Dylan Jones: ‘1975 has been demonised, but so much amazing music was made that year’

The illustrious editor and author on the ‘forgotten year’ that featured some era-defining albums from the likes of Fleetwood Mac and David Bowie before punk arrived on the block and ripped up the playbook

From left: Curtis Mayfield, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan

There is no shortage of music books making a case for a particular year as being especially important. Among the more recent crop are Jon Savage’s 1966 and David Hepworth’s 1971. Both persuasively argue that each of those 12-month periods are pop and rock’s finest.

Dylan Jones believes 1975 is just as worthy of adulation, but it has long been his contention that the middle year of the 1970s is often neglected, such was the impact of punk, which came immediately afterwards.