Essential Studio Albums

[liebzz]

The Doors - Morrison Hotel

This album really is dominated by Roadhouse Blues, the classic opener that serves as a deep blues table setter. This album though is much more varied than reputation suggests, going from dreary to buoyant on a dime (Land Ho! anyone?). It’s in the more driven and darker blues rock though in the end that really bring this thing home, as You Make Me Real, the shifting Ship of Fools, and the almost sleazy Maggie M’Gill bring the biggest thrills with the aforementioned Roadhouse Blues. That doesn’t discount an otherwise excellent album, but those are the songs (with the also somewhat buoyant Peace Frog) that I am reaching for on repeat.

The Essential Track: Roadhouse Blues

Up Next: Grateful Dead - Workingman’s Dead

[tragabigzanda]

[liebzz]

Grateful Dead - Workingman’s Dead

Coming into the 1970s, the Grateful Dead made an overt effort to change into a new era, with studio output focused less on psychedelic sounds and to emulate peers like The Band and CSNY, who focus on more Americana, elements of folk and country with rock, and vocal harmonies. This undoubtedly opened the band up to a whole new world, with tracks like Uncle John’s Band and Casey Jones becoming all-timers for them, and other tracks like Dire Wolf, New Speedway Boogie, High Time, and Black Peter becoming live staples where you can barely even hear the studio version in your head anymore. Easy Wind, the Pigpen track, is a hidden gem here too. Great album.

The Essential Track: Uncle John’s Band

Up Next: The Band - Stage Fright

[liebzz]

The Band - Stage Fright

This third album has so many classic songs, and those are the real highs. Time to Kill, The Shape I’m In, The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show, Stage Fright, and the excellent Rumor are all essential listening for anyone looking for an entry point to the Band. Daniel and the Sacred Heart, and Just Another Whistle Stop are solid tracks, but those classics are where it’s at on this one.

The Essential Track: The Shape I’m In

Up Next: The Allman Brothers Band - Idlewild South

[liebzz]

The Allman Brothers Band - Idlewild South

I only really ever listened to this with their debut, as if the two pure studio albums with Duane Allman were somehow a single document. It betrays what are two different but near perfect albums. The debut is an all out assault on the senses, an album that yanks you in with pure force of guitar and vocal power. The second falls into more songwriting and nuance, a range the first doesn’t have, though this one does pick its spots to lay down some epic jams. There’s not a moment here that’s wasted, from the hippie dippie Revival to the epic jams in In Memory of Elizabeth Reed to the classic Midnight Rider to the funky Leave My Blues At Home. And I won’t just list the tracklist for the essential track, but I could.

The Essential Track: In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Up Next: Credence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory

[liebzz]

Credence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory

These guys sure made a lot of albums in a very short period, and this has always stood out to me as the crown jewel. Not only does it reflect all the range of CCR, and provide two of the most epic jams from this band (Ramble Tamble and I Heard It Through the Grapevine), but it also includes epic searing rockers like Up Around the Bend, silly country tracks like Lookin’ Out My Back Door, slow burners like Long As I Can See the Light, and fun rollicking tracks like Ooby Dooby and Travelin’ Band. All the CCRs captured in near perfection across 42 minutes. Love this one.

The Essential Track: Up Around the Bend

Up Next: Credence Clearwater Revival - Pendulum

[Sloppy Dupree]

Man, I love CCR.

[liebzz]

Credence Clearwater Revival - Pendulum

…and just like that, the streak is over. CCR basically had all great albums nearly front to back from the start through Cosmo’s Factory with only maybe an argument on degree of greatness. While this hardly qualifies as a total wreck, Pendulum is not only inconsistent, most of it barely sounds like CCR. Rude Awakening #2 sounds like they are trying to emulate the psychedelia they were the antidote to in the 60s. Born to Move feels like a ham fisted attempt at some sort of dance vibe. Sailor’s Lament is goofy. But there are moments that make this a worthwhile listen - Pagan Baby is probably the best song and is an epic jam nearly on the level with Ramble Tamble on Cosmo’s Factory. Have You Ever Seen the Rain is classic. Hey Tonight sounds like a more natural reinvention. So we land in the middle on this with some highs and lows.

The Essential Track: Pagan Baby

Up Next: Santana - Abraxas

[liebzz]

Santana - Abraxas

This was a band, at that particular point in time, that knew exactly what the score was. An impossibly great and fluid band equal parts rock, Latin rhythms, and jazz relying primarily on their electric energy and penchant to drive their instruments to the next level letting it all hang out on record. It’s what makes this albums true classic, beyond the obvious tracks like Black Magic Woman (here’s that Fleetwood
Mac cover!), Oye Como Va, and Hope You’re Feeling Better (where Carlos Santana is channeling his best Hendrix maybe in his recording career). And yet equally as rewarding are the mostly instrumental Incident at Neshabur, Se a Cabo, and Samba Pa Ti. This was a band on fire that had at least one more before it began to extinguish.

The Essential Track: Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen

Up Next: Jeff Beck - Beck-Ola

[LooseGroove927]

I'm not a Van fan. Perhaps I should try again?

He only has forty-five albums, why not?

That's too many for me. I'll remain oblivious I think.

I hope you'll reconsider! I would recommend pretending that the majority of those 45 albums, many of which are inessential, do not exist, and do this run:

Astral Weeks (1968)
Moondance (1970)
His Band and the Street Choir (1970)
Tupelo Honey (1971)
Saint Dominic's Preview (1972)
Hard Nose The Highway (1973)
It's Too Late To Stop Now (1973)
Veedon Fleece (1974)

There are good records (I'm personally a huge fan of Common One from 1980) and many good songs after this, but IMO this is one of those "not to be missed" runs of albums that any music fan should at least check out once. If you get through the first three, which give a pretty good sampling of his different modes, and don't find yourself enjoying any of it, then Van probably isn't your thing. That said, if you're only going to do one, I'd recommend Veedon Fleece -- one of my favorite albums of all time.

As a fellow fan of Van, I agree with this list. Hard Nose the Highway and Veedon Fleece are underrated gems.

[liebzz]

I have give or take another 15 albums in 1970, so the show goes on, but figured it was a good time to check in for 1971, a year as a teenager I thought was the apex of rock music or at least classic rock. I am sure I am missing stuff, but wanted to share what I have so far and take suggestions:

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Jimi Hendrix - The Cry of Love
Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge (a side journey into those weird unauthorized albums)
Janis Joplin - Pearl
The Doors - LA Woman
Led Zepplelin IV
The Who - Who’s Next
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Dr. John - Dr. John’s Gumbo
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Yes - The Yes Album
Ten Years After - A Space in Time
Traffic - The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
The Beach Boys - Surf’s Up
Paul McCartney - RAM
Elton John - Madman Across the Water
Carole King - Tapestry
The Band - Cahoots
Faces - Long Player
Faces - A Nod and a Wink is as Good as a Smile
Roy Harper - Stormcock
John Lennon - Imagine
T. Rex - Electric Warrior
Isaac Hayes - Shaft
Sly and the Family Stone - There’s a Riot Going On
Santana III
Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story
John Prine
Joni Mitchell - Blue
Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
The Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame
Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson
Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
Isaac Hayes - Black Moses
Curtis Mayfield - Roots

[Ello Sailor]

I thought Meddle and Electric Warrior were slightly later for some reason. Same with Joni's Blue. What a year though.

[Ello Sailor]

For shits and giggles, you could add Genesis' Nursery Cryme, the first album to feature Phil Collins on drums/vocals and Steve Hackett on guitar.

[Happy Trees]

Jimi Hendrix - The Cry of Love
Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge (a side journey into those weird unauthorized albums)

Both of those albums are of the same ilk and weird maybe, but neither is "unauthorized". Posthumous is a better word for it. And there are dozens of them now. Any verbiage currently used by Experience Hendrix (ie. "the first fully authorized ____") is a bunch of bullshit, to counteract the fact that they weren't in control of his catalog until 1997. Eddie Kramer has been working on all their releases, but he also did the two albums above. "First Rays Of The New Rising Sun" is a compilation of those initial posthumous albums and is no more valid than they were. And the stuff they're releasing now where they're frankensteining unfinished songs together isn't much different than the late 70's albums that they complained about when they took over. Funny how that changed.

[liebzz]

I thought Meddle and Electric Warrior were slightly later for some reason. Same with Joni's Blue. What a year though.

Possible. I sometimes relied on Spotify to compile the list and they are pretty unreliable in capturing the correct year.

[Ello Sailor]

No, I'm sure the years are correct. I'm more poking fun at my blind spots outside of the 90s.

[wease]

Have you done any of the Chicago albums? Their third was released in ‘71 and their first two are wicked good. They had pretty solid releases up to X or XI. And that just takes them thru the mid-70s.

[oasisfan35]

Bowie's Hunky Dory

[lvc]

Bill Withers - Just as I Am
ZZ Top - ZZ Top's First Album
Loretta Lynn - Coal Miner's Daughter
Little Feat - Little Feat (I may have reversed those two)

[oasisfan35]

I thought Meddle and Electric Warrior were slightly later for some reason. Same with Joni's Blue. What a year though.

Possible. I sometimes relied on Spotify to compile the list and they are pretty unreliable in capturing the correct year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_in_music

Just edit the year in the URL, I am actually listening to albums from '91 today.