The best 3 albums by one band over a 3 year period?

[Westerly Wood]

 

[Minnesota Flats]

How 'bout Jefferson Airplane ?

"Takes Off"-1966

"Surrealistic Pillow"- 1967

"After Bathing at Baxter's" -1967

 

[James Hart]

 

[mellowgerman]

Jefferson Airplane for me as well, though I'd have to go with these 3:

 

[Midnight Toker]

Yes, comparison....

From just Jan 69 to Nov 71...

Zep I, Zep II, Zep III, AND Zep IV! Zep IV alone outsells every album listed so far...combined!!

As much as I love Tommy (I own 4 different versions of it on vinyl!!), it honestly hasn't aged all that well. Leeds and Who's Next are pinnacle Who!!

Oh, and don't forget, Leeds was only a 6 song album when it came out, not the full show (plus Hull!) which fans call Live @ Leeds today. If anything, it was just a tease of what's come out since.

 

[Rocky]

Jefferson Airplane for me as well, though I'd have to go with these 3:

I'd make that Surrealistic Pillow, After Bathing at Baxter's and Crown of Creation, with Bless It's Pointed Little Head as the fourth of the trilogy. Volunteers is hit and miss for me.

 

[Rocky]

No comparison.

But that leaves off A Quick One and Sell Out on the front end, and Quadrophenia on the back end.

 

[sailingshoes72]

Little Feat

Sailin' Shoes (1972)

Dixie Chicken (1973)

Feats Don't Fail Me Now (1974)

 

[Neal]

Start anywhere you like! Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's and the White Album is a three-year run that is awfully hard to beat.

 

[Minnesota Flats]

Jefferson Airplane for me as well, though I'd have to go with these 3:

I like just about all of the instrumental, backing tracks on "C of C" and "Volunteers" as well, but have to stick with my previous JA album picks which, at least for me, contained a higher ratio of listenable material (a bit cruder production values not withstanding). JA's lyric content started getting increasingly political after "Baxter's" which, as a listener, I found distracting in an annoying sort of way. Rock music in the service of politics starts straying out of the realm of "art" and into the realm of propaganda. I listen for entertainment, not indoctrination and can sort out my political views for myself, without the assistance of some stridently self-righteous anthem.

Maybe this was a particularly sore spot for me because, at that time, the SF Bay Area (where I lived then) was especially rife with radical demagoguery, the moral equivalence fallacy, “you’re either part of the solution or part of the problem” and the absolutist thinking behind that phrase being particularly (and conveniently) in vogue. Once JA started doing political material, I switched my attention more to Hot Tuna, which was already gigging around the Bay Area as a duo by then and was comprised of my two fav JA members anyway.

Of course, JA certainly was far from the only band of that era that was guilty of this.

 

[Rocky]

I like just about all of the instrumental, backing tracks on "C of C" and "Volunteers" as well, but have to stick with my previous JA album picks which, at least for me, contained a higher ratio of listenable material (a bit cruder production values not withstanding). JA's lyric content started getting increasingly political after "Baxter's" which, as a listener, I found distracting in an annoying sort of way. Rock music in the service of politics starts straying out of the realm of "art" and into the realm of propaganda. I listen for entertainment, not indoctrination and can sort out my political views for myself, without the assistance of some stridently self-righteous anthem.

Maybe this was a particularly sore spot for me because, at that time, the SF Bay Area (where I lived then) was especially rife with radical demagoguery, the moral equivalence fallacy, “you’re either part of the solution or part of the problem” and the absolutist thinking behind that phrase being particularly (and conveniently) in vogue. Once JA started doing political material, I switched my attention more to Hot Tuna, which was already gigging around the Bay Area as a duo by then and was comprised of my two fav JA members anyway.

Of course, JA certainly was far from the only band of that era that was guilty of this.

...but, CoC has Robert Kennedy's dog!

 

[mellowgerman]

I like just about all of the instrumental, backing tracks on "C of C" and "Volunteers" as well, but have to stick with my previous JA album picks which, at least for me, contained a higher ratio of listenable material (a bit cruder production values not withstanding). JA's lyric content started getting increasingly political after "Baxter's" which, as a listener, I found distracting in an annoying sort of way. Rock music in the service of politics starts straying out of the realm of "art" and into the realm of propaganda. I listen for entertainment, not indoctrination and can sort out my political views for myself, without the assistance of some stridently self-righteous anthem.

Maybe this was a particularly sore spot for me because, at that time, the SF Bay Area (where I lived then) was especially rife with radical demagoguery, the moral equivalence fallacy, “you’re either part of the solution or part of the problem” and the absolutist thinking behind that phrase being particularly (and conveniently) in vogue. Once JA started doing political material, I switched my attention more to Hot Tuna, which was already gigging around the Bay Area as a duo by then and was comprised of my two fav JA members anyway.

Of course, JA certainly was far from the only band of that era that was guilty of this.

I find myself in agreement with that philosophy on paper, however in practice, for me the music always came first, almost regardless of what the lyrics were saying. Of course, I'll steer clear of anything I find to be outright lyrically hateful or to the extremes of ignorance, but beyond that I'm not too worried about what a musician's political or religious leanings may be. I'm there for the sounds! May be because there once was a time when little Mellowgerman was just starting to become enamored with music and didn't speak English, so the majority of lyrics were jibberish to him anyway
That said I also absolutely love Takes Off and Surrealistic Pillow and Bless It's Pointed Little Head, so it's hard for me to pick just 3!

 

[fronobulax]

What are the rules? Pick a three year period, pick a band that you think is better than The Who, and then pick three albums from that time period that "prove" your point? Do the albums have to be consecutive releases or can we pick the candidates? You could, for example. substitute Surrealistic Pillow or Bless Its Pointed Little Head for one of the entries in mellow's list.

The first three Doors albums would be in contention except what we are really doing is expressing our opinions about the music we think is best. I note the answers are somewhat predetermined as indicated by the fact that no one has gotten much past 1975 which means this is "I like my generation's music better than your generation's music' under a different name.

 

[twocorgis]

How's this for a (slightly more than) three year run?

Did it later, too.

 

[Rocky]

I note the answers are somewhat predetermined as indicated by the fact that no one has gotten much past 1975 which means this is "I like my generation's music better than your generation's music' under a different name.

I'd put any of Cracker's first five albums in that list, but for three consecutive. disks, I'd go Kerosene Hat, The Golden Age and Gentleman's Blues (five years, not three). And to quote Lowery, "I hate my generation."

Or you could go Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost is Born, Sky Blue Sky, and Wilco (The Album), but again, you'd be talking over three years between three album choices. People don't put out as many albums in a short time period as they did 1964-1980.

I suspect a lot of the selections are skewed, due to an older audience (this is a BBS) that's predominately full of rock and roll folks. Obviously there's a lot more good music after 1975 - even rock music(!), but a lot of the blueprint had been laid down by then.

 

[sailingshoes72]

Jimi Hendrix

Are You Experienced? (1967)

Axis: Bold As Love (1967)

Electric Ladyland (1968)

 

[Curlington]

1970: Workingman's Dead and American Beauty; 1971: Skull and Roses; 1972: Europe 72. Pick any 3 of 4.

 

[Boneman]

How about 3 kick butt studio albums by one band in one year with no duds on either of the 3? Live albums shouldn't count. Like the Black Sabbath example above, allow me to introduce you to Saxon
Wheels of Steel 1980
Strong Arm of the Law 1980
Denim and Leather 1981

 

[Minnesota Flats]

I find myself in agreement with that philosophy on paper, however in practice, for me the music always came first, almost regardless of what the lyrics were saying.

Fair enough. Everybody, musicians included, has every right to hold political opinions: I just don't particularly want to hear them expressed in song. I have a hard time "not hearing" lyrics which seem to insist that I agree with the ideas expressed there in. To me, they are as annoying as pop up ads on a website or TV commercials that interrupt a movie or the political "messages" in the movies, themselves, which seem to have become almost obligatory over the last decade or so.

Another analogy might be: you go to an gallery to see subtle, artfully-evocative paintings only to find that the room is full of commercial billboards.

That said, several of us really dig one combination of JA songs or another: that's the important part!

 

[walrus]

Start anywhere you like! Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's and the White Album is a three-year run that is awfully hard to beat.

This.

walrus