Acclaimed Music Top 25 Albums from 1977 poll

Some albums just missing the Top 25 include: 27 The Jam - In the City, 28 Jackson Browne - Running On Empty, 30 Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue, 32 The Damned - Damned Damned Damned, 33 Muddy Waters - Hard Again, 35 Al Green - The Belle Album, 37 The Stranglers - The Stranglers IV - Rattus Norvegicus, 38 AC/DC - Let There Be Rock, 39 Radio Birdman - Radios Appear, 40 Pink Floyd - Animals, 42 Parliament - Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome, 44 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors and 46 Cheap Trick - In Color.

Rumours fuiud

lol automatic meat vote

Television, easily. Out of curiosity, how many people listen to Never Mind the Bollocks with any regularity? (Do not answer if you were introduced to it less than two years ago.)

i've heard the "no one actually listens to the sex pistols" thing so much it's a cliche but also totally true, i listened to it in middle school a few times and never again

Aja is the best album on this list, might be the best album from the 1970s.

Clash

what would it mean for me to choose between Low and Rumours?

xp the sex pistols are good. "anarchy in the UK" is an all-time banger.

i listen to anarchy in the UK once every month or so maybe but not to the rest of the album usually. curiously, i only listen to this song on vinyl... listening to an mp3 just doesn't have the same effect of transporting me back to a time when that music was considered dangerous.

Was the music considered dangerous or was it the Sex Pistols' personas, performance practice, public behaviour, image, etc that were dangerous? Hard to see how that record could have been radical in sonic terms in 1977.

voted for Elvis Costello, as I would've in the 78 thread, but i thought that was a revived old thread

Also voted EC -MAIT. Don't give a fuck what history says.

Voting Rumours, but every one of these is great or very good. And that includes the 2 that weren't crit- faves at the time: Bat Out Of Hell, which has grown on me over the years and the Stranger, which I always loved.

My first inclination is Rumours, but I'm gonna listen to the Congos again. Obv the Low, MM and the Suicide album are all strong runners uo (& the omission of Fela is horseshit, though he may show up in the singles)

*up

so many different fights to start in 77:
punk vs pop
punk vs disco
NYC vs London
Sex Pistols vs the Clash

34 1133 Fela and Africa - Zombie

xpost

Marquee Moon, Trans Europe Express and "Heroes" would all fit into my top 30 albums of all time. Not sure which one to choose though.

if 'no one actually listens to the sex pistols' has any truth at all in it it's because the sex pistols only had one album. i'm not convinced that the singles have aged a day -- i can throw 'anarchy' or 'bodies' or 'pretty vacant' into any mix and they make almost anything that might follow them sound a little bit tame and vaguely stupid. the 'dangerousness' of their sound is almost entirely down to lydon's utterly deranged yet mysteriously focused and razor-sharp vocals; i can't think of a singer in history who sounds so convincingly, well, evil and amoral and unhinged as he does on 'bodies' or 'holidays in the sun,' and that's never changed for me no matter how many margarine commercials lydon appears in.

rumors will win this poll because ilm is in love with fleetwood mac, a band i feel slightly guilty for never digging all that much.

ok so places where the sex pistols are listened to

1. vh1 specials from 10-15 years ago
2. J.D.'s mix tapes

let's keep it rolling folks at this rate we might make it to 3

I revisited NMtB last year while I was reading England's Dreaming but that was the first time I'd played the whole thing in years. I enjoyed it a lot, also Lydon will always be one of my favourite rock vocalists/frontmen.

Torn between Aja and "Heroes" on this one.

"Sitting here in Queens eating refried beans..." is what provided the tie-breaker for me. Also might be the single best line to emerge from any english-speaking person in the history of the english language.

Suicide. Tough choice doe

if 'no one actually listens to the sex pistols' has any truth at all in it it's because the sex pistols only had one album. i'm not convinced that the singles have aged a day -- i can throw 'anarchy' or 'bodies' or 'pretty vacant' into any mix and they make almost anything that might follow them sound a little bit tame and vaguely stupid. the 'dangerousness' of their sound is almost entirely down to lydon's utterly deranged yet mysteriously focused and razor-sharp vocals; i can't think of a singer in history who sounds so convincingly, well, evil and amoral and unhinged as he does on 'bodies' or 'holidays in the sun,' and that's never changed for me no matter how many margarine commercials lydon appears in.

otm. voted for the Pistols in a heartbeat (or just after considering New Boots and Panties)

Voted for Augustus Pablo just ahead of Low and New Boots.

Pink Flag

I really want to say Rumours because it really is a fantastic album and I listen to it often. So much great on here, though. And I do listen to the Pistols - not the whole album on the reg or anything, but they're in my music library, and when "Pretty Vacant" or "Bodies" comes up on shuffle, I turn it up.

If I go with Rumours, the runner up is probably The Clash. Or Aja. If the Elvis Costello was Armed Forces I'd probably go with that, though.

I hope Saturday Night Fever gets some votes.

Rumours is my #2.

I'm actually going with the Eno album, it's so doopy

EZ you and I def have to hash over some King Tubby some time...

what would it mean for me to choose between Low and Rumours?

― Treeship, Wednesday, June 19, 2013 9:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Based on sheer number of times I've played an album, this is pretty much my choice as well. Television, Kraftwerk, Heads and Dury rounding out a top 6.

jesus man. pink flag i guess, but i could vote for a shitload of these on a different day.

Congos

EZ you and I def have to hash over some King Tubby some time...

― my autocorrect is in Spanish right now (Drugs A. Money),

Totally.

I hope Saturday Night Fever gets some votes.

SNF is undeniably huge, but it came out so late in 1977 that it feels like 1978 to me. (And Funkentelechy played a way bigger role in my appreciation of dance music.)

Like many, but Leave Home is one of my favourite albums ever.

sex pistols

I'm surprised how little I like from '77 and '78

leave home is definitely my favorite ramones album -- my version has 'sheena is a punk rocker' on it for some reason, and that just makes it extra-perfect. 'i remember you' is like a great lost beatles song or something.

Kind of surprised Two Sevens Clash is only #31...

The thing about Leave Home is that probably a third of it is kind of wistful and autumnal, which surely would have been the last thing anybody would've expected after the first album. ("Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy" is my favourite along those lines.) The third one's great, of course, but more straight-ahead joyful and celebratory.

What a great year. Low > Congos > Rumours > Eno for me. Surprised Al Green's Belle Album not on the list.

Even though I'm far from a nostalgic, I see these lists and have to wonder what the fuck happened to music.

voted for Rumours but would have gone for Zombie had it been an option

I wouldve figured you for an Aja vote, rev.

The only songs I really love on Aja are "Black Cow" and "Peg", the rest is just fine. There's a few others here I'd put ahead of it: SNF, Exodus, Kraftwerk, maybe Heads 77 and the Clash.

Actually, I might have voted for Funkentelechy were it included even tho I haven't listened to it in years. At least it would have been a very hard decision between P-Funk and Fela.

Such a toss up, I went for Suicide.

The Stranger vs. Saturday Night Fever

i feel that

this album is just full of good ideas that no-one ever really followed up on. I get the same thing out of Marquee Moon that I get out of the second Raincoats album, and maybe YYZ by Rush, and maybe even the Dead if they ever managed to demand any attention -- some sort of Ornette-esque incidental harmony/rhythm thing happening. Those snaky, ringing leads are just awesome, not so much dueling guitars as it's like one guitar played with four hands. It's pretty much the only thing classic about NYC 77, far as I can tell.
― Kris, Monday, 8 July 2002 19:00 (10 years ago)

I don't even remember what it sounds like, I just know every time I try to listen to it I don't enjoy it and it seems very grey and oppressive. I think the vocals might be an issue but I don't remember.

Oh, interesting. I can see how a lot of UK postpunk has that quality but I never thought of Marquee Moon that way at all.

Many of the songs have a warm, upbeat quality for me, actually, e.g. "Prove It".

i am with rudipherous. i have listened to marquee moon several times -- it's a classic, i wanted to do my homework -- and i completely forget what it sounds like.

this isn't to say it isn't good. but its charms are subtle... maybe. i will try again someday.

Huh, I never heard of these Eno-produced demos before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAqe_V6tzBM

xposts I have no trouble seeing why Marquee Moon wouldn't appeal to many people. I just thought it might click with Rudipherous, to the extent that any 70s rock does.

i think that's a different eno. his brother bryan.

I love how there used to be awesome albums you could choose among.

I love MM but feel like it lags a bit on the back half, whereas Rumours' side 2, while not perfect, has some of its best songs, often throwing each other in bold relief (the immensely convincing love-funk of You Make Loving Fun vs the creeping despair of The Chain & I Dont Want to Know, both sides swallowed whole in the cocaine apocalypse...)

MM is still for me Hear No Evil + Venus (a perfect song) + the title track....

It hasnt got much lip service here yet but I'd be p shocked if Aja didnt take this.

I should listen to Marquee Moon and Pink Flag. Never heard them in their entirety.

I'd be amazed if Aja took this.

Trying to decide between Augstus Pablo and Suicide...will probably go with Pablo.

"A Fifth of Beethoven" knocks SNF out of contention for me, and Steve Gadd's solo on "Aja" is one of my all-time least favorite things in music.

two albums by David Bowie, Ramones and Iggy Pop made the Top 25. the '70s were different weren't they?

it's been said again and again but marquee moon is really a delight. The title track is so so fly.

I once heard "Marquee Moon" on an AM radio station driving through Ohio (pretty sure it was a college station). It added an unimaginable level of spookiness to hear it on AM.

two albums by David Bowie, Ramones and Iggy Pop made the Top 25. the '70s were different weren't they?

How are the rankings determined? Do they have some formula for adding up star ratings from critics in major publications?

Rumours is fanastic, obv, but "don't stop" is the worst shit ever.

You find it to be that different from the rest of the album?

Rumours is fanastic, obv, but "don't stop" is the worst shit ever.

I think it's a good song, but remembering it being performed at Bill Clinton's inauguration kind of ruins it for me.

it's garbage, cmon

dont beg the question sund4r

I would listen to any of these albums except maybe Meat Loaf and Billy Joel (and possibly Ian Dury, whom I haven't heard)

always puzzled by the 'Don't Stop' hate. It's by no means my favorite song on the album, but I always thinking that Lindsey--just by being Lindsey--lends enough desperation to the vocals to give the song a sort of 'just. get. through. today.' undersong

it always sounded devoid of passion to me.. and just boring overall. i wish i differently because everything else on rumours rules.

what i was really just trying to say is that in those days two album in one year was sort of the norm. artists had so much going through them that they happened to produced the best music that had ever existed.

several: xpost

Oh, I noticed that Low and Heroes were both there but I didn't catch that the Ramones and Iggy Pop also had two albums each on the list, actually.

Still, that was closer to being the exception than the norm in 1977, wasn't it?

you're right it wasn't the norm.

would never happen in 2013.

It happens every year dont it? A bunch of the acts that released my favorite albums last year released more than one. I am not sure any of them had two records out last year that could compare with Low/Heroes, plus none of them had quite the notoriety these guys had (tho Miguel did release three great eps w his AOTY contender) but its not like highly productive driven artists are a thing of the past. Plus, this is the height of Bowie and Iggy's mutual cocaine habit (sensing a theme here hmmmm....) Dont know whats uo w the Ramones.

I suppose its not quite "the best music that ever existed" though

Great list, just missing Zombie and Police & Thieve from my top 10.

Yeah, there are definitely good artists who release multiple albums a year. We were just looking at this guy's discography on the other thread:

http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Jute_Gyte

Or see Oren Ambarchi's partial discography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oren_Ambarchi#Partial_Discography

True that these are not high-profile pop acts though.

I need to check that Jute Gyte album out for sure..

1. Aja
2. Exodus
3. Low
4. Marquee Moon
5. King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown

is basically how I break it down to an extent

Yeah, I feel like Exodus is probably not getting its due (from me too). There was a time when I played that album constantly.

I feel as if I haven't been hearing Bob Marley properly for a while, but maybe it will come back later.

i was a bit drunk last night, sorry about the grammar.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

*still have yet to listen to Rumours, need to fix that.

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

As many votes for Sex Pistols and SNF as for Aja? GTFO ILM

lol

Kraftwerk and Bowie deserved better, no votes for "Heroes" is just so wrong.

lol forgot to vote, one more for Congos

gee, I'm so stunned that Billy Joel got 0 votes.

(and glad)

xxp Steely Dan might be my favorite band but Bollocks is still the better album. I feel like some of you didn't hear the Pistols since you were 12.

I tried to listen to it recently.

this was a fun poll for me since 1977 is the first year I remember firsthand. Back then the SNF soundtrack ruled my life, and I still love it, but it's Rumours that resonates with me now. (it was also probably my 2nd fave in 1977). There's only about four others I had even heard of back then, though.