1974

[humprof]

I thought I'd started a thread with this title back in January to mark albums turning 50 this year (I know there are similar threads for 1972 and 1973), but damned if I can find it.

Anyway: Phil Freeman of Burning Ambulance did us a favor this morning by listing 50 of his top jazz and jazz-adjacent albums from 1974. Traditionalists think of that era as a time when jazz had lost its way; others see it as a time of experiment & transition. Hard, in retrospect, not to be impressed by how many killin' records date from that one year, including several with great (or not-so-great) quad mixes, like:

• Herbie Hancock, Thrust
• Keith Jarrett, Treasure Island
• Charles Mingus, Mingus Moves
• Pharoah Sanders, Love In Us All and Elevation
• Carlos Santana & Alice Coltrane, Illuminations
• Weather Report, Mysterious Traveller

--and many more that ought to have been in quad!

Here's the full list:
https://burningambulance.substack.com/p/50-great-jazz-albums-from-1974

 

[Bill B]

You started one for 1973...
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/1973.33406/
....but I guess 1974 just wasn't as important.

I happened to see this link last night so I figured this was a great place to post it.
Basically every number 1 on Billboard's Top 100 for the year.
One of the early years for my awareness of music (12-13 years old) and for buying music.

https://apple.news/AkdNkVXtETTuhlOrJxmSAoA

 

[ar surround]

Oh my goodness! Yet another great year for classic albums:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_in_music

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Good one humprof!
*thought I had started one earlier also, but nope, doesn't appear so.

Here's just a discogs 'quick hit' availability of the 1974 Quadraphonic releases (there may be some earlier years mixed in there with a subsequent 1974 release, also Quad Format in error, and discogs is not all inclusive of releases.)

https://www.discogs.com/search/?limit=250&type=all&format=QUADRAPHONIC&year=1974&page=1

1974 was a massive year for great music and looks like perhaps the pinnacle year for Quad titles.

Here's a Japanese Victor CD-4 (focusing on Steve McQueen film music, from their 'The Film Studio Orchestra'); I just found looking through that 1974 list, that I was unaware of (and looks like a rare one at that):

https://www.discogs.com/release/29013850-The-Film-Studio-Orchestra-The-Story-Of-Steve-McQueen

 

[Marplot]

I have ~98 albums in my collection from 1974 (if I tagged them correctly). wow.
A great year for first albums as well it seems.
Here is a selection
Aerosmith Get Your Wings
Be-Bop Deluxe Axe Victim
Black Sabbath Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
David Bowie Diamond Dogs
Chicago Chicago VII
Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke
Deep Purple Burn
Eagles Hotel California
Genesis The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Kansas Kansas
King Crimson Red
Kiss Kiss
Rush Rush
Steely Dan Pretzel Logic
Supertramp Crime Of The Century
Tom Waits The Heart Of Saturday Night

 

[steelydave]

Lots of good stuff on that list, but at the very least (in terms of jazz, anyway) I'd add Introducing the Eleventh House with Larry Coryell (quad mix), the Mahavishnu Orchestra's Apocalypse (announced-but-never-released quad mix), The Crusaders Southern Comfort (amazing double LP), Tom Scott and the L.A. Express self-titled, and Billy Cobham's Total Eclipse.

1974 is also pretty much the peak year for CTI before the (bankruptcy-related) wheels started to fall off - you get George Benson Bad Benson, Grover Washington Jr. Mister Magic, Joe Farrell Upon This Rock, Hubert Laws In the Beginning, Johnny Hammond's Higher Ground (quad mix), and especially Idris Muhammad's Power of Soul, my favourite CTI album of all time.

 

[Bill B]

I have ~98 albums in my collection from 1974 (if I tagged them correctly). wow.
A great year for first albums as well it seems.
Here is a selection
Aerosmith Get Your Wings
Be-Bop Deluxe Axe Victim
Black Sabbath Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
David Bowie Diamond Dogs
Chicago Chicago VII
Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke
Deep Purple Burn
Eagles Hotel California
Genesis The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Kansas Kansas
King Crimson Red
Kiss Kiss
Rush Rush
Steely Dan Pretzel Logic
Supertramp Crime Of The Century
Tom Waits The Heart Of Saturday Night

Hotel California was 1976
Breakfast In America was 1979

 

[ar surround]

I have ~98 albums in my collection from 1974 (if I tagged them correctly). wow.

That is quite a lot. I 'only' have 36, but I must say that a significant percentage of those are thanks to our very good friends at Dutton Vocalion.

 

[somethingcleveridunno]

I have ~98 albums in my collection from 1974 (if I tagged them correctly). wow.

98 quad or including stereo/mono/5.1/Atmos? Just curious how deep down the "I listened solely because it was in quad" rabbit hole that number represents.

 

[DuncanS]

The stats from my collection for releases between 1965 -1985 in '74 I'd have been 16-17 (I imagine there are probably more in that period than shown due to incorrect Release years) Edit: A mixture of stereo & surround

 

[Sonik Wiz]

The stats from my collection for releases between 1965 -1985 in '74 I'd have been 16-17 (I imagine there are probably more in that period than shown due to incorrect Release years) Edit: A mixture of stereo & surround
View attachment 111532

Truly you are the Alpha Geek around here. I mean that as a compliment.

 

[Marplot]

Hotel California was 1976
Breakfast In America was 1979

i am shamed.
Thanks! I will fix them

 

[DuncanS]

Truly you are the Alpha Geek around here. I mean that as a compliment.

Nerdy geeks do what nerdy geeks must its a screen cut from the clz.com (was Collectoz.com) Music Collector software.

 

[ar surround]

The stats from my collection for releases between 1965 -1985 in '74 I'd have been 16-17 (I imagine there are probably more in that period than shown due to incorrect Release years) Edit: A mixture of stereo & surround
View attachment 111532

Not quite a normal distribution, but not an F-distribution either. Perhaps a new term: "Duncan Distribution." Anyway, that's a lot of stuff!

 

[DuncanS]

Not quite a normal distribution, but not an F-distribution either. Perhaps a new term: "Duncan Distribution." Anyway, that's a lot of stuff!

Its an MR distribution .......... where as per my to-listen-to MR = Mountain Range.

Its not all (which was too large to fit on a screen cut) and I'm missing an awful lot of discs that as per the mountain I haven't got round to loading into the database!

 

[Bill B]

i am shamed.
Thanks! I will fix them

I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it…LOL

 

[4-earredwonder]

The stats from my collection for releases between 1965 -1985 in '74 I'd have been 16-17 (I imagine there are probably more in that period than shown due to incorrect Release years) Edit: A mixture of stereo & surround
View attachment 111532

At first Dunc, I thought it was a projection of MT ATMOS, UK ..... the pile of unplayed discs you have accumulated over the years!

 

[DuncanS]

At first Dunc, I thought it was a projection of MT ATMOS, UK ..... the pile of unplayed discs you have accumulated over the years!

That bloke shouldn't have stood on the fire ants nest

 

[humprof]

A fair amount of overlap among the following lists, but some unique inclusions on each one, too:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/...5138526/neil-young-on-the-beach-3-1235138528/
https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/greatest-albums/the-greatest-albums-of-1974
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/best-1974-albums/
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/best-1974-albums/