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

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[socal_parrot]

No Dark Side of the Moon, no Doors, no Clapton?

What else is missing?

[Hawkeye's Girl]

Ozzy and Black Sabbath for starters.

Based on this list, Rolling Stone is apparently staffed by morons.

[RangeRatt]

Frank Zappa: Joe's Garage, Freak Out, Apostrophy/Overnight Sensation, Burnt Weenie Sandwich

Van Halen (all of it, up to when they became Van Hagar)

Jethro Tull: Thick As A Brick

The Who:Quadraphenia, Tommy, Who's Next

Ted Nugent:Double Live Gonzo

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band:Greetings From Asbury Park, The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, The River

Traffic: Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys

Creem: Disreali Gears

Shall I go on?

[mdittmar]

No Clapton?,No Elvis?

[socal_parrot]

My only guess is that there is a difference between "best" and "coolest". Either way, they must've hired a bunch of young staffers. Even Silk Degrees by Boz Scaggs is cooler than most of these.

[socal_parrot]

461 Ocean Boulevard is a very cool album.

[socal_parrot]

Disreali Gears

'Nuff said. Plus, as a parrothead, I must say that A1A and Floridays are also pretty cool.

[BluesDuke]

Oh, I could think of about fifty more albums that should have made this cut, and they'd only begin with Strange Days or A Saucerful of Secrets. On the other hand, I'm counting my blessings that they included Miles Davis, the Beatles, Roxy Music, the Velvet Underground, Otis Redding (I'd have picked Otis Blue or The Soul Album myself) and Blue Oyster Cult, though I would have chosen the debut Blue Oyster Cult album over Secret Treaties. And I'm still trying to figure out why they didn't seem to give even a slight pull on the MC5's Kick Out The James. Then again, these are probably kids, after all; and, anyway, a) they probably wouldn't know Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity (it's the least obstreperous and most honest-to-God free free jazz album of them all) or the Godz' The Godz 2 (the very essence of "inspired amateurism" and also the best deconstruction of "psychedelic" music this side of the Velvets); and, b) I'd rather have one tug on Blue Cheer's cheerfully insane heavy metal deconstructionist blues jerk Vincebus Eruptum (for the uninitiated: imagine the sound of Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience collaborating as a double trio after they had consumed three cases each of their favourite spirits) than the entire Black Sabbath catalogue...

[jwh_Denver]

1. Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat

A friend of mine used to play this album when people came to his place that he wanted to leave. They were gone before the first side was over. Absolutely terrible. Amps turned all the way with lousy distortion and Lou Reed can't find his mainline. God awful album. Rolling Stoned? No, not on drugs. Stoned by big big massive rocks on their commie lib "heads".

[BluesDuke]

And, on the other hand, they did include Howlin' Wolf! (Elvis? Who the hell needs him when we've got the Mighty Wolf!!!)

[mdittmar]

461 Ocean Boulevard is a very cool album.

Yes it is.

[RangeRatt]

I did say, "Shall I go on?" As Pacino said in "Scent Of A Woman", "I'm just gettin' warmed up...HOOOOAH!"

I agree with you about the Buffett, too- have you ever heard his "first" album, which was released on Barnaby Records, and then promptly "lost" for a number of years?

[BluesDuke]

One by one...your selections:

Frank Zappa: Hate to break it to you, but "cool" belonged to Zappa only when the real Mothers of Invention were still in business. And for that, look no further to Absolutely Free...

Van Halen: Don't even go there. I don't care how great Eddie Van Halen is, he wouldn't be the first truly virtuoso musician to shoot his wad at the crapola tables.

Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick lives up to its title and then some - it's an unqualified snooze. Jethro Tull hasn't known what "cool" is since Benefit. Brick is cool only when compared to the inexcusably over-the-top-and-down-the-drain A Passion Play.

The Who: Now you're talking in headlines, though if I'm putting the Who on the "cool" list I hold that The Who Sell Out beat the living bejesus out of the other three sets for "cool".

Ted Nugent: I could be tempted, as regards Double Live Gonzo, on condition that I don't ever again have to listen to "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang".

Bruce Springsteen: You should have quit at The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle. There isn't anyone who could get within six city blocks of that kind of cool, and fewer who'd resist the temptation to try.

Traffic: Low Spark? Over John Barleycorn Must Die? Dear Mr. Fantasy, replay your tune...

Cream: Disraeli Gears is a good pick. Wheels of Fire is a better one, even if "As You Said" is about the most misshapen song they ever came up with.

And how come these Rolling Stone arbiters didn't give even a nod or a wink to Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band's The Mirror Man Sessions or Safe as Milk? (You don't need me to tell you they'd run behind Mommy's skirts in a New York nanosecond at the first hint of Trout Mask Replica, do you?)

[socal_parrot]

Blue Cheer's cheerfully insane heavy metal deconstructionist blues jerk Vincebus Eruptum

Their version of Summertime Blues is great. You should send Rolling Stone a resume.

[mdittmar]

At least they had the "Hag" in there.

[RangeRatt]

criticizm & critique well taken...and I agree with you, Capt. Beefheart should have made their cut, and I wonder why Talking Heads weren't mentioned. For that matter, what about the B-52's?

[socal_parrot]

Buffett, too- have you ever heard his "first" album

What's the name? I've been a fan forever. I saw him for the first time in the mid seventies at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, CA.

[BluesDuke]

Some more cool, in no particular order...

Frank Sinatra, Francis A. and Edward K. (with Duke Ellington and His Orchestra)
Pink Floyd, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
R.L. Burnside, Come On In
Junior Kimbrough, Meet Me In The City
Eno, Here Come the Warm Jets and Another Green World
John Coltrane and Milt Jackson, Bags and Trane
Wes Montgomery and the Wynton Kelly Trio, Smokin' At The Half Note
Thelonious Monk, Live At The It Club
Booker T. and the MGs, Melting Pot
Albert Collins, Truckin' With Albert Collins
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, This Time It's For Real
The Velvet Underground, VU
The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things (their 1964-65 debut and, believe me, next to these guys the Rolling Stones were just a bunch of pretenders)
Marvin Gaye, What's Going On
The Clash, Black Market Clash
Bob Marley, Dreams of Freedom

[BluesDuke]

Their version of Summertime Blues is great. You should send Rolling Stone a resume.

Their "Summertime Blues" is delicious deconstruction, but for me the absolute killer on that album is "Doctor, Please". Here's where most of the Cream-wannabe bloozebreaking heavy hamfisters (remember, it wasn't quite called heavy metal yet) who were turning the blues into sludge got exactly what they deserved, right down to Leigh Stephens's welded-to-the-whammy-bar guitar solo. Van Halen only wish they had something that dangerous to handle...

[socal_parrot]

What I have a hard time with is that they include several "best of" albulms. You mentioned Bob Marley, what about Legend? Cream of Clapton, Beach Boys Endless Summer? On the subject of the Beach Boys, what about Pet Sounds?