The 25 Greatest Rock and Roll Albums

[Kensterberg]

And now it's time for another exercise in list making. Another poster sent me this suggestion, and I'm intrigued enough to go ahead and give it a shot. Also, this is a list which (IMO) everyone who posts here is qualified to participate in. As long as you've heard (and presumably liked) enough recordings to fill out the list, your input is welcome.

Back when Rolling Stone actually hosted these boards, we did a (very lengthy) poll on the best albums in rock. I think the poll there was actually the top one hundred albums, and I'm not sure that I'm up to scoring that particular project. Considering that my polls for the top American and British bands produced around one hundred responses, I don't think we need to do a full hundred a piece to come up with a decent listing.

So, without further adieu (what the hell is adieu, and why don't we need more of it?), what are the Top 25 Greatest Albums in Rock and Roll? After doing two of these things, I've decided that I like the self-definition process, so I'm going to let you each decide what an "album" is. If you want to count live albums, or greatest hits sets, that's fine: if you think that an "album" is a studio recording only, that's fine as well. You also get to decide what fits into your own personal definition of "rock and roll." If enough people think Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is a great rock and roll album, then it'll make the list.

In the interest of making scoring as easy as possible, please put your list in order from number one at the top, down to number twenty-five at the bottom. My sanity (such as it is) thanks you.

And the deadline for this one is ... next Friday, October 28, 2005. Probably at 5:00 p.m. mountain time, though that's fairly flexible. So it's not due in two days, it's due NEXT week. Everybody got it?

[luke]

As many albums per artist, eh?

[Kensterberg]

You're free to vote for as many albums by any artist as you like. I'm fully prepared for Clubber to list the entire Doors catalog, including live LPs and reissues, plus anthologies and box sets.

But I expect that most folks will keep it to a reasonable number of releases per artist. I've found that self-selection does a pretty good job at making sense of these sorts of issues. At least, that's my position right now, when some lists start coming in I may change my mind to something like no more than three LPs per artist.

But for now, the rule is there basically are no rules. We'll see how this critical anarchy works ...

'cause I wanna be-ee-eeeee-eeeee ...

[ClubberLang]

kenholzman said:

You're free to vote for as many albums by any artist as you like. I'm fully prepared for Clubber to list the entire Doors catalog, including live LPs and reissues, plus anthologies and box sets.

Oh please, i'll do it right now and i bet i only have one Doors album on my top 25

[Kensterberg]

It's a joke Clubber! I could've used Bowiglou for that, or said that Riley and Drum were gonna include a dozen Rush titles a piece, or that I'm gonna have the whole Clash catalog, or ...

You were just the first person I thought of to use in the joke. That's it.

Love to see your list, though.

[ClubberLang]

1 - Dirt - Alice in Chains
2 - AEnima - Tool
3 - Animals - Pink floyd
4 - In Utero - Nirvana
5 - Green - Days of the New
6 - No Code - Pearl Jam
7 - 40 Oz's to Freedom - Sublime
8 - Lateralus - Tool
9 - Strange Days - The Doors
10 - Self Titled - Rage Aghainst the Machine
11 - Appetite for Destruction - Guns n Roses
12 - Purple - Stone Temple Pilots
13 - Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
14 - Yield - Pearl Jam
15 - Led Zeppelin III - Led Zeppelin
16 - Badmotorfinger - Soundgarden
17 - Who's Next - The Who
18 - Toxicity - System of a Down
19 - ...And Justice For All - Metallica
20 - Frizzle Fry - Primus
21 - Bleach - Nirvana
22 - Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles
23 - The Doors - The Doors
24 - Pretty Hate Machine - Nine Inch nails
25 - Blind Melon - Blind Melon

[ClubberLang]

kenholzman said:

It's a joke Clubber! I could've used Bowiglou for that, or said that Riley and Drum were gonna include a dozen Rush titles a piece, or that I'm gonna have the whole Clash catalog, or ...

You were just the first person I thought of to use in the joke. That's it.

Love to see your list, though.

i know it was a joke, although i sensed a bit of truth in it. I did end up with 2 Doors albums though. I expect maybe 2-3 of the albums i chose to make the final list.

[ClubberLang]

I'm guessing that you didn't want any rap albums on the lists right? I would have had Str8 Outta Compton and Paul's Boutique in my top 25 if rap was included.

[melon1]

25 - Blind Melon - Blind Melon

Yes! YES!!!!!! You rule, Clubber. That will at least make two of us who have that album on our list. Thanx.

[melon1]

Ken, I suggest that greatest hits, best of albums shouldn't be included on this list. Live albums should be, however, if you ask me.

[Kensterberg]

I'm not excluding a damn thing. If you want to vote for somebody's greatest hits live, go right ahead. If you wanna vote for twenty five rap albums, go right ahead. I think (!) we've got a big enough sample size to account for the stuff that is "further out" of the mainstream. At least, that's my thoughts as of today. If I get three or four all rap lists, maybe I'll have to set out some boundaries. Maybe.

[ClubberLang]

i might change my list if you're including rap. So my list isn't set in stone for now

[Kensterberg]

Here's my thoughts on the rap/rock thing ...

I don't think that rap is, in the strictest musical sense, a part of rock and roll. However, in the strictest musical sense, "Yesterday" and "As Tears Go By" aren't 'rock and roll' either. So I believe that there is such a thing as rock by association, especially when the attitude of the performers fits into a rock and roll model.

And by that standard, a lot of rap qualifies as rock and roll. Public Enemy are literally black punk rock, and N.W.A. certainly qualify as the black L.A. answer to Guns 'n' Roses or Metallica. Eminem is a figure as polarizing as the young Elvis, and so forth.

Also, frankly, a lot of rockers like rap, and vice versa. The tradition of cross-polination between the two styles goes back pretty much to the birth of rap as the seventies collapsed into the eighties. So if someone like Eric Clapton is still a "rock and roller" when he's playing blues standards (and I would argue that he is, if not always 'good' at least always rock), certainly we shouldn't throw out Chuck D. simply b/c he does his work w/rhymes or a turntable.

Now, for myself, I don't like any rap album enough to merit inclusion in my own top twenty-five albums. But I fully expect that there are others who will. And I'm curious to see where the concensus on this winds up being. I know there are some people who will simply say rap = non-rock, whether they like rap or not. And there will be some people who will take my position, which is simply that rap may be/is a part of rock, but it doesn't speak to me, and there will be some people who include anywhere from a single rap album to a bunch of 'em in their list. Part of the reason I'm doing these lists is to see where the concensus (or total lack thereof) is on these topics.

Does all that make any sense, or provide any guidance to anyone?

[ClubberLang]

kenholzman said:

Here's my thoughts on the rap/rock thing ...

I don't think that rap is, in the strictest musical sense, a part of rock and roll. However, in the strictest musical sense, "Yesterday" and "As Tears Go By" aren't 'rock and roll' either. So I believe that there is such a thing as rock by association, especially when the attitude of the performers fits into a rock and roll model.

And by that standard, a lot of rap qualifies as rock and roll. Public Enemy are literally black punk rock, and N.W.A. certainly qualify as the black L.A. answer to Guns 'n' Roses or Metallica. Eminem is a figure as polarizing as the young Elvis, and so forth.

Also, frankly, a lot of rockers like rap, and vice versa. The tradition of cross-polination between the two styles goes back pretty much to the birth of rap as the seventies collapsed into the eighties. So if someone like Eric Clapton is still a "rock and roller" when he's playing blues standards (and I would argue that he is, if not always 'good' at least always rock), certainly we shouldn't throw out Chuck D. simply b/c he does his work w/rhymes or a turntable.

Now, for myself, I don't like any rap album enough to merit inclusion in my own top twenty-five albums. But I fully expect that there are others who will. And I'm curious to see where the concensus on this winds up being. I know there are some people who will simply say rap = non-rock, whether they like rap or not. And there will be some people who will take my position, which is simply that rap may be/is a part of rock, but it doesn't speak to me, and there will be some people who include anywhere from a single rap album to a bunch of 'em in their list. Part of the reason I'm doing these lists is to see where the concensus (or total lack thereof) is on these topics.

Does all that make any sense, or provide any guidance to anyone?

yup

[Dr. Drum]

1. Rush – Moving Pictures
2. Rush – Permanent Waves
3. Rush – Hemispheres
4. Rush – Signals
5. Rush – 2112
6. Rush – Vapor Trails
7. Rush – A Farewell to Kings
8. Rush – Fly By Night
9. Rush – Power Windows
10. Rush – Grace Under Pressure
11. Rush – Presto
12. Rush – Counterparts
13. Rush – Roll the Bones
14. Rush – Feedback
15. Rush – Test for Echo
16. Rush – Hold Your Fire
17. Rush – Exit... Stage Left
18. Rush – s/t
19. Rush – Caress of Steel
20. Rush – All the World's a Stage
21. Rush – A Show of Hands
22. Rush – Different Stages
23. Rush – Live in Rio
24. Geddy Lee – My Favourite Headache
25. Victor – s/t