Van Morrison sist at #3 on my list of the best albums of 1970 with his third release, Moondance. This record could easily claim the #1 position but I have a soft spot for the two albums still to come.
The folk, soul and R&B sounds on this album, paired with Morrison’s unique vocals, put it in a class all its own. I can’t say that I reach for Moondance on a regular basis, but every time I hear it I wonder why I ever bother listening to anything else.
My fourth favorite album from 1970 is the final record by Simon & garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water. I’ve already featured five of this album’s 11 songs on the blog so clearly it hits a nerve.
This record was a smash hit for the duo. In fact, for the decade before the release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1982, this was the best-selling album of all time. But Simon and Garfunkel has already decided to part ways. The front cover, with Simon partially obscuring Garfunkel’s face, was perhaps unintentionally symbolic of the dynamic between them.
Last year I started a new ‘Decades’ series by focusing on my birth year, 1972, then 1982, 1992 and 2002, counting down my own favorite albums from each of those years and then 10-15 unfamiliar (to me) albums that received acclaim at the time.
I’m doing the same thing again, backing up a couple of years and focusing on 1970, ’80, ’90 and ’00. The next several weeks will be dedicated to 1970.
Yesterday we got our second random Barenaked Ladies song in a week and today we get our second R.E.M. song in two weeks.
In the previous post, I described the band’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi — the last album to feature drummer Bill Berry — as their swan song. Indeed, they were never the same and never as good after that record.
Last Saturday the Random iTunes Fairy served up a Barenaked Ladies song and exactly a week later she’s at it again. The previous track was from the band’s debut album, Gordon, while this one is from their antepenultimate record, Everything to Everyone.
I’m just happy I get to use the word antepenultimate, which means third from last.
Meet Me In Montauk 