I’ve tried not to repeat artists, although sometimes I did repeat someone who did solo work on top of group work. Bear in mind that “favorite” doesn’t always equate “best”. I was going to do 50, then 75, but they just kept coming to me so I gave up trying to set a number.
Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
The Beatles - Hey Jude
Sly & The Family Stone’s Greatest Hits
Jethro Tull - A Passion Play
Pentangle - Solomon’s Seal
Neil Young - On the Beach
The Great Lost Kinks Album
Traffic - When the Eagle Flies
Harry Nilsson - Son of Schmilsson
Santana - Caravanserai
Prince - Sign O’ the Times
Todd Rundgren - A Wizard/A True Star
Graham Nash - Wild Tales
Jefferson Starship - Dragon Fly
Kansas - Monolith
King Crimson - Lizard
The Time - What Time Is It?
Jellyfish- Spilt Milk
Puffy Amiyumi - Nice.
Frank Zappa - Apostrophe(‘)
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Clear Spot
Michael Nesmith - Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash
Marshall Crenshaw - S/T
Lloyd Cole - Don’t Get Weird On Me Babe
Roxy Music - Stranded
Bryan Ferry - These Foolish Things
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane*
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
The Replacements - Tim
R.E.M. - Monster**
Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Element of Light
Roy Wood - Boulders
Tony Ashton & Jon Lord - First of the Big Bands
Dan Fogelberg & Tim Weisberg - Twin Sons of Different Mothers
Alan Price - Between Today and Yesterday
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Peter Gabriel III (Melt)
Yes - Close to the Edge
Wendy Waldman - The Main Refrain
Bonnie Raitt - Home Plate
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band - Nightingales & Bombers
Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy)
Mott the Hoople - The Hoople
Hall and Oates - Along the Red Ledge
Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue
Alice Cooper - School’s Out
Led Zeppelin IV
Utopia - S/T (1982)
Fleetwood Mac - Heroes are Hard to Find
Rod Stewart - Never a Dull Moment
T.Rex - Electric Warrior
XTC- Skylarking
Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy
Yoko Ono - Approximately Infinite Universe
Ringo - Ringo
Emerson, Lake, & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery
The Meters - Rejuvination
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Strawbs - Ghosts
Be-Bop Deluxe - Sunburst Finish
The Jeff Beck Group - Beck-Ola
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Warren Zevon - Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School
The Waterboys - Dream Harder
Maria McKee - Life is Sweet
Los Lobos - Kiko****
Anthony Phillips - The Geese and the Ghost
Masters of Reality - S/T
The Monkees - Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Fishbone - In Your Face
The Rave-Ups - Chance
Bette Midler
Ramones - Rocket to Russia
Flo & Eddie - S/T
Parliament - Mothership Connection
Randy Newman - Good Old Boys
Cibo Matto - Stereo Type A
June 1, 1974
Ron Sexsmith - Other Songs
Wilco - summerteeth
The Jayhawks - Sound of Lies
Donovan - Cosmic Wheels
INXS - Welcome to Wherever You Are
Queen II
Cat Stevens - Buddah and the Chocolate Box
Nona Hendryx - The Art of Defense
Maria Muldaur - S/T
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Camper Van Beethoven - Key Lime Pie
Chuck Berry - The Great Twenty-Eight
Fountains of Wayne - Utopia Parkway
Elton John - Madman Across the Water
Rick Wakeman - The Six Wives of Henry VIII
The Who - Quadrophrenia
Status Quo - Rockin’ All Over the World
Foghat- In the Mood for Something Rude
Godley & Creme - Ismism
Sandy Denny - Like an Old Fashioned Waltz
Kid Creole and the Coconuts - Wise Guy
Ian Hunter - All American Alien Boy
Roger McGuinn - S/T***
10cc - Dangerous Bends
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Sparks - Kimono My House
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Nile Rodgers - Adventures in the Land of the Good Groove
The Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters
Heart - Private Audition
Mary Hopkin - Earth Song/Ocean Song
Mike Oldfield - Five Miles Out
Grand Funk Railroad - E Pluribus Funk
James Taylor - Flag
Steve Hillage - L
And with that, I’m going to mercifully bring this to a close. The crazy thing is, I’m leaving off records I love for sure but I have to stop somewhere!
* - could have been Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).
**- I had a really hard time deciding which one to name with those guys. Document and Automatic for the People were also considered. I’ve listened to Monster the most in recent years, so that’s why it got the nod.
***- Same for McGuinn’s Cardiff Rose.
****- by a hair over Colossal Head.
Conspicuous by their absence: John Lennon fr chrissakes… Slade, Procol Harum, The Beach Boys (Sunflower), the Byrds, Tom Petty, Mojo Nixon, Trip Shakespeare/Semisonic, Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles, Joe Walsh, the J. Geils Band, the Feelies, Jill Sobule, Badfinger, Redd Kross, Grant Lee Buffalo/Grant-Lee Phillips, Jane’s Addiction, Iggy Pop, Little Feat, Willie Nelson, Leon Russell, Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Rockpile, The Bottle Rockets, Tommy Bolin, Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow w. Dio, Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins/Bootsy’s Rubber Band, Talking Heads, Blondie/Debbie Harry, Chic, Duran Duran, Jill Jones, Robert Palmer, Foster & Lloyd, the Rainmakers, Prefab Sprout (Jordan: The Comeback really should be on this list), Victoria Williams, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, NRBQ (at Yankee Stadium), Wet Willie, Elvin Bishop, ZZ Top, Steve Hackett, Genesis (Trick of the Tail), The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (The Impossible Dream), Montrose, Styx, Uriah Heep, Tommy Womack, Bobby Womack, Ron Wood solo, The Kentucky Headhunters, and so on and so forth.
Love seeing The Sound of Lies make your list.
Lots to love here, of course. Girlfriend is probably my favorite album of all time, though like you point out very well, it's hard to just have a couple favorites. Cheers!