10 Best Hard Rock Albums Of The 1960's

Whenever people look back on the 60's, they always seem to picture the psychedelic utopia that you find at Woodstock. From all the pictures that get thrown in your face, it feels like every single rock fan had to be dropping acid and preaching the message of peace and love. Behind the curtain, there was something much more sinister festering beyond the hippie movement.

Popping out throughout the decade, bands were taking the typical rock sounds and beefing them up into something much more gritty and raw. While you tend to look to bands from the British Invasion for the more caustic rock of the day, the heaviness of the decade could be felt in offshoots from blues to art rock to even the early stages of garage rock. Some of the bands were even taking the psychedelic sounds of the hippie movement and injecting them with distortion and raw power.

These records are a bit rough around the edges, but the maniacal riffs on display here planted the seeds for the hard rock and heavy metal scenes that were to follow later down the line. Flower Power may have been a great start, but this was where we see rock start to grow up into something much more vicious.

At the tail end of the 60's, hard rock were either adopting the blues aesthetics of the British Invasion or donning their neon-colored threads for more psychedelic outings. When most rockers were letting their mind expand or worshipping at the altar of Muddy Waters, Creedence Clearwater Revival embraced the unique sound of the South.

Originally coming from California, this quartet were playing rock music that had its feet dipped ever so slightly into country and folk music. On the other hand, Bayou Country is anything but soft, with John Fogerty's lead lines and visceral shout bringing a grit to the band's typical pop tunes. While the average rock fan would know this album for the hit "Proud Mary," songs like "Born on the Bayou" have that distinctive atmosphere that makes you feel like you're in the middle of a dirty swamp trying to catch fish.

This album also boasts one of the band's hardest rockers in "Keep On Chooglin," whose guitar leads and bass grooves make the song feel like a mini epic of Southern rock boogie. With over 50 years under its belt, it's safe to say that fans will keep chooglin with CCR for many more years to come. It may be rough around the edges, but that's where you find the real genius.