The 1970s. What a weird time in music. There was metal, post-punk, and disco, and then sometimes they bled into each other.
The decade wasn't always beautiful, but many times it was original. Even if sometimes that did not mean the music was better overall at the time, what was being made likely influenced some excellence of the future.
The following five tracks were fantastic, however. Maybe they should not have been and some are exceedingly weird. But each is more than worth a few hundred listens.
Five astonishingly great songs from the 1970s
Boston - "More Than a Feeling" (1976)
Here is the premise. Take a student from MIT who is ridiculously smart, but a bit nerdy, and then have that kid eventually find his way into a recording studio with some mates and have them do a take on Phil Spector. In essence, that is what Boston was doing on this track. Layering guitars put up a Spector-style wall-of-sound, one that Billy Corgan would later use for the excellent Smashing Pumpkins album, Siamese Dream. Boston didn't just produce some good tunes, they inspired others.
Founding member Tom Scholz had already gotten a master's degree from MIT in mechanical engineering before Boston was created, but there is little doubt all of Scholz's math skills parlayed themselves into meticulous rock songs that other bands did not make the same way. While the music was bombastic, though, vocalist Brad Delp added a falsetto that seemed unreal.
There might be many who do not like Boston and this song in particular. Maybe the track comes across as a bit too perfect. That is not to mean that people are not smart for disliking the song; each person has their own truth and good for them. But is there a more fun song to sing as loudly as possible in your car while driving or at a party that has lasted too late? Unlikely. Plus, those hand claps...