NEVER A DULL MOMENT by David Hepworth
The Action-Packed Story of 1971 – Rock’s Best Year.
On New Year’s Eve, 1970 Paul McCartney instructed his lawyers to issue a writ at the High Court in London to wind up The Beatles. The sixties ended that day, which was a year late, strictly speaking. You might say this was the last day of the pop era. The following day, which was a Friday, was 1971. You might say this was the first day of the rock era. 1971 would also turn out to be the busiest, most creative, most innovative, most resonant, most interesting year of that era.
Nobody dreamed the rock era would last as long as it has done. Many of those people who first achieved stardom in 1971 – David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Elton John and Joni Mitchell – have since gone on to enjoy careers longer than novelists, politicians, captains of industry and actors, let alone their old friends who remained at school, when they hit the road with a guitar over their shoulder.
Similarly nobody imagined 1971 would see the release of more influential albums than any year before or since. That influence hasn’t merely been felt by later generations of musicians, most of whom weren’t born in 1971. It’s also been felt by the performers themselves. Many of them are still around and more popular than ever. They’re still reaping massive rewards from that rock industry which was born in 1971. They wish they could still write songs as good, make records as strong and express themselves as freely as they did in 1971.
During that twelve months, in a surge of creativity, playfulness, ambition, technological breakthrough, ego and blissful ignorance a huge proportion of the most memorable albums ever made were released. How did it happen? Never A Dull Moment explains.
