FLASHBACK - 1976 (Chicago, Thin Lizzy, Kansas)

[Scott]

The cool thing about digitizing my collection is the fact that I can look through it in ways that used to take hours or days before.  For example, if I want to sort the albums in my collection by the year they were released I can do it with a simple click versus sorting them all one by one.

 

For me, the idea that if I sort my collection by release year might tell me something about when I really got into music.  And so it did, but with a little effort.  Heres what I mean...

 

I noticed that my collection starting growing, dramatically, beginning in 1974, but when I looked closer at those releases they were largely purchases I made at a later date.  Same issue with 1975, just more to go through.  And then I hit 1976, the first year I owned a significant number of albums.  When I looked at what was in the 1976 bucket they were albums that were original purchases at or very near the same time.  My first ever purchase included Bob Seger's Night Moves which is well represented on this site, so I will not post tracks from that.

 

For me, this was the year that music really took hold in my life.  And when I go back and listen I can see why.  I hope you do to...

 

HERES YOUR LINK

http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/9ac22fedc5d8f43d88236c767a314823

 

Chicago - X
1 - Once or Twice
2 - Skin Tight
3 - If You Leave Me Now
4 - Scrapbook
5 - You Get It Up

 

 

 

 

Thin Lizzy - Johnny The Fox
6 - Johnny
7 - Rockey
8 - Borderline
9 - Don't Believe A Word
10- Massacre

 

 

 

 

 Kansas - Leftoverture
Note: Everyone knows Carry on Wayward Son, so lets post something different
11- The Wall
12- Whats On My Mind
13- Miracles Out Of Nowhere
14- Cheyenne Anthem

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed that flashback, heres a few more significant releases from 1976 that are important to my collection.

• KISS - Destroyer
• KISS - Rock and Roll Over
• Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
• Liitle River Band - Diamontina Cocktail
• The Eagles - Hotel California
• Frampton - Comes Alive
• Jefferson Starship - Spitfire
• Heart - Dreamboat Annie
• Bad Company - Run with the Pack
• The Doobie Brothers - Takin' It To The Streets
• Rush - 2112
• Rainbow - Rising
• Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees
• Aerosmith - Rocks
• ACDC - High Voltage
• Blue Oyster Cult - Agents of Fortune
• Ted Nugent - Free for All
• Queen - A Day At The Races
• Boston - Boston
• Earth Wind and Fire - Spirit

 

And heres some tracks that hit the charts in 1976 that we'd likely love to forget...

• Disco Duck - Rick Dees
• Convoy - C.W. McCall
• Saturday Night - The Bay City Rollers
• (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty - K.C. and The Sunshine Band
• Afternoon Delight - Starland Vocal Band

Enjoy!

 

[RJhog (Admin)]

Excellent picks Scott.  I only own 33% of this collection, and that would be the Kansas album.  Enjoyed Chicago and really enjoyed Thin Lizzy.  If I were to pick 3 other albums off of your list at the bottom of the page that I don't have but would love to hear, they would be:

 

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

Little River Band - Diamontina Cocktail

The Doobie Brothers - Takin' It To The Streets

 

...and I probably forgot to say it, but I enjoyed the Kansas album as well.

[Jon]

100% for me! And why make fun of "Convoy"? I know the friggin' words to that whole song! As for "Afternoon Delight", there's a funny episode of "Arrested Development" regarding that song..must be seen!

[Scott]

Breaker Breaker ...  I owned the Convoy 45 record so I can make fun of it.  over...

[RJhog (Admin)]

I can do better than that.  I owned one of those compilations that had all of the current hits done by an unkown cover band, and it had Convoy on it, complete with a picture of toy trucks.

[Scott]

Remember  the K-Tel compliations?  That's what came to mind when I read your response..  I actually had a couple of those, but it seemed like at least most of my friends had K-Tel compilations too.  Weird stuff....

 

I wonder if Mike Pell could do a show on those...  hahahahaha

[RJhog (Admin)]

I'm looking at one of those K-tel comps right now.  I bought one from a co-worker for a buck that has Kiss' Hard Luck Woman on it.  The funny thing is, on the front cover there is a picture of Destroyer.  HLW was on Rock And Roll Over. 

[Scott]

hahahaha.  Do a little research K-Tel!  If memory serves me correctly, and in this case it does, those K-Tel compilations were usually crap times 3!

 

At least Time Life puts a little thought into them nowdays. 

[Niels (Mod)]

I own absolutely nothing of the collection, but I LOVE "If you leave me now". It's take me right back to when I was 11 years old, and the song was played over and over on the radio. I only got a "greatest-hits"-album with Chicago, and I'll probably leave it with that!! Another song of theirs I love is "Hard habit to break" from 1984.

I liked Thin Lizzy around 1978-79, and bought "Jailbreak","Black Rose" and Lynnot's solo-album "Solo In Soho", but when NWOBHM happended, I kind of lost interest. I've only heard "Johnny The Fox" once or twice, except for "Don't believe a word". Is it the classic lineup with Gorham, Downey and Robertson? It sounds good, but I DO prefer "Jailbreak".

I don't know much about Kansas, but it sounds okay. The singer sounds a bit like Joe Lynn Turner, and that's not a bad thing.

 

[Scott]

Thanks Niels.  Maybe Chicago is more of an American flavor.  I had always that they had a pretty large international audience as well, but how would I know...

 

I posted this Thin Lizzy because I didnt want to post the obivous hits (that and I just bought the deluxe edition so it has been in the player alot lately), much like yours and Jon's flashbacks, but thought Johnny The Fox would be an outstanding pick.  I still think it is  :-)  The lineup of the band is in fact  Gorham, Downey, and Robertson.  I read somewhere that Phil Collins guests on this as well but that the band cant remember what tracks he played on. They said Lynott wanted him more for name dropping than anything else.  hahahaha

 

Kansas may be to prog rock for you?  maybe?  Because man they are good, I will give yuo a little different take on them in this week or next weeks SHT list though, so let me know what you think of that track!

[Niels (Mod)]

It's funny, you say "prog", because I WAS thinking of MY favorite prog-band, Jethro Tull, when I listened to Kansas!! But I do like the Kansas-tracks, much more than I like the "unknown" Chicago-tracks. "Okay" from me, means "Me like", I guess?!