Guitar Lessons by Brian

1967 – 1974 could be considered the most creative period for music since the Classical era. Martin de Vore and I visit occasionally discussing guitars for hours over coffee. He made the comment that these eight years experienced a renaissance of music not experienced in centuries and very well may not be experienced again any time soon. My first comment was that this music was the music we grew up listening to, therefore we may be nostalgic. There is some truth to that but, when we started naming the albums released in that time frame, the list just seemed to go on forever. And Martin is also of the opinion that it was also the best work those musicians did at any point in their careers.

Then we asked the question: Why was this era was so prolific? We began naming the reasons why:

1) The world was enjoying good economic times and, although the Cold War and Vietnam were going on then, most nations were experiencing relative peace and prosperity.
2) The invention of electric guitars, synthesizers, amplification and effects.The electric guitar was a relatively new invention. It became commercially available around 1952. It took a few years for the innovators to master the instruments and technology. Plus the quality of the instruments was outstanding. Even today, instruments made in that era are highly valued.
3) The multitrack recorder. It is amazing that Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was recorded on a four track recorder. But, only 10 years earlier many were recording live without the luxury of multitrack recording technology. Toward the end of the 60s, eight track recording was common giving musicians the ability to do amazing tricks in the studio.

I asked Martin to email me a list of albums from this period. He emailed back over 400 recordings! And I hadn’t even started! This number does not include Motown, Soul and many Country albums of the time. Martin and I agree that 1967 – 1974 was the Golden Age of music.

Below is the list. Feel free to add any we missed or general comments:

Beatles

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The White Album
Yellow Submarine
Abbey Road
Let it Be

Paul McCartney

McCartney
Ram
Wings Wild Life
Red Rose Speedway
Live and Let Die Soundtrack
Band on the Run
Venus and Mars

John Lennon

John Lennon & Plastic Ono Band
Live Peace in Toronto 1969
Imagine
Sometime in New York City
Mind Games
Walls and Bridges

George Harrison

All Things Mus Pass
Concert for Bangladesh
Living in the Material World
Dark Horse

Ringo Starr

Ringo
Goodnight Vienna

The Rolling Stones

Between the Buttons
Their Satanic majesty’s Requests
Beggars Banquet
Let it Bleed
Sticky Fingers
Exile on Mail Street
Goat’s Head Soup
It’s Only Rock and Roll

The Who

Sell Out
Tommy
Live at Leeds
Who’s Next
Quadrophenia

Pink Floyd

The Piper at the gates of dawn
A Saucerful of Secrets
Ummagumma
Atom Heart Mother
Meddle
Obscured by Clouds
Dark Side of the Moon

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin IV
Houses of the Holy

Jethro Tull

This Was
Stand Up
Benefit
Aqualung
Thick as a Brick
Living in the Past
A Passion Play
War Child

Jimi Hendrix

Are you Experienced
Axis Bold As Love
Electric Lady land

Cream

Disraeli Gears
Wheels of Fire
Goodbye Cream

Eric Clapton

Derek & The Dominoes – Layla
Clapton
461 Ocean Boulevard

Alice Cooper

Pretties for You
Easy Action
Love it to Death
Killer
School’s Out
Billion Dollar Babies
Muscle of Love
Welcome to My Nightmare

Uriah Heep

Uriah Heep (Very ‘Eavy, Very ‘Umble)
Salisbury
Look at Yourself
Demons and Wizards
The Magician’s Birthday
Sweet Freedom

Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath
Paranoid
Master of Reality
Black Sabbath Vol. 4

Deep Purple

Shades of Deep Purple
Book of talisman
Deep Purple
In Concert With the London Philharmonic
In Rock
Fireball
Machine Head
Who Do We Think We Are
Made in Japan
Burn

David Bowie

Space Oddity
The Man Wo Sold the World
Hunky Dory
The Rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Alladin Sane
Pinups
Diamond Dogs

Emerson Lake & Palmer

Emerson Lake & Palmer
Tarkus
Trilogy
Brain Salad Surgery

Yes

Yes
The Yes Album
Time and a Word
Fragile
Close to the Edge
Yes Songs
Tales From Topographic Oceans
Relayer

Moody Blues

Days of Future Passed
In Search of the Lost Chord
on the Threshold of a Dream
To Our Children’s Children’s Children
A Question of Balance
Every Good Boy Deserves Favor
Seventh Sojourn

Love Sculpture

Blues helping
Forms & Feeling

Crosby Stills Nash & Young

Crosby Stills Nash & Young
Deja Vu

Bob Dylan

John Wesley Harding
Nashville Skyline
Self Portrait
New Morning
Dylan
Planet Waves
Before the Flood

Joni Mitchell

Song to A Seagull
Clouds
Ladies of the canyon
Blue
For the Roses
Court and Spark

Carole King

Writer
Tapestry
Music
Rhymes and Reasons
Fantasy
Wrap Around Joy

Elton John

Empty Sky
Elton John
Tumbleweed Connection
Madman Across the Water
Honky Chateau
Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Caribou

Simon & Garfunkel

Bookends
Bridge Over Troubled Water

The Doors

The Doors
Strange Days
Waiting For the Sun
The Soft Parade
Morrison Hotel
L.A. Woman
Other Voices

Jefferson Airplane

Surrealistic Pillow
After Bathing at Baxter’s
Crown of Creation
Volunteers
Bark
Long John Silver

Chicago

The Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago
Chicago III
Chicago at Carnegie Hall
Chicago V
Chicago VI
Chicago VI

Grand Funk Railroad

On Time
Grand Funk
Closer to Home
Survival
E Pluribus Funk
Phoenix
We’re an American Band
Shinin’ On
All the Girls in the World Beware!!!

The Allman Brothers Band

The Allman Brothers Band
Idlewild South
At Fillmore East
Eat A Peach
Brothers and Sisters

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival
Bayou Country
Green River
Willy and the Poor Boys
Cosmo’s Factory
Pendulum
Mardi Gras

Santana

Santana
Abraxas
Santana III
Caravanserai
Welcome
Borboletta

The Guess Who

Wheatfield Soul
Canned Wheat
American Woman
Share the Land

Linda Ronstadt

The Stone Poneys
Evergreen Volume 2
Linda Rondstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Volume 3
Hand Sown … Home Grown
Silk Purse
Linda Ronstadt
Don’t Cry Now
Heart Like a Wheel

The Eagles

Eagles
Desperado
On the Border

Fleetwood Mac

Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac
Mr. Wonderful
Then Play On
Kiln House
Future Games
Bare Trees
Penguin
Mystery to Me
Heroes Are Hard to Find

Traffic

Mr. Fantasy
Traffic
Last Exit
John Barleycorn Must Die
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory
When the Eagle Flies

Ten Years After

Ten Years After
Stonehenge
Ssssh
Undead
Cricklewood Green
Watt
A Space in Time
Rock & Roll Music to the World
Positive Vibrations

Genesis

From Genesis to Revelation
Trespass
Nursery Crime
Foxtrot
Selling England by the Pound
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Donovan

Mellow Yellow
A Gift from a Flower to a Garden
The Hurdy Gurdy Man
Barabajagal
Open Road
H.M.S. Donovan
Cosmic Wheels
Essence to Essence
7-Tease

Al Stewart

Bed-Sitter Images
Love Chronicles    –
Zero She Flies
Orange
Past, Present and Future

Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes

The Amboy Dukes
Journey to the Center of the Mind
Migration
Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Bottom
Survival of the Fittest Live
Call of the Wild
Tooth Fang & Claw

Quicksilver Messenger Service

Quicksilver Messenger Service
Happy Trails
Shady Grove
Just for Love
What About Me
Quicksilver
Comin’ Thru

The Grateful Dead

The Grateful Dead
Anthem of the Sun
Aoxomoxoa
Live/Dead
Workingman’s Dead
American Beauty
Grateful Dead
Europe ’72
History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear’s Choice)
Wake of the Flood
From the Mars Hotel

Leo Kottke

6- and 12-String Guitar
Circle Round The Sun
Mudlark
Greenhouse
My Feet Are Smiling
Ice Water
Dreams And All That Stuff

John Denver

Rhymes & Reasons
Take Me to Tomorrow
Whose Garden Was This
Poems, Prayers & Promises
Aerie
Rocky Mountain High
Farewell Andromeda
Back Home Again

Cat Stevens

Matthew & Son
New Masters
Mona Bone Jakon
Tea for the Tillerman
Teaser and the Firecat
Catch Bull at Four
Foreigner
Buddha and the Chocolate Box

James Taylor

James Taylor
Sweet Baby James
Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon
One Man Dog
Walking Man

Carly Simon

Carly Simon
Anticipation
No Secrets
Hotcakes

Neil Young

Neil Young
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere[A]
After the Gold Rush
Harvest
On the Beach

Gordon Lightfoot

The Way I Feel
Did She Mention My Name
Back Here on Earth
Sunday Concert
Sit Down Young Stranger
Summer Side of Life
Don Quixote
Old Dan’s Records
Sundown

Johnny Winter

The Progressive Blues Experiment
Johnny Winter
Second Winter
Johnny Winter And
Still Alive and Well
Saints & Sinners

ZZ Top

ZZ Top’s First Album
Rio Grande Mud
Tres Hombres

Steve Miller Band

Children of the Future
Sailor Living in the U.S.A.
Brave New WorldA
Your Saving GraceA
Number 5
Rock Love
Recall the Beginning…A Journey from Eden
The Joker

Stevie Wonder

I Was Made to Love Her
Someday at Christmas
Eivets Rednow
For Once in My Life
My Cherie Amour
Signed, Sealed & Delivered
Where I’m Coming From
Music of My Mind
Talking Book
Innervisions
Fulfillingness’ First Finale

Spirit

Spirit
The Family That Plays Together
Model Shop (Soundtrack for a Jacques Demy film, recorded in 1968)
Clear
Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
Feedback

Billy Preston

Club Meeting
That’s The Way God Planned It
Encouraging Words
I Wrote a Simple Song
Music Is My Life
Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music
The Kids & Me

Procol Harum

Procol Harum
Shine on Brightly
A Salty Dog
Home
Broken Barricades
Grand Hotel
Exotic Birds and Fruit

Robin Trower

Twice Removed from Yesterday
Bridge of Sighs

Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Raitt
Give It Up
Takin’ My Time
Streetlights

Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin

The Inner Mounting Flame
Birds of Fire
The Lost Trident Sessions
Between Nothingness and Eternity
Apocalypse

Badfinger

Magic Christian Music
No Dice
Straight Up
Ass
Badfinger
Wish You Were Here

Blue Oyster Cult

Blue Oyster Cult
Tyranny and Mutation
Secret Treaties

Mountain

Climbing!
Nantucket Sleigh ride
Flowers of Evil
Avalanche

Mott the Hoople

Mott the Hoople
Mad Shadows
Wildlife
Brain Capers
All the Young Dudes
Mott

Bread

Bread
On the Waters
Manna
Baby I’m-a Want You
Guitar Man

Black Oak Arkansas

Black Oak Arkansas
Keep The Faith
If An Angel Came To See You Would You Make Her Feel At Home?
Raunch ‘N’ Roll Live
High on the Hog
Street Party