1971

Just reading David Hepworth’s new book about 1971, in which he argues that it was the greatest ever year for popular music. True, a case can be made other years but the case for 1971 is a particularly strong one. Maggie May, Life on Mars, Stairway to Heaven, Ain’t No Sunshine, Brown Sugar, You’ve Got a Friend, Family Affair – songs so seminal I don’t even have to name the artists. And they’re just off the top of my head. There are many more. Chirpy, Chirpy Cheep, Cheep and Ernie The Fastest Milkman in the West for a start. But Hepworth is right when he says that so many of the best recordings from 1971 are as familiar to people in their 20s as they are to those who bought them when they first came out. Here’s a perfect example. Very recent recording of a 1971 song by a man with a 1971 beard.