It seems odd now but when we were teenagers, there were specific artists that were regarded as unacceptable to any self-respecting rock kid. I don’t know how this was decided upon or what criteria was applied but everyone knew who they were. If you were caught with their albums you could expect merciless treatment for betraying the brotherhood.
So what were these ungodly records? Here’s just three;
1`) Anything by The Carpenters. The 1969-73 singles album was number one forever and they seemed to embody a certain plastic, American cheesyness. Also - no riffs and worse yet, your mam probably liked them. Not exactly Sabbath were they. I once made the mistake of defending ‘Goodbye To Love’ on the basis of Tony Peluso’s extended guitar break being distorted and wonderful. No one was convinced. Secretly I loved the harmonies but I didn’t tell anyone
2) Anything by Bread. The Sound Of Bread was everywhere. Inescapable. We were supposed to find them to be Easy Listening and therefore the product of Satan. Soppy songs about being in love urgh. But amateur musicologist that I was, I knew they were on Elektra and that was a hip label, so were they so bad? So I bought the first two albums and hid them from my pals of course and found a very nice, laid back Californian soft rock. And ‘Suite Clouds and Rain’ from David Gates debut solo is quite magnificent but it had strings on so was dismissed. This is how daft it was.Even though L.A’s finest session musos are on it.
3) John Denver. Again he wasn’t the folky singer-songwriter he actually was. To us, he was a cheesy American schmaltz purveyor. Except he wasn’t really, not most of the time. An early environmentalist and concerned with various humanitarian causes, the album Rocky Mountain High was a lovely collection of environmentally concerned songs but had to be kept at the back of the cupboard. For some reason, the likes of James Taylor was acceptable though, even though he’s as easy listening as they come.
These attitudes hung around for a long time and might still do. Is it good or bad? That’s all you need to know
