Vinyl Dreams: How the 1970s Changed Music

(Paperback)

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A scintillating journey through the seventies and the extraordinary music it gave rise to including the new concept of sound that defines music today.

After the dense miasma of the sixties, the seventies hit like a hangover. Idealism took a pounding as cynicism began to pervade western culture. Stagflation became a thing. Watergate, environmental disasters and an oil crisis proved there was even more to worry about than a Cold War. Individualism and personal greed began to replace the hippie ideal of universal love.

Australia experienced a dramatic upheaval: a loosening of censorship laws, campaigns for womens, Aboriginal and LGBTI+ rights, and a new relationship with China. This tumult saw a remarkable blooming of pop music. Monumental albums were born: Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon, Elton Johns Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, John Lennons Imagine, Carole Kings Tapestry. Rock music splintered into dazzling shards, as technical innovations helped propel feverish experimentation.

Vinyl Dreams is a fast-paced romp through the seventies, from the golden era of rock music in the early seventies, to disco, punk and new wave music in the later years of the decade. Brimming with fascinating stories, and tracing the revolutions that shaped the soundtrack of our lives, it reveals the power and enduring legacy of seventies music. was born, grew and evolved to become an integral part of Australian culture.

A damn good read. [The 1970s were] a gender-bending ride, filled with good memories, good times. Suzi Quatro

Tony Wellington writes with incredible insight, passion, and intelligence about music and the context in which it was created. Stuart Coupe, music journalist

In Vinyl Dreams Tony happily shines a forensic light on the finest musicians of the age, while gleefully exposing the fakes, the frauds and the febrile. Rob Hirst, founding member of Midnight Oil

Reviews

A damn good read. [The 1970s were] a gender-bending ride, filled with good memories, good times.

Tony Wellington writes with incredible insight, passion, and intelligence about music and the context in which it was created.

InVinyl Dreams Tony happily shines a forensic light on the finest musicians of the age, while gleefully exposing the fakes, the frauds and the febrile.

A thrilling journey that meticulously charts rock musics progress through the chaotic, fertile, high-energy, drug-fuelled innovations that make the seventies possibly its most exciting era.

One thing I love about this book is how Tony Wellington humanises the rockstar. We all know the effect of great rock music on our mental and physical being is beyond magic, but those who create that magic are all too human. Tony takes us into that world and helps us understand how and why the songs we love so much were written by people reacting to the ever-changing world of the seventies.

Author Bio

Tony Wellington is a writer, radio host, photographer and book illustrator. His works include Freak Out, Happy Exploding Cultural Myths about Happiness and a history of Noosa, Noosa and Cooloola. He also co-authored (with John Shand) Dont Shoot the Best Boy! The Film Crew at Work, and he has produced several photography books, the most recent of which isWild About Noosa. For many years Tony worked in the film and television industry as a scriptwriter, director and editor, and lectured in media studies and film. He holds a degree from Macquarie University and is a former mayor of Noosa Shire. He has three grown children and lives in the Noosa hinterland with his wife.