SiriusXM’s 1970s station plays old “American Top 40” shows on the weekends; it’s entertaining to listen to those, particularly from the mid-70s, when there was an astonishing mix of pop, disco, R&B, rock, and even metal, all sharing the charts (and top 40 radio) at the same time.
One consideration that comes to mind for me reading this thread is, several people have mentioned albums of the 70s that were huge hits, and remain, for me at least, albums I’ve listened to over the years even to this day; like ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ or Stones albums like ‘Exile on Main Street’ or ‘Sticky Fingers’. To me, albums like that transcend, more than define, the 70s.
On the other hand, the OP mentioned Foreigner’s ‘Double Vision’, an album that was very successful at the time, but its influence has waned some and it sounds kind of dated now. That’s why I mentioned Bad Company, though I didn’t mention a specific album. Certain bands of the 70s were just of their time, like those two, or the Foghats and the Grand Funk Railroads.
Anyway, just a thought, Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong. Does an album better define the 70s if it was a monster hit that’s remained popular and influential long past the 70s, like a ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, or if it was successful in the 70s but faded, and is now a time capsule?
Bachman-Turner Overdrive II in the 8-track mounted under the dashboard is pure 70s.
IMHO, if you only list and listen to the albums that are still popular then you miss out on a lot of what made the 70’s the 70’s. Like whenever I listen to the Cars or Supertramps first albums I go back to a time that was less stressful and fun.
“Less stressful and more fun”, I hope you meant!
Yeah, I have albums like that too-- that I really enjoyed and played the hell out of at a certain age, then mostly stopped. So on the rare occasions now when I listen to those albums I’m transported back to when I was in my teens to early 20s. Like several Doors albums, Spirit’s The Twelve Dreams of Doctor Sardonicus, and a few others.
The Spirit album still holds up really well, and I would listen to it more often now, but I actually conserve my current listening to it; because the more I listen in the present day, the less it will bring back sense-memories of my youth. So I save it for every once in awhile I’m feeling nostalgic.
With a matchbook shoved under the 8-track cartridge to keep it properly aligned.
I viewed the OP’s question as, “to you, what albums take you back to the 70s when you listen to them, and feel like they couldn’t have been made at another time?” So, it could have been either of the above. 
Well yes, more fun is better! So here are some more just fun albums from the seventies.
Molly Hatchet and the follow up Flirtin’ with Disaster
Horses by Patti Smith
Court and Spark by Joni Mitchell
The Stranger by Billy Joel
The Ramones and Rocket to Russia by the Ramones
I know exactly what you mean, but one album doesn’t belong there. There’s nothing wussy about “Blood On The Tracks”. Just listen to “Idiot Wind”.
So I will propose an album that probably fits better in this category and for me also loudly cries “Seventies!”, “Running On Empty” by Jackson Browne. Wussy or not, I love it.
And two other defining 70s album: “Crime Of The Century” by Supertramp and “Foxtrot” by Genesis.
ETA: as for softer singer/songwriter rock, I think the defining album is Neil Young’s “Harvest”, which I think hasn’t been mentioned yet.
I bought 3 albums at my local K-Mart about 1973 and I flat wore the grooves out on them. Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin and Montrose by Montrose.
Get on your bad motor scooter and riiiiiide…
Yeah, that’s also an album that transcends the '70s. Still one of my favorites.
The music as well as the concept: an album about touring, and recorded on tour busses (with cardboard box percussion) and in hotel rooms.
I toured for a while, and it’s a surreal life. That album nailed it.
As an aside, his first album was also Peak Seventies. Remember hearing “Doctor My Eyes” for the first time? With Crosby and Nash and Jesse Ed Davis’s Telecaster, it cut through the drivel on your car radio.
eta: Hey, that album got remastered on CD and vinyl back in September. Gotta go shopping…
George Thorogood and the Destroyers (album) - Wikipedia
This album deserves as seat at the table.
The track listing of the original release is as follows:
- “You Got to Lose” (Earl Hooker) – 3:15
- “Madison Blues” (Elmore James) – 4:24
- “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” (John Lee Hooker)[6] – 8:20
- “Kind Hearted Woman” (Robert Johnson) – 4:21
- “Can’t Stop Lovin’” (E. James) – 3:04
- “Ride On Josephine” (Ellas McDaniel) – 4:17
- “Homesick Boy” (George Thorogood) – 3:02
- “John Hardy” (Traditional) – 3:18
- “I’ll Change My Style” (William Parker, Manuel Villa) – 3:57
- “Delaware Slide” (Thorogood) – 7:45
Transformer
Berlin
Sally Can’t Dance
Coney Island Baby
Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal
Rock and Roll Heart
Street Hassle
Wish You Were Here
Animals
The Wall
Hunky Dory
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Aladdin Sane
Pin Ups
Diamond Dogs
Young Americans
Station to Station
Low
“Heroes”
Never Mind the Bollocks…
Breakfast in America
and a lot of stuff by singer-songwriters like Lluís Llach, Joan Manuel Serrat and Konstantin Wecker that few people here probably know about. And some Queen and Kraftwerk and Police and The Jam. And Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. More would come to mind if I opened those drawers with the old CrO2 tapes.
Lots of GREAT albums mentioned. For me, the 70s are split between when I was a kid and my sisters collected 45s in 71-72, when I was in HS 74-78, and when I was an undergrad from 78-82 (ish). The music of those 3 periods are VERY different IMO.
WRT the late 70s, a couple of albums/groups have not been mentioned yet which were in the album collection of ANYONE at the U of Illinois who had more than 50 albums:
Steely Dan - Aja
Spirit - 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
Early Genesis - Lamb Lies Down/Trick of the Tail/Wind and the Wuthering
Something STIFF: Elvis/Ian Drury/Graham Parker/Nick Lowe…
Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes
Some Reggae: Bob Marley/Peter Tosh/The Harder they Come…
I don’t think anyone has mentioned The Runaways. Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Cheri Currie … I had all their LPs, for a couple of reasons.
Yeah, a whole thread of its own could be based on which bands were 70s ‘wuss rock’: Bread, Seals and Crofts, etc.
But Dylan? Lot of things can be said about Dylan, both good and bad, but IMHO certainly not ‘wussy’.
It was my impression that @digs wasn’t specifically calling out Dylan as “wussy,” but rather, calling the whole 70s singer/songwriter movement “the wussier side of rock” and then naming Dylan as an example of a singer/songwriter.
Even so, I think Dylan may not be the best example since he predates the specifically 70s version of the singer/songwriter genre.
Well, maybe @digs had a point specifically in regard to Blood on the Tracks. When it comes to that album, either Dylan’s too sensitive, or else he’s gettin’ soft.
Seriously though, one of my all-time favorite albums. It really helped me though my first serious relationship breakup as a Freshman in College.
Correctamundo. I may have felt “wussy” by injecting folk-rock into a discussion that’d been much harder rock up to that point.
I think it’s a bit unfair to call singer-songwriters “wussy.” If so, you’re missing out on Paul Simon’s 1971 solo album and the later “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon.” And then there’s Godon Lightfoot’s “Sundown,” an excellent example of the singer-songwriter genre. I’d listen to any of those albums over Cheap Trick any day.