I might otherwise have been hard pressed to choose a sample track from this album, but YouTube makes it a lot easier: very few of the songs are available there to choose from. The easiest one to find, Freddie Are You Ready was indeed the best known and most played song already at the time, and believe me, it got LOTS of radio play in Finland. The other two brilliant songs in my personal top three are Bless Your Lucky Stars and Save My Money and Name. Weak tracks? No, I don't think there are any.
This is perhaps a slightly unnecessary side note, but a mainstream artist called Bruce Springsteen also released an album in August 1975. He had not reached megastar status yet and could therefore concentrate on making quality music. Born to Run, out on the 25th, contained two of his best songs that I listened to eagerly at the time: the memorable title track, and my number one favorite Thunder Road.
Then it was September, and it turned out to be quite a month. Jethro Tull continued with the shorter form re-introduced on previous year's War Child, but this time more successfully. The brilliant Minstrel in the Gallery, out on 5 September in the UK and 8 September in the US, placed noticeably more emphasis on hard rock then its predecessors. The softer elements were however also there, and this combination worked wonders, making this one of Tull's best albums.
The title track Minstrel in the Gallery is of course an undying classic and easily the best known song on the album. But, instead of it, I have embedded above track number two, Cold Wind to Valhalla that I have always liked even better. Please check out how perfectly it is arranged and played, from the gentler and more acoustic opening to the more hard rocking sequences later on: an utterly satisfying dramatic arc.
One week later, on 12 September it was time for Pink Floyd to uncover the follow-up to their 1973 gargantuan worldwide hit album The Dark Side of the Moon that was actually still charting. That must have been a daunting task. How can you follow up something universally acclaimed and not disappoint? In this case the group chose, perhaps surprisingly, a rather personal subject matter by recording an album that was quite obviously about their original leader Syd Barrett. Eventually, Wish You Were Here became almost equally appreciated as its predecessor.
But as good as these two September releases already were, another two would also come out that approached sheer greatness. Since January 1974's Here Come the Warm Jets, Brian Eno had released his second solo album Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy. I skipped it earlier because it was just more of the same but with considerably less impact. Now, he had completed his third one that turned out to be a real game changer.
Another Green World is a simply stunning achievement that saw Eno develop into a new direction as a musician. Just like that, all of his earlier albums' glam rock stylings were gone. Here was a new Eno who mostly composed creative instrumentals and whenever he sang, he did so in a peaceful, low voice. The album is simply filled with standout tracks, I cannot even begin to choose only one. So, I am embedding the full album as a playlist that you can browse.
For me, the most memorable tracks are Sky Saw, In Dark Trees, Becalmed, Zawinul / Lava and Spirits Drifting - all instrumental pieces. If I had to choose only one, it would be the last one, an icily beautiful composition that evokes a feeling of deep sorrow and loss. Everything else contained on this album is also either very good or great. This is Eno's peak recording, an endlessly inventive collection that he never topped later, even though he continues to make brilliant music to this day. His next album would come out only two months later: the November 1975 release Discreet Music was his first stab at creating ambient music, and he has done a lot more of that since.
Another stellar September release came from Electric Light Orchestra. Their fifth studio album Face the Music was their best so far. For some reason, they wanted once again to enter the US market earlier than their home turf. The September release took place there. UK didn't follow until 14 November. Songwriting quality was on an unheard of level, although even this collection of eights songs did contain one dud. I have always hated the hillbilly silliness of Down Home Town. But, being the seventh track, it was always followed by my number one favorite individual song of the whole year: the masterful One Summer Dream.
October was also a brilliant month in music, although there were only two new albums worth discussing. First up is the eagerly awaited return of British proggers Van der Graaf Generator. As mentioned before, following their excellent fourth album Pawn Hearts (1971) the group went their separate ways and it was thought that their story was over. Singer Peter Hammill embarked on a solo career and released his first five solo albums, from Fool's Mate (1971) to Nadir's Big Chance (1975).
Now they had reformed, and the outcome was Godbluff which I would argue is their best album overall. Granted, there is nothing as great as A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers but on the other hand there is nothing quite as average as Man-Erg either. A consistently good album on which there are really no weak songs, Arrow perhaps being the least interesting of them. My number one favorite has always been the opening track The Undercover Man.
On 21 October, it was time for my 1974 favorite artist Mike Oldfield to release his third studio album Ommadawn. Once again, there were two parts: one filled the entire A side but the other didn't quite fill the B side. This time around, Oldfield had been persuaded (or had perhaps wanted) to record a short song for radio play and that had been added to the end, giving the actual Part 2 therefore a little less space. On Horseback is a song, not an instrumental, and a great one too.
After having listened to Ommadawn Part 1 in its entirety one could have been fooled into thinking that the new recording was on par with Hergest Ridge, perhaps even better. But Part 2 is a slight disappointment. To use bagpipes as a lead instrument was a strange idea to begin with, and on top of that there doesn't seem to be true inspiration left when it comes to melody - strange considering how impeccable the first part is. Due to the slight weakness of Part 2, Ommadawn is, in my opinion, only the second best album in Oldfield's entire discography. Hergest Ridge remains his best work.
At this point, there were so many great new albums for me to listen to that I wasn't particularly disappointed when the following months were a little quieter. That allowed me more time to concentrate on Eno, ELO, VdGG and Oldfield. In November, there was a new album out from John Cale, of Paris 1919 fame, called Helen of Troy. Since Paris, the productive songwriter had already released two additional albums called Fear and Slow Dazzle which were both OK but didn't really impress me.
Helen of Troy contained two late autumn favorites of mine. I Keep a Close Watch would get an even better treatment in 1982, but this original version with its string arrangements is also very good. Perhaps my number one favorite was in any case the haunting Leaving it Up to You. Both of these songs had for some reason been hidden to the album's B side. Please note that the video embedded below is monaural, but so is the original recording, so there has been no mistake.
Out on 21 November, A Night at the Opera by the British rock band Queen saw them take huge steps towards genuine art rock. This didn't of course prevent the album from becoming a massive hit. Bohemian Rhapsody is nowadays considered on of the greatest songs in rock history. An even bigger favorite of mine was, however, is the B side opener The Prophet's Song, whose complicated vocal work halfway through strangely reminds me of the works of Gentle Giant...
Finally, in December Vangelis published his masterwork Heaven and Hell. He was now a major star in his own genre. A large composition consisting of several parts, the album was nothing short of great in some places and interesting in all of them. Please pay particular attention to the lovely sequence starting at 12:50 - it was later used as the theme to Carl Sagan's space documentary series Cosmos. And even more importantly check out Aries / A Way, from 37:35 to the end. It is in my mind the best piece of music that Vangelis ever composed and recorded.
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Brian Eno: Another Green World
Electric Light Orchestra: Face the Music
Mike Oldfield: Ommadawn
Tangerine Dream: Rubycon
The Tubes: The Tubes
Van der Graaf Generator: Godbluff
Wigwam: Nuclear Nightclub
UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
Brian Eno: Spirits Drifting
Caravan: The Show of Our Lives
Electric Light Orchestra: Fire on High
Electric Light Orchestra: Poker
Electric Light Orchestra: One Summer Dream
Greenslade: CatalanJet: Brian Damage
Jet: Tittle-Tattle
Mike Oldfield: Ommadawn, Part 1
Mike Oldfield: On Horseback
Pink Floyd: Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Part 1
Popol Vuh: Aguirre I
Tangerine Dream: Rubycon, Part 1
The Tubes: Up from the Deep
The Tubes: What Do You Want from Life?
Van der Graaf Generator: The Undercover Man
Vangelis: Aries / A Way
The honorary awards for best individual song and album this year go to a non-progressive rock group. Electric Light Orchestra's Face the Music was such an achievement that it cannot be beaten. And likewise, as I already mentioned, One Summer Dream wins best song. Best albums of the year since 1967:
1967: Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1968: (not awarded due to lack of worthy candidates)
1969: Procol Harum: A Salty Dog
1970: Genesis: Trespass
1971: Genesis: Nursery Cryme
1972: Yes: Close to the Edge
1973: Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon
1974: Mike Oldfield: Hergest Ridge
1975: Electric Light Orchestra: Face the Music
Best short tracks (under 12 minutes) during that same period:
1967: Pink Floyd: Bike
1968: Pink Floyd: Julia Dream
1969: Pink Floyd: Cirrus Minor
1970: The Beatles: The Long and Winding Road
1971: Genesis: The Fountain of Salmacis
1972: Gentle Giant: Schooldays
1973: John Cale: Paris 1919
1974: Mike Oldfield: Mike Oldfield's Single
1975: The Tubes: Up from the Deep
Best long tracks (12 minutes or over):
1970: King Crimson: Lizard
1971: Van der Graaf Generator: A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
1972: Yes: Close to the Edge
1973: King Crimson: Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part 1
1974: King Crimson: Starless
1975: Mike Oldfield: Ommadawn, Part 1
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