What are the 5 most overrated rock albums?


1. The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. The songs on this album are nowhere near as memorable as those on "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul". For that matter, this album is nowhere near as innovative, nor ultimately as influential, as either "Pet Sounds" or the first Velvet Underground album. I'm not the first to point out that blame for such artless excess as all seventeen minutes of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida rests primarily with Sgt. Pepper.

2. Pink Floyd: The Wall. All of the criticisms usually applied to late 70's stadium rock, i.e., that it was pretentious, bloated, pseudo-intellectual,and self-indulgent; apply doubly to this crock opera. If you want witty and insightful philosophizing on the human condition, read Nietzsche, H.L. Mencken, or Michel Foucault. To seek such wisdom from pop music, a genre defined by its righteous Dionysian folly, is the greatest folly imaginable.

Pearl Jam: 10. Johnny Rotten was bang on when he described Pearl Jam as "bloody awful" and as sounding like "Joe Cocker singing for Black Sabbath." To my ears, this sounds like so much bland 70's rock (e.g., Bad Company). As The Monkees are to The Beatles, so are Pearl Jam to Nirvana.

4. U2: The Joshua Tree. I don't know where to begin. These guys plagiarized Joy Division, and set their sublime riffs to dumbass lyrics bespeaking the most niave sort of Oprah Winfrey meets Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms bourgeois liberalism. I've said it before, I'll say it again: If you make me listen to a record by someone named Bono, his first name better be SONNY.

5. Bob Marley & The Wailers: Exodus. Not only was Bob Marley not, by a long shot, the best pop music figure to come out of Jamaica, he wasn't even my favorite member of The Wailers. The monomaniacal cult of personality surrounding the deceased Robert Nesta Marley comes at the expense of all the other, far more exciting, music to come out of that poverty-stricken island. As Lester Bangs put it:

"Toots and the Maytalls, who never got promoted properly, are the real heat from a Stax/Volt kitchen, whereas Marley always struck me as being so laid back he seemed almost MOR. Rastaman Vibration was the last straw: an LP obviously calculated to break Disco Bob into the American Kleenex radio market full force, complete with chicklet vocal backdrops chirping 'Pos-i-tive!'
tweakgeek

Showing 2 responses by pawil71

I must protest the inclusion of Pavarotti in a list of schlock. The man has made some horrid missteps, but his mention in the post of Mr Mingus77etc implies that the man is a charlatan. No one who heard the man at his best would ever doubt his status as one of the greatest singers ever to live. I say this as someone who wanted not to like him...
rcprince states that Sgt Pepper is not overrated, but he thinks other albums are better. My understanding is that the "rock establishment" such as it is, regards Sgt Pepper as the #1 greatest album ever, in which case, if there is even one album better, then Sgt Pepper is by definition overrated. A small point, and not a profound one, but I thought I'd make it nonetheless. In any case, I'll say I think it's great but overrated. Give me Revolver and Pet Sounds.

Loved seeing Funhouse mentioned on the good lists. That album is primordial, evil genius. To see it on a list with Abba is more interesting still. Shows an open minded listener.

As for the originality argument, I'll take Stravinsky's view that decent artists imitate, and great ones steal. A big part of Art is using the source of your inspiration to its maximum, then covering your tracks. Many of the greatest classical works are actually arrangements and expansions of folk tunes. Pet Sounds is an inspired response to Rubber Soul. Doesn't bother me one bit. Originality does count for something, but it is not everything.

As for those who think giant egoes and arrogance are part of the fun of rock, I disagree. A humble, big hearted genius like Woody Guthrie is much more my speed than an arrogant fraud like Geddy Lee. Peacocks (except for Mick Jagger) cheapen a whole genre and blur the image of more sincere, lasting musicians. Okay, Woody's not a rock musician, but there are many in rock who have learned from his example.

That said, I agree The Wall is pretentious, but I think it is musically superb. Sad to hear Roger Waters' contempt for his audience, but that probably says more about him than it does his audience.

And I'd like to agree with the post that instists that rock is a valid artistic form. Maybe 50million Britney fans CAN be wrong, but rock as a whole is a durable, flexible, expressive art form, and if it were not, it would have gone the way of ragtime by now. And even ragtime was good art.

As someone who doesn't particularly listen to Reggae, I think it is worth noting that Bob Marley is the choice of most reggae dilettantes, and I think that's because his greatness is bigger than his genre. Just like lots of rockers love Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Willie Nelson. When someone earns respect of people who don't necessarily dig his chosen style of music, that gets my attention. I think Bob is an amazing musician. Am looking into Toots and the Maytals and some of the others mentioned all the same.

Happy listening