5 Rock Songs From 1971 That Sound Even Cooler Today

Tremendous societal upheaval was taking place in 1971. A crowd of protesters estimated at 175,000 strong descended on Washington, D.C. as the Vietnam War slogged on, while the leaked Pentagon Papers revealed the war's secret history. Meanwhile, Norman Lear revolutionized television with "All in the Family," and cinephiles experienced a diverse array of films, ranging from Stanley Kubrick's dystopian "A Clockwork Orange," to Clint Eastwood's Magnum .357-toting detective in "Dirty Harry," to the quirky May-December romance of Hal Ashby's "Harold and Maude." 

In the milieu of rock music, rapid evolution was likewise at play as some of the industry's biggest acts released stunningly creative albums that remain pinnacles of their respective careers. While there are certainly songs from the early '70s that sound dated, the best songs of 1971 are simultaneously timeless while being unmistakably of their time. Many, in fact, continue to be discovered by new generations of fans, more than a half-century after their release.

Yet singling out specific songs released during that 12-month period is daunting, simply because there was so much amazing music released that year. Marvin Gaye's seminal "What's Going On," Funkadelic's blend of funk and acid rock in "Maggot Brain," and Joni Mitchell's iconic "Blue" were all released in 1971, the aural equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet for music fans and the reason why 1971 was the best year for rock music ever. For proof, read on for a look back at five rock songs from 1971 that sound even cooler today.

Despite being released early in the decade, Led Zeppelin's 1971 classic "Stairway to Heaven" remained popular throughout the rest of the 1970s and beyond. So ubiquitous is the song's opening that Jimmy Page's acoustic guitar flourish inspired a scene in 1992 comedy "Wayne's World," when Mike Myers' titular long-haired teenager played by Mike Myers begins picking out that opening riff in a guitar store — only to have a store employee interrupt him, pointing to a sign on the wall reading "NO STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN."

When unravelling the untold truth of Led Zeppelin, it's clear that "Stairway" looms larger than any other song in the band's canon, an eight-minute odyssey that takes the listener on a sonic journey through many moods. Meanwhile, listeners continue to puzzle over Robert Plant's enigmatic lyrics about "a bustle in your hedgerow" concealing "a spring clean for the May queen," of the duality of two paths that can be followed, and words that have two meanings.

Discussing the song in a BBC video, Page pondered how much the song's enduring popularity has to do with its instrumentation. "The idea of 'Stairway' was to have a piece of music, a composition, whereby it would just keep unfolding into more layers and more moods," Page explained. "The whole subtlety and intensity of the overlay of the composition would actually accelerate as it went through every level — every emotional level, every musical level. And so it keeps opening up, as it continues through these patterns." Today, no matter how many times you've heard it, "Stairway to Heaven" still takes us on that moody musical journey like no other.  

"Life on Mars?" was released during a very pivotal time in the career of David Bowie, just as he was on the cusp of transforming into his glam-rock creation Ziggy Stardust. Appearing on his 1971 "Hunky Dory" album, the piano-driven ballad finds Bowie at arguably his most poetic, cinematic imagery of "a God-awful small affair," and a "girl with mousy hair" who's "hooked to the silver screen," watching a movie that is a "saddening bore" even though it features "sailors fighting in a dancehall," and a "lawman beating up the wrong guy," while touching on crass commercialism ("Micky Mouse has grown up a cow"). The song slowly builds in intensity until Bowie plaintively asks in the soaring chorus, "Is there life on Mars?" Today, we know the answer, but the melodics and theatre of the song still make it a great listen all these decades later. 

The song's origins, however, are as fascinating as its evocative lyrics. Interviewed for Swedish television in 2002, Bowie recalled how he'd been in a deal with a music publishing company, and was asked to write English lyrics to a French hit, "Comme D'Habitude." Bowie's lyrics were rejected, and Paul Anka wound up rewriting the song as "My Way," which became a monster hit for Frank Sinatra. Bowie was understandably irked. "So I thought, 'Okay, I'll write my own version,'" he said of the song Bowie wrote to get revenge on Sinatra.

"I think that really my subject matter hasn't really changed over the years," Bowie added. "I'm still, in a way, writing 'Life on Mars?' all these years later." 

If there's a single album that captures The Rolling Stones at their peak, it's 1971's "Sticky Fingers." Truly, the album is jammed with songs that remain fan favorites, including "Brown Sugar," "Dead Flowers," "Wild Horses," "Moonlight Mile," "Sway," and "Sister Morphine." Yet "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" demonstrates the Stones at their most potent, reminding today's listeners that the heart and grit of classic rock 'n' roll is as cool as ever.

At the time, Keith Richards had been experimenting with open guitar tunings, which led him to the jagged riff that opens the song until drummer Charlie Watts adds a loping, funky beat. "I just found the tuning and the riff and started to swing it, and Charlie picked up on it just like that, and we're thinking, hey, this is some groove. So it was smiles all around," Richards wrote in his 2010 memoir, "Life."

Yet just when the song seems about to have run its course, it suddenly shifts, the beat changing to a percussive samba as Keith employs a whole new riff just before saxophonist Bobby Keys enters the picture with a brash and melodic solo, followed by guitarist Mick Taylor unleashing a spectacular Santana-esque solo. That part wasn't planned, with Mick Jagger telling American Songwriter, " ... the jam at the end was an afterthought ... I don't think we meant that, but somehow it added on." The free jam in the second part of the song was a slight variation from the Stones' usual straightforward writing, making "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" a standout still today.  

Rock music has generated more than its fair share of anthems, but at the absolute top of the pyramid rests "Won't Get Fooled Again." The final track of the band's landmark 1971 "Who's Next" album, the song represents the band at its creative pinnacle, from Pete Townshend's dramatic power chords to the ear-shattering scream that has become Roger Daltrey's in-concert trademark. Atop it all, of course, are Townshend's lyrics, depicting a violent revolution that overthrew a government — only for the revolutionaries to realize that nothing ultimately changed, a sentiment crystallized in the lyric "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Townshend, at 80 years old, spoke of the song's enduring popularity during a 2025 appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," listing "Won't Get Fooled Again" as one of his top five songs. As Townshend explained, the song has a theme "that is most applicable to the modern world, which is that our leaders are never any good." 

The song, he continued, wasn't necessarily aimed at anyone in particular, but addressed political leaders in general. "It's a kind of a comment on the fact that the people that we put in power always seem to end up breaking their promises," he said. "Politicians promise stuff that they sort of know they have their fingers crossed behind them. They know that they can't deliver some of the stuff that they promise." 

With its lilting melody and sparse piano backing, the title track of John Lennon's "Imagine" album has remained his signature song. In "Imagine," Lennon asks the listener to imagine the possibility of a utopian world in which people aren't divided by religious, political, and societal differences, but instead live in peaceful harmony with each other. 

Yet that's precisely why "Imagine" is also a deeply subversive song, daring people to envision a world in which the concepts of heaven and hell no longer insist — a world devoid of religion. "'Imagine' is a big hit almost everywhere," said Lennon of his song, via Geoffrey Giuliano's "Lennon in America."  According to Lennon, he was well aware just how radical the message contained within "Imagine" was, and how it would be met within the more conservative corners of society. "An anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song, but because it's sugar-coated, it's accepted," he explained. "Now I understand what you have to do. Put your political message across with a little honey."

In his final interview with Rolling Stone, days before his tragic 1980 murder, Lennon felt that keeping the song's message alive was his mission. "We're not the first to say, 'Imagine no countries' or 'Give Peace a Chance,' but we're carrying that torch, like the Olympic torch, passing it from hand to hand, to each other, to each country, to each generation," he said. "That's our job."