# The most "Important" album of 1968? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 6, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710 "2018-12-06T21:12:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/21 "2018-12-07T15:57:57Z")
At Folsom Prison Johnny Cash > **[At Folsom Prison](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Folsom_Prison)** > > Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is the first live album by American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records on May 6, 1968. After his 1955 song "Folsom Prison Blues", Cash had been interested in recording a performance at a prison. His idea was put on hold until 1967, when personnel changes at Columbia Records put Bob Johnston in charge of producing Cash's material. Cash had recently controlled his drug abuse problems, and was looking to turn his career around after several yea... Captures Johnny at the peak of his career. The prisoners give this live album a very unique energy. CCR debut album > **[Creedence Clearwater Revival (album)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creedence_Clearwater_Revival_(album))** > > Creedence Clearwater Revival is the debut studio album by American rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival, released on July 15, 1968, by Fantasy in the US. Featuring the band's first hit single, "Susie Q", which reached number 11 in the US charts, it was recorded shortly after the band changed its name from the Golliwogs and began developing a signature swamp rock sound. > While "Suzie Q" proved to be a hit, the band had played for years as the Golliwogs in the early 1960s, releasing numerous si... I had both of these albums and wore out the vinyl. Replaced them with 8 track and then Cassette tape. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/22 "2018-12-07T16:05:01Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I wonder how each feels now about their youthful observations on the subject. That reminds me. The Who was touring as recently as last year. Does anybody know if 74-year-old Roger Daltrey still sings “I hope I die before I get old”? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/23 "2018-12-07T16:18:34Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I find it interesting that in at least two of the albums I (and others) mentioned — the Kinks’ _…Village Green…_, and Simon and Garfunkel’s _Bookends_ — you have twenty-something men singing about what’s it’s like to be old (this theme pervades about 60% of the S and G album, and 30% of the Kinks one). > > Not sure if this says anything about the 1968 zeitgeist, but it does speak well for these composers — Ray Davies and Paul Simon — who are now indeed old men (great that they’re both still with us). I wonder how each feels now about their youthful observations on the subject. > > [ETA: I realize Village Green isn’t so much about being old per se, but it’s evocation of a world decades before 1968 gives that impression, to me, anyway.] Yeah, it probably says more about those particular songwriters than about the 1968 zeitgeist. Davies and Simon are the type of songwriters who like to create, and write from the point of view of, different characters, including older ones, and who have a sense of the past. (So’s Paul McCartney—see “When I’m 64,” “She’s Leaving Home,” etc.) But maybe this is an indication that Rock, which had always seemed to be a genre by, for, and about the young, was growing up. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/24 "2018-12-07T16:30:12Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > That reminds me. The Who was touring as recently as last year. Does anybody know if 74-year-old Roger Daltrey still sings “I hope I die before I get old”? The _[My Generation/Cry If You Want](https://youtu.be/8GoYE_0Hguc)_ medley was played at almost every show over the last couple of tours. ---
**Author:** ![BenedictusXIV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b19c9b/32.png) [@BenedictusXIV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BenedictusXIV)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/25 "2018-12-07T16:43:48Z")
Music’s like wine and 1968 was definitely a great year. Who cares if the White Album is better than Electric Lady Land or if Beggar’s Banquet has more depth than Steppenwolf? Is it just coincidence that I was born this year? Could be. The thing is, there was something in the air, in the water or maybe both that inspired a generation of musicians and all sorts of musical genres started to mature and blossom that was the prelude to the greatest decade in popular music. I doubt that we’ll ever see another ‘musical spring’ like that. Nowadays musical innovation is all a little far fetched or far off. But who knows. The world is full of surprises. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/26 "2018-12-07T17:39:29Z")
The Band’s **Music from Big Pink** did more than any other album to yank rock’s focus on psychedelia and re-route it to roots music and “the old, weird America,” as Greil Marcus wrote. Even Eric Clapton was eying the banjos and mandolins down at the guitar shop. **Village Green Preservation Society** is my favorite Kinks album, which puts it high on my list of fave rock albums ever, but it was an offbeat effort even for Ray Davies, and didn’t really influence anyone else to start writing songs about Sherlock Holmes or strawberry jam or virginity. **Jaycat,** thanx for mentioning Nyro’s **Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.** Laura don’t get enough love anymore. Nobody’s ever tried to sound like her after her glory years of 1968-1970, which makes **Eli** less of an “important album” and more of a solitary miracle displaced in space and time. I gotta go and listen to “Timer” now. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/27 "2018-12-07T18:37:04Z")
I thought the writer’s main point is that this record truly launched the STONES, the World’s Greatest Rock Band. And how weird and wonderful it was that this sound, these songs, seemingly came out of nowhere, that they aren’t reflected in the Stones’ prior body of work. I’ve actually had this conversation dozens of times. If you are of the belief that the Stones are forever and always the World’s Greatest Rock Band, no matter how much their post-Some Girls work was/is disappointing (with the exception of this, where the hell did this come from? [The Rolling Stones -- Doom and Gloom ( New Video ) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebjgs7dvIa8)) then you agree with this supposition. And I do. Even if you don’t, I think the writer made a compelling argument. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/28 "2018-12-07T19:05:10Z")
**Jaycat** ’s post has enough gravitas to totally invalidate just about any argument that can be made for any single album. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/29 "2018-12-07T20:03:11Z")
> [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](#): > > I thought the writer’s main point is that this record truly launched the STONES, the World’s Greatest Rock Band. And how weird and wonderful it was that this sound, these songs, seemingly came out of nowhere, that they aren’t reflected in the Stones’ prior body of work. I’ve actually had this conversation dozens of times. If you are of the belief that the Stones are forever and always the World’s Greatest Rock Band, no matter how much their post-Some Girls work was/is disappointing > (with the exception of this, where the hell did this come from? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebjgs7dvIa8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebjgs7dvIa8)) > > then you agree with this supposition. And I do. Even if you don’t, I think the writer made a compelling argument. Yeah, to me, the one little “prequel” to the post-'68 Stones sound was “Miss Amanda Jones,” from the Between the Buttons LP, recorded in late 1966: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcg0WFfimEc) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/30 "2018-12-07T20:24:13Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > **Jaycat** ’s post has enough gravitas to totally invalidate just about any argument that can be made for any single album. Except I’m pretty sure **Surrealistic Pillow** came out in ‘67. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/31 "2018-12-07T20:33:28Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > … etc. etc. There were more “important” albums in 1968 than there have been in at least the last 20 years. The last 20 years have seen quite a few landmark albums, especially in hip-hop but in other genres, too. you are going to have difficultly telling me there were so many important albums in 1968 that they all rank about The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Speakerboxx/The Love Below, Kid A, The Marshall Mathers LP, Elephant, or Random Access Memories. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/32 "2018-12-07T20:38:37Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Except I’m pretty sure **Surrealistic Pillow** came out in ‘67. February of 1967. So not even a close candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/33 "2018-12-07T20:42:28Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Thank you for listing _Wheels of Fire_! I always think _Disraeli Gears_ came out after Wheels of Fire and was trying to remember the order when I read your post. > > I like to think that they knew how awesome their playing on it was, and they had to break up after it, and follow it up with _Goodbye_. A noteworthy effort, but nowhere near _Wheels of Fire_. One reviewer summed it up by writing “This is the album you want to be buried with.” Me too. Wheels of Fire had the top of their live stuff (except perhaps Train time) and great studio stuff also. It was my most listened to album for quite some time. ---
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/34 "2018-12-07T21:39:28Z")
What a great feast of albums there was in 1968. And what a great exercise in futility it is trying to rank them by importance. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/35 "2018-12-07T22:45:14Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Heck, we’ve completely overlooked Switched On Bach by Wendy (Walter) Carlos, the first album to produced entirely with a synthesizer. Utterly groundbreaking. Excellent example. > [@Rough\_Draft](#): > > What a great feast of albums there was in 1968. And what a great exercise in futility it is trying to rank them by importance. Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/36 "2018-12-08T01:24:39Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > An argument could be made for the Velvets’ _White Light/White Heat_ I love the VU. But this was their worst album, IMO. I like a couple songs on it (_Lady Godiva’s Operation_ and the _Here She Comes Now_), but the rest are forgettable. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/37 "2018-12-08T04:33:28Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > . . . **Jaycat,** thanx for mentioning Nyro’s **Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.** Laura don’t get enough love anymore. Nobody’s ever tried to sound like her after her glory years of 1968-1970, which makes **Eli** less of an “important album” and more of a solitary miracle displaced in space and time. I gotta go and listen to “Timer” now. My pleasure. I got to see her play sometime in the early 90s and I sure am glad I did. No one knew she wouldn’t be around that much longer. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/38 "2018-12-08T04:35:21Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Except I’m pretty sure **Surrealistic Pillow** came out in ‘67. Point stands, however. I was never a fan of JA anyway. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/39 "2018-12-08T04:36:17Z")
My baby album, of course! ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/40 "2018-12-08T04:39:43Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Except I’m pretty sure **Surrealistic Pillow** came out in ‘67. Oops. It’s all a blur anyway… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710.md?page=3)