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Top ten records of 1972
Here are my top ten LP’s of 1972. Tough year. Honorable mention: Kraftwerk 2, Thin Lizzy – Shades of a Blue Orphanage, Neu I, Marvin Gaye – Trouble Man (sorry moms), The Jimmy Castor Bunch – It’s Just Begun (incredible!!!) and the s/t Kraan LP. Also Guru Guru and their weird concept album that rhymes with their name called Kangaru. File that under things that sound awful but aren’t. Then you have your soundtrack to Superfly by Curtis Mayfield and the insane psychedelica of Ash Ra Tempel and their landmark Schwingungen LP. Beach Boys put out a record called So Tough where they “fake” pretended to be a band called Carl & The Passions. Why were so many famous rock stars in the late 60’s obsessed with forming made-up rock bands? Seriously. It must have been a reaction to their fame. So Tough isn’t a bad record, got some decent songs on it. The best unreleased things from 1972 are probably the Stooges tapes on WABX and Bowie at the BBC on the John Peel show. That lineup of Bowie’s band was arguably the best. You could spend thousands of dollars on guitar equipment and lessons and you would never come close to what Mick Ronson sounds like. Never. Not in a million years. Let’s not even get into what drummer Mick Woodmansey is doing on “Hang On To Yourself”. Just don’t even go there. Black Sabbath, T. Rex and Thin Lizzy all toured that year so there are several bootlegs from those shows. Here’s my ten, if I missed something feel free to let me know!
Rolling Stones – Exile On Main Street (Rolling Stones Records / Virgin)
Rocks Off, the first song from Exile On Main Street. There is plenty to love about this record. It’s lazy and decadent beyond measure and it’s the creative peak of their strung out years. It’s also expertly recorded. Behind the trumpets and the unintelligible whisperings of Keith Richards are some truly excellent rock songs as well as some very strange shuffles about dancing and pooping and loving women who don’t love you back. Exile is a loud record, meant to be played at full volume so you can hear every bongo and every slur. Unlike The Beatles or The Kinks it took the Stones a solid five years of recording to find their voice and abandon all the trappings of the R & B scene that they so obviously cherished. To go from a singles band to AOR rock meant producing a substantial body of work, something they fell somewhat short of. This may have been there attempt to remedy that. Thankfully after their infamous 1969 tour they lost all interest in masquerading and got down to serious work.
T. Rex – The Slider (EMI)
Metal Guru from The Slider, which was the followup to their outstanding Electric Warrior LP. Nowhere near as good or iconic, but still an excellent record. The pacing on The Slider is sublime, it sometimes feels more like a T. Rex mix tape of ideas than it does a fully formed record and that’s kind of what makes it awesome.
David Bowie – The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (RCA / EMI)
Moonage Daydream from Ziggy Stardust, my personal fave on this record which has three other incredible singles on it. Essential.
Can – Ege Bamyasi (United Artists Records)
Vitamin C from Ege Bamyasi. Outstanding Krautrock from Germany. Ege Bamyasi is the middle record in what is widely considered their masterpiece trilogy. My personal fave is the next one, Future Days, but then all it takes to change my mind is one listen to this and I remember why they were so unstoppable.
Yes – Close To The Edge (Atlantic)
Total Mass Retain from Close To The Edge. Say what you will about prog rock. Then see if Rick Wakeman gives a shit from inside his gigantic floating crystal palace. Early Yes has an rhythm section that is just ridiculous. I love early YES, and I say that fully knowing that they are cursed and accused of being over indulgent by, uh, everyone who isn’t in the band.
Herbie Hancock – Sextant (Sony)
Hornets, the last song on Sextant. The end of his free-form period. He also put out that Crossings record this year, which was good but a little weird even for me and I have every Hancock record there is. Sextant is an experiment and supposedly it’s up to you to decide if it worked.
Genesis – Foxtrot (Charisma / Virgin)
Toots & The Maytals – Slatyam Stoot (Dynamic Sounds)
Pressure Drop from the first Toots & The Maytals record. One of the best sounding reggae albums ever and there is something really magical about about the vocals.
Nick Drake – Pink Moon (Island)
Things Behind the Sun, from Pink Moon
Amon Düül II – Wolf City (United Artists Records)
Sleepwalker’s Timeless Bridge, the last song on Wolf City
