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

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!