I've been tinkering with this one in my mind for a couple of weeks. Obviously it's hard to come up with just five...........most lists like this encompass 20 or more. But if I had to pick just five, these would be it for me. And yeah, I know there will be endless arguments over this topic, and specifically which Beatles record was their greatest. That topic will NEVER die, and Beatles fans will mostly differ. But for me, it's The White Album, due it's sheer volume of great tunes and also the tremendous variety of genres therein.
Another very tough one for me is naming ABB's greatest record because for me it's very hard to differentiate between Fillmore East and Eat A Peach. But I went with Fillmore mostly because it was so innovative for a rock band to be delving that deeply into both blues and jazz. Another reason is that Fillmore East is listed in the Library of Congress as a seminal example of American music...........how many records have received that honor?
Here's my list..............curious what yours would be. These are in no particular pecking order. Oh, and it should be noted: Both Eric Clapton and Duane Allman made the list twice. How fitting........
1. Derek And The Dominoes: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
2. The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced?
3. Cream: Disraeli Gears
4. The Allman Brothers Band: Live At Fillmore East
5. The Beatles: The White Album
Quadrophonia, LAFE, Exile, Selling England, and Wired off the top of my head.
In no order:
1. Exile
2. Waiting for Columbus
3. Electric Ladyland
4. LAFE
5. Live Dead
Great topic as usual Rob, but I feel this really begs to be two different categories, studio and live. At least it does to me. So my Top 5 Studio albums (this moment.) In no particular order:
1. Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
2. Rolling Stones - Exile On Mainstreet
3. Beatles - Abbey Road
4.Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
5. Yes - Close To The Edge
Am I American???
Great topic as usual Rob, but I feel this really begs to be two different categories, studio and live. At least it does to me. So my Top 5 Studio albums (this moment.) In no particular order:
1. Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
2. Rolling Stones - Exile On Mainstreet
3. Beatles - Abbey Road
4.Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
5. Yes - Close To The EdgeAm I American???
I love Close To The Edge and I agree that it's one of the greatest achievements by anyone in the history of rock. Funny too, because the remainder of Yes' catalogue just doesn't do much for me at all. But I pull out Close To The Edge at least a couple of times a year and give it a few spins.
LAFE
Revolver
Exile on Main Street
Forever Changes
After the Gold Rush
This one is good and hard, so hear it goes.
1) Electric Ladyland Jimi Hendrix Experience
2) Live At The Fillmore East ABB
3) Look Into The Future Journey
4) In Search Of The Lost Chord Moody Blues
5) Europe 72 The Grateful Dead
[Edited on 9/9/2016 by Dan]
bob dylan desire
zep physical graffiti
hendrix at woodstock
csny 4 way street
mule live at roseland
LAFE
Europe 72
Waiting for Columbus
Revolver
Blood on the Tracks
Top 5 studio & live in no order:
Studio:
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Albert King - Born Under A Bad Sign
Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
Marshall Tucker Band - Marshall Tucker Band
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
Live:
Rory Gallagher - Irish Tour '74
Aerosmith - Live Bootleg
Blackfoot - Highway Song Live
B.B. King - Blues Is King
Bob Seger - Live Bullet
If asked this tomorrow, I'll probably have different answers.
5 Albums I'd like to own and have copies of for the rest of my life, rock edition
Derek Trucks Band- Songlines
Allman Brothers Band- Eat A Peach
Bob Dylan- Blood on the Tracks
Pink Floyd- Animals
Radiohead- A Moon Shaped Pool
Non rock
Miles Davis- Kind of Blue
Greensky Bluegrass- If Sorrows Swim
John Coltrane- A Love Supreme
Herbie Hancock- Head Hunters
Bela Fleck & the Flecktones- Flight of the Cosmic Hippo
30 second response:
Electric Ladyland
Eat A Peach
American Beauty
Worst Of Jefferson Airplane
Hot Rocks
Funny, same five records I would have named when I was 14. I guess growth must have stunted my music.
Revolver
Live at Fillmore
Traffic
Volunteers
Live Dead
I just realized something: Eric Clapton is on at least one tune (While My Guitar Gently Weeps) on The Beatles' White Album. So he is on this list in three out of my five selections. Trust me, I didn't plan it that way. But I find it quite astounding...........
Does anyone know if Clapton played on more than that one tune on The White Album?
1) Little Feat - Waiting for columbus
2) DTB - Songlines
3) Rolling Stones - Get yer ya-yas out
4) John Hiatt - Slow Turning
5) ABB - Brothers and Sisters
LAPE
Animals Pink Floyd
Innervisions Stevie Wonder
Sticky Fingers Rolling Stones
White Album Beatles
1) LAFE- ABB
2) Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs- Derek & the Dominoes
3) Exile on Main Street- Rolling Stones
4) Mad Dogs and Englishmen- Joe Cocker
5) Electric Ladyland- Jimi Hendirx
Interestingly, I just realized that all these selections were two record vinyl sets. Quantity has its place!
And in the category of single vinyl record the winners are:
1) The Doors- The Doors
2) Sticky Fingers- The Rolling Stones
3) Who's Next- The Who
4) Born to Run- Bruce Springsteen
5) Abbey Road- The Beatles
Honorable Mention: The single disk version of the White Album that George Martin wanted to release. What a heavy hitter that would have been.
Music that changed the landscape
The Beales ...Revolver
The Rolling Stones...Let it Bleed
Bob Dylan...Highway 61 Revisited
Led Zeppelin ....II
Jimi Hendrix Experience ...Are You Experienced?
And besides five is not enough!
Cream...Disraeli Gears
The Who ...Live at Leeds
Crosby,Stills,Nash & Young...Deja Vu
David Bowie... Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars
The Allman Brothers Band...Live at the Fillmore East
Music that changed the landscape
The Beales ...Revolver
The Rolling Stones...Let it Bleed
Bob Dylan...Highway 61 Revisited
Led Zeppelin ....II
Jimi Hendrix Experience ...Are You Experienced?And besides five is not enough!
Cream...Disraeli Gears
The Who ...Live at Leeds
Crosby,Stills,Nash & Young...Deja Vu
David Bowie... Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars
The Allman Brothers Band...Live at the Fillmore East
Love the fact that you put HWY 61 and Ziggy in there. Two of my all-time favorite records, and both game-changers for sure!!
These have all been stellar choices!!!
OK, some time has gone by, kind of feeling different today so time for a new five:
John Barleycorn Must Die
Bridge of Sighs
Axis Bold As Love
Thick As A Brick
Nantucket Sleighride
OK, some time has gone by, kind of feeling different today so time for a new five:
John Barleycorn Must Die
Bridge of Sighs
Axis Bold As Love
Thick As A Brick
Nantucket Sleighride
I LOVE Nantucket Sleighride!! If anyone doesn't know, it's by Mountain.........I'm guessing it came out in '72, maybe '73. Great record, and sorely overlooked in the history of rock 'n' roll. I highly recommend to anyone that they pick this one up.
Thick As A Brick I just can't get behind, though. I'm having a bit of a Tull revival, been playing a lot of Tull lately, and I spun Thick As A Brick just last week. It had been a LOT of years.
I was kind of surprised at how bored I got. It's one long song of course. Yes, it has it's moments, and the first half of the record is much stronger than the second. But overall it's just too disjointed, like a bunch of avante garde ideas strung together. Ian Anderson was obviously on a very progressive, experimental bent at that time, and for me anyway, it mostly doesn't work, although as mentioned the first half of it is mostly listenable. And although I haven't owned it in years, A Passion Play, which followed Thick As A Brick, was even more disjointed.
Umm.....today? Okay, no particular order:
Allman Brothers Band - self titled first album
Grateful Dead - Anthem Of The Sun
Moby Grape - self titled first album
Hot Tuna - Burgers
Jefferson Airplane - After Bathing At Baxter's
Deep Purple - Machine Head
ABB - EAP
Blue Oyster Cult - Agents Of Fortune
D&TD - L&OAL
Yes - Fragile
Agree with so many of the albums already listed ...
At Fillmore East - The Allman Brothers Band
Exile On Main Street - The Rolling Stones
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs - Derek and the Dominos
Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix Experience
The White Album - The Beatles
Europe 72 - The Grateful Dead
Waiting for Columbus - Little Feat
Too hard to knock two off to make it five ...
[Edited on 9/12/2016 by tomsmith79]
Agree w/most mentions
Five Favorite CDs
Robbie Robertson & the Red Road Ensemble
Beth Orton -- Trailer Park
Terrence Blanchard -- Magnetic (jazz :D)
Mercury Rev -- See You on the Other Side
Gregg Allman -- Low Country Blues
Dickey Betts -- Collectors Vol 1 (acoustic 
)
& many other CDs
impossible to single out top 5 albums 😮 
The Band-Music From Big Pink
Bob Dylan-Planet Waves
The Allman Brothers-AFE
The Beatles-Revolver
The Rolling Stones-Exile
Ian Anderson was obviously on a very progressive, experimental bent at that time
Re Thick As A Brick - Ian would probably agree with you, not his favorite either, and quite a prog muddle. He admitted as much when he played some bits from it at a show a few years back. For me it was when the record hit me - it was an anthem of sorts, I clung to every note and word like gospel. It was incredibly visual, the poetry came alive in my brain over the music. The lyrics really are truly astounding - right up there with other Dead Sea Scrolls of the early 70s like Tales From Topographic Oceans, long rambling obscure tomes, only decipherable to those who were actually living the words. It was an incredible feat of verse, Anderson compressed a thousand years of English history into two sides of a record. Unless the record was a soundtrack and blueprint for your world, objectively it probably sounded cluttered and pointless. I attended an English boarding school in Africa when I was very young, so I actually knew who Biggles was, and where the hell was he last saturday? For a 12 year old kid in 1972, Little Milton made a lot more sense than whatever they were dishing out in English class.
Which I suppose all makes it one of "my" five, but certainly not one of "the" five.
can't do five..........
alone together-dave mason
mad dogs and Englishmen-joe cocker
roy Buchanan 1st album
liege and life-fairport convention
laid back-Gregg allman
live dates-wishbone ash
Aztec two step 1st album
after the goldrush-neil young
McCartney
etc etc etc
