Based on my thoughts of essential rock albums.

1. Deep Purple - Machine Head
2. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
3. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
4. Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets
5. Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?
6. Sex Pistols - Nevermind the Bollocks
7. The Ramones - The Ramones
8. AC/DC - TNT
9. Metallica - Ride the Lightning
10. Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Beatles - Abbey Road
Bad Company - Hard Rock Live
Deep Purple - Machine Head
Kansas - Leftoverture
Yes - Fragile
Jimi Hendrix - First Rays of the New Rising Sun
Rory Gallagher - Irish Tour
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Joe Satriani - The Extremist
Jethro Tull - Aqualung

These come to mind when I think "essential rock albums", none of them are in order.

1. Pink Floyd - Pipers at the Gates of Dawn
2. The Beatles - White Album
3. The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
4. Ramones - Ramones
5. Slayer - Hell Awaits
6. Venom - Black Metal
7. Radiohead - Ok Computer
8. The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
9. Led Zeppelin - IV
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory

Not going to put them in order:

> Velvet Underground & Nico - Velvet Underground
> Tago Mago - Can
> Octopus - Gentle Giant
> Led Zeppelin IV - Led Zeppelin
> Metal Box - Public Image Ltd.
> In This Life - Thinking Plague
> Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix
> Horses - Patti Smith
> Forever Changes - Love
> Marquee Moon - Television

(I love the fact that I keep seeing Hendrix on these lists)

i don't think highly of Forever Changes - the Zombies' Odessey and Oracle is much better at the same thing

and I like Television's Adventure more than Marquee Moon (still nice but overrated)

Odyssey and Oracle is a brilliant album. I would find it hard to choose between it and Forever Changes, although whilst there are similarities I do think they're quite different sounding albums.

As for Television, Adventure is OK but Marquee Moon destroys it. To each their own, though!

^^ok

Well, I haven't heard Odessey and Oracle, so I can't really comment on that. But, being a huge fan of Television, I can definitely say with certainty that their debut is much better than their second. While Adventure is a wonderful and soft-sounding album, the shear complexity and ground-breaking sound of Marquee Moon takes the cake. The undistorted, dual guitars work together coming at you from both sides in each song like one complete instrument. It is not only amazing, but also unknown to punk rock at that time (some people don't even consider it a punk album). That and the poetic lyrical content done by Verlaine makes this album a masterpiece of rock music. Heck, if anything this could be a post-punk album. Which is strange because critics consider Magazine's debut album to be the first to exhibit the sound of post-punk, and it didn't even get released until 1978.

Kind of a biased argument, but oh well...

i dunno - i find the interplay on Adventure more interesting and harmonious

on Marquee Moon Lloyd and Verlaine sound like they're trying to outdo each other

1) The Grateful Dead -- Dead Set
2) The Doors -- Live 1967, NY
3) Jimi Hendrix -- Are You Experienced?
4) Led Zeppelin -- Led Zeppelin II
5) The Rolling Stones -- Exile on Main St.
6) The Beatles -- Sgt. Peppers
7) The Eagles -- Hell Freezes Over
8) The Who -- Who's Next
9) Van Morrison -- Moondance
10) Bob Dylan -- Blood on the Tracks