1975
The Year the World Forgot
Published on 4. June 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-1-4087-2201-5 (ISBN)
Description
'Across 21 albums, Jones smartly covers the songs and music as well as the geo-cultural milieu that nurtured and enveloped them. An excellent book' Irish Times
'Makes one crave a follow-up undertaking for 1976!' Record Collector
'Enormously entertaining . . . Never has pop history been so elegantly told' London Standard
1975 was the apotheosis of music. Rich with masterpieces, it's the most important year in the narrative arc of the music of the twentieth-century: Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan, The Who by Numbers by the Who, Young Americans by David Bowie, A Night at the Opera by Queen and the eponymous Fleetwood Mac, to name just a few.
The records of 1975 were magisterial; records that couldn't be bettered. Who could realistically make a more sophisticated album than The Hissing of Summer Lawns? Or a more complex hard-rock album than Physical Graffiti? Or a record as unimpeachable and as prescient as Horses?
It was a year filled with an unparalleled sense of ambition, where the album was venerated as much as the modern novel, where everyone was trying to make a masterpiece.
Setting the music against the social, political and artistic context of the time, Dylan Jones brilliantly unravels the cultural fragments that made 1975 the greatest year of them all.
'Makes one crave a follow-up undertaking for 1976!' Record Collector
'Enormously entertaining . . . Never has pop history been so elegantly told' London Standard
1975 was the apotheosis of music. Rich with masterpieces, it's the most important year in the narrative arc of the music of the twentieth-century: Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan, The Who by Numbers by the Who, Young Americans by David Bowie, A Night at the Opera by Queen and the eponymous Fleetwood Mac, to name just a few.
The records of 1975 were magisterial; records that couldn't be bettered. Who could realistically make a more sophisticated album than The Hissing of Summer Lawns? Or a more complex hard-rock album than Physical Graffiti? Or a record as unimpeachable and as prescient as Horses?
It was a year filled with an unparalleled sense of ambition, where the album was venerated as much as the modern novel, where everyone was trying to make a masterpiece.
Setting the music against the social, political and artistic context of the time, Dylan Jones brilliantly unravels the cultural fragments that made 1975 the greatest year of them all.
Reviews / Votes
Whether he's unpicking the importance of 'Born to Run' to Bruce Springsteen's career, explaining how Donna Summer invented the 12'' single, or describing the impact of Bob Marley's appearance at the Lyceum in July 1975, Jones' writing is witty, precise, and engaging . . . Readers will want to revisit many of the records that Jones uses to build his convincing case for 1975 being the apotheosis of adult pop. The book successfully challenges the accepted history of what came before punk's 'day zero' and shines a light on some lost gems * Louder Than War * [Jones's] makes deliciously bold statements and the breadth and scope of his coverage is impressive, as is his eye for detail. Makes one crave a follow-up undertaking for 1976! * Record Collector * Enormously entertaining . . . Jones pulls all these cultural fragments into one gloriously exciting picture in a way only he can. Never has pop history been so elegantly told * London Standard * Indefatigable polemicist rescues classic rock from year zero barbarians * MOJO * Across 21 albums, Jones smartly covers the songs and music as well as the geo-cultural milieu that nurtured and enveloped them. An excellent book * Irish Times * Marvellous * Neil McCormick, The Telegraph * Illustrious * John Meagher, Irish Independent * Tremendous * Mark Ellen, Word In Your Ear * Fascinating * Gary Kemp, Rockonteurs * Drugs, lavishness, excess . . . an interesting chain of consequences, and developments in news and culture * Tom Sutcliffe, BBC Front Row *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Illustrations
16pp. colour and b&w
Dimensions
Height: 125 mm
Width: 197 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
298 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4087-2201-5 (9781408722015)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Dylan Jones has written or edited over thirty books. In the eighties, he was one of the first editors of i-D, before becoming a contributing editor of The Face and editor of Arena. He spent the next decade working in newspapers - principally the Observer and the Sunday Times - before embarking on a multi-award-winning tenure at GQ. During his editorship, Conde Nast's flagship magazine won more awards than any other title. A former columnist for the Guardian, Independent and Mail On Sunday, he is a Hay Festival Advisor and an independent BBC television producer. In 2012 he was awarded an OBE for services to publishing. He was the editor-in-chief of the Evening Standard from 2023 to 2025.