Did Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski get a job at L’ Osservatore Romano? That seems to be the only explanation for the Holy See’s official newspaper including these works on their list of top ten rock and pop albums of all time:
The Beatles’ “Revolver”
Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of The Moon”
Oasis’ “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?”
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”
U2’s “Achtung Baby”
Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”
Donald Fagen’s “The Nightfly”
Carlos Santana’s “Supernatural”
Paul Simon’s “Graceland”
David Crosby’s “If I Could Only Remember My Name.”
According to the WSJ, the rock critics at L’ Osservatore claim the albums are perfect listening material for anyone who finds himself marooned on a desert island. This could not be more wrong. Unless you’re stranded on a island with a bunch of hippies, there is no way you want to listen to Pink Floyd, Donald Fagen, and David Crosby. (As a matter of fact, if you’re stranded on an island with hippies those are also the last albums you’d ever want to listen to.)
“Thriller” deserves a place on the list but I can’t imagine how the others made the cut. U2 and the Beatles should be included but “Achtung Baby” and “Revolver” aren’t even their best albums (those would be “Joshua Tree” and “The White Album”). And who in their right mind thinks that any albums containing the talentless Wyclef Jean warbling “Maria Maria” or the Gallagher brothers singing “Champagne Supernova” belong on an all-time best list? Are they trying to convince us that rock really is the devil’s music?
The paper did, however, get one thing right:
The article by Giuseppe Fiorentino and Gaetano Vallini said that Bob Dylan was excluded from the list despite his “great poetic vein” because he paved the way for generations of unprofessional singer-songwriters who have “harshly tested the ears and patience of listeners” with their tormented stories.
What would a better list look like? Provide your revisions in the comment section.
February 15th, 2010 | 3:14 pm
I can only add that rock was boring when I was a teenager, and I refuse to develop a taste for it as I approach geezerhood!
February 15th, 2010 | 3:25 pm
It is truly a horrible list (with the exception of “Dark Side…”), and you are right on the mark about U2′s best album being “Joshua Tree.” David Crosby? Oasis?? Unbelievable. What about Radiohead’s “OK Computer,” one of the most brilliant, beautiful rock albums ever? But, then, this is the same newspaper that made the “argument” a couple of years ago that there hasn’t been any good pop music since the Beatles, a silly remark I was happy to rip to shreds.
In addition to “OK Computer,” I would add these rather subjective suggestions:
• ”Grace” by Jeff Buckley
• ”Moondance” or “Astral Weeks” by Van Morrison
• “Led Zeppelin IV” by Led Zeppelin (who else?)
• ”Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John
• “Superunknown” by Soundgarden
• ”Seal” (1991) by Seal
• ”Synchronicity” by The Police
• “Purple Rain” by Prince
• “Fragile” by Yes
February 15th, 2010 | 3:40 pm
When was the last time you listened to Achtung Baby? I have a feeling that Joshua Tree is more highly acclaimed simply because it sold better and has more well-known songs.
And I’ve also got to speak up for (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?: As with Achtung Baby, the opening track is smashing and it keeps rocking throughout. But perhaps that’s just a generational preference.
February 15th, 2010 | 3:57 pm
I also have to say “Revolver” is generally considered the Beatles finest record these days. I love the “White Album” and maybe if it was a single LP there could be an argument, but as is material like “Revolution 9″ and “Wild Honey Pie” really bring it down. (And, if I want to hear “Don’t Pass Me By” I want the Georgia Satellites performing it.)
As for the rest of the list, I agree…it is execrable.
February 15th, 2010 | 4:05 pm
If you want a Santana album, the only choice is Caravanserai. Also (pace Joe), any list without Highway 61 Revisited is incomplete.
February 15th, 2010 | 4:19 pm
I fall on my knees to thank God that the jurisdiction of the Magisterium does not extend to popular music. Though if anyone had any doubts on that point, this list would prove it.
I do think Revolver is the best Beatles album, though.
February 15th, 2010 | 4:53 pm
I fall on my knees to thank God that the jurisdiction of the Magisterium does not extend to popular music.
And I am thankful that opinion pieces in the L’ Osservatore Romano have nothing to do with the Magisterium…
February 15th, 2010 | 4:54 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by ROFTERS: Geezer Rock-Listening Baby Boomers Take Over Vatican Newspaper http://bit.ly/bq0KLb…
February 15th, 2010 | 5:43 pm
Tsk…,tsk…
I think U2′s Achtung Baby is, as a whole, a far better Album than The Joshua Tree (which is not a bad Album either).
AB is more challenging but also more rewarding. A timeless Masterpiece that still sounds very fresh IMHO.
It has a more European touch which is probably why it was chosen from the european vatican state.
The Joshua Tree does reflect more on America (not just the US).
February 15th, 2010 | 6:01 pm
Why would the Vatican newspaper make such a list? It’s silly. It’s like the Oscar for “Best Picture of 2009″ or any other year – there’s no such thing. There are , however, good musical artists and bad musical artists. Just for the record, I consider Steely Dan to be the high point of popular music in the last 50 years or so.
February 15th, 2010 | 6:08 pm
I want to echo Maclin and Carl’s remarks above, but I want to go a little further than this. As long as the O.R. is going to the trouble of compiling this list, on top of all the other such “best of” lists, couldn’t they have tried to identify more “Catholic” works, sort of like the USCCB and the Vatican have done with movie and book lists? (all of which are, I am sure, subject to vigorous debate I hasten to add.) On that basis, the only three I would include from that list might be Dark Side of the Moon, Revolver and Achtung Baby – In the case of the latter two I do not recall the song lists and am basing this on my “sense” of the albums. Dark Side of the Moon addresses “the world” if not the kingdom. All of them could provide fodder for reflection through a Christian lens. I would be open for arguments regarding the others, but I think if a Catholic publication, let alone the O.R., is going to put out such a list the criteria need to include more than just musical merit, or why bother?
I have one nomination, Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising”. Besides being one of his best albums (imho), it hits powerful themes of faith, despair, sin and hope without being preachy. It is the best artistic response to 9/11 I have yet encountered (I will leave others to quarrel ;). I do not know where Springsteen stands in his own faith and belief at this time, but he has since his earliest albums drawn on his Catholic upbringing and the images and language of the Church. He has also worked to live out the values of his faith in organizing food bank collections at his concerts and other works like that (I am sure he committed many of the sins of the rock n’ roll life, but he’s a married family guy now, so . . .).
I am going overboard here in my praise because I have tried to set a standard other than just musical worth, and I anticipate there might be some grumbling on this blog regarding his support of the “pro-choice” Kerry and Obama. I don’t think they merited his support, but I understand why he did it – leave it at that.
And, while I’m at it, I also nominate “Nebraska”.
;)
p.s. Would Johnny Cash qualify? – right now I’m listening to “Ring of Fire”, so I wonder . . .
February 15th, 2010 | 6:16 pm
The Beatles’ best album is their “White Album”? Joe. Methinks you’ve been listening to too much Neil Young! The White Album *could* have been their best (if only they had exercised their editing skills by tossing half of it into the trash). Try Rubber Soul, Revolver or Sgt. Pepper for better takes – or even Hard Day’s Night.
February 15th, 2010 | 7:46 pm
What, no Bob Dylan?
I now have my doubts about infallibility. ;-)
February 15th, 2010 | 7:58 pm
Is not the content of many of these songs the leading edge of our cultural decline?Duh…sex drugs and…Odd that the”official “publication would even enter the list biz…
best beatle album Abbey Road
February 15th, 2010 | 8:15 pm
Was not the content of many of these songs the leading edge of our cultural decline? You know sex, drugs and …Odd that the “official”
publication would even wade into the highly subjective waters of rock review…four of the selections would be set afire to attract rescue to Gilligans retreat…
No mention of Abbey Road as the beatles best?…And Springsteen is so far liberal I can’t believe the pitcher in “glory Days” Isn’t called “Lefty”…Born to Run best albumn ever
February 15th, 2010 | 8:28 pm
The White Album is their best album? On a desert island the last thing I want to hear is “Why don’t we do it in the Road” and the repeat of #9 over and over again. There are some great songs on that album – but great individual songs don’t make a great album. I would lean more towards Sgt Peppers as their best album.
I also think Joshua Tree is U2′s best album, but Achtung baby comes a very close second.
I would have to add The Who’s “Who’s Next” to this list for sure.
I like some of Carl Olsen’s suggestions above, especially Fragile by Yes, LedZep IV, and Superunknown. But these types of lists are way to subjective to mean anything and pretty much a waste of time for L’ Osservatore Romano.
February 15th, 2010 | 8:50 pm
I’ll give those editors credit for dissing Dylan, but otherwise, I’m with Carl – there’s “Dark Side,” a couple of eye-rollers, and a pile of trash. My 10 picks would probably be these:
Yes – Close to the Edge (1972)
Kansas – Leftoverture (1977)
Iona – Open Sky (2000)
Roger Hodgson – Eye of the Storm (1984)
Joe Jackson – Blaze of Glory (1989)
Kate Bush – The Kick Inside (1978)
Dire Straits – Love Over Gold (1982)
Glass Hammer – Culture of Ascent (2007)
Neal Morse – One (2004)
Camel – Dust and Dreams (1991)
February 15th, 2010 | 9:52 pm
The Holy See’s official newspaper makes a list of the top ten rock and pop albums of all time. What’s next, their favorite comics?
February 15th, 2010 | 10:12 pm
I’m gonna mark the time…. 8:24 PM CST, Feb. 15, 2010… I read a reference to the prog group Camel on the First Thoughts blog.
Wow.
lol
Still, I have to admit I detect a baby boomer bias in the L’ Osservatore Romano list. Even the U2 and Oasis albums recall faded boomer glories really.
I’ve already defended “Revolver” so I’ll add nine albums I’d hate to be without on that desert island.
1. The Kinks – Singles Collection: OK, maybe I’m cheating here, but this compilation of early Kinks’ singles thru to “Apeman” can’t be beat. “Sunny Afternoon” echoes trad jazz but no one at the time seemed to notice. Brilliant.
2. Simon & Garfunkel – Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme: Simply buries Simon’s “Graceland.” Garfunkel’s voice on “For Emily, Whenever I May Find” is one of the prettiest things ever found on a pop record.
3. Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend: Were there any justice in the record business (or fewer record executives in the record business) this guitar driven power pop jam fest would have spawned the great music movement of the 1990′s. Sadly, that distinction went to Nirvana. Granted, a subtext here is Sweet’s mistrust of organized religion (e.g. “Divine Inspiration” “Evangeline” and “Holy War”) but there isn’t as much rancor as you might expect.
4. The Alan Parsons Project – The Turn of a Friendly Card: Too prog for a lot of pop lovers, too poppy for a lot of prog purists, this album (best known for the two singles “Time” and “Games People Play”) is seriously underrated. The second side title track suite is gorgeous symphonic rock. That it examines the human cost of gambling and addiction makes it unusual, to say the least.
5. Jellyfish – Spilt Milk: Go ahead and roll your eyes if you must…I know this is a record that lots of folks claim as a “influence” and, normally, that would be enough to frighten me away, but this “throw everything including the kitchen sink production” is a sonic work of art. Yes, I realize there is a song about a penis here, but I just said it was “art” not “high art”. The track “New Mistake” is sublime.
6. Graham Parker – Heat Treatment: “Squeezing out Sparks” usually gets mentioned, and it’s raw power is impressive, but it is Parker’s blast of rocking R&B that I need to have with me. “Fool’s Gold” is the sort of anthem the world needs more of at all times.
7. Crowded House – Woodface: The finest thing ever to come from the Kiwi brothers Finn. The more patriotic among us may take exception to the song “Chocolate Cake” but maybe we do live up to it sometimes. As for the rest of the album, it is as smooth a piece of pop as you could want to hear. “Weather With You” sparkles from beginning to end.
8. They Might Be Giants – Apollo 18: Even among those who love TMBG, choosing between the records is a bit of a fool’s errand. They are so varied in their makeups that reactions will be even more subjective than normal. Still, this is a cornucopia of tunes, hummable, slightly smart, slightly stupid, and yet substantive. I’ve no idea how they manage it. “Mammal” and “See the Constellation” always make me smile.
9. Al Stewart – Between the Wars: For my money, easily the finest thing Mr. Stewart has ever done. Literate pop-folk with a good ear for the jazz rhythms of the age, and if it is a little sonically jarring it mimics the recordings of the 20′s while updating them. A list of the stand out tracks would simply be a listing of every track on the album, but I’ll mention “Last Train to Munich” and “Laughing into 1939″. Wow.
There you go.
February 15th, 2010 | 10:57 pm
Their comment on Bob Dylan is just simply,utterly wrong. Dylan, unlike those included on the list, is the only one who has consistently reminded us to wonder; reminded us that there is Something out there greater than ourselves. This was never more evident than on his Christmas album, my review of which can be found here:
http://www.faithfictionandflannery.com/2010/01/review-of-dylans-christmas-in-heart.html
February 16th, 2010 | 4:21 am
The Tragically Hip – Day for Night or That Night in Toronto. Gordon Downie’s ad libs are better than the entire writings of Oasis
Papa Mali – Thunder Chicken. New Orleans funk – if you don’t tap your feet to this you are probably dead.
Derek Trucks Band – Songlines – eat your hearts out Eric and Ry, this shows just how good slide guitar can really sound.
Led Zeppelin III – I got tired of Stairway to Heaven about 1980 and this album dispels any suggestion they were just a heavy rock band
Ezio – Black Boots on Latin Feet. Sometimes curmudgeonly but very under-rated singer-songwriter who plays acoustic and makes it rock.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd: 10 Days Out from the Blues – can’t keep this off the CD player
Ian Siegal – The Dust. Great songwriting from an up and coming English troubadour.
Maceo Parker – Life on Planet Groove. Nuff said.
February 16th, 2010 | 8:32 am
The Vatican newspaper should stick to classical music. The Pope has described pop music “a cult of the banal”. And he has called rock concerts a form of barbarous worship. He’s right. There has always been something wrong with rock ‘n roll music. It exalts the passions over reason and common sense, and it can weaken the mind just like drug addiction. I work with a lot of young people, and I can tell you that that rock music (along with video games and othe adolescent media) has almost completely blocked their path to maturity.
February 16th, 2010 | 8:56 am
Best Beatles: Abbey Road.
Albums missing from list:
Beach Boys, Pet Sounds.
The Ramones, Ramones
Honorable mention:
The Replacements, Let it Be
Lifetime achievement award:
Rush.
February 16th, 2010 | 10:50 am
Me thinks everybody posting here is also showing their age. These days the thing to do is compile your own list of songs. I don’t think there are 10 albums I’d want on a desert island. But there are hundreds of songs. It’s been a while since I’ve purchased music by the album/CD. I only get the CD if I think it’s truly worth the extra price. A few songs I know I like at 99
February 16th, 2010 | 11:08 am
Me thinks everybody posting here is also showing their age. These days the thing to do is compile your own list of songs. I don’t think there are 10 albums I’d want on a desert island. But there are hundreds of songs. It’s been a while since I’ve purchased music by the album/CD. I only get the CD if I think it’s truly worth the extra price. A few songs I know I like at 99 cents is generally much cheaper than purchasing an entire CD where I only rip a few songs to my Walkman (Sony’s X Series Walkman has sound far superior to any iPod). So for me I really don’t much think in terms of albums anymore, I think in terms of artist and songs. Albums no longer come into the equation. But I get the point, what are the 10 best albums. For me the answer would depend on the day and time you ask, and both would be subject to whatever mood I was in at that moment.
To go a little further with the desert island thing I’d like to point out my situation at work. The company I work for plays an oldies station all day long. This station has decades of music from which to choose, and yet, and yet you hear the same few artists and the same few album/song choices all week. And it gets tired, very tired (I’d say old, but it is an oldies station so I avoided the pun). I am by no means alone in this opinion. So, if having decades of music repeated all week at work gets tiresome, I can’t imagine having only 10 albums. I think I’d rather have nothing at all. Were I to survive the desert island and return home I’m sure I’d hate anything I listened to while stuck on the island. I know after working at this place for 14 months I hate Elton John, Billy Joel, and a few others who get played several times a day, every day.
February 16th, 2010 | 12:30 pm
“Me thinks everybody posting here is also showing their age. These days the thing to do is compile your own list of songs. I don’t think there are 10 albums I’d want on a desert island. But there are hundreds of songs.”
I couldn’t disagree more. The album as an art form at its best is more than the sum of its parts. A collection of 100 even really good songs is worth exactly the sum of its parts. The best albums offer a continuity of sound and message that is simply lost when the individual songs are removed from their original context.
I love a good mix of music as much as the next person, but it is fundamentally a different experience from listening to an album.
February 16th, 2010 | 12:57 pm
I salute Rick Horton (no relation as far as I know) for mentioning an artist/band I’ve never heard of (Jellyfish), allowing me to feel slightly less pop-music-geekish. Not that I’ve heard everything by a long shot, but I’ve usually at least heard *of* anything anyone else mentions.
Carl, I know L’OR has no real connection to the Magisterium. Just goofing around, which I’d like to think L’OR also was doing in publishing such a silly piece.
February 16th, 2010 | 2:26 pm
“I couldn’t disagree more. The album as an art form at its best is more than the sum of its parts. A collection of 100 even really good songs is worth exactly the sum of its parts. The best albums offer a continuity of sound and message that is simply lost when the individual songs are removed from their original context.
I love a good mix of music as much as the next person, but it is fundamentally a different experience from listening to an album.”
For me that only holds if the albums also blend together and maybe make some form of artistic statement. Besides, I can easily find songs that group together well and blend every bit as well as just about any album. Heck, there are even many rock songs that I think would go well with certain musical sound tracks from the stage. Oh well, maybe it’s me, but I think I’d rather mix and match on my terms. Besides, haven’t you ever purchased an album simply because there was ONE song on it you had to have? I’ve done that plenty of times. That one song goes on my mp3 player and comes to the island.
By the way, an album I’ve loved since it’s release but very few people know is David and David – Boomtown. The first side is great, the second side less so. But I constantly return to it over the years. It’s probably not on anybody else’s list, nowhere near even. But I think it may go on mine.
One final point: does the professor from Gilligan’s Island get to go with me? If not, how am I playing these albums?
February 16th, 2010 | 3:40 pm
Bibbit: “Besides, I can easily find songs that group together well and blend every bit as well as just about any album.”
I guess I just not that post-modern in my sensibilities. With the best albums taking them apart and recombining them that way would be the equivalent of removing the head of the Mona Lisa and dumping it onto a Turner landscape. The best albums, for me at least, really represent an expansive canvas where things are purposively placed and tie together.
“Besides, haven’t you ever purchased an album simply because there was ONE song on it you had to have?”
In the past, of course. And I do download stand alone mp3′s for those songs these days…but those come from largely inferior albums by defnition, so they aren’t at issue.
Maclin: “I salute Rick Horton (no relation as far as I know) for mentioning an artist/band I’ve never heard of (Jellyfish), allowing me to feel slightly less pop-music-geekish.”
Then I failed! I was deliberately trying to be non-obscure. I could put together a list that includes such artists/groups as Cotton Mather, The Sugarplastic, Eugene Edwards, Walter Clevenger & The Dairy Kings, The Spongetones, or Splitsville…but that would just have people scratching their heads in puzzlement.
(And, yes, I must be some sort of geek.)
February 16th, 2010 | 8:10 pm
Kim, I appreciate what you say about Dylan and the link to the album. I think your observation has a lot of merit in regards to Dylan as a songwriter. As a performer, though, he has been on the whole a mixed bag. I would say his most lasting contributions (for good or for bad, maybe some of both) and on other musicians have been as a songwriter and lyricist. (“Is there anyway out of here, said the joker to the thief . . .’). He is still writing some great songs.
John C., I am worried about the sheer bombardment of explicitly violent and sexual images kids face today. I have taught secondary school and I have nieces, so I appreciate what you are saying. I think it is objectively worse than when I was growing up, and that was when Playboy and Penthouse were available on the grocery store shelf (now replaced by Maxim and Cosmo which are arguably, in at least some ways, worse). But, I also think kids learn how to filter and judge what they are exposed to, and part of our job as adults is to help them learn those skills – I realize that sounds trite, and is only a small part of what I think about all that.
I think part of what you identify is the overstimulation by all the various “media” and the impacts it has on attention span and concentration. But that is so much of a larger cultural and even economic phenomenon – we live in the age of distraction (like, say, blogs, for example ;). You can’t blame it all on rock n’ roll.
And regarding classical music, opera was the rock n’ roll of its day, and a fair amount of opera and art song is pretty banal.
I have been thinking about the music of my youth (the ’70′s) and I think a lot of it was harmful in a way, more the lyrics than the music, primarily in reinforcing an idea of almost inevitable temporariness in human “romantic” relationships. But in my case at least, this was more from the smooth stylings of Elton John, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, etc . . . than the really bombastic obviously male hormonal stuff. But those musicians also had “good” stuff. Take, for example, the original (as opposed to the revised Lady Diana version) of Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind” about the destructive forces of celebrity culture that led “Norma Jean”, aka Marilyn Monroe, to end her life. Or Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life”, to take another example from the ’70′s. I would add U2, Springsteen (Flannery O’Conner with a guitar). A lot of rap and hip hop is just exploitative garbage, but some of it is prophetic. Popular musicians, at their best, are our poets and troubadors. They serve a cultural function, and it is worth the effort to sort through the good and the bad.
Re the original post and most of the comments, Why would the O.R. just chose the lame “desert island” scenario and leave it at that?
Based on my criteria, I would add “Songs In the Key of Life” and the Eagle’s “Hotel California” for its depiction of mid-70′s Californa as hell (Life in the Fast Lane), Purgatory (Hotel California) and as a false dream of an earthly paradise (the last song, can’t remember the title).
Oh, and cheap shot to those who like Rush, I cover my ears if it comes on in a setting where I cannot immediately shut it off or leave. I have seen dogs writhe in confused anguish at the sound of that guy’s voice. “Today’s Tom Sawyer . . .” What’s that about?
February 16th, 2010 | 10:03 pm
I feel like some sort of helpless addict whenever these pop music discussions pop up. “Dude,” I say to myself, “you are *61* years old–what is *wrong* with you?!?”
But…wow, Rich, I never heard of a single one of the apparently even more obscure artists you name. Though there are some in my collection that might be as obscure to some people: October Language, Fennesz…
Bibbit: “an album I’ve loved since it’s release but very few people know is David and David – Boomtown. The first side is great, the second side less so.” Oh yeah–the best tracks on that are killer.
Peter S: yeah, I’m the same way about Rush. Just rather strongly dislike the basic sound.
And I’m definitely an album person, too. Another mark of age, I guess.
Bibbit:
February 16th, 2010 | 11:03 pm
Sgt. Pepper has to top the list of “great rock albums,” doesn’t it? It’s pretty much where the idea of the great rock album (as a unified, ambitious work of art) comes from. (If it’s just about the songs, we should see some “Greatest Hits” albums on the list.)
On this list of ambitious (and successful) works, I would add Stevie Wonder’s Sgt. Pepper: “Songs in the Key of Life.” And also “The Band” by The Band.
The Beach Boys’ answer to Sgt. Pepper took decades to finally come together in its intended form: Brian Wilson’s “Smile.” It’s brilliant and on my list.
Another of Sgt. Pepper’s beautiful offspring: Brazilian Milton Nascimento’s Beatle-influenced “Clube Da Esquina” from 1972. Try that one.
I wouldn’t worry about showing my age. Rock’n'roll is the old man here.
February 17th, 2010 | 7:24 am
Look, I’m gonna stop because this can degenerate into me just trying to sell stuff…. but for anyone who loved The Beatles and The Beach Boys and who feels “They don’t make records like that anymore,” all I can say is go to Cdbaby.com and look up the album “Pet Soul” by Splitsville. As the title suggests, it’s a little like “Pet Sounds” and a little like “Rubber Soul”, plus it has a cover of Burt Bacharach’s “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” that has to be heard to be believed.
That’s it…I’m all out of snake oil.
T.B.: But does Pepper really hold up as well as some of the other Beatle work? I’ll admit its high points (“Getting Better” “A Day in the Life”) rank as some of the all-time greatest in rock history, but there is a lot of other material that either A) isn’t great (“Benefit of Mr. Kite” “Within You Without You”), or B) are rehashes of things the Beatles did better elsewhere (“Penny Lane” kills “When I’m 64″ on being poignant and whimsical, “For No One” leaves “She’s Leaving Home” in the dust.) The conceit of the album is revolutionary, and it must have had a profound affect upon listeners at the time – I wouldn’t know as I wasn’t born for another year yet – but I’m not sure it stands on its own merits quite as highly.
Sgt. Pepper: The most important album in the history of rock? Absolutely. The best Beatles album? No. And probably not even in the top three.
February 17th, 2010 | 8:05 am
As a Junior in college, I I found this article to be interesting. When reading through the list thankfully all of the names sounded familiar, kidding my i tunes is full of every Beatles song, a little Michael Jackson and of course Oasis. “the albums are perfect listening material for anyone who finds himself marooned on a desert island…” Who wouldn’t want to be stuck on a topical island with this music…
I do find it interesting that the Vatican has released this list, as in the article, rock music has be denounced as the devils work, and I know from personal reasons, that my grandparents often would disapprove of my music choice of the Beatles, because “it was putting a negative,hippie influence” on my life.
February 17th, 2010 | 9:32 am
I’m sorry, Rich. I don’t buy the Sgt. Pepper’s revisionism. The album was like no other in its impact. And I mean no other. Revolver is my favorite Beatles album, but Sgt. Pepper’s greatness is just a fact, like being hit by a tsunami would be a fact.
But if we are going song for song our list should include The Beatles “#1″ and the Burt Bacharach boxed set and things like that. I think we are talking apples and oranges here. By “top albums” I think “greatest” and “most important.”
Sgt. Pepper was some sort of cultural peak that we all felt, and the Beatles themselves felt. (But the album’s musical offspring were not all comely, and the Beatles saw a need to head in a different,less-ambitious, direction.) Clearly the album cannot be heard the same way today. And I understand the need to make an assessment with today’s ears. But a little caution is needed. The impact of highly influential innovative work is diluted in hindsight by its own success.
As to the songs, what about “Lovely Rita” and “Fixing a Hole?” Pure joy!
February 17th, 2010 | 10:14 am
I’m not sure its revisionism so much as an actual historical perspective. Obviously Pepper struck a chord that has particularly relevance to those who lived through the era. Speaking as someone who became a “Beatle freak” in the late 70′s, and who was first introduced to the work of Fab Four through the compilations “62-66″ and “67-70″ the Pepper LP never held a special significance. Oh, we loved it, but among my Beatles loving friends I don’t think anyone held it to be their favorite. (“Abbey Road” probably held that distinction.) I have to think our removal from the cultural impact of the albums release accounts for some of that.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t really recognize the original impact of the album fully until the mid 80′s, when Rolling Stong magazine retrospectives began to wax poetic about Pepper. But they would also wax poetic about “Trout Mask Replica” so it was kinda easy to discount such talk a bit. In fact, after that mid-80′s bout of boomer nostalgia, and as younger voices began to be heard more often in the discussion, THAT is when you began to see “Revolver” rise in esteem. I just feel this represents a more accurate appraisal of the music removed from the attendant cultural memories of the boomers.
February 17th, 2010 | 11:35 am
Fr. Neuhaus is rolling in his grave
February 17th, 2010 | 9:35 pm
Ah, those silly boomers again!
My point, Rich, is tied to the fact that creative innovations are sometimes best appreciated by those who remember life before the innovation. When the innovation becomes commonplace, the innovative work sounds more commonplace in hindsight, which is in some ways a false hearing. So I urge caution–and a bit of respect for the original assessments of Sgt. Pepper.
As for Trout Mask Replica, I say go for it.
February 18th, 2010 | 8:45 am
“My point, Rich, is tied to the fact that creative innovations are sometimes best appreciated by those who remember life before the innovation.”
Maybe, but that is exactly why I wouldn’t take Pepper with me to that desert island. I don’t have the memories that would allow for the appreciation.
This conversation does underscore, for me at least, the relative unimportance of those types of memories in the long run. For example, Paul Whiteman used to be fancied the “King of Jazz” and for those who lived in the 1920′s he probably lived up to that billing in their memories. (Whiteman did have a remarkable number of #1 hits.) Today, however, Whiteman is largely an afterthought even among (especially among?) those that know jazz well. So, is our current emphasis on greats like Armstrong or Ellington mere revisionism?
If it is, well, then revisionism is most often triumphant.
February 18th, 2010 | 10:56 am
Oh, Rich, you’ve got to take back that Paul Whiteman example. It’s just not right! Satchmo and Duke are deemed important largely because of their influence among musicians in shaping jazz. You can’t place Sgt. Pepper on the opposite side of such an equation.
I know the value in letting time sort things out. It’s conventional wisdom. But such a process is far from infallible. Earl Hines and Teddy Wilson were important jazz piano innovators who sound merely old fashioned to my ears. So I have to understand my limitations in order to do justice.
But then I can’t really tell if you are talking about “most important” or “most enjoyable,” as you seem to argue both sides a bit. Your problem is that you don’t find Pepper as enjoyable as I do. But to consider slipping it below, say, Abbey Road, would be almost as bad as, say, comparing it to Paul Whiteman
So my position is that geezer boomer judgment trumps all other for all time. (No, that’s not really my position. And I’m getting tired and confused from arguing against my personal favorite rock album of all time: “Revolver.”)
February 18th, 2010 | 1:48 pm
lol
I’m not trying to tire you out. This is my idea of fun.
“But then I can’t really tell if you are talking about “most important” or “most enjoyable,” as you seem to argue both sides a bit.”
IN my mind I think I’m making the distinction between “best work” and “my favorite”. Sometime those are the same, sometimes not. Think of something as a “favorite” would include extraneous things, e.g. memories it evokes of a particular time and/or place, or maybe it elicits a specific emotional response I enjoy. When I’m thinking about the “best work” I try to remove those types of things. For example, I know the R.E.M. song “Stand” is pretty stupid, but I have such a happy memory attached to it, that I always enjoy hearing it. That doesn’t keep me, however, from recognizing that “Radio Free Europe” or “Fall on Me” are simply better.
So, in the context of this list:
Beatles:
Best Album: Revolver
Favorite: A Hard Day’s Night
Matthew Sweet:
Best: Girlfriend
Favorite: 100% Fun
Al Stewart:
Best & Favorite: Between the Wars
Jellyfish:
Best & Favorite: Spilt Milk
“Oh, Rich, you’ve got to take back that Paul Whiteman example. It’s just not right! Satchmo and Duke are deemed important largely because of their influence among musicians in shaping jazz. You can’t place Sgt. Pepper on the opposite side of such an equation.”
I’m not. I’m just saying someone who lived through the 1920′s might. They might reject your “jazz revisionism” on the grounds that they were there and you (or I) were not.
February 18th, 2010 | 10:32 pm
Rich, I enjoy this too, I think.
Forty years after Armstrong’s great period younger folks mostly considered him a quaint entertainer. His contemporaries could have straightened them out–if they would have listened.
You keep wanting to credit my golden boomer memories for my foggy boomer judgment. But if that were the case, I’d be promoting Moby Grape.
With Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles set out to do something new and they did it. The musical/cultural impact of the album was huge as intended. Their goal was more than just writing some songs, and so you should consider the totality of what was achieved when judging the work. That requires context, and you need contemporary witnesses to help you with that.
February 27th, 2010 | 3:15 am
An essential album doesn’t need to be a best selling album you bunch of idiots. An album like this needs more than that. It needs to be influential. It needs to break on trought the standars of what music used to be, like in the cases of revolver, the dark side of the moon and achtung baby. Achtung baby just changed the way of rock music used to be before it. I’m agree with this list. All those albums defined rock and pop music, that’s it.
March 3rd, 2010 | 2:24 pm
The Vatican got it so right with Dave’s If I Could Only Remember My Name. True believers take note, here are the rest of the TRUE holy ten.
#2 Crosby, Stills and Nash
#3 Deja Vu
#4 Harvest
#5 4 Way Street
#6 Songs for Beginners
#7 Manassas
#8 Wind on the Water
#9 After the Goldrush
#10 CSN
and Laurel and Topanga Canyons are still the actual Holy Land. Hey, don’t bogart that, um, cigarette.
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