James Taylor, Jim Croce etc...

osubuc45

osubuc45

Active Member
OK, from what I have heard, college classes, reading articles, etc, the "soft rock" sound was huge in the early mid 70's. My question is how did the music community, and overall society view these type of artists at that time. I know it is a wierd question, but were these guys thought of as "cheesey" or "wimpy" in a way Kenny G was thought of in the 90's, or did people actually consider them brilliant, just a little on the passive side?

Thanks as I was just a baby/young kid in the 70's. I always wonder what it was "really" like.
 
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Cool, for the most part, especially if you were talking to chicks.:naughty: Carpenters, Captain and Tenille, Barry Manilow, Donny and Marie...:thumbsdown:
 
They were considered brilliant in my view and a fast track to the love shack with the ladies. When I was in grade 9 I played "Time In a Bottle" by Jim Croce on my guitar for a babe in grade 11. I bagged the babe she dumped her grade 12 quarterback boyfriend for me and after highschool we lived together for 6 yrs. :thumbsup:
 
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PAGS said:
Cool, for the most part, especially if you were talking to chicks.:naughty: Carpenters, Captain and Tenille, Barry Manilow, Donny and Marie...:thumbsdown:
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I agree, except about the part about the Carpenters. Karen probably had the best pure singing voice ever, in my humble opinion. Granted, they had plenty of sappy, syrupy songs.
 
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Those are the type of answers I wanted to hear, thanks. I think it will be neat in 20 years if someone asks me how big was U2, Prince, Nirvana etc....
 
James Taylor's earlier albums like "Sweet Baby James" were masterpieces and more in the folk rock songwriter tradition than wimpy soft rock. Dylan was definitely folk (but I wouldn't call it soft) before he went rock. Jim Croce died young which is always a great career move and he had some decent songs. Certainly Steely Dan music could be called soft rock but their lyrics were anything but soft and they had a good run of some excellent albums, they still sound good today. Even The Carpenters were often considered somewhat wimpy soft rock but their reputation has certainly improved with time. The Carpenters had some great songs which even hipsters today can admit they like. Joni Mitchell has a softer folk rock sound, she is one my favorite lyrists and I have never heard anyone call her wimpy or cheesy. John Denver he can go both way, we could debate that.
 
The easy listening category was divided up by ability...

People like James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Stevens and Jim Croce who played an acoustical guitar as solo artists were highly revered because of their skill to sing and entertain only using a box guitar....as they called it back then. Then you had the greats like Carol King, Elton John, Billy Joel, Paul Simon and Carly Simon that were superb harmonizing with the use of stand up pianos. Many feel that the voice quality of Karen Karpenter has never been matched by anyone....ever !

Then you had the miraculous duos of Loogins and Messina vs. Seals and Crofts....

In the seventies, many metal groups were putting out easy listening jams to include Kansas "Dust In The Wind"!. The group Foreigner, album Foreigner 4.......that came out with the jam "Waiting For A Girl Like You !"

Many lead singers for heavy metal groups came out with solo jams that were love ballads. But those who only listen to one type of music, predominantly heavy metal music can't stand slow jams.

Now Barry Manallow is a New York entertainer just like the acclaimed Burt Bacharach and they demonstrate a style of their own which not many enjoy. Rod Stewart should have only been a one hit wonder.

In the seventies among the more enlightened liberals. Music was used to sooth the beast as you did not play the stones just after breaking up with your woman. Music had to take you away from the problems in your mind like music of Simon and Garfunkel could and still does.
 
osubuc45 said:
Those are the type of answers I wanted to hear, thanks. I think it will be neat in 20 years if someone asks me how big was U2, Prince, Nirvana etc....
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Nirvana? Yea they had a few good songs, but in my humble opinion, didn't really become big and lasting until he blew his brains out.

Definitely not in the same league as U2, Prince or the others mentioned.
 
Gnesen said:
I agree, except about the part about the Carpenters. Karen probably had the best pure singing voice ever, in my humble opinion. Granted, they had plenty of sappy, syrupy songs.
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I don't disagree regarding Karen Carpenter. Her music has had lasting power, but at the time you wouldn't want anyone to know you actually listened to it.:eek:
truckrglenn said:
Nirvana? Yea they had a few good songs, but in my humble opinion, didn't really become big and lasting until he blew his brains out.

Definitely not in the same league as U2, Prince or the others mentioned.
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Not my era, but I much prefer Nirvana over U2 and Prince.
 
What made artists like James Taylor, Carole King. Jim Croce. Paul Simon, Billy Joel and several other great was that they were singer/songwriters. When you can write great songs and perform them well you do not have to depend on other song writers to provide you with material or artists to perform your creations. For me, being able to perform on a stage with an acoustic guitar, piano or minimal orchestral backup is paramount to a great performer. Lip syncing and over processed performances leave me cold. If you can not give a real live performance, you are not a real artist. IMO.
 
Was always partial to James Taylor, Carole King. Jim Croce and Simon and Garfunkel (yes Paul was the songwriter, but Art played a role with the harmonization and not always to Paul's liking). For some reason Billy Joel was just not my cup of tea, although I thought he was very good. Speaking of being able to perform one should add Gordon Lightfoot to that mix. (Check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Lightfoot it's a miracle after his 2002 illness that he still is able to perform!)

Speaking of sappy, one of the first bands I liked as an early teen was Bread. I still have a pair of their greatest hits albums but haven't brought myself to listen to in years. Maybe I should give them another listen.
 
I was never a big James Taylor fan, but I loved Jim Croce. And I was a guy who loved on Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, ..

Croce was brilliant, died way too young. Like many.

bs
 
I'm on top of the world lookin' down on creation...

Bayby bayby bayby bayby bayyybyy...

My parents like the Carpenters, so I got to grow up listening to them and similar. She had a great voice and all, but I guess just not really my type of music. Toss in Streisand and Crystal Gayle and you've pretty much covered the 'mom & dad's station wagon soundtrack' of my childhood. LOL


I do, however, like James Taylor. And Elton will forever be in my top faves of all time.
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Now as for Manilow, I've been made fun of for liking numerous times here by you guys ;) , but I like him anyway - similar to Elton, a top notch performer. My mom even took me to his concert sometime back in the 70s (I was probably like 8 or 9 at the time, but I still remember it). WolfTrap I think??

PS: Don't tell mom, but she's getting a NOS sealed Paradise Cafe LP for her birthday next month. ;) IIRC, a few of you suggested this was a really good one. That reminds me, I need to get that sent off soon. :idea:

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One I'll add to the list is Jimmy Buffett.

Not everybody's style since you kinda need to be a parrothead to enjoy his Country/Cajun/Caribbean vibe, but no doubt a great singer/songwriter as well - and also folksy, soft(ish) rock.
 
I was working at Chess/Janus/GRT when Jim Croce was Huge. We did a solid 1 month run in the tape plant making his 8-tracks and cassettes. I was so tired of hearing his voice off the QC players that it has taken me until now to listen to any of his stuff again... But he was HUGE.

There are mentions of Folk, Folk-Rock, Jazz-Rock Fusion and Progressive Rock in the artists listed so far in this thread. These folks pretty much started all these sub-genre's. That means they were brilliant in there time - and many still sound good today :)

Another one to add to the list -Dave Mason and his 12-string :)
 
I was a young teen during the 70's. Don't even remember the term soft rock at the time ... as I recall most folks I know were into Casey Kasem Top 40. radio show every week.

A Band or Artists worth/status was based on their position on the Pop Charts from week to week. Competition was never ending at that time & the bench was deep (Baseball slang).

Some of my friends liked their music fast & non-stop ... like Led Zep ... they preferred it out of the main stream.

 
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PAGS said:
I don't disagree regarding Karen Carpenter. Her music has had lasting power, but at the time you wouldn't want anyone to know you actually listened to it.:eek:

Not my era, but I much prefer Nirvana over U2 and Prince.
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I'm sorry that you lived in a place where you could not enjoy freedom of choice, where people prided themselves in being different. To imagine having to hide from being yourself....in public !
 
I started out with soft stuff that I heard on my parents radio station KVIL in Dallas. That included people like James Taylor that would get airplay on the rock n roll station that I eventually started listening to, KZEW. So on the real rock stations in Dallas, in the 70's, you would here Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Loggins and Messina, Harry Chapin, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, Elton John, Simon and Garfunkel, Dan Fogelberg... but they would not play Carly Simon, Carol King, Jimmy Buffet, The Carpenters... Sometimes it was hard to tell what the requirements were to get air play on the rock station. Now though, I really appreciate The Carpenters, Neil Diamond and others that I thought were kind of cheesy back then. I guess I have admitted to myself that they have great talent and some of those songs are just so damn good. Another great recent find for me is Laura Nyro. I just recently bought her entire catalog on CD and I am so happy I did.
 
Djcoolray said:
In the early seventies, heavy metal music like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath was not that popular.
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This is true. Only certain kinds of people listened to that stuff. In the 70's, even though Zeppelin was huge, they were not for everyone. My family went to church three times a week. My dad was an Elder in our church and I had to live my life like Jesus was my best friend. A friend at church who did listen to that kind of music gave me a ride to one of the youth devotionals one night after church. This must have been around 1977. He took a detour to a graveyard down by the river bottoms and parked in the back behind an old oak tree. It was dark, and yes we were listening to Zeppelin, I think it was II. He pulled out a joint, lit it, and we smoked it. First time I ever got high man - in a dark graveyard, in a Dodge Dart, listening to Zeppelin with a friend. The youth devotional was lots of fun. It wasn't long after that that I started buying my Zeppelin albums.
 
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