Which is the best of the progarchives top 50 prog albums from the 60s/70s?
 

The poll above contains the current top 50 albums from the 1960s and 1970s in progarchives list of the best prog albums ever. Which of the ones listed is your favourite?

Vote away!

The current progarchives rankings, excluding albums made later than the 60s/70s, looks like this :

1. Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
2. Yes - Close To The Edge
3. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
4. Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick
5. Genesis - Foxtrot
6. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
7. King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King
8. Pink Floyd - Animals
9. King Crimson - Red
10. Premiata Forneria Marconi - Per Un Amico
11. Harmonium - Si On Avait Besoin D'Une Cinquième Saison
12. Van Der Graaf Generator - Godbluff
13. Genesis - Nursery Cryme
14. Rush - Moving Pictures
15. Yes - Fragile
16. Bacamarte - Depois Do Fim
17. Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire
18. Yes - Relayer
19. Rush - A Farewell To Kings
20. Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso - Io Sono Nato Libero
21. Camel - Mirage
22. Gentle Giant - In A Glass House
23. Rush - Hemispheres
24. Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso - Darwin!
25. Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts
26. Premiata Forneria Marconi - Storia Di Un Minuto
27. Camel - Moonmadness
28. Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn
29. King Crimson - Larks' Tongues In Aspic
30. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
31. Gentle Giant - Free Hand
32. Pink Floyd - Meddle
33. Caravan - In The Land Of Grey And Pink
34. Jethro Tull - Aqualung
35. Supertramp - Crime of the Century
36. Van Der Graaf Generator - Still Life
37. Genesis - A Trick Of The Tail
38. Van Der Graaf Generator - H to He, Who Am the Only One
39. Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
40. Renaissance - Scheherazade and Other Stories
41. Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom
42. Al Di Meola - Elegant Gypsy
43. Camel - The Snow Goose
44. Le Orme - Felona E Sorona
45. Gong - You
46. Gentle Giant - The Power And The Glory
47. Yes - The Yes Album
48. Focus - Hamburger Concerto
49. Gentle Giant - Octopus
50. Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

Try to not let it influence your own voting though :) Let's find out how mucisbanter would rank them!

rush- Farewell to Kings is my favourite out of these.
Although, my favourite ever is Pink Floyd- Pulse.

Birds of Fire takes it for me, closely followed by ITCOTKC, In the land of pink and grey and Octopus.

Suprised to not see Eloy on there.

The ratings are not generated from popularity, but rather the average rating per vote I think although there might be some requirement on the amount of votes an album needs to have before it can be up there. Still, I don't think Eloy even made the top 100 with any album .. well, at least not at the present. The only possible reason is that their albums are not as universally liked by those who listen to them.

Hmm well I have 42 out of the 50 so I'd say it'll be a bit hard to decide! :p: It's practically trying to decide what my favorite album is from an entire genre.

Too bad Eloy isn't present, indeed.

I should have changed my last post to say that the reason they're not on the list is that they're not as universally liked by the progarchives users (instead of people) who listen to them ;) I'm not a member there, but from what I hear, there may be trends coming and going there like anyplace else.

I don't understand why so many progsters dump all over Emerson, Lake and Palmer? Pretentious, self-indulgent, amazingly talented...they possessed all the benchmarks of a great prog band. IMO, Keith Emerson was the greatest talent to ever play an instrument in a rock band. According to this compiled list, ELP is the most under-rated band, ever. I voted for their contempories', KC - Larks Tongue.

I agree. The reason I like ELP is basically because Tarkus isthe first prog epic I really fell in love with. I think the reason the album by the same name is not in the list may be because the rest of the album is not that good. Songs like "Jeremy Bender" or "Are You Ready Eddie?" really decrease the overall quality of that one. Still, I find it weird they don't have anything in the top 50. What about their debut f.ex?

I see a lot of ELP hate around and people like to bring up stuff like Love Beach a lot. It's not like they're the only rock act to have some crap at the end of their discography, though. It's not like they're the only rock act out there to be pompous and pretentious. I think much of the ELP dislike stems from their sound being just less timeless than that of many of their contemporaries .. and perhaps a little hard to get into?

That's a fair observation, but I tend to agree more with the later. ELP's albums, with the exception of their debut, are not stylistically cohesive so it's understandable that some progsters may like a song but have a hard time getting into the album. "Brain Salad Surgery" has english folk, lush balladry, classical music, bawdy honky-tonk, and epic prog., all done impressively well. But as a listener, it's a tough transition to go from an amazing rock adaptation of a classical compostion, to a honky-tonk piano riff and distorted vocal. But isn't that what prog's all about...to challenge the listener?

Oh man. This is tough.
Gonna have to go with Animals though.
The things they do on that album, both in terms of the lyrics and the playing, it's just amazing. So many great moments in those songs.
It's one of the only albums with 20 minute songs that I can seriously listen to any time I want.

Harmonium are on there!? :eek:

I had no idea these guys were popular at all outside of Quebec! The only reason I know them is because they're a local band and I'm a french Canadian (from what I've gathered, not many "anglos" know of them). Their album on the list, Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison, is notably their best work and happens to be one of my favourite albums, along with their third studio album L'Heptade. Even though they lasted only about 5 years, they did some terrific work during that span. Serge Fiori, the band's lyricist and composer, is just genius. I strongly recommend you guys to check them out if you haven't already.

So I'm voting for their album. Followed very closely by Close to the Edge however, of course. But all of those albums are really great.

Well, King Crimson - Red is my favourite album ever so it's obvious where my vote is going. Otherwise my vote would go to Gong - You, Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom or one of the Camels.

Wow, I can't believe Octopus is so low.

Sadly I'm not too surprised by the lack of ELP.

PA is a great site for recommendations which is why I have it linked in my signature. But some of the people there are just stupid and really terrible reviews.

One of the big contributors is a guy called Epignosis

who gave 1 star to Another Green World
2 stars to Kid A, Ziggy Stardust, Hunky Dory, First Utterance, Pawn Hearts, Hamburger Concerto and Demons and Wizards
3 stars to Big Generator and 4 Journey albums
4 stars to a Journey compilation
and 5 stars to 2 Dream Theater albums and 10 Kansas albums, I like Kansas alright but 10 ALBUMS?

Yeah this guy sucks

Anyway he has an album of his own, it sucks donkey d*ck, but it has pretty high ratings and rave reviews, I swear it's just a severe case of nepotism.

I love Harmonium :D Their classic Si on avait album has been on and off here the last one and a half year or so I think. It's fairly popular here, I think .. at least with the few proggers on the site. It was also included in our Introduction to prog sticky. Someone should really do a review of it.

That reminds me, we have to add KC's debut to the introduction thread placeholder post!

I'd say Dark Side of the Moon
but it's not really right for me to be voting, there are so many on that list I have never listened to.

I voted Wish You Were Here...

... though this goes for me too, I have only listen to eight of the albums listed.

I voted Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
mind you, there are a handful that i was considering for top spot, and each of those five i could happily enjoy any day of the week no problem

but in the end, what did it for me personally was the storytelling aspect of SEBTP...the imagery of that one is just soo soo vivid to me when i listen to it...more so than the others i contemplated...and for that reason it garnered my top spot..

Selling England By The Pound, most definitely. It's easily my favorite prog album - Genesis didn't have the instrumental chops of some of their competition (though they were still quite good in that regard), but Peter Gabriel's awesome storytelling and the group's collective songwriting more than make up for it.

Close competition includes Fragile by Yes and Thick As A Brick by Jethro Tull.

Yeah that was tough. But there were four that I was deciding over:

Rush - Power Windows
Genesis - Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

until I chose Yes- Close to the Edge

You actually regard Rush`s "Power Windows" as a prog album?

Some good albums on that list, but my heart goes out to Hot Rats. It exists in a world all of its own.

I mistyped. Moving Pictures not Power Windows

It's really almost impossible for me to choose an album from the list, since i love all TVDGG albums and Jethru tull... cant, really cant choose

Well, so far it's Dark Side of the Moon and Close to the Edge sharing the lead with the same amount of votes. They may just be my two all-time favourite albums from the 70s. :)

Haha, well put. Hot Rats gets my vote too, such a superb jam of a record. Every song brings a new tone to the table, but yet at the same time they all retain a certain mood. If that at all makes any sense.

No votes for aqualung and just mine for thick as a brick?
Hmmmm, sad.

Well I chose thick as a brick, but these are the ones I like best:

Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick
King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

From what I've heard (about half... I feel guilty for voting having heard so little), Hot Rats gets my vote.

I voted Hot Rats, but I'm borderline obsessed with The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway right now.

I voted for Close to the Edge by Yes for consistency, but the list is nonsense without ELP. There is no Nektar either and who the hell are Harmonium?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonium_(band)

I could never get into them.

I find it odd that Trick of the Tail is mentioned but Wind and Wuthering is not, nor indeed is Trespass, two of which I consider Genesis's best albums, certainly from that period. I know TotT and W&W came out in the same year, so that might account for it, with people choosing the one over the other, but no Trespass? I mean, don't get me wrong: I love Foxtrot but I think Trespass is a better album to be honest. And why no 2112, eh? Answer me that!

Humph!

I've just listened to some Harmonium (the band) on Youtube and they are definitely not better than ELP.

I've never thought of Rush as progressive, but 2112 is far better than Moving Pictures.

Mahavishnu Orchestra, Frank Zappa and Al DiMeola are all jazz rock to me.

The constant slagging off of ELP is one of the things that has put me off posting regularly on PA, although I have found the archive useful.

When it comes to King Crimson on this list, I'd take Starless and Bible Black over Lark's Tongues in Aspic. As much as I like Lark's parts 1 & 2 and Talking Drum, I'll take The Great Deceiver, Lament and especially Fracture over them.

That being said, I believe Close to the Edge is what progressive rock is and that's why I voted for it. And, as much as I like King Crimson, I see Close to the Edge as the only time they've been out-progged by any other band/album. As for other album I would consider... I'd say Foxtrot, Pawn Hearts and Crime of the Century.

Top 5 would probs be something likeee

1. Close to the Edge
2. Wish You Were Here
3. In the Land of Grey and Pink
4. Phaedra
5. Si On Avait Besoin D'Une Cinquième Sais

sad to see a lack of krautrock here though (except phaedra i suppose)...

Pawn Hearts is a great album, I love the voice of Peter Hamill he's a great performer

I went with "Moving Pictures", by Rush... that album's been blowing me away since I was a little lad. One of the best ones of all time.

Damn, this is tough. I'm gonna be taking awhile to think about it.

Very hard to pick but I chose Aqualung :)

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