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Have A Nice Decade: The '70s Pop Culture Box Sampler
Various Artists
Rhino Records Promotional, 1998
REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 07/11/1998
No matter how much I expand my musical horizons the longer I dothis job, one thing about me will always be true: I am a true childof the '70s, and I will always have a certain nostalgicappreciation for some of the music that was created during thisdecade. (The whole disco era is excepted, of course - now we callit "house" music.)
Oh, sure, laugh if you want. But I'm willing to bet there's notone person reading who lived through the '70s and its music who,when they hear a song on any of these TV ads for compilations,doesn't find themselves singing along, only to catch themselves inembarrassment. 'Fess up, kids, we're all guilty of it.
Rhino Records, knowing how people drift back to the kitsch thatwas their decade, have answered the void in many people's lives(you know how long I searched for a 45 of "Black Superman"?) with Have A Nice Decade: The '70s Pop Culture Box, a seven-discmonstrosity containing 161 hits from the decade, along with soundbites and news stories interspersed with the songs. It's enough tomake the naysayers puke, and the people who are still waiting toget into Studio 54 dust off their leisure suits.
Rhino was kind enough to send a 17-song sampler from the set tome. They're generous, but not stupid; they had to have known they'dhook critics like myself into wanting to purchase the big versionfor themselves. The songs on this sampler brought back a lot ofmemories, and reminded me just how good some of the music of thisdecade was.
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