Tag: Aerosmith Toys In The Attic

Music has a unique way of capturing the essence of a time period, and 1975 was no exception. This year stands out in music history as a treasure trove of classic albums that have withstood the test of time, continuing to inspire and resonate with listeners even 50 years later. In the latest episode of the podcast, we take a journey through the iconic records that made 1975 a landmark year in music.

TRANSCRIPT:

Well, according to the calendar, it’s the first of the month, which means it’s time for another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast. My name is Brad Page, thanks for joining me here on the Pantheon Podcast Network for another exploration of my favorite songs.

And speaking of the calendar, it’s also telling me that we’re in the year 2025 now, and this episode also happens to be episode 175, so the numbers are telling me that this would be a good time to flip the calendar back to the year 1975– 50 years ago– and take a look at some of the incredible records celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. So let’s check it out.

We’ve already explored other great years in music history: 1957, 1965, 1971, 1973… and now with 1975, it’s another incredible year for music. Just a ton of classic albums released this year.

Beginning in January of 1975 with my favorite Bob Dylan album, “Blood On The Tracks”, a masterpiece. We talked about this album back on episode 99 with my buddy Brian Jacobs.

On January 2, 1975, a New York District Court judge ruled that John Lennon could access his Department of Immigration files as part of his deportation case. That was a key step on the road to allowing John to make New York City his home when he finally won the case in October.

Also in January, 1000 Led Zeppelin fans rioted while waiting for tickets to go on sale in Boston, causing the mayor to cancel the show. But three shows in New York at Madison Square Garden sold out in a record 4 hours.

AC/DC released their first album, “High Voltage”, but it only comes out in Australia; the international version of the album wouldn’t come out until 1976.

In February, Rush released “Fly By Night”. It’s their second album, but it’s the first one with Neil Peart on drums.

And getting back to Led Zeppelin, in February, they release “Physical Graffiti”. “Physical graffiti: featured eight new songs and a handful of tracks that had been left off of previous albums, but despite its pieced together nature, it’s a truly iconic album.

March of 1975 saw the release of a bunch of all time classic albums:

“Young Americans” was David Bowie’s 9th album, a total departure from the Ziggy Stardust look and sound, the launch of his plastic soul phase. Also in March, Alice Cooper’s “Welcome To My Nightmare”, his first album without the original Alice Cooper Band.

Earth, Wind and Fire released “That’s The Way Of The World”, their first really big smash album– a fantastic record. We did a deep dive on “Shining Star” on episode 56 of this Podcast.

Also in March, “Dressed to Kill” by Kiss. Steely Dan released “Katy Lied” in March, and Jeff Beck released “Blow By Blow”, one of the greatest guitar albums of all time. Absolutely one of my favorite records.

A few classic records came out in April, too. ZZ Top released “Fandango”, one side recorded live, the other in the studio. This record’s mostly famous for “Tush”, but I think there’s even better songs on this record, like “Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings”.

Nazareth released their classic “Hair of the Dog” album in April, and Aerosmith released “Toys In The Attic”.

John Lennon appeared on the Tom Snyder show in April for a pretty famous interview. And on April 24, Pete Ham from Badfinger was found dead. Victim of suicide. Victim of the music business, really. We’ve covered Badfinger on this show a couple of times. I highly recommend you check those episodes out if you haven’t heard them.

In May, the Rolling Stones announced their north American tour by driving down Fifth Avenue in New York City playing “Brown Sugar” on a flatbed truck. Willie Nelson released his classic album “Red Headed Stranger”; Paul McCartney and Wings released “Venus and Mars”, and Elton John released the first of two albums that came out in 1975.

In June of 1975, Cher and Greg Allman got married. Believe it or not, the Talking Heads played their first show at CBGB’s. And Alice Cooper fell off the stage at a show in Canada, breaking six ribs. Bob Dylan and the Band finally released “The Basement Tapes”, originally recorded back in 1967. And Neil Young released “Tonight’s The Night”, his harrowing exploration of drug addiction, death and grief that was originally recorded two years earlier.

Also released in June, “Dream Weaver” by Gary Wright, the BeeGee’s “Main Course”, the first album by the Tubes, and “Cut The Cake” by the Average White Band. That’s another one of my favorite albums.

In July, Black Sabbath released “Sabotage”, Fleetwood Mac released their self-titled album– the first with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks– and Lou Reed released “Metal Machine Music”, one of the most divisive albums ever released: A double album with each side featuring 16 minutes of feedback and noise.

1975 was also the year of some significant departures. The Faces broke up, Peter Gabriel left Genesis, and Richie Blackmore quit deep Purple, forming his new band, Rainbow, and releasing their debut album featuring Ronnie James Dio on vocals in August.

Also in August, the Ohio Players released “Honey”, probably their best record. Hall & Oates released their self-titled album, which includes “Sarah Smile”, their first big hit, and Bruce Springsteen releases “Born To Run”.

Also, Grand Funk Railroad released a live album called “Caught In The Act”, which you’re gonna be hearing a little from on this show coming up in the near future.

The classic album train keeps rolling right into September: Pink Floyd released “Wish You Were Here”, ELO released “Face The Music”, Brian Eno’s “Another Green World”. Rush, “Caress Of Steel”, Supertramp “Crisis, What Crisis?”, Foghat, “Fool For The City”… all of those came out in September 1975.

So did Jethro Tull’s “Minstrel In The Gallery”, a pivotal album in their career. And also released in September– an album that really changed my life. It’s probably a safe bet to say that if it wasn’t for this album, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here doing this podcast today. It’s Kiss “Alive”.

October 75 was the month where Bruce Springsteen appeared on the cover of both Time magazine and Newsweek. That was unprecedented at the time. Some unprecedented music came out that month, too: Elton John’s second album of the year, “Rock of the Westies”, Deep Purple’s final album, “Come Taste The Band”, “Siren” by Roxy Music (that’s the album that has “Love Is The Drug” on it), and an album by The Who that I think is really underappreciated: “The Who By Numbers”.

We’re heading into the home stretch here. November 1975 brought us Joni Mitchell’s “The Hissing of Summer Lawns”, Neil Young’s “Zuma”, and Patti Smith’s debut album “Horses”, and an album that is the very definition of a classic album: Queen’s “Night at the Opera”.

And 1975 comes to a close in December with Styx “Equinox”, Emmylou Harris’s “Elite Hotel”, her first number one album and an essential “Americana” album long before that term was even coined. Bob Marley and the Wailers released their live album.

And Parliament releases “Mothership Connection”, one of the most significant funk albums of all time. What a way to end the year.

That is just an overview of the music of 1975; we’re just scraping the surface here, here’s so much more. And if I skipped over one of your favorite records, I apologize, but I had to leave off some of my favorites, too. There was just so many great albums that year.

Thanks for listening to this episode. I hope this reminded you of some of the great records you haven’t listened to in a while, or maybe introduced you to some you’ve never heard before. Either way, I encourage you to seek these albums out, give them a listen, because this music still has something to offer us today, 50 years after it was first heard.

If you’d like to support this show, please head over to oldglory.com and order up a t-shirt or two. They have stock on merchandise from most of the artists we heard on this show, so get yourself a shirt from AC/DC or Springsteen, Kiss or Neil Young, or any of your favorite artists. Go to oldglory.com comma use our discount code “lovethatsong”. You’ll get 15% off and you’ll help to support this show. So thanks in advance.

New episodes of this podcast come out on the first and the 15th of every month, so stay tuned for more. And if you’d like to get caught up on our previous episodes– there’s over 174 other shows to listen to– you’ll find them all on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com.

On behalf of the whole crew at the Pantheon Podcast Network, I thank you for listening. Now go out and listen to your favorite albums from 1975.

RESOURCES:

Bob Dylan
https://www.bobdylan.com/

Led Zeppelin
https://www.ledzeppelin.com/

David Bowie
https://www.davidbowie.com/

Rush
https://www.rush.com/

AC/DC
https://www.acdc.com/

Bruce Springsteen
https://brucespringsteen.net/

Fleetwood Mac
https://www.fleetwoodmac.com/

Neil Young
https://neilyoungarchives.com/

Queen
https://www.queenonline.com/

Elton John
https://www.eltonjohn.com/

Patti Smith
https://www.pattismith.net/

Pink Floyd
https://www.pinkfloyd.com/

The Who
https://www.thewho.com/

Joni Mitchell
https://jonimitchell.com/

Aerosmith
https://www.aerosmith.com/

Old Glory
https://www.oldglory.com/

Alice Cooper
https://www.alicecooper.com/

Earth, Wind & Fire
https://www.earthwindandfire.com/

Kiss
https://www.kissonline.com/