The music of the 1970s is said to be more introspective than that of the preceding decade. In the 1960s, people sang about ending the war in Vietnam and smiling on your brother, but the next decade saw many musicians getting more personal than ever.
While some artists saw the new decade as an opportunity to write esoteric lyrics about feelings, others used it to write stupid, soft-rock garbage about swinging. Either way, the lyrics were memorable, so test your trivia skills and identify the musician by the 1970s lyrical couplet!
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Hint No. 1
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Answer: ‘Stayin’ Alive’ by the Bee Gees (1977)
We’re starting off with a “gimme.” Everyone should be able to recognize this song from its opening lyrics, and if you can’t, then we can’t really help you. It was one of the highest-selling singles of all time, people!
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Hint No. 2
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Answer: ‘Dreams’ by Fleetwood Mac (1977)
When it comes to lyrics about bad relationships, it’s hard to beat Stevie Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac, which had two couples on the skids in its lineup. They could have made their lives a lot simpler by limiting their exploits to groupies.
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Hint No. 3
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Answer: ‘Hotel California’ by the Eagles (1977)
Is this song about a cult? Is it about how the highways of southern California contain such poor signage that escaping the state is next to impossible? Stab those questions with your steely knives.
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Hint. No. 4
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Answer: ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’ by Stevie Wonder (1973)
Even if you can’t stomach schmaltzy love songs, this one is pretty hard to beat. The music and arrangement are too sophisticated to be cliché, and Wonder’s vocal performance is among the best of his career.
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Hint No. 5
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Answer: ‘Chuck E.’s in Love’ by Rickie Lee Jones (1979)
Sometimes when you listen to music from decades past, it’s hard to understand why a particular single sold even one copy. This is the case here, thanks to the second-rate melody and fatuous lyrics, to say nothing of Jones’ vocal itself, which is like being stabbed in the eardrums with an icepick while a car alarm goes off outside.
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Hint No. 6
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Answer: ‘Thunder Road’ by Bruce Springsteen (1975)
Hero of the downtrodden Bruce Springsteen opened his “Born to Run” record with this song, whose lyrics depict people in various states of salt-of-the-earth living. The narrator tells “Mary” that she “ain’t a beauty, but hey, you’re alright,” which is as romantic as saying, “You were my third choice.”
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Hint No. 7
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Answer: ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by Led Zeppelin
Anyone over the age of three who’s been in a car with a functioning radio at least once will recognize these lyrics. Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant famously refused to perform the very overplayed song until recently, when he lifted his boycott.
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Hint No. 8
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Answer: ‘Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time)’ by Elton John
Until William Shatner made it famous in chain-smoking spoken-word form, “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time)” was just an innocent pop song by Elton John. Sadly, what Shatner did to it is unforgivable and made listening to the original without laughing next to impossible.
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Hint no. 9
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Answer: ‘Mandy’ by Barry Manilow (1974)
Contrary to popular opinion, Barry Manilow did not always write the songs. Originally called “Brandy” and written by Scott English and Richard Kerr, Brooklyn’s greatest soft rock balladeer changed the title and made “Mandy” his own. The song was parodied on “The Simpsons,” further bolstering its place in the history books.
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Hint No. 10
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Answer: ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers (1978)
There are only two reasons why we would choose a lyric as easy to identify as this. One is that we’re nice and we want you to at least get a couple of points while you play along at home. The other is that we love the song unironically and will take any opportunity to quote from it.
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Hint No. 11
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Answer: ‘Escape (The Pina Colada Song)’ by Rupert Holmes (1979)
The 1970s was a decade full of second-rate music, much of which glorified the swinging singles scene of the Jimmy Carter years. “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” is a prime example. Its lyrics suggest that if your wife has taken out a swinger’s ad, and you respond to it, she would just say “That’s funny” instead of “Let’s get divorced.”
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Hint No. 12
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Answer: ‘Take the Long Way Home’ by Supertramp (1979)
“Breakfast in America” is considered one of Supertramp’s best albums and it’s full of great songs. We have no glib witticisms about it – it’s just a really good album and you should listen to it the next time you have 46 minutes to kill.
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Hint No. 13
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Answer: ‘All By Myself’ by Eric Carmen (1975)
Soft rock singer Eric Carmen borrowed from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, assuming it was in the public domain. He was mistaken, so Carmen and the Rachmaninoff family came to an agreement wherein the estate would receive royalties every time someone bought a copy of the song.
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Hint No. 14
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Answer: ‘You Light Up My Life’ – Debby Boone (1977)
The 1970s was a decade full of trite, maudlin songs that became chart-toppers. “You Light Up My Life,” for example, stayed at the top of the charts for an astonishing 10 weeks. The song clocks in at three and a half minutes, time better spent cleaning your toilet or dealing with your roof’s rain gutters.
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Hint No. 15
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Answer: ‘Love Will Keep Us Together’ – Captain & Tennille (1975)
When singer Toni Tennille served husband and bandmate Daryl “Captain” Dragon with divorce papers in 2014, many jokes were made around office water coolers about how love had not, in fact, kept them together. Technically though, since the song was written by Neil Sedaka, none of the lyrics pertained to Tennille or Dragon in the first place.
This article was produced and syndicated by MediaFeed.
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