1971 by David Hepworth review – the very best year in rock music?

The veteran music writer makes his case with reference to Led Zeppelin, the Who, the Doors and Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’. But what about the popular singles – and how can he dismiss T Rex?

In 1971 the bestselling single in Britain was “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep” by Middle of the Road. I think it’s safe to say this isn’t the reason David Hepworth claims the year to be a high-water mark for rock – we are almost 200 pages into his book before he even mentions (and instantly dismisses) the “tawdry chaos of the British singles chart” – though this was virtually all that the average Briton would have heard on the radio. Never a Dull Moment barely references singles because Hepworth himself wasn’t paying any attention to them in 1971: he was 21 years old, and learning about contemporary music from the pages of Rolling Stone magazine and the small-print credits on the sleeves of albums in Harum Records in north London.

Singles were for kids. Albums were for aspirational, inquiring 21-year-olds, and 1971 saw the release of a bunch of albums that came to define classic rock: Led Zeppelin IV, the Who’s Who’s Next, Jethro Tull’s Aqualung, the Doors’ LA Woman and Carole King’s Tapestry. Hepworth writes about the music, and the music scene, as he remembers it – and it is something he has clearly been mulling over for years, mentioning several times that the passage of time only enhances the power of early 70s rock. He feels confident enough to claim that the Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” was really “the best recording of the best year in the history of recording”. With Never a Dull Moment, he has decided to stop worrying and revel in the notion that he might well be right.

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