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

Check out the deluxe version of The Cars. Disc 2 has demos of They Won't See You, Take What You Want, Wake Me Up and You Just Can't Push Me that are full of progtastic guitar solos.

The breakdown of my ballot is something like this:

American soul/R&B 9
Jazz 12
Funk 3
African funk/soul 3
Brazilian pop & jazz 8
Disco 3
Afro-Cuban 1
Folk 1

Why does Finns never want to rock? :-(

Ha, well the breakdown of my admittedly curtailed ballot:

Prog 10
Jazz-prog 1
Southern rock 2
Proggy art-pop 2
Krautrock 1
Brit post-punk 7
Spoken-word comedy with song 1

(Several of my "prog" votes are really "proggy art-pop", if you make that distinction.)

I tried to count up my genres, but got stuck on where to categorise too many of them. I can tell you that there are 11 krautrock records (and at least another 4 records with Germans on).

Several of my Brit post-punks are proggy art-pop! :D

(Specialist aside: Was there any Afro-Cuban music on the nominations list? Everything I nominated was Puerto Rican or NuYorican salsa, which may build on an Afro-Cuban base, but I resent the idea that Puerto Rican salsa somehow reduces to "Afro-Cuban." It has its own distinctive sound.)

"Chocolate City was pretty much an obscure Parliament album until last year when people took notice for a reason I cant think of...."

"...it's time. It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. And I don't care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day." New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, January 16, 2006

30. Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story (1971) [140 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i45.tinypic.com/35lzzua.jpg

Every Picture was the FutureSex/LoveSounds of its day, people! (where jeff beck = timbaland lol)

― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Sunday, December 6, 2009 11:56 PM

The bass playing on "Maggie May" is sooo bad, so show-offy, so obviously played by a guitarist who thinks bass playing is "easy", that it puts me off the song completely. A shame, because I agree that Rod had some great stuff in this era.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, November 15, 2004 6:41 AM (5 years ago)

I really like this song, but reading the comments about the drumming, I'm just like WTF? Part of the reason I've always liked this song is that the drumming sounds so amateurish. It sounds like something I could play, including all the fills, and I'm a terrible drummer. Is this a case of something sounding easy but being really hard, or is his drumming better on other songs, or am I just wrong?

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, November 15, 2004 11:06 AM (5 years ago)

so what we've established is that "maggie mae" is punk rock.

― amateur!!st, Monday, November 15, 2004 2:23 PM (5 years ago)

I'm currently answering an email from someone who wrote to my site demanding to know why I don't like Zappa. I don't hate him, just think he really needed to pare down the wankery. Anyone voted some Zappa?

My breakdown -- this has a lot to do with the initial poll featuring most of my soul, punk and post-punk, but neglecting reggae.

18 reggae
4 post-punk
3 pre-punk
3 kosmische
3 avant rock
2 soul
2 jazz fusion
1 punk
1 afrobeat
1 glam
1 brazilian
1 classic rock

i had totally given up on Lick My Decals Off, Baby placing after the first fifteen or so were posted. did not expect to see it at 32! underrated and underplayed record for sure.

an attempt at a genre breakdown:

kraut 8
non german prog rock 9
jazz 8
folk 4
straight up pop and/or rock 9
modern classical 1
adult jazz-rock 1

hey i'm up to 7 of 40 now w/ zuma, the cars, born to run

still holding out hope for my #1, i think it's got a good chance, but i think i may have to give up on Rush and The Soft Boys at this point

I have three Zappas on my ballot, including a top-5.

my list was like 27 rock/pop, 8 prog, 2 electronic, 2 folk, 1 fusion. i'm such a rockist...

classic rock 23 (YEAHHHHH MOTHERFUCKERS I'M PART OF THE PROBLEM)
funk/soul 7
new wave 5
punk 2
comedy 1
country 1
jazz 1

Fear Of Music has to be coming soon, right? ILM can't be crazy enough to put Remain In Light at the top of one decade's poll and then miss its predecessor twice, can it?

I like how 'Brazilian' just is a genre now.

if u classify it as "MPB", it kinda is!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BAsica_Popular_Brasileira

29. Fela Kuti & Afrika 70 - Zombie (1977) [141 points, 13 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i46.tinypic.com/2n7jyfl.jpg

NOTE: I couldn't find posts of any substance regarding Zombie. Most Fela Kuti threads just seem to consist of people asking what album they should begin with, and several people suggest Zombie.

lmao

Glad to see Fela make it! Not the album I chose (went with He Miss Road) but it's not like there are bad Fela albums in the 70s.

28. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (1975) [146 points, 14 votes]

http://i48.tinypic.com/2i9t8p3.jpg

I always feel like the first disc is super-unified, and if it stood alone would be LZ's greatest album, but the second disc is kinda thrown-together, "here's a whole bunch more songs we had kicking around." They're good songs, but they're not an album the way the first disc is an album.

― unperson, Monday, July 9, 2007 4:50 PM (2 years ago)

you know, I hear you kinda, unperson, insofar as if the second disc had been released as a single album it might have tanked, but on the other hand it's sort their "experimental" side - drums dropping in & out, some weird transitional stuff - it's like the more Album Rock album to me, allowing itself to be weird 'cause they've already proven themselves on the first disc. Also, "the Wanton Song" is massively underrated.

― J0hn D., Monday, July 9, 2007 5:02 PM (2 years ago)

Zeppelin were never heavier and more assured. Many of Physcial's songs are truly great - "Kashmir", "Ten Years Gone", "In My Time..." etc. Sure the album has one or two filler tracks, but it's hardly one of those doubles which would have made a killer single album with x tracks omitted.

― -the-night-watch- (-the-night-watch-), Friday, February 18, 2005 10:03 PM (4 years ago)

Not "In Through the Out Door"?????

Not "In Through the Out Door"?????

They both made my ballot.

thought about voting for it, but threw underdog votes to Presence and In Through The Out Door instead. there are lots of great classic rock double albums that don't suffer from double album syndrome, but that one just doesn't hold together for me.

Glad The Song Remains The Same hasn't made it...yet...

the first of my top 10 to place! my favorite zeppelin album, it's astonishingly close to the mythical fillerless double album. shame about 'black country woman'...

(Specialist aside: Was there any Afro-Cuban music on the nominations list? Everything I nominated was Puerto Rican or NuYorican salsa, which may build on an Afro-Cuban base, but I resent the idea that Puerto Rican salsa somehow reduces to "Afro-Cuban." It has its own distinctive sound.)

My one "Afro-Cuban" vote was for Afro-Indio by Mongo Santamaría. I'm not sure how to label it, it's a fusion of a lot of things, sorry if "Afro-Cuban" is a misleading category for Mongo.

(x-post)

Yay, Fela made it after all! I didn't vote for Zombie because there were so many different albums by him nominated, and I didn't want to fill my ballot with Fela albums, but Zombie is one of his strongest records. I'm glad to see it here! The title song of course a classic, both for the insistent sax groove and the socio-political weight it carries, but I always found the B-side song to be a bit mediocre, which is why I voted for Fela albums that I think are great from the beginning to the end.

Streaming Starsailor on Grooveshark now. Tim Buckley is one of those artists, like Scott Walker and Nick Drake, that seem to have a significant following on ILM, but that I don't "get".

27. Talking Heads - 77 (1977) [147 points, 15 votes]

http://i49.tinypic.com/2ropa10.jpg

I put it on last week and it seemed so offensively fruity that I had to take it off after 2.5 tracks.

― sundar subramanian, Thursday, October 25, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

Their first two albums are pretty much unbearable but in an interesting way ("Fruitiness" sums it up).

― Tom, Friday, October 26, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

Classic, classic. "Pulled Up" is clearly the greatest song of all time. The howls and screams are more 'soul' than 'fruit'.

― Keiko, Friday, October 26, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

C to the 77th power. One of the most startling, original, quirky and (yes, occasionally) fruity first LPs ever.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Monday, October 31, 2005 2:03 PM (4 years ago)

xp, I can understand not getting Tim Buckley or Scott Walker, but Nick Drake? He recorded some of the most straightforward music ever written.

I'm surprised More Songs about Buildings and Food was the only Talking Heads in the first poll. I always thought it was easily the weakest of the first three. Fear of Music is a strong contender for the top ten surely?

Zombie was my #1 vote for this poll. It's a tough call. "Mister Follow Follow" is certainly less frenetic, but I think it's great. However, on given days I might prefer Roforofo Fight, Open & Close, Shuffering and Shmiling, Sorrow Tears & Blood, Gentleman, He Miss Road, Shakara, Confusion, even London Scene. For those who don't have all those, the two disc Black President actually does a great job in putting together many of his best jams.

shuffering and shmiling was my top fela vote

Given how Remain In Light won the 80s poll, and there's a lot of people who now believe Fear Of Music is the better album, I'd say it's top 5 contender.

OK now i feel embarrassed about publicly rooting for Fear Of Music if the far inferior '77 is this high. i still have strong associations of the word "fruity" with that album because of the above quoted posts.

xp, I can understand not getting Tim Buckley or Scott Walker, but Nick Drake? He recorded some of the most straightforward music ever written.

― Johnny Fever, Friday, January 8, 2010 1:43 PM

I will grant you that. If I had to choose one of three to listen to; it would be Nick Drake first.

26. Led Zeppelin - III (1970) [149 points, 11 votes]

http://i49.tinypic.com/svkq5f.jpg

Led Fucking Zeppelin III - Forward into the past, as Page & co. retreat to the country and break out the banjos (and bongs).

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, December 23, 2005 2:13 AM (4 years ago)

Led Zeppelin III is my in-the-car default album. I have a tape of it there, and it seems that even the hardest to please passengers will enjoy it, not to mention there's no feeling like driving alone rocking out to Immigrant Song or Out on the Tiles.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, January 3, 2005 11:44 PM (5 years ago)

Things that make this album great:

1/ The tape hiss before the first note in 'Immigrant.'

2/ The bass riff in the chorus of 'Immigrant.'

3/ The 'Hammer of the gods' lyric in 'Immigrant.'

4/ The mumbling and studio speak before the opening of 'Friends.'

5/ The weirdness of the guitars in 'Friends,' both the alternate tuning and the scales used. Does anyone else almost hear 'Kashmir' here?

6/ Knowing that 'Friends' was written when Page and Plant were becoming friends.

7/ The 'owoowowowowowow' transition and key change to 'Celebration Day.'

8/ "My My My I'm so happy" as someone else noted in 'Celebration' and the double-tracked guitar solo.

9/ The first 5 notes of 'Since.'

10/ The squeak of the bass drum pedal in the beginning bars of 'Since.'

11/ The solo on 'Since.'

12/ The time signatures on 'Out on the Tiles.'

13/ The banjo on 'Gallows' and how it comes in at the same time as the snare.

14/ The false start in 'Tangerine.'

15/ The wah-wah in 'Tangerine.'

16/ The coda of 'That's the Way:' shimmering. And then the tambourine.

17/ 'Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp': a song about a dog.

18/ 'Hats Off:' Thanks for the introduction to Roy Harper!!!

― 57 7th (calstars), Tuesday, May 3, 2005 2:55 PM (4 years ago)

"since i've been loving you" is the fucking nuts

though once you hear the squeaky bass pedal you can never unhear it :(((

Also, the ultimate Fela comp: Top Fela Choons

can anyone point me to a link for the 80s poll? searching doesn't seem to turn it up - was it called something 'quirky' and 80s-ish?

Now this is how it started: THE ILX 1980s ALBUM POLL RESULTS!!

I seriously considered making III my #1 - if it was a little more consistent, it'd be my favourite Zep album

I don't remember what my beef is w/consistency now - all of ^these^ tracks are amazing.

yeah i was a bit surprised that my 2 favorite zep albums (and my 2 favorite 70s steely dan albums) were eligible this time around

So all we have left is the top 25. Anyone want to place bets on what makes it and what gets left out?

I bet my #1 doesn't make it.

I voted for "Zombie" on the strength of the title track alone (considering it takes up about half the album, that doesn't seem too unreasonable).