There are many things that can be said about the boomers, not all of them nice, necessarily, but to focus on themusicfrom that generation, it was pretty great, for the most part. Take what Wikipedia says with a grain of salt, of course, but the page there for “classic rock” does mention it being associated with the baby boomer generation. It’s also nice to be able to define when the period of “classic rock” was versus ordinary rock.
As for that definition, here, it’s going to be focused on the 1970s, with a couple of stragglers into the 1980s. The following albums can all be classified as some kind of rock, be it of the folk, hard, or art variety, and they’re all masterpieces, too. Now, finding underrated albums that are also perfect is difficult, considering most exceptional decades-old albums that still hold up have found an audience in that time, but the following albums are either overshadowed by other releases from the artists in question,or they’re fairly well-loved when they should be exceptionally well-loved. And uh, that’s that. Onward and whatever.
8’On the Beach' (1974)
Neil Young
Neil Youngwas super prolific during the 1970s, and most will argue that’s when he was at his peak, artistically. Hemight be more of a folk singer than a rock artist, but he definitely walked the linebetween the two, being at his heaviest withRust Never Sleeps. As for his best album? There’s no definite pick, but two of the most popular/frequently cited areAfter the Gold RushandHarvest.
Perhaps the string of good albums in a row has meant that a few of them don’t get quite as much love, with this potentially being the case forOn the Beach. This is easily one of Young’s most emotional albums, to the point where it can be quite harrowing at times,especially that lengthy closing track, “Ambulance Blues.” Three of the eight songs here do have “Blues” in the title, which should clue you into it being a melancholic album. But it’s great and beautiful melancholy, and though it’s on the soft side as far as classic rock goes, it still qualifies, given most of the songs here have a folk/country rock sound going for them.
7’Raw Power' (1973)
Iggy and The Stooges
The career ofIggy Popis an endlessly fascinating one, since he helped define what would eventually become punk rock withThe Stooges, then he had some fruitfulcollaborations withDavid Bowie, and then he also became well-known as an actor. He’s a pop culture icon who’s endured surprisingly well, in a similar vein to Keith Richards, perhaps, but one of his best albums –Raw Power– deserves a little more love.
It’s mixed in a near-deafening way, and listening to it feels like getting continually punched in the eardrums for a bit over half an hour.
It’s understandable, though, whyRaw Powermight not have resonated straight away.It is so heavy, loud, and – indeed – raw, even more than 50 years later. It’s mixed in a near-deafening way, and listening to it feels like getting continually punched in the eardrums for a bit over half an hour. But it also sounds amazing; it’s not just mindless noise, because the songs here are really well-written and punchy. It’s wild that something this old still sounds like this, and has the kind of impact it does, but that’s justRaw Powerfor you. If you took this album back in time to the Victorian era, and played it for people, there would probably be casualties.
6’Quadrophenia' (1973)
Okay, sure,Quadropheniais quite well-liked, and most people would probably place it at #3 if they were to rank albums byThe Who. But therein lies the problem.Tommyand (especially)Who’s Nextare both great, butQuadropheniais the band’s best album, and those who have woken up to this fact are tired of pretending it’s not. It’s a better concept album thanTommy, it’s more consistent thanWho’s Next, and its ambition is still staggering to behold to this day.
Quadropheniagoes so damn big, and does it so damn well. It’s a grand coming-of-age story about alienation, loneliness, mental illness, and conformity, but even if you don’t want to break down the lyrics, the whole album just sounds great enough to be a classic for that alone.It’s got some standout tracks, sure (namely,“The Real Me” and “Love, Reign O’er Me”), but it’s best listened to from front to back, which is surprisingly easy to do, since none of the 17 tracks here miss the mark.
5’Selling England by the Pound' (1973)
Another album that might only just fit into the definition of classic rock,Selling England by the Poundis probably the bestGenesisalbum, but it’s not the most popular. The band’s history is a fascinating one, since in the 1970s, they were very weird and niche, and thenPeter Gabrielleft the band before the end of the decade, andPhil Collinstook over, kind of, and then Genesis ended up being a very different sort of band post-Gabriel, and into the 1980s, as well as a more approachable/popular one, too.
So,Selling England by the Poundis being included here because it comes from that weird Genesis era that is understandably a little less popular, but does still deserve a bit more love. This ispsychedelic, sometimes rambling, and undeniably surreal stuff, but it’s also uniquely intoxicating. The whole album is a great one to just fall into and get lost in. You might not have any answers as to what it all might mean once you come out the other end, but you’ll have experienced something great, at the very least.
4’Peter Gabriel 3' (1980)
Peter Gabriel
What did Peter Gabriel get up to after Genesis, you might ask? Some pretty great stuff, it turns out. His most famous album is indeed more popular and well-known than anything he did with Genesis: 1986’sSo. That one had “Sledgehammer” on it, which is a great song withan even greater music video, and it also contained “In Your Eyes” (heard in Say Anything, quite famously), as well as theKate Bushduet “Don’t Give Up.”
But enough aboutSo. Gabriel probably peaked as an artist with his third self-titled album, released in 1980… or potentially the score toThe Last Temptation of Christ,which was released asPassion. But that one wasn’t really rock, whereasPeter Gabriel 3is art rock, and so it’s being counted here as a classic rock album. It’s a little out there, andalso pretty unsettling/anxiety-inducing at times, but it’s also an incredibly consistent album, and one that has held up immensely well more than four decades on from release.
3’Tim' (1985)
The Replacements
Righton the line of being considered classic rock,The Replacements’Timdid come about 40 years ago, at the time of writing, and that’s the cut-off, for present purposes. It’s undeniably rock music, with a bit of a punk kick, all the while also being melodic and kind of poppy, too. It gets the balance right, and that makes it a super satisfying listen.
There are anthemic songs here that are truly energizing (“Hold My Life”), big songs that are also a bit melancholic (“Left of the Dial”), and then an outright downer of a song to conclude things, “Ambulance Blues” style (“Here Comes a Regular”).All albums by The Replacements are underrated, since they’re a scrappy and generally underrated band, butTimespecially so, since the album before it,Let It Be, is usually considered the band’s greatest. And it is great, of course, butTimmight be even better. you may’t really go wrong with the following album (Pleased to Meet Me) either.
2’The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle' (1973)
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen’s second album,The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, was also his first great one. And it does get a bit overshadowed by the third album of his, the absolutely perfectBorn to Run, butThe Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffledeserves a similar amount of love, especially since it contains tracks like “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight),“and “New York City Serenade.”
It’snot quite as much of a true “rock” album as eitherBorn to RunorBorn in the U.S.A., but this one still has enough of a rock sound to qualify as classic rock. And it is undeniably a classic, which might be the main thing, even if there are various other Springsteen albums that tend to get championed a little more. Just don’t overlook this one; that’s the main thing to take away from all this.
1’Animals' (1977)
Pink Floyd
It’s a stretch to callPink Floydunderrated in the traditional sense, since albums likeThe Dark Side of the MoonandThe Wall(which later became a movie)are some of the most well-loved in rock history.Wish You Were Hereis also close to as iconic as those two, but thenAnimalsis kind of a dark horse; loved by fans, and eventually held in high regard by critics, but certainly a more difficult and less approachable album overall.
It’s hard to get on the same level as this album initially, and maybe you’re not really going to want to, considering how dark and oppressive this one is.The Dark Side of the Moonis similarly grim in parts, but it’s not as persistently bleak or nightmarish asAnimals. But onceAnimalsdoes click, it truly emerges as one of the band’s very best, andit’s worthy of the same kind of praise the other established classic Pink Floyd albumsfrom the 1970s tend to get.
