Against a backdrop of space exploration, activism and war, the end of the ’60s gave us an avalanche of great music. Here are the albums that soundtracked the tumultuous year that was 1969.
1969 albums: the 17 best, ranked
17. Johnny Cash, At San Quentin
On 24 February 1969, Johnny Cash performed his fourth show for inmates at San Quentin State Prison, California. This time, he had an ace up his sleeve – a song he’d written from the perspective of a prisoner called simply ‘San Quentin’. And this time, the show was being recorded.
‘It's none of my business how you feel about some other things, and I don't give a damn about how you feel about some other things,’ Cash says, introducing the song. ‘But anyway, I tried to put myself in your place, and I believe this is how I would feel about San Quentin.’ The band starts, Cash readies himself and delivers the killer opening line, ‘San Quentin, you’ve been livin’ hell to me’. The place erupts, giving the already-charged atmosphere of Cash’s extraordinary 1969 live album At San Quentin a whole new dimension.
16. Scott Walker, Scott 4
From the opening seconds of Scott Walker’s fifth solo album, Scott 4, it was clear that the pop dreamboat frontman of The Walker Brothers had well and truly left the building. Over solemn, Mariachi trumpet and flamenco style guitar, Walker solemnly croons, ‘Anybody seen a knight pass this way?/I saw him playing chess with death yesterday’.
‘The Seventh Seal’ takes inspiration from Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film of the same name, with themes of death, religion and the search for a higher meaning unfolding against a lush, orchestrated backdrop. It’s typical of the wonders to be found on Scott 4 – the gorgeous melancholy of ‘On Your Own Again’, the bittersweet sweep of ‘The World’s Strongest Man’, the spectral majesty of ‘Boy Child’. Walker would push his music to ever-more experimental and awe-inspiring heights, but Scott 4 is an early peak.
15. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, Trout Mask Replica
At first, Trout Mask Replica’s wild mash-up of blues, free jazz, audio concrete, spoken word and rock’n’roll can be daunting and disorientating. But once Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band’s debut album clicks, there’s nothing else like it. Produced by Beefheart’s old school pal Frank Zappa, Trout Mask Replica was a meticulously planned sonic collage full of false starts, abrasive sounds and surreal joy that sounded like chaos to some but, to others, was the sound of freedom.
14. The Who, Tommy
The Who followed their masterpiece Sell Out with Tommy, Pete Townshend’s hugely ambitious, sprawling rock opera about the life of a deaf, dumb and blind kid who is cured by pinball and becomes a spiritual leader. While the concept might not fly today, the songs are timeless – ‘Pinball Wizard’, ‘I’m Free’ and ‘See Me Feel Me’ are hymns to the transcendent power of rock music – and the album made The Who one of the biggest bands on the planet.
13. The Stooges, The Stooges
Amazingly, the album that introduced rock’n’roll force of nature Iggy Pop to the world and laid the foundations for punk was pretty much ignored on release. But those in the know soon tuned into the untethered, brutal brilliance of ‘No Fun’, ‘1969’, ‘Real Cool Time’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ – straight down the line songs of raw, pent-up aggression and sexuality with the swaggering and unpredictable Pop at their heart. Had they put the dirge of ‘We Will Fall’ at the end, rather than three songs in, it’d be a perfect debut.
12. Dusty Springfield, Dusty In Memphis
Eyebrows were raised when UK pop star Dusty Springfield signed to Atlantic and decided to record her next album at Memphis’ storied American Sound Studio with Aretha Franklin’s backing band and production/arrangement team (Tom Dowd, Arif Mardin and Jerry Wexler). Though the band’s performances were flawless, Springfield was daunted by her surroundings and ended up having to re-record her vocals in New York. Not that you could tell from her ice cool delivery of all-time greats ‘Son Of A Preacher Man’, ‘Breakfast In Bed’ and ‘Just A Little Lovin’’.
11. Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crosby, Stills & Nash
Though none of them could ever agree exactly when and where it happened, from the moment David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash sang together in Laurel Canyon in July 1969, everything changed. Crosby later said, ‘Stills and I looked at each other and we knew we wanted [Nash] to sing with us right then. Immediately.’
Following that revelatory moment, Nash left The Hollies and, bankrolled by Atlantic Records, the trio decamped to London where they worked up the songs that became their self-titled debut, a folk-rock landmark featuring questing epics (‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’, ‘Wooden Ships’), cheeky hippie-pop (‘Marrakesh Express’, ‘Pre-Road Downs’) and hazy psychedelic ballads (‘Guinnevere’, ‘Helplessly Hoping’) all tied together with those heavenly harmonies.
10. King Crimson, In The Court Of The Crimson King
The moment prog rock took flight. King Crimson’s debut album announced itself with ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’, a seven-minute epic which moved with ease between Robert Fripp’s monumental riffs, thrilling drumming and several jazz and classical-influenced interludes. Elsewhere, ‘I Talk To The Wind’ is a sublime and subtle psych ballad carried along by Ian McDonald’s meandering flute and the title track is a cinematic journey that opened up new possibilities for rock bands.
9. Sly & The Family Stone, Stand!
Sly Stone’s first masterpiece, Stand! is an infectious and joyful collection of psychedelic soul and funk which tackles racism and inner-city struggles head on. ‘Everyday People’ is a euphoric encapsulation of the Family Stone’s inclusive ethos and hit No. 1 in the US, while the title track is the funkiest appeal for activism imaginable. Stand!’s impact was felt immediately in game-changing albums by Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, and is still resonating today.
8. Nick Drake, Five Leaves Left
Unfairly boxed in as ‘folk’, Nick Drake’s debut album is a heady mix of sophisticated and cosmopolitan influences from modal jazz to Indian raga, traditional Moroccan music to impressionist classical composers.
Add to that Drake’s uncanny songwriting, the magnetic mumble of his vocals and some mesmerising performances and arrangements, and you're looking at one of the classic debut albums of the ’60s. ‘River Man’ is its beating heart, a song with an almost supernatural connection to nature given life by Harry Robertson’s enchanting string arrangement.
7. Frank Zappa, Hot Rats
Zappa’s first album without the Mothers Of Invention (though multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood remained) was an irresistible blend of exploratory jazz-fusion (‘Peaches En Regalia’, ‘Song Of Mr Green Genes’), blues-rock stompers (the Captain Beefheart-starring ‘Willie The Pimp’) and skronking jams (The Gumbo Variations’). There’s incredible musicianship, vivid energy and sense of mischief throughout – if you’re looking for an entry into the thrilling world of Zappa’s music, Hot Rats is as good a start as any.
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6. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin’s second album of 1969 ought to have been a mess. But despite being written on the road between rock’n’roll shenanigans and soundchecks and recorded in multiple studios around the world, it’s a triumph. Heavy, lust-crazed riffs abound (‘Whole Lotta Love, ‘Heartbreaker’, ‘The Lemon Song’), while the pastoral ‘Thank You’ and ‘Ramble On’ point ahead to the gentler soundworld of Led Zeppelin III.
‘I wanted it to be quite extreme and that’s what I was going for,’ guitarist Jimmy Page later told MOJO, ‘something that showed all the peaks of what we could do’. Led Zeppelin II did exactly that.
5. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
In Crazy Horse (formerly Laurel Canyon bar band The Rockets), Neil Young found his ideal foil – a group equally at home with endless, gnarly jams as they were with ragged country-rock. And, importantly for the capricious Young, they worked fast. ‘We got together, started rehearsing and we went right in,’ Young told Rolling Stone in 1970.
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‘That whole album was like catching the group just as they were getting to know each other. We didn't even know what we sounded like until we heard the album.’ Incredibly, one of the album’s cornerstones, the mighty jam of ‘Down By The River’ was recorded after the band had been together for about a week. Elsewhere, the breezy title track, ‘Cinnamon Girl’ and ‘Cowgirl In The Sand’ are ageless rock anthems.
4. The Beatles, Abbey Road
The last album recorded by The Beatles was a conscious bid to get back to the sense of togetherness that had gone awry somewhere around the ‘White Album’ sessions. Producer George Martin agreed to work on it on the condition that he would be in charge, just like the old days. While this might’ve been an impossible dream, thanks to underlying tensions and a natural drifting apart, Abbey Road nearly pulled it off.
While the songs felt like solo compositions, Abbey Road is crammed with moments – such as Paul McCartney’s extraordinary, roaming bassline on George Harrison’s beautiful ‘Something’ or the three-part harmonies on John Lennon’s ‘Because’ – which showed that they were still better together than apart.
3. The Rolling Stones, Let It Bleed
The Stones brought the curtain down on a decade of seismic change with the ominous Let It Bleed, an album teeming with doom, menace and portent that already felt a million miles away from 1967's Summer of Love. Opener ‘Gimme Shelter’ sets the tone with a voodoo-like intensity and apocalyptic portent that’s echoed by the rabble-rousing blues of ‘Midnight Rambler’ and the sinister groove of ‘Monkey Man’.
Elsewhere, a wasted-and-wounded take on Robert Johnson’s ‘Love In Vain’, the Keith Richards-sung country-blues of ‘You Got The Silver’ and the gospel-infused ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ point to the band’s future.
2. Miles Davis, In A Silent Way
On 18 February 1969, Miles Davis changed the direction of jazz – again. In a single recording session that lasted roughly three hours, Davis and his group of fiercely talented, innovative players – including Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and John McLaughlin – recorded the two long tracks that comprise In A Silent Way, Davis’ first all-electric album.
Inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, Davis encouraged unconventional thinking from his musicians – he famously told McLaughlin to play as if he’d never picked up a guitar before – bringing a spontaneity and edge to the meditative groove. The results are transcendent and laid the foundations for Miles’ electric period, with the seminal Bitches Brew just around the corner.
1. The Band, The Band
With their second album, the five members of The Band – Rick Danko (bass, vocals, fiddle), Levon Helm (drums, vocals, mandolin), Garth Hudson (keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (vocals, piano, drums) and Robbie Robertson (guitar, backing vocals) – lived up to their name with a collection of stone-cold classics that had an otherworldly timelessness to them.
Principal songwriter Robertson found inspiration in the lives of everyday people. ‘We’re not dealing with people at the top of the ladder,’ Robertson said in 2022. ‘We’re saying, ‘What about that house out there in the middle of that field?’ What does this guy think, with that one light on upstairs and that truck parked out there? That’s who I’m curious about.’
Robertson tells of road-weary travellers yearning for home (‘Up On Cripple Creek’), a boy seeking advice from his grandfather (‘When You Awake’), agrarian tragedy (‘King Harvest [Has Surely Come’]), and the aftershocks of the US civil war (‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’). And he had the strongest cast imaginable to bring his cinematic songs alive – Danko, Helm and Manuel are three of the greatest voices in rock music, Hudson was a play-anything musical genius and Robertson was no slouch on the guitar.
At this point, Manuel was chipping in with moments of brilliance too – the heartbroken and wistful ‘Whispering Pines’, the filthy funk of ‘Jawbone’. Imagine being good enough to call yourself simply 'The Band'. This album proves they were.
Pics Getty Images
