4 Albums That Prove 1975 Was a Stellar Year for British Rock

When we think about British rock and roll, we tend to immediately gravitate back to the British Invasion of the 60s. Truth be told, the second wave of British rockers did just as much damage in the 70s as their predecessors.

Videos by American Songwriter

As evidence of that, let’s look back to the middle of that decade. In 1975, rock and roll fans thrilled to these four British rock albums. This quartet of LPs has since earned bona fide classic status.

‘Wish You Were Here’ by Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd initially had no idea how they were going to follow up the massive accomplishment of The Dark Side Of The Moon, released in 1973. They initially fooled around with making an album consisting of nothing but music made on household objects. Had they followed through with that, it’s hard to imagine that experimental record would have come anywhere near Wish You Were Here. Many folks consider this the band’s pinnacle, the moment where the band’s musical ambition met exactly halfway with Roger Waters lyrical efforts. Waters focused his words on memories of Syd Barrett, the band’s former leader. He ended up drawing touching comparisons between Barrett’s physical absence and the band’s mental absence.

‘A Night At The Opera’ by Queen

Queen had been building toward something special on their first three albums. That said, A Night At The Opera took a major leap rather than following a steady upward trajectory. The quartet gave themselves permission to follow their musical instincts wherever they might lead on this album. They could still rock with abandon when desired, as on “Death On Two Legs” and “I’m In Love With My Car”. But they also showed off their pop smarts on “You’re My Best Friend”, offered folk rambles like “39”, and let Freddie Mercury get all sentimental on “Love Of My Life”. On “Bohemian Rhapsody”, they took that varied approach and applied it to a single song, becoming legends almost instantly once the song was heard.

‘Physical Graffiti’ by Led Zeppelin

Anyone who’d listened to Led Zeppelin with even the mildest scrutiny should have been able to tell by 1975 that they had more up their sleeve than just crunching rock. Physical Graffiti, which crammed a slew of wildly diverse songs into four sides of a double-album, drove that point home. The band was operating at a ridiculously high level as they bounced from the restless funk of “Trampled Under Foot” to the elegant exoticism of “Kashmir”. That’s just one example out of many on the album of their mind-boggling versatility shining over just a two-song sequence. Other highlights include the slowly stalking “Ten Years Gone”, the loping “Down By The Seaside”, and the rockabilly romp “Boogie With Stu”.

‘Young Americans’ by David Bowie

The title of this article suggests “rock” albums only. In the interest of accuracy, David Bowie’s Young Americans owes a much greater debt to R&B than rock. Bowie, like much of the music world, was entranced by the Philly Soul music explosion of the 70s. He wanted to see if he could get in on the act. That meant allowing plenty of room for backing vocalists like Luther Vandross to take some of the spotlight. He put aside the alien tendencies of previous records to engage with gritty, earthbound concerns. The title track gave him the perfect showcase for his new, blue-eyed soul persona. And the album-closing “Fame”, a collaboration with John Lennon, makes biting observations atop a rhythmic bed of quivering funk.

Photo by Andre Csillag/Shutterstock