Top 500 Albums of All Time

[Joubert[$]]

So Rolling Stone assembled a couple of hundred judges (musicians, critics, producers, etc.) and had them rank their top albums. They had an accounting firm weight the results, tally everything and produced a top 500 list.

Response bias is obviously a factor in any poll like this. These are not the most popular albums or a team of critics favorite albums, but a reflection of what a significant number of music industry insiders believed.

Any surprises?

Elvis' role is very diminished. The Beatles appear four times in the top ten. Bob Dylan appears often in the top 10%. The Clash made it in to the top 10 with London Calling.

I have the print copy and am working my way through each of the capsule reviews. They're pretty interesting, but an online copy of the list and reviews of the Top 50 are also available here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/features...n.asp?pid=2164

You see any surprises?

[brian_igo]

In no particular order...

• Albums have been around for what, eighty years? But fifteen of the top twenty, and a greatly disproportionate number of the total 500, were made between 1965 and 1975. This list is (not surprisingly, given the source) more an exercise in baby boomer naval gazing/self-love than an objective look at great music. Hard to believe, but there was life and great music before and after the sixties.
• Five hundred greatest albums of all time, and not one classical recording made the list? No Bernstein, no Glenn Gould, no Vienna Philharmonic, not even one of the landmark Eugene Ormandy-Philadelphia Orchestra recordings? Pfffffft.
• In the same vein, no jazz records from before 1955 made the list. Michael Jackson made the top twenty but Loius Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and the entire swing movement missed the cut.
• The highest ranked rap album is Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back at number 48. Where have these people been for the last fifteen years? It Takes a Nation (along with Fear of a Black Planet) and N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton (Coming in at 148?!? Six places below a Phil Spector Christmas album?!?) have had as great a cultural impact as any album from the sixties.
• Frank Sinatra squeezes in at number 100. According to this list, Paul Simon's Graceland, Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Prince's Purple Rain and Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica were all better albums than Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours.
• If you can't think of an album that had impact when it was released but you know x has to be on your list or you'll look like an idiot, just dig up the name of an anthology. Al Green, Sam Cooke, Hank Williams, Otis Redding, Tina Turner are glad the voters at least thought of them, I guess.
• For the dominance of rock and roll on the list, the blues gets little more than passing notice. Country gets it worse.

Brian

[Joubert[$]]

Yeah, I'm seeing that too as I go through the listings, Brian. The list certainly skews to 1970s pop. I suspect that it is a function of the age of those polled. There were only two albums from the 1940s.

And you're right about the other genres too. I think blues was downplayed, but at least there were some. You're right about country -- it just got smooshed. Maybe that's because those polled were raised more on pop/rock and blues than traditional country?

[pageclot[$]]

I think Bob Dylan is over-represented, personally, but I do understand that the people who answered the poll (musicians, people in the industry, etc etc) think that he revolutionized things.

And where is Johnny Mathis? And Bing Crosby? Didn't Johnny Mathis have an album on the billboard charts for 20 years or something?

By the numbers:

London Calling at # 8, I have no problem with that.
Velvet Underground at # 13. eh. Overrated.
Nirvana Nevermind at # 17. I think In Utero was better, but maybe not as "important".
Van Morrison Astral Weeks at # 19. I could, with clear conscience, put this about 50 spots lower.
Michael Jackson Thriller at # 20. Likewise.
Love, Forever Changes at # 40. Huh? I have never, ever heard of this album, or the singer, or the group before. Off the list!
Patti Smith, Horses at # 44. eh. Add a 2 to the front of it. Nice jacket photo though.
Captain Beefheart at # 58. I remember an earlier poll where RS tried to argue that this was a great album. Still don't buy it.
# 162, Ok Computer by Radiohead deserves to be higher than The Bends by Radiohead (at # 110)
# 309, Janes Addiction Nothings Shocking. This should be a few hundred spots higher. Not many artists that made my jaw drop when I first heard them. How about at # 19, the spot vacated by Astral Weeks?
# 328. Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville. I think Whip Smart was a better album.
# 361. Substance, by New order. Should be about 200 positions higher.
# 430. Cheap TRick Live at Budokan. What? This far down? No way. Top 250 at least. It rocked.
# 495. Husker Du. New Day Rising. These guys were way more influential than this. Candy Apple Grey deserves to be on here, and Zen Arcade too.


In the "Why is this on the list category":
# 136, Tim, by the Replacements should be replaced with "Pleased to meet me" also by The Replacements.
# 166, Imperial Bedroom, by Elvis Costello. Sorry Elvis. But My Aim is True and This Years Model are on the list.
# 172. Every Picture Tells a Story. Rod Stewart. No Rod Stewart on my list. Sorry.
# 261. Tracy Chapman, by Tracy Chapman. I just find her music incredibly depressing.
# 303. Grace, Jeff Buckley. At the risk of being ghoulish, would this be here if Jeff were still alive?
# 482. Armed Forces, Elvis Costello. See # 166 above.
# 492. All the Young Dudes, Mott the Hoople. Sorry, this makes for 2 Mott the Hoople releases on the top 500. That's at least 1 too many.

[sleeper54]

..
FYI

The Rhino ad at the bottom leads to a list of the albums also. Every one I clicked on would bring up a pic of the cover to jog one's memory. And many have short clips of music from the album. And links to a short review. At least on the few that I looked at.


...tom...

[Joubert[$]]

I dunno, PC. Elvis goes on my list, but I'm putting Armed Forces up there.

And you have to have Rod Stewart on the list -- not DiscoRod, but ModRod, just after the Faces.

Frankly, I thought Thriller was just where it should be and could argue that it could be nudged higher.

But I am with you all the way on the very overrated Jeff Buckley. I bought the album, listened several times and find it "okay". Be ghoulish on this one.

Don't see enough Motown here to suit me. I also don't see any of the niche city sounds (Philly, Detroit, even SF) to suit me.

Still, if we did our own poll (yes, I have vacation time coming) and asked the EA members to rate their top 100 albums in terms of importance -- whatever that means, I wonder how different our results will be? The rating scheme is simple. 100 points for a 1st place album, 99 for a second, etc.

I also wonder how I can convince Brian to take on the project?

[adam35]

Ok, for me, first the good....KISS was on the list. TWICE.

Now for the issues.
Kiss' DESTROYER was listed at 496. To be honest, and I'm a longtime Kiss fan, I think that album gets a lot of attention mainly for "Beth". For my money, the follow-up album ROCK AND ROLL OVER was a heckuva lot better. I guess I would've put DESTROYER a little higher.

ALIVE! was at 159. Definitely would've put this higher. Top 50 at least.

How the heck is B.I.G. (133) coming ahead of Blondie (140) and Kiss (159)?

Eminem came in at 273 and 302. Give me a break. He hasn't done anything to get that high spot.

Nirvana's UNPLUGGED was at 311. This should've been top 100 easy. Hell, it's probably their best album.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse's RUST NEVER SLEEPS was at 350. Ok. I prefer LIVE RUST and would've put it higher.

Van Halen's first album at 451. Again, ok. I prefer FAIR WARNING and would've put it top 200.

Devo ARE WE.... at 447. I haven't heard this album. But I have heard FREEDOM OF CHOICE which should've been on the list.

Alice Cooper's LOVE IT TO DEATH at 460. I'm an Alice fan too, so I would've put him higher but probably with a different album. But "Ballad of Dwight Fry" on this one is great!

Pearl Jam's VS. was not listed. Maybe I'm hearing things differently, but this is a really good album. I think the band really hit the nail on the head with this one.

[erik_kosberg]

Top X lists, be they for books, albums, or Best Places to Retire are at best a crap shot. Anyone who reads them can find points of agreement and points of disagreement.

At least Rolling stone didn’t include The Transformed Man on the list.

[lambchops]

Hate, hate, hate these lists. But then again I can attribute my ire in part to my lack of love for the Beatles (I would have been more a Stones girl).

These always seem so very arbitrary...and the fact that Exile in Guyville is ANYWHERE makes me ill. Gack...

But even though it is arbitrary, I will also admit that I enjoy reading such lists.

Albums I'm Pleased to See Included:
13. Velvet Underground and Nico, The Velvet Underground
26. The Joshua Tree, U2
29. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin
66. Led Zeppelin IV, Led Zeppelin
73. Back in Black, AC/DC (probably should have been higher)
78. Harvest, Neil Young
156. Paul's Boutique, Beastie Boys
200. The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails
226. Doolittle, Pixies
282. The Cars, The Cars
303. Grace, Jeff Buckley
305. Odelay, Beck
310. BloodSugarSexMagik, Red Hot Chili Peppers
311. MTV Unplugged in New York, Nirvana (my favorite Nirvana album EVER)
342. Violator, Depeche Mode
360. Siamese Dream, The Smashing Pumpkins (should have been higher)
373. Post, Bjork

As the list nears 500 it gets even stranger...seriously...

[Joubert[$]]

You know, as I read this post weeks after it was done, I realize I would have trouble doing my favorite X albums of the decade -- forget the era.

[pluckyduck]

Joubert said

You know, as I read this post weeks after it was done, I realize I would have trouble doing my favorite X albums of the decade -- forget the era.

Late to the thread! There's a change.....

For the lay person, I think who you were when affects where you are going to rank a certain album (or song). I just missed the Beatles and, gasp, never owned a single one of their albums until One (which of course was a CD, and not an "album" but you know what I mean).

I'm okay with Born to Run at #18., Hotel California at #37..but Goodbye Yellowbrick Road (the album of the born-in-1961-folks ) being #81? I'm greedy. I want higher. The Stranger is #67? Surely top 10.

Of course, your point, dearest Joubert, is that it really can't be done. And it can't.

Off to scribble my own list and argue with myself.

Andrea

[Joubert[$]]

I'm still surprised at The Stranger being #67, and I like Billy Joel.

[pluckyduck]

Joubert said

I'm still surprised at The Stranger being #67, and I like Billy Joel.

Hrrrrrumph.

Wanna take this outside???? I got Brender and Eddie to catch my back, you know.

Andrea

[Joubert[$]]

Yeah, but Sgt. O'Leary is walking the beat because this is someone else's night to be the bartender. We'll get busted for sure.

[pluckyduck]

Joubert said

Yeah, but Sgt. O'Leary is walking the beat because this is someone else's night to be the bartender. We'll get busted for sure.

Fine. I'll meet you any time you want in our Italian Restuarant. You take the white. I'll keep the red.

Andrea

[Joubert[$]]

I like you, Plucky. You should stay just the way you are. For a while, I thought you were movin' out, because you know everybody has a dream. But then as I got to know you and you become more than the stranger, I thought, "Well, she's always a woman", and I think I followed my code of get it right the first time.

You know, that's one of the reasons I moved here to Northern Virginia, near Vienna. It is a great place to live, except for that one strip on Route 123, where you often get these weird scenes from an Italian restaurant, but I still think it was a good choice. After all, only the good die young so I figure on sticking around for a while.

[brian_igo]

Here I am, feeling like a fucking fool.




Brian
(from the one Joel album that might make his best list)

[Joubert[$]]

I thought you were Brian, not Laura!

Can you believe they once bleeped that?