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

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]

http://i46.tinypic.com/103bj40.jpg

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]

http://i47.tinypic.com/10g04qt.jpg

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]

http://i45.tinypic.com/33pgcbr.jpg

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]

http://i48.tinypic.com/2dl7lz4.jpg

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]

http://i47.tinypic.com/1ovgoz.jpg

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

Can't Buy a Thrill was eligible too, but here's some inside info... it didn't make the cut.

fuck

Funny that people were assuming this was going to be an Aja/Tusk #1-2 lock.

Tusk might not even make the 100

I've never listend to Steely Dan before, but I'm listening to Aja, and WTF?!! People would actually vote this sort of fusion-lite, cocktail bar soul over, you know, proper electric jazz or soul?! This is the 14th best album of the 70s?! Is there something I don't get here?

114th

I don't get it either

x-p, same idea
don't forget the other poll, tuomas. so maybe it is the 114th best album of the 70s.

This kinda reminds me of Herbie Hancock's failed late 70s and early 80s pop experiments... Except that even on those albums Herbie was twice as funky as this adult-oriented bullshit.

People would actually vote this sort of fusion-lite, cocktail bar soul over, you know, proper electric jazz or soul?!...Is there something I don't get here?
Pretty much the exact response of very nearly every person upon hearing Steely Dan for the first time, including those, like myself, who grow to love them dearly.

Steely Dan aren't jazz or soul though, and they're not "proper" anything thank god.

Hit us with lucky #13 before I have to endure the commute through Chicago's magical grey slush. Please let it be something good!

Someone please explain this to me? Right now the guy is singing "learn to work the saxophone, I'll play just what I feel" to a backing track that sounds like a 5th generation faded photocopy of some actually good soul-jazz song. How is this different from Kenny G or Grover Washington or what have you?

I thought you were talking about the band Chicago

13. Neu! - Neu! 75 (1975) [187 points, 17 votes]

http://i47.tinypic.com/23kfdau.jpg

I bought Neu 75 last week and have barely listened to anything else since...the division between the more ambient stuff on side one and the heavier proto-punk side two works really well.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Sunday, July 1, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago)

Neu! 75 just holds a special place in my heart, ever since I bought that Germanaphon bootleg at Kims Underground (the pre-Other Music store) for like 25 bucks. I think in the end it's their best album and pretty underrated by those who prefer the first two.

― dan selzer, Thursday, May 24, 2007 11:51 PM (2 years ago)

First two tracks on Neu! '75 promise greatness - they spend the rest of the album not delivering.

― Deluxe (Damian), Saturday, October 22, 2005 4:01 AM (4 years ago)