We recently called upon the readers of Prog to provide us with their favourite albums from 1974. Here are the results, and the reasons why you chose them...
10. ROBERT WYATT – Rock Bottom [VIRGIN] “It was only a chance encounter with him in his home town (he nearly ran over my wife in his wheelchair!) which prompted me to check him out. Initially I wasn’t keen – his voice is definitely an acquired taste. But slowly, over the years, this album has got its hooks into me. And what a peculiar album it is – hypnotic, dreamy and abstract. Put the headphones on and be transported to another place.” – John Goldthorpe
9. TANGERINE DREAM – Phaedra [VIRGIN] “Difficult choice between the Tangs and Kraftwerk’s Autobahn. I chose Phaedra because it was probably the first chill-out record I ever owned. Many a happy hour spent crashed out listening to it on headphones.” – David Cable
8. JETHRO TULL – Warchild [CHRYSALIS] “Not their best effort, but the best they could do in ’74.A modest effort such as this wouldn’t make a top ten list from 1967 to ’73, but ’74 is not really a vintage year for prog.” – James Shuttleworth
7. RICK WAKEMAN – Journey To The Centre Of The Earth [A&M] “After Yes this was my first Rick Wakeman album. And finally I had the chance to see him play it live in the Royal Albert Hall in April this year.” – Ronald van der Pol
6. SUPERTRAMP – Crime Of The Century [A&M] “Gotta be Crime Of The Century. It has Dreamer and Rudy. I love how Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies do a point counter point for all the songs and themes.” – Lori Hull
5. GENTLE GIANT – The Power & The Glory [VERTIGO] “Their sixth album is a powerful structure of the tale of someone going into power who then destroys it by abusing everything he’s done with it, and everything going into a downward spiral. The music itself is brilliant with its odd time changes, melodic touches, hard rock, classical, and jazz rolling into one, and it shows how much they were ahead of their time.” – Zachary Nathanson
3. KING CRIMSON – Red [ISLAND] “From beautiful to brutal and everything in between, this was King Crimson at their peak. Easy listening it is not, but there is an intensity and complexity to the music that rewards repeated listening. Forty years on it still sounds fresh and vital. An absolute belter.” – David Loweth
2. YES – Relayer [ATLANTIC] “Quite unlike anything I had heard before, this album opened my eyes to the possibilities of rock music, introducing me to styles, time signatures, Roger Dean covers, lyrical matter and instruments that could have come from the other side of the galaxy, as far as a naive 15-year-old was concerned. Wonderful.” – Kenneth Lowe
1. GENESIS – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway [CHARISMA] “What a way for Gabriel to bow out. Although criticised both at the time and subsequently in the lazy way prog so often has been through the years (those darned double concept albums, huh?), this remains the musical highlight of both this year and this band’s entire career.” – Phil Morris
