Hey /mu/, I'm looking for information on the 70s underground

Honestly, for a lot of the 70s you would have heard folk rock singer songwriter stuff in a lot of places, because that's what was selling and getting musicians laid. But you're probably thinking about seeing the New York Dolls or something like that, or the bands at CBGB that either thought they'd never get played on the radio (Television) or genuinely never would (Wayne County). Iggy/Bowie/Lou were the godfathers of all this, although one of them became a giant star and all of them were on so-called major labels.

"Underground" didn't have the same meaning, either - FM radio itself was considered "underground" in the early 70s, and going to rock concerts was considered transgressive, even (or especially) big ones. Going to Led Zep shows, say, felt counter-cultural in a way that is hard for us to relate to now. Springsteen and Bob Marley were "underground" - obviously not the way we would think about it now but in the sense of being new, exciting, up and coming, playing in small clubs, etc.

Mainly though, I think you'd have heard a bunch of James Taylor/Jackson Browne wannabes.

>>72416035
Pretty accurate account.

>>72416035
Let's say around '76. Was there anything more punk or rock, the faster the better, playing around? Any backstore shows?

Alternatively, when would someone have heard the beginning of what could be considered punk rock? Early 80s?

>>72416286
around 76 in the mid-west you could probably have caught a Cheap Trick show.

>>72416035
>Underground" didn't have the same meaning, either - FM radio itself was considered "underground" in the early 70s, and going to rock concerts was considered transgressive, even (or especially) big ones. Going to Led Zep shows, say, felt counter-cultural in a way that is hard for us to relate to now.

Rock stars in the 70s were mysterious figures that a lot of urban legends circulated around, such as Robert Plant allegedly dabbling in the occult or KISS being short for "Knights In Service of Satan", and albums usually didn't have lyric sheets, making it hard to guess exactly what was being said on an album. In the age of social media, it's impossible to maintain that same aura of mystery.

>>72416286
In 1976 you could have seen punk rock at CBGB and at a few bars in Cleveland. You would have been listening to Patti Smith's "Horses" like crazy. You'd also still like glam rock. "Fast" probably wouldn't have been that big of a consideration per se. You might have a snobbish, counter-hippie affection for rockabilly, though, like listening to Eddie Cochran, and that's probably where you'd get the "fast" idea.

>>72416035
While true, rock got absorbed by the mainstream and commercialized early on; bands like Bread and Doobie Brothers were pioneers of manufactured radio rock designed to be as toothless, inoffensive, and female-friendly as possible.

>>72417724
actually, the Doobie Brothers started as an outlaw biker blues band, although they did get soft as fuck later.

Bread would be a model for the sensitive folk rock stuff I talked about. Again, this did get you laid.

Basically you had the trend towards stadium rock and the trend towards John Denver going on at the same time, and the bands we're talking about would have resisted both. There weren't that many of them.

Bands like Bread (and the Eagles for that matter) started out as studio musicians whom a record label decided to assemble into a band. The guys were usually talented musicians, but were obliged to play shitty radio rock that did not make any use of their skills.

>>72418442
that's not really what happened with the eagles but whatever

>>72416286
Punk was forming through the early 70s, and the New York Dolls were one of the pioneers. While it's often been claimed that the Stooges were proto-punk, this is not true at all. Iggy Pop has never claimed to be punk and says he doesn't even like the stuff. They were a typical hippie/post-hippie late 60s-early 70s band that got killed off when the actual punk movement started.

No band formed before 1972 had anything to do with the punk movement.

here, OP, this might help you: http://freaklit.blogspot.com/2013/10/let-us-now-praise-famous-death-dwarves.html

and this one from 1973: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/nov/08/lou-reed-lester-bangs-interview