Revisiting the Bicentennial Year in Music

The Bicentennial Year in Music, Revisited

1976 is now 50 years ago. I was only beginning my love affair with radio and records at that young age, but as I reviewed a list of albums released during that Bicentennial year, I was amazed at how many of these albums remain in regular rotation on not only my own personal playlists, but within pop culture itself even five decades later.

Consider that the multiplatinum hit “Chicago X” was released alongside “Takin’ it to the Streets” by the Doobie Brothers. Linda Ronstadt put out “Hasten Down the Wind,” another fine collection of songs; Barry Manilow’s best-ever effort was “This One’s for You”; Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” and “Crystal Ball” by Styx are still heard constantly on radio and streaming; “Arrival” by ABBA was truly an arrival of the best things about that band, while ELO came into their own with “A New World Record.” Finally, John Denver’s clean-living songs on “Spirit” capture a time, place, and era.

While there are many more from which to choose, here is my personal top ten submitted for your approval.  

10. SONG OF JOY (The Captain and Tennille, A&M Records) – Montgomery’s native daughter Toni Tennille really showed what she could do on this record with her husband, Daryl “the Captain” Dragon. The title track just soars, and my personal favorite single of theirs is also on this record: “Lonely Night (Angel Face),” written by Neil Sedaka. There’s also a fantastic version of Smokey Robinson’s “Shop Around,” as well as Paul Stookey’s “Wedding Song.” The Captain and Tennille were never better than on this record.

9. HOTEL CALIFORNIA (Eagles, Asylum Records) – Sure, the title track gets overplayed. But you know what? Play it in the context of this album experience and have a whole new appreciation for what it means. The Eagles had given us the sunny side up in their early years, with the laid-back California country sound of their first few records. Nobody could have foreseen where they would go with this LP: a dark meditation on the underbelly of life in Los Angeles, particularly in the entertainment world. “Life in the Fast Lane,” generated from a Joe Walsh riff, became shorthand for the drug culture of the era; “Victim of Love” was one of the hardest rocking statements the Eagles ever produced; “New Kid in Town” is the sole representation of the Eagles’ former country-rock sound; and the lush orchestration of “Wasted Time” belies the bitterness and reservation in the lyrics. A stellar record that deserves all the hype.

8. FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE! (Peter Frampton, A&M Records) – Simply put, this is one of the greatest live recordings of all time. Frampton had completed his tour of duty in several blues-rock outfits during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but had lately stepped out on his own. And boy, did he. The gatefold album cover alone is the very definition of the sexy guitar god, but the music inside features some of the most imaginative and inventive playing ever caught on tape. “Do You Feel Like We Do,” “Show Me the Way,” “It’s a Plain Shame,” and “Baby I Love Your Way” are staples of rock radio to this day, and deservedly so.

7. WANTED! THE OUTLAWS (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, et. al., RCA Records) – RCA had Willie under contract for years and never quite knew what to do with him. They had also let Jessi Colter slip away, and were about to lose Waylon Jennings and Tompall Glaser. And yet, RCA executives saw how wildly successful Willie Nelson was becoming, just by being Willie, on stark albums like Red Headed Stranger. So, RCA did what record companies do: they scoured the archives. And this time, they came up with a mighty fine platter of what makes these guys the founders of what we today call Outlaw Country. With an album cover influenced by the Old West, Dodge City and Tombstone -- and an unerring song selection – “Wanted” became the best-selling album in country music history. Songs include “Yesterday’s Wine,” “Good Hearted Woman,” “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” “Honky Tonk Heroes,” and “Me and Paul” – a virtual greatest hits of outlaw country, all in one place.

6. TURNSTILES (Billy Joel, Columbia Records) – Billy had wandered to the West Coast in the early ‘70s, and after marrying his best friend’s wife (a long story) and inheriting his new brother-in-law as a manager, got a record deal and made albums with studio bands that didn’t fully realize the New York-ness of Billy’s music. Columbia gave Billy one last shot at the big time. He returned home to New York City, used his real touring band on all the recording sessions, and came up with a classic. The Wall of Sound-influenced “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and Great American Songbook-styled “New York State of Mind” have rightfully become standards, but the album tracks have also aged well: the apocalyptic fantasy of “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” somehow sits well alongside the Caribbean jam of “All You Want to Do is Dance” and the coming-of-age tale “James.” Joel’s most beautiful melody of all time may be in the elegiac ballad “I’ve Loved These Days,” a farewell to his L.A. life. A great effort and well worth your time.

5. SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE (Stevie Wonder, Motown Records) – Stevland Morris was on quite a roll in the seventies. This winning streak continued with perhaps his greatest album, this sprawling double-LP. His boundless creativity is all over the place, from an ode to a newborn baby with “Isn’t She Lovely,” to the intense funk workout “I Wish,” to the scary synth-strings of  “Pastime Paradise,” to the Big Band horn blasts of “Sir Duke,” to the rubbery fusion of “Contusion” – this album is so good, and there is literally something for everyone.

4. HEJIRA (Joni Mitchell, Asylum Records) – There are partisans for every Joni album, because she basically reinvents herself on each one. This is my all-time favorite. It’s a travelogue of Joni as she drives across the country, coast to coast, stopping in various places and meeting interesting people, such as the dying bluesman in “Furry Sings the Blues,” or the adulterous playwright in “Coyote.” Her backing band was the cream of the jazz fusion crowd of the day, featuring members of Weather Report and Return to Forever. A simply magnificent album.

3. SILK DEGREES (Boz Scaggs, Columbia Records) – Boz had been kicking around for years, notably as a member of the Steve Miller Band. By ’76, the stars aligned for Boz and the then-unknown future members of Toto who rocketed themselves into music history: “Lido Shuffle,” “Lowdown,” “We’re All Alone,” and simply stellar album cuts make this Exhibit A for the foundation of yacht rock.

2. BOSTON (Boston, Epic Records) – As someone once wrote in Rolling Stone magazine, this album is “the sound of my older brother washing his car in the driveway.” But it’s so much more than that. MIT student and Polaroid employee Tom Scholz crafted an entire virtual band in his basement, playing all of the guitar and drum parts to create recorded multi-tracks. He invited vocalist Brad Delp to sing over the virtual band, and a group was born. There’s more to the story than that, but was there ever a better debut LP than this? “More Than a Feeling,” “Peace of Mind,” “Let Me Take You Home Tonight,” “Smokin’” – every track on the album is still on classic rock playlists, and deservedly so.

1. THE ROYAL SCAM (Steely Dan, ABC Records) – There’s no such thing as a bad Steely Dan album. By this point, the band was down to the duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, with a studio band filled with side men, all of whom were the best session players in Los Angeles. The songs themselves, however, are the darkest in all the Steely Dan discography, which is saying a lot: the mad bomber of “Don’t Take Me Alive”; the jewel-thieving attacker of “Green Earrings”; or the drug dealer of “Kid Charlemagne”. The usual skeevy cast of characters is somehow seedier than usual on this album, but that’s kind of what makes it great.


Michael Bird is an Assistant Professor of Music at Faulkner University.