Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed
1969 The Velvet Underground Live (sorry, can’t remember the band who put this out.)
Metallic KO x 2 by Iggy and the Stooges
Live After Death by Iron Maiden
Another vote for Trout Mask Replica
Get Up With It by Miles Davis
Seven Day Weekend by The New York Dolls (OK, it’s a boot, but it’s still their best record).
and finally, not quite a double album, but the version of the first Suicide record which came with the ten inch flexi live album (or, if you like, the double CD version of the same record).
Other than the title track, I can’t think of any songs on that album which would have been good enough to fit on the first Clash album.
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Trout Mask Replica
Admittedly, an acquired taste. OK, to most humans this is just noise and yelling. But he’s easily the most underappreciated lyricist of all time, the band is beyond fantastic, and you’ll never untie all the knots in these songs no matter how long you listen. One of my favorite things to listen to on a noisy subway. Please do not buy this and then blame me when you hate it.
Bob Marley & The Wailers, Babylon By Bus
If I was a more adventurous and enterprising teen, I could have frickin’ seen this. I wish I had, I’d probably be richer and more handsome now. This record is a little portable contact high. And I usually hate double live albums.
Funkadelic, America Eats Its Young
If you like your party records political, depressing, obtuse, and full of weirdness.
Triple albums: Sandinista!; The Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs; Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Admittedly from a very small pool, discounting compilations and boxed sets and endless Grateful Dead noodlefests anyway.
Ugh… mixed those up. Thanks for the correction, The Gaspode
“Lenny Bruce declares a truce and plays the other hand,
Marshall McLuhan, casual viewin’, head buried in the sand…”
Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew would be my number four double album. As to triple albums, my vote is for Yes’s Yessongs, which is one of my favorite live albums… but I guess that’s another poll…
You think maybe Guns-n-Roses - Use Your Illusion should be counted as a double album? The discs were packaged seperately just to make it easier to buy.
I’ll add Rush - Exit…Stage Left.
Just so I can feel I’ve contributed to the discussion, I’ll add Odessa by the Bee Gees and The Secret Life of Plants by Stevie Wonder.
The former is late 60’s orchestral pop at it’s finest, while the latter is probably the jazziest, most experimental thing Steive ever did.
Both are well worth a listen if you can find them.
Chris W
PS Technically speaking if **Voodoo Lounge ** by the Rolling Stones had come out in the vinyl era it would be a double album based on number of tracks and overall length
Nope; Blonde on Blonde came out earlier the same year, beating Zappa to the punch with both the first rock double LP and the first side-long track on a rock album. (That’s assuming you don’t count compilations or the likes of The Beatles Vs. the Four Seasons and The Beatles Story as genuine “albums.”)