1. Forever Changes2. The Velvet Underground & Nico3. The Doors4. Are You Experienced?5. Days of Future Passed
not to mention the two Beatles, the other Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, the Byrds and the Who.
― Bee OK, Monday, 21 July 2014 15:36 (nine years ago) link
obviously a pretty ridiculously great year but Piper edges em all for me
― Now I Am Become Dracula (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 21 July 2014 17:12 (nine years ago) link
1. John Wesley Harding 2. Sgt. Peppers 3. Safe as Milk
― o. nate, Monday, 21 July 2014 18:58 (nine years ago) link
Damn, I might make JWH my first choice too---not that it's the best, but one that may well have gotten further under my skin than any other (but can I really say that, considering VU & N, Peppers, Piper, others--?) Anyway, I played the hell out of it in high school, and then again several years later, when I was doing acid. It wasn't actually more alienated and compulsively observational than much of his other 60s stuff---how can you get more etc. than most of Highway 61?---but the boondocks bleakness, times little-but-wiry resourcefulness, especially spoke to hick me: kind of Huck Finn, back for more All-American civilization frustration (spoiler: he finally gets laid). The title song seemed like take-off on cowboy politics (as busted by New Left smarties). the laid-back roll of the outlaw Pres, plus "a gun in every hand": how many hands did he have? The distortions of colorful "historical" BS, not so far from Georgie Washington's cherry tree (and several decades before Frances Fitzgerald's classic America Revised, 'bout how public school textbooks in use all over the country were skewed to the dinosaur demands of major markets like Texas). And actual historical anomalies, like, way before Fawn Brodie brought up Jefferson's slave relations again, Dyl's already got Tom Paine(!) apologizing to him for a runaway gal's drama.And the album still seems like a rebuttal to "Americana," way back when hippies were just starting to get back to th' country. Not that "Watchtower" and "Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" aren't whole stories in themselves.
― dow, Monday, 21 July 2014 20:23 (nine years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 00:01 (nine years ago) link
wonder if Jimi Hendrix would win the poll of zero votes?
― Bee OK, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 02:14 (nine years ago) link
somehow overlooked it, it came out in 68 in the us so somehow i filed it under 68 even though it's not like i was around. yeah something else would give it some comp but yeah i would vote axis, easily my fave hendrix album
― balls, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 02:40 (nine years ago) link
Nice take on JWH, dow. I forgot to vote. Of the zero vote getters, I might go for the Kinks or maybe Strange Days.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 02:43 (nine years ago) link
For me, Byrds, Kinks, Country Joe, Moody Blues.
― Lee626, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 05:09 (nine years ago) link
man people really still love the Velvets. does anybody share my "I was seriously in love with the Velvets to the point of obsession once, but they don't really do the job for me any more" experience?
― Now I Am Become Dracula (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 23 July 2014 15:44 (nine years ago) link
They do a different job for me now. Previous job was "What the hell is this?! This exists?! I love this!" Current job is "Ah, so THAT'S how/why/where they incorporated their Ornette/Cecil influences!" and "OK, now that I've listened to Tony Conrad and the Dream Syndicate recordings, I can hear Cale's application of those innovations from a whole different perspective."
"Maureen Tucker is a motherfucker of a drummer" always a constant.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 23 July 2014 15:50 (nine years ago) link
But I voted for the Who.
I'm close to where you are, aero.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, 23 July 2014 16:36 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, me too.
― rockist popist papist (WilliamC), Wednesday, 23 July 2014 17:29 (nine years ago) link
Can't imagine a time when I'll not love the first Velvets album. Two or three songs I've never felt strongly about, but my favourites never lose anything. It's probably White Light that becomes less useful (if that's the right word) to me as I get older.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 23 July 2014 18:41 (nine years ago) link
I still love "Waiting for the Man", but it's been a long time since I've listened to VU & Nico. I was never particularly obsessed with it and always found it hard to play all the way through. Maybe I heard it too late (or too early) in my listening life. Both Sgt Peppers and Safe as Milk blew my mind a lot more on first listen than VU & Nico.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 23 July 2014 18:58 (nine years ago) link
the velvets never meant that much to me when i was younger but they've gotten more important to me in the last couple years. the songwriting on the last two albums espec is incredible. i like most of the first album but it's not really in the same league as the best stuff here imo.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 23 July 2014 19:17 (nine years ago) link
poll results v much in character
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 23 July 2014 19:19 (nine years ago) link
These are almost uniformly "great LPs I don't quite love as much as I feel I should". Except Magical Mystery Tour which I love more than I should (maybe my favorite Beatles album) and Something Else which is unimpeachable. And got 0 votes bc I wasn't paying attn.
― before you die you see the rink (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 24 July 2014 17:24 (nine years ago) link
which Something Else? Ornette? the Move? Tech N9ne? the Kinks?
― Now I Am Become Dracula (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 24 July 2014 18:27 (nine years ago) link
'67 is mindboggling. I could probably think of another dozen or so albums from that year that I love at least as much as some of the selections here. I have no idea what I'd pick for the top slot. Worst album of '67 is pretty easy, though: Bowie's debut. Ugh.
― Ham Slices (Old Lunch), Thursday, 24 July 2014 18:36 (nine years ago) link
Damn, missed this poll. Woulda given a sympathy vote to Days of Future Passed.
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 24 July 2014 18:40 (nine years ago) link
Wow, surprised with the low ranking of Sgt Pep's... woulda gone for VU myself, but it's certainly in my Top 5. I doubt there's another board out there that's bought into the myth less.
― Adam J Duncan, Monday, 20 July 2015 09:53 (eight years ago) link
I've always thought the second side of Pepper is rather weak until the last song
― Lee626, Monday, 20 July 2015 20:05 (eight years ago) link