In the mood for some rock songs that 70s kids used to know by heart? If you were a 70s kid and loved rock music, there’s a good chance you heard these songs at least once and maybe even memorized the lyrics. But time betrays us all, and even diehard rock fans from the 70s might have forgotten these excellent tunes. Let’s jog your memory, shall we?
“Animal Zoo” by Spirit (1970)
Howabout a dose of psychedelia with your 70s rock music? This jam from psychedelic rock band Spirit is a bit of a deep cut, considering it was never released as a single. It’s buried in their album Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus. Which, if you haven’t listened to the album in its entirety, you definitely should give a spin. It’s the band’s most successful album with a Gold Certification in the US, and “Animal Zoo” is a jam that diehard prog rock fans at the time might have forgotten about.
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“All The Way From Memphis” by Mott The Hoople (1973)
Driven by that piano track with a touch of Bowie influence, this rock anthem was quite the jam back in the early 1970s. The lead track from their partially self-titled Mott from 1973, “All The Way From Memphis” spins a yarn about a rock star whose guitar gets shipped all the way to Kentucky instead of Memphis, Tennessee. It’s a glam rock gem, one that didn’t quite chart in the US but earned a lot of airplay on AOR radio stations regardless.
“I’d Love To Change The World” by Ten Years After (1971)
A lot of people, particularly young people, in the early 1970s were dealing with apathy. The Vietnam War was raging on, and a lot of people felt hopelessness and despair. No one captured that feeling quite like Ten Years After did with “I’d Love To Change The World”. This psychedelic folk rock song was released as the lead single from the band’s album A Space In Time, and it ended up becoming Ten Years After’s only Top 40 hit in the US.
“Black Coffee” by Humble Pie (1973)
Humble Pie’s bluesy rocker “Black Coffee” boasts some of Steve Marriott’s most arresting and powerful vocal tracks. An excellent entry on our list of 70s rock songs you might have forgotten, “Black Coffee” was actually a cover song. Tina Turner actually wrote and recorded the song for the Ike & Tina album Feel Good in 1972. Humble Pie’s bluesier version was quite popular in 1973, though it was only a minor charting success.
Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage
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