Abbey Road (The Beatles)

Abbey Road
The Beatles (1969)

Top Tracks: “Come Together”, “Here Comes the Sun”, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”

Funny thing that the first Beatles entry on this list (alphabetically) is also perhaps my least favorite. There are points where it feels contrived and that the band is functioning more as a collection of individuals than a cohesive unit (because that’s exactly what was happening). That being said, can I do a Top Albums list and leave off Abbey Road? No, of course not. That would be stupid. Personal note: it was the first Beatles album to come out after I was born (May 2020).

After the Gold Rush (Neil Young)

After the Gold Rush
Neil Young (1970)

Top Tracks: “When You Dance I Can Really Love”, “Don’t Let It Bring You Down”, “Southern Man”

Neil’s an interesting guy. Some think of him as not being willing or able to make commitments, but to me, he’s a guy that wanted to try everything. I mean, who does this? He puts out a great solo album, then gets together with a band and does a remarkable album with them, and then immediately after mostly abandons them for the third album, which doesn’t sound much like the first two albums at all. And it’s all great. I felt like ATGR is an illustration of a man in transition, but that was kind of always the case with Neil, so it’s was just another step on a path (May 2020).

Axis: Bold as Love (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

Axis: Bold as Love
The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)

Top Tracks: “Spanish Castle Magic”, “If Six Was Nine”, “Castles Made of Sand”

So, seven months after Jimi stuns the world with Are You Experienced?, he kicks out Axis. You can already hear him progressing quickly as a composer and guitarist, with more inventive lyrical themes and even deeper and more unique musical output. It’s simply astonishing that he was doing this kind of stuff in 1967 (May 2020).

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Back in Black (AC/DC)

Back in Black
AC/DC (1980)

Top Tracks: “Hells Bells”, “Back in Black”, “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution”

Another album that was just massive for me. My parents were not at all into hard rock, so the discovery of AC/DC while I was in middle school was some of my earliest rebellion music that grabbed me (along with early Van Halen at the time). It was music of my own. As was the case for me with many bands, I first got into AC/DC in the middle of their career, and had to go back and discover the entire Bon Scott era, which I gleefully did. I should note, for the record, that this is the second best selling album of all time, behind only Thriller (May 2020).

The Beatles (The Beatles)

The Beatles
The Beatles (1968)

Top Tracks: “Dear Prudence”, “Helter Skelter”, “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey”

Choosing the best songs from “The White Album” is an exercise in futility; ask me tomorrow and it might be three others. But even in its lack of focus, The Beatles is incredible in its moments of originality, and like most Beatles albums, many of its songs are rock classics of the highest order. Note: the was the first Beatles album I got into that my parents didn’t have in their collection. Too “out there” for them, I suppose (May 2020).

Can’t Buy a Thrill (Steely Dan)

Can’t Buy a Thrill
Steely Dan (1972)

Top Tracks: “Reelin’ In the Years”, “Do It Again”, “Dirty Work”

Personal note: when I was three or four years old and “Reelin’ In the Years” would come on, I’d go completely psycho. Something about that speedy shuffle did things to my developing brain, and I’d be doing a pretty good impression of the Tasmanian Devil cartoon, tumbling about the room for the whole four minutes of the tune. Steely Dan grew quite a bit and in different ways after this debut album, but it still set the path for them to combine elements of rock and jazz and R&B, and rule the Yacht Rock era for the next decade (June 2020).

Cosmo’s Factory (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

Cosmo’s Factory
Creedence Clearwater Revival (1970)

Top Tracks: “Run Through the Jungle”, “Who’ll Stop the Rain”, “Up Around the Bend”

I have a weird musical relationship with CCR. They were part of my youth… not at my house, where they were a little too rough for my parents’ tastes, but through friends and in culture. People have commented about this album that they can’t hear it without picturing it being set to the cinematic visual of helicopters arriving in Vietnam, and I suppose that’s understandable. I guess the weird thing for me about CCR in general is that they had this swampy Bayou sound but were just another late-60s rock band from the Bay Area, albeit a good one (June 2020).

Crosby, Stills & Nash (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)

Top Tracks: “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, “Wooden Ships”, “Guinnevere”

God, this is an incredible album. Definitely one of the finest debuts ever, if you can consider the first album of a supergroup to be a debut. You have Steven Stills, fresh out of Buffalo Springfield; David Crosby, who’d walked away (or was fired, I can’t remember) from the Byrds, and kind of the oddball with English musician Graham Nash of The Hollies. And somehow, those voices and vibes blended in a way that really defines this era for me (June 2020).

Damn the Torpedoes (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)

Damn the Torpedoes
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1979)

Top Tracks: “Here Comes My Girl”, “Refugee”, “ Don’t Do Me Like That”

A totally solid rock album. I thought “Here Comes My Girl” had a terrific progression from the first time I heard it in middle school, and associated the tune at the time with the myriad young ladies who I was suddenly interested in romantically. Definitely an influential album on me as a rock songwriter (June 2020).

The Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd)

The Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd (1972)

Top Tracks: “Time”, “The Great Gig in the Sky”, “Brain Damage/Eclipse”

It’s one of the best known and beloved albums in history. Am I going to say anything you haven’t heard already? Like many, I spent a ton of time in my bedroom as a teenager with this on my headphones and a bong close at hand. It’s woven into the fabric of our culture; it’s spent a total of 950 weeks on the Billboard charts, and is the fourth best selling album of all time. I still find new little things about it here and there on occasional listens (June 2020).