Letters to the Editor
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Top ten for the moment
1. London Calling the clash
2. Temple of the Dog Temple of the Dog
3. Kind of Blue Miles Davis
4. Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd
5. Greetings from Asbury Park Bruce Springsteen
6. No Code Pearl Jam
7. Plastic Surgery and other disasters/In god we Trust Dead Kennedys
8. Bad Motorfinger Soundgarden
9. What's goin on Marvin Gaye
10. It's only Rock and Roll Rolling Stones
of course if you asked tomorrow you would get a different list
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Quality or Popularity?
In the populist spirit of this odd list, I would make a case for the following additions:
"Silk Degrees" Boz Scaggs
"I Never Loved A Man" Aretha Franklin ("Sparkle"? Seriously?)
"Arrival" ABBA
"Avalon" Roxy Music
"Wish It Would Rain" The Temptations
"Bad Girls" Donna Summer
"Let's Stay Together" Al Green
"I Can't Stand the Rain" Ann Peebles
"Diana" (1970) Diana Ross
"C'est Chic" Chic (hugely influential)
Are they just trying to unload a whole lot of cut-outs?
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Where to begin
1. Baduizm (1997), Erykah Badu
2. Combat Rock (1982), The Clash
3. Dixie Chicken (1972), Little Feat
4. Keep On Movin' (1989), Soul II Soul
5. Machine Head (1972), Deep Purple
6. New York (1989), Lou Reed
7. New York Dolls (1973), New York Dolls
8. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (1966), Simon & Garfunkel
9. Sister (1987), Sonic Youth
10. Somewhere Between Heaven & Hell (1992), Social Distortion
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My 10
Loveless by My Bloody Valentine
Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie
The Pretenders by The Pretenders
Who's Next by The Who
Beggar's Banquet by The Rolling Stones
Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix
Led Zeppelin 1 by Led Zeppelin
Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
Doolittle by The Pixies
Gone Glimmering by Chavez
Revolver by The Beatles
in no particular order.
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Could of been much worst
could of been much better but I won't even list the ones that don't deserve being there.
The biggest ommision as far as I am concerned unless I missed it Black Sabbath ST.
Off the top of my head the following merits inclusion;
Genesis - Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
Yes - Fragile
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
Rainbow ST
Magnum - On a Storytellers Night (probabably not familiar to most Americans.)
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Insane
The Titanic Soundtrack 50+ spots ahead of Blood on the Tracks?!? At least try to make the list seem serious.
Also conspicuously missing are The Kinks, The Band, and The Pretenders. And many of the artists who do make the list have their greatest albums left off, like Bowie, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, etc.
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Yes, I know this is more than 10 . . .
. . . but there were so many missing from that list . . .
The Clash - "The Clash"
The Ramones - "The Ramones"
Uncle Tupelo - "No Depression"
The Who - "Quadrophenia"
Jimi Hendrix - "Electric Ladyland"
Elvis Costello - "Armed Forces"
Pink Floyd - "Animals"
Charles Mingus - "Mingus Ah Um"
Morphine - "Cure For Pain"
Hüsker Dü - "New Day Rising"
R.E.M. - "Life's Rich Pageant"
Tom Waits - "Small Change"
Liz Phair - "whitechocolatespaceegg"
The Pogues - "Rum, Sodomy & The Lash"
The Pixies - "Doolittle"
Patty Griffin - "Living With Ghosts"
The Allman Brothers Band - "Idlewild South"
The Kinks - "Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround"
Steve Earle and The Del McCoury Band - "The Mountain"
Johnny Cash - "American Recordings"
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Lists Always Suck, But Here's My Two Cents
They've obviously tried to pander to every taste with this one. Green Day's "Dookie" (blech) enters at 50, but the first and only David Bowie entry, "Ziggy Stardust", doesn't come in until 171 - way past "Phantom of the Opera", "Footloose", and Lionel Richie's "Can't Slow Down". Egads!
In no particular order, I would nominate these bands/artists that didn't make the cut:
Kate Bush, The Dreaming
Buzzcocks, Another Music In a Different Kitchen
Patsy Cline, anything
Elvis Costello, Armed Forces
Cream, Disreali Gears
The Jefferson Airplane,
Deep Purple, Machine Head
Devo, Duty Now For the Future
Brian Eno, Here Come the Warm Jets, Ambient 4
The Jam, Sound Affects
Peter Gabriel, 3
Heart, Little Queen
Massive Attack, Mezzanine
Jane's Addiction,
Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures
Killing Joke, Night Time (where Nirvana got all their ideas from)
King Crimson, Discipline
My Bloody Valentine, Loveless
Iggy Pop, Zombie Birdhouse
Public Image, Ltd., Second Edition
Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure
Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Scream
Patti Smith, Horses
The Smiths, The Smiths
Sonic Youth, Dirty
Stereolab, Dots and Loops
The Stranglers, Rattus Norvegicus
Television, Marquee Moon
The Velvet Underground, 3
XTC, English Settlement
X, Wild Gift
This doesn't reflect the range of my tastes, or all of my favorites, just albums/artist who really should have been mentioned. I mean, does "Footloose" really deserve a spot but The Smiths don't?
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Steely Dan at 191?
Unless I missed it, Steely Dan did not come in until AJA at 191. Cannot comment on absurdity of that placement. Donald Fagen "Nightfly" is better than half of these records.....
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absurd piece of shit
this absurd list should permanently put to rest any notions about the actual validity of the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. You could put a gun to my head and I still wouldn't buy a Celine Dion album - let alone Kenny G.
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Bad list! Baaaaad list!
I could list hundreds. However, if Little Feat's "Waiting For Columbus," possibly the greatest live album of all time, did not make the list, it is just screwed up beyond repair.
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Even as a popularity contest it sucks
Madonna merits only one album and #164 at that.
8 Soundtracks. I could see Saturday Night Fever (it is one of the highest grossing albums ever and did single-handedly usher in a new genre of music, as previously mentioned), Grease, Phantom, and maybe even O Brother Where Art Thou, again because of the significance it has to an entire genre of music... but Forest Gump??? Maybe that's why the rest of the '60s were so woefully under-represented. "Eh, all the good songs from the '60s are on that soundtrack anyway". Top Gun? TITANIC???
And having Shania Twain at Number 21 (!!) is just completely ridiculous. They claim that's the "most essential" country album of all time. Gag.
Including Michael Jackson's Dangerous, but not Bad?
And there is entirely too much rap. Sorry, but NAS did not ever deliver an album worthy of inclusion in the top 1000 let alone top 200. 3 Jay Z albums, but not Snoop's Doggystyle?
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A few more
Lots of records that I would have suggested have already come up, but here's a few more:
NRBQ - At Yankee Stadium
Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights
XTC - Skylarking
Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Paul Kelly - Under the Sun
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes - Hearts of Stone
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Just the tip of the iceberg, but...
In no particular order:
1984 - Van Halen
Moving Pictures - Rush
Jam Room - Clutch
Doolittle - Pixies
Frizzle Fry - Primus
Crazyhorse Mongoose - Galactic
Nothings Shocking - Janes Addiction
Badmotorfinger - Soundgarden
Ghost of a Dog - Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
Weezer - Weezer
Motorcade of Generosity - Cake
Whatever and Ever, Amen - Ben Folds Five
Welcome to My Dream - MC900Ft Jesus
Space Wrangler - Widespread Panic
Shake Your Money Maker - The Black Crowes
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Not even trying.
I'm sorry, but anyone who lists "definitive" rock albums, the top 100, 200, 1,000, or 10,000, who *includes* Kenny G and **omits** either "Tommy" or "Quadrophenia" is not even trying.
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A Couple More
It's A Beautiful Day, First Album
and
The Electric Flag, First Album
Much better, and much more important than much of the stuff on this list of 200. Musicians' choices.