89. Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
This is where psychedelia starts. Everything that came before that is called psychedelic is mislabeled. Weird and distorted isn't psychedelic. Psychedelic means it's from another planet. Syd Barrett was the first one, in my opinion, to translate his drug trips into music. Of course, he went over the edge in doing so, but at least he gave us one great album from it. This album is all Barrett. It's his show. He wrote and sang most of the material. Roger Waters was present but not really accounted for early on. The album is a collection of spacy rock songs that don't veer much into the prog-rock side of things. There's a few instrumentals that hint toward the prog direction they'd take soon enough, especially the awesome "Interstellar Overdrive", but most of the rest is pretty short and sweet. They even show off a sense of humor on "Bike", which is something they lacked later on while musing about madness and death. Syd Barrett went nuts shortly after the album was released and the band had to fire him. It took a few albums before they reached greatness again, but they were fantastic throughout the 70's. They never really forgot about Syd as his influence was still all over their best work. If you've only heard their classics, you owe it to yourself to listen to this one. Do it before you die.
90. The Who - The Who Sell Out
I'm not sure this album is as seminal as some of their others. I like the idea of selling out and placing the commercials in between the real songs, but they only work in small doses, like a 10 second bit at the end of a song. Some are much longer and of those, only the Heinz Baked Beans one works, and that's because it's not only silly, but kinda catchy. The rest of the songs are minor The Who, except for "I Can See for Miles". It's not a bad album to listen to from start to finish, as it works as a full piece, but there isn't much that stands on its own. If you like this album, you should listen to Petra Haden's a cappella version of it that she recorded in her kitchen on an 8-track recorder. That's the kind of weird album that's missing from this list and more essential than another fucking hippie album.
91. The Velvet Underground & Nico
Thank God Nico had only a small part on this album. Her name's in the title but she isn't there all that much. She gets 3 songs, and does well with each. Even though her odd speech impediment shows up on "All Tomorrow's Parties", she doesn't ruin the song. In fact, a woman's voice is needed on the song, and Lou Reed probably would've done worse. Otherwise, the album explores the scuzzball underside of life, the polar axis of sunshine hippiedom. We get junkies, drug dealers, and S&M. No wonder this album didn't sell at the time. Still, it's chock full o' awesome and you should listen to it sometime. It's noisy and minimalist and influenced damn near everyone who came after it. Except Celine Dion, but fuck her anyway.
Up next: Why I hate The Doors
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