Maybe it was because I was 12 and easily impressed, or maybe it really was an extremely good year for music, but 1973 stands out like a beacon.I’m gonna list a few albums to prove my pojnt. Apart from those, there was a hell of a lot going on that I didn’t get at the time. Marvin Gaye came out with Let’s get it on, the quintessential make out album of all times. I wanted to make out, but there were no candidates willing to try, maybe that’s why I didnt have a clue at the time. Speaking of soul, Phillysound was in full swing (sic!), leading to disco - for better or worse.
My list is also slanted towards UK bands, maybe that’s geography, but it seems as if the music from the US was stuck in a rut at the time. I’m open to suggestions and lists from other years, which is why I’m posting this. What’s the best year in your opinion? So the defense brings in exhibit a - p.
[list=a]
[li]Elton John came out with both Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in the same year.[/li][li]David Bowie did a twofer too: Aladdin Sane + Pin ups.[/li][li]Queen released their self titled debut album Queen.[/li][li]As did 10cc[/li][li]The more artsy band were very prolific. Mike Oldfield might not have made it without the help of The Exorcist, but Tubular Bells was a surprising hit, helping to launch Virgin Records, being its first release.[/li][li]A list of artsy bands would not be complete without Genesis who had matured which was evident from Selling England by the Pound…[/li][li]…while Led Zepelin had just finished off the first four albums and got around to actually giving an album a name, which they did with Houses of the Holy.[/li][li]and Pink Floyd came up with the optimal record for hi-fi freaks by releasing Dark Side of the Moon[/li][li]A distant cousin, made famous to the Y generation by a horrible reality show, was brit rockers Black Sabbath who really hit a home run with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in the same year.[/li][li]And their more main stream cousins Deep Purple released an album, recorded in Agust '72, which may be one of the most influential live albums of all time - Made in Japan.[/li][li]I was about to forget artsy rockers Roxy Music (BTW the best band name ever)who were very prolific in the early 70’s, culminating with (IMO) Stranded.[/li][li]Anyway, to finish of the UK part, and keeping Bowie in the game, a forerunner to punk was Mott the Hoople and their self titled album Mott was released in what year? 1973.[/li][li]So let’s cross the Atlantic and look for a counterpart to Mott the Hoople. Here we find a group and their self titled album which helped pave the way for punk: New York Dolls.[/li][li]Staying in NY, we see singer/songwriter tradition maturing with Billy Joel and his Piano Man[/li][li]And moving just outside of NY to Jersey, which some regard as a NY suburb, we find a young guy who was once considered the saviour of rock’n’roll - Bruce Springsteen released The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, something few people noticed at the time and only picked up later, when he got famous.[/li][li]Winding up our American tour, there are a few notables who don’t fit into the narrative of this OP, but deserves honorable mentions anyway: Eagles (not the Eagles) made Desperado, in the artsy dept. Frank Zappa made the very accesible Over-Nite Sensation and that son of a preacherman, Vincent Furnier, made parents of the time throw a hissy fit by appearing as Alice Copper and releasing Billion Dollar Babies.[/li][/list]
So that’s 1973 for you. Got anything to top that?
nope - I agree with you. As an old progger, I’d have to add a coupla items to your list:[ul]
[li]Brain Salad Surgery - ELP’s seminal album[/li][li]Fragile - ditto for Yes (IMHO of course)[/li][li]Lark’s Tongue in Aspic, which began what was for many people King Crimson’s best period[/li][/ul]
Fragile was 1971. Yes’s 1973 releases were Yessongs and Tales from Topographic Oceans.
I’ll add Gentle Giant’s Octopus and Jethro Tull’s A Passion Play.
I wasn’t around in 1973, but I have since gotten many cds from that year.
One of the most notable things about 1973 is that possibly the four greatest krautrock albums of all time came out that year:
Can - Future Days
Faust - IV
Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra
Neu! - Neu!
I do believe Steely Dan produced Can’t Buy a Thrill in the fall of 72, so Reelin In the Years would have gotten major airplay in 73. Gerry Rafferty and Stealers Wheel came out with Stuck in the Middle With You (Reservoir Dogs),
Roberta Flack did Killing Me Softly, Jim Croce released Time in a Bottle and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, Lynyrd Skynyrd gave us Free Bird, Paul Simon did Kodachrome, and Golden Earring produced Radar Love.
Yeppers-73 was a tough year to beat. Gasoline was cheap, I had a VW beetle and a cute brunette girlfriend. sigh 
Nope. It was as tie between 1968:
Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland
Frank Zappa – We’re Only In It For The Money
Bob Dylan – John Wesley Harding
Cream – Wheels Of Fire
Who Knows Where the Time Goes – Judy Collins
Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company – Cheap Thrilld
The Incredible String Band – Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter
Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland
The Doors – Waiting For The Sun
The Beatles – The White Album
Simon & Garfunkel – Bookends
Otis Redding – The Dock Of The Bay
Leonard Cohen – Songs of Leonard Cohen
Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison
Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left
Joni Mitchell – Song fro a Seagull
Traffic – Traffic
and 1969:
Blind Faith – Blind Faith
Bob Dylan – Nashville Skyline
Grateful Dead – Live Dead
King Crimson – In The Court Of The Crimson King
Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Beatles – Abbey Road
The Doors – Soft Parade
The Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed
Frank Zappa – Hot Rats
The Who – Tommy
Jethro Tull – Stand Up
Fairport Convention-- Liege and Leif
Procol Harem – A Salty Dog
Warran Zevon – Wanted Dead Or Alive
Crosby, Stills & Nash – Crosby, Stills & Nash
Joni Mitchell – Clouds
Yes – Yes
Santana – Santana
Cream – Goodbye
Elton John’s first LP
As a jazz fan, I’m partial to 1959:
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
John Coltrane, Giant Steps
Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um
Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come
i’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Most of the soloes on The Wall are better than most artists entire catalogies. No year can ever beat 1979.
In fact, the second-best thing to come out of 1979, the catchiest song ever recorded, Starry Eyes by the Records, pales in comparison to the transcendental beauty of The Wall.
http://www.oldiesloon.com/il/wls89of67.htm
http://www.oldiesloon.com/il/wls89of68.htm
http://www.oldiesloon.com/il/wls89of69.htm
http://www.oldiesloon.com/il/wls89of70.htm
http://www.oldiesloon.com/il/wls89of71.htm
http://www.oldiesloon.com/il/wls89of72.htm
http://www.oldiesloon.com/il/wls89of73.htm
For me, this is THE era of Pop music. Every time I hear a song from this era, it brings back fond memories. My favorite year? That would be really hard to say. I agree both '68 and '73 are big contenders.
koeeoaddi,
Don’t forget Led Zeppelin I and II in 1969. What a year!
I just wanted to see if Dark Side of the Moon was listed for 1973. Heh.
I’d say probably 1966 or '67, probably '66. Things start getting too self-indulgent, drug-addled and boring for me starting in about '69 and certainly by '71. (Caveat: when you hit a lot of Latin American and Asian rock and pop, there seems to have been a pre-internet etc lag, thus '71 in Peru or Cambodia sounds a lot like '68 or earlier).
'66 was the height of the garage/mod/psych Nuggets-ish territory, and '67 continued that nicely. *Pet Sounds, Revolver, * so much great stuff… spy music, even Neil Diamond had more hits than misses.
By the way, I’m ‘only’ 33.
Whew, '68, '69, & '73 are going be hard to beat. Watershed years in Rock/Pop for sure. And don’t forget to add The Stones’ Goatshead Soup to the '73 list.
But for me, 1984 is the best year. I have more CD’s from 1984 in my collection, than any other year (err, I think):
- Prince - Purple Rain
- Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA
- Run DMC - RUN DMC
- Metallica - Ride The Lightning
- The Pretenders - Learning To Crawl
- The Replacements - Let It Be
- REM - Reckoning
- The Cars - Heartbeat City
- Don Henley - Building The Perfect Beast
- Sade - Diamond Life
- INXS - The Swing
- Madonna - Like A Virgin
- Van Halen - 1984
- Los Lobos - How Will The Wolf Survive?
- Minor Threat - Out Of Step
- Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
- Husker Du - Zen Arcade
- Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
- U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
- Phillip Bailey - Chinese Wall
- The Smiths - The Smiths
As Homer Simpson said, “Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It’s a scientific fact.”
Crime of the Century was released in 1974 and it is still one of my favourite albums.
Nothing to add, except I can’t imagine how the thread got this far without that quote.
One could make a strong case for 1979. We saw the release of…
XTC - Drums and Wires
The Cure - Three Imaginary Boys/Boys Don’t Cry
Blondie - Eat to the Beat
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Gang of Four - Entertainment!
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps/Live Rust
The Clash - London Calling
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Elvis Costello and The Attractions - Armed Forces
The Jam - Setting Sons
The Police - Regatta De Blanc
Madness - One Step Beyond
Rickie Lee Jones - Rickie Lee Jones
Joe Jackson - Look Sharp!
There were also big releases by Pink Floyd (The Wall), AC/DC (Back In Black), Michael Jackson (Off The Wall), but those are not favs of mine.
Don’t forget The Velvet Underground and Nico. Probably the most influential album that was never a hit.
Dadgummed whippersnappers!
Let’s do a little real remembering, here.
My choices - 1939 (the year when Hollywood had to contend with splitting the Oscars among The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Ninotchka, Wuthering Heights, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Stagecoach) :
Over The Rainbow - Judy Garland
In The Mood - Glenn Miller
When The Saints Go Marching In - Louis Armstrong
Moonlight Serenade - Glenn Miller
Sunrise Serenade - Glenn Miller
If I Didn’t Care - Ink Spots
Little Brown Jug - Glenn Miller
Deep Purple - Larry Clinton
and 1941 (the year of The Maltese Falcon, How Green Was My Valley, Suspicion, Dumbo, Sergeant York and -oh yeah- Citizen Kane):
[ul]Stardust - Artie Shaw
String of Pearls - Glenn Miller
Summit Ridge Drive - Artie Shaw
You Made Me Love You - Harry James
Dancing In The Dark - Artie Shaw
Take The “A” Train - Duke Ellington
God Bless The Child - Billie Holiday
Chattanooga Choo Choo - Glenn Miller
[/ul]
1941 also introduced “The Last Time I Saw Paris”, “Blues in the Night” and “The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B”.
Heh. How many youngsters don’t realize If I Didn’t Care is the music playing on the car radio while Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is contemplating shooting his adulterous wife and her lover in Shawshank Redemption.
Back in Black didn’t come out until 1980. Highway to Hell, on the other hand, did come out in 1979.
Me personally, I’d have to say 2000. Consider that the following ALL came out in that year:
Aaron Carter - Aaron’s Party (Come Get It)
All Saints - Saints and Sinners
Backstreet Boys - Black and Blue
Britney Spears - Oops!..I Did it Again
Christina Aguilera - Mi Reflejo
Da Brat - Unrestricted
Good Charlotte - Good Charlotte
Hanson - This Time Around
Insane Clown Posse - Bizzar
Lil’ Jon & the East Side Boyz - We Still Crunk
Lil’ Kim - Notorious K.I.M.
Limp Bizkit - Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory
Ludacris - Incognegro
Mandy Moore - I Wanna Be With You
Mystikal - Let’s Get Ready
Nelly - Country Grammar
*NYSNC - No Strings Attached
Orgy - Vapor Transmission
Papa Roach - Infest
Spice Girls - Forever
Trick Daddy - Book of Thugs: Chapter AK Verse 47
I rest my case. 