The Learn Tracker
...life-long learning: structured, organized, searchable...
920
Lectures Watched
Since January 1, 2014
Hundreds of free, self-paced university courses available:
my recommendations here
Peruse my collection of 275
influential people of the past.
View My Class Notes via:
Receive My Class Notes via E-Mail:

VIEW ARCHIVE

Contact Me via E-Mail:
edward [at] tanguay.info
Notes on video lecture:
Rock and Roll in the Second Half of the 1970s
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on November 23, 2015 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
Long, constrained, emblematic, biggest, Yes, May, concept, Chicago, touring, Wakeman, Detroit, Leftoverture, atmospheric, Tail, radio, big, Simon, Crimson, movie, recording, fronting, commercial, Wood, radio, vocals, eclectic, progressive, sophisticated, Browne, leading, Onion, sanded, Brown, drummer, remade, Toronto, Spector, disappointing, Lynne, DeYoung, neutered, Harrison, Shaw, Lifeson, authenticity, Christian, 1977, homogenization
•
Progressive Rock in the 1970s
•
King               
•
1974 disbanded
•
Genesis
•
Peter Gabriel left the band after "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"
•
after a search for a singer, they decided to use the               , Phil Collins
•
1976 A Trick of the         
•
Genesis continued on without any real disruption
•
although Peter Gabriel fans won't agree
•
but this was true at least as far as the                      health of the group
•
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
•
         "Works", Vol 1 and 2
•
last big shot
•
Jehtro Tull
•
1977 "Songs from the         "
•
Yes
•
1977 "Going for the One"
•
even Rolling Stone hailed this as the return of the band after a long pause
•
Rick                was back again
•
other groups that blended Progressive Rock
•
more prog heavy, more radio friendly
•
Kansas
•
1977 "                        "
•
"Carry On Wayward Son"
•
1978 Point of No Return
•
"Dust in the Wind"
•
Styx
•
out of               
•
led by Dennis               
•
1977 "The Grand Illusion"
•
addition of Tommy          into the group
•
"Come Sail Away"
•
great             
•
guitars were more blues rock than what you would find in most                        rock
•
heavy guitars
•
classic sounding keyboards
•
pop oriented to the vocal hooks in the song forms which will now fit to this now increasingly                        but much bigger world of FM rock radio in the second half of the 70s
•
Rush
•
Canadian band from               
•
Geddy Lee
•
Neil Peart
•
Alex               
•
the                group to push progressive rock in the second half of the 70s
•
"Fly by Night" 1975
•
1976                album 2112
•
important point of arrival for that band
•
1980 "The Spirit of the Radio"
•
1981 "Tom Sawyer"
•
one of the last songs to be unusually long for            play
•
one drawback
•
just when they were coming along with long, elaborate songs, radio was constraining even groups like        so they couldn't get their long songs onto the radio
•
but they always had these hits that permeated FM radio
•
British Bands of 1970s
•
Alan Parsons Project
•
Alan Parsons was a                    engineer for Beatles and Pink Floyd
•
did recording for "Dark Side of the Moon"
•
1977 "I, Robot"
•
Electric Light Orchestra
•
run by Jeff           
•
takes the Beatles songs with strings idea
•
"Strawberry Fields Forever"
•
"I am the Walrus"
•
"Glass           "
•
turned it into their own style
•
in 1995, when the surviving Beatles got back together, Jeff Lynne did the production on the new tracks
•
George                 , the Traveling Willberries
•
1975 Eldorado
•
"Can't Get It Out of My Head"
•
Queen
•
Freddie Mercury
•
guitarist Brian       
•
observing traditional principles of guitar voice-              
•
guitar solos
•
1976 "A Night at the Opera"
•
"Bohemian Rhapsody"
•
has gone on to be one of those songs like Stairway to Heaven
•
became                      as 1970s rock
•
                 approach to different styles
•
such as Paul McCartney was doing
•
singer-songwriters
•
in the first part of the 70s they were                  bands
•
Bob Dylan
•
second half of 70s very active
•
1975 "Blood on the Tracks"
•
"Tangled Up in Blue"
•
a feature of rock radio and the rock world
•
turned to a                    religious perspective toward the end of the 1970s
•
he often              himself in this way
•
Elton John
•
1975 "Captain Fantastic and the            Dirt Cowboy"
•
"Somebody Saved My Life Tonight"
•
1975 "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
•
1975 "Philadelphia Freedom"
•
Paul           
•
1977 His "Greatest Hits"
•
"Slip Slidin' Away"
•
1980 "One Trick Pony"
•
"Late in the Evening"
•
                           effort commercially
•
the accompanying            flopped
•
although it had an interesting story,                around in the movie with a band
•
included many of the most musically                            songs he had done up to that point
•
Billy Joel
•
         Island New York
•
1973 "Piano Man"
•
his version of Harry Chapin
•
1977 The Stranger
•
"Just the Way You Are"
•
                       ballad until it turned into a wedding band classic
•
Jackson             
•
out of L.A.
•
1972 "Doctor my Eyes"
•
1978 "Runnin' On Empty"
•
Bob Seger
•
              
•
goes back to the 1960s
•
1977 "Night Moves"
•
Bruce Springsteen
•
New Jersey
•
1975 "Born to Run"
•
a mixture of Bob Dillon meets Phil                meets the Rolling Stones
•
was just getting started
•
this period, the last half of the 1970s, can be see as a synthesis of previous styles or a                             
•
an interesting period in which Rock music is refined and made lean and mean and compact
•
becomes so homogenized because it is shooting for the        album, that it loses its visceral effect
•
too many of the sharp corners are              down
•
too            friendly
•
Rock and Roll had been                 
•
no longer had the edge, commitment, and                          that it had in the first half of the decade

Ideas and Concepts:

1977 Styx Live, decidedly different, the end of Progressive Rock, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "Have you ever been at home watching television, and suddenly something comes on and you say to yourself, hey, how come my life isn't like that? Or maybe you're looking through a magazine and see some advertisements, man I must really suck because my life sure isn't like that. Have you ever felt that way? Well you want to know why your life isn't like what you see on TV and in magazines, you want to know why? Because that's all bullshit. Don't go believing movies and TV and rock videos, all that is is somebody else's fantasy. In fact, all of this is really more like a GRAND ILLUSION!"
No nonsense rock and roll from tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "One of the last progressive rock bands who survived into the late 70s, three-man band out of Toronto, Canada:RUSH, with their eclectic lyrical motifs drawing on science fiction, fantasy, history, and philosophy, here in an early 1975 recording of Fly by Night with Geddy Lee's unique and piercing voice."
Tribute song of the day, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "The Traveling Wilburys were an English-American supergroup consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, accompanied by drummer Jim Keltner. The band recorded two albums in 1988 and 1990, though Orbison died before the second was recorded. Notice how they left Roy's chair with his guitar on it, he had died before the filming of the video."
From the 1970s-hairy-bearded-guys-singing-in-a-garage-with-trapset-guitars-and-violins department, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "The song was written in response to Jeff Lynne's father being critical of Jeff's songwriting. His father, an avid classical music lover, did not like the Electric Light Orchestra songs, saying that they had no tune. To prove to his father that he could write a classical music influenced song, Jeff wrote this rock ballad. As Jeff wrote it in the front room of his parent's home in Shard End, Birmingham, one can imagine him holding his father's comment in his mind showing that he can combine the elements of what Electric Light Orchestra stood for and his father's love for classical music."
From the authentic Elton John department, a live 1976 performance of his song Someone Saved My Life Tonight: "The lyrics of this song refer to the time in 1969, before John was a popular musician, when he was engaged to be married to his girlfriend, Linda Woodrow. While having serious doubts about the looming marriage, John contemplated suicide. He took refuge in his friends, especially Long John Baldry, who convinced John to abandon his plans to marry in order to salvage and maintain his musical career, or as John's lyrics tell it:'It's four o'clock in the morning, damn it listen to me good, I'm sleeping with myself tonight, saved in time, thank God my music's still alive, you almost had your hooks in me, didn't you dear, you nearly had me roped and tied, altar-bound, hypnotized, sweet freedom whispered in my ear:you're a butterfly, and butterflies are free to fly, fly away, high away, bye bye.'"
1970s: Hippie Aesthetic, Corporate Rock, Disco, and Punk
British Blues-Based Bands and the Roots of Heavy Metal
American Blues Rock and Southern Rock
The Era of Progressive Rock
Jazz Rock in the 70s
Theatrical Rock: KISS, Bowie, and Alice Cooper
American Singer-Songwriters of the 70s
British and Canadian Singer-Songwriters
Country Rock's Influence on 1970s Music
Black Pop in the 1970s
Sly Stone and His Influence on Black Pop, Funk, and Psychedelic Soul
Motown in the 1970s
Philadelphia Sound and Soul Train
Blaxploitation Soundtracks
The Uniqueness of James Brown
Bob Marley and the Rise of Reggae
The Backlash Against Disco
1975-1980: The Rise of the Mega-Αlbum
Continuity Bands in the 1970s
Rock and Roll in the Second Half of the 1970s
U.S. Punk 1967-1975
1974-77: Punk in the UK
American New Wave 1977-80
British New Wave 1977-80
The Hippie Aesthetic: 1966-1980
The Rise of MTV
Michael Jackson: MTV's Unexpected Boon
Madonna as Disruptive Shock Artist
Prince and Janet Jackson
Other Groups Who Benefited from MTV
1980s New Traditionalists and New Wave
1980s New Acts, Old Styles and Blue-Eyed Soul
1970s Progressive Rock Adapts to the 80s
1980's Heavy Metal
1980s Heavy Metal and L.A. Hair Bands
1980s Ambitious Heavy Metal
The Beginning of Rap
1980s: Rap Crosses Over to Mainstream
Late 1980s Hard Core Rap
Punk Goes Hardcore
Late 80s Indie Rock Underground
1990s: The Rise of Alternative Rock
1990s Indie Rock and the Question of Selling Out
1990s Metal and Alternative Extensions
Hip-Hop in the 1990s
Classic Rock of the 1990s
1990s Jam Bands and Britpop
Female Singer-Songwriters of the 1990s
The Rise of Teen Idols in the 1990s
1990s Dance Music