Best 1974 P&J Album (POLL Closes 5 May)

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Pick your fave.

Poll Results

Option	Votes
Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets (Island)	12
Big Star: Radio City (Ardent)	9
Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic (ABC)	5
New York Dolls: In Too Much Too Soon (Mercury)	5
Randy Newman: Good Old Boys (Reprise)	4
Stevie Wonder: Fulfillingness' First Finale (Tamla)	3
Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark (Asylum)	2
10cc: Sheet Music (UK)	2
Ohio Players: Skin Tight (Mercury)	2
Linda Rondstadt: Heart Like a Wheel (Capitol)	1
Roxy Music: Stranded (Atco)	1
Little Feat: Feats Don't Fail Me Now (Warner Bros.)	1
Van Morrison: It's Too Late to Stop Now (Warner Bros.)	1
Bryan Ferry: These Foolish Things (Atlantic)	1
Velvet Underground: 1969 Velvet Underground Live (Mercury)	1
Kinks: Preservation Act 2 (RCA Victor)	0
Willie Nelson: Phases and Stages (Atlantic)	0
Lou Reed: Rock n Roll Animal (RCA Victor)	0
Spinners: Mighty Love (Atlantic)	0
Blue Magic (Atco)	0
Bad Company: Bad Co. (Swan Song)	0
Bob Dylan: Planet Waves (Asylum)	0
Rolling Stones: It's Only Rock 'n Roll (Rolling Stones)	0
Bob Dylan and the Band: Before the Flood (Asylum)	0
Jackson Browne: Late for the Sky (Asylum)	0
Eric Clapton: 461 Ocean Boulevard (RSO)	0
Gram Parsons: Grievous Angel (Reprise)	0
Raspberries: Starting Over (Capitol)	0
Ry Cooder: Paradise and Lunch (Reprise)	0
Average White Band: Average White Band (Atlantic)	0
Maria Muldaur: Waitress in a Donut Shop (Reprise)	0

― JN$OT, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 08:15 (eighteen years ago)

The Dolls dammit!

― JN$OT, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 08:17 (eighteen years ago)

No Rock Bottom, no Todd, no No Other, no I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, no cred.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 08:27 (eighteen years ago)

Well it was an American poll, y'know.

― JN$OT, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 08:55 (eighteen years ago)

Who were the voters? Daws Butler and Paul Frees?

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:06 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pj74.php

― JN$OT, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:11 (eighteen years ago)

Bangs voted, and yet no Wet Willie?

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:21 (eighteen years ago)

Well, one vote probably wouldn't have got it in anyway.

― JN$OT, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:37 (eighteen years ago)

10CC

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:41 (eighteen years ago)

"There's still no one who can hold a candle to the Dan. Pretzel Logic...what a masterpiece."

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:44 (eighteen years ago)

True dat.

― JN$OT, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:47 (eighteen years ago)

Kinks: Preservation Act 2 (RCA Victor)

Blimey! That album's total mince

― Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:48 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, the Dolls, by a few thousand miles maybe.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:16 (eighteen years ago)

Though I do like at least half or more of the other ones, and it's real nice to see the Spinners and Blue Magic on there. After the Dolls, though, my favorites are quite possibly Roxy, Reed and Eno - I am so glam rock. (Oddly, most of the country stuff on there - Ronstadt, Parsons, Nelson, Cooder and Little Feat if they count -- I don't care about, though I might like it if I checked it out again.)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:20 (eighteen years ago)

Ohio Players!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:45 (eighteen years ago)

A generational thing, no doubt, but even though there's a fair bit of crap on this list, it's a hundred times more interesting than that 1971 list (at least in part because the five or six best things on this list are among my five or six favourite albums ever).

― sw00ds, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:36 (eighteen years ago)

Court & Spark. Definitely.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:38 (eighteen years ago)

Didn't vote for it, but it's my favourite Joni album, by a long distance.

― sw00ds, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:39 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, mine too -- Honestly, it's the only Joni album I ever put on, give or take best-of sets.

And I think I agree with Scott about this being way more interesting than the '71 list, though I haven't done a back-to-back comparison. (For one thing, P&J voters seem kinda r&bphobic in 1971. And hippiedom seems kinda supplanted in '74 by glamdom.)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:44 (eighteen years ago)

Rolling Stones: It's Only Rock 'n Roll (Rolling Stones)

"I'll show those Roxy Music who's boss," chirped a hard-of-swimming Jagger.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:46 (eighteen years ago)

For me Blue comes before Court & Spark. Anyway, I really don't see any album on this list that I love more than Court & Spark, so there wasn't much competition.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:46 (eighteen years ago)

Also, disco is clearly on its way, and funk is here:

VINCE ALETTI: Ecstasy, Passion and Pain; Labelle, Nightbirds; Earth, Wind and Fire, Open Our Eyes; Whispers, Bingo; Quincy Jones, Body Heat; Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark; Lou Courtney, I'm in Need of Love; Blue Magic; Average White Band; First Choice, The Player. (No points, no order).

VERNON GIBBS: 1. Isley Brothers, Live It Up 20. 2. Blue Magic, The Magic of the Blue 15. 3. Barry White, Can't Get Enough 10. 4. Ohio Players, Skin Tight 10. 5. Donald Byrd, Street Lady 10. 6. Stevie Wonder, Fulfillingness' First Finale 10. 7. Betty Davis, They Say I'm Different 5. 8. Dom Um Ramao 10. 9. Bennie Maupin, The Jewel in the Lotus 5. 10. John Lee Hooker, Free Beer and Chicken 5.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:48 (eighteen years ago)

Toss up between the Dolls and Gram Parsons. Was gonna go with Parsons because the Dolls had a better album but then realized that's not 1974's fault so I stayed with the Dolls.

(Personal aside: I bought my first copy ot In Too Much too Soon at a drugstore in the cutout bin as one of the first LPs I ever purchased.)

― NYCNative, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:23 (eighteen years ago)

yeah AWB and Spinners (Pick of the Litter from '75 is better). and love the Ohio Players. actually this was a great year for the album as it used to be called. and although Steely Dan's record is great I haven't been able to listen to it all the way through for years. The Joni record sounds funny to me now, too trebly or something and my tolerance for Joni ain't what it used to be. The Newman record is also superb but I prefer 12 Songs. Radio City gets my vote.

― whisperineddhurt, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:32 (eighteen years ago)

Of the albums on the list, I'd picked Stranded, but isn't it a 1973 album?

― M.V., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:42 (eighteen years ago)

Probably didn't come out in the States until '74 (ditto Warm Jets).

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:42 (eighteen years ago)

nope, Stranded is '74, ditto the Eno record.

― whisperineddhurt, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:43 (eighteen years ago)

They were released in Britain in 1973, as I hoped my previous post would have made clear.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:48 (eighteen years ago)

As was These Foolish Things.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:48 (eighteen years ago)

Poor Jackson Browne and Clapton, already looking fusty between Roxy and the Dolls...

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:54 (eighteen years ago)

Don't know the US release dates, but Stranded and These Foolish Things were very late-year releases in '73, so it's safe to assume that US critics didn't hear them until well into '74--and in fact, Rolling Stone didn't review the Ferry album until the summer of '74. (Country Life also came out in '74 but it ended up in the '75 P&J list--along with Siren).

"I'll show those Roxy Music who's boss," chirped a hard-of-swimming Jagger.

Heh. But I would've thought Mick's ire was directed at the Dolls!

― sw00ds, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:59 (eighteen years ago)

I'm very, very tempted to put [i]These Foolish Things[i] atop my list, but with competition from the best studio-rock of the decade (Joni, Steely Dan, Ronstadt, even, er, Eno) and the glam invasion it's mighty difficult.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:04 (eighteen years ago)

The weakest year of the '70s, I calls it. But a GREAT yr for funk, not that you'd know it from the list: No Commodores, no Sly, no EW&F, no Isleys, no Meters and neither P-nor-Funk - all of whom released '74 LPs that I would prefer over the Ohio Players. Also no BÖC, Skynyrd or King Crimson but that's understandable...

Eno edges out Joni and the Dan.

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:11 (eighteen years ago)

http://bepsantiques.com/Merchant2/graphics/rock/radio_city_1.jpg

― ghost rider, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:22 (eighteen years ago)

The weakest year of the '70s

Weaker than 1975?

― JN$OT, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:35 (eighteen years ago)

The Dolls arguably made the most important record on that list. But I'll go with Pretzel Logic ... tough to argue against perfection.

― Jiminy Krokus, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:36 (eighteen years ago)

There were no weak years in the 1970s! If any year comes close, it'd be 1979, and that was still pretty f'n good.

― Jiminy Krokus, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:37 (eighteen years ago)

Weak in relation to the surrounding years.

― JN$OT, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:38 (eighteen years ago)

Radio City. And the worst year for music in the 1970s is probably 1970.

― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:39 (eighteen years ago)

I thought this would be tough for me until I scrolled down to Here Come The Warm Jets.

― da croupier, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:40 (eighteen years ago)

If Taking Tiger Mountain had been on here I would have maybe voted for that, but of these, I guess I'll go with Pretzel Logic.

― o. nate, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:38 (eighteen years ago)

Taking Tiger Mountain made the '75 poll.

― JN$OT, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:03 (eighteen years ago)

quite the contrary at least in my opine, '74 is the best year of the decade--or if you wanna be difficult as good as any of the great years of true tumult as punk hit, '77, '78, '79. it was also the watershed year for rock in general, since the big star record handily dispensed with any need to listen to the beatles and gram parsons summed up country music and the eno and roxy records made a lotta previous shit sound a bit under-imagined, one might say. the last great year for old-tyme rock and roll, after that we had a year or two of al stewart and perhaps tavares and then onto the brave new world that would lead us to joy division or whatever that shit was. and punk and new wave and disco. good year and all those records are pretty good.

― whisperineddhurt, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 18:52 (eighteen years ago)

warm jetz

― 69, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 20:22 (eighteen years ago)

somehow, FFF has become my favorite Stevie album.

― Eric H., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 20:29 (eighteen years ago)

Heh. But I would've thought Mick's ire was directed at the Dolls!

I hear the "shitty" guitar solo on the Stones' '74 version of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" as a nod to the Dolls.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 22:55 (eighteen years ago)

Results.

― JN$OT, Saturday, 5 May 2007 06:41 (eighteen years ago)

Eno and Big Star at the top is kind of surprising, I think.

― JN$OT, Saturday, 5 May 2007 10:44 (eighteen years ago)

ARE YOU NEW HERE?

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 10:52 (eighteen years ago)

Nope. Just assumed there were more Dan fans hereabout.

― JN$OT, Saturday, 5 May 2007 10:55 (eighteen years ago)

WHOOOO!!! BIG STAR BEATS STEELY BLAND!!!!

― brg30, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:47 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, but king Eno beats all!!!

― JN$OT, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:50 (eighteen years ago)

twelve years pass...

Let's rank the top twenty finalists, hm?.

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 October 2019 00:39 (six years ago)

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