*** 1970's Album Draft - Commentary Thread ***

[Mithrandir]

In other shocking news, the sun rose in the east today.

"Just Like Heaven" is pretty cool.

[Friarfan]

"Just Like Heaven" is pretty cool.

Fast forward through the ambient opening minute and tell me this isn't a damned good song.

[Erik]

He's a weird dude. He's a top notch pop songwriter, but it obviously kills him to be perceived only as a top notch pop songwriter. He desperately wants to be in the Springsteen/ Dylan/ Simon club, but the harder he tries to show he belongs there, the more his talent is exposed. That's just not his wheelhouse - it's too bad he can't be content to be in the Neil Diamond club.

In the '70s he was legendary for vocally attacking, sometimes during shows, critics who panned his records, and was particularly angry at claims that he didn't rock enough, hence why Glass Houses has all those guitars on it.

His sensibility was more Tin Pan Alley than Dust Bowl, but he was never content with that for whatever reason. Though the tours with Elton John suggest he got over it at least somewhat.

[Friarfan]

Who doesn't like Billy Joel? Dude makes some damn good music!

The 80's Joel - Uptown Girl, We Didn't Start the Fire and the whole Doo-Wop Joel - begs to differ...

[Erik]

I think there are parallels in Joel wanting to be Bob Dylan and Kurt Cobain wanting to be Thurston Moore or Black Francis. Both of them paid way, way too much attention to their critics and the hipsters of their day.

[Erik]

"Lowdown" wasn't supposed to be a hit single. It was a B-Side that caught on when a DJ in LA flipped the record over and started playing it. Great accident of history. I LOVE that bass line.

I recently had a dream that "Lowdown" began life as an outtake-worthy blues rocker before being transformed into the slick '70s-ness that it was. I have no idea if it's true, but it would make sense given Scaggs' blues roots. Why I dreamed about that of all things, I have absolutely no idea.

I only know the singles from Silk Degrees so I didn't have the album on my list.

[Erik]

In 2040 or so, do you think our kids will be having drafts of albums from the '10s, '20s, etc.?* Probably not, because that generation doesn't really seem to care about the album as a form of art.

* -- Leave aside the question of whether our kids would be nerdy enough to actually do it.

[Erik]

"Hole in My Life" is NOT filler. Great melody. Those other two songs, though, yeah.

[revo]

I like Billy Joel.

There, I said it

The problem with Billy Joel is that he had too many styles, and the haters focus on the poppy version the most -- the Tell Her About It/Uptown Girl/We Didn't Start the Fire version. Early Billy Joel is great, but by the mid-70s he fine tuned his songs and got away from the epicness (if that's word). You could literally break down the Billy Joel eras: 1972-1976 (epic song era), 1977-1983 (classic rock era), 1984-1987 (I can make pop songs from anything era). Storm Front was an absolutely fantastic album, but it's unfortunate that many people only know We Didn't Start the Fire and bash it. River of Dreams was also better than many give it credit for (take a listen of "Great Wall of China", it would have fit just as well in 1980).

[senorsheep]

There's some fluff on here (Hole in my Life, Born in the 50's, Be My Girl) but the first three songs are classics and it's an overall great record. Surprised it lasted this long...

11.08 Outlandos d'Amor - The Police (1978)

The Police have the Rod Stewart problem - Sting's avalanche of future douche-iness buries the great early stuff. Outlandos is my favorite Police record - I was gonna take it this round.

[Erik]

I grabbed Zenyatta in the '80s draft so I was content to let their '70s albums slide unless they got REALLY undervalued.

[TheGaffer]

He's a weird dude. He's a top notch pop songwriter, but it obviously kills him to be perceived only as a top notch pop songwriter. He desperately wants to be in the Springsteen/ Dylan/ Simon club, but the harder he tries to show he belongs there, the more his talent is exposed. That's just not his wheelhouse - it's too bad he can't be content to be in the Neil Diamond club.

Pretty much yes. Anything with a light touch - "Just the Way You Are," "New York State of Mind," "Keepin' the Faith," works really well. When he goes into the Nylon Curtain type bullshit, he's stretching and straining and sounding ridiculous. "Captain Jack" literally makes me want to burn down the half of Long Island not already torched by bad development tracts.

[Friarfan]

The Police have the Rod Stewart problem - Sting's avalanche of future douche-iness buries the great early stuff. Outlandos is my favorite Police record - I was gonna take it this round.

Yup, the douche factor with Sting was in play, but here's how I can overlook that...

StingBEATshirt.jpg

[ManCalledFoot]

Great choices in "Silk Degrees" and "Outlandos d'Amour" (yet another punk LP denied me).

I forgot all about Boz in this draft. He's pretty underrated... every time I hear something from one of his lesser-known records, it's always better than what I expected, even the ones after "Silk Degrees".

[Fresno Bob]

He's a weird dude. He's a top notch pop songwriter, but it obviously kills him to be perceived only as a top notch pop songwriter. He desperately wants to be in the Springsteen/ Dylan/ Simon club, but the harder he tries to show he belongs there, the more his talent is exposed. That's just not his wheelhouse - it's too bad he can't be content to be in the Neil Diamond club.

He's in the "I fucked Christy Brinkley" club which counts for a lot in my book!