I decided to include Plastic Ono and Let it Be over All Things Must Pass, and I'm sure that'll ruffle a few feathers, but I had to leave one of the three out and I'm pretty sure the two I included are favored on the board over the great Harrison effort. A lot of good choices here. I'm not quite sure what I'll end up going with yet.
Omissions:
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band * Lick My Decals Off Baby (Straight)
Van Morrison * Moondance (WB)
The Maytals * Monkey Man (Trojan)
Soft Machine * Third (CBS)
Curtis Mayfield * Curtis (Curtom)
Velvet Underground * Loaded (WB)
Miles Davis * Bitches Brew (Columbia)
Led Zeppelin III (Atlantic)
The Maytals * Sweet And Dandy (Beverly's)
The Maytals * From The Roots (Trojan)
Amon Duul II * Yeti (Liberty)
Tangerine Dream * Electronic Meditation (Sequel)
Popol Vuh * Affenstunde (Tempel)
Funkadelic * Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow (Westbound)
Twink * Think Pink (Akarma)
Brigitte Fontaine * Comme a la Radio (Saravah)
Bob Marley & the Wailers * Soul Rebels (Trojan)
Fela Kuti * Fela's London Scene (Makossa)
Herbie Hancock * Fat Albert Rotunda (WB)
Nick Drake * Bryter Layter (Island)
Wayne McGhie & The Sounds Of Joy (Light in the Attic)
Bob Andy * Song Book (Studio One)
Horace Andy * Skylarking (Trojan)
Miles Davis * A Tribute To Jack Johnson (Columbia)
The Art Ensemble Of Chicago * With Fontella Bass (America)
The Cables * What Kind Of World (Heartbeat)
Clancy Eccles * Fatty Fatty 1967-70 (Trojan)
Os Mutantes * A Divina Comedia Ou Ando meio Desligado (Omplatten)
The Meters * Struttin' (Josie)
David Bowie * The Man Who Sold The World (RCA)
Black Sabbath (WB)
Al Green * Al Green Gets Next To You (Hi)
Alice Coltrane * Ptah the El Daoud (Impulse!)
King Crimson * In The Wake Of Poseidon (EG)
James Brown * Sex Machine (Polydor)
Miles Davis * Live-Evil (Columbia)
Uriah Heep * Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble (Mercury)
T. Rex (A&M)
Edu Lobo * Sergio Mendes Presents Edu Lobo (A&M/Verve)
Tim Buckley * Lorca (Elektra)
Tyrannosaurus Rex * A Beard Of Stars (A&M)
David Axelrod * Earth Rot (Capitol)
Can * Soundtracks (Spoon/Mute)
Baby Huey & The Babysitters * The Baby Huey Story: Living Legend (Water)
John McLaughlin * Devotion (Restless)
Randy Newman * 12 Songs (Reprise)
Sir Douglas Quintet * Together After Five (Smash/Acadia)
Otis Redding * Tell The Truth (Atlantic)
Exuma The Obeah Man * Exuma (Mercury)
Van Der Graaf Generator * H To He, Who Am The Only One (Charisma/Blue Plate)
Caravan * If I Could Do It All Over Again I'd Do It Over You (London)
Al Green * Al Green Is Blues (Motown)
Tyrone Davis * Turn Back The Hands Of Time (Brunswick)
Tin Tin (Atco)
Syd Barrett * Barrett (EMI)
Jimi Hendrix * Voodoo Soup (Cry Of Love) (Reprise)
The Art Ensemble Of Chicago * Les stances Sophie (Boulogne)
Rod Stewart * Gasoline Alley (Mercury)
Exuma The Obeah Man * Exuma II (Mercury)
Santana * Abraxas (Columbia)
Jimi Hendrix * Band Of Gypsys (Reprise)
Ry Cooder (Reprise)
Harry Nilsson * Nilsson Sings Newman (Buddha)
Amon Duul I * Pardieswarts Duul (Spalax)
MC5 * Back In the U.S.A. (Rhino/Atlantic)
The Isley Brothers * Get Into Something (T-Neck/Epic)
Jimmy Cliff * Wild World (Island)
The Bonzo Dog Band * The Beast of the Bonzos (UA)
Sun Ra & his Arkestra * My Brother The Wind Vol. 1 (Saturn)
John McLaughlin * My Goals Beyond (Rykodisc)
David Ackles * Subway To The Country (Elektra/Collectors Choice)
The Art Ensemble Of Chicago * Certain Blacks (Do What They Wanna!) (Inner City)
McCoy Tyner * Extensions (Blue Note)
Dr. John The Night Tripper * Remedies (Wounded Bird)
Serge Gainsbourg * Cannabis / Ce Sacre Grand-Pere (Universal Fr)
Traffic * John Barleycorn Must Die (Polygram)
Free * Fire And Water (A&M)
Mountain * Climbing! (Columbia)
The Faces * First Step (Demon)
Fairport Convention * Full House (Hannibal)
Lee Hazelwood * Cowboy In Sweden (Smells Like)
The Doors * Morrison Hotel (Elektra)
Van Morrison * His Band And the Street Choir (WB)
War * Eric Burdon Declares War (Avenue)
Lou Reed * Lou Reed (RCA)
Bob Dylan * New Morning (Columbia)
The Move * Looking On (Westside)
Robert Wyatt * The End Of An Ear (Columbia)
Spirit * The Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus (Epic)
The Band * Stage Fright (Capitol)
Screamin' Jay Hawkins * Because Is In Your Mind/Armpitrubber (Philips)
Donovan * Open Road (Epic)
Nico * Desertshore (Reprise)
Sonny Sharrock * Monkey-Pockie-Boo (BYG)
Chick Corea * Early Circle (Blue Note)
Sam Moore * Plenty Good Lovin' (EMI)
Ornette Coleman * Friends And Neighbours (Flying Dutchman)
Steve Miller Band * Number Five (Capitol)
Harry Nilsson * The Point! (RCA)
Alice Cooper * Easy Action (Straight/Rhino)
Grateful Dead * American Beauty (WB)
ZZ Top * First Album (WB)
Charles Wright & the 103rd Street Rhythm Band * In The Jungle, Babe (WB)
Charles Wright & the 103rd Street Rhythm Band * Express Yourself (WB)
King Crimson * Lizard (Atlantic)
Lee Hazelwood * Cowboy In Sweden (Smells Like)
Deep Purple * In Rock (WB)
Roy Harper * Flat Baroque & Berserk (Science)
George Harrison * All Things Must Pass (Capitol)
Badfinger * No Dice (Apple)
Derek and the Dominos - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Quote:
Wishing to escape the superstar expectations that sank Blind Faith before it was launched, Eric Clapton retreated with several sidemen from Delaney & Bonnie to record the material that would form Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. From these meager beginnings grew his greatest album. Duane Allman joined the band shortly after recording began, and his spectacular slide guitar pushed Clapton to new heights. Then again, Clapton may have gotten there without him, considering the emotional turmoil he was in during the recording. He was in hopeless, unrequited love with Patti Boyd, the wife of his best friend, George Harrison, and that pain surges throughout Layla, especially on its epic title track. But what really makes Layla such a powerful record is that Clapton, ignoring the traditions that occasionally painted him into a corner, simply tears through these songs with burning, intense emotion. He makes standards like "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" and "Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out)" into his own, while his collaborations with Bobby Whitlock — including "Any Day" and "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?" — teem with passion. And, considering what a personal album Layla is, it's somewhat ironic that the lovely coda "Thorn Tree in the Garden" is a solo performance by Whitlock, and that the song sums up the entire album as well as "Layla" itself.
The Stooges - Fun HouseQuote:
The Stooges' first album was produced by a classically trained composer; their second was supervised by the former keyboard player with the Kingsmen, and if that didn't make all the difference, it at least indicates why Fun House was a step in the right direction. Producer Don Gallucci took the approach that the Stooges were a powerhouse live band, and their best bet was to recreate the band's live set with as little fuss as possible. As a result, the production on Fun House bears some resemblance to the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie" — the sound is smeary and bleeds all over the place, but it packs the low-tech wallop of a concert pumped through a big PA, bursting with energy and immediacy. The Stooges were also a much stronger band this time out; Ron Asheton's blazing minimalist guitar gained little in the way of technique since The Stooges, but his confidence had grown by a quantum leap as he summoned forth the sounds that would make him the hero of proto-punk guitarists everywhere, and the brutal pound of drummer Scott Asheton and bassist Dave Alexander had grown to heavyweight champion status. And Fun House is where Iggy Pop's mad genius first reached its full flower; what was a sneer on the band's debut had grown into the roar of a caged animal desperate for release, and his rants were far more passionate and compelling than what he had served up before. The Stooges may have had more "hits," but Fun House has stronger songs, including the garage raver to end all garage ravers in "Loose," the primal scream of "1970," and the apocalyptic anarchy of "L.A. Blues." Fun House is the ideal document of the Stooges at their raw, sweaty, howling peak.
John Lennon - John Lennon/Plastic Ono BandQuote:
The cliché about singer/songwriters is that they sing confessionals direct from their heart, but John Lennon exploded the myth behind that cliché, as well as many others, on his first official solo record, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Inspired by his primal scream therapy with Dr. Walter Janov, Lennon created a harrowing set of unflinchingly personal songs, laying out all of his fears and angers for everyone to hear. It was a revolutionary record — never before had a record been so explicitly introspective, and very few records made absolutely no concession to the audience's expectations, daring the listeners to meet all the artist's demands. Which isn't to say that the record is unlistenable. Lennon's songs range from tough rock & rollers to piano-based ballads and spare folk songs, and his melodies remain strong and memorable, which actually intensifies the pain and rage of the songs. Not much about Plastic Ono Band is hidden. Lennon presents everything on the surface, and the song titles — "Mother," "I Found Out," "Working Class Hero," "Isolation," "God," "My Mummy's Dead" — illustrate what each song is about, and charts his loss of faith in his parents, country, friends, fans, and idols. It's an unflinching document of bare-bones despair and pain, but for all its nihilism, it is ultimately life-affirming; it is unique not only in Lennon's catalog, but in all of popular music. Few albums are ever as harrowing, difficult, and rewarding as John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
Black Sabbath - Paranoid Quote:
Paranoid was not only Black Sabbath's most popular record (it was a number one smash in the U.K., and "Paranoid" and "Iron Man" both scraped the U.S. charts despite virtually nonexistent radio play), it also stands as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. Paranoid refined Black Sabbath's signature sound — crushingly loud, minor-key dirges loosely based on heavy blues-rock — and applied it to a newly consistent set of songs with utterly memorable riffs, most of which now rank as all-time metal classics. Where the extended, multi-sectioned songs on the debut sometimes felt like aimless jams, their counterparts on Paranoid have been given focus and direction, lending an epic drama to now-standards like "War Pigs" and "Iron Man" (which sports one of the most immediately identifiable riffs in metal history). The subject matter is unrelentingly, obsessively dark, covering both supernatural/sci-fi horrors and the real-life traumas of death, war, nuclear annihilation, mental illness, drug hallucinations, and narcotic abuse. Yet Sabbath makes it totally convincing, thanks to the crawling, muddled bleakness and bad-trip depression evoked so frighteningly well by their music. Even the qualities that made critics deplore the album (and the group) for years increase the overall effect — the technical simplicity of Ozzy Osbourne's vocals and Tony Iommi's lead guitar vocabulary; the spots when the lyrics sink into melodrama or awkwardness; the lack of subtlety and the infrequent dynamic contrast. Everything adds up to more than the sum of its parts, as though the anxieties behind the music simply demanded that the band achieve catharsis by steamrolling everything in its path, including its own limitations. Monolithic and primally powerful, Paranoid defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history.
Miles Davis - Bitches BrewQuote:
Thought by many to be the most revolutionary album in jazz history, having virtually created the genre known as jazz-rock fusion (for better or worse) and being the jazz album to most influence rock and funk musicians, Bitches Brew is, by its very nature, mercurial. The original double LP included only six cuts and featured up to 12 musicians at any given time, most of whom would go on to be high-level players in their own right: Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Airto, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Don Alias, Benny Maupin, Larry Young, Lenny White, and others. Originally thought to be a series of long jams locked into grooves around one or two keyboard, bass, or guitar figures, Bitches Brew is anything but. Producer Teo Macero had as much to do with the end product on Bitches Brew as Davis. Macero and Davis assembled, from splice to splice, section to section, much of the music recorded over three days in August 1969. First, there's the slow, modal, opening grooves of "Pharaoh's Dance," with its slippery trumpet lines to McLaughlin's snaky guitar figures skirting the edge of the rhythm section and Don Alias' conga slipping through the middle. The keyboards of Corea and Zawinul create a haunting, riffing groove echoed and accented by the two basses of Harvey Brooks and Dave Holland. The title cut was originally composed as a five-part suite, though only three were used. Here the keyboards punch through the mix, big chords and distorted harmonics ring up a racket for Davis to solo over rhythmically outside the mode. McLaughlin is comping on fat chords, creating the groove, and the bass and drums carry the rest for a small taste of deep-voodoo funk. Side three opens with McLaughlin and Davis trading funky fours and eights over the lock-step groove of hypnotic proportion that is "Spanish Key." Zawinul's trademark melodic sensibility provides a kind of chorus for Corea to flat around, and the congas and drummers working in complement against the basslines. This nearly segues into the four-and-a-half minute "John McLaughlin," with its signature organ mode and arpeggiated blues guitar runs. The end of Bitches Brew, signified by the stellar "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down," echoes the influence of Jimi Hendrix; with its chuck-and-slip chords and lead figures and Davis playing a ghostly melody through the shimmering funkiness of the rhythm section, it literally dances and becomes increasingly more chaotic until about nine minutes in, where it falls apart. Yet one doesn't know it until near the end, when it simmers down into smoke-and-ice fog once more. The disc closes with "Sanctuary," a previously recorded Davis tune that is completely redone here as an electric moody ballad reworked for this band, but keeping enough of its modal integrity to be outside the rest of Bitches Brew's retinue. The CD reissue adds "Feio," a track recorded early in 1970 with the same band. Unreleased — except on the box set of the complete sessions — "Feio" has more in common with the exploratory music of the previous August than with later, more structured Davis music in the jazz-rock vein. A three-note bass vamp centers the entire thing as three different modes entwine one another, seeking a groove to bolt onto. It never finds it, but becomes its own nocturnal beast, offering ethereal dark tones and textures to slide the album out the door on. Thus Bitches Brew retains its freshness and mystery long after its original issue.
Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled WaterQuote:
Bridge Over Troubled Water was one of the biggest-selling albums of its decade, and it hasn't fallen too far down on the list in years since. Apart from the gospel-flavored title track, which took some evolution to get to what it finally became, however, much of Bridge Over Troubled Water also constitutes a stepping back from the music that Simon & Garfunkel had made on Bookends — this was mostly because the creative partnership that had formed the body and the motivation for the duo's four prior albums literally consumed itself in the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water. The overall effect was perhaps the most delicately textured album to close out the 1960s from any major rock act. Bridge Over Troubled Water, at its most ambitious and bold, on its title track, was a quietly reassuring album; at other times, it was personal yet soothing; and at other times, it was just plain fun. The public in 1970 — a very unsettled time politically, socially, and culturally — embraced it; and whatever mood they captured, the songs matched the standard of craftsmanship that had been established on the duo's two prior albums. Between the record's overall quality and its four hits, the album held the number one position for two and a half months and spent years on the charts, racking up sales in excess of five million copies. The irony was that for all of the record's and the music's appeal, the duo's partnership ended in the course of creating and completing the album.
Neil Young - After the Gold RushQuote:
In the 15 months between the release of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and After the Gold Rush, Neil Young issued a series of recordings in different styles that could have prepared his listeners for the differences between the two LPs. His two compositions on the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album Déjà Vu, "Helpless" and "Country Girl," returned him to the folk and country styles he had pursued before delving into the hard rock of Everybody Knows; two other singles, "Sugar Mountain" and "Oh, Lonesome Me," also emphasized those roots. But "Ohio," a CSNY single, rocked as hard as anything on the second album. After the Gold Rush was recorded with the aid of Nils Lofgren, a 17-year-old unknown whose piano was a major instrument, turning one of the few real rockers, "Southern Man" (which had unsparing protest lyrics typical of Phil Ochs), into a more stately effort than anything on the previous album and giving a classic tone to the title track, a mystical ballad that featured some of Young's most imaginative lyrics and became one of his most memorable songs. But much of After the Gold Rush consisted of country-folk love songs, which consolidated the audience Young had earned through his tours and recordings with CSNY; its dark yet hopeful tone matched the tenor of the times in 1970, making it one of the definitive singer/songwriter albums, and it has remained among Young's major achievements.
The Kinks - Lola Vs. The Powerman and the Moneygoround Quote:
"Lola" gave the Kinks an unexpected hit and its crisp, muscular sound, pitched halfway between acoustic folk and hard rock, provided a new style for the band. However, the song only hinted at what its accompanying album Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1 was all about. It didn't matter that Ray Davies just had his first hit in years — he had suffered greatly at the hands of the music industry and he wanted to tell the story in song. Hence, Lola — a loose concept album about Ray Davies' own psychosis and bitter feelings toward the music industry. Davies never really delivers a cohesive story, but the record holds together because it's one of his strongest set of songs. Dave Davies contributes the lovely "Strangers" and the appropriately paranoid "Rats," but this is truly Ray' show, as he lashes out at ex-managers (the boisterous vaudevillian "The Moneygoround"), publishers ("Denmark Street"), TV and music journalists (the hard-hitting "Top of the Pops"), label executives ("Powerman"), and, hell, just society in general ("Apeman," "Got to Be Free"). If his wit wasn't sharp, the entire project would be insufferable, but the album is as funny as it is angry. Furthermore, he balances his bile with three of his best melancholy ballads: "This Time Tomorrow," "A Long Way From Home," and the anti-welfare and union "Get Back in Line," which captures working-class angst better than any other rock song. These songs provide the spine for a wildly unfocused but nonetheless dazzling tour de force that reveals Ray's artistic strengths and endearing character flaws in equal measure.
The Beatles - Let It BeQuote:
Review by Richie Unterberger
The only Beatles album to occasion negative, even hostile reviews, there are few other rock records as controversial as Let It Be. First off, several facts need to be explained: although released in May 1970, this was not their final album, but largely recorded in early 1969, way before Abbey Road. Phil Spector was enlisted in early 1970 to do some post-production mixing and overdubs, but he did not work with the band as a unit. And, although his use of strings has generated much criticism, by and large he left the original performances to stand as is: only "The Long and Winding Road" and (to a lesser degree) "Across the Universe" and "I Me Mine" get the Wall of Sound treatment. The main problem was that the material wasn't uniformly strong, and that the Beatles themselves were in fairly lousy moods due to intergroup tension. All that said, the album is on the whole underrated, even discounting the fact that a substandard Beatles record is better than almost any other group's best work. McCartney in particular offers several gems: the gospel-ish "Let It Be," which has some of his best lyrics; "Get Back," one of his hardest rockers; and the melodic "The Long and Winding Road," ruined by Spector's heavy-handed overdubs. The folky "Two of Us," with John and Paul harmonizing together, was also a highlight. Most of the rest of the material, by contrast, was going through the motions to some degree, although there are some good moments of straight hard rock in "I've Got a Feeling" and "Dig a Pony." As flawed and bumpy as it is, it's an album well worth having, as when the Beatles were in top form here, they were as good as ever.
