah" is as specific as it gets.

Charley's Girl - Lou Reed

Charley's Girl - Lou Reed

2:39

Coney Island Baby, 1975

Written by Lou Reed

One of Reed's more cheery-sounding songs, this has a simple but very catchy riff (it has a faint echo of "Walk On the Wild Side"), a reserved vocal, and even cowbell.  The narrator bemoans the fact that someone, possibly the law, has come down on him.  They said to watch out for Charley's girl: "Man, she's going to turn you in."  And how here they come trying to break up the band.  Somehow Sharon is at fault.  It's not entirely clear.  I would prefer another verse from Reed instead of an ad nauseam chorus, but at this length everything is all right.

Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To...) - Queen

Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To...) - Queen

3:43

A Night At the Opera, 1976

Written by Freddy Mercury

This operatic kiss-off, remarkably caustic for being the opening track on an album, was directed at Queen's original manager and their label Trident Records.  The manager sued for defamation, thus establishing his connection to the song (the Streisand effect), and Queen settled out of court.  This track is superb both musically and lyrically.  It's starts with weird space-age noises, then brings in a gradually  more aggressive piano line, then guitars start up a sort of rock tango, until it's practically heavy metal.  And those wonderful Queen harmonies!  And those lyrics, up there with any Dylan hit job: "You're a sewer rat decaying in a cesspool of pride / Should be made unemployed / Then make yourself null and void."

Shakey Ground - The Temptations

Shakey Ground - The Temptations

4:02

A Song For You, 1975

Written by Jeffrey Bowen, Alphonso Boyd, Eddie Hazel

Gee, I guess the Temptations turned super funky in their later years.  I mean, they were always about the psychedelic soul, but this song thumps like a Funkadelic track.  Which isn't too far off, as I later found out, because Funkadelic bassist Billy Nelson plays on it.  This song, once you get past the wall of funk, is a a "baby left me" song.  He's got bad luck, man.  "Girl, you better throw me a life preserver / 'Cause I'm about to drown in my own tears."

Sick Again - Led Zeppelin

Sick Again - Led Zeppelin

4:42

Physical Graffiti, 1975

Written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant

This song, about teenage groupies ("Said you dug me since you were thirteen / Then you giggle as you heave an' sigh") has some hard-rocking blues licks, bending notes, and a crashing rhythm section that's pure muscle.  I am not a Led Zep superfan by any means, but I think for the most part their studio work represents the work of the greatest rock band in terms of pure talent.  For me, this track is one of their weakest.  A lot of "Ooh yeah, that's right" and the subject matter aren't helping, but really I'm just not engaged with the music here.  Blues rock, drooling over teens.  Been done.