Best debut albums from the classic rock era?

[Gibson87]

I'm putting the finishing touches on my 'Rock Voices' video, which means I'm going to be working on a new video pretty soon here. I'm looking for the 10 best debut albums from the classic rock era. 

I'm categorizing it by three things

1. Units sold

2. Critical acclaim

3. Test of time (i.e. has it aged well?) 

Edited August 6, 2017 by Gibson_Guy87

[Sosso]

The best debut album of all time is I from Led Zeppelin for me

[gt72]

Think the Doors self titled debut fits in that group Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced?as well

[J Dog]

Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd

The Stooges

AFD

[Silent Jay]

Bat Out Of Hell

Black Sabbath

Van Halen I

Never Mind The Bollocks

Pretty Hate Machine

[soon]

Pink Floyds The Piper at the Gates of Time, in addition to all those suggested so far

[Gordon Comstock]

Big Brother And The Holding Company - S/T

Black Sabbath - S/T

Alice Cooper (solo) - Welcome To My Nightmare

Aerosmith - S/T

 

1 hour ago, soon said:

Pink Floyds The Piper at the Gates of Time, in addition to all those suggested so far

 

I like some early Floyd but that album just doesn't do much for me... also it's Piper At The Gates of Dawn

[soon]

1 hour ago, Gordon Comstock said:

Big Brother And The Holding Company - S/T

Black Sabbath - S/T

Alice Cooper (solo) - Welcome To My Nightmare

Aerosmith - S/T

 

 

I like some early Floyd but that album just doesn't do much for me... also it's Piper At The Gates of Dawn

No, there is a "The" in fact.  But good catch about "Dawn"  

 

 

Edited August 6, 2017 by soon

[Gordon Comstock]

Just now, soon said:

No, there is a "The" in fact.  

 

 

 

Yes, The Piper At The Gates of Dawn, not Time

[soon]

1 minute ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

Yes, The Piper At The Gates of Dawn, not Time

We did it! 

[drbunnig]

Iron Maiden

Blizzard of Ozz

[DieselDaisy]

1. Here's Little Richard

2. Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced?

3. Elvis Presley

4. The Doors

5. The Rolling Stones (UK release)

Runners-up: Definitely Maybe, Appetite for Destruction, Nevermind the Bollocks, Music from Big Pink. Further, if you regard All Things Must Pass and Plastic Ono Band as being debuts for their respective solo Beatles (Harrison and Lennon each preceded those two records with incidental releases) those would certainly warrant a citation - Please Please Me also deserves a mention as does The Who's debut. Neil Young is something of an oddity in the Shakey canon and possessed production difficulties but it is quite a beautiful record in many aspects (Buffalo Springfield's debut also had some production difficulties); it was really his second album with which Neil's golden age began.

(Outside the rock genre, Curtis would make my top three all time debuts while I'd also mention The Shangri-Las' Leader of the Pack and Bjork's Debut.)

[soon]

5 hours ago, drbunnig said:

Iron Maiden

Blizzard of Ozz

Yes, Blizzard.  Thats my new vote for number one.  Nice call!

[Georgy Zhukov]

Not Deep Purple. 

Boston was the first album that comes to mind.

[DieselDaisy]

Deep Purple were fairly awful in the MkI incarnation, weren't they? (Semi) big in the states on the tail end of the British invasion mind with 'Hush'; never big in the United Kingdom (until MkII).

[-Jaro-]

The Doors

Ramones

AFD

Black Sabbath

Kill Em All

[classicrawker]

On 8/7/2017 at 2:13 AM, DieselDaisy said:

Deep Purple were fairly awful in the MkI incarnation, weren't they? (Semi) big in the states on the tail end of the British invasion mind with 'Hush'; never big in the United Kingdom (until MkII).

Yeah baby!....but they were grooooooooovy!!!!!!!!

 

 

[classicrawker]

SO many great albums

 

Jeff Beck- Truth

Cream -Fresh Cream

Blind Faith- Blind Faith

Derek and the Dominoes- Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

The Who- My Generation

The Band- Music from Big Pink

Johnny Winter- The Progressive Blues Experiment

The Stooges- Self Titled

New York Dolls- Self Titled

Roxy Music -Here come the warm Jets

Free- Tons of Sobs

Uriah Heep- Very Eavey Very Umble

Captain Beyond- Self Titled

Montrose- Montrose

Kiss- Kiss

Van Halen- Van Halen

[Georgy Zhukov]

The first album is often considered the best. All that effot, years of playing, recording and they give it all they got. And then there's the second album. 

[Georgy Zhukov]

Please Please Me - The Beatles

 

Are You Experienced? - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

 

The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground

 

Ten - Pearl Jam

[classicrawker]

1 hour ago, Georgy Zhukov said:

The first album is often considered the best. All that effot, years of playing, recording and they give it all they got. And then there's the second album. 

Yeah in the case of some bands that first album is the best and the band never seems to top it but not always the case though...there are a  good number bands where the first album is  not considered their best...off the top of my head I can think of Aerosmith,  Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Bruce Springsteen, Cream, The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Yes, ELP.......etc., etc........

I am reading Joe Perry's autobiography again and he felt that the first two Aerosmith albums had good songs on them but that they did not capture the live energy of the band...It was not until Toys in the Attic that he thought the true spirit of the band was captured correctly.

Edited August 8, 2017 by classicrawker

[DieselDaisy]

I do like the Stones early years, but if we see them as commencing their 'golden age' with Beggars Banquet then they were on their seventh British album - ninth if you are American!

[Georgy Zhukov]

20 hours ago, classicrawker said:

Yeah in the case of some bands that first album is the best and the band never seems to top it but not always the case though...there are a  good number bands where the first album is  not considered their best...off the top of my head I can think of Aerosmith,  Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Bruce Springsteen, Cream, The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Yes, ELP.......etc., etc........

I am reading Joe Perry's autobiography again and he felt that the first two Aerosmith albums had good songs on them but that they did not capture the live energy of the band...It was not until Toys in the Attic that he thought the true spirit of the band was captured correctly.

 

Those are all good examples. I know some love the Syd years but to me, Pink Floyd really didn't get good until David Gilmour joined the band. Yes was waiting for Steve Howe.  I love Black Sabbath's debut though. 

[classicrawker]

4 hours ago, Georgy Zhukov said:

 

Those are all good examples. I know some love the Syd years but to me, Pink Floyd really didn't get good until David Gilmour joined the band. Yes was waiting for Steve Howe.  I love Black Sabbath's debut though. 

I love Sabbaths debut but don't think it is considered their best album...My favorite is Vol IV but I think Paranoid is considered their best by many?

[Len Cnut]

On 06/08/2017 at 10:00 PM, DieselDaisy said:

1. Here's Little Richard

2. Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced?

3. Elvis Presley

4. The Doors

5. The Rolling Stones (UK release)

Runners-up: Definitely Maybe, Appetite for Destruction, Nevermind the Bollocks, Music from Big Pink. Further, if you regard All Things Must Pass and Plastic Ono Band as being debuts for their respective solo Beatles (Harrison and Lennon each preceded those two records with incidental releases) those would certainly warrant a citation - Please Please Me also deserves a mention as does The Who's debut. Neil Young is something of an oddity in the Shakey canon and possessed production difficulties but it is quite a beautiful record in many aspects (Buffalo Springfield's debut also had some production difficulties); it was really his second album with which Neil's golden age began.

(Outside the rock genre, Curtis would make my top three all time debuts while I'd also mention The Shangri-Las' Leader of the Pack and Bjork's Debut.)

Elvises one was a fuckin' belter really, difficult to put anyone above it.  The tunes on that are just fuckin' bang on.  Every last track is a classic.  And is there a historically more important album ever?  Speaking here about post war popular music.  I can't fuckin' think of one.  From the moment in landed it changed the fuckin' game entirely and nothing was ever the same again.  Without it there would've been no rock n roll as we know it (obviously black people made it and all that but King whiteboy here at least deserves the credit for popularising it out of the fuckin' stratosphere), No Beatles, No Stones, No Who, no cultural revolution, there wouldn't've been shit.  There's a school of thought that even says that without this album literature would've been a stronger influential force and counter-culture would've remained a minority thing instead of almost like a mainstream cultural movement thing, which is an odd idea in and of itself, counter-culture as mainstream. 

So yeah, Elvises debut all day long and twice on Sundays.  And he never made nothing quite like it again.  Elvis albums were a fuckin' joke really, all sort cash-grabbey things, it was by sheer force of talent and what he did on individual songs that elevates them but as collections of songs they are a fuckin' mess.  That first album, the Sun Sessions...and then after that you've gotta really have some kinda fuckin' patience and commitment to dig through those things.  Not that there isn't great work on a great many of them but i mean as like, cohesive works and that.  Then again the album album album weren't really a thing in them days sooo...

Edited August 17, 2017 by Len Cnut