The 25 Greatest Rock and Roll Albums

[melon1]

The Biggest surprise to me is that The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust ATSFM didn't even come close to making the list. It's great to see that Achtung Baby finished so high on the list. Wow! The only album on the list that I'm not familiar with at all is Arcade Fire's Funeral at #38. I'm interested to hear what that's like. And like I said before, I know Mary's giddy about what we picked to be the #50 greatest album ever.

I'll post the Top 100 from the old RS.com boards from the original Rolling Stone Project to compare and contrast.

[Kensterberg]

Wow, that's actually a very impressive list, IMO. Thanks for scoring Melon. I do have one question, though ... do you have the totals without the extra ten points for multiple listings? I'd just be curious to see what effect that had ... b/c I could've sworn I'd totalled up VU and Nico and London Calling was still beating it. Though I didn't have the last few lists when I did that, so that may account for the difference. Just curious, ya know?

It would also be interesting to know how many lists each album appeared on ... but we beggars can't be choosers!

Thanks again for handling the scoring for me. Now I can start up another one of these polls!

[melon1]

The RS.com Top 100 Albums

*Special Note: This is NOT the new list that was just scored for these message boards. It's on the previous page.*

The Top 100


1. London Calling
2. OK Computer
3. The Beatles(white album)
4. The Dark Side of the Moon
5. In Utero
6. AEnima
7. Who's Next
8. Abbey Road
9. Exile On Main Street
10. Kid A
11. Houses of the Holy
12. Wish You Were Here
13. Revolver
14. Appetite For Destruction
15. Blonde on Blonde
16. Nevermind
17. Siamese Dream
18. Physical Graffiti
19. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
20. The Queen is Dead
21. Electric Ladyland
22. Born to Run
23. The Velvet Underground And Nico
24. Led Zeppelin II
25. Doolittle
26. Grace
27. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
28. The Chronic
29. Blood on the Tracks
30. Ten
31. Master of Puppets
32. The Wall
33. Pet Sounds
34. Mezzanine
35. The Joshua Tree
36. Disentigration
37. Aegitus Byrjun
38. Odelay
39. Homogenic
40. Rain Dogs
41. Paranoid
42. Are You Experienced?
43. Dirt
44. Let it Bleed
45. Achtung Baby
46. Kind of Blue
47. Automatic For the People
48. (tie) Back in Black & Loveless
50. Vs.
51. Morrison Hotel
52. Superunknown
53. Unknown Pleasures
54. (tie) Highway 61 Revisited & Darkness On the Edge of Town
56. Led Zeppelin
57. Urban Hymns
58. (3-way tie) Endtroducing, The Soft Bulletin & Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
61. The Bends
62. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
63. Rage Against the Machine
64. Dummy
65. Slanted and Enchanted
66. Ritual de lo Habitual
67. Sticky Fingers
68. 40 oz. to Freedom
69. (tie) Check Your Head & Surfer Rosa
71. Murmur
72. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
73. Paul's Botique
74. Closer
75. The Downward Spiral
76. (tie) At Folsom Prison & Pink Moon
78. Moving Pictures
79. BloodSugarSexMagik
80. Vitalogy
81. The Doors
82. A Love Supreme
83. Led Zeppelin III
84. Angel Dust
85. Rubber Soul
86. The Ramones
87. Marquee Moon
88. The Sun Sessions (Elvis)
89. Ill Communication
90. Nothing's Shocking
91. The Fragile
92. The Clash
93. Low
94. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
95. Yield
96. The Boatman's Call
97. Exile in Guyville
98. "Heroes"
99. Animals
100. What's Going On

[melon1]

Oh yeah, and what's really strange is that Sgt. Peppers wasn't on a single list. Not a single one, and it was picked the greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine. Strange, it is.

No problem, Ken. It was fun. If I remember right, VU and Nico was on one more list than London Calling, giving it only ten more extra points. But I do believe it was around 30 points higher than LC. All in all, I'm pretty sure the list would have turned out to be about the same without the 10 pts per listing thing. But if you just HAVE to know, I'm sorry. Like an idiot I threw it all away.

[rockysigman]

kenholzman said:

Wow, that's actually a very impressive list, IMO. Thanks for scoring Melon. I do have one question, though ... do you have the totals without the extra ten points for multiple listings? I'd just be curious to see what effect that had ... b/c I could've sworn I'd totalled up VU and Nico and London Calling was still beating it.

I'd like to think that my late entry made the difference.

[Kensterberg]

melon1 said:

The Castaways 25 Greatest Rock and Roll Albums


1. The Velvet Underground and Nico
2. London Calling - The Clash
3. OK Computer - Radiohead
4. Exile On Main Street - The Rolling Stones
5. Achtung Baby - U2
6. Who's Next - The Who
7. Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
8. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
9. Abbey Road - The Beatles
10. The Beatles(the White Album)
11. AEnima - Tool
12. Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division
13. In Utero - Nirvana
14. Blood On the Tracks - Bob Dylan
15. 3-way tie: Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin; The Clash; Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth
18. Tie: The Velvet Underground; The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths
20. Tie: Revolver - The Beatles; Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix
22. 3-way tie: Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan; Live At Leeds - The Who; Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins
25. Appetite For Destruction - Guns and Roses



25 through 50:


26. Tie: The Joshua Tree - U2; Fun House - The Stooges
28. Tie: Low - David Bowie; Led Zeppelin III
30. Turn On the Bright Lights - Interpol
31. BloodSugarSexMagik - Red Hot Chili Peppers
32. Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
33. Marquee Moon - Television
34. Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan
35. The Doors
36. Doolittle - The Pixies
37. The Bends - Radiohead
38. Tie: Automatic For the People - R.E.M.; Funeral - Arcade Fire
40. Led Zeppelin IV(Zoso, Symbols)
41. Scary Monsters - David Bowie
42. Tie: Loveless - My Bloody Valentine; III - Peter Gabriel
44. Tie: Kid A - Radiohead; Meddle - Pink Floyd
46. Closer - Joy Division
47. Tie: Surfer Rosa - The Pixies; "Heroes" - David Bowie
49. Dirt - Alice In Chains
50. Let Love In - Nick Cave

And here's an interesting note (IMO) ... Bob Dylan and David Bowie appear to be the only solo artists with widespread support on these boards. Dylan has the top album by a solo artist, coming in waaaay down at #14 with Blood on the Tracks! But he also placed three other LPs on the list, giving Mr. Zimmerman the most albums of any artist. Similarly, Bowie could have placed much higher if we simply had a concensus on the best of his records. Instead, Scary Monsters, Low and "Heroes" (which is his best record, BTW) divided the votes up.

In contrast, the VU's output was split between the debut and the self-titled, and the Clash split between their debut and London Calling (as I recall, there was one vote for Sandinista! maybe two). If Dylan's votes had been as concentrated, he might have wound up in the top spot.

But it looks like we've got a serious bias towards bands over solo artists. And we seem to like our bands British when possible.

Looking forward to the upcoming votes for greatest individuals on each side of the Atlantic.

[melon1]

After observing this list I can't help but point out that none of these that even made the top 50 last time were on a single list this time around:

Houses of the Holy, Sgt. Peppers, Born To Run, The Chronic, Master of Puppets, Mezzanine, Odelay, Are You Experienced, Kind Of Blue and Back In Black.

How can that be? Weird.

[melon1]

Bob Dylan will run away with that one FO SURE. Say, Ken, didn't you mention something to me via PM about doing a Greatest Singles list. I can't wait for that one.

[Rit]

wow. i never thought i see the day when this was finished. it took a whole new year.

but the Velvet Underground and Nico album came first? all is as is should be.... and the musical gods are smiling.

[Kensterberg]

rockysigman said:

kenholzman said:

Wow, that's actually a very impressive list, IMO. Thanks for scoring Melon. I do have one question, though ... do you have the totals without the extra ten points for multiple listings? I'd just be curious to see what effect that had ... b/c I could've sworn I'd totalled up VU and Nico and London Calling was still beating it.

I'd like to think that my late entry made the difference.

Yeah Rocky, it probably did. But really, I'm much more upset over the fact that the Doors made this list at all. I thought I'd deleted any mention of that blight, I mean, "band" from consideration here.

Great job scoring, Melon. I'm also amazed that Sgt. Pepper didn't recieve a single vote, and at how many Beatles albums made the list! I guess that the Beatles still hold their crown as the concensus pick for most popular rock and roll band. Quite impressive for a band that broke up ... well, way too fucking long ago!

[Kensterberg]

I didn't vote for Born to Run? I must've included The River instead! If I'd done my own ballot after I'd gotten the reissue of Born to Run, it probably would have been included instead.

I think that the RS list was a bit more free form in terms of genre. A lot of rock fans also like Kind of Blue, but it's really a jazz album (by no stretch of the imagination is it rock), and I think that we all kind of respected the "rock and roll" limitation. As for the omission of Back in Black ... it's a sad day when at least two Aerosmith records garnered votes here, but none at all for AC/DC's magnum opus. An album so good they've been remaking it on a regular basis ever since.

I'm disappointed that there weren't any Ramones albums included, but I think that most folks now just know them through compilitions. But Rocket to Russia really is a great album (he says, uncertain now if he included it on his own list). It's also surprising that Hendrix was represented by Electric Ladyland.

But IMHO, this is better than any list I've seen published in a magazine in many a moon.

[melon1]

Word.

It's also surprising that Hendrix was represented by Electric Ladyland.


Why is that, Ken. I constructed a poll of greatest Hendrix album and it won by a landslide.

[Kensterberg]

OK, maybe I should say that it surprises me that Are You Experienced was so thoroughly overlooked in favor of Electric Ladyland. It's sort of like no one voting for Sgt. Pepper, ya know? If this were a poll of Rolling Stone writers, you can be sure that Are You Experienced would be represented (I think, I'm not that big a Hendrix scholar, ya know!).

[melon1]

Once again, Ken, didn't you mention something to me via PM about doing a Greatest Singles list?

[Kensterberg]

melon1 said:

Once again, Ken, didn't you mention something to me via PM about doing a Greatest Singles list?

Check your PMs Melon. ;D