Anniversary Series - 1977!

The middle of the month means it's time for another Anniversary Article, and I have to tell you that this year is a killer one for great rock music.  So many big bands putting out great albums, as things shift in a more FM radio-friendly direction.  Still, progressive rock wasn't quite out yet, as a few bands were still putting out some epic material.

In fact, the year starts off with one of the biggest prog rock bands: Pink Floyd.  Inspired by Orwell's allegorical novella Animal Farm, their Animals album shows them at their darkest, as well as their proggiest, with three very long songs dominating the album.  At around that same time, the often overlooked Starcastle would release the first of two albums.  While not quite as strong as their debut, I've always liked their mix of Yes and Kansas sounds, making for some very underrated prog.  Jethro Tull also released Songs of the Wood, the first of three very folk music heavy albums, and Journey went Next, starting to shift away from jazz-fusion into the hard rock they'd be known for.  The band would hire Steve Perry later that year.

As the spring warms things up, we get a slew of great hard rock albums.  Foreigner had their debut album, with the big singles "Feels Like the First Time" and "Cold as Ice," Heart warned us of the "Barracuda," AC/DC released Let There Be Rock, and Judas Priest committed Sin After Sin, as they further refined their heavy metal sound.  The Steve Miller Band would bring more of their southern-fried rock with Book of Dreams, featuring "Jet Airliner," "Swingtown," and "Jungle Love."

Summer would give us some more prog, as Yes would bring back Rick Wakeman for Going for the One, featuring one of their most beautiful songs, "Awaken."  Rush would push themselves further into prog territory with A Farewell to Kings, known for the ballad "Closer to the Heart" and the exotic "Xanadu."  Alan Parsons would return with his Project to provide the Asimov-inspired I, Robot.  However, the big album of the summer was Styx's The Grand Illusion.   Half the album remains on classic rock playlists across the country, and it was the first album I ever reviewed for this blog.  With standout classics like "Come Sail Away," "Fooling Yourself," "Miss America," and the title track, it's easy to see why this one was such a massive release.

The rest of the year would finish quite strong.  As we get into the fall, The Electric Light Orchestra release the double album Out of the Blue, which had "Turn to Stone," "Sweet Talkin' Woman," and the nearly overplayed "Mr. Blue Sky."  Kansas would follow that with Point of Know Return, a very solid, proggy, hard rock album from start to finish.  Then thing get epic with Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell, which I just reviewed, and Queen's News of the World, giving us the perennial stadium anthem "We Will Rock You," which flows into the titanic "We Are the Champions."  Eddie Money would then close the year out with his debut album, promising us "Two Tickets to Paradise."

Seriously, this is one amazing year, and I know I didn't cover everything, as you can see in the playlist below.  However, if you think I've missed something, just let me know.  Until then, rock on! \m/

Last Played - February 2022 Part Two!

Now that I've got 1972 out of the way, I spent some time focusing on some other classic albums.  Of course, these all match up with future anniversary articles, but they were largely on my radar anyway.  Here's what I've been checking out lately!

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell

So, despite being a massive fan of classic rock, I never really got around to Meat Loaf.  When he passed away earlier this year, I figured I should at least give a listen to his most iconic album.  While I was vaguely aware that Meat Loaf has a pretty melodramatic style, I certainly wasn't expecting the wall-to-wall Broadway cheese that dominates the album.  However, I can tell it's that very bombastic tone that has helped this album become the cultural touchstone of its era.

Trying to find comparisons leaves me with a very peculiar mix.  My first thought was that this felt like an American Queen, with a dash of Bruce Springsteen and 50s rock 'n' roll, writing nothing but epic power ballads.  While the Broadway-style approach to these songs makes sense given the songs' origins and the creators' backgrounds, it's this blend of rock and symphonic styles that really makes this album feel strangely unique.  The song structure seems to meander about, but it's hard to not get caught up in the high emotion of it all.  This is certainly not a subtle album!

The title track is probably the best one, as it has a solid chorus and great energy.  The rest of the album still holds up, though, as long as you adjust your mindset to the sheer romanticism.  Meat Loaf certainly gives his all, and the rest of the instruments back him up all the way.  You certainly couldn't make an album like this with any half-baked effort.  I don't know if this is something I'll come back to often, but I do think it's a fun album that aims high and largely succeeds.

Accept - Restless and Wild

Just like the previous two years, it's time to put on some more Accept.  At this point, the band really has their straight-ahead metal sound worked out, easily comparable to contemporaries like Judas Priest and Saxon.  However, this is definitely an improvement over Breaker, as I think the tracks are meaner and heavier.

Right out of the gate, we get "Fast as a Shark."  After a jaunty folk tune, it turns into high-speed heavy metal fury.  It's likely one of the fastest tracks for its time, and it's easy to hear a kind of proto-power metal vibe in it, especially with the neo-classical solo.  As for the rest of the album, it mainly stays in a mid-tempo metal range, but at least there aren't any ballads this time.  "Get Ready" goes for a bit of "Living After Midnight" rocking, and "Flash Rockin' Man" feels like a sequel to "Burning," though, without the iconic crowd chant.  "Demon's Night" is probably the darkest track they've done up to this point.  However, the other big shift is some longer songs.  "Neon Nights" has this ominous, cinematic tone with some great solos, and "Princess of the Dawn" goes for epicness with a kind of marching riff that carries through its six-minute runtime full of fantasy motifs and more solos.

While Udo brings his trademark wails and croons, I really feel like Wolf Hoffmann is the real stand out on this album.  Doing all of the guitars, we get from him plenty of crunchy riffs and solid solos, both of the shredding and melodic variety.  Overall, it's a pretty solid album, and the best one I've heard so far from the classic era.  I suppose we'll see how it compares to their next one when I review it next year!

Magnum - Chase the Dragon

So Magnum is another band that've heard little about, largely due to them being more successful outside of the US.  Though I've heard a few of their recent singles, and Catley's cameos on Avantasia albums, this is my first time really listening to the band.  I had read that this might be a good album to start with, as they finally establish their sound here, and it's a pretty unique one, blending the AOR of Styx and Asia with pretty crunchy, Saxon-like riffs.

The synthesizers are very up front, but they really match the NWOBHM riffing pretty well, with the fusion giving the songs an epic touch without feeling too floaty. Kicking off with some ambience, the album establishes this fused tone with the opener "Soldier on the Line," and carries it on with songs like "On the Edge of the World," "Sacred Hour," and "We All Play the Game."  They also have some proggy elements, as they aren't afraid to have a small section here and there to shake things up.  "Sacred Hour" does this really well, giving me Queen vibes.  Meanwhile, "Walking the Straight Line" definitely feels like a Foreigner track, though it isn't bad.

I admit I liked quite a bit of this, as it definitely has an interesting variety of sounds, between the hard rock guitar work and early 80s keyboards.  Vocalist Bob Catley definitely stands out, as his voice soars over everything, but it's full-throat, gritty kind of voice that really gives these songs a meaty and rich feel.  I can easily imagine their songs filling stadiums.  After such a solid first impression, I'll have to check out more from this band!

Asia - Aqua

Speaking of Asia, after doing their weird Then and Now album, I checked out their next one, which is the first in a long line of albums with John Payne as the vocalist and bassist.  While Steve Howe and Carl Palmer show up here and there on the album,  it's Al Pitrelli (later of Savatage, TSO, and Megadeth) who picks up a lot of the slack, resulting an album that has an interesting, stadium-friendly, soft rock style.

That's not to say that we've wandered far from the classic Asia formula.  Geoff Downes still brings is array of synthesizers to bear, and there are touches here and there of the old sound.  However, Pitrelli's chugging and occasionally shreddy solo feel like a continuation of Astra's push into AOR territory.  John Payne definitely as a more straight-forward rock voice compared to Wetton's, but I found it quite solid for what they're going for, as he sings with confidence.  The songs reminded me of some of the later Alan Parsons Project albums, or even Parsons's first solo album Try Anything Once quite a bit, as they also have that synth-heavy, AOR-plus kind of style.

The thing is, I actually quite liked it.  I felt the synths added a lot of atmosphere to the tracks, and more than once, the song would just ease into a middle section where the band just kinda go.  Not a jam or a solo, but just letting the atmosphere sink in.  The stand outs for me were "Lay Down Your Arms," "Heaven on Earth," "A Far Cry," and "Love Under Fire", but it's all relatively solid.  Even the two title tracks make for some interesting instrumental book-ends.  I admit I wasn't sure what to expect with a poppier form of Asia, but I'm pleasantly surprised by what I heard.

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Well, that wraps up another one of these.  I promise I'll focus on some current stuff again soon, as I've got a New Videos article lined up for the end of the month.  Until then, rock on! \m/