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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17. (=)

Ageh Ye Rooz 

 Faramarz Aslani

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Buried treasure alert! For fans of 60's/70's singer-songwriter, private press, psych-folk, Chilean Nueva Canción, and Tropicalia (even though the guy is from Iran). Leonard Cohen meets Tim Buckley meets Chico Buarque meets Victor Jara? Yeah, it's that good. [First added to this chart: 12/08/2024]

Year of Release:

1977

Appears in:

2 charts

Rank in 1977:

None

Rank in 1970s:

None

Average Rating:

 72 (4 votes)

Comments:

0

Total albums: 1. Page 1 of 1

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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

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Genre Sampler: Singer/Songwriter (Folk & Rock)	Tha1ChiefRocka	Custom chart	2020
Top 12 Music Albums of 1971	Joao74	1971 year chart	2014
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Top 16 Music Albums of 1974	Ensemble13	1974 year chart	2019
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Top 12 Greatest Music Albums	Divisionday	Overall chart	2010
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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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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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