Rolling Stone rock critic and music historian David Browne has written an excellent book about 1970 -a time when, with 4300 bombs going off in the year, revolution was certainly in the air, as reflected by two rock bands, a duo and a solo artist.
Browne painstakingly connects the dots between the four and by the end of the book, at the rock n roll hall of fame concerts in 2009, he brings it all back home.
The people in question are The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor and CSNY. As the story opens, the other three Beatles and Paul McCartney are arguing about the release dates for Let It Be and Macca's first solo album McCartney. The band is unraveling fast and the other three are working on solo albums. By the end, New Year's Eve, McCartney's lawyers hand derived writs to the rest of the bands, claiming, in part "that the plaintiffs have taken it upon themselves to exclude the plaintiff from his proper share in the conduct of the partnership".
Meanwhile, former Apple A&R man Peter Asher, not willing to work with Beatles manager Allen Klein, had taken his biggest find James Taylor to L.A., signed a contract with Warner Bros and produced Sweet Baby James. James, an introverted junkie, started the year playing the tiny "Gaslight" and ended it at Madison Square Garden after Warner Bros woke up to "Fire And Rain" being a potential hit single. It was and it carried the album up the charts.
Simon And Garfunkel spent the year at the top of the charts with Bridge Over Troubled Waters though Simon was sick over sharing credit for his songs (standing on the side at concerts while Garfunkel sang the title track). He was also sick of Art running off to make movies every five minutes. Simon, in an interview not in the book, noted "Art said 'this is what we're gonna do, I'm gonna make movies and you're gonna write and when I get back we'll record them' And I said 'That's not what we're gonna do'." In the end, Simon didn't want to answer to anyone.
Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young -America's Beatles (hahaha) had a similar problem. Between trading girls (Joni Mitchell -who ended the year with James Taylor, and Rita Coolidge who ended up with Graham Nash) and arguing over the amount of guitar solos in songs, the four argued bitterly about everything and broke into four pieces. This is Browne at his best. I knew the first two CSN (and Y) albums but I wasn't aware of the first solo albums and they are uniformly excellent. Especially the first Stills album. That's what I want rock to do.
Where Browne seems to be pushing his luck is in claiming that all of this amounts to 1970 as a watershed year for pop or for American history. I dunno, surely 1973 would make more sense? And definitely 1977.
So I don't think he makes his case but he writes so well, takes you into the world these people inhabited, and really, really, it is fascinating to be this close to such important moments in the history of rock.
I thoroughly enjoyed "Fire And Rain" and if I don't buy into its theories, I buy into its story.
Grade: B+