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

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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 (seventeen years ago) link

Had to go with The Basement Tapes, natch.

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

Not back in '75, surely.

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

I was eleven in '75 - a dangerous age.

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

Physical Graffiti, easily. All others get trampled underfoot.

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

*boom boom*

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

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

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

Well see how it goes.

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

we'll even

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

...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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

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

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

God yeah, Metal Machine Music!

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

x-post

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

Whereas Born To Run is his Arcade Fire LP.

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

which probably helps explain my indifference...

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

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

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

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

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

there's no essay for '75

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

Nebraska is surely Bruce's Sufjan LP...

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

Or Magnetic Fields.

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

So did De La Soul . . .

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

Last day to vote.

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

Nobody's reppin' for Willie?

(*cough*)

I voted for Horses though

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

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

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

wimps.

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

it's heels even

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

Fuck Pazz and Jop. Vote in my poll instead.

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

i cant. i have to make dinner

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

I did. I voted Funkadelic.

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

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