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This Top 5 comes from life long Berkshire native Asa Hardcastle. About the task of assembling the list Asa said, “This was WAY harder than I thought. 1975 seems to have a ton of great albums. I am still second guessing some of my choices here. I was also surprised how few female artists I had to choose from. These are all from albums that I own.”
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“You Know What I Mean” by Jeff Beck
After his time in The Yardbirds, a couple iterations of The Jeff Beck Group and the power trio Beck, Bogert and Appice, Jeff Beck released Blow By Blow, a fully instrumental album of jazz/rock fusion. About his #1 song from 1975 Asa wrote, “I love Jeff Beck, and Blow by Blow is one of my favorite of his albums. Funky, filled with energy, steeped in talent. So so good from start to finish. Great on Vinyl.”
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“Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)” by Queen
Asa’s #2 song comes from the album that cemented Queen’s place in the rock pantheon of the 70s and brought them their first measure of financial success. The album’s opener, “Death on Two Legs” is Freddy Mercury’s hate letter to Queen’s former manager. About his number two song Asa wrote, “A Night at the Opera is an incredible album, certainly one of my favorites, and definitely top 5 for 1975. My favorite track from this album right now (because it changes) is Death on Two Legs. Playful, loud, soaring vocals and guitar riffs, creative, funny, intense, layered, sonically complicated with an interesting story.”
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“Magneto and Titanium Man” by Paul McCartney and Wings
Venus and Mars was Paul McCartney’s 6th album since the end of The Beatles and it yeilded Asa’a #3 song from the year 1975. The song is a narrative song about a bank robbery and features three of the Marvel Comics characters. About the song Asa wrote, “Proving that critical and popular reception are not always in alignment with my tastes, the Wings album Venus and Mars, which came out 4 months and 1 day before my birth, is one of my favorite albums from 1975.” Asa also recommends the 2014 remaster of Venus and Mars.
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“Walk This Way” by Aerosmith
“Walk This Way” began as a simple riff guitarist Joe Perry was playing with during a 1974 sound check and was only turned into a completed song some months later during the sessions for Toys in the Attic because the band was short on material. The song went on to be a Top 10 hit twice. Once for Aerosmith in 1975 and again in 1986 for Run-DMC. About the song Asa wrote, “Aerosmith was awesome, I think people forget that. Walk This Way is awesome, nobody forgets that, but that might be because of Run DMC. Toys in the Attic is filled with great songs - best played loud. But that is true of all music.”
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“Give Up The Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)” by Parliament
Asa’s number 5 song from 1975 comes from the P-Funk musical collective’s first platinum selling album Mothership Connection. About the song Asa said, “October 24th, 1995; George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars" played on campus when I was a student at Emory University. They played, and played, and played, and then played more. At first a whole field of students, and then as the hours rolled by, the crowd got thinner, but the music just kept on coming. So fun live!
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