Curtis Mayfield - Right On for the Darkness (G)
Again, I know I'm swimming against the tide here, but Curtis Mayfield stopped being any more than a passing interest for me once he went solo. He made some really wonderful singles with the Impressions, but this one - and the shocker that won the best of the 70s poll - leave me cold. 3/10
Iggy & the Stooges - Search and Destroy (adam)
Yeah, this is pretty good, probably the best track on the first Stooges album to escape from the sludgy tarpits production that makes their first two such a chore to listen to. 6/10
Anne Peebles - I Can't Stand the Rain (freap)
A wonderful single: to my mind, the last great true soul single from a proper churchy singer 8/10
Marvin Gaye - Trouble Man (davey)
Marvin Gaye - Let's Get it On (hatz)
Talking of soul...my introduction to BCB came when Steph replied to one of my essays on The Refuge about the ruination of soul in the Seventies when three fine soul singers of the 1960s discovered drugs and self-importance around the end of the decade and produced a load of self-indulgent swill and/or soulless funkery. I still think that way today, although I'm not emotionaly involved in it before, but Marvin was one of the three. From fantastic, joyous, life-affirming singles such as Grapevine, Witness, How Sweet, Pride and Joy, Wonderful One and Ain't that Peculiar to the rambling, mumbling, formless funk-lite sludge of Let's Get It On was quite the tail-off. I get it how those of you who didn't grow up with 60s Marvin, and who are actual musicians, might respond positively to this changed direction, but I did, and I don't. No marks
The Isley Brothers - That Lady (Fange)
I wasn't immune to the new Isley with their hendrix-emulating relative joining the band: the first two albums with Ernie were often on the player in our trip-dens in Faversham, and I liked it fine. I haven't listened to either of them since the mid-Seventies, though, felt they were very much of their time - whereas Shout, Twist and Shout (yeah, I went there - The Scrotals version of this song and the covers on the first album, were what turned me off them), and This Old Heart of Mine transcended theirs. 5/10
Roxy Music - Mother of Pearl (goatboy)
MoP for me was the best Roxy album song that wasn't on For Your Pleasure. My memories of it are entangeld with my life in 1973, which wasn't that great, tbh. I had hardly any money - no income at all in fact for a good four months of it. But MOP was a bright spot. (7/10)
David Bowie - Time (DF)
I thought Ziggy was great, and I bought Aladdin Sane as soon as it came out, listened to it a few times, then realized it was actually rather ugly and was giving me migraines. I don't remember this track, don't want to flirt with headaches by listening to it, so no mark.
Lou Reed - Caroline Says II (dayo)
Berlin was another album that was big with me at the time, but that I can't imagine listening to now. It was something to be admired for its precise engineering rather than listened to for entertainment. That said, this is probably the warmest song on it. 5/10
John Cale - The Endless Plain of Fortune (osgood)
Paris 1919 was another album that I owned, although I didn't buy it until later in the decade. This stately track isn't my favourite from the album - that would probably, given my liking for Dylan Thomas, be A Child's Christmas, but I enjoy it fine 6/10
New York Dolls - Personality Crisis (riggers)
My preference would be for Jet Boy, my favourite Dolls track overall, but no arguments with this one either 7/10
Stevie Wonder - Living for the City (JSJ)
Stevie Wonder was another of the Soul traitors I mentioned above. He didn't make me as angry as Marvin or James, but I found the grown-up version of Little Stevie horribly dull and worthy compared with the fizz and spriteliness some of his 60s singles, and even the 12Year-Old Genius album, which I bought on the Oriole label, one of the first ten albums I acquired. Harmonicas over keyboards every time. 3/10
Wizzard - See My Baby Jive (ray)
Took over from Shaking All Over as the best British single ever and held the title until the release of Anarchy in the UK. 9/10