# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/41 "2018-12-08T11:52:59Z")
Two more to consider: Lady Soul by Aretha Franklin (“Chain of Fools,” “You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman)”) and Cheap Thrills by Big Brother and the Holding Company (“Summertime,” “Piece of My Heart”). ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/42 "2018-12-08T15:25:48Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Except I’m pretty sure **Surrealistic Pillow** came out in ‘67. **Surrealistic Pillow** came out in '67, but I will put a plug in for the Jefferson Airplane’s '68 offering [Crown of Creation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-z0PGDSVKs). It’s a terrific album that captures the dark tone that seemed to engulf life in that year. ---
**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 8, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/43 "2018-12-08T16:26:38Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > 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. Tell me about it. Laura Nyro did a week of shows every Xmas at the Bottom Line in the Village all through the ‘80s and ‘90s, so you never felt there was any hurry. Then BOOM, gone at 50, in 1998. I didn’t even start listening to her until about ten years ago. ---
**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 8, 2018, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/44 "2018-12-08T16:28:05Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > **Surrealistic Pillow** came out in '67, but I will put a plug in for the Jefferson Airplane’s '68 offering [Crown of Creation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-z0PGDSVKs). It’s a terrific album that captures the dark tone that seemed to engulf life in that year. Didn’t **After Bathing at Baxter’s** also come out in ‘68? Great cover art. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/45 "2018-12-08T19:20:42Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > That’s because Dylan didn’t release anything in 1968 and _Waiting For the Sun_ was sub-par, even for The Doors. I had always thought that John Wesley Harding came out in 1968, but it was released the last week of 1967. Ignorance fought and defeated. ---
**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 8, 2018, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/46 "2018-12-08T19:33:18Z")
I came out in 1968. Which was pretty important, to me, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/47 "2018-12-08T19:56:55Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I came out in 1968. Which was pretty important, to me, at least. Are you an album? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/48 "2018-12-08T19:57:28Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Didn’t **After Bathing at Baxter’s** also come out in ‘68? Great cover art. Not entirely sure, but I think “Baxter’s” came out in December of 1967, so it was still on the radar in early '68 but not technically eligible for this thread. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/49 "2018-12-08T20:06:03Z")
I like Big Pink, Eli and the 13th confession, Village Green Preservation Society, and The White Album. Big Pink had the most worldly impact. Beggars Banquet and Astral Weeks have had too much woo spun about their reputations. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/50 "2018-12-08T20:08:28Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I came out in 1968. Which was pretty important, to me, at least. Do you have an album from 1968 that you associate with your coming out? (Mine’s “Out of Range” by Ani Difranco, but I didn’t come out 1992.) ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/51 "2018-12-08T20:28:40Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > 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. Clapton has said many times that _Music from Big Pink_ was a factor in his agreeing to end Cream as that was the type of music he wanted to play (at the time). He was sidetracked with _Blind Faith_, but later joined up with _Delaney & Bonnie and Friends_. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/52 "2018-12-08T23:38:22Z")
A few important records that weren’t really rock: Lady Soul - Aretha FRankin Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding In the Groove - Marvin Gaye (not all of it is great, but what is, is magical) And my personal favorite, raw, real, protest blues from the delta via the streets of southside Chicago, A Man and His Blues - Buddy Guy ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/53 "2018-12-09T00:20:12Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Looking at Wikipedia for 1968 in Music, I’d say Steppenwolf by Steppenwolf. I haven’t even heard the deep cuts but it was huge in influencing the development of hard rock. I can’t think of later bands that sound more like the Stones. Same general idea but I would go more “The Second” from later in 1968. It repeated a lot of the same characteristics of the band but broadened it out and fleshed it out a little more. Yeah, only a serious fan or music freak is going to know much beyond “Magic Carpet Ride” and “Don’t Step on the Grass Sam” but you can see/learn a lot listening to the other tracks. Two of my personal favorites were always “Faster Than the Speed of Life” and “Lost and Found by Trial and Error”. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/54 "2018-12-09T03:54:51Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Someone who is overlooked in a lot of these discussions is Arthur Brown, who released _The Crazy World of Arthur Brown_ in 1968. It contained his hit single _[Fire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en1uwIzI3SE)_ (yes, he appeared on stage looking like that). His music was truly unique for the time and, as Wiki says, " [he] is considered a pioneer of shock rock and progressive rock and influential on heavy metal music." Gawd, I loved that song! ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/55 "2018-12-09T04:02:43Z")
> [@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. I wore my copy out. Loved it soooo much. I like New York Tendaberry, too, but Eli was my fav. Heh, I have a neighbor who has a dog named Eli, and I _always_ start singing Eli in my head…Eli’s coming. Hide your heart, girl… ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710/56 "2018-12-09T04:21:59Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Gawd, I loved that song! Yeah, I bought that LP when it came out and played it to death, along with Disraeli Gears, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Big Brother, and most of the others mentioned in this thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-important-album-of-1968/825710.md?page=2)