omni-not: I called them uneven because, though you may be able to bring up examples of bands with both ok songs and terrible songs, it is a rare band who can display the songwriting chops required to produce ‘A Day In The Life’ or ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and then follow it up with ‘Octopus’ Garden,’ ‘Ob-la-di Ob-lah-da’ or ‘When I’m 64.’
gex, it seems like we get into it every time the topic of The Beatles comes up! Well, I’ll just keep it short: I think it’s great that you have come to respect the Beatles, but I disagree with your assertion that they were uneven or that they “wrote a lot of crap”. “Octopus’ Garden” and “Ob-la-di Ob-lah-dah” are both great songs in their own right. Hell, I’ve got the latter in my head now from just writing the title! I believe their consitency was one of their great assets. There are only a handful of Beatles songs I don’t like: “Run For Your Life”, “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You”, “Mr. Moonlight”, “Another Girl”, “She’s Leaving Home”, “Birthday”–and I don’t really listen to Let It Be, although “Get Back” was one of the first songs I ever played with a band. I think you just get turned off when Paul gets a little too poppy. But hey, that’s cool. Everybody’s entitled to their (reasonably well thought-out) opinion. They are massively overexposed , so I don’t blame you for gagging when they’re shoved down your throat all the time. But they’re overexposed for good reason, IMNSHO. And yes, three spots out of the top five is probably excessive.
Me, I’ll take umbrage at Pet Sounds #2 slot. Ick. Take that out and shove it down in the 200s somewhere. Replace it with the Stooges Fun House. And it’s an abomination that Hotel California even appears on this list, and that Off the Wall appears higher than either Superfly or Mothership Connection.
BTW, where is Double Nickels on the Dime? I can’t find it on the list.
Seems you have a brother in arms, vitro.
And I agree with you that Oh-Bla-Di and (to a lesser extent) Octopus are far from being crap, even though they are far from masterpieces as well. But you hit it on the head when you said that consistency was the Beatles’ greatest asset. There obviously were missteps from time to time, but you have to look at the whole picture, the oeuvre if you will.
As an aside, McCartney mentioned that Pepper was to be the Beatles’ answer to Pet Sounds. The Beatles wanted to outdo The Beach Boys. Coincidental that they wind up in #1 and #2 positions?
What’s the problem with Bloodsexsugarmagik?
It doesn’t mix.
Yeah, I was trying to keep balanced, but I guess we’ll just have to disagree on the value of some things like ‘Octopus’ Garden.’ It sounds like a Wiggles song to me.
And true, Paul is my least favourite Beatle (I think I’ll start a conspiracy theory that John actually wrote Eleanor Rigby). It’s not so much that he gets poppy, just the way he gets poppy. It is telling that he went on to form Wings (can we agree that was perhaps not his finest moment?).
Now this is more in line with my thinking
So true. Overlooking “Spiderland” is near criminal.
I might get flamed for this, and probably justifiably so, but I think Bloodsexsugarmagik is worthless jock metal; it’s a dumb macho party album, that has aged worse than Wolfenstein 3D. ‘Under The Bridge’ reminds me of every shitty party I have ever been to, and ‘Suck My Kiss’ is the most annoying hit single of the 90’s, and that’s saying a lot from a decade that spawned such gems as Snow’s ‘Informer’ and Ace of Base’s ‘I Saw The Sign.’ Yeah, they are great musicians, no doubt about that, but their music is bland at best, and paved the way for such class acts as Bloodhound Gang and Limp Bizkit.
A couple of other albums that should’ve been on a top 500 list, that has not been mentioned:
“Goat” by Jesus Lizard
“You’re Living All Over Me” by Dinosaur Jr.
“I See A Darkness” by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
“Perfect From Now On” by Built To Spill
“In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel
“Red Medicine” by Fugazi
Something tells me that I may agree with you here.
Indeed. Of course, no one’s going to agree fully with lists like these, but a Top 500 ought to include at least Moving Pictures and Relayer, for God’s sake.
Then again, it’s an impossible task to compile such a list. But no Rush? 500 albums, and no Rush?
Inconceivable.
Why was Pink Moon the lowest-rated of Nick Drake’s albums when it is far superior to the other two? Bryter Layter, the worst one, ranked highest? I don’t get it!
I would have put Abbey Road in the top ten and dropped the White Album lower personally.
I realize people have strong feelings about 'Pepper and I personally am delighted to see it still at #1. Whether or not it was the greatest Beatles album it was arguably the most influential album ever in terms of inspiring other musicians.
MHO, of course.
I defintely think Prince needs to be higher than 72. I would even consider Purple Rain to be Top 20.
A few thoughts:
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What is Metallica’s Black Album doing way down at 252 while G’n’R’s Appetite for Destruction is at #61? At least they got Master of Puppets on the list. Ahead of tBA too.
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Only one Skynyrd album, and it’s not Second Helping or Street Survivors? Odd.
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500 albums and Stevie Ray Vaughan doesn’t make an appearance? Guess I should be thankful Steve Earle snuck Guitar Town on there.
Some definite misses on this list. Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes comes to mind, especially now when I’ve been listening to Tales of a Librarian.