The Greatest Album of the 1970's

Marquee Moon - Television for the music.

Pink Flag By Wire for the influence.

+1 for Queen and Zep.
Transformer - Lou Reed; For Your Pleasure - Roxy Music; Hunky Dory and Ziggy - David Bowie; anything by Rory Gallagher; Dark Side of the Moon; Exile on Main Street - Stones; Stupidity - Dr Feelgood; In Rock - Deep Purple.

I'm going to plead for clemency as my favourite 70's album was actually released in March 1980, but therefore must have been recorded in the 70's, right?!

Anyway, Duke by Genesis. The album that (for me) represents the fulcrum of their journey from out-and-out Prog into the Pop we saw later in their career. Honourable mentions to Trick of the Tail (also Genesis), The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust..., Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.

Marquee Moon for sure

Born to Run

Fun House - The Stooges (1970)
Never Mind The Bollocks - The Sex Pistols is my number 1

London Calling
(at the time, perhaps still)

Lots of great suggestions above. But surely the greatest album must be Rumours from Fleetwood Mac. It may not be to everyone's taste (it is mine) but I have a feeling it would be found in more peoples album collections than any other from that era.

Led zep - iv

Then honourable mentions to

deep purple - made in japan
Rainbow - rainbow rising
Boston - boston
Dire straits - dire straits
Van morrison - moondance
Sex pistols - anarchy in the uk
Fleetwood mac - rumours

Can - Tago Mago

Songs of Love and Hate - Leonard Cohen.
Dark Side of the Moon
Blood on the Tracks.

Marvin Gaye, whats going on.

Marvin Gaye, whats going on

There's a shout. Blood on t'tracks likewise

Led Zep Physical Graffiti (easily trumps IV)

I agree with many of the above but can't decide. Dylan, Cohen, Floyd, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Dire Straits and Genesis formed a lot of the soundtrack of my University years. As did The Police and Fleetwood Mac, but mainly not by choice. I seemed to be in a minority of one in liking Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes. So I will add to the mix

Tales from Topographic Oceans - Yes
The Only Ones - The Only Ones
New Boots and Panties!! - Ian Dury

Forgot Roxy Music FYP. Love The Only Ones but not in contention for the prize.

Oh I don't know, my tastes veered from pop to prog to punk and post punk in about twenty minutes.
If I was to keep one album from the 70s it would probably be The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, but tomorrow it might be Cant Stand the Rezillos or Rattus Norvegicus......
But then they're not really the "greatest" albums of the era, are they.
Probably never mind the bollox, or exodus for game changing releases

Phaedra - Tangerine Dream
Dark Side of the Moon - Floyd
Rumours - Mac
Eagles - Eagles
What's going on - Marvin Gaye

None of which I appreciated until much later in life.

Magazine - Real Life
Gang of Four - Entertainment

Can – Tago Mago

I'd have picked Ege Bam Yasi, but nice to see them acknowledged.

Some great suggestions already, hard to choose from:

Hunky Dory
What's Going On
Exile on Main Street
Trans Europe Express

It's Dark Side of the Moon. There isn't any debate.

The Upsetters - Return of the Super Ape.

I like lots of the earlier suggestions, but i'd happily wipe the '70s from existence if it took Dark Side of the Moon with it.

It’s Dark Side of the Moon. There isn’t any debate.

Have to agree.

Have to disagree.

Each to their own, but I, genuinely, detest that album, and Pink Floyd's music in general.

I'm trying to stay positive and non-judgemental on all these album threads.

A lot of people obviously love popular stuff like Pink Floyd, Queen, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Arctic Monkeys - there's no point in me pissing on their chips, however irritating and overrated I find them. Nobody likes a smug music snob.

It's great to see how many strong suggestions have been made though. We are generally a very tasteful lot.

😀

Inflammable Material - Stiff Little Fingers, just edges The Clash - The Clash

Dark Side of the Moon

At last my era.
Chez Slowoldman the most often played '70s albums are"

The Yes Album
Nursery Cryme - Genesis.

If left up to me though (as opposed to Mrs S.) Zappa's Sheikh Yerbouti would probably be right up there.

As for "Dark Side" it took me a long time to accept it and I still don't think it's Floyd's best album of the '70s or any other decade.

Two by Stevie Wonder to add to my earlier list - Talking Book and Songs In The Key of Life.

Songs of Love and hate - Leonard Cohen
Desire - Bob Dylan
Blood on the Tracks - Dylan
Street Legal - Dylan
London Calling
Live Convention - Fairport Convention
Hissing of Summer lawns - Joni Mitchell
Blue - Joni Mitchell
Harmony Row - Jack Bruce
Band of Gypsies - Jimi Hendrix
New Boots & Panties - Ian Dury and the Blockheads
Liquid Acrobat as regards the Air - Incredible String band
U - Incredible String band

Stop posting lists, you're supposed to chose one! 😄

Germfree Adolescents

Am I the first one to say Unknown Pleasures?

Seismic doesn’t even cover it

Honourable mentions to:

Black Sabbath - Paranoid
X Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents
Devo - Q. Are we not men?
Gil Scott Heron - Pieces of a Man
David Bowie - Heroes / Low
Suicide - Suicide

Brian Eno - Here come the warm jets

I'm changing my choice to *Low*.

Bob Marley - Exodus

IMO the greatest album ever

brought reggae to the wider world.

IMO greatest needs to have had a lasting influence that changed the world of music. Some very good albums mentioned here for sure but did any of them have the worldwide influence that Exodus did? Hugely influential album and created the space for a whole load of other folk to be recognised and heard

easily - good call - thats lee Perry at the height of his powers is it not? He also moved recording techniques on

I will also add Curtis - Curtis Mayfield

Bob Marley – Exodus

Actually listened to that in full last night

Bat Out of Hell.

Not claiming it's the greatest album of 70's but it's my favourite
All mod cons
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mI0lqElyZ5uZ5h-gfFxw375_KhTUk6_2k&feature=share

I so wanted to suggest something by the jam, I went and looked at the track listings of their 70's albums to see which would be the best option, and realised I would just keep listening to the greatest hits rather than any particular album.

mefty
Free Member
Inflammable Material – Stiff Little Fingers, just edges The Clash – The Clash

Listened to this just last night (and watched a documentary about it on YT).
My God, I'd forgotten just how brutal it is. Fantastic.

Right now though, Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain (by strategy).
Never gets old, always makes me laugh, still sounds like it's just been released.

Hang on, hold the front page. I just remembered -

THE PRETENDERS.

Though there appears to be some disagreement about its actual release year - late 79 or early 80. Anyway, whatever, it was and remains, brilliant.

Ramones - Leave Home.

Second MoreCash, shocked that it took till the second page for someone to mention it

There were at least two "The 70s"
The 70s v1
Stevie Wonder Songs in the key of life
Lou Reed Transformer
Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon
The 70s v2
The Clash London Calling
Bob Marley and the wailers Exodus
Joy Division Unknown Pleasure

There are too many good albums from the 70s. Lots of my favorites mentioned above.

Other notable mentions for me include
Aqualung or Thick as a Brick
Frampton Comes Alive (yes I know it’s a live album but is just brilliant)
Harvest, After the Gold Rush and Live Rust
Highway to Hell

Just off the top of my head, having looked through what others have posted so far.

Aqualung

Marquee Moon

Talking Heads ‘77’

Rumours

Nursery Crime

Selling England By The Pound

Wish You Were Here.

I look at what somepeople have posted and I think ‘thank god I’ve my own collection’...🤪 taking on board the not being negative about (well Music is subjective) I’d say to select a single greatest album of the 70’s is impossible (it’d be difficult enough to select one per year) I’m going to mention some essential albums that I don’t see mentioned:

There’s a Riot Going on - Sly & the family stone (also Fresh)
Someday we’ll look back - Merle Haggard (the cd reissue with Hag as well is my all time favourite Merle cd)
Trench Town Mix Up - The Gladiators
Two Sevens Clash - Culture
Reggae Got Soul - Toots & The Maytals
Tonight’s the night, On The Beach & Rust Never Sleeps - Neil Young
Raw Power - Iggy & The Stooges (I’ll admit Fun House is the better album though)
I’m Still in love with you - Al Green
Greetings From LA - Tim Buckley
Blue Valentines- Tom Waits (my favourite pre swordfish album of his)
GP & Grievous Angel - Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris
Horses - Patti Smith
Ramones - The Ramones (ie the first)
New York Dolls - New York Dolls
Blank Generation - Richard Hell & the Void-oids
On The Corner - Miles

I’d also like to +1 to Tago Mago (& Ege Bamyazi), Marquee Moon, Entertainment & London Calling. Oh and some the Dylan stuff.

There’s also serious gaps in the above as I don’t know specific albums well enough but there’s James Brown, Parliament/Funkadelic, Chic/Sister Sledge/Rogers & Nile, etc., etc. I’d need to dig through my boxes of cds

I did have to laugh at DOTM ‘and no debate’, it’s not even the best Floyd album!

Each to their own, but I, genuinely, detest that album, and Pink Floyd’s music in general.

+1

I'm going with Horses - Patti Smith.

David Bowie - Low (or Heroes, I just love the largely ambient B-side of Low)

Marvin Gaye - What's going on?

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express

Sun Ra - Lanquidity (anybody else like Ra?)

All out before I was born but in regular rotation in my house / van. If I had to choose one it'd probably be Marvin.

If I had to choose one it’d probably be Marvin.

Same.

Both for the amazing music and the social commentary aspect. The complete package.

off the top of my head:

Physical Graffiti
Fun House
Station to Station
London Calling
Inspiration Information (Shuggie Otis)
Maggot Brain - Funkadelic

All a bit 'classic rock' but whatevs

EDIT: yeah forgot Stevie Wonder - I'm an 'innervisions' man, out of his classic period

Don't want to clutter up what's supposed to be a thread of one line posts with discussion, but was thinking about the changes in music between 1970 and 1980, and did a search for best albums of 1970. Picked one of the first results, and the list was jaw dropping.

Don't know what Paste magazine is, but to someone of my age that's an amazing set of 25 albums from one year.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/best-albums/best-albums-of-1970/

Going to look at 1980 now.

I just remembered Rock N Roll by JR and the Modern Lovers. How could I have forgotten that one!
Shuggie Otis is a very good call too

Rush 2112

God, forgot about The Modern Lovers too.

And Big Star Third...

And I’m another that push come to shove would probably go for What’s Going On as being the greatest.

@vinnyeh that’s what I was getting at, pretty sure you could do exactly the same for every other year in the 70’s...

"Physical Graffiti better than IV"
Agreed!

..... but I'd have to say Live & Dangerous, Thin Lizzy.

Setting Sons - The Jam.

Big Star Third, yes indeed.

Blood on the tracks - Bob Dylan

Sun Ra – Lanquidity (anybody else like Ra?)

Oh yes, don’t know Lanquidity mind you. ‘Space is the place’, is great and from the 70’s

+ 1 for "What's Goin' On" by Marvin Gaye. More specifically the Detroit Mix on The 25th anniversary reissue, which is rawer and less polished. Apparently this was Marvin Gaye's original production before Motown decided to improve it in post production......

Whats going on
IIRC I heard that he had been challenged to be more political and this was the result.

Ziggy Stardust album.
The Specials album.
all The Jam 70's albums.

Thin Lizzy- Live n Dangerous
Stiff Little Fingers- Inflammable Material
Led Zeppelin- Physical Graffiti

At last TUBULAR BELLS!

Slightly off topic, this is worth a watch

https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2021/04/apple-tv-announces-new-music-docuseries-1971-the-year-that-music-changed-everything/

It's loosely based on the book with the same title

there’s no point in me pissing on their chips, however irritating and overrated I find them.

Likewise (as @tjagain eludes to) if the average Joe hasn't heard it, it's unlikely to be, in fact; The Greatest Album.

I prefer Wish You Were Here over Dark Side, a couple of tracks could easily disappear of Dark Side making it a better album.

As for Tales From Topographic Oceans, starts well, ends well, just loses direction on sides two and three.

IMHO of course.

Did you not like Sound Affects @ton?Pretty good in my book.

I was going to mention Tubular Bells but beaten to the line, Aladdin Same for the piano playing or Ziggy/Hunky Dory and then there has to be Harvest Neil Young maybe Jailbreak or even SAHB Next
I could think of loads

I'm music child of late 80s and 90s, but I can think of more 'greatest' albums from the 70s.

The answer is probably something from led zep, or the clash, or queen or...it's too hard

I wouldn't claim it's the greatest album of the seventies, that'll probably go to Rumours or something by pink floyd purely based on general appeal. But I'll nominate....

Maggot Brain by Funkadelic, if only for Eddie Hazel's guitar work on the title track, truly astonishing 😲😲

The Bonzo Dog Band - Let's Make Up and Be Friendly 😂

Not an album but just played Child in Time 10 mins of Deep Purple and just realised how good it was from back then. Lots of organ on the go

Playing Rumours today in honour of Christine McVie, who died yesterday.

The Bonzo Dog Band – Let’s Make Up and Be Friendly

Ah yes, The Strain and Bad Blood. Excellent.