Top 5 Best Albums Between 1970-75

Looking through my old records, I came up with the crazy idea to rank the greatest records of all time. That’s stupid–there’s no way one person can come up with a definitive list of the best ever, let alone the time it would take to do something like that. So I decided to do the best of the latter half of the 20th century. No way–again, too many great records. Going back to the drawing board, I came up with the best of, what I consider to be the greatest period of rock and roll, the 1970’s. After I came to the conclusion that I was just plain lazy, I whittled it down to the best records ever of the first half of the greatest decade ever for rock and roll music, 1970-1975. Starting with number 5, here we go:

5. Neil Young Harvest (1972) Not only is Mr. Young my favorite singer/songwriter of all time, but he also just happens to be one of the best and most prolific ever. I could use the rest of this column to talk about his greatness, but I’m trying to hold it to just one album, and what an album it is! Besides the mega-hits, Old Man and Heart of Gold, the sensitive Mr. Young lends his creativity to songs like A Man Needs A Maid and The Needle and the Damage Done. Not every artist can go back and forth from rocking your face off in one song, and then making you cry with an acoustic performance in the next, but Neil not only does it successfully, but also as a pioneering force. Can you think of another artist to have just as many hits rocking and then unplugging and doing it acoustically?

4. Black Sabbath Paranoid (1970) I could have just as easily put their first album here at number 4 since it came out in 1970, as well, but I decided to put the one on here with the more recognizable tunes to the casual music listener’s ear. And before you get all, “That’s a gross, satanic, evil, metal band, Aaron,” you need to do your homework, first of all, and then consider just how influential the music was. This album contains War Pigs, and Paranoid, and Iron Man, for crying out loud! Every heavy band that came out since Black Sabbath wishes they could have come up with just one song like the ones this band rattled off album after album. This is classic, heavy music, that will live on forever influencing generation after generation of young guitar players.

3. The Who Who’s Next (1971) Growing up, I always believed that The Who were constantly over-shadowed by more commercial, radio-friendly bands like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Aerosmith, but the older I got, the more I appreciated the dynamic force known as The Who. If I knew then what I know now, I never would have thought that way to begin with. This album alone contains classic rock staples like, Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again and Behind Blue Eyes, not to mention Bargain and Going Mobile. Absolutely perfect rock songs, each and every one. And what a lineup! The maniac Keith Moon pounding on the drums, the musician’s musician, John Entwistle thumping the bass, Pete Townshend power-sliding all over the stage, and Roger Daltrey belting his lungs out–I wish I could have witnessed a live show.

2. Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon (1973) What else is there to say about this album? Really? You already know most, if not all of the songs, and this isn’t arguably the bands greatest album–some say it’s 1979’s The Wall. But since we’re still on this side of 1975, it goes as number 2. This is the first album I ever listened to as a concept album, and it blew my mind. The tempo and flow of the entire album is just simply hypnotic and irresistibly catchy. The way the songs seemlessly flow into each other, the subtle guitar playing, the use of saxophone on a rock album–everything just absolutely works. Evidently I’m not the only one to think this–the album was in the Billboard album chart for 741 weeks. If anything, buy a copy of the record for the album cover alone–one of the most easily recognizable covers, if not the most recognized in history.

1. Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV (1971) Although not officially named Led Zeppelin IV, since there is nothing on the cover of the album except an old man with a bunch of stcks, we have to call it something, and since it followed the release of their 3rd studio album, Led Zeppelin IV has kind of stuck. This album contains the rock and roll masterpiece, Stairway to Heaven. There are other rock and roll standards on this album, such as Black Dog, When the Levee Breaks, Rock and Roll, and Going to California, but it will forever be known as the album bearing the one and only Stairway. Led Zeppelin was the biggest band in the world in the early seventies and pretty much defined the “rock and roll lifestyle.” Rarely do bands save their best material for their fourth album, but these guys managed to do it and forever cemented their names in rock and roll immortality.

Sure, there were plenty more fantastic albums and bands in the early seventies, but these 5 that were mentioned were the greatest. What do you think?


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