Rolling Stone's "50 Coolest Albums of All Time"

Rolling Stone Magazine ^ | 03/19/02

[socal_parrot]

Top 50 Coolest Albums of All Time

1. Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
2. Rolling Stones - Aftermath
3. James Brown - Live at the Apollo
4. Chuck Berry - The Great Twenty-Eight
5. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
6. Blondie - Parallel Lines
7. Aretha Franklin - Spirit in the Dark
8. Massive Attack - Protection
9. Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis
10. The Beatles - Revolver
11. Sly & the Family Stone - Fresh
12. Pavement - Wowee Zowee!
13. Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstasy
14. Prince - 1999
15. Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
16. Bjork - Vespertine
17. Various - Heavyweight Sound: Blood and Fire Sampler
18. Otis Redding - The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul
19. Eric B. & Rakim - Paid in Full
20. Chic - Real People
21. David Bowie - Station to Station
22. Jorge Ben - Africa Brasil
23. Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers!
24. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
25. Culture - Two Sevens Clash
26. Brides of Funkenstein - Never Buy Texas from a Cowboy
27. Beck - Odelay
28. The Ronettes - Best of the Ronettes
29. Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
30. Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
31. Michael Jackson - Off the Wall
32. Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
33. Howlin' Wolf - Howlin' Wolf
34. White Stripes - De Stijl
35. Various - Super Bad is Back
36. Joan Jett - Bad Reputation
37. Jungle Brothers - Done by the Forces of Nature
38. Alexander Spence - Oar
39. Cheap Trick - Heaven Tonight
40. Bikini Kill - Reject All American
41. Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - Anthology
42. Merle Haggard - Songs I'll Always Sing
43. Roxanne Shante - Bad Sister
44. Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails
45. Serge Gainsbourg - Comic Strip
46. Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul
47. Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties
48. Aphex Twin - Classics
49. The Strokes - Is This It
50. Madonna - You Can Dance

--

[Revolting cat!]

Coming home this evening I was thinking of a definiton of cool. I don't care what Jann Wenner's definition is, his mag hasn't been cool since shortly after it got started, and even then Crawdaddy and Fusion were cooler.

But I do think that 'coolness' implies exclusivity, elitism and in the end snobism. Something is cool when you and I appreciate it but the mob can't, or you and I as connaisseurs appreciate what the mob appreciates but for our own quirky reasons. Hence, we can declare Dusty Springfield and Geoff Muldaur cool for the first reason, and Donna Summer and Herb Alpert for the second. Rolling Stones were cool when everyone went gaga over those other guys what's their name, but a year later the Pretties were even cooler, followed of course by super coolness of the Yardbirds. Van Morrison and Randy Newman were cool when when hardly anyone listened to them. Today, aound the rock fans, Hank Williams III, David Ball and Billy Joe Shaver should be considered cool, because rock fans don't listen to country. Well, Shaver is cool anywhere, anytime!

But also, 'cool' has long meant 'elegant', maybe 'aloof' which is why Brian Ferry is considered cool and also Burt Bacharach (probably the ultimate cool!)

(As you can see, I have a pretty long commute, to think up such silliness!)

[socal_parrot]

Wouldn't that be Home and Jeth-Fro?

[BluesDuke]

What the hey, I liked Vanishing Point. (Haven't yet had the chance to hear Rancho Deluxe).

And speaking of vanishing, how about a list of the coolest singles of all time? Here's mine, in no particular order of preference...

Duane Eddy and the Rebels, "Forty Miles of Bad Road"
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes with Ronnie Spector, "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" (they beat the living bejesus out of Billy Joel's original, as if that took all that much...)
James Brown, "Night Train"
James Brown, "Cold Sweat Pts. 1 & 2"
The Beatles, "She Loves You" (tells the whole damn story of rock and roll as it once was and still could be, and they rock the walls off without even breaking a sweat - now, that's what "cool" is!)
Elvis Presley, "Heartbreak Hotel"
Muddy Waters, "The Same Thing"
Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters (the original Drifters), "Money Honey"
The Impressions, "It's All Right"
GQ, "Sittin' In The Park" (took Billy Stewart's old hit and repossessed it)
Al Green, "Love and Happiness" (if Al and guitarist Teenie Hodges don't write the book on "cool" with this one, then someone screwed with the inkwell)
Otis Redding, "These Arms of Mine"
Brenda Lee, "All Alone Am I"
The Rolling Stones, "The Last Time"
The Spencer Davis Group, "I'm A Man"
Roxy Music, "Virginia Plain"
The Temptations, "Just My Imagination"
Undisputed Truth, "Smiling Faces, Sometimes"
The Beach Boys, "Please Let Me Wonder"
Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
Jr. Walker and the All-Stars, "Tune Up"
Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, "The Girl From Ipanema" (though go for the unedited album cut, please!)
Astrud Gilberto and Walter Wanderley, "Summer Samba (So Nice"
Booker T. and the MGs, "Green Onions"
Clarence Carter, "Making Love (At The Dark End Of The Street)"
James Carr, "The Dark End of The Street" (Original)
James Carr, "Pouring Water On A Drowning Man"
Albert King, "I'll Play The Blues For You Pts. 1 & 2"
John Mayall's Blues Breakers (with Eric Clapton), "I'm Your Witchdoctor"

....just for openers...

[habs4ever]

It's crazy that the NYC punk scene isn't represented here by the classic Marquee Moon, by Televsion, or where is Graham Parker's Squeezing out Sparks? Peter Gabriel's Third Album? Marianne Faithfull's Broken English? Shriekback's Oil and Gold? Iggy and the Stooges Funhouse??Mott the Hoople?? Cool is definitely not Rolling Stone magazine ;-)

[socal_parrot]

Rancho Deluxe features Livingston Saturday Night. I owned the cassette at one time. Great soundtrack, maybe need to get the CD.

[BluesDuke]

Another few cool singles...

Derek and the Dominos, "Tell The Truth" (the original version, the one they played Ramones-fast several years before the Ramones existed, with Eric and Duane slithering out the best one-two slide guitar jerk of the 1970s)
The Yardbirds, "Over, Under, Sideways, Down"
Van Morrison, "T.B. Sheets"
The Who, "Mary Anne With The Shaky Hands"
Eno, "Seven Deadly Finns"
Chuck Berry, "Nadine"
Ray Charles, "I've Got A Woman"
James and Bobby Purify, "I'm Your Puppet"
Sam and Dave, "May I, Baby"
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, "Baby, Baby, Don't Cry"
The Kinks, "Waterloo Sunset"

[socal_parrot]

Now that you went and mentioned Van Morrison, Tupolo Honey is very cool. And Into the Mystic maybe one of the coolest songs ever written.

[BluesDuke]

Tell you the truth, I'm surprised Astral Weeks didn't make the album cut, especially since Van Morrison is a longtime Rolling Stone favourite.

[RangeRatt]

don't forget Southside Johnny & the Jukes "Got The Fever"- nearly 12 minutes of "cool". Tells a good story, as well.

[Revolting cat!]

OK now, what about Cool Jerk, Kool and the Gang and Calvin Coolidge? Are they cool?

[RangeRatt]

actually, a slightly blue version of Livingston Saturday Night...I got kicked off a kareoke stage one night for singing THAT particular version...the retired Canadian snowbirds in the crowd didn't appreciate the iambic pentameter of the lyrics...or was it the whorehouse reference?

[BluesDuke]

"The Fever" is as you say - but if you're hearing twelve minutes of it, you're either repeating the studio version or in possession of a live version. On the other hand, Johnny and the boys' version of Sam Cooke's "We're Havin' A Party" makes "The Fever" sound like the 1910 Fruitgum Company for cool (or anything else)...

[RangeRatt]

I'll defer to your better judgement on that one, and agree. There is a live version of "Fever", I taped it whilst in high school, on cassette, and still have it (I think) in one of those boxes I never seem to unpack when I move...

[socal_parrot]

Actually, Kool and the Gang's Wild and Peaceful is a very cool funk album. It includes Jungle Boogie and Funky Stuff.

[socal_parrot]

Next time break into a version of Please Take Your Drunken Fifteen-Year-Old Girlfriend Home.

[RangeRatt]

I would love to find the sheet music & full lyrics to that particular gem...

[BluesDuke]

OK now, what about Cool Jerk, Kool and the Gang and Calvin Coolidge? Are they cool?

OK, you asked for it: a legitimate list of cool recordings!

Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool
The Beach Boys, "Cool, Cool Water"
David Johansen, "Cool Metro"
Freddie King, "Play It Cool"
Albert Collins, "Kool-Aid"
The Clash, "The Cool Out"
Little River Band, "Cool Change"
Albert Collins, "Don't Lose Your Cool"
The Rolling Stones, "Cool, Calm, and Collected"
Kool and the Gang, "Kool and the Gang" (it was their first single)
Garland Jefferys, "Cool Down, Boy"
Squeeze, Cool For Cats

[SamAdams76]

Anybody listing albums by Madonna, Michael Jackson and Culture Club as among the "50 Coolest Albums of All Time" must ingest way too many drugs.

[socal_parrot]

I'll go along with the Beach Boy's Cool Cool Water off of the Holland album, but Little River Band?

[BluesDuke]

I think you kinda missed the point of that list (*grin*) and, anyway, "Cool, Cool Water" (which, incidentally, included a snippet of the legendary "Water" segment from the Smile section known as "The Elements") was on Sunflower...

I can add two more selections to the foregoing cool list, though...

Iggy and the Stooges, "Real Cool Time"
The Beatles, "Three Cool Cats" (from Live at the BBC)