10) Syreeta Wright “She's Leaving Home” - She recorded this remake in late 1973 with then husband Stevie Wonder. The track itself went nowhere, but it is so odd, so unusually stand-alone great, that I think that it might have a shot now on independent radio. It also features Stevie on background vocals using a VOCODER! You should definately buy the album “Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta Wright” and listen for yourself, she was ahead of her time. She had a big hit with “With You I'm Born Again” as a duet in 1980. I KNOW you remember that one. Sadly, she died in 2004 of cancer.

9) 10cc “Don't Hang Up” - The band had a huge task, to make a record to follow their 1975 smash “The Original Soundtrack” and the monster ballad “I'm Not In Love.” This was the opening song from their '76 album “How Dare You”, and I think it will haunt you just as badly as “Love” did the first time you heard it. Once again, they used the old formula - tell a story (love problems), make inventive music, and let the world judge. They soon broke up a few years later due to 'creative differences'. Well, I like the album, the song, and I think you will too.
 

8) Brownsville Station “The Martian Boogie” - “Smokin' In The Boys Room” in 1973 was the albatross facing the legendary guitarist/writer/singer Cub Koda. After the massive hit subsided, they tried and tried again to no success. Cub sounds a lot like like David Lee Roth (or is it the other way around?) while screaming out classic lines like: “Now in 28 years of eating hamburgers I ain't never run into no Martian, not at 2:30 in the morning and certainly not at a fine scarfing establishment like Eat's.” This seven-minute number RAWKS, and is a classic only in the sense that it can be played over and over and you will end up driving about 80 in a 45. The band broke up in 1979 and Cub passed on in 2000 of kidney failure at the young age of 51. He was a legend, look him up and you'll see for yourself.

 7) Budgie “Black Velvet Stallion” - This band is one of the most neglected heavy metal bands of ANY era, not just from the 1970s alone. In 1976 they released “If I Were Brittania, I'd Waive the Rules”, their sixth album of hard rockers. The song, all eight minutes of it, encompass British rock, just as big and as odd as Led Zeppelin, or Black Sabbath. We in America embraced the two other bands, but Budgie was left behind in the cage. (I was handed this album when I was in the Army in the old West Germany back in the 80s. Thank the metal gods for it, too.) The band officially disbanded in the mid-eighties, but reunion gigs have taken place in the years since, and still play live fairly regularly. Thisd song is a great one, and should not be missed, and then you can find their other 10 albums, just as hard and just as deep.

6) Kraftwerk “Autobahn” - Now before I go on, I have to make it clear that I'm talking about the full TWENTY-TWO minute version here. Personally, I think this song (and the entire album!) was created to prove the Germans could still make us stand up and say, yes, you are still the vanguard! This song featured samples of car engines starting, diesels revving, moving from left to right and right to left, and the voices that were fed through computers and remixed... and they did all of this back in 1974! This was also three years before the beats of the 808's came alive in the Boogie Down Bronx as they stole from Kraftwerk in 1977 from their “Trans-Europe Express.” Close your eyes and listen, and you'll wish you were driving 100 mph of the highways of Germany. By the way, I've done it, and 100 there is like 55 here - they'll pass you up on both sides. The band's still around, but are extremely reclusive. Aren't they all?
 

5) The Rezillos “Top Of The Pops” - This was truly a one-hit wonder from a band band worthy of their bastard off-offspring, The Sex Pistols. In 1978, they cut their debut album 'Can't Stand the Rezillos' in NYC. The song was a nice little fuck you to the British version of 'American Bandstand,' and it got to #17 in the UK. They tried to tour over here, and after self-financing a major American tour and being let down, they decided to hang up the towel. Thir sound is pure straightforward punk pop, all quick and angry and in your face. It's not really all that funny that not even 2 years later the Pistols would follow their formula and explode even worse. IRONY ALERT: The band actually ended up performing the song on the show TWICE when it entered the charts, but I think the producers misunderstood the song's lyrics and thought it was a tribute.
 

4) Timmy Thomas - “Why Can't We Live Together” - Come on, he was born in Evansville, Indiana! In 1972, I remember this song, and espeically THE ORGAN. The organ style is a hypnotic pulse, and the message is perfect for even now, and should be put right next to Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' for a one of the best message songs EVER. He's still out there, producing, working, and played on Joss Stone's 'Soul Sessions.' There, is that kitchy enough for you to give it a try?
 

3) Cat Stevens - “Was Dog A Doughnut?” - This song is the oddest cut on a even odder but GREAT album - 1977's 'IZITSO.' He was born Steven Demetri Georgiou, but for his records became Cat Stevens in the late '60s and, following his conversion to Islam, became Yusuf Islam. Now I know you've heard it on the radio, it's an instrumental, and it's only four minutes long, but it sticks in your head all day. It pops and locks with the best b-boys, then simply is over. You'l put this on repeat a few times. Now for Cat, in 1978, at the peak of his success, he simply retired. In 1995, he released a religious work, The Life of the Last Prophet, and that was pretty much it. He's also reclusive, too.
 

2) Devo “Jocko Homo” - This refers to the original 1977 single, which you may have never heard. The song was written in 1972 when Mark Mothersbaugh was in college, and is based on a religious tract he was given debunking evolution. Devo was from Ohio, and in the original single, during the break, he screams out “What's round in the front and high in the middle? O-HI-O!” aming other nonsense that makes perfect sense to me. Devo was and still is inventive, and always looked back - towards the future!
 
And the number one song you shouldn't miss from the 70's...

 1) Tom Waits “The Piano Has Been Drinking” - 1976. He's at the height of his powers. It's 2am, and Bukowski and Zappa and Lee Marvin the rest of the real men sit quietly for once and listen to the music, and here are a few of the lyrics:

 
The piano has been drinking, my necktie is asleep
and the combo went back to New York, the jukebox has to take a leak
and the carpet needs a haircut, and the spotlight looks like a prison break
cause the telephone's out of cigarettes, and the balcony's on the make
and the piano has been drinking
the piano has been drinking...
 
and you can't find your waitress, with a Geiger counter
and she hates you and your friends and you just
can't get served without her
and the box-office is drooling, and the bar stools are on fire
and the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
 
the piano has been drinking
the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking
not me, not me, not me, not me, not me...
 
'Nuff said.