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The best classic rock album of all time.

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What is your favorite classic rock album and why?

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I'd have to say The Wall by Pink Floyd. It's emotional and musical complexity just breaks the mold, IMO.

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Personally my favorite is Rubber Soul by the Beatles. I don't know anything about music so I can't provide any further explanation. I just know what I like, and that's my favorite

The Person in Question

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It's gotta be Led Zep II. Every song is the best Guitar riff ever.

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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^^ As a high schooler I learned how to play the entire Led Zeppelin II album on guitar.  After school, every single day, I would listen to the record and play along with it the whole way through, very stoned.  It was a blast. 

But my favorite is probably either Love It to Death by Alice Cooper or Tooth, Fang, and Claw by Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes.

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moviefreakedmind said:

Personally my favorite is Rubber Soul by the Beatles. I don't know anything about music so I can't provide any further explanation. I just know what I like, and that's my favorite

 A lot of people claim Revolver or Sgt Pepper to be their best work, however I find the White Album to be my favorite.

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^ Indeed. Expansive double/triple/sextuple albums, when done right, are awesome.

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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I think classic rock is any album that came out in the 60s or 70s.

Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side

Emperor Jar-Jar
“Back when we made Star Wars, we just couldn’t make Palpatine as evil as we intended. Now, thanks to the miracles of technology, it is finally possible. Finally, I’ve created the movies that I originally imagined.” -George Lucas on the 2007 Extra Extra Special HD-DVD Edition

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Classic Ted Nugent is criminally underrated, whether you agree with his political stance or not.  I personally agree with some, but not all.  But musically, he's fantastic.  Or at least he was fantastic.  Now it seems like about every other album he makes is fantastic, with the ones in between being kinda stupid.  He's still killer live though.

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This non-classic rock song sums up my feelings on Ted Nugent fairly well.  (NSFW Language)

FTN

I don't have any opinion on his music, though.

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I don't like Ted Nugent personally either, I only mentioned him for the reasons that are relevant to this thread.  He's definitely an asshole though.

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I love Ted Nugent's debut album. Got an original pressing of it. I like to blast Snakeskin Cowboys every now and then.

Favorite classic rock album? Just one pick?

I'll exclude Pink Floyd from the list, because I love them, but I don't feel they were just a rock group.

I think the only fair way to go about it, is to pick an album that I enjoy every song off of. It might not be the greatest album ever, but if I really enjoy the songs, then it gets the spot.

Van Halen - Van Halen (1978)

I chose this album, because I probably listened to this album in it's entirety more times than any album of it's era. As a guitarist, it inspired me a lot, and while I think Van Halen got better after this, their later albums had some songs I just didn't care for.

Honorable Mentions:

Dire Straits - Dire Straits - It inspired me as a guitarist, and I enjoyed every song, I just usually don't listen to it in it's entirety. My absolute favorite guitar album.

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory - Same as above.

Billy Joel - Glass Houses - I didn't feel it counted as a classic rock album.

Queen - A Night at the Opera - Loaded with great songs, but had some songs I just couldn't care for. You cannot beat the mixture of Mercury's harmonies and Brian May's guitar work.

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

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moviefreakedmind said:

Personally my favorite is Rubber Soul by the Beatles. I don't know anything about music so I can't provide any further explanation. I just know what I like, and that's my favorite

 This is the correct answer.

And I know everything about music, and I can provide copious further explanation upon request. 

However, anyone requesting said explanation would by so requesting demonstrate his entire lack of musical acumen, manifesting his being entirely beneath the dignity of the requested explanation, and thereby obviating the need to actually go through with any elaboration.

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After much thinking, it has to be The Who's Quadrophenia.

As a collection of songs it may not be my favorite, but as a whole, it really takes the cake. I appreciate a good concept album and/or rock opera, and this is probably the best one. It tells a compelling story, it has themes (musical and otherwise) that repeat throughout, it's really quite great, and, more importantly, enjoyable.

While I love Pink Floyd's The Wall, and others like it, some of the songs can be a bit of a slog when played on their own, which decreases the replay value of the album itself for me. Quadrophenia is the only double album where I actually love every song. They all work together to form the whole, but I enjoy them separately as well. I can listen to it all the way through over and over again without tiring of it. I just listened to it a couple times this morning actually. 

It also helps that I saw the band perform the concert live a couple years back.

Anyway, if you haven't fallen in love with Quadrophenia yet, get on it.

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Trooperman said:

I think classic rock is any album that came out in the 60s or 70s.

I wonder why '50s rock isn't considered classic rock. 

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Never really got into these discussions but i always heard people fighting over whether it was Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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skyjedi2005 said:

Never really got into these discussions but i always heard people fighting over whether it was Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall.

 Wish you were here and Animals are just as great.

Oh, and on the subject of Van Halen, Fair Warning is by far the greatest album they ever recorded.

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I honestly don't understand why people don't talk about Pink Floyd's Meddle. It has everything you could possibly want from a Pink Floyd album. They didn't just stumble upon the sound they got on Dark Side of the Moon.

You get all these douchey teens walking around with an Animals shirt on, that haven't even heard the damn album. I'll be honest, I've never been able to sit through the whole album.

Nobody gives Meddle love, and it's as much Pink Floyd as you could hope for.

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

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EyeShotFirst said:

I honestly don't understand why people don't talk about Pink Floyd's Meddle. It has everything you could possibly want from a Pink Floyd album. They didn't just stumble upon the sound they got on Dark Side of the Moon.

You get all these douchey teens walking around with an Animals shirt on, that haven't even heard the damn album. I'll be honest, I've never been able to sit through the whole album.

Nobody gives Meddle love, and it's as much Pink Floyd as you could hope for.

 'Echoes' from Meddle is great but other than that I think the album preceding Dark Side 'Obscured by Clouds' is better and displays even more of what you would eventually hear on Dark Side.

On the subject of 'Animals' I've never been a big fan of the song 'Sheep' but the rest of it is great especially 'Pigs (Three Different Ones)' which for me is a tie with 'Time' as my all time favorite Pink Floyd song. 

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ray_afraid said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

Trooperman said:

I think classic rock is any album that came out in the 60s or 70s.

I wonder why '50s rock isn't considered classic rock. 

Because "rock" and "Rock n' Roll" aren't the same thing.

And what is the difference? Please explain technically, as I won't take an explanation along the lines of "Chuck Berry is rock n' roll, Rolling Stones are rock".

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