It’s been nearly six months since my last installment of the Decades series, wherein I feature notable albums from the years 1970 through 2009.
So far I’ve covered the first six years of each of those decades, so I’m more than halfway there. Over the next few weeks, I’ll set my sights on the year 1976.
As usual, I’ll count down my own favorite albums from the year before turning to ones I don’t know well or at all.
Finding five personal favorites from 1976 was difficult. My library of 70s albums isn’t large outside of the major artists. In fact, my 1976 music knowledge is so thin that I’m starting this list with an album I don’t really like much at all.
#5 – Hotel California – Eagles
My feelings about this album are well documented on the blog. At one point I was anti-Eagles in general solely because of Hotel California. Then I came to love a lot of the band’s early work, but my opinion of this one never really changed.
This album has eight tracks (excluding an instrumental reprise), and three of them (‘New Kid in Town,’ ‘Life in the Fast Lane,’ and ‘Victim of Love’) I just don’t enjoy at all.
Two others (‘Try and Love Again’ and ‘Pretty Maids All in a Row’) are forgettable. Those are the two vocal contributions by found member Randy Meisner and new Eagle Joe Walsh, respectively. ‘Wasted Time’ is only slightly better.
Then there’s the title track, which is an undeniable classic rock song, one of the signature tunes of its era, and the main reason this album has sold more than 32 million copies worldwide. I can’t sit here and say ‘Hotel California’ isn’t a good song. Sure it is. But I’ve always resisted it for some reason.
That leaves the closing track, ‘The Last Resort,’ which is brilliant and gorgeous, one of the band’s best.
So in a year where I could scrape together only four albums I really like, Hotel California can thank ‘The Last Resort’ for earning it a spot at #5.
Well, baby, there you stand
With your little head down in your hand
Oh, my God, you can’t believe
It’s happening again
Your baby’s gone, and you’re all alone
And it looks like the end
[Verse 2]
And you’re back out on the street
And you’re trying to remember, oh
How do you start it over?
You don’t know if you can
You don’t care much for a stranger’s touch
But you can’t hold your man
[Chorus 1]
You never thought you’d be alone
This far down the line
And I know what’s been on your mind
You’re afraid it’s all been wasted time
[Verse 3]
The autumn leaves have got you thinking
About the first time that you fell, fell
You didn’t love the boy too much
No, no, you just
Loved the boy too well
Farewell
[Verse 4]
So you live from day to day
And you dream about tomorrow, oh
And the hours go by like minutes
And the shadows come to stay
So you take a little something
To let them go away
[Chorus 2]
And I could’ve done so many things, baby
If I could only stop my mind
From wonderin’ what I left behind
And from worryin’ ’bout this wasted time
[Verse 5]
(Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh)
Another love has come and gone
(Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh)
And the years keep rushing on
I remember what you told me
Before you went out on your own
“Sometimes to keep it together
We’ve got to leave it alone”
[Chorus 3]
So you can get on with your search, baby
And I can get on with mine
And maybe someday we will find
That it wasn’t really wasted time
Meet Me In Montauk 
My feelings about this album, as well as my feelings about your feelings about this album, are also well-documented.🤪
“Wasted Time” is a great song as is “The Last Resort” – both (primarily) written and sung by my favorite Eagle, Don Henley.
Anyway, I always enjoy your decades series, so I look forward to seeing what other gems from 1976, one of the first years I was quite invested in music, you will unearth.
It’s interesting to look back at a list of albums released in 1976 – it was indeed a rather fallow year for popular music, with a very few notable exceptions. I think I can figure out which will be #1, as it’s probably one of the top albums of all time – a double album to boot (with an additional 45 included, if memory serves me right!). Contrast this with 1977, which was the breakout year for punk and new wave. Looking forward to seeing what you have on your list! And yes, I never took the time to really listen to Hotel California. The Eagles were a single band in my estimation…I think Desperado was their only album I liked as a whole. – Reb
I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you and have that double album lower on this list (assuming it’s the one I think you mean). 🙂
Hey, to each his own!🎧
I admit to being an Eagles fan. But outside of the title track, for me, nothing else matches the greatness of their first 4 albums. I definitely disagree about 1976 being a “fallow” year for music. My own Top 15 for 1976 is as follows:
Stevie Wonder – Songs In The Key Of Life
Jackson Browne – The Pretender
Boz Scaggs – Silk Degrees
Linda Ronstadt – Hasten Down The Wind
Eagles – Hotel California
Wings – Wings Over America
Steve Miller Band – Fly Like An Eagle
Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes – I Don’t Wanna Go Home
Crosby & Nash – Whistling Down The Wire
Electric Light Orchestra – A New World Record
Boston – Boston
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
John David Souther, Black Rose
Warren Zevon – Warren Zevon
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – Night Moves
I could easily list 50 albums from 1976 that I wouldn’t give up from my collection. . . Wendy Waldman’s, ‘The Main Refrain,’ Steely Dan’s ‘The Royal Scam,’ Aerosmith’s ‘Rocks,’ and George Benson’s Breezin’ come immediately to mind.