Q magazines "15 Albums Where Great Rock Acts Lost The Plot" (poll)

Queen for sure.
As a big Queen fan i automatically bought the album when it was released. I got home started playing it and around half way thru' the second side i couldn't hold it back any longer, i vomited and then passed out!
My mum quickly rang for the doctor. He came in, glanced around the room and saw the album cover. He stood there just slowly shaking his head from side to side. He said, "You are the fifth person today that i've seen with Hot Space symptoms, it's very worrying."
He continued, "I believe this album will be responsible for making more people ill then when fans saw their first picture of Freddie with short hair AND a moustache. I thought that combination was almost lethal at the time but this album may even kill some people."
He suggested smashing the monstrosity up and burying the pieces, which is what i did. After all he was a health professional.

Actually i don't mind some of the tracks from Trans.

 

I still think that the pop/psychedelic approach was the wrong one for the Stones because it wasn’t what they do best, and regard Jumpin Jack Flash/Beggars as a “righting if the ship” if you will. That said, the Stones in 1967 were so talented that they couldn’t help but come up with a few great tracks - and I think “She’s a Rainbow”, “Citadel” and “2000 Light Years from Home” qualify. Throw in “We Love You”, “Dandelion” and “Child of the Moon”, and we might actually be debating whether it was better than Pepper.

 

I like both bands but psychedelia was one of many things The Beatles were doing on Revolver and Sgt. Peppers It's interesting though basically every Stones song you mentioned seems to have a Beatles influence on them.

 

As for literally losing the plot, I would go with the Bee Gees' Odessa. Don't get me wrong. I think it's a masterpiece. The thing is that it was meant to be a concept album about the sole survivor of an 1899 shipwreck floating around on an iceberg recalling scenes from his past. Their manger Robert Stigwood pressured them to maske a double album (which so many were doing at the time), so they had to come up with more songs. In the process, as Barry Gibb himself said, "We lost track of the story." They ended up with some songs that didn't fir the concept, especially the anachronistic "Marley Purt Drive" with its references to filling the pool for a swim, freeways, and the Pasadena sign. It failed as a concept album, but succeeded marvelously as a collection of songs.

 

The ultimate example may be The Beat Goes On by the Vanilla Fudge with its chronological "History of music" medley, monologues, interviews, and collage of the voices of political figures. I personally like the album, but it was producer Shadow Morton's idea, and Tim Bogert (or possibly one of the other band members) referred to it as "the album that killed the band." Their brilliant 3rd album Renaissance had been planned as the followup to their debut, and it would have been a more fitting one with more of the debut's symphonic rock, but transitioning into more original material than covers. Perhaps The Beat Goes On should have been marketed as a Shadow Morton album featuring the Vanilla Fudge.

 

I'm not a fan of some of these albums, but that doesn't necessarily translate to losing their way or plot..........although, I feel like I need to defend A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. It definitely takes a beating with some Floyd fans, but I find it completely satisfying. The Division Bell and or The Endless River has more meandering and plot issues (in my opinion).

 

Not really.

 

Give me a break, you're just parroting the conventional wisdom here. What Beatles songs do "Citadel" and "2000 Light Years From Home" sound like exactly? The only direct Beatles influence I hear comes in the form of their backing vocals on "We Love You". Whether or not people consider it to be successful, the Rolling Stones put their own stamp on psychedelia with Satanic Majesties. If anything, I'd say that this album owed more to Piper than Pepper.

 

I like both bands and have listened to them the most. There is no way in getting around The Beatles were one The Rolling Stones influences when in came to them venturing outside of their blues based music.

The key thing I said one of the Rolling Stones influences. I do agree on the Pink Floyd comment.

However, if you can't hear influence from "Rain" on "Child of The Moon", "Penny Lane" on "She's a Rainbow" , "Sgt. Pepper title track" on "The Citadel", and the backward tape/mellotron based "Strawberry Fields Forever" on "2000 Years Light Years From Home" then we disagree.

 

In what possible way does "Citadel" resemble "Sgt. Peppers"? The way that Brian Jones plays the mellotron bears little resemblance to the way that the Beatles used it. The similarities you cite here are superficial at best.

 

It's pretty easy on "Citadel" on first listening it struck me how the track instantly reminded of both Pink Floyd and The Beatles.

The slashing distorted chords, horns based though on mellotron and drumming patterns in style and sound very much like the title track of "Sgt Peppers"

 

I think the first time I saw Freddie with short hair was on stage for the Jazz tour. Is that Mercury down there?

David Geffen's answer would probably be Trans.

 

The Final Cut has aged much better than A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The production on the latter sounds dated compared. The former holds up much better these days, including songwriting.

 

The Stones started out playing the blues, and their early albums are all heavily blues oriented. Most Stones fans regard the “Swinging London” pop of Between the Buttons and the psychedelic sounds of Their Satanic Majesties Request as being heavily influenced by the Beatles and the general trends in music at the time, and a move away from their blues rock roots. JJF and Beggars Banquet were a return to those roots, from which they’ve never really wavered in the five decades since.

So from that perspective, they did “lose the plot” for a couple of years. That said, both albums have been reassessed over the years and are highly regarded today.

 

De La Soul Is Dead has been considered a classic among older(born in the 60’s and early 79’s) rap fans since its release.

 

Freddie wore his infamous short cropped hair and mustache look in "The Game". I don't get the arguments for why "Hot Space" was terrible. Except they were trying to find a follow-up to "Another One Bites the Dust", maybe.

 

Another opportunity for a mag. to “let’s knock Satanic Majesties” to death again...

 

Side One

We Love You (with quiet Dandelion excerpt on end like the 45)
Citadel
Child of the Moon
2000 Man
In Another Land

Side Two

She's A Rainbow
The Lantern
Gomper
2000 Light Years From Home
Dandelion (with We Love You quiet excerpt - back to the start)

That would have been a very good album, still not perfect though. I love Satanic Majesties and Between the Buttons as they are.

 

Self Portrait was a dud that didn’t need to be a dud. The Bootleg Series installment devoted to that period revealed that he had the raw material for a very enjoyable traditional folk album, but he either picked the wrong songs (not the first time), or added bad overdubs (not usually a problem for him) and then compounded the problem by making it two records instead of one.

The idea of Prince recording a soundtrack for a Batman movie is stupid but the actual music turned out alright, “Batdance” aside.

I feel about Satanic Majesties the way I feel about Wings’ Wild Life — just because it’s not terrible doesn’t mean it’s great. (Speaking of Wings surely there was a McCartney shark jump to include here?)

Momentary Lapse of Reason might be synthetic Floyd but forty minutes of David Gilmour singing and playing guitar is never going to be totally unpleasant to listen to.

 

I put together this version:

1
2000 Light Years From Home
Citadel
Dandelion
2000 Man
Sing This All Together (with the reprise from “See What Happens” edited onto the end)

2
She’s a Rainbow
The Lantern
Gomper (an edit)
We Love You
On with the Show

 

I like it! More than mine.

 

Last minute change — switch Dandelion and 2000 Man!

 

When listening to "Citadel", particularly it's chordal riff, there is one song that immediately comes to mind.

"All Sold Out".

So the band they were ripping off was...themselves.