Too hard to choose, so many good ones, an unassailable stretch of 4 to 6 genre defining albums. I wouldn't choose it as my favorite, but no one has mentioned Never Say Die, which has some weak moments along with some extremely cool songs! the deluxe reissues of the first three have some truly awesome bonus cuts: instrumental takes/alternate takes/alternate lyrics/an unreleased song! apparently the band sued the label to prevent their release and lost, then the label went out of business in the great financial meltdown...
these are GOOOOOLDEN TREASUREs!:
Beat Club video (this is what "music videos" should look like)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6y6_xJ0SCY (it looks like dick cheney's head in the background, which is somehow appropriate, as he's kind of an evil supervillan)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1G4JmbfvAQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awqx1BReegk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFLwgtkMFKc
and Paris 1970 video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtqy4DTHGqg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59SdjZuhekk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiShfBmb-oA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzcC5mQBWDs&