Letters to the Editor
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What? No ELO on the list?
How disappointing.
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Missing albums
First, the major problem with this list is that the Clash's "London Calling" is at 96 and only 3 spots higher than the soundtrack from "Dirty Dancing." Okay, here's some of what is missing:
1. X "Los Angeles"
2. Elvis Costello & the Attractions "This Year's Model"
3. Stiff Little Fingers "Go For It"
4. Anything by Hank Williams, Sr.
5. Anything by Professor Longhair
6. Graham Parker "Squeezing Out Sparks"
7. Pretty much all remaining Beatles albums
8. Los Lobos, either "How Will the Wolf Survive" or "By the Light of the Moon"
9. Nothing by any of the '80's girl groups (Go-Gos)?
10. Was Prince's "Sign O' the Times" on there? If not, it should be.
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top 5 omissions, in no particular order
Run DMC - Raising Hell
King's X - Gretchen Goes to Nebraska
The Who - Tommy
Rush - Moving Pictures
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood
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Will Smith yes, Patti Smith no
My list in no particular order:
The Pixies -- Doolittle
The Velvet Underground -- anything
Belle and Sebastian -- anything before 2000
The Strokes -- Is This It?
Patti Smith (apparently joining the hall of Fame) -- Horses
Sonic Youth -- Daydream Nation
Pavement -- Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Television -- Marquee Moon
Pulp -- Different Class
Nivrana -- In Utero
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Radiohead's...
OK Computer at #111?!? WTF? Widely acknowledged as the seminal album of the 90s -- along with Nirvana's Nevermind -- its placement so low on the list pretty much invalidates the list. And it's not even my favorite by RH; that would be The Bends, nowhere to be found on this absurd marketing list.
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My .02
Glaring omissions
1. Dire Straits - "Making Movies" ("Brothers In Arms"?? UGH!)
2. The Smiths - "The Queen Is Dead"
3. Warren Zevon - "Excitable Boy"
4. Billy Bragg - "Workers Playtime"
5. Van Morrison - "Astral Weeks"
6. Jackson Browne - "I'm Alive"
And just to second a couple that have already been mentioned: Pavement - "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" ; Graham Parker "Squeezing Out Sparks".
I will give them credit for the selection of Smashing Pumpkins "Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness". Nice choice of an often overlooked gem.
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This list is absurd
and not because my two CDs aren't on it. :-)
For one thing, there are far too many newer recordings on the list. Yes, occasionally it's clear that a recording is "definitive" immediately, but for many it takes some time for it to become clear.
And, c'mon, it's just ridiculous that there are two Green Day recordings, but just one Neil Young recording. And the one Neil Young CD they have on the list I wouldn't put in the top ten of his ( Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, After the Goldrush, On the Beach, Tonight's the Night, Zuma, Comes a Time, Rust Never Sleeps, This Note's For You, Sleeps With Angels, and Mirror Ball I'd rate higher).
Three Jay-Z CDs but only one by Jimi Hendrix? And no Axis: Bold as Love, Electric Ladyland, or Band of Gypsys?
And no Living Colour?
The token jazz recordings included further reduce their credibility. It's not that the ones they included don't merit it, but if you're going to include Miles' Kind of Blue, then how about at least one of his mid-Sixties quintet recordings, and one of his Gil Evans collaborations, and In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew?
And including John Coltrane's A Love Supreme make sense, but no Giant Steps or My Favorite Things? Absurd.
These lists are often at least entertaining exercises, but this list is just too badly done to have any entertainment value.
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Silliness, indeed.
While I don't argue necessarily with including non-rock acts, placing the Dixie Chicks and R. Kelly higher than Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" was eyebrow-raising. And don't get me started on having Creed on the list. Conspicuously absent were The Kinks.
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Where were these?
1. Something/Anything - Todd Rundgren
2. Apostrophe - Frank Zappa
3. Mingus Ah Um - Charles Mingus
4. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
5. Allman Brothers Band - Live at Fillmore East
6. Morphine - Cure for Pain
7. Smithereens - Especially For You
8. Hank Williams Sr. - 24 Greatest Hits
9. Yes - Fragile
10. John Prine - John Prine
Could easily go on and on.......
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Yikes
I keep seeing others at aren't represented.
I second the Making Movies suggestion.
Theres are NO Elvis Costello recordings on the list. Gang of Four's Entertainment isn't on the list. There are no Midnight Oil CDs on the list.
They include some jazz heavyweights, but no Charlie Parker.
They include Songs in the Key of Live but not Innervisions or Talking Book.
Okay, I think I could waste all weekend coming up with CDs that belong on any kind of "definitive" list, so I'll stop.
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Huh?
I'm sorry, but a list that lists a Shania Twain album higher than Neil Young, The Eagles (Hotel California) or the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack (an album that had a tiny distinction of ushering in the entire disco era) is not a list to be taken seriously.
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A Baker's Dozen
First point: there should be no soundtracks on any list of great Albums. Soundtracks may provide a great collection (and a convenient one too) of songs, but not an album. Second point, my list -- like any other person's -- is taste and date limited for me. In no order:
Dire Straits -- Love Over Gold
Pink Floyd -- Animals
Talking Heads -- Remain in Light
The Who -- Tommy
Deep Purple -- Machine Head
Joni Mitchell -- Court & Spark
Electric Light Orchestra -- Out of the Blue
Yes -- Fragile
King Crimson -- Red
Joe Jackson -- Jumpin Jive
Elvis Costello -- My Aim is True
Blondie -- Parallel Lines
Eric Clapton -- Slowhand
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They forgot the 60's
Just off the top of my head
Surrealistic Pillow
Steppenwolf
Lynryd Skynrd
are totally missing. And where did they get the idea that Shania Twain belongs on a rock list?
Liz
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Do they even like music?
Do the people who put the list together even like music? This is just off the top of my head. I didn't even get into the missing Beefheart, The Replacements, The Ramones, etc.
Muddy Waters- Hard Again
Love- Forever Changes
The Grateful Dead- Live/Dead
Patti Smith- Horses
Herbie Hancock- Headhunters
Leonard Cohen- Songs of Leonard Cohen
Allman Brothers Band- Live at the Fillmore East
A Tribe Called Quest-Midnight Marauders
The Band- The Band
Jimmy Cliff- The Harder They Come
Side note: Dylan was well represented, but no Blonde on Blonde?