1974: Music from My Birth Year

Another awesome music writing challenge

Suzi Quatro in AVRO’s TopPop (Dutch television show) in December 1973 (close enough to ‘74…). AVRO Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 nl

This is a music writing challenge from Steve Devine — write about the music from the year you were born.

I was born in 1974. Patty Hearst, IRA, Watergate, oil crisis, Vietnam War, bombings, hijackings, executions, plane crashes, Cyclone Tracey … and me.

The best-selling singles for 1974 were:

• Australia: My Coo Ca Choo — Alvin Stardust
• Canada: Seasons in the Sun — Terry Jacks
• UK: Tiger Feet — Mud
• US: The Way We Were — Barbra Streisand

Hmm. I think we can do better.

1974 was a year of proto-punk, proto-disco, proto-electronica, glam rock and great rock. In October of that year, the Ramones played their first show at CBGB.

But as they didn’t release any singles in 1974, here are my picks for that year.

Autobahn — Kraftwerk

The single “Autobahn” was released in 1975 but it also came out on the studio album of the same name in November 1974. So I’m including the song in my list.

Kraftwerk not only pioneered electronic music, they popularised it. “Autobahn” played an important part in that.