Revisiting An Old Idea
Several years ago I started an ambitious project. To come up with the greatest albums of the Rock and Roll era. To give these masterpieces something akin to the Rock and Roll hall of Fame.
A R&R Album Hall of Fame.
Should be easy. Everybody probably can agree of maybe the first 20 or 30 albums.
I started this maybe 3 years ago and to be honest, I am lazy and I really don’t feel like scrolling back through all those columns to see what I actually wrote so to my dedicated readers, I apologize.
This list is obviously not complete and it is no particular order. Since I have already gone over some of these records, my comments may be shorter.
Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run still holds up well after all these years. It is musically, the rawest well produced album on this list. The time and care that went into producing this album is legendary but so is the writing and the music itself. Pure perfection.
Blood on The Tracks by Bob Dylan was, is and always be my favorite record ever. I also think it’s Dylan’s best album but what do I know.
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Cosmo’s Factory is one of those albums that you can actually say that even the weakest songs on this album are probably better than 95% of anything produced in the ‘70’s. This album had 11 excellent songs and it all ends with CCR’s version of that Motown classic “I Heard it Through the Grapevine”. Imagine this, it was CCR’s fifth album in 2 years. There isn’t any artist ever in recorded history on this planet or any other planet that could have done that effectively. Sure, it’s been done but everyone of those artists released reissued music of less than mediocre shit. Throw in two live albums or more mediocre crap and you have tried to equal what they did but you really couldn’t.
The next obvious choice is Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. I am not going into it. This one stands alone. Yet, The Wall comes very close. I am a Floyd fan so I am biased but I don’t think anyone could argue about either of these albums.
Ahh, you moan and cry because I never talk about the Beatles, well here you go. Sgt. Peppers? Probably the most important influential album ever recorded. Yet, I love Abbey Road and I love The White Album and I love Revolver. Put them all on the list. Hey, you could theoretically put every album they ever produced on this list as well.
The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll band should have a column by themselves. The Rolling Stones catalog is chock full of Hall of Fame worthy albums. I can’t even pick out a favorite but I will say that Some Girls may have the most complete group of songs and Exile on Main Street was one of the most sophisticated albums of the Rock era. Yet, I will listen to Sticky Fingers, front to back, many times a month. Get their discography and throw a dart. You have hit a great album. One of the rare groups that can place five albums on this list with no sweat and still have one of the greatest live albums ever in Get Yer Ya Yas Out.
The next choice won’t be agreed upon by everyone but Deep Purple’s Machinehead is a rock and roll record by a rock and roll band. Deep Purple never got the critical acclaim I think they deserved but after their live album, people started to take notice. I am not sure how many times I have heard “My Woman from Tokyo” but it has to be in the millions. Anyway, dig this record out and play it beginning to end. You will once again be taken by how good these guys were at their peak.
Another band that people love or hate are The Doors. Their debut album is one my favorite debuts of all time. They had a short shelf life but they really did produce a lot of great Rock.
I probably have ten prog Rock albums that I play but the one that always reaches past the rest is King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King. It is a concept album and if I ever really took the time to read the lyrics I would know it is about England and America and the disgust that some people have for the way things were back in the 70’s.
Of the five great Rock Bands in History, Led Zeppelin can put probably five albums in this Hall of Fame. Led Zep 4 would lead the pack. Not a bad song on either side. 1,2,3 the same. Physical Graffiti more than likely. They did produce a lot of other great music but I don’t think any of the other albums could match up with these five records.
The Who, I will say, meets legendary status (That being a group has to have at least 3 classic albums) easily. Who’s Next still stand the test of time. Quadrophenia? Don’t get me started, you know how I feel about it. Tommy, not my favorite after Ann Margeret got involved in the movie. However, if you look back at it, it was a record like no other and for that and the probably 12 songs I can still listen to, I think it’s classic.
Some people will wonder why no Rush, why no Grateful Dead, why no Eagles? Well simple, they all produced great songs on different records but never great songs on one album. Sue me, that’s just an opinion.
I will throw one in that you probably won’t agree with, Van halen’s debut album, Van Halen. I re-listened to this album and it hit me, this is a tremendous first effort and their future albums might have explored different genre’s, this album was straight party rock and roll and eveyrthing about is was great. No questioning EVH’s guitar playing and the Roth vocals are exactly what this record needed. One of the best debuts ever.