How Good Was The Year (in music) - 1973?

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After 1998 makes it in to the top ten by the skin of its teeth, the HGWTY thread series casts our ears back to 1973.

A reminder of the premise of the thread

After a period of posting and reminiscing, Polls will be posted to rate the music of the year out of ten (based on the albums, singles, gigs, whatever that stand out for you that year) and voting for your favourite of the nominated albums and songs.

Everyone can nominate one album and one song from the year which will then be collated into side-polls which will be open for a few days - please make it clear when you post a nomination for the poll (as opposed to when just posting about songs and albums you like, which are very welcome).

Leaderboard
Rank Year Rating Top Album Top Song
1 1994 9.46 Portishead - Dummy Beastie Boys - Sabotage
2 1991 8.98 Slint - Spiderland Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
3 1988 8.93 Pixies - Surfer Rosa Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Mercy Street
4 1968 8.67 Van Morrison - Astral Weeks Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman
5 1997 8.6 Radiohead - OK Computer The Beta Band - Dry The Rain
6 1967 8.48 Love - Forever Changes Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Some Velvet Morning
7 1995 8.45 Radiohead - The Bends The Smashing Pumpkins - 1975
8 1977 8.41 Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express Donna Summer - I Feel Love
9 1969 8.35 The Velvet Underground The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
10 1998 8.3 Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children Massive Attack – Teardrop
11 2013 8.29 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Jubilee Street
11 1992 8.29 Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted Pulp - Babies
13 2019 8.14 Self Esteem - Compliments Please Big Thief - Not
14 2007 8.13 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver / Radiohead - In Rainbows LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends / M.I.A. - Paper Planes
14 1975 8.13 Neil Young - Tonight’s the Night / Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Cortez the Killer
16 2004 8.1 Madvillain - Madvillainy / Arcade Fire - Funeral The Walkmen - The Rat
16 2001 8.1 The Strokes - Is This It Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope) / Mogwai - My Father My King
18 2002 8.06 Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge
18 1981 8.06 The Cure - Faith New Order - Ceremony
20 1979 7.96 Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures Joy Division - Transmission
21 1982 7.76 The Cure - Pornography / Kate Bush - The Dreaming The Associates - Party Fears Two
22 2014 7.69 FKA Twigs - LP1 FKA Twigs - Two Weeks
23 2010 7.66 Kanye West - MBDTF / Joanna Newsom - Have One One Me / Beach House - Teen Dream Robyn - Dancing On My Own
24 1970 7.61 Neil Young - After the Goldrush Curtis Mayfield - Move on Up
25 1972 7.53 Can - Ebe Gamyasi Stevie Wonder - Superstition
26 1976 7.47 David Bowie - Station to Station Bob Dylan - Hurricane
26 1990 7.47 Sonic Youth - Goo The Cure - Pictures of You
28 2015 7.44 Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell Sufjan Stevens - No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross
29 1986 7.42 Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
30 2005 7.39 Sufjan Stevens - Illinois Amerie - 1 Thing
31 1965 7.38 The Beatles - Rubber Soul Frank Wilson - Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)
32 2017 7.36 Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent Kendrick Lamar - Humble
33 1987 7.32 Sonic Youth - Sister The Cure - Just Like Heaven
34 1999 7.3 Mogwai - Come On Die Young Björk - All Is Full Of Love
35 2006 7.28 J Dilla - Donuts TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
36 1983 7.26 REM - Murmur Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding
37 2009 7.1 Fever Ray - Fever Ray Animal Collective - My Girls
38 1974 6.95 Neil Young - On The Beach Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - The Bottle
39 2011 6.88 PJ Harvey - Let England Shake Low - Especially Me
40 1963 6.57 Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan The Ronettes -Be My Baby
41 1985 6.53 Tom Waits - Rain Dogs Prince and the Revolution - Raspberry Beret
42 1962 6 Howlin’ Wolf - Howlin’ Wolf Dick Dale - Misirlou
43 1961 5.16 John Coltrane - My Favourite Things Roy Orbison - Crying

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1973 was the year when the ruling of Roe v. Wade constitutionalised rights of abortion in the USA for the first time, Great Britain, Ireland and Denmark (coincidentally the three countries I could have played football for if I could play football) entered the European Economic Community, general Augusto Pinochet took power on Chile, Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in tennis’s ‘Battle of the Sexes’ and Sacheen Littlefeather stood in for Marlon Brando at the Oscars to refuse his best actor prize in protest of the government’s treatment of native Americans.

We said goodbye to Pablo Picasso, Bruce Lee, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lyndon B. Johnson, Veronica Lake and Betty Grable, and hello to Heidi Klum, Pharrell Williams, George Floyd, Tyra Banks, Roberto Carlos, Adrian Brody, Monica Seles and Peter Andre.

But how good was the music?

There will be a week or two to nominate one album and/or one song which will then go into polls along with a number rating poll for year overall out of 10, which will close a few days later. Please state when something you share is a nomination so I can catch it for the poll, but feel free to share as much as you wish during the thread!

Some lists for inspiration:

https://www.besteveralbums.com/yearstats.php?y=1973

https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/1973/

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/ratings/6-highest-rated/1973/1

https://www.acclaimedmusic.net/year/1973a.htm

These classic 1973 albums turn 50 in 2023

The 25 Best Albums of 1973

https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/single/1973/

https://www.acclaimedmusic.net/year/1973s.htm

Rob Sheffield's 98 Best Songs of 1998

Nominations will be tallied here as the week goes on:

Album Nominations

Song Nominations

2

Time Fades Away is a Top 5 Neil Young album, imo (although there are probably about 10 of those). Reckon people don’t pay it as much attention as it would get if it was considered a studio album [edit: or if Neil had had it reissued sooner], but it was all previously unreleased. Up there with Tonight’s the Night and On the Beach

3 Likes
3

Album Nomination - John Martyn – Solid Air

7 Likes
4

I’d be lying to myself and the rest of you if I didn’t

Nominate album: Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon

Not even my favourite record of theirs, but certainly one of their all-timers, and the first post-Barrett album where it feels like they’d fully found their voice again. A rare album that spoke to me age 14 and still speaks to me now.

10 Likes
5

Bowing to Musikland’s superior booking policy here.

Nominate album: Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

Nominate song: Ike & Tina Turner - Nutbush City Limits

5 Likes
6

Nominate album. Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

8 Likes
7

Going to think about my album nomination for a bit longer, but as for the song…

Nominate song: Martha by Tom Waits

7 Likes
8

Nominate album. Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure

5 Likes
9

Nominate album Gram Parsons - ‘GP’

5 Likes
10

Nominate song
Stevie Wonder - He’s Misstra Know-It-All

6 Likes
11

May be one of the best albums ever made, everyone else can go home, this thread should be closed.

2 Likes
12

Album nomination - Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters

8 Likes
13

It may be true that in 1973 I wasn’t legally allowed to open my own bank account without a man’s signature, that I would have been de-facto barred from many of the jobs I’ve had over the past 5 years and where I did work I would have had to put up with earning around 30% less than my male counterparts (which was entirely the case in the historical incarnations of my roles until the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 came into force) but what a year in music it was imo.

I was going to wait to do my album nomination and see what others put forward but I’ve just stuck it on and there can only be one

Nominate album Faust - Faust IV

My list for 1973 is pretty pale, male and stale, especially male. I hope this thread can shout out some other genders.

6 Likes
14

Raw Power was pretty good, I guess

1 Like
15

Nominate Album: Bob Marley & The Wailers - African Herbsman

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The recordings The Wailers made with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry in 1970-71 are some of the greatest recordings in Jamaican music (and music in general) imo. Combination of three incredibly talented musicians and songwriters (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, all of whom would go on to achieve massive success as solo artists in later years) and a visionary producer right at the start of one of the most extraordinary runs any producer has ever had.

Just some of my absolute favourite music. Would massively recommend to anyone who has hit saturation point with the Island hits / albums (not me at all, but I know for a lot of people they suffer from being overplayed). Pretty much perfect

4 Likes
16

Nominate album: Betty Davis - Betty Davis

I love her. The run of albums starting with this debut is so brilliant. So funky and raw and sexually confident, unapologetic and in-your-face. Members of The Family Stone in the band, The Pointer Sisters and Sylvester among the backing vocalists, her look is iconic, but it’s her voice that’s the star imo - her fully committed growls and yelps are so great but I love her soulful range too. One of the all-time funk artists with one of the all-time funk albums.

5 Likes
17

Nominate song: Ann Peebles - I Can’t Stand The Rain

From the 1974 album; released as a single in 1973. Memphis soul perfection on Hi Records.

5 Likes
18

The O’Jays narrowly missing out on nominations in both polls for me. Ship Ahoy an incredible album; the title track, For The Love of Money and Now That We Found Love all good candidates for a song nomination.

1 Like
19

Bruce Springsteen’s first AND second albums both came out in 1973. I’ve just revisited both of them and though I suspect this is not a popular opinion, I think I like the first one a tiny bit more.

Nominate album: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. by Bruce Springsteen

20

Album nomination: John Cale - Paris 1919

Song nomination: Elton John - Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding

10 Likes