Those Who Lived Through the 70s are Bound to Relive It
I have to admit something. Maybe I sneak listens to my nephew's Linkin Park CDs, and maybe I buy the occasional Everlast, and maybe I make my occasional hip-hop excursion, and maybe I spend a lot of time wallowing in the synthetica of 80s bands, and maybe I pay my homage to Eno and the new wavers...but truth to tell, I am a child of the early 70s. Despite my subsequent excursions, my earliest musical influences were based on early 70s AM radio. WEAM and WPGC ruled for me.

To put this in context, I was of the generation that discovered that the lead singer of Wings had been in another band in the 1960s. As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up. I "discovered" the Beatles *after* I had heard "Band on the Run."

So, what was early 70s music like? Courtesy Best Buy and Windows Media Player, you can hear samples for yourself. The album "Groups That Rocked The 70's" gives a pretty good view of what some of the music sounded like at the time.

I first found this album at the Best Buy website via a site search for the old Sailcat hit "Motorcycle Mama." I loved this song back when I was yay big, especially the end - "if the chain don't break."

A lot of these groups are the groups where you don't know the name of the group, and you may or may not know the name of the song, but (if you're of a certain age) you certainly recognize the hit. "Ride Captain Ride" falls into this category, as does "Hitchin' a Ride." If you ask me five minutes from now who sang either of these songs, I won't be able to tell you. Same with "Little Willy" and "Come and Get Your Love," or (in my case) even "Sooner or Later."

Certain other groups are more recognizable - I can tell you who sang "Come and Get It" (they were somehow connected with that Wings dude), as well as "Indian Reservation."

If you take all the songs on this album, and then throw a few George Harrison songs in, you'll get a good feel for the early 70s AM radio that I loved.