When Albums Ruled the World

0:00:02 > 0:00:04This programme contains some strong language

0:00:04 > 0:00:07Record shops were great to spend time in.

0:00:07 > 0:00:11I could spend three or four hours just strolling round.

0:00:11 > 0:00:14That was one of the most exciting places to hang out.

0:00:14 > 0:00:19You break the veneer of the hip joint employee.

0:00:19 > 0:00:22All it is, is a kind of like, "All right?" - just one of them,

0:00:22 > 0:00:26and you're like, "I own this town and everything in it."

0:00:26 > 0:00:27That's how it felt.

0:00:29 > 0:00:31When people walked around town,

0:00:31 > 0:00:35if you had some albums under your arm, it told people who you were.

0:00:35 > 0:00:39Something to read on the bus on the way home from the record shop.

0:00:39 > 0:00:44Really a magical moment, when you rush home and you put the music on.

0:00:44 > 0:00:47You'd have to extract the record from its sleeve

0:00:47 > 0:00:49and place it on the turntable.

0:00:49 > 0:00:52The first time you drop a needle on a record,

0:00:52 > 0:00:55it's ten points if there's a little bit of skid and then...

0:00:55 > 0:00:59Bump, biting into it, as the needle hit the vinyl.

0:01:01 > 0:01:03And then the music comes in.

0:01:03 > 0:01:06There's nothing as wonderful as that.

0:01:12 > 0:01:17The unsung hero in popular music's epic history is not a performer,

0:01:17 > 0:01:20or a band, or even a song.

0:01:20 > 0:01:23It's this - the long-playing album.

0:01:28 > 0:01:31A creative canvas on which musicians could express themselves

0:01:31 > 0:01:33like never before.

0:01:36 > 0:01:41It turned record labels into business empires,

0:01:41 > 0:01:46turned humble musicians into exalted immortals...

0:01:47 > 0:01:53..and helped transform popular music from disposable teenage distraction

0:01:53 > 0:01:55to an art form.

0:01:55 > 0:01:59This is the story of how, from the mid-'60s to the late '70s,

0:01:59 > 0:02:03the long-playing album changed popular music for ever...

0:02:05 > 0:02:09..the era when albums ruled the world.

0:02:15 > 0:02:22Around 130 grams of vinyl and acetate mix, 1,600 feet of groove,

0:02:22 > 0:02:2533 and a third revolutions per minute -

0:02:25 > 0:02:29the long-playing vinyl record was unveiled to the world

0:02:29 > 0:02:31by Columbia Records in 1948.

0:02:36 > 0:02:40With up to 22 and a half minutes of sound per side,

0:02:40 > 0:02:43it was the perfect vehicle for classical music

0:02:43 > 0:02:45and soundtracks to popular musicals.

0:02:45 > 0:02:50It was a product aimed at, and bought by, adults.

0:02:50 > 0:02:52I remember a lot of soundtrack albums.

0:02:52 > 0:02:57Your parents went to see a show or a film, then they'd get

0:02:57 > 0:03:02West Side Story soundtrack, or Oklahoma! soundtrack or My Fair Lady.

0:03:02 > 0:03:07And it was very much... I saw LPs as being part of the grown-up world.

0:03:08 > 0:03:12Along with soundtracks and classical music, the LP soon became home

0:03:12 > 0:03:16to easy listening collections and jazz recordings.

0:03:16 > 0:03:19But while parents listened to their LPs,

0:03:19 > 0:03:22teenagers were dancing to a different beat.

0:03:22 > 0:03:25# Wop-bop-a-loo-bop a-lop-bam-boom Tutti frutti... #

0:03:25 > 0:03:30This was rock'n'roll, preserve of a smaller, cheaper disc.

0:03:30 > 0:03:34A 45 is a little guy with a big fat hole in the middle,

0:03:34 > 0:03:36slips on to this penis.

0:03:36 > 0:03:39How very phallic, how very sexual.

0:03:39 > 0:03:42But as the '50s became the '60s,

0:03:42 > 0:03:46teenagers' disposable income grew and rock'n'roll,

0:03:46 > 0:03:51increasingly called pop music, began to creep onto the grooves of the LP.

0:03:51 > 0:03:53Many albums of that era

0:03:53 > 0:03:58by pop artists contained the singles and then some duff tracks,

0:03:58 > 0:04:01a few covers, and some filler.

0:04:01 > 0:04:05The artistic pinnacle is a hit single as a pop artist,

0:04:05 > 0:04:08and an album, in a way, is often always perceived

0:04:08 > 0:04:12as a kind of cash-in on the single rather than the other way round.

0:04:12 > 0:04:15The artistic opportunity the LP could provide

0:04:15 > 0:04:18was still waiting to be discovered.

0:04:18 > 0:04:20Intellectually, it was fallow.

0:04:20 > 0:04:25The minds of the young people hadn't really expanded yet.

0:04:25 > 0:04:27# I'm all shook up. #

0:04:30 > 0:04:33But change was in the air.

0:04:33 > 0:04:37In New York's Greenwich Village, folk music was about to show

0:04:37 > 0:04:41that the LP could be the canvas for a new kind of musical expression.

0:04:41 > 0:04:47In the early 1960s, American folk music was enjoying a renaissance.

0:04:47 > 0:04:50Folk captured the spirit of protest

0:04:50 > 0:04:54in a society still scarred by racial segregation.

0:04:54 > 0:04:57Society itself is changing during the early '60s,

0:04:57 > 0:04:59both technologically and socially,

0:04:59 > 0:05:01and there's a growing sense

0:05:01 > 0:05:03that music itself should address some of that.

0:05:03 > 0:05:07# I've seen trouble all my days... #

0:05:07 > 0:05:12Into this scene stepped a 20-year-old Bob Dylan.

0:05:12 > 0:05:16His 1962 debut was a collection of folk standards.

0:05:16 > 0:05:20But for his second record, he did something different.

0:05:20 > 0:05:23# Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? #

0:05:23 > 0:05:27He recorded an album almost entirely made up of original songs.

0:05:27 > 0:05:30# Oh, where have you been, my darling young one? #

0:05:30 > 0:05:32That marks a change

0:05:32 > 0:05:35and one that's quite noticeable among his peers

0:05:35 > 0:05:39and general public, that the songs are credited to Bob Dylan.

0:05:39 > 0:05:42He is the artist behind this album.

0:05:42 > 0:05:48Here were 13 songs that tackled love, war, peace and race.

0:05:48 > 0:05:50I ran into him at a party,

0:05:50 > 0:05:53and he was in a back bedroom, playing to some girls,

0:05:53 > 0:05:57trying to impress them, and he played Masters Of War

0:05:57 > 0:06:00and A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, and I was like, what?!

0:06:00 > 0:06:02It was the most powerful thing I had ever heard.

0:06:02 > 0:06:05# Come, you masters of war

0:06:07 > 0:06:09# You that build the big guns... #

0:06:09 > 0:06:14Freewheelin' was Dylan's statement on the world around him.

0:06:14 > 0:06:19Bob Dylan was clearly developing the idea

0:06:19 > 0:06:22of looking at the album as a collection.

0:06:22 > 0:06:25There was serious thought put into the make-up

0:06:25 > 0:06:28of what this album was going to be.

0:06:28 > 0:06:32This was a landmark.

0:06:32 > 0:06:36This was a new chapter in American music.

0:06:36 > 0:06:42# The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

0:06:42 > 0:06:45# The answer is blowin' in the wind... #

0:06:45 > 0:06:49Everything about Freewheelin' seemed to herald a new era,

0:06:49 > 0:06:51right down to the cover.

0:06:51 > 0:06:53Nobody did covers like that.

0:06:53 > 0:06:57It was so confident, so oblique, so casual, like,

0:06:57 > 0:07:00"Yeah, I got a girlfriend, so what?

0:07:00 > 0:07:03"Here she is. It's not glamorous, it's nothing. It's just reality."

0:07:03 > 0:07:07The whole thing, just...powerful.

0:07:07 > 0:07:11# I'll know my song well before I start singing

0:07:11 > 0:07:13# And it's a hard And it's a hard... #

0:07:13 > 0:07:16The expansive canvas of the long player

0:07:16 > 0:07:19had allowed Bob Dylan to find his voice.

0:07:19 > 0:07:23In return, Dylan had given the album a new purpose.

0:07:28 > 0:07:32While the early albums from British bands like The Rolling Stones,

0:07:32 > 0:07:36The Beatles and The Kinks were still just collections of pop songs,

0:07:36 > 0:07:38Dylan's next records would continue

0:07:38 > 0:07:41to push the boundaries of what an album could be.

0:07:41 > 0:07:44He pushes that further and further,

0:07:44 > 0:07:47by introducing 11-minute songs

0:07:47 > 0:07:50on Highway 61 Revisited or Desolation Row,

0:07:50 > 0:07:54and then having what is one of the very first double albums

0:07:54 > 0:07:59with Blonde On Blonde, where you have side-sprawling tracks.

0:07:59 > 0:08:03And with these albums now charting in the US top 10,

0:08:03 > 0:08:06Dylan's vision for the album was entering the mainstream.

0:08:06 > 0:08:10Dylan's career, in a way, provides a blueprint

0:08:10 > 0:08:14for how artists that follow him want to pursue their careers.

0:08:14 > 0:08:18They want to be able to pursue their own artistic vision

0:08:18 > 0:08:20and they want to pursue it on album.

0:08:21 > 0:08:25In California, this artistic vision was heightened

0:08:25 > 0:08:27by the addition of a new ingredient.

0:08:27 > 0:08:32PSYCHEDELIC ELECTRIC GUITAR PLAYS

0:08:41 > 0:08:45Diethylamide, popularly known as LSD.

0:08:45 > 0:08:48If you haven't heard of LSD, you will.

0:08:48 > 0:08:53LSD was the catalyst behind a psychedelic subculture

0:08:53 > 0:08:55that had the album at its core.

0:08:57 > 0:09:02A whole kind of chunk of your mind gets opened up

0:09:02 > 0:09:07and a lot of the musicians had fairly good experiences with acid.

0:09:07 > 0:09:12By 1966, the folk music revival had reached California,

0:09:12 > 0:09:14where bands like Jefferson Airplane

0:09:14 > 0:09:17had absorbed it into a new musical melting pot.

0:09:17 > 0:09:20# Lord, look at me here... #

0:09:20 > 0:09:24Jack and Jorma were blues men.

0:09:24 > 0:09:28Paul liked outer space, and Marty wrote love songs.

0:09:28 > 0:09:30And I like folk music,

0:09:30 > 0:09:35so you got a real smorgasbord of stuff, and I liked it that way.

0:09:35 > 0:09:39But it was the acid that took the music of the West Coast underground

0:09:39 > 0:09:42in entirely new directions.

0:09:44 > 0:09:48Expansive psychedelic rock LPs like this were tailor-made

0:09:48 > 0:09:51for their tune-in, drop-out audience.

0:09:51 > 0:09:56I mean, one reason why album culture suited psychedelic culture

0:09:56 > 0:10:00is that if you were sprawled out or sitting cross-legged

0:10:00 > 0:10:03and being semi-meditative to the music, the last thing you wanted

0:10:03 > 0:10:07was to have to get up and, you know, turn the record over

0:10:07 > 0:10:11or change the record any more often than you had to.

0:10:12 > 0:10:14Call your friends and come on over

0:10:14 > 0:10:19and everybody sitting listening to the whole album all at once,

0:10:19 > 0:10:22you made comments about it afterwards, smoked a bunch of dope

0:10:22 > 0:10:24or have wine or whatever you do, and it was great.

0:10:28 > 0:10:30But while this new audience

0:10:30 > 0:10:33devoured the records of the psychedelic scene,

0:10:33 > 0:10:38one place this new album-based music couldn't be heard was radio.

0:10:38 > 0:10:40# I need love, love

0:10:40 > 0:10:43# To ease my mind... #

0:10:43 > 0:10:44The big American radio stations,

0:10:44 > 0:10:47I mean, the giants, you know, in LA,

0:10:47 > 0:10:5193 KHJ, for example, the Boss Jocks, they were playing singles,

0:10:51 > 0:10:56so, you know, there wasn't a lot of platform on air

0:10:56 > 0:10:59for album music until the arrival of KSAN in San Francisco.

0:11:01 > 0:11:07KSAN was a local station that revolutionised American radio.

0:11:07 > 0:11:11In 1967, a KSAN DJ connected to the psychedelic scene,

0:11:11 > 0:11:14called Tom Donahue, stopped broadcasting chart hits

0:11:14 > 0:11:17and started playing album tracks instead.

0:11:17 > 0:11:19This is Tom Donahue at KSAN,

0:11:19 > 0:11:23K-S-A-N, Metromedia Stereo 95, San Francisco, Oakland.

0:11:23 > 0:11:27This new format was an instant success.

0:11:27 > 0:11:29By the late '60s,

0:11:29 > 0:11:34every town in America had an FM station

0:11:34 > 0:11:40with at least a late-night free-form show, if not all day long.

0:11:40 > 0:11:41It was a massive game changer.

0:11:41 > 0:11:46The origination of the engine,

0:11:46 > 0:11:48the first part of the engine

0:11:48 > 0:11:52that powered album sales in America through the '70s.

0:11:53 > 0:11:57Donahue's radio revolution soon crossed the Atlantic

0:11:57 > 0:12:00and found its way aboard the pirate radio stations

0:12:00 > 0:12:02based off the coast of Britain.

0:12:02 > 0:12:04The turning point for me

0:12:04 > 0:12:08was hearing John Peel do Perfume Garden late at night out there,

0:12:08 > 0:12:10and as John described it one night,

0:12:10 > 0:12:12in his stone solitude in the middle of the North Sea,

0:12:12 > 0:12:18playing this amazing music that he'd brought back from America with him.

0:12:18 > 0:12:22The concept of the album as a revolutionary musical force

0:12:22 > 0:12:24was spreading.

0:12:24 > 0:12:27And in London, it would now emerge as the object

0:12:27 > 0:12:31and the idea that would dominate the next decade of music history.

0:12:31 > 0:12:35MUSIC: I Can't Explain by The Who

0:12:38 > 0:12:40By the mid-'60s, swinging London had

0:12:40 > 0:12:43become the hippest city in the world.

0:12:43 > 0:12:46Acts like The Who, Dusty Springfield

0:12:46 > 0:12:49and Manfred Mann had scored hit single

0:12:49 > 0:12:51after international hit single.

0:12:52 > 0:12:56But the biggest singles band of them all, The Beatles, had been

0:12:56 > 0:13:02absorbing American album music, from Dylan to the psychedelic scene.

0:13:02 > 0:13:05At the start of '60s, your parents loved them.

0:13:05 > 0:13:08Your mum would take you to see Help!, A Hard Day's Night,

0:13:08 > 0:13:11and maybe she'd buy the LP for herself.

0:13:11 > 0:13:14And by the end of the '60s, your parents despised The Beatles

0:13:14 > 0:13:17and they were symbolic of everything that

0:13:17 > 0:13:20they were afraid was going to happen to you -

0:13:20 > 0:13:23that you were going to grow your hair, you were going to take drugs.

0:13:23 > 0:13:27When I saw that Rubber Soul album cover and they're looking down,

0:13:27 > 0:13:28you looked at them and went,

0:13:28 > 0:13:31"Uh-oh, these guys have been psychedelicised."

0:13:31 > 0:13:35After The Beatles ended their 1966 world tour, they returned to

0:13:35 > 0:13:39London's Abbey Road Studios to begin another recording session,

0:13:39 > 0:13:43but this time, things would be different.

0:13:43 > 0:13:47Out of the blue, John says to George Martin, "On this record,

0:13:47 > 0:13:51"we're going to create sounds that no-one's ever heard before.

0:13:51 > 0:13:54"We don't have to worry about reproducing them live

0:13:54 > 0:13:56"because we're never going to tour again."

0:13:56 > 0:13:58At the end of 1966,

0:13:58 > 0:14:01The Beatles started work on Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

0:14:01 > 0:14:06and so began the most ambitious album recording session to date.

0:14:06 > 0:14:11When you see shots of George Harrison bundling out of a Rolls-Royce

0:14:11 > 0:14:15and in through the door of Abbey Road with reams and reams of A4,

0:14:15 > 0:14:17waving at everyone, head down,

0:14:17 > 0:14:21getting into the studio, getting to work, it's like...

0:14:21 > 0:14:24They must have felt like they were splitting the atom in there.

0:14:24 > 0:14:28For those inside Abbey Road, it was clear the band wanted this

0:14:28 > 0:14:32to be a different kind of recording session.

0:14:32 > 0:14:35John, especially, was looking for something new.

0:14:35 > 0:14:39Things weren't in the studio to create things new,

0:14:39 > 0:14:41so that was the gauntlet that was thrown down.

0:14:41 > 0:14:44Analogue four-track studio technology

0:14:44 > 0:14:46was to be pushed to its limits.

0:14:46 > 0:14:48Every time we were going to use an instrument,

0:14:48 > 0:14:51they were fed up with listening to a guitar sounding like a guitar,

0:14:51 > 0:14:55or a piano sounding like a piano, a cowbell sounding like a cowbell,

0:14:55 > 0:14:58so we did all we could to try and mask those sounds.

0:14:58 > 0:15:02You knew it was a guitar, but it had some sort of quirkiness to it.

0:15:03 > 0:15:08This intensive approach to recording was another influence picked up

0:15:08 > 0:15:10from the American psychedelic scene.

0:15:10 > 0:15:14The idea that it's possible to really spend time in the studio

0:15:14 > 0:15:17and experiment and explore.

0:15:17 > 0:15:19Brian Wilson was doing that with Pet Sounds

0:15:19 > 0:15:21and Paul sort of picked that baton up as well.

0:15:21 > 0:15:26Here we go, then. We'll send the tape. Are you ready, Richard?

0:15:26 > 0:15:29Marshalling the band was veteran producer George Martin.

0:15:29 > 0:15:31OK, Jeff? Right, here we go.

0:15:31 > 0:15:35He turned the studio into the LP's final instrument.

0:15:35 > 0:15:37George was brilliant at that.

0:15:37 > 0:15:40He was like a schoolmaster and we were the schoolchildren, you know?

0:15:40 > 0:15:44The last tracks on the record were laid down in April 1967.

0:15:44 > 0:15:46That night, set up a monitor mix,

0:15:46 > 0:15:50and there was just the most unbelievable atmosphere.

0:15:50 > 0:15:55# Woke up, fell out of bed Dragged a comb across my head... #

0:15:55 > 0:15:59No-one had ever heard anything that sounded like that in their lives,

0:15:59 > 0:16:03it was like going from a square black and white picture

0:16:03 > 0:16:04into CinemaScope Technicolor.

0:16:04 > 0:16:07And Ron Richards was sitting on the floor by the mixing console,

0:16:07 > 0:16:10and Ron was the producer of The Hollies.

0:16:10 > 0:16:12And Ron had his head in his hands

0:16:12 > 0:16:15and he said, "I'm going to give the business up."

0:16:15 > 0:16:18That was his intention, it was that amazing.

0:16:18 > 0:16:23# Ah... #

0:16:23 > 0:16:25What The Beatles had created was arguably

0:16:25 > 0:16:28the world's first concept album.

0:16:28 > 0:16:30Since they weren't touring any more,

0:16:30 > 0:16:34The Beatles would go on the road in their imaginations

0:16:34 > 0:16:37as Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

0:16:37 > 0:16:39# It was 20 years ago today... #

0:16:39 > 0:16:42This is the start of his concept. It was some fictitious band

0:16:42 > 0:16:44and they were tuning up at the Albert Hall.

0:16:44 > 0:16:49They're creating a kind of quasi-live set

0:16:49 > 0:16:52and bring in a lot of ideas

0:16:52 > 0:16:55that are quintessentially English, you have to say, you know?

0:16:55 > 0:16:58The sort of musical idea of... they had a brass band.

0:17:00 > 0:17:03And then you hear a laughter.

0:17:03 > 0:17:05The reason why the laughter's there is that we're supposed to be

0:17:05 > 0:17:08the audience, the listener of that album is supposed to be

0:17:08 > 0:17:11sitting in the audience of a theatre.

0:17:11 > 0:17:16# We're Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

0:17:16 > 0:17:19# We hope you will enjoy the show... #

0:17:19 > 0:17:21And the way they flow into each other.

0:17:21 > 0:17:23CHEERING

0:17:26 > 0:17:28The way that the stories and the themes reappear.

0:17:28 > 0:17:32# We're Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

0:17:32 > 0:17:35# We hope you have enjoyed the show... #

0:17:35 > 0:17:39There's a cohesive thread that binds all these songs together.

0:17:39 > 0:17:41The album has a beginning and a middle and an end.

0:17:41 > 0:17:43This was a revelation.

0:17:44 > 0:17:48# Sgt Pepper's Lonely Sgt Pepper's Lonely... #

0:17:48 > 0:17:52The concept of an imaginary band on tour was played out

0:17:52 > 0:17:53on the album sleeve as well.

0:17:57 > 0:18:02Bela Lugosi and God knows who, Lenny Bruce, WC Fields,

0:18:02 > 0:18:04Laurel and Hardy.

0:18:04 > 0:18:07Oh, look, there's Marlon Brando. Oh, there's Bob Dylan.

0:18:07 > 0:18:11This is one of...might be the most recognisable album cover of all time.

0:18:15 > 0:18:19As a last, innovative touch, the final groove on the record

0:18:19 > 0:18:23was cut back on itself so, in theory, it would play into infinity,

0:18:23 > 0:18:27just like the influence of the music itself.

0:18:27 > 0:18:32Sgt Pepper is the template for everything we've come to know

0:18:32 > 0:18:35now as the great long-playing record.

0:18:37 > 0:18:41Sgt Pepper shot to number one in the UK and became the longest

0:18:41 > 0:18:45and highest charting of all The Beatles' albums in America.

0:18:49 > 0:18:51By the end of the year,

0:18:51 > 0:18:56sales of albums in the US passed the 1 billion mark for the first time.

0:18:56 > 0:19:01Albums were now outselling singles in both the US and UK.

0:19:01 > 0:19:04Sgt Pepper, it was a catalyst.

0:19:04 > 0:19:10When you think, '66, '67, was an incredibly creative time.

0:19:10 > 0:19:13So you've got other bands that were coming through,

0:19:13 > 0:19:15particularly in London, The Underground,

0:19:15 > 0:19:17bands like Pink Floyd, Soft Machine,

0:19:17 > 0:19:20who weren't conforming their songs to two-and-a-half,

0:19:20 > 0:19:23three-minute single formats.

0:19:23 > 0:19:28Some bands tried to copy the Sgt Pepper's formula.

0:19:28 > 0:19:32Some lampooned it. Others, like guitarist Jimi Hendrix,

0:19:32 > 0:19:36wanted to take the idea of artistic control a step further.

0:19:36 > 0:19:37All right!

0:19:39 > 0:19:42Hendrix had been plucked from obscurity by producer,

0:19:42 > 0:19:45Chas Chandler, in 1966.

0:19:45 > 0:19:48Together, they made two albums that established Hendrix

0:19:48 > 0:19:51as the most influential guitarist in rock.

0:19:51 > 0:19:57But his 1968 LP, Electric Ladyland, would be a new departure.

0:20:00 > 0:20:01After a fallout with Chandler,

0:20:01 > 0:20:05this would be Hendrix's first album without a producer.

0:20:05 > 0:20:09MUSIC: All Along The Watchtower

0:20:09 > 0:20:14Artistic control over album recording was entering a new phase.

0:20:14 > 0:20:18So Hendrix, at this point, in order to warm up, almost,

0:20:18 > 0:20:22is every single evening going to jam at a club

0:20:22 > 0:20:25two blocks down the street called The Scene.

0:20:25 > 0:20:30He would literally turn up and jam with whoever happened to be on stage.

0:20:30 > 0:20:35You know, we have the session booked for eight o'clock. No Jimi.

0:20:35 > 0:20:39And then around midnight or so, when Jimi felt he'd got enough

0:20:39 > 0:20:44players that he felt were in the moment with him and would be useful

0:20:44 > 0:20:48in the studio, he would literally walk from The Scene down to the

0:20:48 > 0:20:53record plant, like a circus of people walking these two blocks in New York.

0:20:53 > 0:20:57I can think of this one fabulous night where he dragged in

0:20:57 > 0:21:02Steve Winwood, Jack Cassidy, they come in,

0:21:02 > 0:21:06Mitch gets on the drums, Jimi plugs in the guitar.

0:21:06 > 0:21:09The organ's all ready, the bass, everything.

0:21:09 > 0:21:13We open up the faders, they rehearse, one take.

0:21:13 > 0:21:18Next take, that's the master. Done. We get Voodoo Chile.

0:21:18 > 0:21:22MUSIC: Voodoo Chile

0:21:24 > 0:21:27This is where we are now with long-playing records.

0:21:27 > 0:21:30We're beyond even where The Beatles were, who were, more or less,

0:21:30 > 0:21:32nine-to-five creatures in the studio.

0:21:32 > 0:21:36We're, "When will the lightning strike? We need to be ready."

0:21:37 > 0:21:40Complete control of the recording process

0:21:40 > 0:21:42allowed Hendrix to indulge his every musical whim.

0:21:44 > 0:21:48Electric Ladyland was his most adventurous record.

0:21:48 > 0:21:51And there was so much...

0:21:51 > 0:21:55so many great things he was doing in the studio that hadn't

0:21:55 > 0:21:56necessarily been heard before.

0:21:58 > 0:22:02The result was tracks of increasing length and complexity,

0:22:02 > 0:22:05such as the near 14-minute 1983...

0:22:07 > 0:22:10# Hooray, I wake from yesterday... #

0:22:10 > 0:22:13One take all the way through.

0:22:13 > 0:22:15..which Hendrix even helped mix.

0:22:15 > 0:22:18I would take one half of the console

0:22:18 > 0:22:20and I'd give Jimi, like, a vocal track

0:22:20 > 0:22:22and some other things over here

0:22:22 > 0:22:25and we would rehearse it as a performance, and then in the middle

0:22:25 > 0:22:28of the mix, we would look at each other and we would start laughing

0:22:28 > 0:22:30and say, "OK, are you ready to split? OK, go."

0:22:30 > 0:22:34And I'd get up and I'd shift positions with Jimi, and Jimi would

0:22:34 > 0:22:37take my position, and we'd go like this, "You ready to go back? Yeah."

0:22:37 > 0:22:39And then we'd bump into each other,

0:22:39 > 0:22:42he'd fall on the floor laughing, I'd fall on the floor laughing

0:22:42 > 0:22:44and then the tape would still be running.

0:22:46 > 0:22:50Electric Ladyland was the first Hendrix LP to hit

0:22:50 > 0:22:53the top of the US charts when released in 1968...

0:22:55 > 0:22:59..proving that artistic freedom could equal commercial success.

0:22:59 > 0:23:04# You jump in front of my car When you, you know all the time... #

0:23:04 > 0:23:09Classic double albums like Electric Ladyland were met with

0:23:09 > 0:23:15a certain amount of incomprehension by early reviewers.

0:23:15 > 0:23:18They weren't designed to whack you over the head the first time

0:23:18 > 0:23:23you heard them and give up all they had to offer on that first hearing.

0:23:23 > 0:23:29They were designed to gradually sink in to reveal more detail

0:23:29 > 0:23:32and subtext as you listened to them over and over again.

0:23:36 > 0:23:39Increasingly adventurous album tracks from both British

0:23:39 > 0:23:43and American bands were now dominating the ever more popular

0:23:43 > 0:23:45FM radio network in America.

0:23:48 > 0:23:53This album music was becoming a category all of its own. AOR.

0:23:53 > 0:23:55Album-oriented rock.

0:23:55 > 0:23:58You know, you've got bands who were now maturing

0:23:58 > 0:24:03and now delivering what was becoming increasingly sophisticated music.

0:24:03 > 0:24:07Fantastic sort of time for albums to burst through,

0:24:07 > 0:24:10supported by American radio in the way that they were.

0:24:12 > 0:24:14You've got The Velvet Underground,

0:24:14 > 0:24:16you had Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention,

0:24:16 > 0:24:18you had Captain Beefheart,

0:24:18 > 0:24:21you had a whole bunch of stuff that would have been...

0:24:21 > 0:24:26that wouldn't even have been classified as pop music

0:24:26 > 0:24:30or rock music just a little while earlier.

0:24:30 > 0:24:34# Ever since I was a young boy I played the silver ball... #

0:24:34 > 0:24:37In London, The Who, once known as a singles band,

0:24:37 > 0:24:40released a double album called Tommy.

0:24:40 > 0:24:44Its writer, Pete Townshend, proclaimed it a rock opera.

0:24:51 > 0:24:55It's such a cliched term now, but at the time, it was exciting and fresh.

0:24:55 > 0:25:01A rock opera. Grandeur, meaning, credibility.

0:25:01 > 0:25:04And The Who weren't the only chart-friendly band to recognise

0:25:04 > 0:25:07the creative power of the album.

0:25:09 > 0:25:13Some people may see The Stones as perhaps more of a singles band.

0:25:13 > 0:25:16They think of Satisfaction, Paint It Black.

0:25:16 > 0:25:19And, of course, that's what they were to begin with, in the same way

0:25:19 > 0:25:22that that's what The Beatles were to begin with.

0:25:22 > 0:25:25But they wouldn't have the legacy they have now

0:25:25 > 0:25:29if they hadn't made the same journey The Beatles did from being

0:25:29 > 0:25:36this supernova singles act into long-playing-oriented band

0:25:36 > 0:25:39that made its reputation completely on its albums.

0:25:41 > 0:25:45Starting in 1968, The Stones made a series of four albums,

0:25:45 > 0:25:49which would be seen by many as their creative peak.

0:25:49 > 0:25:52If you think of some of their greatest tracks,

0:25:52 > 0:25:54Sympathy For The Devil, You Can't Always Get What You Want,

0:25:54 > 0:25:57Wild Horses, none of these are singles.

0:25:59 > 0:26:01The more rock bands embraced the LP

0:26:01 > 0:26:06and pushed its artistic boundaries, the more sales soared.

0:26:06 > 0:26:10By 1969, some 200 million albums were being bought annually

0:26:10 > 0:26:16in the US, and rock LPs accounted for four-fifths of these sales.

0:26:16 > 0:26:20The economics of the industry were changing, commercial success

0:26:20 > 0:26:25no longer depended on hit singles, as one band was about to prove.

0:26:28 > 0:26:30# Hey... #

0:26:30 > 0:26:34With a harder-edged raucous rock sound, Led Zeppelin hit

0:26:34 > 0:26:39the top of the US and UK charts with their 1969 debut album.

0:26:39 > 0:26:42The band was led by a veteran session guitarist.

0:26:42 > 0:26:46We're talking about a guy, Jimmy Page, who played on something

0:26:46 > 0:26:51like 60% of every hit single made in London over the previous five years.

0:26:51 > 0:26:54Led Zeppelin were Page's way out from a career of playing

0:26:54 > 0:26:56on other people's hit singles.

0:26:59 > 0:27:04The whole idea is for Jimmy Page to do everything

0:27:04 > 0:27:10he'd never done before - not make music to the clock, not make hits.

0:27:10 > 0:27:15When work finished on the band's second album later in 1969,

0:27:15 > 0:27:17Page sends Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant,

0:27:17 > 0:27:20with an ultimatum to Atlantic Records.

0:27:20 > 0:27:23No singles were to be released, not even the sure-fire hit,

0:27:23 > 0:27:25Whole Lotta Love.

0:27:25 > 0:27:28# Yeah, what a whole lotta love... #

0:27:29 > 0:27:35Pete doing his air of threat about him, he said, "No singles."

0:27:35 > 0:27:37And everybody looked in astonishment.

0:27:37 > 0:27:40The record company, understandably, utterly baffled.

0:27:40 > 0:27:43Here's this hit in the making, we can't release it.

0:27:45 > 0:27:48But Carson wasn't about to be told what to do,

0:27:48 > 0:27:50even by Peter Grant and Led Zeppelin.

0:27:50 > 0:27:54I decided that there should be a single, right? I did that.

0:27:54 > 0:27:56And I put a single out.

0:27:56 > 0:27:58I put an edited version of Whole Lotta Love out

0:27:58 > 0:28:02and incurred the total wrath of Jimmy Page and Peter Grant

0:28:02 > 0:28:06and was immediately forced to withdraw the whole damn lot.

0:28:06 > 0:28:10I think the number was something like 3,000 went to Manchester

0:28:10 > 0:28:12before I could stop them going there.

0:28:15 > 0:28:17Even with no singles to promote it,

0:28:17 > 0:28:22Led Zeppelin II topped the charts in both America and Britain in 1970.

0:28:22 > 0:28:26Jimmy and Peter Grant and Led Zeppelin were right.

0:28:26 > 0:28:28By not having a single,

0:28:28 > 0:28:33that Led Zeppelin II album was selling like it was a single.

0:28:37 > 0:28:38Within three years,

0:28:38 > 0:28:41Led Zeppelin were the biggest grossing act in the world.

0:28:41 > 0:28:46That is probably the pinnacle of how to sell an album.

0:28:46 > 0:28:53Make great music and make it available only in its album format.

0:28:53 > 0:28:55Don't sell anybody a single.

0:28:57 > 0:29:00The single was rapidly falling out of fashion.

0:29:00 > 0:29:01By the turn of the decade,

0:29:01 > 0:29:05albums accounted for over 80% of record sales.

0:29:07 > 0:29:10TRUMPET PLAYS

0:29:14 > 0:29:17But while the rock album was on the crest of a wave,

0:29:17 > 0:29:19other musical forms were suffering.

0:29:20 > 0:29:24The popularity of jazz had been declining for years.

0:29:24 > 0:29:27Not even one of the most celebrated jazz musicians of all time

0:29:27 > 0:29:28was immune,

0:29:28 > 0:29:32Miles Davis, a long-time Columbia Records artist.

0:29:34 > 0:29:36You know, he came to me, and his words, he said,

0:29:36 > 0:29:40"These fucking young, long-haired white kids,

0:29:40 > 0:29:42"they're stealing my rip."

0:29:42 > 0:29:46He said, "How come I'm selling 70,000

0:29:46 > 0:29:49"and they're selling a million,

0:29:49 > 0:29:50"two million albums?"

0:29:53 > 0:29:58With Columbia riding high on sales of rock LPs, Clive Davis knew

0:29:58 > 0:30:03better than anyone where the album-buying market was - rock fans.

0:30:03 > 0:30:08My saying, "Miles, you know, you're playing in small jazz clubs."

0:30:09 > 0:30:14I said, "You've got to get out where the young people are,

0:30:14 > 0:30:16"you're going to be impressed...

0:30:17 > 0:30:21"..with what you hear. Somehow it's going to influence your music...

0:30:23 > 0:30:27"..and moreover, you're going to have an audience that just doesn't go

0:30:27 > 0:30:29"to your jazz clubs."

0:30:29 > 0:30:31So, for his next project,

0:30:31 > 0:30:34Miles Davis took a whole new approach to the jazz LP.

0:30:34 > 0:30:36At this particular moment,

0:30:36 > 0:30:39you suddenly get Miles Davis dropping the suit and tie,

0:30:39 > 0:30:43dropping the super jazz cool and suddenly dressing like Jimi Hendrix.

0:30:43 > 0:30:46Big shades, robes.

0:30:46 > 0:30:49And suddenly he makes this extraordinary album

0:30:49 > 0:30:50called Bitches Brew.

0:30:52 > 0:30:55The double album Bitches Brew was released in 1970,

0:30:55 > 0:30:58with a cover from artist Marty Klarwein,

0:30:58 > 0:31:00whose work had adorned Jimi Hendrix LPs.

0:31:05 > 0:31:08The music was a radical departure for jazz,

0:31:08 > 0:31:11adding rock guitar and drums.

0:31:11 > 0:31:14It was the style that became known as fusion.

0:31:16 > 0:31:20So, what you will find in fusion that you can listen to,

0:31:20 > 0:31:23that you'll pull out of it, is the groove.

0:31:26 > 0:31:30A jazz personality on top of a rock groove,

0:31:30 > 0:31:33fundamentally, and that's what fusion, fundamentally, is.

0:31:35 > 0:31:39It was interesting because during those days,

0:31:39 > 0:31:41jazz and rock started to work together

0:31:41 > 0:31:47and all of a sudden you heard jazz being played on a technical level

0:31:47 > 0:31:49that was next level.

0:31:51 > 0:31:53HE IMITATES TRUMPET

0:31:53 > 0:31:54It's like, "Whoa!"

0:31:56 > 0:32:00To record the album, Davis had assembled an astonishing array

0:32:00 > 0:32:04of young jazz talent, including drummer Billy Cobham.

0:32:04 > 0:32:08The tracks were heavily improvised, with Davis as the conductor.

0:32:08 > 0:32:13He said to me the night before, "You know that groove we played?

0:32:13 > 0:32:15"I like that, play it tomorrow."

0:32:15 > 0:32:17OK. Got there, of course I couldn't remember what to play.

0:32:17 > 0:32:19I started to play something,

0:32:19 > 0:32:21he says, "That's not what you played last night.

0:32:21 > 0:32:23"But I like that, I want it!"

0:32:27 > 0:32:30Bitches Brew changed everything for Davis.

0:32:30 > 0:32:34Hardcore jazz fans were outraged by this new direction,

0:32:34 > 0:32:38but Davis was now playing to rock fans at the Isle of Wight Festival

0:32:38 > 0:32:40in 1970.

0:32:40 > 0:32:43Is this a jazz festival? No.

0:32:43 > 0:32:46Is this a pop festival? Absolutely not.

0:32:46 > 0:32:50This is a rock, long-playing, freak-out, far-out,

0:32:50 > 0:32:55join in, trip out, go-on-your-journey festival.

0:32:56 > 0:33:00Davis tapped into this vast rock audience,

0:33:00 > 0:33:04scoring his first gold record on one of the bestselling jazz albums ever.

0:33:07 > 0:33:10The musicians from Bitches Brew would go on to form bands

0:33:10 > 0:33:13like Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report

0:33:13 > 0:33:17and Return To Forever, whose LPs would cement fusion

0:33:17 > 0:33:20as jazz's dominant direction for the 1970s.

0:33:25 > 0:33:27CHEERING

0:33:27 > 0:33:29But even with sales soaring,

0:33:29 > 0:33:32not everyone had yet woken up to the power of the album.

0:33:36 > 0:33:41In Detroit, Tamla Motown was the most successful record label

0:33:41 > 0:33:44of the 1960s, an empire built on the 45.

0:33:44 > 0:33:46The core of the Detroit sound

0:33:46 > 0:33:49was the idea of the two-and-a-half-minute single

0:33:49 > 0:33:54that was instantly recognisable, that had a chorus, three verses.

0:33:54 > 0:33:57# Baby, everything is all right... #

0:33:57 > 0:34:02And a song that was effervescent, upbeat, very positive about life.

0:34:02 > 0:34:06They were not essentially, at least in the '60s, an album company.

0:34:06 > 0:34:09MUSIC: I Can't Help Myself by The Four Tops

0:34:12 > 0:34:15As the '70s dawned, Motown owner Berry Gordy remained

0:34:15 > 0:34:19committed to the label's hit factory formula.

0:34:19 > 0:34:22He imagined that he had a better sense of what made a hit record

0:34:22 > 0:34:24than any members of his staff.

0:34:24 > 0:34:27This often lead to a kind of rancorous relationship

0:34:27 > 0:34:30with the producers and sometimes with the singers and musicians.

0:34:31 > 0:34:35One of these singers was about to launch Motown into the album era.

0:34:35 > 0:34:39# Darling, please stay Don't go away... #

0:34:39 > 0:34:42Marvin Gaye was known as the Prince of Motown,

0:34:42 > 0:34:46the epitome of the label's chart-friendly sound.

0:34:46 > 0:34:49But his relationship with his label was becoming fraught.

0:34:49 > 0:34:53He felt that the company was essentially constraining him,

0:34:53 > 0:34:56constraining him in all sorts of different ways.

0:34:56 > 0:34:59He always felt that Berry Gordy was denying him

0:34:59 > 0:35:00being the full Marvin Gaye.

0:35:00 > 0:35:04You know, this is a guy who really didn't want the restrictions

0:35:04 > 0:35:05of Motown on him.

0:35:05 > 0:35:10It was a hit factory, and all of a sudden these artists wanted to grow.

0:35:10 > 0:35:13# Ooh, I bet you're wondering how I knew... #

0:35:13 > 0:35:16Following the death of singing partner Tammi Terrell,

0:35:16 > 0:35:19Gaye had become disillusioned with his pop career

0:35:19 > 0:35:23and increasingly concerned with Detroit's social problems.

0:35:23 > 0:35:27Gradually, from about 1967 onwards,

0:35:27 > 0:35:30that was the era of the urban riots in Detroit,

0:35:30 > 0:35:35he began to compile almost a kind of dossier of different things

0:35:35 > 0:35:38that were going on in the city, and that dossier became the basis

0:35:38 > 0:35:41of probably the greatest soul concept album of all time,

0:35:41 > 0:35:43Marvin Gaye's What's Going On.

0:35:43 > 0:35:45This is it.

0:35:45 > 0:35:47This is What's Going On, Marvin Gaye.

0:35:47 > 0:35:49Best sleeve, don't you think?

0:35:52 > 0:35:57MUSIC: What's Going On by Marvin Gaye

0:35:57 > 0:36:00In 1970, under Berry Gordy's radar,

0:36:00 > 0:36:05Gaye had begun work on some new material, not hit singles

0:36:05 > 0:36:09but an album, and a radical new direction for Motown.

0:36:09 > 0:36:12# Mother, mother... #

0:36:12 > 0:36:13CHEERING Thank you!

0:36:13 > 0:36:16# There's too many of you crying... #

0:36:16 > 0:36:19You knew when you heard it that it was important,

0:36:19 > 0:36:24and this was a move on, not just in terms of what he was saying,

0:36:24 > 0:36:26ie, "What's going on?"

0:36:26 > 0:36:29It was more the construction of the whole piece.

0:36:32 > 0:36:37The tracks on What's Going On seemed to melt into one another.

0:36:37 > 0:36:39A theme of social commentary

0:36:39 > 0:36:43and snippets of conversation gave the album a documentary feel.

0:36:43 > 0:36:47This was a concept album in the new rock mould.

0:36:47 > 0:36:52It was probably like the early days of rock'n'roll

0:36:52 > 0:36:56where bands like The Stones and The Beatles were basically emulating

0:36:56 > 0:37:00their blues gospel idols from America.

0:37:00 > 0:37:03But here, the roles were reversed.

0:37:03 > 0:37:05For the first time, the black acts

0:37:05 > 0:37:07were starting to imitate the rock acts.

0:37:10 > 0:37:12Musically, Gaye brought

0:37:12 > 0:37:16nearly a decade of songwriting experience to bear.

0:37:16 > 0:37:20Everything there, jazz, funk, soul, it was all there.

0:37:22 > 0:37:26Berry Gordy was worried Gaye's new direction would alienate

0:37:26 > 0:37:27his core audience.

0:37:27 > 0:37:31But released in May 1971, What's Going On became

0:37:31 > 0:37:35Marvin Gaye's first LP to break the Billboard Top 10.

0:37:35 > 0:37:39This album came out like a smooth assassin, it was like...

0:37:39 > 0:37:41It crept up on you. You know, it's screaming.

0:37:41 > 0:37:45It should be a rock album, its statements are so strong.

0:37:45 > 0:37:50But yet it's delivered so coolly and so smoothly.

0:37:50 > 0:37:53The fact that it gets to the end and he goes up on that high note,

0:37:53 > 0:37:57"Ooooh", and then it comes back in like the record begins,

0:37:57 > 0:38:01and the fact that it doesn't resolve, it just trots off into the distance,

0:38:01 > 0:38:05almost suggesting that that music is playing still

0:38:05 > 0:38:07somewhere in the universe.

0:38:08 > 0:38:11Within a year, it had sold two million copies

0:38:11 > 0:38:14and become Motown's biggest-selling LP.

0:38:14 > 0:38:18Even Motown had now entered the album game.

0:38:19 > 0:38:22It was with What's Going On that they began to realise

0:38:22 > 0:38:25that there was a market in the album,

0:38:25 > 0:38:29and then that subsequently set the tone for big albums

0:38:29 > 0:38:34by Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder's three albums in the '70s.

0:38:34 > 0:38:35It's this moment where rock

0:38:35 > 0:38:38and the whole idea of the long-playing record

0:38:38 > 0:38:42actually now infiltrates every sphere of music.

0:38:42 > 0:38:46The early '70s saw musicians from all backgrounds embracing

0:38:46 > 0:38:50the approach, and commercial potential, of the rock album.

0:38:50 > 0:38:54Bands like Jethro Tull fused rock with English folk.

0:38:54 > 0:38:56MUSIC: Aqualung by Jethro Tull

0:38:58 > 0:39:01The Doobie Brothers mixed rock with country.

0:39:03 > 0:39:05And in the glam rock scene,

0:39:05 > 0:39:08the power of the album divided two of the biggest artists...

0:39:08 > 0:39:11MUSIC: Starman by David Bowie

0:39:11 > 0:39:13..Marc Bolan and David Bowie.

0:39:14 > 0:39:17The crucial difference, really, between what T-Rex

0:39:17 > 0:39:21and Marc Bolan were doing and what David Bowie

0:39:21 > 0:39:23and the Spiders from Mars were doing

0:39:23 > 0:39:27can be summed up in two words - long player.

0:39:27 > 0:39:32MUSIC: Cosmic Dancer by T-Rex

0:39:32 > 0:39:36Bolan was a glam rock pioneer, but it was the single,

0:39:36 > 0:39:38not the album, that was his focus.

0:39:38 > 0:39:40I think Marc Bolan and David Bowie,

0:39:40 > 0:39:42they always had different goals.

0:39:42 > 0:39:45Marc Bolan wanted to have singles,

0:39:45 > 0:39:46he wanted to emulate

0:39:46 > 0:39:50the singles that he grew up with by Little Richard, Elvis Presley.

0:39:50 > 0:39:54David made great albums and let the single be damned.

0:39:54 > 0:39:57He did get great singles out of the albums,

0:39:57 > 0:40:01but it wasn't his purpose, it wasn't his primary purpose.

0:40:01 > 0:40:04Bowie used LPs to stretch himself as an artist.

0:40:06 > 0:40:09I hadn't seen him for a whole year and a half

0:40:09 > 0:40:13and he came to my apartment in full Ziggy regalia.

0:40:13 > 0:40:16No eyebrows, spiky orange hair and all that.

0:40:16 > 0:40:19But when this voice came out of that person, it was my friend David.

0:40:19 > 0:40:21# Now, Ziggy played guitar

0:40:21 > 0:40:25# Jamming good with Weird and Gilly

0:40:25 > 0:40:28# And the Spiders from Mars... #

0:40:28 > 0:40:31He was the first rock star to invent a rock star.

0:40:31 > 0:40:36To invent a person with another name. That's unbelievable.

0:40:36 > 0:40:38And then he could still be...

0:40:38 > 0:40:42The album could be Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.

0:40:42 > 0:40:44# Ziggy really sang... #

0:40:44 > 0:40:50So, you know, Bolan was the pathfinder, in a way,

0:40:50 > 0:40:51when it comes to glam rock.

0:40:51 > 0:40:57But it was David Bowie, it was Roxy Music, those were the artists

0:40:57 > 0:41:01that really benefited long-term because they were LP artists.

0:41:06 > 0:41:09As well as allowing artists the space to grow creatively,

0:41:09 > 0:41:11the album also allowed them to look inward

0:41:11 > 0:41:14and explore a more personal agenda.

0:41:15 > 0:41:17In the early '70s,

0:41:17 > 0:41:20a new kind of musician started to adopt the album -

0:41:20 > 0:41:21the singer-songwriter.

0:41:21 > 0:41:24Suddenly it was like people kind of sat down

0:41:24 > 0:41:28and were contemplating people more and were wanting to know more what

0:41:28 > 0:41:33they had to say and what they had to say about the world, as it were.

0:41:33 > 0:41:35Therefore, it became more introspective.

0:41:35 > 0:41:40# Tonight you're mine completely... #

0:41:40 > 0:41:45Carole King had spent the 1960s writing hits for other people.

0:41:45 > 0:41:48A lot of what we did in the early days,

0:41:48 > 0:41:50creating a really good track

0:41:50 > 0:41:52and getting a couple of good-looking kids

0:41:52 > 0:41:55and putting them on it, that was a different business.

0:41:55 > 0:41:59But stardom in the era of the album depended on a different

0:41:59 > 0:42:01set of qualities.

0:42:01 > 0:42:05# You got to get up every morning

0:42:05 > 0:42:09# With a smile on your face and show the world... #

0:42:09 > 0:42:14In 1970, King and producer Lou Adler, of Ode Records, began work

0:42:14 > 0:42:17on a collection of songs with the working title Tapestry.

0:42:17 > 0:42:22I certainly knew and Carole knew that we were making an album.

0:42:22 > 0:42:26It was obvious that we were trying to complete something.

0:42:28 > 0:42:33And not just go for a hit single or something. It was way past that.

0:42:33 > 0:42:37# So far away

0:42:37 > 0:42:43# Doesn't anybody stay in one place any more? #

0:42:43 > 0:42:48Tapestry would be the most personal and intimate work of King's career.

0:42:50 > 0:42:53In the older sessions, you went in, whatever the lights were,

0:42:53 > 0:42:54that's what you recorded under.

0:42:54 > 0:42:56And these kind of sessions,

0:42:56 > 0:42:59if you are doing a ballad, you turned the lights down a little bit.

0:42:59 > 0:43:03# Long ago I reached for you... #

0:43:03 > 0:43:05When I describe what Tapestry means to me,

0:43:05 > 0:43:09I always describe it as the musical equivalent of your big sister

0:43:09 > 0:43:12or your big brother putting the kettle on

0:43:12 > 0:43:14when you're having a really bad time, and they are like,

0:43:14 > 0:43:17"Come over here, come on, we will sort it out.

0:43:17 > 0:43:20"We'll have a cup of tea, we'll fix the world."

0:43:26 > 0:43:31# Stayed in bed all morning Just to pass the time... #

0:43:31 > 0:43:35# There's something wrong here There can be no denying

0:43:35 > 0:43:42# One of us is changing or maybe we've just stopped trying... #

0:43:42 > 0:43:45The final running order of Tapestry was

0:43:45 > 0:43:50a masterclass in one of the secrets of a great album - sequencing.

0:43:50 > 0:43:56I must have spent two weeks or more on the sequence of Tapestry.

0:43:56 > 0:44:00Coming out of the right chord into the right chord of the next song

0:44:00 > 0:44:04so that you don't, you know, abruptly shake somebody,

0:44:04 > 0:44:08not only shake them but musically shake them.

0:44:08 > 0:44:14The transition from So Far Away to It's Too Late was a classic example

0:44:14 > 0:44:15of Adler's sequence.

0:44:15 > 0:44:18What I really like is that you're going from this chord,

0:44:18 > 0:44:22it's a fade-out, actually, so we don't get a proper ending on

0:44:22 > 0:44:24So Far Away, but it sets you up nicely

0:44:24 > 0:44:26for that move to the A minor 7th.

0:44:29 > 0:44:31Because that chord is there again.

0:44:31 > 0:44:34So there's this really nice harmonic relationship.

0:44:34 > 0:44:36They're in different keys

0:44:36 > 0:44:39but they are echoing the song that's come before.

0:44:45 > 0:44:49Tapestry was released in the US in March 1971.

0:44:49 > 0:44:53All that pop kind of thing that she had come from,

0:44:53 > 0:44:58she poured into this album, but it's very personalised too.

0:44:58 > 0:45:01And that's quite a potent combination.

0:45:01 > 0:45:06The album spent 15 consecutive weeks at the top of the US album charts -

0:45:06 > 0:45:09the only time a female solo artist would achieve this

0:45:09 > 0:45:12in the entire 20th century.

0:45:12 > 0:45:17No solo album would outsell it until Thriller over a decade later.

0:45:17 > 0:45:20Tapestry was confirmation that the era of the album encouraged

0:45:20 > 0:45:23a new kind of star.

0:45:23 > 0:45:27Carole and I won five Grammys that year,

0:45:27 > 0:45:29the most by a female artist at that time.

0:45:29 > 0:45:36We won Best Album Of The Year and Song Of The Year

0:45:36 > 0:45:39and Single Of The Year.

0:45:39 > 0:45:43So that validated Carole King as an artist.

0:45:43 > 0:45:49# ..Like a natural woman. #

0:45:49 > 0:45:52Artists like James Taylor, Joni Mitchell

0:45:52 > 0:45:57and Don McLean contributed to the singer-songwriter boom.

0:45:57 > 0:46:02# And I think it's gonna be a long, long time... #

0:46:02 > 0:46:06Britain's answer was Elton John, who scored seven consecutive

0:46:06 > 0:46:09number one LPs in the US in the early '70s.

0:46:09 > 0:46:13# I'm a rocket man... #

0:46:13 > 0:46:16Only The Beatles ever surpassed this feat.

0:46:19 > 0:46:22But in contrast to the intimate stripped-back

0:46:22 > 0:46:25style of the singer-songwriters, other musicians were using

0:46:25 > 0:46:29the LP to create ever more elaborate musical landscapes.

0:46:29 > 0:46:31This was progressive rock.

0:46:33 > 0:46:36In a strange way we were musical scientists.

0:46:36 > 0:46:39We had lots of ingredients of different instruments around us

0:46:39 > 0:46:42and we had lots of different kinds of musical knowledge.

0:46:42 > 0:46:44And I didn't want to play three chords

0:46:44 > 0:46:46and just sort of do blues solos and things.

0:46:46 > 0:46:49I wanted to go to different levels and fuse music

0:46:49 > 0:46:50and put things together.

0:46:54 > 0:46:59The most popular album band on the Billboard charts for 1972 was

0:46:59 > 0:47:02a prog band, Yes.

0:47:04 > 0:47:11Yes music was as convoluted as it was excellent.

0:47:15 > 0:47:19Songs often spanned entire sides of vinyl.

0:47:19 > 0:47:22Double albums became triple albums.

0:47:22 > 0:47:27Such grandiose music required similarly creative sleeve design.

0:47:27 > 0:47:32Yes found their visual identity through artist Roger Dean.

0:47:32 > 0:47:34I never tried to paint music.

0:47:34 > 0:47:40What I was looking for in the imagery was something that

0:47:40 > 0:47:43would stop people, make them think,

0:47:43 > 0:47:47and have something that was from the same source as the music,

0:47:47 > 0:47:50rather than an image of the music.

0:47:50 > 0:47:53That was desperately important to us, desperately important,

0:47:53 > 0:47:58because the cover was as important as to what was inside.

0:47:58 > 0:48:00I mean, they say you can tell a book by its cover.

0:48:00 > 0:48:03You can also tell a vinyl by its cover.

0:48:07 > 0:48:11Increasingly extravagant packaging allowed Dean to explore

0:48:11 > 0:48:15entire narratives through a single album design.

0:48:15 > 0:48:20When we did the Yessongs album, it was a great opportunity to

0:48:20 > 0:48:23tell the story because it was a triple album with a booklet.

0:48:23 > 0:48:28Landing on a new planet, life restarting

0:48:28 > 0:48:33and humans and cities coming about.

0:48:37 > 0:48:42Yes's huge album sales gave Dean's artwork huge exposure.

0:48:44 > 0:48:49We did sell an enormous number of posters and calendars and books.

0:48:49 > 0:48:53I've looked at figures ranging from 60 to 100 million,

0:48:53 > 0:48:54so it's a lot of pieces.

0:48:54 > 0:48:56But iconic sleeves

0:48:56 > 0:49:00and progressive sounds didn't only meet in the world of rock.

0:49:02 > 0:49:06The albums of the Parliament Funkadelic collective created

0:49:06 > 0:49:09a funk universe every bit as creative as prog.

0:49:11 > 0:49:15It was the most insane, ridiculous, creative,

0:49:15 > 0:49:21ludicrous band collective of all time, Parliament Funkadelic.

0:49:21 > 0:49:26Just the most genius insanity that music has ever produced.

0:49:28 > 0:49:31Bands like Parliament Funkadelic, they were much more

0:49:31 > 0:49:37like the R&B, soul, funk versions of the Grateful Dead.

0:49:37 > 0:49:41Band leader George Clinton's clash of psychedelic rock,

0:49:41 > 0:49:47soul and funk met its match with the album artwork of Pedro Bell.

0:49:47 > 0:49:52It's Afrocentric, it's mad, it's kind of got Satanic qualities to it,

0:49:52 > 0:49:56it's challenging all sorts of different things.

0:49:56 > 0:49:59Just look at the breasts of this weird-looking woman here.

0:49:59 > 0:50:02One is a map of the world,

0:50:02 > 0:50:05the other is a musical turntable on the end of her nipples.

0:50:05 > 0:50:08I think it is very hard not to like a record which, on the sleeve,

0:50:08 > 0:50:12it describes the record company as, "Vinyl Binbanglers"

0:50:12 > 0:50:16and where the bass musicians are called "bass thumpasaurians".

0:50:16 > 0:50:21Cosmic Slop, No Compute, Trash A Go-Go, March To The Witch's Castle,

0:50:21 > 0:50:27The Nappy Dugout, and two skeletons having sex in the corner.

0:50:27 > 0:50:28Excellent!

0:50:30 > 0:50:32For the '70s music fan,

0:50:32 > 0:50:35the album sleeve became a symbol of their identity.

0:50:35 > 0:50:38It actually summed up a lifestyle.

0:50:38 > 0:50:41When people walked around town,

0:50:41 > 0:50:45if you had some albums under your arm, it told people who you were.

0:50:45 > 0:50:48If you walked in somebody's house and there were racks

0:50:48 > 0:50:51and racks of album covers, it is

0:50:51 > 0:50:55a bit like going into somebody's library and you would look to see

0:50:55 > 0:50:57what books they read to kind of ascertain

0:50:57 > 0:50:58what kind of person they are.

0:50:58 > 0:51:01The same thing happened with the album cover.

0:51:01 > 0:51:05Of all the iconic images on '70s album sleeves,

0:51:05 > 0:51:10one above all appeared to define the era...

0:51:10 > 0:51:16# Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day... #

0:51:16 > 0:51:21..Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side Of The Moon...

0:51:23 > 0:51:26..one of the highest-selling albums in history.

0:51:26 > 0:51:31# Digging around on a piece of ground in your home town... #

0:51:31 > 0:51:34When I was growing up as a child in the late '70s and early '80s,

0:51:34 > 0:51:37it was a commonly held belief that there was a factory somewhere

0:51:37 > 0:51:41in Germany which only pressed copies of Dark Side Of The Moon.

0:51:41 > 0:51:42It just seemed convincingly true

0:51:42 > 0:51:45because practically every household,

0:51:45 > 0:51:48everyone's parents' household, had a copy of Dark Side Of The Moon.

0:51:48 > 0:51:50You could not avoid that record.

0:51:53 > 0:51:55The Dark Side Of The Moon would sell some 40 million copies

0:51:55 > 0:51:57in its lifetime.

0:51:58 > 0:52:01Yet it was released with a stark sleeve design with no mention

0:52:01 > 0:52:04or photo of the band.

0:52:07 > 0:52:11The cover art was the brainchild of Hipgnosis design agency.

0:52:12 > 0:52:15Hipgnosis never worked for record companies,

0:52:15 > 0:52:17we only worked for the artists,

0:52:17 > 0:52:21we were commissioned directly to work for all the people who we worked for.

0:52:21 > 0:52:24The record companies hated us with a vengeance.

0:52:24 > 0:52:27Storm and Po from Hipgnosis went into EMI with the cover

0:52:27 > 0:52:32and EMI went, "A record cover with no picture and no name?

0:52:32 > 0:52:35"Can't have that." They went, "Tell you what, we can,

0:52:35 > 0:52:37"because we're with Pink Floyd.

0:52:37 > 0:52:40"That's what they want, what they're having and what you're doing."

0:52:40 > 0:52:44At no point when you're flicking through the racks in a record shop,

0:52:44 > 0:52:48unless you knew what that was, you would not know that's Pink Floyd.

0:52:51 > 0:52:55The themes on Dark Side were uncompromisingly adult.

0:52:55 > 0:52:57The idea was that the album

0:52:57 > 0:53:02would sort of focus on the pressures that we were feeling, I suppose.

0:53:02 > 0:53:05Or the sort of things that impinge on your life.

0:53:05 > 0:53:07# Money... #

0:53:07 > 0:53:14Money, the acquisition of too much, in a way, mortality, time,

0:53:14 > 0:53:18rather than teenage love, which we felt perhaps other people did better.

0:53:18 > 0:53:24The band's attitude to publicity was similarly uncommercial.

0:53:24 > 0:53:27They didn't do one press interview, not one press interview.

0:53:27 > 0:53:30There wasn't even a picture.

0:53:30 > 0:53:34Cos why would you want a picture of someone you haven't interviewed?

0:53:34 > 0:53:36And you weren't going to reproduce a picture of their covers

0:53:36 > 0:53:41cos they weren't on the cover. But it didn't do them any harm.

0:53:41 > 0:53:45It was just extraordinary that they got away with it, in a way.

0:53:45 > 0:53:48I think at the time we were being a bit grand

0:53:48 > 0:53:51and felt that we didn't really want to be too involved in the

0:53:51 > 0:53:54sort of promotion that the record company were doing.

0:53:54 > 0:53:56I think there was a playback at the planetarium.

0:53:56 > 0:54:00And I think that we decided that we weren't going to turn up for this.

0:54:00 > 0:54:02Quite why, I have no idea.

0:54:02 > 0:54:05Despite Pink Floyd's disdain for publicity,

0:54:05 > 0:54:10Dark Side Of The Moon spent 14 years in the Billboard Top 200.

0:54:13 > 0:54:16No other album has ever come close to this feat.

0:54:19 > 0:54:23This piece of work, I think they will still be listening to in

0:54:23 > 0:54:26the same way they listen to Mozart, you know, in hundreds of years' time.

0:54:26 > 0:54:30It is just perfect, there are no rough edges.

0:54:33 > 0:54:36You're going to ask me why I think Dark Side was successful.

0:54:36 > 0:54:39And, erm...

0:54:39 > 0:54:43My answer is, it's more than one reason,

0:54:43 > 0:54:48it isn't just because the drums are so fantastic or anything like that.

0:54:48 > 0:54:51It is actually the fact that the lyrics are extraordinary

0:54:51 > 0:54:53and they are more relevant to a 50-year-old than

0:54:53 > 0:54:56they are to a 23-year-old, in many ways.

0:54:56 > 0:55:02# And if the dam breaks open many years too soon

0:55:02 > 0:55:07# And if there is no room upon the hill... #

0:55:07 > 0:55:12Dark Side turned Pink Floyd into one of the biggest bands in the world.

0:55:12 > 0:55:16But an album was now capable of even more than that.

0:55:16 > 0:55:21# I'll see you on the dark side of the moon... #

0:55:21 > 0:55:25In 1973, the first release from a start-up independent label

0:55:25 > 0:55:29called Virgin Records was delivered to be cut to vinyl.

0:55:29 > 0:55:32MUSIC: Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield

0:55:35 > 0:55:40Each side was a single experimental instrumental track.

0:55:40 > 0:55:44It was written and performed by a complete unknown.

0:55:44 > 0:55:47It featured no lyrics and no songs.

0:55:47 > 0:55:52It's always every young musician's dream to make their own album.

0:55:52 > 0:55:58That's what life is about. I thought one day I will make my own album.

0:55:58 > 0:56:03In 1973, young musician Mike Oldfield sent a set of home demos

0:56:03 > 0:56:09to every record company in London. No-one was interested.

0:56:09 > 0:56:13But then they came to the attention of an independent record shop owner.

0:56:13 > 0:56:19Somebody brought a tape that he had made which was the sort of makings

0:56:19 > 0:56:27of Tubular Bells that he had recorded in his flat above his mother's house.

0:56:27 > 0:56:29It was captivating.

0:56:30 > 0:56:32Branson saw something in Oldfield's tapes

0:56:32 > 0:56:35that the record companies didn't.

0:56:35 > 0:56:38When he launched his own record company a few months later,

0:56:38 > 0:56:41Oldfield was the first person he called.

0:56:41 > 0:56:45They said, "OK, we'll give you a week in the studio."

0:56:45 > 0:56:49And in that week I did a huge part of Tubular Bells, nearly all of it.

0:56:55 > 0:56:58Oldfield played almost every instrument on the record

0:56:58 > 0:57:00and composed all the music.

0:57:02 > 0:57:04I knew it would be a long and difficult job

0:57:04 > 0:57:07and take me quite some time.

0:57:07 > 0:57:12The studio was a big thing and cost hundreds of dollars per hour.

0:57:13 > 0:57:18So, to be allowed free rein of a studio was quite a special thing.

0:57:18 > 0:57:22The album was released in May 1973.

0:57:24 > 0:57:28Richard Branson arranged a live television recital to promote it.

0:57:28 > 0:57:31But Oldfield was less keen.

0:57:31 > 0:57:33I'd finished the album and I was pretty exhausted,

0:57:33 > 0:57:35and then they came to me and said, "All right,

0:57:35 > 0:57:38"now you've got to do all that again, but live.

0:57:39 > 0:57:42Oldfield's mesmerising instrumentals

0:57:42 > 0:57:45had been meticulously constructed in the studio.

0:57:45 > 0:57:48He hadn't considered the complications of performing it live.

0:57:50 > 0:57:51I think we counted once,

0:57:51 > 0:57:56over 1,800 or 1,900 overdubs on Tubular Bells,

0:57:56 > 0:57:58and I had to work out how to translate that studio production

0:57:58 > 0:58:00into a live concert.

0:58:00 > 0:58:04And...it was exhausting.

0:58:04 > 0:58:07On the way there, he said to me, "I'm afraid I just can't do it."

0:58:07 > 0:58:09You know, "I just can't face it."

0:58:09 > 0:58:13I'd got a very old Bentley which cost about £300,

0:58:13 > 0:58:16which my parents had given me for a wedding present,

0:58:16 > 0:58:19and I was driving him there in it,

0:58:19 > 0:58:23and I pulled in and I said to Mike, "Look, you know,

0:58:23 > 0:58:25"if you can overcome your psychological problems,

0:58:25 > 0:58:27"the keys are yours."

0:58:27 > 0:58:31And Mike sort of sat there for about five seconds and said,

0:58:31 > 0:58:34"I think I'm feeling slightly better."

0:58:34 > 0:58:36MUSIC: Tubular Bells

0:58:40 > 0:58:43That night he performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

0:58:43 > 0:58:45and brought the house down.

0:58:53 > 0:58:56It was absolutely, you know, breathtaking.

0:58:56 > 0:59:00I mean, a standing ovation for, I don't know,

0:59:00 > 0:59:0120 minutes at the end.

0:59:04 > 0:59:06The audience absolutely loved it, which was...

0:59:06 > 0:59:10You know, rapturous reception, which was rather nice.

0:59:10 > 0:59:12And I got the Bentley.

0:59:13 > 0:59:17Tubular Bells has sold 18 million copies worldwide

0:59:17 > 0:59:20and spent nearly 300 weeks in the charts.

0:59:20 > 0:59:25It was the album upon which Richard Branson built his empire.

0:59:25 > 0:59:29Obviously Tubular Bells, you know, made an enormous difference

0:59:29 > 0:59:33and it really kicked off our record company.

0:59:36 > 0:59:39By the end of 1974, in America,

0:59:39 > 0:59:43more money was being spent on records than movies or sports.

0:59:44 > 0:59:46And the major record labels

0:59:46 > 0:59:49were joining the ranks of the corporate elite.

0:59:49 > 0:59:52By the early '70s, most of the record companies

0:59:52 > 0:59:54have interests in lots of areas.

0:59:54 > 0:59:58RCA, you know, home for David Bowie during the 1970s

0:59:58 > 1:00:00and that fantastic stream of albums he produced,

1:00:00 > 1:00:03also owns the Hertz rental car company.

1:00:03 > 1:00:07MCA has, you know, Universal Studios.

1:00:07 > 1:00:10Now, with companies themselves thinking big,

1:00:10 > 1:00:13you get, equally, the promotion of artists

1:00:13 > 1:00:16who are kind of megastars during this period -

1:00:16 > 1:00:19people like Elton John, for instance.

1:00:19 > 1:00:22Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy,

1:00:22 > 1:00:25selling something like 1.3 million copies

1:00:25 > 1:00:28within its first four days of sales.

1:00:28 > 1:00:32So, huge budgets are then bequeathed to those stars

1:00:32 > 1:00:36because they're seen as sure-fire bets.

1:00:39 > 1:00:45In 1975, Queen began recording their fourth album, A Night At The Opera.

1:00:45 > 1:00:49At the time, it would be the most expensive album ever made.

1:00:49 > 1:00:51It was painstaking.

1:00:51 > 1:00:53We were using four studios at once at one point

1:00:53 > 1:00:58and there'd be a different member in each studio doing different things.

1:00:58 > 1:01:02# Oh, oh, people of the earth... #

1:01:02 > 1:01:05Speeding and stopping the machines and slowing them down

1:01:05 > 1:01:10and speeding them up again and recording that.

1:01:13 > 1:01:16It seemed to take for ever, actually.

1:01:16 > 1:01:20For four months, the band overdubbed track after track.

1:01:20 > 1:01:23We really did take it so that the tape...all the oxide

1:01:23 > 1:01:27was almost worn away, it was actually transparent in places.

1:01:27 > 1:01:30The result was a sprawling, diverse album

1:01:30 > 1:01:34which indulged the band's influences from music hall to opera.

1:01:34 > 1:01:37# I see a little silhouetto of a man

1:01:37 > 1:01:41# Scaramouch, scaramouch Will you do the fandango? #

1:01:41 > 1:01:45We were sort of almost showing off what we could achieve in the studio.

1:01:45 > 1:01:47- # Gallileo - Gallileo... #

1:01:47 > 1:01:50Oh, yeah, making records in the '70s was a lot of fun.

1:01:50 > 1:01:54You usually own the studio, like, you'd block book it.

1:01:54 > 1:01:56You would live in that studio for two months.

1:01:56 > 1:02:01You'd have Ping-Pong tables, pool tables, dartboards.

1:02:01 > 1:02:05The record company's role was simply to write the cheque.

1:02:05 > 1:02:07So, yeah, you know, the idea

1:02:07 > 1:02:09of anyone going to a Queen album session

1:02:09 > 1:02:11and discussing the merits of the songs

1:02:11 > 1:02:14with Freddie Mercury and Brian May, pretty unlikely.

1:02:14 > 1:02:15You know, they knew what they were doing.

1:02:18 > 1:02:21But investment in these headline artists

1:02:21 > 1:02:23didn't tell the whole mid-'70s story.

1:02:23 > 1:02:28In 1973, Arab nations had declared an oil embargo

1:02:28 > 1:02:30and the price of oil,

1:02:30 > 1:02:33a key substance in the manufacture of vinyl, had quadrupled.

1:02:33 > 1:02:35There's a shortage of PVC vinyl,

1:02:35 > 1:02:38the oil offshoot that records are made from.

1:02:38 > 1:02:42The price has shot up £60 in three months to £210 a tonne.

1:02:42 > 1:02:44With vinyl costs soaring,

1:02:44 > 1:02:47record companies turned to cheap solutions to balance the books.

1:02:47 > 1:02:50Best of albums and greatest hits compilations and, you know,

1:02:50 > 1:02:54cheapy chart compilations become a kind of mainstay

1:02:54 > 1:02:57of the record companies' revenue stream.

1:02:57 > 1:03:00When I was at EMI, we started doing 20 Golden Greats,

1:03:00 > 1:03:04which was, you know, an enormous income earner for EMI

1:03:04 > 1:03:07at a time when we struggled in the mid-'70s.

1:03:08 > 1:03:11You paid no recording costs.

1:03:11 > 1:03:15You know, you just basically compiled it and you made an ad.

1:03:15 > 1:03:18You know, that kept the books balanced.

1:03:18 > 1:03:24Best of albums by The Carpenters, The Stylistics and Abba

1:03:24 > 1:03:29were the UK's highest sellers in '74, '75, and '76.

1:03:29 > 1:03:31And in the huge rock market,

1:03:31 > 1:03:34there was another way to package collections of hits cheaply -

1:03:34 > 1:03:36the live album.

1:03:39 > 1:03:41It's better than a greatest hits

1:03:41 > 1:03:44because the greatest hits were kind of like for the part-timers

1:03:44 > 1:03:46or the non-serious fans -

1:03:46 > 1:03:49the "here today, gone later today" crowd.

1:03:49 > 1:03:53Live albums, though, had their cake and ate it all up.

1:03:53 > 1:03:59You know, you had all the hits but done in a new, unfamiliar style.

1:03:59 > 1:04:01It was easy as pie to make a live album.

1:04:01 > 1:04:05You would just show up with a truck that had a 16-track recorder in it,

1:04:05 > 1:04:07set up the mics, you know,

1:04:07 > 1:04:09take a feed off the stage mics,

1:04:09 > 1:04:12and labels were thrilled that a live album

1:04:12 > 1:04:14took relatively nothing to produce

1:04:14 > 1:04:17and you could still get millions of sales.

1:04:17 > 1:04:20It was an LP recorded in 1975

1:04:20 > 1:04:23that showed just what a cash cow the live album could be.

1:04:25 > 1:04:28British guitarist Peter Frampton had released four studio albums,

1:04:28 > 1:04:31none of which had even scratched the US top 20.

1:04:31 > 1:04:34# I wondered how you're feeling... #

1:04:34 > 1:04:36For his first live album,

1:04:36 > 1:04:40he took to the stage at San Francisco's Winterland Arena.

1:04:40 > 1:04:44It was 7,000 people, you know, in Winterland,

1:04:44 > 1:04:49and when we walked out, got this huge ovation,

1:04:49 > 1:04:54and because of that, I think we forgot that we were recording

1:04:54 > 1:04:57and the audience just brought something to the show

1:04:57 > 1:05:00and we just did one hell of a show that night.

1:05:00 > 1:05:04# I want you to show me the way... #

1:05:04 > 1:05:07The recording of a live LP was the reverse

1:05:07 > 1:05:11of the often lengthy, complex sessions of a studio album.

1:05:11 > 1:05:14I remember standing at the back of the control room,

1:05:14 > 1:05:17leaning up against the wall, and Ray just put...he said,

1:05:17 > 1:05:20"I'm not going to do a mix, I'm just going to put all the faders up."

1:05:20 > 1:05:22He said, "Check this out."

1:05:22 > 1:05:24And I don't remember what he played first.

1:05:24 > 1:05:26I just remember us all going...

1:05:27 > 1:05:31..and just the energy that we'd captured from that,

1:05:31 > 1:05:34it was just quite special.

1:05:34 > 1:05:36# I want you... #

1:05:36 > 1:05:40The mix of Frampton's best material, his rapport with the audience

1:05:40 > 1:05:45and the instantly recognisable talkbox was a smash hit.

1:05:45 > 1:05:47MUSIC PLAYS ON IPHONE

1:05:59 > 1:06:00HE LAUGHS

1:06:03 > 1:06:06I'm going to have to disinfect my iPhone now!

1:06:15 > 1:06:19The album became the biggest-selling record of 1976 in America

1:06:19 > 1:06:22and the biggest-selling live rock album of all time.

1:06:22 > 1:06:27# I can't believe this is happening to me... #

1:06:27 > 1:06:31You couldn't go in anyone's car, anyone's house,

1:06:31 > 1:06:37or walking down the street, you heard Comes Alive coming from somewhere.

1:06:37 > 1:06:42And even I would change the channel on the radio...

1:06:42 > 1:06:43now, I wish.

1:06:43 > 1:06:45# I want you... #

1:06:45 > 1:06:48Live albums, best-of collections and bankable megastars

1:06:48 > 1:06:49kept the industry growing.

1:06:51 > 1:06:55But attitudes to risky new releases were changing.

1:06:55 > 1:06:57The record companies, after the oil crisis, in a sense,

1:06:57 > 1:07:01become more conservative in their choices,

1:07:01 > 1:07:03they become, perhaps, more businesslike.

1:07:05 > 1:07:08With most debut LPs failing to hit profit,

1:07:08 > 1:07:11labels cut back on new releases.

1:07:11 > 1:07:14And in America, album-oriented radio,

1:07:14 > 1:07:18which once championed the artistic freedom of the LP,

1:07:18 > 1:07:21was becoming increasingly resistant to new music.

1:07:21 > 1:07:24MUSIC: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly

1:07:24 > 1:07:26Now, bigger, you know,

1:07:26 > 1:07:29corporate companies had got hold of radio in America

1:07:29 > 1:07:32and were beginning to want certain tracks played

1:07:32 > 1:07:34from certain albums, you know.

1:07:34 > 1:07:37Radio had gone from playing every new song

1:07:37 > 1:07:41that the music industry put out, to a very tight playlist,

1:07:41 > 1:07:42and no-one in a competitive market

1:07:42 > 1:07:44wanted to be the first one to try out a new song.

1:07:44 > 1:07:46So, increasingly,

1:07:46 > 1:07:49the universe of songs being played on the radio was shrinking.

1:07:49 > 1:07:53Album-oriented radio was still key to breaking the vast US market,

1:07:53 > 1:07:56but in order to break the tightening playlists,

1:07:56 > 1:08:00new artists needed a new approach to creating a record.

1:08:05 > 1:08:09In the early '70s, Tom Scholz was an engineering graduate

1:08:09 > 1:08:12and wannabe rock star in search of a record deal.

1:08:13 > 1:08:17I realised somewhere around 1973 or '74

1:08:17 > 1:08:23that the only way I was going to get a chance to have my music heard

1:08:23 > 1:08:27was if I could find a way to get it on the radio.

1:08:28 > 1:08:30Scholz built a studio in his basement,

1:08:30 > 1:08:34where he set about creating songs that could break US radio.

1:08:35 > 1:08:38From that point on, I was pretty much independent.

1:08:38 > 1:08:40I could play every single part

1:08:40 > 1:08:43and I not only didn't need anybody else,

1:08:43 > 1:08:46I really had learned the hard way

1:08:46 > 1:08:49that the only way that I was going to be successful

1:08:49 > 1:08:52is if I did everything the way I heard it.

1:08:56 > 1:08:58Scholz used his engineering know-how

1:08:58 > 1:09:01to produce a sophisticated, radio-friendly sound.

1:09:01 > 1:09:03# More than a feeling... #

1:09:03 > 1:09:05This was no rough and ready demo.

1:09:05 > 1:09:08# More than a feeling... #

1:09:08 > 1:09:12Every guitar note, every melody, every vocal,

1:09:12 > 1:09:14was thoroughly produced.

1:09:16 > 1:09:19More Than A Feeling is a sensational track.

1:09:19 > 1:09:21He was a brilliant, brilliant producer.

1:09:21 > 1:09:24The vocals are panned a little bit towards the centre

1:09:24 > 1:09:27to give more phasing on the line on purpose.

1:09:29 > 1:09:32# ..As clear as the sun... #

1:09:32 > 1:09:34If you listen very closely, you can tell

1:09:34 > 1:09:37that there's two singers singing the same part.

1:09:37 > 1:09:42Here there's four guitar... lead guitar parts come in.

1:09:42 > 1:09:45There's one on each side playing at the same note,

1:09:45 > 1:09:47then there's a harmony part on top of it.

1:09:47 > 1:09:51There are two electric guitars, one on each side.

1:09:51 > 1:09:54There are two acoustic guitars on each side.

1:09:54 > 1:09:58There's a lead guitar running off under the vocals.

1:09:58 > 1:10:02There's a total of eight guitars playing, plus the bass, of course.

1:10:02 > 1:10:06# ..Till I see Marianne walk away... #

1:10:06 > 1:10:10Scholz's sound caught the ear of producer John Boylan.

1:10:10 > 1:10:14I remember taking the two-track tape and flying to New York with it

1:10:14 > 1:10:18and playing it at the singles meeting in New York

1:10:18 > 1:10:22for Ron Alexenberg and the entire Epic staff and they went nuts.

1:10:22 > 1:10:25And I knew that something was going to happen with this record

1:10:25 > 1:10:28right then and there.

1:10:28 > 1:10:31Boylan persuaded Epic Records to sign Scholz

1:10:31 > 1:10:35and vocalist Brad Delp under the name Boston

1:10:35 > 1:10:38and the debut album was released in the summer of 1976.

1:10:40 > 1:10:42A band was assembled to perform the music,

1:10:42 > 1:10:44and just weeks after More Than A Feeling

1:10:44 > 1:10:48was played on FM radio, Boston played their first gig.

1:10:48 > 1:10:49I guess they could have accommodated

1:10:49 > 1:10:52something like 1,000 people in the stands.

1:10:52 > 1:10:54There was a riot.

1:10:54 > 1:10:553,000 people showed up.

1:10:55 > 1:10:58They broke down the fence, the promoter was arrested.

1:10:58 > 1:11:01It was the most exciting show of all time!

1:11:04 > 1:11:07More Than A Feeling helped turn Boston's album

1:11:07 > 1:11:11into one of the biggest-selling debut albums in history.

1:11:11 > 1:11:16And not only that, it heralded a whole new style of rock music.

1:11:16 > 1:11:22I would say Boston was the first album of a certain genre,

1:11:22 > 1:11:24and that genre was continued on

1:11:24 > 1:11:27by acts like Journey and Styx and Kansas

1:11:27 > 1:11:32and other artists that had a sonic signature,

1:11:32 > 1:11:36you know, that sounded great on the radio, that were definitely rock,

1:11:36 > 1:11:40but also melodic and also had a lot of other things going for it

1:11:40 > 1:11:43than just a plain ahead rhythm and blues

1:11:43 > 1:11:45kind of rooted rock'n'roll.

1:11:45 > 1:11:49# And I guess it's just the woman in you... #

1:11:49 > 1:11:53The kind of music that was dominating American FM radio

1:11:53 > 1:11:54began to change.

1:11:54 > 1:11:58AOR was no longer album-oriented rock.

1:11:58 > 1:12:01In the '70s, it did become adult-oriented rock,

1:12:01 > 1:12:03and there's, I think, a simple reason,

1:12:03 > 1:12:05is that the audience became adults.

1:12:05 > 1:12:07Let's face it, they weren't going to be teenagers

1:12:07 > 1:12:09and college kids for ever.

1:12:09 > 1:12:11Album-oriented rock became adult-oriented rock

1:12:11 > 1:12:13only because the audience became adults.

1:12:13 > 1:12:18Of course, the downside of groups like Foreigner, Journey,

1:12:18 > 1:12:23REO Speedwagon, was that we now had the formula.

1:12:23 > 1:12:27We now had the rules, the map,

1:12:27 > 1:12:29we could build it in the laboratory.

1:12:29 > 1:12:32A little bit of Zep, a little bit of Beatles,

1:12:32 > 1:12:34a little bit of this and that

1:12:34 > 1:12:37and we could come up with this really beautiful anthem

1:12:37 > 1:12:40that would sound perfect on FM radio in America.

1:12:40 > 1:12:44So, a lot of these records are fantastically well-crafted,

1:12:44 > 1:12:47but they're kind of sealed hermetically.

1:12:47 > 1:12:50There's no air in them. There's no life, they don't breathe.

1:12:50 > 1:12:55# Welcome to the Hotel California... #

1:12:55 > 1:12:57Polished melodic rock was becoming

1:12:57 > 1:13:00a feature of the American charts.

1:13:00 > 1:13:02# Such a lovely face... #

1:13:02 > 1:13:05In 1977, the Eagles' Hotel California

1:13:05 > 1:13:07was knocked off the number one spot

1:13:07 > 1:13:10by the biggest-selling album of the year,

1:13:10 > 1:13:12Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.

1:13:12 > 1:13:15# Don't stop thinking about tomorrow... #

1:13:15 > 1:13:18An album like Rumours, for instance,

1:13:18 > 1:13:21manages to combine the kind of rhythmic,

1:13:21 > 1:13:25catchy element of rock'n'roll

1:13:25 > 1:13:29with something that's slick and smooth.

1:13:30 > 1:13:35# Loving you isn't the right thing to do... #

1:13:35 > 1:13:39Perhaps its audience were seeking something akin to easy listening.

1:13:39 > 1:13:42They wanted something that was comforting

1:13:42 > 1:13:44and could be stuck on in the background.

1:13:44 > 1:13:47But they are a generation that's grown up with rock'n'roll,

1:13:47 > 1:13:49so they're used to the idea of a beat.

1:13:51 > 1:13:55Everyone of a certain age probably has a copy of Rumours.

1:13:55 > 1:13:58It became part of the furniture

1:13:58 > 1:14:02of being an adult in the 1970s.

1:14:02 > 1:14:05# Go your own way... #

1:14:05 > 1:14:09But it wasn't just the album buyer that was growing up.

1:14:09 > 1:14:11It was musicians too.

1:14:11 > 1:14:13The British prog artists,

1:14:13 > 1:14:16famous for pushing the envelope of the album

1:14:16 > 1:14:19in the early '70s, were now increasingly accused of indulgence.

1:14:23 > 1:14:27I think progressive music started with every good intention.

1:14:27 > 1:14:31It started in the way we've been describing of, you know,

1:14:31 > 1:14:35pushing out, "Let's experiment, let's see how far we can go.

1:14:35 > 1:14:38"Let's introduce lots of other different elements into it."

1:14:38 > 1:14:42And I remember my turning point with all of this came watching

1:14:42 > 1:14:43Yes at Madison Square Garden...

1:14:47 > 1:14:51..where there were pods

1:14:51 > 1:14:54lowered down through dry ice, you know, onto the stage.

1:14:54 > 1:14:56The pod opened

1:14:56 > 1:15:00and the drummer steps out through the dry ice...

1:15:02 > 1:15:07..all to very dramatic music going on, and I began to think,

1:15:07 > 1:15:09"Whoa, hang on a minute.

1:15:09 > 1:15:13"We have now come about as far away

1:15:13 > 1:15:15"from Elvis being at the RCA Studio

1:15:15 > 1:15:17"in '56 as you could possibly get."

1:15:17 > 1:15:22All those guys that were in their early 30s by the mid-'70s,

1:15:22 > 1:15:24they were all pretty ropey.

1:15:24 > 1:15:28It wasn't just the LP, it was The Rolling Stones too.

1:15:28 > 1:15:31It wasn't just Pink Floyd, it was David Bowie too.

1:15:31 > 1:15:35The promise of the long-playing album was no longer

1:15:35 > 1:15:38delivering for a new generation of music fans.

1:15:38 > 1:15:42But once again, the album was about to be reinvented.

1:15:45 > 1:15:48No, it's extremely provocative, you know.

1:15:48 > 1:15:50MUSIC: Holidays In The Sun by The Sex Pistols

1:15:50 > 1:15:52Starts with, you know,

1:15:52 > 1:15:54what we can only assume are jackboots marching.

1:15:59 > 1:16:00At the time...

1:16:03 > 1:16:05At that point, it's all over.

1:16:05 > 1:16:07Everything that's gone before that

1:16:07 > 1:16:10has now been deemed fucking irrelevant,

1:16:10 > 1:16:12as soon as he starts anti-singing.

1:16:15 > 1:16:18# I don't wanna holiday in the sun

1:16:18 > 1:16:21# I wanna go to the new Belsen

1:16:21 > 1:16:24# I wanna see some history... #

1:16:24 > 1:16:26In 1977, the Sex Pistols

1:16:26 > 1:16:31released their debut album, Never Mind The Bollocks.

1:16:31 > 1:16:36Punk, in a sense, defined itself against hippy.

1:16:36 > 1:16:39Whatever hippies did, punks did the opposite.

1:16:39 > 1:16:42Hippies play long instrumental solos,

1:16:42 > 1:16:45punks play short solos or no solos at all.

1:16:45 > 1:16:48Hippies make conceptual, thematic double albums,

1:16:48 > 1:16:50punks make short singles.

1:16:50 > 1:16:53It was designed specifically to be

1:16:53 > 1:16:55whatever the hippies didn't do.

1:16:56 > 1:17:00# Sensurround sound in a two-inch wall... #

1:17:00 > 1:17:04We were quite Stalinist, you know, like breaking from the past,

1:17:04 > 1:17:05till it meant nothing to us,

1:17:05 > 1:17:08apart from a few revered icons,

1:17:08 > 1:17:10like The Velvet Underground or Iggy Pop.

1:17:12 > 1:17:15Never Mind The Bollocks brought

1:17:15 > 1:17:16a new way of thinking to the LP.

1:17:16 > 1:17:20Short songs, no sleeve notes and stripped-down production.

1:17:20 > 1:17:25MUSIC: Pretty Vacant by The Sex Pistols

1:17:25 > 1:17:30Now, this guitar riff, this is probably alone...

1:17:30 > 1:17:33You don't need much more of a reason

1:17:33 > 1:17:34to produce The Sex Pistols.

1:17:39 > 1:17:41It's one of the first things you learn

1:17:41 > 1:17:43when you pick up the electric guitar is that riff.

1:17:44 > 1:17:48I wanted it to sound like real steel.

1:17:48 > 1:17:50No flab at all.

1:17:50 > 1:17:53# There's no point in asking You'll get no reply

1:17:53 > 1:17:55# Oh, just remember... #

1:17:55 > 1:17:59Just two musicians played almost all the music on the record -

1:17:59 > 1:18:02drummer Paul Cook and guitarist Steve Jones,

1:18:02 > 1:18:05who also played the bass parts.

1:18:05 > 1:18:08He just played exactly the same thing on the bass guitar

1:18:08 > 1:18:10as he played on the guitar.

1:18:10 > 1:18:14He just followed the root note, one octave down.

1:18:14 > 1:18:18You've got a perfect harmonic sequence of - boomf - an octave

1:18:18 > 1:18:21and then a fifth of an octave and then...

1:18:21 > 1:18:23And that's where the power came from.

1:18:23 > 1:18:26# ..And we don't care. #

1:18:26 > 1:18:30The more you look at it, it's got the words sex and bollocks on it,

1:18:30 > 1:18:35and it might be the most provocative piece of popular art ever.

1:18:35 > 1:18:38But, despite its rebellious stance,

1:18:38 > 1:18:39Never Mind The Bollocks was

1:18:39 > 1:18:43no less sophisticated an album in its creative intent.

1:18:43 > 1:18:46# I am an antichrist... #

1:18:46 > 1:18:50It was the politics and the fashion and the thinking.

1:18:50 > 1:18:55Youth culture had died before that point, it wasn't really...

1:18:55 > 1:19:00Kids weren't empowered, they were just still seen as kids.

1:19:00 > 1:19:04The Sex Pistols came along saying that the established order

1:19:04 > 1:19:06was about to change.

1:19:06 > 1:19:09It did, for ever. It's never gone back.

1:19:09 > 1:19:14While punk purports to have kind of introduced a ground zero

1:19:14 > 1:19:16approach to everything that had come before -

1:19:16 > 1:19:22goodbye, horrible, self-indulgent concept album, progressive,

1:19:22 > 1:19:24long-haired fools -

1:19:24 > 1:19:28Never Mind The Bollocks actually turns out to be perhaps

1:19:28 > 1:19:32one of the greatest rock concept albums of all time.

1:19:32 > 1:19:33# ..An anarchist... #

1:19:33 > 1:19:38Never Mind The Bollocks went to number one in the UK in 1977.

1:19:38 > 1:19:40That's it, for them. It's all they ever did.

1:19:40 > 1:19:43That's their one statement to the world.

1:19:43 > 1:19:46And imagine getting it so right once.

1:19:47 > 1:19:50I made ten albums and in my own mind

1:19:50 > 1:19:52they don't match up to that.

1:19:52 > 1:19:54And I'm an arrogant bastard.

1:19:55 > 1:19:57Seriously.

1:19:57 > 1:20:03And I'd give them all up to have written that. I truly would.

1:20:03 > 1:20:061977 also saw debut albums from The Stranglers,

1:20:06 > 1:20:08The Clash and The Damned.

1:20:08 > 1:20:11# Be a man, can a mystery man

1:20:11 > 1:20:12# Be a doll... #

1:20:12 > 1:20:15Even for this revolutionary, raw, anti-Establishment music,

1:20:15 > 1:20:17the album was crucial.

1:20:17 > 1:20:18Punk rock and New Wave,

1:20:18 > 1:20:22which I think was the last great flowering of the LP,

1:20:22 > 1:20:27cos everybody wanted their LPs, and if they were The Ramones,

1:20:27 > 1:20:30you know, even if all their songs lasted the two minutes,

1:20:30 > 1:20:33you still had to get your album out

1:20:33 > 1:20:36because you weren't a grown-up rock band unless you did that.

1:20:36 > 1:20:40# Once I had a love And it was a gas... #

1:20:40 > 1:20:44Punk and New Wave had given the album a creative shot in the arm.

1:20:45 > 1:20:51In 1978, record sales propelled the industry to unprecedented revenues.

1:20:54 > 1:20:56And in a nod to the LP's early days,

1:20:56 > 1:21:00the biggest sellers in 1978 were both soundtracks.

1:21:00 > 1:21:06But the long-playing album was spinning on borrowed time.

1:21:06 > 1:21:11The record industry is enjoying an unparalleled level of dominance

1:21:11 > 1:21:14and success in 1978.

1:21:14 > 1:21:17Sales of vinyl albums are at their peak, and then

1:21:17 > 1:21:22that's unfortunately followed in 1979 by a massive global downturn.

1:21:23 > 1:21:28In 1979, for the first time since album sales overtook singles

1:21:28 > 1:21:3011 years earlier,

1:21:30 > 1:21:33record industry profits crashed by nearly a quarter.

1:21:33 > 1:21:37A golden age of album-led growth came to a close.

1:21:37 > 1:21:40The industry blamed the wider recession

1:21:40 > 1:21:43and new competition for young consumers' attentions.

1:21:45 > 1:21:48They're concerned about the arrival of computer games,

1:21:48 > 1:21:51both in arcades and TV consoles.

1:21:51 > 1:21:56They're concerned about video recorders, and most of all,

1:21:56 > 1:21:58they're concerned about cassette recorders.

1:21:58 > 1:22:01# You must be my lucky star... #

1:22:01 > 1:22:04Changing technology was undermining the record industry's

1:22:04 > 1:22:06LP-orientated business model.

1:22:06 > 1:22:09# I just think of you... #

1:22:09 > 1:22:13The cassette transforms the way in which people can listen to music.

1:22:13 > 1:22:18They're no longer trapped by the physical object of the LP,

1:22:18 > 1:22:21they can also tape the album, mix up the tracks

1:22:21 > 1:22:22and make their own compilations.

1:22:22 > 1:22:26So, it brings a completely different experience of listening

1:22:26 > 1:22:28into the equation of the album,

1:22:28 > 1:22:31one that reduces the album's kind of

1:22:31 > 1:22:35monolithic presence in youth culture

1:22:35 > 1:22:37during that period and beyond.

1:22:37 > 1:22:40As sales of LPs continued to struggle into the early '80s,

1:22:40 > 1:22:43a new way of selling music

1:22:43 > 1:22:47and a new canvas for artists' creativity was about to emerge.

1:22:47 > 1:22:50MTV was launched in 1981.

1:22:50 > 1:22:53Its brash, iconic branding signalled a new approach

1:22:53 > 1:22:55to selling music.

1:22:57 > 1:23:00What made MTV so different is that everybody else

1:23:00 > 1:23:03who had done music on TV

1:23:03 > 1:23:08had tried to make music for the TV form, create a story arc through it.

1:23:08 > 1:23:09And we said, "No, no.

1:23:09 > 1:23:12"We're going to make TV for the music form -

1:23:12 > 1:23:14"mood, emotion, attitude."

1:23:14 > 1:23:15That was new, that was different,

1:23:15 > 1:23:17that was revolutionary at the time.

1:23:17 > 1:23:20# Video killed the radio star... #

1:23:20 > 1:23:25The music video changed the whole way music was marketed for a while.

1:23:25 > 1:23:27I mean, in the old days, you'd have to hear a song

1:23:27 > 1:23:29five, six, seven, eight, nine times and then you'd say,

1:23:29 > 1:23:31"I've got to have this thing."

1:23:31 > 1:23:33But with the music video,

1:23:33 > 1:23:37because you had that extra level of entertainment and visual thing,

1:23:37 > 1:23:42sometimes the conversion from experience to purchase

1:23:42 > 1:23:43happened a lot faster.

1:23:43 > 1:23:46Within a year of its launch,

1:23:46 > 1:23:50MTV had made an indelible mark on the industry.

1:23:50 > 1:23:54Clearly the most influential album was Thriller, Michael Jackson.

1:23:54 > 1:23:56# Cos this is thriller

1:23:56 > 1:23:57# Thriller night... #

1:23:57 > 1:24:01He and Madonna were the first video artists

1:24:01 > 1:24:03that really conceived of everything,

1:24:03 > 1:24:06the record around the video.

1:24:06 > 1:24:08They sort of thought of it as one piece.

1:24:08 > 1:24:10# Killer, thriller... #

1:24:10 > 1:24:13All of a sudden, the emphasis was

1:24:13 > 1:24:16now making singles that would make a good video.

1:24:16 > 1:24:20People were writing for video and were abandoning the album concept.

1:24:20 > 1:24:24The whole idea, then, of the video being the art form

1:24:24 > 1:24:28and you're going to divert huge amounts of resource

1:24:28 > 1:24:33from your core album into the marketing of that album.

1:24:33 > 1:24:36You're going to suck half the budget away from what previously

1:24:36 > 1:24:39had been the recording costs into now marketing that album.

1:24:41 > 1:24:43The era of the video had arrived.

1:24:43 > 1:24:48EVIL LAUGHTER

1:24:48 > 1:24:51The long-playing album would never again be

1:24:51 > 1:24:54the driving force of the music industry.

1:24:54 > 1:24:57But, even long after the needle lifted from its golden age,

1:24:57 > 1:25:00its influence lives on.

1:25:00 > 1:25:02I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been

1:25:02 > 1:25:06in the music business in what I think will be looked back on

1:25:06 > 1:25:09as a golden era, and that is the vinyl era,

1:25:09 > 1:25:11I think was the most productive, the most musical

1:25:11 > 1:25:14and the most forward-thinking era in the entire

1:25:14 > 1:25:16140 years of the music industry.

1:25:16 > 1:25:18Things like Pink Floyd, Dark Side Of The Moon,

1:25:18 > 1:25:22would never have been able to exist

1:25:22 > 1:25:26without the LP, and so there were

1:25:26 > 1:25:31beautiful albums produced that only would work in LP form.

1:25:31 > 1:25:33It's like sitting by an old fire, a crackly piece of vinyl.

1:25:33 > 1:25:35There's something really comforting about it.

1:25:35 > 1:25:38You could sit there over a lovely cup of tea

1:25:38 > 1:25:40and you could have people round to listen to it.

1:25:40 > 1:25:44It wasn't just this experience that happened in your ears only.

1:25:44 > 1:25:46Every single time you listen to the record,

1:25:46 > 1:25:48you've got to do the same thing - handle it with care,

1:25:48 > 1:25:50put your finger in the middle, keep it balanced,

1:25:50 > 1:25:52put it on the platter, do that.

1:25:52 > 1:25:55You can't just casually throw it and hope that it...

1:25:55 > 1:25:57You've got to do the same ritual,

1:25:57 > 1:25:59that preparatory ritual,

1:25:59 > 1:26:02- before you sit back and go... - HE SIGHS

1:26:02 > 1:26:06That was like a gift, a gift to yourself or a gift to somebody else,

1:26:06 > 1:26:08and it was a magical experience.

1:26:08 > 1:26:11My favourite quote from any rock star is

1:26:11 > 1:26:13Ray Davies of The Kinks said that

1:26:13 > 1:26:16when he looks at someone's LP collection,

1:26:16 > 1:26:18he always feels like weeping,

1:26:18 > 1:26:20because it's like looking into their soul.

1:26:20 > 1:26:24And anybody that collected LPs

1:26:24 > 1:26:27in that golden age can understand that.

1:26:27 > 1:26:31The record collection was really the art collection

1:26:31 > 1:26:35of the ordinary man, of the working man or woman, you know?

1:26:35 > 1:26:38And it's only now, as they slip into history,

1:26:38 > 1:26:41that we see their real beauty and their real power.