1977 Vinyl
As always this is not a "best" list, but a list of albums that I love or loved (sometimes guiltily), or begrudgingly respect, or whose influence I appreciate decades later.
In 1977 I was 13 and plugging in for the first time to a sense of what was possible outside of the limited repertoire of commercial radio. I can't think of a better year to discover the range of music, because in 1977 the range was exploding exponentially. Some of these albums even many years later remind me what it was to be 13 in NYC, for better and worse.
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Fleetwood Mac
In 1977 I tried really hard to hate this album, because the girls loved it and worshipped Stevie Knicks. I couldn't resist any longer. It remains the best album of the best year for pop music.
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Elvis CostelloDEBUT
My stepfather introduced me to Elvis Costello and this album in 1979. By this time, Costello had two other brilliant albums out—This Year's Model and Armed Forces—and I had a new hero in this brilliant, brainy songwriter who somehow combined nerd and cool in a way I could only dream of doing
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The Clash
DEBUT
There are very few debut albums I think of as perfect. This album, and the two on either side in this list, is in the select list. No year produced more remarkable debut albums than 1977.
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Talking Heads -
Television
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Pink Floyd -
The Jam
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Billy Joel -
Wire
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The Jam
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Richard Hell
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Bob Marley & The Wailers
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Electric Light Orchestra -
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David Bowie
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Ramones
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Parliament
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Sex Pistols -
Brian Eno -
Steely Dan -
ABBA
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Various Artists -
Commodores
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Jackson Browne
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Iggy Pop -
Kraftwerk
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David Bowie
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The Boomtown Rats
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Meat Loaf -
Motörhead -
The Stranglers -
The Damned
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Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers
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Iggy Pop
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Chicago
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AC/DC
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George Thorogood & The Destroyers
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Eric Clapton
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James Taylor
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Suicide
This album passed me by in 1977, unsurprisingly. Discovering it decades later, it feels like music made by strung out time travelers who got lost in a the wrong decade.
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Kansas -
Foreigner
I don't even like Foreigner, and didn't in 1977. But then as now I cannot help but acknowledge it as a terrific debut for what it is—even if what it is is not for me
![L.A.M.F. [40th anniversary: remaster] (The Lost '77 Mixes) by Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers](https://i.scdn.co/image/ab67616d0000b2734c401271024ec5b231834af0)
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