No matter how much I expand my musical horizons the longer I do
\nthis job, one thing about me will always be true: I am a true child
\nof the ’70s, and I will always have a certain nostalgic
\nappreciation for some of the music that was created during this
\ndecade. (The whole disco era is excepted, of course – now we call
\nit “house” music.)<\/p>\n
Oh, sure, laugh if you want. But I’m willing to bet there’s not
\none person reading who lived through the ’70s and its music who,
\nwhen they hear a song on any of these TV ads for compilations,
\ndoesn’t find themselves singing along, only to catch themselves in
\nembarrassment. ‘Fess up, kids, we’re
\nall<\/i> guilty of it.<\/p>\n
Rhino Records, knowing how people drift back to the kitsch that
\nwas their decade, have answered the void in many people’s lives
\n(you know how long I searched for a 45 of “Black Superman”?) with
\nHave A Nice Decade: The ’70s Pop Culture Box<\/i>, a seven-disc
\nmonstrosity containing 161 hits from the decade, along with sound
\nbites and news stories interspersed with the songs. It’s enough to
\nmake the naysayers puke, and the people who are still waiting to
\nget into Studio 54 dust off their leisure suits.<\/p>\n
Rhino was kind enough to send a 17-song sampler from the set to
\nme. They’re generous, but not stupid; they had to have known they’d
\nhook critics like myself into wanting to purchase the big version
\nfor themselves. The songs on this sampler brought back a lot of
\nmemories, and reminded me just how good some of the music of this
\ndecade was.<\/p>\n
Is there some cornball music contained herein? Damn right – the
\n’70s featured a lot of cornball music. Edison Lighthouse’s “Love
\nGrows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” is a song that will send chills up
\nsome people’s spines, reminding them of such other little wonders
\nlike Terry Jacks’s “live-for-life” anthem “Seasons In The Sun”
\n(that was called
\nsarcasm<\/i>, kids) and Coven’s “One Tin Soldier (The Legend Of
\nBilly Jack)”, all of which are on the full version of the set.<\/p>\n
But the songs that even I had forgotten were so good are brought
\nto attention. The Raiders (once called Paul Revere And The Raiders)
\nhad a great song with “Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The
\nCherokee Reservation Indian)”, and to be honest, I hadn’t heard
\nthis song in at least seven years. One listen to it off the
\nsampler, and I re-lived memories of when I heard it at a younger
\nage. Likewise, The Hollies’s “The Air That I Breathe,” 10cc’s “I’m
\nNot In Love” and Looking Glass’s “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)”
\nshine once again.<\/p>\n
There are even songs that take on a whole new light over 20
\nyears since they were first unleashed on an unsuspecting public.
\nGilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally)” was probably seen as
\na tale of an unlucky mope in the ’70s, but if you closely listen to
\nthe lyrics, you can hear a pissed-off bloke who was dealt an
\nunlucky hand in life.<\/p>\n
Sure, the selections off this sampler reminded me of a few
\nartists who I could have lived without hearing again (I’ve
\nnever<\/i> liked Carly Simon, for example), and some songs seem a
\nlittle too trippy-happy (“Love Train” from the O’Jays, though it’s
\nstill an entertaining listen), but this is still a fun disc for me
\nto listen to and relive memories. (I do wonder, though, why they
\nchose to put the short version of Foghat’s “Slow Ride” on the
\nset.)<\/p>\n
I wouldn’t mind devoting a whole day listening to the whole
\nHave A Nice Decade<\/i> box set (not that I’m dropping any hints
\nto our friends at Rhino), even though listening to the whole thing
\nin one shot must feel like watching a retrospective of “Welcome
\nBack, Kotter” and “Maude” back-to-back. But if you can still look
\nback at any portion of the music from the ’70s and muster a smile,
\nthen
\nHave A Nice Decade: The ’70s Pop Culture Box<\/i> will be an
\nenjoyable listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39135","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39135"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}