—Bonnie Stiernberg, On 1967’s excellent The Who Sell Out, guitarist-composer Pete Townshend attempted his first “concept album,” a fake radio broadcast which blended original acid-rock tracks with brief, silly commercial jingle interludes. The final gasp of the tumultuous 1960s was an incredible year for music as adventurous albums from the best acts of the ’60s (The Beatles, Dylan, The Stones) collided with those who would dominate the following decade (Led Zeppelin, Bowie, Sly & the Family Stone). From the opening blasts of “Cinnamon Girl,” it was obvious Young wanted to blaze; even on the more expected “The Losing End (When You’re On),” there was a brio that spoke to this newfound raucousness. And for every voodoo-blues riff anthem like “Whole Lotta Love” and “Heartbreaker,” there’s a tasteful reinvention like the groovy, harmony-filled “What Is And What Should Never Be” or the folky-turned-heavy “Ramble On.” —Ryan Reed, After the commercial success of the singer/songwriterly Neil Young, the iconoclastic rocker tore down everything he’d built with the fractious Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. That year, three albums accounted for 33 of the year’s weekly chart toppers. The Stooges (1969) – The Stooges 69. “Gimme Shelter” infamously opens their album, warning about the violence and crime lurking just around the bend. The lone Haden original here is “Song for Che,” dedicated to Cuban revolutionary figure Che Guevara. The 50 Best Albums Of 1969.
—Adam Vitcavage, One of the best and most grandiose soul albums ever recorded, Hot Buttered Soul made Isaac Hayes a superstar and changed the face of black pop music for the next decade. Joplin’s ability to completely command and control the song with her voice even as five brass horns and two electric guitars swarmed up behind her is unparalleled.
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? The looming dissolution of the Beatles, after a stirring run of creative genius, signaled that everything would be different in the '70s. The album opener “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)” is Joplin at her loudest and proudest. Two albums and five years later, Drake had passed on, leaving the world absent of his melancholy lyrics and unique voice. This output during the year was at once ubiquitous, original, creative and disjointed. Specific locations. Green Onions (1962) – Booker T and the MG’s 70.
Ultimately, as with many Stones albums, the tales of redemption and glimmers of hope reign supreme. Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Several of its members had flown with the Byrds—bassist Chris Hillman, drummer Michael Clarke and, most notably, the cosmic cowboy himself, Gram Parsons. The '60s closed on a foreboding note, and this list of 1969's Best Rock Albums often reflects that. The following list includes iconic albums from iconic artists, wonderfully strange avant garde albums that pushed genre boundaries, and a few underrated gems that we hope will be new discoveries for some of you. The last year of the 1960s boasted an amazingly diverse selection of albums in multiple genres under the grand umbrella of rock as you will see from this list of the 20 greatest albums of 1969.
Symphonic renditions of Jacques Brel songs, arch takes on Broadway standards and, on his fourth solo album, original material that evoked the grandeur of Serge Gainsbourg and Ennio Morricone with lyrics inspired by bleak modernist cinema and the invasion of Czechoslovakia.
—Ellen Johnson, By the time The Band released their self-titled follow-up, they were fairly well-established and even had some detractors in the upper echelons of rock criticism. The reflection of their bold viewpoints begins on this friendly pop-medley album that became a cornerstone and a launching point for many musicians’ activism. To choose a single year, click the year (e.g. They weren't the only ones who departed: The original Jimi Hendrix Experience, Eric Burdon and the Animals and the Jeff Beck Group fell apart, even as Rolling Stones co-founder Brian Jones died.
The album doesn’t lose pace from there, launching into the jarring “Ramblin’ Rose” before the unmistakable intro to the album’s title track: “Kick out the jams, motherfucker!”—Tyler Kane, So many of Cohen’s songs thrive because of their monumental size or lyrical density, but the oft-covered “Bird on a Wire” from Songs from a Room is just the opposite; a few simple lines, delivered humbly, both please the ear and engage the mind. And third, Janis Joplin was actually a hell-of-a bandleader, and this album proves it. he 1960s was the decade that witnessed the evolution of the long playing record into an art form as artists began to realise the boundless possibilities of the recording studio.
I wouldn’t call Monster Movie a planet-eater—at least not on the level of their later albums Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi—but Can’s first album is about as accessible an entry point as you’ll find into the experimental German band. —Stephen M. Deusner, 1969 was the most substantive year of Fairport Convention’s long and still-active history. Monster Movie is also the only official Can album that original singer Malcolm Mooney performed on, and his fractured phrasing and passionate ranting are as intoxicating as the band’s music. You would have been wrong, of course, but you could, conceivably, have believed such a thing. On Clouds, Mitchell takes delight in the sunlight coating the streets of her New York City neighborhood (“Chelsea Morning”), confronts fear (“I Think I Understand”) and packs on the natural imagery (most every track). —Lizzie Manno, Creedence Clearwater Revival was a commercial juggernaut, with nine Top 10 hits between 1969-71, even outselling The Beatles in 1969. is special for a few reasons: First, it’s Joplin’s only solo album ever to be released in her lifetime (Her first band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, released albums prior to her death in 1970, and one other solo record, Pearl, was released three months after).