The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s - Spin

Fug Motivation 101: The noisemakers, funkateers, folkies, proto-punks, and freaks who made the truly radical music of the social revolution 

by SPIN Staff 


During the 1960s, the counterculture simply became culture: the sexual revolution, psychedelic drugs, hating the Vietnam War, Dennis Hopper. And it's impossible to bodypaint this decade's popular music as anything less than a combustible force of nature, especially with Jimi Hendrix torching guitars and Pete Townshend smashing guitars and James Brown fining his masterfully precise guitar player for flubbing a note. Unfortunately, Baby Boomers have tenaciously dominated the discourse for decades, and a canon of explosive, world-altering music quickly became another generation's California Raisins ad. 


So here's our collection of that generation's alternatives; the noisemakers and hopeless outsiders whose visions ran socounter to the counterculture that they were never Big Chill-ed. In these 100 albums are the origin stories of punk, grunge, hip-hop, noise, EDM, and more. Feral garage bands, splattery free-jazzers, vanguard composers, haunting folkies, psychedelic funkateers, and whatever Moondog was. We didn't start the fire. 


100. Marshall McLuhan – The Medium Is the Massage (Columbia, 1968) 
99. Cromagnon - Orgasm (ESP-Disk, 1969) 
98. Mulatu Astatke - Afro-Latin Soul, Vol. 1 (Worthy, 1966) 
97. Brigitte Fontaine - Comme à la Radio (Saravah, 1969) 
96. Alan Watts - OM: The Sound of Hinduism (Warner Bros., 1967) 
95. Conlon Nancarrow – Studies for Player Piano (Columbia Masterworks, 1969) 
94. Pärson Sound - Pärson Sound (Subliminal Sounds, 2001) 
93. Pearls Before Swine - One Nation Underground (ESP-Disk, 1967) 
92. The Monkees - Head (Colgems, 1968) 
91. Os Mutantes - Os Mutantes (Polydor, 1968) 

90. Harry Partch – The World of Harry Partch (Columbia, 1969) 
89. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion (Columbia, 1960) 
88. Ornette Coleman – Town Hall 1962 (ESP-Disk, 1965) 
87. John Lennon and Yoko Ono - Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With the Lions (Zapple, 1969) 
86. Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra – Other Planes of There (Saturn, 1966) 
85. Joe Cuba Sextet - Wanted Dead or Alive (Bang! Bang! Push, Push, Push) (Fania, 1967) 
84. Kim Fowley - Outrageous (Imperial, 1968) 
83. The Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble – Congliptious (Nessa, 1968) 
82. The Electric Prunes - Release of an Oath (Reprise, 1968) 
81. The United States of America - The United States of America (Columbia, 1968) 

80. Cecil Taylor - Unit Structures (Blue Note, 1966) 
79. Tod Dockstader - Eight Electronic Pieces (Folkways, 1961) 
78. Nihilist Spasm Band - No Record (Allied Record Corporation, 1968) 
77. Various Artists - Back From the Grave Volume One (Crypt, 1983) 
76. Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - Gorilla (Liberty, 1967) 
75. Brigitte Bardot et Serge Gainsbourg - Bonnie and Clyde (Fontana, 1968) 
74. Pentangle - Basket of Light (Transatlantic, 1969) 
73. Amon Düül II - Phallus Dei (Liberty, 1969) 
72. The Seeds – The Seeds (GNP Crescendo, 1966) 
71. Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch! (Blue Note, 1964) 

70. Karen Dalton - It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best (Capitol, 1969) 
69. The Roland Kirk Quartet - Rip, Rig & Panic (Limelight, 1965) 
68. Karlheinz Stockhausen – Gruppen / Carré (Deutsche Grammophon, 1968) 
67. Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso (Philips, 1969) 
66. Various Artists - The Balinese Gamelan: Music From the Morning of the World (Nonesuch, 1967) 
65. Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Karyobin (Island, 1968) 
64. David Axelrod – Songs of Innocence (Capitol, 1968) 
63. Moondog - Moondog (Columbia Masterworks, 1969) 
62. Dick Hyman - MOOG: The Electric Eclectics of Dick Hyman (Command, 1969) 
61. Pharoah Sanders - Tauhid (Impulse!, 1967) 

60. Pauline Oliveros – Reverberations: Tape & Electronic Music 1961-1970 (Important, 2012) 
59. Pierre Henry – Messe Pour Le Temps Présent (Philips, 1967) 
58. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop - BBC Radiophonic Music - (BBC, 1968) 
57. The Red Crayola - The Parable of Arable Land (International Artists, 1967) 
56. Morton Subotnick – Silver Apples of the Moon (Nonesuch, 1967) 
55. Perrey-Kingsley - The In Sound From Way Out! (Vanguard, 1966) 
54. AMM - AMMMusic (Elektra, 1966) 
53. The Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (Elektra, 1968) 
52. Scott Walker - Scott 2 (Smash, 1968) 
51. The Mothers of Invention - We're Only in It for the Money (Verve, 1968) 

50. Françoise Hardy - Françoise Hardy (Disques Vogue, 1962) 
49. Rotary Connection - Rotary Connection (Cadet Concept, 1968) 
48. The Watts Prophets - The Black Voices: On the Streets in Watts (FFRR, 1969) 
47. Terry Riley – A Rainbow in Curved Air (CBS, 1969) 
46. Ray Barretto - Acid (Fania, 1968) 
45. The Monks - Black Monk Time (International Polydor Production, 1965) 
44. Townes Van Zandt - For the Sake of the Song (Poppy, 1968) 
43. Nico - Chelsea Girl (Verve, 1967) 
42. Anthony Braxton – For Alto (Delmark, 1969) 
41. Alexander Spence - Oar (Columbia, 1969) 

40. The Godz - Contact High With the Godz (ESP-Disk, 1966) 
39. Sonny Sharrock - Black Woman (Vortex, 1969) 
38. Desmond Dekker - This Is Desmond Dekkar (Trojan, 1969) 
37. The Holy Modal Rounders – The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders (Elektra, 1968) 
36. The Peter Brötzmann Octet - Machine Gun (BRÖ, 1968) 
35. Fairport Convention - Liege & Lief (Island, 1969) 
34. The Sonics - Here Are the Sonics (Etiquette, 1965) 
33. White Noise - An Electric Storm (Island, 1969) 
32. The Meters – The Meters (Josie, 1969) 
31. John Coltrane - Ascension (Impulse!, 1966) 

30. Steve Reich - Early Works (Nonesuch, 1987) 
29. Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum (Philips 1968) 
28. John Fahey - Vol. 3: The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites (Takoma, 1964) 
27. Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left (Island, 1969) 
26. Love - Forever Changes (Elektra, 1967) 
25. Silver Apples - Silver Apples (Kapp, 1968) 
24. The Fugs - The Fugs First Album (Folkways, 1965) 
23. Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle (Warner Bros., 1968) 
22. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground (MGM, 1969) 
21. Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Columbia, 1967) 

20. The Mothers of Invention - Freak Out! (Verve 1966) 
19. Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity (ESP-Disk, 1964) 
18. The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle (CBS, 1968) 
17. MC5 - Kick Out the Jams (Elektra, 1969) 
16. The Shaggs - Philosophy of the World (Third World, 1969) 
15. Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia, 1967) 
14. Nico - The Marble Index (Elektra, 1968) 
13. Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kontakte (WERGO, 1964) 
12. The 13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (International Artists, 1966) 
11. Various Artists - Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis (Phillips, 1968) 

10. Can - Monster Movie (United Artists, 1969) 
9. Sun Ra - The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 1 & 2 (ESP-Disk, 1965) 
8. Terry Riley - In C (Columbia, 1968) 
7. Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz (Atlantic, 1960) 
6. Various Artists - Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (Elektra, 1972) 
5. The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin (A&M, 1969) 
4. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (Straight, 1969) 
3. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico (Verve, 1967) 
2. The Stooges - The Stooges (Elektra, 1969) 
1. The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat (Verve, 1968)