The albums I’ve listed so far among my favorites of 1971 earned their spots on the strength of a few excellent songs. My #6 album, Cat Stevens’ Teaser and the Firecat, is excellent start to finish.
Sure, it has its highlight moments, including ‘The Wind,’ ‘Morning Has Broken,’ ‘Moonshadow,’ and ‘How Can I Tell You,’ one of the prettiest loves songs ever written. But ‘Rubylove,’ ‘If I Laugh,’ ‘Changes IV,’ ‘Tuesday’s Dead’ and ‘Peace Train’ are all worthy of high praise.
Elton John’s Madman Across the Water is my seventh favorite album of 1971, though it would be more accurate to say the first side of Madman Across the Water made the list. When ‘Tiny Dancer,’ ‘Levon’ and ‘Madman Across the Water’ are three of your first four songs, you can pretty much hang up your hat and call it a day.
The other tracks — ‘Razor Face,’ ‘Indian Sunset,’ ‘Holiday Inn,’ ‘Rotten Peaches,’ ‘All the Nasties’ and ‘Goodbye’ — are all solid, if not up to the level of the opening classics.
My #8 album of 1971 is Don McLean’s American Pie, the singer-songwriter’s sophomore effort, which hit #1 on the Billboard 200 and featured two hits in the iconic title track and ‘Vincent,’ McLean’s ode to Vincent Van Gogh.
This album could earn a spot on this list for those two songs alone, but the rest of its lineup features one achingly gentle acoustic gem after another.
I’ve featured only one Who song on this blog over the past ten years — ‘The Kids are Alright,’ a song I truly love. But as I noted way back then (Song of the Day #81, if you can believe it!), I’m not much of a Who fan in general.
I also mentioned in that post that I am a fan of the band’s fifth studio album, 1971’s Who’s Next. Enough to put it at #9 on my list of best albums from that year.
It’s time for the latest installment of my Decades series, wherein I highlight the albums of a specific year in the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s. I last wrapped up the ‘zeroes’ by hitting 1970, 1980, 1990 and (earlier this year) 2000. Before that I did the ‘twos,’ starting with my birth year — 1972 — and jumping ahead from there.
Now I turn to the ‘ones’ and kick things off with 1971. As usual, I will count down my own favorite albums from that year before spending a week on widely acclaimed albums of the year with which I am unfamiliar.
Meet Me In Montauk 