Urban75 Album of the Year - 1977

[killer b]

Mine were:
1) Zamla Mammaz Manna - För äldre nybegynnare
2) Ornette Coleman - Dancing in Your Head
3) Univers Zero - 1313
4) Throbbing Gristle - 2nd Annual Report
5) Donna Summer - I Remember Yesterday
6) Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
7) The Congos - Heart of the Congos
8) Embryo - Apo Calypso
9) K Frimpong & His Cubano Fiestas - s/t
10) Residents - Fingerprince

finally, the obscurantist arrives on the thread.

(I will check the ones I don't know out later...)

 

[belboid]

finally, the obscurantist arrives on the thread.

(I will check the ones I don't know out later...)

Multi-ethnic - check
Multi-gendered - check
At least three genres - check
One of them genuinely popular - check
One ('progressive circus music') sounding made up - check

We have a winner!

Oh, except it looks like Zamla Mammaz Manna was actually 1978

 

[Knotted]

Multi-ethnic - check
Multi-gendered - check
At least three genres - check
One of them genuinely popular - check
One ('progressive circus music') sounding made up - check

We have a winner!

Actually I didn't do well on the multi-gendered score. Just Donna and Cosi in all that.

 

[Knotted]

Oh, except it looks like Zamla Mammaz Manna was actually 1978

I thought it was 78 as well but Discogs says 77.

 

[belboid]

Actually I didn't do well on the multi-gendered score. Just Donna and Cosi in all that.

better than anyone else, I'm fairly sure.

I thought it was 78 as well but Discogs says 77.

I would say I'll let you off then. But I'm listening to it now.....kinda reminds me of a drug free Gong covering Kurt Weill.

 

[butchersapron]

better than anyone else, I'm fairly sure.

I would say I'll let you off then. But I'm listening to it now.....kinda reminds me of a drug free Gong covering Kurt Weill.

danny - is that suicide pact offer still on?

 

[Chilli.s]

Well done belboid, good work.

 

[Sea Star]

View attachment 115503

I was 8 years old in 1977, so the Muppets LP is the only one I would have actually listened to at the time. In fact I absolutely caned it on a dansette we had. It's one of those albums that I know the length of the gaps between the tracks, as much as the tracks themselves.

It is a pretty weird album. "The Great Gonzo Eats A Rubber Tyre To The Flight Of The Bumble Bee" is just what it says and there is a good argument that Bowie's "Warszawa" has the compositional edge here.

But showtunes like "Mr Bassman" and "Simon Smith And His Amazing Dancing Bear" never fail to put a smile on my face.

Protip: The second LP is even better.

I had that album. Might have been my first ever LP. Me and my sister used to re-enact all of it, including the dialogue, sitting in the back of the car while driving across Dartmoor on Sunday afternoons. Shortly after that though we started listening to the charts instead - sometime towards end of 1978 I think.

 

[Sea Star]

11 Suicide - Suicide

An instant pop classic replete with songs of love, joy and dancing barefoot on the grass. Or possibly not.

Damn! Forgot to put this in my list.

 

[Sea Star]

13 Talking Heads: 77

Not in the top ten? Qu'est-ce que c'est?

it's my least favourite of their early albums, so not too bothered by it's low placing.

 

[Sea Star]

1 David Bowie - Low

It's good to know that we do actually know what the best Bowie album (of 1977) is. Who can blame Jasmine for peeping?

ah good - I don't have to smash the place up now


But where was Before and After Science?


It's a shame I never had more time to research my list before I put it in - just find it really hard to remember which albums were actually in 1977. A lot of records I thought were turned out not to have been.

 

[isvicthere?]

Low, Heroes, Clash first album, Never Mind the Bollocks.

Also, possibly a neglected one: New Boots and Panties.

 

[Sea Star]

Low, Heroes, Clash first album, Never Mind the Bollocks.

Also, possibly a neglected one: New Boots and Panties.

I only got a copy of that this year and must admit, it's not doing it for me, even though I loved Ian Dury in the day.

 

[belboid]

But where was Before and After Science?

Not far off, one extra persons vote would have quite possibly pushed it into the list - although there were a lot of albums for which the same could be said.

 

[Knotted]

Multi-ethnic - check
Multi-gendered - check
At least three genres - check
One of them genuinely popular - check
One ('progressive circus music') sounding made up - check

One German latin jazz-funk - check

There are treats in there.

Actually there should have been some Brazillian jazz/funk. It's just a matter of matching up the year. Eg. not a great year for Flora Purim, but surely there will be others.

 

[Knotted]

Listening to Hermeto Pascoal's Slaves Mass right now for the first time. It's amazing. I'm sure I haven't heard my favourite album from 1977 yet. It's the reason I rarely do these polls.

 

[Sea Star]

Listening to Hermeto Pascoal's Slaves Mass right now for the first time. It's amazing. I'm sure I haven't heard my favourite album from 1977 yet. It's the reason I rarely do these polls.

I see it as a snapshot in time. My list will be different in 5 years time if I'm still here.

 

[planetgeli]

1) Never Mind the Bollocks - Sex Pistols
2) Live P-Funk Earth Tour - Parliament
3) Lust for Life - Iggy Pop
4) Exodus - Bob Marley
5) Damned Damned Damned - The Damned
6) Clash - The Clash
7) Pink Flag - Wire
8) Ah The Name Is Bootsy Baby - Bootsy Collins
9) 77 - Talking Heads
10) Live - Burning Spear

 

[Knotted]

I see it as a snapshot in time. My list will be different in 5 years time if I'm still here.

My list will be different in 5 days if I keep researching it. It's just a matter of finding the time to do the research properly. It's such a vast question.

 

[killer b]

Yeah, my actual list would probably be quite different. I've no idea when lots of my favourite albums were released.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Multi-ethnic - check
Multi-gendered - check
At least three genres - check
One of them genuinely popular - check
One ('progressive circus music') sounding made up - check

This is all true of the Muppet Show LP as well though.

 

[andysays]

1. Miles Davis - Dark Magus
2. The Clash - The Clash
3. David Bowie - Low
4. Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
5. Suicide - Suicide
6. Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
7. Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Blank Generation
8. Wire - Pink Flag
9. Talking Heads - 77
10. Ornette Coleman - Dancing in your Head

Only two of those failed to make the top 25, so I guess my choices are pretty mainstream in Urban terms

 

[Casual Observer]

All good fun Belboid. Thanks for doing this. That said, 20 posters are now on 'ignore'.

 

[danny la rouge]

That said, 20 posters are now on 'ignore

 

[editor]

Great work belboid

 

[danny la rouge]

I guess my choices are pretty mainstream in Urban terms

This is a thing, though, isn't it? I have friends who think my tastes in music are way out obscure, but they're pretty vanilla in Urban terms.

 

[andysays]

This is a thing, though, isn't it? I have friends who think my tastes in music are way out obscure, but they're pretty vanilla in Urban terms.

Yeah, there's a fair amount of stuff mentioned on this thread which I've never heard, so it will be interesting to seek it out and have a listen.

 

[Dr. Furface]

I'm surprised by Kraftwerk being so high...massively influential and groundbreaking, but to listen start to finish as an lp, less fun I think.

Funny you should say that, because more than any other album from 77 it's the one that I'm most likely to listen to from start to finish, which as much as anything is why I gave it the nod over the two Bowie albums - just. Apart from my top 10 there were so many other records I loved that year, including those by John Martyn, Tom Waits, Steely Dan and Weather Report, but they weren't representative of what that year was all about for me.

As for the Sex Pistols album, I never considered that because when it came out I already had the singles, and it felt like a con (or a rock n roll swindle, if you like) that they were all on the album, so I never bought it. The singles are the best thing on it anyway, and for me it just doesn't work as an album.

1 Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
2 Bowie - Low
3 Bowie - Heroes
4 Iggy - The Idiot
5 Suicide
6 Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation
7 Talking Heads: 77
8 The Clash
9 Television - Marquee Moon
10 Mink DeVille - Cabretta

 

[belboid]

Just been listening to all the Fela Kuti albums mentioned. Fucking hell, but they're good.

I also discovered there was a Fela! musical on broadway, which seems, well, why not.

 

[danny la rouge]

Just been listening to all the Fela Kuti albums mentioned. Fucking hell, but they're good.

I also discovered there was a Fela! musical on broadway, which seems, well, why not.

There's a decent documentary about it (and via it, him) on Netflix.