After messing around for a month on the now, it is time to return to the then and my long history of pop & jazz with lists. Rereading some of my autobiographical introductory sketches, it occurs to me they suggest my lists are the records I was actually listening to in a given year. In many cases nothing could be further from truth. In 1972 the record most often on my turntable was Machine Head. Despite the fact I still love that Deep Purple classic, it did not make my 1972 list. I was already listening to many of the records that did make my seventies lists as a teenager, but I did not discover some of the best records of that period until years later. To this day I continue to uncover and rediscover records from every decade and all periods of music. I remain weak on some eras. 1995 through 2005 is a ten year stretch I still need much work upon. On the other hand, the music of the seventies might be described as my specialty, but I still have much to learn about that remarkable era, as well. 38 years late, I recently heard for the first time the debut record by Matching Mole. If I were to re-post my '72 list, I would include that one: Little Red Record. Perhaps, I would also find room for Machine Head. As for 1976, it was a year of change. The genre most folks would call "seventies rock" was pretty much at its end. Something else was rising: punk and reggae and other nameless sounds. I turned 17 years old that summer. I was listening to the Ramones and Blondie and the Dictators. I certainly was not listening to Stockhausen. I would not discover his music until the 1980s when I was working at WREK, hosting a radio program called Destroy All Music. I was digging through the stacks constituting the amazing collection then housed at the station, looking for new noises for my no wave show, when I stumbled upon a record by Karlheinz Stockhausen amongst the classical records. The fact is Sternklang does not belong on a list of pop & jazz favorites. But I love the record as much as any punk rock record.

Best LPs of 1976

1. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Sternklang (Polydor)
2. The Modern Lovers: The Modern Lovers (Berserkly)
3. The Ramones: The Ramones (Sire)
4. Patti Smith: Radio Ethiopia (Arista)
5. Bill Dixon & Franz Koglmann: Opium/For Franz (Pipe)
6. Cecil Taylor: Dark to Themselves (Enja)
7. U Roy: Dread in a Babylon (Virgin)
8. Blondie: Blondie (Chrysalis)
9. Miles Davis: Agharta (CBS)
10. Burning Spear: Marcus Garvey (Island)
11. Cecil Taylor: Air Above Mountains (Inner City)
12. Iggy & the Stooges: Metallic K.O. (CBS)
13. Rahsaan Roland Kirk: The Return of the 5000 Lb. Man (Warner Brothers)
14. David Bowie: Station to Station (RCA)
15. Tom Waits: Small Change (Asylum)
16. Parliament: The Mothership Connection (Casablanca)
17. Bob Marley & the Wailers: Rastaman Vibration (Island)
18. La Dosseldorf: La Dosseldorf (Decca, UK)
19. Big Youth: Natty Cultural Dread (Trojan)
20. Peter Tosh: Legalize It (CBS)
21. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel: Timeless Flight (EMI)
22. Al Green: Full of Fire (Hi)
23. Max Romeo & the Upsetters: War Ina Babylon (Mango)
24. The Brothers Johnson: Look Out for #1 (A&M)
25. Burning Spear: Garvey's Ghost (Island)
26. Nelson Slater: Wild Angel (RCA)
27. Van der Graaf Generator: Still Life (Mercury)
28. Al Green: Have a Good Time (Hi)
29. Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life (Motown)
30. Blue Oyster Cult: Agents of Fortune (CBS)
31. Bootsy Collins: Stretchin' Out in Bootsy's Rubber Band (Warner Brothers)
32. Graham Parker: Howlin' Wind (Mercury)
33. Van der Graaf Generator: World Record (Mercury)
34. Michael Hurley/The Unholy Modal Rounders: Have Moicy (Rounder)
35. Terry Reid: Seed of Memory (ABC)
36. ACDC: High Voltage (Epic)
37. Mighty Diamonds: Right Time (Virgin)
38. Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Other Folks Music (Atlantic)
39. Graham Parker: Heat Treatment (Mercury)