In the second installment of the 45-33 series, I bring you slowed down selections from the ’70s. The funk gets crunked. The cocaine is swapped for quaaludes in the recording studio. And the punk starts to peacock with more pop sensibility. We end with a scary monster from 1980 because, well, I needed to leave room for something a little different from the early Reagan years in next week’s episode.

1. Hot Pants (pt 1) (45-33) | James Brown
   1971
   James’s husky confidence turns watching girls into something more along this lines of eating a plate of amazing ribs.
2. I Love You Love Me Love (45-33) | Gary Glitter
   1973
   Keeping with the theme, Glitter’s glam fattens up and really lays it on thick with some nice big beats and a slow steam engine guitar dirge.
3. Brother Louie (45-33) | Stories
   1973
   This project has revealed to me that, when it doubt, a band should always bring the tempo down a few notches for greater swagness.
4. Hard Times (45-33) | Curtis Mayfield
   1975
   Slowed down, it as though Curtis slipped into a puffy black garbage bag to deliver something along the lines of Timbaland and Missy’s reworking of Ann Peebles “…Rain”.
5. Miss You (45-33) | The Rolling Stones
   1978
   Uh oh, in the 45-33 world, Jagger’s vocal quirks mutate into a pretty hilarious run at this little disco-blues abomination.
6. Don’t Bring Me Down (45-33) | Electric Light Orchestra
   1979
   I have a habit of collecting 45s of my favorite karaoke crowd-pleasers. So, of course, I had to find room for one of them in this series.
7. Everybody’s Happy Nowadays (45-33) | The Buzzcocks
   1979
   Here we have my absolute favorite transformation. “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays” hits all of the marks one should look for. Great tempo, vocal pitch, and melody aside, it’s that the song’s core attitude is deepened and warmed while somehow showing off its sense of humor in the process that really gets me.
8. Ashes To Ashes (45-33) | David Bowie
   1980
   Like I said at the top, I had to slip in this one from 1980. Bowie has described “Ashes To Ashes” as both a nursery rhyme and an epitaph to the ’70s. Spooky. You’ll understand why I wanted to save room for something a little different in my next episode to kick off the ’80s properly next week.