Classic albums?

To me, the defining characteristic of a classic album (beyond the press play which I wholeheartedly agree with) is the deep track nuggets that after repeated play become even more favored listens than the big hits that drew you in the first place. To wit:

Sticky Fingers: Dead Flowers, Moonlight Mile
Who's Next: My Wife, Love Ain't For Keeping
Physical Graffiti: Down by the Seaside, Bron-Y-Aur (the best two minutes in rock and roll history)
Life's Rich Pageant: I Believe, Flowers of Guatemala (the best three minutes...)

 

"Sway" might be my fave song on Sticky Fingers, one of the Stones' all-time great deep tracks.

"Getting in Tune" and "Going Mobile" are terrific deep tracks on Who's Next. "My Wife" is great.

 

Dead Flowers might be my favorite Stones song. Townes Van Zandt did a great cover too.

 

So did Steve Earle, calling it a "perfectly good British hillbilly song".

 

Weezer Blue Album

Pixies Doolittle

REM Murmur

Warren Zevon Warren Zevon

U2 Live at Red Rocks - I know itvshoukdnt count.

 

Well when you're sitting back in your rose pink Cadillac
Making bets on Kentucky Derby Day
Ah, I'll be in my basement room with a needle and a spoon
And another girl to take my pain away

Such a great verse.

They should release a compilation of their country songs.

 

My criteria: You heard a song or two from the album, felt like you got hit by a truck and never stopped playing it since. For me (along with the stories behind each one though I doubt anyone cares):
1. Who's Next: A cousin by marriage who's 3 or 4 years older than me -- and who, a couple years later, formed a hardcore band in suburban DC with some HS buddies, including a drummer named Dave Grohl (yes, THAT Dave Grohl, who he's still in touch with) played "Won't Get Fooled Again" on his boom box for me when our families were on vacation on the Cape. I was 12. That was when I discovered music. Before that, my favorite song was probably the Detroit Lions' version of Another One Bites the Dust that they released when they started the 1980 season 5-0 (and finished 8-8). When I heard Won't Get Fooled Again I was never the same. The Who went on their "Farewell Tour" that fall but I was too young to go. Finally saw them in 1996 when they played Quadrophenia at MSG. Seen them at least a half-dozen times since. Quadrophenia is still my favorite Who album -- probably my favorite album period -- but Who's next was what first got me.
2. Rush's "Signals": Another cousin put on Subdivisions that fall. Something about that song hit me like a ton of bricks. Still their most underrated album and my favorite, even if objectively others of theirs are better albums. The most popular track, "New World Man," is arguably the weakest track on the album
3. Appetite for Destruction: Opening riff to Sweet Child O' Mine did it to me when I heard it on the radio my senior year of HS
4. Pearl Jam 10: Heard "Alive" on Windsor, Ontario's 89X when I was a senior at Michigan. Went straight to Schoolkids Records to pick up the album
5. Nevermind: Got a ride back to my frat house from a kid in one of my classes. He put on "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Nobody knew who they were yet. Again, straight to Schoolkids to grab a copy
6. Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance: I saw a kid wearing a JP concert jersey when I was playing arcade games at the Aladdin's Castle at Meridian Mall near MSU when I was in 7th grade. Saw the video for "You Got Another Thing Coming" later that day -- we'd just got MTV. I discovered metal. Still LOVE that album and actually consider that to be one of the weaker songs.
7. Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast: Saw the Run to the Hills video on MTV when I was 13. They had me at the drum intro. If I'm being perfectly honest, I'm more likely to listen to other albums of theirs start to finish these days, like Powerslave, Somewhere In Time and several of their post-2000 albums. But that album is still their definitive classic.
8. Blood on the Tracks: Freshman year of college. Thought I hated Dylan. Heard "Tangled Up In Blue" and changed my mind. I can never get sick of any song on that album.
9. Born to Run: I'm really not a Springsteen fan to be honest. In fact I find him pretty tedious. Born in the USA came out when I was 13 and was both huge and unavoidable. But other than the title track, nothing on "Born in the USA" really did it for me when it broke. On the other hand, I'd heard the title track to Born to Run and thought it was pretty good. Then I heard Jungleland. Got the album the next day. I love every single song on that album. And I like Tunnel of Love quite a bit too. But the rest of his catalog kind of leaves me cold. I've seen him a couple times -- '88 and about a decade ago —and he puts on a good show, even if I can't really call myself a fan. But Born to Run is still the definition of a classic and one of my favorite albums by anyone. And I still dislike just about everything on Born in the USA.
10. Sticky Fingers: I liked the Stones just fine as a teenager based on songs like Gimme Shelter and Paint It, Black. But I wasn't a big fan of Brown Sugar so I never really gave this one a listen, being unfamiliar with the other songs listed. One of my friends played it on a car trip when I was 17 and as soon as I heard "Sway" I realized how much I'd been missing out. Favorites: Moonlight Mile and Sister Morphine, though it's really hard to leave anything out, other than Brown Sugar. Listening to Moonlight Mile back-to-back with Memory Motel from Black and Blue is quite an emotional experience.

Honorable mentions:
Scarecrow by Mellencamp (and Lonesome Jubilee too)
Full Moon Fever
Who Are You
Dark Side of the Moon (I usually skip Money however)
Unforgettable Fire / Joshua Tree / Achtung Baby in succession
Master of Puppets
"The Real Thing" by Faith No More
Straight Outta Compton
Victory Day by Tom Cochrane and Red Rider (80s Canadian heartland rock that probably nobody else would call a classic, but I played it to death in the late 80s and still love every song on the album, as dated as it might sound)
Copperhead Road by Steve Earle
Excitable Boy by Warren Zevon
Storyville by Robbie Robertson

Edit: Oddly, as much as I like Led Zeppelin, I can't say that I ever listened to any of their albums much from start to finish. I probably listed to Robert Plant's solo album Now and Zen more without skipping over anything than I did Zeppelin.

 

Man - just checked Cusack's IMDB page wondering why he doesn't make movies anymore only to find out he still does, just haven't heard of any of them since 2012 (the movie and the year).

 

My teenage nieces and nephew just don't get the whole idea of listening to whole albums.

(I own about 500 LPs, 300-400 CDs and maybe 100 cassettes. Although of that total, probably 250 are duplicate titles.)

And, of course, I regale them with stories about my early grade school days, when everybody had stacks of 45 rpm singles. Before June 1, 1967.

 

Agree 100 percent (although I'd argue the Space Shuttle song, "Countdown," is the weak one). The opening songs of Subdivisions and Analog Kid are a great one-two punch.

A few 1990s/2000s albums to add:

• "OK Computer" by Radiohead

• "Summerteeth" by Wilco

• "Elephant" by White Stripes

• "American Idiot" by Green Day

and ... of course ... a Supergrass classic. Not that one! I'm talking about "In It for the Money," their second album, which has a bunch of their best songs on it.

 

Music threads here promote great posts, mine isn’t one, but I have to toss Steely Dan classic “Can’t Buy a Thrill” into any convo about, well, classic albums. No needle lifting required because they are all perfectly well crafted songs and gave us an insight into what 70s pop/fusion music sound could be.
When they exploded on the scene with this release I think most listeners thought it was great but a one off kind of thing. Although everyone recognized the quality of the work, no one knew where it could go. They followed it up with what we all now recognize as groundbreaking work in the pop rock genre.
I go on listening jags, currently Kinks, Zep, Queen and 54-40. I’ll be back on SD, Beatles, old and new, Stones, Mellencamp, CSN, etc. soon enough. Every album is a ‘classic’ to someone, that’s the beauty of music.
A classic under the radar album for me is “Plug Me Into Something” by Henry Gross circa 1977 or so. I doubt anyone else has heard it. Great guitar driven rock.