Max Picks …songs from 1975

1975

This year was very interesting. I had a hard time with the 5th pick. You have The Who and Led Zeppelin releasing albums and with me…normally I would go with the Who but in this year…Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti won out. I think it would be hard to say that none of these belong. I like all of them of course or they would not be on here.

Born To Run broke Bruce Springsteen through to the masses after two very good to great albums but commercial failures. Columbia Records got behind this album, too much so for Bruce’s tastes, and they hit gold with it. With his face on Newsweek and Time magazine…everyone was introduced to Mr. Springsteen. In simple terms… 1975 was Springsteen’s year.

This was on the great album Blood on the Tracks. In my opinion Bob Dylan‘s best album of the seventies. When I first got this album I couldn’t quit listening to it and I really wore this song out. I could sing this song in my sleep…I know every word because it’s ingrained in my head.

This would make my top 5 Bob Dylan songs. I’ve seen Bob 8 times and the first 6 times I saw him I kept waiting for this song because with Bob you don’t know what you will get. He finally played it on the 7th time and I was surprised the next time because it was the only older song he played.

Talking to  Ron Rosenbaum, Bob Dylan once told him that he’d written “Tangled Up in Blue”, after spending a weekend immersed in Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue. 

Queen used so many overdubs that the tape was virtually transparent on Bohemian Rhapsody. All the oxide had been rubbed off. They hurriedly made a copy so they could preserve what they had already. They were working with a 24-track machine but they still had to bounce tracks. They used `180 overdubs… The song took 3 weeks to record. The song was on A Night At The Opera album.

This made a huge comeback courtesy of Waynes World in 1991. The song was written by Freddie Mercury.

Elton John owned the early to mid-seventies Billboard Charts. Even Elton said he was tired of hearing himself in America on AM radio. Philadelphia Freedom was just another #1 for Elton.

Elton had an interesting B-side on this single. The B-side was a live duet of The Beatles hit “I Saw Her Standing There” that Elton recorded with his friend John Lennon. Elton had previously sung on Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through The Night” and also released a version of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” which was written by Lennon. This song was written by Elton John and his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin.

Led Zeppelin‘s Kasmir is one of their best if not their best song. It was on the Physical Graffiti Album released in 1975. The song did not chart but is hugely popular on the radio.

The song is hypnotic to listen to. The drums are the key to this song… Jimmy Page has said this about John Bonham on Kashmir… It was what he didn’t do that made it work.

The song was written by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Bonham.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

71 thoughts on “Max Picks …songs from 1975”

  2. Elton wrote “Philadelphia Freedom” for Billie Jean King. She was captain of the Philadelphia Freedom Team Tennis team (remember when team tennis was a thing?)

    My favorite version of “Kashmir”…

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    1. You know I remember that now about Billie Jean King…I also remember they were friends.
      Who could not love that version? In 1975 can you imagine kids in a school covering this?

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    2. For years I just assumed that John/Taupin wrote a song to celebrate the Bicentennial in Philadelphia before I learned about Billie Jean King’s tennis team. I do remember that the New York team in that league was called the Sets (to rhyme with the Mets, Jets, and Nets).

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  3. One of my favorite things about humpday, your yearly pick! A good list from one of the best year’s for music, imo. ‘Philly’ is , in a crunch, my favorite Elton song and neck and neck with ‘Baker Street’ for my favorite single of that whole decade. ‘Kashmir’, yep to me their most shining moment (great comment there on what Bonham didn’t do making it great), and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’… in 2023, I’m rather sick of hearing it honestly. BUT, it was a brilliant and astoundingly different-sounding record, I bought it on 45 as soon as I could and played that thing into the ground back then. I even foreshadowed later Queen remixes I think – Ialways cranked that record at the end for the gong, which was pretty quiet on that original single. Now it sounds like they mixed it in louder. Good calls, there Max.

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    1. I appreciate that Dave!
      I try to put myself in that year again…I’m not tired of any of the songs in that mode so I can judge them fairly. It’s not the artists fault that radio has played them to death.
      This is one of the few years that was obvious and a lot of long hanging fruit.

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      1. Good songs, that was interesting background on the meaning of ‘Tangled up in Blue’. I’d wondered if that phrase meant anything. As for Jim & the Eagles…I agree. For me. But it’s MAX picks, not commentators picks. Eagles would be on MY ’75 list, Dylan not a chance but that’s my picks. You keep going with the songs that meant the most to YOU. Still, cool there were so many to debate that year…don’t think that will be the case if you get to 2015!

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      2. Wouldn’t the Eagles be on 76 more? Hotel California?
        Oh there are so many could be on there…..the next year my favorite band makes an appearance…back from 6 years broken up!
        No if I included the Eagles that means I would have to include some 80s people I don’t like…

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      3. ‘Hotel California’ was ’76 (I think of it more as ’77 since I think it came out very late in ’76) but the ‘One of these Nights’ album was ’75; I’d probably go for ‘Take it to the Limit’ from that , but again, it’s your list! There is no right or wrong since it’s your choices, not anyone else’s

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      4. Yea…like I said…the 80s will bring a lot of questions. New Beatles song…I love it…the mix doesn’t sound modern…it sounds like them.

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    1. There is a problem in that though Jim…I never liked them…and yea I’m REALLY going to hear that in 76! I only enter ones I like…it should be named Max’s favorites of that year. In the 80s I will really catch hell on omited artists.
      Funny thing though…I liked Don Henley’s solo career…it makes no sense.

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      1. I’m happy with you leaving off the Eagles (and also that you left the Eagles Lite (America) off in 1971, the year of “Horse With No Name”). I actually forgot that I’d seen the Eagles. When I looked up the date of Rufus opening for the Stones (1975), I discovered that the Eagles were on the same bill. I have no memory of that.

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      2. I woud love to say that I saw a concert in the 1970s. Wow that is some bill…Eagles, Rufus, and The Stones. If a time machine was invented…I would want to see them in 1972…with Stevie Wonder opening.

        In the Eagles early years I can take them better…I just never thought they were a rock band although I love Joe Walsh.
        Maybe it’s because they were played to death here…the south thought they were a southern band I think…and not southern California.

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  6. Interesting list. 1975 is not one of the stronger years to me, but I think “Diamonds and Rust” by Joan Baez is up there, especially when juxtaposed with “Tangled up in Blue”. As for Dylan’s best albums of the 70s, I think “Desire” is in the running.

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    1. I did like Desire as well. I really connected with Blood on the Tracks…I also liked Planet Waves as well with the Band. That Baez cut is an interesting one! I should have thought of that one. I’m also going to include some Dead coming up in the late seventies. I regret missing Wake of the Flood on the list.

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    1. This one was one of the easy years to do. Low hanging fruit…1976 I had problems with the last pick…but I did manage to get my favorite band in because of a re-release.

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    1. That is a great album by them and yes…for the same reason the White album is my favorite by the Beatles…Physical Graffiti has a lot of diverse music which I like.

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  10. A lot to choose through. Bet you can’t please everybody when you have such a surfeit of riches! Elton seemed to be in everyones music, roughly around this time, Lennon, Sedaka, Kiki Dee. I’d thought for a loooong time Philadelphia Freedom was an early USA soccer franchise in those days, when the New York Cosmos were the heavy hitters, to mix games and metaphors up.

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  11. Song 1: Hard to believe that “Blinded by the Light”, “Spirit in the Night” from the first album and “Rosalita” from the 2nd didn’t break through for The Boss. The other day after you posted Born to Run, I pulled out his “Human Touch” album and wondered why I haven’t listened to him in a long time. I need to. He is grounding for me. Song 2: I can’t say “Tangled Up in Blue” is my favorite Dylan song; nor can I say it isn’t. That one and “Isis” are together in my mind and are up there. So glad you hung in there until he sang it live for you. Unimaginable how cool that must have been. Song 3 is like a mantra for me, like Blackwater. I remember in the biopic how much work Queen had to do to convince the label to release the song as a single. So funny the cheesy Wayne’s World brought it back. I loved that movie! Song 4: I love EJ don’t get me wrong, but for some reason this one doesn’t do it for me. Cool background info on the song. Song 5: Zep went all out on Kashmir, really expanded into the world beats with it.

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    1. You brought up one I didn’t think about…Black Water…that is my favorite by the Doobie Brothers.
      This week is one of those weeks where it wrote itself.

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      1. Thank the higher power we have so much excellent older music to fall back on as a lot of the newer stuff just isn’t that good from what I’ve heard. Of course there are exceptions, but…

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      2. You know my biggest problem with new music? Not as much the song…it’s the sound. The way they mix things now…everything seems one level all the way across. It throws me off of new music at times. I wish they offered modern mixes and 20th century analog mixes. It makes a huge difference. That is why I dont’ like McCartney’s new stuff.

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      3. Max, I don’t know all of the technical lingo, but you are right it does sound unidimensional. I think before they used to design it to be played out of expensive speakers that could pick up on the subtleties, but now it is geared to how it sounds on phones, car speakers, and streaming channels. That may be totally wrong but it is how it feels. Do you think that’s why people are going back to vinyl? So McCartney sold out too??? 😦 How did the Stones record Hackney Diamonds?

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      4. I think both recorded in digital Lisa…Play it against Exile On Mainstreet…you well hear a difference.
        Now indie bands…some of them are recording in analog again. Nashville has one studio that is JUST analog.

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      5. Oh that sounds depressing with the digital but promising with the indies doing analog and the studio in Nashville. When your band cuts an album make sure it is in analog ok?

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      8. Yea…it was ours…he had things go missing and somehow our 70s 8-track was in there…I was PISSED. He moved and left the stuff alone.

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  12. p.s. on Tangled Up, first time hearing that it was based on Joni’s album. It doesn’t surprise me though. Bob has so many brilliant lyrics that conjure up otherworldly scenes. “the side of her face in the spotlight so clear” “a little uneasy when she bent down to tie the lace … of my shoe…”

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    1. I do have those words ingrained in my mind. I’ve played it before and that is one that I never need a cheat sheet on the words…but once in a while I would get one verse out of order.

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  13. Once again, all great picks here. “Born to Run” is among my all-time favorites by Springsteen. If I could only pick on album, I’d go with this one. I also love “Tangled Up in Blue” by Dylan and it would definitely be among my top 5 songs. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is slightly weird, yet brilliant at the same time – probably my favorite by Queen. Elton John’s output during the first half of the ’70s was incredible. “Philadelphia Freedom” is a great song. While like you I love The Who, I also would have picked a song from Zep’s “Physical Graffiti” over a track from “The Who By Numbers”. “Kashmir” is a cool pick!

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    1. Yes the Zeppelin picked this year to release a great album…Christian I don’t know what I would have done if Quadrophenia would have been this year! That would have made it hard.
      Thanks man…this one was one of the easy ones.

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    1. Oh yea…low hanging fruit! This one was a breeze. The next year…a band will be on there…that happens to be my favorite…in 1976! Thank goodness for re-releases.

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      2. Oh yea…a 10 year old song hit the top ten in America…I wonder about the UK….no they didn’t release it there they release completely different single….it peaked at 19…thats odd.

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  16. Sorry for being so late to the conversation. I almost can’t argue with your list, but based on radio play lists in my town, I would have to find a spot for David Bowie’s Fame. I’m not saying I liked it (I didn’t), but it was on all the time everywhere. It might have to replace Born to Run (gasp), which didn’t get much play in our town until years later. My personal taste definitely prefers Born to Run. I didn’t realize Tangled Up In Blue was that recent. It is one of my all time fave Dylan songs.

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    1. I almost forgot Tangled Up In Blue. This one was one of the easist I did…I knew I would hear the Eagles backlash…I just knew it. Fame was on my original list…in 1976 I will upset some…I’m including my favorite band because of a top ten reissue…and I’ll have to leave someone off.

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