Rolling Stone's 500 personal challenge

I don't find the lyrics scandalous, should have put ""... I called the lyrics that because i have read several threads over the years where people seemed offuscated by those lyrics...

"Michelle, ma belle, sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble" means exactly what Paul sings afterwards.
"Michelle, my beautiful darling, those are words that go together well".
Except that in french both words rhyme.

 

# 14 : Abbey Road

(2012 remaster)

Another one from the Beatles, and i guess one of the most famous both in terms of songs (mostly side A) & cover ( has anyone never seen that picture ? ).

This one will be quick as it is one of my Beatles's "turning" favorite : meaning my Beatles album liking change on a weekly basis but AR stays in my top 3 everytime.
I could sing it from A to Z without any background rythm and be almost in synch when i finish "Her Majesty", which by the way i don't think of as a worst ending song than "The end" would have been. I like to call it Paul's cherry on the cake.

Side A is a compilation of 6 of their best songs, yes i do like Maxwell's Hammer a lot, as well as Octopus garden !
Side B is made of 2 medleys in my mind, and i would call the part from Mean mr mustard to the end as a climax of musical quality in the Beatles careers (another one of those at least)...
And Golden Slumbers is such a wonderful song, i used to repeat the song to put my baby to sleep when she was a few months old !

Basically i think that you understood my love for this album that i would not hesitate to trade for another Beatles album rank in this list (it all depends on my mood).

That they could end their career with such a goddamn good album just shows us how much quality they were able to deliver and reminds us of how much they brought to music during their career.

I know this a subjective point of view... But that's indeed the whole point of this thread. Just like i don't consider the 500 RS list as a "good" or "relevant" list.

 

Well he obviously had plenty of cherries to spare at the time! Though he had no idea how to use a bowl!

 

Best double album ever! I love it's eclectic oddness. It all just works. I even like Revolution #9. A masterwork that should be a little higher, but I sympathize with all list creators, in that how many Beatles albums can you put in your top 15 without looking like an absolutely ridiculous fanboy. For me however; the top 5 albums of all time by anybody are Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, and Revolver in that order.

 

I like your tracklist. Give me this version, in mono, with a mono mix of SLH at the slower speed. I dislike the faster version.

 

The greatest final statement by any group in music history. An exclamation point on their legacy. The fact that after the Get Back sessions, they were able to come back together and bring us this masterpiece is a tribute to all four of them and George Martin! What a wonderful parting gift. You deserve to walk out of the Abbey Road studio with your heads held high!

 

# 15 : Are you experienced ?

(2015 EU legacy reissue)

Up until today i had never listened to a full Hendrix album. I knew the classic singles (all along the watchtower, hey joe, the wind cries mary,...).
So this was indeed my first Hendrix album experience !

I enjoyed this, i expected more noise with some fillers but in the end what i got was a full playlist of great tracks. Note that this is the UK version, so i needed to spin the bonus disc of that edition to actually listen to the original singles.
But even so, the album is solid and contains some material i can easily see revolutionary for the late 60's.

It is like Hendrix and his 2 partners found a way to build a new sound with all the classic rock elements, only using talent and creativity.

Though this album is really good, i am still a little puzzled with my own feeling about it : i can't understand but it's not a disc i would easily think about when asking myself "what should i spin today ? ", still the Beatles, some Stones material, Radiohead, Dire Straits and some other single piece of albums would come to my mind first.

So the verdict here would be for me : listened to it, appreciated it very much, but would not rank it in my top 30.

 

# 16 : Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

(mofi)

What a fool i was, up until now i have claimed that Highway 61 was my favorite Dylan album !
I had to spin BOTT at least 6 times this week to decide whether i liked it better and the verdict is that i definitely do.

This album is close to perfection, all the songs here are about love stories but i really dig the way they are put down in words.

Sure there are some long songs but they have more tempo than the ones on Blonde On Blonde for example. Also i find the lyrics to be better here than on other albums, all 10 songs are pure killers here while i might skip some on Highway 61.

So far, this is the album i would have ranked much higher in the list, among my Beatles favorites, and i guess it's a bit because of its similarities with some songs from the White Album (story wise).

Favorite song of the album : Tangled up in Blue.

Is this your Dylan's favorite ?

 

you should definitely go looking for the test pressing version floating around certain places. it also sounds great and i think it might be even better for most of the songs. And the Bootleg Series sadly uses different (inferior IMO) takes to the test pressing and Biograph uses a different (inferior, less atmospheric IMO) mix for the test pressing version of "You're A Big Girl Now".

 

Didn't Rolling Stone go with the North American edition of "Are You Experienced"? If so, you listened to the wrong version of the album.

 

One of my principle is to always go to the original tracklist when possible, and at least with this latest reissue i have the songs from both versions on 2 lps, i guess i have to adapt sometimes.

 

The original isn't included in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. You basically listened to a different album. Many people would argue that the North American edition is the superior version of the two.

 

I am sorry if that hurts you, i listened to both lp's so i had all the songs included in the NAM version of the album.

I downloaded the us tracklist and listened to it, for me no big change, i actually preferred the uk tracklist as it did include more songs i was not originally familiar with.

I saw many debates about which version is the best, there is no right or wrong answer to that, the advantage with the recent legacy reissue is that it contains all songs from both version.

To conclude i'd say i would listen to the same version again. No difference for me.
Interesting things will come later, when listening to less known albums.

 

If Pet Sounds is #2, and Coldplay is anywhere on the Top 500, I'm done with this list before I've even looked at it.

 

Below The Clash, FFS!

 

He was more of a joint guy..

 

Please kick me also.

 

There's 3 Kanye West albums on the list.

 

Wow! What a condescending post. Good on you, mate!

 

# 17 : Nirvana - Nevermind
(2015 320 reissue)

12 hard rock songs i did not listen to again since my college years.
I remember this album creating a whole generation of teenagers with long hair and starting to learn guitar not anymore to get the girl around a nightly woodfire but to play loud and start a band.

The album starts with the "everybody-knows it" song Smells Like Teen Spirit and its distinctive drum-kick. In 1991 you could tell from the start that this album would sell, and so it did.

After that it moves forward into a succession of loud saturated guitar riffs, a screaming Kobain almost breaking his voice with his "yeah"'s and more laid-back parts like Polly or Something in thee way.

The 40 minutes of this album suit the disc well : longer would have been too much.

I still like this album as much as i liked it in the early 90's, it's raw (less then Bleach), it's produced well and it's straight in your face.

 

At times, I tire of good, better, best.....It's all a matter of opinion...Nothing wrong with a friendly discussion of who's good, and who's better and who's the greatest, but I must admit it does wear thin...It may help novices, or someone getting into a new group, or new musician, but one thing that irritates me is when someone comments on a band or a musician, and then some tells that individual, they are crazy, or nuts. There is no right answer....Many hate the Beatles...One guy told me that Sabbath is the worst rock band of all time....all opinion. One guy told me Hendrix is over rated...

 

I understand that, did i miss something where i would have said that a band is better than another ?

 

No. just referring to lists Like Rolling stone's list....not to you or anyone in particular. Sorry....

 

I agree with that, i really don't like ranking stuff but sometimes trying to do it according on one's own liking can be funny.

Though i must admit i always liked listening to albums that are in those lists, it's kind of a sociology exercise : trying to understand what the majority of people like in a top-selling disk can help understanding the society current general mood and tendancies or old times culture.

 

Are you going to give the Hip-Hop albums a fair and honest listen?