1975: The Year the World Forgot

by Dylan Jones

There is a myth that the long, dark days before punk were full of legions of British prog rock groups; that the likes of Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Emerson Lake & Palmer and Jethro Tull roamed the land, soiling the culture like university-educated Orcs.

Wrong.

The mid-seventies were dense with extraordinarily sophisticated, mature rock music made by singers, songwriters and musicians who had no problem calling themselves artists. And the records they made aspired to artistic everyone was trying to make their own masterpiece, and the sense of competitiveness was like something not seen since the mid-sixties. Three-minute pop singles had given way to concept albums and pop-package tours had been supplanted by rock festivals, and rock in general had a renewed sense of ambition.
1975 was the apotheosis of the adult pop, the most important year in the narrative arc of post-war music, and a year that was rich with Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan, The Who by Numbers by the Who, Young Americans by David Bowie, Another Green World by Brian Eno, The Hissing of Summer Lawns by Joni Mitchell and A Night at the Opera by Queen, amongst countless other legendary albums.

These records were magisterial; records that couldn't be bettered. Who could realistically make a more sophisticated album than The Hissing of Summer Lawns? Or a more complex hard-rock album than Physical Graffiti? Or indeed a record as unimpeachable and as prescient as Horses?

1975, as Dylan Jones expertly illustrates, was the greatest year of them all.

Genres: Music

415 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 16, 2025

Reviews

[Steven Pollack · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. Covers an eclectic range of music. Some minor criticisms.
Queen, A Night at the Opera, not included. A strange omission in my opinion.
Some odd language. I've never heard of a sarcastic guitar solo before.
Probably just me but I hate it when British authors use Americanisms such as hardscabble. Bernie Taupin was guilty of that in his autobiography. I don't know why, but it just grates with me.
The book would have benefited from some photos. Maybe they were just omitted in the kindle version.
Overall probably 4 stars for the content, but I'm docking one for the reasons above.
But worth reading. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

[Steve Marshall]

Dylan Jones is the best at writing about music. Somehow you can hear the songs just from his description, even songs you’ve never heard before. His passion for music is infectious, just such a readable and eloquent writer

[Eyejaybee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very interested to read this book as I had long considered 1975 to be a vintage year for rock music, although as I was only twelve years old, my awareness of its significance at the time was limited. Certainly, if I was asked to consider my favourite albums, in a sort of Desert Island Discs scenario, I would almost certainly include Wish You Were Here, Physical Graffiti, and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy among them.

Dylan Jones sets out his own views on the music of the year, interspersing it with recollections of major news stories that hit the headlines, and some meditations on prevailing fashions. Some of the biggest stories revolved around the ignominious end of the Vietnam War, with the stark images of helicopter evacuations from the US Embassy in Saigon, continued IRA bombings on mainland Britain, and the appointment of Margaret Thatcher as leader of the Conservative Party.

Jones starts his book with a summary of the American music industry which throughout the early 1970s had become increasingly focused in California (and more specifically Los Angeles), instead of New York, which had been the primary location for much of the 1960s. As 1975 began, Fleetwood Mac had just invited Lindsey Buckingham to join the band, and he had agreed but only on condition that his then girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, could also become a member. That was to have a huge impact on the band, who released the eponymous album (often referred to as ‘the white Fleetwood Mac album) later that year, leading them to immense critical and commercial success and paving the way for Rumours to follow a couple of years later.

Jones then moves through some of the albums from the year that had been important to him, either at the time or later in his life. There are some that I had forgotten about, such as Roxy Music’s Siren, which spawned ‘Love is the Drug’ that I remember well as a massive hit. He devotes a chapter to Steely Dan, whose excellent Katy Lied was released in 1975. I had also forgotten that Springsteen’s Born to Run and Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks emerged that year too.

I found Jones very good on the music, even when I disagreed with his judgement Although I can’t believe that he didn’t devote some time to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, which must surely have been one of the rock landmark releases of the year, even for people who are not Floyd fans). However, I think he was a bit weaker on the short chapters devoted to news events, where he seemed to waffle a bit. I think that these could have benefited either from a bit more detail (which would have been my choice), or from being rendered far more concise. Somehow he seemed to alight upon a disappointing middle ground.

Still, overall, I was very glad to have read this book, which evoked a lot of pleasant memories.

[Laurence · Rating 2 out of 5]

22.09.25