50 Albums that changed music

[maxg]

Interesting list. Some of them I'd never heard (of), and don't care about, but I think based on the premise of how they define INFLUENTIAL in POP, it seems reasonable. Although, as Max pointed out, no Ray Charles? It appears their focus was on albums which caused a sea change in direction - a new strain with long lasting implications and spawning sub-genres. md

Perfect analysis of this list. I wished my knowledge of English was that exact. I would have to work for an hour to come up with something remotely close. Still working on it though. Max, if you read this. How come your English is so good. I forgot if I ever read your background, you can't be greek, that's almost sure? Tim.

Yes Tim - A brit living in Greece.

I had a similar question from Craig (Nosvalves) a year or so back - he was having difficulty with my "assisting him" with some of his spelling - he too felt rather better when he discovered English was my mother tongue.

[steve]

yes, that was a most interesting list! I too question some omissions..but probably due to my tastes in music.

Deep Purple's "In Rock" was probably the most influential album to me, in my adolescence in 1970..I was used to the Beatles, Stones, etc. but when I was turned onto that album, I couldn't believe the vocals, guitars, drumming,keyboards and bass! What energy! Although "Machinehead" was their biggest seller (in the MKII lineup) it was definitely low powered compared to In Rock! And would we have Aerosmith now? My two cents!

Steve

[oldbuckster]

Really, take in to consideration the point they are trying to make, keep your thinking down the middle of the road, and that list isn't that far off......................I could probably make up a list too, and 2 hours later would want to change it..........if you can talk about something like that, isn't that a good thing? No one is going to completely like such a list, but it does give you some food for thought..........................No Stones or Led Zep...............well, I never..................

[triceratops]

A couple of observations:

Nice to see Liege and Lief by Fairport Convention on this list. It is a fabulous album that is probably unfamiliar to most folks here, and features the brilliant electric guitar playing of a young Richard Thompson alongside the remarkable voice of the late Sandy Denny. The album mixes all sorts of Celtic and modal influences with rock. At the time Thompson was right up there with his Brit peers Beck, Page, and Clapton in stretching the limits of the guitar.

Sweetheart of the Rodeo is an oft-cited album with all the alt-country stuff out there these days, but I think Younger Than Yesterday was the Byrds' true masterpiece. YTY was one of the most important rock albums ever, IMO.

A Brit list with no mention of the Yardbirds? I don't know what to say about that. BTW, I think the reconstituted Yardbirds are touring the East Coast until the end of the month. See them if you can--they came through Portland, Oregon a couple years ago and they still kick ***!

triceratops

[Travis In Austin]

Great article, great post Daddy! Lot to argue about here, for example "And why no Rolling Stones? Because, brilliant though they are, they picked up an established musical idiom and ran with it rather than inventing something entirely new." Guess they never bothered to listen to Exile on Main Street. With the help of Gram Parsons, they had made the biggest strides in Country Rock to that point in time.

Travis

[Macho Nacho]

What no Barry White?

[Bonzo]

How could they leave out Woddy Guthrie??? The man reinvented the AMERICAN folk balland. Without him, we would have never heard of Bob Zimmerman!

How about The Band? Gee, "Music from Big Pink" didn't change the landscape any!

[Parrot]

The premise behind the list is like the Great Man Theory in history. It's too easy and too pat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory

[WMcD]

NPR a couple of weekends ago had a long program about "Revolver". From what they said it well be available on a website in November. It is a bit self serving in that critics parade their magnificent insights. Still, very interesting and it is good to listen to the analysis. I'll wade in the same puddle.

The article is interesting, particularly because I understand so little about the trends in pop music. But the influences on others stirs less curiosity than a study of progress of composers in the course of their works.

I've read that LVB's 1st sounds a lot like Hayden or even Mozart in form (I'd have to agree, listening to the radio). Maybe a first try by a young man educated in those forms. Then there is a progression of investigations by LVB in new forms. The 5th is angry, the 6th is pretty and restful. Eventually you get to the Ninth which by any standard is monumental.

It seems to me that PF peaked with DSOTM and the Beatles peaked with Sgt. Peppers. I'm not sure that Pet Sounds is the peak of the BB, but arguably so. It is somewhat interesting that in any case, the very best works were the peaks of a recognized internal progression and also signalled the end of the groups. Maybe they found they themselves created an act hard to follow. Their own, following creations were "jumping the shark."

This brings up the thesis of the article and what I see as a lacuna of analysis. Without X there would not be Y. In my view, most of the Y people who where inspired by X could not recreate the genius of the X; even the X's could not.

Therefore, it is better to honor the breakthoughs as ultimate works and study internal origins.

Smile,

Gil

[edwinr]

A Brit list for sure. Some of the choices are a bit avante-garde. It would be very difficult to make a list with only 50 artists in any event. Still, you would have to consider including work from Creedance Clearwater Rival, The Eagles, Chuck Berry. What about Bill Haley and the Comets? And Queen - A Night at the Opera? You could go on and on.

[oldbuckster]

Great article, great post Daddy! Lot to argue about here, for example "And why no Rolling Stones? Because, brilliant though they are, they picked up an established musical idiom and ran with it rather than inventing something entirely new." Guess they never bothered to listen to Exile on Main Street. With the help of Gram Parsons, they had made the biggest strides in Country Rock to that point in time.

Travis

Country Stones..............now your talking.........Country Honk, Far Away Eyes, Dead Flowers, a few examples of country influence, Wild Horses written for Gram Parsons, the Glimmer Twins indeed....................

[colterphoto1]

Everything ok in the critics' corner? Good. Here's my .02

Use of ' A longside' instead of the proper word alongside quesions their mastery of their own language, British or not. Hello proofreader!

Before plunging headlong into the list, it is important to read the terms contained in the article. Read them, then read them again. This is not about the best selling, favorite, most airplay albums. The writers are in search of those milestones in album creation, turning points in the heartbeat of a generation, music that influenced other musicians. The reader must keep this in mind when reviewing the list. And the British thing.....

To my mind they did get a few very right. Eno, Miles, Kraftwerk, Sinatra come to mind. Much of the list is oblique to me. Mary J. Blige, seen her on the awards shows, doesn't mean a thing to me, but then I'm old. It is 'pop' oriented. Makes one wonder which bubble-gum chewing, tattooed and pierced generation this is written for. Heck, where are the Beastie Boys? They have Spice Girls but no Madonna? Huh?

But there are some glaring omissions, some of which the gang have already noted. The omission of Led Zeppelin is lethal to the list in my opinion. Although Chuck Berry, Elvis, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis et all did prime the pump for what was to become Rock music, the Zeppelin were one of the first power groups who amalgamated American Blues, pop, folk and rock and truly elevated the form to the masses. How many bazillion bands of various *Blank* Metal form would not exist were it not for Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple's jurassic riffs?

An entire genre left out, no ELP or Yes, Genesis? These were mostly

British bands of a form called Progressive Rock. There is no inclusion of them

or their forerunners whatsoever that I can find, unless you say Kraftwerk or the Pink Floyd spawned all electronic pop music. Did these giants mixing classical strains with rock roots not spawn any Pop children?

I think part of the difficulty in this list is its newness. Much of it seems to look back only one musical 'form' if you will and not many of the selections get back to the roots of music. Go back a couple more decades and you'll find the real movers and shakers. Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, The Grateful Dead, The Band.

Seriously flawed from my point of view, but fun topic to ponder...

Michael

[pmsummer]

Everything ok in the critics' corner? Good. Here's my .02

First, I have to question the writing skills of an article that begins with the bizarre phrase 'A longside'. British or not, I think they mean ' Along with', so I'm contra to anything they have to say right off the bat.

C'mon, George Martin practically invented modern recording studio methodology with Sgt. Peppers. Don't tell me that didn't change the face of music.

First: They're British, writing for a British audience in a British newspaper. If we can call American Rules Rugby "football", they can certainly use "alongside" properly.

Second: Sgt. Pepper's came in #2 on the list.

Last: It's a nice, thought provoking list. It isn't the Law.

[colterphoto1]

Everything ok in the critics' corner? Good. Here's my .02

First, I have to question the writing skills of an article that begins with the bizarre phrase 'A longside'. British or not, I think they mean ' Along with', so I'm contra to anything they have to say right off the bat.

C'mon, George Martin practically invented modern recording studio methodology with Sgt. Peppers. Don't tell me that didn't change the face of music.

First: They're British, writing for a British audience in a British newspaper. If we can call American Rules Rugby "football", they can certainly use "alongside" properly.

Second: Sgt. Pepper's came in #2 on the list.

Last: It's a nice, thought provoking list. It isn't the Law.

Post edited. Found the word in Websters, don't know how I missed number 2 on the list- I was camping all weekend and without sleep. Must have clicked right by it.... Other comments stand though, k?

M

[triceratops]

...The omission of Led Zeppelin is lethal to the list in my opinion. Although Chuck Berry, Elvis, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis et all did prime the pump for what was to become Rock music, the Zeppelin were one of the first power groups who amalgamated American Blues, pop, folk and rock and truly elevated the form to the masses. How many bazillion bands of various *Blank* Metal form would not exist were it not for Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple's jurassic riffs?

Michael,

I think we're in agreement on this one, except I stand by my suggestion that the entry should be for an ancestral band that included Page--The Yardbirds, as far as influence on a genre of music. Without the Yardbirds, no Led Zeppelin. Remember that Led Zeppelin was called "The New Yardbirds" until Keith Moon told Page that name "would go over like a lead zeppelin..."

triceratops

[colterphoto1]

True about the Yardbirds, and they were a training ground for three great British guitarists. I was maybe thinking more about he number of bands that the groups influenced, but could be argued that even then the Yardbirds spawned more acts then the Zeppelin.

We're on the same page.

M

[oldbuckster]

As much as I like the Stones, and Zep, and some of the others not mentioned in the article, they are pretty close with what they are trying to say, Albums that changed, repeat changed, music, not taking a music form already in place and adding their signature to it. Reread it again, and as you read, think about changing the music.Like any other list, you can argue till the cows come home, who should be on it, who shouldn't, it's an endless subject.....................The Yardbirds, is it their songs that are famous, or what makes them special is the fact that 3 of the Greatest Guitarist's Alive today played in the Band? I think it was Beck, Clapton, and Page that made them famous, the music, in my opinion, was not great.......................

[triceratops]

...The Yardbirds, is it their songs that are famous, or what makes them special is the fact that 3 of the Greatest Guitarist's Alive today played in the Band? I think it was Beck, Clapton, and Page that made them famous, the music, in my opinion, was not great...

Buckster and Michael,

You both make some excellent points and I'm rethinking my position. The Yardbirds left a very limited discography, and it would be hard to pick an album that is representative of their influence. An obvious choice would be Yardbirds' Greatest Hits, but I don't think that is in keeping with the spirit of the 50 Albums list.

Some of the Yardbirds music was great. The originals like "Shapes of Things", "Over-Under-Sideways-Down", and "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" all defined the use of furious instrumental breaks, modal scales, Far-eastern tonalities, and flat-out psychedelia, before the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin or anyone else did that. And their remarkable interpretations of blues numbers like "I'm a Man", "Smokestack Lightening", and "Train Kept a Rollin' " really changed the idea of what was possible with a traditional musical context.

Unfortunately, most of the albums released in the States by the Yardbirds were just compilations of singles and repackaging of other records. A great band with some great music, just not a great discography. Some might suggest Roger the Engineer as the album for the list: all original songs, both Beck and Page playing on that disc, "Shapes..." and "Over-Under..." are both represented. Unfortunately, it was never released in the States in its original form until recently. Thanks to both of you for your insights.

triceratops

[colterphoto1]

Let's call it a draw and put LZ I on the list then?

[Parrot]

Concerning the idea "Without this, there wouldn't have been . . ." -- We'd be just as well off without most of the end results.

As to Bob Dylan, certainly "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," "John Wesley Harding," "Blood on the Tracks" and "Biograph" were as influential as "Bringing It All Back Home." So this list needs at least 5 Dylan entries to be acceptable.

"Freewheelin'" -- widespread popularization of folk songs and protest songs. Shit, this one album had more classics than you can shake a stick at: "Blowin' in the Wind," "Girl of the North Country," "Masters of War," and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"-- and those are just the biggies on SIDE ONE!

"Harding" -- death blow to the self-indulgent psychedelia of "Sgt Pepper," bringing on country rock.

"Blood" -- the ultimate, unparalleled classic of the personal, the narrative of disintegrated relationships.

"Biograph" - the first best-selling popular music box set, pioneering the way for umpteen hundreds of box sets by other artists with outtakes and previously unreleased material.