ah...fuck it. I wanted to save this year till second to last because it's my favorite year of music but I just can't hold out. The year I was born, in all it's glory. King Crimson is in the poll this year because it's my favorite record of all time.
Note: Greivous Angel was released fall 1973.
Omissions:
Badfinger * Wish You Were Here (Warner Bros.)
Brian Eno * Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy (EG)
Can * Soon Over Babaluma (Spoon/Mute)
Betty Davis * They Say I'm Different (Just Sunshine/Aztec)
Charles Mingus * Mingus at Carnegie Hall (Atlantic)
Keith Hudson * Flesh Of My Skin, Blood Of My Blood (Mamba/Atra)
Funkadelic * Standing On the Verge Of Getting It On (Westbound)
The Meters * Rejuvenation (Reprise)
Robert Wyatt * Rock Bottom (Thirsty Ear)
David Bowie * Diamond Dogs (RCA)
Fela Kuti * He Miss Road (Universal)
Dennis Brown * Just Dennis (Trojan)
Al Green * Explores Your Mind (Hi)
Roy Harper * Valentine (Chrysalis)
Stevie Wonder * Fulfillingness' First Finale (Motown)
T. Rex * Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow (Mercury)
Kraftwerk * Autobahn (Philips)
King Crimson * Starless And Bible Black (Atlantic)
Heldon * Electronic Guerrilla (Cunneiform/Rune)
Miles Davis * Get Up With It (Columbia)
Dennis Brown * Deep Down (Observer)
Curtis Mayfield * Sweet Exorcist (Curtom)
Lee Perry & the Upsetters * Kung Fu Meets The Dragon (DIP/Justice League)
Bunny Rugs [Scott] & the Upsetters * To Love Somebody (Klik)
Herbie Hancock * Thrust (Columbia)
Ras Michael & The Sons Of Negus * Dadawah - Peace & Love (Trojan)
Secos e Molhados (Continental)
Cymande * Promised Heights (Janus/Sequel)
Keith Hudson * Entering The Dragon (Magnet)
Randy Newman * Good Old Boys (Reprise)
Lee Perry & The Upsetters * Double Seven (Trojan)
Jimmy Cliff * Struggling Man (Island)
Cluster * Zuckerzeit (Brain)
Mott The Hoople * The Hoople (Columbia)
Raspberries * Starting Over (Capitol)
Shuggie Otis * Inspiration Information (Epic/Luaka Bop)
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band * Next (Mercury)
Santana * Lotus (Columbia)
Ry Cooder * Paradise and Lunch (Reprise)
Bill Withers * 'Justments (Sussex)
The J.B.'s * Breakin' Bread (Polydor)
John Cale * Fear (Island)
Millie Jackson * Caught Up (Southbound)
Parliament * Up For The Down Stroke (Casablanca)
Popol Vuh * Einsjager & Siebenjager (Spalax)
Popol Vuh * Seligpreisung (Spalax)
Queen II (EMI)
Cecil Taylor * Silent Tongues (Arista)
Curtis Mayfield * Got To Find A Way (Curtom)
Be Bop Deluxe * Axe Victim (Harvest)
Charles Mingus * Changes One (Atlantic)
Charles Mingus * Changes Two (Atlantic)
Sparks * Propaganda (Island)
Sparks * Kimono My House (Island)
Ras Michael & The Sons Of Negus * Nyahbinghi (Trojan)
Lynyrd Skynyrd * Second Helping (MCA)
Gong * You (Radio Gnome Invisible Pt. 3) (Virgin)
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band * The Impossible Dream (Mercury)
The Mahavishnu Orchestra * Apocalypse (Columbia)
Budgie * In For The Kill! (MCA)
Ducks Deluxe (RCA)
Kiss (Casablanca/Mercury)
Van Morrison * It's Too Late To Stop Now (WB)
Tower Of Power * Urban Renewal (Columbia)
Tower Of Power * Back To Oakland (Columbia)
Bad Company (Swan Song)
Junior Byles * Jordan (Trojan)
Hawkwind * Hall Of the Mountain Grill (UA)
Nico * The End (Island)
The Rolling Stones * It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (Virgin)
The Isley Brothers * Live It Up (T-Neck)
Tom Waits * The Heart Of Saturday Night (Asylum)
John Cale, Eno, Nico * June 1, 1974 (Island)
New York Dolls * Too Much Too Soon (Mercury)
Brigitte Fontaine * Je Ne Connais Pas Cet Homme (Saravah)
Todd Rundgren * Todd (WB/Rhino)
Bob Dylan * Before The Flood (Asylum)
Queen * Sheer Heart Attack (Elektra)
Leonard Cohen * New Skin for the Old Ceremony (Columbia)
Cosmic Jokers (Brain)
Tangerine Dream * Phaedra (Virgin)
Flora Purim & Airto Moreia * 500 Miles High: At Montreux (Milestone)
Chick Corea * Where Have I Known You Before? (Polydor)
Average White Band (Atlantic/Rhino)
Jimmy Cliff * Music Maker (WB/Wounded Bird)
Weather Report * Mysterious Traveller (Columbia)
Kiss * Hotter Than Hell (Casablanca/Mercury)
AC/DC * '74 Jailbreak (Atlantic)
Aerosmith * Get Your Wings (Columbia)
Blue Oyster Cult * Secret Treaties (Columbia)
Stooges * Rubber Legs (Fan Club)
Boz Scaggs * Slow Dancer (Columbia)
Lou Reed * Rock 'n' Roll Animal (RCA)
King Crimson - Red
Quote:
King Crimson falls apart once more, seemingly for the last time, as David Cross walks away during the making of this album. It became Robert Fripp's last thoughts on this version of the band, a bit noiser overall but with some surprising sounds featured, mostly out of the group's past — Mel Collins' and Ian McDonald's saxes, Marc Charig's cornet, and Robin Miller's oboe, thus providing a glimpse of what the 1972-era King Crimson might've sounded like handling the later group's repertory (which nearly happened). Indeed, Charig's cornet gets just about the best showcase it ever had on a King Crimson album, and the truth is that few intact groups could have gotten an album as good as Red together. The fact that it was put together by a band in its death throes makes it all the more impressive an achievement. Indeed, Red does improve in some respects on certain aspects of the previous album — including "Starless," a cousin to the prior album's title track — and only the lower quality of the vocal compositions keeps this from being as strongly recommended as its two predecessors. Red was reissued on CD in the summer of 2000 in a remastered edition that features killer sound and an excellent booklet, containing a good account of the circumstances surrounding the recording of this album.
Gene Clark - No OtherQuote:
Upon its release in 1974, Gene Clark's No Other was soundly reviled as an exercise in studio and financial excess, a critical and commercial failure — it was pop music's Heaven's Gate. However, a scant year and a half later, Fleetwood Mac's self-titled album and its successor, Rumours, utilizing similar performance and production techniques, were adored by critics and the record-buying public, and have become cultural mainstays. The appearance of No Other on CD in America some 26 years after its release offers the opportunity to hear this record for what it was: a solidly visionary recording that decided to use every available means to illustrate Gene Clark's razor sharp songwriting that lent itself to open-ended performance and production — often in the same song (one listen to the title track bears this out in spades). Clark and producer Thomas Jefferson Kaye entered Village Recorders in L.A. assembled a cast of players that included Clark veterans such as Michael Utley and Jesse Ed Davis, Allman Brothers' Butch Trucks, Lee Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Joe Lala, Chris Hillman, Danny "Kooch" Kortchmar, Howard Buzzy Feiten, and Stephen Bruton. Backing vocalists such as Clydie King, Venetta Field, and Shirley Matthews — who would appear on Bob Dylan's Street Legal two years later — and including Cindy Bullens, Carlena Williams, Ronnie Barron, Claudia Lennear, and the Eagles' Timothy B. Schmidt, were also in the house. What it adds up to is sprawling, ambitious work that brought elements of country, folk, jazzed-out gospel, blues, and trippy rock to bear on a song cycle that reflects the mid-'70s better than anything from that time, yet sounds hauntingly timely even now. There are no edges on No Other, even in its rockier tracks such as "Strength Of Strings," that echoes Neil Young's "Cowgirl In the Sand," melodically, but its bridge is pure mystic Eastern-harmony, complete with slide guitar wizardry. The shimmering dark textures of "Silver Raven," where Clark's falsetto vocal is kissed by synth and muted basslines, and extended by a chorus that could have come off CSNY's Déjà Vu, is one of the most heartbreakingly blissed-out country folk songs in recorded music history. "From A Silver Phial," as haunting and beautiful as it is, is one of the strangest songs Clark ever wrote, given its anti-drug references (especially considering this is one of the more coked out records to come from L.A. during the era). The final two cuts, "The True One," and "Lady of the North" (co-written with Doug Dillard) are the only two pieces on the disc that mirror back with accuracy where Clark had come from, but even these, as they wind around the listener, are far bigger than mere country rock tunes, and they offer glissando passages of pedal steel and ostinato piano that create narrative movement in the lyrics. This is one of those recordings, one that is being rediscovered for the masterpiece it is. The shortcoming of the CD presentation is that the rest of the session is not here — it was originally cut as a double-album, but Asylum refused to release it that way. There are versions with alternate takes, but so far only the WEA International version has an additional track. But this is what we have,and as it stands it is a stunning, if completely misunderstood milestone, in Clark's oeuvre.
Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm JetsQuote:
Eno's solo debut, Here Come the Warm Jets, is a spirited, experimental collection of unabashed pop songs on which Eno mostly reprises his Roxy Music role as "sound manipulator," taking the lead vocals but leaving much of the instrumental work to various studio cohorts (including ex-Roxy mates Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay, plus Robert Fripp and others). Eno's compositions are quirky, whimsical, and catchy, his lyrics bizarre and often free-associative, with a decidedly dark bent in their humor ("Baby's on Fire," "Dead Finks Don't Talk"). Yet the album wouldn't sound nearly as manic as it does without Eno's wildly unpredictable sound processing; he coaxes otherworldly noises and textures from the treated guitars and keyboards, layering them in complex arrangements or bouncing them off one another in a weird cacophony. Avant-garde yet very accessible, Here Come the Warm Jets still sounds exciting, forward-looking, and densely detailed, revealing more intricacies with every play.
Big Star - Radio CityQuote:
Largely lacking co-leader Chris Bell, Big Star's second album also lacked something of the pop sweetness (especially the harmonies) of #1 Record. What it possessed was Alex Chilton's urgency (sometimes desperation) on songs that made his case as a genuine rock & roll eccentric. If #1 Record had a certain pop perfection that brought everything together, Radio City was the sound of everything falling apart, which proved at least as compelling.
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on BroadwayQuote:
The group's only double studio album was the culmination of their early period, featuring Peter Gabriel in a bravura performance in the role of Rael, a New York street hustler, in this musical drama. The singing and playing are all strong, and the remastered edition from 1995 is the first CD edition that sounds as good as (or better than) the superb original Atco pressing from 1975. The piece's length makes it something of an acquired taste, but most serious fans regard this as the best record the group ever cut.
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Natty DreadQuote:
Natty Dread is Bob Marley's finest album, the ultimate reggae recording of all time. This was Marley's first album without former bandmates Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston, and the first released as Bob Marley & the Wailers. The Wailers' rhythm section of bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett and drummer Carlton "Carlie" Barrett remained in place and even contributed to the songwriting, while Marley added a female vocal trio, the I-Threes (which included his wife Rita Marley), and additional instrumentation to flesh out the sound. The material presented here defines what reggae was originally all about, with political and social commentary mixed with religious paeans to Jah. The celebratory "Lively Up Yourself" falls in the same vein as "Get Up, Stand Up" from Burnin'. "No Woman, No Cry" is one of the band's best-known ballads. "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)" is a powerful warning that "a hungry mob is an angry mob." "Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Road Block)" and "Revolution" continue in that spirit, as Marley assumes the mantle of prophet abandoned by '60s forebears like Bob Dylan. In addition to the lyrical strengths, the music itself is full of emotion and playfulness, with the players locked into a solid groove on each number. Considering that popular rock music was entering the somnambulant disco era as Natty Dread was released, the lyrical and musical potency is especially striking. Marley was taking on discrimination, greed, poverty, and hopelessness while simultaneously rallying the troops as no other musical performer was attempting to do in the mid-'70s.
Roxy Music - Country LifeQuote:
Continuing with the stylistic developments of Stranded, Country Life finds Roxy Music at the peak of their powers, alternating between majestic, unsettling art rock and glamorous, elegant pop/rock. At their best, Roxy combine these two extremes, like on the exhilarating opener "The Thrill of It All," but Country Life benefits considerably from the ebb and flow of the group's two extremes, since it showcases their deft instrumental execution and their textured, enthralling songwriting. And, in many ways, Country Life offers the greatest and most consistent set of Roxy Music songs, illustrating their startling depth. From the sleek rock of "All I Want Is You" and "Prairie Rose" to the elegant, string-laced pop of "A Really Good Time," Country Life is filled with thrilling songs, and Roxy Music rarely sounded as invigorating as they do here.
Neil Young - On the BeachQuote:
Following the 1973 Time Fades Away tour, Neil Young wrote and recorded an Irish wake of a record called Tonight's the Night and went on the road drunkenly playing its songs to uncomprehending listeners and hostile reviewers. Reprise rejected the record, and Young went right back and made On the Beach, which shares some of the ragged style of its two predecessors. But where Time was embattled and Tonight mournful, On the Beach was savage and, ultimately, triumphant. "I'm a vampire, babe," Young sang, and he proceeded to take bites out of various subjects: threatening the lives of the stars who lived in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon ("Revolution Blues"); answering back to Lynyrd Skynyrd, whose "Sweet Home Alabama" had taken him to task for his criticisms of the South in "Southern Man" and "Alabama" ("Walk On"); and rejecting the critics ("Ambulance Blues"). But the barbs were mixed with humor and even affection, as Young seemed to be emerging from the grief and self-abuse that had plagued him for two years. But the album was so spare and under-produced, its lyrics so harrowing, that it was easy to miss Young's conclusion: he was saying goodbye to despair, not being overwhelmed by it.
