A contemporary who has been a close friend since the late 70's and I compiled a list of every record (we think) one should have if one wants to recapitulate the early "explosion" years in R & R. Though our list includes releases well before 1967, that was the magical year of the beginning of the FM Rock Revolution. AOR didn't stand for "Adult Oriented Rock," it was used to denote ALBUM (non-hit) OR. Sometimes songs or artists could be both, but you would never hear deep cuts on AM, let alone new album releases played front to back, w/o interruption, the second the station got it in-hand.
So, basically, we're covering '66 through about '82, though there may be a few artists before and after those years, 'cause we would want to include them on every list. More importantly, we went from AOR to MTV's early, yet most influential times. There IS no sucky decade. There's tons of 70's in here and almost none of it is disco.
We met and hit it off in college because of R & R. We were both Beefheart fans, so that sort of sealed the deal.
This list includes "Kevin things" I can't stand, and "Bob things" that he can't. We wanted to try to keep as much on the table as possible. Disagree at will. It's just the ramblings of 2 geezers (who were THERE when you weren't, punks!), so play it at is lays. Outrages for omissions or inclusions encouraged. I said we were geezers, so we may have made omissions because of dementia precox.
Our individual lists were in alphabetical order, not by decade. We tried to pick not nec. our faves (sometimes we just had to!), but which albums by which artists we felt are the best examples of their sort. A great deal of these recordings were in EVERYONE'S 'plank and cinder block' book cases, cool, hip, or dweeb. No matter your musical mainstays, everyone owned Carol King's "Tapestry," everyone owned "Rumors," by Fleetwood Mac, most people had Beatles AND Stones albums, unless you were some die-hard, "them or us" person and couldn't understand any personality that allowed for BOTH Beatles AND Stones, and they were not in short supply. I am the only person in the world who owns "Orchestra Luna." Yeah, they were that gifted and unusual. We did try to stay away from "obscura" like that, but allowed each other a couple, otherwise, no "Buzzcocks!"
AC/DC Power Age
Adam Ant Viva La Rock
Aerosmith Toys in the Attic
Argent In Deep
B52's 1st release
The Band Music from Big Pink
Blind Faith 1st release
Beatles Meet the..
Jeff Beck Truth
BeeGee's Greatest Hits II
Big Brother & The Holding Co. Cheap Thrills
Big Star #1 Record
Bloodwyn Pig A Head Ring Out
Bowie Ziggy
Buffalo Springfield Again
The Byrds Mr. Tambourine Man
Bauhaus The Sky Gone Out
Buzzcocks Singles
Bronski Beat Age of Consent
Captain Beefheart Troutmask Replica
The Cars 1st release
Cream Disraeli Gears
Culture Club Kissing to be Clever
Cheap Trick 1st release
Alice Cooper Pretties for You
Credence Clearwater Revival Cosmos Factory
CSN 1st release
Elvis Costello My Aim is True
The Cure Standing on the Beach
Joe Cocker A Little Help from my Friends
Donovan Catch the Wind
Dylan Hgwy 61 ...
Doors 1st release
Devo Are We Not Men?
Deep Purple Machine Head
Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
Derek & the Dominoes Layla
Depeche Mode Some Great Reward
Dire Straits 1st release
Eno Here Come the Warm Jets
Eurythmics Touch
Eagles Desperado
ELO New World Record
Faces A Nod is as Good as a Wink
Aretha Franklin Gold
Foreigner 1st
Four Seasons Hits
Peter Frampton A Wind of Change
Geo. Harrison All Things Must Pass
Marvin Gaye Hits #1
Genesis Selling England by the Pound
Grass Roots Golden Grass
Ritchie Havens Mixed Bag
Hendrix Electric Lady Land
Hollies Hits
Richard Hell Blank Generation
Elton Caribou
Jethro Tull Aqualung
Joy Division Closer
Janis Pearl
M. Jackson Up Against the Wall
Etta James Rock the House
Billy Joel Turnstiles
Tommy James Hits
Kinks Everybody's a Star
Kraftwerk Trans Euro...
Kansas Masque
Little Feat The Last Record Album
Led Zep II
Lovin' Spoonful Hits
J. Lennon Imagine
Mammas & Papas If You Can Believe...
Joni Blue
Mothers of Invention Uncle Meat
Steve Miller Band Fly Like and Eagle
P. McCartney 1st solo
C. Mayfield Back to the Wall
Harry Nilsson Nilsson Schmilsson
Orchestra Luna only release
Nazz Nazz Nazz
Prince Sign o' the Times
PIL First Issue
Pink Floyd DSOTM
Poco 2nd release
Psychedelic Furs 1st release
Procol Harum Home
Quicksilver Messenger Service 1st release
Queen Queen II
Lou Rawls Tobacco Road
O. Redding King & Queen
Rascals Hits
Ramones The Ramones
Todd Rundgren Something/Anything
Lou Reed Transformer
Paul Revere and the Raiders Hits
Roxy Music Country Life
Linda Ronstadt Hits
Rolling Stones Let it Bleed
Stooges Raw Power
Soft Cell Non-stop Erotic...
The Smiths The Queen is Dead
Patti Smith Horses
Supertramp Breakfast in America
Sweet Desolation Blvd.
Sex Pistols Never Mind ...
Steely Dan Can't Buy a Thrill
Simon & Garfunkel Bookends
Cat Sevens Tea for the Tillerman
Supremes Hits
Squeeze Argy Bargy
T-Rex Slider
Talking Heads 77
The Temptations Hits
James Taylor Sweet Baby James
10cc Sheet Music
Traffic John Barleycorn Must Die
The Tubes The Tubes
Stevie Wonder Innervisions
Neil Young Harvest
Yes Fragile
So you made it this far, huh? Well there's your summer reading list to review what so many were listening to in the mid-60's to the very early 80's. It runs the gamut from R & B, early garage rock through prog to new wave and punk---all in less than two decades. I was paying a lot more attention then. It's not definitive (i.e. neither of us liked early metal, so no Sabbath), but with these you'd get a great idea about what was going on in R & R and a bit of the world, too.
Edit: The proper spacers between artist name and title was lost when I copied from Word, sorry.
Last edited by BobKay; 04/30/14 08:49 PM.
