Best 1975 P&J Album (POLL Closes 6 May)

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

3rd in a series. Pick your fave.

Poll Results

Option	Votes
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks (Columbia)	13
Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (Island)	12
Patti Smith: Horses (Arista)	8
Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti (Swan Song)	6
Roxy Music: Siren (Atco)	4
Bob Dylan and the Band: The Basement Tapes (Columbia)	4
Neil Young: Tonight's the Night (Reprise)	4
Earth, Wind & Fire: That's the Way of the World (Columbia)	3
Jefferson Starship: Red Octopus (Grunt)	2
Steely Dan: Katy Lied (ABC)	2
Gary Stewart: Out Of Hand (RCA)	1
Nils Lofgren: Nils Lofgren (A&M)	1
James Talley: Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot...	1
Beserkely Chartbusters Vol. 1 (Beserkley)	1
Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac (Reprise)	1
Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (Columbia)	1
Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years (Columbia)	1
Neil Young: Zuma (Reprise)	1
The Who: The Who by Numbers (MCA)	1
Bob Marley and the Wailers: Natty Dread (Island)	1
Willie Nelson: Red Headed Stranger (Columbia)	0
The Amazing Rhythm Aces: Stacked Deck (ABC)	0
Linda Ronstadt: Prisoner in Disguise (Asylum)	0
Waylon Jennings: Dreamin' My Dreams (RCA)	0
Roxy Music: Country Life (Atco)	0
The Band: Northern Lights-Southern Cross (Capitol)	0
Jeff Beck: Blow by Blow (Epic)	0
Toots and the Maytals: Funky Kingston (Island)	0
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes: To Be True	0
The Trammps: The Trammps (Golden Fleece)	0

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 07:22 (eighteen years ago)

Had to go with The Basement Tapes, natch.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 07:25 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres75.php

Unfortunately, their's no essay available from this year on site.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 07:28 (eighteen years ago)

Predictable choice, but for me it has to be Horses - the record which above all others took me out of childhood.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 07:31 (eighteen years ago)

Not back in '75, surely.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 07:33 (eighteen years ago)

I was eleven in '75 - a dangerous age.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 07:37 (eighteen years ago)

so we have another 30 of these to look forward to, right?

(actually once we get into modern times i'll probably enjoy them a lot more)

(i also voted patti)

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 07:39 (eighteen years ago)

Physical Graffiti, easily. All others get trampled underfoot.

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 07:42 (eighteen years ago)

*boom boom*

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 07:43 (eighteen years ago)

so we have another 30 of these to look forward to, right?

Well, maybe. I plan on doing the '70s & '80s at the very least.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 07:55 (eighteen years ago)

x-post to Marcello. I was 10 at the time. Didn't hear Horses until 1981. But yeah, it was a chilling experience even then.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 07:57 (eighteen years ago)

It's a good idea JM$OT - they seem to get more interesting discussion than some polls. We did the singles polls, 1979-now, over at the Poptimists LJ community: very enjoyable and some good debate.

"Blood On The Tracks", incidentally.

― Groke, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 08:40 (eighteen years ago)

Beserkely Chartbusters Vol. 1 (Beserkley) is that similar to the free disc that came with a fairly recent Jonathan Richman best of? I mean, is it likely to have The Rubinoos on it?

― acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 08:43 (eighteen years ago)

Wow. This one is the toughest for me to pick thus far.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 08:48 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, it's just too bad that Bob didn't include a singles poll 'till '79. Something about singles not being important enough, I guess. Or such seemed to be the prevailing wisdom at the time.

x-post

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 08:49 (eighteen years ago)

Surprised not to see Little Feat's Last Record Album in there.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 08:52 (eighteen years ago)

Good year. Tough choice, but 'Blood on the Tracks' is just too great.

― baaderonixx, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 08:54 (eighteen years ago)

Were there really many critics that held Little Feat in high esteem back then (or ever), though? Other than Rolling Stone, I suppose.

x-post

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 08:57 (eighteen years ago)

Well, maybe. I plan on doing the '70s & '80s at the very least.

aw it was the 90s and 00s i was looking forward to! at the moment i'm just ticking the one album i've heard.

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 09:01 (eighteen years ago)

Well see how it goes.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 09:02 (eighteen years ago)

we'll even

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 09:03 (eighteen years ago)

In Britain, Little Feat were viewed as the hip American band of the period (check out NME back issues from the period for confirmation of this).

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 09:09 (eighteen years ago)

...and they were big Peel favourites as well.

I've gone with Natty Dread, in lieu of Rastaman Vibration which was yer actual 1975, no?

― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 09:32 (eighteen years ago)

Rastaman Vibration was early '76, unlike Live At The Lyceum which was absolutely '75.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 09:33 (eighteen years ago)

Taking Tiger Mountain's there, so we'll excuse the lack of Another Green World.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 09:34 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, the Live Marley album make it in the '76 poll, but RV didn't. Interesting.

x-poat

Another Green World made the '76 poll.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 09:39 (eighteen years ago)

Who will vote for Bruce, I wonder? There's gotta be someone out there.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:05 (eighteen years ago)

Rastaman Vibration got a fairly lukewarm critical reception at the time, and was thought to suffer by comparision with Natty Dread. I think it's every bit as good, but there you go...

― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:08 (eighteen years ago)

Well Natty Dread is better (much), but RV was his best selling record at the time in the US. You'd think that would have had some kind of impact on the poll.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:12 (eighteen years ago)

What a logjam! I love all these a lot:

Patti Smith: Horses (Arista)
Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (Columbia)
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks (Columbia)
Neil Young: Tonight's the Night (Reprise)
Roxy Music: Country Life (Atco)
Roxy Music: Siren (Atco)
Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac (Reprise)
Gary Stewart: Out Of Hand (RCA)
Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (Island)
Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti (Swan Song)

If I had to pick the one I've played the most in my life, the answer, believe it or not, would be Born to Run no contest. Instead, I went with one I don't even own -- Out Of Hand, mainly on the basis on three tracks I love from it on Stewart's 1981 Greatest Hits, one of my favorite country albums of all time, since I'd probably take those three tracks over any three tracks on any other album up there. Guess I should buy a copy of Out Of Hand someday though.

(Meanwhile, that Berserkely comp looks cute up there -- I think it also had Earthquake and Greg Kihn in addition to Richman and the Rubinoos, but I could be wrong. Don't own a copy. Either way, what a weird blip on the P&J list. At least as weird as Amazing Rhythm Aces, who I still confuse with Atlanta Rhythm Section. Who I think were better.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:24 (eighteen years ago)

James Talley a real oddity on the list, too. Got the reissue last year; it was okay, but hardly the Western Swing classic mid''70s critics pretended. (If anything, I'd call it "proto-alt-country.")

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:27 (eighteen years ago)

I think it also had Earthquake and Greg Kihn in addition to Richman and the Rubinoos

Yeah it does. I've got a vinyl copy lurking around somewhere.

x-post

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:28 (eighteen years ago)

Sad ommission, by the way: Dictators Go Girl Crazy (which I know got a couple votes; I've got the actual P&J section around here in a closet somewhere. I'm pretty sure Lester Bangs included both that & Metal Machine Music on his list.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:30 (eighteen years ago)

The Dictators would have been a great addition. Xhuxk, I was sure you were gonna vote fot the Zep. Guess not. BTW, is Physical Graffiti your fave Zeppelin these days.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:40 (eighteen years ago)

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:41 (eighteen years ago)

God yeah, Metal Machine Music!

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:43 (eighteen years ago)

Ha ha, I voted for Physical Graffiti in the Zep poll, so I guess. Or at least it was last week.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:44 (eighteen years ago)

That would have been lovely. Kinda like the turd in the punchbowl.

x-post

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:45 (eighteen years ago)

Curious about the Amazing Rhythm Aces album. In the last year, I've revisited the single, "Third Rate Romance," and it's probably one of my favourite mid-70s radio songs which I knew, but didn't pay a lot of attention to, at the time. Pop-country with a slight reggae lilt, almost?

Haven't voted yet, but my vote will probably typically go to Roxy(Siren) or Steely Dan or Eno. I definitely will not vote for Born to Run, which is nothing like my favourite mid-70s or even my favourite Bruce album (I like at least two of his other '70s albums better). There's at least a dozen albums there I've never heard.

― sw00ds, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:44 (eighteen years ago)

Neil (both, but especially TNN) and Fleetwood Mac are also in the running for me. It is a shame there's no singles list.

― sw00ds, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:46 (eighteen years ago)

Chuck, just out of curiosity, since you mentioned you have a copy of that poll: was it just a list that year? Was there not an essay attached? I remember years and years ago going to the Toronto Reference Library to find all the old pazz & jops on microfilm, and I couldn't even find the 1975 list--it's always been a mystery, that one.

― sw00ds, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:49 (eighteen years ago)

Basement Tapes, especially since it was left off the Dylan poll.

― Jazzbo, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:49 (eighteen years ago)

Born to Run, which is nothing like my favourite mid-70s or even my favourite Bruce album (I like at least two of his other '70s albums better).

Come to think of it, it may well be my least favorite '70s Bruce album (though I definitely like it more than anything he did after the '70s.) (My favorite Bruce album is his debut.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:50 (eighteen years ago)

it just a list that year? Was there not an essay attached?

I'm pretty sure there's an essay, but I don't have it handy, so I can't say for sure. (I definitely do recall a few other voters' lists running, though.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:51 (eighteen years ago)

Really. Isn't that his most folk-rock/singer-songwriter effort? Of the '70s, that is. I think I like the 2nd, funkier lp best of that period.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:56 (eighteen years ago)

The debut is actually his most early Dylan/Hold Steady/Beck/Thin Lizzy LP. (But yes. probably.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:57 (eighteen years ago)

Whereas Born To Run is his Arcade Fire LP.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:00 (eighteen years ago)

which probably helps explain my indifference...

― sw00ds, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:01 (eighteen years ago)

So what's his Blue Oyster Cult LP, then?

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:01 (eighteen years ago)

Darkness on the Edge of Town (I mean, sort of--"Adam Raised a Cain" has a bit of them in it).

― sw00ds, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:02 (eighteen years ago)

Huh, I always thought that was his most Hold Steady record.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:03 (eighteen years ago)

Born In The USA is his Huey Lewis and the News LP.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:05 (eighteen years ago)

Cause it's got that depressed bar-room feel to it. Maybe I'm imagining things.

x-post

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:06 (eighteen years ago)

BITUSA=his most circa-1984 Van Halen record, maybe. Or Johnny Cougar.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:10 (eighteen years ago)

waylon, willie, dylan, dan or zep. damn... a top two favorite record by 5 of my top 12 or so favorite acts. The Neil, Eno and EW&F are nothing to sneeze at either. Well played, '75.

― will, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:50 (eighteen years ago)

Sabotage. Oh, it's not there. These "P&J" polls really sucked bad.

― Bill Magill, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:20 (eighteen years ago)

there's no essay for '75

― Matos W.K., Wednesday, 2 May 2007 17:25 (eighteen years ago)

Actually, there is. I have in my closet as well. I keep meaning to type it up and send it to robertchristgau.com...but I've been too lazy.

― The guy who just votes in polls, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 17:51 (eighteen years ago)

Nebraska is surely Bruce's Sufjan LP...

― henry s, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 17:53 (eighteen years ago)

Or Magnetic Fields.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 17:55 (eighteen years ago)

I was also 11 in '75 (but nowhere near Horses)...my vote goes to Red Octopus...loved the "soft rock with a bite" (i.e. it referenced oral sex) vibe of "Miracles"...

― henry s, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 17:57 (eighteen years ago)

So did De La Soul . . .

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 18:44 (eighteen years ago)

Man, I was 19 in 1975, and so many of these are absolutely central to how my taste developed (or not). These records include some of the greatest songs ever: "Thunder Road", "Disco Inferno", "Third Rate Romance", "Pressure Drop", "Shining Star", "It Makes No Difference", "Monday Morning" . . .

― Vornado, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 19:28 (eighteen years ago)

hey! where's the love for the who by numbers?

― Lawrence the Looter, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 21:57 (eighteen years ago)

Hmm.. my favorite Eno album vs. my fourth or fifth favorite Steely Dan album vs. my third or fourth favorite Dylan album...

I have to go with "Blood on the Tracks".

― o. nate, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 22:06 (eighteen years ago)

Last day to vote.

― JN$OT, Saturday, 5 May 2007 10:42 (eighteen years ago)

jennings
dylan
young
dylan/the band

i'm note voting because i can't pick one of these over the others

― QuantumNoise, Saturday, 5 May 2007 12:43 (eighteen years ago)

Nobody's reppin' for Willie?

(*cough*)

I voted for Horses though

― I eat cannibals, Saturday, 5 May 2007 13:21 (eighteen years ago)

Neil Young, Roxy and Eno in the same year?!?!?!?! I abstain.

― brg30, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:43 (eighteen years ago)

wimps.

― JN$OT, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:51 (eighteen years ago)

Voted Zeppelin of course but the Steely Dan and Fleetwood Mac are unbelievably good as well. (I honestly don't know why Rumours get so much more attention, esp with "Rhiannon" AND "Landslide" on this one. "I'm So Afraid" is awesome, like a soft rock BOC or something... I'm almost starting to reconsider.)

― Sundar, Saturday, 5 May 2007 15:34 (eighteen years ago)

OMG, I'm heartened to not be the only Red Octopus vote! But yes, so many to choose from -- for me, 1975 was the greatest year for pop-rock after 1967.

― Joseph McCombs, Saturday, 5 May 2007 19:47 (eighteen years ago)

Results: The other Dylan album takes our poll, with Eno nipping at his heels!

― JN$OT, Sunday, 6 May 2007 03:16 (eighteen years ago)

it's heels even

― JN$OT, Sunday, 6 May 2007 12:31 (eighteen years ago)

Fuck Pazz and Jop. Vote in my poll instead.

― Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 6 May 2007 15:46 (eighteen years ago)

i cant. i have to make dinner

― 600, Sunday, 6 May 2007 16:27 (eighteen years ago)

I did. I voted Funkadelic.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Sunday, 6 May 2007 16:29 (eighteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.