60 Best Obscure Singer-Songwriter Albums from the 70's by BorderFreeAndrew

Back in the early 70's James Taylor was considered the leader of the Singer-Songwriter movement. Post-hippie era introspection was all the rage and Taylor was the gold standard, the voice of his generation, yada yada. Critics salivated over each new album and he sold truckloads. Everybody loved sweet baby James.

There was just one problem with all that: Taylor was never particularly good. In fact, most of his shit was boring as hell. His most-acclaimed album, Sweet Baby James, did include three legitimately great songs ("Fire & Rain", "Country Road", and the title track). But the rest of it was dull and forgettable. I'll be generous and give it 3.5 stars on the strength of those three classics. But the bulk of his discography is an exercise in sterile, narcoleptic drudgery, peppered with a few embarrassingly whitebread covers of old soul tunes.

So it's a damn crying shame to think about all the unfortunate listeners who might be dipping their feet into the 70's Singer-Songwriter waters for the first time and get scared/bored away from the genre when Taylor is the first artist they encounter. If this overrated snooze is the best there is, then why dig any deeper?

Well, my friends, here are 60 reasons to dig deeper. Every album on this list is worth at least 4 stars IMO, which automatically makes them better than any James Taylor album. Sadly, 70's music magazines like Rolling Stone were too busy fellating Taylor every issue to even notice that these artists existed. So they floundered in relative obscurity while JT was taking coke-fueled yacht trips between mansions.

Obviously, there were plenty of famous singer-songwriters back then who were also better than Taylor (Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, etc). But for this list, I'm shining a light on the lesser-known ones.

Some of the artists on this list may be well-known to seasoned BEA users, who might then quibble with describing them as "obscure". So here's how I'm defining "Obscure" for the purposes of this list:
Any artist who never made the US Top 40 charts (singles or albums) and is virtually unknown to the vast majority of Americans.

Some of the artists from other countries may be stars in their homeland, but they're cult figures at best in the US. Also, some of the artists on the list began their recording careers in the 60's. That's ok and shouldn't exclude them. As long as they never achieved mainstream success in any decade, their 70's albums are eligible. One album per artist.

• Chart updated: 12/08/2024 21:45
• (Created: 02/10/2021 23:29).
• Chart size: 60 albums.

There is 1 comment for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and 60 Best Obscure Singer-Songwriter Albums from the 70's has an average rating of 87 out of 100 (from 2 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

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1. (=)

No Other 

 Gene Clark

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+ preceding album Roadmaster is almost as perfect. [First added to this chart: 12/08/2024]

Year of Release:

1974

Appears in:

237 charts

Rank Score:

1,627

Rank in 1974:

19

Rank in 1970s:

226

Overall Rank:

1,076

Average Rating:

 79 (227 votes)

Comments:

10

2. (=)

Red Hash 

 Gary Higgins

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A little-known masterpiece of hazy hippie burnout music kinda like David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name but even better. Unlike Crosby's album, it transcends it's era and achieves a timeless quality. There are songs here that sound like Elliott Smith. Others sound like they could have come off Nirvana's "Unplugged". And this is 1973! Amazing stuff. [First added to this chart: 12/08/2024]

Year of Release:

1973

Appears in:

17 charts

Rank Score:

93

Rank in 1973:

198

Rank in 1970s:

1,735

Overall Rank:

12,313

Average Rating:

 75 (16 votes)

Comments:

1

3. (=)

Judee Sill 

 Judee Sill

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+ follow-up Heart Food is equally great. [First added to this chart: 12/08/2024]

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

109 charts

Rank Score:

670

Rank in 1971:

54

Rank in 1970s:

450

Overall Rank:

2,389

Average Rating:

 78 (93 votes)

Comments:

3

4. (5) 1

Stormcock 

 Roy Harper

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[First added to this chart: 12/08/2024]

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

143 charts

Rank Score:

828

Rank in 1971:

44

Rank in 1970s:

378

Overall Rank:

2,005

Average Rating:

 79 (134 votes)

Comments:

6

5. (6) 1

Songs For The Gentle Man 

 Bridget St. John

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[First added to this chart: 12/08/2024]

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

35 charts

Rank Score:

144

Rank in 1971:

134

Rank in 1970s:

1,292

Overall Rank:

8,532

Average Rating:

 74 (29 votes)

Comments:

0

6. (7) 1

Bless The Weather 

 John Martyn

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[First added to this chart: 12/08/2024]

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

64 charts

Rank Score:

280

Rank in 1971:

83

Rank in 1970s:

823

Overall Rank:

4,917

Average Rating:

 74 (72 votes)

Comments:

2

7. (8) 1

Cantigas Do Maio 

 José Afonso

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[First added to this chart: 12/08/2024]

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

25 charts

Rank Score:

292

Rank in 1971:

79

Rank in 1970s:

801

Overall Rank:

4,763

Average Rating:

 74 (32 votes)

Comments:

2

8. (9) 1

Parallelograms 

 Linda Perhacs

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[First added to this chart: 12/08/2024]

Year of Release:

1970

Appears in:

113 charts

Rank Score:

948

Rank in 1970:

43

Rank in 1970s:

342

Overall Rank:

1,773

Average Rating:

 81 (127 votes)

Comments:

9

9. (4) 5

Marjory Razorblade 

 Kevin Coyne

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+ the preceding album, Case History, is equally great. [First added to this chart: 12/08/2024]

Year of Release:

1973

Appears in:

47 charts

Rank Score:

142

Rank in 1973:

158

Rank in 1970s:

1,308

Overall Rank:

8,614

Average Rating:

 74 (42 votes)

Comments:

3

10. (11) 1

Mediterráneo 

 Joan Manuel Serrat

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[First added to this chart: 12/08/2024]

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

48 charts

Rank Score:

124

Rank in 1971:

144

Rank in 1970s:

1,426

Overall Rank:

9,577

Average Rating:

 75 (35 votes)

Comments:

3

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Total albums: 60. Page 1 of 6

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60 Best Obscure Singer-Songwriter Albums from the 70's composition

Year	Albums	%
1970	13	22%
1971	16	27%
1972	10	17%
1973	11	18%
1974	5	8%
1975	3	5%
1976	1	2%
1977	1	2%
1978	0	0%
1979	0	0%

Artist	Albums	%
Eric Andersen	1	2%
John Wonderling	1	2%
Lô Borges	1	2%
Linda Perhacs	1	2%
Mikel Laboa	1	2%
Bert Jansch	1	2%
Roger Rodier	1	2%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	21	35%
	19	32%
	5	8%
	3	5%
	3	5%
	2	3%
	1	2%
Show all

60 Best Obscure Singer-Songwriter Albums from the 70's chart changes

Biggest climbers
Up 1 from 16th to 15th Greatest Hits by Phil Ochs
Up 1 from 12th to 11th Trout Steel by Mike Cooper
Up 1 from 11th to 10th Mediterráneo by Joan Manuel Serrat

Biggest fallers
Down 5 from 4th to 9th Marjory Razorblade by Kevin Coyne
Down 2 from 10th to 12th El Derecho De Vivir En Paz by Víctor Jara
Down 1 from 15th to 16th Dreaming With Alice by Mark Fry

60 Best Obscure Singer-Songwriter Albums from the 70's similar charts

Title	Source	Type	Published	Country
Top 50 1970 Singer/Songwriter Albums	Mercury	Custom chart	2017
Top 46 Music Albums of 1971	CellarDoor	1971 year chart	2017
Top 35 Music Albums of 1971	weston	1971 year chart	2020
Genre Sampler: Singer/Songwriter (Folk & Rock)	Tha1ChiefRocka	Custom chart	2020
Top 12 Music Albums of 1971	Joao74	1971 year chart	2014
Top 20 Music Albums of 1971	MOgnjenovic	1971 year chart	2022
Top 16 Music Albums of 1974	Ensemble13	1974 year chart	2019
Best Albums Found Through BEA	flamingyesdept	Custom chart	2022
Top 12 Greatest Music Albums	Divisionday	Overall chart	2010
Top 11 Greatest Music Albums	yossi	Overall chart	2015

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60 Best Obscure Singer-Songwriter Albums from the 70's ratings

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
90/100	10/07/2022 13:03	DommeDamian	1,000	89/100
100/100	07/27/2022 20:39	Soencer	47	100/100

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60 Best Obscure Singer-Songwriter Albums from the 70's comments

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Rating:  

90/100

From DommeDamian 01/05/2023 18:38

don't appreciate the not-so-nice words about my man James but das okay, Imma listen to as many of these as I can (edit: Judee Sill is amazing). That Gene Clark one was so mediocre to me though, and I prefer John Martyn's Inside Out way more than Bless The Weather.
Also, Kim Larsen is (or was) the Bob Dylan of Denmark, basically a singer-songwriter hero among the people (though I only fw some of his songs)

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