# The most revolutionary albums in rock history **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 7, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285 "2010-06-07T16:08:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/41 "2010-06-08T15:54:01Z")
> [@Joanie](#): > > When you hear FM stations playing “compilations”, how many tracks do you ever hear from Tommy? I can’t remember ever hearing any. 4 get played quite a bit, actually: _Pinball Wizard, I’m Free, Welcome_ and _We’re Not Gonna Take It._ ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/42 "2010-06-08T15:54:24Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Chuck Berry’s **Chuck Berry is on Top** This gets into what is an ‘album’. Undoubtedly, Berry’s top five or so singles were the most influential twenty minutes in Rock and Roll history, no question at all. They pretty much created and defined Rock and Roll, and as Keith Richards says, everybody since then is just ripping off his music. But they were influential as singles, not as an LP. ---
**Author:** ![torie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@torie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torie)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/43 "2010-06-08T15:56:48Z")
I’m going to concur with whoever said Led Zeppelin IV. Black Sabbath-Paranoid Joy Division-Unknown Pleasures ---
**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:** [June 8, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/44 "2010-06-08T16:25:55Z")
Speaking of _Tommy_, the pinball-playing part was tossed in by Pete in an attempt to win over a particular critic (Nik Cohn). The “rock opera” concept can be traced back further than Tommy; The Pretty Things’ [S.F. Sorrow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sf_sorrow), for example, was recorded a year before The Who’s album. However, Pete, inspired by Kit Lambert, had experimented with a so-called “mini-opera” before with “A Quick One While He’s Away”. And the band toyed with a concept album with their 1967 faux-pirate radio “Sell Out”. It came together with Tommy. While the LP was less than “revolutionary” to some, anyone witnessing a live performance went away as a true believer. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/45 "2010-06-08T16:30:24Z")
> [@sleestak](#): > > I’ll add either Ride The Lightning or Kill "em All by Metallica. > > Those brought heavy fast music out in a big way. > > Slee But when I heard them, I thought “Cool, another band that sounds like Motörhead!” ---
**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:** [June 8, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/46 "2010-06-08T16:32:11Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > 1. _The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan._ The success of this album, with its deep lyrics and a performance style that made absolutely no concessions to popular commercial trends, meant that vast new territories were now open to exploration. Although not itself a rock album, it opened the way to folk-rock. 😕 Solidly in the already existing folk tradition. Very important in that this was the introduction of Dylan as a writer (not counting the two songs he wrote for his first album) and the beginning of Dylan’s symbolic poetry, in Hard Rain. But hardly a rock album. If they had included “Mixed Up Confusion,” perhaps. While I suspect Highway 61 will be the popular choice, I’d pick _Bringing it All Back Home_. Great rock on side 1, and great poetry on side 2. If you listen to the bootleg series CD of the 1965 Carnegie Hall Concert, you’ll see how stunned the audience was by “It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding,” which was unlike anything they had ever heard before. > [@](#): > > 1. _Music from Big Pink_ by The Band. This album kick-started the “back to the roots” movement, showing that music could have a strong strain of tradition and still be cutting-edge. As one example of its effect, as soon as Eric Clapton first heard it, he knew Cream was history. Music from Big Pink was the introduction of the stuff that Dylan and the Band was doing in the basement, which also got expressed later in “John Wesley Harding.” I’ve read quite a lot about Cream, but never that Clapton thought Cream was history after this. Cream, especially Clapton’s stuff, drank deeply from the blues tradition. Cream was the first supergroup, and also was the first supergroup to dissolve through personality conflicts. It’s not like Clapton ever adopted the tradition the Band represented. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/47 "2010-06-08T16:35:09Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > **Tapestry** , by Carole King. This was a giant female writing talent bursting onto the scene with songs that were poetic and complex. They still hold up today. Bursting? King had been writing for years before she recorded her own album. Wildly popular, yes, but revolutionary, not hardly - except perhaps to show that their was an audience for songs our parents wouldn’t find offensive. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/48 "2010-06-08T16:48:37Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Bursting? King had been writing for years before she recorded her own album. Wildly popular, yes, but revolutionary, not hardly - except perhaps to show that their was an audience for songs our parents wouldn’t find offensive. Writers often labor in obscurity. Carole King was one, as was Neil Diamond and many others. As you say, while she’d been working for years, the Tapestry album was her first, and its success justifies my descriptive (15 weeks at #1 and four years on the charts). I think it inspired many female artists to jump into the fray, and also showed that pop music didn’t have to follow the standard rhyming schemes. I believe many artists rank her very highly. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/49 "2010-06-08T16:53:03Z")
_Paul’s Boutique_ by the Beastie Boys ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/50 "2010-06-08T16:59:19Z")
_Bitches Brew_ by Miles Davis was jazz, but kicked off the (jazz-rock) fusion era. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/51 "2010-06-08T17:22:29Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > In fact, except for the Edgar Broughton Band, I’m not sure I can come up with another artist about whom I would say, “Wow! You can really hear the major Beefheart influence there!” Tom Waits? HUGE Beefheart influence. And a lot of major artists were heavily influenced by Beefheart even if you wouldn’t necessarily guess it from their music, like XTC and Red Hot Chili Peppers. And although they’re nearly as far away from the mainstream as Beefheart himself, I’ve gotta stick in a word for Pere Ubu. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/52 "2010-06-08T17:26:03Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Music from Big Pink was the introduction of the stuff that Dylan and the Band was doing in the basement, which also got expressed later in “John Wesley Harding.” I’ve read quite a lot about Cream, but never that Clapton thought Cream was history after this. I just finished reading two very nice biographies of (coincidentally enough) Cream and The Band, both of which made this point, and I’m pretty sure they included quotes from Clapton. I can provide you with more info if you like. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/53 "2010-06-08T19:36:54Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > I just finished reading two very nice biographies of (coincidentally enough) Cream and The Band, both of which made this point, and I’m pretty sure they included quotes from Clapton. I can provide you with more info if you like. Please do. I wasn’t aware there was a book about Cream - certainly I knew of one about Clapton. From the liner notes of the Boxed set, which are quite extensive, they were pretty much down on themselves by the end. _Music From Big Pink_ has never been my favorite Band album - the bootleg versions of the Dylan songs are better, and Lonesome Suzie and Long Black Veil are awful. _The Band_ on the other hand is a masterpiece. But I think I have a minority opinion about this, and it might have come from not hearing Big Pink before the second album. . ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/54 "2010-06-08T20:06:29Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Tom Waits? HUGE Beefheart influence. Huh. You know, that never occurred to me. I guess I can see it, although I’m still not sure how much it might be coincidental similarity… unfortunately, I don’t have enough TW to really judge. But you generally seem to be pretty knowledgeable about music. So I guess we could add Rickie Lee Jones to the list of Beefheart influences too? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/55 "2010-06-09T02:05:51Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > [QUOTE=Kolak of Twilo] > _Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols - Sex Pistols_ Not sure I agree about this one, mainly because of the delay in its release… by the time it came out, it was a bit behind the times. Still, just because of all the hype, it was probably “the first punk album” for a lot of people. [/QUOTE] I thought of that too, but I decided since it was the first punk album that got any notice from the mass media it still counts as revolutionary for alot of people. I’m sure I wasn’t the only 15 in 1977 who heard it and got hooked on a bunch of other bands that followed them. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/56 "2010-06-09T02:45:34Z")
A few that come to mind: My Aim is True - Elvis Costello Forever Changes - Love Exile on Main Street - Rolling Stones Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan Kiss - Kiss Blue - Joni Mitchell Legend - Bob Marley & the Wailers Graceland - Paul Simon mmm ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/57 "2010-06-09T03:52:16Z")
Not sure it was revolutionary in that it really influenced other bands or changed music much, but [Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hangman%27s_Beautiful_Daughter) was like nothing before or since. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/58 "2010-06-09T05:14:48Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > A few that come to mind: > > Kiss - Kiss Good choice, but I think I’m gonna vote for DESTROYER. IMO that album sums up exactly what the band is better than any other one they’ve released. Although I like either all or most of the songs on their albums since, the “Destroyer sound” seems to be the one that appeals to most people. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/59 "2010-06-09T11:44:28Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > As you say, while she’d been working for years, the Tapestry album was her first, and its success justifies my descriptive (15 weeks at #1 and four years on the charts). Just a nitpick; she released _Writer_ the year before _Tapestry_ but it flopped. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285/60 "2010-06-09T15:35:40Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Please do. I wasn’t aware there was a book about Cream - certainly I knew of one about Clapton. From the liner notes of the Boxed set, which are quite extensive, they were pretty much down on themselves by the end The book is _Cream: How Eric Clapton Took the World by Storm_, by Dave Thompson. (Judging by the content, which is not particularly Clapton-centric, I surmise that the subtitle was forced on the author by the publisher.) One particularly good thing about it is that it spends a lot of time on the very early British blues scene (Alexis Korner, Cyril Davies, Graham Bond, John Mayall). Anyway, this book quotes Clapton as follows regarding the Band’s debut LP (which Thompson unfortunately refers to throughout as _“Music from the Big Pink”_): “I got hold of a tape of _Big Pink_ from somewhere… and I used to put it on as soon as I checked into my hotel room, and listen to it, and then go and do the gig and be utterly miserable. Then rush back and put the tape on and go to sleep fairly contented, until I woke up the next morning and remembered who I was and what I was doing. It was that potent. And I thought, ‘Well, this is what _I_ want to play – not extended solos and maestro bullshit, but just good funky songs.’” (Of course, he had to get through Blind Faith before he even started moving in that direction.) The other book I mentioned, _This Wheel’s on Fire_ by Levon Helm with Stephen Davis, says that Clapton “was quoted in the British paper _Melody Maker_ as saying _Big Pink_ had made his group Cream, the contemporary kings of so-called acid rock, obsolete.” (But Clapton’s actual words are not given.) It also provides this little nugget: Clapton introduced the Band at the 1992 concert marking Bob Dylan’s thirty years of recording for CBS with the following words: “In 1968 an album came out called _Music from Big Pink._ It changed my life, and it changed the course of American music.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-revolutionary-albums-in-rock-history/542285.md?page=4)