1971: Fifty Years Since the Golden Year of Rock

You might imagine a year in which the first email was sent, a spacecraft, Mariner 9, successfully entered Mars orbit for the first time, Intel released the very first microprocessor, and popular singer, Gary Barlow was born, would have difficulty topping those achievements, but nineteen seventy-one was a year like no other. For it was a twelve-month period in which some of the finest rock albums of all time were released in a torrent of creativity never seen before or since.

An early harbinger of things to come took place in Ulster Hall in Belfast (pic top) on March 5th, when the already hugely successful rock band, Led Zeppelin, premiered a new song, “Stairway to Heaven”. The album on which it appeared; Led Zeppelin IV – released later in the year – would go on to sell more than twenty-two million copies in the US alone, establishing the band as one of the greatest rock acts of all time.

At the other end of the scale, a now-legend of the British music scene, Michael Eavis, had the previous year promoted the “Pilton Pop, Blues and Folk Festival” at Worthy Farm, headlined by Tyrannosaurus Rex, who later renamed themselves as T-Rex. In ’71 Andrew Kerr and Eavis got together to establish the Glastonbury Free Festival featuring for the first time the Pyramid Stage, a one-tenth replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Appearing at the first Glasto was a stellar cast of Rockerati, including David Bowie, Traffic, Fairport Convention, Gong, Skin Alley, Hawkwind and Melanie Safka.

In a normal year, Led Zep IV and Glastonbury Fayre would have been enough to make it a good year, but 71 had plenty more in store for we rock fans. The top-selling albums of 71 included:

· Every picture tells a story – Rod Steward

· Sticky Fingers – The Rolling Stones

· Electric Warrior – T-Rex

· Ram – Paul and Linda McCartney

· Tapestry – Carole King

· Every Good Boy Deserves Favour – The Moody Blues

· Meddle – Pink Floyd

· L.A. Woman – The Doors

· Led Zeppelin IV – Led Zeppelin

· Master of Reality – Black Sabbath

· At Fillmore East – The Allman Brothers Band

· Who’s Next – The Who

· Imagine – John Lennon

· Hunk Dory – David Bowie

· The Yes Album – Yes

· Aqualung – Jethro Tull

· Straight Up – Badfinger

· Killer – Alice Cooper

· Tarkus – Emerson, Lake and Palmer

· Nursery Cryme – Genesis

· A nod is as good as wink … to a blind horse – The Faces

· The concert for Bangladesh – George Harrison

· Teaser and the Firecat – Cat Stevens

· Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon – James Taylor

· 4 Way Street – CSN

· Electric Light Orchestra – ELO

· Pictures at an Exhibition – ELP

· What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye

· Chicago III – Chicago

· Blue – Joni Mitchell

· There’s a riot going on – Sly and the Family Stone

And that’s just listing the highlights.

The year did not start well: a stairway crush at the Rangers vs. Celtic football match in Glasgow resulted in the deaths of sixty-six people, in Uganda, Idi Amin deposed Milton Obote in a coup and became president and in Los Angeles, Charles Manson and 3 female “Family” members were found guilty of the 1969 Tate–La Bianca murders. Some might say the UK moving to the decimal standard was a bad day too, as was the House of Commons voting 356–244 in favour of joining the European Economic Community, but I’m not one of them. Fifty years later we left the EU, the successor to the EEC, and I have a feeling we may rue the day we did.

It was not just on vinyl rock excelled in 1971. There were many legendary concerts: on my fifteenth birthday, The Allman Brothers Band played one of the greatest single band performances at the Fillmore East. As mentioned earlier Led Zeppelin debuted “Stairway to Heaven” in Belfast, but on August 1 – In New York City, 40,000 attended what has become the template for celebrity giving, “The Concert for Bangladesh”. Initiated by George Harrison, the concert at Madison Square Garden on August 1 featured Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Jesse Ed Davis and Badfinger.

Meanwhile, over four days, Pink Floyd recorded their ground-breaking film, Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii at the Amphitheatre of Pompeii, and Grand Funk Railroad became only the second band after The Beatles to completely sell out Shea Stadium.

On a sad note, Duane Allman, one of the finest rock slide guitarists ever, died in a motorcycle accident after colliding with a truck. Eric Clapton regarded him as the best guitarist in the business at the time. The legacy he left lives on though and I still frequently listen to his soaring notes when I need a musical pick me up.

If you think of the things budding rock guitarists learn, there are probably a few phrases that stand-out as must-study items: the opening bars to “Stairway to Heaven”, the riff from “Sunshine of your love”, maybe the first few chords from Nirvana’s “Smells like teen spirit”, but the one guitar phrase above all others is the iconic opening bars to “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple. Although released in 1972, the song was inspired by an incident late in 71, when the December 4th concert by Frank Zappa at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland came to a premature end after a fan fired a flare gun into the rafters of the hall. Some Deep Purple members were lodged in a hotel across Lake Geneva and were due to start recording at the Montreux the very next day. They watched the casino burn down from across the water and immortalised the event with their song “Smoke on the water”. You’re thinking “Dah, dah, daaaahh, dah-dah, dah-daaaahhh”, aren’t you?

Six days later, Frank Zappa was to break his leg after being pulled off the stage at the Rainbow Theatre in London by a deranged fan. He wasn’t having much luck with fans in 71.

The year was also notable for Anne Wilson joining Heart, Elton John getting his first international hit with “Your Song”, Rick Wakeman joining Yes, but also for Derek and the Dominoes, The Monkees and Booker T and the MGs disbanding.

A review of seventy-one would not be complete with mentioning the release of these albums, which might not have made the list of mahoosively critically acclaimed recordings, but with time have proven to be every bit as substantial as the aforementioned classics:

· Pearl – Janis Joplin

· Deliverin’ – Poco

· ZZ Top’s First Album – ZZ Top

· Little Feat – Little Feat

· Nantucket Sleighride – Mountain

· Salisbury – Uriah Heep

· Carly Simon – Carly Simon

· Fourth – Soft Machine

· Crazy Horse – Crazy Horse

· Earth Wind and Fire – EW&F

· Live at the Sex Machine – Kool and the Gang

· Ring of Hands – Argent

· Tago Mago – Can

· Friends – Elton John

· Bryter Layter – Nick Drake

· Songs of Love and Hate – Leonard Cohen

· Rory Gallagher – Rory Gallagher

· Man in Black – Johnny Cash

· Runt – Todd Rundgren

· Indelibly Stamped – Supertramp

· Budgie – Budgie

· High Time – MC5

· Acquiring the Taste – Gentle Giant

· Fireball – Deep Purple

· Shaft – Isaac Hayes

· The Inner Mountain Flame – Mahavishnu Orchestra

· Surf’s Up – The Beach Boys

· The Howlin Wolf Sessions – Howling Wolf et al

· A Space in Time – Ten Years After

· Future Games – Fleetwood Mac

· Second Album – Curved Air

· Colosseum Live – Colosseum

· Bark – Jefferson Airplane

· Free Live! – Free

· James Gang Live in Concert – James Gang

· Look at Yourself – Uriah Heep

· Pilgrimage – Wishbone Ash

· Rock Love – Steve Miller Band

· Seven Tears – Golden Earring

· 200 Motels – Frank Zappa

· In Search of Space – Hawkwind

· Fog on the Tyne – Lindisfarne

· Focus II – Focus

· Rainbow Bridge – Jimi Hendrix

· Muswell Hillbillies – The Kinks

· Fragile – Yes

· Deuce – Rory Gallagher

· Bonnie Raitt – Bonnie Raitt

· Dog of Two Heads – Status Quo

· E Pluribus Funk – Grand Funk Railroad

· Flowers of Evil – Mountain

· For Ladies Only – Steppenwolf

· The Low Spark of the High Heeled Boys – Traffic

· Nazareth – Nazareth

· Nilsson Schmilsson – Harry Nilsson

· People like us – The Mamas and the Papas

· Quicksilver – Quicksilver Messenger Service

· Islands – King Crimson

· Wild Life – Wings

Added to that lot were three albums from Elvis, a whole pile of “Best of” albums and a prog/classical album from Jon Lord.

1971 had musical magic in the air. Everywhere you turned new albums were coming out that seemed to up the ante of accomplishment. Perhaps it was because they were pushed so hard by the sixties. Whatever it was, seventy-one deservedly earns the title of the “Greatest Year in Rock”.