1979, what a time to be alive. While the Cold War is going strong, ESPN launches onto cable television, the Sahara Desert gets 30 minutes of snow, the Three Mile Island Nuclear accident, and Sony introduces the world to the first Walkman at the incredible price of just $200. 1979 was also a great year for music. We are bringing back the hard rock, punk, and disco tunes that got you through the long weeks, and all too short weekends. Got great memories? Share them with us in the comment section below. Enjoy.
London Calling – The Clash
Certified Platinum, and over 5 million copies sold. London Calling is one of the finest rock albums, from one of the best bands. Pitchfork ranks London Calling 2nd on their list of Top 100 albums of the 1970’s, and NME ranks it 6th. John Rockwell of The New York Timeswrote, “this is an album that captures all the Clash’s primal energy, combines it with a brilliant production job by Guy Stevens and reveals depths of invention and creativity barely suggested by the band’s previous work.”
Entertainment – Gang of Four
Entertainment is Gang of Four’s debut album, and what a way to enter the scene. This post-punk is ranked 8th on Pitchforks Top 100 albums of the 1970’s, and has had great influence on artists around the world. Arguably the most famous being Kurt Cobain, who listed Entertainment as one of his top 50 albums of all time.
Unknown Pleasures – Joy Divisions
Joy Division's debut album Unknown Pleasures is third on our list, and fittingly ranked 9th on Pitchfork’s Top 100 albums of the 1970’s, right behind Gang of Four’s Entertainment. Jon Savage, music critic for Melody Maker called Unknown Pleasures “opaque manifesto…[leaving] the twentieth century is difficult; most people prefer to go back and nostalgize, Oh boy. Joy Division at least set a course in the present with contrails for the future—perhaps you can’t ask for much more.”
Fear of Music – Talking Heads
The Talking Head’s third album Fear of Music, is the first non-British album on the list, and is quite different than their previous albums. Fear of Music combines funk and unorthodox rhythms, with traditional rock instrumentation, pushing people out of their comfort zones in an approachable way. In an interview with Rolling Stone, lead singer David Byrne said “We’re in a funny position, It wouldn’t please us to make music that’s impossible to listen to, but we don’t want to compromise for the sake of popularity.”
Highway to Hell – AC/DC
Highway to Hell is a bitter-sweet record. There’s nothing wrong with the album - on the contrary it’s amazing - but it would be the last AC/DC album to feature lead singer Bon Scott, who died just 6 months after it’s release. Highway to Hell is AC/DC’s second highest grossing album only behind Back in Black, and is highly regarded as one of the best rock albums of all time.
The Wall – Pink Floyd
The Wall has sold a staggering 15 million copies. It is Pink Floyd’s 11th studio release, and in traditional Pink Floyd fashion, is a concept album, but more specifically a rock opera. The narrative follows Pink, isolated and abandoned after his father dies in WWII, Pink eventually becomes a rock star and slips into a life of drugs, infidelity, and violence, all of which are bricks in the symbolic wall. The Wall is Pink Floyd’s second best performing album, trailing the legendary, Dark Side of the Moon.
Off the Wall – Michael Jackson
Off the Wall was Michael Jackson’s breakthrough, and followed his performance as the Scarecrow in The Wiz. Off the Wall won 3 American Music Awards, and the album’s first song “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” won the Grammy for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that Off the Wall is “…the album that established him as an artist of astonishing talent and a bright star in his own right. This was a visionary album, a record that found a way to break disco wide open into a new world where the beat was undeniable.“
Rust Never Sleeps – Neil Young and Crazy Horse
The title of the album “Rust Never Sleeps“, is a reference to Neil Young’s thought that artists, especially he and his band Crazy Horse, needed to avoid complacency while performing live, by trying to make performances more theatrical. The album was recorded live while on tour, and then later overdubbed to remove crowd noise, and improve sound quality. Rust Never Sleeps is half acoustic half electric, starting and finishing the album with two very different versions of “Hey Hey, My My“.
Breakfast in America – Supertramp
Supertramp’s sixth album, Breakfast in America, is the winner of two Grammy’s and 4X Platinum Certification, selling over 6 million copies in the US alone. Stephen Holden of Rolling Stone called Breakfast in America, “a textbook-perfect album of post-Beatles, keyboard-centered English art rock that strikes the shrewdest possible balance between quasi-symphonic classicism and rock & roll … the songs here are extraordinarily melodic and concisely structured, reflecting these musicians’ saturation in American pop since their move to Los Angeles in 1977.“
Metal Box – Public Image Ltd.
Metal Box was first released in 1979, then re-released in 1980 as Second Edition in the US and UK, so it is technically from 1979. The album is darker and less agressive than Public Image’s first album, First Issue. Mark Ward of Drowned in Sound stated that, “[Metal Box] tears away from Lydon’s sweaty punk roots and into the cold chambers of dub evoked by Can, the more outré electronics of Bowie’s Berlin years and the coruscating post-punk sound that guitarist Levene was in the process of pioneering.