Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of The Cure's second studio album 'Seventeen Seconds'. The album was recorded and mixed in just seven days on a budget of between £2,000 and £3,000. The band's lineup changed with the addition of bass guitarist Simon Gallup and keyboardist Matthieu Hartley. Robert Smith wrote the lyrics and music for most of the record at his parents' home, on a Hammond organ with a built-in tape recorder. The album was influenced by records such as Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake, Isle of Wight by Jimi Hendrix, Astral Weeks by Van Morrison and Low by David Bowie.
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Today marks the 40th anniversary of Roxy Music's fourth album 'Country Life'. The album was named after the British rural lifestyle magazine of the same name. It was ranked number 387 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The opening track, 'The Thrill of It All', included a quote from Dorothy Parker's poem 'Resume'. Esoteric musical influences were betrayed by the German oom-pah band passages in 'Bitter-Sweet', the Elizabethan flav.