Classic rock and pop albums from the 1970s?

One of my sons, mid 30s, is treating himself to a Rega Planar 3 very soon. However, he currently has no vinyl! For his forthcoming birthday in June he has requested some (unspecified) ‘classic’ 70s albums. I have some ideas of my own, but would welcome the suggestions of Forum members - hopefully an interesting diversion for the current lockdown times!

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Thank Christ for the bomb, by The groundhogs.

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Just a few basics, nothing too esoteric:
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus
Roxy Music - First two albums
Rod Stewart - Every Picture…
Faces - Ooh La la
David Bowie - Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Station To Station, Low, Heroes
T. Rex - Electric Warrior
Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
The Clash - The Clash, Give 'Em Enough Rope, London Calling
Ramones - Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket To Russia
Steely Dan - Aja
Led Zep - First four
Stevie Wonder - Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, FFF, SITKOL
Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
Television - M<arquee Moon
Plus XTC, Bunnymen, Ian Dury, Nick Drake etc etc

OK, we’ll need a full report on our desk by July 1.

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Thanks, that’s a great start, most I am familiar with, but a few I’ve never even heard of - clearly a gap in my musical education! Some of your suggestions, although of interest to me, aren’t actually from the 70s e.g. Blood on the Tracks, but it does happen to be my favourite Dylan album of all time so I’ll probably buy that regardless.

Pink Floyd - DSOTM
Deep Purple - Made in Japan
Genesis - Lamb lies down on Broadway
Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green
Focus - Moving Waves
Quatermass - Quatermass
Queen - Night at the OperaRolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Uriah Heap - Look at yourself
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Hawkwind - In search of space
King Crimson - Court of the Crimson King

Oh, I could go on and on…

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Great suggestions. I expected a big response.

So ‘Night at the Opera’ is the best Queen album of the lot? It’s the only one I am familiar with.

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Some early Elton; Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Honky Chateau, Madman Across The Water, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Joy Division Unknown Pleasures
Wish You Were Here
Kraftwerk Man Machine/Autobahn/Radio Activity/Trans Europe Express
Siouxsie and the Banshees The Scream
Talking Heads loads to choose from
Lou Reed Transformer
How many more do you want :wink:
Edited to remove Computer World as that was 1981 and put Trans Europe Express in its place

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Genesis - Selling England by the pound, Wind and Wuthering
Supertramp - Breakfast in America, Even in the quietest moments
Gerry Rafferty - City to City
Queen - A day at the races
ELO - Out of the Blue
Police Reggata de Blanc
U2 - Boy
Meatloaf - Bat out of hell
Boston - Boston
Clapton - 461 Ocean Boulevard
Eagles - Hotel California
Deceptive Bends - 10CC
Dire Straits - Dire Straits
Steely Dan - Gaucho
Alan Parsons - Tales of Mystery and Imagination
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
After the gold rush - Neil Young
War of the worlds - Jeff Wayne
Never for ever - Kate Bush
Frampton Comes Alive - Peter Frampton
Oxygene - Jarre
The Stranger - Billy Joel
Hejira - Joni Mitchell

A few more to be going on with!!

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Elton john Tumble weed connection
The Beatles
The Grateful Dead, Europe 72, Mars Hotel
Joni Mitchell, Blue, Court and Spark, For the Roses.
CSN, CSNY deja vu
Jackson Browne
The Eagles
Dave Matthews Band
ZEPPELIN
WHO
Zappa
Blue Oyster Cult
And so much More!

Blood on the Tracks was released in 1975. First two Zeppelin albums were 69, but I’m pretty sure everything else I mentioned was released in the 70s, although many of those artists were also active before and after that time.

A few classic albums that I played in the 1970’s

Yes - Fragile
Savoy Brown - Street Corner Talking
Earth Wind & Fire - Head To The Sky
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Foghat - Rock & Roll
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
It’s a Beautiful Day - It’s a Beautiful Day
Eagles - Desperado
Emerson Lake Palmer - Trilogy
Rod Steward - Every Picture Tells A Story

…from the many response above you will be able to find some albums that represent the era!

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To me, yes

Must be Let it be, being the only one from the 70s

I was thinking all of them😊

Please be sure to include the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street

And by the same reasoning, In the Court of the Crimson King is ineligible as it is from 1969. But that’s OK because it can be swapped out for Red (1974) which, in my opinion, is a much superior LP.

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My list would be far too long, there were so many great albums released in the 70s.

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Oops!
Interestingly, IIRC when I had my LP the label was undated, which I noticed at some point because it was unusual, and at the time made me wonder if it meant it wasn’t copyright or if copyright was invalid, because at the time all references to copyright I’d seen were referenced to the date.

Don’t forget Fleetwood Mac - either their self titled album, or Rumours (or both).
And the Doobie Brothers - Toulouse Street, or The Captain and Me.
Talking Heads - The Name of this Band is Talking Heads.
Oh, and Steely Dan - any of the albums will do, but perhaps best to first look for the US pressing of the Greatest Hits with the Masterdisk stamp and RL (for Robert Ludwig) etched in the dead wax - a superb album and one of the best sounds too.

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Sorry, of course it was - late night lockdown fatigue!

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