1967 – 1974 was the Golden Age of Music.
1967 – 1974 could be considered the most creative period for music since the Classical era. Martin de Vore and I visit occasionally discussing guitars for hours over coffee. He made the comment that these eight years experienced a renaissance of music not experienced in centuries and very well may not be experienced again any time soon. My first comment was that this music was the music we grew up listening to, therefore we may be nostalgic. There is some truth to that but, when we started naming the albums released in that time frame, the list just seemed to go on forever. And Martin is also of the opinion that it was also the best work those musicians did at any point in their careers.
Then we asked the question: Why was this era was so prolific? We began naming the reasons why:
1) The world was enjoying good economic times and, although the Cold War and Vietnam were going on then, most nations were experiencing relative peace and prosperity.
2) The invention of electric guitars, synthesizers, amplification and effects.The electric guitar was a relatively new invention. It became commercially available around 1952. It took a few years for the innovators to master the instruments and technology. Plus the quality of the instruments was outstanding. Even today, instruments made in that era are highly valued.
3) The multitrack recorder. It is amazing that Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was recorded on a four track recorder. But, only 10 years earlier many were recording live without the luxury of multitrack recording technology. Toward the end of the 60s, eight track recording was common giving musicians the ability to do amazing tricks in the studio.
I asked Martin to email me a list of albums from this period. He emailed back over 400 recordings! And I hadn’t even started! This number does not include Motown, Soul and many Country albums of the time. Martin and I agree that 1967 – 1974 was the Golden Age of music.
Below is the list. Feel free to add any we missed or general comments:
Beatles
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The White Album
Yellow Submarine
Abbey Road
Let it Be
Paul McCartney
McCartney
Ram
Wings Wild Life
Red Rose Speedway
Live and Let Die Soundtrack
Band on the Run
Venus and Mars
John Lennon
John Lennon & Plastic Ono Band
Live Peace in Toronto 1969
Imagine
Sometime in New York City
Mind Games
Walls and Bridges
George Harrison
All Things Mus Pass
Concert for Bangladesh
Living in the Material World
Dark Horse
Ringo Starr
Ringo
Goodnight Vienna
The Rolling Stones
Between the Buttons
Their Satanic majesty’s Requests
Beggars Banquet
Let it Bleed
Sticky Fingers
Exile on Mail Street
Goat’s Head Soup
It’s Only Rock and Roll
The Who
Sell Out
Tommy
Live at Leeds
Who’s Next
Quadrophenia
Pink Floyd
The Piper at the gates of dawn
A Saucerful of Secrets
Ummagumma
Atom Heart Mother
Meddle
Obscured by Clouds
Dark Side of the Moon
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin IV
Houses of the Holy
Jethro Tull
This Was
Stand Up
Benefit
Aqualung
Thick as a Brick
Living in the Past
A Passion Play
War Child
Jimi Hendrix
Are you Experienced
Axis Bold As Love
Electric Lady land
Cream
Disraeli Gears
Wheels of Fire
Goodbye Cream
Eric Clapton
Derek & The Dominoes – Layla
Clapton
461 Ocean Boulevard
Alice Cooper
Pretties for You
Easy Action
Love it to Death
Killer
School’s Out
Billion Dollar Babies
Muscle of Love
Welcome to My Nightmare
Uriah Heep
Uriah Heep (Very ‘Eavy, Very ‘Umble)
Salisbury
Look at Yourself
Demons and Wizards
The Magician’s Birthday
Sweet Freedom
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Paranoid
Master of Reality
Black Sabbath Vol. 4
Deep Purple
Shades of Deep Purple
Book of talisman
Deep Purple
In Concert With the London Philharmonic
In Rock
Fireball
Machine Head
Who Do We Think We Are
Made in Japan
Burn
Space Oddity
The Man Wo Sold the World
Hunky Dory
The Rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Alladin Sane
Pinups
Diamond Dogs
Emerson Lake & Palmer
Emerson Lake & Palmer
Tarkus
Trilogy
Brain Salad Surgery
Yes
Yes
The Yes Album
Time and a Word
Fragile
Close to the Edge
Yes Songs
Tales From Topographic Oceans
Relayer
Moody Blues
Days of Future Passed
In Search of the Lost Chord
on the Threshold of a Dream
To Our Children’s Children’s Children
A Question of Balance
Every Good Boy Deserves Favor
Seventh Sojourn
Love Sculpture
Blues helping
Forms & Feeling
Crosby Stills Nash & Young
Crosby Stills Nash & Young
Deja Vu
Bob Dylan
John Wesley Harding
Nashville Skyline
Self Portrait
New Morning
Dylan
Planet Waves
Before the Flood
Joni Mitchell
Song to A Seagull
Clouds
Ladies of the canyon
Blue
For the Roses
Court and Spark
Carole King
Writer
Tapestry
Music
Rhymes and Reasons
Fantasy
Wrap Around Joy
Elton John
Empty Sky
Elton John
Tumbleweed Connection
Madman Across the Water
Honky Chateau
Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Caribou
Simon & Garfunkel
Bookends
Bridge Over Troubled Water
The Doors
The Doors
Strange Days
Waiting For the Sun
The Soft Parade
Morrison Hotel
L.A. Woman
Other Voices
Jefferson Airplane
Surrealistic Pillow
After Bathing at Baxter’s
Crown of Creation
Volunteers
Bark
Long John Silver
Chicago
The Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago
Chicago III
Chicago at Carnegie Hall
Chicago V
Chicago VI
Chicago VI
Grand Funk Railroad
On Time
Grand Funk
Closer to Home
Survival
E Pluribus Funk
Phoenix
We’re an American Band
Shinin’ On
All the Girls in the World Beware!!!
The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band
Idlewild South
At Fillmore East
Eat A Peach
Brothers and Sisters
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Bayou Country
Green River
Willy and the Poor Boys
Cosmo’s Factory
Pendulum
Mardi Gras
Santana
Santana
Abraxas
Santana III
Caravanserai
Welcome
Borboletta
The Guess Who
Wheatfield Soul
Canned Wheat
American Woman
Share the Land
Linda Ronstadt
The Stone Poneys
Evergreen Volume 2
Linda Rondstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Volume 3
Hand Sown … Home Grown
Silk Purse
Linda Ronstadt
Don’t Cry Now
Heart Like a Wheel
The Eagles
Eagles
Desperado
On the Border
Fleetwood Mac
Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac
Mr. Wonderful
Then Play On
Kiln House
Future Games
Bare Trees
Penguin
Mystery to Me
Heroes Are Hard to Find
Traffic
Mr. Fantasy
Traffic
Last Exit
John Barleycorn Must Die
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory
When the Eagle Flies
Ten Years After
Ten Years After
Stonehenge
Ssssh
Undead
Cricklewood Green
Watt
A Space in Time
Rock & Roll Music to the World
Positive Vibrations
Genesis
From Genesis to Revelation
Trespass
Nursery Crime
Foxtrot
Selling England by the Pound
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Donovan
Mellow Yellow
A Gift from a Flower to a Garden
The Hurdy Gurdy Man
Barabajagal
Open Road
H.M.S. Donovan
Cosmic Wheels
Essence to Essence
7-Tease
Al Stewart
Bed-Sitter Images
Love Chronicles –
Zero She Flies
Orange
Past, Present and Future
Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes
The Amboy Dukes
Journey to the Center of the Mind
Migration
Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Bottom
Survival of the Fittest Live
Call of the Wild
Tooth Fang & Claw
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Happy Trails
Shady Grove
Just for Love
What About Me
Quicksilver
Comin’ Thru
The Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead
Anthem of the Sun
Aoxomoxoa
Live/Dead
Workingman’s Dead
American Beauty
Grateful Dead
Europe ’72
History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear’s Choice)
Wake of the Flood
From the Mars Hotel
Leo Kottke
6- and 12-String Guitar
Circle Round The Sun
Mudlark
Greenhouse
My Feet Are Smiling
Ice Water
Dreams And All That Stuff
John Denver
Rhymes & Reasons
Take Me to Tomorrow
Whose Garden Was This
Poems, Prayers & Promises
Aerie
Rocky Mountain High
Farewell Andromeda
Back Home Again
Cat Stevens
Matthew & Son
New Masters
Mona Bone Jakon
Tea for the Tillerman
Teaser and the Firecat
Catch Bull at Four
Foreigner
Buddha and the Chocolate Box
James Taylor
James Taylor
Sweet Baby James
Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon
One Man Dog
Walking Man
Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Anticipation
No Secrets
Hotcakes
Neil Young
Neil Young
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere[A]
After the Gold Rush
Harvest
On the Beach
Gordon Lightfoot
The Way I Feel
Did She Mention My Name
Back Here on Earth
Sunday Concert
Sit Down Young Stranger
Summer Side of Life
Don Quixote
Old Dan’s Records
Sundown
Johnny Winter
The Progressive Blues Experiment
Johnny Winter
Second Winter
Johnny Winter And
Still Alive and Well
Saints & Sinners
ZZ Top
ZZ Top’s First Album
Rio Grande Mud
Tres Hombres
Steve Miller Band
Children of the Future
Sailor Living in the U.S.A.
Brave New WorldA
Your Saving GraceA
Number 5
Rock Love
Recall the Beginning…A Journey from Eden
The Joker
Stevie Wonder
I Was Made to Love Her
Someday at Christmas
Eivets Rednow
For Once in My Life
My Cherie Amour
Signed, Sealed & Delivered
Where I’m Coming From
Music of My Mind
Talking Book
Innervisions
Fulfillingness’ First Finale
Spirit
Spirit
The Family That Plays Together
Model Shop (Soundtrack for a Jacques Demy film, recorded in 1968)
Clear
Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
Feedback
Billy Preston
Club Meeting
That’s The Way God Planned It
Encouraging Words
I Wrote a Simple Song
Music Is My Life
Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music
The Kids & Me
Procol Harum
Procol Harum
Shine on Brightly
A Salty Dog
Home
Broken Barricades
Grand Hotel
Exotic Birds and Fruit
Robin Trower
Twice Removed from Yesterday
Bridge of Sighs
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Give It Up
Takin’ My Time
Streetlights
Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin
The Inner Mounting Flame
Birds of Fire
The Lost Trident Sessions
Between Nothingness and Eternity
Apocalypse
Badfinger
Magic Christian Music
No Dice
Straight Up
Ass
Badfinger
Wish You Were Here
Blue Oyster Cult
Blue Oyster Cult
Tyranny and Mutation
Secret Treaties
Mountain
Climbing!
Nantucket Sleigh ride
Flowers of Evil
Avalanche
Mott the Hoople
Mott the Hoople
Mad Shadows
Wildlife
Brain Capers
All the Young Dudes
Mott
Bread
Bread
On the Waters
Manna
Baby I’m-a Want You
Guitar Man
Black Oak Arkansas
Black Oak Arkansas
Keep The Faith
If An Angel Came To See You Would You Make Her Feel At Home?
Raunch ‘N’ Roll Live
High on the Hog
Street Party