OOH, good call! 1979

Also good call, Jesse

I thought it was from around that time! I remember sitting in my dad's car with my sister, stepmom, and stepsiblings, driving to Great America for the day and all of us singing that song along with the radio at the top of our lungs. Well, all of us except Dad and Barb--I'm sure they were wincing in the front seat.

Oh, mama, I am here on the lam
And have a hiiiigh price on my heeeead
Lawman said Get him dead or alive
And it's for sure he'll see me deeeead

Bootsy Collins launches world's first online "University of Funk"

Legendary funk music pioneer Bootsy Collins (best known for performing with James Brown in the '60s, and Parliament/Funkadelic in the '70s), has announced that he will soon open "the world's first Funk University for bass players of planet Earth." Classes start on July 1, 2010, and will be geared towards intermediate to advanced level bass guitar players. Snip:

Because a groove is a terrible thing to waste, this sonic learning institution will be unlike anything before, as Professor Collins and the finest bassists in music will unleash an intense curriculum, on the web, for intermediate to advanced funk disciples within the program.

Henry Rollins’ Rock Star Advice (PIC)

If you were putting together a 70s play list, what would be on it?

It would depend on what I was putting it together for. But a few that I think belong and haven't been mentioned above:

The Spinners, maybe "Games People Play"
Paul McCartney, probably from Band on the Run -- I suspect most people would pick the title track, but I'd go with "Jet"
Dawn -- "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree" or "Knock Three Times"
BeeGees -- "Staying' Alive" or "Jive Talkin'"
Cher, with or without Sonny -- "A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done" or "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves"
"Alone Again, Naturally" (as I may have said before, nothing like the '70s for songs that you either love as tearjerkers or hate as oversentimental claptrap)

I suspect most people would pick the title track, but I'd go with "Jet"

Both excellent songs though I'm partial to "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Roll It To Me."

I've mostly been listening to 70s music lately but it's kind of obscure so I don't know if it would Signify Seventies in the way you want. But here's my latest playlist, Mr. Soft's Curiosty Poppe (all 70s):

Bitters End - Roxy Music
Them Heavy People - Kate Bush
The Hell of It - Paul Williams
Biting My Nails - Genevieve Waite
Matinee Idyll (129) - Split Enz
Champagne In The Starlight - Theo Sherman
Surreal Estate - Be Bop Deluxe
Cindy Tells Me - Brian Eno
Mr Soft - Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
Barbecutie - Sparks
My Mistake - Split Enz
Moustaches On The Moon - Fox
River Song - Dennis Wilson
Summer Love - Almond Marzipan
Nowhere To Go - Graham Gouldman
Love Is In Motion - Stories
With my Face on the Floor - Emitt Rhodes
Beautiful Daughter - The Move
I Shall Call Her Mary - Montage
Grey Seal - Elton John
Clockwork Creep - 10cc
I Think Of Her - Colours
Dear Boy - Paul & Linda McCartney
A Glass of Champagne - Sailor
Magpie - Murgatroyd Band

It's a mixture of arty pop like 10cc and Split Enz and Sparks with some glam ballads and solo Beatles/Solo Beach Boys close harmonies. All very pretty and melodic but skewed in lyrics and with a tendency to off-kilter rhythms. Couple songs by Michael Brown with his post-Left Banke bands, Montage and Stories, showing off his extravagant gift for melodies.

That Paul Williams songs is from the Phantom of the Paradise soundtrack. That band Colours is one that we covered in the Lost in the Grooves book - a real find. That song's as gorgeous as a lost Beatles track. "Magpie" is the theme song to a 70s British children's TV show. ("One for sorrow / two for joy...") The 10cc song (one of Emmett's recent favorites) is sung from the point of view of a bomb about to go off in a plane. With the plane singing back. "River Song" by Dennis Wilson is a flat out masterpiece.

The Hell of It - Paul Williams

I love this. Actually, I love everything on that list I recognize (and pretty much everything I recognize, I own). Bonus point from me for the Be-Bop Deluxe mention.

It's a surprisingly likeable mix. Both JZ and Emmett like it which surprised me, but it's all very catchy.

The AV Club interviews P.J. Soles, mostly about R&RHS: [link]

Mick Jagger talks downloading and piracy on 40th anniversary of "Exile on Main Street"

BBC: What's your feeling on technology and music?

Jagger: Technology and music have been together since the beginning of recording. [The internet is] just one facet of the technology of music. Music has been aligned with technology for a long time. The model of records and record selling is a very complex subject and quite boring, to be honest.

BBC: But your view is valid because you have a huge catalogue, which is worth a lot of money, and you've been in the business a long time, so you have perspective.

Jagger: Well, it's all changed in the last couple of years. We've gone through a period where everyone downloaded everything for nothing and we've gone into a grey period it's much easier to pay for things - assuming you've got any money.

BBC: Are you quite relaxed about it?

Jagger: I am quite relaxed about it. But, you know, it is a massive change and it does alter the fact that people don't make as much money out of records. But I have a take on that - people only made money out of records for a very, very small time. When The Rolling Stones started out, we didn't make any money out of records because record companies wouldn't pay you! They didn't pay anyone!

Then, there was a small period from 1970 to 1997, where people did get paid, and they got paid very handsomely and everyone made money. But now that period has gone. So if you look at the history of recorded music from 1900 to now, there was a 25 year period where artists did very well, but the rest of the time they didn't.