Excellent questions. What I had in mind was some combination of massive popularity at the time (you couldn’t walk down the hall of a college dorm between '65 and '75 without hearing it from a dozen different stereos) with a level of quality that makes it still not only listenable but interesting today.
Those who have mentioned Aqualung and Led Zep IV – yeah, exactly.
Picking “the” Beatles album and “the” Stones album will be tough, though the concurrent Stones thread seems to be pointing at Exile on Main Street (the first album I bought my first week of school, on sale for $5).
I will withdraw Rod Stewart as not really in that top rank, though it is indeed a ridiculously well-crafted album and the one that got me ruminating on this.
Tres Hombres was definitely the most questionable inclusion on my list, but I wanted something to represent that country & western Texas influence. And I love that album.
It is indeed a fantastic album. My first car was a 1970 Cutlass Supreme with an 8-track deck and that album was one of the only 8-tracks I had (this was in the late 80s, so 8-tracks were no longer widely available). Got a lot of play, that one did.
No real order. Ones I listened to a lot when they were current and I know it’s too many:
Sticky Fingers - Stones
Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
Blonde On Blonde - Dylan
Cheap Thrills - Joplin
Disraeli Gears - Cream
Electric Ladyland - Hendrix
Kick Out the Jams - MC5
L.A. Woman - Doors
Led Zeppelin IV – Zep
Odessey and Oracle - Zombies
Songs of Leonard Cohen
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - Floyd
Who’s Next – The Who
Willy And The Poor Boys - CCR
Others that I didn’t listen to so much but great albums:
Hunky Dory – David Bowie
After The Gold Rush - Young
At Folsom Prison - Cash
Born To Run – Bruce Springsteen
Five Leaves Left - Nick Drake
Hotel California – The Eagles
Dusty In Memphis
Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart
Cream - Disraeli Gears
The Who - Who’s Next
Beatles - Abbey Road
The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
Deep Purple - Machine Head
Doors - L.A. Woman
Jim Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?
Jethro Tull -** Aqaulung**
Led Zeppelin IV
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
AC/DC - Back In Black
My top 10. I’m setting my range as mid 60s to 1989, so there. I had a hell of a time paring the list down, because there were albums I wanted to consider for 1 particular song, and that wasn’t right.
In no order:
*Abbey Road *– The Beatles
*Brothers In Arms *– Dire Straits
*Machine Head *– Deep Purple
*Led Zeppelin IV *– Led Zeppelin Hotel California – The Eagles
*Yessongs *– Yes Duke – Genesis Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd (this one is better than DSOTM, but doesn’t get the respect) Quadrophenia – The Who Lynyrd Skynyrd – Street Survivors
1 Who’s Next - The Who - 1971
2 Inna Gadda da Vida - Iron Butterfly - 1968
3 Golden Grass - Grass Roots - 1968
4 Surrealistic Pillow - Jefferson Airplane - 1967
5 The Doors - The Doors - 1967
6 Days of Future Passed - Moody Blues - 1967
7 Three Dog Night - Three Dog Night - 1968
8 The Hollies Greatest Hits - The Hollies - 1967
9 Canned Wheat - The Guess Who - 1969
10 Steppenwolf - Steppenwolf - 1968
Many of these made my list because I owned the album in more than one format, vinyl LP, cassette, or CD. In fact, many of them are on my computer right now.
I had a few others on my list but they fell outside the 1965-1975 range – for example, Hotel California and Joshua Tree. I tried to stick to the early years.
