1977

I bought my first music in 1975 with money of my own. That was just four 45rpm records and I don’t recall my next purchase. I just remember I bought the second Captain and Tenille album and maybe that was my first one? I’m not totally sure.

It was probably more like 1977 when I started to become a more proper music fan. By this time I was doing a bit of babysitting and earning my own money so control of my listening habits was shifting to what might be expected when one is nearly a teenager.

Another thing that may or may not have any influence is that we moved from Atlanta to Charlotte at the end of 1976. I think my understanding of the world really increased during this time period so it may be a by-product of my recognition of what was happening in the world. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence due to my age at the time.

I return to The Eagles again thanks to the song New Kid in Town, which I think must have resonated with me. Not that I was really listening closely to lyrics then but I was a new kid so it seemed an apt song. Another song that I strongly remember was Year of the Cat by Al Stewart.

Weirdly I got really attached to the song You Light up My Life by Debby Boone. It was hugely popular for many weeks so it was easy to get a bit obsessed. This was one of those songs that I liked then but I am rather indifferent to now. I wasn’t a religious person then so I guess it didn’t really have lasting power. I didn’t see it as religious at the time though, so I guess something about it reached me.

It was in 1977 I was listening to a local pop music station. That summer they sponsored a reading program where if you read a certain number of books they would give you six singles. I don’t recall the reading but I was taken to the station to get my records and I have a vague memory of standing in line with all the other teens. I got my records and I think I still have them today. I can’t recall all of them but I think one was Low Down by Boz Scaggs and Best of my Love by the Emotions. The one I remember the best was Undercover Angel by Alan O’Day. When I find my old records I will have to figure out the other three songs. Everyone got a different set of singles so it was all a random sort of thing.

I carried on doing babysitting jobs in the neighborhood and so continued to have some spending money. It was around this time I bought the first album that influenced me in any big way and it was not even a regular album but a compilation. Love Songs by the Beatles was released in late 1977 and I bought it because I liked some of the Beatles songs I heard on the radio. This was my entry point to becoming a Beatles fan. I used to listen that album all the time and it still is a sentimental favorite of mine even though it’s not one of their proper records. I think I must have the album still for that reason. Well, I think I brought it to Australia but those records are packed away in the closet at the moment. It would still be a few years before I came to know the proper albums by the group in any way.

The Bee Gees hit it big in 1977 too, with the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, a movie I still have never seen even though it’s supposed to be a good one. I have seen a few bits here and there when it’s replayed on tv but just have never watched it. The music, on the other hand is still pretty prominent in my memory. I already liked some of the Bee Gees music at this time although their shift to disco music was a bit of a surprise as it was a quite different from songs from their early days. That said I think they had a couple records before this that were already moving into this style. I have never owned this album but I do have the songs that were popular on a compilation album somewhere. Well, I don’t think I still have the vinyl so maybe I don’t own it now.

This was also the year that Billy Joel became a big thing. The album The Stranger was everywhere and these songs were also being played constantly. Just the Way You Are was the biggest song but I latched onto She’s Always a Woman at the time instead. I think some of the songs got played so much I was a bit tired of it. These days I can appreciate it all much more than I did then, and maybe I will actually buy a copy of the album one day. It almost came to pass that I saw him in concert that year but for some reason I didn’t go. I later became a big Billy Joel fan so I do regret that I didn’t go then since it’s unlikely I will be able to afford a ticket even if I am in the right place at the right time.

Which leads me to considering my first concert, Shaun Cassidy. To be honest I don’t recall much of his music but I think the concert was that year and he was popular and my mom took me and I enjoyed it. Most of his music was cover songs and I did like the songs a lot. But Shaun Cassidy wasn’t my main teen idol. Instead it was Andy Gibb, who I loved and I would have seen a concert by him had the opportunity happened. His album Flowing Rivers was really good and I think even now it stands up a bit on the few occasions when I’ve tried to listen to it. Of course, some of the songs were written or co-written by his older brother Barry, who was able to pen a popular song himself. I will point out that the other idol from that time period was Leif Garret and I never liked his music and I didn’t care much for him either.

I should also add the album Frampton Comes Alive at this point. While I wasn’t a huge fan at the time, I did like some of the songs and I have come to appreciate how great the music was on that record. Funnily enough that’s the only record I know Frampton for and I’d guess that’s the case for many of us. This was a record that was popular with the neighbor girls I hung out with early on when we lived in NC. They were also big fans of Kiss, a band that I’ve never liked much although there are a couple of songs that are okay. I was just never a fan and most of the time these days I am as likely to change the radio station when they are on. I can’t recall if they had an album that year or not but there was a lot of fandom right then so I guess there must have been. Maybe I will look it up. Well it seem there was an album plus a live album that year so it makes sense they were so popular.

There was one other album that was really big that year which I will write about separately as it is a major album with major influence in my musical tastes.

I’m sure there’s heaps more from that year I’m forgetting right now. Until I started putting all this down, I don’t think I realised how much of the music of that year had been such a part of my life.