The GIHYB TOP 50 Albums of the 1970s

1. Exile on Main Street (The Rolling Stones)
2. Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen)
3. Blood on the Tracks (Bob Dylan)
4. The Clash (The Clash)
5. London Calling (The Clash)
6. Loaded (The Velvet Underground)
7. Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols (Sex Pistols)
8. Ramones (Ramones)
9. Who’s Next (The Who)
10. Marquee Moon (Television)
11. Sticky Fingers (The Rolling Stones)
12. After the Gold Rush (Neil Young)
13. Rumours (Fleetwood Mac)
14. Let it Be (The Beatles)
15. All Things Must Pass (George Harrison)
16. What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye)
17. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John)
18. Hunky Dory (David Bowie)
19. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel)
20. Tapestry (Carole King)
21. Leave Home (Ramones)
22. The Cars (The Cars)
23. Innervisions (Stevie Wonder)
24. Moondance (Van Morrison)
25. Déjà Vu (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
26. Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd)
27. #1 Record (Big Star)
28. Led Zeppelin IV (Led Zeppelin)
29. Radio City (Big Star)
30. Unknown Pleasures (Joy Division)
31. Harvest (Neil Young)
32. Entertainment! (Gang of Four)
33. Third/Sister Lovers (Big Star)
34. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon)
35. Raw Power (Iggy and the Stooges)
36. American Beauty (Grateful Dead)
37. Van Halen (Van Halen)
38. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (David Bowie)
39. Off the Wall (Michael Jackson)
40. The Modern Lovers (The Modern Lovers)
41. Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (Devo)
42. Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
43. Quadrophenia (The Who)
44. Talking Heads: 77 (Talking Heads)
45. Transformer (Lou Reed)
46. Armed Forces (Elvis Costello and the Attractions)
47. Saturday Night Fever (various artists)
48. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (Derek and the Dominos)
49. Darkness on the Edge of Town (Bruce Springsteen)
50. Pink Moon (Nick Drake)

thanks to all who submitted. great lists! and as always, thanks to jack, who put in the sweat at the end. let's hear from you.

my quick thoughts:

-as with the top songs from 1950 list, I'm starting to think we're only going to see surprises once we get to the later decades. classic rock bleeds all over this list. crucial acts like john cale and the stooges get ignored or get one entry based on multiple great albums that cancel one another.

-once again, the lack of female presence is astounding (2.5 entries out of 50???), given the talent base. i'm the first to blame, patti smith only received honorable mention on my list. we did, again, have an overwhelming male voting

-3.5 on the color scale. "what's going on" being pretty much everyone's go to record.

-bizarre note ... metal almost completely excluded in the golden age of the genre??? sabbath is really the only true metal record on the list (maybe van halen). i know the community now embraces "raw power", but i'm not allowing that revisionism here, and zep IV is about as pussy a record as most southern cal crap from the era (not that there's anything wrong with that! boz scaggs made my list!!!).

-true 60s dinosaurs only accounted for 9 entries. i'm not including floyd in that category, cuz they emerged in the 70s as a different (and way less interesting) beast. i think, as we move into the 80s, when classic rockers began to put out truly terrible records, we'll see some more inspired choices. also, given the demographic of voters, many came of age in the 80s ... i think that's going to be an interesting list.

-one funny thing, the last entrant was able to knock "hotel california" off the list. kudos to k.c. in germany!