Got to agree with snapper on this one:
Another one of those records that is a cliche for a reason, it's just one of the most dynamic and exciting records ever made. It built on the works of The Sonics, The Monks etc to take rock and roll somewhere it had never been before. Compare it with the MC5's second LP, the leap the Stooges made with Fun House eclipsed everything that was going on around them.
Musc today would sure be a different place without it. Love it to death.
For my pick, it may not be a LP but Lonnie Donnegan's Rock Island Line, helped introduce the blues to a wider UK audience, gave musicans in the UK a model by which they could form their own groups and led to the explosion of basically every great band from the UK in the 60s.
And this:
The record that STILL sets the standard for every Soul album to this day. Some of the greatest backing tracks ever, supplied by members of the Booker T and the MGs, Issac Hayes and other Stax/Volt greats, and some of the greatest vocals ever. He outsings The Temptations, Sam Cooke, William Bell and Mick Jagger on versions of their tunes with a range,feeling and skill that remains unmatched.
Plus, just listen to the songs he wrote on it: Respect, Ole Man Trouble and I've Been Loving You Too Long.
The whole album is just one unbelievable package of magnificance.
As William Bell later sang, Otis WAS the king (of soul anyway
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