The Rolling Stones

I think I remember them. They were big in the 80s, right?

I think so. Although the album I'm listening to came out in 1968. So they must have been toiling in obscurity for decades!

eta: See, now the singer is singing about doing a jigsaw puzzle. No wonder they weren't popular back then. (For the record, I gave that song four stars.)

Speaking of the Rolling Stones the outtakes and sessions for Let It Bleed are fantastic. They could do no wrong at that point.

Cool fanvid to the Stones "Sway" using early Marianne Faithfull footage.

Mick Taylor, great Stones guitarist or the Greatest Stones guitarist?

(That's him playing on the entire track except for some sloppy rhythm guitar from Mick.)

Am now listening to Ram. I'm pretty sure I haven't heard "Too Many People" since the early '70s. Huh. (Just thinking about music, memory and aging....)

I was listening to it because I've been going through a lot of amazing yet slightly oddball 70s pop. 10cc and pre-New Wave Split Enz, late Hollies, Dennis Wilson's stunning "River Song," Badfinger, Colin Blunstone's (lead singer with the Zombies) first solo album.

It was just such a wide open period in pop music after the Beatles and the Beach Boys innovations.

It was just such a wide open period in pop music after the Beatles and the Beach Boys innovations.

I think the opposite happened to "alternative music" after Nirvana sold 12 million copies of Nevermind. Alternative music seemed more homogeneous after that.

I think the opposite happened to "alternative music" after Nirvana sold 12 million copies of Nevermind. Alternative music seemed more homogeneous after that.

I agree.

My other seventies thing right now is a mix titled "Ballrooms of Mars and other Glam Rock Ballads." Which (in my mind) should be Jill Tracy's next album -- all covers while she takes her sweet time writing new songs. I mean what's more dark cabaret than doing Bowie's "Time" or "Lady Grinning Soul"?

It was just such a wide open period in pop music after the Beatles and the Beach Boys innovations.

Among other influences -- any mainstream that can accommodate, say, Sly and the Family Stone, the 1910 Fruitgum Company, Glen Campbell, and Cream (just to touch the surface) is a very broad stream. It's one of the things I love about late '60s pop.

Then you get to 1974, when just about anything could -- and did -- make the charts.

Then you get to 1974, when just about anything could -- and did -- make the charts.

In the 60s, both rock and r&b could coexist in the top 40, but by the early 70s, music started to fragment. Rock music had become album oriented, with many artists, most notably Led Zeppelin, not even bothering to release singles.

R&B music had given way to Funk, but it's complicated syncopation and explicit Black Power message limited its ability to crossover.

This kind of left a void in the top 40, which would eventually be filled by Disco -- a dumbed-down version of Funk palatable to white audiences. But in 1974, Disco was still in its early stages, which meant that a whole lot of schlock ended up on the charts in 1974.