Continuing my Top 50...
40. Woodstock Soundtrack
The Woodstock Music & Arts Fair of 15-18 August 1969
was probably one of those era-defining moments that will never be repeated
(even though many have tried…). It captured the zeitgeist of late 1960s
American sub-culture so well, and became the definition of the Hippie movement
for many. I was one of those ‘many’: although too young to have appreciated the
event at the time, I was aware of it through adverts in the American comics I
was reading at the time, and as I grew more musically and politically aware the
hippie ideals and modes of dress appealed more and more to me. This album and
the accompanying film remind me of the event and the possibility for human
living that was, however briefly, demonstrated over those 4 days. And there is
some great music: Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Sly Stone, Joe Cocker, Canned Heat,
Santana, The Who, Ten Years After, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby Stills Nash &
Young, Country Joe MacDonald, John Sebastian, and some great music missing from
Janis Joplin & The Grateful Dead.
But what we have is a great reminder of what can be, and what might have been.
39. Bob Marley & The Wailers – Exodus
It was probably Bob Marley’s appearance on the Old Grey
Whistle Test that brought reggae to a wider audience, and I have strong
memories of John Peel playing some quite challenging Dub Reggae on his radio
show towards the end of the 70s, which I found quite intriguing. Exodus is
perhaps Marley’s most successful recording, combining as it does a commercial,
danceable reggae with an unapologetic use of the spirituality of
Rastafarianism, with its resonances with the Old Testament, particularly in the
title track. While giving rise to some home-grown reggae acts in the UK in the
late 70s and early 80s, such as Aswad and Steel Pulse, Marley & the Wailers
remain the benchmark for the genre for many.
38. Camel – Moonmadness
I came to Camel relatively late – possibly in the 1990s,
rather than in their heyday of the 1970s – and it was Moonmadness that was my
introduction to their music. Here was a collection replete with energy,
introspection, inventiveness and instrumental dexterity that just screamed for
repeated listens. Exploring the band’s catalogue brought more delights, but
nothing could quite top this collection of songs for their variety and
vitality.
37. 10CC – How Dare You
As a teenager there were a number of reasons for buying
an album, but normally there had to be a very good reason, as money was tight.
It might be on the recommendation of a friend; it might be that as a fan and
completist you just had to have the latest vinyl as soon as it was released; it
might be that, browsing the racks at the record store the album artwork jumped
out at you (Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell was one such for me). Or maybe you’d
heard the single on the radio and thought ‘You know what, I’d like to explore
this lot a bit further…’ I’d been aware of 10CC’s work since Rubber Bullets,
but there was something about ‘I’m Mandy Fly Me’ that called to me. What I
found in ‘How Dare You’ was a weird, wacky, witty ensemble of songs which,
sadly, would be the last creation of the 4-piece band of Gouldman, Stewart,
Godley & Creme. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s something about this
album that has stayed with me over the past 40+ years.
36. John Coltrane – Blue Train
If you were wondering when jazz would make an appearance
in this list, your wait is over! John Coltrane came to prominence in jazz
circles as a member of Miles Davis’s quintet in the mid-50s, and featured on
many classic recordings. In 1957 he took Paul Chambers (bass) and Philly Joe
Jones (drums) from the Miles Davis Quintet and along with Lee Morgan (trumpet),
Curtis Fuller (trombone) and Kenny Drew (piano) produced Blue Train. This was
in many ways a landmark album in the world of jazz, producing a number of tunes
that have become standards – Moment’s Notice, Lazy Bird, and the title track –
and here Coltrane demonstrated his chord substitution cycles which became known
as Coltrane Changes. The first (but not the only) album in my list that
pre-dates me, this is and will remain a classic.
35. Queen – A Night at the Opera
There’s always been something about Queen that was
different, and difficult to pigeon-hole (if that’s what you’re into with
music…): were they hard rock, glam rock, prog rock, what? As their career
progressed their inventiveness musically came more to the fore, and to my mind
it reached its peak with A Night at the Opera – so much so that they tried
(unsuccessfully) to recreate it on A Day at the Races. What strikes me
particularly about this album is the variety: the hard rock of Death on Two
Legs and Sweet Lady; the almost vaudeville of Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon and
Seaside Rendezvous, and the ragtime feel of Good Company; the silliness of I’m
in Love with My Car; the pop simplicity of You’re My Best Friend (John Deacon could
always write a good pop song); the stomping folk of ’39; the breathy, soulful
energy of Love of my Life; and the sheer prog magnificence and staggering
pomposity of The Prophet’s Song and Bohemian Rhapsody, and all of these styles
held together by Brian May’s signature guitar tone and the band’s increasingly
complex vocal harmonies, and by Roy Thomas Baker’s exemplary production. After
45 years it still holds up as a work of art and, if I may dare say, a work of
genius!
34. Crosby Stills & Nash – Crosby Stills
& Nash
Arguably one of the first ‘supergroups’ in popular music,
drawing together David Crosby from The Byrds, Steven Stills from Buffalo
Springfield & Graham Nash from The Hollies, Crosby Stills & Nash
brought their own particular brand of harmonic folk rock to the hippie scene of
the late 1960s, and their iconic appearance at Woodstock was only their second
gig together! Their debut album is full of their trademark harmonies, and
brings together excellent song-writing from all three members and a wonderful
variety of musical styles, acoustic and electric, folky & psychedelic,
bluesy & pop-y, optimistic & apocalyptic – perhaps summing up musically
that ‘something in the air’ that Thunderclap Newman sang of at the time. The
creative energy that flows throughout this album lifts me every time I listen –
of its time, yet timeless.
33. Pink Floyd – The Division Bell
The first but (SPOILER ALERT) not the last appearance by
Pink Floyd in this list brings us to their last studio album as a band, albeit
by then only a 3-piece. The band had transitioned during their 25+ years as a
recording unit from the Psychedelic house band of the UFO Club under Syd
Barrett’s leadership, to the experimental soundscapes of Ummagumma &
Meddle, the prog superstars of Dark Side … and Wish You Were Here, and the
stadium rockers of The Wall and the post-Waters era. I’d kind of lost touch
with Floyd after The Final Cut, which just didn’t do it for me (and still
doesn’t – sorry of that upsets anyone…), and was visiting family in Vancouver
when I found this album on my host’s shelf. Listening to it, to me it seemed
like the old Pink Floyd were back, perhaps a little more conventional and
bluesy, but with a challenging edge to their music. For me the standout track
was always High Hopes, with its nostalgic melancholy and trademark Gilmour
guitars.
32. Rick Wakeman – 6 Wives of Henry VIII
I discovered Rick Wakeman before I discovered Yes, and my
finding Rick was mainly down to a school friend, Pete. He lived quite close to
school (which I didn’t), so his house was a convenient bolthole from annoying
aspects of school life such as games! One of the records that we used to listen
to frequently on those visits was 6 Wives… and I was struck by two things
really: one was Wakeman’s manual dexterity on the keyboards (it was that that
lead me to explore Yes’s music), and the other was his amazing hair! (I know:
shallow, aren’t I!?) As a fellow blond, he became a role-model for me, though
the school authorities were less impressed and kept sending me to the barbers
every 3 weeks! Enough of this sartorial reminiscence: the music is varied,
powerful, poignant, reflective and is still perhaps (for me) the best thing
he’s done on his own.
31. Genesis – Foxtrot
Genesis were the first band I really got behind, having
been ‘converted’ hearing Seconds Out. The music just grabbed 16-year-old me and
I quickly began to explore their catalogue. Foxtrot was one of their early
albums that really stood out for me: being the one that had Supper’s Ready on
it did help. So why is it only at number 31 in my list? About 4 years ago, I
wrote: ”This album marks a significant milestone in the band's development:
their song-writing has reached a new peak with each of the band's members
maturing as musicians. This would be the last album that was dominated as much
by 12-string and Mellotron, as advances in synthesiser technology were to
transform their sound in the coming months. With Foxtrot, Genesis were
beginning to make an impact on the British music scene (though not as yet in
the US) and this would continue in the next couple of years as their star rose
steadily, and Foxtrot rightly holds a place at the top table of Progressive
music as one of the best examples of the genre.” But maybe familiarity has
soured it a little for me; there are other works that I now consider of better
class, certainly from Genesis’s canon (more on that later). But it is still an
album of outstanding class, and it would be remiss of me to omit it completely.
<3
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