The Year 1978 Albums Calendar and Rankings

1978, a year that saw many big names release albums, including many solo albums, but given it was in the late 70's, a lot of those artists either were just starting out, or following up a few years before, some of their best work.

Rush and Styx oddly, put out 2 of the best albums that year. Hemispheres, becoming my favorite Rush record among a catalog of 19 proper studio albums. Why that is? to me, it's their peak into doing progressive rock, and when they did it well, there's not many who did it better.

It came out in around Halloween, so it might have hit me like a ton of bricks after the rest of the year.

1978 was the age of Disco and Punk and even New Wave of British Heavy Metal I suppose was coming, so progressive rock and classic rock was fading a bit. A lot of good Jazz-Fusion as well, although not classics really, but still some decent stuff.

1. Rush - Hemispheres
2. Styx - Pieces of Eight
3. Alec R. Costandinos and The Syncophonic Orchestra - Romeo and Juliet
4. Jethro Tull - Heavy Horses
5. Kansas - Two for the Show
6. Renaissance - A Song for All Seasons
7. U.K. - U.K.
8. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
9. Bruford - Feels Good to Me
10. Al Di Meola - Casino
11. Van Halen - Van Halen
12. The Who - Who Are You
13. Yes - Tormato
14. Happy the Man - Crafty Hands
15. The Police - Outlandos d'Amour
16. Genesis - ...And Then There Were Three...
17. Pat Metheny Group - Pat Metheny Group
18. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (Scratch)
19. Chic - C'est Chic
20. Queen - Jazz
21. Boston - Don't Look Back
22. Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
23. Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
24. Alan Parsons Project - Pyramid
25. Steve Hackett - Please Don't Touch
26. Journey - Infinity
27. Dire Straits - Dire Straits
28. XTC - White Music
29. The Rutles - The Rutles





Bruford - Feels Good to Me
rel January 6, 1978



Alec R. Costandinos and The Syncophonic Orchestra - Romeo and Juliet
rel January 16, 1978


Journey - Infinity
rel January 20, 1978


XTC - White Music
rel January 20, 1978


Van Halen - Van Halen
rel February 10, 1978


The Rutles - The Rutles
rel February 24, 1978


Al Di Meola - Casino
rel February 25, 1978


Genesis - ...And Then There Were Three...
rel March 1, 1978


Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
rel March 17, 1978



Pat Metheny Group - Pat Metheny Group
rel March 1978


Renaissance - A Song for All Seasons
rel March 1978


U.K. - U.K.
rel March 1978


Jethro Tull - Heavy Horses
rel April 10, 1978


Max Webster - Mutiny Up My Sleeve
rel April 15, 1978


Steve Hackett - Please Don't Touch
rel May 1978


Kaipa - Solo
rel May 1978


Anthony Phillips - Wise After the Event
rel May 1978


Alan Parsons Project - Pyramid
rel June 1, 1978


Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (Scratch)
rel June 2, 1978


Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
rel June 2, 1978


Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
rel July 7, 1978


Boston - Don't Look Back
rel August 2, 1978


Chic - C'est Chic
rel August 11, 1978


The Who - Who Are You
rel August 18, 1978


Styx - Pieces of Eight
rel September 1, 1978


Brand X - Masques
rel September 8, 1978

 
Happy the Man - Crafty Hands
rel September 21, 1978


Yes - Tormato
rel September 22, 1978


XTC - Go 2
rel October 6, 1978


Dire Straits - Dire Straits
rel October 7, 1978


Billy Joel - 52nd Street
rel October 13, 1978


Rush - Hemispheres
rel October 29, 1978


Kansas - Two for the Show
rel October 1978


The Police - Outlandos d'Amour
rel November 2, 1978


Queen - Jazz
rel November 10, 1978


Anthony Phillips - Private Parts and Pieces
rel November 30, 1978


The Doobie Brothers - Minute by Minute
rel December 1, 1978


Chick Corea - Friends
rel 1978



Paco de Lucía - Paco de Lucía interpreta a Manuel de Falla
rel 1978



Eric Johnson - Seven Worlds
rel 1978


John McLaughlin - Electric Guitarist
rel 1978


Annette Peacock - X-Dreams
rel 1978

Random Artist Feature: Rush

8/10/16 6:25AM

Part 3. I should make a part 4 and finally wrap this one up soon, but I can't be sure if that will be next week or more so, down the road as I don't have any of those albums on vinyl. I may just wait until I do, although Snakes and Arrows I wouldn't plan on it.



Power Windows
Hold Your Fire
Force Ten 12"
A Show of Hands
Presto
Vapor Trails (Remix)

7/19/16 8:02PM

Permanent Waves

Moving Pictures

Exit...Stage Left

Signals

New World Man/Vital Signs (live) 7"

The Spirit of Radio "7

New World Man/Vital Signs (live) 12"

Grace Under Pressure

Distant Early Warning/Between the Wheels 12"

16 mins unfortunately, and Part 3 came out longer. Unsure if I want to remake that 1. 

There is a lot to talk about Rush though and the fact I have a bunch of additional pieces besides just the standard studio albums.

6/28/16 4:49PM


Again, Part 1 of this new retro prog favorites, etc.

Rush - May 12th, 2015 (XCel Energy Center, St.Paul, MN

setlist.fm

Time is not available to write up most of the details of this show this morning before I got to work.

I'll just include a couple of bullet points:

-Jacob's Ladder and to a lesser extent Distant Early Warning were long awaited and well worth it.
-Hemispheres intro was nice, although almost like a tease. I would have swapped out most of the rest of the set just to see the whole thing, or even they included the final movement and the "We Will Call You Cygnus, the God of Balance You Shall Be"
-Neil's tendinitis may have this be the final show or at least tour. 8 straight shows in Minnesota for me. It may be the last, or if they do 1 more US leg on this R40 tour, maybe the 1st of their last 2.
-I of couse sat next to a guy and his buddy who would not shut the fuck up nearly the whole night. I frequently seem to have this happen. Every 30 seconds "Yuhhhhhhh" they were likely drunk anyway. He kept pointing his hand right next to my face, lol. Very annoying, but I for the most part avoided confrontation, in the interest of being there to focus on the music.
-The sound at the X, honestly sounded a fair amount too Target Center-like. WAY too much REVERB and terribly mixed. I have seen many shows at the X, and this may have had the poorest mix of all of them. It also reminded me of some of those Dream Theater concerts at the State Theatre. Although I think it got better by the end, but for most of last night's show, the mix was very poor. At times I could barely hear Geddy.
-Medley's Schmedley's to quote John Petrucci. Rush always does them and always plays the 3+ hour shows.
-Gotta go, but I have 1 or 2 Rush concert entries I'd love to post in here. Maybe 1 being a DREAM setlist..ala if I could pick a setlist. And in this tour's case, take a track or 2 from each album going back chronologically.
-We did get Natural Science and Jacob's Ladder which was surprising..I love NS, and would trade it for The Camera Eye and even Between the Wheels at this point, so I was happy to see. I also liked Animate live..although so many other Counterparts songs I'd love to see (Double Agent, Alien Shore namely).


Set 1
Intro
(The World Is... The World Is)
The Anarchist
Clockwork Angels
Headlong Flight
Far Cry
The Main Monkey Business
One Little Victory
Animate
Roll the Bones
Distant Early Warning
Subdivisions

Set 2
Intermission
(No Country for Old Hens)
Tom Sawyer
YYZ
(tour debut)
The Spirit of Radio
Natural Science
(First time played live since 2008, tour debut)
Jacob's Ladder
Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part I: Prelude
Cygnus X-1
(The Voyage Part 1 & 3 with drum solo)
Closer to the Heart
Xanadu
2112 Part I: Overture
2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
2112 Part IV: Presentation
2112 Part VII: Grand Finale

Encore:
Lakeside Park
Anthem
What You're Doing
Working Man
(with "Garden Road" outro)
Outro
(Exit Stage Left)