Pick three records to summarize your favorite artists whole career

Black Sabbath
Paranoid-1970 (absolutely iconic album from the Ozzy era)
Heaven and Hell-1979 (enter Ronnie James Dio, and Sabbath is reenergized and introduced to a new generation of fans...but they will never be the same)
The Eternal Idol-1987 (Tony Martin is second longest serving vocalist (after Ozzy of course), and all of the albums he was featured on are a rather generic form of doom metal with predictably dated production. None were very popular, but this was probably the least bad of the bunch. Of course, Iommi’s guitar still burns throughout, but it is thoroughly surrounded by schlock.

 

John Fahey

Blind Joe Death
America
Let Go

(had to settle for not including The New Possibility, his first Christmas album)

 

...by a mile in my opinion.
"New" is boring melodically.

 

ZZ Top

Tres Hombres
Degüello
Eliminator

 

The Who
My Generation
Tommy
Who's Next

Joni Mitchell
Ladies of the Canyon
Court and Spark
Minus

Miles Davis (really hard to pick 3 that represent his career)
Relaxing
Nefertiti
We want Miles

Bob Dylan
Free Wheelin
Desire
Time out of Mind

Neil Young
Everybody Knows this Nowhere
Tonight's the Night
Harvest Moon

 

Radiohead
Ok Computer
The Bends
Hail to the Thief

Death Cab
We Have the Facts
Transatlanticism
Kintsugi

The Decemberists
Castaways
Picaresque
The King is Dead

Elliott Smith
Either/or
XO
From a Basement on a Hill

Jimmy Eat World
Clarity
S/t
Futures

Bjork
Homogenic
Post
Biophilia

Beatles
Hard Day’s Night
Rubber Soul
White Album

Led Zeppelin
Zoso
Cuatro
IV

 

Scott Walker:

Scott 4
Walker Brothers - Nite Flights (if only for those four songs)
Tilt

 

The Rolling Stones

1. Aftermath
2. Exile on Main Street
3. Some Girls

Van Halen

1. Van Halen
2. Fair Warning
3. 1984

Led Zeppelin

1. Led Zeppelin
2. Led Zeppelin III
3. Physical Graffiti

The Stooges

1. The Stooges
2. Fun House
3. Raw Power

The Ramones

1. The Ramones
2. Rocket to Russia
3. Road to Ruin

Primus

1. Frizzle Fry
2. Sailing The Seas of Cheese
3. Tales from the Punchbowl

KISS

1. KISS
2. Destroyer
3. Dynasty

Megadeth

1. Peace Sells
2. Rust In Peace
3. Countdown to Extinction

The Cars

1. The Cars
2. Panorama
3. Heartbeat City

Pearl Jam

1. Ten
2. Vs
3. Vitalogy

 

Sun Ra

Jazz in Silhouette
Lanquidity
Unity

 

Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin II-1969 (released the same year as the debut, and likewise featuring a number of amped up blues standards, but also songs like “Thank You” and “Ramble On” which would be further developed to help set them apart from their contemporaries.)
Physical Graffiti-1975 (a double album of old and new songs showing massive depth and scale that few other bands had at the time)
In Through The Out Door-1979 (Plant no longer has the range that he once had, and Page is largely incapacitated due to addiction, yet the band is able to put forth a set featuring a number of radio friendly songs.)

 

I picked Time Out of Mind because it started the "modern" era

 

2112, representing Rush's early work; Moving Pictures as their most important; and Clockwork Angels, which has something in it for every Rush fan.

 

A small portion of his career, yes, but also the most the most successful portion of his career (imo, anyway), which is why I chose those three albums.

They (along with the Darkness... album) comprise 95% of his music that I like, so those albums serve as a pretty good summary of his career to me. But opinions here may differ, so there may be different answers. If your three Bruce albums work for you, that's cool by me.

 

well for Beatles I would say:

A Hard Days Night UK - the best of the early years.
Revolver UK - the best of the middle years.
Abbey Road - the best of the final years.

Pains me to leave off the White Album but I think these three albums best represent the three phases - early pop, middle experimental and final polished production - of the band.

 

Thelonious Monk

Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1
Brilliant Corners
Big Band and Quartet in Concert

 

curtis mayfield:
curtis/live!
there's no place like America today
superfly

 

I agree with you on your assessment on that portion of Springsteens career, however, the OP was to "Pick three records to summarize your favorite artists whole career" not to select the 3 albums that you like best out of the period that you like the best.
Springsteen is not my favourite artist & the albums I listed are not my favourite albums, however, they are a response in respect to the OP & question that he posed.

 

CSNY

deja vu

4 way street

ohio/find the cost of freedom - single

CSN

the couch album

the boat album

after the storm


CROSBY

if i could only remember my name

sky trails

crosby*nash - 74


STILLS

stills - 75 - the browns jersey

buffalo springfield - again

the couch album - it was mostly him on every instrument on the record except drums and he produced


NASH

songs for beginners

crosby*nash - 74

songs for survivors

YOUNG

after the goldrush

harvest

on the beach

 

Deep Purple
.Machine Head - One of the most important albums in the history of Hard Rock/Heavy Metal.
.Perfect Strangers - The comeback album that opened the door for a long spanning career.
.Purpendicular - Steve Morse debut that proved there is life after Ritchie Blackmore.

 

I agree with these 3. S/T is not probably in my top 10 for him, but it is the indicator of a major change in style (I prefer Prisoner, personally)

 

Phish
Junta - early collection of compositions with plenty of wacky lyrics. Source of many live-show staples.
The Story of the Ghost - represents 97-99 shift to groove-oriented jams.
Joy - represents a rebirth, a little shaky at times, but foreshadows some good things to come in 3.0 era.

 

NILS LOFGREN:

After The Gold Rush (Neil Young) (1970) - Played as a sideman.

Grin (1971) - His first record with his own group.

Tunnel Of Love (1987) - His first studio record as part of The E Street Band

 

NILS LOFGREN: ALTERNATE

Grin (1971) - His first record with his own group.

Nils (1975) - His first record as a solo artist. An absolute classic.

Tunnel Of Love (1987) - His first studio record as part of The E Street Band

 

3 choice cuts from the punnet:

'Lay Down' - The one where all the years of hard work paid off.

'Part Of The Union' - Often reviled by long-time Strawbs fans as being non-representative of their work. Yet it's so very of its time, it clearly was. A song VERY in touch with the political situation in this country in the early 70s.

'Cut Like A Diamond' - from yet another version of the band, it's still in the live set today.

(Oh, and I'm talking about the Strawbs, naturally....)

 

Genesis

Trespass (folk/innocence era)
A Trick of The Tail (deep in progressive era started with Hackett/Collins)
Invisible Touch (the height of the pop era)