You guys are cracked listing all this has been music as "great" music.
From the earlier generation we have (just to name a few):
1. Black Sabbath (first album, unnamed)
2. Led Zeppelin IV and parts of Physical Graffiti, Kashmir is amazing when played correctly.
3. Jefferson Airplane, listen to one of their good live albums, their studio work blows, check out Bless Its Pointed Little Head
4. Procol Harum Listen to one of their good live albums.
5. King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King, Red
6. Credence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son, Born on the Bayou and a dozen other songs
7. Free - Find one of their better live offerings, all their studio albums suck.
8. Hawkwind - Space Ritual. Simply amazing.
9. Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs, amazing guitar player.
10. Hot Tuna, any of their early stuff. Especially if you can find it live.
11. Velvet Underground, especially their live work.
12. Fleetwood Mac, any of their early stuff
13. Joe Cocker - are you kidding me? You think ANYONE comes close to Cocker.
14. The Doors - do I need to even say anything? Oh, I guess Nirvana is a match for the Doors, give me a freaking break.
15. Jimi Hendrix, you have to wade through lots of crap to get to his good stuff. I like his live set at Woodstock
16. Janis Joplin - seriously, you crackheads can name a modern female singer who can come close to Janis?
17. Mahavishnu Orchestra, Between Nothingness and Eternity. A simply amazing live recording. Amazing.
18. Genesis. Their early work, not that Phil Collins and his backup band crap. Especially like The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
19. Yes. Their first live album. Also Tales From Topographic Oceans is pretty amazing. Most of their other work simply sucks.
20. Weather Report. Mysterious Traveller. I really hate Jazz, but I LOVE this album.
21. Humble Pie. Listen to "Live at the Filmore" LOUD and tell me that freakin' Nervana or any of the other modern day faggots come close to this.
22. The Stooges. I don't like punk rock but the Stooges invented it. If you like punk rock and you don't know The Stooges then you don't really know anything about punk rock.
23. Roky Erickson. You never heard of him but he rocks.
24. The Kinks. Oh, and you thought the Beatles, The Stones, and The Who were good, crackheads.
25. The Rolling Stones, those of you who hate the Stones have not heard their music from 1964 to 1972. Some of it is pretty amazing. After 1972 they totally suck.
26. The Band. Two great albums. 'Music from the big pink' and 'The Band'.
27. Thin Lizzy. Any song that features Phil Lynnot and DOES NOT include Gary Moore. Can someone kill Gary Moore please?
28. Gram Parsons. Lots of ways to listen to Gram. WONDERFUL solo work, The Byrds (a short stint), Flying Burrito Brothers and International Submarine Band
29. The Who. Their work in the 60s and early 70s. They should have disbanded when Keith died. See Me Feel Me and the refrain from Listening To You was one of the high points of Woodstock.
30. MC5. Kick Out The Jams. When I heard Grand Funk Railroad for the first time, Are You Ready, I thought, "oh good another MC5" then Are You Ready ended and Grand Funk RR really sucks. Oh well.
31. Lou Reed. He made a lot of crap, but he also made some really good music. Berlin and Transformer deserve a listen.
32. Frank Zappa. This guy is an amazing guitar player. If you doubt this listen to his live recording of "The Whipping Post". This dude does some really great music, and he does some crap, and he does some bizarro world stuff. I am including Mothers of Invention with Zappa. If you have the time to listen to his/their 100+ albums you can find some really great music. Put on your wading boots though, because you will have to wade through a lot of hogwash.
33. Cream. When they were good they were really really really good, and when they were bad they were really really really bad. It is a shame that Eric Clapton stopped playing the guitar. Live Cream and Live Cream II are pretty amazing.