Acclaimed Music Top 25 Albums from 1971 poll

and we are back, hard to believe we only have a couple of years to go.

monster of a year. would love to go for something slightly less canonical but i'm gonna go for my favorite Who narrowly over my favorite Stones.

some albums just missing the Top 25 26 include: 27 Alice Cooper - Killer, 28 Black Sabbath - Master of Reality, 29 Isaac Hayes - Shaft, 30 Nilsson - Nilsson Schmilsson, 31 Yes - The Yes Album, 32 Faces - A Nod Is as Good as a Wink...to a Blind Horse, 33 Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson, 34 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 4 Way Street, 35 Paul and Linda McCartney - Ram, 36 Dolly Parton - Coat of Many Colors, 39 Pink Floyd - Meddle, 40 Alice Cooper - Love It to Death, 41 Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey, 42 Miles Davis - Live Evil, 44 The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies, 45 Gil Scott-Heron - Pieces of a Man and 47 Faust - Faust.

damn, this is really, really tough. at least 6 or 7 of my very favorite albums ever here. probably gonna have to go with riot just because i can't not vote for it, i'd pretty much automatically vote for riot in any poll it was in, but i guess if i had to rank it'd go something like:

riot >> hunky dory > every picture tells a story >>>> imagine >> led zeppelin IV >> blue > electric warrior >>>> sticky fingers

yeah, i was thinking of voting Every Picture Tells a Story because i feel like it might not get any votes. but if i go by that feeling then i should vote for Electric Warrior instead as i like that one a bit more.

very undecided at this point.

I don't own any of these albums, just bits of Can and Leonard Cohen. I never was one for the 60s canon artists.

Well, I voted for Rod's album. Yes, there was a time when he was one of Rock's greatest vocalists. Every Picture was his peak.

Possibly the best year ever for albums imo.

BLUE!!

My short list would be IV, Every Picture, and--cutting a little slack for having worn it out in high school--Who's Next. "Family Affair" would vie for my favorite song, but I never connected to Riot as a whole (although I've used it as a point of comparison for other albums, and was very much influenced by stuff that Marcus and Christgau wrote about it). I'll give my vote to "Mandolin Wind/Every Picture/Maggie May."

"Sway" and "Kooks," too--they're single-handedly worth a vote.

1. Every Picture Tells A Story
2. There's a Riot Goin' On
3. Songs of Love and Hate

Tago Mago

What's Going On with There's a Riot Goin' On and Surf's Up close behind.

Sly>Stones>Bowie>Cohen>Beach Boys. Write-in for Judee Sill's debut. Maybe my favourite year for albums.

In some order

ELP - Tarkus
Popol Vuh - In Den Garten Pharaohs
Todd Rundgren - Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren
Yes - Fragile
Can - Tago Mago
Gordon Lightfoot - Summer Side of Life
Van der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Faust - s/t
Cluster - s/t

(dunno how Pawn Hearts didn't make the list in the first place!)

Allmans-Fillmore East

Poll needs Steeleye Span. And I wouldn't vote for them myself but I imagine quite a few might vote for "Split" or "Tanz der Lemminge".

thought I was gonna have a hard time deciding between Maggot Brain and Riot but the latter has way more filler

good year. listen to Riot more than any of the others

always weird to be reminded that Fragile and LZ IV came out in '71

Many of my all-time favorites came out that year. Impossible to choose between Riot, Marvin, Maggot Brain and Joni.

But Who's Next is such a bizarre, funny, and immensely powerful record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls2lC7DQFMI

Rev offtm.

Will say that I am v surprised that Tanz didnt make frogbs' list

Not sure what it takes for Black Sabbath to get on these lists if MOR didnt make it, of all records

i always find it odd when janis joplin pops up on lists like this. is she really that popular?

No love for Tapestry? Not often has this much great pop songwriting been crammed onto one original album

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41R97Ab4LmL.jpg

so i no idea what this is, but based on that cover i feel i should give it a listen.

Tapestry would be in a small second group after my top three. Actually, I'd be more inclined to listen to it right now than Who's Next.(xpost)

xp- one of the classics of jazz/rock fusion, one of maybe only four albums on which I'd bestow that honour.

Possibly the best year ever for albums imo.

agreed. just an embarrassment of riches here.

who's next was awesome when i was 15 and part of me will always love it but these days i'm way more likely to throw on live at leeds, my generation, or sell out.

so i have...

still in need of an edit button.

Man, this was ludicrously difficult; there's a hell of a lot that came out in 1971 that I really, really love. In the end I went for Fragile, but it could easily be different tomorrow. If the two Cooper albums were included (and I would have found choosing between Killer and Love It To Death very tough in itself), as well as the Sabbath album and Ram, I would have found this near impossible.

Not to mention Meddle... fucking hell, what a year.

i'm having a really hard time trying to pick from the first seven albums. i just discovered Hunky Dory as i posted about that here, what was the last 'classic album' you got and were knocked out by? but can't quite hit that vote button for it as some of these are just stone cold classics.

this short of blew my mind, from around the 27 minute mark this is some other level stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEyKBr0KXT8

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

so i finally decided to vote for the Who here.

Went with Blue. John Prine probably wont get any votes in this poll but his debut was spectacular. Just hard to stand out in such a strong year.

I don't vote in these things, but I'll make an exception for Prine.

Inner Mounting Flame is fucking awesome. Noonward Race for the win.

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

22 699 David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name 1

wtw (would toke with)

Wow, thought Sly had this

Voted Zep just over Mahavishnu, although if I were completely ignoring memory and personal associations, I might have gone the other way. These results make me regret this a little.

these results are kinda crazy.

Missed this poll, would have gone with Cohen in a flash

The top 4 are truly great, but I would've voted for Sly Stone, if I hadn't been overwhelmed by the choices. I think Riot has less filler than any of the others.

Nobody mentioned or voted for Bob Marley, even though that's probably his best album ever.

these results are kinda crazy.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, August 20, 2013 6:37 AM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was kinda expecting them to be, in all honesty - there's so much great stuff here that it would have been hard to pick one of these albums and say "yeah, this is the clear winner".

Think I forgot to vote in this but my top five would be:

Sticky Fingers
Maggot Brain
If I Could Only Remember My Name
What's Going On
Surf's Up

You could eliminate those five and there'd still be plenty to choose from.

I weirdly can't stand to hear anything from "What's Going On" anymore

I do kind of think this is irrefutable proof that the Who are a tad bit overrated round these parts

Really? I'm not a fanatic by any stretch but that album is totally top-tier imo.

do kind of think this is irrefutable proof that the Who are a tad bit overrated round these parts

― mucus has a right to children (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, August 20, 2013 3:53 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

How?

Joni Mitchell over Funkadelic?
ILM be 'trippin'

Zep was robbed. Happy birthday Pearcy/Planty, ya old woman.

I dig the top three just fine. But damn, ZOSO is what it play to outer spacemen who wanted to know more about Rock n Roll. Jeezus.