91. Tons Of Sobs – Free (1969)
92. Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (1977)
93. Toys In The Attic – Aerosmith (1974)
94. Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac (1967)
I bought this as a mid-price album in the early seventies when I was listening to a lot of blues and blues rock. Once I had heard the “white boy” versions, I went looking for the originals and bought albums by Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Robert Johnson. Astoundingly, this album stayed in the charts for over a year when it was first released in 1967.
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95. Thick As A Brick – Jethro Tull (1972)
A prog spoof! Highly though this well structured 40-minute opus was a favourite amongst the prog fraternity and my school’s sixth form. Not many albums can say the outer sleeve was a newspaper. Ian Anderson’s joke made at the expense of the rock press. The first side is a particularly excellent slab of progressive rock.
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96. The Joshua Tree – U2 (1987)
97. Valentyne Suite – Colosseum (1969)
98. Farewell To Kings – Rush (1977)
99. Machine Head – Deep Purple (1972)
100. Long Cold Winter – Cinderella (1988)
This is a superb rock album. I didn’t pick up on most of this genre at the time as Cinderella were grouped with Motley Crue and WASP amongst other flashy “poodle-rock” LA bands of the late ‘80s: they were a great blues rock band. This the band’s second album contains the classic (and one of my all-time favourite tracks), “Bad Seamstress Blues/Fallin’ Apart At the Seams” along with the great US single, “Gypsy Road”, “The Last Mile”, “Coming Home” and the superb slow blues of the title track and the classy rock ballad, “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got (till it’s gone)”. In my view, Tom Keifer is one of rocks great vocalists.
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101. On The Beach – Neil Young (1974)
One of the albums borrowed when I started work. According to Young's sleeve notes on "Decade", driving in the gutter was Neil Young’s preferred route after the success of “Harvest”. Much harder to listen to, there’s no “easy” songs on this which is not surprising when you consider what substances the musicians were “on” at the time they recorded it! I used to think the album was “laid back” in its styling but now appreciate that everybody was “out on the perimeter” as Jim Morrison once said. “Revolution Blues “, “Ambulance Blues as well as the older, “See The Sky About To Rain” are my favourites.
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102. Captain Beyond – Captain Beyond (1970)
One of the earliest “super-groups”, Captain Beyond is remembered as Rod Evans’ band after leaving Deep Purple. The song-cycle segues together and cover many bases from heavy rock to psychedelia and acoustic. This is a stunningly good album and I have never understood how it remains so obscure. Highly recommended!
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103. Beggar’s Banquet – Rolling Stones (1968)
The first in the series of four classic Stones albums after the inferior hippy-dippy album of the previous year’s, “Satanic Majesties Request”, this was a return to form with great songs and the Stones sleaze-ball lyrics and playing. It contains the majestic, “Street Fighting Man” and the over played, “Symphony For The Devil”.
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104. Rust Never Sleeps– Neil Young (1979)
At the end of the seventies Neil Young came up with this exquisite album. The first side is acoustic with the stunningly beautiful, “Pocahontas” and the story line of “Thrasher” whereas the second side is very much an electric Neil Young including the superb, “ Powderfinger” climaxing with the electric version of “Hey Hey, My, My, Into the Black”.
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105. Phaedra – Tangerine Dream (1974)
106. Spooky Two – Spooky Tooth (1968)
107. The River – Bruce Springsteen (1980)
Here are twenty great songs about American cars, women and working people losing their jobs. This is great for playing whilst cruising in the car – something I recall doing for about six months after I’d purchased it. The title track is one of Springsteen’s best other favourites include, “Point Blank” and the single “Hungry Heart”.
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108. Heartbreaker – Free (1973)
109. Crazy Horse – Crazy Horse (1971)
A classy hidden gem of an album from Neil Young’s backing band. It includes the original Danny Whitten penned song that was a hit for Rod Stewart, “I Don’t Want to Talk About it”. My favourites are “Gone Dead Train” “Downtown” (subsequently covered on Neil Young’s, “Tonight’s the Night” album) and “Beggars Day”. Don’t spook the horse!
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