:: Friday, March 05, 2004 ::
Greatest Pop/Rock Albums, Vol. 2: 90-81
We continue our countdown of the 100 greatest pop and rock albums of all time, as determined by our panel of international experts. (Just in case you missed the first installment: Vol. 1, 100-91)
90. Help! The Beatles
The first but certainly not the last Beatles album to make the list. "Gorgeous pop rock of harmony and melody," says Ben Squires. Some of my faves include the title track, "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," "Ticket to Ride" and, of course, "Yesterday."
89. Hard Rain, Bob Dylan
The second Dylan album to make our top 100, but a travesty that it's only at No. 89. "Stuck inside Bloggedy Blog with the Music Critics' Blues Again," as Dylan himself might say. A description of the record, from Mista Sinista: "Dylan plugs in his guitar and hires a band for this record, consisting of tracks from his 'Rolling Thunder Revue' tour. Many of his fans hated him for abandoning his simple acoustic sound, but I think it gives a worthwhile edge to what would otherwise be more boring Dylan."
88. Wilson Phillips, Wilson Phillips
It pains me greatly to include this on the list, but it got a high enough ranking on one judge's list, so here it is.
87. Busted Stuff, Dave Matthews Band
Not the greatest DMB album, IMHO, but it got high billing on Rick's list."No kidding, these guys sound like they're thinking my thoughts sometimes," he writes.
86. Enter the Wu-Tang Wu-Tang Clan (36 Chambers)
W00t? I'll let Mista Sinista explain why it belongs here (parental advisory): "'Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothin' to F*** With,' and neither is this record. More than 10 years after its releases, 36 Chambers is still the most original and revolutionary hip-hop record ever dropped."
85. The Sun Sessions, Elvis Presley
The genius of Elvis, the essence of Elvis, belongs on the classic 45. But this album is a great collection of those early rockabilly hits: "That's All Right," "Good Rockin' Tonight," etc.
84. Rattle & Hum, U2
The first of a several U2 albums to make our list. A great live album, and U2's cover of "Helter Skelter" is better than the Beatles' original.
83. 77, Talking Heads
This debut by the clean-cut art-school weirdos of the New York CBGB's/punk scene is a classic. Lurking beneath their yuppie demeanor was the angst and tension that helped to launch punk upon the world. "Psycho Killer" is the best known tune from this album, but from the first notes of "New Feeling" (and David Byrne's tense crooning of "It's not...yesterday...anymore...") to the Jamaican polyrhythms of "Love Comes to Town," this album is worth adding to your collection. Guess who voted for this one?
82. Loaded, Velvet Underground
Velvet Underground and Nico is usually considered the classic VU title, but our discerning judges left it in the scrap heap and went with Loaded instead. David Hopkins declares it "an incredible tribute to rock'n'roll." From my perspective, "Sweet Jane" alone is worth the price of admission.
81. Voice of the Beehive, Honey Lingers
If you're wondering why this one is on the list, consult Ganns' top 10 list posted at the bottom of Friday's entry.
*****
My Top 10
by Joshua Claybourn
10. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
9. Thriller, Michael Jackson
8. Rubber Soul, The Beatles
7. Revolver, The Beatles
6. The Sun Sessions, Elvis Presley
5. Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones
4. The Beatles (White Album), The Beatles
3. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
2. Abbey Road, The Beatles
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
Josh's commentary: "As happens with most lists of top albums, The Beatles are the dominant entity. But is it any wonder? Although their record-setting sales is evidence enough, they had the creativity and genius to match. When fellow artists are asked to list the top artists of all time, The Beatles consistently place at the top. While all of the Beatles albums were groundbreaking in some way, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was particularly unique because the band combined classical and machine-made sounds in a way not done before, but imitated ever since.
:: Andrew 12:42 + ::
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Greatest Pop/Rock Albums, Vol. 1: 100-91
Several weeks ago I put out a call to the blogosphere to help me assemble the greatest pop/rock albums of all time, and the vast, vast majority of the blogosphere shrugged, yawned, scratched its collective rear end, and ignored the call. I even sent emails to several blogging acquiantances listed on my blogroll, and while the vast majority again blew me off. Oh, a few decent but busy souls took the time to fire off an email to apologize for being too busy to take part in this project. But a hearty group took me up on the challenge and submitted their rankings of the greatest pop and rock albums of all time. I've compiled the results, and will begin by revealing the top 100 greatest pop and rock albums of all time, starting with the bottom 10 on the list and continuing 10 at a time until all is revealed. Also with each entry of 10 albums, I'll include the top 10 list of one of our judges.
Before I reveal albums No. 100-91, a brief introduction of our international panel of experts:
Rick Stilwell, CCM lover, South Carolina Gamecocks fan, and all-around good guy. Ganns Dean, writer, publicist, musician and perhaps the Philippines' most famous blogger. Mista Sinista, a non-blogger friend who reads this site faithfully and also deejays at KMNR. Ben Squires, a Lutheran minister and music lover who's always giving away CDs at his blog, MusicSpectrum. K Jo, another non-blogging friend, former student assistant in my office and the most musically knowledgable geological engineer I know. David Hopkins, English teacher, Antihero Comics creator, music lover, ex-editor of Next-Wave, Renaissance man. Richard Hall, Methodist minister from the UK, ex-punker. Josh Claybourn, political pundit/commentator. MarcV aka Spudlets, another wild-eyed southern boy who has a blog and isn't afraid to use it. Paul Oyler, aka SteelerDirtFreak, another music and dirt racing fan who blogs about "what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the real world today." Post-Modern Pilgrim, who blogs about art, life, music, faith, and just about anything else. Me.
*****
So there you have it. The panel of experts. They submitted their lists of top 25, 30, 50 or even 100 greatest albums, and I assigned a point value, compiled the scores, and created the top 100 ranking. Here, without further ado, are albums No. 100 through 91:
100. Sign O’ the Times, Prince
Less popular than his 1999 album but one of K Jo’s favorites.
99. Waiting for Columbus, Little Feat
Mista Sinista says, "some bands were meant to be heard live, and Little Feat is one of these. With their dixieland-meets-rock style complete with extended solos, Little Feat proves on this record that they are meant for a live listener."
98. Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
Another one of K.Jo’s faves.
97. Weezer (Blue Album), Weezer
Features one of the best songs about sweaters ever. David Hopkins: "Weezer decides to create their greatest hits album in one album. Radio stations drool."
96. Hymns to Silence, Van Morrison
One of Richard Hall's top picks.
95. At Fillmore East, the Allman Brothers
High on SteelerDirtFreak's list.
94. Pronounced LEN-herd SKIN-nerd , Lynyrd Skynyrd
I had this on eight-track and played it so much the player eventually ate the tape. It would switch tracks right before the scorching three-guitar blast of "Free Bird." While "Sweet Home Alabama" gave southern rock radio cred and "Free Bird" became one of rock's full-blown guitar anthems, the ballads "Tuesday's Gone" and "Simple Man," and honky tonk tunes like "Gimme Three Steps" and "I Ain't the One" make this album the classic of southern rock.
93. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan
The first Dylan disc on the list, includes great stuff from his folkie days, like "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall." Ben Squires of MusicSpectrum calls Dylan "a folk singer who changed the rock world in terms of lyrics, melody and style."
92. Various Positions, Leonard Cohen
Richard Hall and I have a lot in common, but appreciation for this CD isn't one of them. Richard likes it; I'm just not too wild about Cohen. Still, he's No. 92 on the list.
91. Nickel Creek, Nickel Creek
Says Rick & 1j13: "Got me into my bluegrass/newgrass phase -- woo hoo."
*****
My Top 10
by Ganns
10. South to the Lord 2000, Hillsong Australia.
Darlene Zschech and the Hillsong worship ministry team up with Ron Kenoly and Alvin Slaughter for the most powerful, dynamic live worship experience you'll ever hear. Amen.
9. Think With Your Heart, Deborah Gibson.
Deborah has come a long way since Electric Youth (the video of which cracks me up fifteen years later). This is her most adult, mature collection to date (even better than Colored Lights, her latest), a sweet collection of ballads.
8. Oxygen, Avalon.
There are few groups in contemporary Christian music that are as good vocally as Avalon. This Brown Barrister-produced collection is stunning, stellar, and simply evangelistic. "The Glory" is amazing.
7. Swamp Ophelia, Indigo Girls.
Simply brilliant. The cover art is amazing, the songwriting skill at its best, and "Power of Two" is the most overplayed Indigo Girls song in history.
6. Heart in Motion, Amy Grant.
This album spawned "Baby, Baby" among other hits. I long for the simpler days when a woman could simply sing a great song without screeching or sampling some other person's song.
5. Wilson Phillips, Wilson Phillips.
I was a Wilson Phillips nutcase. I still am. This collection sold over six million albums and resulted in three #1 singles, including "Hold On," which is still one of my favorite songs of all time, 14 years later. If it weren't for wilson Phillips, I would never have trained myself to harmonize.
4. Honey Lingers, Voice of the Beehive.
This quirky collection of pop gems sparkles and shines like no other. They're virtually unheard of, but you've got to try giving one listen to this pleasantly pleasing album. Think B-52s but withou that irritating male guy.
3. Change Your World, Michael W. Smith.
A lof ot people think Smitty's a sellout. I disagree. I was first brought to an awareness of Christ through this man's "Place in This World" (off the Go West Young Man opus), but this collection is a winner across the board.
2. Power of Love/Love Power, Luther Vandross.
"Power of Love/Love Power" was one of the first solid R&B songs that I truly loved. This 10-track collection is an amazing display of his sensitive songwriting and dynamic vocal abilities.
1. Rites of Passage, Indigo Girls.
This 1992 opus is amazing. With harmonies and lyrics that work together in brilliant unison, Amy ray and Emily Saliers have proven why, 17 years later, they're still rocking the free world.
:: Andrew 15:42 + ::
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Roget and me
I've been a fan of Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases since Jesteen Fetterhoff, a bookish friend of my grandmother's, gave me my first (and so far, only) copy of this treasure as a high school graduation gift. The year was 1978, and the copy Jesteen gave me is copyright 1937. You'd have to know Jesteen, I guess, to appreciate this fact. But it was in fine shape, if a bit musty in aroma, but all fine books should have a musty odor to them. I've had the volume rebound, and though its edges are frayed and its pages sepiaed over time, I still love this volume. It maintains a prominent spot among the reference books within arm's reach of my computer here at work, along with two stylebooks (the venerable AP Stylebook and Libel Manual and less venerable but entertaining Wired Style), the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, The Full Life Study Bible, an alumni directory from my alma mater, an alumni directory for the university that employs me, a few university publications, and a phone book. Although I tend to use the thesaurus feature of my word processing software when I get in a jam, my old pal Roget is still right there among the most important reference books.
It took me awhile to warm up to Roget. I was more accustomed to the alphabetical order of organization. But once I grasped Roget's existential arrangement -- words categorized by meaning, rather than the randomness of alphabetization -- I began to appreciate the mind of the man who created this wonderful resource. Now I find at least one other person who appreciates Roget as well -- enough to write a book about the man and his book. It's called A History of Roget's Thesaurus, but at $99 it's a bit pricey for me. It probably is for you, too. So let's read a review of the book instead.
Like me, the author of A History of Roget's Thesaurus, Werner Hullen, is interested "in the whole of Roget's 'archaeological underpinning': lexicography governed by meaning, not by the alphabet; what Hullen calls topical (or sometimes onomasiological) lexicography."
Whew. Heady stuff there. The reviewer notes that Hullen's work attempts to record "evidence bearing on the unsolved question of how words are stored in the mind: whether by content or form, by meaning or derivation. The important point, to him, is 'the general creativity of the human mind in organizing vocabulary in the brain.' He addresses Roget's own linguistic work only in the last chapter, where he declares the Thesaurus to have been 'erected on a massive foundation of linguistic ideas which had accumulated during the preceding centuries of European cultural history.'"
But as the reviewer points out, "Roget is shown to have had little awareness of the base he built on. His references, in his introduction, to the plentiful literature Hullen sets out were sparse. The disregard was mutual. Later 'synonymy studies' left Roget unmentioned."In plain terms, he was an amateur. He was a doctor who liked making lists, and his longest list was of words. His purposes were not scholarly; they were practical. Words were tools. He did think there was one high purpose the Thesaurus might serve: since its plan could be applied to any language, the work might ease the growth of a universal language. But his main aim was simply to help people compose the written or the spoken word well. "The writer, as well as the orator, employs for the accomplishment of his purposes the instrumentality of words. ... It is therefore essential to his success that he be provided with a copious vocabulary."
Words were tools. Maybe that's why I liked Roget and his thesaurus so much. We both appreciate the tools of language.
Thanks to Books & Culture for the link.
:: Andrew 08:12 + ::
...
:: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 ::
World's longest three-hour tour continues
Juuust sit right back and you'll hear a tale
a tale of a fateful trip...
Looks like the latest offering of reality TV will be a reality program based on that '60s TV classic "Gilligan's Island". Just think of it: a real-life captain, first mate, millionaire and his wife (I guess only male millionaires need apply), a movie star, a professor and, um, whatever it was that Mary Ann was.
:: Andrew 07:37 + ::
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Bagels, bagels everywhere
Our campus was hit hard overnight by the latest bagel virus. I must have had 50 emails from on-campus addresses infected by the thing. If you receive an email from someone you know or within your organization that contains any of these subject lines:
Accounts department
Ahtung!
Camila
Daily activity report
Ello! =))
Flayers among us
Freedom for everyone
From Hair-cutter
From me
Greet the day
Hardware devices price-list
Hello my friend
Hey, dude, it's me ^_^ :P
Hi!
Jenny
Jessica
Looking for the report
Maria
Melissa
Monthly incomings summary
New Price-list
Price
Price list
Pricelist
Price-list
Proclivity to servitude
Registration confirmation
The account
The employee
The summary
USA government abolishes the capital punishment
Weekly activity report
Well...
You are dismissed
You really love me? he he
...do not click on the attachment.
:: Andrew 07:41 + ::
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:: Monday, March 01, 2004 ::
Why running makes me feel smarter
I always feel more alert during and after a good run. Now I know why.
Another thing about running: I always get weird songs in my head during a jog. The other day, my inner jukebox played Thin Lizzie's "The Boys Are Back in Town" during my workout. I have no idea why. It isn't like I listed to Thin Lizzie every day. Yesterday's run began with "Jamie Jones," from the Clash's debut album, followed by "Remote Control," the second song on that CD. Then back and forth between the two.
Is this weird? Or does this happen to other runners?
:: Andrew 07:36 + ::
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I've got to take the youth group to this movie
No, not The Passion. Most members of my youth group have already seen it. (I still haven't, but they told me all about it during Sunday's meeting.) I'm talking about the flick Saved!. The trailer just came out. It looks like a real hoot, a great takeoff on the classic teen movie.
Thanks to David Hopkins for the link.
:: Andrew 19:54 + ::
...
Simon Dawes, 
