Posted on 09/29/2006 9:52:06 PM PDT by pissant
1 The Velvet Underground and Nico The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
Though it sold poorly on its initial release, this has since become arguably the most influential rock album of all time. The first art-rock album, it merges dreamy, druggy balladry ('Sunday Morning') with raw and uncompromising sonic experimentation ('Venus in Furs'), and is famously clothed in that Andy Warhol-designed 'banana' sleeve. Lou Reed's lyrics depicted a Warholian New York demi-monde where hard drugs and sexual experimentation held sway. Shocking then, and still utterly transfixing.
Without this, there'd be no ... Bowie, Roxy Music, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Jesus and Mary Chain, among many others. SOH
2 The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
There are those who rate Revolver (1966) or 'the White Album' (1968) higher. But Sgt Pepper's made the watertight case for pop music as an art form in itself; until then, it was thought the silly, transient stuff of teenagers. At a time when all pop music was stringently manufactured, these Paul McCartney-driven melodies and George Martin-produced whorls of sound proved that untried ground was not only the most fertile stuff, but also the most viable commercially. It defined the Sixties and - for good and ill - gave white rock all its airs and graces.
Without this ... pop would be a very different beast. KE
3 Kraftwerk Trans-Europe Express (1977)
Released at the height of punk, this sleek, urbane, synthesised, intellectual work shared little ground with its contemporaries. Not that it wanted to. Kraftwerk operated from within a bubble of equipment and ideas which owed more to science and philosophy than mere entertainment. Still, this paean to the beauty of mechanised movement and European civilisation was a moving and exquisite album in itself...
(Excerpt) Read more at observer.guardian.co.uk ...
Missed TOM WAITS "THE HEART OF SATURDAY NIGHT"
Man,I'm getting old.
This guy sure likes some crappy music (with just a few exceptions)
He missed Alice Cooper's "School's Out."
I dont' know most of these albums anyway.
Totally agree about Brubeck's Take Five. And how could they do this list without the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin?
Silly list. Way too British.
So many durable people and groups missing.
What about Van Morrison, BB King, Ray Charles, Buddy Holly, Santana, Doors, for just a few?
Chuck Berry?
He never was able to talk the Beach Boys in completing the concept album. (The original version was only half of what he intended.)
It's quite an album, or now CD.
Ah, the Guardian.
This is a very 'English' list. I mean, Kraftwerk? That's pretty provincial.
Okay, I just read the whole aricle.
This list sucks! Pink Floyd is WAAAAAY down the list, no mention of Yes, Rush, Zeppelin, zero southern rock, this guy is on acid. Probably thinks Bjork is sexy too.
Ya think....
21 The Spice Girls
29 Pink Floyd
Every "best of rock and roll" list isn't complete without:
You may be right, but I always thought the album was never completed because Brian descended into drug abuse and schitzophrenia.
Surprisingly, I've heard/owned 11 out 50.
I like Tom Waits quite a bit.
Frank is Frank. Not sure he had any particular album that changed the course of music though. He just did what he did far better than most.
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