The 1970's Were Not for the Mild-Mannered (A Listener’s Challenge)

Part 1: A Canterbury Baker’s Dozen

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

Part 1: A Canterbury Baker’s Dozen

There has been a wealth of insightful posts on Plethora of Pop from Paul Combs, Terry Barr, David Acaster, Pierce McIntyre, and most recently Anthony Overson on how the achievements of 70’s music have been ignored or misunderstood.

Although I started listening to music seriously in the 1960’s, the 70’s are my favorite decade. Unfortunately, many of the musicians I consider the most accomplished are also the most unknown, especially those classified as Canterbury (an informal school of progressive rock). I’d like to know what people who’ve never heard (many of) these artists think — kind of like those reaction videos on YouTube, except that Plethora listeners (and other Medium subscribers) are more knowledgeable and open-minded.

So to avoid prejudicing your responses, I’m presenting without any background 13 works I consider important but unjustifiably obscure. Some of these (like the songs in the previous Plethora posts) do rock; others are, shall we say, more unusual. But all of them challenge the usual stereotypes of 70’s music.

So please listen to as many of the works below as you’d like (they tend to be a bit long, so multiple sessions…