As I mentioned in the last thread, there are no polls for '72-‘73, so we’re jumping ahead here. I could easily have voted for Roxy Music or the New York Dolls, but in the end I had to give it to Stevie, if merely for "You Haven’t Done Nothin’ ", a classic of the era (also because I wasn’t able to vote for Talking Book or Innervisions due to there being no polls those years).
Grievous Angel for me.
Easy choice. Court and Spark!
I voted for Linda Ronstadt,but I don’t much like any of the albums nominated, and I’m SURE I could find a 1974 album better than any of these!
In the absence of the overlooked prog classics, Roxy Music.
Honestly, I love Linda Ronstadt’s Heart Like a Wheel best – no filler at all, just great music – but I’m pretty sure I used up my Linda vote on a Billboard #1s poll.
Same with Stevie Wonder (though I also prefer Innervisions). So, time to give Joni Mitchell some love (though admittedly I’m not familiar with all the tracks on this disc).
The Stones really were sucking in the 70s with IORnR – I’m surprised it made the Village Voice list.
Ditto. A *lot *of my favorite albums of all time came out in 1974, but these ain’t them.
Yeah - I think at the time, the Stones were still considered the Most Important Band in Rock, and critics were blind to what a shitty album it was. Same goes for Eric Clapton’s placing - I doubt in hindsight many critics would rate it nearly as high.
I can honestly say I’ve never owned any of these albums or heard them all the way through, so I’m going to vote for Late For the Sky, because “Fountain of Sorrow” is one of my favorite Jackson Browne songs.
The best album of 1974 that I have heard is Secret Treaties by Blue Öyster Cult, which is actually kind of glaring in its omission from this list - BÖC were loved by rock critics in a time when “heavy metal” was generally used as a pejorative and Rolling Stone was dismissing Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin as garbage. Every single song on that album is a classic, and they flow from one to another almost seamlessly.
Yeah, that album didn’t even make the list for the year. My favorite from '74 is probably Big Star’s Radio City, but that came in at #27 on the poll.
Ooo…that would’ve made an interesting vote for me. I think I still would have gone Gram Parsons, but “September Gurls” may well be the most perfectly crafted pop song ever.
I was tempted to go with Gram Parsons or Roxy Music, but I couldn’t not vote for Dylan & the Band live in concert.
Apparently I live in your brain. That was pretty much my exact thought process as I was reading the list.
But yeah, given the choice Big Star would have won the year for me.
I hear you…but, actually, that’s one of my favorite Clapton albums! A galloping “Motherless Children,” laid-back rocker “Mainline Florida,” summer of loveliness “Let It Grow,” and especially the poignant rural acoustic love tune “Please Be With Me,” with its exquisite harmonies. Being 1973-4, this could have descended into a druggie mess, but instead Eric moved deep into his love for America, in all its ragged glory (plus a pinch of Jamaican bud).
Oops – I never knew until now that “Please Be With Me,” right down to the details of those gorgeous, wistful harmonies, was a cover – of a song written by Scott Boyer, and recorded by the composer’s band Cowboy with Eric’s friend Duane Allman soon befor Allman’s death. Well, that diminishes my praise for 461 Ocean Boulevard a bit, but props to Eric for his heartfelt tribute.
I voted for Grievous Angel, but my “other” choice would be Secret Treaties.
Yep, that’s the beginning of the long, slow end for the Rolling Stones, IMHO.
It’s hard to vote against Ry Cooder, but Grievous Angel is the better record.
My “wish it was on this list” is Eno’s Here Come the Warm Jets
Since I can’t vote for either of the best two albums of the decade (The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway from this year, and Quadrophenia from 1973), I thought about voting for Pretzel Logic. Unfortunately that album includes “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”, which is a vortex of suck on an otherwise excellent album, that I instead decided to go with Court And Spark.
A favorite 1974 album of mine is Zappa and the Mothers’ One Size Fits All. It’s when Zappa’s own basic but beautiful guitar chops (as in the “Inca Roads” solo) meshed best with his complex compositions, his humor (the misogyny is kept under wraps this time), and especially his appreciation for skilled prog rock/jazz fusion musicians to work with.
OSFA was 1975. Zappa’s 1974 albums were Apostrophe and Roxy and Elsewhere; the former being brought down a bit by the silliness factor (“Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow”) while the latter is a stone classic.