It was 1976: from Stevie Wonder to Lucio Battisti, to Led Zeppelin. Twelve months of great music
Scrolling through the list of records released in 1976, it is clear that that historical period was a sort of golden age of Italian and international music. We have chosen ten albums that this year celebrate five decades without hearing them and that continue to live on as timeless masterpieces.
Stevie Wonder – Songs in the key of life
Songs in the Key of Life it is a sound map of life. In this album Stevie Wonder blends symphonic and pop approaches with disarming naturalness. The groove is never an end in itself: every melody seems necessary as if it had always existed before being written. The harmony dialogues with soul, jazz and funk and the lyrics oscillate between joy, denunciation and contemplation.
The two cult songs: Sir Duke – Isn’t she lovely
Led Zeppelin – Presence
Tight guitars, long structures, no concession to lightness. The production is dry, almost essential, as if the band wanted to express itself naked and raw, without frills. Achilles Last Stand it is the manifesto of a music that is epic in power, just like the blues, reinterpreted with an unprecedented evocative force.
The two cult songs: Achilles Last stand – For your life
Marvin Gaye – I want you
The album moves as a unicum, closer to a suite than a collection of songs. Vibrant funk, melodies that don’t seek instant catchiness and a production that favors atmosphere over virtuosity. It’s a beautiful album that demands multiple listens and not rapid consumption.
The two cult songs: I want you – Since I had you
Eagles – Hotel California
American rock from a simple musical form becomes a story, a narrative. The songs talk about freedom and elusive boundaries and the production is designed to break the mold of radio singles. It is the album that transforms the Californian myth into a mysterious, ambiguous and restless object.
The two cult songs: Hotel California – Life in the fast lane
Joni Mitchell – Hejira
The album marks a clear distance from the traditional song form, the writing proceeds through images closer to a diary than to a linear narrative. The sound is rarefied, dominated by the bass; Folk opens up to jazz by seeking spaces rather than refrains.
The two cult songs: Coyote – Black Crow
Lucio Battisti – Lucio Battisti, the drums, the double bass, etc
Battisti redefined the Italian song by moving its heart from the lyrics to the sound. His revolution passes through the drums, used as emotional power and not as simple accompaniment. The bass travels on the paths of funk and soul, the arrangements are intertwined with rock, rhythm’n’blues and classical music. Battisti imagines the sound in terms of groove, of dynamics (Where does that bush come from). and the voice becomes an instrument in the musical context.
The two cult songs: Ancora tu – The company
Ramones – Ramones
The songs are flashes built on speed and repetition as a declaration of intent. The production is sparse, almost brutal, and becomes clear: the sound is uniform and marks a sidereal distance from the adult rock of the Seventies. The rhythm section always the same is not a limit but a style. Unique.
The two cult songs: Blitzkrieg Bop – Havana Affair
Bob Marley – Rastaman Vibration
The music is more direct than previous works, designed to communicate beyond Jamaican borders, the rhythm remains hypnotic, but the structure of the songs is more immediate. Marley’s voice dominates everything, assuming an openly prophetic role and the Rastafari universe definitively becomes a public language
The two cult songs: Positive Vibration – Roots, Rock, Reggae
Bob Dylan – Desire
It is one of the most important records of Bob Dylan’s career because it marks a decisive return to epic narration and social storytelling. Published in 1976, it blends folk, rock and world suggestions also thanks to the presence of Scarlet Rivera’s violin. The lyrics, mostly written with Jacques Levy, are stories set to music, populated by historical figures, marginalized people and mythical or controversial figures. Hurricane shows Dylan’s extraordinary ability to transform a court case into a powerful ballad of denunciation.
The two cult songs: Hurricane- One more cup of coffee (Valley Below).
Rino Gaetano – My brother is an only child
An album that marks a radical fracture in the Italian song of the seventies. Rino Gaetano inaugurates a poetic full of irony and apparent nonsense. The melodies are immediate, almost light, but accompanied by dense words that form a puzzle of cultural and social references. It is a new idea of a singer-songwriter, between pop and avant-garde.
The two cult songs: Berta filava – My brother is an only child.
