This is a landmark year for me, personally. Several great choices again (more than I had originally thought), and this thread should spark some interesting debate.
Yes, I left out Magical Mystery Tour. I'm not putting two albums by the same artist in the same poll, and clearly Sgt. Pepper is
the album for this particular year. Also, I had to choose between The Velvet Underground and Nico and White Light/White Heat. I chose the former, because I don't really like the latter as much. I chose Between the Buttons over Satanic Majesties, because I think it's a stronger album. I'll have to make other similar choices down the road.
Other omissions:
Miles Davis * Nefertiti (Columbia)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band * Safe As Milk (Buddha)
Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention * Absolutely Free (Rykodisc)
I think I'm going to start doing allmusic.com blurbs for each of the records I include just so this series is also informative, inasmuch as it introduces some of you to records you may not already know.
SERIES NOTE: I've decided not to do any of the years from 2002-2004 for two reasons:
1) there are already shmoo polls for those years
2) there are SO MANY releases that selecting ten seems silly
Allmusic notes:
Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Quote:
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn successfully captures both sides of psychedelic experimentation -- the pleasures of expanding one's mind and perception, and an underlying threat of mental disorder and even lunacy; this duality makes Piper all the more compelling in light of Barrett's subsequent breakdown, and ranks it as one of the best psychedelic albums of all time.
The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground and NicoQuote:
While the significance of Nico's contributions have been debated over the years, she meshes with the band's outlook in that she hardly sounds like a typical rock vocalist, and if Andy Warhol's presence as producer was primarily a matter of signing the checks, his notoriety allowed The Velvet Underground to record their material without compromise, which would have been impossible under most other circumstances. Few rock albums are as important as The Velvet Underground and Nico, and fewer still have lost so little of their power to surprise and intrigue more than 30 years after first hitting the racks.
The Kinks - Something Else(believe it or not - no allmusic.com review)
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper'sQuote:
It's possible to argue that there are better Beatles albums, yet no album is as historically important as this. After Sgt. Pepper, there were no rules to follow -- rock and pop bands could try anything, for better or worse. Ironically, few tried to achieve the sweeping, all-encompassing embrace of music as the Beatles did here.
Love - Forever ChangesQuote:
The best fusion of folk-rock and psychedelia, it features Lee's trembling vocals, beautiful melodies, haunting orchestral arrangements, and inscrutable but poetic lyrics, all of which sound nearly as fresh and intriguing upon repeated plays.
The Doors - The DoorsQuote:
A tremendous debut album, and indeed one of the best first-time outings in rock history, introducing the band's fusion of rock, blues, classical, jazz, and poetry with a knockout punch. The lean, spidery guitar and organ riffs interweave with a hypnotic menace, providing a seductive backdrop for Jim Morrison's captivating vocals and probing prose. "Light My Fire" was the cut that topped the charts and established the group as stars, but most of the rest of the album is just as impressive, including some of their best songs: the propulsive "Break On Through" (their first single), the beguiling Oriental mystery of "The Crystal Ship," the mysterious "End of the Night," "Take It as It Comes" (one of several tunes besides "Light My Fire" that also had hit potential), and the stomping rock of "Soul Kitchen" and "Twentieth Century Fox."
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?Quote:
One of the most stunning debuts in rock history, and one of the definitive albums of the psychedelic era. On Are You Experienced?, Jimi Hendrix synthesized various elements of the cutting edge of 1967 rock into music that sounded both futuristic and rooted in the best traditions of rock, blues, pop, and soul. It was his mind-boggling guitar work, of course, that got most of the ink, building upon the experiments of British innovators like Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend to chart new sonic territories in feedback, distortion, and sheer volume. It wouldn't have meant much, however, without his excellent material, whether psychedelic frenzy ("Foxey Lady," "Manic Depression," "Purple Haze"), instrumental freak-out jams ("Third Stone From the Sun"), blues ("Red House," "Hey Joe"), or tender, poetic compositions ("The Wind Cries Mary") that demonstrated the breadth of his songwriting talents.
Rolling Stones - Between the ButtonsQuote:
The Rolling Stones' 1967 recordings are a matter of some controversy; many critics felt that they were compromising their raw, rootsy power with trendy emulations of the Beatles, Kinks, Dylan, and psychedelic music. Approach this album with an open mind, though, and you'll find it to be one of their strongest, most eclectic LPs, with many fine songs that remain unknown to all but Stones devotees.
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man The Way I Loved YouQuote:
While the inclusion of "Respect" -- one of the truly seminal singles in pop history -- is in and of itself sufficient to earn I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You classic status, Aretha Franklin's Atlantic label debut is an indisputable masterpiece from start to finish. Much of the credit is due to producer Jerry Wexler, who finally unleashed the soulful intensity so long kept under wraps during her Columbia tenure; assembling a crack Muscle Shoals backing band along with an abundance of impeccable material, Wexler creates the ideal setting to allow Aretha to ascend to the throne of Queen of Soul, and she responds with the strongest performances of her career.