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

I've never even listened to the Specials album (ska aversion). I'll listen to it soon and get back to you. xp

what a disaster for cheerful sots

what a disaster for cheerful sots
what a chance you'll always get back
what a meaningful prayer

what a cold scuffle searching for kicks
...

(Tie) 49. The Who - Who's Next (1971) [112 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i49.tinypic.com/flanv9.jpg

Sure, you've heard "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" too many times (damn you, CSI!) its undeniably classic, easily the Who's OPO. If nothing else, for Entwistle's best song "My Wife."

― Mitya (mitya), Monday, March 13, 2006 7:21 PM (3 years ago)

As for Who's Next it's both classic and dud. Past 1967, Townshend's failures are generally pretty interesting and the sinking of Lifehouse results in a pretty outstanding rock album without all the conceptual blubber of hippie mysticism weighing it down. I'd dump some of the tracks with a couple of the Odds And Sods leftovers (really just "Pure And Easy" and "Naked Eye") though.

Who's Next also marks the point where the studio version of The Who completely separates from the live version of The Who. It's not surprising, Townshend has everything he needs to feed his maniac pursuit to whatever/wherever, but the one thing he can't do is get the live sound down of the 70s-era Who. Too bad, the live versions of "Won't Get...," "Baba...," and "My Wife" on The Kids Are Alright are still U & K and there's a live take of "Bargain" out there that's just amazing.

― The Equator Lounge (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, March 14, 2006 2:32 PM (3 years ago)

Keith Moon's drumming is positively godlike all over this record. It's a full percussion session built into one guy. I really love the freakout drumming on Bargain and his playing is so groovy under neath that autowah solo out on Going Mobile.

Those synth/organ loops on Baba O'Riley and Won't Get Fooled Again are really ahead of the curve for 1971.

― earlnash, Wednesday, December 30, 2009 12:25 AM (1 week ago)

i didn't put who's next or dark side of the moon on my ballot but i loved loved loved them when i was younger and getting into "classic rock" so maybe i only left them out because they were too obvious...

like i basically assumed they were on the first list, only on ILX do they miss a top 20 70s records list let alone top 100

Should've just made this a list of 102 albums so they could be included out of obligation. (Or 103, to include Born to Run... which, duh, is coming up on this list in the future. Sorry to spoil the suspense.)

Born to Run is a bit different though in that Springsteen doesn't quite seem to have made the popularity leap to my generation in the same way Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Beatles etc. have. He's not a central piece of the "classic rock" canon that gets remarketed to younger folks. I didn't listen to him until much later on when my interest in music grew broader.

(Tie) 49. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Armed Forces (1979) [112 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i47.tinypic.com/r2rr76.jpg

This was the first Costello album I heard, sometime in 1980. As a kid who was used to Queen, ELO, Styx, etc., this album along with Fear Of Music and Pleasure Principle sounded pretty radical and changed my idea of what constitutes a "good song." Few songs on Armed Forces (much better title than the overly blunt Emotional Fascism) were directly catchy. To me it sounded to be more about wordplay and creative arrangements and production.

― Fastnbulbous, Monday, June 30, 2008 4:02 AM (1 year ago)

this is a great album overall, a top three Elvis C album for me. this is the album where he really over-extended himself on the wordplay though, and got much too clever for his own good. thankfully he seemed to realise that at the time because the puns were never so laboured or obtrusive again.

― Roberto Spiralli, Sunday, June 29, 2008 11:17 PM (1 year ago)

Armed Forces has some of the best inner-sleve artwork, ever, and careens between overdone wordplay, earnest emotion, and cutting lines like "she has a chemistry class, I want a piece of her... mind" which I adore.

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, May 23, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

^ just about every critique in the archives mentions the wordplay on this album. I agree that sometimes it gets so self-consciously clever that it borders on distracting, but "Green Shirt" can't be topped and I'd hate it if he dumbed it down.

another good one i didn't vote for!

when i was 5 or so i used to run out of the room when 'oliver's army' came on because i was scared of it. great song!

That's so weird! What did you find scary about it?

48. David Bowie - Aladdin Sane (1973) [113 points, 11 votes]

http://i45.tinypic.com/4jbyg.jpg

Fun fact = compare Mike Garson's piano solo twiddling on Aladdin Sane to his backing work for the Pumpkins in 1998 and 2000 and see how very little has changed.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, April 26, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

Bowie's best LP, Garson is perfect, etc. One of the first LPs I bought and I still have that 30-year old slab of wax.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, June 24, 2003 5:16 PM (6 years ago)

Worst crime against humanity: ethnic cleansing or not knowing every single track on Aladdin Sane?

― King Boy Pato, Tuesday, December 4, 2007 6:52 AM (2 years ago)

I'm way badder than the janjaweed

oh! sorry. i just found the melody scary! can't explain why. i think the piano was too real for me

not the best bowie album but the title track might be my favorite bowie song

47. Harmonia - Musik von Harmonia (1974) [113 points, 13 votes]

http://i48.tinypic.com/i3xhzt.jpg

"Musik von Harmonia" is one of my favorite records. Absolutely gorgeous and compelling music. Listening to "Dino" on loop is possible for hours.

― direct_program, Tuesday, November 4, 2003 11:21 AM (6 years ago)

I have looked longingly and enviously at the photograph inside the sleeve of "Musik Von Harmonia" of that rad practice/studio space filled with antiques and analogue keyboards and big fuck-off amps and floor-to-ceiling french doors with curtains and fur coats thrown gallantly across big comfy overstuffed chairs so many times . . . sigh.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Thursday, January 6, 2005 2:09 PM (5 years ago)

I think I like the first Harmonia record slightly better, it's less pop, less studio, more flowing, pastoral and unforced, and occasionally flat out weird, a couple nice noisy moments. that first track 'watussi' is probably my favorite Harmonia moment and 'sehr kosmiche'... yes.

― (Jon L), Thursday, January 6, 2005 3:24 PM (5 years ago)

True story: Last week I was listening to Harmonia's Musik von Harmonia at work and one of my co-workers asked if it was the Mannheim Steamroller Xmas album.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, December 6, 2002 9:25 AM (7 years ago)

I have never heard of Harmonia, but that's a great cover.

it's an album I really want to hear! need to get more of the krauty stuff down me

I still haven't listened to this one, but I grabbed Deluxe during the nominations process and it's absolutely exquisite.

True story: Last week I was listening to Harmonia's Musik von Harmonia at work and one of my co-workers asked if it was the Mannheim Steamroller Xmas album.

This comment is so awesome!

I really like the Harmonia album & I voted for it but tbh it's of a genre I call "music without interest." One of those albums that sometimes when I'm listening to it, I think 'I should put on some music' before realizing that some music is already on.

46. Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick (1977) [116 points, 9 votes]

http://i47.tinypic.com/eun0q8.jpg

it's almost perfect. so amazing in every way. the only reason they didn't make it perfect was so that they wouldn't offend God.

― scott seward, Thursday, June 19, 2008 7:51 PM (1 year ago)

I do think the group's debut is in a category all its own. They never really mixed the heavy and the pop in quite the same way.

― QuantumNoise (Justin Farrar), Thursday, March 30, 2006 12:47 PM (3 years ago)

Bimble is so happy. This band makes me really, really happy.

― Druid-y Witchy (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Sunday, January 25, 2009 11:15 PM (11 months ago)

Woohoo! Finally something I voted for :)

Applause for Harmonia

This poll is starting to look like a major disappointment. We're at #46, and still we've had only 6 albums of soul/funk/jazz/disco, 1 Brazilian album and no reggae, Afro-Cuban music, Afrobeat, etc at all. Even the earlier, supposedly more canonical 70s poll looked better than this one at #46 (with 2 soul albums, 2 reggae albums, 3 jazz albums, 3 disco albums, and 3 funk albums in the top 46-100). Is it possible ILM has become even more rockist in the 5 years between the two polls?

A poll is a major disappointment if it does not confirm my own good taste.

Exactly.

A poll is a major disappointment if it does not confirm Euler's good taste.

I don't know - I don't share Tuomas' tastes at all, but the results of this poll do seem egregiously focused on hoary old rock. So, I demand either some surprises or just for us to switch the poll results to exactly match my ballot, that would be good, yep.

Ach, I'm assuming that the real good stuff is up and coming.

Mostly consisting of each ILXor's top poll choice that had more than one additional vote.

I am feeling a bit bad about how my top 60 had every nominated reggae record I'd heard in and a couple of funk records, but of those only the one I nominated myself and am pretty sure nobody else would have voted for made it to my 40.

Oh no, don't say number 1 vs number 2 in individual polls will make such a major difference, I think any of my top 8 or so could easily have been my #1 on a different day!

Damn you people for not voting for albums you've never heard!

Emily OTM. It's not just a question of personal taste, it looks like some genres that were an important part of popular music in the 70s (artistically and/or commercially) are very much underrepresented, whereas the list is dominated by the same old boring rock musicians, only with different albums than in the previous poll.

why don't you make a 70s poll with the genres you are interested in, tuomas? the 70s non-rock, non-pop poll or something. or maybe a general non-pop, non-rock poll. that could be quite interesting.

I guess I was hoping that "alternate" in the poll title would mean an alternate history the seventies, not just alternate albums by Bowie and Springsteen and The Rolling Stones.

Well, at least a couple of those Kraut albums sound pretty interesting and new to me. Gotta check out Cluster and Harmonia.

(x-post)

I am kind of wondering what this poll would look like with none of the bands who featured in the first poll. But that would mean no "Autobahn", which would make me unhappy, and also no Al Green, Funkadelic, Parliament, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield... so maybe none of us would be happy then.

Basically my 70's knowledge is Punk/Post-Punk and then hoary old rock stuff, so sorry guys.

been a lot of my picks in the mix lately, Red Headed Stranger, Who's Next (my #1), Armed Forces...am reading the 33 1/3 on the latter at the moment and was just wondering where it would place here.

one of the albums I checked out while working on my ballot was Heaven Tonight, but i didn't quite like it enough to include it. should i be listening to the first Cheap Trick instead?

I've been on a Cheap Trick bender the last few days and have gotten a lot more out of In Color and the debut than Heaven Tonight. "Surrender" is a fantastic song but I don't think it sustains the high throughout, while the debut doesn't have massive singles/stand-outs but is consistently Beatletastic.

Armed Forces was my number one. My first and favourite Costello album and also probably my second favourite of the decade.

should i be listening to the first Cheap Trick instead?

Yes. In Color and Heaven Tonight are both good but aren't anywhere near the debut.

He's a whore from the debut has been in regular rotation for me since I discovered it a couple months ago.

There's much in common with the 101-200 in the previous poll. But there's some new things popping it to keep it interesting. Glad to see Harmonia make it. Here's something I wrote about them:

Frustrated with trying to assemble a live band for Neu! shows, Michael Rother visited Cluster's Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius at their bucolic, woodlands studio home in Forst, Weserbergland in 1973 to ask them to join. He clicked with them so well creatively that he decided to put Neu! on hiatus and stayed. The result was two incredible albums in which they eschewed repetition for a variety of short burts of experimental sounds, including torturing a long-suffering drum machine by putting it through effects and chopping up the rhythms. Brian Eno played keen attention to Music Von Harmonia (1974) before recording Another Green World (1975). Bowie was also a big fan, which was reflected on side two of Low (1977). On Deluxe they let the drum machine alone, recruiting Guru Guru's Mani Neumeier for a more powerful sound. Eno joined them and made some demos that were released 20 years later as Harmonia 76, Tracks And Traces. While it was fascinating stuff, it wasn't nearly great as the two official releases. Live 1974, issued by Water in 2007, offers a rare peak of a live performance of mostly different material, with more of the improvised space rock feel of earlier Cluster. It also, however, lacks the magic of the studio albums.

Those just getting into it can find more via my kosmische/krautrock and reggae lists.

So far there's been nothing from my top 25.

26. Pere Ubu - Dub Housing
29. Patti Smith – Horses
31. Van Morrison – Moondance
40. Harmonia - Music Von Harmonia

My ballot was about 75% rock/pop/folk and 25% jazz/blues/Afrobeat/funk/world/country.

I suspect the 40-place ballot may have actually skewed these results toward the familiar instead of the "alternate," because most of the albums that have placed in the 100 had many middle to low ballot votes and then one or two high ballot votes. If we'd used a 30 or 20 album ballot, though, people would have had to leave even more of their favorites out and would be complaining now that they wish they had more choices when voting. I think smaller ballots could've led to more diverse results, because voters would've felt compelled to champion the more obscure side of their own tastes, but that wasn't the case. Everyone wanted bigger ballots.

This is just my hypothesis about why the list is the way it is, though. I could be totally wrong.

(Tie) 44. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Zuma (1975) [116 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i49.tinypic.com/1zl7wr8.jpg

Zuma's where we get our first real glimpse of what "Neil Young" guitar playing would be. Not that he hadn't played plenty of lead guitar beforehand, but Zuma's got those big wind-blown solos that would become his trademark.

― tylerw, Thursday, December 17, 2009 10:41 AM (3 weeks ago)

Is it me or do aspects of Zuma sound as if Neil dusted off his old Beatles records? The La La La's in "Stupid Girl" are an obvious example. But the rest of record, even the longer tunes, is fairly focused and poppy as well. I def think this could be a fave for folks in Dinosaur Jr. and Teenage Fanclub.

― QuantumNoise, Friday, July 4, 2008 3:31 PM (1 year ago)

The best *Crazy Horse* record bar none, even though it'd be tighter if the acoustic outtake cuts weren't mixed in. Some of his other records from the era I feel are better all-around, but this is the one where he fully blends into the backing band and they seem on the verge of world domination every subsequent verse. It really doesn't get any better than "Cortez the Killer," "Danger Bird," and "Barstool Blues." Some of Neil's best singing and guitar playing is on this record.

― Keith C (kcraw916), Saturday, May 28, 2005 8:16 PM (4 years ago)

There's been plenty of good albums in this list but I think there were a lot more surprises in the 80's list which is odd considering the original idea of this list.

Every time another big name artist (such as Neil Young) features in the list I fear that there's no hope left for most of my more obscure favourites. I can't see Black Devil's Disco Club album being in now, I'm not giving up on Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band though.

I think if the ballot had been smaller people really would have just voted for the big canon favourites. A larger ballot means obscurer stuff can go in high and canon stuff you dont wanna leave out goes in but at the lower end.