1973, The Year in Review

“I am not a crook.” Thus speaks Richard Nixon, six months to the day after the start of the Watergate hearings in the U.S. Senate. Unrelated to the Watergate crisis, Vice President Spiro Agnew has already resigned amid charges of tax evasion and corruption. It’s not a good time for the current administration.

Indeed, 1973 is a momentous year in history.

With the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, abortion becomes a constitutional right. (Around eighteen years later, according to the book Freakonomics, the crime rate will noticeably decrease. Draw your own conclusions.)

Worldwide inflation hits, largely caused by increased gasoline prices imposed by OPEC on all countries supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt and Syria. Consequently, smaller, fuel-efficient Japanese cars start to make inroads in the U.S. auto market.

The Paris Peace Accords mark the end of Vietnam war. General Pinochet leads a military coup in Chile. The World Trade Center and Sydney Opera House were completed and open to the public.

Theaters see the release of such classics as The Exorcist, The Sting, American Graffiti, and Last Tango in Paris. Soylent Green is people, and The Devil is in Miss Jones.

In music, arena rock reaches new heights, with massive stadium shows enabling more and more rock and roll bombast. Southern rock is becoming a thing. Glam rock continues its brief but significant time in the limelight. Pink Floyd and Stevie Wonder finally realize their potential.

My Top 6 Albums of 1973

As always, you can jump to the playlist at the bottom of each post to listen while you read.

Within each tier (Top 6, Next 6, etc.), all albums are listed roughly chronologically (all release dates from Wikipedia, unless otherwise noted).

Iggy and The Stooges
Raw Power

Released 1973/02/07

After the lack of commercial success of the Stooges’ first two albums, their self-titled debut and follow-up Fun House, as well as mounting drug and alcohol problems, the Stooges found themselves on the point of collapse. It was David Bowie who convinced Iggy Pop to try again. Pop and new guitarist James Williamson traveled to England to write and record a new batch of songs, bringing members Ron and Scott Asheton along later, almost as an afterthought.

The resulting album mines a harder rocking vein than their previous efforts—a handful of the tracks are among the most visceral and vibrant in rock history. Most notably, “Search and Destroy” reigns as one of the iconic songs of the decade, an anti-Vietnam piece that somehow seems to represent the alienation of entire generations, from the angry punk rock crowd to the alt-rock self-doubters.

Two of the quieter numbers are among the most harrowing, as if by peeling away some of the noise the dark heart shines even stronger: the eerily plodding “I Need Somebody” comes across as a desperate plea for any semblance of connection; and Pop’s masochistic tendencies are of full display for “Gimme Danger,” above an insurgent guitar ebb and swell and a monomaniacal piano note that hammers insistently throughout the entire song.

The masochism becomes even more central for “Penetration”—I wouldn’t want to speculate definitively on how Pop wants to be penetrated, but it doesn’t seem healthy, at least not judging by the menacing grind of metal riffs that rumbles beneath the song.

Of course, the third album didn’t fare any better than the first two, at least commercially. Now all three are rightfully considered landmark recordings in the development of punk and alternative rock. Great stuff

Listen to more Stooges.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’70s, No. 40
• Pitchfork: The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s, No. 83
• Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 125
• Rolling Stone: 100 Best Albums of the Past 20 Years (1987), No. 88
• NME Writers All-Time 100 (1974), No. 61
• MOJO: The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made (1995), No. 98
• Paste: The 70 Best Albums of the 1970s, No. 39

Aside—It’s all in the mix

There’s a controversy among Iggy Pop fans surrounding the mixing of Raw Power that will never be resolved. In summary, the original recording and mixing was somewhat clumsily botched, and David Bowie took the inadequate working tapes and created the best final mix of the album he could in the available time, a single day.

The resulting mix feels a little off, a little thin, I must admit. There’s something of a murky crispness (oxymoron there, I know) in the mix that many have tried to remedy, with no clear success that I’ve heard. Too much muddled fuzz in the bass, which doesn’t mix right with the wonderfully trebly guitar, I think—especially in “Search and Destroy.”

Regardless, none of the newer mixes I’ve heard have sounded genuinely better, all things considered—just inadequate in slightly different ways. Regardless, the strength of the songs and the performances overcome any shortcomings in the mix.

Pink Floyd
The Dark Side of the Moon

Released 1973/03/16

How many times did I listen to The Dark Side of the Moon as a teenager? Too many to count. It was an undeniable staple of any classic-rock-centered musical education back in my day.

Pink Floyd’s flowing, cosmic masterpiece takes the psychedelia of their earlier work and shapes it into something entirely accessible, yet unlike anything else on the planet at the time. It’s art rock anyone can fall in love with—not an easy feat to accomplish.

The album is a headphone masterpiece, from the heartbeat that opens the album—joined by a ticking clock, scattered vocal samples and the whirring of machinery, all of which crescendos into a brief moment of chaos before snapping back to the regular, mellow beat and relaxed vocals of “Breathe”—all the way through to the heartbeat that returns to close the album.

I can’t offhand think of an earlier album that makes such prevalent, consistent use of samples to create a web a related themes woven throughout the album. Just about every song features sampled “found” noises and snippets of spoken word, such as the cash register and jingling change that form part of the rhythm section of “Money” or the “short, sharp shock” delivered in “Us and Them.”

“The Great Gig in the Sky,” perhaps the album’s greatest moment, features guest vocalist Clare Torry in a lyric-free, emotionally enthralling, virtuosic performance. It’s in the spoken word samples that the theme of the song is made explicit: “I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do, I don’t mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There’s no reason for it. You’ve gotta go sometime.”

Indeed, often the sampled noises and dialogue feel more urgent than the actual songs’ lyrics, as if the singing functions like a Greek chorus to summarize the specific action of the players, as manifested by the spoken word and sound effects.

The songs on each side flow into one another, creating multi-song suites that touch upon such basic life themes as the passing of time, the inevitability of death, the stress of modern life, and mental illness (alluded to in the album’s title). The vocals aren’t really Pink Floyd’s strength, at least at this point, but the singing in unison works here to give a sense of universality that works well with the themes.

The Dark Side of the Moon is an essential listen, a fascinating aural experience, and a moving exploration of life’s most central themes. The catharsis that swells with album closer “Eclipse” carries an emotional weight seldom seen on popular music. Spectacular.

Listen to more Pink Floyd (recently updated to include the ‘70s).

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’70s, No. 7
• Pitchfork: The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s, No. 70
• Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 43
• Rolling Stone: 100 Best Albums of the Past 20 Years (1987), No. 35
• Rolling Stone 200: The Essential Rock Collection
• NME Writers All-Time 100 (1974), No. 92
• Paste: The 70 Best Albums of the 1970s, No. 4
• Uncut: 200 Greatest Albums of All Time (2016), No. 84

Al Green
Call Me

Released 1973/04

Truly, I shouldn’t really care much for Al Green’s music. When it comes to a choice between slow songs and fast songs, for example, I almost always prefer the fast ones. And I’m a hardened skeptic when it comes to lovey-dovey, sweet talk. Slow, mellow love ballads rank pretty low in my estimation, as a general rule.

But Al Green at his best—as he is on Call Me—is so simply masterful, I find it impossible not to fall under his sway, despite my normal preferences. He can take a song that in others’ hands would be trite and make it magical.

And the word “magical” fits—Green’s voice can cast quite a captivating spell. The edgy beauty of his vocal technique is like no one else’s—full one moment and breathy the next, leaping with ease to a pinched falsetto that he can warble and coo and crack and break at exactly the right moment. With his singing, he expresses genuine emotion, without any unearned sentimental affectation.

And Green’s talents are on full display on Call Me. The title track, “Here I Am (Come and Get Me),” and “You Ought to Be With Me” are among his strongest singles. Green doesn’t really so much cover Willie Nelson on “Funny How Time Slips Away” as transform him, finding a pure soul masterpiece in a woe-is-me country song. On the beautiful “Your Love is Like the Morning Sun,” the narrator imbues his lost love with celestial grace (name-checking a few of his previous hits on the way out0.

Throughout the album, tales of lost love—and hope for a return—dominate. Perhaps that’s a part of why I find Green so much more compelling than your run-of-the-mill love balladeer. The twin possibilities of failure and redemption, of hurt and hope, run parallel within his work, always.

Perhaps my favorite track, a song that no one else ever seems to comment on, “Have You Been Making Out O.K.” presents one side of a hesitant meeting between a jilted lover and his ex, in an fumbling effort to get back together. Muted trumpets and shrill, trembling strings glide along seductively beneath Green as he pleads. Brilliant.

One of the greatest R&B/soul singers ever, Al Green is an essential listen, and there’s no better place to start your listening than Call Me.

Listen to more Al Green.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’70s, No. 100
• Pitchfork: The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s, No. 47
• Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 289
• Rolling Stone: 100 Best Albums of the Past 20 Years (1987), No. 75

Hawkwind
Space Ritual

Released 1973/05/11 (2LP); recorded live 1972/12/22 (Liverpool Stadium) and 1972/12 30 (Brixton Sundown, London)

Granted, there’s something a little cheeseball about the space tropes that Hawkwind drapes across its songs. But damn, when I’m in the mood, which is often enough, this stuff just transports me. The space age imagery might be silly, but when the music strikes the right vibe, it soars.

Plus, I’m just a sucker for this droning shit. This isn’t music you listen to for tunes or hooks, exactly—and certainly not for rousing choruses. No, it’s all about the roar of the noise, the interminable rush of wind in an aural storm. You don’t move to the beat—you lay back, space out, and attain pure bliss.

The double-LP The Space Ritual Alive in Liverpool and London shows Hawkwind at their woozy, trancelike best. If anything could be said to generate some form of melody here, it would have to be the bass guitar, with Lemmy’s wandering basslines often being the most memorable aspect of the music. The guitars create the backdrop, a hazy wash of noise.

Beyond the masterful, engaging bass lines, the guiding criteria for how great a Hawkwind song can depend quite a bit on how unobtrusive the vocals are—the less they pull you out of the trance, the better. “Down Through the Night” works like a charm, the lyrics describing your slow descent into the shadows, drowning in sound. “Lord of Light” and “Space is Deep” offer similar opportunities to lose oneself. Album closer “Welcome to the Future” seems to paint, in a few short phrases, a dystopian, apocalyptic future to pull us from the dream.

An altogether different kind of experience than The Dark Side of the Moon (actually a reference to madness, not space), Space Ritual is the pinnacle of pure space rock.

Listen to more Hawkwind.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’70s, No. 340

ZZ Top
Tres Hombres

Released 1973/07/26

The best, most essential album from Texas’s greatest unabashed promoters of good, thoroughly unclean fun, Tres Hombres is where ZZ Top first truly found their groove.

Here, they crank out the down-and-dirty, propulsive Chicken-Ranch tribute “La Grange,” chronicle a ride home on a crowded bus, and shuffle upon an ambling blues groove for the tale of a latter-day prophet’s nomadic wanderings through the United States. What I want to know is, will He make an appearance at the honky-tonk of “Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers”?

Billy Gibbons sings the blues in a slurred, growling drawl, and he can play a tasty guitar riff and solo, too. And yeah, they’re a bunch of white boys faking the blues. So what? They do it well. And they can boogie with far more charm than Canned Heat and other originators of the boogie-rock style. “Tougher” or more “serious” southern-rock fans might prefer Lynyrd Skynyrd or the Allman Brothers. But not me. Give me some Top and a Shiner Bock on a hot, humid Houston night, and I’m doing fine.

In the summer of 1981, if my calculations are correct, I moved from suburban New Jersey to Houston (which—let’s face it—is nothing but a vast, extended suburb, itself). I don’t remember any ZZ Top on the New York stations I had been listening to before the move, but on Houston rock radio, ZZ Top was everywhere. It practically floated in the air we breathed. I sure wasn’t born in Texas, and I’ve since spent more of my life living in Boston, and then in Barcelona. But I’ve still got ZZ Top in the blood.

Listen to more ZZ Top.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’70s, No. 211
• Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 498
• Rolling Stone 200: The Essential Rock Collection

Stevie Wonder
Innervisions

Released 1973/08/03

Nowhere is the brilliance of Stevie Wonder on display in such consistent and concentrated form as on Innervisions.

A concept album similar in scope and intent to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Innervisions tackles such topics as drug abuse (“Too High”), spiritual enlightenment (“Higher Ground”), the hypocrisy of organized religion (“Jesus Children of America”), and fast-talking, ambitious cheats (“He’s Misstra Know-It-All,” most likely a dig at President Richard Nixon).

Like Donnie Hathaway and Marvin Gaye before him, Wonder expertly weaves street noise and banter into the fabric of “Living for the City,” a chronicle of racial injustice and inequality that stands as one of the strongest songs on the album, in Wonder’s career, and of its time. “Higher Ground,” another career highlight, would take on additional meaning when Wonder suffered a near-fatal car crash just after Innervisions was released—with its message of seeking a renewed purpose in life after being given another chance eerily mirroring Wonder’s future.

Musically, Wonder plays nearly all the instruments on Innervisions himself, including a wealth of innovative synthesizer work, infusing his R&B and soul with touches of funk and jazz to create a pop masterpiece. Essential listening.

Listen to more Stevie Wonder.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’70s, No. 15
• Pitchfork: The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s, No. 26
• Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 23
• Rolling Stone: 100 Best Albums of the Past 20 Years (1987), No. 37
• Rolling Stone 200: The Essential Rock Collection
• The NME Greatest Albums of the 70’s, No. 15
• NME Writers Top 100 Albums (1993), No. 32
• MOJO: The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made (1995), No. 20
• Paste: The 70 Best Albums of the 1970s, No. 14
• Uncut: 200 Greatest Albums of All Time (2016), No. 67

Here’s the 1973: The Year in Review playlist for you—three tracks per album.

I’ll be building the playlist as I go, adding to it as I complete different tiers of commentary.  By the time I finish all Year in Review posts for 1973, the playlist will be complete!

Enjoy!

More 1973, The Year in Review

More Years in Review of the 1970s…

Art Citations:

• Raw Power: By May be found at the following website: http://www.albumartexchange.com/gallery/images/public/ig/iggyan-rawpow_05.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1351258
• The Dark Side of the Moon: By The cover art can be obtained from Harvest / Capitol., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18421376
  
• Call Me: By Derived from a digital capture (photo/scan) of the album cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the record company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=196972
• Space Ritual: By Derived from a scan of the album cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party) Copyright held by the record company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8044895
  
• Tres Hombres: By The cover art can be obtained from London., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1136789
  
• Innervisions: By May be found at the following website: http://mclub.te.net.ua/vcat.phtml?action=vs&album=22222, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1958194
  

I don’t normally do videos, but I stumbled upon this one, and thought it was interesting, and ahead of its time.