31. The Doors – The Doors (1967)
Other than their single in 1968, “Hello, I Love You” I didn’t hear much of the Doors until 1972. “LA Woman” was the first album I listened to in full (albeit it’s the last one with Jim Morrison!). The eponymous album is often cited as one of the best first albums of all time. This contains the classic songs, “Light My Fire”, “Break On Through (To The other Side)” and the Oedipus complex overtones of the lengthy, “The End”.
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32. Dixie Chicken – Little Feat (1973)
The epitomy of “laid-back” This is the seventies best kept secret and this is Little Feat’s best offering. Southern blues and funk are blended together to form a majestic album. Every track is classy. The obvious instant memorable songs are the title track and “Fat Man In The Bathtub” but Allan Toussaint’s, “On Your Way Down” and the band compositions, “Juliette” and “Roll Um Easy” are superb examples of laid back blues. “Sailin’ Shoes”, “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” and the double live, “Waiting for Columbus” are highly recommended too.
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33. Let It Bleed – Rolling Stones (1969)
Classic Stones! This was one of those albums that did the rounds at school where it was liked by those who were into the “underground” scene as well as those who only knew the Stones for being the second most famous group of the sixties. “Gimme Shelter” is one of my all time favourites even though it gets more airplay now on Planet Rock and the like that it ever did when it was first released.
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34. Marquee Moon – Television (1977)
My brother bought this after reading an extraordinary review in praise of the album in the NME. Here was a modern guitar based classic. That evening we played this over and over again. The guitar playing was different as was the vocal styling. It was art-house but it rocked. Tom Verlaine’s inspired playing was awesome with his jingle-jangle Roger McGuinn (Byrds) influences and long, driving solos all over the album. The opener “See No Evil” has a sophisticated and memorable riff and the title track is outstanding with its superb guitar solo. Although it came out of the New York punk scene and has been classed with other punk albums, this album transcends the punk genre with its mature lyrics and playing.
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35. Caravanserai – Santana (1972)
In my opinion, the first four Santana albums are all classics and have never been bettered by the band. This one sits on top of the others as it is a quantum leap forward in its ambition and inspiration as it includes a number of jazz fusion numbers as well as Santana’s trademark soaring guitar runs. It starts in a very strange manner with the soundscape of “Eternal Caravan Of Reincarnation” which may put people off but once the timbales and percussion are heard on “Waves Within” it becomes a great rock album albeit mostly instrumental ."Every Step Of The Way" is a magnificent highlight. This definitely an album to play imaginary guitar! The live version of some of these songs can be heard on the amazing, “Lotus” album too.
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36. Trick of the Tail – Genesis (1976)
The first Genesis album after Peter Gabriel’s departure this was a surprisingly beautiful and a regularly played album. I knew most of the tracks before I even purchased the album as it received heavy airplay on Radio City’s “The Great Easton Express” early evening radio programme when it was issued. This is more accessible than their previous efforts but still maintained a strong emphasis on melody. “Dance on a Volcano” is a tour de force and its instrumental reprise as “Los Endos” is a rock classic. “Entangled” is one of my favourite beautiful songs.
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37. Revolver – The Beatles (1966)
In the summer of ’66 this and The Beach Boys’, “Pet Sounds” finally removed the “Tin Pan Alley” concept of popular music. It was a defining piece of art. The progression of the Beatles from mop-tops under the control of the record labels and business moguls to being able to write music of such quality and maturity all within 3-4 years is something to marvel at. The Beatles revolutionised the whole industry enabling anyone with a modicum of talent and creativeness could become stars. It was a long way from the era of faceless songwriters providing songs to be dished out to whosoever was the record labels star of the month and recorded with faceless session musicians. 1966 was a watershed in popular music and this was the blueprint to show the world that when the concept of all things were possible became a reality. The radio stations of the time were not usually prone to playing album music but the Beatles and this album was an exception. It will always remind me of England winning the World Cup!
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38. Benefit – Jethro Tull (1970)
A brilliant album! It’s a very hard choice between “Stand Up” and this as the best Tull album. This is heavier than its predecessor containing strong, well composed and quite brilliant melodic songs and memorable riffs superbly played from all members of the band it has stood the test of time and still stands up (no pun intended) as a classic album over forty years since it was recorded. Every track is excellent but highlights are the opener, “With You There To Help Me” the second track, “Nothing To Say” with its superb riff only appearing at 1:11, the beautiful “Inside”, “To Cry You A Song” and a mention for the classic riff of “Teacher” (added as a bonus track on a re-issued, re-mastered CD. The American album version has, “Inside” as the third track and includes “Teacher” as part of the album). Wonderful classic rock!
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39. Argus – Wishbone Ash (1972)
I had followed the Ash right from their first album. The second album, “Pilgrimage” was one of the first full price albums I bought. However, the third Wishbone Ash album saw the band produce not only their meisterwerk but one of the greatest rock albums of all time. After years of playing live around the country and having provided support roles in the USA, this collection of strong material show the band reach its peak. The twin lead guitars of Ted Turner and Andy Powell and the mix of quiet, folky passages juxtaposed with memorable riffs and sublime melodies make this a superb album. Nearly all the tracks became Ash classics and are still played in concert today. “Warrior”, “Blowin’ Free” and “The King Will Come” are the best three songs. There are great versions of these on the “Live Dates” album.
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40. White Album – The Beatles (1968)
The one that could have been a contender for the best album of all time if it were a single album. This takes in almost every musical style; the question is that do you want to hear every musical style on a double album? It’s better to listen to it as an entity as one type of music moves into something different. The styles change from pure classic pop to heavy blues to avant garde and back to some beautiful personal acoustic songs. I didn’t buy it at the time as it was too expensive: I think it was bought about 5 or 6 years after its release. The production is superb as the songs merge into one.
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41. Quadrophenia – The Who (1973)
The last great Who album. Like the Stones, the Who made four brilliant albums at the end of the sixties and into the early seventies. A concept album that those who don’t like such things say that the Who said all that needed saying with “My Generation” single eight years earlier. Memorable for Entwhistle’s throbbing bass lines - "like a VC10" and Townsend’s soaring instrumentals on the mellotron especially the title track and “Love Reign O’er Me”. Other highlights include “The Real Me” and the single “5,15” both classics of the rock genre.
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42. A Hard Day’s Night – Beatles (1964)
The progressive leaps made by the Beatles in both song-writing and playing was astonishing to the listening 60s public. Although I didn’t realise it at the time (I was ten!), Beatles albums were the bench mark by which the standard was set and this soundtrack album from 1964 is the first all self-penned offering. I heard some of the non-single album tracks and “B” sides on the radio, often as cover versions too, a phenomenon exclusive to the Beatles (other than a few Dylan covers by the Byrds). The album contains some of the best songs the Beatles wrote: “You Can’t Do That“, and especially “Things We Said Today” are exemplary. At the time my neighbour, a year younger than me, started to buy singles on a regular basis- this included the Beatles EPs that were issued alongside the albums and was my main source of hearing the album tracks. The songs on the first side of the album appear on the film of the same name. This is a classic example of pure pop music at its best.
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43. After The Goldrush – Neil Young (1970)
This was the album that brought NY to the attention of the world: something that he didn’t necessarily want! Beautiful acoustic songs together with rock guitar work outs make this one of my favourite albums. This is a contender for the title of the best singer-songwriter album of the early seventies.
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44. Fire and Water – Free (1970)
This proved to be a hard selection. It was a toss-up between this, “Tons of Sobs” “Free” and “Heartbreaker”. This takes out the bluesy rawness from the first two albums and matures into this, a flawless classic album. It is one of those albums with no weak tracks. It includes the evergreen rock-classic song, “All Right Now” and two of my favourites, “Mr Big” and the title track.
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45. Crosby, Stills and Nash – Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)
The epitomy of the west coast singer-songwriter genre, this “super-group” produced an epoch making eponymous album with close vocal harmonies to the fore. One of the early country rock albums pre-dating The Eagles Some of the better songs appeared on the film, “Woodstock” where I first became aware of the band through classy songs such as “Wooden Ships”, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and the superb, “Long Time Coming”.
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46. Zuma – Neil Young (1975)
An artist whose career is not that easy to follow (speaking from experience!) fell from commercial success after the chart topping “Harvest” in 1972. Although both “On The Beach” and “Tonight’s The Night” are excellent in their own way, it was this effort in 1975 that brought Neil Young back into the commercial fold. This is a superb rock guitar album with excellent songs and catchy riffs throughout its forty or so minutes.Personal favourites are , "Cortez The Killer", "Barstool Blues", "Danger Bird" and "Looking For A Love". Highly recommended!
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47. Bluesbreakers – John Mayall (1966)
My enthusiasm for Cream, Hendrix, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and Free eventually got me round to purchasing this classic album in the mid seventies. Probably one of Clapton’s best (along with Layla & Disraeli Gears). This is the blueprint for all the artists covered by the epithet “British Blues boom”.
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48. The Raven That Refused To Sing & Other Stories – Steven Wilson (2013)
A stunning album! Every now and then an album comes along that has such an impact on my listening pleasure. This is one such album. The song-writing is exceptional as is the playing. All tracks are superb but “Drive Home”, “The Holy Drinker”, “The Watchmaker” and the title track are the best things I’ve heard for 20 years or more! This album is the best effort I’ve heard in the 21st century.
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49. Fresh Cream – Cream (1966)
A memorable and influential rock album on my burgeoning music listening. Cream, along with Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix introduced me to blues music: a genre I explored in great detail in the 70s. This album, Zeppelin’s first and Fleetwood Mac’s first encouraged me to seek out the original versions of the blues songs. I ended up purchasing the original songs and albums by the artists whose songs the aforementioned artists had borrowed and “anglised”. This album, as the NME noted in an article describing influential albums in that most influential year – 1966, described this as being the blue print for albums for the next 10 years. My favourites are Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful”, Skip James’ “I’m So Glad” and “NSU” and “Sleepy Time”. Ba Ba Do Do Ba Ba!
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50. Ommadawn – Mike Oldfield (1975)
Although 1973’s “Tubular Bells” was the album to start conversations about the marriage of popular music and classical music, it is this, Oldfield’s third album released a few years later that really hits home. It’s a beautifully constructed melodic album building up to numerous climaxes as the piece unfolds. There’s even a section which is akin to Wishbone Ash’s twin lead guitar in full flight. (A fact noted on Virgin’s rock press advertisements at the time of release!).
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