Previous month's Classic Rock presented the so-called "Real 100 Greatest Albums Of The 60s", then proceeding to undermine itself by adding some arbitrary rules: "Only ONE album per artist" and, more inexplicably, "Don't Choose The Most Famous Album". Doesn't that defeat the purpose? I mean, of course the most famous record isn't necessarily the best one but if you specifically exclude the most famous LP by every artist, you don't end up with the real greatest albums of the 60's, just a bunch of runner-ups. OK, when it comes to The Beatles and Stones, there are many albums of equal value to choose from. I wouldn't argue with the ones they chose, even if they aren't the most obvious. But to ignore Dylan's Freewheeling, Blonde on Blonde and Bringing It All Back Home in favor of John Wesley Harding? or The Kinks' Kontroversy, Something Else and Village Green in favor of... Live at Kelvin Hall? Make your case, please. I understand the desire to be original and choose an underrated record instead of an undisputed classic but then you either shouldn't call it "the greatest albums" list or you should present the entries like this: "instead of Velvet Underground & Nico, its understudy White Light/White Heat, or "instead of Love's perennial classic Forever Changes, we chose Da Capo, the record no-one ever turns over to side B". Confusingly, they don't always follow their own rules: Jefferson Airplane are represented by Surrealistic Pillow, and The Doors by their debut. Safe choices, even if these groups also have some great and underrated albums in their discography. Nevertheless, here's the list: as always just a good starting point for conversation and reappraisal. At the moment I own 62 of these records, not a great score seeing as it concerns my favorite decade. I'll be posting my reviews of them in this blog. Meanwhile, what is your take on this? Which of these don't belong here and which should be here but are missing?
1. Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as love
2. The Beatles - White Album
3. The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
4. Led Zeppelin - s/t
5. Free - Tons of Sobs
6. Jeff Beck - Truth
8. David Bowie - s/t
9. Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
10. The Doors - s/t
11. Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow
13. The Who - Tommy
14. MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
15. Jethro Tull - Stand Up
16. The Stooges - The Stooges
17. Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum
18. Small Faces - There are but four Small Faces
19. Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
20. John Mayall - A Hard Road
21. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bayou Country
22. Alice Cooper - Pretties for You
23. Crosby, Stills & Nash - s/t
24. Cream - Wheels of Fire
25. Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
26. The Pretty Things - s/t
27. Otis Redding - Otis Blue
28. The Yardbirds - Five Live Yardbirds
29. Dr.John, The Night Tripper - Gris-Gris
30. The Zombies - Odessey & Oracle
31. The Kinks - Live at Kelvin Hall
32. The Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday
33. The Moody Blues - On the threshold of a Dream
34. Robert Johnson - King of the Delta Blues Singers
35. The Spencer Davies Group - The Second Album
36. Traffic - Mr.Fantasy
37. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - s/t
38. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
39. Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
40. Canned Heat - Boogie with Canned Heat
41. Them - The Angry Young Them
42. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
43. Paul Butterfield - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
44. Steve Miller Band - Sailor
45. Nazz - Nazz
46. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Safe As Milk
47. The Sonics - Here are The Sonics
48. Fairport Convention - Liege & Lief
49. The Mothers of Invention - We're Only in It for the Money
50. Buffalo Springfield - Again
51. Muddy Waters - At Newport 1960
52. Deep Purple - Book of Taliesyn
53. The Animals - Animal Tracks
54. Bert Jansch - Jack Orion
55. Scott Walker - Scott 4
56. Love - Da Capo
57. Blind Faith - s/t
58. The Hollies - Evolution
59. Janis Joplin - I got dem ol' kozmic blues again mama!
60. Donovan - Barabajagal
61. Johnny Winter - The progressive blues experiment
62. Spooky Tooth - Spooky Two
63. Manfred Mann - The five faces of Manfred Mann
64. Mose Allison - Mose Alive!
65. The Beach Boys - Summer Days (& Summer Nights!!)
66. Santana - s/t
67. Can - Monster Movie
68. Family - Family Entertainment
69. Chuck Berry - Rockin' at the Hops
70. The Nice - The thoughts of Emerlist Dajack
71. The Incredible String Band - The 5000 spirits or The layers of the onion
72. Ten Years After - Undead
73. The Shangri-las - Leader of the Pack
74. The Mamas & The Papas - If you can believe your eyes & ears
75. The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Glided Palace of Sin
76. Strawberry Alarm Clock - Incense & Peppermints
77. Grateful Dead - Live/Dead
78. Trashmen - Surfin' Bird
79. Mott the Hoople - s/t
80. Yes - s/t
81. The Seeds - s/t
82. Tim Buckley - s/t
83. The Shadows of Knight - Gloria
84. The Electric Prunes - s/t
85. Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
86. Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends
87. The Ronettes - Presenting the fabulous Ronettess featuring Veronica
88. Downliners Sect - The Sect
89. The Fugs - s/t
90. Iron Butterfly - Heavy
91. Harvey Mandel - Cristo Redentor
92. The Sorrows - Take a Heart
93. The Standells - Dirty Water
94. Asylum Choir - Look Inside the Asylum Choir
96. The United States Of America - s/t
97. Graham Bond Organisation - The Sound of '65
98. Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels - Take a Ride!
99. Chicago Transit Authority - s/t
100. The Deviants - Ptooff!
No comments:
Post a Comment