1970

The sixties have passed and it's more than just a number.  The era had ended already, so when these albums may have actually been recorded is irrelevant.  As one would read in the liner notes on Van Der Graaf Generator's The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other, it was clearly a new era as they recorded.  The mere existence of Van  Der Graaf Generator is proof enough.

Here you will see lots of well-established legends moving into different territory and some major  recurring themes.  That's what 1970 was all about.  Aging toward the future.

10.  George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
I guess I explained this sprawling triple album in my last paragraph with its title perhaps the msot appropriate on the list..  The quiet Beatle says everything he  had been saving up in the past decade here with the help of Phil Spector and buddies like Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton.  The bigness is more than just its length as songs like "What Is Life" and "The Art of Dying" fill the whole room.  Harrison's spirituality comes out on tracks like "Awaiting on You All" and his tribute to Beatles fans "Apple Scruffs" make his proper debut as personal as one could want.  Harrison was clearly saving all his A material for this and unfortunately it was enough to last  the rest of his life making it unquestionably the greatest Beatles solo album.  Top pick:  The heavy rock workout "Wah-Wah"

9.  Van  Morrison - Moondance
Morrison tightens up his previous explorations on this fantabulous album, my favorite of all his and a staple of my childhood.  Not only does he perfect his Celtic jazz arrangements, but it is a height in the rootsy folk rock style of The Band/Dylan, with opener "And It Stoned Me" the greatest example of this style.  The title track is probably the most romantic song of the year and this kind of "Crazy Love" runs strongly through this album, heavily influenced by then-wife Janet Planet.  The arrangements are less improvisational and more delicate and majestic, more than deserving of its bold title and a worthy follow up to Astral Weeks.

8.  Os Mutantes - A Divina Comédia Ou Ando Meio Desligado
Moving beyond simple tropical garage territory the older, wiser mutants make their third album easily their best work.  They are focused and put it all together in a loose concept with killer original songs.  The vocals have matured most with the three taking on different parts and Rita Lee at times sounding not unlike Janis Joplin.  It's still a tropical party even on  the baroque experiment "Haleluia" and many of the songs that fit the title and mostly black album cover.  "Desculpe, Baby" is one of their most seductive songs which says a lot for a group of Brazilians.  The band shows that they can get a lot headier than hinted at on previous albums and establish their own timeless voice beyond being the wild kid siblings of Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, and Jorge Ben.

7.  The Kinks - Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1
Ray Davies sounds pretty defeated here and it's simply stunning.  Luckily it gained the band a major comeback hit with "Lola" which lures many into this album that proves to be more than just a cute song about an encounter with a gender-bender.  The  renaissance this album experienced thanks  to Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited was well deserved as "This Time Tomorrow," the bitter "Powerman" and Dave's return to songwriting "Strangers" (also "Rats") are some of this album's greatest songs.  "A Long Way From Home" is even better though, and many of these songs will leave you in tears.  Davies starts moving into more of that dance hall and skiffle territory that may have been his undoing, but at this point a few banjos is kind of charming.

6.  Spirit - Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
Topanga's greatest band, the jazzy psychedelic rockers Spirit follow up their previous three extraordinary albums with this one.  Child prodigy Randy California catches up to future hit maker/TV theme composer Jay Furguson and the band is so cohesive its hard to tell who is behind each song.  The sound is wild and diverse with the heavy "Street Worm" and (naturally) cosmic "Space Child" sit comfortably with folky "Life Has Just Begun" and simply gorgeous "Nature's Way."  "Animal Zoo" is the best known, and Ferguson's tribute to drummer Ed Cassidy (the oldest man to be a true rock musician) "Mr. Skin" keeps it all fun and light, and Marc Bolan may have built  his whole sound off "Morning Will Come."  We can forgive him, but Jimmy Page on the other hand...

5.  The Beach Boys - Sunflower
The Hawthorne Boys make a major comeback here by incorporating the rest of the band as Brian continues going off the deep end.  The sessions began with Dennis who finally begins to speak up on songs like "Got to Know the Woman," and the Carl-led "It's About Time," tells Brian's sad tale better than he ever could.  The album is rich in a kind beauty new even for this experienced band on songs like "Add Some Music To Your Day" and perhaps Mike Love's best lead "All I Wanna Do."  This album is the ban's most enjoyable from beginning to end since Pet Sounds and sometimes considered their best.  It's impossible to find a misstep here, even for the most loyal Brian obsessive.  The whole thing ends with Smile holdover "Cool Cool Water" with its universal advice to all.

4.  Caravan - If I Could Do It All Over Again I'd do It All Over You
Caravan put out their best record here with this lush and tight prog-pop classic.  Appropriately (for today) the cover is green and the members present themselves in such a straightforward way it's hard to imagine that the four of them could be such a force.  The anchor of the record "And I Wish I Were Stoned/Don't Worry" is the kind of thing musicians dream of making their whole life with each instrument losing its own voice into the great mix.  The eeriness of their debut remains on such standouts as "Hello Hello," and both the unusually long and unusually short songs are constructed from the common consciousness the quartet seems to possess.  One of the greatest progressive rock albums of all time, and the best place to start with the sub-genre, particularly for organ nuts.

3.  The Stooges - Fun House.
The dirtiest of the dirty.  Named after the squalid Ann Arbor home the band and guests such as Nico, the MC5, and the rest of the gang would inhabit at their most drug-addled "Dirt," is the perfect theme song for most listeners.  I on the other hand lean more towards "Loose," as these sounds could only come from that kind of approach as brothers and friends play to the same cosmic space with Alexander and S. Asheton's driving rhythms, R. Asheton's filthy playing, and Iggy's minimalistic howl.  Recorded in Los Angeles with former Goodtimes leader Don Galluci fresh off his influential prog experiment Touch, Funhouse is easily the wildest album of all time.  Factor in Steve Mackay's blaring sax it is free jazz if jazz musicians weren't afraid of a little fuzz and simplicity.  Really, it's all been said, though.

2.  The Pretty Things - Parachute
Even more than Harrison's album this is the one that best captures the end of the 60s (I presume).  It was even Rolling Stone's album of the year, and the only one ever to not go platinum.  With the loss of Dick Taylor and Twink, the Pretties change a lot around with Jon Povey and Wally Waller step in and more than compensate.  They create some of the lushest harmonies  in the UK, fully on par with Americans like the Byrds and the Beach Boys on their already atmospheric songs.  The first half is one big piece with short tracks flowing from one into the other.  "Scene One" is the anarchic beginning to the section and it hits its peak around "In the Square," "The Letter" and "Rain."  The Second side is just as strong, but the last few tracks capture the feeling best "What's The Use" and the title track slowly drop the heavy weight of the end of that radical era into a new, tragically realistic decade.  Open the gate fold of this record and it's all there.  The post-psychedelic masterpiece.

1.  John Cale - Vintage Violence
After being fired from the Velvets, producing the Stooges' debut, and collaborating with Terry Riley and La Monte Young, John Cale finally makes his debut and to no surprise it is one  of the best albums of all time (no joke, an easy place in my all-time top 10).  His arrangements are simpler and more reliable than he would do later with viola and pedal steel dominating over the standard rock format of guitar, bass, drums, and piano.  He runs the gamut on styles, yet the all flow together in a way unlike any other album.  It starts off with the honky-tonking "Hello There" and ends similarly with "Fairweather Friend," with the brain-melting masterpiece "Gideon's Bible" on second with its funky hand drums making it a song without peer.  At times it gets more playful than one could expect from the mind behind "Lady Godiva's Operation" with "Cleo" and "Adelaide" with sadder stuff like "Please" (still with plenty of offbeat humor) and "Charlemagne" balancing it out.  Organs take over toward the end on the fun yet still creepy "Ghost Story," by now making it evident that John Cale would go on to be one of the seventies' greatest artists that only got better.