OK, I understand that truly random groupings will always result in clusters that appear anything but random, but it still seems weird that this series has turned into Elvis Costello Bonus Track Weekends over the past several weeks.
Nothing against Mr. Costello, who is of course one of my very favorite artists, but it’s time to give somebody else a shot! And while all of these bonus tracks are enjoyable enough, they mostly justify the fact that they were left off of his official releases.
I doubt this pick will come as a surprise to anybody, particularly given that Bob Dylan hasn’t placed another album on this list. The 70s wasn’t his most successful decade, but it produced what may well be his best album.
Blood On the Tracks is the quintessential break-up album, a poetic chronicle of a dissolving marriage that simultaneously feels deeply personal and profoundly universal.
The Wall, Pink Floyd’s two-disc concept album, came within a month of not making this list. Released in November of 1979, this nonetheless feels like a very 70s album to me.
Of course, I personally didn’t discover it until the late 80s, along with the rest of Pink Floyd’s catalog. Along with Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon and Animals, this record became the soundtrack of my high school experience.
Carole King released 10 albums in the 70s, and I couldn’t name a single song from nine of them if you put a gun to my head. Nor could I name a single song on the five albums of original material she’s recorded in the 30+ years since.
But Tapestry, her second solo record — that one I can recite by heart. As can the millions of people who have made it one of the best-selling records of all time.
It all comes back to the whistling. That plaintive but sensual whistled melody that opens the title track of Billy Joel’s The Stranger and then returns as the coda after the album’s final song. It settles you into the world of this marvelous record and prepares you for the treasures within.
