REVIEW: Various Artists, That 70's Show Jammin' Album / That
70's Show Rockin' Album
- Don Share
"Good taste" and "popular TV show" aren't phrases you'd normally associate with each other, but, amazingly, "That 70's Show" is an exception. The anachronisms in the show bother me, since I'm an anachronism, myself, and actually remember those days. But the show's producers are marketing, as seems inevitable, a pair of CDs to serve as accompanying period-pieces, and they've done such an outstanding job that these discs are among the very best anthologies of '70s music you can get. Wisely, the music is divided into a Rockin' album, which is, duh, rock (did people say "duh" in the '70s?), and a Jammin' album, which is funk. Notice that the latter is funk, not disco! Another sign of great wisdom and taste!
What's really nice is that the music on these discs isn't merely there to invoke nostalgia in folks who remember the '70s, or to induce chuckles from those who weren't around then but are entertained by the woeful stylings of that era. Instead, this is good stuff, enjoyable on its own terms, to the extent that really, the best review of them would just be a listing of their contents!
What surprised me, not being much of a funkster in my day (I remember having to dance with my girlfriend to these tunes in painful misery, to be honest) is how much more fun the Jammin' disc is. You can get down tonight with K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Rufus will tell you something good, and James Brown has "Hot Pants" while Parliament tears the roof off the sucka. You get your requisite "Jungle Boogie" from Kool and the Gang, Average White Band picks up the pieces, The Hues Corporation rocks the boat, Ohio Express catch "Fire" and Wild Cherry plays that funky music, white boy! Round things out with less obvious choices like The Spinners' great "Rubber Band Man" and The Isley Brothers "Fight the Power" as well as some Three Degrees and Tower of Power. (I guess I'd have been really happy if they stuck some Jimmy Castor Bunch on, too: remember "The Bertha Butt Boogie," anyone?!)
The Rockin' album is no slouch, however. For starters, there's the new version of the TV show's theme, "That 70's Song," which is really a desecration of Big Star's "In the Street" (for which Alex Chilton apparently only gets about 70 bucks a week!). Still, rewritten lyrics and all, this version by Cheap Trick is actually decent. "Hello, Wisconsin!"
You get real Cheap Trick, though, with the sublime "I Want You To Want Me," along with the absolutely wonderful gem and one-hit-wonder, Ram Jam's "Black Betty," Golden Earring's "Radar Love," James Gang's "Funk #49," Skynyrd's "Saturday Night Special," Bachman Turner Overdrive's "Let It Ride" (yay, not the over-anthologized "Takin' Care of Business" or "You Ain't Seen Nuthin' Yet") and other gems from Argent, Blue Oyster Cult, Alice Cooper ("Under My Wheels," and not the over-anthologized "Eighteen!"), 10cc (not "I'm Not In Love," yay, again, but, oddly, "Wall Street Shuffle"), The Kinks and even some stray Ted Nugent and Montrose. Best of all, the disc ends with the eye-misting "September Gurls" from Big Star, which maybe makes up (in royalties, let's hope) for the theme song-damage. A nicely-chosen, and yes, rockin' selection.
Even if you don't watch the show, you know you'd like to have these, and if you are a fan, um, well, there're neat pictures of the stars inside. Each song is well-annotated, too. I can't see anybody putting on these tunes and serving fondue before the wife-swapping gets underway, but you can dance to them, surely, or sit back and think back on things that were, or never were. Fun!
