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

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.