Well, we’re getting into a full-on hijack here, but I hope it’ll be short. I’ve always felt that the line “Forget about the check, we’ll get hell to pay!” along with the other references to short sightedness made it cautionary. It’s not Needle and the Damage Done, heck, it’s not even Drinking and Driving by Black Flag. I may be reading too much into it, this is AC/DC we’re talking about. Plus, lyric interpretation is a sketchy art even when you don’t have a fool like me doing it. So, YMMV.
I almost suggested Steely Dan, but I’ve had a love/hate relationship with them for so long, I hesitated to suggest them. I know how to play a few of the guitar parts, because they’re so damn good, but the vocals eventually drive me off again eventually. I think that tight harmonies rub me raw like Geddy Lee’s voice grates on some people. They make me feel dirty somehow when I’m listening to them. I dunno if I actually feel guilty about listening to it, but I’d feel guilty making others listen to it. Children, for example.
But, if you’re already into that sort of thing, I recommend Can’t but a Thrill, because it rocks. Mind you, this comes from someone who’s almost a Steely Dan fan, but would buy any Clash record before any Steely Dan record. You might want to buy Aja, instead. Don’t be embarrassed if you like it, but don’t rub it on complete strangers, either.*
If you don’t like the vocals on the Steely Dan records, try Rush’s Moving Pictures. Or, even if you do like Steely Dan’s vocals, try the Rush record. Why? Is because it’s the other record my junior high friends and I obsessed about when we obsessed about Back in Black a good enough reason? Even if that reason is too dumb to consider, It does fit your criteria, I think. It’s before your time, and I think everyone should have heard it.
*I think I did just that, didn’t I?
Again, I don’t know about other folks, but I was keying off Mahaloth’s guidance on timeframe and genres. SD and VM are too early and not heavy enough. I love them, and wouldn’t be surprised if M is already familiar with them.
scabpicker, I suspect you’re giving the Young boys a bit too much credit 
You guys have to realize the place he’s in: he is a musical virgin. “London Calling” is not an album for musical virgins – it’s for people who have heard all there is to hear in rock and roll and are looking for something new and interesting. The Clash integrated all kinds of different types of music with their basic punk rock and came up with an amazing album in “London Calling” but it is one of the WORST albums to recommend to someone who has not been inundated with pop-rock music already. Stick to the radio-friendly rock songs for this OP until he gets bored with it and it ready to strike out in different directions. THEN you can recommend stuff like The Clash, Radiohead, Violent Femmes, Rush, and My Bloody Valentine. (btw I have to plug my favorite group here – put MBV and the Pumpkins in a blender and add some virtuoso guitar work and you get… Silversun Pickups! Seriously check these guys out if you are a fan of the genre, freaking amazing)
Anyway, my recommendations would be more along the lines of:
Guns 'n Roses: Appetite for Destruction and Use your Illusion 1/2
Bon Jovi: Slippery When Wet
Toad the Wet Sprocket: Fear and Dulcinea (more laid-back sound, but high quality)
Megadeth: Symphony for Destruction (you liked Metallica’s more radio-friendly songs, so this is worth a try too)
AC/DC: Back in Black and the Live album – heartily second and third this excellent recommendation
Van Halen: Get a greatest hits album. Most people will say their early stuff is better, but I prefer the more mainstream hits off the Sammy Hagar albums
Tesla: they have an excellent greatest hits album, has everything you need
My recommendation: Safety In Numbers by Crack The Sky. (the original release, not the remix)
Recommendations on albums that everyone else has heard, pre-95. So, you mean music that, if you were there at that time, you heard it. You didn’t have to like it. You didn’t even have to own it, but because everyone else did, you heard it whether you wanted to or not. Is that what you’re looking for? I’ll assume yes.
Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982)
Purple Rain - Prince & the Revolution (1984)
Both of these are obvious choices for a reason - they changed popular music. Yes, there will be plenty of people who argue against that, but they’re wrong. If you were there at the time (and you weren’t screaming at kids to get off your lawn), when you heard these, you realized the times they were a’changin’.
Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill (1986)
Imagine its 1986-87-88+ and you’re anywhere other than your own bedroom. See that stereo over there on the floor/the ground/the sidewalk/that dude’s shoulder? This tape is playing in it. Actually, scratch that first line. You were playing it in your bedroom, too.
Word. If you like it, listen to it. Loudly. (Well, not at 3am when people are trying to sleep. Unless you have headphones, in which case, go for it.) You don’t have to agree with someone else’s taste in music and they don’t have to agree with yours, but the important thing is that the experience of enjoying music is shared by people everywhere. So, we’re all connected in a touchy, feely-good sort of way.
Oh one more huge recommendation although you may have already listened to them if you’ve covered 90’s grunge.
Live – Throwing Copper. Some good songs on their later albums too but Throwing Copper is the gold standard for grungy rock.
Update:
Jet - Get Born
I had absolutely no idea who this was. I’ve never heard of them and as I listened, I thought I was listening to an album from the mid-80’s. I don’t know why I thought that, but I did.
Review: Very, very good. I always go in eager to like, but I didn’t expect to like this album so much. It was quite good. Color me impressed. I was shocked to look it up later and find out it is from 2003.
I don’t have any tracks that immediately come to mind as stand-outs, but I liked the whole feel of it.
Why?
Many great suggestions. I don’t think I saw the first, or second, Chicago albums.
Four Beatles albums in the top 10 is kind of ridiculous, but this was a nice excuse to listen to some classics today. Thanks for linking to it.
The ridiculous part is that none of them are Abbey Road.
Three albums from the “classic” era that everyone has that everyone should have becaue they actually deserve the reputation they have earned:
“Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis. The biggest selling jazz album of all time and the longest continually in print record in history. There’s a reason for that - it is just that darn good! It’s the album people who say they hate jazz will like. If you can find the version with the alternate take of “Flamenco sketches”, so much the better.
“Astral Weeks” - Van Morrison. Hipsters and Hippies both agree. It’s timeless and utterly lovely and never gets any less mysterious as the years go by. Critics fawn over it and put it on their best ever lists and they are right to do so.
“Who’s Next” - The Who. Like being punched in the face by an angry dinosaur. This is where “rock and roll” became rock but before it became “rawk!!!”. If you know what I mean. Cool album cover, too.
It sort of pisses me off.
Abbey Road is number 14. Music From Big Pink is 34. The Band is 45. Achtung Baby is 63. Layla is 117. Aja is 145. Live Dead is 247. Cheap Thrills is 338. Let It Be is 392.
These guys are so stupid they must work for Rolling Stone. Yup, they do. Abbey Road is the best popular music album ever. Layla is the best blues record ever and should be in the top 5. All the rest should be in the top 25, even if they aren’t hugely popular, it’s like putting the Mona Lisa in a corner. Nobody puts Achtung Baby in a corner.
Zep 1 & 4. 
Otherwise yeah.
I also think it’s a good idea to start in the more accessible end, that’s what I would do if I hadn’t listened to much music. Which I think all of these are. But other recommendations from this thread, such as Van Morrison and Yes, I would probably postpone, if I was making the choice for myself.
Another way is to listen to mixed lists, and then select artists to explore from those.
Such as this list from my favorite rock critic Scott Floman:
https://play.spotify.com/user/115185819/playlist/4JsF3CozHdMQdBA7xXJ37i
Quote:
Originally Posted by Accidental Martyr
I find it hard to believe that you actually listened to The Joshua Tree and London Calling from the reactions you posted.
The Joshua Tree and London Calling are nearly flawless albums. To refer to The Joshua Tree as two great tracks and a lot of filler is almost unbelievable.
I’m going to vote for their second album (The Band) instead. It’s so strong from start to finish.
How about some Bob Marley? Exodus is one of those albums everybody has, although the Legend Best-of is also very popular.
Seconded.
The Joshua Tree is the first album I ever bought. I still love that album, but even I have to admit that side 2 has at least three tracks of filler (‘In God’s Country’, ‘Trip through your Wires’, and ‘Exit’). And I’m not that fond of ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’ on side 1 either.
Another one for Remain in Light - Talking Heads
Fables of the Reconstruction -REM
Fun House - The Stooges
Velvet Underground and Nico
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
The Pixies - Doolittle
Sonic Youth - Daydream nation
Died Pretty - Doughboy Hollow
These are some of the best albums ever made. Do yourself a favour, as Molly would say.
Work with me ;). There’s a big difference between what’s Great vs what’s cool that works for me.