And for something a little newer:
The White Stripes - pick between White Blood Cells, De Stijl, or Elephant.
Gotta have a Van Halen disc in there. And hell, let’s throw in Street Survivors by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
And Appetite for Destruction is an absolute must.
Tori Amos — Boys For Pele
Yes — Keys to Ascension
Jane’s Addiction — Nothing Shocking
Styx — The Grand Illusion
Kansas —‚ Leftoverture
(hey, by page 3 there’s no point in nominating what other folks have already acclaimed. OK, OK, the list has to have Physical Graffiti and Who’s Next. All right, Led Zep IV also. but you knew that)
Can we just acknowledge that no one wants to be confined to 5 albums, and start talking about what belongs in the top 15?
Oh, and Pink Floyd — Obscured by Clouds
and Melissa Etheridge — Yes I Am
and Julieta Venegas belongs in there, but no particular album
and Jefferson Airplane — Surrealistic Pillow, can’t forget your roots, folks
and The Watch — Vaccuum. go check it out…
and Pink Floyd — Wish You Were Here
not to mention Queen — A Night at the Opera
& how about U2 — The Joshua Tree…
and Pink Floyd — The Wall…
Well, you definitely want to have your stereo turned up loud for the beginning of track 2…
And it’s the second best music of any Floyd (the 3rd best is Final Cut!)
Who’s Next has to be #1. After that a bunch of others, mostly already mentioned, but I’ll add:
Damn Yankees by Damn Yankees
Crank it up!
Whoa, how’d I miss this thread?
Besides my obvious choices, I choose AC/DC’s Back in Black.
I don’t really listen to Led Zep, (please don’t kill me), but I will check them out tomorrow. I’ve heard good things.
I don’t want to hijack this thread like your Beatles thread was with semantic debates, but I do have to say that most of the music listed here I’d call “rock” rather than “rock & roll” - it’s a useful distinction in my mind, but I guess it probably doesn’t matter to most people. Anyway, since most “classic rock” bores me stiff, the albums I crank up and scream along to are:
Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising
The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
The Clash - The Clash
Gang Of Four - Entertainment!
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
Kinda surprised by how many people picked Who’s Next as a rocking album - aside from “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, most of it seems pretty mellow to me. Their 60s stuff was a lot more aggressive.
What is all this talk of entire albums? No single album is full of decent driving tracks anyhow. No. What you want is one single song on infinite repeat. And that is:
Roadrunner by Jonathan Richman.
Throw in Motorhead’s Ace of Spades when you need to do some overtaking.
In A Gadda Da Vida- Iron Butterfly
Woodstock (the album)
Cosmos Factory - CCR
Pearl - Janis Joplin
The White Album- Beatles
Not saying they were the best, just that they were essential to own.
In no particular order…
Deep Purple: In Rock
The Clash: London Calling
Rainbow: Rising
The Replacements: Pleased To Meet Me
The Who: Live At Leeds
Thought very seriously about putting that on my list – but my favorite song from that is “My Best Friend,” which … anyway.
And, yeah, woodstockbirdybird, you’re absolutely right about the fact that we’re talking hard rock here. My bad.
And from thems as have mentioned Janis – if I’d gone to 10 albums, Pearl absolutely would have been on the list.
Twickster. I caught the same tour, but at the Winterland in San Francisco! This one was memorable for two events: Roger Daltry spinning the mike around his head, getting it wrapped around his neck and clocking him in the side of the face… AND… Keith Moon passing out behind his drum set and the Who inviting a guy from the crowd to finish the set with some extended jams.
Sam Stone
You’re not alone, check out post #32. 
No doubt I show my age in saying this, but despite the different categories and sub-categories of music which have long existed, I remember all popular music of the younger generation being referred to as"rock 'n roll."
I mean, rockabilly, hard rock, glam rock, heavy metal, punk etc etc would be separately identified, but didn’t the expression “rock 'n roll” kinda/sorta encompass all that?
That expression “sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll” wasn’t just for Mick Jagger types.
(Or Keith Moon!)
Sadly, the “roll” part seems to have all but vanished, with the honourable exception of AC/DC: Stiff Upper Lip positively swings.