70’s music – michael jarmer

#775: K is for King Crimson (70-71)

There are certain recordsI have bought, entire collectionssometimes, in boxes no less, costing hundreds of dollars, of music that I have never heard, but nevertheless feel compelled, not only to hear, but to hold, to own, to possess. The literary equivalent: I’ve never read Moby Dick, say, but believe I should have, and vow toContinue reading “#775: K is for King Crimson (70-71)”

#773: K is for King, Carole

As a child I must have heard hersongs on the radio hundreds of times, and I remember distinctly that while my older brother was in his reel to reel phasehe had the album Tapestry in that format. Yeah, that was a thing: commercially availablereel to reel tapes of the great artistsof the day, late 60’s,Continue reading “#773: K is for King, Carole”

#769: J is for John, Elton John

I ran a search of all my poststo see how many times I had written about or at least namedElton John in a blog entry.The result: nineteen times. He was my first rock star idol. I was a fourth grader and my cousins played me Goodbye YellowBrick Road from start to finish. Almost immediately after,Continue reading “#769: J is for John, Elton John”

#761: J is for Jethro Tull

Sitting on a park bench. Snot dripping down his nose. Both of my Jethro Tull albumsare used acquisitions, Aqualungstill has a price tag on it of $1.99. Aqualung, my friend, don’t you start away uneasy. You poor old sod, you see, it’s only me. And I want to know who has a friend namedafter aContinue reading “#761: J is for Jethro Tull”

#657: C is for Coulton, Jonathan

Dance like they’re watching you, because they’re watching you. –Jonathan Coulton The first time I heard this guy, a fellow musician by way of comparison told me about this singer-songwriter’s project of writingand releasing a song a weekfor an entire year, while weintrepid songwriting homestudio cats were attemptingsix songs in one day of every monthContinue reading “#657: C is for Coulton, Jonathan”

#634: B is for Bread

First of all, “Baby I’m-A Want You”is an objectively funny name for an album. You would think, evenin the early seventies it would be funny, but you would probably be wrong about that. After all, ironyhadn’t been invented yet, so everysappy and sentimental thing was taken as absolutely sincere and earnest. Purveyors of the earlysoftContinue reading “#634: B is for Bread”