Best Albums Of The 1960s, Pt. 5

#5
Beggars Banquet
The Rolling Stones
1968

After the abysmal, psychedelic mind-fuckery of Their Satanic Majesties, the Rolling Stones could have rolled over and died. With their work slowly declining and having released an album that split critics and confused listeners, the band seemed lost. Any doubts were laid to rest, however, with the release of Beggars Banquet, which saw the band return to their R&B-flavored roots, but stronger than ever before. The album would set off a string of three more vital albums, but Beggars Banquet feels the strongest. With Jagger’s new-found lyricism, the songs on Beggars Banquet are in a whole different class than anything the Stones had recorded up to this point. With its country touches, slide guitar and rich songwriting, it’s the antithesis of Their Satanic Majesties. The Stones finally recorded a truly populist record, celebrating the regular people who bought their records.

#4
The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
The Kinks
1968

Ray Davies lives in a sepia-toned world and, with The Village Green Preservation Society, the Kinks’ songwriter made his definitive statement. Sunny, pastoral and so nostalgic that it almost overwhelms you, the album is nothing short of a love note to the traditional English lifestyle. “Preserving the old ways from being abused, protecting the new ways, for me and for you,” Davies sings. Of course, this also makes Village Green one of the most gloriously conservative albums in history, but in a profoundly charming, English way. In an era of drug use and new, radical lifestyles, Davies was one of the few voices celebrating the older ways that everyone else seemed to be rebelling against. Ironically enough, at the end of the day, Davies’ music was light years beyond anything his more liberal peers had to offer. As always seems to be the case, Ray Davies gets the last laugh.

#3
Highway 61 Revisited
Bob Dylan
1965

With one single song, Bob Dylan re-wrote the history of popular music. This is the sentence that critics have attached to “Like A Rolling Stone” for decades. For the most part, it’s a fair statement, but the song is even more powerful when heard within the context of Highway 61 Revisited, an album that actually did change the course of music. Along with Rubber Soul the same year, Highway 61 created the concept of the modern rock album. Suddenly, major rock artists were releasing complete long-players, with each song carefully crafted, whether it was a single or not. There are no dull moments on Highway 61. Of course, there aren’t any dull moments because this is Dylan’s debut as a fully electric artist. Leaving those folk roots behind, Highway 61 is wild, energetic and feels so alive, you can almost feel its pulse. It’s no wonder music was never the same after this album.

#2
Music From Big Pink
The Band
1968

The concept behind this album is so charming, you can’t help but smile when you hear it. Five close friends holed up in a run-down house in upstate New York, retreating from the busy world around them and rewriting all their favorite R&B and country hits. The result of all this cozy, friendly intimacy was Music From Big Pink, a grounded, earthy record made during a time when everyone else was reaching for the stars. With Richard Manuel’s tender voice bringing you to tears, or Rick Danko’s yelping drawl making you laugh, Big Pink is rich with emotion and honesty. It sounds exactly like what it is: an album made by five country boys, who never really fitted in with the whole California rock scene. The backwoods of New York felt much more comfortable to them. Never mind that, within a year or so, the whole place would be overrun with hippies flocking to Woodstock. For a short time, upstate New York was the Band’s paradise.

#1
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground
1967

In many ways, the two albums at the top of this list are very similar. Both were made by artists who rejected the West Coast rock traditions. Both were created as a reaction to the flowery, druggy music flowing all across the country. But where the Band looked backwards, to the songs of an older generation that inspired them, the Velvet Underground were looking only forward, towards the future. In the process, they invented one of the most original and rootless pieces of music in all of history. Lou Reed saw the times for what they were and created the logical extension of the peace, love and hippie bullshit era. The drugs got harder (“Heroin”) and the sexual awakening would get more extreme (“Venus In Furs”). Reed’s songs were populated by drug dealers, junkies and sadomasochists. The album was made all the more unsettling with the addition of Nico, who’s icy, Germanic voice provided the necessary alienation and intensity that Reed’s songs needed. All of this was set to a harsh, screeching musical backdrop, mostly thanks to Reed’s Welsh avant-garde sidekick, John Cale. With pop art maestro Andy Warhol providing both production and an immortal album cover, The Velvet Underground & Nico is a cold, shrieking, dissonant mess, dedicated to the depravity that Reed knew would follow once the 60s bubble of bliss had popped. Or, to paraphrase Reed himself, it’s the soundtrack to “all tomorrow’s parties.”