IT WAS 50 YEARS AGO TODAY Greatest Albums Of 1971
20 PICKS FROM 1971
Richard Barrett has created 20 studies from 10 of 1971’s top albums, including Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, James Taylor, Yes & more.
“If you were into contemporary music in 1971, chances are you’d have owned most, if not all, of the albums covered in this feature”
In this fantastic feature celebrating one of the best years ever for guitar albums, Richard Barrett invites you back to 1971 to look at the diverse electric and acoustic styles that were heard for the very first time.
If you were into contemporary music in 1971, chances are you’d have owned most, if not all, of the albums covered in this feature. To talk through them in the order they were released: The Yes Album hit the stores in February - their first with Steve Howe, who brought his love of jazz, country and ragtime, and not the prevailing blues influence of the day - you won’t hear much in the way of string bends and vibrato, but who cares when the music is this interesting?
James Taylor’s Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon followed in March, demonstrating his adept fingerstyle acoustic as the centrepiece of a dream team, including the Memphis Horns, Carole King and Leland Sklar. Meanwhile, in Birmingham Tony Iommi had been laying down unimaginably heavy riffs for Black Sabbath’s Master Of Reality - though like many albums of this era, there was the occasional acoustic interlude.
In July The Allman Brothers released Live At Fillmore East. Tracks like Statesboro Blues and Stormy Monday showed British record buyers that there great white blues guitarists other than Clapton, Green and Page.
Shortly thereafter, Funkadelic guitarists Eddie Hazel and Tawl Ross demonstrated how funk could be just as heavy on Maggot Brain, featuring funky riffs and blistering driven solos. At the end of that summer, John MacLaughlin and The Mahavishnu Orchestra released The Inner Mounting Flame, combining advanced, exotic harmony with scorching guitar solos on a Gibson twin-neck. It was the birth of fusion before our very eyes.
A few days later came Who’s Next - a giant leap forward for the band and the first to feature Pete Townshend’s powerchords along with pre-recorded synth tracks (fairly common nowadays, but then necessitating that Keith Moon tape on headphones to hear and play along in time!). Carlos Santana also made a definitive statement with his band’s third album, including his take on Fleetwood Mac’s Black Magic Woman, though he clearly liked his rock riffs too, as tracks such as Batuka so ably demonstrate.
Pink Floyd had also been busy - Meddle pre-empted Dark Side Of The Moon in many ways, though David Gilmour showed he could conjure up a Hendrix type storm on Echoes. Towards the end of the year, Led Zeppelin released their fourth, untitled album with Jimmy Page still finding new ways to mix light and shade, as well as experimenting with direct distorted guitars on Black Dog. If there is a thread that links these albums (apart from their year of release) it must surely be the diversity of the music, not only from album to album, but from track to track on each one.
Tony Iommi’s delicate fingerstyle acoustic on Black Sabbath’s Orchid could not be more different from the riffing on Children Of The Grave or Sweet Leaf. Pete Townshend’s powerchords on Won’t Get Fooled again belie the intricacy and accuracy of his acoustic playing on Behind Blue Eyes.
I’ve tried to show similar contrast for each album covered here; with such a wealth of music to choose from, somebody’s favourite is bound to be missing from these, but there’s certainly a lot to learn about composition, versatility and good old fashioned technique, so I hope you enjoy the examples!