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Hard
Rock
Hard
rock is a style of music that has much of its roots in blues music
and provided the foundation of heavy metal music.
Below is
a list of some cream of the crop, essential hard rock albums from
the 1970's. It is
not intended
to be a definitive list.
AC /
DC
Bad Company
Black Sabbath
Deep Purple
Led Zeppelin
Queen
Rush
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AC
DC - Let There Be Rock
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My introduction
to AC DC came with the release of their second album Let There Be
Rock. What a great record, simple songs, electrifying, powerful, and exciting.
Their later albums offered a more polished sound, but the
simplicity of Let There Be Rock adds to its appeal, and
of the AC/DC albums we've heard we think this is among their
strongest output.
Certainly the title track is classic, and
the way guitarist Malcom Young incorporates the classic riff
of "Hot Rod Lincoln" in a totally new way is not
brilliant, but certainly enjoyable. Overall the whole album
offers a strong flow intermingling punk rock, heavy metal, and
blues.
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Let There Be Rock
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| Bad
Company's self-titled debut album is a classic with track
after track a hit. This music is hard rock, but with a
more accessible approach than its pears resulting in plenty of
radio time for several songs from this bands debut.
Bad Company's strongest component in our view is
their synergy, the blending of the parts. Secondarily would be their
songwriting.
Their compositions seem to know when and how when to emphasize each instrument.
They also seemed to play within their limitations and to their
strengths. I really enjoy Paul Rodgers voice, and Mick Ralphs is
quite expressive in his guitar phrasing and solos.
Bad Company's Original
Bad Company Anthology is a good
alternative. |
Bad Company |
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Black Sabbath borders on the edge of hard rock
and heavy metal. Arguably they bridged the gap.
Black Sabbath's album Paranoid is one
the best albums in this genre. Any album that includes
three classics, "War Pigs," "Paranoid,"
and "Iron Man" deserves high ranks. In addition,
most of the album is strong hitting elements of blues, jazz,
and even psychedelic inferences.
Black Sabbath's two disc Anthology, Symptom
Of The Universe: The
Original Black Sabbath 1970 - 1978, is a good
alternative.
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Paranoid |
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Deep Purple has seen their share of
personnel movements. When we think of classic Deep Purple the
band of guitarist Blackmore, singer Ian Gillian, bassist Roger Glover,
keyboardist Jon Lord, and drummer Ian Paice comes to mind.
That line-up brought us the classic Machine
Head. Is there a better hard rock album? By
anyone's scorecard, this one reaches the upper echelon. Deep
Purple's 25th Anniversary Edition packages a
second disc of alternative versions of all of the songs from
the original album plus the B side "When a Blind Man
Cries." The
original disc has three bonus tracks.
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Machine Head |
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Led Zeppelin's second album is among their best
and is clearly a hard rock masterpiece, the band strongest in
this genre for sure. They still emphasize
strongly their blues influence, but add their signature to the
style. This can been heard with their interpretation of blues
legend Willie Dixon's "You Need Love" forming
"Whole Lotta Love."
Other classic hard rock riffs throughout the
album such as "Moby Dick," "Heartbreaker,"
and "Living Loving Maid" as well as some acoustic
numbers pointing the direction of the future with "Thank
You," and a look to their past with "Bring It On
Home."
Visit our Led
Zeppelin section
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Led Zeppelin 2 |
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A Night at the Opera is one of the top
hard rock classic album of all time. The music is balanced between
rocking pieces and some softer tracks. The material is very
album oriented rock in that the songs flow from track to track
such as “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon“ that perfectly ties
together the songs before and after it.
Musically Queen use lots of background
vocals with great success to complement Mercury’s lead
vocals, both simply, and in more complex ways such as in
“The Prophets Song,” and of course, “Bohemian
Rhapsody.”
Brian May has some tasty electric guitar
leads such as perfectly phrased solos on “Death ON Two
Legs” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.” He also plays some softer
acoustic material such as “ ‘39” among other places.
A Night at the Opera is a sensational
album.
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A Night At The
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Rush
- A Farewell To Kings
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Rush's earlier albums were more hard rock
focused, transitioning to a more progressive style as they
developed.
With their fifth studio album, A Farewell
to Kings, they began to implement quite a bit of
keyboards, but the album still had the early rock feel. Through
the years this album really holds up well.
While this page of my website is mostly
focused on studio albums, Rush's first live album deserves
mention as it relates so well to the theme of great hard rock
innovators.
Rush's All The World's A Stage rounds
up a healthy quantity of the bands first four albums yielding a lengthy
great live album. The live versions are strong and this album is an inexpensive
substitution for their early albums
for casual fans or those on a budget.
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A Farewell To
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All The Worlds A Stage
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