Top 200 Albums of the 1970s - 50-1

50. Van Halen - Van Halen
There is no underestimating the impact Eddie Van Halen had on guitar playing.  With “Eruption” he simply demolished every guitarist who came before him and helped set the stage for a never ending wave of imitators.  What got lost was what an incredible front man David Lee Roth was.  This is a set of blistering hard rock that knocked every one of their contemporaries on their asses.  Van Halen might have recorded some great songs and albums after this, but they never did it better. Eddie also had perhaps the greatest guitar tone conceived here. They took the familiar and made it extraordinary, “I’m the One”, “Little Dreamer” and “Atomic Punk” feel almost buried among the other radio hits. 

49. Fleetwood Mac - Rumors
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 rock music better in the mid-late 70s.  This album was born in dysfunction but miraculously was a triumph musically and commercially.  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.  

48. Alice Cooper - Killer
What a year 1971 was for Alice Cooper and his band.  They signed to Warner Bros., hooked up with Bob Ezrin, and scored their first hit single with “I’m Eighteen”.  They also found the time to record a follow up album that was equally as amazing as Love it to Death.  Killer showed the band digging deeper into the macabre side of their personalities, particularly on the last two incredible tracks, but they were still capable of rocking with the best of them.  “Halo of Flies” is quite possibly the greatest arranged song in rock music history as it seamlessly runs from one classic part to another.  “Desperado” is one of their best ballads, and “Under My Wheels” is the group at their catchiest.  Pretty much a perfect album start to finish.

47. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Ever looking ahead, Miles Davis made the most revolutionary jump in 1969 with In a Silent Way. In the process gave birth to what would be the popular but polarizing fusion genre. Bitches Brew was the natural extension of those earlier sessions where lightning did indeed strike twice. Hell if you include Live Evil, A Tribute to Jack Johnson, and On the Corner Davis was clearly on a legendary roll. For my money Bitches Brew belongs in any conversation among the greatest albums ever made, jazz or otherwise. The extensive lineup used is full of past and future legends like Joe Zawinul, Lenny White, Jack DeJohnette, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, and myself (Dave Holland) among many others. Almost entirely improvised with the loosest of structure, the album was an extensive labor of love to edit into its final form. The magic created proved groundbreaking and timeless.

46. Led Zeppelin - III
With their third album, Led Zeppelin made an early claim that they would be the best band of the decade. They certainly delivered on that promise with 10 near perfect tracks balancing their blues rock roots while equally devoting to acoustic numbers. “Immigrant Song” might still be their best opener, although there is some tough competition there. For my money “Since I’ve Been Loving You” is the single greatest Led Zeppelin song ever. Easy to forget just how perfect nearly everything else is. Ok “Hats Off to Roy Harper” might be an afterthought but more than enough good will was established on the first 9 tracks to forgive it.

45. Michael Jackson - Off the Wall
Michael Jackson had been popular for damn near a decade when Off the Wall came out, but this is the album that helped push him into the land of superstars.  The album is unapologetically steeped in disco, but Jackson isn’t afraid to get into some seriously syrupy ballads, or bring the funk.  “Get on the Floor” has some of the most infectious slap bass on record.  That and “Burn This Disco Out” are probably the hardest songs and are absolutely infectious.  This was a tremendous breakthrough, that let the world know quite assuredly that Michael was a performer to be reckoned with, something that occasionally got lost along the way in his circus side show life.

44. Queen - News of the World
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 overall song.  It is Queen at their 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.

43. Van Morrison - Moondance
This album might never leave my top 100 of all time, so this was an absolute no doubter for the 70s.  Van Morrison abandoned the free form perfection of Astral Weeks to a more lush and romantic group of songs for his follow up.  No surprise it was far more successful commercially and helped establish him as a viable solo artist.  This is generally the album you think of in terms of Morrison the songwriter and performer.  The title track was easily one of his biggest hits, but “Into the Mystic” might just be his best.  

42. David Bowie - Low
Among the many, many musical re-inventions that Bowie went through in the 70s, few could match his instrumental heavy Berlin period.  Bowie hooked up with arguably the best in the business, Brian Eno to help craft some of the best music of either of their careers.  Of the vocal tracks, it's hard to find a catchier song than "Sound and Vision".  With Eno’s help he started to experiment heavily with ambient music and looking far ahead to the sound that would dominate the next decade. It was an album that in some ways helped save Bowie from himself, after doing enough cocaine during the making of Station to Station to give himself psychosis, a more sober Bowie was much more focused. Although I always preferred the glam period I can’t really fault anyone who considers this his masterpiece.

41. Yes - Close to the Edge
Yes took the success of Fragile and returned less than a year later with their best album ever.  The first side is the 18 minute title track and it easily stands as one of the best progressive rock epics in music.  Perhaps the only complaint I could make is that there are only 3 songs total on the whole album, but when they’re this good, that point is invalid.  “And You and I” somehow manages to make a beautiful acoustic ballad sound daring and adventurous.  “Siberian Khatru” opens with a bang and seems to include an album’s worth of memorable riffs within it.  This would be the beginning of the end for the Yes and their peak, but at this point it seemed impossible they could go anywhere else but down following this.

40. Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
It’s hard to find anything new about Marvin Gaye’s landmark album so forgive me if I repeat things you’ve heard before.  There’s a reason the album seems almost guaranteed to appear on every list of the greatest albums ever made.  By the early 70s, Motown was less of a hit factory and started to be more artist driven. Gaye along with Stevie Wonder probably benefitted the most from this sense of freedom. “Inner City Blues” is easily on the short list of music’s greatest bass lines as well.

39. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
Talking Book and Innervisions seemed like mere appetizers to the main course that would be Songs in the Key of Life.  A massive undertaking that featured an absurd number of guest musicians and lavish arrangements.  It was the culmination of everything Stevie had built up to and it seemed to touch on every issue under the sun.  Particularly on the second side Wonder borrows a page from Curtis Mayfield’s first solo album, letting his songs breathe and extending the funk.  There were plenty of great ballads and songs to make you think, but it’s hard to find a more joyous and catchy song as “Sir Duke”.  There’s even an instrumental fusion jam on here, showing all the incredible range that Wonder had.  There isn’t a wasted moment on this mammoth album.

38. David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Before he got himself a red mullet, David Bowie delivered his first undeniable masterpiece on Hunky Dory.  Few retrospectives of his career are complete without “Changes”, but once you dispatch with that the rest of the album gets oh so much better.  This is much more rooted in folk rock, particularly “Song for Dylan”, “Andy Warhol”, and “The Bewlay Brothers” all of which are exceptional.  Rick Wakeman contributes keyboards to the album, and his playing is noticeably featured on the album’s best song “Life on Mars”.  “Oh! You Pretty Things” seems to open the door towards his more overtly androgynous period that would dominate his sound for the next several years.  

37. Deep Purple - Machine Head
The best album from Deep Purple’s mach 2 lineup, Machine Head is their most iconic.  “Highway Star”, “Maybe I’m a Leo”, “Lazy”, “Space Truckin‘” and of course “Smoke on the Water” are all among the band’s best known songs.  It helped set the standard for British hard rock in the early part of the 70s, and live Deep Purple earned a reputation as the loudest band in the world.  A lot of that energy appears here, considering most of the tracks were recorded live.  Ian Gillan forever solidified his status as the band’s best remembered singer, and his voice was never better than here.  In fact “Highway Star” seems to incorporate everything great about this band, including a legendary bit of soloing from Blackmore and John Lord’s distorted organ.  

36. Parliament - Mothership Connection
Whether Parliament, Funkadelic, or a solo album this is the best thing George Clinton ever recorded.  Something about this band always seemed slightly out of this world, so it seemed to make perfect sense to set this album in outer space.  If you’ve listened to a rap album in the last two decades chances are a lot of these songs will sound incredibly familiar on the first listen.  Dr. Dre apparently listened to the album non-stop while working on The Chronic, and boy does it show.  This is pure uncut funk, and some of the absolute best music of its kind.  

35. Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
This album was originally a soundtrack to a movie that never came out.  Young was fresh off the success of his stint with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young when he delivered his masterpiece.  “Southern Man” was as overtly political as he ever got, and the ensuing feud with Lynyrd Skynyd the song inspired would become legendary in its own right.  That song doesn’t really reflect the majority of the music here, which is much more laid back and acoustic driven.  “Tell Me Why”, the title track, “Don’t Let it Bring You Down”, and “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” are much more indicative of the laid back country-folk hybrid he was going for here.  The result is my personal favorite album in the storied and diverse career of Neil Young, who had one hell of a decade. 

34. Alice Cooper - Love it to Death
At long last we have the answer to the question of the best Alice Cooper album.  Love it to Death was the band’s third album, but the first with their new label and studio.  Bob Ezrin helped focus the songwriting and more theatrical elements of the band into a wholly unique and at the time shocking sound.  “Black Juju” is a positively ominous epic that could fit right in on a doom metal album.  The band allows their macabre sensibilities to run wild, even their breakthrough hit “I’m Eighteen” sounds a bit creepy.  Nothing could top the 1-2 punch of “Second Coming” and “The Ballad of Dwight Frye” which collectively might be among the 20 greatest songs ever recorded.  You know Alice is showing his horror nerdiness by crafting a signature tune about the actor who played Renfield and Frankenstein’s assistant.  Along with Killer, this represents the best of Alice and are essentials for every collection.

33. Pink Floyd - Animals
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 most of their far better known stuff.  

32. Sly and the Family Stone - There’s a Riot Going On
If drugs had a sound, this might be it.  Sly and company got low and hazy with their funk and turned in one of the most quietly revolutionary albums of the time. When Stone died this past year I had actually listened to all of the Family Stone’s albums and nothing they did before or since sounds quite like this. There definitely was something going on for their first album of the 70s. Shocking that the album not only went to #1 but boasted the band’s last chart topping single “Family Affair”. Oh to live in a world where this is what passed for pop music. One of the ultimate low down vibe albums.

31. Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power
The Stooges were rapidly disintegrating as a band and had all but given up.  David Bowie stepped in and helped get the band into the studio.  There were tremendous tensions and it shows throughout the album this was a band that was at the point of collapse.  That very tension made this an iconic album and one whose stature continued to grow over the years as more and more people started to crown Iggy Pop the godfather of punk.  There was plenty of debate as to the “real version” of the album, but I was raised on Pop’s remix that was released in the late 90s.  It’s noticeably more harsh than Bowie’s original mix of the album, and that only helps to suit the strengths of the band.  As chaotic as the album sounds, it’s Pop who seems to steal the show, snarling and howling his way through the most inspired record he or his band would ever make.

30. Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
The blacksploitation film movement saw lots of black directors get their chance to make their own movies.  They were initially quite popular, but it’s safe to say their lasting legacy was in their soundtracks.  Isaac Hayes had the biggest hit of his career with the theme song for Shaft, but Curtis Mayfield did him one better.  Rather than emphasize the general theme of the movie, which is about being a bad ass drug dealer who beats the man, Curtis wanted to focus on the subtext of the film.  “Freddie’s Dead” would easily be the best example of this, but even the other two hits “Pusherman” and “Superfly” don’t exactly glorify the film’s protagonist.  Regardless of how forgettable the film might be, this soundtrack was Mayfield at his peak.  A brilliant mixture of funky soul and lush arrangements.

29. Queen - A Day at the Races
Queen kept their Marx Brothers theme going for the follow up to A Night at the Opera.  The album shows the band in peak form, fresh off their most recent and greatest triumph.  You could make a case for any of Queen’s first six albums being their best and there are no shortage of highlights on this disc.  Everyone should know “Tie Your Mother Down”, “Somebody to Love”, and damn near the happiest song ever “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy”.  If you know anything about me though it’s that I don’t judge Queen albums on the strength of their hits.  John Deacon topped “You’re My Best Friend” with “You and I” which easily could have been a hit single.  Brian May delivered the rare social protest song “White Man” to a Queen album, but his greatest contribution was “Long Away” which he lobbied to make the first non-Freddy Mercury sung single.  They even sang in Japanese for the album's final track “Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)” showing that they had no intention of coasting on their strengths.  

28. The Eagles - Hotel California
One of rock’s most perfect albums. Glenn Frey contributed “New Kid in Town” to what would be the ultimate Eagles album, but he was a vitally important piece of the band from its earliest origins.  Don Henley dominates the album vocally as was becoming increasingly the norm over their past several albums.  Frey did co-write 7 of the 9 songs so he was hardly absent.  The Eagles made some polished country-rock for several years but they always seemed to be a singles band.  Hotel California was their defining album and one of the most perfect rock albums ever recorded.  New member Joe Walsh contributes some fantastic lead playing as well as “Pretty Maids All in a Row”, but this remains Henley’s show.

27. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Will the Circle Be Unbroken
There were a lot of bands mixing country and rock together in the 60s and early 70s, but nothing approaching the sprawl of Will the Circle Be Unbroken.  They didn’t even keep the pretense of rock in the music, as they recruited a hall of fame group of guest musicians and vocalists to make a triple albums worth of country classics.  Earl Scruggs banjo is present on many tracks and he helps plant the album firmly in bluegrass territory.  Most of the album was recorded live in studio, and shows the incredible professionalism of these performers and what they were doing.  This wasn’t really a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album, this was a collective celebration of country music and its wonderfully rich history.  

26. The Velvet Underground - Loaded
The last Velvet Underground album anyone actually counts showed the guys arguably going out at their peak.  They had a new record contract and were kindly asked to make an album “loaded with hits”.  Lou Reed responded with some of the band’s most overtly commercial material, but it’s not an outright sell out.  In fact Loaded seems to just pick up where their previous album left off, with just a little more of a rock feel to it.  “Sweet Jane” and “Rock and Roll” are two of the all time classic rock songs that showed the guys could hang with anyone.  “I Found a Reason” could be “Pale Blue Eyes” part 2, which makes it my personal favorite on the album.  Lou Reed departed shortly before the album was released and the band inexplicably continued on with Doug Yule as their leader.  Yule did find himself singing lead vocals on 4 of the album's 10 tracks but few people were on Reed’s level as a songwriter.

25. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
It’s entirely natural for bands to take 3+ years between albums today.  For Bruce Springsteen in the 70s this seemed like an eternity.  Legal issues delayed the long anticipated follow up to Born to Run so Springsteen just spent his time writing and recording dozens of songs.  His characteristic obsessive streak took over as he constantly re-worked 40 odd songs.  He changed arrangements, re-wrote lyrics, and threw out entire songs trying to capture what was in his head.  The result was 10 songs that help illustrate his take on the somewhat downtrodden in middle America.  Regardless of his maturing subject matter, the songs themselves reward the meticulous obsession they took to make.  

24. Deep Purple - Burn
I may never forgive myself for completely ignoring David Coverdale’s time in Deep Purple.  I was a fan of the mach II lineup, and felt I could begrudgingly accept the original stuff.  The fact that a band could have three phenomenal singers was a feat often attempted but almost never successful.  Truth be told, Coverdale and new bassist Glenn Hughes share vocal duties on the entire album.  Coverdale does get to sing the all time great “Mistreated” by himself before the harmony vocals kick in for the end.  However the reason this album is this high and my favorite Deep Purple album is because of the opening title track.  “Mississippi Queen” might be the only classic rock song ever that’s better.  Ritchie Blackmore lays the foundation of neo-classical shredding during that song as he trades off solos with Jon Lord.  Everything about that song is so perfect it almost makes the rest of the album sound weak by comparison.  Luckily “Mistreated” reminds you just how exceptional this collection of songs were.  There might not have been the same number of radio friendly hits as Machine Head, but this is the band at the peak of their powers regardless of who was in the lineup. 

23. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
As much as this album might be steeped in the old west, it was actually inspired by The Band’s self-titled album.  This is the closest thing to a concept album Elton John made, and I happen to think it’s his best work period.  Most of the songs don’t follow traditional verse-chorus structures but everything has a narrative streak to it.  Elton’s music was probably never better and Elton stretches out into blues, country, and gospel territory throughout the album. Despite being a virtual hit machine in the 70s there is nothing on this album that classic rock radio got its greedy little mitts on. “Burn Down the Mission”, “Son of Your Father”, “Where to Now St. Peter”, “Ballad of a Well Known Gun”, and “Country Comfort" are all among his very best. 

22. Genesis - Selling England By the Pound
The last three studio albums Genesis made with their original line up are all masterpieces in the highest sense of the term.  I’ll admit that depending on your particular mood each one might seem the best of the bunch, so I’ll end by saying at this moment, Selling England is my personal favorite.  Their sound continued to get slightly more accessible with each release, which makes Selling England the album most firmly planted in the hook heavy group they would become and the adventurous prog-rockers they were.  Some of the songs, particularly “The Ballad of Epping Forest” sound like the lyrics could have been written by Tolkien.  “Dancing With the Moonlit Knight” and “The Cinema Show” are easily two of their best epics, but they weren’t afraid of getting into relatively conventional ballad territory here.  Phil Collins made his vocal debut on “More Fool Me”, and “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)” sounds like it could have maybe been a hit single.  

21. Kiss - Paul Stanley
It may seem baffling, it may seem silly, or it might seem ironic that the greatest “Kiss” album is Paul Stanley’s 1978 solo outing. He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt how he was the true guiding light of the band. When everyone branched out into separate genres Paul doubled down on the best damn collection of Kiss songs he ever penned. His one indulgence was the extra syrupy ballad “Hold Me, Touch Me (Think of Me When We’re Apart)”, a song I would laugh at if I didn’t absolutely love it. Picking a favorite song on this is a near impossible task, they’re all highlights. “Wouldn’t You Like to Know Me”, “It’s Alright”, “Take Me Away (Together as One)”, and “Tonight You Belong to Me” are easily among my all time favorite Kiss songs though. Kiss at their best in its purest form (Paul doing everything).

20. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
There is absolutely no trace of the group that made Piper at the Gates of Dawn by the time Dark Side of the Moon came out.  Floyd adopted their sound gradually, setting something of the template on Meddle, but then taking a dramatic step back on the follow up Obscured by Clouds.  With engineer Alan Parsons, the group made a studio driven album that combined all the best elements of their experimental phase with classic songs.  Roger Waters wrote the most famous song ever in 7/8 time with “Money” which showed the band hadn’t abandoned their prog background.  David Gilmour gets plenty of time to shine, particularly on the solo to “Time” and “Money”.  The album is a complete picture, something of a concept album but more focused sonically than lyrically.  Waters had already taken over all the lyric writing by this point and the insanity of the album is purely his vision.  

19. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle
Springsteen’s second album was a major leap forward musically than his debut.  The subject matter of the lyrics didn’t alter much.  He was still painting pictures of adolescents on the Boardwalk but the music was taking an epic turn to match his tales.  This was the last album with original members drummer Vini Lopez and keyboardist David Sancious and their wild and imaginative playing give the album an energy lacking in later E Street Band members Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan.  Sancious in particular dominates “Incident on 57th Street” and the brilliant closer “New York City Serenade”.  Lopez gets his best moments in “Rosalita” which naturally turned into a live staple for years to come.  Like it’s predecessor the album wasn’t commercially successful but it remains the musical high point of Springsteen’s career, setting the stage for his ultimate masterpiece.

18. Thin Lizzy - Black Rose
In the decade since my top 500 album list, there is probably no album I listened to more than Black Rose. If I ever remade that list (no plans to) this would undoubtedly be the highest entrant. It isn’t particularly new ground for the band, it just seems to take all the best moments of their golden age and dials it up to 11. “Waiting for an Alibi” has a guitar harmony on par with “Boys are Back in Town”. “Got to Give it Up” is probably my favorite song Lynott ever wrote. The closing title track is arguably the most perfect rock song two guitarists could pull off. Sometimes you hear an album and are convinced it was made specifically for you, that is Black Rose. It is one of my great tragedies that I got into Thin Lizzy so late, but at least it proves that there is always great stuff out there waiting for you to discover.

17. Captain Beyond - Captain Beyond
Supergroups usually sound good on paper but in reality never seem to meet expectations.  Captain Beyond was pieced together from members of Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, Johnnie Winter’s band and they were the rare exception.  Although none of those earlier groups were exactly known for progressive rock they delivered a masterpiece for the ages with their first album.  The entire album plays like one continuous song, and there’s scarcely a measure that’s in 4/4.  Every part of this album is perfect space rock that bleeds together.  Some of the riffs are absolutely phenomenal, the drumming is solid and Rod Evans voice is infinitely more memorable than on any of his albums with Deep Purple.  This is 35 minutes of the best damn music from the 70s you’re likely to hear.  

16. Brian Eno - Another Green World
I don’t want to take anything away from Eno’s first two solo albums, but Another Green World is where his craft reached perfection.  There were still some structured songs, but they seem stronger and more focused than anything on Taking Tiger Mountain.  What sets the album apart are the more mellow and ambient songs.  They aren’t simply sound structures like on Music for Films or Music for Airports, but help point to the best moments on Bowie's Low and Heroes.  “The Big Ship” would easily get my vote for the best thing Eno ever recorded and quite possibly the best instrumental song bar none.

15. Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Aqualung is a masterpiece to be sure, but Thick as a Brick is something extraordinary.  Ian Anderson crafted an album length song only separated by switching sides on record.  Unlike many of the longer side length songs in prog, there is virtually no down time here.  The album brilliantly changes dynamics and time signatures throughout with a remarkable sense of melody.  For 40 odd minutes they just seem to keep topping themselves with riffs and progressions that somehow keep getting better.  Numerous artists have tried the tactic after, including Tull on the somewhat disappointing Passion Play but this is perfection. 

14. Queen - Sheer Heart Attack
Queen’s second album of 1974 and third overall was the one that finally gave them their big break.  “Killer Queen” was a solid hit but it’s just the tip of the iceberg of greatness included here.  Brian May was sick for most of the year preventing them from touring in support of their second album, so he indulged in plenty of guitar trickery.  “Brighton Rock” features his first unaccompanied solo and it is easily one of his finest.  Queen practically invented thrash metal with “Stone Cold Crazy”, and somehow found time to indulge in ridiculously catchy ragtime music with “Bring Back That Leroy Brown”.  Roger Taylor contributed his best song to the group on “Tenement Funster”, which brilliantly runs into “Flick of the Wrist”, which also brilliantly runs into “Lily of the Valley”.  This mini-medley isn’t the only thing carried over from Queen II, there is also a song barely over a minute that might just be the most beautiful thing they ever wrote on “Dear Friends”. 

13. Elvis Costello and the Attractions - This Year’s Model
“No Action” isn’t even two minutes long but it already establishes that this isn’t My Aim is True redux.  The Attractions make their debut as Costello’s backing band and their manic playing helps make this his best.  Nick Lowe again handles production but it sounds infinitely more polished and refined than his debut.  I don’t want to put his debut down, but this album is just better at nearly every turn.  There is a nastier edge to these songs, and Costello seems inspired by his nearly reckless backing band, snarling through “Lipstick Vogue”, “Lips Service”, and “Pump it Up”.  He renews his love of reggae on “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea” which is easily one of the highlights.  The album’s best known song, “Radio, Radio” wasn’t originally included on the album on some versions, but was released as a single.  With or without that song this remains Costello’s finest hour.

12. Al Di Meola - Elegant Gypsy
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.

 

11. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Sure it was a comeback album that restored Dylan to relevance, but it was his most personal at the time.  He was returning to his strengths as a songwriter and coping with his then failing marriage.  “Tangled Up in Blue” was as autobiographical as his music got and it’s a wonderful companion piece to Joan Baez’s “Diamonds and Rust” released the same year.  “Shelter from the Storm”, and “Buckets of Rain” help close the album on a similar melancholy note as it began but this is far from Dylan’s version of Blue.  There are some up-tempo songs and he can’t resist a classic blues song like “Meet Me in the Morning”, but it’s the personal songs that resonate the longest.  This remains the best album Dylan ever made, at least in the 70s.

10. Led Zeppelin -
The third Zeppelin album helped free the band from their blues roots and pointed the way to a more adventurous and experimental sound.  Their fourth album fulfilled that initial promise and wound up being their defining album.  After the odd timing rock of “Black Dog” they unleashed Bonzo on “Rock and Roll”.  “The Battle of Nevermore” which featured guest vocals from Fairport Convention’s Sandy Dennis dove head first into English folk music.  It’s a wonderful companion piece to “Going to California” which helps tackle folk from the other side of the Atlantic.  “Stairway to Heaven” is quite possibly the most famous rock song ever made, and damned if it isn’t completely deserving of that title.  This was Zeppelin at their most fearless and experimental.  They weren’t afraid to try new things and they succeeded tremendously at everything they attempted.  This wound up being by far their most successful album and it remains the most iconic classic hard rock album ever made. 

9. The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
The Stones first album of the 70s was comprised mainly of outtakes collected over the past several years.  It amazes me to think what these songs could have sounded like on Beggars Banquet or Let it Bleed, but luckily they finally saw the light of day.  This album properly introduced Mick Taylor, and it makes “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’?” seem nearly impossible had it been recorded a mere two years before.  This album takes most of the elements present on their previous two studio albums just does them better.  The rock songs are harder, perfectly realized on “Sway”.  Yet the ballads seem more personal, which was certainly the case on “Wild Horses”.  I’m inclined to name “Dead Flowers” as one of the band’s three best songs, and easily the best of their numerous country songs.  This album is practically perfect and could easily be justified as the band’s best.

8. Joni Mitchell - Blue
This was Joni Mitchell’s fourth album, but I’m inclined to believe it could be her only album and I’d be just fine with that.  Few artists ever bared their soul and emotions quite as openly as Mitchell does here, including Mitchell herself on later albums.  The arrangements are quite simple with most of the songs featuring just piano or guitar and her voice.  Several of the songs were written following her breakup with Graham Nash and her subsequent relationship with James Taylor.  Her and Taylor broke up just before recording the album which added a bit of gloominess to the recordings.  She turned her pain and heartache into one of the greatest albums of all time.  The songs “Blue” and “River” are some of the greatest ever recorded but as a collective whole no female artist ever made an album greater.

7. The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
Exile has long been considered the Stones masterpiece by everyone except me for years.  At one point it was fourth, then third, and sometime over the past couple of years I started to think this might be their best.  Taking the premise that more is better, the 18 songs on this album offer endless testimony to its greatness.  The first side is uptempo blues, followed by more laid back music, a few ballads, one of the most bizarre quasi-gospel songs ever, and finally bringing everything back home with “Shine a Light” and “Soul Survivor”.  “Shine a Light” has always been my favorite Stones song, and for a while it was the only reason I listened to this album.  “Sweet Black Angel”, “Let it Loose”, “Happy”, and “Sweet Virginia” now join it among their all time highlights.  The album is wonderfully excessive but without a wasted moment.  It is everything great about the Stones and the defining moment of their classic era.

6. Queen - A Night at the Opera
Since Queen has been my favorite band since I’ve had a favorite band I understand the fact that I see things on some of their albums that the general public seems to miss.  A Night at the Opera seems to be the one time that the rest of the population seems to agree with me.  It was their definitive album and for all intents and purposes the one most closely associated with them.  Aside from featuring damn near the most famous song in British rock, it was a remarkably assured and focused album.  They continue to dabble in odd music hall and ragtime, but their strengths remain in their more ambitious work.  Brian May topped himself with the epic “The Prophet Song” which flows so beautifully into Mercury’s “Love of My Life”.  John Deacon scored his first hit with “You’re My Best Friend” and it was one of the few times I actually agreed with their choice of a single.  May gets two tracks to sing lead on, and doesn’t waste a moment on “’39” or “Good Company”.  The latter featuring one of his most impressive solos arranged to sound like a jazz combo.  This was a self indulgent band running wild, going for broke, and coming up with gold.

5. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spider’s From Mars
David Bowie’s follow up to Hunky Dory was his second straight masterpiece and his most iconic album.  It’s fairly safe to say this is the album most closely associated with Bowie and the one that helped make him the superstar and legend he became.  Bowie largely left behind his folk-rock roots to embrace Marc Bolan’s style of glam rock, but because it was Bowie he just did it better than anyone else had before.  You can tell a lot about an album from it’s opener and the drum beat fade in of “Five Years” very gently eases you into the proceedings.  For years “Lady Stardust” was my favorite Bowie song and it’s nevertheless one of his most fantastic ballads.  The concept album part of this falls apart almost instantly but the songs themselves were the best Bowie ever did, and the album continues to be an inspiration to countless artists today. Sometimes this album does just make me mad that other music isn’t this great.

4. John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band
Lennon fearlessly declared “The Dream is Over” on “God” and it was a startling wake up call for everyone.  He channeled his lingering emotional baggage and insecurities into a primal and raw collection of songs that set the template for emotional honesty in music.  Lennon’s primal scream therapy is evident in “Mother”, “Well Well Well”, and “I Found Out”, but there are surprising moments of intimacy contained.  “Hold On”, “Isolation”, and “Love” show his vulnerable side.  Lennon was backed by Klaus Voorman and Ringo Starr on the album with only a small handful of guests, most noticeably Billy Preston on “God” which remains the single greatest song Lennon ever wrote or recorded, including anything with The Beatles.  

3. Queen - Queen II
In the several years between album lists, I listened to Queen’s second album a staggering amount of times.  It has always been among my favorite albums period, but I had to admit to myself this was just the best the band ever was.  The album was divided into two side-long suites, one primarily composed by Brian May and the second by Mercury.  May’s side features the most advanced guitar harmonies of his career and he positively creates an entire symphony worth of sound just on “Procession”.  The band never embraced their prog tendencies more than on here, and Mercury’s “March of the Black Queen” might be my favorite Queen song ever.  That along with “Nevermore” help push this album over the top for me.  Somewhat lost in the shuffle is Roger Taylor who plays arguably the best drumming on any Queen album on “Loser in the End”.  This is the best my favorite band ever got, and perhaps some day the rest of the world will recognize this as the career defining masterpiece it is.

2. The Clash - London Calling
Released just at the buzzer of the 70s, The Clash’s third album is probably incapable of getting enough praise.  19 songs of unparalleled quality, The Clash moved beyond their initial punk limitations to tackle reggae, ska, rockabilly, and even disco.  The decision to make this a double album seemed to open up the door for widespread experimentation.  Regardless of the weight of some of the lyrics, this was simply a collection of some of the catchiest songs ever heard before.  The Clash hadn’t quite abandoned their punk edge and the title track is positively menacing, they just weren’t afraid to venture out of their comfort zone.  Mick Jones was increasingly emerging as a great songwriter, particularly on “I’m Not Down”, “Lost in the Supermarket”, and the bonus track turned hit single “Train in Vain”.  Who else could make a sing-along song about Montgomery Clift?    

1. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with my taste in music.  Bruce Springsteen’s third album is about as perfect as a rock record could ever get.  Its 8 songs have all become genre defining classics, and the incredible production make it the most polished of Springsteen’s albums.  The sound here was much more focused than the wild and rambling excess of his first two records, and it helped officially break him into the mainstream.  Vinni Lopez gets one last chance to shine on the title track, and it's one of the all time great drum performances.  “Jungleland” is probably among my ten favorite songs ever recorded and at various points in time “Thunder Road”, “Backstreets”, and the title track have all been within my top 50.  I can’t say anything bad about the other four songs, but I just don’t think it’s possible for any artist to top those. 

So that's it, all 200 albums. You may now commence to yelling at me for excluding your favorite.