By GRAHAM REID
If you want to capture the essence of the 70s in a word it's "hair". At the start of the decade there were cascades of curls halfway down backs (that's the men) and the long straight stuff with fringes (the women, and Slade).
By mid-decade there were dreadlocks,
moustaches and big sideburns sprouting everywhere, then suddenly came punk, out came the scissors.
Many say the 60s were the greatest decade for music but really it just laid the groundwork for the flourishing of styles in the 70s. Looking back from this time when music exists in separate fiefdoms, during the 70s everything seemed to co-exist. That's a thought reinforced by the BBC double DVD The Old Grey Whistle Test (Roadshow) which collects 45 live performances down that hirsute decade from the British television show.
As the years roll by so do a skinny but tame Alice Cooper, the hilarity of the world's only Dutch prog-rock yodellers (Focus), the very young Wailers, the deliciously dissolute crossdress rock of the New York Dolls and a seriously disturbing Captain Beefheart.
There is southern soul funk (Little Feat) rubbing shoulders with retro-rock (John Lennon sending Stand By Me from New York) and things which should never have been allowed (the Edgar Winter Group who go prog-bonkers at great length).
As the clips roll on the hair gets shorter and then we are into New York new wave, mock opera, Iggy Pop, Springsteen, the Specials, Damned, U2, REM and more.
Any decade, or DVD even, which also offers space to Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Wyatt and Tim Buckley is worth checking. But the Edgar Winter Group? What was that about?
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