TURN THIS MUTHA OUT! It's the Alternate 1970s Albums Poll on ILX — Results Thread

This is the alternate 1970s album poll. We disqualified the 100 winners of the original 2004/05 poll that was held here. The object was to clear out the canonical albums from the 1970s, and make room for albums that could never make a typical Top 100 list. It doesn't mean those overly familiar albums aren't good, but they've already been voted on to death. Here is a poll for all the others.

We had 86 ballots submitted. I lost track at some point of how many were unordered and how many didn't vote a full list (40 albums), but most of the ballots were ordered and complete.

And now, without any further ado, I present the results...

100. ZZ Top - Tres Hombres (1973) [80 points, 7 votes]

http://i48.tinypic.com/2i2c65j.jpg

Why nobody has sampled the beat from "Master of Sparks" I have no idea.

― dave q, Sunday, May 5, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

tres hombres is just fantastic, and yes the nachos look delicious.

― The Notorious B.Y.O.B. (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, February 25, 2009 1:41 PM (10 months ago)

wow, quick turnaround

your image isn't embedded btw

I know, I'm trying to see if a mod will fix it.

100. ZZ Top - Tres Hombres (1973) [80 points, 7 votes]

http://i48.tinypic.com/2i2c65j.jpg

Why nobody has sampled the beat from "Master of Sparks" I have no idea.

― dave q, Sunday, May 5, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

tres hombres is just fantastic, and yes the nachos look delicious.

― The Notorious B.Y.O.B. (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, February 25, 2009 1:41 PM (10 months ago)

YES! Let's do this!

this will be much exciting. did not vote for ZZ

"La Grange" just missed making the Billboard Top 40 by a single slot (sez Wiki). Ouch. A-howl-howl-howl-howl.

v. excited for this, thanks Fever!

99. Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges - Clube de Esquina (1972) [80 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i47.tinypic.com/2rcn66h.jpg

Milton Nascimento/Lô Borges, Clube de Esquina -- Perfect, sappy, or perfectly sappy...I haven't decided what this is yet. It has "San Vicente" which I've called the best song ever ever ever, and none of the tracks seem overshadowed by that little piece of heartbreak, and most of the tracks have this beautiful sunshowery feel to it...yet...

― Michael Daddino, Tuesday, January 29, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

And while Clube Da Esquina seems the obvious recommendation for Milton Nascimento, I think it's the Lo Borges stuff that stands out on that album.

― gnarly sceptre, Wednesday, July 2, 2008 5:43 AM (1 year ago)

Milton's album "Clube Da Esquina" is so fucking fabulous. it totally takes a while to grow on you, but once it does, woo boy! and there's some great fuzzy guitar near the end.

― JaXoN (JasonD), Thursday, August 26, 2004 12:57 PM (5 years ago)

awesome! so pumped for these results!!

The only Nascimento album I've heard is Minas. I'm going to have to check this one out asap.

never heard of them! something new.

Of which I am glad. I mean, what would be the point of an alternate 1970s poll if it didn't introduce some new things?

98. Chic - C'est Chic (1978)[80 points, 14 votes]

http://i49.tinypic.com/2h6vi82.jpg

i listened to c'est chic today and had to skip a few of the tracks because they're such wedding songs. i don't ever wanna hear more than half of those songs you listed EVER again, vahid

― jäxøñ (jaxon), Saturday, June 24, 2006 8:29 PM (3 years ago)

'C'est Chic' album. Top-10 of all-time material.

― Omar, Monday, April 30, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

Their rather daffy lyrics are never singled out for praise; sometimes their imagery and metaphor rival prime Dylan or Costello.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, March 24, 2007 10:34 PM (2 years ago)

97. John Lennon - Imagine (1971) [80 points, 15 votes]

http://i49.tinypic.com/2rzqtyf.jpg

I think I even prefer it to ... Plastic Ono Band. There's nothing wrong with sugar coating.

― Alba (Alba), Sunday, January 30, 2005 5:15 PM (4 years ago)

Lennon post-Beatles was crap, full stop. Self-pitying crap as well, for the most part. Who in their right mind wouldn't swap JLPOB and Imagine in their entirety for a nanosecond of Twist and Shout?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, June 13, 2005 6:19 AM (4 years ago)

Well, Lennon worked quite self-consciously with a conception of himself as a persona and a celebrity throughout his solo career. *Plastic Ono Band* and *Imagine* and *Double Fantasy* are all organized around ideas about self and presentation. Maybe you don't think they're *good* ideas, but it's certainly a different--a more intellectual--way of working than McCartney seems to have, and I'd agree with Christgau that this gives Lennon's music a resonance that McCartney doesn't have access to.

― Martin Van Burne, Friday, July 13, 2007 3:04 PM (2 years ago)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After hunting down quotes for this, I'm surprised it even made the top 100. Based on what ilxors have written in the past about Imagine, you'd think it was completely terrible (which it isn't).

Glad to see Tres Hombres make the list. I was a late convert to ZZ Top; the over-the-top cheese of the Eliminator stuff didn't connect with me as a kid (I've since come around) so I didn't explore their back catalog until the last few years. I can't believe I had shut myself off to such tremendous licks and grooves! One of the bands who only grow in my estimation the more I hear.

It's not entirely your fault. If you'd bought any of the 70s albums on cd before 2006, you'd have gotten the piss-poor mismastered crap WB releases from the '80s. Rhino only recently went back to the original versions for their batch of reissues.

96. Patti Smith - Horses (1975) [80 points, 17 votes]

http://i46.tinypic.com/2afbudk.jpg

Burroughs was supposedly a major inspiration for Patti Smith's "Horses". Also David Bowie's experiments with cut-ups. And probably numerous other NY art-punks.

― scott, Wednesday, August 22, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

I like Patti Smith, don't get me wrong. Horses just gets all the praise because it came first. Albums like Easter and, more recently, Gone Again and Peace & Noise have much more depth and merit some actual attention.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, December 1, 2003 7:36 PM (6 years ago)

I don't care what Michael Stipe says, or Bono, or anyone else (including Alex in NYC). This was a truly life-changing, life-saving record for me back then, and it still holds up as a glorious messy confluence of art-rock, proto-punk, Catholic-guilt, French-Romantic gutter-speak, and tender pissy defiance.

You know, those of us who have loved this record, either back in the day, or since (although especially back-in-the-day), simply cannot ditch its brilliance just because there's now a backlash to its canonisation.

That's what I think, anyway.

― David A. (Davant), Tuesday, December 2, 2003 5:21 AM (6 years ago)

I've written this before on other threads, but Patti Smith works like the Clash in that every subsequent album (at least through whichever one came after Wave, after which I TOTALLY stop giving a shit) is duller and less rocking than the one before. And also her pre-Horses single "Piss Factory"/"Hey Joe" > Horses > Radio Ethiopia > Easter > Wave > Whatever she did after Wave. It's very simple. (Then again, I sort of LIKE songs about sweet young things leanin on the parkin meter humpin on the parkin meter and so on. Maybe you don't.)

ps) Horses is also way better than any album that Sleater Kinney, Bjork, Tori Amos, Sinead Oconnor, or PJ Harvey ever did. So there.

― chuck, Monday, December 1, 2003 8:15 PM (6 years ago)

(This entire thread is a treat: http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=41&threadid=23225)

That's it for tonight. I'll be back tomorrow with some more!

Summarizing...

100. ZZ Top - Tres Hombres (1973) [80 points, 7 votes]
99. Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges - Clube de Esquina (1972) [80 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote]
98. Chic - C'est Chic (1978) [80 points, 14 votes]
97. John Lennon - Imagine (1971) [80 points, 15 votes]
96. Patti Smith - Horses (1975) [80 points, 17 votes]

Sorry I missed the mod request and your email -- do you want the first post with the unembedded image taken out?

Also, thanks for doing the heavy lifting on this!

yeah, seriously, can't thank you enough.

Horses is the first album from my ballot to show up, don't like it nearly as much as I did in high school but it's still really good, funny to think that such a canonical '70s album would effectively be 196th place for ilx.

It's okay (about the post). The first '70s poll was wrought with the same kind of problem. Consider it an homage. xp

For a long time, I'd wondered if Horses was even going to make it. It was getting a lot of votes, but only in the 1-6 point range.

yeah considering that it got the same # of points but more than twice as many votes it seems like a pretty low-enthusiasm ballot-filler for most

compared to a couple other albums in those first 5, i meant obv

I have a button a record store employee gave me that says HORSES CHANGED MY LIFE. Zero percent of people assume it's about an album.

hahahahaha

http://www.squidoo.com/IfItWerentForMyHorse

95. Van Halen - Van Halen (1978) [81 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i45.tinypic.com/t6xbgm.jpg

Having relistened to [Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love] for the first time in a while right now:

1. That's one hell of an opening line.

2. The 'hey hey hey' part makes me think of both the Art of Noise and the Prodigy reuse of same now.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, March 7, 2005 3:45 PM

[Eruption] just sounds like a bit of wank, but when the main riff of the song kicks in, it's like a thousand Christmas presents opening up on your birthday filled with squirtgun-wielding topless playmates covered in chocolate sauce waiting to play endless rounds of slippery Twister with you.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, May 6, 2005 1:55 PM (4 years ago)

if 'I'm the one' does nothing for you, then I pity you. then I hate you. and your children. and your children's pets. and their mangy fur/scales/carapaces.

― m the g (mister the guanoman), Thursday, January 25, 2007 8:46 PM (2 years ago)

(I had to spend my first place vote to get this one in, but it got in... at #95. This is a disaster for ILM!)

i love VH but for some stupid reason have never owned that album, so feel free to curse me

94. Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac (1975) [81 points, 8 votes]

http://i47.tinypic.com/1zn1vnr.jpg

I love how full of shit Lindsey Buckingham is on "Monday Morning" which gets my vote. First he's got travelin' on his mind; then he says "I'll be there if you want me to." But especially in the wake of the sexual revolution, there's not much he can do to prevent all the Rhiannons in his life from playing the same "hittin' the road" games. So he makes funky with his wounded machismo, resulting in the most charitable and joyfully resigned song in his oeuvre.

And as with so much great popcraft, we don't even have to process his words. All we really need is for him to make the next verse funkier than the previous which he does first by cramming more words into the third line ("then you get on down the line"), then with a scrumptiously placed "oh" before the last "first you love me."

― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, August 25, 2009 11:07 AM (4 months ago)

"Crystal" from the s/t! It's devastatingly gorgeous, especially the vocal harmonies in the chorus... The synthed-out last 2 minutes or so is dizzy bliss, ohhh man...

― Clarke B., Thursday, January 23, 2003 4:23 AM (6 years ago)

Every once in awhile it occurs to me how amazing Christine McVie is, and I nearly go unconscious.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Saturday, March 19, 2005 5:24 AM (4 years ago)

"Rhiannon" still spooks me.

― otto, Sunday, February 29, 2004 3:19 PM (5 years ago)

i love VH but for some stupid reason have never owned that album, so feel free to curse me

Wow, really? Even the lesser tracks on VH are better than most of the rock singles of 1978.

(Anyway, I woke up and decided I'd do a couple more, but now I'm going back to bed...)

blimey has voting happened already? ;_;

also wow at horses not making the original 100

For the last 4 weeks! xp

well then i am the one that sucks.

yay at two of my voted albums appearing already!

VAN HALEN SHOULD BE HIGHER - DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS?

I couldn't fit Clube de Esquina to my top 40, but I'm glad it made it. It's such a treasure chest of beautiful songs! That said, I've always thought the sound on it is a bit anemic and thin... That's why I prefer the versions of those songs that appear on Milton, even if half of them are translated to English, with Milton singing them with a rather awkward pronounciation (which I personally find kinda endearing). The sound and arrangements on that album are simply better than on Clube de Esquina.

That's four of mine in already - finally I feel I'm making a mark on the world, even if it is by making Johnny's list a little blander than it might've been.

I think Fleetwood Mac deserved better, but I'm guessing that another album of theirs might've hogged their vote. Horses is really interesting - it looks like everyone thinks it's important somehow, but nobody actually likes it (which is kind of why I lent it a vote).

am willing to bet that about 10 of my choices came within 5 points of getting in *mopes*

Heh, Horses was in my top 50 or 60, but didn't make the 40 after I admitted to myself that I didn't really like it, or couldn't remember more than a small fraction of it.

Wd like to like it more - I don't mind it at all, and it's obviously important, or a supposed influence on various things I've liked more, or something that friends who were cooler than me seemed to be into. But mainly she just looked so damn cool that I wanted her to sound it too. I suppose this means I like Mapplethorpe's photography instead of her music, except she still looks pretty damn cool considering she's as old as my parents.

ilx: hates progressive rock, arty post-punk*; loves 'imagine' by john lennon

*remain in light is not very arty, or good :P

erm oh er patti smith! yeah. saw her live a couple of years ago. she was really good! great inter-song yammering.

ilx hates arty post-punk?

ILX is where I found out about 90% of the arty post-punk I've heard, so, dunno about that there, unless there's been a major shift in ILX since I first thought "you know, apparently there is this thing of arty post-punk, and I don't really have any", which is admittedly some time ago (same is true of prog too but my original 70s prog knowledge is pretty thin so I'll make no claims there)

I think my problem with Patti Smith is that she was not the arty post-punk she was sold to me as but some interminable wheedling guitar under spoken-word recitations of mundane activities in that arty, edgy tone which makes it clear that YOU the listener are not as cool as anyone whose mundane activities can be artily recounted over guitar solos and between cigarettes

admittedly she does this pretty compellingly at times, and got there FIRST, or at least before it became quite such an unbearable recurring theme of local band nights and coffee shops (guess the cigarettes thing has been removed from this theme these days, huh)

ILX loves Warty Pre-Punk

Kinda of a shock realising i didn't vote for Horses since it was record I loved like a sister for a long, long time. Now........ it would take a lot of effort to listen to it all the way through. Two i voted for so far, two i don't know, and one i hate.

Horses was I think 42 or 43 on my list so it didn't make it

ha well i was kinda grumbling there but when xtc and magazine don't make it...

*crosses fingers*

nah, ilm does love some arty post-punk (like wire, who conveniently made the first poll) but i'd say not nearly as much as it did, and with a big USA bias. witness how, say, the chameleons fared in the 80's poll.

ilx: hates progressive rock, arty post-punkprog*; loveikes 'imagine' by john lennon

fixed for yr. convenience.

;^)

p-p-pprog...

Personally I am pretty delighted that Imagine only scraped into the bottom of the "second" 100 - OK, I'm sure it's beaten at least half the stuff I voted for and still more records that I don't even know and would love if I did, but comparing that to how I imagine (err) it would fare in the non-ILM world...

I was interested to see where these were ranked on RYM's 70s list:

ZZ Top- Tres Hombres (#440)
Clube de Esquina (#54)
Chic- C'est Chic (Not ranked)
John Lennon- Imagine (#236)
Patti Smith- Horses (#121)
Van Halen (#212)
Fleetwood Mac (#731)

So Imagine fares better here.

you suggesting ilx is boring and mainstream? ;)

Probably just that we won't have a bunch of Italian prog in our top 200.

i did not vote for a single italian album fwiw, although giorgio moroder probably has gotten into this list because you know ilx has a bone-on for all things dance

and maybe because he's quite good, who knows

i expect to see close to the edge and 'red' by king crimson and approximately bugger-all else

Chic- C'est Chic (Not ranked)

Why I avoid RYM in a nutshell.

It's not entirely your fault. If you'd bought any of the 70s albums on cd before 2006, you'd have gotten the piss-poor mismastered crap WB releases from the '80s. Rhino only recently went back to the original versions for their batch of reissues.

― Johnny Fever

I didn't know they were reissued - I have vinyl rips a friend made for me. Guess I can buy 'em now!

Van Halen was jobbed. Great, great album.

93. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory (1970) [81 points, 11 votes]

http://i50.tinypic.com/fut06x.jpg

Creedence were about the only late-'60s Bay Area band who didn't jam aimlessly. they barely "jammed" at all! two long songs on Cosmo's Factory /= "a tendency"

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Saturday, June 3, 2006 1:39 PM (3 years ago)

I've stated before that Creedence Clearwater Revival is one of my favorite bands. They have one of the best singles runs of any band in the last 50 years. Every Creedence single was a double A-side. "What's your favorite Creedence song?" you might ask. And I would say "Whichever one is currently playing or is about to play next, depending on the physical proximity I have to one or the other."

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Sunday, October 7, 2007 8:31 PM (2 years ago)

CCR kicks the Stones six ways from Saturday because they took mountain and country music as their stepping-off point AS WELL as Chicago blues - CCR annealed it all into a singular, totally unmistakable, champion sound. agreed that Jagger was surely one of the most mythological characters in all rock - CCR never had that mystique, if that's the kind of thing you go for - but i mean seriously, the Stones sound like copyists next to them (Brian Jones: "no other group is as close to the Negro sound as us"). particularly good and interesting copyists, sure, "it's what the Stones got WRONG just as much as what they got RIGHT" etc but with CCR it's totally about what they got right, full stop.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, January 28, 2003 3:47 PM (6 years ago)

too low, one of the great rock records

People always take Creedence for granted.

too much Southern prejudice to consider CCR beyond redneck rock. see also Skynyrd.

"ramble tamble" makes me feel like starting a new country so it can be the national anthem

So far I am not so keen on this poll. Hopefully my disinterest in the lower reaches means that La Dusseldorf have won.

milton placing makes me hope brazil accounts for 5% of the poll at min

i don't expect my number one to make the top 100 any more. but the other more famous record by him will make it, i guess.

So far I am not so keen on this poll.

We're not really damning the canon yet, that's for sure.

will we damn it l8r?

I'd say there's well over 500 albums in the 70s that are comfortably canon-ish. I think the nominations is a great list as is, but I'm all for seeing who gets ranked.

I have the singles comps, and listened to the CCR complete box set all the way through, but it was a chore. Just can't get into them - they were pounded too far into my brain via 70s/80s radio, I can't help but be sick of them.

I missed Creedence but I wish I'd voted for it.

I'm going to read this poll as an opportunity to find out about albums I've neglected, b/c if I'm looking for confirmation of my taste I'm sure to be disappointed---there were so many choices that it's kinda amazing anything got more for a couple of votes. Well, I don't know about that. Tres Hombres was my #2, and it got #100, so it takes some consensus to place here.

92. Blondie - Eat to the Beat (1979) [82 points, 9 votes]

http://i50.tinypic.com/289jwjp.jpg

UNION FUCKING CITY BLUE

― Bimble, Sunday, October 14, 2007 4:37 PM (2 years ago)

Eat To The Beat didn't win! I'm going to have to step outside with you guys. This is WRONG.

― Bimble, Saturday, October 6, 2007 3:16 AM (2 years ago)

one of the (possibly) top 5 memories of my whole life is going to my first ever concert which was blondie at edinburgh odeon (january 12th 1980 - these things stay with you forever) on the "eat to the beat" tour and them starting off with "dreaming". much as i was in total awe of debbie, clem burke beating hell out of that drum kit with the arrows on the bass drum (a la "atomic video") completely blew my mind and is possibly responsible for a life long obsession with DRUMS.

― stirmonster, Monday, October 8, 2007 1:54 AM (2 years ago)

(fyi, I will be including Bimble in these postings as often as possible. so much joy!)

Wow, I expected that a lot higher! Bimble OTM. Did it seem too obvious/canonical to people? Really not sure which way the rest of the poll will go now, whether people have deliberately voted for slightly obscure things or whether they've been crowded out completely.

Also Eat to the Beat is a JOY - Union City Blue and especially Atomic were (while not new) exciting reminders to me when young of how music could be shimmering and otherworldly and brilliant catchy pop, all at the same time, just when I was beginning to see a divide between the two

Yes, that really did take me 5 minutes, with all the deleting and undeleting and wishing I could do it better justice. But there it is.

Eat to the Beat is my favorite sounding Blondie album. The first three sound kind of stuffy/boxy, and the ones that followed sounded too glossy. Everything about Eat to the Beat is just really crisp and bright and that probably has as much to do with the recording as it does the songs.

Cosmo's Factory was among the handful of albums I got on eMusic in the last few weeks while I was looking for stuff I didn't had but would probably like, so I'm glad to see that it being on my ballot helped it make the cut. I mean I've been hearing half that album literally my entire life, and the other half is pretty good too.

Hurrah for bimble posts. Im sure he would've loved this poll almost as much as his beloved 80s.

I always kind of think of Eat to the Beat as one of the first albums of the 80s, but I couldn't say why. Maybe it's the cover art, maybe it's because "Dreaming" was the first big anthem-y song Blondie wrote. Whatever the reason, it seems to have less in common with the 70s than it does the 80s.

Part of what's great about the '70s as a decade is that the late '70s did foreshadow a lot of what was great about the early '80s. But it seemed like the last '70s poll was overweighted towards the late '70s and New Wave, so I hope the same thing doesn't happen with this one. So far they've been fairly evenly distributed.

91. Miles Davis - Agharta (1976) [82 points, 10 votes]

http://i48.tinypic.com/rbkzfp.jpg

Agharta and Pangaea totally swept me away like a tidal wave the first time I heard them. These days, I don't have the stamina to listen to them all the way through (though I can still bang my head to Dark Magus no problem). The thing about Agharta and Pangaea is, you gotta try to find the Japanese Sony MasterSound editions, because there's more music on 'em (10 extra minutes on Disc 2 of Agharta, 3-4 extra minutes on Disc 2 of Pangaea). It's mostly entropic stuff, keyboard sounds and percussion rattles, at the end of long pieces. But it really adds much more than I thought it would when I first heard about it, when I was still listening to the American versions. I wish Sony US would put out a 4CD box with the Japanese versions all together, like they recently did with the Blackhawk live stuff.

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Thursday, June 10, 2004 8:20 AM (5 years ago)

I'm sure Geir would consider Dark Magus and Agharta to be unlistenable too haha.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, November 16, 2006 1:20 PM (3 years ago)

(Surprisingly very little good chatter about Agharta in the ILM archives other than "I prefer Agharta" or "Agharta needs to be remastered.")

had i known one point would make or break so many i probably wouldve bothered doing 36-40, oh wellz

Only four albums were within striking distance of the top 100 with a 1-point vote.

I voted for Dark Magus, but I'd have preferred an option to just vote for Miles Davis in the 70s as a whole, it seems like one long jam in E spread over about 12 albums anyway.

90. Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties!! (1977) [83 points, 6 votes]

http://i45.tinypic.com/1zcjzt1.jpg

What I was saying about Dury as an influence on UK punk was his celebration of London and London/Cockney dialect - I suspect that the Pistols and the rest might have Americanised themselves on the lines of Richard Hell and the Heartbreakers without his model to follow. (And, yeah, I suppose he is indirectly responsible for Oi!) Considering its jazz/funk influence New Boots is a pretty savage record at times.

― Soukesian (Soukesian), Tuesday, June 27, 2006 3:00 PM (3 years ago)

I still don't understand how this could be, since the first Ian Dury album came AFTER the first Pistols album, not before, right? (Or are you saying Johnny Rotten was a fan of Kilburn and the High Roads, which might make more sense? Did Dury even use a Cockney accent in that band?) I've always assumed that the big Brit-accent influence on the Pistols was Slade, though I could be totally wrong.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Sunday, July 9, 2006 2:21 PM (3 years ago)

Dury's accent was 100% authentic, and he used it in everything he did.

― Soukesian (Soukesian), Sunday, July 9, 2006 3:10 PM (3 years ago)

New Boots And Panties was out 2-3 months before Never Mind The Bollocks.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, July 10, 2006 4:11 AM (3 years ago)

Didn't vote for it, but very glad it's there.

As an American, I have no idea what it's like to be a Londoner. But New Boots sort of framed my perception of it from about the age of 21 (after I'd already heated up and then cooled down on the Pistols). Bullocks seems like a statement record. New Boots just seems like Dury saying "Hey, I recorded this. Do whatever you want to with it." And I kind of appreciate that more.

Surprised I didn't vote for this what with all the publicity surrounding the Dury film just now.

xpost
Suspect that this may have been higher if the poll had been in a month or two with the Dury biopic coming out shortly.

It wouldn't have made it at all if I didn't vote for it with my #4 (that wasn't calculatory, though... I probably would've voted it that high regardless).

89. Neu! - Neu! 2 (1973) [83 points, 10 votes]

http://i46.tinypic.com/301ly7t.jpg

"neu 2, they're having too much fun on the second side. they should get back to their serious krautrocking. none of this "rock" shit. this is my sincere belief here. i'm very sincere in this. (giggles) they sound like little richard practically. like, the guitar sound. i'n just waiting for someone to do some early fifties "rock" yell thing. neu i is fine. it's serious enough. it doesn't have that rock and roll bullshit. it is krautrock enough."

jon williams on acid, ladies and gentlemen.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Friday, March 26, 2004 1:57 AM (5 years ago)

I couldn't live without the second side of 'Neu! 2'. I love 'Hallo Eccentrico!'

Mind, I also love putting Laibach's first album on at parties.

― Sasha (sgh), Tuesday, June 15, 2004 8:44 PM (5 years ago)

Regarding side 2 of Neu! 2, if only they'd gotten someone like Lee Perry to remix the single instead.

― Fastnbulbous, Sunday, June 1, 2008 11:23 AM (1 year ago)

I guess everyone just assumed this was a given and can't be bothered to add commentary, right? (I've got nothing to say about it myself.)

I'll echo your Dury comment (I too found Dury after the Pistols and love and listen to it much more), but I got nothing on Neu.

Neu! 2 is the first of mine to place. Honestly thought it would be higher - I can only assume that La Dusseldorf took all the krautrock votes... right? Right, guys?

My ballot was blessedly Kraut free.

88. Tom Waits - Closing Time (1973) [84 points, 6 votes]

http://i46.tinypic.com/se838i.jpg

Consider that circa Closing Time, Asylum/David Geffen thought that they had another Billy Joel on their hands. Incredible.

I love Tom Waits more than life itself.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Sunday, November 30, 2003 8:00 PM (6 years ago)

[Re: C/D?] I'd say neither, but considerably less classic than lost of people claim.

I like some of his stuff, but the trouble is that between every nice ballad once in a while he tends to put some of those absolutely unlistenable Captain Beefheart influenced, well, dunno what I'd call them but songs they aren't, that is for certain.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, October 16, 2004 5:59 PM (5 years ago)

For all the flailing and flaming of his subsequent work, the artifice is much more pronounced on his early albums but luckily so is the charm quotient so it doesn't seem like a total goof unless you're predisposed not to buy into his poses.

― tremendoid, Tuesday, September 7, 2004 10:39 AM (5 years ago)

Although partial to a bit of Can, I've never felt my life was any poorer for having no other Krautrock in it.

Same goes for Tom Waits.

Neu is the first on i thought would have placed higher

"one"

39 of those points came from me. Still my favourite of his pre-Brennan work. xposts

Neu is the first one in the list that I really should have voted for, easily my favourite of their albums.

Really glad to see Chic made it, I hope there's a few more disco albums further down the list.

two of mine in a row there. didn't expect Neu!2 to place that much higher on its own, it is the weakest of the three for sure. xp and i thought everyone agreed on this

I disagree...Neu! 2 is my favourite...it's so freewheeling. I love that record a lot; it was my #7 pick.

(I think I might like this poll more than the 80s one...)

Closing Time should be so much higher, its by FAR his best pre-swordfish trilogy lp

actually scratch that, my tired brain somehow confused closing time and small change.
so yes, hoping small change is much higher.

I last minute switched my other Tom Waits vote from Small Change to Blue Valentine, which I regret now.

still think Closing Time is better. Martha, Ol' 55, Rosie, Hope I Don't..., etc...

Which version of Ol' 55 came first? Waits or Eagles? (Not being an Eagles stan, I'm not sure of their chronology.)

I went for Nighthawks - I get tired of the schmaltz. The live boots from the era tell a totally different (and much better) story than the albums.

87. Black Sabbath - Vol. 4 (1972) [85 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i48.tinypic.com/2dbo309.jpg

I like Vol.4 quite a bit. It was one of the Sabbath albums I didn't have when I was 14, so I haven't heard it nearly as much as Paranoid or Master of Reality. "Wheels of Confusion" is an epic and one of my favorite songs by them. Other than "Changes" and the oddball stoner sound effect track, the rest is ace. "Supernaut" also may be their best title, whatever it means.

― earlnash, Thursday, March 18, 2004 11:36 PM (5 years ago)

Sabbath's album (besides having "Supernaut" and "Snowblind," two of the greatest songs ever) is a concept album about dirtbags from the asshole of England going to L.A. and getting coked up and going insane. It's like the Apocalypse Now of metal, or something.

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Friday, March 19, 2004 11:20 AM (5 years ago)

I mean COME ON - Volume 4 has a shittier, tinnier, paper-thin sound compared to their previous three albums, the band was clearly falling into a predictable rut in terms of songwriting, nothing particularly new or exciting on the record. And like I said, there's a steep decline in the production quality.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, March 19, 2004 3:13 PM (5 years ago)

vol. 4 was my #1...here's what I wrote in the Best Sabbath Album poll:

as far as IV being the best, I totally agree...challops?

IV > Paranoid: this is kind of hard to justify, except the fact that Paranoid was the first Sabbath album I ever bought, and I liked it, but I was already v. familiar with half the songs, and the other half didn't really jump out at me, giving me a first impression of the album as suffocating and monochromatic...I mean, there's songs on it I love...Planet Caravan, Fairies Wear Boots, Paranoid, War Pigs, and even the songs that didn't really stick with me are hard to argue against, like the opening to Electric Funeral, but put it all together, and...I don't know, just seems a bit too monolithic to me I guess...

IV > Master of Reality: A bit easier, there's like four songs on this album, and only Children of the Grave (the best thing Sabbath ever did) shits on the stuff on IV from anything resembling a great height...I mean the album gets a little closer once I realized that After Forever was the earlier superior original article, and St. Vitus Dance was the rewrite, but still...I'm not exactly sure which three songs are stronger: Sweet Leaf/Children/Into the Void or Supernaut/Snowblind/Cornucopia, but it doesn't matter; without these IV is still within striking distance of a sprwaling druggy masterpiece...

so i'm guessing i single handedly made sure Vol. 4 made the poll?

(come on, Fela...!)

I've wondered this for a while. Which color of the cover is more common: yellow or orange? Pictures online seem to be evenly split between them, but when I had it in my collection, it was the orange version (so I went with that one).

Which version of Ol' 55 came first? Waits or Eagles? (Not being an Eagles stan, I'm not sure of their chronology.)

Waits version was first.

I love the schmaltz. Waits does it so well here.

86. Hawkwind - Space Ritual (1973) [85 points, 11 votes]

http://i47.tinypic.com/dh4zc.jpg

it's the perfect gateway drug. once it's in your system, you want more like it. and then, before you know it, you are on to the hard stuff and spending your rent money on peruvian flutepsych boots. and it's all downhill from there.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, July 28, 2005 9:51 PM (4 years ago)

praising it would be redundant as its greatness is self-evident.

― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Thursday, July 28, 2005 11:13 PM (4 years ago)

As for me I should probably own Space Ritual but I don't. Someone needs to write a beginner's book of Hawkwind because they only have about 6 billion things to choose from. I still remember dancing in a club to a track of theirs in 1990, though. It was fantastic but of course it could be one of any of the billion songs to choose from...it's a bit overwhelming for a novice. I bet they have even more releases than The Fall.

― Hydrochloric Shaved Weirds (Bimble...), Saturday, July 30, 2005 6:06 AM (4 years ago)

I don't care if it's the musical equivalent of liking Doctor Who, it is utter and total classic and I now feel compelled to go out and buy every record they've ever made.

― kate, Friday, November 1, 2002 10:49 AM (7 years ago)

So classic. I could live inside that record for a week.

Hawkwind is a total blind spot in my music cache. Seward says it's the perfect gateway drug, so I may as well begin with this one, huh? I'm typically wary of live albums, but okay.

only know hawkwind from their appearances on dj mixes (Prins Thomas, et al). really should check them out. almost saw them a few weeks ago, but went to PiL instead.

This album is so, so good. Like Scott's quote says, "a perfect gateway drug," but sadly I've found it is also drug-like in that other Hawkwind albums are good, but just don't have that same kick.

I recently relistened to all three Neu albums, and Neu!2 definitely excited me the most. The second side made me giddy considering Rother, Dinger, and Plank's ballsiness to actually release their tape manipulations on an LP at that time. Also, "Super 16" is awesome kung fu movie theme music. I'm glad it's on the list; it doesn't need to be higher, and in a perfect world we would all dance to "Cassetto".

i too think that the atmosphere of "nighthawks" has never been bettered on any tom waits album i know. his banter is great. the whole thing has a natural, organic live flow. hopefully it will place.

concerning neu! i don't really need more than the first album. actually "hallogallo", "negativland" and "weißensee" are the only neu! tracks i could not live without.

my Waits vote was Blue Valentine, but I guess there's not much chance of that showing up, is there?

85. Aerosmith - Rocks (1976) [86 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i48.tinypic.com/1ep89d.jpg

Years before 'Metal Box' or 'Y' or "Police and Thieves" or 'Cut'. (Perry's whinnies and vomit noises are more varied than Levene's bandsaw) and a WAYYY better beat than 'On the Corner'. Not 'dubmetal' because everything is really fast. "Rats in the Cellar", dig the way the bass fuzzes out at odd moments. Police sirens and percussive swishes and swooshes, like Scientist, and sounds close enough to a melodica at the end. "Nobody's Fault" is Book-of-Revelations stuff complete with stoopid earthquake pun, is that 'dread' or what? "Combination", druggy delirium (sings about how he's too skinny to wear even tight jeans), with sloppy/precise dropped beats and howling noises buried deep in the soupy, heavy-gravitational Jupiter's-moons mix. "Combination" has such a weird structure (starts halfway through the 'main riff' which appears in various dismembered forms on the song's lurching path) that it sounds spliced together from various tapes and then all mixed down onto a one-track just like the best Black Ark stuff. Attack-less notes poke out of nowhere, waver a bit and disappear back into the murk, as do voices, or voices that sound like guitars or vice versa, every sound in the background has an indeterminate origin process-wise, like what IS that thing at the end of "Back in the Saddle"? Apparently a 27-string bass, could just as well be a tuba or an exploding meth lab. Their early stuff was murky and didn't rock much, later stuff 'rocked' (but what the fuck didn't back then?) but all the hazy cataracts were removed from the production leaving the dull workmanlike hall-of-fame shit these clam chowderheads are famous for but on this album they fucking nailed it. Drop your cred and go for it!

― dave q, Sunday, April 14, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

OK, I can't get enough of this album. For every reason listed above, and more. It's like they were the most natural amalgam of funk, stones swagger, zep thud without the fairies and crowley. So there they are at the 70s end of "the" continuum - strains of 50s chess chicago blues, the rave up, the garage rock snear, yet somehow always managing to sidestep the excess of 70s rock. the bravado is there, but the nonsense and the indulgence is nowhere to be seen, musically speaking.

And then I can just picture little Westerberg and Malkmus listening to this and going "oh yeah".

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, May 18, 2006 8:47 PM (3 years ago)

Never properly listened to 'Rocks' until I replayed it today and it just clicked - whatever was going up their nose back them sure did come out in some kick ass songs ...

― BlackIronPrison, Friday, May 29, 2009 4:26 PM (7 months ago)

well it's personal story time with JD, this may get depressing so be warned, skip past it if stories that end sad are gonna feel like a waste of your time. the first night I hung out with my now-departed-because-he-killed-himself friend Rozz, we met up at a party - we knew about each other from around, there'd been an effort at one point to get us to meet & then we'd seen each other at the Cabaret Voltaire show at the Palace so we had a yeah-you kinda familiarity. The party got dull and we'd been talking about music so we went back to the apartment where me & mom & my sister were all living after my mom had finally gotten us out of house-where-everybody-gets-his-ass-kicked. the whole new apartment scene had this the-box-is-only-temporary feel to it. I'm seventeen, Rozz is like 24 I think, and we break open the only bottle of wine in the place and speaking in whispers to not wake up anybody we start going through my records. most of my good records were still back at my stepdad's house but I was really getting into Aerosmith which was a fuck-your-values,-peer-group kinda deal 'cause my friends were snobs about music and I was getting into metal. Rozz sees Rocks and says "Oooooh, let's play this!" and I'm like "are you serious? because I am totally serious that that album is like all-time great" and he's like "oh yes, God, they're just SO great" and I knew he was for real and got that teenage feeling you get when you know you're talking to somebody who feels music like you do. so we played the album & spilled wine & smoked cigarettes & lip-synched the "pleeeeeeeaaaaaase"s in "Sick As A Dog" and now it's a fond memory of a guy for whom the pain turned out to be just too much so that is why that song gets the extra kick that makes me vote for it but I like to think I would have voted for it anyway, wish friends didn't have to die, the end.

― a full circle lol (J0hn D.), Sunday, September 20, 2009 8:43 PM (3 months ago)

I like Rocks fine, it's probably even my favorite Aerosmith album front to back. But it should not be ten places higher than Van Halen's debut imo.

well, if there's a Kraut block vote, as Emil.y hoped above, I hope too, that there a Ladbroke Grove freak ticket that means the Pink Fairies will be represented alongside 'awkwind.

If only I'd ordered my ballot :)

Of course I probably voted for the wrong Pink Fairies album, votes could be split.

Great stuff - the Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Neu! and Blondie ones all narrowly missed places on my ballot so it's nice to see them. Not heard so far: Hawkwind and Miles.

vol 4 should be orange!

too many amazing classics coming up fairly low here...

vol 4 should be orange!

Good to know! It definitely looks better that way.

I like Rocks fine, it's probably even my favorite Aerosmith album front to back. But it should not be ten places higher than Van Halen's debut imo.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, January 4, 2010 2:29 PM (18 minutes ago)

I know; it should be 20 or thirty places higher at least!

:P

I actually didn't even put Rocks on my ballot, but it is the only Aerosmith album that I ever bothered to own (on a cassette that I no longer have in my possession for some reason).

84. Tubeway Army - Replicas (1979) [86 points, 9 votes]

http://i50.tinypic.com/kbeg0j.jpg

the tubeway army albums and the pleasure principle are awesome and completely unassailable classics.

― latebloomer, Saturday, July 5, 2008 1:48 AM (1 year ago)

The first three Gary Numan albums are quite good. He had a cool sound with the funky drums, buzzy guitars, synths and scifi schtik. If they didn't come out so close together, I would say that Ric Ocasek probably listened to some Tubeway Army.

― earlnash, Thursday, November 21, 2002 7:29 PM (7 years ago)

"Are Friends Electric" is pretty great, and a couple of others are alright. I find his singing off-putting overall. If you're not well acquainted with the genre, it sounds badly dated now. Some hilarious song titles though, as Mark S pointed out the other day.

― Patrick, Wednesday, May 9, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

interesting results so far, kinda surprised fleetwood mac finished that low with the s/t but i imagine tusk will be top 5?

I had figured the ILM archives would be overflowing with Numan/Tubeway Army talk, but anything substantive mostly concerned The Pleasure Principle and later work. I really like Replicas a lot myself, though.

Exactly! The S/T has 'Rhiannon' AND 'Landslide' on it for goodness' sake. I'm just glad I scored it so highly.

83. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976) [86 points, 11 votes]

http://i47.tinypic.com/166ng95.jpg

For the last six months I just cannot get enough of "Emerald." It is just so massive - that instrumental chorus! - and I want it to go on forever. I imagine them just jamming it for twenty minutes and no one getting close to tired of it. I've made it past 30 minutes of straight repeats but eventually life had to start up again. So good.

― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, November 25, 2009 11:22 PM (1 month ago)

I can't front on Cowboy Song either I got my preferences but seriously what an amazing band. work-related story I've probably told before, first time I went to Dublin I played at a club where the soundman is the guy who got all Thin Lizzy's road equipment after PL died & I got to play through a PA stamped THIN LIZZY TOUR 1976 and I was freaking out. started my soundcheck with like 3 chords of "Dancing in the Moonlight," not really recognizable as such because I am a terrible guitarist & wasn't singing the lyric, just strumming the chords nervously, and immediately dude walks up and says "you'll make a lot of friends around here playing that song."

― a full circle lol (J0hn D.), Wednesday, November 25, 2009 10:32 PM (1 month ago)

I can't believe how awesome Thin Lizzy is. The danceable beats, the DOUBLE lead guitar parts, Phil Lynott's voice...dear god. "Cowboy Song" may be the first song I've ever heard about a rodeo and liked.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, March 6, 2004 1:54 PM (5 years ago)

^ this should've never missed the first poll, tbh.

82. The Who - Live at Leeds (1970) [87 points, 6 votes]

http://i46.tinypic.com/118k1kz.jpg

Live at Leeds is one of the best live albums ever!

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Sunday, October 22, 2006 5:34 PM (3 years ago)

Live at Leeds has a great album cover, but dull contents.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Saturday, October 21, 2006 6:49 PM (3 years ago)

The Who "Live at Leeds" sounds punk as fuck when you play it at 45

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Tuesday, December 6, 2005 4:46 PM (4 years ago)

I'm still pretty much meh on this one.

two of my favorites in a row!

your comment on Live At Leeds is bizarre to me

last three have been A++ all around should have placed higher. Live at Leeds is something fierce.

Me too. I've seen it on enough 'Best ... ever' lists, but when I heard it I was underwhelmed. Same with the rest of The Who really - I just don't see what the fuss is about.

I do love that cover, for real, especially in a used record bin w/ about 12 copies. You can see how they all fade differently and the slight changes between all the various pressings. xxp

xp2jf

Like, I'm sure The Who was actually mind melting when they played live in 1970, but it sure as hell sounds flat on that record. (I'm not a fan of many live albums ever, though.)

I love The Who pre-Tommy, but only care for a song or two after.

Nice to see my "Emerald" quote - love that song, love that album.

Still nothing I've voted for, but good results.

should probably noted that it's the expanded version of Live at Leeds I was voting for. I've heard the original and it was nowhere near as good.

One more today, and then we'll resume tomorrow...

one of those albums that nourished my deep skepticism towards critics. i bought it because many critics said it was a classic. and then it was totally disappointing. they seem to have used up their energy in destroying hotel room furniture instead of making powerful rock'n' roll music.

the who is one of those bands that i feel like didn't translate as well to subsequent generations (lol) as much as other bands at their star level.

So far there's been no funk or soul at all, and only one jazz album. I hope there's plenty of that stuff (+ Brazilian music) yet to come, otherwise this poll is gonna be a disappointment to me. I thought this being the "alternative" 70s poll would mean it's less rock-centric than the OG poll, but it doesn't look like that yet.

81. Comus - First Utterance (1971) [87 points, 9 votes]

http://i45.tinypic.com/rbdrp4.jpg

After years of hearing about it, I've only just heard the Comus 1st album! Why do people call it folk? Because it's acoustic? It's much more of a prog thing. I'm reminded of Family (mostly the vocals) and even Jethro Tull! Also, Comus fans should check out the Incredible String Band's "Pictures in a Mirror", which seems to me to be coming from a similar(ly) (bizarre) place.

― Tom D., Thursday, October 11, 2007 4:58 AM (2 years ago)

I don't think i've ever really run across band that sounds quite like Comus. They're sort of in a league of their own.

― dialecticbricks (dialecticbricks), Thursday, July 1, 2004 2:22 AM (5 years ago)

Comus strikes me as a little bit cornball. "The Herald" is my favorite thing on the album, I think.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, March 6, 2005 5:44 PM (4 years ago)

I'd never even heard of this before the nominations process. Will investigate.

Totally unknown to me too.

So far there's been no funk or soul at all

Chic doesn't fall squarely in either category, I guess.

Blankin. 'Incredible String Band' comment makes me think this isn't fitting your criteria Tuomas.

This is an amazing album and not much like any other British folk record. Very influential on current 93, nurse with wound, coil, all those guys.

So relieved Comus placed! One of my favorite albums ever.

I thought this being the "alternative" 70s poll would mean it's less rock-centric than the OG poll, but it doesn't look like that yet.

It's still a poll based on consensus, and the most broadly appealing records will always trump the more niche or genre-specific records every time. That said, the results gets less homogenic as we get further in.

I think the Comus album compares well to Family's "Music in a Dolls House" (esp. vocals-wise) except more manic and with Wicker Man cartoon paganism.

Current 93 covered "Diana" from it.

People expecting pleasant jingly jangly brit folk rock will be VERY surprised - seek it out everyone!

The cover sort of gives away the fact it won't be pleasant and jingly jangly.

Comus! Awesome!

20 down, 80 more to go:

100. ZZ Top - Tres Hombres (1973) [80 points, 7 votes]
99. Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges - Clube de Esquina (1972) [80 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote]
98. Chic - C'est Chic (1978) [80 points, 14 votes]
97. John Lennon - Imagine (1971) [80 points, 15 votes]
96. Patti Smith - Horses (1975) [80 points, 17 votes]
95. Van Halen - Van Halen (1978) [81 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote]
94. Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac (1975) [81 points, 8 votes]
93. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory (1970) [81 points, 11 votes]
92. Blondie - Eat to the Beat (1979) [82 points, 9 votes]
91. Miles Davis - Agharta (1976) [82 points, 10 votes]
90. Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties!! (1977) [83 points, 6 votes]
89. Neu! - Neu! 2 (1973) [83 points, 10 votes]
88. Tom Waits - Closing Time (1973) [84 points, 6 votes]
87. Black Sabbath - Vol. 4 (1972) [85 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]
86. Hawkwind - Space Ritual (1973) [85 points, 11 votes]
85. Aerosmith - Rocks (1976) [86 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]
84. Tubeway Army - Replicas (1979) [86 points, 9 votes]
83. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976) [86 points, 11 votes]
82. The Who - Live at Leeds (1970) [87 points, 6 votes]
81. Comus - First Utterance (1971) [87 points, 9 votes]

Opeth took an album name from a lyric on it – "My Arms Your Hearse."

xp

Agree with Tom D's quote that it's not really folk, more a kind of dark, twisted acoustic prog really. I love the mixture of airy beauty and sheer bloody malice on this record.

I tried getting into Incredible String Band bcz people said they sounded like Comus but not nearly enough for my tastes.

I hope the funk albums didn't get pushed out of the top 100 with the last couple of ballots Will be gutted if any of them are 110-101

Also agree w/Tom D – I have never heard a folk album that had near as cool of basslines as "First Utterance" does.

Cool Comus coming so (relatively) high - makes me think there will be further pleasant surprises

I think I am the only person in the universe that thinks "To Keep From Crying," their second album, is really any good.

most broadly appealing records will always trump the more niche or genre-specific records every time.

But why would rock albums be less genre-specific and more broadly appealing? "Rock" is a genre just like "jazz" or "soul" are. I guess my view of things is pretty different from most ILXors, because I've never really listened to or cared for rock music, but I don't quite get why it's always the consensus choice, whereas equally broad genres like jazz are thought as "niche".

People just getting into Comus now are lucky as there's a 2-CD set that has all their songs on it for pretty cheap. (Pretty cheap = cheaper than buying extra-special edition vinyl to get "In the Lost Queen's Eyes" on bonus 12" + also somehow finding a copy of their OOP second album like someone I know)

Tuomas I think you're asking a question that can't be satisfactorily or empircally answered.

empirically

rock and pop are more easily accessible and widespread broadcast-wise than jazz and to some extent soul (certainly from the 70s at any rate). xposts

Jazz and soul and tropicalia have every bit as much worth as rock and pop music, but they'll always be damned to underappreciation because of radio and record company greed. More people grow up with rock and pop music because that's what's playing everywhere they go. For some people, familiarity breeds contempt, but for the rest it's comfort food. xxxp

Hooray for Comus!

I would have liked to vote for more funk and jazz, but didn't get time to check out some of the ones I thought were most likely to float my boat (anyone got any thoughts on the Cecil Taylor, for instance? I love the one album I have by him, but didn't know the one nominated). Also, so much kraut in the 70s meant so many records there was no way I could leave off my ballot. I tried the one-album-per-band thing, but couldn't stick to it.

i gave my three top spots to a band who won't place! if the proggers and krauters can moan i guess the jazz/soul/world music enthusiasts can too, difference being their darlings are gonna show up later ;)

I'm sure I was probably the only vote for a few of the jazz records on my ballot (hint: I also nominated them).

I highly doubt most of my darlings are gonna show up. Curtis Mayfield probably will, Herbie and Alice Coltrane might, but I'm not certain about it anymore, and I'd be genuinely surprised if Donny Hathaway or Flora Purim or Baden Powell will land an album in the top 80.

xxpost looking at these scores so far and doing a head count of other threads they might place, y'know.

tuomas if u voted for love unlimited orchestra top 10 we might get some soul up in this piece

I srsly loved voting for this poll bcz it was just some of god's best albums available here.

Yeah, if nothing else, the nominations spread sheet gives me a guide to work with for the next 20 years of record shopping.

"Familiarity breeds contempt." That must be why aside from some Stevie Nicks jams, Fleetwood Mac makes me want to stab my head. Or whoever is responsible for my hearing it.

There's also Tropicália and other Brazilian albums, tons of African stuff, and a shit-ton of great reggae that won't make this list. But that's okay, as long as a couple things make it. What really confounds me is how many times people have said, "this album should be higher." Somehow there's still a failure to recognize the sheer massive amount of great music made in the 70s. The ZZ Top, Van Halen and Aerosmith albums make for some great party music. I have them and love them. But they might not make even my top 500 for the decade.

"Familiarity breeds contempt." That must be why aside from some Stevie Nicks jams, Fleetwood Mac makes me want to stab my head. Or whoever is responsible for my hearing it.

I feel this way about The Beatles, tbh. Love Fleetwood Mac with all my heart, tho.

I also love this poll/thread. Thanks for putting it together. I especially like the notion that it's designed not to create some definitive list, but to raise awareness of some gems that haven't received due credit or attention.

I think I am the only person in the universe that thinks "To Keep From Crying," their second album, is really any good

No you're not...... I've never found a copy of first Utterance, and only have it as a rip, whereas i have TKFC on vinyl and am terribly fond....

I saw Flora Purim recently, Tuomas, and she was great - I don't know her albums but I did sling her a spare vote. Probably not enough to get her in the top 80 though.

I'm hoping people will post their ballots after the countdown finishes, as it'll be interesting to see some records people rate highly that didn't make the top 100. That's as much a recommendation to me as anything on the list.

I actually cant wait to see 200-101.

I would have voted for Purim's Everyday, Everynight because it's one of my favorite albums ever, but it's the only of hers I know and I forgot to nom it.

To continue with RYM '70s rankings:

ZZ Top- Tres Hombres (#440)
Clube de Esquina (#54)
Chic- C'est Chic (Not ranked)
John Lennon- Imagine (#236)
Patti Smith- Horses (#121)
Van Halen (#212)
Fleetwood Mac (#731)

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory (#22)
Blondie - Eat to the Beat (Not ranked)
Miles Davis - Agharta (#158)
Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties!! (#979)
Neu! - Neu! 2 (Not ranked)
Tom Waits - Closing Time (#314)
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4 (#179)
Hawkwind - Space Ritual (#141)
Aerosmith - Rocks (#546)
Tubeway Army - Replicas (#400)
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (#184)
The Who - Live at Leeds (#26)
Comus - First Utterance (#93)

The Comus record seems to me part of the "blog canon," one of those Lps (like Judee Sill's Heartfood or Flower Travellin' Band's Satori) that had a low profile or was unavailable until people started sharing it on MP3 blogs.

Yep i'd definitely agree with that. Add on Bill Fay's Last Persecution which i'm hoping will place pretty high on this list.

was about to curse for forgetting to vote for last persecution only to find out i actually did

twas my number one. love it soooooo much. can't believe i missed out on probably my only chance to see him play live just because i didn't go to the fecking wilco gig where he did a guestslot :-(

Comus were also on the NWW list, so they've had a bit of underground cachet since the late 70s.

I think all of those albums had a cult following, but since they were hard to come by they remained pretty much out of even most music obsessives' purview.

I still can't wrap my head around RYM regulars/voters (other than the huge collective boner for metal).

you posting any more results tonight?

I think i voted mainly funk jazz and krautrock/prog as i knew other stuff i liked would get votes but i didnt vote Neu 2 so im hopeful a lot of krautrock will get in now.

Yep, I love Neu but Neu 2 is definitely the least of the three imo. I would guess that the fact that it made it into the 90s here means that their first and 75 will make it in somewhere in the top 30, if not top ten.

Er, just remembered the first Neu wasn't an option. My revised prediction is that Neu 75 will do very well, then. :)

it does have my 2nd fave track on it mind you but i had to exclude it to get other stuff in. Wish we could've listed 100 albums!
xp

Wish we could've listed 100 albums!

Speaking as the guy who had to count up ballots with 40 votes each, I would've committed suicide.

No more result posts tonight. I'll do at least ten more tomorrow, and maybe 20 more if I have the time.

nah, spread it out!

Er, just remembered the first Neu wasn't an option. My revised prediction is that Neu 75 will do very well, then. :)

Indeed. Helps that Neu! '75 is their best album by a country mile, better than the canonical pick Neu! and the fun but scattershot Neu! 2, and most people know it in their hearts and voted for it. At least I'm hoping so.

80. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece (1974) [88 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i48.tinypic.com/331k32c.jpg

This is the Van disc I come back to the most right now. It's chock full of idiosyncratic Van greatness. Lyrics that almost but not quite make sense, check. Weird song titles, check. Strange literary obsessions, check. Beautiful tunes, check.

For some reason though I always think he hits higher notes on this album than on any other (check Linden Arden). Works for me.

― that's not my post, Wednesday, October 17, 2007 11:34 PM (2 years ago)

Yeah, and the falsetto on "Who Was That Masked Man?" is fantastic!

― dell, Thursday, October 18, 2007 2:44 PM (2 years ago)

Wonder if Common One is as great as it seemed to me at the height of my VM obsession.

― J0hn D., Thursday, October 18, 2007 10:06 AM (2 years ago)

First, Common One holds up really well. Whatever made it seem weird on first listen makes it even weirder and better all these years later.

As for Van's vocal range, I've been trying to pinpoint where his voice left a step. I don't think he'd ever attempt the falsetto of "Masked Man" these days. Even on Wavelength he still has the ability to reach the higher notes and his voice still has that crisp snap in it. Common One has interesting textures, but it seems like with Beautiful Vision his voice is starting to get that "Head Cold" sound. (Listen to a later album like Days Like This and the whole thing sounds like he was sining with the flu...not bad, but not the guy you remember). Anyone else notice the tonal shifts in his voice?

― smurfherder, Thursday, October 18, 2007 2:57 PM (2 years ago)

79. Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue (1977) [90 points, 10 votes]

http://i47.tinypic.com/2rdxeer.jpg

I ask once again (and I have before): WHY ISN'T THIS ONE OF THE GREAT CANONICAL ALBUMS OF THE 70S?

Seriously, there isn't a moment on this that isn't absolute GENIUS. Considering the likes of Elephant 6, Daftpunk, Air, and anyone else who attempts to make stellar multi-instrumetal psychedelic big big pop is ripping this album off, shouldn't [Jeff Lynne] deserve a bit more credit than the label of "sub-standard AOR Beatles-ripper"?

I love this album more than life could meantion.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, February 24, 2006 9:56 PM (3 years ago)

I don't know. I have a bias against ELO that I'm finding it very difficult to get over. It just seems like that every time they get a song going with something good, they waste no time in cheesing it up. For one thing, I hate all the string arrangements. They seem very gimmicky, not giving anything to the songs at all. Also, not sure I can actuallys tand Jeff Lynne's voice, especially when he starts trying to be the Bee Gees. The songs themselves are often not bad, but I guess the performances turn me off most of the time.

― Dominique (dleone), Sunday, February 26, 2006 10:21 AM (3 years ago)

I bought this album at Gary's Rexall Drug in Canby, Oregon, the day it came out, and had it memorized three days later. I just re-found it on vinyl for 99 cents and that is clearly the right way to listen to it. I still hear "Birmingham Blues" in my head when I see the Premiership results.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Saturday, February 25, 2006 11:29 PM (3 years ago)

Alright, there's a couple for the middle of the night (where I am). Back to bed!

After I said some not entirely nice things about Patti Smith yesterday, I discovered she's playing a small and historic venue in my town (Oxford, England) in March and was slightly tempted. I'm sure it will sell out easily to people who actually follow her work or at least are fonder of Horses, but weird timing.

Ah, ELO. I grew up listening to Out of the Blue, the last pop/rock record my parents bought (before that, two Beatles LPs and Dark Side of the Moon). Discovered in the 90s it was the least cool record ever, which happily let me pick it up for 20p from a record shop's "stuff we'll sneer at you for buying" bin. Seems to have had a considerable resurgence since then.

The picture on the front cover + the vocoders on "Mr Blue Sky" = when I was a kid, this record WAS the future to me, as fascinating and alien to my understanding as the covers to my mother's collection of sci-fi paperbacks.

I haven't heard it for years, but slung it a vote for old times' sake. But the overdone, tacked-on string arrangements Dominique singles out as bad are exactly what I like about it, that and the huge, shiny production which was like nothing I'd ever heard before. It sounded amazing on big speakers to a small kid who never heard pop but was really into space.

Damn, I guess that means A New World Record won't make it.

I have never been able to overcome my aversion to "Don't Bring Me Down" in order to delve into the reputed genius of Jeff Lynne.

Big fan of Veedon Fleece. Lush and romantic with great singing - by far the most satisfying Van that I've heard.

Though my first records were Pleasure Principle, Fear Of Music and Armed Forces, Out of the Blue was the first album I fell in love with. I was nine, after all! "And they sang, 'Wondrous is our great blue ship that sails around the mighty sun and joy to everyone who rides along!'" I always figured the cheese factor for people was the unhinged joy in a lot of their songs. Not cool for insecure, self-conscious teenagers or young adult hipsters, but perfect entry point for kids.

This album is so, so good. Like Scott's quote says, "a perfect gateway drug," but sadly I've found it is also drug-like in that other Hawkwind albums are good, but just don't have that same kick.

― EZ Snappin, Monday, January 4, 2010 1:07 PM (Yesterday)

Enjoying the results so far. Space Ritual was my #22 -- but as much as I love it, I've been loath to dig farther into Hawkwind because it seems like nothing else could match up. There are a couple of other bands I act that way about -- a bad, illogical approach I know.

78. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (1973) [92 points, 9 votes]

http://i49.tinypic.com/wgvk08.jpg

I love the sense of fun and absurdity on this album. The band never sounded as loose and free as it does on this release. If Bruce was the new Dylan, it was the absurd Dylan of Million Dollar Bash and not the message-oriented, folkie Dylan of Masters of War. I wouldn't go so far as to say Jon Landau ruined him, but I do think he wiped away a lot of the fun by making him into the "future of rock n' roll." My favorite Bruce album by a mile.

― leavethecapital, Wednesday, February 4, 2009 7:35 PM (11 months ago)

To my mind, The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle is a superb album. The songs (Lyrics), as noted, are interesting and of a time and place, and the music is different from what comes later, probably because two of the musicians, David Sancious and Vin Mad Dog Lopez, were replaced with people who had a much straighter rock approach, rather than a wilder, jazzier even, approach. It's also got a feeling fun about some of it (eg Cathy's Back), with all the band and friends joining in the chorus and playing instruments they might not usually play. What also happened after this was that he got "taken over" by the record company and his producer (Jon Landau if my memory serves me), and some of us would contend that Born to Run is a very "over produced" album. So to some of us, TWTITESS is the best Springsteen album.

― andyjack (andyjack), Monday, May 16, 2005 5:46 AM (4 years ago)

My favorite 70s LP is the Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Heavy Van Morrison influence on that one, but that sort of thing sounds better coming from an American I think. What a weird sound the band had on that album, very loose rhythm (I liked that drummer better than Weinburg), tuba, huge brass crescendos. The live version of "Incident on 57th Street" that was a b-side to one of the Born to Run singles was incredible, showed how interesting and melodic Springsteen was as a guitar player.

― Mark, Sunday, August 11, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

awesome. i suppose this means Born To Run is still to come, right? ilx can't be THAT perverse, can it?

Born To Run wasn't on the first poll? wow

I'm not much of a Springsteen fan, and didn't vote for him here, but those first two albums are cap G Great.

didn't vote for him either, just that putting Born To Run on a non-canon list seems kinda odd

Over time, I think this has become my favorite Springsteen album (for all the reasons mentioned above), followed closely by Born to Run. He can still write a hell of a song almost 40 years later, though.

xp Born to Run did NOT make the first list. ¯(°_o)/¯

77. Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action (1976) [92 points, 10 votes]

http://i49.tinypic.com/2diobjq.jpg

I've been listening to "Teenage Confidential" from Shake Some Action on repeat for the past half hour. That song is perfect.

― Yancey (ystrickler), Wednesday, October 9, 2002 12:05 PM (7 years ago)

I've always found "Shake Some Action" somewhat overrated, as I find most of their Edmunds-era stuff a bit not-all-that. But I sure love five-six of their Chris Wilson songs, "Yeah My Baby" and "First Plane Home" and "You Tore Me Down." It always struck me that "Shake Some" was one of those songs bruited as shoulda-been-a-hit that actually wasn't really all that much of a hit.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, November 24, 2005 12:00 PM (4 years ago)

I've never listened to the Flamin' Groovies because their name sucks. Am I wrong?

― THIS IS THE SOUND OF ALTERN 8 !!! (noodle vague), Wednesday, November 23, 2005 6:28 PM (4 years ago)

Yes.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, November 23, 2005 6:32 PM (4 years ago)

awesome, didnt vote for it, it didnt make the cull but great to see

If we were polling the top songs of the 70s, Shake Some Action would be right there near the top.

Likewise - pleased it's here, though it didn't make my list either.

One I need to check out. Never heard anything by them.

Two distinct eras of the band to explore. The early albums are more roadhouse bluesy chooglin' rock, the latter albums (after Roy Loney left) are pristine '60s-inspired Brit Invasion melodic pop. I prefer the latter (of which this one is the first), but all their work is worth hearing.

76. Pere Ubu - Datapanik in the Year Zero EP (1978) [93 points, 6 votes]

http://i45.tinypic.com/xn9pip.jpg

I brought home a Pere Ubu record (Datapanik) because of Robert Christgau's enigmatic review "Michael Stanley is Cleveland's answer to Pere Ubu." Didn't know what he meant, but thought it was strange enough to try a Pere Ubu record. Didn't take a shine to it right away.. (couldn't get past the voice at first.) Then, absolutely loved everything Pere Ubu did. Later, didn't care as much about Ubu. Now, care again, but not like I used to.

― Dave225, Thursday, May 2, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

Pere Ubu was the mother of punk rock.

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Thursday, January 13, 2005 6:53 PM (4 years ago)

It will be interesting to see if the first two Pere Ubu albums make the list along with that compilation. They were both on my list.

100. ZZ Top - Tres Hombres (1973) [80 points, 7 votes]
99. Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges - Clube de Esquina (1972) [80 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote]
98. Chic - C'est Chic (1978) [80 points, 14 votes]
97. John Lennon - Imagine (1971) [80 points, 15 votes]
96. Patti Smith - Horses (1975) [80 points, 17 votes]
95. Van Halen - Van Halen (1978) [81 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote]
94. Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac (1975) [81 points, 8 votes]
93. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory (1970) [81 points, 11 votes]
92. Blondie - Eat to the Beat (1979) [82 points, 9 votes]
91. Miles Davis - Agharta (1976) [82 points, 10 votes]
90. Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties!! (1977) [83 points, 6 votes]
89. Neu! - Neu! 2 (1973) [83 points, 10 votes]
88. Tom Waits - Closing Time (1973) [84 points, 6 votes]
87. Black Sabbath - Vol. 4 (1972) [85 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]
86. Hawkwind - Space Ritual (1973) [85 points, 11 votes]
85. Aerosmith - Rocks (1976) [86 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]
84. Tubeway Army - Replicas (1979) [86 points, 9 votes]
83. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976) [86 points, 11 votes]
82. The Who - Live at Leeds (1970) [87 points, 6 votes]
81. Comus - First Utterance (1971) [87 points, 9 votes]
80. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece (1974) [88 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]
79. Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue (1977) [90 points, 10 votes]
78. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (1973) [92 points, 9 votes]
77. Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action (1976) [92 points, 10 votes]
76. Pere Ubu - Datapanik in the Year Zero EP (1978) [93 points, 6 votes]

That's it so far. 25% of the list is accounted for. I have to run out and do a few things, but I'll be back with some more.

Some things Johnny F might have run out to do:

100. take back some videos
99. put in dry cleaning
98. shift at charity shop
97. buy bagels
96. showdown with thesis supervisor
95. go to gym
94. bus-spotting
93. parkour
92. feed ducks in park
91. traffic survey
90. form human chain
89. apply for Turkish passport
88. use public library for warmth
87. new bus pass
86. give blood
85. graffiti
84. kooky photography project
83. ride boxcars
82. meet with parole supervisor
81. buy pregnancy testing kit
80. lunch alone in Ethiopian restaurant
79. amateur astronomy
78. measure tide height
77. bet on UK general election
76. fly kite

lol

12 US, 8 Britain, 2 Ireland (-ish: half of Lizzy by that stage, and i wouldn't like to answer for how Van considers himself), I Brazil, I Germany and 1 US/UK hybrid ('Mac)

A++, Ismael

I'm enjoying seeing a lot of unfamiliar albums on the list. The Springsteen is the only one I voted for to place thus far. I got it and Born to Run a couple of months ago. They've both grown on me a bit, but The Wild, The Innocent, Etc. was the only one to make it onto my ballot.

93. parkour

lol, yes that's what it was!

Rolling Spotify playlist.
(Missing: John Lennon, Aerosmith Comus, Pere Ubu... and Track 1 from Neu 2, oddly enough.)

75. ABBA - Arrival (1976) [93 points, 8 votes]

http://i50.tinypic.com/2e0oahx.jpg

arrival itself. absolutely exquisite, and an enormous influence on many of my own songwriting attempts (many times i'd end up back at that melody, wondering how i got there.)

this was a big, big favourite of mine when i was very young. i'd have to get my dad to put it on because i couldn't reach the record player (and wasn't allowed to fuck with his records, either). actually: i think i borrowed it off him many years ago and never gave it back. whoops.

― grimly fiendish, Sunday, June 8, 2008 10:35 AM (1 year ago)

Just listened to this again and boy is it good, way more consistently excellent than I expected for such a "singles band." Like I said before, the competition is really thrown off by the singles - but I'm impressed to see that "When I Kissed The Teacher" beat "Knowing Me, Knowing You." Someone in the Popular comments box at some point wrote some really nice things about WIKTT but I can't remember where or who it was...

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, July 27, 2008 5:04 PM (1 year ago)

Abba: Classic.
The cult of ABBA: Dud.

― Sean Carruthers, Thursday, April 19, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth on WIKTT (from Decibel:

WHEN I KISSED THE TEACHER

I have to pat myself on the shoulder for “bravery” here. I’m a metal dude, yet I just have to pick this song that waves the flag for one of the least “macho” song titles ever. The opening 12-string acoustic guitar chords demands your attention and I’m just disarmed from the get-go. Never been a big fan of “happy” music, yet this one is anything but a downer track. I don’t know what it is…maybe the superb production? The work they must have put into this song is just mind boggling. Anni-Frid and Agnetha are doing their trademark dual vocals throughout the track, with the exception of Agnetha’s amazing “One of these days…” choruses. This is one of those songs where you need to listen to what’s going on “behind” the main vocal. It’s a constant flow of multi-tracked, rhythmic backing vocals that matches or even surpasses the genius of a band like Queen. Yeah, I said it! I meant it too!

it's a well-known fact that mikael akerfeldt is WAY too nice to be truly metal ;-)

haha

On what planet is some Abba record better than Black Sabbath Vol. 4????

Happy New Year Bill!!

74. David Bowie - Lodger (1979) [93 points, 12 votes]

http://i47.tinypic.com/2posfa8.jpg

Lodger is Bowie's masterpiece. Interesting that it's also one of his most overlooked records, isn't it?

"Boys Keep Swinging" = freaking genius "D.J." = catchy danceable genius "Yassassin" = incredible total genius "Red Sails" = major genius "Look Back in Anger" = ASTONISHING GENIUS

― J, Friday, May 10, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

'Lodger' has the best sleeve of any Bowie record. It spawned the best tribute album in the form of Talking Heads' 'Fear of Music'. I love its travelogue theme (hmm, perhaps it also spawned the Human League's 'Travelogue'?) and its eclectic avant pop stylings, although the same quality can give it the feel of a supermarket food court or theme park: do you want to Turkish flavour of 'Yassassin' or the 'Errol Flynn in the South China Sea' vibe of 'Red Sails'? Do you want the avant-griot chunder of 'African Night Flight' or the Berlin bar-room piano of 'DJ'? But I guess that's PoMo PoMo PoMo fo yo.

― Momus, Saturday, May 11, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

I was really, really into Bowie when I got it, and it almost single handedly stopped my Bowie phase in it's tracks. It's so... devoid of anything that made the other two "Berlin Albums" so bloody spectacular.The only songs I'd say are up to par are the beautiful "Fantastic Voyage" and "African Night Flight." Maybe it's the production./. but something about it just sounds very off. And what is up with "Red Money" taking the exact same music as "Sister Midnight?" Running out of idead Thin White Duke? Have to resort to stealing from yourself? Tsk Tsk.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Tuesday, March 1, 2005 3:12 PM (4 years ago)

That's not even a good album. With all the other stuff on that list. . . Sorry but I don't think I've complained about results yet.

At least you're not still in the position of wondering whether a single one of his votes will show!

73. Cluster - Zuckerzeit (1974) [93 points, 14 votes]

http://i46.tinypic.com/eq191g.jpg

"zuckerzeit" still sounds like it's from the future.

― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, February 20, 2005 11:34 PM (4 years ago)

I've just spent an awful lot of money to get all the Cluster I can, along with Moebius/Plank's Rastakrautpasta, which has a song called "Two Old Timers" I heard many years ago and is the reason I would have known to check out Cluster in the first place. Zuckerzeit, Sowiesoso, Cluster '71: I am ENTHRALLED with all of these.

Yes I know I can download but in this case, it just isn't enough. This music is precious like gold.

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, May 15, 2004 6:55 PM (5 years ago)

[i][Zuckerzeit] is classic seminal proto-techno pop electronica genius and pretty essential. Tiger Sushi licensed "Hollywood" so there's definately some awareness in the current electronic dance music hipster scene.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, May 16, 2004 1:34 AM (5 years ago)

That's not even a good album.

Lodger is a fine album, not my favorite or anything, but I can totally understand why other people would love the hell out of it.

I've only ever heard the Cluster & Eno albums. I guess I should start digging into their own work some, yes?

There were 5 Bowie albums on the original poll and 7 more nominated for this one, kind of afraid that the ridiculous Bowie fanbase on this board is going to get all of them to place.

woo cluster

Lodger used to be Bowie's fave album of his.

x-p
yes i guess so, zuckerzeit and sowiesoso are good starting points. with rother they suddenly have melodies and beats. before they were mainly minimal electronic pioneers. look out for the 2 harmonia albums as well. the same people.

only 1 of my picks so far have placed. Im guessing at least 30 of them are outside the top 100

0-for-whatever here

ZUCKERZEIT! another choice of mine places... i think it's up to 3 now

Same here although I could easily have voted for about 15 of these (if it was pick 55 albums I suppose)

xpost

I really cant wait to see 101-200 to see if my picks got close to the top 100.

^^

Zuckerzeit's "Hollywood" is a track for the ages, along with Harmonia's "Deluxe (immer wieder)", from Deluxe. They really knew how to kick off their albums in legendary fashion!

Whoops, my ^^ was referring to what Alex in mainhatten wrote.

Zuckerzeit is the first record I don't know at all - voted for Harmonia though.....

72. Pere Ubu - Dub Housing (1978) [94 points, 12 votes]

http://i49.tinypic.com/34gx3kx.jpg

I've got Dub Housing - i like it lots. The guy's voice is one of the most comically incredible i've ever heard in pop but for some reason i got over it. I actually bought the album for £1 without a case thinking it was Dub Reggae... Boy was i wrong, but then it turned out to be excellent anyway :-)

― dog latin, Wednesday, May 2, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

he sings like a cross between David Byrne and Tiny Tim.

― scott, Monday, May 7, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

I'm surprised to see no consensus here that Dub Housing is by far their peak. It was dark, eerie, powerful, experimental but still totally engaging. Quite a feat for an album with an obsessive focus on paranoia and mental instability.

― Fastnbulbous (Fastnbulbous), Wednesday, September 7, 2005 11:23 PM (4 years ago)

Dub Housing is so classic. Total paranoid schizo vibe.

― dar1a g (daria g), Thursday, September 8, 2005 1:26 AM (4 years ago)

xp Zuckerzeit's my third placing as well, glad to see it that high

Man, sorry I missed voting on this. I was working on my ballot and then, well, the holidays et cetera. But the top spots were Alice Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Joe McPhee and Herbie Hancock. Even into the '70s, jazz was still slaying rock.

OH NO! I hope herbie albums still make it or it will be all your fault ;)

My intro to Pere Ubu was seeing a video from one of the late '80s albums on 120 Minutes, but I wasn't really paying attention. Later, Guided By Voices covered "Navvy" from Dub Housing so I went out and bought a cheapo vinyl copy. I tried and tried to convince myself I liked it, but I really, really didn't. I still haven't heard The Modern Dance or Datapanik or any of the other albums, early or later on.

Two of mine in a row there. I think Cluster was my number 40 and Pere Ubu were in my top 10.

It's already getting to the stage where I can tell some of my choices that I thought might sneak in lower down have probably missed out.

I'm a bit disappointed there hasn't been much disco or soul in the list so far.

dub housing is great but the debut is better and weirder. every song so different from the other and so original. it has to place as well.

disco and soul will probably place quite high. especially curtis mayfield, i am a little bit surprised chic placed so low though.

Modern Dance is my fave so I hope it places.

Where's the funk in this poll?!! If shakey mo didnt vote it's his fault.

Curtis is my #1

If shakey mo didnt vote it's his fault

He didn't.

Two of mine in a row there. I think Cluster was my number 40 and Pere Ubu were in my top 10.

More or less this in reverse for me. Thinking I should've put Zuckerzeit higher but had about 20 things competing to be in my top 5. Still not sure if my ballot is composed of too-obvious choices which will push out someone else's unknown treasures, or the other way round!

yeah sorry I am kinda following this thread but I always find these nomination threads kinda bewildering

*shakes fist*

disco and soul will probably place quite high. especially curtis mayfield, i am a little bit surprised chic placed so low though.

I voted for both the Chic albums nominated and I put Risque quite a lot higher.

I'm really rooting for the Dr Buzzard's original Savannah band album. I know it has a few supporters on here but I can't see it being higher than a lot of the things already in.

71. The Rolling Stones - Some Girls (1978) [95 points, 13 votes]

http://i50.tinypic.com/34zkb9e.jpg

...comparing Some Girls to Voodoo Lounge is like comparing the Sistine Chapel ceiling to a black velvet Elvis. Especially in the lyrics dept. where Some Girls walks all over every other Stones album except Exile.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Saturday, September 28, 2002 10:25 PM

"Some Girls" = The Stones attempt to beat the encroaching discoistes and punkarocks at their own game while maintaining Greatest Rock N Roll Band Innaworl' status (quo), (more fuel to the punk = disco fire: In the eyes of The Rock Establishment circa 76 [eg Les Rolling Stones] punk & disco were one and the same); still Miss You's got the bassline but they didn't really hit it on the head until Emotional Rescue.

― fritz, Wednesday, May 1, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

I find Some Girls almost unlistenably unpleasant. Makes me shudder with disgust every time I hear it. It's not like the Stones' songs ever made them sound like "nice" people, but on Some Girls they sound like people I'd move house to avoid, so regardless of what the music sounds like ... I could never embrace it.

― ithappens, Wednesday, December 16, 2009 8:01 AM (2 weeks ago)

comparing the winners of the 70s albums poll with the "who had the greatest 5 album run in the 70s" poll is kinda funny

70. Neil Young - Harvest (1972) [96 points, 9 votes]

http://i48.tinypic.com/2vl5gzk.jpg

Harvest gets unfairly brutal treatment among the typical Neil Young album rankings, as if it's some sort of flaccid piece of commercial dreck. It's really just as weird and wonderful as anything else of his.

― borrowed_tunes, Monday, November 14, 2005 4:47 PM (4 years ago)

Harvest is Neil Young's worst album. Of all the ones that people think are good, for example not Re.Ac.Tor.

― powertonevolume, Tuesday, March 26, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

Harvest - handful of great songs and some dreary stuff too. Overall, it's too slick, too polite. I like Neil a little scuffed around the edges.

― Stew, Tuesday, June 19, 2007 7:49 PM (2 years ago)

The symphonic stuff on "A Man Needs A Maid" is classic indeed. Really over-the-top, but so is(are) the sentiment(s). An ex-girlfriend got me into the song (I used to think it was mawkish, over the top, blah blah blah), though now that I wish someone was cleaning my house and I find myself falling for fictional characters and celebrities I REALLY like the song. s woods might be right, I dunno if Neil's overwraughtness would work without the big strings. Bright Eyes always works better with grandiose music for me than without, usually. BE's "Nothing Gets Crossed Out" could be Conor's "Man Needs A Maid" if he didn't have so many of them.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, April 4, 2003 3:39 PM (6 years ago)

Harvest was awesome to me at about the age of 15, but I've heard so many albums since that do the same thing better, that I almost never listen to it anymore. Even most of Neil's own Neil-and-guitar albums are better than Harvest. *shrug*

harvest is one of the few commercially extremely successful albums i love. not sure if i haven't played it to death but i remember listeing to it in a luxembourg cafe by chance about 15 years ago and it was absolutely perfect. a heart of gold is one of the few songs i used to hate because for it's softness and simple tune when i was young and love now.

69. Herbie Hancock - Sextant (1973) [96 points, 12 votes]

http://i47.tinypic.com/jrb81k.jpg

Sextant is among my top 5 records ever, it's just amazing.

― Tuomas, Tuesday, December 11, 2007 3:33 PM (2 years ago)

Herbie Hancock's 'Sextant' (1973?), sounds like the Aphex Twin

― dave q, Wednesday, August 22, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

It's interesting to speculate what would've happened if Herbie and Gleeson had continued their collaboration from where it ended on Sextant, instead of Herbie forming the Headhunters. Maybe Herbie's sensibility for funk rhythms and Gleeson's electronic experimentalism could've lead them to techno? "Rain Dance" is pretty much proto-techno already, all it needs is an added drum machine beat.

― Tuomas, Saturday, January 10, 2009 10:18 AM (11 months ago)

I go with Herbie Hancock's ["Rain Dance"] from Sextant. Play that to people and then go ... that was 1973 they just won't believe it.

― phil, Wednesday, August 22, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

GET IN THERE!

cool!

so far 5 from my ballot have shown up, but I can't see more than 10 others I voted for making it.

I think headhunters will make it but doubt the others will sadly

Oh, Harvest had to be so much higher, it's a lovely thing. It's also responsible for one of the most deliciously excruciating moments of my life, when a work colleague got drunk one Friday evening and started getting all teary-eyed about what a good guy his old man was, then sat up on his barstool and air-guitared and sang 'Old Man' for us all.

That's a touching story, but it doesn't make me like the album any more than I do already. ;)

68. Stevie Wonder - Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) [97 points, 10 votes]

http://i50.tinypic.com/2s0fko5.jpg

Stevie Wonder's "Fulfillingness First Finale" is the best R&B album ever...

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, October 19, 2003 3:53 PM (6 years ago)

Fulfillingness' First Finale has always bugged the shit out of me.

― The Reverend, Tuesday, November 20, 2007 8:10 AM (2 years ago)

“When I was at that point where you start getting involved in music, Stevie had that run with Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Innervisions, and then Songs in the Key of Life. Those are as brilliant a set of five albums as we’ve ever seen.” — Barack Obama (via Rolling Stone)

― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, June 25, 2008 2:57 PM (1 year ago)

^ awesome set of tributes

Geir + Rev + Obama = comedy gold!

Awesome - my favorite Stevie Wonder album and my #2 vote overall.

x-post.

for a minute there I thought that read Geir + Rev = Obama.

Goodness, no! You'd need, I don't know, a square-root in there somewhere!

haha!

*mind explodes*

Have we finally and truly entered the post-racial era?

67. Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979) [98 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i45.tinypic.com/5nsyns.jpg

totally classic. not a single second of filler. 'what a day' and 'persuasion' are my personal picks.

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Monday, March 13, 2006 5:14 PM (3 years ago)

have we FINALLY found the mythic "album that everyone on ILX likes"? in the shape of THROBBING GRISTLE?? awesome.

― electrogrouse (haitch), Tuesday, March 14, 2006 7:16 AM (3 years ago)

Well it is their pop album

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, March 14, 2006 7:17 AM (3 years ago)

(Used the super-rare Fetish version of the cover just for fun!)

at last! an album i *might* have voted for (but didn't, because i haven't heard it) (this will be rectified)

There's your jazz and funk you guys.

shocked...SHOCKED!...to go back to my ballot and realize that this hadn't made the final cut! Great album.

was my first place vote, figured it would be much higher!

lol xxp

I voted for this excellent record. My ballot was unordered which is maybe not very strategic but once I got down to 40 it felt ridiculous to pretend one album was better than another.

One album is always better than another. A scenario to imagine for those who have difficulty with this -- in the next five seconds, all your top 40 albums are going to disappear forever, never to be heard again, save for the one you grab. Repeat as necessary.

(Tie) 65. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) [99 points, 9 votes]

http://i50.tinypic.com/2hp1tog.jpg

[T]he downside to much of post-Meddle Pink Floyd is that the songs are generally more interesting when they were still kicking them around on stage before going in to "properly" record them. Everyone owes it to themselves to track down a 1972 bootleg of DSOTM when it was still called "Eclipse." Radically different in places and occasionally more interesting.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, June 15, 2005 11:44 PM (4 years ago)

The Coldplay of the '70s!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, June 16, 2005 5:26 AM (4 years ago)

i wouldn't consider a top 100 of the seventies complete without pink floyd. dark side of the moon has to be the one.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Saturday, April 23, 2005 1:27 PM (4 years ago)

somehow that confuses me

the album with more votes should win any tie, shouldn't it? i can't imagine the other joint-65 getting only 9 votes. DSOTM is beloved of a few ilxors, but it's REALLY beloved

(predictable response time) This is the other top 100?

OK, now there's two albums I really detest here.

I used to hate it, but I enjoy it in a, er, blue moon. I still enjoy this too though: http://www.mr-agreeable.net/story.lasso?section=Reaper&id=51

Pretty astonished "20 Jazz Funk Greats " didn't place on the first poll – I thought that thing had its own church here.

xxp Whats the other one, sonofstan?

gonna guess 'imagine'

(Tie) 65. Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark (1974) [99 points, 9 votes]

http://i47.tinypic.com/4sbjmv.jpg

Both For the Roses and Court and Spark are arguably better than Blue.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, August 29, 2003 9:49 AM (6 years ago)

She's got so much stuff going on in each song, so good, like if Kate Bush was a creepy old lady who made you eat dusty circus peanuts when you visited her house as opposed to K8 who would, I don't know, let you paint her dog or something.

― kind-hearted, sensitive keytar player (Abbott), Monday, July 6, 2009 3:09 PM (5 months ago)

Lyrically she is much more than the fay hippie she's been portrayed as. She's got a great gift of observation re. people and relationships, which I guess puts her in the 'mature' category... Also, that kind of hippie outlook, she started out with, gave her a great perspective on the end of that dream during the 70s, as fantastically displayed on her classic trilogy: Court & Spark, Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira

― Fabrice (Fabfunk), Friday, August 29, 2003 4:02 AM (6 years ago)

*mind explodes*

― Electric Universe (wherever that is) (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 5 January 2010 22:58 (Yesterday) Bookmark

RE: DSOM

The Coldplay of the '70s!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, June 16, 2005 5:26 AM (4 years ago)

That's like some serious frickin' zen koan shit being thrown there.

64. The Pop Group - Y (1979) [99 points, 10 votes]

http://i47.tinypic.com/280qzwk.jpg

Strikes me that Y is a bit more accessible (however fleetingly) given the comparatively spacious production, the seemingly more varied instrumentation and the fact that guitarist Gareth Sanger actually coughs up an honest to goodness riff on occaision. There's also stubborn albeit skewed elements of jazz and dub to Y which make it just a tad easier to digest than the thorny, blackened No New York.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, September 20, 2005 2:39 PM (4 years ago)

'y' contains two of my all time favourite songs - 'thief of fire' and 'we are time' but it has a couple of weak moments.

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Tuesday, September 20, 2005 3:31 PM (4 years ago)

Maybe I'm projecting, but it seems to be an album that music snobs use to outdo each other in bouts of oneupsmanship. "Oh, you don't have Y on disc, eh? You're missing out, man!" "No, I actually have it on vinyl, if you must know!"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, September 21, 2005 12:04 PM (4 years ago)

court and spark should be higher! so so so so so good.

63. Al Green - The Belle Album (1977) [100 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i49.tinypic.com/1222sf5.jpg

the oft-maligned "The Belle Album" - the transitional one - is quite good.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, April 7, 2003 10:45 AM (6 years ago)

"Belle Album" as far as I can tell has never been maligned. I have the orig. old Hi LP of it--I feel safe in asserting that it's Green's greatest album.

― Jess Hill (jesshill), Monday, April 7, 2003 11:39 AM (6 years ago)

al green is the ramones of soul, bitches. all his songs sound damn near the same but are perhaps more brilliant because of this. can i copyright this analogy? ha

― titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Sunday, June 5, 2005 3:14 PM (4 years ago)

The Belle Album is...wonderful way of dealing with born-again-ism ("it's you I want but Him that I need"...the holy trinity love triangle)..."Feels Like Summer" couldn't be a more appropriate song title, and "Dream", well, if I ever get hitched (ILM Poster In Unmarried SHOCKER!) that will be "our" song...(if I can sell it, which I'm sure I can)...

― henry s, Monday, December 31, 2007 11:29 AM (2 years ago)

Speaking as the guy who had this as his #1 pick, this should be much much higher. It's my default answer to the desert island disc conundrum. I also consider it one of the half dozen or so greatest pieces of religious art ever made - one of the very few that effectively communicates the sensation of religious ecstasy. I'm glad that at least by placing it at #1, I made sure it placed.

Also I enthusiastically endorse the Green/Ramones analogy, since they're tied as my favorite recording artists of the 70s.

I'm nearly ashamed to say that all the Al Green I have is the Greatest Hits album. I'm definitely about to expand my familiarity with him, and The Belle Album seems like a fine place to begin.

If you at all put off by ostensive displays of religiousity, you might want to try I'm Still in Love with You first. That said, one the things that makes Belle such a great piece of religious art is because it's so much of a piece with everything else Green ever did. Unlike gospel, for example, this can't be mistaken as religious hysteria, and it's not a collective experience at all - it's Green's personal, idiosyncratic embrace of the Lord - made on Green's own perverse terms. It's like Green is alone in his own private universe with his Lord, and sorry babe, but no one else is invited. It's way it's essentially the narrative climax of the entire saga of Southern Soul - religious ecstasy gets folded back into the language of seduction, of secular cockmanship. He resolves the sex/manna/self/collective/relgion tensions that motivated soul by eliminating all meaningful distinctions between the multiple dichotomies that had generated the form.

If you *are* at all...

it's wayBelle is essentially...

Belle (the title track) is a near perfect song.

The story of Al Green through the 70s is one I want to read -- is there a good book?

i've never heard the Belle Album, but if it's so religiously charged why does AMG call it "the last secular work he would make for many years"?

I don't want to gum-up this thread with a YouTube video, but the songBelle is here.

It's not a gospel work, so I won't begrudge somebody calling it a secular album, even if it can largely be understood as somebody's expression of their Christian fervor to a secular ear. And certainly not every song directly relates to that experience mind you - nothing about Georgia Boy communicates much beyond the obvious. Also, AMG doesn't know that the hell it's talking about - Truth n Time is his last secular studio album until the 90s, and the secular Live in Tokyo was released in 82, so I don't know how they arrive at that judgment.

xxp Whats the other one, sonofstan?

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, January 5, 2010 11:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

gonna guess 'imagine'

― Electric Universe (wherever that is) (acoleuthic), Tuesday, January 5, 2010 11:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That predictable, I'm afraid...

62. Steely Dan - Katy Lied (1975) [100 points, 9 votes]

http://i45.tinypic.com/hskkf9.jpg

Except maybe for Gaucho, I find this their most despairing album and as such, an extremely unpleasant listening experience, great though it is. I can very much see why anyone would think twice before playing it ... "Doctor Wu," in many ways the ultimate Steely Dan song, for how it amps up both the catchiness and the nihilism and how it burdens single words with so much meaning.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 7:45 AM (1 year ago)

Ellington would've dug the horns in the bridge of "Throw Back the Little Ones."

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Wednesday, August 13, 2008 4:59 AM (1 year ago)

Katy Lied was my first Dan album, and it was "Everyone's Gone to the Movies" (perfectly evokes shag carpeted basement porn screenings) and "Dr. Wu" that sold me on 'em.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, April 11, 2006 3:49 PM (3 years ago)

the way the album ends, the last few notes..

― jabba hands, Tuesday, October 28, 2008 7:13 PM (1 year ago)

Fulfillingness' First Finale has always bugged the shit out of me.

― The Reverend, Tuesday, November 20, 2007 8:10 AM (2 years ago)

I read this and was like "Why would I say that?" I mean, it, along with Sextant are the first two albums here I voted for! Turns out I was talking about just the title "Fullfillingness' First Finale", not the music contained on the album.

I second whoever is hoping for a Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band placement, but I have my hopes up!

Sorry to take you out of context Rev. Sometimes I'm going through the ILM archives so fast looking for matching blurbs, that I forget what threads they relate to.

haha, no problem

61. Black Sabbath - Master of Reality (1971) [100 points, 11 votes]

http://i45.tinypic.com/33uc2vm.jpg

Well I've just finished the album and I must say my mind has been completely blown. I am absolutely speechless and will not play music for at least another half hour in sheer reverance.

― Bimble, Saturday, May 5, 2007 3:25 AM (2 years ago)

paranoid is probably the biggest step, but master of reality is a solidifying of their sound.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, August 29, 2006 6:57 PM (3 years ago)

Master of Reality on the whole is an explictly Christian album, I am actually writing every single day about exactly that aspect of it!

― J0hn D., Wednesday, June 6, 2007 4:51 PM (2 years ago)

^ I still need to buy this book.

40 down, 60 more to go...

100. ZZ Top - Tres Hombres (1973) [80 points, 7 votes]
99. Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges - Clube de Esquina (1972) [80 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote]
98. Chic - C'est Chic (1978) [80 points, 14 votes]
97. John Lennon - Imagine (1971) [80 points, 15 votes]
96. Patti Smith - Horses (1975) [80 points, 17 votes]
95. Van Halen - Van Halen (1978) [81 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote]
94. Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac (1975) [81 points, 8 votes]
93. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory (1970) [81 points, 11 votes]
92. Blondie - Eat to the Beat (1979) [82 points, 9 votes]
91. Miles Davis - Agharta (1976) [82 points, 10 votes]
90. Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties!! (1977) [83 points, 6 votes]
89. Neu! - Neu! 2 (1973) [83 points, 10 votes]
88. Tom Waits - Closing Time (1973) [84 points, 6 votes]
87. Black Sabbath - Vol. 4 (1972) [85 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]
86. Hawkwind - Space Ritual (1973) [85 points, 11 votes]
85. Aerosmith - Rocks (1976) [86 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]
84. Tubeway Army - Replicas (1979) [86 points, 9 votes]
83. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976) [86 points, 11 votes]
82. The Who - Live at Leeds (1970) [87 points, 6 votes]
81. Comus - First Utterance (1971) [87 points, 9 votes]
80. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece (1974) [88 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]
79. Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue (1977) [90 points, 10 votes]
78. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (1973) [92 points, 9 votes]
77. Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action (1976) [92 points, 10 votes]
76. Pere Ubu - Datapanik in the Year Zero EP (1978) [93 points, 6 votes]
75. ABBA - Arrival (1976) [93 points, 8 votes]
74. David Bowie - Lodger (1979) [93 points, 12 votes]
73. Cluster - Zuckerzeit (1974) [93 points, 14 votes]
72. Pere Ubu - Dub Housing (1978) [94 points, 12 votes]
71. The Rolling Stones - Some Girls (1978) [95 points, 13 votes]
70. Neil Young - Harvest (1972) [96 points, 9 votes]
69. Herbie Hancock - Sextant (1973) [96 points, 12 votes]
68. Stevie Wonder - Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) [97 points, 10 votes]
67. Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979) [98 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]
(Tie) 65. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) [99 points, 9 votes]
(Tie) 65. Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark (1974) [99 points, 9 votes]
64. The Pop Group - Y (1979) [99 points, 10 votes]
63. Al Green - The Belle Album (1977) [100 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote]
62. Steely Dan - Katy Lied (1975) [100 points, 9 votes]
61. Black Sabbath - Master of Reality (1971) [100 points, 11 votes]

for the record, I am down for having some Obama babies with Geir

If ever there were a reason for genetic engineering to exist, this is that reason.

I thought about going full on Steely Dan stan and voting for all their eligible albums, but Katy Lied is really my least favorite of their '70s albums and I figured I should make room for other bands on my ballot.

Observation about this list so far: Fastnbulbous is probably right in that the '70s canon is so giant that even a second list of 100 albums is bound to be largely familiar. Not that this makes these albums any less good, but we'd probably have to poll, exclude, re-poll, exclude and re-poll another couple times before we get the kind of completely deep and provocative list we were hoping for. That said, I think the top half of these results will be more interesting to people than the bottom half when it's all over.

This poll really facilitated contemplation of the giantness of the giant 70s canon, with that amazing nominations/shopping/want list. I'd also just point out that this is a pretty rarefied crowd, ~20% of the voters gave points to Zuckerzeit, & so what's overly familiar to ILX poll voters & watchers is largely hopelessly obscure to most others. And we all don't share the same canon WITHIN the larger canon, so there are plenty of opportunities for surprise here. I was sure I was a mega-canonical voter, but only Dub Housing and Agharta have shown up from my ballot so far. I'd be curious to know who winds up with the most picks from their ballot on the final list.

Replicas, Imagine, Harvest and Master of Reality are from my ballot, but my other 36 are safe for now.

the thing is you're never going to get a truly interesting, surprising, unique list by polling a large group of people anyway, especially something that would interest and surprise that group itself. you only get that with a good individual list (and i can't wait to see everyone's ballot after this is all over).

six of mine on the list so far, if i'll get an additional six on it i'll be mildly surprised

So far seven of mine have placed - Tres Hombres, Van Halen, New Boots and Panties, Space Ritual, Jailbreak, Lodger and Master of Reality. I figure another five or six have a good shot, though I'd love to see more (like my top two, for example).

Master of Reality on the whole is an explictly Christian album, I am actually writing every single day about exactly that aspect of it!

― J0hn D., Wednesday, June 6, 2007 4:51 PM (2 years ago)

^ I still need to buy this book.

― Johnny Fever

You really do. Incredibly moving book.

That's the spirit! The more we revel in the vastness of awesome 70s music, the less cranky I get. I just had a flashback to a class my freshman year in high school in 1983 when we were having some sort of discussion about music and culture. I was ejected from the class because a girl said the 70s was a total wasteland, and I called her a "silly twat." Oops!

I was ejected from the class because a girl said the 70s was a total wasteland

That's how I feel about the 90s now, but I'm sure I liked it at the time. One day, I might get there again.

Only three I voted for i think, but I stuck to my pig headed 'one album one artist' rule in order to get the list down, so a few of my alternate choices have come in - for example I only listed 'The Modern Dance', but could have voted for all three Ubus, I went for St. Dominic's Preview, but Veedon Fleece was a close second there, I went for Al green Explores your Mind......

Eight off my list are in. Glad to see my #1 (Veedon Fleece)and #2 (The Wild, the etc) make it. I thought I knew my 70s music pretty well but damn if there aren't a number of discs from bands I'd never knew existed. ILX in long tail shocker.

i thought my ballot was pretty conventional almost-canon stuff but only 4 of 40 have shown up so far...

88. Tom Waits - Closing Time (#27)
83. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (#12)
80. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece (#18)
62. Steely Dan - Katy Lied (#15)

hope a couple of my prog picks get in, as obvious and canonical as they are

Only 2 from my list so far (Comus and Sabbath Vol 4), hoping for another 10 or so but I get the feeling Blue Oyster Cult won't make it...

All forty of mine have now appeared.

Not really - the actual total is seven, of which three are from my top ten. I'm middle of the road.

My votes so far appearing: Neu! 2, Space Ritual, Comus and Cluster.

No idea how many more of mine will appear, almost certainly a few, but this list is already completely different from how I expected it to turn out, so who knows?

i only did a ballot for 35 (36-40 only get a point if you do ordered, didnt feel like sifting through dozens of albums to get a point). so far, just 2 from mine (ccr #4, chic #8)

I'm glad to see Sextant made it, I was beginning to fear it wouldn't. It was my #5 vote (and only one of my votes to appear yet), but it could've easily been my #1, as my top 5 could've basically been in any order. It seems a consensus has formed on ILX that it's Herbie's best album, which indeed it is. Sextant features everything that was great about electric jazz in the late 60s/early 70s, before fusion froze into a set of cliches: the restless electronic experimentation, the abstract but undeniably funky rhythms, the freedom-within-a-groove horn blowouts. It's kinda sad that this was pretty much the swan song of the Mwandishi band (there are those two Eddie Henderson albums where most of the band appears, but as nice as they are, they feel less inspired than the albums released under Herbie's name). The Headhunters were a fine band too, and they released some awesome funk records, but there's just so much potentiality on those three Mwandishi albums (especially Sextant), so many exciting directions the music might've taken if the band could have continued playing.

Anway, I'm beginning to fear that only two or three of my top 40 might actually appear in the top 100. I'm still certain Curtis Mayfield's debut will make it, but I'm not so sure about anything else. If you look at top 60-100, 33 of the 40 albums appear to be more or less in the rock mold (I'm a bit uncertain about a couple of those), which feels way too much fo me. In my opinion the 70s were most likely the best decade ever for "black" music (African-American, Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, Nigerian, Jamaican, Brazilian, etc), but I don't see this being reflected in the poll (yet). I guess I gotta just face the facts, that rock will always be the consensus choice.

my choices are so obvious I'm starting to feel bad for not voting for the more obscure and thus throwing the list into boring territory (though I have to admit that I've found it anything but so far).

That is how I feel too, on both counts, but given how I wouldn't have predicted the results so far it is also entirely possible that actually most of my obvious picks will not turn up at all

still feeling bad for turning in a very rockist (or at least very white) list - sheer musical ignorance I'm afraid, will attempt to school myself at some point, let's hope the results of this poll will allow for some of that as well as a few more of my choices popping up

my list is pretty white too, but out of racism more than anything

Ha!

(well played sir, was rather a stupid non-confession of mine there, but still, this thread has underlined the need to broaden my horizons)

Really beginning to fear for my babies now and wishing I'd ordered my list - there's three records in particular I'd love to see here, but as we go higher the likelihood of that recedes.

Sabotage or bust!

I'm shut out so far!

Did Geir vote?

all of my fav '70s R&B albums are stuff that's either so canonical that it made the first list, or not canonical enough to make this list

my list contains precisely one black person although he is one of the funkiest bassists that has ever lived so probably counts for 3 or 4 (the great Barry Adamson, obviously)

i don't feel especially guilty for this. sure soul jazz and r&b deserve lots of placements here, and sure they'll get them. sometimes a dude has to go bat for art-rock, s'all. i've called it based on what are my favourite albums [/geir]

i wish there was an equal desire on the part of the soul/jazz fans to expand their horizons towards progressive rock! [/geir]

god see talking about this makes me sound like geir

i wish there was an equal desire on the part of the soul/jazz fans to expand their horizons towards progressive rock

ahem, back when you were still in short trousers son...

I don't know, all this talk about 'black music' and 'white music', but what about the Asians, guys? Won't somebody think of the Asians?

and no, not last year.
xp

yeah granted pfunkboy

i do need to hear more carnatic music etc. microtonal scales, drones, and other groovy things

Actually, I only have two Asian bands on my list - YMO and FTB. But still.

60. Various Artists - No New York (1978) [101 points, 10 votes]

http://i49.tinypic.com/2vmyfzp.jpg

I hate how "No New York" and "no wave" have become synonyms for "noisy."

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, July 30, 2004 3:11 PM (5 years ago)

I'm not sure what "lasting impact" *No New York* has had, since no NY bands since have really matched what the Contortions, DNA, Mars, and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks did on it (which isn't to say nobody's made music that *good* -- I mean, I just don't see how they've really influenced anybody in especially interesting ways, and when bands have *tried* to do what they did, they usually fall flat on their faces.)

― chuck, Thursday, June 5, 2003 1:02 PM (6 years ago)

When No New York hit unsuspecting record store shelves, the cache of Eno's involvement may have helped shift a few units, but I certainly don't believe it wasn't designed to suggest a bubbling well-spring of untapped profit-generators so much as take a snapshot of a truly unique, fleeting art movement.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, June 7, 2003 4:09 PM (6 years ago)

Never heard of that one.

I guess I'm a middle-of-the-road voter too, since both of my picks that have placed thus far are ultra-canonical, ie. Bruce and Stevie.

sure soul jazz and r&b deserve lots of placements here, and sure they'll get them. sometimes a dude has to go bat for art-rock, s'all.

i feel u on this, but r&b and soul are no less artful and u should def make a quest to know the most prolific time of funky shit

i will be chasing this stuff down. the 80's poll got me into prince!

if u dig the mega-genius of prince, u should follow the advice of the usa president and listen to that 5-album run by noted-recording artist stevie wonder

I'm still holding out hope that Lawrence of Newark made it. Oh, and Don Cherry's Brown Rice. That's fucking killer too. But I think that my ballot may have been functionally irrelevant…

Disappointed in the low placement of NNY. I think it was in my top 10 in the original poll. I hope Tusk takes this.

I thought NNY was definitely canon enough to make it top 30.

I was kind of surprised how high NNY was -- highly admired, rarely loved. Again, how can anything ranked in the top 100 out of over 1,300 options be considered low, considering there's easily another 1,000 worthy candidates?

I picked up CCR's Green River used to reconsider, and realized I already had most of the tracks on the two comps. At least it was a 40th Anniv remaster (didn't have Cosmo's), and I always prefer to hear the songs in the sequence they intended. I do like their chooglin', it was probably just a mistake to listen to their entire catalog all at once. I don't know that I can stomach ABBA though, I'm still recovering from Mama Mia.

tusk is 1980 tho?

19 oct 1979 according to wikipedia

'79.

Completely forgot to finish my voting ballot. Enjoying what I see and read so far!

Format:

Position, Album title, Artist, Year, Points, Votes.

Picture.

Blog/posts of people dissing the album
One post from someone who likes it
Tuomas post about having never heard of it.

Comfort and familiarity in these troubled times.

59. The Specials - Specials (1979) [102 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i47.tinypic.com/2lasqe0.jpg

First album : the most classic of the classic, of all music.. seriously. "The Specials" was the most important and therapeutic record for me back in the day, when I used to feel like a social fuck-up.

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, December 13, 2002 1:55 PM (7 years ago)

Their first album alone redeems them from any possible later crimes they may have committed.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, December 13, 2002 5:08 PM (7 years ago)

In high school a friend gave me a copy of "Lifes Rich Pageant" that he'd taped over a copy of this Specials album, so that right after the end of "Superman" you'd come in halfway through "Little Bitch," and I was completely captivated by this amazing half-song, which it was two years before I learned what it was and bought the record.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, December 16, 2008 8:39 PM (1 year ago)

Still prefer the first Beat album to this one i think, but both are classic

I didn't notice the Specials were on the nominations list I just assumed it was in the first time round. I would have voted it for if I'd have seen it, the first two albums are total classics.

I love that story from eephus.

Seven of my 40 in so far, got no idea whether most of my others stand a chance of placing. My picks were certainly more varied in terms of genre than my '80s list was. For the last two or three years the '70s has been a constant source of unheard treasures for me really.

Sorry they're so few today, guys. My internet keeps going out for an hour or more at a time.

58. John Cale - Fear (1974) [104 points, 11 votes]

http://i50.tinypic.com/11u7x48.jpg

I've listened to the Fear album at least 100 times in the past week. I can't believe I had gone this far without ever hearing Ship of Fools.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Monday, July 31, 2006 8:08 PM (3 years ago)

John Cale's Fear, the piano in the title track seems startlingly real to me.

― nickn (nickn), Monday, October 2, 2006 5:23 PM (3 years ago)

(very little of any substance written on Fear in the archives, which is odd.)

plus ça change

You add it up, it brings you down.

Polls are a man's best friend.

you know it makes sense, don't even think about it

Glad it's here, but again, i voted for a different one (Vintage Violence)

57. Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Schmilsson (1971) [106 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i49.tinypic.com/2njaefp.jpg

Finally got Nilsson Schmilsson and it's pretty much wall-to-wall stuff that will get stuck in my head for whole days at a time. "Gotta Get Up" is so fucking classic it's not funny.

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Friday, March 3, 2006 11:40 AM (3 years ago)

"Nilsson Schmilsson" isn't as good as the early albums, "Son of Schmilsson" isn't as good as "Nilsson Schmilsson". "A Little Schmilsson in the Night" I like. The other albums are hideously patchy and often just plain hideous until you get to "Knnillsson" which is good again.

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Tuesday, June 7, 2005 9:56 AM (4 years ago)

nilsson schmilsson is both the commercial and critical high point, with, among other things, his mega-hit cover of the badfinger pop ballad "without you" and the hard-grooving "jump into the fire." the former was covered (again) by mariah carey; the latter is currently being covered by lcd soundsystem.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, November 23, 2004 9:33 AM (5 years ago)

yay!

I defs drove some roommates crazy by constantly playing Nilsson Scmilsson in 2003.

Nilsson Schmilsson is one of those albums I'm pretty sure I would love but have never gotten around to hearing. Hmm.

I was glad to see this make the cut, tbh. It was hovering right outside of the top 100 for a long, long time.

Voted for two Nilsson albums and I don't think either will make the cut now.

The Specials s/t is my #1, natch! And so far the only intersection between my ballot and the poll.

Great story too, eephus!em,!

56. King Crimson - Red (1974) [109 points, 12 votes]

http://i50.tinypic.com/33w9k08.jpg

Red is my favourite of the earlier Crimson, because it's not too wacky. Red is not quite so inane, lyrically, and the music is muscular and scary in places, without getting too overblown.

― Sean Carruthers, Thursday, February 14, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

I do not get why everyone loves Red. It rocks. I enjoy it. But what does this record do that Black Sabbath or Deep Purple or even Genesis didnt do better years before?

― Miza Din II, Monday, October 22, 2007 5:12 PM (2 years ago)

I dreamed last night that I was frantically and passionately playing air guitar to "Red," to the shock and amusement of several friends. Fer chrissake, people - air guitar (!!). LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!! :)

― Ernest P., Wednesday, September 4, 2002 7:48 AM (7 years ago)

I went through a pretty severe King Crimson phase right after high school, but I'll be damned if I can remember how any of the songs go these days. I remember favoring this and Larks' Tongues more than any others, though.

the ultimate crimson has always been in the court of the crimson king for me. red is different than the others though. less prog, more rock.

(xp)

tbh I've found the actual ending of Lifes Rich Pageant sort of a letdown ever since

hurrah one of mine makes it

omg nilsson schmilsson is amazing. ty ilx.

55. Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978) [110 points, 12 votes]

http://i45.tinypic.com/ih8bhe.jpg

Well, I don't see much outside value in it, but I have "Music For Airports" and I keep it for its effect on sleeplessness. It's perfect for that use.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, September 6, 2007 4:53 AM (2 years ago)

i think Brian Eno once said this was made for playing in hospitals as well.

― k wonder, Monday, June 27, 2005 9:51 AM (4 years ago)

Eno's "Music For Airports" - soothing and relaxing. Ideally, this would be listened to while drinking garlic/ginger/cayenne/lemon juice tea.

― sleeve (sleeve), Thursday, June 29, 2006 9:14 PM (3 years ago)

Eno = not ambient. Just because he labels it such, doesn't make it so. 'Music for Airports' was played in an airport, it was so obtrusive that everybody hated it and demanded it be taken off! (Or is that an urban legend?)

― tarden, Monday, July 16, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

Well is it?

i never understood the appeal of this and "discreet music". "on land" on the other hand is one of the most fascinating records of his. it sounds so excitingly natural.

Well is it?

I've heard that as well, but I can't find anything on it.

haha I can no longer complain about none of mine making it! although in fairness I only voted for Red because a) Starless is amaaaazing and b) I figured that unlike the others it might actually show

but yeah it's pretty good

i'm still hoping Larks' makes it too. do like the cover of Red more though.

54. Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove (1978) [110 points, 13 votes]

http://i48.tinypic.com/runv9c.jpg

One Nation is a Parliament album, that happens to have the Funkadelic name on it.

― Bill Magill, Friday, April 13, 2007 4:52 PM (2 years ago)

One Nation is the strongest of the later albums. It does have some great tracks on it.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Sunday, April 15, 2007 10:00 PM (2 years ago)

Look, if music had died in 1975, there would have been no One Nation Under A Groove. Without One Nation Under A Groove there would have been no reason to live. End of story.

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Friday, May 14, 2004 5:41 AM (5 years ago)

Hoorah!

nothing can stop us nowwwwww

lol I still got nothing. Voted for a different Funkadelic album.

i voted for this, uncle jam, and free your mind, i think the latter still has a good shot of placing

I'm trying to fight off post-lunch food coma and general it's 4:00 and it's pitch-black winter malaise, and my 70s mix is going from Nilsson's mellow "I'll Never Leave You" to Cale's "Buffalo Ballet" ('Sleeping in the midday sun'). Not helping!

I didn't vote for that, but it's nice to finally see some funk on the list! Hopefully there'll be plenty more! It would be nice to see some Meters and Fela here, though I kinda suspect vote splitting will mean no Fela albums in the top 100.

Yeah the latter was my pick, I was on 1 album max per artist else I'd never be able to get down to 40 albums, it was bad enough as it was!

xxpost

me too col poo , lol. I figured it would make it as its the usual token pick in mags so i voted for 5 better funkadelic albums.
xps

standing on the verge of getting it on is the best funkadelic after Maggot Brain imo along with free your mind so im hoping they might place ahead of one nation.

53. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975) [111 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i47.tinypic.com/i2u6n7.jpg

Summer Lawns manages to cram its ambition into a setting so coherent and flowing that you don't really notice its complexity at first. The title track blows my mind.

― The Lex (The Lex), Friday, August 1, 2003 10:35 AM (6 years ago)

i like hissing because it takes what can initially seem a bland LA jazzlite sound (and theme?) and spins it into somrthing blurred, sundazed, strange

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, August 3, 2003 9:59 PM (6 years ago)

"hissing .." shows she was prepared to then push things into those interesting sonic areas. I love its opening of "france kiss mainstreet"/ "jungle line", and even occasionally fantasize as to those songs being a pop-shot at the rolling stones. For me, "hissing .." is the one, even if it's promises have largely been left un-followed-up.

― george gosset (gegoss), Friday, December 5, 2003 2:02 AM (6 years ago)

<3 hissing

I'm really glad to see Funkadelic made it. I voted for that one and Chocolate City by Parliament.

Apart from Curtis Mayfield I think most of the soul and funk I voted for must have missed out. I thought Minnie Riperton, War or the Meters might have made it.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for both Minnie Riperton and The Meters.

From David Sheppard's Eno biog:
"...the album was played at LaGuardia. It was installed for a month in the Marine Terminal in 1980 and was followed by further airings at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, and later, in a number of other terminals. No empirical data exists to confirm the psycho-behavioural efficacy (or otherwise) of the music in situ, but there was the odd anecdotal report of a sensitive traveler complaining about the music inducing queasiness and another of passengers nodding of, although these remain uncorroborated."

A 70s top 100 without a single Minnie record would feel... I dunno, just wrong.

I think we may have voted for different Minnie albums isn't Adventures in Paradise your favourite? I went for the first album.

I voted for Rejuvination by The Meters as Loving You is On My Mind is one of the best songs I've ever heard.

I voted for both Come into My Garden and Adventures in Paradise, but yeah, I did put AiP higher in my ballot. I didn't manage to squeeze Perfect Angel into my top 40, but I'd be happy if it made it too.