pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

On one hand I'm not surprised because Pitchfork has tried to form its own counter-canon comprised of equal parts familiarity and woven from the most acceptable parts of punk and disco; this leads to oddities like fucking Dinosaur, whom I love but no way does "Kiss Me Again" belong on this list, in part because no one heard it in 1970-whatever.

On the other hand, it still leaves them gasping for air because no counter-canon would be complete without the one-offs and oddballs that characterize any decade: "In the Summertime," Jim Croce, "Sweet City Woman," etc. And, you know, country was crossing over in the '70s. Loretta Lynn's "The Pill" is an ideal Pitchfork song because It Breaks the Mold but not the Conway Twitty duet "After the Fire is Gone. But not Don Williams. But not "The Fightin' Side of Me." And so on.

It makes more sense for Pitchfork to compile a 100 Best Disco Songs. At least it'll force them to dig through crates.

man yeah Jim Croce was such an essential sound of the early/mid-seventies, you can't really fully tell the story of the decade without one or two of those tunes

This list is way better than their recent 80s one, which seemed like it was expressly designed to annoy old Gen Xers like myself and shame us for not likeing Whitney Houston.

The big WTF placement was Anarchy in the UK at just 118, and not even having the insanely great Public Image make the list. And no Shake Some Action? Come on people!

A handful of obscurities I would have put on there to introduce to the youth:
Saint Dominic's Preview - Van Morrison
The Everlasting First - Love
I Bet You & Red Hot Mamma - Funkadelic
Say It Ain't So Joe - Murray Head
Brother John - The Wild Tchoupitoulas

"Anarchy" is the worst Pistols single including the joke ones

I was a child with no awareness of the Pistols whatsoever while they formally existed, but considering the breadth of that decade's music, 118 is actually a generous placement.

i predicted the no. 2 would be no.1, just bc the opening of "don't stop til you get enough," the way it evolves from the bassline and mj's whisper into this dense technicolor swirl, what a song, etc. "life on mars?" was sort of a shocker as i thought, of all bowie songs, "heroes" would take it.

would've been great to read you or Eric H@rvey on "You Light Up My Life."

ahaha that would've been amazing

the semi-impossibility of reflecting the breadth of the '70s is why my ballot was essentially "100 best disco songs" which of course also for the most part reflects where my taste is at at the moment

you're not an imaginationless hack tbf

sorry, pitchfork

Nitpicking aside, 10 years ago this list would've been all proto-punk/punk/post-punk songs with obligatory nods to Fela, P-Funk and Joni Mitchell.

I'd really hoped to write about "Rock With You," as that's probably my favorite MJ song! Ah well.

So...that's progress. xp

otm

Wow, these guys really like Bowie, huh?

Almost as much as they hate prog!

Dumbest inclusion on the whole list is that Donnie & Joe Emerson song that no one except the Emersons themselves ever heard in the actual 70s and is in no way top 200 material in any decade. It's a fucking meme.

as with most things i blame ariel pink

it's a nice song, but yeah there are about a billion better soft rock classics that don't have the Pink seal of approval

although Ariel's own list would probably be pretty excellent tbh

The thing that bothered me most as I was going to bed last night, having just quickly looked through the list, was the absence of the Staple Singers. And, as Alfred pointed out above, no Aretha either.

On some days, I'm pretty sure the Staples are the greatest band to have ever existed.

xp Yeah Donnie and Joe is kind of a bullshit pick.

Also no Carole King. If they really wanted to shake some action they coulda thrown in more pop and AM Gold.

Lol if the list were made in 2001 it would have included "Ventura Highway" just because of that Janet single. There's always a "topical" quality to these lists, like NWA placing at #3 on the '80s list last August.

Also if it were made in 2001 it would have included "Tiny Dancer" because of Almost Famous.

If they really wanted to shake some action they would've listed "Shake Some Action" by the Flaming Groovies

(Maybe they did, I haven't look at the whole list)

*looked

Reddit is slow on getting a plain text version of the list available, and I'm sure as hell not going to do it.

No it's not there. I was trying to be clever by throwing that in.

On some days, I'm pretty sure the Staples are the greatest band to have ever existed.

otm

if you need a scapegoat to blame whatever you want to blame on, it was my ballot. it was me, I did it

(either that or blame the mathematical impossibility of consensus picks to reflect your particular idiosyncrasies of taste, but the former is way easier)

You put Donnie & Joe Emerson on your ballot?

blame everything but that

We all know how consensus polls work, tbh. Overall, the final result was varied and diverse and not in any way embarrassing for anyone involved (well, except for the Emersons thing). I just think there were some shocking exclusions.

https://twitter.com/1000TimesYes/status/767745011236601856

love how whiney has been at the cutting edge of painstakingly documenting every whim of millenial taste for like a decade now and is somehow SHOCKED JUST SHOCKED that Steely Dan can make it onto a p4k list in 2016

ha

TWO Steely Dan songs!

Apparently David Bowie is "in" now??!?!?!?

nice to see the ILX love for Croce and Staples

I didn't read this list and have no plans to

Bowie in, John Denver out.

The latter owned the decade to a much bigger degree than the former, but y'know...history is written by the winners or something.

These doofuses put Minnie Riperton's "Les Fleurs" at #107 but didn't mention Charles Stepney, who co-wrote the song and was the true author of Come to My Garden. At least give us some perspective. It also came out in 1970, not 1971.
Nascimento, Veloso Jorge Ben and yes, Tom Ze. But no Gilberto Gil.
Shuggie Otis makes it but not the Brothers Johnson doing Otis. No Stylistics: "People Make the World Go Round" is so awesome.
Steely Dan's Aja-era--"Deacon Blues" and "Peg" but not "Reelin'" or, for chrissake, "Rikki."
Todd Rundgren's "International Feel" but not "Hello It's Me," Slut" or "Couldn't I Just Tell You." Although they did get Miles' "Right Off" they forgot "Calypso Frelimo." No James Blood Ulmer or Arthur Blythe or Ornette.
Country: No Willie Nelson. No George Jones: "The Grand Tour," '73; "Bartender's Blues," '78, or great album cuts like "A Drunk Can't Be a Man." Nor any Tammy Wynette: 1970's "He Loves Me All the Way," at least.

The only artist I'm surprised to not be on there at all is Black Sabbath. Really thought they would try to get in some token metal aside from Zeppelin.

but not the Brothers Johnson doing Otis

You missed it. It's there.

The argument that something that wasn't actually popular in the 70s doesn't belong on the list - that's a moot point, isn't? This isn't a document of how people in the 70s experienced the 70s; it's a document of how people in 2016 experience the 70s.

how did pitchfork not fit my personal favorite 200 songs of the 1970s into their list of 200 best songs from the 1970s

Of course. I never expect John Denver to get within spitting distance of this list. It's just weird that history has diminished him so much (probably because he died before the internet was a real thing). xp

if we all know how consensus polls work why do people need to keep saying it

also sabbath is on there, pretty close to the top 10 iirc

Ahh, I somehow missed it during my quick search. Fair enough.

Denver is an interesting phenomenon in that he is independent of almost any genre or scene - he wasn't really country (certainly not of the Nashville variety), he def wasn't rock, etc. He had some connections to the 60s folk axis but his music represents a shift out of that era's formalism. His career reminds me of Cat Stevens in that way. A huge star, but somehow apart and independent from everything else that was going on.

xp

if we all know how consensus polls work why do people need to keep saying it

Not really sure of any valid reason to even publish a poll except to get people talking about other songs that should've made the cut (and maybe hear some songs for the first time that did make it).