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Song of the Day #6,501: ‘Someone to Lay Down Beside Me’ – Karla Bonoff

Continuing my look at the albums of 1977…

I have commenter RussParis to thank for today’s selection. He offered up his own list of favorite 1977 albums, naming several I’ve covered here and others I considered and at least one name that was completely new to me — Karla Bonoff. I promptly gave the album a listen and discovered what may well be a new favorite.

Bonoff is a singer-songwriter best known for songs of hers that other people recorded. Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Lynn Anderson, and Wynona Judd have all had hits with her tunes.

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Song of the Day #6,500: ‘The Passenger’ – Iggy Pop

Continuing my look at the albums of 1977…

David Bowie had a hell of a 1977. He released the first two albums in his “Berlin trilogy,” Low and “Heroes”, experimenting with electronic music and becoming heavily influenced by German bands such as Kraftwerk. I covered both of those records in my Bowie deep dive (and I’m not a huge fan of either) so I’m not featuring them here.

By Bowie’s side throughout that period was Iggy Pop, the American punk artist he befriended years earlier. The two men lived together in Berlin while trying to kick their respective drug habits, and Bowie played a major role in the writing and recording of Pop’s first solo album, The Idiot.

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Song of the Day #6,499: ‘I Love You’ – Donna Summer

Continuing my look at the albums of 1977…

The Bee Gees’ contributions to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack marked the high point for the disco era, but the Queen of Disco also made a mark in 1977. Donna Summer released two records that year, both ambitious concept albums.

The second of those, Once Upon a Time…, is a double album chronicling the fate of a young woman who heads to the big city to find success and love, only to fall on hard times before eventually meeting her Prince Charming.

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Song of the Day #6,498: ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’ – Sex Pistols

Continuing my look at the albums of 1977…

What Kraftwerk did for electronic music, the Sex Pistols did for punk. Though the English band lasted just two and a half years and released only one studio album, they are considered the godfathers of the punk movement in the UK and beyond.

That album was 1977’s Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols, an unlikely chart-topping hit in the United Kingdom. That success came despite the album being banned by major retailers and having to make up the slack through sales in independent stores. Exactly as it should be, I suppose.

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Song of the Day #6,497: ‘Trans-Europe Express’ – Kraftwerk

Now that I’ve counted down my favorite 1977 albums, the time has come for me to highlight other albums from the year with which I’m less familiar.

Having now listened to a bunch of 1977’s most notable albums, I’m confident that my personal top ten is a great representation of the year’s best music (according to my taste, anyway). If you’re a fan of punk or electronic music, you probably feel different. Still, I did manage to hear a few new gems.

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