Best side of vinyl ever?

Sassafras

Sgt Peppers is pretty good. The side with Day in the Life.

Nicest looking vinyl I had was Curved Air, It Happened Today.

Sassafras

impmann said:

Roxy Music - Country Life side 1 especially
Led Zeppelin 1 side 1
Beatles Abbey Road - either side, it's perfect
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love side 2 (The Seventh Wave)
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica (any of it)
King Crimson - Larks Tongues in Aspic (any side - special mention for Starless)

Any of these to me are perfection

Strangely, I've got most of Captain Beefheart's stuff but Trout Mask is the only one I can't get on with. It's a bit screechy with all that soprano Sax. Absolutely love pretty much everything else they've done.

impmann

I would agree about the Sax to a degree but IMHO it is genius and if you ever get the chance to see Drumbo perform with the Magic Band, he does all the Sax but live the intensity goes off the scale....

DulcetJones

There are a lot of my favorites mentioned here, although for Zappa I would have gone with either side of "Overnight Sensation".  The "icepick in the forehead" approach to the guitar solos in songs like "Dirty Love" and "Fifty-Fifty", plus the Knopfleresque licks in "Camarillo Brillo" bring it all home. 

Lew

Aphostrophe is good. Roxy and Elsewhere is stupendous.

HAL9000

Side 2 of Meddle?

simonk

HAL9000;736896" said:

Side 2 of Meddle?

Ha! I was just about to type this!

Neil

Side one of Velvet Underground and Nico.

Never tire of it.

BloodEagle

Side 2 - Slayer - Reign in Blood
Side 1 - Big Black - Songs About Fucking
Side 1- Neurosis - Through Silver in Blood
Side 1 - Black Flag - Damaged

xmrchi

Side one of, you by gong.

Gagaryn

viz said:

Excellent. Have you tried art du son by the way? It's AMAZING.

I tried it and wasn't particularly impressed, I recognise I'm a minority - the internet loves it. I've had better results with the cheaper disco antistat liquid. Keep meaning to try with homemade fluid - isopropyl, distilled water and surfactant

Sarge

John Martyn Solid Air side one.
Led Zep 1 side one.
Pink floyd animals side one(I think)

Sarge

Oh fuck, Hot Rats side one.

Phil_aka_Pip

If I MUST choose one, it'd be Eruption - but that's only because either of the 2 sides of Snow Goose demands the other side

vasselmeyer

For me it's side 1 of Revolver. Look at the tracks:

1) Taxman. Vitriolic lyrics, a motown basline, dorian mode solo, first use of ADT and a (deliberate) out-of tempo count-in.

2) Eleanor Rigby. Brilliant group-effort lyrics which shocked listeners as mostly pop groups had sung purely about love rather than addressing death and a string octet playing the music.

3) I'm Only Sleeping. Varispeed vocals to give a dreamy effect and a very well-composed backwards guitar solo.

4) Love To You. Hedonistic lyrics and Indian instrumentation and a change of metre make this a fantastic deep cut.

5) Here, There and Everywhere. Amazing opening over a varying time signature (9/8 to 7/8 to 4/4), varispeed ADT vocals again and one of McCartney's greatest ever songs IMO.

6) Yellow Submarine. This is NOT a nursery song. The melody might be simple but it's a goons-influenced surrealist composition with fantastic atmospheric effects and instrumentation. It's a little light relief from the rest of the much darker-themed vibe of the album.

7) She Said She Said. A fantastically intensecomposition, again using a changing metre mid-song with some monster drumming (reminds me of "Rain" a little) and some fantastic guitar work.

As the second side is also just as good, this is one of the greatest albums of all time IMO. While the methods are crude now, with ADT and varispeed the band used the studio as another instrument and changed the world from pop to rock.

Phil_aka_Pip

shouldn't this be in the Chat|music dept, anyway?

scrumhalf

Side one of Are You Experienced: listen, learn, listen again, and again, and again.

Repeat for several decades.

Revolver is a great album as well but since Tomorrow Never Knows is on side two, it's topped by Hendrix IMHO.

ICBM

Side 1 of Blondie's Parallel Lines.

Absolute perfection, and every track a classic in its own right.

Side 2 runs out of steam slightly after Heart Of Glass - the last two tracks aren't bad, but they're not in the same league as the rest. Overall I marginally prefer Eat To The Beat, which is better at the end but maybe slightly patchier in the middle...

StageStruck

Side 2 of Rainbow Rising by Rainbow. Stargazer and A Light In The Black are the only tracks on this side, but they contain Blackmore at the top of his game. Dio & Cozy Powell play a blinder as well. There are other albums I consider better as a whole or in parts, but I wore my cassette copy of this thin as I was growing up.

blobb

Flip side of Rotters Club. As if side 1 isn't the best thing ever, you turn over and get Mumps. Seriously, if you haven't heard it you should. If you have heard it then you know what I'm talking about.