I won’t make a huge justification for the albums left off, keep in mind there are no shortage of great albums not on this list. 1977 was the year of the punk explosion and that is reflected a bit with this list, but it was also a year that saw some great music from nearly all areas. Several bands seemed to hit their stride in 1977, recording their greatest work. For at least one artist on this list it was a year of a tremendous “comeback”, and well I don’t think my top three would be predictable by anyone except a select few. For the record I didn’t include Saturday Night Fever because among other reasons as a soundtrack it featured multiple artists and songs previously released elsewhere. I know it might be THE defining disco album and a perfect capsule of 1977’s music outside of punk, but it’s too much of a compilation to count for this. As for the albums that I deemed worthy, start yer bitchin’ . . .
10. Brian Eno - Before and After Science
This album serves as something of a dual or triple, purpose. Brian Eno recorded this over the course of two years while simultaneously working on other ambient projects, collaborating with David Bowie, and recording an album with Cluster. Apparently 100 tracks were written for the album with only 10 making the final cut, and well Eno couldn’t have distilled a better album. This would be Eno’s last “rock” album of the decade and marked the end of his first great period of prolific genius. Eno was never more refined, and his musicians are as great as ever. The second half of the album points to the more ambient work he would pursue for the next couple of years and contains “By This River” which is damn near the best song he ever recorded. I’d take this album over Low, Heroes, The Idiot, Lust for Life and whatever other Berlin inspired experimental rock was going on at the time.
9. The Clash - The Clash (UK)
I’m not being some musical hipster by including the Clash’s UK debut, but any small amount of research will reveal that there were two different versions of this debut. The important thing for this list is that they were released two years apart, and therefore the UK version is the only one that really counts for a 1977 list. This was punk music at it’s best, even from their earliest days they seemed to be a band that had something to say, instead of just being pissed off about everything like many of their contemporaries. They rallied against racism “White Riot”, American imperialism “I’m so Bored with the U.S.A.”, and England’s job market “Career Opportunities”. It was punk at it’s most important, and the template that every subsequent band could only hope to emulate.
8. Steely Dan - Aja
I’m sure some of my friends would put my head on a pike for my “low” ranking of this album, but that’s more of a testament to how great 1977 was. To me this is the best Steely Dan ever sounded on an album, and features some of the finest musicianship you're likely to hear in the context of a rock album. The title track alone would go down as the greatest drum performance ever captured on record. “Peg” is still the catchiest song Steely Dan ever put out, with those sweet Michael McDonald vocal harmonies and an iconic guitar solo. There isn’t a wasted moment on the album and forever stands as the high water mark of one of the decade's most idiosyncratic duos.
7. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Rumours is the sound of dysfunction, filtered through cocaine, and mixed with some of the best songwriting of the decade. Perhaps only Hotel California captures the rock music excess better in the mid-late 70s. This album was born in dysfunction but miraculously was a triumph musically. It sounds like a greatest hits album and nearly every song has become a classic. “Second Hand News” is perhaps my favorite Buckingham song and that’s arguably the least known track on the album. “The Chain”, “Go Your Own Way”, “You Make Loving Fun”, “Dreams”, and “Gold Dust Woman” are the rare overplayed radio hits that still sound great each and every time you listen to them.
6. Muddy Waters - Hard Again
Before Jack White and Rick Rubin started digging up still living corpses to re-invigorate their career Johnny Winter hooked up with his idol Muddy Waters. The album kicks off with a long standing Waters number, but given the exuberant and enthusiastic background wailing of Johnny Winter, “Mannish Boy” never sounded better. The rest of the album takes a hard hitting blues approach to an album of timeless classics. It was the best studio album Muddy Waters got to make, and one of the testaments of raw, uncut blues at it’s purest source. This was the real deal, not some kids from England re-appropriating it. Rarely did the blues legends get this opportunity to make a hard hitting album, but Muddy did, and the result is timeless perfection.
5. Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bullocks Here’s the Sex Pistols
There were no shortage of great punk albums made in 1977, and more still that got lumped into the same category by a loose association, but the be all and end all definitive punk album is, was, and forever will be the Sex Pistols' debut. This was the original band that simply gave no fucks whatsoever. They intentionally tried to piss off everyone they could including each other, label execs, TV show hosts, British royalty, and their own manager. They were created to be provocative and push buttons but the monster grew out of control and imploded on itself shortly after their one triumphant shake up of the rock establishment. This one album carried more weight than the majority of artists entire careers. They were the poster children of the punk movement and delivered it in a chaotic, energetic, snarling, and abrasive manner.
4. Elvis Costello - My Aim is True
Another in the long list of artists who made their debuts in 1977, Elvis Costello would never sound as primitive. This was before he hooked up with his regular backing band The Attractions. He had the energy of the punk artists but the music was decidedly more accessible and diverse. Costello loved ballads, reggae, and country music and it all comes together in a brilliant debut which would get lumped into the punk/new wave category somewhat unfairly. Along the way Costello showed that he might be the best lyricist since Dylan, and he followed up that initial promise with no less than five other masterpieces. Later Costello would have a slicker sound and a little more polish and production values, but wouldn’t quite have the urgency of this debut, which contains some of the best songs he or anyone else would ever write.
3. Pink Floyd - Animals
At this point in the list we dispense with the predictable by music critic standards. I’m going to go ahead and say that I think Animals is the best album Pink Floyd ever made. Loosely structured around George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Roger Waters growing disillusion with music execs and the people he grew to distrust, it features three all time classics. “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” might be the best song the band ever recorded, until you consider that “Dogs” might be better, or perhaps “Sheep” is their best song. Debating the best song on this album is like debating what order to put their top three songs. Unlike other Floyd albums that have been played to death by radio and endless covers, the songs on Animals have largely been spared that fate. As a result the album sounds fresh each and every listen, and only gets better to the point that I’d take it over Dark Side, Wish, or The Wall.
2. Queen - News of the World
To be honest I’m surprised this isn’t my number one album. True story this is the first album I ever purchased with my own money and it’s always held a special place in my heart. Once you dispense with the dynamic duo of “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” you get Roger Taylor’s answer to the punk craze with “Sheer Heart Attack”, a brilliant vocal venture from Brian May on “All Dead, All Dead”, and then the best song John Deacon ever wrote “Spread Your Wings”. Roger Taylor’s vocal outing on “Fight From the Inside” contains his best riff and is perhaps second only to “Tenement Funster” as his best song. It is Queen at the most diverse, and shows each of their members at their peak. Everyone contributes at least two songs and it spans far beyond the anthems of the opening tracks. “It’s Late” is another in the running for best Queen song, and “Who Needs You?” showed that Queen could indeed rock an island jam. Despite the fact that three songs are song by people who aren’t Freddie Mercury, they’re all worth listening to, and Freddie has plenty of his own time to shine with “Get Down Make Love” and “My Melancholy Blues”. To me this was the last of Queen’s first perfect 6 albums and showed the band at it’s most excessive yet still amazing.
1. Al Di Meola - Elegant Gypsy
When I was scrolling through my albums from 1977, this never seemed like a “77 album”. You think about punk, new wave, or disco, Rumours, etc. An instrumental fusion album seemed far out. Sure this was also the year Weather Report released their landmark Heavy Weather album, but those seemed like just a blip in the radar of the overall year. Elegant Gypsy was the first Al Di Meola album I purchased and the one I’ve listened to the most. I’ve played the holy hell out of it, and it is simply perfection. His playing is incredible and the songs are all tight and iconic. He’s backed by some of the best musicians around but it never seems to lose sight of how amazing Di Meola was as a guitarist. The final song “Elegant Gypsy Suite” is 9 minutes of jazz-rock epic glory. Steve Gadd plays drums on it, and seems to have brought the same energy he had on “Aja”. For pure leads though “Race With the Devil on a Spanish Highway” might just be the best guitar playing I’ve heard. So I guess you can say this is the best album from arguably the best year in music history. In other words you should probably listen to it right now.
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