1,001 Albums

101–150

35 min readJun 12, 2020

About

Listening to all albums (at least once) in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list. For the record, 1000 *pretty much anything* is an absurd undertaking. Each album has a little background and any tracks I particularly enjoyed.

TL;DR

Great means the whole album was fantastic. Good albums have at least 6 songs I like. Honorable albums have at least 4 songs I like. Bad albums are unlistenable. Ranked as entire albums, not by artist or isolated tracks.

Great: White Album, Abbey Road (The Beatles), Led Zeppelin

Good: Electric Ladyland (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), S. F. Sorrow (The Pretty Things), Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake (Small Faces), Odessey & Oracle (The Zombies), Astral Weeks* (Van Morrison), Tommy (The Who), Odessa (Bee Gees), Let It Bleed (The Rolling Stones)

Honorable: Traffic; The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society; Songs Of Leonard Cohen; Lady Soul (Aretha Franklin); The Notorious Byrd Brothers; Bookends (Simon & Garfunkel); Music From Big Pink (The Band); Scott 2 (Scott Walker); Bayou Country (Creedence Clearwater Revival); Crosby, Stills & Nash; Blood, Sweat And Tears; Green River (Creedence Clearwater Revival), From Elvis In Memphis; The Velvet Underground

Bad: White Light / White Heat (The Velvet Underground), Trout Mask Replica (Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band)

* Only 5 (out of 8) songs

#101 | The Velvet Underground — White Light / White Heat

Recorded in just two days (and it shows), the worst album so far. The original cover features a faint black-on-black image of Joe Spencer’s (lead role in Warhol’s Bike Boy) skull tattoo. Alternative covers have either a completely black background, toy soldiers, or a 1974 MGM reissue under the title Archetypes featuring two men wearing helmets standing in front of a Woolworth’s!

In Sister Ray, Lou Reed tells a tale of drag queens having a failed orgy while the band plays an improvised seventeen-minute jam around three chords. The Buzzcocks were formed from a shared interest in this song.

#102 | The Rolling Stones — Beggars Banquet

Final album of band founder and original frontman, Brian Jones, who drowned shortly after at age 27. Due to drug and emotional problems, Jones was an erratic contributor to the album — with Richards picking up the slack. Richard and Jagger wrote all but one song; mistakenly credited for a cover of Prodigal Son.

Album title conjured by British art dealer Christopher Gibbs. The original cover art depicting a bathroom wall covered in graffiti caused a dispute with the record company that delayed release for months! The “toilet cover” was later used for reissues.

Due to an error in the mastering, for over thirty years the album was slightly slower (30 seconds for the album) than recorded — which altered the tempo and key of songs; the corrected remaster was released in 2002! In 1968, the band filmed a television special The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton, The Who, Jethro Tull and Marianne Faithfull. It was meant to promote the album, but not released until 1996!

Sympathy For The Devil
Street Fighting Man

#103 | Traffic

The last album recorded by the group before their initial breakup.

Feelin’ Alright?
40,000 Headmen
Cryin’ To Be Heard
Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
Shanghai Noodle Factory

#104 | The Incredible String Band — The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter

Featuring a series of dreamlike songs such as The Minotaur’s Song (sung from the minotaur’s perspective) and A Very Cellular Song — a 13-minute reflection on life, love, and amoebas. The album used multitrack recording and a wide array of instruments from across the world including sitar, gimbri, shenai, oud, harpsichord, panpipes and kazoo. The US release swapped the front and back cover, with the group shot taken on Christmas Day. Influenced the Cripple Crow album by Devendra Banhart.

Robert Plant credited the album with influencing Led Zeppelin’s first album. A Very Cellular Song was adopted as a closing prayer by kundalini yoga students during the 1960s and covered by The Young Ones actor for the 1984 LP Neil’s Heavy Concept Album.

A Very Cellular Song

#105 | The Kinks — The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society

Originally titled just Village Green and revolving around a town and its people. Delayed to add three new songs, twelve-track records were released in Europe and New Zealand; and have since become collectable. The first part of the “Preservation trilogy.” In 2011, performed live in entirety at the Royal Festival Hall in London with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Crouch End Festival Chorus. Phenominal [sic] Cat spelled incorrectly on the LP sleeve.

Johnny Thunder
Animal Farm
Village Green
People Take Pictures of Each Other

#106 | Ravi Shankar — The Sounds Of India

Introduced and explained Hindustani classical music to Western audiences.

#107 | Os Mutantes

Brazilian tropicalia album that includes a cover of The Mamas & The Papas’ Once Was a Time I Thought (as Tempo no Tempo) and a cover of Le premier bonheur du jour.

A Minha Menina
Adeus Maria Fulô
Le Permier Bonheur Du Jour

#108 | The Jimi Hendrix Experience — Electric Ladyland

Third and final album before Hendrix’s death, the only one he produced, and only Experience album mixed entirely in stereo. Worked with Jefferson Airplane’s Jack Casady and Traffic’s Steve Winwood. Includes a cover of the Bob Dylan song All Along the Watchtower.

As with prior records Hendrix was a perfectionist (over fifty takes of Gypsy Eyes), insecure about his voice (recorded behind a screen), and invited friends and guest to the studio leading Bassist Noel Redding to recall “there were tons of people in the studio; you couldn’t move. It was a party, not a session.” Studio techniques include the wah-wah pedal (Burning of the Midnight Lamp), backmasking, chorus effect, echo, and flanging. The band’s highest-selling single and their only US top 40 hit, peaking at number 20.

Hendrix wanted a photo taken in Central Park by Linda Eastman (later McCartney), but the label used a blurred photo from a Saville Theatre show instead; it was used for the 50th anniversary release. Track records released a cover of nineteen naked women by David Montgomery, which Hendrix was surprised and displeased with. Some CD releases have the sides in incorrect order.

Crosstown Traffic
Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)
1983
Still Raining, Still Dreaming
All Along the Watchtower
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

#109 | Leonard Cohen — Songs Of Leonard Cohen

Debut album. During recording the session musicians made Cohen nervous so he played in front of a full-length mirror to make him comfortable. Unhappy with changes made to numerous songs.

Wrote One of Us Cannot Be Wrong in a Chelsea Hotel room “coming off amphetamine and pursuing a blond lady that I met in a Nazi poster!” Signed away the rights to Suzanne, Stranger Song and Dress Rehearsal Rag — costing a lot of money. Back cover of a Mexican religious figure from a botánica near the Hotel Chelsea.

Suzanne
So Long, Marianne
Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye
Stories of the Street

#110 | Johnny Cash — At Folsom Prison

Cash had performed at several prisons before performing two shows (fifteen tracks used from the first show, two from the second) that would constitute the album. During rehearsal (learning Greystone Chapel, written by an inmate) California Governor Ronald Reagan visited the band.

The album revitalized Cash’s career, who would record other live prison albums. The single Folsom Prison Blues was censored (removing the line “I shot a man in Reno / Just to watch him die”) after the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, despite protests from Cash. In 2008, “Legacy Edition” release features a DVD of both concerts.

Folsom Prison Blues
25 Minutes to Go
Greystone Chapel

#111 | Laura Nyro — Eli And The Thirteenth Confession

Written entirely by Nyro and, on her insistence, the album’s lyric sheet (which itself was a rarity for records at the time) was perfumed. Second only Nyro’s debut More Than a New Discovery in producing (four) hit songs for other artists. Elton John influenced by the album, while Paul Shaffer’s one “desert island record.” Songs featured in the Quintet ballet by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Sweet Blindness
Timer
Stones Soul Picnic

#112 | Aretha Franklin — Lady Soul

Whitney Houston’s mother and her group the Sweet Inspirations supplied backing vocals on several tracks, along with Aretha’s sisters Carolyn and Erma Franklin. Sold well over a million copies in the US alone.

Chain of Fools
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
Good to Me as I Am to You
Groovin’

#113 | Blue Cheer — Vincebus Eruptum

One of the first heavy metal albums. The cover song Summertime Blues was quoted as having a lot “to do with large doses of LSD,” while Doctor Please was described as a “drug anthem.”

Summertime Blues

#114 | The Byrds — The Notorious Byrd Brothers

Regarded as the band’s most experimental, and shortest (under 29 minutes) album. During recording one band member was fired, one left, and an original member rejoined for three weeks before quitting again! With so many changes, outside musicians were required to complete the album.

One of the first albums to feature a Moog modular synthesizer. The recorded song Triad was held back due to dark subject matter — and was eventually released in 1987. Wasn’t Born to Follow was used in the film Easy Rider.

Goin’ Back
Wasn’t Born to Follow
Old John Robertson
Triad

#115 | Big Brother & The Holding Company — Cheap Thrills

Final album with Janis Joplin as lead singer and features three covers — Summertime, Piece of My Heart and Ball and Chain. The original Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills was rejected. To give the impression of a live album (only Ball and Chain was recorded live), crowd noises were added.

After the original cover idea (a photo of the group naked in bed together) was rejected, Joplin commissioned underground cartoonist Robert Crumb to draw the cover — for which he refused payment saying “I don’t want Columbia’s filthy lucre.” Early copies reference the song “HARRY KIRSHNER! (D. GETZ)” that was dropped, later replaced with the words “ART: R. CRUMB.”

I Need A Man To Love
Summertime
Piece of My Heart

#116 | The United States Of America

Due to technical limitations electronic sounds were created from three variable wave shape generators, modulating one another. Columbia Records wanted the title changed for political reasons, the alternative was Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Band split up within months of the release. Album contains two version of I Won’t Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar— sung by a male and female respectively.

I Won’t Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar
The American Way of Love

#117 | Dr. John — Gris-Gris

Stylized as GRIS-gris, an album combining New Orleans music and psychedelic rock. Mac Rebennack took the persona from Dr. John Montaine, a New Orleans mythological character from the 1840s who sold potions and gris-gris (small cloth bags containing scriptures) to lift curses. Rebennack was a musician for Phil Spector and Sonny & Cher; had his index finger shot off during a scuffle; served time for heroin possession; walked out of a Frank Zappa session.

Recorded during studio time reserved for Sonny & Cher. Ronnie Barron was meant to be the singer, but was unavailable. Atlantic records president was reluctant to release the record, exclaiming “Why did you give me this shit? How can we market this boogaloo crap?” I Walk on Guilded Splinters was later covered by Cher.

Danse Kalinda Ba Doom

#118 | Iron Butterfly — In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

The highest-selling album ever after selling over eight million copies in the first year (30 million worldwide). In 1993, certified as 4x multi-platinum.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is derived from “In the Garden of Eden” is over 17 minutes long, occupies the entire second side of the album, and only has lyrics at the beginning and end. Makes no sense why this record was so popular.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

#119 | The Pretty Things — S. F. Sorrow

One of the first rock “opera” concept albums based on a short story about the life of Sebastian F. Sorrow who goes off to war, settles in New York, and whose fiancée is killed by the Hindenburg. The “Baron Saturday” character represents Baron Samedi, a deity in Haitian Voodoo religion. Most of the story is printed in the liner notes, alternating with the song’s lyrics.

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, where drummer Skip Alan quit the band to marry his French girlfriend. Featured a Mellotron and early electronic tone generators. Due to budget constraints, the band members drew the cover art and took the photograph for the back sleeve! Poorly promoted, bad redesign (different artwork, rounded corners easily missed in album racks) and the US version badly mastered (e.g. 30 second channel volume drop on Baron Sunday).

Played live three times — including a weird (character dress-up, miming) performance at a club and one of the first live internet “netcasts” at Abbey Road. The server was quickly overloaded with most viewers unable to stream; a DVD of the show was finally released in 2003.

S.F. Sorrow Is Born
Bracelets Of Fingers
She Says Good Morning
Balloon Burning
Baron Saturday
Loneliest Person
Deflecting Grey

#120 | Simon & Garfunkel — Bookends

Concept album that explores life from childhood to old age. Recorded over two years, with side two largely consisting of unused material for The Graduate soundtrack, including Mrs. Robinson. Both albums propelled Simon & Garfunkel to become the biggest rock duo in the world.

Perfectionism included over 50 studio hours recording Punky’s Dilemma, re-recording vocals note by note, and working all night with viola musicians to find a “random sound.” Prior to release played the album at Monterey Pop Festival, which signaled the beginning of West Coast “Summer of Love.” Released 24 hours prior to the assassination of MLK.

In baseline in Save the Life of My Child uses a Moog synthesizer played by Robert Moog himself, and audio from of the band’s first hit (The Sound of Silence) softly plays near the end. Fakin’ It was listed with a run time of 2:74 (actual 3:14) to get past radio station’s “under 3 minutes” rules. The song America inspired spray-painted lyrics in Michigan — and was used in a TV commercial for Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

The original release included a poster as an excuse to raise the price ($43 today). Cover photo shot by Richard Avedon, who can be seen in Simon’s irises! So many advance orders Columbia applied for award certification before any copies left the warehouse! Mrs. Robinson became the first rock and roll song to win the Grammy Record of the Year.

America
Fakin’ It
Mrs. Robinson
A Hazy Shade of Winter

#121 | Small Faces — Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake

The final studio album with the original band. The title and packaging was a parody of Ogden’s Nut-brown Flake, a brand of tinned loose tobacco, and the album was originally released in a giant novelty tobacco tin with poster — but replaced because it was costly and tended to roll off shelves! Later CD releases brought back the tin. Showcasing a variety of musical styles including proto-heavy rock, psychedelic ballads, cockney, and soul.

Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake is an instrumental remake of the band’s earlier single I’ve Got Mine. Afterglow was renamed Afterglow of Your Love on subsequent releases. The original vinyl includes a segue between the end of Afterglow and the beginning of Long Agos And Worlds Apart. On many reissues the cover design still spells the title as Ogdens’ , but the label and sleeve copy gives it as Ogden’s. Title track featured in the debut trailer for Grand Theft Auto V and can be heard in-game.

Side two of the LP is an original fairy tale about a boy called Happiness Stan on his quest to find the “missing” half of the moon and finds the meaning of life. Conceived during a boating weekend on the Thames after a disastrous (grievous authorities, unkindly press, overzealous police, hostile airline crews) tour of New Zealand and Australia. Narration by Stanley Unwin in his unique, nonsensical private language of “Unwinese.” Spike Milligan was the original narrator choice, but wanted too much money. Happiness Stan is named after the producer’s older brother, not Stanely Unwin.

Due to album complexities, never performed live in entirety. The Happiness Stan side was performed as a whole only once on BBC Colour Me Pop — with the band mimed the performance. The label issued an advertisement that parodied the Lord’s Prayer to promote the album, causing an uproar in the British press:

Small Faces
Which were in the studios
Hallowed by thy name
Thy music come
Thy songs be sung
On this album as they came from your heads
We give you this day our daily bread
Give us thy album in a round cover as we give thee 37/9d
Lead us into the record stores
And deliver us Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake
For nice is the music
The sleeve and the story
For ever and ever, Immediate

Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake
Afterglow
Song of a Baker
Lazy Sunday
Happiness Stan
Rollin’ Over
The Journey

#122 | The Band — Music From Big Pink

A blend of country, rock, folk, classical, R&B, and soul partly composed in “Big Pink” — a shared house in New York, where they recorded The Basement Tapes (widely bootlegged as Great White Wonder) with Bob Dylan. Dylan offered to sing on the album, but instead painted the cover.

The Weight
Long Black Viel
Lonesome Suzie
The Wheel’s On Fire
I Shall Be Released

#123 | Jeff Beck — Truth

Debut album introducing Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood to a larger audience. Three “originals” (reworking of prior blues songs) were credited to “Jeffrey Rod,” a pseudonym for Beck and Stewart.

Ol’ Man River
Greensleeves
Blues De Luxe

# 124 | Caetano Veloso

Debut album and one of the first Tropicália efforts. Not to be confused with his self-titled album the following year (referred to as the “White Album”). Caetano called the album “amateurish and confused” and did not approve of the larger artistic movement, Tropicalismo, deriving from the song Tropicália. In Portuguese.

#125 | Scott Walker — Scott 2

Mixture of covers, interpretations, film songs and original compositions. Features Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” recording technique. Jackie was banned by the BBC for sexual and drug references. Walker described the album as the “work of a lazy, self-indulgent man. Now the nonsense must stop, and the serious business must begin!”

Jackie
Best Of Both Worlds
Next
Plastic Palace People

#126 | The Zombies — Odessey & Oracle

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios and used the same Studer four track machine from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. A tight budget meant the band rigorously rehearsed beforehand leading to no outtakes or unused songs during the sessions. Band members paid for the stereo mix out of their own pockets. The album sleeve contains a short text written by keyboardist Argent quoting The Tempest. The misspelling of “odyssey” in the title was the result of a designer mistake, with the band attempting to cover it up by claiming the misspelling was intentional!

After a lukewarm release the band split up, never performing the songs live. Time of the Season later became a surprise hit and the album was re-released, and “fake” Zombies emerged to cash in on public demand! The original band reformed several times starting in 1997. In 2008, for the 40th anniversary performed the album in entirety for three shows — including tracking down a 1896 organ to recreate the sounds as authentically as possible. Released on DVD as Odessey and Oracle (Revisited).

Care of Cell 44
I Want Her She Wants Me
This Will Be Our Year
Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914)
Friends of Mine
Time of the Season

#127 | Van Morrison — Astral Weeks

Recorded with very little direction from Morrison, who instructed the musicians to “play whatever [they] felt like playing.” One two tracks recorded didn’t make it — and the flautist has never been identified. Morrison was upset with added strings to the recording saying “They ruined it. They added strings. I didn’t want the strings. And they sent it to me, it was all changed. That’s not ‘Astral Weeks’.”

The title was influenced by astral projection drawings, and the cover taken by Joel Brodsky, best known for his “Young Lions” photoshoot with Jim Morrison. The squared circle portrays “the mystic symbol of the union of opposites; the sacred marriage of heaven and earth.”

In 2008, forty years after the album’s release, performed live for the first time at two Hollywood Bowl concerts — released as Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl. Morrison then performed the album throughout 2009. Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Martin Scorsese (the first fifteen minutes of Taxi Driver) have cited the album as an influence.

Astral Weeks
Beside You
Cyprus Avenue
Madame George
Slim Slow Slider

#128 | The Byrds — Sweetheart Of The Rodeo

After originally conceived as a musical history of 20th century American popular music, new band member Gram Parsons guided the album to become the first major country rock album. The internal power struggle culminated with Roger McGuinn dubbing over (“erased it and did the vocals himself and fucked it up”) Parson’s lead vocals in The Christian Life, You Don’t Miss Your Water and One Hundred Years from Now; the original vocals weren’t completely erased and can be faintly heard!; original recordings with Parson’s vocals were released in 1990. Included Bob Dylan covers You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere and Nothing Was Delivered from his then-unreleased Basement Tapes sessions.

Met with hostility (heckled at a live performance and mocked as being “mediocre” by legendary DJ Ralph Emery, which led to the future song Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man) from the ultra-conservative Nashville country music establishment who viewed it as an attempt at subversion. Parsons refused to tour South Africa in protest over the apartheid, but other band members believed he wanted to stay in England to hang out with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. By the album release Parsons had been an ex-member for eight weeks.

Cover art adapted from a 1932 poster The American Cowboy Rodeo by Uruguyan artist Jo Mora. In 2018, two original members reunited for a US tour playing the album live to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

You Got A Reputation

#129 | The Beatles

Known as the White Album, the only Beatles double album (30 songs) and last last to be mixed separately for stereo and mono. Most songs written during a meditation course in India — where Ringo left after two weeks because he couldn’t stand the food.

During recording the atmosphere was tense due to creative differences between McCartney and Lennon — and Yoko Ono. Instead of tightly rehearsing a backing track, as had happened in previous sessions, the group simply recorded everything and add overdubs to the best take. Half the tracks feature all four band members and sometimes McCartney and Lennon would record simultaneously in different studios using different engineers. Both producer and engineer left, as did Ringo who abruptly left (McCartney played drums on Dear Prudence, all three Beatles played drums on Back in the U.S.S.R.). Hey Jude and Dear Prudence were recorded at Trident because they had an 8-track console installed. The band held their first and only 24-hour session at Abbey Road during the final mixing and sequencing for the album, with no gap between tracks.

Back in the U.S.S.R. is a parody of Back in the U.S.A. and was a widely bootlegged underground hit in the Soviet Union, where the Beatles were banned. Dear Prudence is about Mia Farrow’s sister. Glass Onion mocked hidden messages by referencing previous songs. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da was a key factor to the band breaking up with Lennon calling it “granny music shit.” The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill was inspired by a hunter at the meditation retreat and features a line sung by Yoko Ono. While My Guitar Gently Weeps guitar is played by Eric Clapton, who gave Harrison the guitar which he named “Lucy.”

Happiness Is a Warm Gun ran 85 takes and ended up as the best halves edited together. Martha My Dear, Blackbird and Mother Nature’s Son are performed solo by McCartney. I’m So Tired was part of a conspiracy theory that claimed when the track was reversed “Paul is dead” could be heard. Don’t Pass Me By is Starr’s first solo composition. Julia is the only song where Lennon performs solo, and is about his mother. Yer Blues was edited on the four-track tape directly resulting in an abrupt cut-off at 3:17 into the start of another take. Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey evolved from a jam session and was sped up. Sexy Sadie is what Lennon called guru Maharishi.

Helter Skelter is a minute longer in the stereo version and end with Starr famously shouting “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!” — which led mass murderer Charles Manson to believe the album had coded messages referring to the apocalypse! Long, Long, Long references cords from a Bob Dylan song and took an overnight session to complete the backing track. Revolution 9 evolved from overdubs of Revolution 1 with McCartney out of the country and Yoko Ono heavily involved. Good Night was written by Lennon for his son. Harrison’s song Not Guilty was left off the album after 102 takes!

Originally titled A Doll’s House, a John Byrne painting considered for the cover was later used for The Beatle’s Ballads. Pop artist Richard Hamilton designed the cover in collaboration with McCartney. Later pressings had the title in grey printed (rather than embossed) letters. Each copy featured a unique serial number to create “the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies.” In 2008, serial number 0000005 sold for £19,201. In 2015, Ringo Starr’s personal copy number 0000001 sold for a world record $790,000 at auction.

In 1978, reissued on limited edition white vinyl. In 1981, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) issued a unique half-speed master variation on virgin vinyl. In 2009, a ten-minute bootleg of Revolution (Take 20) was released that was later edited to become both Revolution 1 and 9. In 2013, a SoHo gallery presented We Buy White Albums — a record store with nothing but original pressings of the LP and recording in which the sounds of one hundred copies of side one of the LP were overlaid. In 2018, 50 previously unreleased recordings and Esher demos recorded at Harrison’s house were released. In 2004, Danger Mouse released a mashup between this and Jay-Z’s The Black Album called The Grey Album.

Back in the U.S.S.R.
Dear Prudence
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Blackbird
Julia
Yer Blues
Helter Skelter
Revolution 1
Cry Baby Cry
Revolution 9
Hey Jude [single]

1969

#130 | The Mothers Of Invention — We’re Only In It For The Money

An album satirizing politics, hippie subculture, and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (which came out during recording) — a target of Zappa’s objections to the corporatization of youth culture. It was conceived as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which produced three other albums and described by Zappa as “all one album.” The heavily reëdited Lumpy Gravy album was produced simultaneously and is the first part of a conceptual continuity concluded with Zappa’s final album Civilization Phaze III.

Verve remove a verse from the song Mother People, which Zappa reversed and included in Hot Poop — also removed in subsequent releases. A Lenny Bruce reference in Harry, You’re A Beast and Velvet Underground reference in Concentration Moon were both censored. For some pressings of the album, MGM censored several tracks without Zappa’s knowledge. Zappa later declined to accept an award for the album stating “I prefer that the award be presented to the guy who modified this record, because what you’re hearing is more reflective of his work than mine.” In 1984, Zappa prepared remixed (including reinstating censored tracks) the album for its CD reissue and the vinyl box set The Old Masters I.

The album featured abbreviated songs interrupted by segments of dialogue and unrelated music. The “piano people” (voices resonating piano strings) experiment involved improvised dialog by Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and Tim Buckley.

The cover parody of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band cost $4,000 ($30,000 today) and was “a direct negative.” Jimi Hendrix took part in the shoot, standing with a wax sculpture of Sonny Liston that appeared on the Beatles cover. Zappa phoned Paul McCartney seeking permission but Capitol objected delaying the album by five months — an ultimately swapping it with the interior cover out of fear of litigation.

Flower Punk
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

#131 | Neil Young — Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Cinnamon Girl, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Down by the River, and Cowgirl in the Sand were all written in a single day while Young had a fever. Young’s lead vocal track on the title track (on the original album) was actually a temporary scratch vocal that he decided to keep.

Down by the River
Losing End
Cowgirl in the Sand

#132 | Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band — Trout Mask Replica

Experimental music with a reputation as one of the most challenging recordings in the 20th century. It has been said the album requires several listens to “get it,” concluding it still sounded “awful” after six listens. The Room of albums.

Frank Zappa started his own record label and offered high school friend, Don Van Vliet (who Zappa named Captain Beefheart), the opportunity to record an album with complete artistic freedom. The band lived communally in a small rented house in LA for eight months rehearsing fourteen hours a day! Beefheart enforced a cult-like atmosphere putting band members “in the barrel” — where they were verbally and physically berated, sometimes for days, until submission. With no money, food was scarce and members were arrested for shoplifting food.

Beefheart used a piano, an instrument he had never played before, as his main compositional tool. Once completed, each song was played in exactly the same way every time. The Magic Band recorded all instrumental tracks in a single six-hour recording session, while Beefheart’s vocal and horn tracks were laid down over the next few days. Instead of singing with headphones he used sound leakage through the studio window and as a result, vocals are only vaguely in sync. Hair Pie: Bake 1 was recorded at the LA house; The Dust Blows Forward ‘n The Dust Blows Back, Orange Claw Hammer, and China Pig (a spontaneous improvisation) were recorded on a cassette recorder at the house.

Beefheart lied that all of the songs on the album were written in a single eight-hour session, the band didn’t take drugs, that he taught some of the band members how to play, and took complete credit for composition and arranging — a claim that band members strongly disputed.

Note: Not on Spotify, Youtube playlist.

#133 | Creedence Clearwater Revival — Bayou Country

“We’re on the tiniest record label in the world, there’s no money behind us, we don’t have a manager, there’s no publicist. We basically had none of the usual star-making machinery, so I said to myself I’m just going to have to do it with the music.” — John Fogerty

Fogerty would write lyrics staring at a blank wall for hours on end. Some of the other band members dispute Fogerty was the sole creative force.

Part of Proud was written two days after Fogerty was discharged from the National Guard and opens based on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony; the song was acclaimed almost immediately, covered by Solomon Burke and Tina Turner, while Bob Dylan’s favorite song that year. The cover of Good Golly Miss Molly changes the lyric “Would you pardon me a kissin’ and a ting-a-ling-a-ling?” Keep On Chooglin’ contains sexual innuendo that was a concert show-stopper.

Born On the Bayou
Penthouse Pauper
Proud Mary
Keep On Chooglin’

134 | Crosby, Stills & Nash

Debut album establishing an aesthetic for a number of bands (Eagles, Fleetwood Mack) that came to define the “California sound” of the 1970s. Performed songs from the album at Woodstock. Performed Long Time Gone with Tom Jones (sharing vocals) on his TV show. Wooden Ships featured Paul Kantner from Jefferson Airplane.

The cover was taken in front of an abandoned house in West Hollywood prior to naming and shows the band in reverse order. To prevent confusion after naming they went back to the house a day or so later to re-shoot the cover in the correct order, but the house had been demolished. Session drummer Dallas Taylor can be seen looking through the window of the door on the rear of the sleeve.

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Marrakesh Express
Wooden Ships
Helplessly Hoping
Long Time Gone

#135 — Blood, Sweat And Tears

Produced by James Guercio, who simultaneously worked on the band Chicago. One of the first albums to use 16-track recorders. An additional song Children of the Wind was recorded but was not included.

Smiling Phases
And When I Die
Spinning Wheel
You’ve Made Me So Very Happy
Blues, Pt. 2

#136 | The Flying Burrito Bros — The Gilded Palace Of Sin

Alt-country music fusing traditional sources like folk and country with gospel, soul, and psychedelic rock. Members include Gram Parsons, who fell out with the Byrds after making Sweetheart of the Rodeo then refusing to tour with them in South Africa — and Chris Hillman, who left the Byrds two months later. Most songs written at a house in the San Fernando Valley dubbed “Burrito Manor.”

“Sneaky” Pete Kleinow played an unorthodox eight-string Fender cable pull steel tuned to B6 instead of the more common C6, utilized a fuzzbox, and rotating Hammond Leslie amplifier to add a psychedelic touch. Cover features the band in custom sequin suits by Nudie Cohn with Parson’s featuring a naked woman (rendered as an old-school sailor’s tattoo on each lapel) and marijuana leaves on the front — the suit now hangs in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Songs covered by Elvis Costello and Dinosaur Jr.

Do Right Woman

#137 | Johnny Cash — Johnny Cash At San Quentin

Second live prison album and first Cash album without lead guitarist Luther Perkins, who died months earlier. Contains only nine songs; one of which (San Quentin) is performed twice (planned but appears as a spontaneous encore) while another was written by Bob Dylan. Won the Country Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for A Boy Named Sue, which was performed spontaneously using a lyric sheet on stage while the band improvised the backing!

Performed but not included were the songs Jackson and Orange Blossom Special — both of which are included in the filmed concert aired on TV and released in 2000; the iconic photo of Cash giving the middle finger was taken during the performance when the film crew ignored his request to clear the stage. Starkville City Jail and Blistered (later reissue) are unintentionally slowed down half a step. Cover photo considered an iconic Cash image.

I Walk The Line
San Quentin
A Boy Named Sue

#138 | Creedence Clearwater Revival — Green River

Second of three albums they released that year — with Fogerty producing; arranging and writing all songs; playing lead guitar; and singing duties! The band did not take drugs or alcohol to focus on the music. Bad Moon Rising was inspired by a scene in the 1941 film The Devil and Daniel Webster. Lodi was named after a town Fogerty never visited, but had “the coolest sounding name.”

Bad Moon Rising
Green River
Tombstone Shadow
The Night Time Is the Right Time

#139 | The Beatles — Abbey Road

The last Beatles recorded album (Let It Be was released after, but recorded before) made on the condition from producer George Martin the band adhere to prior discipline. Yoko Ono clashed with other members and halfway through was involved in a car accident that required bed rest — so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could still observe! The closing track The End marked the final occasion that all four members recorded together, with Lennon privately leaving the group six days before the album’s release (declared publicly the following April). The first album from the 1960s to sell over five million copies (over 31 million worldwide), the best-selling vinyl of 2011, and re-entered the UK charts in 2019 re-reaching number one!

Prominent use of a Moog synthesizer, Leslie speaker and tom-tom drums; only Beatles album recorded exclusively through a solid-state transistor mixing desk and not released in mono. Named after the street of EMI Studios in London where the band recorded; later the studio was renamed Abbey Road in honor of the album. Assistant engineer Alan Parsons later went on to engineer The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many Alan Parsons Project albums. Assistant John Kurlander went on to score the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Lennon wanted his songs on one side and McCartney’s on the other, and ended in a compromise with one side of unrelated songs and the other thematic. Lennon ultimately disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity. The sessions produced the non-album single The Ballad of John and Yoko backed with Old Brown Shoe. During the sessions McCartney also recorded Come and Get It playing all the instruments, which appeared on Anthology 3. The original piano-led backing to Something and You Never Give Me Your Money have appeared on bootlegs. Her Majesty appears as a hidden track at the end after 14 seconds of silence.

The cover is the only original UK release to show neither the band or title, and features the iconic photograph of the band crossing the road. Taken in ten minutes (6 photos) on a step-ladder while a policeman held up traffic. McCartney provided the idea and selected the photo; he is also barefoot, holding a cigarette, and out-of-step with the others. A “Paul is dead” conspiracy theory (that added great publicity) claimed the photo was a funeral procession — Lennon (white) the religious figure, Starr (black) the undertaker, McCartney (barefoot) the corpse, and Harrison (denim) the gravedigger. After release, the number plate on the VW Beetle was repeatedly stolen. Parodied on Paul Is Live (McCartney) and The Abbey Road E.P. (Red Hot Chili Peppers), the later featuring the band almost naked! In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed out (without permission) the cigarette. Since 2011, a webcam has live-streamed the crossing.

A month after release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road. In 1969, Booker T. & the M.G.’s recorded McLemore Avenue (location of Stax Records) that covered Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo. In 2011, a jam band including former Grateful Dead members toured and played the entire album. In 2019, the Beatles Youtube channel premiered a music video for Here Comes the Sun to celebrate the album’s 50th anniversary.

Come Together
Something
Oh! Darling
I Want You
Here Comes The Sun
Because
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The Ballad of John and Yoko [single]

#140 | The Who — Tommy

Rock opera mostly composed by guitarist Pete Townshend (with arrangements by the entire band) that tells the story of Tommy Walker based on the spiritual teachings of Meher Baba. Originally titled Deaf, Dumb and Blind Boy, Amazing Journey, Journey into Space, The Brain Opera and Omnibus before settling on Tommy because it was a common British name, and nickname for soldiers in World War I.

The confusing plot is about a British army captain who goes missing, returns, kills his wife’s new lover, the mother brainwashes the son (Tommy) handicapping (deaf, dumb and blind) him, a quack claims they can cure him, he is neglected and tortured (molested), is given LSD, becomes an expert pinball player, visits a doctor, stares at a mirror, recovers his senses, starts a religious movement, hosts a holiday camp, and has his teachings rejected.

Recorded with the intention of bering performed in concert (unlike the Beatles and Beach Boys). Keith Moon used a roadie’s drum kit because he was refused equipment due to continual abuse. After long delays the US record company grew so impatient they released a compilation album Magic Bus: The Who on Tour, which despite its name did not contain any live tracks. Kit Lambert wrote a script, Tommy (1914–1984) which he professionally printed and gave to the band to help them focus the storyline. Townshend wrote Pinball Wizard so that Nik Cohn, a pinball fan, would give the album a favorable review in the New York Times!

The cover depicts “a kind of breaking out of a certain restricted plane into freedom” and was done by a fellow Meher Baba follower. The record label insisted pictures of the band be included on the cover; these removed in later re-issues. Track names and timings vary across editions; See Me, Feel Me is the second half of We’re Not Gonna Take It.

The Who promoted the album’s release with an extensive tour lasting through 1970 — including Woodstock (ran late, Abbie Hoffman stormed the stage in protest and was kicked offstage by Townshend, See Me, Feel Me as the sun rose), Isle of Wight (600,000 people, one of the largest PAs), Metropolitan Opera House. Subsequently the album developed into other media including a ballet, Seattle Opera production in 1971 (starring Bette Midler), an orchestral version by Lou Reizner in 1972 (Townshend, Steve Winwood, Rod Stewart, Ringo Starr, Peter Sellers), Australian theatre production in 1973 (Keith Moon, Graham Bell, Daryl Braithwaite, Billy Thorpe, Ian Meldrum), film in 1975 (Daltrey, Elton John, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Jack Nicholson), and Broadway musical in 1992.

Several live recordings have been released (except the full Woodstock show). The film soundtrack features six new songs, modified tracklist, and orchestral arrangements with extensive use of synthesizer. A 1989 reunion tour featured Phil Collins, Patti LaBelle, Steve Winwood, Elton John and Billy Idol. In 2015, a bluegrass cover by the Hillbenders. The original album has sold 20 million copies.

1921
Sparks
Christmas
Underture
Pinball Wizard
Tommy Can You Hear Me?
Sally Simpson

#141 | Miles Davis — In A Silent Way

Consisting of two tracks (each with three distinct parts) assembled from a three-hour session and regarded as Davis’ first fusion (electric) recording. Keyboardist disagreed with Davis’ arrangement and claimed he was responsible for the bass line to It’s About That Time.

#142 | Bee Gees — Odessa

An ambitious concept album about the loss of a fictional ship in 1899 is the band’s only double album of original music, and final album with the original members. Led to Robin Gibb temporarily leaving the group. Album was not well received.

Originally titles include An American Opera and Masterpeace. The original opulent red cover with gold lettering was discontinued due to high costs and allergic reactions by assembly workers. No pictures or names of the group.

Edison
Suddenly
Sound Of Love
Seven Seas Symphony
I Laugh In Your Face
The British Opera

#143 | The Pentangle — Basket Of Light

The album’s liner notes state that Springtime Promises was written “after a ride on a number 74 bus from Gloucester Road to Greencroft Gardens on an early spring day.”

Springtime Promises
Sally Go Round the Roses
I Saw an Angel

#144 | The Rolling Stones — Let It Bleed

Brian Jones was fired in the midst of recording for heavy drug use and died within a month (drowning); he appears on two tracks (You Got the Silver and Midnight Rambler) and was replaced by Mick Taylor. Keith Richards was the sole guitarist during most of the recording sessions; and sang his first solo lead on You Got The Silver. Personally felt the album has a “muted” sound.

The album features slide guitar, fiddle, mandolin, organ, French horn, autoharp and renowned saxophonist Bobby Keys on Live with Me. For You Can’t Always Get What You Want, backing vocals were provided by the London Bach Choir, who then distanced themselves due to “drug ambience” — and drums were done by producer Jimmy Miller after the band’s drummer has problem with the rhythm!

The cover — inspired by the working title Automatic Changer — is a surreal sculpture designed by Robert Brownjohn containing a film canister, clock dial, pizza, motorcycle tyre and cake (prepared by Delia Smith). M.C. Escher was asked to design the cover, but declined. Track listing includes the typo Gimmie [sic] Shelter and does not follow the album on purpose purely for aesthetic reasons! In 2010, cover included in the “Classic Album Cover” postage stamps.

Gimme Shelter
Country Honk
Let It Bleed
Midnight Rambler
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Honky Tonk Women [single]

#145 | Nick Drake — Five Leaves Left

Recorded without overdubbing — using the studio’s environment placement to create interesting sounds. Accompanied by Richard Thompson from Fairport Convention and Danny Thompson of Pentangle. Title reference to Rizla cigarette papers, which contained a note near the end saying “Only five leaves left.”

River Man
Day Is Gone
Man In A Shed

#146 | Dusty Springfield — Dusty In Memphis

Producer Jerry Wexler claimed that out of all the songs that were initially recorded for the album “she approved exactly zero.” During recording Springfield convinced Atlantic Records to sign Led Zeppelin to the biggest ($200,000) deal for a new band without having seen them!

Son of a Preacher Man
I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore
The Windmills of Your Mind

#147 | Elvis Presley — From Elvis In Memphis

Presley’s return to non-soundtrack albums after his film contract with Paramount Pictures. Went against RCA Studio rules to record the album at American Sound so that he could be backed by “The Memphis Boys.”

Presley arrived at the studio for the first recording nursing a cold, but worked until 5am producing two album tracks and several other songs. Presley’s entourage in the studio was so large it had to be reduced. In the Ghetto took 23 takes; Only the Strong Survive 29 takes. Kentucky Rain took most of a session. Wearin’ That Loved On Look features an electric-bass lead for the first time in a Presley recording. In the Ghetto featured controversial lyrics and Presley didn’t plan to record the song but was convinced by friends.

Cover a still from an NBC Elvis special. To promote the album Elvis performed for four weeks in Vegas — attracting a record 100,000 people and earning him over $400,000. Afterwards Elvis toured the US for the first time in 13 years.

Power of My Love
In The Ghetto
Suspicious Minds
Kentucky Rain

#148 | The Velvet Underground

First record with Doug Yule, who replaced John Cale, and containing mostly straightforward songs compared with prior recordings. Very little Warhol influence with the band producing the album themselves.

Candy Says about Warhol superstar Candy Darling. Cover photo taken at Warhol’s Factory. Second stereo mix (using a different version of Some Kinda Love) by Lou Reed dubbed the “Closet Mix” because it sounds like it was recorded in a closet!

What Goes On
Pale Blue Eyes
Jesus
The Murder Mystery
After Hours

#149 | Quicksilver Messenger Service — Happy Trails

Recorded from two performances at the Fillmore (East and West). Instruments used include a tympani, tam-tam, whip, tubular bells, bar chimes, triangle/bell, and güiro.

The first side of the album consists entirely of a (27 minute) live performance of Bo Diddley’s song Who Do You Love? titled the Who Do You Love Suite, with individually titled “movements.” Mona is also a Bo Diddley song. Calvary was originally called the F-Sharp Thing and was described as “acid-flamenco.” Happy Trails is the theme from Roy Roger’s western TV show.

Mona

#150 | Led Zeppelin

Debut album recorded before the band had a contract, took 36 hours, self-produced by Jimmy Page, and paid for by Page and Peter Grant for a total cost £1,782 (equivalent to £30,000 today) to complete. As a member of the recently disbanded Yardbirds (originally replacing Eric Clapton), Jimmy Page was contractually obliged to tour Scandinavia so recruited Robert Plant and performed existing material plus new songs. Renamed the band following the tour.

Only one single due to longer tracks. Page played a painted Fender Telecaster, which was a gift from Jeff Beck. Page developed the idea of placing an additional microphone as far as 20 feet away and recording the balance between the two to create a lagging “ambient sound.” Because of live recording some vocals bleed into music tracks, which Plant described as “sounding intentional.” You Shook Me features “reverse echo” where the echo is heard before the main sound. Baby Come On Home and Sugar Mama were left off the album and released in 2015 on Coda.

The cover is a Rapidograph rendering of the famous 1937 photo and references the band name, which came about from the idea that forming a group “ would probably go over like a lead balloon…a lead zeppelin!” The original design was used as a logo on the back cover. The original pressing featured the Atlantic logo in turquoise and is a collector’s item. One of the first stereo-only albums. During a 1970 Copenhagen show billed as “the Nobs” as a result of a legal threat from aircraft-inventor-relative Eva von Zeppelin!

(entire album)