POLL: Greatest albums of 1968

Electric Ladyland
Beggars Banquet
Cheap Thrills
White Light White Heat
The Dock Of The Bay

 

White Album
Folson Prison
Bookends
Notorious Byrd Brothers

 

Wow - that's quite a list of albums. I went with:

• The White Album
• Odessey & Oracle
• Ogden's
• Village Green
• S.F. Sorrow

but I feel like I'm "betraying" some of my other favorite albums of all time, such as Astral Weeks, Os Mutantes, Bookends, Beggar's Banquet, both Byrds albums, Otis, etc.

It would be easier to name the ones that I wouldn't have checked in any circumstances:

• We're Only In It For The Money (I respect Zappa more than I enjoy him)
• Cheap Thrills (amazingly, I don't think I've heard the entire thing)
• In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (my now-15 year old son was obsessed with this album when he was about 7 or 8, so I have heard it plenty. In my opinion, it doesn't hold a candle to the rest of the albums on the list.)

 

Beggars Banquet
White Light/White Heat
Village Green Preservation Society
Notorious Byrd Brothers
United States Of America

 

Voted for:
The Beatles - "The White Album"

Wish these were on the list:
Tamba 4 - We and the Sea
Harry Nilsson - Aerial Ballet
The Beach Boys - Friends
Tamba 4 - Samba Blim

 

I guess these polls tend to represent the overall taste of music fans, who may be more prone to rock/pop music rather than other genres. Actually in the first two polls (1965 and 1966) there were more records of other genres, such as jazz, blues and soul, within a list still dominated by rock/pop albums. But since 1967 rock/pop acts increased in quality, quantity and diversity, so I can see artists from other genres being overlooked, even though they still were releasing valuable material.

So I agree with you, the list does not show the whole picture, but I did not focus on that at first place.

 

The Moody Blues - In Search Of The Lost Chord

 

- White Album
- Music From Big Pink
- Odessey and Oracle
- at Folsom Prison
- Bookends

 

Thanks for including the US of A album. I love that record.

 

I really like it too, but I included it because it qualified according to the used criteria, so don't give me too much merit...

If you love that album, you may also like another record that was included in this same poll: Os Mutantes, released in June 1968. That album is like the Brazilian version of The United States Of America, so I recommend it to you if you haven't listened to it yet.

This is the first song, but you can also find the rest of the album in YouTube:

 

Beatles /White
Electric Ladyland
Beggar's
White Light / White Heat
Notorious Byrd Bros.

There were a few I was torn on not voting for--while I like a lot of Wheels Of Fire, there are a few tracks that drag it down. Music For Big Pink is a brilliant debut as well, but I like the ones I picked more. Bookends has some wonderful cuts, but doesn't hang together as an album that well to me.

SF Sorrow is also fantastic, but just short of my top 5.

In terms of masterpieces, it's really between The White Album and Electric Ladyland, two very different but very potent double albums.

 

.White Album
.Wheels Of Fire
.Beggars Banquet
.Astral Weeks
.Electric Layland

All killers albums !

 

Too many great ones from this year.

 

I’m not as big a 1968 fan as I am of the two years that bookend it. Electric Ladyland is far and away my favorite here.

 

Thanks. Big fan already!

 

It's da Cash.

 

Electric Ladyland & Astral Weeks are my number 1 and 2, but I'm kinda missing CCR s/t here for my 3rd place.

 

FINAL RESULTS (according to the opinion of the members of this forum, who were limited to choose up to 5 albums from a provided list)

The "golden dozen" of 1968:

1. The White Album (The Beatles) 262 votes
2. Beggars Banquet (The Rolling Stones) 207 votes
3. Electric Ladyland (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) 181 votes
4. The Village Green Preservation Society (The Kinks) 107 votes
5. Music From Big Pink (The Band) 93 votes
6. Astral Weeks (Van Morrison) 89 votes
7. Bookends (Simon & Garfunkel) 82 votes
8. Odessey And Oracle (The Zombies) 77 votes
9. Wheels Of Fire (Cream) 59 votes
10. At Folsom Prison (Johnny Cash) 52 votes
11. We're Only In It For The Money (The Mothers Of Invention) 51 votes
12. White Light/White Heat (The Velvet Underground) 48 votes

The least voted album:

The United States Of America (The United States Of America) 9 votes

I know this is a quite obscure album, but I thought it would get more votes in this forum. One of the strangest psychedelic albums of the era.