Another fine,varied list of great albums, Tom. If I could add a few: Spooky Tooth The Last Puff, Ten Years After- Cricklewood Green, Fleetwood Mac-Kiln House, Free Fire and Water.
Love "First Step"; "Sunflower " is my favorite Beach Boys album after all the ones that Brian wrote or co-wrote all of the songs....Love Emmitt Rhodes debut solo album...Great selections...Peace and Love, Terry Tutor
I recently listened to Vintage Violence by John Cale. One of many great albums of 1970... my birth year. You should feature the 10 best deleted albums of the late 60s early 70s. So many great LPs have delete punch holes. Love these pics!
I second, third and fourth “Poco;” you highlight lots of great unsung debuts in 1970 and to that list I would add the J. Geils Band’s amazing debut - nothing else like it, as I remember, at the time.
I second that shout out for The J. Geils Band -- that first album is the only one of theirs that I still like and listen to, although they got much more attention for later releases.
Interesting you mentioned that Geils debut. Just picked up their first 5 albums in one of those discounted CD “Original Album Series” packages. Going to listen to it tonight.
the john sebastian record is definitely unsung. the cowboy album i don't know. the rundgren, byrds and newman i was obsessed with long ago. poco is a new favorite thanks to you.
My favorite Spirit album. Love Has Found A Way is an incredible track. I would have put this album on the list but I’ve already showcased it various times on the channel among different subjects I’ve mentioned. 😉
Leon Russell’s first solo album, absolutely love it. He deserves a mention, was on so many classic tracks over the years. Finally put out an album with the top musicians of the day in top form!
Pat Martino released several great albums but I've never had/heard Desperado. Will seek it out. I'm also a fan of that era of Beach Boys up to Holland. It was Carl's time to really shine. John B. Sebastian, what a gem. David Crosby's debut too that's "gone in and out of style," while remaining a gem. I know you know. John & Beverley Martyn: 'The Road to Ruin' favorite "Auntie Aviator,' beautiful psychedelic mood evoked with only acoustic piano acoustic guitar, and voice.
So happy to see Emit Rhodes Did you know on the run out , you can read the words Recorded at Home Back then you had to use a studio and this album was presented as a studio album but Emit added the words as not only did be play everything he recorded and engineered at home . My pick for unsung is Cat Stevens : Mona Bone Jakon This was a quantum leap from his pop output of 60s and contains many tracks used in Harold and Maude Amazing album but overshadowed by Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat the 2 albums that followed it
love the lineup, tom. emitt rhodes was so talented and so abused by his record label. my fave track of his is “somebody made for me”. pure pop and often mistaken for paul mccartcney when he first released
I don't know if it's considered an unsung album but my favorite record from 1970 was Otis Redding/Jimi Hendrix Historic Performances from the Monterey Pop Festival. What side of the record is Otis the other side is Jimi. I never even got around to listening to the Jimi Hendrix performance lol. Try a Little Tenderness absolutely sizzles.
There was a Scottish heavy metal band called Iron Claw who released their debut album in 1970. They're pretty much Black Sabbath clones but the music actually sounds rawer (partly due to more primitive recording techniques) It's really surprising to hear such a doom metal sound in 1970. They can be heard on UA-cam if you're curious!
Sunflower unjustly flopped when it was released. One of their greatest albums ever. BTW, if you are a fan of Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson, check out an album called Nilsson Sings Newman.
@@tomrobinson5776 I still love the album, regarding it as Dave Mason's best, by far. He made great pop songs, with rock tinges, but he didn't do good LPs. Alone Together has its own "Wrecked" Crew of co-conspirators, All-Stars in their own right. There really isn't a weak song on the album. In some ways, it is the proper follow-on to Traffic II, not John Barleycorn, a stiff, awkward album.
Wasn't that the year that Easy Action, Alice Cooper's second album, was released? I think that's one of their most consistently excellent records, along with the more well known Love It To Death and Killer. Also, Fleetwood Mac's Kiln House gets no respect from anybody but me and Robert Christgau -- probably because it's the first without Peter Green (and with full membership, and jacket art, of Christine).
It's worth having on vinyl for the cover art -- you can put it in one of those album frames. And when you hear the record, you'll wonder where it's been all your life. It got a lot of airplay on San Francisco FM radio, so it was in my ears from my first radio.
Good list and I've had most of them since 1970. I recall the Sebastian l.p. was also released on MGM. I bought the reprise copy because the Kinks were on reprise at the time.
According to Wikipedia he released it on Reprise. MGM claimed rights and released it on MGM and Live. The court made them take it back. The MGM I would assume is rare.
Great Stuff !!! My Friend!!! ALL Slammers!! Two Memories... I Was A Senior In 1970 And Remember Walking Downtown In My Hometown Wisconsin During A Heavy Snowstorm, Because I Had Seen " First Step" .... So I Returned With My Money In Hand... The Walk Home Was Crazy .. Almost Snowbound... Crazier Still Almost The Same Story With " Runt" Also That Album Put Me On The Hunt For A Mickey Mouse Wristwatch!! lol!!
Love the kudos for that second Poco album... the Beach Boys were awesome in the early 1970s
Another fine,varied list of great albums, Tom. If I could add a few: Spooky Tooth The Last Puff, Ten Years After- Cricklewood Green, Fleetwood Mac-Kiln House, Free Fire and Water.
Love "First Step"; "Sunflower " is my favorite Beach Boys album after all the ones that Brian wrote or co-wrote all of the songs....Love Emmitt Rhodes debut solo album...Great selections...Peace and Love, Terry Tutor
I recently listened to Vintage Violence by John Cale. One of many great albums of 1970... my birth year. You should feature the 10 best deleted albums of the late 60s early
70s. So many great LPs have delete punch holes. Love these pics!
Vintage Violence is a masterpiece, a welsh Highway 61.
smh, I thought you meant literally unsung-as in instrumental albums. (joking)
Another remarkable, vital video. Thanks!!!
I second, third and fourth “Poco;” you highlight lots of great unsung debuts in 1970 and to that list I would add the J. Geils Band’s amazing debut - nothing else like it, as I remember, at the time.
I second that shout out for The J. Geils Band -- that first album is the only one of theirs that I still like and listen to, although they got much more attention for later releases.
Interesting you mentioned that Geils debut. Just picked up their first 5 albums in one of those discounted CD “Original Album Series” packages. Going to listen to it tonight.
@@tomrobinson5776 I think you’ll be happy you did!
the john sebastian record is definitely unsung. the cowboy album i don't know. the rundgren, byrds and newman i was obsessed with long ago. poco is a new favorite thanks to you.
Yes, Poco. One of my all time favorite albums.
Oh my- Best album of 1970 (and just about any other year!!!!)- Dave Mason "Alone Together" !!!!!!
Great album. Always loved that original marble vinyl version.
Flamin' Groovies "Flamingo"
Pretty Things "Parachute "
Brinsley Schwarz "Despite It All "
Cactus "S/T"
12 dreams of dr sardonicus by spirit .
My favorite Spirit album. Love Has Found A Way is an incredible track. I would have put this album on the list but I’ve already showcased it various times on the channel among different subjects I’ve mentioned. 😉
@@tomrobinson5776 I know you have , great channel !
yessir! the first two albums of cowboy are fantastic! totally underrated and overlooked! by the way: great list of unsung albums!
Delaney & Bonnie & Friends - On Tour With Eric Clapton
I would add Death Walks Behind You by Atomic Rooster and Parachute by The Pretty Things.
Flying was my first Faces single, bought two days after release. Still have it, still my favorite band.
Under the radar 1970;
Climbing-Mountain
Lick My Decals Off Baby-Captain Beefheart
Mad Shadows-Mott the Hoople
Starsailor-Tim Buckley
Leon Russell’s first solo album, absolutely love it. He deserves a mention, was on so many classic tracks over the years. Finally put out an album with the top musicians of the day in top form!
I need to pick that one up. I have Carney and a Best Of comp.
❤ chestnut mare
Sunflower is a brilliant album.
Pat Martino released several great albums but I've never had/heard Desperado. Will seek it out.
I'm also a fan of that era of Beach Boys up to Holland. It was Carl's time to really shine.
John B. Sebastian, what a gem.
David Crosby's debut too that's "gone in and out of style," while remaining a gem. I know you know.
John & Beverley Martyn: 'The Road to Ruin' favorite "Auntie Aviator,' beautiful psychedelic mood evoked with only acoustic piano acoustic guitar, and voice.
Never heard that particular John Martyn album. Bless The Weather is a fave of mine.
So happy to see Emit Rhodes
Did you know on the run out , you can read the words Recorded at Home
Back then you had to use a studio and this album was presented as a studio album but Emit added the words as not only did be play everything he recorded and engineered at home .
My pick for unsung is Cat Stevens : Mona Bone Jakon
This was a quantum leap from his pop output of 60s and contains many tracks used in Harold and Maude
Amazing album but overshadowed by Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat the 2 albums that followed it
I have Mona Bone Jakon, but I never listened to it much. I’ll need to spin that again. Peter Gabriel plays flute on one of the tracks.
I checked my copy after I read your comment and sure enough there it is on side 1. Side 2 also but not as much. Very fancy scroll too.
1970 is my birth year and the day I was born John Lennon wrote and recorded "Instant Karma"! "Bridge Over Troubled Water" came out that day too.
Very cool. 😉
love the lineup, tom. emitt rhodes was so talented and so abused by his record label. my fave track of his is “somebody made for me”. pure pop and often mistaken for paul mccartcney when he first released
That is a cool track. Very McCartneyesque.
I don't know if it's considered an unsung album but my favorite record from 1970 was Otis Redding/Jimi Hendrix Historic Performances from the Monterey Pop Festival.
What side of the record is Otis the other side is Jimi. I never even got around to listening to the Jimi Hendrix performance lol.
Try a Little Tenderness absolutely sizzles.
I agree. That Otis performance just cooks. The Hendrix performance is pure magic.
There was a Scottish heavy metal band called Iron Claw who released their debut album in 1970. They're pretty much Black Sabbath clones but the music actually sounds rawer (partly due to more primitive recording techniques) It's really surprising to hear such a doom metal sound in 1970. They can be heard on UA-cam if you're curious!
I’ll check it out. 😉
Sunflower unjustly flopped when it was released. One of their greatest albums ever. BTW, if you are a fan of Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson, check out an album called Nilsson Sings Newman.
I’ve heard of that album, but never checked it out. Now I will. 😉
Procol Harem's Home. Fantastic. Yes, Procol Harum was on a roll. Their first 6 or 7 albums were great. Up to Exotic Birds and Fruit.
I agree. 😉
I really don’t remember.
That Emitt Rhodes is a gem.
Great choices from a fine year in music , i would add Loose Salute from Michael Nesmith
Nesmith is underrated. He wrote some great stuff in the Monkees, plus some of those solo albums are quite good.
Rolling stone critics choice of the 1970 album of the year...pretty things parachute...better then anything u mentioned here
I think First Step is still my favorite Faces LP. They were the most frustrating band, great singles, lotta talent, sloppy albums. First Step manages to avoid the crap that clutters the other three LPs. Dave Mason released a terrific album, complete with composite, multi-colored vinyl, and a nearly-life-sized fold-out-poster album cover. It was a keeper, but despite heavy airplay, didn't sell as well as it should have.
Cat Stevens re-invented himself as a folk-singer-songwriter, with a unique approach. His first album caught people by surprise, and was eclipsed by the overwhelming popularity of Tea for the Tillerman. The Band's last great album, Stage Fright deserved better than it received, not-quite-endorsed by Robert Christgau, and later dissed by Greil Marcus. It is a far better album than given credit, the songs The Rumor, and Stage Fright speaking directly to audiences, who, in the first repeated the "rumor", that "Bob Dylan is here", and in the second, lived the dread of walking on stage, to face larger and larger audiences (the Band had played to nearly half a million, at Woodstock, the year before).
Leon Russell bounced from the incredible Mad Dogs tour with Joe Cocker, and a traveling cast of thousands, to deliver his own first LP, featuring the compelling Song for You, Shoot Out on the Plantation, Hummingbird, Delta Lady, and Hurtsome Body. The Dead released two great LPs in 1970, but American Beauty walked off with the roses. Workingman's Dead is a solid album by a band who hadn't yet mastered the art. Future classics Uncle John's Band, Dire Wolf, New Speedway Boogie, and Casey Jones stand out in a more typical set list, from a band beginning to come to terms with itself.
Pink Floyd explored musique concrète with the fifth album. Side One is the Atom Heart Mother Suite, 23 minutes, 44 seconds of glorious chaos, wrapped around a moving theme that grows as the cacophony builds. The future of the band was built on this album. At the other end of the spectrum, Emitt Rhodes brought his pop sensibilities to bear on his second solo album. It's a bit twee, but that is the harshest thing anyone could say about it. Sadly, it was also a bit 1968, in the cold, dark reality of December 1970, where the VietNam War was still going on, the deaths at Kent State still reverberated, the drug culture had taken a hard right into heroin and speed.
Although we didn't know it, changes in society were about to create the future none of us would be particularly happy with, when it unfolded in full. Joe Cocker came off one tour, was told he had another booked, immediately. Enter Leon Russell, master of space and time, for Mad Dogs and Englishmen, the tour of the century! What a process, what a line-up, what an amazing time. The film has been out of print for many decades, now, but rest assured, it was a no-holds-barred account of touring in the bad old days, complete with heroes and villains, back-up singers, and a nine-piece band. What more could you want?
The Kinks patched things up with the American unions, in 1969, were allowed a brief tour to reacquaint the audience with the band. They released the underwhelming Arthur, that year, then followed it up with a scathing attack on the recording and entertainment industry. For those who weren't around, it was nothing like today's streamlined jet-powered system. It was a lot of cheap motels, semis, or vans, and very poor acoustics, in large halls, rented by thieves and charlatans. I met a few, myself, so I know Ray Davies was not exaggerating, by any appreciable amount. Lola vs Powerman revealed a band in its prime, mostly forgotten by fans, but ready to step on out.
After losing their guitarist, and key founding member, one could have forgiven Fleetwood Mac for giving up, but the band soldiered on, adding Christine McVie from Chickenshack, on vocals. However, Jeremy Spencer left before the album was completed, further adding to the band's woes. Despite it all, the remaining four delivered a very good album, Kiln House, that ignores the problems, and sets the tone for a string of increasingly successful albums, in the greatest comeback in rock 'n' roll history. What might have been was never a part of their repertoire, only great songs, one after another, often sung by the new female vocalist.
A L O N E T O G E T H E R
Dave Mason
M O N A B O N E J A K O N
Cat Stevens
S T A G E F R I G H T
the Band
L E O N R U S S E L L ( I )
Leon Russell
W O R K I N G M A N ' S D E A D
Grateful Dead
A T O M H E A R T M O T H E R
Pink Floyd
E M I T T R H O D E S ( I )
Emitt Rhodes
M A D D O G S A N D E N G L I S H M E N
Joe Cocker
L O L A V S P O W E R M A N A N D T H E M O N E Y - G O - R O U N D ,
the Kinks
K I L N H O U S E
Fleetwood Mac
©BW2024 05/05/2024
anarchitek™
I almost put that Dave Mason album on the list. That marble looking vinyl was nothing like I’d ever seen when my brother played it back in ‘70.
@@tomrobinson5776 I still love the album, regarding it as Dave Mason's best, by far. He made great pop songs, with rock tinges, but he didn't do good LPs. Alone Together has its own "Wrecked" Crew of co-conspirators, All-Stars in their own right. There really isn't a weak song on the album. In some ways, it is the proper follow-on to Traffic II, not John Barleycorn, a stiff, awkward album.
Concur w/ Kiln House and Lola vs Powerman both great. 1970 was a great year for music.
@@chrisbotelho7212 Lola Vs Powerman along with After The Goldrush are my fave albums from ‘70. Both perfect.
@@tomrobinson5776 Great records.
Donovan - Open Road
Wasn't that the year that Easy Action, Alice Cooper's second album, was released? I think that's one of their most consistently excellent records, along with the more well known Love It To Death and Killer.
Also, Fleetwood Mac's Kiln House gets no respect from anybody but me and Robert Christgau -- probably because it's the first without Peter Green (and with full membership, and jacket art, of Christine).
That’s one of the few Fleetwood Mac albums I don’t have. Always dug that cover. I need to pick up that album.
It's worth having on vinyl for the cover art -- you can put it in one of those album frames. And when you hear the record, you'll wonder where it's been all your life. It got a lot of airplay on San Francisco FM radio, so it was in my ears from my first radio.
Great list, Tom. I was born in 1959, so I am very familiar with many albums Tom mentioned toward the beginning of the video.
👍🏻👍🏻
Good list and I've had most of them since 1970. I recall the Sebastian l.p. was also released on MGM. I bought the reprise copy because the Kinks were on reprise at the time.
There was a contractual dispute where they both released.
I have both the Reprise and MGM copies. I assume the MGM version was released first?
According to Wikipedia he released it on Reprise. MGM claimed rights and released it on MGM and Live. The court made them take it back. The MGM I would assume is rare.
@@terryhu57 Interesting…
Great Stuff !!! My Friend!!! ALL Slammers!! Two Memories... I Was A Senior In 1970 And Remember Walking Downtown In My Hometown Wisconsin During A Heavy Snowstorm, Because I Had Seen " First Step" .... So I Returned With My Money In Hand... The Walk Home Was Crazy .. Almost Snowbound... Crazier Still Almost The Same Story With " Runt" Also That Album Put Me On The Hunt For A Mickey Mouse Wristwatch!! lol!!
The Byrds (Untitled) was a huge surprise. One of my first vinyl purchases.
A good comeback for them.