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

21. Harmonia - Deluxe (1975) [155 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote]

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I prefer "Deluxe" to the first album. The tracks seem less collaborative - the first three track are obviously the Michael Rother tracks and the final three are pure Cluster. However the title track is better than anything on Michael Rother's solo albums by a mile - and Brian Eno obviously thought so too or wouldn't have expended so much energy trying to recreate the feel of this track on "Julie With...". Talking of Eno ripoffs, the track "Monza" (which is the "Neu-like motorik stomp" on the album) basically is "Red Sails" from "Lodger" sans Bowie's vocals. "Monza" is also the best Neu! track not to be found on a Neu! album. And that's not all! "Notre Dame" and "Kekse" are better than most Cluster tracks - in Cluster's sweet and sunny mode not the sturm und drang stuff.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, January 6, 2005 9:25 AM (5 years ago)

De Luxe is pretty great. The first half is all chill and austere and then Neu! style it recapitulates those themes in the second half with chuggachugga motorik aggression.

― steve hise, Thursday, January 6, 2005 12:47 PM (5 years ago)

Just listening to Deluxe for the first time.

Jeeeeeeeesus.

― my opinionation (Hamildan), Wednesday, January 6, 2010 11:39 AM (2 days ago)

wow the kraut contingent is out in full force on this poll

Well, for 3 out of the last 4 spots anyway.

starting to worry my #1 won't make it at all...

Suddenly there's a lot of krautrock in this list and Neu 75 is still to come surely? Deluxe is a stunning album really glad to see that so high.

I've never heard Soon Over Babluma, I didn't think there was that much love for it.

i don't like neu 75 at all. it's very repetitive and annoying.

20. Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band (1976) [161 points, 10 votes]

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Disco rarely got more musically or lyrically sophisticated than on this self-titled debut album. Long before he took up the role of Kid Creole with the Coconuts, wordsmith August Darnell cushioned small, perfect truths--singer Cory Daye promises to get her "equivalency diploma" in love in "I'll Play the Fool"--in knowingly retro sounds. Stylish, honest, and completely one of a kind.

― Poops McGee, Thursday, February 14, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

I read an interview with Donald Fagen where he says "Glamour Profession" was written after listening to Dr Buzzard for a week.

― dave q, Thursday, February 14, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

Dr. Buzzard's is not only very pleasurable, I think it is "important", although more from the standpoint of theory than from that of actual influence. For me, Dr. Buzzard's was one of the really original artists in African-American music in the mid-70s, along with Parliament/Funkadelic and Afrika Bambaata and other forebears of rap. Its music is a glimpse of a road not taken in African-American music -- an attempt to do music that reflects the identity of a Black community that is composed of cosmopolitan strivers, polyglot syncretists, rather than the paranoid, self-limiting, "thug" culture that has become the focus of hip-hop (which I am not attacking, by the way). It is the pop music that Stanley Crouch would want if he ever got his head out of his butt. And, like Prince but unlike a whole lot of other African-American music, then and since, it is hyper-aware of the entire African-American musical tradition and the many points of intersection and influence between that tradition and European musics. And, like Parliament and unlike a whole lot of other African-American music, it is playful and subversive about race and politics (listen to "Soraya" or "Once There Was A Colored Girl").

All of that does not make it "better" or "more valid" or whatever compared to types of music that are actually popular and commercially successful. What it does provide is sort of the musical equivalent of a type of science-fiction novel: What would the world look like if we just tightened (or loosened) this one screw a bit . . . ? Kid Creole, of course, came from the same place, but pretty systematically limited its ambition to making funny party music. Dr. Buzzard's was party music, often funny, with something serious to say and do.

― Vornado (Vornado), Monday, January 10, 2005 10:30 AM (4 years ago)

That has just made my day!

well we're in the top 20 and i still have no idea what's "left to come" other than 2 or 3 records so i'd say this poll was at least some type of success

I told you guys the top half would be a lot more schizo than the bottom half!

Dr Buzzard was my number two all we need now is for Curtis to take this poll.

I'm surprised Sparks haven't made the list, is Propaganda in with a shot? I think they had two in my top six.

Swell Maps will make this, y/n?

19. Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star (1973) [162 points, 12 votes]

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always felt that the flaming lips ripped off this album for "soft bulletin". that drum sound, especially. there are passages on this album i can easily hear the lips playing (end of "zen archer" esp). anyone else hear it?

― johnnyo, Thursday, October 15, 2009 4:51 PM (2 months ago)

i think his weird stuff is his best. and it's really not that weird. it's all just your subconcious trying to tell you to be afraid. it's just him twidling a few knobs here and there on top of some mightily impressive songs. there are some jokey bits, but they're really not that annoying in the least.

― JasonD (JasonD), Tuesday, April 22, 2003 10:45 AM (6 years ago)

Yeah but AWaTSis indeed the fucking weirdass album to end all fucking weirdass albums. I love it to death all the way through but it's asking a lot to expect more than 1% of ILM to love it start to finish.

― fizzcaraldo (Justin M), Tuesday, June 8, 2004 10:36 PM (5 years ago)

yes!! that was my #3 and i've completely fallen in love with it over the past 3 or 4 months. just one of the most fun and glorious albums to listen to all in one go

i gather i would possibly like that record a lot

it's weird because stylistically he gets real similar to zappa on that record but zappa's never really clicked for me and yet i love todd

I've got 4 of 7 so far. Soon is my 2nd favorite Can album but it just missed my top 40. It also didn't make the top 200 last time, so a genuinely nice surprise. The album had been underrated for a long time, nice to see it finally get props.

I voted for A Wizard, A True Star

Wow, I wonder if that means Something/Anything is shut out? I'm going to re-listen to it now. I just saw the phrase today, "you're a wizard, a true star" in the latest Bruce Sterling book The Caryatids. Was it floating around before Rundgren used it for the title?

something/anything is good but it suffers from 'might have been better cut down to a single album' syndrome imo

it feels more like just a buncha songs than a unified art-pop statement like wizard is

Wizard was my #3. Secret Treaties by Blue Oyster Cult was my #2, which I really don't think is going to make it, but hopefully my #1 will.

18. Lou Reed - Transformer (1972) [164 points, 16 votes]

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Am I right in assuming Transformer is Lou Reed's best selling album due to the "hit" status of "Walk on the Wild Side"? I wonder how many people bought this and were totally turned off on Lou Reed for a good long while if not forever.
If I bought this when I was 14 instead of The Velvet Underground & Nico I would've thought, "Fuck this Lou Reed guy, he sucks."
I mean it almost makes me think that NOW.

Also, anyone else first hear "Walk on the Wild Side" as the Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch song?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Monday, October 4, 2004 3:59 AM (5 years ago)

Most of the songs on Lou Reed's "Transformer" have either gay themes ("Make Up") or at least gay subtexts; the production itself (queeny Bowie harmonies, strings) is quite campy.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, February 16, 2005 9:09 AM (4 years ago)

My parents used to play that one all the time, and I guess that i can never escape it. They used to play it on sundays, I can still remember listening to that song in the wintertime while my toes got cold 'cause my socks always got wet from the snow. I still think that 'Vicious' rocks, though, and even though it's a love/hate relationship, that record can never really be touched.

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Friday, December 19, 2003 4:35 PM (6 years ago)

17. Joni Mitchell - Hejira (1976) [165 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]

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My favorite Joni album is Hejira, I think. Lots of very peculiar voice/arrangement interplay, loping rhythms, beautiful bass parts.... There's really no album like it. I agree the album benefits from a cohesiveness, in sound, in theme.

It's not perfect. "Furry Sings the Blues" always sounded like a retread to me--the one ringer. But "Amelia," yes--this might be her best song. "Song for Sharon" also is beautiful.

Joni Mitchell has so many qualities (and so much myth) that are likely to set alarm bells ringing in ILMs heads--including mine-- but she is incredible, just totally incredible.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, August 1, 2003 10:10 AM (6 years ago)

hejira was the first album i ever heard of joni somewhen around 1984 and it made me a fan. it is like a calmer, more mature and less overtly emotional version of blue, her other masterpiece. it doesn't set the shivers down my spine like blue but it has got this relaxed atmosphere with occasional emotional outbursts like amelia which make a perfect record.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Sunday, August 3, 2003 8:58 AM (6 years ago)

I actually think that Hejira might be the greatest album ever made. A perfect fusion of poetry, soulfulness, sound and meaning. It's so personal and so universal. I can really live in that record.

'Song for Sharon' is the centerpiece, so eloquent, inspired throughout. Then there's 'Amelia', the heart-pounding 'Black Crow', 'A strange Boy' where every messed-up artistic young guy can dream of being seduced by Joni, and the title track which pretty much encapsulates it all.
'It was the hexagram of the heavens
It was the strings of my guitar....'

― Pete S, Wednesday, December 3, 2003 7:00 PM (6 years ago)

I've really got my hopes up for Bill Fay's last persecution now, but maybe my first place was the only vote it got and i'm fooling myself

Hejira rules.

I've never actually sat down and listened to a whole Joni Mitchell album. I've heard scattered tracks here and there, but I think maybe I'll start with Hejira (because I'm a contrarian and don't want to start with Blue).

Yeah, Joni's just killin' it in this poll. I've never really listened to her either.

Fingers still crossed for 'Stormcock' - given up on Slapp Happy and Kevin Coyne

I kept hearing "Help Me" on the radio back in March is how I got into her. Also that David Sedaris said his sister said he could only room w/her if he didn't bring his Joni Mitchell records. Got all the three that placed so far on this poll & love them – still haven't heard "Blue." I think "Court & Spark" is my favorite of the three.

I had Blue on recently. It sounded like ancient history.

Matt #2 – high fives for Secret Treaties! It's my faves album of theirs by a long shot. I love all the organ on it. I defs voted for it, iirc in my top ten, but I forget where exactly.

i think i voted for agents of fortune instead whoops

i voted stormcock but way at the bottom of my ballot so only a few points worth

Blue is indeed mega overplayed... but i really don't think its ruined by it. Every time I hear it i think i'm going to get bored but it never happens. I guess with a few of these mega genre defining big records there are actually very good reasons why they were so huge.

16. The Raincoats - The Raincoats (1979) [168 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote]

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i always get a kick out of the savage review that their albums got in the first "rolling stone record guide."

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Thursday, August 26, 2004 11:20 AM (5 years ago)

Trivia: Johny Rotten once said back in the day that all music at that time was crap - except for the Raincoats.

― Thea (Thea), Thursday, August 26, 2004 2:13 PM (5 years ago)

The Raincoats...totally challenged themselves and their _own_ preconceptions of what kind of sounds they could make every step of the way. And never made a bad record, though the reunion album has some shaky spots.

― Douglas, Tuesday, November 13, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

Yeah, Joni is dominating like Kate Bush did for the 80s poll.

yet another album i haven't even heard, love it

Court & Spark has two of Joni's bigger pop hits: "Help Me" & "Free Man in Paris". It also has a balls out rocker: "Raised on Robbery" and a cameo by Cheech & Chong. That was the first Joni album that I picked up and have listened to the longest.

15. Steely Dan - The Royal Scam (1976) [176 points, 11 votes, 2 first place votes]

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I think this is the hardest SD album for me to call, favorites-wise, very consistent with no real strong favorites or un-favorites.

― some dude, Thursday, June 26, 2008 9:24 PM (1 year ago)

Actually, I wouldn't say this is my favorite SD album, but I have sometimes thought that it's the pinnacle of their sound: it sounds sparkly and polished without the sterility that sometimes dogs Aja and Gaucho.

― jaymc, Friday, June 27, 2008 5:20 AM (1 year ago)

"Kid Charlemagne" changed my fucking life for real, some of the best narrative on Fagen's resume. 'Clean this mess up else we'll all wind up in jail/those test tubes, and the scale' one of the all-time couplets.

― J0hn D., Friday, June 27, 2008 11:52 AM (1 year ago)

it's like they made a whole album of deep cuts

― any major some dude will tell you (M@tt He1ges0n), Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:12 AM (1 year ago)

herrrrre we go

(will take that back if/when Rock Bottom appears, also if/when Steely Dan turn out to be actually awesome)

We heard you're leaving, that's ok.

Steely Dan can be awesome, but not always.

left that one off my ballot to make room for some variety, looks like it didn't need my help anyway

14. Steely Dan - Aja (1977) [177 points, 16 votes]

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It's been said many times on the Gaucho thread, but I'll repeat: they wrote masterfully about ennui, dessication, and despair on Gaucho. I'm not sure what "Black Cow" and "Home At Last" are about beyond their instrumental virtuosity. I mean, they're pretty, I don't skip the tracks, but so what?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, June 20, 2008 2:14 PM (1 year ago)

Alfred if we ever have a few hours to kill together I will explain to you why this is a better album than Gaucho and you will agree by the time I get done.

― J0hn D., Monday, July 14, 2008 9:15 PM (1 year ago)

Aja is almost not Steely Dan to me. Aja is this amazing tangent whose heights were never to be equalled again. I recommend an earlier record to get to the truth of Steely Dan. Aja stands apart.

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Friday, March 17, 2006 12:20 PM (3 years ago)

Ooh, back-to-back Steely Dans. (Aja was way low on my ballot and Scam wasn't on it at all.)

Yeah, they were within a single point of being a tie.

i hope that was it for steely dan. i don't hate them at all, i even kind of like them. but in a way they represent the mediocrity of the 70s. the middle of the road, fusion, jazz rock etc. lukewarm, unintersting music.

FFS. I'm starting to mourn the great albums that these Steely Dan albums are stealing spots from.

That's all there can be isn't it? all the others were in the first 70s poll and gaucho is 80s.

But they so don't represent the mediocrity of the 70s