I think the ‘it was better in my day’ tendency is a deeply unpleasant characteristic, best avoided. But when it comes to rock music, I genuinely think that the art form was pushed to its outer limits between 1965 and 1977. As a youngster I totally took for granted that something new and original would be released every week. In little more than a decade we saw the rise of prog rock, heavy rock, the birth of soul, jazz-fusion, disco, folk rock, electric blues rock, psychedelics, heavy metal, Motown and funk. That is objectively incredible. The whole industry continues, one way or another, to recycle those years with re-releases and imitations of the original. I don't think that’s even up for debate. It’s objectively true, not mere nostalgia. Art forms often have a golden era. This was rock's, when it was being invented in real time. And hand's up who thought it was how things just were and would always be at the time, I know I did. I had no idea that level of creativity and originality was just a phase.
It’s not that there hasn’t been great music since 1977, but it tends to be a new version of old music. There are exceptions of course, but they are not typical. The territory, whatever aspect of rock music you want to name, went through such exponential growth from the Beatles, Dylan and the Byrds to the Ramones and Motorhead, nothing was left in the rock universe unexplored to the extent that even now, a 12-string melody is still referred to as a Byrds-type song.
Bands invented a whole new art form. No one had blended classical music with rock’s amplification before the Nice, similarly had anyone amped up the blues like Johnny Winter or Eric Clapton? You can do this for every genre. It means that if you’re a teenager today and like new bands, you have to appreciate that the music is not a new departure the way it was once. You can’t appreciate a new vision or expression the way we all did listening to Jethro Tull, for example.
Even rap has its roots in the late 70s. Pop music owes a debt to the likes of Carole King and the Beatles and even Three Dog Night. We used to take for granted, the music of Motown, as just common or garden pop music.
It was a golden era. You can’t call it anything else. It was special and was so deep and wide that I’m still exploring it, one discography at a time.
