1972 WAS one hell of a year for music. It was the year of Roxy Music's debut album; David Bowie's breakthrough with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars; and Bowie also wrote a hit song for Mott The Hoople and produced Transformer for Lou Reed.
This is a small, but significant example of what was going on back then. Other highlights of the year were Yes's Fragile album, Big Star's debut #1 Record, while over in the avant garde section of rock, Germany was leading the way with the debut album from NEU!
It was something of a bumper year for music then, but also, it was an important year for the Irish language and Irish language media, as it was the year RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta first came on air. Putting all this together gave RnaG DJ, tastemaker, and connoisseur Cian Ó Cíobháin, an idea for his show An Taobh Tuathail.
On Monday May 1, Cian will be mark 18 years on air for An Taobh Tuathail with a special broadcast that will focus on all things 1972, exploring the idea of what type of music he would have been playing had ATT been on air at that time. The playlist is likely to include Bowie, Lou Reed, Can, Cymande, The Stooges, Judee Sill, Tangerine Dream, David Axelrod, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, The Sonics, Funkadelic, Shuggie Otis, Love, The 13th Floor Elevators...
Listeners with suggestions for music they would like to hear on #AnTT18 can let Cian know via Twitter @AnTaobhTuathail, Facebook, Spotify or by emailing [email protected]. The An Taobh Tuathail birthday special will be broadcast on May 1 from 10pm to midnight. It can also be heard back on rte.ie/rnag/an-taobh-tuathail
In the mantime, here's a classic performance from 1972, one that was as socially and culturally important as it was musically:
