Starsailor
Artist: Tim Buckley
Community Score: 8.40

After his beginnings as a gentle, melodic baroque folk-rocker, Buckley gradually evolved into a downright experimental singer/songwriter who explored both jazz and avant-garde territory. Starsailor is the culmination of his experimentation and alienated far more listeners than it exhilarated upon its release in 1970. Buckley had already begun to... Read More

Live on Sugar Mountain
Artist: Neil Young

Reportedly in record stores within weeks after the concert it documented, Live on Sugar Mountain was drawn from a lo-fi audience tape made at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on the last night of Neil Young's early-1971 solo tour. Young was at a pivotal point in his career, having released his commercial breakthrough album After the... Read More

First Plane Outta Here!
Artist: Neil Young

Three months after the 1974 opening of the New York club the Bottom Line, Neil Young gave a solo acoustic performance there that was among the more remarkable shows of his career. Even for an artist accustomed to throwing a new song or two into his concerts, this set was unusual: of the 11 songs, only one, "Helpless," had been released on... Read More

Coming Home
Artist: Neil Young

Anyone listening to Time Fades Away, the collection of all-new songs recorded on Neil Young's first-quarter 1973 tour of North America, would believe the legend that this was a tour overshadowed by the death of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten on which Young sang off-key and he and his band played raggedly, if fervently. But a listen to... Read More

Watcha' Gonna Do?
Artist: Denny Doherty
Community Score: 9.00

Denny Doherty, the voice of numerous Mamas & Papas hits such as "California Dreamin,'" and "Monday, Monday," has been one of the greatest and most underrated lead vocalists of the rock era. While he had not completely explored the area of songwriting during his fame with the Mamas & Papas, he was the one member of the group who was truly at... Read More

Greatest Hits
Artist: John Denver

Released in 1973, Greatest Hits only sums up a handful of years of hitmaking for John Denver, but what years those were. Between 1971 and 1973, Denver actually didn't have that many hits, but they were songs that defined him -- "Take Me Home, Country Roads," "Rocky Mountain High," and "Sunshine on My Shoulders." Those three songs, along with... Read More

Best of John Denver - RCA
Artist: John Denver
Déjà Vu
Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Community Score: 8.85

One of the most hotly awaited second albums in history -- right up there with those by the Beatles and the Band -- Déjà Vu lived up to its expectations and rose to number one on the charts. Those achievements are all the more astonishing given the fact that the group barely held together through the estimated 800 hours it took to record Déjà Vu... Read More

Phoebe Snow
Artist: Phoebe Snow

It's been said many times that being difficult to categorize or pigeonhole can be the kiss of death commercially, and no one bears that out more than Phoebe Snow -- a pearl of a singer who never caught on because she simply didn't fit neatly into any one category. Known primarily for her haunting single "Poetry Man," this self-titled classic... Read More

Greatest Hits
Artist: Simon & Garfunkel
Community Score: 7.80

This album was released within weeks of the duo getting back together for a benefit concert at Madison Square Garden on behalf of George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign. Simon & Garfunkel's work had never been compiled before, but their albums were still selling so well as catalog items that this record should have been superfluous.... Read More

Good Old Boys
Artist: Randy Newman
Community Score: 8.00

Randy Newman's songwriting often walks a narrow line between intelligent satire and willful cruelty, and that line was never finer than on the album Good Old Boys. Newman had long displayed a fascination with the American South, and Good Old Boys was a song cycle where he gave free reign to his most imaginative (and venomous) thoughts on the... Read More

Magnetic South
Artist: Michael Nesmith

Anyone who'd been listening closely to the songs Michael Nesmith wrote while a member of the Monkees (or heard his hard to find 1968 solo debut for Dot) already knew that Nesmith had a soft spot for country music. But when Nesmith left the pre-Fab Four to form the First National Band, he dove head first into the twangy stuff, and if he wasn't... Read More

New Morning
Artist: Bob Dylan
Community Score: 6.76
Poems, Prayers & Promises
Artist: John Denver
Community Score: 9.50
Young Man's Fancy
Artist: Neil Young

Young Man's Fancy was drawn from an audience tape made at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on the last night of Neil Young's early-1971 solo tour. Young was at a pivotal point in his career, having released his commercial breakthrough After the Gold Rush five months earlier; his 15-song set included acoustic versions of such familiar... Read More