It wasn’t the best of times, but it wasn’t the worst of times either. Not so much the Me Decade, as the meh decade. Soft rock – the oxymoronic soundtrack to the 70s, that and disco, and the Grateful Dead. I’m OK, You’re OK. Transcendental meditation. I watched Watergate, the Bicentennial, and Son of Sam on TV. The Vietnam War ended and Saturday Night Live began. Nixon, Ford and Carter occupied the White House. We waited in line for gas, first in ’74, then again in ’79. I saw Godspell – twice.
Here are some of my favorite films, books and music from the 1970s.
Favorite 60s Books
Thomas Pynchon Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 (1973)
Kurt Vonnegut Breakfast of Champions (1973)
Richard Dawkins The Selfish Gene (1976)
E.E. Cummings Complete Poems 1913-1962 (1972)
Toni Morrison Song of Solomon (1977)
John Rawls A Theory of Justice (1971)
Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward All the President’s Men (1974)
Robert M. Pirsig Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (1974)
Frances Moore Lappé Diet for a Small Planet (1971)
Alice S. Rossi (ed.) The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir (1973)
E.L. Doctorow Ragtime (1975)
Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976)
John Cheever The Stories of John Cheever (1978)
Augustus Napier & Carl Whitaker The Family Crucible (1978)
Leon Edel Henry James: A Life (1953-1972)
E.O. Wilson On Human Nature (1978)
Steve Martin Cruel Shoes (1979)
Favorite 70s Music
The Velvet Underground Loaded (1970)
Van Morrison Moondance (1970)
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Déjà vu (1970)
Derek and The Dominos Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970)
John Lennon John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)
Al Green Compact Command Performances: 14 Greatest Hits (1970-1974)
Hound Dog Taylor Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers (1971)
Carole King Tapestry (1971)
Joni Mitchell Blue (1971)
The Who Who’s Next (1971)
T. Rex Electric Warrior (1971)
Neil Young Harvest (1972)
Randy Newman Sail Away (1972)
Yes Close to the Edge (1972)
The Modern Lovers The Modern Lovers (rec. 1972, rel. 1976)
Bob Marley Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers (1972-1983)
Dave Holland Conference of the Birds (1973)
Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
Paul Simon There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (1973)
The Who Quadrophenia (1973)
Yes Tales From Topographic Oceans (1973)
Joe Pass Virtuoso (1974)
Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks (1975)
Bruce Springsteen Born to Run (1975)
Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here (1975)
Patti Smith Horses (1975)
Early Music Consort of London Music of the Gothic Era (1976)
Renaissance Live at Carnegie Hall (1976)
Albert Collins Ice Pickin’ (1978)
Giuseppe Verdi Otello (Domingo; Scotto; Levine) (1978)
Elvis Costello This Year’s Model (1978)
The Roches The Roches (1979)
Talking Heads Fear of Music (1979)
Favorite 70s Films
Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)
The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
The Godfather: Part II (Coppola, 1974)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Forman, 1975)
Taxi Driver (Scorcese, 1976)
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (Herzog, 1974)
Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
Annie Hall (Allen, 1977)
3 Women (Altman, 1977)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Buñuel, 1972)
Badlands (Malick, 1973)
Last Tango in Paris (Bertolucci, 1972)
Cries and Whispers (Bergman, 1972)
A Woman Under the Influence (Cassavetes, 1974)
Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Herzog, 1972)
Five Easy Pieces (Rafelson, 1970)
The Last Picture Show (Bogdanovich, 1971)
A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)
MASH (Altman, 1970)
Harold and Maude (Ashby, 1971)
The Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1975)
Nashville (Altman, 1975)
Eraserhead (Lynch, 1977)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (Fassbinder, 1979)
