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Your favorite albums from the 70s

Picking up on Nowhere Man's 80s music thread, what are you favorite albums from the 70's?
This is an interesting topic to me because I was such a huge fan of music in the 60's starting with the Beach Boys in the early 60s, loving the British Invasion (Beatles, Stone, et al), being blown away and having the doors of rock blown wide open in 1965 when Bob Dylan came out with "Like a Rolling Stone", British blues-rock (Cream, John Mayall, etc.), and on into amazing bands like Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Hendrix, etc.
And then the 70s came along and for a few years, I felt like like it had all turned into some kind of generic sludge. But later in that decade, some amazing things happened when new bands broke the mold by rejecting the endless noodling of weak prog rock (though there was some great prog, for sure), and the generic bland commercial rock that began filling the airwaves.
Ten of the records that, to my mind, shine the brightest in the 70s:
Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Zuma
Television: Marquee Moon
Talking Heads: '77
Wire: Pink Flag
The Ramones: self-titled
New York Dolls: self-titled
Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks
The Clash: London Calling
Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures
Kraftwerk: Autobahn
Television: Marquee Moon
Talking Heads: '77
Wire: Pink Flag
The Ramones: self-titled
New York Dolls: self-titled
Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks
The Clash: London Calling
Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures
Kraftwerk: Autobahn
"It's a sad and beautiful world"
-Roberto Benigni
Post edited by brianlux on
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Comments
Good call! TP's Damn the Torpedoes from Oct '79 squeaks in there and could easily have gone on my list!
Another good call, GB!
This is one of my favourite eras of music. I was born in ’79, so it wasn’t during my prime years of listening or attending concerts. But looking back, I really love this time in music—big, heavy rock! I’ll have to check the release dates of some of my favourite albums, because I’m sure there’s some crossover between the ’60s and the ’80s.
Melbourne #2 '03
Melbourne #3 '03
Melbourne #1 '06
Melbourne #3 '06
Melbourne '09
Melbourne '14
Looking forward to seeing what your list looks like, BGA!
I feel like these are all sorta obvious to people of a certain age
Picked one from each band, although I could pick others by same bands.
ZZ Tops - Tres Hombres
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Led Zeppelin- IV
Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
Acdc - Highway to Hell
Pink Floyd - Dark Side
Classic sides, all.
Dark Side of the Moon
Who's Next
Breakfast in America (just squeezing in with 1979 release)
Van Halen 1
The Stranger - Billy Joel
Rumours
Songs in the Key of Life
The Cars
Phila, PA 4/28/16; Phila, PA 4/29/16; Fenway Park 8/7/16; Fenway Park 9/2/18; Asbury Park 9/18/21; Camden 9/14/22;
Las Vegas 5/16/24; Las Vegas 5/18/24; Phila, PA 9/7/24; Phila, PA 9/9/24; Baltimore Arena 9/12/24; Pittsburgh 5/16/25; Pittsburgh 5/18/25
Tres Mtns - TLA 3/23/11; EV - Tower Theatre 6/25/11; Temple of the Dog - Tower Theatre 11/5/16
Nice seeing mention of Al Green. What an amazing vocalist!
Hunky Dory
Ziggy Stardust
Aladdin Sane
Station to Station
Low
"Heroes"
Lodger
2010: Newark 5/18 MSG 5/20-21 2011: PJ20 9/3-4 2012: Made In America 9/2
2013: Brooklyn 10/18-19 Philly 10/21-22 Hartford 10/25 2014: ACL10/12
2015: NYC 9/23 2016: Tampa 4/11 Philly 4/28-29 MSG 5/1-2 Fenway 8/5+8/7
2017: RRHoF 4/7 2018: Fenway 9/2+9/4 2021: Sea Hear Now 9/18
2022: MSG 9/11 2024: MSG 9/3-4 Philly 9/7+9/9 Fenway 9/15+9/17
2025: Pittsburgh 5/16+5/18
But what I'm really impressed with is you have Band Of Gypsies on your list. What I'm NOT impressed with is, you have Band Of Gypsies way too low on your list=HAHA. That one might be on top of my list. I'll list some of mine when I get the time.
You could almost say Bowie's 70s output was some of the best 80s music of it's time. He was definitely ahead of the times then. Oddly enough (to me anyway), in the 80s, I think he was too much stuck in that decade. But he sure went out with class making Blackstar.
Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger
Van Morrison - Moondance
Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel
Lee Moses - Time and Place
Terry Reid - Seed of Memory
Pharoah Sanders - Pharoah
Eugene McDaniels - Headless Heroes of
the Apocalypse
Cat Stevens - Teaser and the Firecat
https://pharoahsanders.bandcamp.com/album/pharoah?label=1878256189
Whoa! How cool is that! Thanks for the heads up.
Rumours
Who's Next
Live at Leeds
Physical Graffiti
Kiss
Destroyer
High Voltage
Station to Station - Golden Years is one of my all time fave songs.
Living in the 70s - Skyhooks. Great Australian Band.
Melbourne #2 '03
Melbourne #3 '03
Melbourne #1 '06
Melbourne #3 '06
Melbourne '09
Melbourne '14