Mainstream

As happens when any new product hits the market, rock was initially an "either you like it or you don't" kind of music - it was easy for super stars like Elvis or the Beatles to become the "it" thing. But by the 1970s, as we've seen with the art rock and jazz rock and acid rock and all that, the "genre" had exploded into many many many different categories. This was somewhat paralleled by culture. Look at the choices in TV channels - we went from 3 channels to up to 40 with cable offerings in the 70s (although I remember growing up with around 10-11 channels in the 1980s). Similar expansions happened with food and magazines and books, and pretty much every aspect of life.

However, as a counter, the rock industry was controlled by only six major companies, whose idea of success was to have bands who fit into one of the many categories, and stay within that category to produce reliable and consistent sales. So for a lot of the music of this decade was a continuation of previous styles, with the addition of new electronic synthesizers.

So we have the contradiction of great breadth and depth of artists and styles, but very little evolution or experimentation. This is where a lot of our "classic rock" hits come from - they are a refinement or "second version" of previous styles.

This whole section will be broken into four topics over the next two weeks. This week, we start with Mainstream styles.

British Mainstream, continued.

The original British invasion by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and others were followed by a second wave with The Who, The Moody Blues, ELP, Deep Purple, Genesis, Yes. We need to add to that Eric Clapton and Fleetwood Mac.

We may have heard Clapton incidentally earlier with the Beatles (he was friends with George Harrison and played guitar on a couple of Beatles tunes like "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"), he was of course on his own trajectory. First joining the Yardbirds for one album, he gained greater popularity with his work with Cream (1967-1969), which lasted 2 years before creating Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos, before going solo in 1974. Eric Clapton is a blues guitarist and vocalist, and part of the reason he went through so many bands was his severe drug issues and womanizing issues (including with George Harrison's wife Patti).

With that said, here are some of the hits from the late 60s and early 70s:

• Cream - Sunshine of Your Love - One of the most famous guitar riffs ever starts this one.
• Cream - Crossroads - And the remake of the Robert Johnson "Crossroads" blues song (remember from the first week?), just electrified and rockified.

Derek and the Dominos most famous hit:

• Layla - with the extended guitar solo over a completely different piano based section at the end. This was used in the movie Goodfellas.

Eric Clapton's first solo hit:

• I Shot the Sheriff

For contrast purposes, here's the original:

• I Shot the Sheriff - Bob Marley

Another big Eric Clapton solo hit was cover of this song:

• Cocaine

Finally, many many years later, in 1991, his four year old son fell from a 53rd story balcony and died. The story surrounding it all is tragic. You can read more here, but be prepared for some big sadness. Clapton ended up writing music for a film called Rush, and wrote a song about Connor for the soundtrack. However, it was his live version on MTV Unplugged that made it a huge hit.

• Tears in Heaven, or you can watch the video instead: Tears in Heaven Video (youtube link)

Fleetwood Mac

Like many of the British bands before, Fleetwood Mac started in one style, but found great success once they transitioned.

Formed by drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, they were a blues band that found good success in England, but virtually none in the US. Later they added Danny Kirwan as yet another guitarist and songwriter. Trying to keep track of which one or two or three of them was playing and recording with the band from the late 60s till the early 70s is a bit complicated. Suffice it to say that drugs, alcohol, and religious distractions were a problem. They eventually added Bob Welsh as a guitarist.

John McVie's wife, Christine McVie, joined the band and played keyboards and sang on some of the studio sessions and added a softer sound to the band. She eventually wrote quite a few of the hit songs.

Already a soap opera story, the whole sordid history of Fleetwood Mac could take a while to chronicle.  Probably best to just read the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleetwood_Mac

Eventually, Mick Fleetwood found himself in an LA recording studio looking for a replacement guitarist, and heard "Frozen Love" (not available on Spotify, so it's a local file) by Buckingham/Nicks, specifically the guitar solo part near the end.

Hearing this, he wanted to get Lindsey Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac. Lindsey was in a relationship with Stevie (Stephanie) Nicks at the time, and she tells the story of how she bought all the existing Fleetwood Mac albums, listened to them all to see if they could contribute to the band. She thought so, and Lindsey told Mick Fleetwood that he would join only if Stevie was also included. The band hemmed and hawed, but ended up adding the pair which would be the lineup that ended up being one of the best selling bands of all time.

The new album Fleetwood Mac (1975) moved the band to the softer side, and produced several singles.

But also showed Stevie Nicks' songwriting and performance chops (Rhiannon): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuTzAha1t80

Audio only link: Rhiannon

But then the McVies got a divorce, Lindsey and Stevie broke up, and they put all that negative energy into Rumours (1976) which ended up being one of the best selling albums of all time, with the #1 single Dreams, which is still the only #1 single the band has had.

You might recognize it from this tiktok video that became viral in 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtzVKUCZE5w

Lindsey contributed several songs including "Go Your Own Way".

Christine McVie contributed several songs including "Don't Stop", which was used in President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1992.

• Dreams
• Go Your Own Way
• Don't Stop

With the mega hit of Rumours, almost all of the band wanted to follow it up with another similar album. Lindsey, being a forceful personality, wanted to take it in another direction, and the result was Tusk, featuring very very different sounds and styles.

For the title track, they used the USC marching band to provide backing horns:

• Tusk

Here's another one of Lindsey's tracks that was influenced by the nascent punk movement, and kind of presaged a lot of later songs in that movement, called

• The Ledge

Tusk is a great album if you like Lindsey's experimental style. If you were a Christine or Stevie fan, not so much.

Eventually after a few more albums, the group broke up in 1987, and had a reunion concert in 1997 called The Dance, which was the #1 selling music DVD for a while, which included the Stevie Nicks song "Silver Springs" that was cut from Rumours at the last minute. Many fans agree that this was a travesty, as it is probably one of her best songs with the band. Below is a video from the 1997 concert recording, where the song got it's first widespread distribution (yes, they used to perform this live on some of the Rumours tour stops, but this is the first album inclusion) 21+ years after it was written.

https://youtu.be/eDwi-8n054s?list=RDeDwi-8n054s

And here's the original audio that was cut from the 1976 Rumours album:

• Silver Springs

Aside from all that, back in the early 80s all three of the main songwriters from Fleetwood Mac explored solo ventures, with Stevie being the most successful. She had a lot of hits like:

• Edge of Seventeen.
• Stop Dragging My Heart Around (feat. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers),
• Leather and Lace
• Stand Back

and more.

Elton John

Elton is known for his flamboyant costumes and softer rock styles, and achieved his first success with "Your Song" due to massive PR efforts to get it played, but once it was played, his name and music became known. He achieved peak popularity in the early to mid 1970s, and had a resurgence in 1990s.

• Your Song
• Rocket Man
• Candle in the Wind (live, at Princess Diana's funeral in 1997): https://youtu.be/1o9rLDCfO6o?t=60
• Circle of Life from the "Lion King".

Creedence Clearwater Revival

This is a band that when I first heard their music, I thought "how did I not know of them before?" Their music seemed perfect for the era they were popular in, but also perfect for my adolescence in the 90s. They came out of San Francisco, but not of the Grateful Dead / SF hippie style at all. You can hear a bit of Janis Joplin in John Fogerty's vocal styles (vocal fry or raspy-ness), especially Fortunate Son.

• Fortunate Son (used in every movie about the Vietnam War it seems):
• Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
• Proud Mary

Doobie Brothers

A softer take on American Pop, the Doobie Brothers had a variety of personnel. Here's one of their early hits:

• Listen to the Music

Keyboardist/Vocalist Michael McDonald joined them in late 1972 after "Listen to the Music" was released, adding sophistication to their harmonies and sounds, one of the big hits from this lineup was:

• Takin' it to the Streets

Psychedelic Soul

Sly and the Family Stone

This was a bit of a combination of other styles to create this new style: psychedelic soul.

• Everyday People
• Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

Southern Rock

Allman Brothers

• Ramblin' Man
• Whipping Post - the opening is in 11/8 time, before it switches to 12/8 time for the verse and chorus.

Lynryd Skynyrd

What can you say about this group? Probably the most famous of Southern Rock groups, they were known as a great live band. Unfortunately, vocalist Ronnie Van Zant and two other band members were killed in a plane crash (as seems common for rock acts on the way up). They reformed 10 years later with his younger brother taking the lead vocal duties, and still record and tour today.

• Sweet Home Alabama - Their most famous song
• Free Bird
• What's Your Name - Slightly creepy (by modern standards).

Mainstream US/UK

Foreigner - the last band in this tour of mainstream bands was made up of 3 Americans, and 3 Englishmen.

They had a big hit in the late 70s with that most overused of cliches:

• (You're) as Cold As Ice

They had another monster hit in 1981 with their album 4, and the single below was probably their biggest hit:

• I Want to Know What Love Is