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AUGUST 2001
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Source: Bound for Sound Magazine

http://www.boundforsound.com/reviews.htm#Rock%20Albums

The 100 Greatest "Rock Albums" of all Time

By MGD

Over a year ago (June 2000) the idea of a "100" best of all time listing began to bounce around in my head like a ping-pong ball between two hard surfaces. I knew it had been done before, but in my mind, while many of the listings had been appropriate, a certain amount of political correctness had crept into the selection process. We had to do something different, the BFS top 100 listing would be based on one thing: the music, and no amount of politicking would push a recording up the ladder even one position.

Another consideration was that this listing would be for "rock" albums. Not rock and roll, not Motown, not folk, not metal, not jazz, not rap, not the blues, not anything except good old fashioned "rock". Granted, excluding
other closely related forms of music would keep some of the world's best loved favorites out of this listing. As a result, the likes of Miles Davis, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Carole King, Buddy
Holly, Roy Orbison, Robert Johnson, Count Basie, on and on.... would not be included. Some wonderful performers would, by definition, be casualties of my desire to set parameters and limits on how far this listing could reach. And indeed, I thought the failure to set boundaries was the primary reason the recent listing on VH-1 was a complete failure. And fortunately so...

After starting this project two Junes ago, my heart hit the floor when I heard that VH-1 was doing a Best of Rock listing wherein the top 100 rock recordings of all time would be listed. My thunder had been stolen I
fretted. How could I come out with this listing after them and not appear to be anything other than a copy cat compiler? As it would happen, however, they did me a great favor by allowing people such as Britney Spears assist in the selection making process, and for the sake of political correctness included noteworthy performers such as Miles Davis and Aretha Franklin, who, as notable as they were, had nothing to do with rock. They have their own categories founded in the blues, jazz, folk and Motown. With classical and country, I hope to someday compile top 100 listings for all the major musical forms, but not here... this is rock.

This listing is not a personal pick of my favorite recordings, or the personal favorites of anyone here at BFS. Artistically, I don't care for some of the recordings chosen for inclusion, but included they were, for I consider this effort to be historical in nature, even archival, and objective in that the recordings chosen were chosen for what they meant to the genre' as a whole during it's birth, growth and maturation. In other words, what we are doing here is to report, in a manner as fairly as possible, on the recordings that formed the music which came to be known as rock music.

As stated above, you will not see listed here selections from what is known as heavy metal, death metal, black metal and rap. Not that people don't listen to those forms of expression, but as we were talking to people about the recordings to be included here, and obtaining various opinions, I felt that the content of the above were not right for inclusion. The dehumanizing subject matter that is a regular part of heavy metal and rap scene has no place here. And for that matter, rock recordings delving into the satanic or dark beliefs have not been included here either. If those things interest you, go elsewhere.

So, how were these recordings chosen? Billboard charts for the last thirty, or so, years were scoured to determine the impact each recording had on the buying market. People in the industry, recording and playback, were consulted and asked for suggestions. Day long listening sessions were conducted to see how the music held up today. And for me, this latter aspect of the selection process was one of the most important. Did the music sound dated? If so, it dropped in rank, which would explain why some of the Beatles and Rolling Stones recordings slipped. As notable as their recordings were, they sound dated in comparison to the recordings listed in front of them. Music is timeless, and to be included here it had better sound that way.

Impact. How much did a certain recording impact the music scene at the time it was released? Also considered here, was to what extent the recording reflected the climate of the times. For those reasons alone, Sergeant Pepper's has a place in the top twenty, whereas, if the only criteria were musical accomplishment, it would probably be much lower. Did any recording reflect the rebellious spirit of the young in the late sixties and early seventies more accurately than Woodstock? That's why it is here.

Musical accomplishment. For obvious reasons this criteria was the most difficult to apply, while being the most fun to contemplate and debate. And yet, along with whether or not the music retained a contemporary feel to it, the ultra subjective notion of just how "accomplished" the music was ultimately determined where a recording ended up on the list. One thing that we tried not to do was allow one good song on an album mean de facto inclusion here just because of that one good song. Initially, I was expecting to include many more albums from the early sixties; Turtles, Boxtops, Hollies, Dave Clark Five... stuff like that. In going over those
recordings though, two things emerged: By any standard, the music sounded dated, incredibly so. By my own criteria, that wasn't good, and could not be easily overcome. The other thing that bothered me about many of the early sixties recordings was the preponderance of many to have just one extremely fine song, and seven clunkers to go with it. In some instances, two or three worthy songs would surface, with the rest being so hoaky sounding that I couldn't force myself to include the album. After all, we are looking for consistently excellent results throughout the album... not just a song or two.

Another consideration was whether it was thought that another band could have made the same album, and had it come out as good or better than the original band. For example, no one could have made "Dark Side of the Moon", with the same mood, art and expression as did Pink Floyd. Could anyone other than the Beatles pulled off "Sergeant Pepper"? But that's not always the case even with what are thought to be monumental works of music. Two Stones tunes for example. It is arguable, and I believe true, that Grand Funk's version of "Gimme Shelter" is the better of the two. The same for Leon Russel's version of "Jumping Jack Flash." And while those were actual instances of a superior remake, the thinking here was that if it seemed a band's performance in recording an album, as great as it may have been, could have been improved upon by someone else doing the same material, the original sunk. This aspect of consideration didn't really enter into the factoring until well into the list.

Lastly, we did on some occasions stretch the envelope style wise where a performer was slightly something other than true rock, but still impacted the future of rock music. Joni Mitchell comes immediately to mind in this
regard, as does Tracy Chapman, Peter Gabriel, Linda Ronstadt and Poco. They are here because they deserve to be even if they don't perfectly fit the mold as defined by the word "rock".

This is the BFS list:

1. "Dark Side of the Moon", Pink Floyd

2. "The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East", The Allman Brothers Band

3. "Led Zeppelin I", Led Zeppelin

4. "Security", Peter Gabriel

5. "Tres Hombres", ZZ Top

6. "Abbey Road", The Beatles

7. "Led Zeppelin II", Led Zeppelin

8. "Revolver", The Beatles

9. "Exile On Main Street", The Rolling Stones

10. "Pet Sounds", The Beach Boys

11. "Close to the Edge", Yes

12. "The Yes Album", Yes

13. "Fragile", Yes

14. "Every Picture Tells a Story", Rod Stewart

15. "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", The Beatles

16. "Woodstock 1969", Various

17. "Abraxas", Santana

18. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", Elton John

19. "Tea For the Tillerman", Cat Stevens

20. "Deja Vu", Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

21. "Unplugged", Eric Clapton

22. "LA Woman", The Doors

23. "Crime of the Century", Supertramp

24. "Are You Experienced?", Jimi Hendrix

25. "ZoSo", Led Zeppelin

26. "Never Mind", Nirvanna

27. "Blonde on Blonde", Bob Dylan

28. "In the Court of the Crimson King", King Crimson

29. "Chicago Transit Authority", Chicago

30. "Hotel California", Eagles

31. "Who's Next", The Who

32. "Auqualung", Jethro Tull

33. "Machine Head", Deep Purple

34. "And Justice For All", Metallica

35. "The Wall", Pink Floyd

36. "Rumours", Fleetwood Mac

37. "American Beauty", The Grateful Dead

38. "Survival", Grand Funk Railroad

39. "Days of Future Past", Moody Blues

40. "Purple Rain", Prince

41. "Blind Faith", Blind Faith

42. "Layla, and Other Assorted Love Songs", Derek and the Dominos

43. "American Pie", Don McLean

44. "Hasten Down the Wind", Linda Ronstadt

45. "Blue", Joni Mitchell

46. "Love Over Gold", Dire Straits

47. "Book Ends", Simon & Garfunkle

48. "Back in Black", AC/DC

49. "Blood on the Tracks", Bob Dylan

50. "Selling England by the Pound", Genesis

51. "Chicago II", Chicago

52. "Katy Lied", Steely Dan

53. "Stand", Sly and the Family Stone

54. "The Kick Inside", Kate Bush

55. "Some Girls", The Rolling Stones

56. "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust", David Bowie

57. "Electric Ladyland", Jimi Hendrix

58. "John Barleycorn Must Die", Traffic

59. "Born to Run", Bruce Springsteen

60. "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", Red Hot Chili Peppers

61. "Appetite for Destruction", Guns and Roses

62. "Outlandos D’Amour", The Police

63. "In Color", Cheap Trick

64. "Madman Across the Water", Elton john

65. "Couldn’t Stand the Weather", Stevie Ray Vaughan

66. "Bridge Over Troubled Waters", Simon & Garfunkle

67. "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys", Traffic

68. "Tracy Chapman", Tracy Chapman

69. "Free For All", Michael Penn

70. "Between the Lines", Janis Ian

71. "Thick as a Brick", Jethro Tull

72. "Wish You Were Here", Pink Floyd

73. "Sweet Baby James", James Taylor

74. "Get Your Wings", Aerosmith

75. "School’s Out", Alice Cooper

76. "Tommy", The Who

77. "Part One", The Kinks

78. "The Captain and Me", The Doobie Brothers

79. "Joan Armatrading", Joan Armatrading

80. "Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin Nerd", Lynard Skynard

81. "Superfly", Curtis Mayfield

82. "Ten", Pearl Jam

83. "OK Computer", Radiohead

84. "Three Friends", Gentle Giant

85. "Ambrosia", Ambrosia

86. "Gordian Knot", Gordian Knot

87. "Fun House", Iggy Pop and the Stooges

88. "Get Ready", Rare Earth

89. "A Night at the Opera", Queen

90. "Emerson Lake & Palmer", Emerson, Lake & Palmer

91. "Blow by Blow ", Jeff beck

92. "Lights Out", UFO

93. "Steppenwolf", Steppenwolf

94. "Illusions on a Double Dimple", Triumvirat

95. "Song for America", Kansas

96. "Carney", Leon Russel

97. "From the Inside", Poco

98. "All the Young Dudes", Mott the Hoople

99. "Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus", Spirit

100. "Fashion Nugge


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