THE BEST ALBUMS OF 1975
Here’s my third retrospective. Based on positive feedback to the two previous “Best Albums” lists from 1976 and 1977, here’s the next edition. Today focuses on 1975. I was 13 years old back then, and just coming of age so far as my interest in music.
Summation — 1975 was a tough year to pick any “best” album. Unlike ’76 and ’77 which (in my opinion) were slam dunk decisions, the best albums of ’75 look interchangeable. Take any of the top-5 on my list and a persuasive case can be made for all of them. Which one is the best just depends on musical taste and bias, and I certainly have mine.
Your comments, additions, subtractions, criticisms, tips, and insults are all welcome. By no means is my list perfect, but it’s better than most.
See if you agree. Here’s my countdown of the “Best Twenty” albums of 1975
20. Why Can’t We Be Friends? …. War
19. The Koln Concert …. Keith Jarrett
18. Promised Land …. Elvis Presley
17. Young Americans …. David Bowie
16. Born to Run …. Bruce Springsteen
15. Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy …. Elton John
14. Fandango …. ZZ Top
13. Welcome to My Nightmare …. Alice Cooper
12. Horses …. Patti Smith
12. One of These Nights …. Eagles
10. That’s The Way Of The World …. Earth, Wind & Fire
9. Alive! …. Kiss
8. Love to Love You Baby …. Donna Summer
7. Red-Headed Stranger …. Willie Nelson
6. Toys in the Attic …. Aerosmith
T 1-5 Still Crazy After All These Years …. Paul Simon
T 1-5 Physical Graffiti …. Led Zeppelin
T 1-5 Night at the Opera …. Queen
T 1-5 Blood On The Tracks …. Bob Dylan
T 1-5 Wish You Were Here .… Pink Floyd
Note: Positions 1-5 are a tie.
NOTABLE OMISSIONS:
It tortured me to leave off The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album….KC and the Sunshine Band released one of the most joyous dance and sing-a-long collections of songs that year and their album with several hits arguably belongs in the top-20 (it just missed my cut)…..Bob Dylan / The Band – The Basement Tapes could be here just because of intrigue but that mostly for devotees….Paul McCartney & Wings’ Venus and Mars would have been on the list except that it’s cluttered with a few clunkers amongst some excellent guitar-heavy songs….Foghat’s Fool for the City was a smash in my teen circles and it was tough to leave this off…Jethro Tull’s Minstrel in the Gallery seems way too pretentious and view them as overrated, so that’s a pass….Rufus featuring Chaka Khan might be as tight an album as came out that year and every track is listenable (probably a mistake to leave this one out–but then which do I remove from my list?)….Rhinestone Cowboy was solid for what it is and a smash best-seller, but wasn’t anywhere Glen Campbell’s best work….Abba’s debut album came out in ’75 but their catchier songs came in the next five years thereafter.
MY LINER NOTES:
….I have a nostalgic soft spot for the band War–still remember a very early interview I heard as a kid as to why they called themselves “WAR” in the time of peace and love and they flat-out admitted it was the way to get noticed. Their quirky funk-rock rhythms confirmed our curiosity. “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” and the iconic “Low Rider” top this album’s hit tracks, but it’s equally solid on both sides of the vinyl.
….Here’s a quirky pick: A live performance by a solo pianist in Germany enshrined on a double album wouldn’t typically fit amongst these other pop choices, but Keith Jarrett’s performance given all the backstage drama (click the Wiki entry for more) makes this a mandatory inclusion. It’s the best-selling solo album in jazz history and the best-selling piano album of all-time, ranks on most lists along greatest live recordings and garners universal praise. There no “hits” on here, but it sold 4 million copies.
…. Elvis Presley might seem an odd choice among best albums of the year given he’d become a touring carnival act by this later stage of his life. However, this is one final joyous hurrah before his death two years later and his last truly-inspired inspired studio recording (later albums were mostly panned by critics as being “uninspired). Fittingly, these sessions were done at Stax Records studios in Memphis and then released on Presley’s 40th birthday.
…. Even David Bowie’s lesser acclaimed albums will often crack the top-20 and this is one of them. Young Americans” is severe departure from glam rock into a more R&B sound that would remain the rest of his career (and it includes “Fame,” which I love).
….Springsteen fans won’t agree with my low ranking of Born to Run which by almost every metric is one of the giant musical preambles of the 1970s–I just don’t think it’s as great as the critics say and only became iconic because of his later great albums. Yes this is a rock “wall of sound” but just eight tracks (I expect fierce debate on this).
….Incredible story I read recently about Captain Fantastic album–yes this is true as told by Ringo Starr–he escorted Elton John’s mother to the show on the tour of this album (imagine that conversation) and when Elton started playing “tracks from my new album” a third of the audience got up and went to the restroom—including Ringo and mom who agreed new stuff was a bore! That taught him a lesson about touring which is audiences paying the bucks just want to hear the hits–I mean, when your own mom and Ringo walk out…..
….I question myself about ZZ Top being on this list, but they did something unheard of at the time (and since), which is combining live and studio recordings onto once concept album and it helped that all the tracks are solid ass-kicking blues-infused rockers.
….Alice Cooper’s concept horror album is a mixed bag of glorious excess combined with some really cheesy WTF! moments, but it’s so ambitious that it couldn’t possibly deliver on everything—from “Only Women Bleed” (a scandalous title that was radio banned) to a sequence of boyish nightmares, to Vincent fucking Price providing a monologue on one song, to Cooper looking for a new sound and using Lou Reed’s entire backup band. This is glorious success and failure but everything rock art should be–it’s the noble attempt that mattered most.
….If there’s a female counterpart to Van Morrison’s epic ’68 work Astral Weeks, it’s Patti Smith breaking all the rules of femininity and conventionalism and commercialism on her punky-funky-rocky-poetic debut album Horses (cover by scandalous artist Robert Mapplethorpe) with what she later described as “three-chord rock merged with the power of the word.” This is sheer power of spirit and personality on record (and she even covers one of Van’s earliest teen pop hits, “Gloria” G-L-O-R-I-A! and somehow manages to out-do him).
….The Eagles’ first #1 album (enough said). Interesting that early reviews were somewhat mixed, but the massive sales and broad crossover appeal of the group and multiple catchy hit songs created a re-evaluation. This isn’t quite in the top-5 of best Eagles albums, but it’s a fine record and worthy of inclusion here.
….I love lots of soul music, but I’ve never been a fan of Earth, Wind & Fire. That bias shouldn’t preclude them from being listed here forever, with an album most will agree was one of the best of they year and no one can argue with the power of the sound and commercial success they enjoyed.
….Look up “rock gods” in the dictionary in 1975 and you will see KISS as the top entry. The elaborate mysterious made-up rockers released their fourth album this year, but this was their first LIVE effort. The energy from devoted audiences and some occasional spontaneity creates a surprisingly fun and lingering experience. It’s also a double album, so this is 2-for-1 head banger. A surprising number of rock and even new wave artists who became famous in the 80 and 90s cited this album as the first album they ever purchased, which says a lot.
….Donna Summer’s Love to Love You Baby produced and recorded almost by accident with no record contract in Europe contains the controversial 17-minute title track that was unheard of at the time. No one knew if it could get radio airplay. The song makes up the entirety of Side One. Summer (who later said she was mimicking Marilyn Monroe) simulates sexual energy through her vocals to an accompaniment of cymbals, wah-wah guitars, funky clarinet riffs, and chimes. The song became a mini-symphony reaching #2 in the American charts (behind Paul Simon) and was largely responsible for the development of the twelve-inch single. This is a historical milestone and great groundbreaking album. Arguably could be #1 of the year in my estimation. (note to self–do a full retrospective on this album sometime)
— Red Headed Stranger was Willie Nelson‘s iconic (15-song) concept album that catapulted him to superstardom. Its story has become legend. When Nelson first brought his sparsely instrumented acoustic arrangements to Columbia for release the chief executive listed to the tracks and barked out, ‘Why are you turning in a demo?’ “This ain’t no demo’,” Nelson explained standing his ground. “This is the finished product.!” Nelson asked the record executive what a “finished” record was supposed to sound like. The executive reportedly replied “Anything but this!” Somehow, Nelson won the argument. His album sold 2 million copies (high for a country album at the time), stayed on the mainstream charts for 43 weeks, and is ranked as the #83 greatest album of all-time by Rolling Stone. That Columbia exec should have ended up manning the frosty machine at a Dairy Queen.
….Aerosmith released what became their second best-selling album of their careers in 1975, which included legacy mega-hits “Sweet Emotion” and “Walk This Way.”
….Paul Simon’s 1975 album is among his very best solo work (I prefer this to Graceland), netting four major hits, and winning two Grammys, including “Album of the Year.” Hard to argue with that overwhelming weight of evidence.
….Physical Graffiti stands a bacchanal of rock so packed with raw energy and chaotic perfection that it’s almost impossible to take in. By mid-1974, Led Zeppelin had such an expansive backlog of material that they decided to expand this project into a double album by including seven previously unreleased tracks from the sessions for the band’s earlier albums. We get “Kashmir”, “Houses of the Holy”, and several other iconic rock-blues icons of sound.
….”Queen’s Night at the Opera contains “Bohemian Rhapsody” as the obvious standout, but don’t dismiss the softer catchy lullaby “You’re My Best Friend.” Most Queen aficionados rank this as their favorite album, and it’s hard to argue (personal note–my mother brought this album home in 1975 and I had never heard of the group before–even though it wasn’t a major hit single at the time, many subsequent nights included “Bohemian Rhapsody” on Side Two spinning on the bulky and boxy living room stereo console–true story).
….Some say Blood on the Tracks was Dylan’s last true cultural tour d’ force album (he made lots of great music later on, but this release may have marked his apex of creativity and influence). “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Shelter from the Storm”, “Idiot Wind” (and others) were not smash singles but continued to elevate the most meaningful music by the best artists. Profound lyrics sung by a social hermit with such a casual and dismissive attitude launch this to the highest alter of a generational reflections, becoming a poetry of emotions blossomed in sound.
….If there was any question Pink Floyd could “do it all over again” with an album that matched the emblematic Dark Side of the Moon from two years earlier, Wish You Were Here gets very close. Up against almost impossible expectations, Pink Floyd delivers a second album masterpiece.
Here’s a fun clip of the 1975 Grammys including a bizarre pairing of presenters — Paul Simon, John Lennon, Andy Williams, and a surprise fill-in for Olivia Newton-John:
