Imagine you live in a world where the preferred venue for seeing music is in an arena. Now imagine the popular bands consist of the ones listed below. Bummer huh? It really happened and some people have the black concert t-shirts to prove it. It took a bunch of punks from the U.K. along with their U.S. counterparts to snap us back to our senses. Of course, this is just our opinion. Now go get some perspective with this week’s YouTube Tuesday selections and don’t forget to wave a lighter while swaying to the jams.
- Doobie Brothers – Listen to the Music
- The Eagles – Hotel California
- Journey – Don’t Stop Believing
- Kansas – Carry on Wayward Son
- Styx – Come Sail Away
- Boston – More Than a Feeling
- Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick
- Fleetwood Mac – You Make Loving Fun
- Sammy Hagar – I Can’t Drive 55
It’s like when my wife finds something in the refrigerator that has gone bad and smells terrible and offers it it up for me to smell so I can confirm that it does in fact smell bad enough to make you sick. I wish she wouldn’t do that.
Gah!
But what I would’nt have done to have seen “Stranglehold” or “Frankenstein” live back in the day. With my feathered main blowing in the wind and a lid of dirtweed in my pocket.
Add Heart, Supertramp, ELO, Joe Walsh/James Gang. Weird that you should bring this genre up. Last week, I put on a series of album sides for my 13 year old (approximately how old I was when some of this stuff came out…) that included Kansas (“Carry On…” always kicks my ass) and Boston. She loved it. It’s hard to lump it all together as “corporate arena crap”, as there were some really good songs mixed in. Seeing as this was also the Disco era, to be into arena rock was the alternative, and way cooler to us (took a little while to “discover” the artier side, Genesis, King Crimson, Yes, Rush, etc., but that’s another group of songs for another week, maybe). Then, as you said, punk/new wave arrived and everything changed for a lot of us. I’ve never stopped liking “More Than a Feeling”, though, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
You gotta admit…you just don’t see facial hair like that any more. Those mustaches — holy cow!
Anytime we mention the “disco era”, punk was already happening and we just hadn’t heard of it yet. Therfore none of these arena rock records could be considered credible “alternatives” to disco in any modern sense of the word. Most people listened to these records in their basements well into the late ’70’s and were missing out on punk and other scenes. And some people still are. Not trying to piss anyone off, I listened to 2112 when I could have had the Ramones. I just want to help clarify any misconceptions of history.
Well Brad, when I say “punk arrived”, it was a personal historical reference, as it arrived in central Maine a bit later than, say, NYC or L.A.. In ’76, you would have been hard-pressed anywhere in rural America to find a “punk” or punk rock at the local record shop, so Boston (and for older kids, Zeppelin, Sabbath, etc.) was the alternative to disco, straight up. I ultimately got a lot of my music references from Skateboarder Mag and then Action Now, so when Olson, DP, Jay-Boy, etc. “became” punks, I took notice. I picked up The Clash’s first album a bit late, but it didn’t take me long to catch up. Sex Pistols, Ramones, etc. followed shortly thereafter and I was compelled to learn to play the drums (no drummer jokes, please). Anyway, of course, scenes are happening in the cities that eventually spread, but everyone picks them up in their own time. No misconceptions of history here, I’m well-versed. I still like “More Than a Feeling” and “I’m So Bored With the USA”.
We should add Bad Religion’s “Into the Unknown” album to this list of arena rock…I just played it and it is absolutely unbelievable that they released this in 1983.