1980: July to December

The second half of 1980 began with a true guilty pleasure. The English pop group called The Korgis released their second studio album Dumb Waiters on 1 July. And, much like Waterfalls by Paul McCartney, I found yet another cloyingly sweet pop song that was as far removed from prog as was humanly possible, yet I found myself enjoying it a lot. These were confusing times.

Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime became a remarkable radio hit also in Finland, and I suppose you could call it a small pop classic of its time. It has been covered a number of times since, and I still find this beautiful song pleasant to listen to, even quite moving. It represents fairly simple but extremely powerful songwriting. As you can see above, there is even a video available, although it looks so silly that it takes a lot of the power out of the song. But we need to start getting used to these initial steps of the music video. This is how it was back then, plain and simple.

In the middle of the summer, a somewhat dark sounding album came out from a relatively new talent. Closer was only the second album by the British post punk group Joy Division, yet it was also their last. The group's singer and creative leader Ian Curtis had already committed suicide on 18 May. For the most part, this posthumous album release was not my cup of tea, but there was one song on it that I found endlessly inspiring. The dark and brooding Heart and Soul was often heard in my room during the second half of summer.

August, and yet another interesting new name entered the music scene. Or, to be more precise, earned my appreciation. The British pioneer of synth pop Gary Numan had already released two albums with his group Tubeway Army, and one more on his own. Now, in anticipation of his next album Telekon that would be released on 5 September, an excellent single release took place. I Die: You Die was an instant favorite of mine, so it was all the more surprising that when Telekon came out, it was not included.

In September, nothing of any interest came out. On 8 October, well, let's just say that something did. An album so radically different from anything I had liked before, that it left me in awe. You could say that I experienced an epiphany. I'm not trying to over-emphasize the experience, but by this time I was already old enough to know what I liked and appreciated about music. I was a die hard progressive rock fan, fond of complexity, brilliant playing technique and melody.

Knowing all this, how could I possibly be blown out by Remain in Light, the fourth studio album by the highly intellectual New York experimental rock group Talking Heads? It was produced by my long time favorite composer and musician Brian Eno, which could explain my ecstatic enjoyment of an album that was mostly based on rhythm - the antithesis of melody. There is not a single weak track on this exceptional album.

The best known song on Remain in Light would have been the single release Once in a Lifetime, for which there would have also been an inventive music video. However, it looks like the record company has had all existing copies deleted in YouTube. So, in its place, let's listen to the opening track Born Under Punches which describes the content of the album better anyway. Once in a Lifetime, great as it is, is an exception on Remain in Light; Born Under Punches is the rule. It is one of those songs that have made a big difference for me in teaching, at age seventeen, that there is great music also outside the progressive rock area and it can actually bear little resemblance to it.

Another post punk band besides Joy Division that became artistically interesting to me in October was the British goth influenced outfit The Damned. Their new release was called Black Album and contained one long song that got me truly excited. Curtain Call reminded me of vinyl side long prog masterpieces of the seventies. It ran well over 17 minutes and was a very challenging listen particularly to those with more British new wave sensibilities. Please do check it out below.

November arrived and uncovered three additional albums that I found interesting. First, there was The Turn of a Friendly Card by The Alan Parsons Project. I had been paying attention to their output already in the late seventies and enjoyed songs like Pyramania and I Robot, but the title track of this new album was the first one that in my mind saw the group really ascending to master class. From this point on, I started following the group even more intensely, and got a big reward for that only two years  later.

Another November release turned out to be one of the year's very best. I had also been following the Canadian prog related art rock / AOR group Saga for some time now, and truly enjoyed certain individual songs on their first two albums Saga (1978) and Images at Twilight (1979). Still, nothing prepared me for their third release Silent Knight (1980) which was still a bit uneven on the whole but contained three of the year's best individual rock songs: Don't Be Late, Too Much to Lose and Careful Where You Step.

Once again, the slightly silly video above seems to be downplaying the strength of the song, sorry about that. The album opener Don't Be Late is even better but I couldn't find a satisfactory version of it in YouTube. The early MTV video of Careful Where You Step above is important in its own right, even though it looks and sounds like an unintentionally hilarious relic from distant history. Perhaps that is one reason why it is important.

Finally, it was 21 November; I was exactly 17 and a half years old; and Steely Dan released the eagerly awaited follow-up to their masterpiece Aja (1977) called Gaucho. I must admit that, comparing the new release to that previous album, I was initially more than just a little disappointed. Gaucho is one of the most overproduced albums ever. While trying to achieve a perfect soundscape in the studio, it seems like the duo practiced and polished every single detail of every single track so long that they were all robbed of any life they might otherwise have had.

But, looking back, Gaucho isn't really that bad; in fact, I have learned to like many of its songs. The best example of the album in both good and bad is its opening track Babylon Sisters, embedded above.

Trying to choose the best album of the year leads to a really tight battle between the brilliant Defector by Steve Hackett and Remain in Light by the aforementioned Talking Heads. As much as I would have liked to award Hackett, I must choose Talking Heads on the basis of their unique, groundbreaking effort. As great as Hackett's work also was, there wasn't really anything groundbreaking about it.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Peter Gabriel: 3
Steve Hackett: Defector
Talking Heads: Remain in Light

UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
The Damned: Curtain Call
David Bowie: Alabama Song
Gary Numan: I Die: You Die
Genesis: Duchess
Genesis: Duke's Travels
John Wetton: Cold is the Night
Joy Division: Heart and Soul
The Korgis: Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime
Mike Rutherford: Smallcreep's Day
Paul McCartney: Waterfalls
Peter Gabriel: Intruder
Peter Gabriel: No Self Control
Rush: The Spirit of Radio
Saga: Careful Where You Step
Saga: Don't Be Late
Sky: FIFO
Steve Hackett: Leaving
Steve Hackett: Time to Get Out
Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime

Best albums of the year, 1967 to 1980:

1967: Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1968: -
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
1976: Genesis: A Trick of the Tail
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: And Then There Were Three
1979: Robert Fripp: Exposure
1980: Talking Heads: Remain in Light

Best short tracks (under 12 minutes):

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
1976: Gong: Chandra
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: Down and Out
1979: Barclay James Harvest: Play to the World
1980: Saga: Don't Be Late

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
1976: -
1977: Yes: Awaken
1978: Popol Vuh: Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts
1979: U.K: Carrying No Cross
1980: Mike Rutherford: Smallcreep's Day

1980: January to June

Welcome to the eighties! The golden age of progressive rock may be behind us, but we will soon be entering a new era: that of the music video. Soon enough, there will no longer be links embedded to plain music with an album cover as the imagery. There will be actual video footage edited and directed to fit the song that is playing, sometimes even by big names in the movie business.

Until now, I had been under the impression that the album Permanent Waves by Rush was released already in 1979. That's what it says in all the copyright labels. Apparently this is not the case: according to the internet, that most trustworthy of all information sources, this album actually came out on New Year's Day, 1980. 1 January sounds like a peculiar date to release a rock album, but when you think about it, it actually makes sense.

It seems that the Canadian power trio wanted to be the first among their peers to release a new album in the new decade. And what a brilliant album it was: one of the year's best, it contains several candidates for embedding above. I chose the most obvious one, the extremely catchy opening track. It also serves as a good example of one of the directions that prog was evolving towards in the new decade. Rush is considered by many a prog band, althought in my opinion they were always just a hard rock band with some complicated passages in their songs here and there. This was one modern variation of prog; others were to follow later.

Smallcreep's Day by Genesis bassist Mike Rutherford, out on 15 February, was a much more traditional prog album. This was Rutherford's chance to continue working with one time guitarist of Genesis Anthony Phillips, with whom he had already collaborated on Phillips's debut solo album The Geese and the Ghost (1977) that we already discussed earlier. Now, Phillips was playing keyboards on Rutherford's album.

On the same date with Smallcreep's Day, David Bowie released his own version of one of my childhood favorites. I remember mentioning that Alabama Song by The Doors had been my favorite on that group's first album in 1967. Bowie's brilliant new version was, in some ways, even better and so I was once again enthralled with this same song more than thirteen years later.

28 March saw the release of a new Genesis album called Duke. I waited for the new album with eager anticipation, so you can imagine the size of my disappointment when I heard the end result for the first time. Oh, no. The golden age of these prog giants was clearly over. Tony Banks era had ended, and the infamous Phil Collins era had begun. Art rock and prog had given way to mindless pop with catchy rhythms. Gag.

Except... that only applied for the most part of the album, not all of it. There were still a couple of remnants from better times. Even though it is easy to see that Duke is the weakest Genesis album since their amateurish debut From Genesis to Revelation (1969), there are two tracks on the album that are still quite good, and they are the only reason I am even mentioning it here. One was the brilliantly conceived Duchess, and the other the absolutely magnificient and definitely progressive Duke's Travels, embedded above.

In April, another version of eighties prog emerged. The double album Sky 2 by Sky was, for the most part, an embarrassing affair but I liked one album side quite a lot. Unlike at the time, I can no longer listen to Vivaldi or Toccata with any real enjoyment, but the over 17-minute long instrumental composition in four parts called FIFO still works. I couldn't find it in its entirety either in YouTube or Spotify, but above you can listen to its fourth and final part Watching the Aeroplanes.

Sky was never really prog, and this track exemplifies it well. Their instrumental art rock often had some classical influences, and they also liked to inject some really lame humor onto their albums. A good example of this is a track called Tuba Smarties on this very same album. The group went on to make a few more recordings that sounded very similar to each other but never progressed anywhere, and of course they were never able to top FIFO.

Before moving on to May, let's discuss one album whose release date or month is unknown to me. Some time during 1980, the former singer and bassist of King Crimson, and the current one of U.K, John Wetton released his first solo album Caught in the Crossifre. It was mostly an enjoyable listening experience, whose highlight was the lovely Cold is the Night, embedded above. Nothing too complicated, only a simple, moving song.

Then, it was 16 May. My 17th birthday was only five days away when Paul McCartney released a solo album of his called simply McCartney II. It is a bit strange for me to have a favorite track on an album like that, granted, but nonetheless I had one. I can understand if someone thinks that Waterfalls is too sweet and cloying a song to really enjoy, but I was able to do so. Even someone like Paul McCartney singing about needing love like a raindrop needs a shower wasn't - and still isn't - beneath me! Check it out below, maybe you'll like it too. Like a second needs an hour.

Precisely two weeks later, on 30 May, it was time for Peter Gabriel to release his third solo album, once again called simply Peter Gabriel. I had other things to worry about, such as starting my first summer job that actually took the entire summer instead of only a small portion of it like last year. But I did have time to listen to Peter Gabriel after returning home from work, and I must say I was quite impressed. Following the lackluster second album, this time the former Genesis singer was out to kick some ass.

The atmosphere on Peter Gabriel 3 was much like its front cover: dark and vaguely intimidating. My first favorite song on it was track number two called No Self Control but later I have come to think that perhaps the song that describes the album even better is its threatening opener Intruder. Like the second track, it boasts drum work by former bandmate Phil Collins that carries so much weight that it seems impossible to keep it in the background. It is as essential to the song as Gabriel's vocals.

However, as impressive as Gabriel's third solo album was, it still pales in comparison with his former bandmate Steve Hackett's fourth release Defector; out in June as the only album worth mentioning during that month. This was quite an album! Very much like Robert Fripp did the previous year, Hackett created a collection of songs that varied in style - one of them was even a faithful recreation of 1920's entertainment that was recorded in mono - that succeeded in just about everything it attempted.

I have always felt that an album that tries a lot of things is a much braver effort and worthy of more respect than one that only has a limited number of ideas that are played for extended periods of time. Even if an ambient album sounds great, in most cases it basically has only one idea that has succeeded. It is braver to try many different things, with shorter running time for each try. Defector is a perfect example of perfect success in this format.

At this point, it seemed obvious that I had already found the best album of the year. Let's verify this in the next blog entry. Perhaps the second half of the year has something even better to offer, although at this point it is really hard to imagine.

1979: June to December

June, 1979. Bill Bruford, former drummer of Yes and King Crimson, appeared on an album that could have been mistaken for a solo work, which it wasn't. He was simply the leading member of a group that called itself Bruford. Their album was called One of a Kind, and while it did include several enjoyable jazz prog tracks, it wouldn't be worth mentioning were it not for one certain track that soon became one of my big favorites of early summer. Please listen to it below.

On the album, Bruford had been joined by some well known musicians, at least when it comes to prog circles. Allan Holdsworth, former guitarist of, among others, Gong and U.K. was a full member and Eddie Jobson of U.K. appeared as a guest musician. The enjoyable instrumental piece called Forever Until Sunday was a big favorite of mine, and it still sounds pretty cool. Doesn't it? The track is a somehow perfect combination of symphonic progressive rock and jazz fusion. Jobson plays the violin.

Another album that came out in June managed to amaze me in its entirety, instead of containing only one great track. It was the leader of King Crimson himself, Robert Fripp who stunned me with his best ever album release outside his band, called Exposure. It is one of those very rare album length recordings where every single song is either good or great. Nothing mediocre has slipped through quality control into the final product.

The thing the stuns most about Exposure is its variety of styles. Breathless, embedded above, is an impeccable, guitar driven hard rock instrumental reminiscent of King Crimson's Red. Yet it is all alone on the album: there is no other track like it, just like there is nothing else as gentle as Mary or as wild as Disengage. I think the only recurring style was "Frippertronics" that Fripp was experimenting with at the time: three out of 17 tracks doesn't however make this very repetitive. There are multiple styles and Fripp succeeds with everything. Perfection.

I have not yet mentioned the mellow, religious British proggers Barclay James Harvest, who had been active since the late sixties and were by 1979 already past their prime. Their 15 July release of Eyes of the Universe hardly makes prog history and is overall significantly weaker than several of their previous albums. But once again, there is that one song. The best song they ever recorded. Play to the World was my soundtrack when summer started to wane. This kind of masterwork just leaves you speechless.

Exactly one month later, on 15 August, one of the greatest rock bands of the seventies Led Zeppelin released their new album In Through the Out Door. Like Barclay James Harvest, they were by this time already past their prime, but were nonetheless still able to create a recording that I enjoyed much, much more than, say, Houses of the Holy. The opening track In the Evening had a brilliantly ominous introduction, but the true masterwork was the over 10-minute long Carouselambra, which I recommend you seek out.

Following the relatively quiet summer, nothing worth mentioning came out in September. Finally, Tony Banks, the keyboardist of prog giant Genesis, took initiative and released his solo album A Curious Feeling on 8 October. I liked it quite a lot, although I must admit that it had a pretty silly storyline and sounded a bit wimpy overall. In spite of this, there were several strong songs on it, like The Lie, For a While and In the Dark, not to mention the opening instrumental From the Undertow. A stunning piano piece, it became a favorite of mine during the darkening autumn.

Only four days later, on 12 October, American supergroup Fleetwood Mac released a new double album called Tusk. It must have been quite challenging, perhaps even intimidating, to release a follow-up to their megahit Rumours that had came out two years earlier. For the most part, Tusk didn't interest me much but there were some individual brilliant moments on it that are definitely worth mentioning. First, I liked the album's title track for much the same reason as I did Led Zeppelin's In the Evening: because it had a brilliantly ominous introduction. And just like with Led Zeppelin, the song itself was perfectly fine as well once it really got under way.

And, exactly like In Through the Out Door, Tusk included one classic song as well. I immediately recognized Sara for what it was: the finest pop song of the year. Fleetwood Mac were to release one more album during the eighties that I would not only like but consider their best. But overall, their prime time was in the late sixties and seventies, and this is where it ended. Also, there would be one good album in the 2000's which we will discuss, I don't know, maybe a year and a half from now.

October was concluded with yet another fine album release by Camel. The group had been a relatively challenging prog rock band only a few years earlier but were now fast approaching mainstream with their new, melody driven collection of rock / pop songs that sounded very much like their previous two efforts Rain Dances (1977) and Breathless (1978).

I Can See Your House from Here, out on 29 October, was arguably the strongest of these three. Progressive rock seemed like a faint memory, but songwriting on this album was exceptionally good, so it didn't really matter that the end result didn't arrive in a particularly challenging format. I could embed one of several brilliant songs or instrumentals below; let's choose Eye of the Storm, written by Happy the Man's Kit Watkins who had at this point joined Camel.

Then, at last, it was 30 November and one of the most influential recordings of its time was released. The Wall by Pink Floyd was a double album and a landmark, giving this formerly "difficult" group a newly strengthened appeal to mainstream audiences all over the world. Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 was soon playing on the radio all the time and it sounded almost like one of the disco hits of the time. Who could have anticipated that?!

Yet this isn't to belittle the achievement of the British proggers. The Wall remains a masterful combination of genuine art and high commercial value. The band's songwriting was as strong as ever, and even though they now became a huge success with more commercial music than ever before, they were anything but selling out. In a different time, The Dark Side of the Moon had already become a phenomenon six and a half years earlier. Had it been released now, it might not have been as big a success, but The Wall was its perfect update that fit the current times.

In a way, I suppose The Wall also marks the last "happy" recording for the band. Looking back, it seems like Roger Waters had already taken over full creative control on Animals (1977). Nobody seemed to mind even now, but this would be the last album that all of Pink Floyd was happy to make. Also, it closed their golden era. The eighties would have to introduce new masterful music makers as nearly all of the prog giants' best times were behind by the time the said decade arrived.

And that's it, folks, this blog is now done with the seventies - the heyday of progressive rock, and the best decade in music ever. In the next blog entry, we will enter the eighties; a new and a very different era. The golden age of progressive rock is now forever gone, and the fan of that genre must seek solace elsewhere.

There were several brilliant albums released in 1979. Top five, listed below, was easy to compile but extremely difficult to rank. All of the albums on it are absolutely brilliant. Having given this a lot of consideration, I finally awarded the number one spot to Exposure by Robert Fripp. It is by far the most evenly great of the five albums listed below; an endless flow of invention. Danger Money by U.K. is a close second, leaving the best known and by far most influential The Wall by Pink Floyd to third place.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Pink Floyd: The Wall
Robert Fripp: Exposure
Steve Hackett: Spectral Mornings
The Tubes: Remote Control
U.K: Danger Money

UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
Barclay James Harvest: Play to the World
Bruford: Forever Until Sunday
Camel: Eye of the Storm
Dixie Dregs: Punk Sandwich
Led Zeppelin: Carouselambra
Peter Baumann: Meridian Moorland
Pink Floyd: Comfortably Numb
Steve Hackett: Lost Time in Cordoba
Steve Hackett: The Virgin and the Gypsy
Tom Robinson Band: Bully for You
Tony Banks: For a While
Tony Banks: From the Undertow
The Tubes: Telecide
U.K: Danger Money
U.K: Rendezvous 6:02
U.K: Carrying No Cross

Best albums of the year, 1967 to 1979:

1967: Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1968: -
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
1976: Genesis: A Trick of the Tail
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: And Then There Were Three
1979: Robert Fripp: Exposure

Best short tracks (under 12 minutes):

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
1976: Gong: Chandra
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: Down and Out
1979: Barclay James Harvest: Play to the World

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
1976: -
1977: Yes: Awaken
1978: Popol Vuh: Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts
1979: U.K: Carrying No Cross

1979: January to May

The seventies, best ever decade for music, was nearing its end. The beginning of 1979 was exceptionally quiet: I cannot name any significant albums to come out in either January or February. This delay led to an avalance of high quality in March, with five releases worth discussing. But before we get to those, let's reminisce one West German album that came out at an unknown time during 1979. And let's do the same with another one from the same country just a little later. These two are good placeholders for January or February. Who knows, maybe they did come out then.

The first one of the two is Peter Baumann's Trans Harmonic Nights that contains one of my greatest electronic music favorites of the decade, Meridian Moorland. By 1979, Baumann had left Tangerine Dream and showed some promise at the beginning of his solo career. There is no point in embedding anything else from the album because this one track is so unbeatable. I had to resort to Spotify once again since I couldn't find this song in YouTube.

However, there is one important thing to note. If you play the song directly using the link above, it is interrupted before its finish. For some reason, the track change is in a wrong location. If interested, please log in to Spotify, find the entire album and start playing Meridian Moorland from there. That way, you can hear it in its entirety because its last 65 seconds have been placed at the beginning of the following track called The Third Site. After those 65 seconds, you will notice a moment of silence that marks the place where the track really changes, and only after that does The Third Site really begin.

Let's get to the first March release next. Frank Zappa was an immensely productive musician throughout his career. He released so many albums that I couldn't possibly keep up with them all, but his 3 March double album release Sheik Yerbouti caught my attention. I really enjoyed its closing track Yo' Mama that has been embedded above. One thing worth noting is that it was recorded live with some exceptional musicians: at the end, among others, Zappa names Adrian Belew, Terry Bozzio and Patrick O'Hearn, all of whom will be important names in this blog later on.

The other West German release with an unknown release date (or month) is Die Nacht der Seele by Popol Vuh. Following Brüder der Schattens, Söhne des Lichts the group was still in a highly creative state but this time they composed much shorter tracks. There are several magical instrumental works on the album, none of which I was able to find either in YouTube or Spotify. If you have better luck, at the very least check out the tracks whose names begin with the word Mantram.

Onward with the March releases then. The American group Dixie Dregs from Georgia had a truly unique sound, combining southern rock with bluegrass and progressive influences. Their probably best known album Night of the Living Dregs contained a big favorite of mine, an instrumental called Punk Sandwich. There were some other decent tracks on the album as well, but this one is easily the best.

Another American group The Tubes has already made it to the Albums of the year list twice before, with their first two albums that were released in 1975 and 1976. Their third one Now (1977) was a forgettable affair but their fourth studio album Remote Control is overall their best. Their greatest individual songs appeared on the first two albums but this one was noteworthy in that it doesn't really contain a single weak track. The rock 'n' roll satire of America's obsession with the mindless entertainment of television was produced by Todd Rundgren who had a strong year - we will mention him again only moments later.

Easily the strongest track on an excellent album is its closing track Telecide, which is short for "television suicide". The angrily rocking track segues brilliantly into the main theme of Remote Control at its very end, closing not only the song but the entire album in a memorable way.

It's a funny thing that I mentioned Terry Bozzio only a few paragraphs ago. During the very same month that he played drums on Frank Zappa's Sheik Yerbouti, one of his greatest works was also released. The second album of the British-American symphonic prog cult favorite U.K. was always their true masterwork, although for some reason Danger Money isn't generally hailed as one.

I have written about the album's centerpiece Carrying No Cross already last year, when it reached number 14 on the Top 20 Long Prog Masterpieces list. Other masterpieces on the album include the title track, Bozzio's unbelievable show off track The Only Thing She Needs and the song embedded below.

One more important March release is still left to discuss.Tom Robinson Band, who had recently become a huge success with their single hit 2-4-6-8 Motorway, released their hastily collected second album TRB Two also in March. Like Remote Control, it was produced by Todd Rundgren but was hardly the masterpiece that the American effort was. And still, there was one brilliant song also on that album. It has been embedded below.

Earlier in the decade, I mentioned David Bowie's contribution to the success of Mott the Hoople. Then, instead of recording the brilliant All the Young Dudes himself, he gave it to a relatively unknown group for them to record, even though it was one of his best songs. Now, I think Peter Gabriel did almost the same thing, by giving his composition Bully for You for TRB to record. The lyrics were written by Robinson but the music was Gabriel's. The end result is extremely powerful, as you can hear below.

Compared to March, April 1979 was much, much quieter. The only release that I feel is worth noting, is the fourth solo album by Anthony Phillips called Sides. It wasn't anywhere as good as The Geese & the Ghost that I mentioned earlier, but there was one track that I immediately liked. Sisters of Remindum begins deceptively like any symphonic prog instrumental that places emphasis on piano, but soon changes its direction to something much more original. Check this one out if you have a chance.

In May, I turned 16 and the other former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett released his third solo album, easily his best work yet. Hackett's solo career would peak next year with his fourth album; this year's Spectral Mornings was an early indicator of great things to come. There are several strong songs to choose from, from the opening Every Day to an absolutely great instrumental Lost Time in Cordoba. But let's go with the one that has always been my favorite, The Virgin and the Gypsy.

Finally, let's close this blog entry with some Finnish music. The new album by Pekka Pohjola, called Visitation, was not quite as good as Keesojen lehto that we discussed a couple of years ago, but a perfectly fine effort nonetheless. I don't have an exact release date, or even a month, but since the album was recorded during January and February, it would most likely have come out in late spring; most likely May, or possibly June.

Visitation is pretty good all the way from beginning to end, but doesn't achieve true greatness before its very last track Try to Remember, which I will embed below. Pohjola, who died in 2008, was always good at creating atmospheric, lovely instrumental tracks and this one is among the best he ever made. It is slightly exceptional in how much pathos is built up towards the end, but otherwise, this is very much in the same vein with the rest of his best compositions.

1978: September to December

On 15 September, another solo album by a Pink Floyd member came out. Wet Dream by Richard Wright was a satisfying album overall, but it wouldn't be worth mentioning were it not for its absolutely fabulous second to last track Pink's Song. One of the most moving songs of the decade is more than worth embedding, so here we go.

Five days later, it was time to close the golden era of seventies prog giants Yes. Their rivals Genesis had already closed theirs in April, which I forgot to emphasize at the time. On 20 September, the follow-up to last year's masterpiece Going for the One came out. Obviously, Tormato couldn't possibly match its predecessor, but it was a damn fine effort anyway. The prog group formerly known for their long, vinyl side filling 20-minute opuses was now mainly working in short form and the results were very, very good.

In fact, it is a genuinely challenging task to pick only one sample track from Tormato as the entire album seems to contain only good to brilliant songs. The last track of the vinyl A side called Release, Release is evidently the weakest link on the album, and the B side opener Arriving UFO doesn't fully convince either. But other than that, everything works extremely well. Tormato is much like an updated version of Fragile. The most amazing song on the album is its closing track On the Silent Wings of Freedom; perhaps the most impressive one among its unmissable tracks.

Two more days, and the new album by Camel was released. And no, unlike Yes and Genesis, this date did not mark the closing of their golden era which would continue until the early eighties. Breathless, out on 22 September, was a very good natured, even downright optimistic sounding album that is worth mentioning because of its opening and closing tracks, both of which come higly recommended. And the rest of the album isn't half bad, either.

Breathless opens with one of the essential feelgood love songs of the decade: the title track. However, it is the closing track called Rainbow's End that really packs a punch. Also a love song of a kind, it tells a story of human companionship that has come to an end. The singer of the song admits that he must give up hoping that an important person will stay in his life because he or she just cannot be content but must instead keep on looking for that rainbow's end. And after finding it, start again. I'm sure many of us know people like that, which gives this beautiful song a powerful connection to real life.

In October, it was time for Brian Eno to release yet another album; his third within eleven months. Music for Films was a collection of short soundtrack compositions that had most likely been collected over a lengthy period of time. This wasn't strictly speaking an ambient music album, yet it was reminiscent of them because of its slow moving and peaceful instrumentals.

The second track From the Same Hill is already a masterpiece and an unmissable track, but easily the most stunning creation on the album is the three part Sparrowfall. If one had doubted Eno's genius prior to hearing it, following it there was no chance to do so. Looks like there is no single YouTube video to contain all three parts, so now I must embed them below separately. Please bear with me. You will understand why this needs to be done when you listen to them. No one part alone will tell the whole tale.

At the end of the very same month, on the 29th, the Canadian prog metal trio Rush released their sixth studio album Hemispheres. I had already been paying attention to the group for some time, in particular because of their previous effort A Farewell to Kings (1977). This new album again showed some unquestionable promise, and although there was still nothing unmissable here, the overall quality of the album gave early promise that there would be on their future albums.

Some time around November, the German group Popol Vuh released one of their very best efforts called Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts. I don't have an exact release date or even a month, but since recording was completed in August it would make sense that the album would have come out some time in the late autumn. The vinyl's A side filling title track is truly amazing. Below, the entire album has been embedded; the title track comprises the first 18 minutes and 50 seconds.

It might be worthwhile to also note that the Dutch symphonic prog group Kayak released a new album called Phantom of the Night some time late in the year. It can hardly be called album of the year, or any of its tracks unmissable, but I would like to point out that the title track is really quite good. Check it out if you can find it. If the group ever had a golden era, this release certainly closes it. Perhaps the golden era was only their first album See See the Sun that we discussed earlier.

13 November saw a stunning continuation to a recording career that had begun earlier this same year. The sophomore album of Kate Bush was called Lionheart and if anything, it was an improvement over the already impressive debut The Kick Inside. It begins well with Symphony in Blue and is then followed by not only one but two masterpieces, the first one of which I would also call an unmissable track of the year. In Search of Peter Pan could be the best song Kate Bush has ever recorded. Wow is an almost equally successful single release.

On 24 November, it was time for Mike Oldfield to release his long awaited follow-up to Ommadawn (1975). Incantations was a double album and presented the new, clean and shaven Mike that seemed to have lost something in the process of becoming that. Not only were we presented with two 20-minute compositions but four. These were of course named Incantations parts 1 through 4. While there were some parts that worked, the album was nonetheless a considerable disappointment.

Yet there was something that was worth embedding. Parts 2 and 4 were mostly sketches of compositions that weren't fully there. Part 1 had a great opening, some additional good sequences here and there, and lots of air in between them. But Part 3 was actually quite good. Perhaps because Mike didn't try to fit too many ideas into it. Just a few of them, and they were combined together with skill. This is hardly worthy of Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn or even Tubular Bells, but is still kind of neat. Below, it has been divided into two parts, for some obscure reason.

Finally, in December, Jean-Michel Jarre released his second studio album Équinoxe. It managed to strike a chord in me in a much more powerful way than Jarre's more famous debut. In particular, I was impressed by the grief conveyed by parts 2, 3 and 4 of the composition. Perhaps this was something I could already relate to, being at this point old enough to understand some truths about life; and therefore in the knowledge that pessimism is much closer to realism than optimism.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Genesis: And Then There Were Three
Jean-Michel Jarre: Équinoxe
Yes: Tormato

UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
Brian Eno: From the Same Hill
Brian Eno: Sparrowfall (1 - 3)
Camel: Breathless
Camel: Rainbow's End
Genesis: Burning Rope
Genesis: Down and Out
Genesis: The Lady Lies
Genesis: Snowbound
Genesis: Undertow
Happy the Man: Ibby it is
Jean-Michel Jarre: Équinoxe (Parts 2 - 4)
John Miles: Overture
Kate Bush: In Search of Peter Pan
Kate Bush: The Man With the Child in His Eyes
Peter Gabriel: White Shadow
Popol Vuh: Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts
Rainbow: Gates of Babylon
Richard Wright: Pink's Song
Yes: Future Times
Yes: On the Silent Wings of Freedom
Yes: Rejoice

Best albums of the year, 1967 to 1978:

1967: Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1968: -
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
1976: Genesis: A Trick of the Tail
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: And Then There Were Three

Best short tracks (under 12 minutes):

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
1976: Gong: Chandra
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: Down and Out

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
1976: -
1977: Yes: Awaken
1978: Popol Vuh: Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts

1978: January to August

The headline says January to August, but to be precise, nothing worth mentioning came out either in January or August, 1978. The beginning of the year was especially quiet: it wasn't until 17 February that the first really noteworthy album became available.

On that date, Kate Bush released her first album The Kick Inside. It marked the beginning of an extraordinary recording career. Once again, the Finnish radio was well up to speed with this. I heard Wuthering Heights over and over again and I admit that it is a great song. But, as is so often the case, my number one favorite turned out to be another song.

Released as the second single from the album, the immensely beautiful The Man With the Child in His Eyes didn't really catch my attention until said single release, which took place as late as in May. Above, I am proud to have embedded the official video that was presumably completed at the same time with the single release. The age of the music video is getting closer and closer. Soon virtually everything I embed will be official music videos.

This may be some kind of a record. I just wrote about Brian Eno's fifth album Before and After Science that was released in December 1977. And now here is the sixth one already, out only three months later, in March 1978. The end result was however considerably different. Music for Airports was Eno's first proper ambient recording, containing only four tracks that were more like soundscapes than musical compositions in the traditional sense.

I really enjoyed only one of the four tracks: the second one that had a simple title 2/1. You can listen to it above. This one I enjoyed a great deal. It is a rare thing to hear a song - or is this a song? - that sounds like it is defining a new genre in music. Apart from this track, Eno's turn towards ambient music didn't please me too much. While ambient can sometimes work, it is in most cases too slow, uneventful and, dare I say it, too simple for my taste. The fact that it took Eno two years to complete Before and After Science, and then only three months to continue to Music for Airports, is all too telling.

Another March release came from the U.K. It was the debut album of a prog supergroup called U.K. The album was called U.K. Its opening track In the Dead of Night, embedded above, immediately became a big favorite of mine: it was truly exciting to hear a band open their first album with a song that had an immediate symphonic prog classic feel to it.

Of course, none of the group members were really debuting, except when it came to playing together. Bassist and singer John Wetton, as well as drummer Bill Bruford were simply missing a prog rock band to call their own following the disbanding of King Crimson. Guitarist Allan Holdsworth has already been mentioned when discussing Gong. Keyboardist and violinist Eddie Jobson had played with Roxy Music previously. The first album by these veterans has become a cult classic, but personally, I preferred their second, due out in 1979...

And then it was 7 April and there were only three... The new Genesis album was released without guitarist Steve Hackett who had left the group in order to concentrate on his solo career. At the time, I thought that And Then There Were Three was the best album ever made. Who could blame me when it contained songs like Down and Out, embedded above? Or the stunning Snowbound, the high point of Mike Rutherford's entire songwriting career? So many great songs, as if born out of desperation that was fuelled by the apparent disintegration of the group.

Normally, And Then There Were Three would require a blog entry of its own, just like Going for the One by Yes. But since I have already written about the album at length, over here, there is no need to do it again. Let's just conclude that while a major part of the album represents musical perfection, there are a couple of slightly weaker tracks - and one that is truly horrendous, Genesis trying to be humorous once again - and these allow Yes to overtake it to reach number one spot on the list of best albums ever made.

Only two days later, on 9 April it was time for another unexpected favorite to be released. When discussing 1976, I already confessed to my liking of Stargazer by Rainbow. On their new album Long Live Rock 'n' Roll there was a track called Gates of Babylon which I liked even better. It is an exceptionally complicated heavy metal tune that is courting with progressive rock influences. Please check it out above.

Only one day after Rainbow, it was time for Jethro Tull to close their golden era with one last good album. On that date, Heavy Horses was released in the US. UK release followed on 21 April. Like its predecessor Songs from the Wood, the album leaned heavily towards British folk music, even offering a nostalgic view to (presumably relatively wealthy) farm life in its sleeve imagery. Songwriting quality was again on a high level: there are virtually no weak tracks. I chose to embed Acres Wild but believe me, there was no shortage of alternatives.

In May, I turned 15 years old, when a new and particularly interesting electronic music album was released. I had been following the eccentric German band Kraftwerk since Autobahn began playing on the Finnish radio in 1974. Their latest album The Man Machine was their most accomplished effort yet. The group's seventh studio album contained classic tracks like The Robots, The Model and in particular Spacelab, which I guess was my favorite.

Near the end of the month, on the 25th, Pink Floyd's guitarist David Gilmour released his first, self titled solo album in the UK. The US release followed on 17 June. Gilmour's effort was a really pleasant one: there weren't really any earth shattering standouts but there were no weak tracks either. A mellow and pleasant album, released in early summer in spite of a particularly wintry cover art. There is once again a multitude of excellent songs to choose from; let's go with the brilliant So Far Away.

On 3 June, it was time for another solo album from a (former, in this case) member of an essential seventies prog band. The second self titled album by Peter Gabriel turned out to be a noticeably weaker effort than its predecessor. Whereas the first album had been full of brilliant songs and free flowing invention, the second one contained only three relatively short songs that I liked - and even among those three, the opening track On the Air wasn't all that great, just enjoyable in its simplicity.

The other two were great. Track number three, Mother of Violence is a memorable, acoustic song about the nature of violence. There, Mr. Gabriel sings accompanied only by an acoustic guitar, piano and some sound effects. Great songwriting. My number one favorite song on the album is even better: track number five is called White Shadow and has been embedded below.

Then it was July. The height of summer. The British singer-songwriter John Miles released already his third album, following Rebel (1976) and Stranger in the City (1977). The new one was called Zaragon and while it was mostly just a pretty good album, it had a killer opening track called Overture; every bit as good or maybe even better than his hit single Music from a couple of years back.

I can't help but embed this brilliant song as well, although there are already so many above. These were the days when a song could open with a piano sequence, run for over eight minutes without being repetitive at any point, and would still be called classic. The song has similar pathos to Music and works equally well.

Finally, there is only one more album release worth discussing. I mentioned at the beginning of this blog entry that there would be nothing coming out in August, but to be more precise, I don't really know that. The American prog group Happy the Man had completed the recording of their second album Crafty Hands already in the spring so the actual release must have taken place some time in the summer. Perhaps as late as August?

I already discussed that album's standout instrumental track last year, so there is not much else to tell. Overall, Crafty Hands is a weaker effort than the band's debut. But please do check out Service With a Smile, Morning Sun, Wind Up Doll Day Wind - and the classic, absolutely stunning Ibby it is.

1977: October to December

October 1977 turned out to be a busy month for fans of quality music. I have already mentioned Electric Light Orchestra several times previously. The British group closed their golden era with a new double album called Out of the Blue. There were many tracks on the album that were only pretty good bordering on mediocre, making a listener wonder if the end result had been of higher quality if there had been only one disc in the package.

However, the best songs on the new album were still on par with Face the Music and A New World Record, so all you really had to do was skip the weaker tracks and you would still end up with about as many great ones as on those two albums. One of the best was the touching It's Over embedded below. As you can see, there is even a real music video: we are fast approaching times when the embedded links contain also those instead of just audio accompanied with an album cover.

Passage by the American pop super duo The Carpenters was also an October 1977 release. I wouldn't be mentioning it at all, had it not included a brilliant cover of the Canadian band Klaatu's song Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft. I will not embed it, but be sure to check it out.

Another American group Kansas released their fifth studio album Point of Know Return on 11 October. As was typical for the era, their recording career had moved forward with high speed. Their self titled debut had come out in March 1974, and here we were, listening to their fifth one only three years and seven months later. Their previous album Leftoverture had been a fan favorite and the new one also featured some excellent songs like the title track, Paradox, and particularly Dust in the Wind which would go on to become the group's best known song and a beloved classic.

Only three days later, on 14 October, David Bowie released his classic Heroes. The title track in particular got plenty of radio play in Finland soon after the album's release, so I was familiar with it from the very beginning. However, because everyone is familiar with the song, let's embed something else. I also liked the quieter charm of Moss Garden - I think it might be my favorite track on the album -  and among the non-instrumentals there was also Sons of the Silent Age that felt like yet another instant classic to me.

The British rock group Queen were never to repeat the success of A Night at the Opera, but their 28 October release News of the World contained a couple of my late autumn favorites. The band's sixth studio album opens of course with We Will Rock You that has since become a sports event anthem, and is followed by another well known song We Are the Champions. Please, skip these two.

The next two tracks are much more interesting. Named after their third album that was released already in 1974, Sheer Heart Attack is one of the definitive straight rock songs of the seventies. Its speed and energy are something that one rarely has a chance to experience, even if one listens to pure rock and roll only. And the next song All Dead, All Dead is a true gem in melancholic, even sad songwriting. I could have embedded either one; let's go with energetic rock this time.

In many of the previous years, November has been an important month, as if a lot of the best music were released then in preparation for the Christmas market. 1977 was different. Only one new album worth mentioning came out in November, and even that one is worthy only because of it contains one single unmissable track. Like most of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's output, the 10 November release of Works, vol. 2 was mostly crap but there was an unbelievable exception.

I Believe in Father Christmas felt like it was a solo effort by Greg Lake; yet the lyrics were written by Peter Sinfield and the centerpiece of the song is Keith Emerson's interpretation of Sergey Prokofiev's composition Troika. It remains one of the few real strikes of genius from the group, and I still think it is the best, most effective Christmas song ever recorded - even though it was originally intended to be a criticism against its commercialization.

Finally, in December there were two more recordings released that must be mentioned here. One was the debut album of a newcomer; the other, the fifth release from a seasoned veteran that we have already mentioned several times before.

The French musician Jean-Michel Jarre has done a lot to popularize electronic music. His compositions are nowhere near as difficult to approach as those of, say, Tangerine Dream. Jarre's first album Oxygène became an immediate hit and received plenty of radio play also in Finland. I was also excited about it, although I have later come to think that, just like in Mike Oldfield's case, even though the second album was less successful, it was nonetheless slightly better.

We conclude 1977 with Brian Eno's Before and After Science, an album that had so many high profile guest musicians that there is not enough room here for to naming them all. Eno had been preparing the new album for the best part of two years and, during that time, written approximately one hundred new songs.

It is therefore all the more surprising that Before and After Science felt like a failure after listening to the first six of its ten tracks. Was this really the best he could come up with? But then began the jaw-dropping sequence of masterpiece after masterpiece. Tracks 7 and 8, Julie With... and By This River are both among the greatest of the decade. These are followed by the instrumental Through Hollow Lands which is very good but not as great as the previous two tracks. Finally, the album is concluded with a third undying masterpiece Spider and I.

By This River was actually a collaboration with the German experimental group Cluster, who we already mentioned earlier when discussing early 1976 releases. Cluster had worked with Eno on an album called Cluster & Eno earlier this same year, but for some reason they had saved their best for the Eno solo album. Nothing on that previous collaboration came even close to matching the peaceful beauty of By This River. It is a nice way to close the discussion of the year in music that brought us, in my opinion, the greatest album ever made.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Electric Light Orchestra: Out of the Blue
Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel
Pink Floyd: Animals
Yes: Going for the One

UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
10cc: Feel the Benefit
Anthony Phillips: God If I Saw Her Now
Anthony Phillips: Which Way the Wind Blows
Brian Eno: By This River
Brian Eno: Julie With...
Brian Eno: Spider and I
The Carpenters: Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Cerrone: In the Smoke
Electric Light Orchestra: It's Over
Emerson, Lake & Palmer: I Believe in Father Christmas
England: Poisoned Youth
Genesis: Inside and Out
Gentle Giant: I'm Turning Around
John Cale: Hedda Gabler
Peter Gabriel: Humdrum
Pink Floyd: Sheep
Wigwam: Cheap Evening Return
Wigwam: The Big Farewell
Yes: Awaken
Yes: Going for the One
Yes: Turn of the Century
Yes: Wonderous Stories

Best albums of the year, 1967 to 1977:

1967: Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1968: -
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
1976: Genesis: A Trick of the Tail
1977: Yes: Going for the One

Best short tracks (under 12 minutes):

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
1976: Gong: Chandra
1977: Yes: Going for the One

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
1976: -
1977: Yes: Awaken