Even if that were true, how is that relevant to whether it’s a good album or not?
Something tells me that that list was made up of “The Best 100 CDs in my Crate & Barrel Wine Rack/Bookshelf”. The inclusion of anthologies in the decades that the music wasn’t even made… made it all the more surreal. I know the excuse when it comes to these lists, the “this-is-written-to-incite-discussion-and-debate” is the cop-out when the list falls obviously short.
DJ Shadow? I know it gets high praise, I just never thought it was all that innovative or interesting.
lissener, my comment was a non sequitur, and has nothing to do with the quality of the album or whether it belongs on the list. Personally, I own it and think it is very good, but more Top 500 good than Top 100 good.
Agree also. If they had to leave out one album of the Beatles (besides Yellow Submarine, of course) MMT is the one to drop. Have any of its fans actually seen the movie? Yech. I Am the Walrus is from the movie part, not the singles part, but it had the highest percentage of junk of any Beatles album in years.
The site says influential albums. I think that is why Plastic Ono Band made it. I’m not sure it’s good, but it’s sure influential. Ditto Blue vs Court and Spark. Blue was more of a departure.
The one thing I’m surprised is missing is Rock Around the Clock. That was an influential album in the '50s! And couldn’t they find one from Chuck Berry? They got Little Richard, at least.
Well, the 1950s is defined as before the Era of the Album. Therefore, no records from the 45 rpm single era can be called albums without someone disputing it. It’s an arbitrary limit and one most music fans are completely unaware of.
The only compilation album that I would call influential is King of the Delta Blues Singers, which introduced a lot of people to Robert Johnson - and that introduction had a major impact on rock music. I think you could make a case for Legend, since if you only have one Bob Marley album you’re likely to have that one (but I don’t know if it’s influential); and Crossroads, which did a lot to revitalize Eric Clapton’s career. I don’t think the modern stage of Clapton’s career is really influential, though. Anybody else have thoughts about influential compilations?
Garth Brooks isn’t country. Garth Brooks is pop music.
The Allman brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd were better southern rockers than Brooks, and Dwight Yoakam and Willie Nelson make better country. Even Toby Kieth–when he’s apoliltical–is better than Garth Brooks.
My opinion of course, but I really don’t like garth Brooks.
For the record, Columbia introduced LPs in 1948.
Here’s the songs:
- Magical Mystery Tour
- Fool on the Hill
- Flying
- Blue Jay Way
- Your Mother Should Know
- I Am the Walrus
- Hello Goodbye
- Strawberry Fields Forever
- Penny Lane
- Baby You’re a Rich Man
- All You Need Is Love
I like “Flying” and “Blue Jay Way,” but even if we grant that those are “junk,” the rest of that album is very strong. 7 of 11 songs are hits–meaning, whether they were singles or not, they’re songs even my mom would recognize. There is some outstanding work on this album. I mean, c’mon, 99.9% of pop bands would kill to have released this album. It’s a friggin’ greatest hits album for any other band than the Beatles. For the Beatles, it was just the album between Sgt. Pepper and The White Album.
I just saw no Dark Side of the Moon and some allusions to horseshit reasons why it isn’t there. Isn’t it a fact that is was on the Billboard Top 200 for about 750 weeks, fell off, then went back on for another 750 weeks?
Fuck Time. They left it off to generate publicity, the fucking fuckers.
So? The Era of the Album is artistic, not technological. There is no denying that Chuck Berry had his first major surge of popularity on the strength of his singles, as opposed to what people today would call albums.
The Era of the Album was concomitant with the rise of freeform FM stations and taken to its extreme with progressive rock. The early days were payola-controlled AM stations entirely predicated around the hit single.
Hee hee.
Why not?
Because it doesn’t care about black people.
Funny one, lissener.
As far as I’m concerned, the only good reasons for lists like these is to stimulate a discussion that is infinitely more interesting than the list. So, it’s working.