The greatest album of all time discussion board

[Rit]

nope, it's the one with the penis banana on the cover.

[Kensterberg]

FYI ... here was my personal listing of the 25 best albums for that poll ... notice which VU album rated highest here ... if I were doing it again now, I might well change some of this ... but damn, it would be hard to pull any of these titles out.

London Calling -- the Clash (1979)
Blonde on Blonde -- Bob Dylan (1966)
Abbey Road -- The Beatles (1969)
Who's Next -- The Who (1971?)
"Heroes" -- David Bowie (1977)
This Year's Model -- Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1978
The Velvet Underground -- The Velvet Underground (1969)
Achtung Baby -- U2 (1991)
Diesel and Dust -- Midnight Oil (1987)
Empty Glass -- Pete Townshend (1980)
The Band -- The Band (1969)
The River -- Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (1980)
Under the Big Black Sun -- X (1982)
The Clash -- The Clash (1977)
The Velvet Underground and Nico -- The Velvet Underground (and Nico) (1966 -- released in '67)
Dig Me Out -- Sleater-Kinney (1997?)
Revolver -- the Beatles (1966)
Tim -- The Replacements (1986)
Automatic for the People -- R.E.M. (1992)
Willie and the Poor Boys -- CCR (1969)
All Mod Cons -- the Jam (1978)
The Harder They Come -- original soundtrack (I think it came out c. '73, but I'm not positive)
The Beatles -- The Beatles (1968)
Power, Corruption, and Lies -- New Order (1983)
Damn the Torpedoes -- Tom Petty (1979, I think)

[Thorngrub]

You know, now that you've mentioned it Rit, I have no problem w/shin's scientific proof that The White Album is the best album ever.

/end of board

[Kensterberg]

phil said:

OK ! So it is settled now
and everyone agrees ...

This is the "Most Perfect" album ...


The Band - The Band

;D

This is one of the ones that belongs on the short list of true contenders. An amazing record.

Looking over my earlier list -- from just a few months back -- I'm really not at all happy with it. It's funny, while I've got pretty strong ideas about who the top artists of all time are (in my own personal canon), once you get past the "usual suspects" in the top ten or fifteen, my rankings for best albums vary a lot over time. Other than London Calling, of course, which has owned that top spot since the day I tore the shrinkwrap off, plopped the needle down on side one, track one, and was totally blown away ...

[NdY]

ritalinpants said:

consensually, VU&N won. That says more than i could ever say. Since i had no part in it. Shin might accuse me of choosing the arena on which i fight

... but concensus is concensus (although i hate that word.. "concensus"... yeeesh!)

Too bad on the old RS boards, in a similar vote, OK Computer won (or was it London Calling?).

[Rit]

what was the voter percentage on that? the voter turnout? the age demographic of the people involved?

i hate concensus decisions. they're imaginary attempts at seeing the truth of a situation. The refuge of pragmatism.

But all that aside, OK Computer is a good album, yet it can't be the best album ever. It's not that good. What about the electro-voice song? Fitter Happier... that's not a track deserving of being on the greatest album ever. the Album's a work of a good and gifted band, making music in the 90s. Nohting more, nothing less.

[NdY]

You so want to believe that you're right about VU, don't you?

(my point had nothing to do with Radiohead)

[Kensterberg]

For anyone interested, here was the Rolling Stone Project list of the 100 best albums of all time. Courtesy of Melon, once again. The original of this post can be found here:

rsjunior.proboards18.com/index.cgi?board=influential&action=display&thread=1129742910&page=16

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

[Rit]

ndy said:

You so want to believe that you're right about VU, don't you?

(my point had nothing to do with Radiohead)

i feel it in my bones. i just need to convince you guys of it.


fair enough, i thought your post was a late entry vote for OK Computer. but it isn't.

Concenseus decisions are arbirary and dependant on who's present at what time, right? Well we agree on that then.

[NdY]

ritalinpants said:

fair enough, i thought your post was a late entry vote for OK Computer. but it isn't.

You already know what I think the best album of all-time is anyway, and it ain't OKC. I need at least another 5 years before I can think objectively about that album.

[Thorngrub]

I can't take any "Top 100 Albums List" seriously if freakin ACID BATH ain't on there. *next!*

[Thorngrub]

Seriously Melon . . . that is a thorough & well researched list you got goin' there. Great work

[Rit]

ndy said:

ritalinpants said:

fair enough, i thought your post was a late entry vote for OK Computer. but it isn't.

You already know what I think the best album of all-time is anyway, and it ain't OKC. I need at least another 5 years before I can think objectively about that album.

oh yeah, Remain In Light. one of the greatest things ever created. Definitely.

[Galactus]

kenholzman said:

thorny said:

As this process is, by definition, a consensus affair, it is necessary to pile up the candidates first, into one giant unseemly pile, generated by the sum POVs of all who participate.

This is why the more who participate, the better the end-results will be. Older fans of music who remember the classic days are absolutely essential to this poll. So are connoiseurs of such genres the youth of today may not give much time to, like jazz or classical to name but two.

Therefore the input of people such as Phil and RocDoc becomes indispensable towards achieving a more balanced elimination process.

For that is ALL that is going on here: ELIMINATING those albums which, however amazing they might be to you or me, must simply bow down before other more resounding choices, be they made for seniority, sales, chart-time, engineering, global impact, etc.

Didn't we just do this? I'm sure that Melon just added up the results from our poll on this subject just, oh, LAST FUCKING WEEK?!

And the concensus number one LP was The Velvet Underground and Nico. London Calling came in second. And that was with Phil and RocDoc both voting ... as well as pretty much everyone else involved in this discussion.

I thought we were just talking shit with Mantis, and yanking Shin's chain now. Didn't all this come from Mantis (or Shin? I don't remember) saying some shit about how scientifically from a purely objective perspective ______________ was the greatest album in rock and roll?

Well, it come from both really. It's easy to cast your vote for something when you don't actually have to back it up. I'm not saying you guys aren't smart or that you couldn't back it up...I didn't and still don't beleive that VU are the best band nor that they have the best album. I thought maybe someone could convince me. What that poll told me was that there are alot VU fans here and not much else...it's the not much else that interests me. I don't care so much what your favorite album is I'm interested in the reason it's your favorite album. Most of you have gotten that I think and most of you have given me exactly what I was looking for. Especially Holzman...who seemed to get alot of albums could be argued for if you know enough about it. It's a combination of passion and knowledge. I don't know how many times I can say it...There is no right answer. If you put something up I'm going kick it to see if it kicks back...that's why Thorn's no words apporach wouldn't work here. Your favorite album could be the last Britney Spears album for all I care as long as you're willing to consider "why".

[Rit]

in that case, you already know why i like VU&N so much. why we've butted heads on this since i encountered you, about... what.. 2 years ago?

i do respect your willingness to tolerate my crackpot theories though.