1977

A decade after the greatest year for music comes a series of serious contenders.  Punk is in full swing by now and with no surprise it dominates this list.  A lot of the artists that dominated these past lists were busy embarrassing themselves here, though Animals really almost made it.  Also just missing the cut was Bat Out of Hell, so you get the idea.

10.  Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
Kraftwerk are the best known creators of early electronic music and arguably krautrock.  At this point they had already established that, including some surprising US success.  Here they are in top form with their four-piece lineup.  Often respected as their best work the percussive classical work centered around such heady themes as the space age future and the railroad is their most German work too.  The well-dressed group on the cover perfectly captures its "Europe Endless" theme and the title track's reference to meeting Iggy Pop and David Bowie places them in the reality as one of the world's most respected rock groups.  The album centers around a hopeful future, but with a shroud of darkness that never completely disappears.  "Hall of Mirrors" and "Showroom Dummies" are strongest examples with the  latter hinting  at the robotic themes the band would further explore.  Human music from a robotic future it is, with plenty of room for musicianship.

9.  Wire - Pink Flag
One of the greatest band's of all time makes its legendary debut.  Seen by many as just another punk album, this record sows the seeds of all that the quartet would do in its brief initial career.  Number-based lyrics like "Three Girl Rhumba" and "1 2 X U" signal the likes of what would come on 154 and beyond.  The short songs and titles like "Field Day for the Sundays," "106 Beats That," and "Surgeon's Girl" make them  an obvious influence on bands like Guided by Voices, plus the whole song begins with "Reuters."  While the music is far simpler, faster, and more aggressive than later it is far more than "just a punk album" with it's endless layers of brainy weirdness.  The band has stated that every song is a rip off of some classic rock tune, but I hardly ever hear it.  If they do they truly are one of the most advanced bands out there.  Great things would come soon making their importance even harder to ignore.

8.  Popol Vuh - Herz Aus Glas
In the early part of the decade Florian Fricke and company had distinguished themselves as one of the great pioneers of the Moog, but this is foremost a guitar album.  Soundtrack to Fricke's best friend  Werner Herzog's masterpiece, it follows similar themes throughout, evoking the surreal and  mysterious power of the film, even while very little of it is included.  The longest track, the opening "Engel der Gegenwart," is one of krautrock's greatest pieces, with a transcended done that sounds like a looser NEU! at their prettiest.  The guitars have that kind of sea mammal quality heard at Yes' best moments  all throughout and the drumming (also played by guitarist Daniel Fichelscher) fits with equal dynamic prowess.  Fricke's keyboards carry these soaring compositions even without bass, allowing this spiritual heaven to achieve unfathomable heights.  It sounds like like  the film looks, gray skies gutting through deep green hills.  The most beautiful electric guitar playing ever recorded.

7.  The Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bullocks, Here's The Sex Pistols
The Pistols get written off far too often.  Called imitators, pawns of evil genius Malcom Maclaren, or sometimes "not as good as PiL."  Well, that's all bullocks, and you know what to do with those...  This album kicks ass.  It's the best UK punk album, and guess what, it's also the first.  So there's lots of guitar overdubs and that's not punk?  Who sold you that?  Joe Strummer?  Steve Jones playing is definitive punk, even without the range.  He made the much older Johnny Ramone intimidated, for god's sake!  The songwriting is some of the best, relying neither upon simple rage and stupidity nor pop for  the punk sound.  Lyrically it's as harsh as anything put out since with Jones and Rotten making "Bodies" more unsettling than any dumb kid with spikes and a mohawk.  And about Johnny...  Here we find one  of rock's most unique vocalists, on re-inspection his voice here is even greater than on his work with PiL, instantly making him the equal of idols Damo Suzuki and Peter Hammill.  The word on UK punk.

6.  Ramones - Leave Home
The Ramones get even louder and faster on their second album.  The band sticks to their formula and still manages to grow.  With what Jesse Johnstone described  as "the sound of freedom," it kicks  into action with "Glad to See You Go," easily the group's best song.  Dee Dee's self-destruction hits rock bottom on "Carbona Not Glue," as songs move to "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" and "Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy."  The military themes get better too on Johnny's theme "Commando."  Likewise, "Pinhead" keeps the horror movie stupidity up to the band's image, with it's "gabba gabba hey" the rally-cry for their whole legacy.  The only cover on this one is "California Sun," and it manages to outdo the Dictators', no surprise since Johnny himself did end up there eventually.  Leave Home is the Ramones on the rise, showing that while the band might be a one-trick pony, it is a good trick, and one that approaches transcendent perfection.

5.  Suicide - Suicide
The duo of Martin Rev and Alan Vega had been around for years before this album was finally released.  Vega was one of the oldest guys on the scene even then, but that doesn't stop him from playing the part of a teenage idol on this masterpiece.  His croon on "Cheree," plays  the perfect counterpoint to Rev's dark presence and musical accompaniment.  The Bruce Springsteen favorite begins with the driving super hero tribute "Ghost Rider" and features the violent, sexual epic "Frankie Teardrop," with its seething blue collar rage explaining its famous fan's love.  No other album, not even the  Boss's Nebraska so well captures the dark American underbelly with all its building violence, comic book fantasy, and plastic veneer of coolness.  This album is peerless and defies all category other than "the best."

4.  Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
...As does this one.  Dennis died six miserable years later looking even more haggard than on this  album's cover.  he had lived the life of a reckless rock star even before his unusually young debut as one.  By this point though, he had become even more talented than his older brother (whose burnt-out mind was exploited on this year's garbage heap Love You) and this gigantic and soul-crushing album is all the proof one needs.  Water and nature are as big on this album as destruction and hopelessness.  Opener "River Song" and the majestic "Rainbows" (both written with Carl) are the big uppers with their gospel choirs, colossal arrangements, and Wilson's phenomenal piano playing are pleas for redemption, never leaving behind Wilson's dark past.  The tenderness in his heart comes as clear as his admitted flaws on "You & I" and "Time," but get into the darkest depths on the major downer "Thoughts of You."  The darkest moment though, is on the cinematic "Friday Night," which turns its party-friendly title into a David Lynch rock opera that should keep everyone who hears it out of Hollywood for good.  Tragically beautiful.

3.  Ramones - Rocket to Russia
Continuing their growth, the four New York bruddahs make their finest work before the surprising departure of Tommy.  Their first set of all-new songs, as usual it begins off strong with theme song "Cretin Hop" with the first side containing such beloved classics as "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" and "Rockaway Beach."  Then there's their greatest love song "Here Today, Gone  Tomorrow," a simple ballad with sweetness coated in the sadness that never escapes the Ramones, even at their most fun.  The second side likewise begins with "Teenage Lobotomy" showing the decline of insanity both Dee Dee and Tommy at the time.  Dee Dee's torture concludes the album on the band's darkest final note on "Why Is It Always This Way?" in between there is also his most sincere plea, the simple and relate-able "I Wanna Be Well."  Yet,  there is also the group's best cover "Do You Wanna Dance?" one of the brighter spots on the Rames' conclusion of their trio of masterpieces.

2.  Television - Marquee Moon
Yet another one of the many great bands in New York at the time debuts with an incomparable masterpiece.  The dynamic group with its soaring dual (or is it duel) guitars made this spacious rock album that oozes with urban romance that put the other "intelligent" New Yorkers to shame.  Tom Verlaine has a unique style of songwriting that maintains a structure throughout, yet allows the four exceptional and compatible musicians plenty of room for expression and extension.  Rockers like the opening "See No Evil" and "Friction" stand side by side with the softer drama of "Guiding Light" and "Torn Curtain."  The title track is the most pleasurable way to make ten minutes disappear and its organic arrangement earns its recording in Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey!) studio.  "Venus" is fun enough to keep the album out of pretentious territory, but contributes to its place alongside Is This It?, Daydream Nation and The Velvet Underground and Nico as one of the most Manhattan albums ever.  The complex guitar on "Prove It" in fact proves that punk need not run from musicianship.  Too bad all the "punx" out there don't remember.

1.  David Bowie - Low
 Following collaborator Eno, Bowie begins his Berlin Trilogy with a album of half pop, half ambient.  he separates them by side though, which although many love, I see as its one flaw.  Also, one is a lot better than the other.  Sorry, but it's true.  But what a side it is!  Bowie is clearly in a better place than Los Angeles with songs like "What In the World" and "Sound and Vision" returning in addition to ones like "Breaking Glass" and "Always Crashing the Same Car."  Bowie's unusual knack for staying relevant puts him ahead of the post-punk boom that he partially inspired and this album fits alongside any of the finer goth records that would follow with its moody synths and, as usual, dramatic vocals.  The pop side closing instrumental "A New Career in a New Town" is his most beautiful composition and his most tasteful, yet effective tear-jerker.  The ambient side is great though.  While  not as cohesive as the other half, each piece is one of the best of its kind, perhaps outdoing Eno himself.  "Warszawa" is the most  esteemed, but my favorites are "Weeping Wall" and "Art Decade."  Bowie's best?

Well, that's that.  While writing this I have battled to keep my sanity (for other reasons) so I hope that didn't ruin this unbelievable list.