Just can't seem to get into 70's hard rock...

[Faron]

Essential ones as far as I am concerned (in alphabetical order):

 

Boston - Boston

Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue

Foreigner - Double Vision

Kansas - Point of Know Return

Le Roux - Up

Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell

Pavlov's Dog Pampered Menial

 

Some of my personal favourites there

[Swazi]

Essential ones as far as I am concerned (in alphabetical order):

 

Boston - Boston

Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue

Foreigner - Double Vision

Kansas - Point of Know Return

Le Roux - Up

Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell

Pavlov's Dog Pampered Menial

 

Some of my personal favourites there

 

Good taste, mate !!

[Nick C]

Overall I find 70s rock to be somewhat pretentious (mostly the Brit bands), and the sound seems lacking (mostly due to the lack of technology back then, so production values were shit).

Agree 100%

 

 

Nah! Not sure about that, I think the work that went into production then was a lot more involved and thought out in many cases. Any fool these days (except me) can prat around on a PC and make something sound half decent. It was a lot more complicated then trying to make things sound good, how many stories have you read about band singing on stairwells or whatever to get "that" sound, now it's done with a filter, it's artificial.

Plus these days a lot of what I hear sounds too clean, sparkly and pristine and bland(ish).

It's like comparing two pieces of furniture, one from Ikea with nice clean lines, nicely polished, mass produced,everyone has one - ultimately a bit boring and one that's been specially hand made and has it's own uniqueness and a little character about it. I'm afraid that's how a lot of the music that I hear lately (not all by any means but seeing as we're painting everything from the 70's with the same brush I will in this case also) sounds nice...but pretty characterless, at least in the 70's if you heard a band and didn't know who it was you maybe could make a decent guess at the artist.

Maybe that's why when Tesla brought out their covers CD recorded on an analog system everyone was saying how great it sounded....No Machines! .

[rickinmd]

when i was growing up in the 70's it was BTO and Bad Company that were my faves.

I would vote for: BTO-Not Fragile and Bad Co s/t or Run with the pack as a couple of the best discs of that era.

honorable mention for Artful Dodger s/t... anyone remember them?

[Jez]

Overall I find 70s rock to be somewhat pretentious (mostly the Brit bands), and the sound seems lacking (mostly due to the lack of technology back then, so production values were shit).

Agree 100%

 

 

Nah! Not sure about that, I think the work that went into production then was a lot more involved and thought out in many cases. Any fool these days (except me) can prat around on a PC and make something sound half decent. It was a lot more complicated then trying to make things sound good, how many stories have you read about band singing on stairwells or whatever to get "that" sound, now it's done with a filter, it's artificial.

Plus these days a lot of what I hear sounds too clean, sparkly and pristine and bland(ish).

It's like comparing two pieces of furniture, one from Ikea with nice clean lines, nicely polished, mass produced,everyone has one - ultimately a bit boring and one that's been specially hand made and has it's own uniqueness and a little character about it. I'm afraid that's how a lot of the music that I hear lately (not all by any means but seeing as we're painting everything from the 70's with the same brush I will in this case also) sounds nice...but pretty characterless, at least in the 70's if you heard a band and didn't know who it was you maybe could make a decent guess at the artist.

Maybe that's why when Tesla brought out their covers CD recorded on an analog system everyone was saying how great it sounded....No Machines! .

 

Nicely put young man. I still can't get over the comments saying that alot of the mid 70's/ early 80's stuff sounds sounds badly produced, when quite clearly it wasn't. As you quite rightly say, alot of the stuff from the late 80's onwards sounds very clinical (especially some mid/ late 80's stuff which now sounds so tinny in comparison, with no warmth to the sound) to nowadays, where alot of stuff is, besides being too loud, so overly compressed, it has had the life squeezed out of it. You're quite correct when you say anologue was great - it had a lot of things in it's favour. How can anyone say that bands like Boston, New England, Foreigner, Kansas, Toto, Cheap Trick, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Alan Parsons Project and Journey just as a few examples (of which there are many many more in loads of different genres) sound rubbish, when they actually are better produced than even some of the stuff coming out even now.

[KING]

The 70s bands were the most original of all the eras of rock in my opinion. I mean after the 60s hippie sound which i dug. the newer bands sounded nothing like one another like todays bands.

 

You had such diverse sounding bands that became big at that time

 

STYX

BOB SEGAR

THE EAGLES

FOREIGNER

BLUE OYSTER CULT

TED NUGENT

KISS

NAZARETH

BLACK SABBATH

JOURNEY

AREOSMITH

JUDAS PRIEST

KANSAS

 

my point being all these bands became Huge in the 70s at one time or another without copying one another. today alot of the big popular bands all are un-distinctionable.

[66 mustang]

Lynyrd Skynyrd - One More From The Road is an album that is a must

[Guest Dangerous Toy]

I've been trying folks. Believe me, I've been trying. Grabbed Kiss' Dressed To Kill and Ted Nugent's debut album yesterday morning and gave both a full listen to today, but I'm still at the same bump in the road. To me, these sound like classic rock albums. Not classic hard rock albums. These discs sound about as "hard" to me as a Foreigner or Bob Seger record.

 

We're bands like Kiss, Nugent and Aerosmith even considered hard rock in the 70's or were all rock acts just considered rock bands back then without any differentiating? For now I'll just pick up where every band started dropping their vintage 70's sound for the harder edged guitar riffs and production of the 80's. Thanks for all of the input everyone. I really appreciate it, but you have to listen to what you truly enjoy, right?