I can't choose. Too many greats.

 

My List :

 

Jethro Tull - Stand Up

King Crimson -  In The Court Of The Crimson King

Frank Zappa - Rot Rats

The Moody Blues - To Our Children's Children

 

but from the one above I have several I like equally...

Soft Machine, Arzachel, Kevin Ayres, Floyd, etc...

I like your  choices on Quicksilver and The Dead's Aoxomoxoa....2 of my all time favorite west coast albums....not sure they are 'better' than the ones on Logan's list but they are certainly worthy of inclusion.

I actually have several of those on original vinyl and about 8 more on cd....some I don't own and several I have never heard of like ....C Ribeiro, Axlerod , and Writing on the wall...

or "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other"

I'd agree, and rank "The Least..." higher than "Aerosol..." but I believe "The Least..." was released in '70

...and quite a disaster in musical terms! Phallus Dei is so much better!

1969 was an explosive year ov fun stuff to discover for those who were there (or for me years later). Can't choose one gem over a dozen other I'm equally fond of:

I like these quite a lot as well:

Music Emporium - Music Emporium
Mutantes - Mutantes
Plus - The Seven Deadly Sins
C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell
Pugh Rogefeldt - Ja, dä ä dä
Saint Steven - Over the Hills
Morgen - Morgen

Moody Blues - On the Threshold of a Dream

Now the uneven Changing Horses might not be an ISB album highlight, but the freak-end epic Creation is as incredible as they promise to be and up there with the best hippiestuff ever created:

it was released in 1970 but recorded in 1969

True, but it's hardly the only album to be recorded late in a year and officially released early in the next.  Trick of the Tail comes to mind...recorded Oct/Nov '75 released the following Feb and officially considered a '76 release.

Too many albums I couldn't give up to: Arzachel, Basket of Light, Family Entertainment, the obvious Ummagumma, then some that I really enjoy even if not masterpieces like Sea Shanty and It's A Beautiful Day (with the proto-version of Deep Purple's Child in Time), Joy of a Toy, Song Of Experience...

A good year for prog.

"Sea Shanties" is a masterpiece.

Can - Monster Movie

Amon Düül II - Phallus Dei
Arzachel - Arzachel
The Pentangle - Basket of Light
Catherine Ribeiro + 2Bis
The Soft Machine - Volume 2

East of Eden - Mercator Projected

Kevin Ayers - Joy of a Toy

High Tide - Sea Shanties
White Noise - An Electric Storm

There is something bad/weird about this poll.

I was around at the time, in a place where music was strong ... and in Madison, at that time I had already heard things like Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, Family, Jethro Tull, and many others.

What is weird, is seeing a listing for High Tide ... no one knew it, or heard it, and in a very active town that had so much music in the homes (not in the radio!!!!!!), that band had never surfaced. 

It tells you that people are voting with the HINDSIGHT of knowing the music, and how they feel about it now.

I'm quite OK with it showing up, but seeing it listed as a "favorite" opposite others, is weird .... it was not a favorite and in fact, I did not find that until later when I saw his name connected with HAWKWIND, and went after the other stuff.

Even weirder, was that ITS A BEAUTIFUL DAY is not given better listens and status ... and they had a HUGE HIT with "White Bird" and played a lot of "progressive" concerts in EUROPE (check out the film "Stamping Ground" for a couple of really fiery things by them, and others, of which PF is not the best! Family and Santana were!)

Of all those albums, ITS A BEAUTIFUL DAY, probably had more sales and was better known than anyone else! Even PF was not a "known" at that time ... they were mostly known as a stony band, that left behind some far out bootlegs that had some weird stuff, sound effects and quotes by a guy names Syd, that became better known after he was taken out of the band!

It just shows you the DISTORTION of time ... and how it changes. Today, we have heard most of it (I doubt as many folks have even heard of IABD in detailed form!), and make a selection based on our enjoyment of things, however, its historical effect? Zilch. Nada. Even Family was an unknown, maybe with the exception of LONDON. But here they are amidst the favorites.

Weird!

Voted for Family, Entertainment, even if in my personal ranking "Happy Sad" has got an higher rating, 

because I love Family and I advice to everyone to listen to Family discography.

Entertainment opens with The Weaver's Answer, that I consider one of the most beautiful songs in (prog) rock history.

I was expecting a vote from you for Family.  I'm glad to see it get a vote.

I'm no music historian, wasn't yet born in 1969, and other than Pink Floyd's Ummagumma which I first heard in the early 80s that I can recall, I didn't get to know any of the albums in this poll until after the year 2000.  These choices are merely some of my psych tinged favourites from 1969 that are listed in Prog Archives, but most of what I know that relates to Prog Archives I got to know after the creation of this site.  

I would think that most participants in the poll were either born post 60s or if they weren't, would have been too young to be really familiar with the music scene in 1969, but what was popular or particularly well-known in the day, or what one most liked in the day, should not mean that that's what is still most cherished.  Tastes change, fashions change, people progress....

Pedro, you often talk about being "progressive", that implies change, and revisionism is often a part of progression.  I became a teenager in the 80s, but what I most valued from the 80s might well not be what I most valued from the 80s then.  That I didn't know Art Zoyd then, but now love the band, doesn't mean that I would value more popular stuff from the 80s that I knew and liked then.  If one is progressive, than one tries to keep an open mind and ears, and not get too set in ones ways or get too reliant on past expectations.

I rate It's a Beautiful Day highly, I love that album which is why I listed it.  All of these albums I have in my collection and have listened to many times.  Even if it is more historically important than various others here, that doesn't mean that I prefer it.  I opted to vote for Catherine Ribero Ribeiro + 2Bis, an album that doesn't get mentioned much and I doubt many people into the Psych scene in Vancouver, BC where I grew up, would have known that back in the day, or now.  Vancouver had a strong punk scene at one time, but I don't know about other forms of music.

I much prefer IaBD's "Bombay Calling" to the similar Deep Purple's "Child in Time", but "Bombay Calling" gets much less attention and love.  I would like to see all of the acts in this poll get more recognition, and a reason I do polls is to share what I love.

As Saperlipopette! says, there has been a resurrection of much music that was really obscure in the day.  And I find a lot of that stuff musically much more interesting than what was well-known at the time.  The internet has helped bring so much obscure music to the attention of music collectors, some of that which had  a very limited or no proper release.  Some collectors hared it, then labels got interested and re-released or offered the first proper releases of music, and I think has created some kind of a renaissance for certain kinds of music.  Some music that was popular in its day has largely been forgotten by future generations, or has gone out of fashion.   One of the last bands I added to Prog Archives was These Trails, which is an Acid Folk act that had had a very limited release in Hawaii in 1973, but has now come to the attention of a much bigger audience.  Nick Drake and Comus, as said, now have a considerable following.  I love them, and would probably take those over popular music of the day such as Tommy Roe (I only found him by seeing that he was top charting artist in 1969).  Looking at rateyourmusic, his Dizzy album (bubblegum pop) only has three reviews there despite its success back in the day (his single would have been more known, but it only has three ratings there, and no reviews).  Perry Leopold's Chrsitian Lucifer is another of my very favourite albums, but it didn't even get a proper release until 1999 (listed as archival).

Some stats when comparing Sea Shanties with It's a Beautiful Day:

Both have three votes in my poll as favourite of these albums at this time.

At Prog Archives, It's a Beautiful Day has  3.84 with 134 ratings.

At Rate Your Music, It's a Beautiful Day has 3.65 with 1,283 ratings.

So yes, Sea Shanties does seem to be the more popular album these days according to those who took part in both sites.  I have read that High Tide has been an influential underground group despite having not not had much commercial success.

Well then I get going to an Asylum for the musically Insane.

.

That may seem surprising as I am such a big of Nick Drake and I mention that album a lot.  I adore Five Leaves Left, but as I wrote,  I stuck with ones in PA, and I wouldn't describe it as Acid Folk enough. That said, I do relate it to Prog Folk and acid folk albums.  For instance, I would happily recommend "River Man" to those who enjoy Comus' "The Herald".  I actually did think Nick Drake relevant enough to mention in my Acid, freak, wyrd folk and related music.

You know me well! 

In my personal ranking,

Weaver's Answer 9.5.

Entertainment 8.5, four stars.