'70s POP CULTURE

They're all here, from the sublime (Al Green's "Let's Stay Together") to the ridiculous (Rick Dees' "Disco Duck"). In a word, Have A Nice Decade: The '70s Pop Culture Box is eclectic. It includes one-hit wonders alongside future members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; novelty songs next to all-time classics. The box contains songs as elegant as Billy Paul's "Me And Mrs. Jones" and as rambunctious as Kool & The Gang's "Jungle Boogie"; as socially responsible as Curtis Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead (Theme From 'Superfly')" and as empty-headed as Silver Convention's "Fly, Robin, Fly"; as timeless as Bill Withers' "Lean On Me" and as wedded to the moment as Ray Stevens' "The Streak." This 160-song collection includes a remarkably wide range of styles, from hard rock to easy listening. That's how it was in the '70s, before fragmented radio formats began encouraging audiences to listen only to those genres (and, increasingly, sub-sub genres) they most want to hear. In the '70s Top 40 radio was still true to its original premise -- playing the biggest hits from a variety of formats. If you listened to Top 40 in 1973, you heard everything from King Harvest's pure-pop ditty "Dancing In The Moonlight" to the Edgar Winter Group's hard rock instrumental "Frankenstein"; from El Chicano's Latin-flavored "Tell Her She's Lovely" to Gladys Knight & The Pips' classy R&B ballad "Midnight Train To Georgia." Today no one station would dream of playing such a wide range of styles. This collection features many of the decade's top hit-makers, including The Jackson 5, Diana Ross, Peter Frampton, and Gladys Knight & The Pips. It brings together songs from such landmark #1 albums as Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells A Story, Linda Ronstadt's Heart Like A Wheel, and Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key Of Life. And it contains a whopping 61 #1 pop hits, including three that were the #1 hits of their respective years: Three Dog Night's "Joy To The World," Tony Orlando & Dawn's "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree," and the Captain & Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together." The 1960s was such a golden era in popular music that it was almost inevitable that the '70s would be viewed as a let-down. And, to be sure, the '70s produced no artists as revolutionary as The Beatles, no events as historic as Woodstock. But the '70s were hardly the musical wasteland they are often made out to be. As this collection shows, there were important developments in a broad range of genres, including: * Pop -- Elton John brought new showmanship and flair to pop music. James Taylor and Carole King ushered in the singer-songwriter era. The Carpenters and Barry Manilow became masters of romantic ballads. Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, and Olivia Newton-John had #1 hits from movies in which they starred. John Denver and Anne Murray achieved success on both pop and country radio. Chicago, America, and the Little River Band epitomized the "soft rock" sound. The Doobie Brothers, Electric Light Orchestra, and the Steve Miller Band became mass-appeal hit machines. * Rock -- Peter Frampton and Fleetwood Mac shot album sales into the stratosphere. The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, and Warren Zevon spearheaded the California rock sound. David Bowie, Queen, and Alice Cooper led a trend toward increased theatricality in rock. Sixties rock icons The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton maintained their supremacy. Foreigner, Styx, and REO Speedwagon defied the critics to sell millions of albums. Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart, and Jethro Tull planted the British flag at the top of the charts. Jefferson Starship's influential "Miracles" received airplay on pop, rock, and easy listening stations. Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded its tragically ironic "Free Bird." Bruce Springsteen debuted. Elvis Presley died. * R&B -- The Philadelphia sound, masterminded by Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff and Thom Bell, dominated pop and R&B radio. Motown legends Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder gained creative control of their music. Al Green recorded a long string of pop and R&B classics. Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield recorded two of the decade's most memorable soundtracks. Parliament-Funkadelic, Kool & The Gang, and the Ohio Players brought funk to new heights. The Jackson Five kept the Motown assembly line purring. Gladys Knight & The Pips and the Spinners left Motown and promptly achieved their greatest success. Earth, Wind & Fire and the Commodores vied to succeed Sly & The Family Stone as the top R&B-pop-rock band. Barry White became the decade's top maestro. James Brown and Aretha Franklin remained the Godfather and Queen of Soul. * Disco -- The Hues Corporation's zesty 1974 smash "Rock The Boat" launched the disco era. The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, and K.C. & The Sunshine Band became the genre's top stars. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack won a Grammy® for Album of the Year. The Trammps' scorching "Disco Inferno" became a club anthem. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards wrote and produced hits both for their own group, Chic, and for outside acts such as Sister Sledge. R&B veterans such as Marvin Gaye, The Miracles, and Edwin Starr jumped on the disco bandwagon. Vicki Sue Robinson, Alicia Bridges, and Evelyn "Champagne" King became disco divas. * Country -- Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson led the "outlaw" movement in country music. Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette achieved fame and success on a par with the decade's top male stars, Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, and Charley Pride. Glen Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy" and C.W. McCall's "Convoy" became the #1 singles of their respective years. Lynn Anderson's "Rose Garden" became one of the decade's top crossover hits. Roy Clark and Barbara Mandrell starred in successful TV variety shows. The bluegrass classic "Dueling Banjos," featured in Deliverance, became a top pop and country hit. Some of the songs in this collection will probably never be revived. But quite a few already have been. Bill Withers' "Lean On Me" and The Shocking Blue's "Venus" reached #1 in the '80s for Club Nouveau and Bananarama, respectively. Director Quentin Tarantino, a child of the '70s, has used the decade's songs to great effect in his movies. And he has chosen a wide range of material -- classics like "Let's Stay Together," oddball hits like "Jungle Boogie," and all-but-forgotten records like the George Baker Selection's "Little Green Bag." "I think growing up in the '70s gives you an appreciation for certain music that nobody else on the planet has appreciation for," he said on the eve of the release of Pulp Fiction. "And it's not like, 'Oh, it's so bad, it's good.' . . . 'Jungle Boogie' -- that's not a novelty record. That's an intense rhythm and blues instrumental, man." Future sociologists won't be able to find much meaning in the lyrics of most of the songs on The '70s Pop Culture Box. Twenty years before Seinfeld, many of these songs were about . . . nothing. But others commented on the decade's most important social trends, such as: * Women's Lib -- Two songs about women's struggle for equality were released in the spring of 1972 -- Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" and John Lennon-Plastic Ono Band's "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World." Lennon's record was calculated to shock; Reddy's was designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience. And that's pretty much what happened. "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World" stalled at #57, while "I Am Woman" reached #1, becoming an instant anthem of the women's movement. A pair of 1971 hits, The Honey Cone's "Want Ads" and Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff" also had a feminist slant. In "Want Ads" the Honey Cone sing of finding traces of lipstick and perfume on their boyfriends' shirts. Six years earlier, The Supremes most likely would have tearfully taken the shirts to the Laundromat. But times had changed. The Honey Cone take out a personal ad to find a new boyfriend. Other hits by female artists with a strong, assertive tone include Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," Carly Simon's "You're So Vain," and Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good." They're all a long way from "Stand By Your Man." * Sexual revolution -- As the sexual revolution that began in the '60s spread throughout American society in the '70s, pop radio was flooded with sexually suggestive songs. Among the more risqué hits: Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On," Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby," LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade," ZZ Top's "Tush," and Rod Stewart's "Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright)." Compared to these songs, the Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight" seems tame. But that's precisely why the record was such a telling indicator of changing mores. In a style as wholesome and innocuous as The Anita Kerr Singers, the two couples who make up the quartet coo sweetly about the advantages of afternoon intercourse. If you aren't paying attention, you might think the "Afternoon Delight" they refer to is a Pop-Tart. Not ten years earlier, The Rolling Stones were forbidden to sing "Let's Spend The Night Together" on The Ed Sullivan Show. Now, an ultrasquare, Middle-American pop group suggested spending afternoons together -- and it didn't cause a ripple. Other '70s hits dealt with sex in a variety of ways. Melanie's "Brand New Key" and Maria Muldaur's "Midnight At The Oasis" used lighthearted imagery to communicate desire. Exile's "Kiss You All Over," the Raspberries' "Go All The Way," and K.C. & The Sunshine Band's "Get Down Tonight" were more overtly suggestive. It took the Andrea True Connection's frisky "More, More, More (Pt. 1)" to raise eyebrows -- and only then because it was the first hit by a former porn star. * Antiwar movement -- As the Vietnam War entered its second decade, numerous pop hits reflected America's increasingly disenchanted mood. In 1970, just four years after Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler scored with his gung ho "The Ballad Of The Green Berets," Edwin Starr topped the pop and R&B charts with "War," a ferocious antiwar blast. The Guess Who's "American Woman" -- with its pointed line "I don't need your war machines" -- also hit #1 in 1970. Antiwar hits in 1971 included Freda Payne's "Bring The Boys Home," Graham Nash's "Military Madness," and Coven's "One Tin Soldier (The Legend Of Billy Jack)," a parable about an ancient battle that was a thinly disguised plea for peace. In 1974 Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods topped the pop chart with "Billy, Don't Be A Hero," in which dying for one's country is regarded not as a noble sacrifice but as being "a fool with your life." Though the song was written about the Civil War, most listeners related it to Vietnam. The presence of an antiwar message in a teenybopper pop hit showed that sentiment had filtered down to the kids of Middle America. * Drugs -- As drug use increased in the '70s so did the number of songs that explored the topic. Joe Cocker's "Let's Go Get Stoned," James Taylor's "Junkie's Lament," and Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" were three of the most prominent examples. On the pop side, Brewer & Shipley's "One Toke Over The Line" and Jim Stafford's "Wildwood Weed" both contained allusions to marijuana use. The fact that both songs sailed into the Top 10 said more about loosening attitudes toward the drug than any Newsweek poll. An equal number of '70s songs warned of the dangers of drug use. Among them: Neil Young's "Needle And The Damage Done," James Brown's "King Heroin," Ringo Starr's "No No Song," and Curtis Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead (Theme From 'Superfly')." * Religion -- Several '70s hits addressed God -- with varying degrees of reverence. George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me," and Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody" were all respectful in tone. Ocean's "Put Your Hand In The Hand" and Godspell's "Day By Day" were also devout. Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit In The Sky" and The Doobie Brothers' "Jesus Is Just Alright" took a more casual approach, replacing veneration with an easy intimacy. But a depressed Gilbert O'Sullivan, in "Alone Again (Naturally)," said that he had come to "doubt talk about God and his mercy." And in "Superstar," the anthem from Jesus Christ Superstar, Murray Head (as Judas Iscariot) openly taunted God: "Every time I look at you I don't understand/Why you let the things you did get so out of hand." * Race -- Stories topped the pop chart in 1973 with "Brother Louie," a matter-of-fact account of an interracial love affair. The single's success indicates how much attitudes had changed since 1967, when a big fuss was made over Janis Ian's genteel "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)." "Brother Louie" came right to the point: "Ain't no difference if you're black or white/Brother, you know what I mean." War's "Why Can't We Be Friends?" also touched on race. Like Sly & The Family Stone's "Everyday People," War's song put the idea of a color-blind society in terms that even a child can understand: "The color of your skin don't matter to me/As long as we can live in harmony." Many of the songs included in this collection are classics. Some are guilty pleasures. A few could be used as forms of punishment. All are part of a music scene that reflected -- and helped shape -- the values of a generation. So whether you lived through the era or are new to the music, it's time you soaked up a little '70s pop culture! -- Paul Grein

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