Best Albums of the 70s

Here's my picks for Best Albums of the 70s

1. John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band (1970)
2. The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers (1972)
3. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
4. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
5. The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street (1971)

6. David Bowie - Aladdin Sane (1973)
7. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (1977)
8. David Bowie - Low (1977)
9. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks (1975)
10. Neil Young - On the Beach (1974)

11. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (1979)
12. Marvin Gaye - What's Goin' On (1971)
13. Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (1977)
14. Iggy Pop - The Idiot (1977)
15. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass (1970)

16. David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars (1972)
17. David Bowie - Station to Station (1976)
18. The Clash - London Calling (1979)
19. Talking Heads - Fear of Music (1979)
20. Iggy & The Stooges - Fun House (1970)

21. Grateful Dead - American Beauty (1970)
22. Elton John - Honky Chateau (1972)
23. Nick Drake - Pink Moon (1972)
24. Fleetwood Mac - Tusk (1979)
25. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

26. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory (1970)
27. Neil Young - After the Gold Rush (1970)
28. Wire - Pink Flag (1977)
29. John Lennon - Imagine (1971)
30. Blondie - Parallel Lines (1978)

31. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Zuma (1975)
32. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run (1975)
33. Paul McCartney & Wings - Band on the Run (1973)
34. Eagles - Desperado (1973)
35. Pink Floyd - Animals (1977)

36. Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac (1975)
37. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus (1977)
38. Iggy & The Stooges - Raw Power (1973)
39. Lou Reed - Transformer (1972)
40. Neil Young - Time Fades Away (1973)

41. Chris Bell - I Am The Cosmos (1978)
42. Iggy Pop - Lust For Life (1977)
43. David Bowie - Diamond Dogs (1974)
44. Bob Dylan - Desire (1976)
45. Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance (1978)

46. Donna Summer - Bad Girls (1979)
47. Yoko Ono - Approximately Infinite Universe (1972)
48. David Bowie - Heroes (1977)
49. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps (1979)
50. Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly (1973)

The Pretenders: Back On The Chain Gang

One of the great rock songs of the 80s. Incredibly moving, real emotion, beautiful lyrics and Chrissie's vocal is understated and perfect. And it rocks. Classic tune by a great band.

Robert Randolph and the Family Band: "Walk Don't Walk"

Terrific cover of Prince's tune "Walk Don't Walk" on the new Robert Randolph album.  It's an underrated tune from this "Diamonds & Pearls" album, and might have been a good single choice.   Randolph's version is incredibly soulful and has a much richer sound than Prince's original recording.  Brilliant job!  Also amazing is the cover of John Lennon's classic "Don't Wanna Be a Soldier."   I'm loving this record so far.   Unfortunately I don't see clips for either of these 2 songs on YouTube (yet).  

Tame Impala - Solitude is Bliss

I am absolutely in love with this album.

Starship: "I Don't Know Why"

I'm a huge, unapologetic 80s pop fan, and you can't think 80s pop without thinking Starship.   This is a band that was very much "of their time" over 3 decades - they were a prototypical late 60s protest/acid/folk rock band as Jefferson Airplane, and they landed 2 era-defining singles in "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love".   Then in the 70s, they mastered the AOR idiom and their astonishingly beautiful ballad "Miracles" was a #1 smash.  And in the 80s they dove headlong into the cheesiest aspects of the decade's pop artifice and thrived with THREE #1 singles.   Of course, the various incarnations of the group had little in common, but the common thread is their initial success and inability to sustain it without morphing into something else.

I've always had a soft spot for the Grace Slick power ballad "I Don't Know Why" on their "No Protection" album.   It has a lovely vibe to it and a terrific vocal by Slick, and a nice vocal arrangement.  An underrated gem from a period in which Starship gets little love these days ("We Built This City" has routinely been cited as one of the ghastliest lapses of taste to ever hit #1, and considering the many examples of bad taste in the 80s this was quite an accomplishment.)