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Song of the Day #1,423: ‘Kitty’s Back’ – Bruce Springsteen

Best Albums of the 70s – #10
The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle – Bruce Springsteen (1973)

With one or two exceptions, I didn’t hear any of the albums on this list during the actual 70s. I discovered them mostly in the 80s and 90s, as I became a bigger music fan and dug through bins at used record stores to find CDs I’d read were important.

So in most cases, while I haven’t known these records since they were released, I have lived with them for 20-30 years.

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Song of the Day #1,422: ‘It Wasn’t Me’ – Jenny Lewis

The Random iTunes Fairy chose an interesting pair of songs this weekend. While yesterday’s track showcased the importance of the single, today’s selection is all about the deep cut.

The final track on Jenny Lewis’ 2005 album Rabbit-Fur Coat, ‘It Wasn’t Me’ is in no danger of winding up on the radio. But it’s a lovely little closing track, one that deserves to be heard. It’s the antithesis of a song like The Corrs’ ‘Breathless’ that was born to wind up on one of those NOW compilations.

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Song of the Day #1,421: ‘Breathless’ – The Corrs

To some degree, I have embraced the era of the single. While I still consider myself an “album guy” and wouldn’t consider not buying the latest album by any of my favorite artists, I have warmed up to the idea of owning individual songs.

This flies in the face of my vehement anti-‘greatest hits’ stance, because what is a collection of unrelated songs by a single artist if not a greatest hits collection? But my objection to those records has always been that they rob a listener of the deep album cuts that are often even better than the hits. I guess I’ve finally gotten around to acknowledging that sometimes (with some artists) the hits are all you need.

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Song of the Day #1,420: ‘His Friends are More than Fond of Robin’ – Carly Simon

Best Albums of the 70s – #11
No Secrets – Carly Simon (1972)

Here’s an album I’ve been listening to, quite literally, since I was born.

Carly Simon’s No Secrets was released in the fall of 1972, a few months before I entered the world. And while I’m not sure my parents were the sort to buy a record on or around its release date, I’m not going to nitpick.

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Song of the Day #1,419: ‘Don’t Do Me Like That’ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Best Albums of the 70s – #12
Damn the Torpedoes – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1979)

Few artists can put out an album on which every song sounds like a billboard hit (whether it was or not). Tom Petty has done it twice.

I ranked his Full Moon Fever high on my 80s list, but a decade earlier he pulled off the same feat on Damn the Torpedoes, his third album with The Heartbreakers.

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