500 Greatest Albums of all Times


Yes, Rolling Stone Magazine is at it again with a new version of subject, that is on the newsstands now. Some think there is a bias in the list, others dismiss it as a marketing stunt. So my question is simple, and numerical, how many of these albums do you actual;y currently own, in any media form. All who answer with '500' will get to go to New York and be an unpaid intern at Rolling Stone for five years, no expenses paid.
buconero117

Showing 2 responses by duanegoosen

500 gives Rolling Stone enough room to do A LOT better:
-Their list has multiple titles from Miles Davis and Coltrane, has one Stan Getz and one Ornette Coleman (way before his peak).
LIST DOES NOT HAVE:
Charles Mingus
Thelonious Monk
Eric Dolphy
Charlie Parker
Cecil Taylor
Albert Ayler
Duke Ellington
Roland Kirk
Art Ensemble of Chicago
Bill Evans
Dave Brubeck
Gil Evans
Don Ellis
Sun Ra
John Zorn
Henry Threadgill
Don Cherry
Anthony Braxton
Oliver Nelson
Oscar Peterson
Keith Jarrett
Cannonball Adderley
Sam Rivers
Lee Konitz
Paul Desmond
Personal taste aside, RS failed to competently assemble another list.

The list has multiple titles from Roxy Music, Brian Eno and Pink Floyd and has single albums from Kraftwerk, Suicide, Sonic Youth, Captain Beefheart and My Bloody Valentine.
LIST DOES NOT HAVE:
King Crimson
ELP
Yes
Can (omission of Can is a sub zero I.Q. act of pants shitting)
Van der Graaf Generator
Henry Cow (or any Fred Frith)
Amon Duul II
NEU
Soft Machine
National Health
Camel
Gong
Terje Rypdal
Gentle Giant
Weather Report
Mahavishnu Orchestra (maybe even dumber than the Can omission)
Brand X
Magma
Chrome

List has multiple titles of Metallica, Black Sabbath AC/DC, Kiss, Def Leppard, Mott The Hoople, MC5, The Stooges, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Aerosmith, one Van Halen record and a Peter Wolf record.
LIST DOES NOT HAVE:
Deep Purple
Scorpions
Thin Lizzy
Judas Priest
Rory Gallagher
Humble Pie
Kansas
James Gang
Spirit
Blue Cheer
Blue Oyster Cult
Captain Beyond
Wishbone Ash
Uriah Heep
Megadeth
Motorhead
Pantera
Slayer
Patto
UFO

The list does contain two Frank Zappa records, but both came out before 90% of his recorded output and well before the bulk of his best compositions were released.

Can't stomach going into detail about the whole list, but it seems likely that the first 500 discs thrown on the floor by a gang of chimps in a record store might have about the same ratio of slick formulaic flotsam. Thinking RS assembled a good list of the 500 greatest albums is kind of like thinking Geo. W. Bush was a good president.
It's apparent that when setting themselves up as a prominent oracle covering contemporary music, RS chose to rely on poorly informed opinions when putting together the "greatest 500 albums" list.
They put up multiple titles from Miles Davis and Coltrane and listed albums of Stan Getz and Ornette Coleman... when you have more than 490 slots left to fill, you gotta' be pretty damn ignorant not to list any records released by their peers.
Opinions aside, their list omits many albums that shaped the evolution of jazz and rock. Their assessment is very inaccurate and poorly serves readers and a lot of recording artists.
Last I heard, we still get to speak truth to power to some degree and are generally at liberty to point out incompetence when we see it.
Ranking albums and artists is inherently kinda' dumb, (trying to quantify something that is largely qualitative). The best we can can probably hope for is that the morons at RS can learn from their mistakes.