Here is the latest in my songs series, on an unusual day. After the post I’ll have an update on this site over the next few weeks.

And now on this 50 year long musical journey we arrive at 1977. Seems like it was an interesting time in the world, a lot of weird world events and all that. It was a bit of a banner year in entertainment, as the first Star Wars movie hit theaters.

It was a mournful time in music. For one, I’m not sure this was the greatest year in music history. Kind of a whatever vibe with a lot of this stuff. I vaguely recall the 1977 Behind The Music and everyone was just like “fuck that year.” And the King himself Elvis Presley died on a hot August night.

And just three days after Elvis left the building, I was spat into existence. So no more “I wasn’t around for this year” on these posts. I was, in fact, around – though I can’t cop to having any memory of the year, obviously. I think I have one very small, vague memory from ’79 but that’s all I recall of the decade, I was busy filling diapers and crying.

But even if the year was kind of lame, I had no problem selecting five songs from it. Good music is always around.

Fleetwood Mac – Don’t Stop

This single from one of the biggest albums of all time was one of my earliest musical memories. My mom had a carrying spindle thing that held a bunch of jukebox 45’s and this was one of the singles in that set. I used to play through those 45’s a lot, and I whittled it down to the ones I really liked, this being among those. Honestly a somewhat heavy song, by Fleetwood Mac standards anyway, and a great duet between Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie.

Judas Priest – Dissident Aggressor

A cut from the band’s third album Sin After Sin and another testament to Priest being the glue that held heavy metal together just before metal kicked off big time. This saw Priest really up the ante with the heaviness and include some real divebombing guitars. The song was a thought piece on the city of Berlin, at the time caught in a Cold War split that was stark and honestly insane.

Heart – Barracuda

This was another of the 45’s in my mom’s tote and this would be the one I’d play over and over and over and over again. This was an aggressive song and with good reason – it was written by Ann and Nancy Wilson after the press grossly speculated on them being involved with each other despite being sisters. And that main riff of Nancy’s offers a very short and straight line to the heavy metal I would get into several years later. Definitely one of my favorite songs of all time.

Rush – Closer To The Heart

This is an all-time Rush song for sure. Well written and arranged, it brings out a sentimental flair while still sounding totally Rush. The song really opened up the world to Rush in terms of radio play, landing them a top 40 UK hit and also getting their foot in the door in the US. Always a good time to hear this one.

Kiss – Love Gun

This last slot was a tough choice – it was between this and Aerosmith’s Kings And Queens. The latter is an awesome song but Love Gun won out in the end. The album was one of my first Kiss albums and also one of my earlier music memories overall, so it’s easy to pick this signature Kiss song. It’s easy to hear why it’s one of Paul Stanley’s favorite songs.

That does it for ’77. Inching closer to the 1980’s, where this whole thing gets insane as far as picking only five songs per year.

And with that, here is a brief update – I am starting my new job next week and I’ve had a hell of a time lately with leaving my old job and getting stuff together for the new one. I am going on a two-week hiatus from this blog in order to get adjusted to my new work. I will be working a lot of hours but I think after I get into the new rhythm I should be able to get back into the swing here. I don’t know what my post frequency will be but I should be able to figure something out. See you all then.