My discoveries per year

[dihansse]

So I'm extending my listening session to 1968 album a bit as promised. I don't know why I limited myself in the first listening session to only 20 albums because I think I will appreciate many of the albums after that and maybe even more so because a lot of those album are a bit cult (and in 1968 that of course meant a bit trippy). These are already three of those:
- S.F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things (nr 21 in the overall BEA top chart of 1968): A good example of my point is this album. The music of the Pretty Things is normally very hard edged (you could even call it pre-punk) but that's certainly not the case on this record. The music is very melodic and psychedelic and especially the first few tracks are very good. Although a number of the latter tracks are a bit sub-standard I however decided to include it in my personal top chart of 1968.
- Os Mutantes by Os Mutantes (nr 22): to me the music on this Argentinan album is or very derivative or very childishly weird. In any case not an album I like.
- The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter by The Incredible String Band (nr 23): This weird folk music to me is on the wrong sense of trippy and I think they took the wrong type of drugs for this album: the music is just boring and uninspired whatever the strange twists and turns. I read a lot of very positive comments on the 13 minute track A Very Cellular Moon, but I really don't understand why they put together four individual songs (even with pauses between them) and decided to call it one song. Sometimes I was a bit interested by some of the Indian drones but overall this album is certainly not good and it is dated as hell.

The next album to listen to is Ogdens's Nut gone Flake by The Small Faces, another cult psychedelic album I'm dying to check out.

[dihansse]

Some more from 1968:
- Ogdens's Nut gone Flake by The Small Faces (nr 24 on the overall BEA top chart of 1986): This album is divided into two very different part. Part one sounds as a regular album and is actually not bad with highlights as Afterglow and of course Lazy Sunday which is one of my favorite singles of the sixties. But the second part is a concept album and not a good one in my mind. There is first the very disturbing voice by Stanley Unwin which makes this very dated and sometimes takes half of the song. Also the quality of the individual songs is not great. So to me the album is not consistently good enough to make this a pick for my personal top chart of 1968.
- Eli and the Thirteenth Confession by Laura Nyro (nr 25): this is a bit a mixture of easy listening and jazz and neither her voice nor the songwriting are really my thing
- Friends by The Beach Boys (nr 26): there was life after Pet Sounds but to me neither the naive quality of the pre-Pet Sounds sound neither the genious of Pet Sounds itself. There are some tracks which are fairly good but the majority is for me below the high Beach Boys standard
- Silver Apples by Silver Apples (nr 27): This must have been a really confusing and groundbreaking album in 1968 which has been copied many times in latter decades but is very original as a sixties record. And I must say: I love it more than many of those Krautrock and post-Krautrock albums. Overall this record has a very hypnotic atmosphere which is really interesting in most tracks (like Dancing Gods). This is definitely an album for my personal top chart. Unfortunately I had to listen to it via Youtube as I couldn't find it on Apple Music and so can't include it to my playlists

Next album to listen to is In Search of the Lost Chord by the Moody Blues.

[dihansse]

And four more of 1968 (they are short albums ):
- In Search of the Lost Chord by the Moody Blues (nr 28 on the overall BEA top chart of 1968): There is one very good track on this album (the semi-hit Ride my See-saw) and some track which are not too bad, but overall this is a bit too much noodling progrock avant la lettre for me
- Gris-Gris by Dr John (nr 29): again a very short album with interesting but not necessarily good tracks on it
- Song Cycle by Van Dyke Park (nr 30): although linked with the Beach Boys not very inspirational songwriting for me. Interesting are the two Laurel Canyon tracks, a year before Charles Manson
- Blood, Sweat & Tears by Blood, Sweat & Tears (nr 31): this is not the first but the second album of this band but in a completely different line-up. I already had their two standout songs on a Greatest Hits (You've Made Me So Very Happy and of course Spinning Wheel) but I found some other nice tracks on it like Smiling Phase with a very good jazz outro and the long Blues, Pt II (with a nice reference to Spoonful). Also the side steps to Eric Satie are interesting. As this album can count as their best of I will include it in my personal top chart of 1968.

Next album to listen to is Truth by the Jeff Beck Group so I'm curious because most of the albums of Jeff Beck I listened to weren't that good but this one seems to be different especially also, it seems, because of the singing of Rod Stewart.

[dihansse]

And now two blues albums of 1968:
- Truth By The Jeff Beck Group (nr 32 on the overall BEA top chart of 1968): This album disappointed a bit. It started out fine with an interesting cover of Shapes of Things from his old band the Yardbirds and also the second track Let Me Love You is not bad but then the mixture of covers from songs which were performed better by other artists and own songs was not so good as expected. I doubted a bit but finally I will not include this album in my personal top chart of 1968
- Fleetwood Mac by Fleetwood Mac (nr 34): this first album of this band has the name Blues written all over the album and I really like blues in general but it can be so very uniform and this is also the case with this album. A good example is Cold Black Night which fades out just when the song is starting to get interesting. The only standout is the Elmore James cover Shake Your Moneymaker which sounds really energetic.

The next album is the self-titled album of Caetano Veloso.

[dihansse]

And these are finally the remaining albums of 1968 to listen to:
- Caetano Veloso by Caetano Veloso (nr 35 on the overall BEA top chart of 1968): this music is very similar to Gilberto Gil's, soft voice and a bit of bossanova mixed with western rock/pop influences but still very soft pop and not really my thing
- Creedence Clearwater Revival by Creedence Clearwater Revival (nr 36): This first album of CCR is maybe not their best overall but it contains two of my favorites of them although they're covers (but the best versions around): Susie Q and even more I Put A Spell on You which is one of my absolutely favorite rock songs in this version. Although the other tracks are maybe not of the same quality, they're still very good just because of the voice and the guitar of John Fogerty. I already knew most of the songs from best ofs but taken together this is certainly an album for my personal top chart of 1968
- The Soft Machine by Soft Machine (nr 37): this is the type of jazz-rock with psychedelic flavour I absolutely love: some of them can put you in a real trance and although the voice of Robert Wyatt is maybe not the best in the world, it certainly serves its purpose. Also the contribution of Kevin Ayers on base and as a songwriter is a welcome addition to this debut album. I'm already looking forward to listen to their other albums
- In-a-Gadda-a-Vida by Iron Butterfly (nr 39): Of course I know the title song but in a shorter version and it is certainly a good song. This longer version and the other tracks make me think however that I don't really like the sound of the guitar which is ever present on this album except when the band loses itself in long drum or other solos. The title song makes me think a bit of the long Get Ready Jam which is also noodling along but which I like much better. So I will not select this album for my personal top chart of 1968
- Scott 2 by Scott Walker (nr 39): what surprised me a bit is that the voice of Scott Walker is not so deep than with the Walker Brothers and on others of his solo albums. I would only recommend this album for its three Jacques Brel covers and if this is a way to introduce you to this great Belgian singer, then OK. But for me this album as a whole is bit too much easy listening.

And after two stages of listening sessions this is finally the conclusion of 1969. None of my final 16 personal top chart albums are outside the 39 overal top chart albums and I discovered quite some new interesting albums also in the lower ranks of this top 39. 1968 is certainly a good rock year although of course mainly affected by psychedelic music which in general was not too bad but sometimes led to some boring passages (ex if leading to proto progrock). This is the final list (with BEA year rank, overall BEA rank; my personal rank before listening and my personal rank after listening):

Year Rank Title By Band Overall BEA Rank - My old rank To My New Rank
1 The Beatles (The White Album) By The Beatles 11 - 1 To 1
3 Electric Ladyland By The Jimi Hendrix Experience - from to listen to 2 66 - To listen To 2
19 Wheels Of Fire By Cream 1011 - To listen To 3
36 Creedence Clearwater Revival By Creedence Clearwater Revival 2118 - To listen To 4
7 The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society By The Kinks 164 - 2 To 5
13 Waiting For The Sun By The Doors 628 - 3 To 6
17 Cheap Thrills By Big Brother And The Holding Company 850 - To listen To 7
5 Beggars Banquet By The Rolling Stones 117 - 4 To 8
4 Odessey And Oracle by The Zombies - By The Zombies 106 - 5 To 9
10 Bookends By Simon And Garfunkel 337 - To listen To 10
6 White Light/White Heat By The Velvet Underground 163 - 6 To 11
37 The Soft Machine By Soft Machine 2212 - To listen To 12
21 S.F. Sorrow By The Pretty Things 1047 - To listen To 13
27 Silver Apples By Silver Apples 1456 - To listen To 14
2 Astral Weeks By Van Morrison 54 - To listen To 15
31 Blood, Sweat & Tears By Blood, Sweat & Tears 1812 - To listen To 16
23 The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter By The Incredible String Band 1230 - To listen To A No
24 Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake By Small Faces 1262 - To listen To A No
25 Eli And The Thirteenth Confession By Laura Nyro 1278 - To listen To A No
26 Friends By The Beach Boys 1454 - To listen To A No
28 In Search Of The Lost Chord By The Moody Blues 1492 - To listen To A No
29 Gris-Gris By Dr. John 1681 - To listen To A No
30 Song Cycle By Van Dyke Parks 1730 - To listen To A No
32 Truth By The Jeff Beck Group 1837 - To listen To A No
8 At Folsom Prison By Johnny Cash 238 - To listen To A No
9 Music From Big Pink By The Band 251 - To listen To A No
11 We're Only In It For The Money By The Mothers of Invention 462 - To listen To A No
12 A Saucerful Of Secrets By Pink Floyd 603 - To listen To A No
14 The Notorious Byrd Brothers By The Byrds 704 - To listen To A No
15 Lady Soul By Aretha Franklin 781 - To listen To A No
16 Sweetheart Of The Rodeo By The Byrds 836 - To listen To A No
18 The United States Of America By The United States Of America 921 - To listen To A No
20 The Marble Index By Nico 1028 - To listen To A No
22 Os Mutantes By Os Mutantes 1100 - To listen To A No
34 Fleetwood Mac By Fleetwood Mac 1907 - To listen To A No
35 Caetano Veloso By Caetano Veloso 2023 - To listen To A No
38 In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida By Iron Butterfly 2291 - To listen To A No
39 Scott 2 By Scott Walker 2418 - To listen To A No
33 Machine Gun By Peter Brotzmann 1891 - Jazz Excluded

The next year to listen to is 1969 and will contain 57 albums (to be included in the overall BEA to 2500).

[dihansse]

So now I'm starting with 1969 which I already wrote contains 57 albums in the overall BEA top 2500.
This is the complete list:

Rank Title By Band OverallRank - My Rank Before
1 Abbey Road By The Beatles 4 - 1
2 Led Zeppelin II By Led Zeppelin 35 - 3
3 In The Court Of The Crimson King By King Crimson 40 - 12
4 Let It Bleed By The Rolling Stones 45 - 7
5 Led Zeppelin By Led Zeppelin 57 - 2
6 The Velvet Underground By The Velvet Underground 108 - to listen partly
7 Tommy By The Who 155 - 10
8 Trout Mask Replica By Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band 176 - to listen
9 Five Leaves Left By Nick Drake 190 - already listened
10 The Band By The Band 201 - to listen
11 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere By Neil Young And Crazy Horse 242 - 8
12 Hot Rats By Frank Zappa 265 - to listen
13 In A Silent Way By Miles Davis 330 - jazz excluded
14 Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire) By The Kinks 373 - to listen
15 Crosby, Stills & Nash By Crosby, Stills & Nash 384 - to listen
16 The Stooges By The Stooges 448 - 5
17 Green River By Creedence Clearwater Revival 515 - to listen
18 Willy And The Poor Boys By Creedence Clearwater Revival 619 - to listen
19 Dusty In Memphis By Dusty Springfield 670 - to listen
20 Stand! By Sly & The Family Stone 700 - to listen
21 Blind Faith By Blind Faith 756 - to listen
22 Space Oddity By David Bowie 793 - 4
23 Nashville Skyline By Bob Dylan 830 - to listen
24 Hot Buttered Soul By Isaac Hayes 882 - to listen
25 Scott 4 By Scott Walker 899 - to listen
26 Liege And Lief By Fairport Convention 997 - to listen
27 Karma By Pharoah Sanders 1004 - jazz excluded
28 The Gilded Palace Of Sin By The Flying Burrito Brothers 1043 - to listen
29 Songs From A Room By Leonard Cohen 1052 - to listen
30 Kick Out The Jams By MC5 1060 - to listen
31 The Chicago Transit Authority By Chicago Transit Authority 1076 - to listen
32 Santana By Santana 1094 - to listen
33 Townes Van Zandt By Townes Van Zandt 1173 - to listen
34 Stand Up By Jethro Tull 1219 - to listen
35 Happy Sad By Tim Buckley 1262 - to listen
36 Live/Dead By Grateful Dead 1263 - to listen
37 At San Quentin By Johnny Cash 1320 - Live Album excluded
38 Unhalfbricking By Fairport Convention 1338 - to listen
39 The Soft Parade By The Doors 1367 - 11
40 Bayou Country By Creedence Clearwater Revival 1375 - to listen
41 From Elvis In Memphis By Elvis Presley 1387 - to listen
42 Ummagumma By Pink Floyd 1438 - already listened
43 Monster Movie By Can 1570 - to listen
44 The Allman Brothers Band By The Allman Brothers Band 1623 - to listen partly
45 Oar By Alexander Spence 1775 - to listen
46 Uncle Meat By The Mothers of Invention 1798 - to listen
47 Volunteers By Jefferson Airplane 1808 - to listen
48 A Salty Dog By Procol Harum 1810 - to listen partly
49 Then Play On By Fleetwood Mac 1952 - to listen
50 To Our Children's Children's Children By The Moody Blues 2012 - to listen
51 Almendra By Almendra 2129 - to listen
52 Moondog (1969) By Moondog 2134 - to listen
53 On The Threshold Of A Dream By The Moody Blues 2190 - to listen
54 Yellow Submarine By The Beatles 2301 - 9
55 Basket Of Light By Pentangle 2321 - to listen
56 Atlantis By Sun Ra 2402 - to listen
57 Clouds By Joni Mitchell 2422 - to listen
164 Concerto For Group And Orchestra By Deep Purple 10507 - 6
178 Get Ready By Rare Earth 12190 - 13

In my personal BEA chart of 1969, there are only two albums which are not part of the overall BEA top 2500 of which I would mainly like to recommend the "classical music" album by Deep Purple. I both like the classical parts as the rock elements (with some very good guitar solos) in it.

I already listened to some albums:
- The Velvet Underground by The Velvet Underground (nr 6 on the overall BEA top chart of 1969): I thought I knew most of the VU records but not this third of their albums. Of course I already know many tracks lik Pale Blue Eyes but it is a fairly peculiar album because it's fairly soft but still very good, so certainly to add to my personal top chart of 1969
- Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band (nr : I know that many people love this album but for me it is a bit too chaotic
- The Band of the Band (nr 10): this first album of the Band contains one of their best songs, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Town, but the rest of the album is not so good
- Hot Rats by Frank Zappa (nr 11): this is a mainly instrumental jazz album of Frank Zappa. Although I do like the general flow of this album, I will not include it in my personal top chart

Next album to listen to is Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire) by the Kinks (nr 14)

[dihansse]

And a second batch of albums of 1969 I listened to:
- Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire) by the Kinks (nr 14 in the overall BEA top chart of 1969): of course I knew Victoria, but the rest of the album was a bit of a mistery to me. And it surprised me because also the rest was really good and upto the level that I'm used to from this great band. A welcome addition to my personal top chart of 1969
- Crosby, Stills & Nash by Crosby, Stills & Nash (nr 15): The first album of this trio before the arrival of Neil Young. This is a very good album both because of the heavenly harmonies of their voices and the good songs: Marrakesh Expres, Suite:Judy Blue Eyes, Wooden Ships, etc. Very good album.
- Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival (nr 17): again a very good album by CCR of which I already knew most of the songs: the highlights are Lodi and Bad Moon Rising. Also a very good album
- Willy and the Poor Boys by Creedence Clearwater Revival (nr 1: here the highlights are Down on the Corner and Fortunate Song. But the track that really surprised me in a good way was Effigy with very nice guitar playing. I already knew this song from a cover by Uncle Tupelo on the compilation album No Alternative I can really recommend. But the CCR version is much better and again a very good album
- Dusty In Memphis by Dusty Springfield (nr 19): contains about all her best song and I certainly like the voice and the songs but not more than that so not for my personal top chart

Next album to listen to is Stand! by Sly & The Family Stone.

[dihansse]

And here is a big batch of albums of 1969 I listened to:
- Stand! by Sly & The Family Stone (nr 20 on the overall BEA top chart of 1969): This is album with a lot of jams on it and sometimes they are very long (and Sex Machine is too long). There are some very good moments on it but they are a bit hidden between the rest so not an album for my personal top chart of 1969.
- Blind Faith by Blind Faith (nr 21): this is a supergroup formed from Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker of the Cream and Steve Winwood from Traffic and with only one album so you would suppose that this would be a great album but it isn't completely. The songs I already knew from Clapton compilations, Can't Find My Way Home and Presence Of The Lord are very good but the rest drags on a bit and that's especially true for the long closer Do What You Like. I doubted a bit but I won't include this album in personal chart
- Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan (nr23): Of course Lay Lady Lay is a great track but the rest of this Bob goes Country is not so good so this is a no.
- Hot Buttered Soul by Isaac Hayes (nr 24): again some very long jams and some are not bad but as a whole I won't include it.
- Scott 4 by Scott Walker (nr 25): I didn't find too much memorable in this album
- Liege and Lief by Fairport Convention (nr 26): there is one very good track on this album, Matty Groves with some very good guitar soloing, but the rest is country which doesn't really stick
- The Guilded Palace of Sin by The Flying Burrito Brothers (nr 2: again no songs which were sufficiently memorable
- Songs from a Room by Leonard Cohen (nr 29): the album starts very well with especially Bird on a Wire and The Partisan and also Story of Isaac, but the second part of the album is not so good, so I won't include it in my personal top chart of 1969
- Kick Out the Jams by MC5 (nr 30): this real proto-punk and who doesn't know the title track. There are some flaws in this album but the general live atmosphere is so exhilarating that I have to include this in my personal chart
- The Chicago Transit Authority by The Chicago Transit Authority (nr 31): This is the debut album of Chicago which later on were moving into plain MOR but on this album did show a lot of edge with some real guitar playing and an omni-present sax. Questions 67 and 68 is a great track but sometimes the songs drag on for too long. But overall there is so much cool guitar freaking out on this album that I simply have to include it in my personal top chart of 1969.

The next album to listen to is the self-titled debut of Santana.

[dihansse]

Some more:
- Santana by Santana (nr 32 on the overall BEA chart of 1969): There are some very groovy tracks filled with great guitar playing on this album like Evil Ways, Savor, Jingo, etc and so I'll include it in my personal top chart
- Townes Van Zandt by Townes Van Zandt (nr 33): For the Sake of the Song is not bad but the other tracks didn't appeal very much to me
- Stand Up by Jethro Tull (nr 33): when the best track is a cover from a classical song (Bouree), it says a lot. This album disappointed me a bit.
- Happy Sad by Tim Buckly (nr 34): not really my thing

Although Live/Dead is a live album by The Grateful Dead I suppose it can stand for a regular album and I'm also curious how they sounded live at the end of the sixties.

[dihansse]

And here are some more albums of 1969:
- Live/Dead by The Grateful Dead (nr 36 on the overall BEA top chart of 1969): I can't deny that there is some good jamming on this album but I've never been a big fan of the band so I'm gonna give this one a miss.
- Unhalfbricking by the Fairport Convention (nr 3: Like on Liege and Lief, there is again a long track on this album, A Sailor's Life, which is not bad but overall the album is a bit too countryish for me
- Bayou Country by Creedence Clearwater Revival (nr 40): and again there are a number of memorable tracks on this record Like Born On the Bayou and Proud Mary and as the other tracks are not bad either again an addition to my personal top chart of 1969
- Monster Movie by Can (nr 43): there are only 4 tracks on this album of which the last one, the mesmerising You Doo Right is the longest with more than 20 minutes (this unfortunately not on Apple Music). To me this debut album of Can is much better than Tago Mago, the other album I know by them and it's certainly worth an addition to my personal top chart of the year
- The Allman Brothers Band by the Allman Brothers Band (nr 44): This is the debut album of this great band and there are some favorites of mine on it like Dreams and Whipping Post (here in a relatively short version compared to the sometimes very long versions on live albums). They're very bluesy on this album and they're good so a welcome addition to my personal top chart
- Oar by Alexander Spence (nr 45): a bit too much of a weirdo for me (although I like many other weirdos).

Next album to listen to is Uncle Meat by The Mothers of Invention.