Greatest Album in Rock History...

Based on excellence, sustainabilty, context, and how does is stand up? I mean is it worth listening to the whole thing? :15:

Some that come to mind:

At Folsom Prison ~ Johnny Cash

Black in Black ~ AC/DC

London Calling ~ The Clash

Apetite for Destruction ~ Guns n Roses

Honorable mentions to:

Rumors ~ Fleetwood Mac

Pearl Jam ~ Ten

The Pretenders, Areosmith, Van Halen and
of course Pink Floyd & Hendrix ~ before my time.

Dylan might be big for some people... I just don't get him, I can barely understand a word the man says. :confused:

Without doubt, without debate: Dark Side of the Moon.

An album that epitomizes rock 'n roll, its roots and influences, and where it would go from there is the Rolling Stones' "Beggar's Banquet". It is rock 'n roll from start to finish.

Hmmm, over at Obner, they're talking about this being the best live album evar.

Words cannot describe -- cannot contain -- the performance captured on Live at the Star Club, Hamburg, an album that contains the very essence of rock & roll....Who knows why this was a night where everything exploded for Jerry Lee Lewis? It sounds like all of his rage at not being the accepted king of rock & roll surfaced that night, but that probably wasn't a conscious decision on his part -- maybe the stars were aligned right, or perhaps he just was in a particularly nasty mood. Or maybe this is the way he sounded on an average night in 1964.

In any case, Live at the Star Club is extraordinary -- the purest, hardest rock & roll ever committed to record.


http://dkpresents.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/44897.jpg

Judge for yerself.

fp

Note: The word 'this' is a link, in case you can't see it.

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Originally Posted by Auricauricle

Without doubt, without debate: Dark Side of the Moon.

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Not in my top 2000.

Led Zeppelin II

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Originally Posted by 02audionoob

Led Zeppelin II

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There's the first one that I can agree with.

I don't know if anybody caught Sound and Vision's Top 50, but it had more holes in it than a box of Cheerios.

I'll give you maybe 2 Stones albums, but that starts with "Let it Bleed"

And "Dark Side of the Moon"? that's not even Pink Floyd's best album.

And C'mon SB, when did Johnny Cash become Rock.

I don't think I'm the only one that considers that album rock. He's awesome on that, start to finish.

As these posts are showing, there is no such thing as "one" (or even 100) greatest album when your talking about such a subjective topic.

Myself, even the top 100 is constantly changing as I and my tastes get more IMHO, "mature".

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Originally Posted by Luvin Da Blues

As these posts are showing, there is no such thing as "one" (or even 100) greatest album when your talking about such a subjective topic.

Myself, even the top 100 is constantly changing as I and my tastes get more IMHO, "mature".

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I could make a list of 100 records that are my favorites, but picking one that is 'the best' is impossible for me. That's like telling you my favorite food.

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Originally Posted by Sugar Beats

I don't think I'm the only one that considers that album rock. He's awesome on that, start to finish.

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No way rock. Sorry.

any album from Steely Dan

well sugar, I think you've exposed one of the greatest fears around here: to step up and pick something. "Oh no! That's too hard for me, but your pick sux."

I'm callin' you regs out. Stop whining and pick something. Hang your critic's hat on one of SB's parameters for greatest (not favorite) and say whatever pops into your pointy head.

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Originally Posted by dean_martin

An album that epitomizes rock 'n roll, its roots and influences, and where it would go from there is the Rolling Stones' "Beggar's Banquet". It is rock 'n roll from start to finish.

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Oh, GREAT choice! Sympathy for the Devel is one of the finest rock and roll songs ever. I also have to put the Stones Let It Bleed Album up there at the top also.

RR6

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Originally Posted by Sugar Beats

At Folsom Prison ~ Johnny Cash

Black in Black ~ AC/DC

Dylan might be big for some people... I just don't get him, I can barely understand a word the man says. :confused:

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AC/DC and Johnny Cash in the same genre?

If you can't understand Dylan maybe you should listen to his Nashville Skyline album, specifically Dylan and Cash singing Girl from the North Country. BTW, this is a great album.

RR6

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Originally Posted by Finch Platte

Live at the Star Club, Hamburg, Jerry Lee Lewis -- the purest, hardest rock & roll ever committed to record

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Oh yes! OH YES!

Only four post into this thread and Finch Platte has brought up from the past one of the greatest Rock and Roll performers ever. Jerry Lee Lewis would have been at the top of the class if not for some unfortunate choices in marrying his very young cousin. That put the skids on his career. This is "Rock and Roll." at it greatest.

Of course I have to mention the greatest pop/rock group of all time, The Beatles. There are a number of choices and it is almost impossible to decide. So I'll list three of my favorites:

... A Hard Day's Night

... Help

... Abbey Road

Sugar Beats listed her criteria as: "Based on excellence, sustainabilty, context."

100 years from now no one will even know the name Pearl Jam. However, many, many of the songs that McCartney and Lennon wrote will still be covered by different types of musical groups from classical to jazz to pop/rock. These two prolific songwriters wrote song after song after song that have lasting memorable melodies, the true test of time.

RR6

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Originally Posted by RoadRunner6

Oh, GREAT choice! Sympathy for the Devel is one of the finest rock and roll songs ever. I also have to put the Stones Let It Bleed Album up there at the top also.

RR6

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If someone who had never heard rock 'n roll asked me to recommend one album that best exemplifies rock 'n roll, I'd suggest Beggars Banquet because it has all the pieces that became rock - country, blues and gospel, and then balls-to-the-walls rockers like Stray Cat Blues. And like all great albums it has at least one transcendent track like Sympathy for the Devil.

But most of all, it's an unpretentious celebration of the proletariat class. Side 2 is the perfect everyman side: Street Fighting Man, Prodigal Son, Stray Cat Blues, Factory Girl, Salt of the Earth. It's the 1969 Plymouth Road Runner of music.

I'd say the #1 rock album of all time is Led Zeppelin's 4th album. I have the album which I purchased when it was released, had the 8 track and now have the CD. Just so happens that the #1 most popular Rock-n-Roll song of all time is Stairway to Heaven.

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Originally Posted by dean_martin

well sugar, I think you've exposed one of the greatest fears around here: to step up and pick something. "Oh no! That's too hard for me, but your pick sux."

I'm callin' you regs out. Stop whining and pick something. Hang your critic's hat on one of SB's parameters for greatest (not favorite) and say whatever pops into your pointy head.

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I'll pick-up that gauntlet...

London Calling

Beggars Banquet is also a very good pick and one I considered, but in the end LC is the one.

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Originally Posted by dean_martin

well sugar, I think you've exposed one of the greatest fears around here: to step up and pick something. "Oh no! That's too hard for me, but your pick sux."

I'm callin' you regs out. Stop whining and pick something. Hang your critic's hat on one of SB's parameters for greatest (not favorite) and say whatever pops into your pointy head.

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1. The Kinks - Are the Village Green Preservation Society
2. The Beatles - Revolver
3. The Clash - London Calling
4. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
5. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
6. Bob Marley & The Wailers - African Herbsman
7. Love - Forever Changes
8. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
9. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
10. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
11. Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal Tendencies
12. Ramones - Leave Home
13. The Kinks - Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround
14. Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
15. The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
16. Toots & the Maytals - Funky Kingston
17. Wire - Pink Flag
18. Big Star - Radio City
19. The Clash - The Clash
20. Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
21. Gang of Four - Entertainment!
22. Husker Du - New Day Rising
23. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Catch a Fire
24. Ramones - Ramones
25. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
26. Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
27. Elvis Costello - This Years Model
28. Black Flag - Damaged
29. Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
30. Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison
31. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
32. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
33. The Stooges - Fun House
34. Talking Heads - Remain In Light
35. Misfits - Walk Among Us
36. Pixies - Doolittle
37. Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground
38. Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels On a Gravel Road
39. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
40. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
41. Fugazi - Repeater
42. Ramones - Rocket To Russia
43. Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
44. The Connells - Boylan Heights
45. Hoodoo Gurus - Stoneage Romeos
46. Fugazi - 13 Songs
47. Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
48. Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks
49. Big Star - #1 Record
50. The Beatles - Abbey Road
51. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
52. Bob Dylan - Another Side of Bob Dylan
53. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
54. The Zombies - Odessey & Oracle
55. Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
56. Prince - Sign 'O' the Times
57. Big Star - Third/Sister Lovers
58. The Kinks - Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire
59. The Cure - The Head On the Door
60. The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album)
61. Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
62. The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
63. Bedhead - WhatFunLifeWas
64. Van Morrison - Moondance
65. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
66. The Smiths - Meat Is Murder
67. Billy Bragg - Life's a Riot With Spy vs. Spy
68. James Brown - Live at the Apollo, 1962
69. The Kinks - Something Else By The Kinks
70. Otis Redding - Otis Blue
71. The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
72. The Clash - Give 'em Enough Rope
73. Circle Jerks - Group Sex
74. Marshall Crenshaw - Marshall Crenshaw
75. Devo - Q: Are We Not Men?
76. The Feelies - Only Life
77. X - Los Angeles
78. Wire - 154
79. Manu Chao - Clandestino
80. Front 242 - Front By Front
81. Descendents - Milo Goes To College
82. XTC - Drums and Wires
83. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
84. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Burnin�
85. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
86. NoMeansNo - Wrong
87. Buck Owens and His Buckaroos - Live at Carnegie Hall
88. Rank and File - Sundown
89. Refused - The Shape of Punk To Come
90. The Replacements - Tim
91. The Saints - (I'm) Stranded
92. Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends
93. The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane
94. Buddy Holly - The "Chirping" Crickets
95. The Stooges - Raw Power
96. Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso (1967)
97. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico
98. Love - da capo
99. Wire - Chairs Missing
100. The Celibate Rifles - The Turgid Miasma of Existence

Stone, I see you have the Bobs covered (Dylan & Marley). :thumbsup:

It's hard to argue with the success of albums like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, The Beatle's White album or The Eagle's Hotel California, but song for song I'd like to put my vote in for Boston's first album. Every song was a hit.

Jeez! A girl tries to start a thread, what can I say, I like to have options. (what woman doesn't?)
If I had to pick a fav... It would either be Back in Black or London Calling.

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Originally Posted by Sugar Beats

Dylan might be big for some people... I just don't get him, I can barely understand a word the man says. :confused:

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I can understand this with some of his tunes but the man is one of the top critically acclaimed songsters of all time. I challenge you to have a deeper listen (Tangled Up In Blue, Workingman's Blues #2, Buckets Of Rain, etc,.etc). If your interested, I could sent you a comp of, IMO, his better written, performed and recorded material.

I guess I'm always up for a challenge. Maybe inbetween the kids, the movie I am going to and the reg. weekend stuff, I'll take a listen... And then I'll let you know. I've just never liked him.

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Originally Posted by Sugar Beats

I like to have options. (what woman doesn't?)

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:sosp: :sosp: :sosp:

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Originally Posted by GMichael

It's hard to argue with the success of albums like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, The Beatle's White album or The Eagle's Hotel California, but song for song I'd like to put my vote in for Boston's first album. Every song was a hit.

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Oh, you really are. :p

Ok, it was likable and all, but the greatest of all time? It's not even on my radar screen. First of all, they had to rely on studio trickery to get those nice vocal harmonies and the dual lead guitar riffs (an octave splitter is the apparatus I'm pretty certain. It takes your voice or other instruments and, as the name implies, creates a duplicate sound that is an octave higher, or lower, as the case may be). Then, when they couldn't replicate it live, it was a huge disappointment to their fans, with many saying how 'flat' they sounded. Well, duh! That's akin to lip-syncing in my opinion.

I'm not refuting your choice because you like what you like, but I'm stating my reasons for not giving it credence on such an esteemed level.

London Calling is a terrific choice. So is DSOTM. So are Beggar's Banquet and Let It Bleed (and Sticky Fingers and Exile, for that matter). Revolver too.

I'll throw Who's Next and Born to Run into the mix, just for ****zen giggles. And REM's Reckoning, just because I gotta be me.

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Originally Posted by Swish

Oh, you really are. :p

Ok, it was likable and all, but the greatest of all time? It's not even on my radar screen. First of all, they had to rely on studio trickery to get those nice vocal harmonies and the dual lead guitar riffs (an octave splitter is the apparatus I'm pretty certain. It takes your voice or other instruments and, as the name implies, creates a duplicate sound that is an octave higher, or lower, as the case may be). Then, when they couldn't replicate it live, it was a huge disappointment to their fans, with many saying how 'flat' they sounded. Well, duh! That's akin to lip-syncing in my opinion.

I'm not refuting your choice because you like what you like, but I'm stating my reasons for not giving it credence on such an esteemed level.

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Fair enough, but I still stand by my choice.:thumbsup:

More honorable mentions go out to Kansas - Leftoverture, and ELP - Brain Salad Surgery.

....and should be in the top 25 or so.

Echo and the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain
XTC - Skylarking
XTC - English Settlement
Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
World Party - Goodbye Jumbo

Sugar Beats said

ROCK

Somebody listed Buck Owens and His Buckaroos - Live at Carnegie Hall......what are we smoking here folks?

what are we smoking here folks?

I don't know, but you got any you want to share!

Not a good day so far...could probably use something!

In naming Dark Side of the Moon my pick as greatest album in Rock history, I realised I was going out on a limb. You guys have named albums that I have likewise considered: Hotel California, Rumors, Led Zep 4, Boston, etc.

First, for me DSOM is noteworthy for its awesome sales record that was usurped only when Michael Jackson's Thriller knocked it out of contention. To think that that album was Number One since its release in 1973 is pretty frickin' amazing.

Secondly, DSOM is a "compete album", in the sense that the cuts are great stand-alone hits but are integrated within the album in such a way that they represent a seamless whole. From the heartbeat that opens the album to the final beat, DSOM is a song cycle that is more contextual than many albums that are random assortments of great merit.

Thrird, DSOM is technologically very influential. With Alan Parsons at the helm in the control room, headphone listeners and quadrophonic fans were treated to a dazzling display of sound effects and musical wizadry that few albums to that time offered. Pink Floyd set the pace for a sound that opened up a huge vista of possibility for future musicians to emulate and perfect. DSOM ushered in this era and it is rightly appreciated if, not for anything else, for this enduring influence.

Fourthly, DSOM is not simply a "rock" album, but one whose musical influences span many genres that were integrated sensibly and with rare finesse. Without going into it, DSOM hearkens forth elements that can be likened to Stockhausen and Ligeti that soon shift to Blues, Jazz, Electronic (Ussachevsky, anyone?), Funk, and Rock. While it's true, many bands and musicians have brought their vast musical heritage to the stage, DSOM does so in a way that is, in my book, unrivalled.

Fifthly, and lastly (I can go on), DSOM is simply deep, man. While other groups sang about sunshine and marigolds, Pink Floyd was content to get to the nittiy-gritty of existence. I will concede that much of PF's earlier, Syd Barrett-inspired albums were rather trite, but that doesn't change the fact that as the band's sound and vision was honed, so did their dark message. DSOM is a thinking man's (or woman's) album, and cannot be casually laid aside once it's played.

So, there you go: My reasons for putting DSOM up, for good or ill but always, for your consideration!

Sorry Sugar Beats if you're having a bad day. Smokes don't help but maybe some happy music. Very nice thread you started, thanks (you've got my musical wheels a turnin).

I just get a chuckle when someone lists Buck Owens under rock. We used to call him country western. Many of the early Bob Dylan albums when originally released were considered folk music, not rock. Dylan started out as a folk singer not a rock star. Bob Marley and James Brown under rock? I guess the definition of the genre has expanded.

RR6 :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Auricauricle

In naming Dark Side of the Moon my pick as greatest album in Rock history, I realised I was going out on a limb. You guys have named albums that I have likewise considered: Hotel California, Rumors, Led Zep 4, Boston, etc.

First, for me DSOM is noteworthy for its awesome sales record that was usurped only when Michael Jackson's Thriller knocked it out of contention. To think that that album was Number One since its release in 1973 is pretty frickin' amazing.

Secondly, DSOM is a "compete album", in the sense that the cuts are great stand-alone hits but are integrated within the album in such a way that they represent a seamless whole. From the heartbeat that opens the album to the final beat, DSOM is a song cycle that is more contextual than many albums that are random assortments of great merit.

Thrird, DSOM is technologically very influential. With Alan Parsons at the helm in the control room, headphone listeners and quadrophonic fans were treated to a dazzling display of sound effects and musical wizadry that few albums to that time offered. Pink Floyd set the pace for a sound that opened up a huge vista of possibility for future musicians to emulate and perfect. DSOM ushered in this era and it is rightly appreciated if, not for anything else, for this enduring influence.

Fourthly, DSOM is not simply a "rock" album, but one whose musical influences span many genres that were integrated sensibly and with rare finesse. Without going into it, DSOM hearkens forth elements that can be likened to Stockhausen and Ligeti that soon shift to Blues, Jazz, Electronic (Ussachevsky, anyone?), Funk, and Rock. While it's true, many bands and musicians have brought their vast musical heritage to the stage, DSOM does so in a way that is, in my book, unrivalled.

Fifthly, and lastly (I can go on), DSOM is simply deep, man. While other groups sang about sunshine and marigolds, Pink Floyd was content to get to the nittiy-gritty of existence. I will concede that much of PF's earlier, Syd Barrett-inspired albums were rather trite, but that doesn't change the fact that as the band's sound and vision was honed, so did their dark message. DSOM is a thinking man's (or woman's) album, and cannot be casually laid aside once it's played.

So, there you go: My reasons for putting DSOM up, for good or ill but always, for your consideration!

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I like your choice and can not dismiss any of your reasons. My only contention is that if I were to choose my favorite PF LP it would be Wish You Were Here instead.

Is no one going to bring up Yes - Fragile?

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Originally Posted by GMichael

I like your choice and can not dismiss any of your reasons. My only contention is that if I were to choose my favorite PF LP it would be Wish You Were Here instead.

Is no one going to bring up Yes - Fragile?

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Ah hah, but the question wasn't "what is your favourite album". If it were I would agree with you that WYWH is a better album, musically, than DSOTM. But since that was not the question, I would have to agree with Auricauricle (how the heck do we shorten that?!).

Because the question is not, what is your favourite album, I would also dismiss Leftoverture. Although it is probably my all-time favourite album in the whole world, I'm not sure that it qualifies as Greatest Album in Rock History as defined by SB.

I might, however, include Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. I also agree that London Calling is a very good answer.

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Originally Posted by ForeverAutumn

Ah hah, but the question wasn't "what is your favourite album". If it were I would agree with you that WYWH is a better album, musically, than DSOTM. But since that was not the question, I would have to agree with Auricauricle (how the heck do we shorten that?!).

Because the question is not, what is your favourite album, I would also dismiss Leftoverture. Although it is probably my all-time favourite album in the whole world, I'm not sure that it qualifies as Greatest Album in Rock History as defined by SB.

I might, however, include Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. I also agree that London Calling is a very good answer.

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In that case, do we need to throw in names like Bruce Springsteen and Elvis? (not that I think these two belong in the same sentence with each other)

If Bob Marley (REGGAE) can be considered Rock, then Michael Jackson needs to be thrown in there too... Beat It and Dirty Diana are 2 of the best Rock songs of all time.... Billie Jean is just a masterpiece... And anyone who disagrees with me is a pixelthis clone (IMO)!!! Oh and did I mention that the ONLY version of 'Come Together' that I like is by MJ on the History Album (Beatles wrote great songs, too bad they couldn't also sing them)

Also, my favourite other Rock artists are:

Bon Jovi - Living on a Prayer and You give love a bad name... What's not to love???
Guns & Roses - November Rain & Knockin on Heaven's Door are amazing (oh yeah, Bob Dylan falls into the Beatles category as well)
AC/DC
The Eagles
Green Day
Prince

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Originally Posted by Auricauricle

DSOM was usurped only when Michael Jackson's Thriller knocked it out of contention.

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Exactly my point... see, even AA realises that Thriller is the greatest Rock album of all time :ciappa:

Roger Waters is/was certainly a musical genius, no doubt about it. DSOM is surely a staple in any 60's and 70's Rock and Roll animal's collection and the Pink Floyd sound, even with the release of "Wish You Were Here" there was a distinctive and unmistakable familiarity that always kept me tuned in, even when I was spaced out, and vise versa. And I don't think I'll ever tire of David Gilmore's voice.

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Originally Posted by RR6

Bob Marley and James Brown under rock?

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Bob Marley = Reggae which isn't Rock, and James Brown was the "King of Soul" so I don't know how that figues into this thread.

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Originally Posted by SB

I don't know, but you got any you want to share!

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:ihih:

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Originally Posted by SB

Not a good day so far...could probably use something!

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:ihih: :ihih: :ihih: ;)<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->