Step right this way…
…for the latest Ultimate Record Collection: a trip though the greatest records of the 1960s.
In a previous edition of the magazine we brought you a non-judgemental guide to the best music of the decade. This time around – what with a new edition of Revolver on the way and talk of the greatest 1960s music being very much in the air – we thought we’d put an open-ended discussion to the vote.
- BUY NOW: The Greatest Albums Of The 1960s
One intensive spreadsheet tutorial later, the outcome reveals some interesting shifts in the landscape of critical opinion. The 1960s is still an area of outstanding musical beauty, don’t worry about that, but there has been some movement of the earth. Without giving too much away, we’re all clearly still considering precisely which Beatles album is the one we think is the best. Jazz, once only represented in countdown lists by one or two records, is now here in greater breadth (and depth). The changing fortunes of The Doors and the Syd-era Floyd show that what goes up can also, over time, come down.
We’ve written pithily, and in increasing depth about the best 500 albums of the 1960s. The classics you love. Some lesser-known gems (everybody needs the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack). However, while there can only be one winner in a list like this, the real story here is about a creative community. The Byrds listening to Coltrane. The Beatles listening to the Beach Boys. Everybody listening to Bob Dylan.
On the next pages, you can read the late David Cavanagh’s peerless introduction to the era, while we’ve interspersed the countdown with key archival accounts and interviews to cast extra light on the visionary artists that kept moving the music moving forward.
“We try to be as varied as possible,” Paul McCartney tells NME in 1966. “On the next LP there’s a track with Ringo doing a children’s song, and another with electronic sounds…”
And that’s not even the half of it. Enjoy the magazine.
Buy a copy of the magazine here. Missed one in the series? Bundles are available at the same location…