Thursday, June 1, 2017

Breaking Down


The Alan Parson Project : Breakdown


The Buzzcocks : Breakdown


Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers : Breakdown


On June 1, 1977 The Alan Parsons Project released I Robot, a Top 10 album based on the Issac Asimov trilogy. I found a cut out cassette copy at Woolworth's a year or two later and I've always a fan. Parsons had worked as an engineer with Pink Floyd on Dark Side of the Moon and The Beatles on Abbey Road so you know you're in for some sonic greatness here.

It occurred to me that the concept of the "breakdown" was popular in 1977. There's the song on I Robot, sung by The Hollies' Allan Clarke.


Earlier in the year The Buzzcocks' released the jittery Devoto/Shelley track "Breakdown", one of four songs on their Spiral Scratch EP.



In January of 1977, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released "Breakdown" as a single from their '76 debut. It wouldn't make a dent in the US Top 40 until the following year, after they hit it big in the U.K.





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