So, last night I took a deeper look at Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums. Well, as I found out it's not just Rock and Roll, it's Jazz, Hip-Hop, Soul and Country and other musical tastes. There was an introduction to the magazine by Elton John, it seemed more of a commercial for the albums that are in the magazine. ANYWAY, as I used to say to a friend of mine. I looked at all the 500 albums and I counted the that I have and or had, so out of the 500 albums I have/had 133 of them. Not bad, not quite half that list. But my collection is WAY better than the 500 here. LOL!
On another note, the last page of this magazine had a bunch of interesting stats!For instance believe it or not Michael Jackson's "BAD" album had the most number one hits! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?!??! Also, another interesting fact is that the Grateful Dead album, "Live Dead" Was released Nov. 10, 1969 and it wasn't until August 24, 2001 that it finally went GOLD! Also, out of this list of the 500 greatest albums the majority of the greatest albums came from the era of the '70's! Like THAT was a surprise!!!!!! LOL!!! The groups or individuals with the most number of albums in the 500 greatest albums was Bob Dylan with 10, The Beatles with 10, the Rolling Stones with 10, Bruce Springsteen with 8 and The Who with 7. Interesting, eh?
I'll give you their top 10.
1. SGT. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band- The Beatles
2. Pet Sounds- The Beach Boys
3. Revolver- The Beatles
4. Highway 61 Revisited- Bob Dylan
5. Rubber Soul- The Beatles
6. What's Going On- Marvin Gaye
7. Exile On Main St.- The Rolling Stones
8. London Calling- The Clash
9. Blonde On Blonde- Bob Dylan
10. "The White Album"- The Beatles I have the White Album in Parenthesis because we all know the real name of this album is called. "The Beatles". Anyway, That's the top 10 of the greatest 500 Albums of ALL Time! After 10 the list starts going down hill fast! With 11 being an Elvis album a collection of his SUN Records recordings called "Sunrise" which came out in 1999!!!! Guess what? I have never heard of this record. I know of "The Sun Sessions" which surprisingly is on this list as well. Number 12 in Miles Davis' "Kind Of Blue". 12! Don't you think it should have been ahead of a repackage of SUN Session recordings??
As, I have said yesterday, once you make list of 500 albums there has to be some clinkers and BOY are there! A band like Arcade Fire is on this list coming in at number 151 with their album "Funeral". I saw them on SNL a while ago and I really didn't like them. But that's just me.
Well, I think that's enough for now. Tomorrow will be part 3, with what I didn't like on the list and maybe someone out there can tell me the opposite and why. Well, cheers and may you always find the hidden track.
Half-Baked Wax
I know that this is but loosely related; however, these lists bring to mind the occasional appearances of The 100 Worst Songs of All Time surveys. I have always found it interesting that the public seem always to determine the rancidity of the pop songs concerned merely by the lyric content and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE! I mean, lyrics are only one component of any given musical composition and, sometimes, even if we cringe at the lyrics, the music might be awesome. Case in point is the always high ranking Worst Song, "MacArthur Park", by Jimmy Webb. Maybe the best way to enjoy it is by playing The Ventures' instrumental version of it ("10th Anniversary", 1970)to realize just how great a composition it really is in spite of its somewhat questionable and perhaps unimaginative lyric metaphors and word images (always deemed laughable by many). Another striking example is "Since God Invented Girls" by Elton John and Bernie Taupin from their "Reg Strikes Back" album (1988). What was Bernie thinking (or mainlining) when he penned the cringeworthy lyrics to what is otherwise (musically) among EJ's greatest compositions? Even Brian Wilson (mentioned in the song) is present on the recording. Absolutely wretched lyrics to a sumptuously written and produced rock ballad. Like putting a Versace waistcoated tuxedo on the first wino to roll out of an alley!
ReplyDeleteThis has made me want to see other such "Worst Of" surveys that would be even more of a hoot; to wit:
Worst Rock Guitar Solo--Scotty Moore on "Tutti Frutti" from "Elvis Presley" (1956)*
*Ironically, Moore should also win for Wildest 50's Guitar Solo for "Hound Dog" (second solo on the record).
Most Useless Scream on a Rock Record--"Liar, Liar" by The Castaways (1964)
Worst Radio Edit for a Hit Single--"Flashdance...What a Feeling" by Irene Cara (1983), coming out of a dramatic end-of-a-histrionic-vocal-triple-flip-somersault and back into the refrain without taking a single breath (it's REAL obvious).
Anyway, you get the picture.
I bring this up in the hopes that, when christening the greatest rock albums, we're assessing them fairly and for all of their qualities.
Yeah, Drummer Bear I agree whole-heartedly with your "Worst Of" lists. Funny I haven't seen "Worst of" lists in a while. I would love to see one now I need a laugh or two about now. LOL! What's funny with this list is that it didn't know if it wanted to be just a "Rock & Roll" list or a "Jazz" list or a "Hip-Hop" list etc, etc. Because if it was a everything list, they missed a lot!
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