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Designed by Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis Design Co., 1973      If you went to a party at a friend's house or a friend of a friend's house back in the 70s, you would invariably be listening to Pink Floyd's  "The Dark Side of The Moon,"  and you would run into this album cover.  The party's host would probably have a black light on with "The Dark Side of The Moon" as a fuzzy velvet poster on the wall, too. The colors on it would be lit up and fluorescent from the black light. Trippy stuff.     What is so alluring about this album cover? It's one of the most iconic rock album covers of all time. It's the simplicity of it. Prisms (represented by the triangle) were big in the 1970s. The image represents a spiritual journey and scientific reflection on how a prism works.      The image is hopeful and dark at the same time. What pulls it all together is that once you hear the music on this album, it becomes clear that the music and album...

     This is my opinion on the top twenty classic rock albums. I haven't ranked them, and I may not be the biggest fan of some of the bands, but they should be on this list. I am sure I missed some, but that would only be because I was not exposed to the band or artist. The albums are in no particular order of who is best. 1. Boston- Boston 2. Back in Black- ACDC 3. Led Zeppelin IV 4. Led Zeppelin II 5. Who's Next- The Who 6. Sticky Fingers-The Rolling Stones 7. Dark Side of The Moon- Pink Floyd 8. Abbey Road- The Beatles 9. Born to Run- Bruce Springsteen 10. Rumours- Fleetwood Mac 11. After the Goldrush- Neil Young 12. Pet Sounds- The Beach Boys 13. Van Halen-Van Halen 14. Machine Head- Deep Purple 15. Disraeli Gears- Cream 16. Hotel California- The Eagles 17. Master of Reality- Black Sabbath 18. Jimi Hendrix- Electric Ladyland 19. Peter Frampton- Frampton Comes Alive 20. Queen- A Night At The Opera

According to udiscovermusic.com , while recording "Who's Next" in 1971, Keith Moon, the drummer from The Who wandered over to the studio next door where a band named East of Eden was recording. He struck up a conversation with violinist Dave Arbus and subsequently asked him to sit in and play on the end of "Baba O'Reily." What an ending it is. It's a very unusual song for the time, with its equally brilliant intro and its rhythmic synth. Putting the listener in the position to guess when the drums will come blasting in.       Baba was a staple at those 1970s parties we all went to. The outro puts it over the top in a significant way. The violin playing was improvised and done on the spot. I especially love the double time here and the sped-up, frenzied conclusion. I look back and never saw the true brilliance of this song a bit after it came out when I hit 14 and 15.       Thanks to Keith Moon, who goes insane on the drum fills, as usual! Oh, and...

      The song "Songbird" was written by Christine McVie, the keyboardist in Fleetwood Mac, in the middle of the night. According to onstagemagazine.com , she wrote the song in about half an hour and stayed up all night so she wouldn't forget it before it could be recorded. Can you imagine? Today, just pull out your smartphone and boot up the recording app. There you have it: a rough recording so nobody forgets anything. We have it so good today!      "Songbird" is absolutely beautiful. It's from one of the most iconic rock albums of all time, " Rumours,"  recorded in 1976 and released in 1977.       Here is the cool part,  onstagemagazine.com also states that due to the personal nature of the song  "Rumours,"  producer Colbie Callait suggested that Christine record it alone in an auditorium setting.  So that's what they did. They booked the Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley, California. Callait had the...

     Ok, so lead singer, guitarist, and writer of Creedence Clearwater Revival, or CCR, John Fogerty wasn't "Born on the Bayou." He was born in California. I'm not a big CCR fan, but I like them.      The swampy-sounding Kustom amp and the vibrato/tremolo effect make the tune convincing. There is no big write-up here. It is a great tune and very well written and arranged. Who can miss Fogerty's voice? It is powerful and gritty in this song. I can only listen to Fogerty's voice in small doses.      Kudos for the great songwriting, but make no mistake: Fogerty wasn't born on the bayou. Then again, Ed Cobb, the producer for the Standells who wrote "Dirty Water," didn't live in Boston either; he was just mugged on the Charles River bridge while visiting Boston. He was also born in California. Somehow, that turned into the song "Dirty Water." How creative and imaginative the mind can be! Born on the Bayou on Spotify.

      In 1952, Les Paul collaborated with Gibson guitars to produce and release one of the most iconic guitars in Rock 'n' Roll, the "Les Paul" model. The Les Paul was a solid-body electric guitar, and very few solid-body electric guitars were around in the early 50s.      In 1951, there was the ever changing named Fender Broadcaster/Nocaster/ Telecaster (Bruce Springsteen's guitar that's on the cover of "Born to Run" and countless country players), followed by the Fender Stratocaster, think Jimmy Hendrix's guitar or modern-day Eric Clapton's guitar.  The "Strat," as it's called, is the most famous guitar in rock 'n' roll and was released in 1954.       It's impressive that the Gibson Les Paul design still exists. A testament to the model's greatness. Thousands of musicians worldwide still play the Gibson Les Paul. The model has been copied by countless guitar companies like ESP and Tokai, to name just a coupl...