1. CAPTAIN FANTASTIC AND THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY
Elton John
"Tell Me When the Whistle Blows"
The first album to enter the chart at #1, pre-Soundscan, back in the days of the manipulated chart. This was unheard of, you worked your way up the chart and reigned. "Captain Fantastic" is most certainly an album, with only one single, "Someone Saved My Life Tonight," a ballad unlike so much of the LP. For me, it's all about the first side, containing tracks nobody talks about anymore, like this. "Tell Me When the Whistle Blows" has a swagger, that makes it, Elton's spitting the lyrics like he means them.
2. VENUS AND MARS
Wings
"Letting Go"
"Ah, she looks like snow
I want to put her in a Broadway show"
Never talked about anymore, "Venus and Mars" was a masterful follow-up to the comeback breakthrough, "Band on the Run." "Letting Go" is my favorite track, this is rock before rock became something else, when power with melody was still acceptable.
"Medicine Jar"
Written (with Colin Allen) and sung by Jimmy McCulloch from Thunderclap Newman.
"What's wrong with you
I wish I knew
You say time will tell
I hope that's true
There's more to life than blues and reds
I say I know how you feel
Now your friends are dead
Dead on your feet you won't get far
If you keep on sticking your hand
In the medicine jar"
Words Jimmy himself did not heed, he died three years later as a result of heart failure caused by morphine and alcohol.
3. ONE OF THESE NIGHTS
Eagles
The song "One of These Nights" was all over the radio, this was a harder Eagles and over the summer they became the biggest act in the land, setting up expectations for "Hotel California," which was a great leap forward, they delivered.
The ballads "Lyin' Eyes" and "Take It to the Limit" followed up the #1 title track single, but no one listening thought the Eagles were wimpy.
The surprise, the track that still titillates me today, that brings me back to that era, is Bernie Leadon's "Journey of the Sorcerer," a six and a half minute journey, that had you grooving along and contemplating your life.
10. GORILLA
James Taylor
A light, breezy album standing in contrast to what came before the tone is set by the opening cut, "Mexico."
My favorite, in my belief the best cut on "Gorilla," is "Lighthouse." It's made special by Randy Newman's hornorgan and Crosby & Nash's background vocals but in truth, it's the lyrics that make it special.
"But just because I might be standing here
That don't mean I won't be wrong this time
You could follow me and lose your mind"
I'm not always right, nobody is, gather the information and make your own decision.
And it took me years to truly appreciate the greatness of "Angry Blues," which is made so special by the guitarwork and harmony vocals of Lowell George, who was always subtle, never overplayed, he added, he didn't unnecessarily dominate.
13. STAMPEDE
The Doobie Brothers
The hit single was a cover of the Holland/Dozier/Holland song "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me)," but the best two songs on the LP were the second on each side, written and sung by Patrick Simmons, "Neal's Fandango" and "I Cheat the Hangman." The latter got radio airplay, the former never did, but it's my favorite on the LP, it's a tear that represents the freedom of California.
14. FANDANGO!
ZZ Top
You could not turn on the radio without hearing "Tush." (I'm talking about FM radio, did anybody still listen to the AM band in 1975?) This was truly the breakthrough for ZZ Top.
16. DIAMONDS & RUST
Joan Baez
It's taken me forty six years to be able to listen to "Diamonds & Rust" without pushing the button. Joan Baez's last big radio track, she wrote it, a rarity, and it was well-documented it was about Bob Dylan.
24. THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
10cc
10cc was huge in the U.K. but meaningless in the U.S. until this album, which included "I'm Not In Love," but the most memorable track if you were a fan, if you'd been following along, was the almost nine minute opener, "Une Nuit a Paris," that's the way the croissant crumbles after all...
35. "TOYS IN THE ATTIC
Aerosmith
This was the album that cemented their legacy, that turned them into stars, I loved its predecessor "Get Your Wings" but "Toys In the Attic" is the one that the public at large finally embraced. At this point, the most famous cut is "Walk This Way," overplayed as a result of the Run-D.M.C. collaboration, but the biggest cut at the time, and still a killer, the essence of rock freedom in the summer, is "Sweet Emotion," but as much as I love it it's the following cut that was always my favorite, with that descending guitar lick and Tyler's impassioned vocal, "No More No More."
"Baby I'm a dreamer
Found my horse and carriage"
41. BLOW BY BLOW
Jeff Beck
Beck finally gave up on the vocalists and decided to make his guitar the lead singer and ultimately created his best LP since "Truth," probably his best solo album ever. The standout is the cover of the little known Stevie Wonder song, "Cause We've Ended as Lovers," and if you've never heard it you're in for a treat.
This is the album that contains the original "Freeway Jam," more famous in its live iteration with the Jan Hammer Group from two years later, the latter's got more energy, it makes you want to be at the show, listen, you'll get it.
Beck does an indelible cover of "Day In The Life," but here he turns "She's a Woman" into something totally new.
46. STRAIGHT SHOOTER
Bad Company
Feel like makin' love?
A twin with "Toys In the Attic," "Straight Shooter" was an absolute monster, an incredible, equal follow-up to Bad Company's debut. My favorite song at the time was the first side closer, "Shooting Star," I too was a schoolboy when I heard my first Beatles song. And I'm gonna include the hypnotic "Wild Fire Woman" just to show the magic of not only the forgotten Mick Ralphs but the exquisite vocals of Paul Rodgers, listen to him in the chorus!
51. SOAP OPERA
The Kinks
When they were still on RCA, cutting theme/musical play albums, before Clive Davis corralled them and took them out of the music hall and back to the rock stage. The opening cut, "Everybody's a Star (Starmaker)," got some airplay, but the best cut is the closer, "You Can't Stop the Music."
52. TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Souther, Hillman, Furay Band
The unsuccessful follow-up to the gold debut it contains J.D. Souther singing his own "Prisoner in Disguise," which was the title song of Linda Ronstadt's follow-up to "Heart Like a Wheel" released in September.
54. AMBROSIA
Ambrosia
Hobbled by being on 20th Century Records, like the Alan Parsons Project's debut, nothing could hold back the incredible single "Holdin' on to Yesterday." Subsequently on Warner Brothers, Ambrosia was seen as a soft rock act, but on their debut they had more of an edge, especially in the opener "Nice, Nice, Very Nice," for which the band wrote music to Kurt Vonnegut's words.
59. THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
Pink Floyd
61. NUTHIN 'FANCY
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The third album, with "Saturday Night Special" and "Whiskey Rock-a-Roller."
73. PHYSICAL GRAFFITI
Led Zeppelin
"Ten Years Gone," my favorite Zeppelin track, as of today anyway.
75. FRAMPTON
Peter Frampton
The blueprint for "Frampton Comes Alive" the following year, a remarkable return to form after the disappointment of "Somethin's Happening," my favorite cut on the LP is "Nowhere's Too Far (For My Baby)."
81. FIVE-A-SIDE
Ace
How long has this been goin' on? I bought the album just for the single and became a Paul Carrack fan.
84. KATY LIED
Steely Dan
"Bad sneakers and a Pina Colada my friend
Stompin' on the avenue
By Radio City with a
Transistor and a large sum of money to spend"
No hit singles but the album that truly made me a fan. My first favorite was "Your Gold Teeth II," with its temp change and intimate vocal."
96. INITIATION
Todd Rundgren
"Get your trip together
Be a real man"
97. TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT
Neil Young
"Bruce Berry was a working man
He used to load that Econoline van"
Jan Berry's brother in case you missed rock and roll high school that day.
103. MAIN COURSE
Bee Gees
Part of the reinvention campaign before the triumph with "Saturday Night Fever" I never cottoned to "Nights on Broadway" but I LOVED and STILL LOVE "Jive Talkin'."
105. YOUNG AMERICANS
David Bowie
From rock and roller to the R&B Thin White Duke I never liked "Fame" ever and "Young Americans" I can tolerate, but "Somebody Up There Likes Me" and "Fascination" I LOVE!!
107. SHEER HEART ATTACK
Queen
The breakthrough, the commercial set-up for "A Night At the Opera." The hit was "Killer Queen."
138. SNEAKIN' SALLY THRU THE ALLEY
Robert Palmer
The solo debut, before the debonair suits and the models with guitars, the opening trilogy of "Sailling Shoes/Hey Julia/Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley" was revelatory back then and still is today, no one seems to be making this music anymore.
140. BLOOD ON THE TRACKS
Bob Dylan
No one ever talks about the closer, "Buckets of Rain," but I always loved it.
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