The new releases of that hectic year―Don McLean’s “American Pie,” Sly Stone’s “Family Affair,” Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” Joni Mitchell’s “Blue,” Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven,” the Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” and many others―are the standards of today.ĭavid Hepworth was twenty-one in 1971, and has been writing and broadcasting about music ever since.
You might say this was the last day of the pop era.ġ971 started the following day and with it the rock era. On New Year’s Eve 1970 Paul McCartney instructed his lawyers to issue the writ at the High Court in London that effectively ended the Beatles. **One of Amazon's Best Books of 2016: Top 100 Editors' Picks**Ī rollicking look at 1971, rock’s golden year, the year that saw the release of the indelible recordings of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Who, Rod Stewart, Carole King, the Rolling Stones, and others and produced more classics than any other year in rock history
