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

Johnny ignore the arsenal fan post away!

What about us yanks? The NFL playoffs are starting today. Even if my team isn't playing until tomorrow.

I'll be watching the games as I post!

fake football doesnt matter :)

Thank goodness I now have laptop!

Can we not argue whose football is better football right now? Not in the mood.

fake football doesnt matter :)

Heh, we say the same thing in U.S. (usually when talking about the CFL).

*awaits King Boy Pato to pile in with jpgs of short-shorted antipodeans*

Jeez, you guys, as much as I'd really like to engage in a "styles of football" convo with you all, I'm sure there's an alternate forum for it. (Also, I would never clown on the CFL... they're allowed to celebrate, and they get really creative with it. Ochocinco would be considered tame.)

It will stop as soon as you post the next album!

10. Yes - Close to the Edge (1972) [189 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i48.tinypic.com/2446yqd.jpg

Yes always put me in a great mood. My favorite song by them is probably "Siberian Khatru" from Close to the Edge -- it's got a funky part, great bassline, and a really dramatic, bittersweet part. Characteristically wonderful vocal harmony and counterpoint throughout, too.

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Monday, April 12, 2004 8:36 PM (5 years ago)

Listening to Close to the Edge today (after having found my cassette tape, yes cassette tape, again), it occurred to me that, perhaps, just perhaps, Rick Wakeman actually had a great sense of humor, even if he didn't realize it. I mean the harpsichord break on Siberian Khartu is effing hilarious. The prance-y electric rennaisance faire shit is a bit too much though.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, December 28, 2004 11:30 PM (5 years ago)

I just took out Close to the Edge a day or two ago. I already knew the live versions of the title track and "Siberian Khatru" and had "And You and I" on Classic Yes but I'd never listened to the whole studio album. I'm a little surprised that so many people think it's Yes' peak. It seems much more dated and melodramatic than The Yes Album and Fragile, although the nice bits are wonderful enough to get me to put it on. "Close to the Edge" especially - the opening guitar solo is fab evil fusion, the vocal melodies and harmonies are gorgeous, the grooves are great; then they have to throw in all that clunky organ banging (at around 14:00 in) and that prancey Robin Hood crap (just before the ambient part). But I guess that might be the deal with Yes much of the time - enough great parts to make you want to sit through the cheese. "Siberian Khatru" is classic of course.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, October 2, 2003 11:31 PM (6 years ago)

id rather talk football now :(

Yes? No!

haha! (I agree w/ both of you btw)

i guess prog had to be in the top ten. better now then later.

omg my grammar: than later

I don't know this album and doubt very much that I'd like it, but "prancey Robin Hood crap" has got to be great

I have to go drink some beer, but I hope the rest of the top 10 will turn out to be better than that...

BOOOOOOOOOM poll further forgiven

also you disgusting savages have been FOILED

Pawn Hearts at #9 hopefully

#9? I'll take #5 at the least, please :D

I hope it's 9 fucking concept albums.

Yes ahead of King Crimson and VDGG would be a travesty.

Tubular Bells for #1

Oof. When you guys talk about prog I always assume you mean Magma-type good stuff, not this balls.

NV you didn't vote, because I was the only Still Life voter. I know for a fucken fact that if you'd voted, at least Pawn Hearts would've made it ;_;

That's not even the best Yes album. (Relayer would be the one for me)

We mean the whole caboodle, emil.y! Open minds and ears never hurt nobody :P

Entire top 100 ahead of VdGG is a travesty but I did promise not to complain.

9. Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance (1978) [205 points, 20 votes]

http://i48.tinypic.com/34qw5zn.jpg

Pere Ubu always sounded to me like it came from some apocalyptic future. I mean, we're not anywhere near nuclear armageddon yet but might as well prepare for the worst and dig out Modern Dance and Dub Housing.

― adamj, Friday, September 19, 2008 3:17 AM (1 year ago)

_The Modern Dance_ will split your head right open. At a record store, I overheard someone perusing the Pere Ubu vinyl section, talking to their friend. She picked up _The Modern Dance_ and said "Wow, this is worth like $100, and they're selling it for $12!". Of course, she was holding a *shrink-wrapped* record, and it was the relatively recent Geffen reissue. For about half a second, I considered saying something, but that would probably have been rude, and hey, more money to Pere Ubu is good!

― Ernest Paik, Thursday, May 9, 2002 8:00 PM (7 years ago)

154 is a good counterpart to pere ubu's first.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, December 6, 2003 10:06 AM (6 years ago)

The first 5 minutes of Close To The Edge are as bizarre as anything by King Crimson et al IMO

xpost

Louis it takes a very special poll to tempt me to make a random list of stuff I like and as much as I've enjoyed reading this, as a concept it's ridiculous.

I think Close To The Edge was my #1, but my ballot's stuck on a different machine. I have loved it since the age of 12.

Oh, CTTE is a better ALBUM than any ALBUM KC released*, but KC aren't so much suited by the album format - short, sharp bursts of sonic terror are their thing. CTTE has always thrilled me.

*gave Red the same number of points but a higher placing because that's the order I wrote them down in

Would I like Pere Ubu?

(Admittedly CTTE hasn't thrilled me as MUCH recently, and I'm not religiously obsessive about it any more, but it's still got it)

Chunks of Ubu are a bit primitivist for your tastes maybe but fuck yeah that album deserves to be there.

Oh, this poll has finally started to match my votes: I also voted for The Modern Dance, which I have loved since the age of 16.

Louis, I feel confident you'd love The Modern Dance.

The 154 comparison is one that intrigues me. Of all the albums in the original top 100, that's the one that would have broken VdGG's hegemony over my top 3

I don't see much of a Wire thing tbh, Pere Ubu are less reigned-in I think and Thomas' voice is legitimately one of the 7 Wonders of Pop. There is a dark insular thrum to the middle of TMD I suppose.

i didn't hear pere ubu until after i'd heard tons of post-ubu stuff influenced by them. it was one of those things that filled in a lot of missing pieces. it was sort of a tough call between modern dance and dub housing for me, but went with dance for iconic-ness.

close to the edge was my #2 neato! it's catchy as hell, full of pop hooks, and doesn't feel nearly as laborious as some other prog "classics". glad to see prog at least make a cameo up here.

Pere Ubu are less reigned-in I think

Much as Wire's grasp of composition, tension and restraint is godly, this could be a very very awesome thing indeed.

x-post

i think you will like "the modern dance", louis. if you have open ears that is. it's a mind-shattering album, weirder than "trout mask replica" but also more variate. that blurb about armaggedon, nuclear war and apocalypse nails it quite well. it's an album from outer space, imagine the music of extraterrestrians arriving on planet earth when there is nothing left there. or something like that. it was my 1978 pick in my 40 years, 40 albums project.

I will eat my hat if LJ doesn't like The Modern Dance.

if you have open ears that is

i am well-known for my musical conservatism and refusal to be challenged

ha ok guys i'll be ON IT in the ASAP. AIM i may even read your piece!

I'm not sure Pere Ubu did anything much worth listening to after Dub Housing, but those first 3 (including Terminal Tower) still haven't been surpassed for alienation.

8. Kraftwerk - Autobahn (1974) [230 points, 25 votes]

http://i50.tinypic.com/2dbjpg3.jpg

My favorite Kraftwerk album (also the first I knew well.) Title track is loads of fun and holds my interest throughout, amazing considering its length. But the instrumental B-side I probably listen to more now. Love "Morning Walk" and the 2nd "Kometmelodie." Warm and shimmery, unlike the next three records (which are still great.)

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, March 24, 2004 10:18 PM (5 years ago)

Agreed on the greatness of side two -- Autobahn (the track) can sound a bit primitive these days, but the ambient side has aged much better. It predates the fluffy bunny ambient of the KLF/Orb et al by fifteen years.
Classic, obviously.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Thursday, March 25, 2004 12:22 PM (5 years ago)

How in gods name do you write a 22 minute track and keep in interesting the entire time? How do you write motifs that keep people's attention through that kind of duration of time? I mean Kraftwerk slam-dunked the concept of making audio portraits with Autobahn. When you listen to that track you don't think of the programming, the writing, the performances... You think of a beautful spring day in a well designed german automobile elegantly travelling through the german countryside. You can see the hills and roadsigns, you climb and decend through a winding valley.

― The Rebukes of Hazard (mjt), Friday, March 26, 2004 1:09 PM (5 years ago)

Fantastic record (PU not Yes) but, I have to say, a record I admire more often that play.

3 of my votes in a row! 666 by Aphrodites Child next please.

Great to see Kraftwerk in the top ten again, they were number 8 in the 80's poll too.

Really glad to see Pere Ubu so high, Dub Housing got my vote but they are both classics.