Steve Holtje’s Top Ten — March 22

by Steve Holtje
22 March 2009

1969, part 1

For the next few weeks I’ll be looking back forty years at the best albums of 1969. First up, the British Empire’s contributions. Interestingly, half of these ten are debuts, though in the case of #3 that’s a misleading appellation.

1. Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed (Abkco)

   The Stones were occasionally more musically adventurous or more artistically successful, but it’s hard to top this LP for a combination of those, culminating in “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” And the cover of Robert Johnson’s “Love in Vain” (“all selections written by Mick Jagger & Keith Richards” my ass) is arguably the greatest blues moment of a band that was born in the blues.

2. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin (Atlantic)

   The birth of British heavy metal, yes, as blues-rock got incredibly heavy, but this stunning debut has so much more depth and sophistication than its many imitators, thanks mostly to Jimmy Page, that it’s a genre unto itself.

3. Blind Faith – Blind Faith (Polydor)

   The sole studio effort of Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton’s supergroup. Granted, I tend to skip the 15-minute closer, “Do What You Like,” to avoid Ginger Baker’s ham-handed drum solo. But everything that’s come before it is so great that it still ranks high.

4. Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left (Island)

   This spectacularly well-written, beautifully arranged, and affectingly performed debut (he played hooky from college to record it) is my favorite Drake LP because of “River Man,” but every track is a gem.

5. King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King (Atlantic [now EG])

   Prog-rock’s most pummeling riffs anchor the key tracks, but there are also some beautiful moments.

6. Procol Harum – A Salty Dog (A&M [now Westside])

   The finest album of a terribly underrated band; the title track is the equal of the much more famous “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” Robin Trower added some welcome guitar heft amid the twin blasts of organ and piano.

7. Fleetwood Mac – Then Play On

   You’ve heard of art-rock; well, this is art-blues. Peter Green and Danny Kirwan team to interweave beautiful guitar lines or rave up on interlocking killer riffs, with the nine-minute “Oh Well” displaying both modes.

8. John McLaughlin – Extrapolation (Polydor)

   McLaughlin would soon pioneer jazz-rock fusion, but here, on his debut as a leader (produced by Giorgio Gomelsky) he’s closer to jazz. But, working in a quartet with saxophonist John Surman, acoustic bassist Brian Odges, and drummer Tony Oxley, it’s still jazz at the creative cutting edge.

9. The Bee Gees – Odessa (Polydor)

   A strange and beautiful album, and the only example I know (if what I’ve read is true) of a record label insisting that an act expand its conception to double-LP length.

10. John Mayall – The Turning Point (Polydor)

    Recorded live at the Fillmore East, this documents the stripped-down band that was partly the result of Mayall recommending his lead guitarist Mick Taylor to replace Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones. To everyone’s surprise, “Room to Move,” basically a five-minute harmonica groove, became an FM radio favorite in the ‘70s.

    
    

    Yes, I know I left off the Beatles’ Abbey Road, the Who’s Tommy, and the Kinks’ Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire off the list. Yes, they’re good, but they’ve got a little too much filler to make the cut here.