Most Important Albums Of The 70s

1.Rush- 2112 -prog metal was born with the A-side and the discovery of a way for Prog to survive the punk onslaught.
2. Led Zep IV - Would influence rock music for over 3 generations.
3. Deep Purple - Machine Head. More perfect than In-Rock
4. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath - The real inventors of Heavy metal
5. Floyd - DSOTM- helped keep the audiophile HIFI market afloat.

The best:

1- Sad Wings Of Destiny- JUDAS PRIEST: one of the most influential albums in the history of metal, as it took the genre into more complex structures and musicianship, which was influenced by prog- indeed, one could say progressive metal starts here...

2- Red- KING CRIMSON: probably their best album after the debut (though they are all great), and was massively influential on the grunge genre that was to appear in the 1990s, due to its bleak riffing and imagery.

3- After The Goldrush- NEIL YOUNG: the album title (and song) refers to the death of the 1960s and the dreams that accompanied it, plus heralded a new era of the singer-songwriter.

4- Deep Purple In Rock- DEEP PURPLE: a massively influential set, and effectively started a new type of rock. The best elements of this album- high voiced wails, monolithic riffing and instrumental virtuosity- would become cliches in the rock genre during the 1980s, but this shows how good the idea was at the beginning.

5- Innervisions- STEVIE WONDER: this is where Stevie could not just be labelled a 'soul' artist, and encompasses a huge array of influences including folk, world music, rock, jazz, blues and even prog, creating a masterwork in the process.

6- Pawn Hearts- VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR: one of the most wilfully uncommercial albums ever made, with some truly insane experimentalism within it. If Yes were close to the edge, VDGG had long passed it.

7- The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust- DAVID BOWIE: the best glam album ever made, without a shadow of a doubt. It remains one of the few glam albums ('Electric Warrior' aside) that doesn't consist of singles and a load of filler- indeed, the songs were so good that well over half of it was later issued as a single.

8- Damned Damned Damned- THE DAMNED: the first UK punk LP, and in my opinion, the best- this really did have a huge effect on the industry and made rock vital again after a few stagnant years of pub rock, glam rock, and weak albums by 60s pioneers.

9- Paranoid: BLACK SABBATH: This put metal into the mainstream, as it hit Number 1 in 1970, and still weaves a massive influence on the music world.

10- The Dark Side Of The Moon-PINK FLOYD: Still the biggest selling prog album ever, and well and truly put the so called 'underground' music overground, so to speak.

11- Birds Of Fire- MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA: certainly not the first jazz rock album, but possibly the best- it went further out than anything under the jazz genre had ever been before. 

EDIT- add a few more...

12- Born To Run- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: lest we forget, critic Jon Landau infamously proclaimed 'I've seen rock and roll future and his name is Bruce Springsteen'. On this album's evidence, it's hard not to agree- a thoroughly exhilirating album that re-energised the singer-songwriter genre.

13- A Night At The Opera- QUEEN: at the time, this was the most expensive album ever made- it shows, as the production and playing is out of this world quality.

14- Foxtrot- GENESIS: one of the most important albums in prog, as it made the mainstream sit up and take notice of a new musical style, as did the album below:

15- Close To The Edge- YES: one of the most audacious albums ever to be Number 1 in the charts, as they create music not ever heard before.

The worst:

1- Self Portrait/ Dylan- BOB DYLAN: these represent the nadir of the 70s, and why punk had to happen, more than prog rock did- albums of sub standard material and outtakes that should have hit the cutting room floor.

2- Initiation- TODD RUNDGREN: utter tosh- houses a 36 minute instrumental called 'A Treatise On Cosmic Fire' which is mind bogglingly dull keyboard twiddling. Again, more evidence for why punk had to happen- taking the quasi-seriousness and self indulgence out of music. This one always comes in, in those worst albums ever charts.

3- Burning Love And Hits From His Movies- ELVIS PRESLEY: great song, 'Burning Love', but this album is a real puzzler- instead of releasing a full album of 1972 recordings, of which there were lots, Colonel Tom Parker decided to put an album out of rubbish movie songs like 'I Love Only One Girl' from the 1960s! Exploitation at its worst!

4- Sometime In New York City- JOHN LENNON: oh dear...this has to be one of the worst albums ever as well- the first disc is a bunch of desultory political songs, but the real offender is the second disc which is a horrid mess- Zappa, Flo and Eddie plus The Plastic Ono Band playing dreadful ditties like 'Scumbag' and 'Don't Worry Kyoko'.

5- Saturday Night Fever- SOUNDTRACK: I have to agree, this is a real turkey- disco was always one of the more disposable musical genres, and this album confirms that- this stuff is just ultra cheesy nonsense!

6- Works Volume 2- ELP: sorry, but this is just inexcusable- releasing an album of poor quality B sides and outtakes as a NEW album is just cheeky!

7- For Real- JIMI HENDRIX:  this has been re-released hundreds of times, and is a terrible live jam with a very stoned Jim Morrison bellowing out nonsense. Hendrix's death meant every guitar playing he ever did, regardless of quality, has been released by now. You can hear the barrel scraping on the records...

8- Earthbound- KING CRIMSON: this was notoriously bad, and has to be the worst quality live album ever officially released.