'70s Pop

Sure, there was great '70s music being made in the margins (punk, power pop), but if you really want to get a feel for the decade of polyester power and aeronautically engineered lapels, you need to tune into the three-minute dramas, comedies, and fantasies being played out in the mainstream on the sonic stage of AM radio. The '70s was all about amor for Al Green, who leans in close enough to whisper "Let's Stay Together" over a simmering Memphis soul stew, and for the Bee Gees, whose Saturday Night Fever lingered into Sunday morning, floating on the blissful dreamboat of "How Deep Is Your Love." In Next Steps, find your '70s pop bliss in the freaky-funky and the dusty-dreamy.

Back in the days of macramé and muttonchops, you could be rocketed through a rollercoaster of styles without ever making a single move on the radio dial. One minute you might be taken for a Philly soul ride with the O'Jays on their rainbow-colored "Love Train." The next you'd go heavy on the hairspray and hone your Studio 54-ready Hustle moves to the diamond-studded disco dynamo of Chic's "Le Freak." Next thing you know, you're following America on a trippy trek through the desert on their soft 'n' surreal "A Horse with No Name," or taking a sleepy-time cruise through the sheep-shaped clouds with Gary Wright's synthesizer-soaked "Dream Weaver." In Deep Cuts, dig '70s pop in living colour, with TV teen idols and outrageous party poses.

The snap and crackle of '70s pop brings back a flood of memories for those who were there and holds a platform-heeled mystique for those who missed it. The Partridge Family conjures images of matching velvet-and-ruffles uniforms and David Cassidy lunch boxes with the sugarcoated sunshine-pop of "I Think I Love You." The ultimate mellow soundtrack starts taking shape with John Denver ("Rocky Mountain High") and Bread ("Make It With You") — can't you just see their sun-dappled locks twinkling in soft-focus slo-mo? — while the Poppy Family (featuring Saskatoon's Susan Jacks) makes regret sound sweet with "That's Where I Went Wrong."

In the '70s, pop music was a patchwork-quilt party in which everybody was invited — living legends and one-hit wonders, soul sirens and cosmic cowboys, sex symbols and family bands. It all added up to one long, halter-topped, bell-bottomed, pony-tailed, Afro Sheen'd season in the sun. From 10cc's comment on capitalism "The Wall Street Shuffle" to Linda Ronstadt's soul-singed, don't-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out kiss-off "You're No Good," we've roamed the shag-carpeted hallways of the '70s pop palace from one Brut-scented end to the other to give you the decade's coolest and kookiest, the winningly wild and the magically mellow, all wrapped in one pop-perfect package.