51. The Wall - Pink Floyd (1979)
52. Moving Waves – Focus (1972)
My brother bought this on the “Blue Horizon” label (I guess it’s worth a bit now!) It contains one of my most played tracks, the multi-part, 23-minute tour-de-force, “Eruption” in which Jan Ackerman’s guitar playing is magnificent as the moods and swings of the piece flow from one to another. The section called, “Tommy” is exquisite. The album also contains the full 6-minute version of “Hocus Pocus” - remembered from an appearance on “TOTP” when the single had been re-issued 12 months after it had originally appeared. To the uninitiated, this put Focus as a novelty act (probably alongside Jethro Tull too!)
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53. Metallica – Metallica (1991)
I’ll be honest -I missed out on most of the thrash metal genre when it first appeared in the mid to late 80s but listening to the single, “Enter Sandman” made me take the plunge with this classic album. I think I played it in the car for about six months continually! (it needs to be played loud!). Unfortunately, Metallica hasn’t done anything of this standard since then. The earlier albums, “Master of Puppets” and “Ride The Lightning” only just miss out from inclusion in this list.
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54. Paranoid – Black Sabbath (1970)
It’s hard to pick which is the best Sabbath album amongst their first five albums. The three albums that followed this each had memorable songs and riffs and showed more maturity and studio awareness. This took the template that was laid down for their first, eponymous album and took the meaning of the word, “heavy” to new levels. It contains the top 10 single “Paranoid” as well as perennial favourites such as “War Pigs” “Iron Man” and “Fairies Wear Boots”. Music to assist in your school examination revision!
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55. Led Zeppelin III – Led Zeppelin (1970)
This is the one that split opinion. Side one follows the style that made the first two albums so good. The second side has more mellow and acoustic numbers especially the beautiful, “That’s The Way”. “Immigrant Song” is one of the greatest opening tracks and “Since I’ve Been Lovin’ You” is a superb blues workout. A classic album.
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56. Blonde On Blonde – Bob Dylan (1966)
I didn’t hear this until I’d started work in 1977. I’d read so much about it and wanted to see what the fuss was about. This just about edges out the previous year’s “Highway 61 Revisited” but it’s a very close call. Probably depends on what mood I’m in and how much do I want to listen to the lyrics and decipher them.
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57. Fly Like An Eagle – Steve Miller Band (1976)
I first heard the full album at my brother’s rented town house on Woodstock High Street when I’d gone to buy his car from him. I’d heard the singles that had been lifted from the album on the radio and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the whole album. This was one of those albums that the record company put it into the public’s domain by lifting numerous singles over the months following its release. Jackson’s “Thriller”, Springsteen’s, “Born In The USA“, and Dire Straits’, “Brothers In Arms” were other albums that enjoyed additional publicity in this way.
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58. Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie (1972)
A sixth form album if ever there was one. Those of us who had listened to rock music in earlier years and were connoisseurs of the Floyd, Zeppelin, Zappa and Purple were joined by those pupils who had got into rock later in life. These newcomers needed their own rock stars. In my school’s case, this turned out to be Bowie, Roxy Music and latterly Queen. I admit, I avoided glam rock like the plague apart from seeing bands of the genre on Top Of The Pops each week. This album is Bowie’s best with strong songs, an “image” and great riffs.
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59. Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan (1965)
The same comments as #56 apply here. I could put forward an equally good case to have this above the “Blonde On Blonde” album. It’s starts with the magnificent, “Like A Rolling Stone” and ends with the outstanding, eleven minute “Desolation Row” – a song my friends and I sang when we camped in Rhyl (!) after a week in Abersoch in the late seventies! Superb songs, Dylan‘s first fully electric album and, along with the Beatles output in 1965 & 1966, this changed the way music was made and was influential on musicians and audiences alike. I was ten at the time this record was released so Dylan was classed as a protest singer and no different from Donovan and Barry McGuire in my eyes!
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60. Second Life Syndrome – Riverside (2005)
I first heard this band on a sampler CD issued with the magazine, “Classic Rock” that included the track “Volte Face”. Feeling adventurous, I purchased the album from where the track originated. I wasn’t disappointed: this is classic modern prog-metal. The title track is a 16 minute tour-de-force. Only the weaker, short first track can be deemed as anything but superb.
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61. Split – Groundhogs (1971)
This can best be described as “prog-blues”. My parents described it as a cacophony! The 4-part title track is an epic of foot pedals and classy riff-based blues rock. Side two contains the Groundhog’s most popular track, “Cherry Red” and there’s the eponymous cover of John Lee Hooker’s “Groundhog Blues”. This band was a school favourite amongst my year group.
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62. Freedom – Neil Young (1989)
A return to form and some more too! After a number of years of mediocrity rising somewhat with the previous year’s “This Notes For You” this is up there with NY’s greatest. It covers all bases from heavy grungy guitars and great rock songs to beautifully constructed acoustic love songs. It’s best known songs are the two versions acoustic and electric of “Rockin’ in the Free Word” that bookend the album. This was the start of NY’s renaissance with the next five albums all showing NY on top form. Highly recommended!
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63. Déjà Vu – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970)
Along with its predecessor in 1969 this was west coast rock at its best. Boosted by the inclusion of Neil Young this epitomises the Californian hippy-ideology of Laurel Canyon, free love and laid back communes. I have a number of books on this scene. It all started and went well but collapsed in a haze of drugs and “The Man” getting to grips with the artists. Neil young’s superb “Helpless” is the highlight but “Carry On”, “Woodstock” and “Everybody I Love You” are also stand-out tracks.
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64. Rubber Soul – Beatles (1965)
The progression in composition and song-writing by which each Beatles albums extended the boundaries of what was possible within the popular music genre reached new heights with this set. This was after the Beatles had been listening to Dylan and the Byrds and had taken some mind expending substances! Beatles album tracks were the only non-single music to be heard on the radio at this time (apart from cover versions of Beatles songs!) Brilliant!
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65. Liege and Lief – Fairport Convention (1969)
Fairport Convention were one of the bands to which I was introduced on starting work. (see, amongst others, - 32, 33, & 56). If there’s one folk rock album to own, this is it! It’s rightly acclaimed as the pinnacle if the genre with Sandy Denny’s outstanding achingly, beautiful voice and tales of old England of a century or so ago. “Reynardine” is such a beautiful song, beautifully sung. “Matty Groves” is an exceptional story-song. The previous two Fairport albums, “Unhalfbricking” and “What We Did On Our Holidays” are recommended as further listening.
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66. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (1969)
The first Sabbath album was the first to be classed fully as a heavy metal album. This had the stunning eponymous title track and perennial favourites of mine, “NIB”, “Behind The Wall Of Sleep” and the single, “The Wizard”. Any of the first five Sabbath albums could be contenders. I like this for its raw and unadulterated power and for its riffs! Music by which O level revision was assisted!
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67. Red - King Crimson (1974)
The line up of this incarnation of the mighty Crim has my all time favourite rhythm section In Bill Bruford on drums and John Wetton on bass – although “rhythm” is might not be the right word for this bands music!. This band could play and improvise far better than anybody else I’ve heard. It’s possibly the heaviest album ever recorded. Not “heavy” as in a Sabbath riff but heavy as in industrial noise and shades of light and dark all on the same album. “Starless” is majestic and the title track is capable of rattling your speakers. This one just pips the two previous Crimson albums “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic” and “Starless And Bible Black” (which has my favourite (and definitely the most complex to play Crimson track – “Fracture”) both of which are prog rock classics if not exactly easy listening.
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68. Strange Days – The Doors (1968)
I bought this as a double in the early seventies with the Doors eponymous album. The Doors second album was more in the same style as the first album. It contains the superb, "Moonlight Mile". So impressed with Morrison’s poetic lyrics, I had the libretto of “Horse Latitudes” displayed next to my office desk in Liverpool for a number of years!
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69. Surf’s Up – Beach Boys (1971)
I bought this when it came out and, apart from a cover of “Cottonfields” in the previous year, the hit singles had dried up. This is the last great Beach Boys album (about half of 1973’s “Holland“ album can also be considered as a classic). The title track is one of the most beautiful songs ever written.
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