Urban75 Album of the Year 1973

[Knotted]

Yes get lost at sea and Floyd go huge. Is Head Hunters the GOAT jazz funk? Is Gentlemen really an EP? I suspect you're all not going to vote for Goodbye Yellowbrick Road, but maybe you should???

Me? I'm just the lawnmower. I'll be talking a lot about krautrock. The track and the genre.

RYM says, Rolling Stone says, NME says.

Send me a list. With the format Artist - Album (or if necessary Performer [Composer] - Album). Any length of list is fine. Best at the top. No compilations, no EP's. Live albums are fine. Archival albums are also fine but it's release date not recording date that counts. You have the rest of July to get it together.

 

[Spandex]

Kool & The Gang – Wild And Peaceful

Kool & the Gang at their funky best. Everyone knows Jungle Boogie, so here's some Hollywood Swinging:

 

[hitmouse]

Not a year I know very well beyond the obvious Stooges, but 1973's notable for probably the first openly gay (and Marxist!) country album, the self-titled Lavender Country record:

Lavender Country: Lavender Country

Patrick Haggerty was raised on a dairy farm outside Seattle before the twin shocks of the Stonewall riots and his ejection from the Peace Corps radicalized him. In 1973 he released Lavender Country, widely regarded as the first country record by an openly gay person, in an edition of 1,000. Now...

pitchfork.com

Featuring the fantastically-named Cryin' These Cocksucking Tears:

Apparently he died last year, RIP.

 

[Spandex]

Lightnin' Rod – Hustlers Convention

Jalal Mansur Nuriddin of The Lost Poets mixes poetry and funk, inventing gangster rap with his tale of two fictional hustlers, Sport and Spoon. Music from Kool & the Gang, Candido, Bernard Pretty Purdie, Johnny Pacheco, King Curtis...

 

[maomao]

 

[Knotted]

The native Greenlander contribution to the year's music. Sumé's Sumut. Anti-colonial, anti-Danish. As the film about them states, Greenlands fight for independence started with a rock band. Check out the cover:

 

[Spandex]

The O'Jays - Ship Ahoy

Funky, soulful, political, incredible. Gamble & Huff, Philadelphia International. The original Now That We Found Love (What are we gonna do... with i-it). People Keep Tellin' Me, the kind of string laden philly-soul that a few years later everyone would describe as disco. And For the Love of Money..

 

[Raheem]

(deleted cos 10 years out)

 

[ska invita]

Sly and the Familys there's a riot going on is widely regarded as a classic across music journalism land, but Fresh is absolutely equal to it... Another masterpiece in my opinion.



Headhunters though - such an amazing record - Innervisions too - three of my alltime favourite records already, havent even started looking

 

[Spandex]

Ripple - Ripple

You might know Ripple for their big Salsoul disco hit The Beat Goes On and On, but in '73 they were a funk act, and a really good one.

 

[zahir]

Neil Young - Time Fades Away

 

[Spandex]

Bohannon - Stop & Go

Hamilton Bohannon is another person best remembered for a big disco hit (Let's Start the Dance), but in '73 he'd already established himself as the band leader for Motown live shows, having backed Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Four Tops. This is his first solo album and is funky as anything. Shit, this album is so loaded with greatness I don't even know what track to post. Let's do The Pimp Walk...

 

[zahir]

Studio One Presents Burning Spear

 

[zahir]

Bobby Womack - Facts of Life

 

[zahir]

Curtis Mayfield - Back to the World

 

[zahir]

Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On

 

[Spandex]

Gong - Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible Part 1)

When I was in the 6th form at school there was a tape player in the common room (that makes it sound posh - it was a tatty prefab hut a slight distance from the rest of the school buildings to isolate the big kids from the little kids). There was a never-ending battle over the music that got played, mostly the metallers vs the hop hop kids, Metallica vs BDP. But there was this one kid who, whatever was playing, would just walk in, turn off whatever was on and put on Gong's Flying Teapot. He'd hold his ground and there was no chance of stopping him til Pete had met the pothead pixies. Over time it went from groans to cheers when he walked in. As a result I have a soft spot for this hippy space rock nonsense.

 

[zahir]

Willie Nelson - Shotgun Willie

 

[zahir]

Billy Joe Shaver - Old Five and Dimers Like Me

 

[ska invita]

Studio One Presents Burning Spear

such a seminal album

a few more JA contenders
How about:

Upsetters - Black Board Jungle

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1973 Vinyl release of "Black Board Jungle" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

"Produced by Lee Perry and Brad Osborne, often titled Black Board Jungle, the album originally released in 1973 under artist name "Upsetters 14 Dub", was pressed in only 300 copies and issued only in Jamaica. "

also this edition slightly different mixes? stereo panning? need to investigate

Upsetters - Upsetters 14 Dub Black Board Jungle

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for Upsetters 14 Dub Black Board Jungle by Upsetters. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

But not at all obscure as well known in the UK and the world as Blackboard Jungle Dub - an 80s reissue under a new title, with an adjusted tracklisting. this the 80s cover

amazing groundbreaking record IMO

 

[ska invita]

Two classic John Holts
Probably the most well know of them all in the UK? Big Trojan release

John Holt - 1000 Volts Of Holt

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1973 Vinyl release of "1000 Volts Of Holt" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

John Holt - Time Is The Master

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1973 Vinyl release of "Time Is The Master" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

 

[zahir]

Gram Parsons - GP

 

[ska invita]

One last JA one, Cedric Brooks, touring jamaican music heritage in reverential fashion - sweet record - backward looking but its a nice thing

Cedric 'Im' Brooks And The Divine Light - From Mento To Reggae To Third World Music

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1973 Vinyl release of "From Mento To Reggae To Third World Music" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

 

[Spandex]

Elia y Elizabeth - ¡Alegria!

Sunny, funky psych/folk pop from Colombia. Elia and Elizabeth are sisters who were briefly popular in Colombia at the beginning of the 70s. Elia found god and became a nun, Elizabeth became a teacher, leaving just 2 albums to be remembered by. There seems to be debate over the date of their first, self-titled album, but ¡Alegria! is definitely '73. This is just lovely stuff, that transcends time, place or genre and has become better know after a compilation came out a few years ago.

 

[zahir]

Gal Costa - India

 

[The39thStep]

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Next.

Alex started as Scotland's next Tommy Steel and finished as The Last of the Teenage Idols. Born in the Gorbals from a family with a tradition of being political and conscientious objectors . His younger brother was the guitarist in Stone the Crows who was sadly electrocuted. SAHB had an aggressive and theatrical live performance, well worth a ticket. He died at 46 from a heart attack

 

[zahir]

Dr John - In The Right Place

 

[zahir]

Etta James

 

[zahir]

Chavela Vargas - Lamento Borincano

 

[SpookyFrank]

Dr John - In The Right Place

Gives me an excuse to post this astonishing live version of the same tune: