Rolling Stone top 500 al***s
Posted by: TomK on 20 November 2003
Yet another list but at least this one looks as though there were folk older than 15 making the choices.
As I've got rather a lot of the albums mentioned I've got to say that they showed impeccable taste.
Top 500 abums
As I've got rather a lot of the albums mentioned I've got to say that they showed impeccable taste.
Top 500 abums
hangover hang-ups
Every list like this commits sins of omission and comission both, almost of necessity. But this one's fault lines show through in its use of one or two big names to try to cover entire subgenres. Cases in point:
1. Dylan. Of course the guy should be on the list, but he appears like 10 times, and at every point in his career he's got challengers that wind up omitted. Did Fairport Convention (omitted) really have nothing better to offer than Dylan's "Time Out of Mind"? Did Joan Baez (omitted) have not a single title that could compete with any Dylan's early folk albums (all included)? And what's up with omitting Graham Nash's superb "Wild Tales" while including Dylan rehashes like "Love and Theft"? Dylan's an easy pick, but including him to the exclusion of these others is just lazy.
2. American Blues. John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters are very heavily represented, and Robert Johnson gets two mentions, but the heavy reliance on these three seems arbitrary and narrow. Why no Ledbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Johnny Winters, Bo Diddly, etc?
3. A.M. Radio pablum. Listing just about every Elton John album is absurd. A "Greatest Hits" would be one thing, but if they're going to list all his stuff, then parity of reasoning requires that they list all the other bloated corpses of the A.M. Radio graveyard: Neil Diamond's countless albums, Barry Manilow, Abba, Captain and Tenniele, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Supertramp, Starland Vocal Band, etc. Do it fairly or don't do it at all.
Meanwhile, important subgenres seem to be missing entirely. I didn't see any 60's american garage rock (Wailers, Sonics, Trashmen, Standells, etc. and consigning Buddy Holly to #421 hardly seems right), I didn't see any Kraut Rock (Can Neu, Kraftwerk, etc.), or any prog-rock (Yes, King Crimson, etc.). Meanwhile, the worst 80's dreck, like George-Michael-Jackson, are heavily represented.
Speaking of which, the single biggest improvement would have been to omit "Thriller" entirely. What better way to secure this list's pretension to be picking the best albums and not the best-selling albums than to exclude the best-selling album? As it turns out, no one would be likely to complain; who's going to stand up for that sick clown now?
It's still a pretty good list, though.
Eric (who has 138 of 'em).
Every list like this commits sins of omission and comission both, almost of necessity. But this one's fault lines show through in its use of one or two big names to try to cover entire subgenres. Cases in point:
1. Dylan. Of course the guy should be on the list, but he appears like 10 times, and at every point in his career he's got challengers that wind up omitted. Did Fairport Convention (omitted) really have nothing better to offer than Dylan's "Time Out of Mind"? Did Joan Baez (omitted) have not a single title that could compete with any Dylan's early folk albums (all included)? And what's up with omitting Graham Nash's superb "Wild Tales" while including Dylan rehashes like "Love and Theft"? Dylan's an easy pick, but including him to the exclusion of these others is just lazy.
2. American Blues. John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters are very heavily represented, and Robert Johnson gets two mentions, but the heavy reliance on these three seems arbitrary and narrow. Why no Ledbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Johnny Winters, Bo Diddly, etc?
3. A.M. Radio pablum. Listing just about every Elton John album is absurd. A "Greatest Hits" would be one thing, but if they're going to list all his stuff, then parity of reasoning requires that they list all the other bloated corpses of the A.M. Radio graveyard: Neil Diamond's countless albums, Barry Manilow, Abba, Captain and Tenniele, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Supertramp, Starland Vocal Band, etc. Do it fairly or don't do it at all.
Meanwhile, important subgenres seem to be missing entirely. I didn't see any 60's american garage rock (Wailers, Sonics, Trashmen, Standells, etc. and consigning Buddy Holly to #421 hardly seems right), I didn't see any Kraut Rock (Can Neu, Kraftwerk, etc.), or any prog-rock (Yes, King Crimson, etc.). Meanwhile, the worst 80's dreck, like George-Michael-Jackson, are heavily represented.
Speaking of which, the single biggest improvement would have been to omit "Thriller" entirely. What better way to secure this list's pretension to be picking the best albums and not the best-selling albums than to exclude the best-selling album? As it turns out, no one would be likely to complain; who's going to stand up for that sick clown now?
It's still a pretty good list, though.
Eric (who has 138 of 'em).
What? Nothing by The Fall..
Fuckwits
Fuckwits
quote:
Originally posted by ejl:
_hangover hang-ups_
As it turns out, no one would be likely to complain; who's going to stand up for that sick clown now?
Well, he's a weirdo alright and very VERY naive, but I'm not neccessarily sure he's a pedderass... After all, don't forget about all those vigilante sprees a couple of years back, where totally innocent people got the crap kicked out of them - give the guy a break until he's PROVEN to be guilty.
Oh - and "Thriller" came out when I was 8 so I rate it - although no, it's not worthy of being that high up the list...
31 out of the first 100 - not that good but not bad considering I don't have any jazz or soul (barring KoB of course - yaaaaaaawn). Why the hell does "Trout Mask Replica" get in these things - it's just headache inducing tuneless noise in this bloke's opinion I'm afraid...
5, 5, 8, 5, 10, 10, 11, 10 is how the rest breaks down, starting at the "better" albums and working down...
How the hell Massive Attack's "Blue Lines" can come behind bloody Oasis is beyond me.
Pyromania by Def Leppard (I don't own it!) should be on there for the 80s cheesetastic production. Not sure why "Music" by Madge got on there though - what's wrong with "True Blue" - much better.
And as for freakin' "Brothers in arms" - burn the bloody mastertapes please! "Dire Straits", "Love over gold", or even "Communique" if they must be on there - but "..arms" - christ!
I don't get "Pet sounds" either - "Good vibrations" is fantastic, but not sure about the rest of it. Thank god it's not outdated cheesy surfin' music though
(Actually I own "20 golden greats" - I did only pay 50p for it though).Do I get any extra points for owning "Please please me" in stereo, or having No Doubt's "Tragic kingdom" on vinyl - and NOT buying it for that bloody awful "Don't speak" track??
__________________________
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.