Best Decade Output? (Bowie/Dylan/Springsteen/Waits/Young)

[micahistheballs]

Which artist do you think had the decade with the best work?

[murrich]

So hard to choose between Neil Young and Tom Waits, have to go with Waits though.

[El_Jeffe]

since there's no 70's van morrison, & the fact i prefer 90's era tom waits, the choice was made easier for me. so dylan or young.... gunna have to go young, but really there's no loser here haha

[briewer]

I give Bowie the slight edge over Waits.

[Daigle lol]

Dylan in the 60's was unbeatable.

[xxmannequin]

Dylan.

[ReignofFiction]

Holly

[Genuma]

I wonder who I chose.

[SwiftSilentDead]

Tough call bewteen Bowie and Springsteen but I went with Bowie.

[EvilZeppelin]

no Beatles?

[HangsLikeHeaven]

70's morrison!

[micahistheballs]

70s Morrison didn't have Astral Weeks though.

[bowl of oranges]

Bowie, 70's
Such an under-rated musician compared to Dylan, The Beatles, etc.
I really adore his music.

EDIT: And although Dylan did release some brilliant albums in the 60's, my favourite of his, Blood on the Tracks came out in '75 [or '76, I don't remember].

[chipdip18]

Micah, you're killing me. I'm going Bowie. Although i'm sure Dylan deserves it.

[bowl of oranges]

I feel like I should get into Waits a bit more. I only have Small Change.
Any other album recs would be greatly appreciated.

[micahistheballs]

Bowie, 70's
Such an under-rated musician compared to Dylan, The Beatles, etc.
I really adore his music.

EDIT: And although Dylan did release some brilliant albums in the 60's, my favourite of his, Blood on the Tracks came out in '75 [or '76, I don't remember].

Bowie doesn't get enough love and I'm not sure why he isn't held in the same stature as they are. I think a lot of it may have to do with his ever shifting personas so some don't feel like he can be taken seriously, but regardless, his run of albums in the 70s is mindblowing.

Micah, you're killing me. I'm going Bowie. Although i'm sure Dylan deserves it.

I'd make Bowie my second pick probably and only by a hair. Freewheelin', Times, BIABH, Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde all just make him nearly unbeatable.

I feel like I should get into Waits a bit more. I only have Small Change.
Any other album recs would be greatly appreciated.

Rain Dogs and Swordfishtrombones are the most widely praised and two I'd highly recommend.

[kearn1tm]

The string of '60s albums released by Dylan were near-entirely responsible for the Folk Revitalization of the mid '60s through the early '70s and he became not only one of the first artists with politically and socially-charged lyrics to find mainstream success, but also the most universally influential of that entire list, mostly due to his '60s releases (save for Blood on the Tracks). Without a doubt, Dylan.

Who's my favorite? Blonde on Blonde is without question my favorite record. However, the combined weight and gravity of After the Goldrush, Harvest, On the Beach and Rust Never Sleeps outweighs the totality of Dylan's '60s releases on a personal level.

[kearn1tm]

Bowie doesn't get enough love and I'm not sure why he isn't held in the same stature as they are. I think a lot of it may have to do with his ever shifting personas so some don't feel like he can be taken seriously, but regardless, his run of albums in the 70s is mindblowing.

Bowie is an exceptional producer, and has a chameleon-like ability to experiment and change sounds on a whim, which is commendable and courageous, and I'd never contest his well-merited "legend status," but I find a lot of his pre-Berlin Trilogy work to be an exercise in unnecessary excess (well, excess is, by nature, "unnecessary," but it wasn't the kind of pomp and bombast that translated to substantial albums). The early glam-albums were manically fun and stylized, but I find they lack anything profound or artistically...stimulating? We'll go with "stimulating." They're exciting, well-produced yet vapid. It was when Bowie became enamored with minimalism and Krautrock that he started to make "art" (again, for lack of a better term. I'm not interested in starting a debate over "what is art.") that he became an icon.

[kearn1tm]

I really wish Nebraska was released in the '70s. Had history been slightly revised, and Nebraska was a late '70s output, I'd be predisposed to go with Springsteen as my second choice behind Dylan.

[bowl of oranges]

Rain Dogs and Swordfishtrombones are the most widely praised and two I'd highly recommend.Many thanks.

[Osto]

I guess the most accurate answer without any personal bias getting in the way would be Dylan for reasons which Mr. Kearn pointed out so well before. I wanted to vote Springsteen simply because Born to Run only changed my life, but Nebraska is noticeably lacking from the decade output and knocks him down a few imaginary pegs of quailty I've assigned the five artists. Young and Waits are also fantastic, but I decided to go with Bowie because he's the only one who was not only fairly consistent, but also kept putting out great album after great album while drastically changing his sound and style. Not that there weren't noteworthy changes that took place with the other artists, but it's pretty damn impressive that a man could put out a song as great as Young Americans and follow up with a song as great as Heroes not even 2 years later.

[El_Jeffe]

morrison doesn't need astral weeks to make his 70's output on par with the best of them. astral weeks, while a great & enjoyable album, isn't even my favourite van release

i used to be a big springsteen fan, now i never listen to him. strange how that happens

[micahistheballs]

morrison doesn't need astral weeks to make his 70's output on par with the best of them. astral weeks, while a great & enjoyable album, isn't even my favourite van release

i used to be a big springsteen fan, now i never listen to him. strange how that happens
I guess I'm just not as familiar with his work as I am with the others.

[El_Jeffe]

not to worry mate, still an interesting poll. it seems to be a trend on this site, everyone is big fans of dylan, & increasingly of late... the boss, but van never gets any love, despite being one of the best folk/rock/soul has had to offer. i don't understand it either

waits in the 80's, is that based of critical acclaim or your own opinion of that decades output? big fan of that era also, but i've just always found his 90's material so much more substantial that is always shocks me a little when i hear of people talking about his earlier prime years haha

[Jumpoff]

Tom Waits in the 80s was my pick. Its either that or the 70s as my favorite Waits era actually.

Neither of hte Springsteen albums I listen to came out in the 70s haha.

not to worry mate, still an interesting poll. it seems to be a trend on this site, everyone is big fans of dylan, & increasingly of late... the boss, but van never gets any love, despite being one of the best folk/rock/soul has had to offer. i don't understand it either

waits in the 80's, is that based of critical acclaim or your own opinion of that decades output? big fan of that era also, but i've just always found his 90's material so much more substantial that is always shocks me a little when i hear of people talking about his earlier prime years haha

I don't know why but his 90s output doesn't erally do it as much for me as his other decades. I don't listen to Bone Machine too often, and though I like Mule Variations, I think I prefer Alice from 2002 over it.

[Osto]

Tom Waits in the 80s was my pick. Its either that or the 70s as my favorite Waits era actually.

Neither of hte Springsteen albums I listen to came out in the 70s haha.


For the love of God get his earlier albums. Especially the first three.

[Jumpoff]

For the love of God get his earlier albums. Especially the first three.

I have every Springsteen album. I just don't like any of them aside from nebraska and ghost of tom joad.

[Osto]

that's incredibly unfortunate.

[Jumpoff]

Yeah. I know. I like a few songs here and there, such as Thunder Road, but his albums generally bore me to death aside from the two I mentioned.

[Getup and Dance]

2Pac in the 90's.

[Genuma]

Van Morrison isn't as easily accessible as Dylan, Springsteen, or Bowie. he doesn't really have acclaimed songs, his albums are more of an experience than just songs. of course that goes with all artists, but especially for him I've only got Moondancce and Astral Weeks but they're both great, especially Moondance.

[Neo Cassady]

If this had said Springsteen from '75-'85, it'd give us Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, Nebraska, and Born in the U.S.A.; he'd take it easily. That said, all but one of Dylan's best were in the '60s.

[micahistheballs]

not to worry mate, still an interesting poll. it seems to be a trend on this site, everyone is big fans of dylan, & increasingly of late... the boss, but van never gets any love, despite being one of the best folk/rock/soul has had to offer. i don't understand it either

waits in the 80's, is that based of critical acclaim or your own opinion of that decades output? big fan of that era also, but i've just always found his 90's material so much more substantial that is always shocks me a little when i hear of people talking about his earlier prime years haha

I don't know why he gets looked over as much as he does.

As for Waits, I picked the 80s as a combination of both personal enjoyment and critical opinion. Rain Dogs is both my personal favourite and easily his most critically acclaimed along with Swordfishtrombones and Frank's Wild Years which are widely hailed as among his best efforts.