Friday, May 18, 2007

Hey, man, is that freedom rock?


Through a 'friend of a friend that knows someone', I obtained the Time-Life Collection 10-disc set of 'Ultimate' 70s music. Starting from 1970, I've noticed that each proceeding year gets embarrassingly more schmaltzy and butt-rocky.

Currently, I’m knee-deep in the constipated bowels of 1976 music. I just finished listening to the disco anthem 'You Should Be Dancing', the Bee Gees’ breakthrough single that debuted Barry Gibb’s ‘castration set to melody’ signature sound. The combination of infectious rhythms, brassy horns, and high falsettos make me want to snort some blow, do burnouts in a 1970 Firebird, and contemplate the stagflative malaise of Detroit’s industrial sector.

If 1984 was ‘Morning in America’, 1976 can fairly be titled ‘Afternoon Butt Scratch’.