Thanks to Rick for this idea. In alphabetical order, my list of the
Top 10 15 Albums of Rock & Roll:
- Allman Brothers Band – At Fillmore East – 1971 A live double record set. Almost every night of my junior year of high school I would fall asleep to to side three which consisted of “Hot ‘Lanta” (5:17) & “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” (13:04)
- America – America – 1972 Three guys, three guitars, three voices. Awsome headphone music, a guitar and voice in each ear and one in the center of your brain.
- Beatles – Hard Days Night – 1964 Quintessential British invasion rock. Plus I’ll bet every scene from the movie of the same name has influence at least a dozen MTV era music videos.
- Blue Oyster Cult – On Your Feet or on Your Knees – 1975 Another live double record set. Included maybe their biggest hit “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”, but my favorite track was “Then Came the Last Days of May”.
- The Cranberries – Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We – 1993 A perfect blend of dreamy Celtic music and rock and roll. Dolores O’Riordan singing Dreams did and always will raise goosebumps on my arms.
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – 4 Way Street – 1971 Four extremely gifted musicians with enormous egos to match came together to create lighting in a bottle and went their separate ways even before the album was released.
- Deep Purple – Made in Japan – 1973 Four words: “Smoke on the Water”
- Eagles – Hell Freezes Over – 1994 There were four new songs written for this album that were basically throwaways while the meat was a re imaging of 11 of the bands biggest hits in a mash up MTV unplugged style & an orchestra.
- Guns n’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction – 1987 If you say name the greatest hard rock album of all time I would say this is it. “Welcome to the Jungle” my friends.
- Nirvana – Unplugged in New York – 1994 Know for their grunge style music this acoustic album of mostly cover songs released after Curt Cobain’s suicide was one of the groups best selling discs.
- No Doubt – No Doubt – 1992 A Ska influenced sound and while there are several other good tunes on the album, Gwen Stefani in a simple blue polka dot dress signing “Don’t Speak” is what got this on the list.
- Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon – 1973 This one really doesn’t need any words, but what other rock album could be played in sync with the Wizard of Oz and actually enhance each other?
- R.E.M. – Automatic for the People – 1992 The kings of alternative music in the early 90s brought the mandolin to rock with the help of the string arrangements of Led Zeplin’s John Paul Jones.
- Stray Cats – Rock This Town – 1990 OK, so it is more Rockabilly than Rock & Rock, but this album started a whole trend of copycat bands and people dressing up in like Zoot Suits and stuff.
- U2 – Joshua Tree – 1987 They could have stopped after the first three songs and this album would still be on the list. “Where the Streets Have No Name”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “With or Without You”
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 134
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 134
Rick
Nice mix. I would have never guessed you would have GNR on the list. (I got the same comment about VH.)
Good to see the Joshua Tree on the list. U2’s new album hits the stores Tuesday.
Andrea
Interesting mix….better than most I see by Rolling Stone.
Brian the Red
Rick-
I really like VH’s early work and even the commercially successful “1984”, they would have had a disc on the list had I never seen one of their videos on MTV. David Lee Roth was too over the top for me.
Dr. Lisa Cuddy: You’ve spent the last two weeks doing absolutely nothing. Concert is over.
Dr. Gregory House: In what twisted universe does mastering Eddie Van Halen’s two-handed arpeggio technique count as absolutely nothing?
Andrea –
Thanks. You can tell when I was in my teens and most influenced by R & R, as my list has a definite early 70’s slant. And if asked I would say I never really attended a lot of live concerts because I really like a clean studio sound, but looking at that list you would probably call me a liar because 6 of the 15 were recorded in concert. Maybe I just don’t like sharing the experience with that many people.