Over on the Hoffman site someone who knows their onions has post their pick of the best albums released during ther 70’s. Warning this is a very long list.
It includes 2,500 album with a write-up and Rudoph’s sugested pick track.
If you type the following into your search engine you should find it (click to start at Page 1):
Living In The ‘70s: Rudolph’s favorite album picks from the decade of over-indulgence
A large number of these are in Qobuz and I am currently working my way through the list which I have to say is quite impressive.
A lot I have but many are new to me and a few purchases have been made already.
Aside from the obvious question who is Rudolph (the red nose reindeer?) I presume that must be a rather non-discerning list. And although 70s was my favourite decade for music, I know without looking I will have less than 20% on the list.
To be clear, the thread in question started in August 2024 and now runs to over 200 pages to no great purpose. They didn’t set out to list the best so much as the ones they knew and loved and it became very clear very quickly that it’s a list of “white boy in the Americas in the 70s” music with the only exceptions being exactly the sort of other music you’d think such a person would buy. So if it’s black music you can guess it’s got a rock connection in there somewhere and so on and so forth. I read nothing in there which suggested that the person “knew their onions”. It reads very much like “I bought this ergo I have memories associated with it ergo it is important.” It won’t take anyone too long to go “Eh, but that’s awful.” Save your time and go do something constructive.
1 - it’s being presented here as the authors “best of”. Instantly suggests that the OP hasn’t read the origin thread as the author is quite clear that it is not.
2 - all lists are indeed objective. They can also be fun. I’m not a fan but they’re a leaping off point and sometimes more, which is fine, Give me a 50 and we’ll have 100 disagreements but hopefully never fall out. 200+ pages is entirely missing the point of such lists. It is doing nothing but an inventory of what you own and then trying to justify every last bit of it. Like, every bit.
Could you make a case for the greatness of everything you own? I couldn’t. I could explain, justify, tell some tales, describe some awful and funny mistakes, cry over some real wastes of money and defend to the death things like Keep On Wombling.
The list here is not really any of the above things. It’s a po face serious attempt to justify over hundreds of pages a collection which not only doesn’t seem to distinguish between the great and the good but also the downright awful. As I noted above, life is too short.
3 - I see no vitriol in my post. Acerbic parody I will accept. I don’t feel the need to justify that. Anyone thinking I somehow ought… I suggest you see if you can get past page 88 of the thread having read all 88 and not come to similar conclusions on the one dimensionality of it all. It’s ripe for parody and the fact it takes itself so so seriously seems to me to actively invite that.
I believe the offending phrase was “white boy in the Americas in the 70s”.
Looking forward to someone hitting page 240 and telling me I am definitively wrong whilst telling me it’s all subjective .
Thing is titled “Living In The ‘70s: Rudolph’s favorite album picks from the decade of over-indulgence” but the first post makes clear that that was the original intent and quickly forgotten. Better titled “240 pages of over-indulgence”.
Maybe the question, aside from who is Rudolph which hasn’t been answered yet, is who bothers to read page 2 if they have read P1? And, stretching it, who after that reads P3? Does anyone actuallt carry on to read all?
RudolphS is clearly someone on the Hoffman forum who has made the effort to post about a huge number of albums, with a commentary on each. Why do people have to be so negative? It’s just a bit of fun. Obviously there will be stuff that each of us likes, and stuff that we won’t, but that’s just life. I’ve looked at page 1 and seen albums I’ve never heard of. But a page one that contains Tom Waits’s brilliant The Heart of Saturday Night and a Mekons album can’t be all bad. Surely reading about music is an infinitely more worthwhile thing to do than posting about room measurement and speaker cable length. It is, after all, the reason we buy a hifi system. I’d hope so anyway.
Interesting list, thanks. I might need a while to go through The Eddie Money - Same and Mannheim Steamroller - Fresh Aire II are also on my personal 70’s list.
That’s some effort from Rudolph. Browsing the list I see plenty I have, plenty I don’t have, plenty I’ve never heard of, plenty I like and plenty I don’t like. Fair play to Rudolph. I certainly haven’t got the energy to produce such a list.
It’s just a list of Albums. It just gives people the opportunity to look through the list and see if there is anything they may fancy listening too. There is nothing complex going on. Like wandering around M&S or a Christmas market.
Would you storm out of M&S if you noticed they are selling a type of tomato ketchup you particularly detest?
I actually know you are jesting, but unfortunately not everybody would.
My favourite French rock albums from that era: Serge Gainsbourg, Mélodie Nelson.
Two groups are very famous, but not my cup of tea: Ange and Gong.
Any thoughts on them, @mikehughescq ?
The Eddie Money - Same and Mannheim Steamroller - Fresh Aire II are also on my personal 70’s list.
