Listomania! - 1976

My Grandfather on my Dad's side was a guy named Lloyd Paul. He was born in 1895 and worked for CN for many years. When he retired in 1960 (the year I was born), he began trekking across Canada every summer and stopping at different relatives' places along the way. (My Mother called it "freeloading.") When at our house, he always slept in my room in the basement, which had an extra bed in it. I lived in fear that he would die in my room while I was in there, but he never did. I always enjoyed his visits, but I started enjoying them even more when I turned 13. He would leave his suitcase open on the bed and always sitting right there on the top were 3 or 4 Playboy magazines. Well, that was too much for raging hormones guy to resist! I would "read" these mags when he was upstairs with my parents or out with my Dad running errands. The reason I am mentioning this now is that 1976 was the American Bicentennial, so I vividly recall that issue of Playboy celebrating it. Their was a "bunny" on the cover done up in an American flag outfit and I have that glorious picture still inscribed in my brain. By the way, Grandpa Paul lived until the age of 101 in 1996, so he got his money's worth out of the old-age pension! In terms of music, it seemed better at the time than it does in hindsight. I had real trouble making this list, as I usually start out with about 30 or so songs from each year and cull them until I reach just 10, but for '76, I only started with 15 songs and even then I was stretching the limits.

Top 10 Of 1976

10. Detroit Rock City - Kiss

True confession: I was a massive Kiss fan in the mid 1970s! I saw them live 3 times, including in Detroit at the now-defunct Olympia in 1977 where they opened the show by descending from the ceiling on huge hydraulic platforms whilst banging out the opening chords to this song. They were very much a rite of passage for adolescent boys of a certain age and I was a young teen at the peak of their popularity. Their stuff really doesn't interest me at all any more, other than nostalgically, but this opening song from the album Destroyer was a shoo-in for this list purely because I loved it so much back then and I still pull it out for a listen from time to time. It has it all, Peter Criss' smashing and pounding drums, Gene Simmons' throbbing bass, Ace Frehley doing his usual raunchy solo and Paul Stanley's theatrical vocals. They were under a lot of pressure to do a follow-up to the multi-platinum selling Kiss Alive, so they hired hotshot producer Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, among others) to do the album. Well. his fingerprints are all over this song, including the beginning where a radio speaks of the death in a car accident of a Kiss fan, with the sounds of a car all through the song, culminating in a crash and the sound of squealing tires and broken glass. "You gotta lose your mind in Detroit Rock City." Not only my mind, but quite a few brain cells too!

9. Squonk - Genesis

I remember when Peter Gabriel left Genesis in '75. There was a huge kerfuffle about who would be the new vocalist and the band held auditions for 6 months before determining that their drummer, one Phil Collins, would take over lead vocals. This track, taken from my favourite album of theirs, The Trick Of The Tail, would prove that Collins could indeed handle the lead vocal just fine. He would then go on to rule the pop music world in the 80s, with several huge smash hits, none of which I ever liked. But, this song I still love. It is a droning, Led Zep-like rocker, about as heavy as Genesis ever got. Collins' drumming is fantastic, all rolling tom-toms and crunchy snares. I even love the one-note drone of the bass line and Steve Hackett's spare but vital guitar playing. I love to play along with the drums too, although it's more like hack along than play along. The lyrics are about some imaginary creature or some such nonsense, but I never liked Genesis for their lyrics. "All the while in perfect time his tears are falling on the ground, But if you don't stand up you don't stand a chance." ...And then there were four......

8. Get The Lead Out - Aerosmith

More chunky boogie-rock from Steven Tyler and the guys. Joe Perry just kicks it so hard in this tune with his big slabs of fuzzy, distorted guitar and Joey Kramer's yeoman work behind the drumkit is first-rate. Steve and I knew a guy named Vic Masseo who was a drummer, but an even better air drummer and his renditions of Aerosmith tunes were air-note perfect. This song has that Aerosmith cocky swagger and Tyler's signature straining to get to the high notes vocals, but it is a swingin', rockin' good time that they could not match in their later releases. I really like the "baby, baby,baby" vocal near the end that keeps switching speakers when you listen on headphones "Get out the lead, get out of bed, get the lead out." Alright, I'm coming already! Jeez!

7. Let's Stick Together - Bryan Ferry

This is just one of several covers that Bryan Ferry recorded in his solo forays outside of Roxy Music. Especially in the '70s, he favoured songs from the 1940s and 1950s, which is the decade that this rollicking little ditty was written by Wilbert Harrison, who had a #1 hit in 1959 with the song "Kansas City." This is one of those tunes that will dare you to sit still as you will find yourself tapping a foot or shaking a booty without much prompting. John Wetton, later of Asia, lays down a groovy bass line, augmented by Paul Thompson and his workmanlike shuffle on the drums. Chris Spedding gets to play some tasty licks on the guitar as well, and Chris Mercer plays a killer sax solo to polish things off. Once again, as in most projects Ferry is involved in, it is his suave and debonair delivery that puts the icing on the cake. "Well if you're stuck for a while consider our child. How can it be happy without its ma and pappy? Let's stick together, cmon cmon let's stick together. You know we made a vow not to leave one another never." Ahhh, wedded bliss!

6. Pissing In A River - The Patti Smith Group

Here come the punks! The high-poetess of punk, Patti Smith, ably aided and abetted by her guitarist sidekick, Lenny Kaye, wants to change the musical landscape. This song is not so much punk as it is a forerunner of the emo movement in the '90s with its emotive pleas and confessional, soul-baring lyrics. I used to read an obscure music magazine out of New York City called Rock Scene which covered the embryonic punk scene spewing forth out of clubs like CBGB's, Max's Kansas City and The Bottom Line. This is where I first read about Patti Smith, The Ramones, Talking Heads and Blondie. Patti's first album, Horses, was hailed as a breakthrough in music at the time, but it completely passed me by. I still don't like it all that much and I prefer her next 3 records a whole bunch more. This song is from her 2nd album called Radio Ethiopia. It was co-written with her bassist Ivan Kral, partly in the hope that it would provide a commercial breakthrough for the band, but it was only a cult hit with minimal radio airplay. It got much more attention in 1980 when it was put on the soundtrack to the movie Times Square. "Should I pursue a path so twisted ? Should I crawl defeated and gifted ?" Take note, Jim Morrison.

5. Love Of The Common Man - Todd Rundgren

Melody, melody, melody! As you may have surmised by now, Todd is a big fave of mine. His sense of melody is second to none, and this song bashes that melody right down the listener's throat. The album this is from, Faithful, was a very brave idea. On side 1 of the LP, he recreated almost note for note covers of some very epic songs like Brian Wilson's Good Vibrations. On side 2, he returned to his poppier roots and filled it with catchy tunes like this one. Some would say it is Todd-by-numbers, but I think he was taking the progressive elements he had learned working with Utopia and applying it to his solo work. This features a sublime double-tracked lead guitar run, reminding people that he was and always will be, first and foremost, a guitar player. His vocal is earnest and, as usual, very soulful. This is another singalong-fest for yours truly and one of my top songs by him. "Take a dive from your ivory tower and fall on everyone. We'll catch you, everyone." If it's me they're catching, there better be at least a football player or 2 in the crowd!

4. Something About You - Boston

If you were alive and into rock music in 1976, then you probably owned a copy of this album. It crossed all barriers - rockers liked it, boys liked it, girls liked it - I don't know too many people who didn't like it. The guitar sound and layered harmony seemed to do the trick. It was a new sound at the time, obviously augmented by a truckload of studio trickery such as overdub upon overdub. While More Than A Feeling was the big hit, and a great song, this one was always the one that did it for me. The slow beginning and then, bam! The band comes barging in with their signature guitars and Brad Delp's clear, forceful tenor guides us on the way. This is his best vocal on any song in my opinion and the guy was just a really gifted singer. Martina's brother Karel had quite an infatuation with these guys that lasts until this day and he need not explain why. It's all there in the music. "It isn't easy to show what I'm feeling inside, girl. It isn't easy, I know, when you believe in a man like me." Boston was definitely better than Chicago at that time!

3. Silver, Blue And Gold - Bad Company

This song is one that has one of the most gorgeous melodies these ears have ever had the pleasure to hear. Paul Rodgers, one of the best front men ever, that's right, ever, is a dual threat here with his usual stellar vocals and some beautiful piano playing, especially on the intro. This is taken from the Run With The Pack album and is probably my favourite song they ever did. It was never released as a single, leaving me to question what the powers that be at Swan Song records were thinking. This should have been a monster smash, but we'll never know, will we? The band lays it down in typical sturdy Bad Company fashion, but this is all about Paul Rodgers folks. This chorus will have you singing along, or you must be deaf. "Give me silver, blue and gold, the colour of the sky I'm told. My rainbow is overdue." No, this is not the Burl Ives song from the Rudolph Christmas thingy!

2. Don't Take Me Alive - Steely Dan

This song appears on the album The Royal Scam, which was a pretty rockin' album by Steely standards. There is a lot of guitar on this record and the above song is probably the most blatant example of this. Jazz great Larry Carlton is let loose on here, all sinew and growl. I don't know his solo work at all, but I find it hard to believe he ever played a more menacing lead part than this one. The guitar, when it isn't soloing, just hovers and lurks around this tune, waiting to pounce at any moment. Since Becker and Fagen were noted for being extremely picky about sounds, Carlton was likely exhausted at the end of this take, but it was well worth the effort. Session giant Rick Marotta provides some all-star drumming as well, crisply and deftly navigating the many nuances that were always ingrained in Steely Dan's writing. Oh yeah, Don Fagen's vocals are top drawer as per usual and the lyrics are pretty cool too. "Agents of the law, luckless pedestrian, I know you're out there with rage in your eyes and your megaphones." Come out with your hands up!

1. Station To Station - David Bowie

In my eyes and ears, this is Bowie's opus, his New World Symphony, his Romeo and Juliet. It clocks in at just over 10 minutes and it has tempo changes aplenty to boot. The playing by his band is impeccable, led by the killer rhythm section of bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis, who lay down the opening half's backbeat like finely tuned machines. Speaking of machines, Bowie expanded his use of synths on this record, having been heavily influenced by the Krautrock sounds of Kraftwerk and Can. Bowie was playing another character here, the Thin White Duke, aptly named because he had become quite pale and bone-thin from his elephant-like cocaine habit. He has said he has zero recollection of the recording sessions for this record, once remarking, "I know it was recorded in L.A. because I've read it was." In the faster part of the song, it is E-Street Band pianist Roy Bittan who carries things with his rolling barroom piano, ably aided by new guitarist Earl Slick and his nimble, noisy soloing. I think this is the most creative piece of music he ever did, and maybe his best. "It's not the side effects of the cocaine. I'm thinking that it must be love." How would you know, Dave?