Top Albums circa 1973

[SunBurntOrange]

Recently, there were a lot of threads about the top ten or twenty favorite songs or albums of a particular genre or era or other given subject. Mostly folks listing their favorites over the years. Well, I was watching a DVD earlier about the making of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John. Was part of a series of DVD’s about the greatest albums of all time. I guess this was according to whoever produced the DVD’s. Well anybody who has known me for any measurable amount of time knows that Elton John has been one of my favorites since I was a little kid. Maybe my favorite of all time. Nothing beats a great piano player and I have been fortunate to have been able to see the some of the best of them. Anyway, the point I am getting to that coincides with the earlier threads is this. At one point during the show, they list the top twenty albums of that time during the eight weeks that “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” was at the top of the charts. This is a list that was current in the USA at the time as opposed to Britain or other European countries. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting contrast to some of the earlier posts and Elton was certainly in some very good company at the time.

1. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ~ Elton John
2. Goats Head Soup ~ Rolling Stones
3. Brothers and Sisters ~ The Allman Brothers
4. Quadrophenia ~ The Who
5. Los Cochinos ~ Cheech and Chong
6. The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get ~ Joe Walsh
7. Angel Clare ~ Art Garfunkel
8. Don't Mess Around With Jim ~ Jim Croce
9 . Life and Times ~ JIm Croce
10. Lets Get It On ~ Marvin Gaye
11. The Joker ~ Steve Miller
12. Innervisions ~ Stevie Wonder
13. 3+3 ~ The Isley Brothers
14. Jonathan Livingston Seagull ~ Neil Diamond
15. Ringo ~ Ringo Starr
16. We're An American Band ~ Grand Funk
17. Deliver The World ~ War
18. Killing Me Softly ~ Roberta Flack
19. American Grafitti ~ Soundtrack
20. Dark Side of the Moon ~ Pink Floyd

 

[MaduroUTMB]

No Houses of the Holy? Really?

 

[CottonEyedHorn]

always nice to know what was permeating the airwaves the year I was born

 

[YoLaDu]

1973, in general, was a pretty terrible year in music, but these are a few that came to mind:The Stooges -Raw Power (hands down, best album of 1973. It just kicks ***, no other way to put it)

Can - Future Days (i think this is Can's best, but it is a pretty challenging record to listen to. It's so 'out there' it's kind of impossible to date, it doesn't sound like 1973 [or 1978 or 1985 or 1993 or 2004 for that matter]

Faust - IV (their swan song and most accessible, despite tuneful bliss interrupted abruptly by feedback and screaming)

Lou Reed - Berlin (a brutal, yet gloriously depressing album)


Damn, not a lot of optimism in 1973.

 

[nych 1]

I couldn't find the Billboard Top albums for the month I was born in 1971, but below are the top selling albums from 1971. Looking at the list confirms that (1) there were a lot of really good artists/bands during this era (I count at least 12 all-time classic album just in the top 40 and quite a few more in the top 100 list); and (2) popular, artistically-challenged music isn't reserved just for today's music (Partridge Family outsells Sticky Fingers, for example).
The Link

Billboard Chart for 1971
Various Artists Jesus Christ Superstar
2 Carole King Tapestry
3 Carpenters Close To You
4 Janis Joplin Pearl
5 Santana Abraxas
6 Partridge Family The Partridge Family Album
7 James Taylor Sweet Baby James
8 Cat Stevens Tea For The Tillerman
9 Sly & the Family Stone Greatest Hits
10 Chicago Chicago III
11 Roberta Flack Chapter Two
12 Three Dog Night Naturally
13 Black Sabbath Paranoid
14 Three Dog Night Golden Bisquits
15 Chicago Transit Authority Chicago Transit Authority
16 Grand Funk Railroad Live Album
17 Isaac Hayes To Be Continued
18 George Harrison All Things Must Pass
19 Chicago Chicago II
20 Neil Young After The Gold Rush
21 RoIling Stones Sticky Fingers
22 Partridge Family Up To Date
23 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 4-Way Street
24 Elton John Tumbleweed Connection
25 Emerson, Lake & Palmer Emerson, Lake And Palmer
26 Soundtrack Love Story
27 James Taylor Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon
28 Creedence Clearwater Revival Pendulum
29 Jimi Hendrix The Cry Of Love
30 Elton John Elton John
31 Guess Who The Best Of The Guess Who
32 Osmonds Osmonds
33 Jethro Tull Aqualung
34 Rod Stewart Every Picture Tells A Story
35 Creedence Clearwater Revival Cosmos Factory
36 Temptations The Temptations’ Greatest Hits
37 Grand Funk Railroad Survival
38 Paul & Linda McCartney Ram
39 Carpenters The Carpenters
40 John Denver Poems, Prayers, And Promises

 

[nych 1]

I think there were quite a few good albums that were released in 1973 (excluding the ones already listed for 73). It was the year that reggae started to become popular in the U.S. and saw the release of four of the best reggae albums of all-time.

Bob Marley- Catch a Fire
Bob Marley- Burnin
Jimmy Cliff- The Harder They Come
Toots & The Maytals- Funky Kingston

It was also a good year for soul/r&b:
Stevie Wonder- Innervisions
Marvin Gaye- Let's Get It On
Al Green- Call Me
Isley Brothers- 3 + 3
Sly and the Family Stone- Fresh

A great year if you like prog rock/ambitious/spacy albums:

Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon
The Who- Quadrophenia
Steely Dan- Countdown to Ecstasy
Tom Waits- Closing Time
Herbie Hancock- Head Hunters
King Crimson- Larks' Tongues in Aspic
Brian Eno- Here Come the Warm Jets
Hawkwind- Space Ritual

Not the best year for the singer-songerwriter fans (Dylan, Young sat it out) but the introduction of Bruce to the mainstream:

Bruce Springsteen- The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle
Bruce Springsteen- Greetings From Asbury Park
Gram Parsons- GP
Jackson Browne- For Everyman

Other classic albums:

Led Zeppelin- Houses of the Holy
Elton John- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Lynyrd Skynyrd- Pronounced leh-nerd-skin-nerd
David Bowie- Aladdin Sane
ZZ Top- Tres Hombres
Mott the Hoople- Mott

 

[Mesohorny]

Re 1971 Billboard list:

1 Various Artists Jesus Christ Superstar
6 Partridge Family The Partridge Family Album
22 Partridge Family Up To Date
26 Soundtrack Love Story
32 Osmonds Osmonds

Apparently, too many people weren't smoking the good stuff back in the day...

 

[YoLaDu]

good catch on Marley with Catch A Fire.

Here Come The Warm Jets was released in '74. Great album though.

 

[Texanne]

I thought my favorite album of all time could be added to this list, but it turns out it was released in 1971. Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, The Moody Blues.

All time.

 

[nych 1]

Good catch on Here Comes the Warm Jets (released January 1974).

Do you prefer the Iggy remix or the Bowie mix of Raw Power? The Iggy mix brings the aggression, but I am generally not a fan of the "loudness" war. My buddy has the out of print Bowie version on cd (now available in the 2 cd legacy edition); definitely a different listen (a little spookier). I honestly need to listen to the Bowie version more to make an informed judgment.

 

[the actor]

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[l00p]

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[buckhorn]

Lou Reed's Transformer came out in 12/72.

New York Dolls S/T

I always loved Billy Cobham's Spectrum LP. A classic of fusion that I grew up listening to and never left behind.

The original mix of Raw Power is superior. That is the record.

Can is great. Ege Bamyasi and Tago Mago are my personal favs.

I don't know if you guys are into it or not, but there is a Finnish label called Ektro that puts out alot of great Kraut Rock influenced stuff. It is owned, I believe, by the guys in the label's flagship outfit, Circle. That band is unsinkably great and they have many, many releases worth checking out (Prospekt, Sunrise, Andexelt). Their less varied spin off, Pharaoh Overlord, is also pretty damned great.

 

[beaVo]

circa 1973... there's "dark side of the moon"... then there's everything else

 

[accuratehorn]

re 1971 Billboard List

Pearl Janis Joplin
Abraxis Santana
After the Gold Rush Neil Young
The Cry of Love Jimi Hendrix
Sticky Fingers The Rolling Stones

A lot of people were smoking the "good stuff."

 

[BigboyDan]

1973 was also a great year for movies with really good soundtracks:

The Sting
American Graffiti
Paper Moon
The Way We Were
Badlands
Walking Tall
Bang the Drum Slowly
Paper Chase
Cleopatra Jones
Day of the Jackel
Enter the Dragon
The Getaway
The Exorcist
High Plains Drifter
Serpico
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
The Last Detail
Jesus Christ Superstar
Save the Tiger
Live and Let Die
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
The Long Goodbye
Mean Streets
Wicker Man
Pappion
Westworld