Look, let’s hit the roots and play forwards. Rhino again. (Why? Because they’re there)
http://rhinorecords.com/store/ProductDetail.lasso?Number=78353
http://rhinorecords.com/store/ProductDetail.lasso?Number=76660
http://rhinorecords.com/store/CatalogList.lasso?Style=Early%20Rock%20’n’%20Roll
http://rhinorecords.com/store/CatalogList.lasso?Style=Classic%20Rock
There. Let’s look through these, and see what we can pull out of the backs of our heads.
If you care about music history, influence matters a lot. But the distinction between quality and influence is purely academic; after all, albums become influential because people listen to them and want to emulate their sound. That sounds like a pretty good mark of quality, don’t you think?
My picks for essential rock:
Rolling Stones, The London Years. This is a box set that collects all of their singles from 1962-1972. It’s more or less complete for the casual fan.
Led Zeppelin, I-IV, Houses of the Holy.
Beatles, Rubber Soul and Revolver at least. The White, Red and Blue Albums round out this collection quite nicely.
Who, Ultimate Collection. A two-disc set that collects pretty much everything the casual fan could want.
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master of Reality.
King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King.
Jethro Tull, Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf, ELO, and ELP all belong on here (if only as personal favorites), but I don’t know the albums well enough to point to anything specific.
Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty ought to be on any essentials list.
Other essentials:
Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited and John Wesley Harding
Joni Mitchell: Blue and Court & Spark
Allman Brothers: Live at the Fillmore East and Eat a Peach
Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow and Volunteers
the Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed
Janis Joplin: Pearl
Patti Smith Group: Horses
Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland
Genesis: the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
the Mothers of Invention: We’re Only In This For the Money
I’ll mention a couple of favorites I haven’t seen yet and apologies if I simply missed them above…
Deep Purple
ZZ Top
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The James Gang
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Neil Young
Montrose
Badfinger
Donovan
Mommas & the Poppas
I think some of Robert Plant’s solo stuff was pretty choice as well.
Some of my faves to add to the mix:
Bruce Springsteen
Bad Religion
Steve Miller Band
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Billy Joel
Ministry
Johnny Cash
Bad Company
Kiss
The Cure
XTC
All good, but most post-1980.
Thin Lizzy - Vagabonds of the Western World
Rory Gallagher - Calling Card
Big Star - Radio City
The Zombies - Odessey & Oracle
You beat me to it, Art (at least, the Allman Bros. albums) - excellent list!
Magical Mystery Tour - Title track, “Penny Lane,” “All YOu need is love” “I am the Walrus” “Strawberry Fields” and some other good songs. Possibly essential.
Certainly the Beatles are one of, if not THE greatest rock band of all, but their entire catalog is not essential (unless we unfairly contort the definition of “essential” to cover all their material just because of their monumental importance to rock.)
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Interesting. Not only were they monumental to the importance of rock, but so were many of their songs and albums.
“Please, Please Me” (I may be getting this one confused with “The Beatles Second album" and "With the Beatles” are The Beatles at their raw and unpolished best. A foundation to what was to become. “British Invasion” at it’s finest. Both essential.
“Hard days Night” A soundtrack to one of the best rock and roll movies of all time. Essential.
I love “Magical Mystery Tour” and imho, it’s one of the most overlooked albums in their collection. But not essential for a rock and roll library.
Absolute essentials from the Beatle catalog – White, Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Abbey Road.
Which brings us to “Sgt. Pepper.” I don’t believe any rock and roll library worth a tinkers damn would exclude this album. It was the first “concept” album. It received huge critical success, and went to number one without a single. And many times was a metaphor. For nearly 20 years when any artist released an important album, it often was referred to as “Their Sgt. Pepper.”
Over past few years, it’s become fashionable to not consider this the best Beatles album. and maybe it’s not. Imho, it’s second to the White Album.
But more importantly, it was for many years of the most groundbreaking and historic album in the history of rock music. I believe you couldn’t have a discussion of rock music without the mentioning this album. ESSENTIAL!
I’d like to add The Wall, in addition to the other Floyd recordings mentioned. As a matter of fact, if you had to drop one of the ones mentioned it’d be PatGoD. While successful (they even had a #1 song at the time, although not off that album,) and not my least favorite Floyd album, it is hardly remembered today. And while Syd Barrett certainly influenced early 70s music (and was one of the first to sport a “homeless guy goth” look in addition to influencing glam which would influence goth,) one could argue it was more a personality thing than being due to Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
The Wall is the Floyd at the peak of their talent: incredible lyrics and the absolutely best guitar soloes ever recorded. You can’t leave it out, on the basis of its greatness alone. In addition, without the enduring success that a SECOND Top Ten Album of All Time gave them, I believe there wouldn’t be as bands around today influenced by pop-prog such as Tool, Radiohead, and Coheed and Cambria.
Now granted, without Syd, the Cure and a handful of others wouldnt be the same, but his influence is less direct. That doesn’t keep PatGoD and Syd’s solo effort from kicking much ass, though.
I’ll stick up for my favorite: Genesis. While I’d really like to suggest *The Lamb Lies *Down on Broadway, there is just too much filler on the second disc to make this essential.
I’ll go with Selling England By the Pound. An album with Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks.
Also in the prog rock category, I think *The Yes Album *should probably be included.
In the interest of making this a dicussion, I’d like to take issue with some of the responses to this thread. Though I realize this was not the intent, it seems to me this has become just another ‘list your favorite albums’ thread. Many, many of the albums listed here are fine records, but in no way “absolutely necessary for a well stocked musical library”.
Four Aerosmith records, five by Led Zeppelin, seven Rolling Stones records, everything by The Beatles? Robert Plant’s solo stuff? And I love The Kinks…honestly I do. They’re tremendously underappreciated, but nothing they did after Muswell Hillbillies is anywhere near essential. Maybe the OP will jump in and tell me I’m full of crap, but I did not take this to be the point of the thread. Is this not to be a list of what is truly the best of the best?
Also, I’d like to ask Art Vandelay, Architect about his inclusion of The Moody Blues on his list. You’ve got a nice list of important records by great artists. I’ve never viewed The Moody Blues as anything other than a curiosity. Would you mind elaborating a little on what you think makes them (or that record) great? And I don’t mean this to sound like sniping. I really want to hear your opinion.
For now I just want to throw out one record that I think is missing so far. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. I just saw part one of the Dylan documentary, so he’s fresh in my mind. Given my earlier diatribe though, it’s only fair that I throw out more of my own suggestions for the group’s derision. I will do so.
Those are fine songs, but only “Walrus” was part of the original Magical Mystery Tour album; the others were all released as singles. Other than “Fool on the Hill” and “Walrus”, Magical Mystery Tour is a pretty tepid affair. I vote non-essential.
I’d like to say something in the Moodies’ defense. In its day, Days of Future Passed was heralded as the great fusion of symphonic orchestral and pop/rock music. As such, it was at least partially successful, probably enough so to be considered an important milestone in the history of rock, and it did yield two great singles (“Tuesday Afternoon” and “Nights in White Satin”) which, admittedly, don’t exactly rock all that hard; and the album as a whole is not free from pretention and corniness. Some of their subsequent albums were actually better: though not backed up by a symphony orchestra, they were often symphonic in texture, and have some gorgeous melodies and vocals, an interesting variety of instrumentation, and the work of several skillful singers/songwriters.
Frank Zappa’s Freak Out! predates Pepper by about a year. I have no idea how to decide what’s essential Zappa, but from the early days, Hot Rats should probably be there, and maybe Freak Out! and We’re Only in It for the Money.
Speaking of Zappa, what about his greatest prodigy - Alice Cooper?
The originator of Glam (nope, NOT Bowie - Alice beat him by at least a year), influencer of everyone from Kiss to Slipknot, Alice was the first truly outrageous act in Rock. He’s still at it full force too.
I’d suggest “Billion Dollar Babies”, “Love It To Death”, “School’s Out” and “Killer”.
Chicago - Chicago II
Chicago - Chicago IX (If you’re wanting a greatest hits package.)
I assume soul will be another list. What about punk? If we’re counting punk, I’ll add more. In addition to (most of) what’s already been mentioned:
The Velvet Underground - Anything, really.
The Stooges - The Stooges
New York Dolls - New York Dolls
Television - Television
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Various Artists - Nuggets (Box Set)
Big Star - #1 Record
Big Star - Sister/Lovers
Queen - Sheer Heart Attack
The Johnny Burnette Trio - Rockabilly Boogie
Various Artists - Loud, Fast And Out Of Control (Box Set)
The Yardbirds - Ultimate!
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
Oops. Television’s entry should be Marquee Moon, not their eponymous album, which was released in the early 90s (I think).
Another addition - if we’re not doing a punk/post-punk/new wave entry, I’d include Entertainment! by Gang of Four. Also This Year’s Model by Elvis Costello & the Attractions.