1. The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East [1971] – The original six [Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks. Jaimoe] recorded four shows on a weekend in March 1971 and captured lightning in a bottle. The original four-sided vinyl release contained seven [!] songs. There was so much material recorded that they had two and a half vinyl sides leftover for Eat a Peach. When it was time to do a deluxe version of At Fillmore East [2003], all the songs from the original release were there, Polydor added the live tracks from Eat a Peach and made a double CD package with thirteen songs. This is the version I listen to. In 2014, Polydor went the whole hog and released all the shows recorded in March 1971, and also the final-ever show at the Fillmore East [June 27, 1971]. I passed on the super deluxe version. The double CD was enough for me. My only complaint – no Dreams. They played it at the Fillmore West six weeks earlier – why not the Fillmore East?
The songs
Statesboro Blues / Trouble
No More / Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’ / Done Somebody Wrong / Stormy Monday / One
Way Out / In Memory of Elizabeth Reed / You Don’t Love Me / Midnight Rider
Hot ‘Lanta / Whipping Post / Mountain Jam / Drunken Hearted Boy
2. Abbey Road [The Beatles, 1969] – This isn’t their best album [I think Revolver is], but it’s my favorite. It’s the last one they recorded, and it’s their best-sounding album. George Harrison’s two best Beatles songs are here [Something, Here Comes the Sun], as is John Lennon’s last great Beatles song [Come Together]. Ringo’s Octopus’s Garden is thought by some to be a children’s song [it’s not], but there’s some tight playing from all four Beatles and great guitar work from George. The medley on side two was a novel idea that worked fairly well. The only thing that keeps Abbey Road from being the perfect Beatles album is Paul McCartney’s Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. It has been and always will be a stupid, stupid song. “Granny music” indeed – just as crappy as When I’m 64, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, and Honey Pie. I don’t know what possessed Paul McCartney to put out such dreck. I loathe and despise this song [as did John, George and Ringo]. But even with this significant flaw, Abbey Road is still a great album. I wished there was more to follow, but these guys were done. They broke up at the right time.
3. All Things Must Pass [George Harrison, 1970] – Of all the albums that came after the Beatles breakup, this one is the best. As much as I like John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band [1970], All Things Must Pass for me is the closest thing I will ever get to an Abbey Road follow-up. To my ears it sounds the most like Abbey Road. Paul’s first album [McCartney, 1970] had its moments [Maybe I’m Amazed, Every Night], but it was a decidedly homemade, lo-fi exercise. John’s album was a stark contrast to the slick Abbey Road. Ringo’s first solo venture was Sentimental Journey [1970], a collection of standards. ATMP was the best-sounding of all the immediate post-Beatles albums [having Phil Spector as a co-producer didn’t hurt], and most of the songs are of the highest quality. There isn’t a bad one in the bunch. I even like the extra disc of studio jams, cut mostly by musicians who would become Derek & the Dominoes later in 1970. This album demonstrated it was wrong for Lennon and McCartney to ignore George’s songwriting.
4. Who’s Next [The Who, 1971] – After two years of flogging Tommy, Pete Townshend searched for a new idea to follow it. After much thought, he found one in the form of Lifehouse. He hit on an idea that combined spirituality, music, and a dystopian future. The problem with the concept was that he was the only one who got it. The rest of the Who were puzzled. The concept was hard to explain. Fifty years later it’s still hard to explain. After a year of trying, PT just couldn’t get the idea to work. He was about forty years ahead of his time. Lifehouse was supposed to be a double album, like Tommy. Carol and I had a running argument over which was the best Who song ever. She said it was Baba O’Riley. I said it was Won’t Get Fooled Again [we never settled the argument]. One begins Who’s Next, the other one ends it. Bargain, Behind Blue Eyes, The Song Is Over, and John Entwistle’s My Wife are sandwiched in between. Those are some pretty good songs. As good as Who’s Next is, it could have been better. Pure And Easy and I Don't Even Know Myself are better songs than Getting In Tune and Love Ain’t For Keeping. I’m on the fence about Going Mobile.
5. Machine Head [Deep Purple, 1972] – We all came out to Montreux… On Made In Japan, Ian Gillan says of Machine Head “it tells the story of how we recorded it and what went wrong when we did it…” Smoke on the Water is one of rock’s most recognized, most indestructible riffs ever. But Machine Head has some much more – Highway Star, Lazy, Space Truckin’, Pictures of Home, Maybe I’m a Leo, and Never Before [probably the weakest track but still good]. My only complaint about Machine Head is what was left off – When a Blind Man Cries. As Ian Gillan said, “Ritchie no likee.” This is Deep Purple’s perfect album, and that’s saying something because they also have Deep Purple In Rock.
6. Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures [Rush, 1980 & 1981] – In the 1970s, Rush did three albums of progressive rock that had long [sometimes side-long] songs with complex arrangements and science fiction themes [2112, A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres]. As good as the albums were, you didn’t hear much of them on the radio, except maybe late at night when DJs could still play whatever they wanted. And let’s face it – one can take only so much of Geddy Lee communicating with bats. But starting with Permanent Waves, the songs became shorter, the arrangements were tighter, and Geddy Lee toned down the vocals. The Spirit of Radio opened the floodgates. More and more Rush songs began to be heard on the radio. While synthesizers had been a part of Rush’s sound [think Xanadu], here they come forward on songs like Jacob’s Ladder and Entre Nous. There isn’t a note wasted on Permanent Waves. All of these elements contributed to Rush becoming more “radio-friendly”. The only “epic” is Natural Science. I remember Geddy Lee telling Rolling Stone about making Permanent Waves that it was “time to come out of the fog and put down something concrete”. If there’s such a thing as a “perfect Rush album”, Moving Pictures is it. Moving Pictures is the ‘big brother’ of Permanent Waves. Synthesizers begin to come to the fore - the single Tom Sawyer and all of the album’s second side. We get an unforgettable song about the price of fame [Limelight], fast cars in a world where they are banned [Red Barchetta], and an instrumental [YYZ]. Witch Hunt begins a three-album arc of songs about what scares people [it’s subtitled Fear, Part 3]. For me, the centerpiece is The Camera Eye. This song is a very good balance between the old [Lerxst’s guitars] and the new [Geddy’s synths], and so it was for Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures. After these two albums, there was an imbalance between guitars and keyboards that wouldn’t be corrected until 1994 with the release of Counterparts.
7. Master of Reality [Black Sabbath, 1971] – This is my favorite Sabbath album [with Vol. 4 and Sabotage close behind]. It must be the band’s favorite album as well, because when Carol and I saw them in San Jose in 1999, they played seven of the album’s eight songs [they didn’t play Solitude]. To these ears, Master of Reality is Sabbath’s heaviest album. Tony Iommi tuned his guitar down three steps as did Geezer Butler with his bass. The resulting sound was darker with a significant sludge factor.
8. Physical Graffiti [Led Zeppelin, 1975] – Ask any Zeppelin fan what their favorite album is, chances are the answer will be the LZ IV or LZ II. Not so for me. Most of this was recorded in 1974. There were too many songs for a single album, but not enough for a double. They had leftover songs from the LZ III, LZ IV, and Houses of the Holy. Physical Graffiti has two blemishes – Down by the Seaside and Black Country Woman [I can’t stand Robert Plant screeching about having beer in his face]. The first and second sides are perfect.
9. The Dark Side of the Moon [Pink Floyd, 1973] – What is understood need not be discussed…
10. Workingman’s Dead/American Beauty [Grateful Dead, 1970] –American Beauty could well be sides three and four of Workingman’s Dead as they are similar. Carol’s favorite Dead song was Box of Rain. My favorite is New Speedway Boogie [Bertha is a very close second]. Box of Rain is Phil Lesh’s ode to his dying father, while New Speedway Boogie is a commentary about Altamont [Jerry Garcia pleading “one way or another this darkness got to give…”]. On both albums the Dead dispensed with psychedelic jams and concentrated on songcraft.
11. Morrison Hotel/L.A. Woman [The Doors, 1970/71] – These are the first Doors albums I ever bought. Jim Morrison supposedly “whipped it out” at a concert in Miami in March 1969. The Soft Parade [1969] had horns and strings, two things that shouldn’t be on any Doors album anywhere. What to do after the disaster that was 1969? Seek solace in the blues. I wouldn’t go so far to call these “the blues” [except Crawling King Snake] but they are “bluesy.” Gone was the psychedelic acid-drenched music from the first two albums. The Doors became a hard rock bar band here. The music was no frills, no bullshit. One thing hadn’t changed - this music sounds best when played at night, especially L.A. Woman and Riders on the Storm.
12. Superunknown [Soundgarden, 1994] – Not quite as old as the rest of the albums on this list, this is a monster of an album. Of its fifteen songs, Soundgarden played nine of them when Carol and I saw them at Red Rocks in 2011. These guys could be as dark and sludgy as Black Sabbath and as psychedelic as the Beatles. Superunknown is dark, moody, fast, relentless, intense, and thunderous. It’s also plodding when it needs to be. In my opinion, it is the last truly great album made by anybody. I miss Chris Cornell.
