Acclaimed Music Top 25 Albums from 1968 poll

holy fucking shit, i thought 1967 was hard.

just look at that Top 15, i could easily vote for any of the ones i know.

or i should say Top 16.

Beggars Banquet and The White Album are a coin-toss for me. The highlights--"Prodigal Son" and "Long Long Long," "No Expectations" and "Martha My Dear," etc.--are a wash, both have filler and overplayed songs. (Sick of "Sympathy for the Devil"--but not "Street Fighting Man.")

1 14 The Beatles - The Beatles ("White Album")
3 22 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
9 184 The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
20 681 Os Mutantes - Os Mutantes
23 749 Laura Nyro - Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
24 842 The United States of America - The United States of America
*27 923 Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle

van morrison over van dyke parks, velvets, stones, kinks, dr john

there are two albums here that deeply and permanently changed how i hear and think about music. one, sweetheart of the rodeo, led me to many, many albums i love even more, although i still love that one and treasure it dearly. the other, village green preservation society, led me to many, many albums that i treasure dearly but that never came close to eclipsing its majesty. so that one.

aretha over van, vu, the stones and the zombies. the zappa and the byrds albums are strong too.

Hendrix

Truth and Ogden's never get enough love. Probably going with Hendrix, though.

Kind of a fall-off in quality from '67, but still a pretty great year. My top 5 would be: 1. Electric Ladyland 2. White Album 3. Os Mutantes 4. At Folsom Prison 5. Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

I can't pass up voting for The USA. That band should have put out another ten albums.

Beggars Banquet

voting 'astral weeks.' haven't heard the original elvis comeback album but a complete version of that would be far and away the best thing here.

Byrd Bros. Yes even over ISB and Village Green.

Astonishing how jazz dominated the first few years of the '60s but is completely gone by 1968. What happened?

The Beatles

Also, Coltrane died. And the ascent of the Beatles coincided with the hysterical backlash against the new music of Ayler, Taylor et al.

(xpost) That's the short answer, yes. I was still a kid at the time, but hadn't rock/soul/pop basically brushed away every other kind of music by '67 or so? In terms of media coverage, I mean, or just what people were listening to and talking about. I know someone protective of jazz or country or whatever might object, but isn't that what happened?

The narrative in Ken Burns' jazz-story is that the popularity of jazz peaked with swing in the 30s to decline from bebop onwards (not that functional, not listener friendly enough) and then it had a second coming wrt sales with fusion in the 70s. But yeah, the Beatles.

Wow these were good years for rock.

Astonishing how jazz dominated the first few years of the '60s but is completely gone by 1968. What happened?

Jazz didn't dominate the early 60s in commercial terms, did it?

Zombies over Van Morrison/Stones/VU/Otis

Jazz didn't dominate the early 60s in commercial terms, did it?

Hm, actually, commercially, I think jazz was probably minor in terms of album charts too by the early 60s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_200_number-one_albums_of_1962

1962 record-buying public otm re west side story and allan sherman. i've always had mixed feelings about that ray charles album, but that one makes a lot of sense too.

Savor the moment, Vaughn Meader.

so i was able to listen to Music from Big Pink and despite having "The Weight" on it, i like The Band much, much more. also was able to listen to The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society and loved every second of it. forgot about the song "Picture Book," so good.

have loved digging out my old CD's again. also found out i do own a copy of Truth but don't remember buying it. haha.

oh i see, it was one of those BMG CDs.

Beatles > Zombies > Kinks > Os Mutantes > Velvet Underground

Van > Byrds > Stones > Hendrix.

That Elvis comeback special has an incredible version of Lawdy, Miss Clawdy but also lots of dreck.

When I first saw the comeback special in its entirety, I was surprised at how much dreck there was; THIS was his comeback?! I think 98% of the comebackiness is in the segment with Scotty, DJ, and Bill (and iirc, that's only 1/4 of the special, if that).

But I can see how the dreck might look like a comeback compared to, say, Clambake.

Tough choice between Zombies and Os Mutantes. This list has a stunning lack of brazilian albums, though. Where is Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and the Tropicalia comp? Shocking, simply shocking.

don't know them personally but do show up, just a bit later:

31 Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso
38 Various Artists - Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis
62 Gilberto Gil - Gilberto Gil

btw, taking next week off. so this is the last year for a couple of weeks...

Oh yeah, forgot that was the year of the first of Gil's 3 self-titled albums. Might be my number 1 for the year if it was eligible.

Yeah, mine as well. Surprised to see it as the lowest of the tropicalia stuff, I think Veloso claims he was mainly ripping that album off on what he did that year. It's absolutely amazing.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

1. Astral Weeks
2. The Beatles ("White Album")
3. Odessey & Oracle
4. Beggars Banquet
5. The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

song cycle over sweetheart and astral weeks

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I just listened to Electric Ladyland today. That album still never fails me to knock me out.

Who else voted for Folsom Prison with me?