3 Songs From 1975 That Forever Changed Rock History

Many songs from 1975 impacted rock history, sending it on divergent paths while also containing striking parallels. While some artists became more ambitious, others recorded masterpieces with minimal production and instrumentation. Rock music was already changing rapidly by the middle of the decade. And the three songs on this list were crucial to the direction of its future.

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Below, we’ll look at a band transforming into legends, a solo artist reconnecting with his band and emerging from the ditch, and a folk singer’s return to the road after a long hiatus while his marriage fell apart at home.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen

For those who don’t have the patience for progressive rock or opera, “Bohemian Rhapsody” might just be the song to develop a tolerance for either or both. Freddie Mercury’s multi-part suite became Queen’s defining track with its stacked harmonies, Brian May’s soaring guitar work, and rock music’s most daring composition since The Beach Boys’ pocket symphony, “Good Vibrations”. Queen’s most ambitious recording made them superstars.

Oh, mamma mia, mamma mia,
Mamma mia, let me go,
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me.

“Cortez The Killer” by Neil Young And Crazy Horse

Following his Ditch Trilogy, Neil Young reformed Crazy Horse and released Zuma in 1975. “Cortez The Killer”, a seven-and-a-half minute epic, foreshadows the alt-country of Uncle Tupelo and Drive-By Truckers, among others, but also the “ear-bleeding country” of Dinosaur Jr. and Meat Puppets. One of Young’s most iconic guitar solos, “Cortez The Killer”, provided a raw blueprint for Suede’s Bernard Butler, The War On Drugs’ Adam Granduciel, and MJ Lenderman. He may have left the ditch, but Young had little interest in returning to the middle of the road.

And I know she’s living there,
And she loves me to this day.
I still can’t remember when,
Or how I lost my way.

“Tangled Up In Blue” by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan entered a reclusive period following his motorcycle accident in 1966. Eventually, he grew restless and, with The Band, he returned to touring in 1974, leaving behind a quiet pastoral life with his young family. His marriage to Sara Lownds was falling apart, and rambling around with a hard-partying gang of unkempt musicians wasn’t helping. Half of Blood On The Tracks was recorded in New York, while the other half was re-recorded in Minneapolis. You can see this as a metaphor for the divergent paths of a 33-year-old Dylan. “Tangled Up In Blue” is a song about movement. And often, when one moves forward, they leave a little blood on the tracks.

I muttered somethin’ underneath my breath,
She studied the lines on my face.
I must admit I felt a little uneasy,
When she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe.
Tangled up in blue.

Photo by Reprise Records/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images