Five songs from 1975 that will be remembered in 100 years time
I once interviewed noise musician Jonathan Snipes about the history of music, and he said that 100 years within the grand scheme of sound isn’t actually that long a time.
“[People] talk about 100 years as if it’s a long time,” he said, “I think it’s actually still just a blip […] If someone doesn’t really listen to classical music and doesn’t have a sense of music history, [then] if you play them Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, they might not be able to tell the difference, even though they’re like years and years apart.”
While Snipes has a point, I would argue this mainly applies to movements as opposed to specific songs, such that it’s more than likely that musical movements which happen today will still be discussed in a century, but it’s very hard to predict which songs will continue to live on that far in the future.
Regardless, what can be anticipated is that only the most innovative ones will ever be remembered for long, and arguably, the 1970s take the cake in that regard, and hence, we’ve picked five songs from 1975 that people are likely still going to be talking about in 2070.
Five songs from 1975 that will be remembered in 100 years:
Bruce Springsteen – ‘Thunder Road’
The fact that Bruce Springsteen was close to never releasing his classic album Born to Run due to the simple reason that he spent too long on it is mindboggling, and quite frankly, a scary thought. “
After it was finished? I hated it! I couldn’t stand to listen to it. I thought it was the worst piece of garbage I’d ever heard,” he claimed, “I told Columbia I wouldn’t release it. I told ‘em I’d just go down to the Bottom Line gig and do all the new songs and make it a live album.”
Of course, this has been proven wrong, as Springsteen’s album remains one of his most successful, which contains the single ‘Thunder Road’, a tale of hope, escapism, and nostalgia which continues to resonate despite being released 50 years ago. The message and power of this song isn’t going anywhere, and you can guarantee people will be singing along in another 100 years, too.
Queen – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
I’m not sure if there’s such a thing as a ‘perfect song’, and it feels as though the minute we stumble across one, music will officially have been completed, because there’s no point to a creative endeavour if it has been perfected. That being said, while there might not be such a thing, Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ comes pretty darn close to perfection.
You have the emotional lyrics, the ballad-style introduction, the face-melting solo, the operatic section, the killer outro, and everything comes together to make a song that, if described to you, you would think wouldn’t work, and yet is pulled off perfectly. Something this innovative doesn’t have an expiry date, and there is no way this song will ever not get an emotional reaction from those listening, as its impact is set to stand the test of time.
Patti Smith – ‘Gloria’
This year, we mark 50 years since Patti Smith released her classic, Horses, and I was lucky enough to see her play the album in full a few months back, and let me tell you, these songs aren’t going anywhere. The whole album is from another planet, but the hold that a song like ‘Gloria’ can have on people is something that simply can’t dwindle with time, such that in 100 years, people will still be spelling out that word.
Plenty of artists have spoken about their love for the record, including new-age musical titans Picture Parlour, with Katherine Parlour from the band speaking to Far Out about the impact the record had on her.
“Patti is a wordsmith, and that’s what inspires me about her most. She fuses poetry and rock, and reminds us as artists that raw emotion and fearless honesty can be just as powerful as a roaring melody,” she said, “In fact, it makes it all the more rock ‘n’ roll.”
Led Zeppelin – ‘Kashmir’
When Jack Black was speaking about his adoration for Led Zeppelin, he said that the best way you can truly appreciate them is by listening to all of their songs, one after the other, boldly claiming, “Led Zeppelin…the greatest rock and roll band of all time”.
Adding, “Better than The Beatles, better than The [Rolling] Stones. And if you don’t agree with me, that’s because you haven’t done the Zeppelin marathon. It’s when you sit your ass down and listen to all nine Zeppelin albums in a row. The jams of Led Zeppelin are second to none.”
That’s all well and good, but what song of Zeppelin’s should you listen to if you don’t have time to sit with all nine albums, and equally, what song of theirs will forever stand the test of time? Asking the band themselves, Robert Plant once admitted that ‘Kashmir’ to him is the ultimate Zeppelin tune, noting, “It was so positive, lyrically. It’s the quest, the travels and explorations that Page and I went on to far climbs well off the beaten track. That, really, to me, is the Zeppelin feel.”
David Bowie – ‘Fame’
David Bowie was a man of many sounds and looks, so it’s pretty difficult to pick which of these eras will stand as evergreen, and you could argue all of them, but in the interest of not choosing an easy answer, let’s focus on one of his most commercially successful song, which had people on dancefloors up and moving as soon as it started.
‘Fame’ was written by Bowie, but he also had help from another songwriting great: John Lennon. With both of them working on the track, it was hardly going to be lacklustre, hence what they ended up creating was something funky, fun, and that will likely live on in the hearts of many for years and years to come.
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