Well, it's late...we need a new post and I REALLY enjoyed the levity of the last group of comments (never knew there were so many $6Million dollar man fans out there!) so I'm gonna toss out a similiar vine...
Name the FIVE GREATEST ROCK AND ROLL ALBUMS EVER!! (Broadway Cast albums, unless they were composed by Pete Townsend, and anything from NEW EDITION will not be counted...ROCK AND ROLL people!!!!)
Can ya guess the reference? It's from an album the darn well might make my list!
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I'm either really impressed...or I think you cheated! Not sure which....either way 10 BIG POINTS FOR YOU!!!!
List. please?
Oh man, no Broadway? :) God, I'm a nerd.
1. Stones- exile on main street
2. U2- joshua tree
3. Zep- well, anything
4. Dylan- blonde on blonde
5. Jason and the Nashville Scorchers- Greetings From Nashville
hmmm.... so many others.
I’ll have you know I haven’t done a damn thing at work today for thinking about this.
Springsteen – Live 75-85: I know this is a cheap way to cover the Springsteen end, but the stories he tells are so awesome.
U2 – Achtung, Baby!: Tough to pick a *best* U2, but this would have to be it for me. I know to some that’s tantamount to picking “Hysteria” over “Pyromania” or “High and Dry”. Then again, X prefers “Dr. Feelgood” over “Girls, Girls, Girsl”… so, blow.
Pearl Jam – Ten: I know most of us are digging back further, but this is a damn great album.
Counting Crows – August and Everything After: I can only listen to this once in a great while because once I start it stays on repeat.
Pink Floyd – The Final Cut: I actually listened to this more than “The Wall” and “Dark Side” combined. I think it is severely underappreciated and has some of Gilmour’s best playing ever.
Honorable Mentions:
Tom Petty – Greatest Hits/Wildflowers (“We were caught up in a barroom fight; ‘Til and Indian shot out the lights”)
Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (“Damn your love. Damn your lies.”)
Metallica – The Black Album (“Now I lay me down to sleep…”)
U2 – Rattle and Hum/Joshua Tree (“The God I believe in isn’t short of cash, Mister.”)
Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell (“I’ll bet you say that to all the boys.”)
Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Sessions (“The silence of a falling star lights up a purple haze.”)
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Weld (“Got fuel to burn. Got roads to drive.”)
Guns-n-Roses – Appetite for Destruction (“I got a Molotov cocktail with a match to go. I smoke my cigarette with style.”)
AC/DC – Back in Black (“Rock-n-roll ain’t no riddle man. To me it makes good, good sense.”)
Oh, man. There's so many variables here -- including how burnt out I am on some really fine albums. (If Circuit City hadn't totally ruined "Just What I Needed" with their stupid ads, I might have included The Cars in the top five.) Here's the first five that come to mind, which as good as I can do. (Only one per artist between the top five and the honorables.)
1) Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks: It's sort of ironic that one of the cliches about Dylan is his supposed opacity. Sure, his 60s trinity of fantastic records (Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde) are obscured by layers of metaphors and chaotic arrangements. But you'll never find a record as open as this one. As the title suggests, it's as if Dylan opened a vein and poured his blood into the grooves. He speaks directly and breathtakingly of heartbreak ("If You See Her Say Hello"), rage ("Idiot Wind"), resolve ("Buckets Of Rain") and dislocation ("Tangled Up In Blue"). But just in case you're lulled into complacency, he throws in a trademark tall tale ("Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts") to keep you on your toes. This is as good as it gets.
2) Neil Young - Freedom: Neil Young albums are a crapshoot. Some are just crap. But he was firing on all cylinders for this one. All the sides of Neil are here -- righteous rocker ("Rockin' In The Free World"), mythical balladeer ("Someday"), country crooner ("Wrecking Ball"), unhinged noise merchant ("Don't Cry"), epic storyteller ("Crime In The City"). And for once, all of them are great.
3) Joe Jackson - Live 1980/86: Though Joe's made some great albums, he's never made a studio record that's truly all killer, no filler (with the possible exception of Night And Day). This double live set, though, which I fear is out of print, needs no apologies. Some of Joe's best songs played by a variety of great bands -- a different tour and band on each side.
4) The Who - Live At Leeds (1995 Version): It's a close call between this and Who's Next, but this isn't nearly as overexposed. Some of the most ferocious rock playing ever committed to tape, by three of the best instrumentalists in the genre. The song's aren't bad, either. (I prefer this version to the 1970 original, which only had six tracks, and the 2001 reissue with a complete Tommy on the second disc. This one strikes the best compromise, and they totally botched the sound of the Tommy disc. Purists would recommend a bootleg as the best way to get the whole concert.)
5) Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti: The first LP alone is good enough to make the list -- the second is just a bonus. Other bands have played louder and faster, but none heavier. John Bonham's drums are coming for your daughters, and your daughters wanna go!
Honorables (just a few, I could go on all day):
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Pete Townshend - All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes
The Cars - The Cars
Fish - Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors
R.E.M. - New Adventures In Hi-Fi
Garbage - Garbage
Sugar - File Under: Easy Listening
The Clash - London Calling
The Beatles - Revolver
The White Stripes - Elephant
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Live At Winterland
Derek And The Dominoes - Layla
(What, no Marillion? Yes, I love Marillion, but I'm far too much of a fanboy to actually figure out which of their albums is "best.")
So, Tim, are you gonna get that monster Born To Run 30th anniversary thing?
I *almost* included "License to Ill" AND "The Chronic" on my list. I am (un)ashamed to say I have owned every damn one of StP's picks.
Well... not anymore. But, when I was in high school. Yeah! (OK. Except "Jagged". That was later. Still have that one, in fact.)
Hey X: These past two have been friggin' huge. You might need to bring some crusty old guy in here to mop the sticky floors with PineSol after this one runs its course.
All I'll say there can be no greatest rock album list that does not include some Elvis Presley somewhere...particularly early Elvis.
I'm gonna disagree on the ELVIS thing simply for one reason...we're talking about ALBUMS, and Elvis, like most artists of the times , was a singles artists. Therefore, in my head, there is no one great Elvis album, unles of course you count greatest hits/live packages...in that case give me LIVE VIA SATALLITE FROM HAWAII, or LIVE FROM MADISON SQUARE GARDEN...or of course the 68 comebck special...
btw- for those of you using GREATEST HITS of LIVE compelations in your top fives....no offense, and I know I didn't stipualte, but I think that's a bit of an easy way out....
and Ricky, you're albums are all dandy...hell, PURPLE RAIN would come pretty close to my list!
(which I'll post later tonight...)
I dunno. Elvis was a huge talent and a great singles artist, but I don't know that any of his albums necessarily hang together as greater than the sum of their parts.
Same with a lot of other 50s-era rockers -- Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc..
But if you wanted to put "Elvis At Sun"/"Sunrise"/"The Sun Sessions"/whatever Sun compilation RCA put out last week on the list, I wouldn't argue at all.
I agree hits compilations are a cop-out. Obviously, I think live albums are fair game. (If someone wants to tell me James Brown "Live At The Apollo" isn't a great soul album, or that Johnny Cash "At Folsom Prison" isn't a great country album, I'll have to ask them to step outside.)
But hey, I aim to please. An alternate version of my top five would be:
1) Blood on the Tracks
2) Freedom
3) Girlfriend
4) Who's Next
5) Physical Graffiti
Yeah, I could live with the live albums, but the hits compelations are too easy...which kills CHANGES ONE by Bowie, else it would be right at the top...
Oh, yeah, that album freakin' rules. Hunky Dory and Ziggy are both top-notch LPs, and the later stuff with Eno is wild, but you can't beat ChangesOneBowie.
But comps don't count. Because if they did, my list might be nothing but...
Ok...here goes...
1) BORN TO RUN/DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN- Yeah, big shocker I chose the Boss...Figured I'd make this a tie, as both of these albums sit at the top of the heap for me. Stylisticlly, they couldn't be more different. BORN is hopeful, a big wall of sound , grand and almost melodramatic, while DARKNESS is sparse,dark, and filled with remorse...But GOD I love em both...I'll never forget being 12 and putting on Side 1 of DARKNESS for the 1st time...I was never really the same after that.
2) LONDON CALLING- The Clash- While I love that D$ chose a CLASH album, I gotta go with the one before Sandanista- A big whoppin 2 albums worth of punk/regaee/ roots rock glory...25 years down the raod, that album sounds as fresh as if it was recorded yesterday.
3) HIGHWAY TO HELL- Start to finish, the finest hard rock album ever made...I know, I know, BACK IN BLACK was the BIG one...but as good as that one is, and it's a dandy, this one puts it in the dirt, for my money...quite possibly the only album to end with the words NANU NANU...
4) QUADROPHENIA- The Who: As much as I love WHOS NEXT, this is the one that still blows me away at every listen. Nero, you may be onto something about it being overexposed, and perhaps that's why QUAD works better: you rarely hear it. But from the opening onslaught of THE REAL ME to the finale of LOVE , REIGN O'ER ME the WHO were never better.
5) AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE- REM: hard for me not to put u2 here, as I think their canon blows REM out of the water, but I just adore this album. Atmospheric, moody and beautiful. I don;t think REM has made anything close to it since. FIND THE RIVER might be the finest song they ever wrote...
6) STATION TO STATION- Bowie- Ok, so it';s my blog and I'll have 6 if I wanna- if you don't know this album, do yourself a favor and listen to it! It's a sonic masterpiece- some of the greatest guitar heroics of the 70's (Thank you, Mr Earl Slick!) and the whole thing feels like it might fall apart at any minute...a big drug fueled intimate portrait of where Bowie's head was in the mid 70's- Funny story : Bowie's guitarest Carlos Alomar sadi once that mid way through the recording of this, Bowie wanted to get clean, but that the stuff they had laid down to that point was so good, that he didn't wanna screw things up, so he kept using...priceless!
HONORABLE MENTION
U2- WAR
MEATLOAF- Bat out of Hell
PETE TOWNSEND- Empty Glass/All the best cowboys...
CHEAP TRICK- All Shook Up / Dream Police
PRIEST- British Steel
ZEPPLIN- In through the out Door
KISS- Alive!
PEARL JAM- ten
STONES- Sticky Fingers
BEATLES- Rubber Soul/Revolver
JOHNNY CASH- American Recordings
BEN HARPER- Diamonds on the Inside
Geez, I just realized I forgot Warren Zevon. Add his self-titled LP to the honorable mention list.
Beatles-Abbey Road
Stones-Exile On Main Street
Ramones-Rocket To Russia
Fugazi-Repeater
Jethro Tull-Thick as a Brick
Abbey Road-Beatles Gotta be their best, with Revolver coming a close second.
Exile On Main Street-Rolling Stones The album just gets better and better as each song plays.
Rocket To Russia-Ramones Pound for pound, the most rock (in its truest sense, mind you) packed into 29 minutes.
Thick As A Brick-Jethro Tull Pound for pound, the best rock packed into one 40 minute song.
Repeater-Fugazi An absolutely amazing album. One of the few albums I can play over and over and never get tired of it. Maybe THAT is why they call it "Repeater."
HONORABLE MENTION
Dirty-Sonic Youth Damn, yo.
Revolver-Beatles Beatles+LSD= one of the best albums ever.
American Beauty-Greatful Dead I don't know why. It just is.
Kinks-Village Green Preservation Society Ray Davies is a genuis.
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Blood Sugar Sex Magik A great rock album as a whole. A little dated, but still rocks periodically.
Elvis: For a single block of cool, the '68 comeback is awesome... 'til he came out at the end without the leather. Boo!
It's interesting to see at what point in a particular artist's/band's timeline different people discover them. I had heard Springsteen, of course, but my aunt gave me "75-85" because her cable company had given it away as a bonus for signing up and she wasn't interested in Springsteen. So that was my "introduction" and holds a special place.
Other people swear by "VS" for Pearl Jam. I still prefer "Ten". Many love "Hysteria". I dig "Pyromania". But, I like the "Let's Dance"-era Bowie, mainly due to the Stevie Ray contribution.
I'm starting to learn that it doesn't matter when you get on the train, or what station on the line you prefer, only that you get on.
I'd definitely put PRINCE in the Rand Roll mode...Michael, don't know...plus I like OFF THE WALL better anyway!
Good list Mac...don't get me wrong, I was rAISED on WHOS NEXT, and love it to death, but for me, QUADROPHENIA is the Alpha/Omega for the Who...hard when doing these lists to decide is it MY greatest of all time or THE greatest of all time...I sorta tried to split the difference...
I also should've added the first BOSTON album to my list of honorable mentions...very friggin song on the album STILL gets radio play. Can ANY other artist say that? Sheesh, not even the bit hit-filled 80's albums can say that 9BORN IN THE USA, THRILLER, PURPLE RAIN, etc...)
Whoops...meant ROCK and Roll (Michael) and EVERY song (BOSTON) Sheesh, I type for shit!
I must say I can't rank these by number.
Led Zepplin II
AC/DC- Back In Black.
Prince- Purple Rain
VisionQuest Soundtrack-- no wait. Scratch that.
Bruce Springsteen- Born in the USA
Train- Self-titled album
HONORABLE MENTION--
J. Geils Band- Freeze Frame
John Cougar Mellencamp- Uh-Huh
Paul Black and the Flip Kings- King Dollar
(This is Slide blues from Hell, folks.)
Stevie Ray Vaughan- Couldn't Stand the Weather
Well im definetly not the rock and roll afficianado of the family...my dear hubby gets that title. You guys can argue and debate influence and greatness all night...my list is pure listenability. These are ALBUMS i can put on and listen to contentedly from beginning to end. Not a song wasted......
***The Counting Crows - August and Everything (yes the live album gets played in our house more often but the first is the best and i cant listen to it without thinking of the early years in the Davis relationship. "..what would you change if you could..")
***Sting- Ten Summoners Tales
Another sentimental fav in the Davis early years. Fields of Gold, If i ever lose my faith. and Shape of my Heart make up lyrically for what he lost in rockability over the years. I think this is his best post Police album.
***Sass Jordan- Rats
Who knew CAnada could rock so dirty. No woman alive can match her ragged damaged rock vocals. I think she is second in the halls of female rock only to Ann Wilson. When i rate rock vocals these two are in my top ten. And this album is awesome. Also who can forget Scott Openshaw singing "Pissin Down" that night at rehearsal for Keely and Du??? Another memory..D$ and Divamaster Mills in body stockings....oh my.
***Robert Randolph and the Family Band- Unclassified
This album is a new classic. It reminded me of how music can lift your spirits and get your booty moving....even when your pregnant.
***Singles - movie soundtrack
yeah yeah..i know..not really an album but man that album exemplified what all the Seattle hub bub was about. Chris Cornell was channeling the sirens and Paul Westerberg was Waiting for Somebody.......which leads me to a good tie...Paul Westerbergs 14 Songs.
***Peter Gabriel US
I dont think that is really rock and roll but i love that album thru and thru.
***OTHER NOTABLES
Metallica- Ride the Lightning
the writing on this one was so good and they were still fast and furious.
Vallejo- Beautiful Life
One of the best live bands ive ever seen that didnt make it big.
U2- Joshua Tree?Unforgettable Fire I cant choose. I sing MLK to my son to get him to sleep all the time.
A Perfect Circle- Mers De Nom
Quite honestly a near perfect rock album. Maynard gets to be the girl and he makes you want to have sex again. Isnt that what rock is about?
$-
I bet we saw the same HEADS show, as we grew up near/in Nash-vegas....was it the SPEAKING IN TOUNGES tour stop in Oct of 83 at Municipal??
Awesome set...me and Jimi Cunningham were there...ROCKING!
I wrote a review of that show in my HS paper (lol)
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