Sucking in the Seventies?

For the last several weeks, I've been fixated on the decade of my birth. I recently completed the 33 1/3 on Big Star's "Radio City" and Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. My beautiful wife and I watched "Man on Wire" and I've still been in the mode of my rock history class that just wrapped up the decade that Mick Jagger et al claimed that "sucked". And yet, so much of what I continue to discover, makes me love and appreciate the 1970s. Of late, I've acquired and have been spinning regularly Linda Ronstadt's "Simple Dreams", Steely Dan's first two or so lp's, Neil Young's "Live Rust" and my favorite, Bonnie Raitt's "Sweet Forgiveness". This last one, according to All Music Guide, only garnered two of five stars and yet, of my Bonnie lps, ranks number one. There aren't the "Angel of Montgomery's" or chart-topping singles but includes the '50s cover and the Jackson Browne knock-off. What makes the perfect Bonnie lp are the ballads that are so indicative of the era; chord changes that are predictable (for the era) but lacking in today's songs; her amazing slide guitar work; the production that is sparse but still driving and solidly laid down by a strong yet vulnerable female lead. Maybe the dichotomy (or paradox) of the lp is just what I'm attracted to: the strong woman with weakness; driving rock songs with yearning ballads; production filled with either lush strings (yeah, call me a sucker) a I-vi-ii-IV-V structure or an era with the social/political/gender-based relationships spelled out in ways that are both clearly-defined and contradictory.
It's not simple nostalgia, though, admittedly, the sound of the rock music is clearly dated. I can't think of a single person half my age (hell, my age) listening to this stuff, while I hear nothing but complaints about how modern pop-rock is vapid and lacking. My theory is that most of my favorite music from the Seventies is structured in the familiar blues-/gospel-/country-/ structures that are no longer the basis or format of modern music. Plus, I'm totally attracted to singers like Linda and Bonnie - the covers of "Simple Dreams" and "Sweet Forgiveness" tell it best - one woman in a dressing room, glancing at herself in the mirror, exposed and vulnerable. She's sexy to an audience and yet unsure and doubting of her strengths on her own. The other woman, just 'one of the guys' because she's plain-looking and yet strong when she sings and plays. Linda in lace and Bonnie on the Boardwalk. Contrived? Dated? No more than "42nd St." or "Weird Science" or "Bonnie and Clyde".
I can't imagine having lived through the time when one would have brought home the lp, being torn fresh from the plastic seal and being laid on the turntable, the needle brought down at 33 1/3 rpm. Not Zeppelin nor Captain & Tennille, these AOR pop records still drove so much of the Warners/Elektra/Asylum label, the same label pushing the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and countless other multi-million selling records. I have a friend, who has many of these lp's (purchased around release date) and we've had many a late-night, sober discussion about how AMAZING this music must have been coming out when it did; just how much of this is yearning to have experienced the time of my entrance and how much of this is really about how good the music was? I dunno and don't care as here I am at eleven at night spinning discs that floor no one but myself. What do I bet that even the artists themselves could care less about the music I find so important?
I'm going to end this rave with this; I've played some of this music in bands and would love to play more of this with future bands: it's not ancient nor lame and yet there's something about it old enough and aged enough that is still damned great; timeless music does this - it hits people where they are, when they hear it and from where they are, they wonder just how this music is so good.