1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything

I was 18 in 1971 and the good music just kept coming. But it had been for many years already, yet there was a change in 1971, typified by The Osmonds and other bubblegum creeping in, as this docuseries well shows. But it was an amazing year, coming off several amazing years for music. As a teen, I was drinking it all in and it was just a stunning time to be alive (and also very tragic). I really hope these filmmakers will do other years or decades.

It's always hard to quantify the 60s and 70s without musical bias, so this was a monumental task. Usually, it's talking heads, so one person's opinion, or the same celebs over and over. Or they only hit the Top 40 bands and give the "establishment" or record label view of the situation. But this series only uses interviews of artists, producers, DJs, journalists, politicians (but very few) and other snippets from that year over the appropriate footage, so a kind of audio cinema verite, if you will. There's no narrator. It reminds me of the style of films like Woodstock, which let the event (or time, in this case) speak for itself. The choice of artists and music was generally good (compared to what else is out there). It could have been better, but I'll take it. You can't cover everyone, even in 8 episodes. At least, like with their brilliant "Amy", they go beyond the tabloidy or even nightly news, into what we, as young people, were actually experiencing.

I'm so happy they included Soul and funk music and the issues surrounding civil rights at that time and the awakening of Black consciousness. That's an important story, of course, but also really a story for everyone, as it also meshed into the other movements of the time and white kids and Black kids had many areas in which they crossed over. And they widely supported each other, which was very new for that time, as most white kids had never been around Black kids (busing was still blocked by the courts in my school in 1971). Vietnam and music were important bridges for that, as well as for the first time, white kids were treated somewhat like Black people had been for decades (well, centuries), with disdain, violence, discrimination, and police brutality. So a great empathy came out of that time for what Black people were going through, which has sadly been forgotten now by many who subscribed to it then.

While a lot of the footage has been shown in other music and cultural docs, there's a lot of obscure or rarely seen clips, so new ground is definitely covered, which is a huge thing as that era has been done to death, at least culturally, but this series melds music, the counterculture, Vietnam, civil rights, drugs, and the overlap between them all better than any I have seen. The clips of Black musicians and leaders makes me sad for today, how we need them now instead of the fashion brand gangsta rap celebs more interested in bling and riches than much needed civil rights, their voice diluted by the same. In those years, you had people who were well read and educated in human rights and activism, now just pop stars with quick money. On all sides. The establishment definitely won.

Living through that time and also being in the music business, I feel like I have a good take on music then, but I learned a few things. The clips of Bill Withers just being a singer/songwriter are revelatory. His big hit was mired in strings and popish, so he didn't stand out to me then, but definitely more there than I knew. I thought the great Staple Singers were singing "going to the races" instead of "lying to the races"! That was a brave thing to sing then, although I imagine many mis-heard it like I did.

I think they missed a few really important bands, like Jethro Tull (Aqualung was released in 1971, following the brilliant Benefit), Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Yes (although they showed Yes for 2.5seconds) both early synthesizer adopters of the new prog rock, although they mentioned the snobbery of that genre yet never uttered the words "prog", Derek and the Dominoes (Eric Clapton before he preached racism) Layla was released in late 1970 but the the unknown name meant there was a delay in people hearing/buying it, The Allman Brothers (Live at Fillmore East), The Eagles were debuting (they opened for Jethro Tull, and they were great, but they were heralding in the new, less socially conscious regime that was to take over), Led Zeppelin released Untitled (Led Zep IV) which was monumental, Hendrix died in fall 1970, but was still a huge force and had been the main artist who transformed rock into hard rock. Motown was still huge, Wilson Picket, and War. And many others. Spirit was a timely and important band and had just released their seminal album, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. Or that Graham Parsons greatly influenced the writing of The Stone's Exile on Main St, as he was Keith's buddy in the south of France.

They stick a bit to the Rolling Stone party line of the time, which was everything Rolling Stones, Bowie, and a few others. That was frustrating then, as there was so much more (which their reviewers were constantly panning, unless their "pets", like Springsteen later). But the filmmakers don't get too mired in RS nor were they mainly influential here. Nor was any one label, as far as I can tell (but they are all one, now, it seems).

The same pop pablum of The Osmonds (mentioned here as a sad harbinger of things to come) and The Jackson 5 was definitely happening with bubblegum pop and other mindless bands and artists (Monkees, Grassroots, Carpenters (but you can't deny Karen Carpenter), etc. The counterculture that crept into Top 40 pop earlier was pretty much gone by 1971. No more flowers, beads, or born to being wild.

I really loved this series, but they left out so many ground breaking albums. 1971 was the year Led zeppelin released IV with Stairway to Heaven, Pink Floyd released Meddle, The Allman Brother live at the Fillmore East, Janis Joplin released Pearl, Yes released Fragile, Van Morrison released Tupelo Honey, Jethro Tull's Aqualung, and Rod Stewart's Every picture tells a story. There were dozens of other albums that came out that year but these are just a few that helped shape my life. I was ten years old and had just got my first record player. The first 3 albums I bought were Aqualung, Zeppelin IV and the Allman Brothers live at the Filmore East. It was a great year for music.

Overall, an interesting docuseries. My biggest frustration was the opening narration and the lack of introspection of the narrators in general.

The opening scene is narrated by Chrissie Hynde of "The Pretenders". She states how she and her fellow anti-Vietnam War students set fire to the ROTC buildings at Kent State University, because ",The ROTC was a military presence on our university... The military presence had to go." Kent State University is a state-run (and therefore government-run/funded) university. The ROTC cadets were her fellow students, most participating in ROTC solely for scholarship purposes to be able to afford a college education, and were not government employees / had NOTHING to do with the Vietnam War. The burning of the ROTC buildings at Kent State is what DIRECTLY led to the National Guard presence on campus, which caused the Kent State shootings. At NO POINT does she take responsibility for or show remorse or regret for her and her fellow protestors' actions. Had the ROTC buildings not been set on fire, the National Guard would not have been called in, and students would not have died.

I think we can all acknowledge that the Vietnam War was something the US should not have been involved in, but the hateful and purposeful destruction of property and abuse of ROTC cadets and US soldiers at that time was (and still is) deplorable. Hate and violence do not make other hate and violence okay! "Make love, not war" isn't just something to preach but to practice as well. Self-righteous hippies gave birth to self-righteous millennials.

BUT how can you not talk about Led Zeppelin,Yes, EL&P, or Jethro Tull. Yea yea yea I get that the Stones are the greatest band every and David Bowie is the coolest rock god but do we need to spend most of the episodes focused on them. At least when they looked at black groups the spread it around. It's well worth watching and reliving my high school years but like so many things in the 70s it was way too superficial.

I'm always interested in music documentaries, and there have been some good ones over the years. This was lacking. It didn't know what it wanted to be: a documentary about how culture influenced the music or how the music influenced the culture. And if it tried to make a case that the relationship was symbiotic, it fell short. Their was no real "through line." There were interesting sections or stories but in the end, it just felt forced.