Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Updated in 2012

Also, another surprise ... Bonnie Raitt's Nick Of Time drops 229 to like 495.

It's not the fact that it dropped ... I expected that, but that's quite a slide.

 

But that's the thing, is adding 3 Kanye West albums to a musty 2003 Best Of List going to add a lot of sales? Given the lack of writing in the mag about rap/hip-hop, I don't see Rolling Stone as any sort of magazine that a fan of Kanye would ever subscribe to.

All in all, I actually think the list is pretty good (prog withstanding, of course.....Jann Wenner, everyone ). For my list, I STRONGLY disagree with the deleted choices in red, STRONGLY agree about the additions in green. Orange is strictly a consolidation/update from previous lists, and blue is simply rearranging deck chairs just so music nerds like us will notice.

However, I don't care what people say about Greatest Hits comps, if I had to pick one CCR album to play from now until whenever, it WOULD BE Chronicles, Vol. 1.

Quick hits: Kanye and Lil Wayne bumping Public Enemy is just WRONG, 'With the Beatles' and 'Meet The Beatles' are too similar for both to be on the list, and I guess South African music is now 'greater' than Cuban music....

 

Agree 1000% Still it is Rolling Stone...

 

Does this mean you think that the giant panel of voters were dying to include prog albums but Wenner went through and vetoed them?

 

Well, the Latino teenager might idolize Brian Wilson - the one who is/was the closer for the San Francisco Giants. Great Beard.

 

I'm pretty sure Illinois was already on the list because we discussed it during my review thread and it was at that time that I had heard the album in its entirety for the first time.

 

Popularity and influence of the artist is irrelevant when determining if specific *albums* belong on a "Greatest Albums" list.

The list isn't a hall of fame recognizing artists but a list recognizing greatest albums. One shouldn't randomly be chosen to pay respect to an artist. That's not what this list is.

This is a Greatest Albums of all time list, not a hall of fame. If an album is worthy, then it should be added. Plenty of modern music is worthy of this list. Albums shouldn't be added simply to appeal to another demographic.

Oh stop, this is a Greatest Albums of all time list. If an album is worthy it should be added. Adding albums to make the list more diverse or to appeal to a different demographic isn't how a "Greateat Albums of All Time" works. This list isn't a hall of fame and shouldn't be treated as such.

 

Not quite, but would it really be all that surprising if the list of people invited to vote did not include many that might be prog-inclined? After all, we are talking about Wenner's friends here. For example, I doubt Geddy Lee or Chris Squire were asked to contribute, but (going by memory), Britney Spears was....

Does anyone have a list of original voters, or a list of the "2000's albums" voters, who still somehow changed up Paul Simon albums from the 70's?

 

While it's true that "RS" remains Wenner's baby and the buck ultimately stops with him, I strongly suspect that many people overstate his influence on topics like this. I don't think he "packed the court" with like-minded friends and that was it.

Besides, hasn't it been established that Wenner loves a lot of music that doesn't show up on charts like this? The one instance where allegedly his influence DID overrule others came when a Foreigner song made a "greatest singles" chart.

I think Wenner is a convenient scapegoat and not much more...

 

You know who produced that album don't you?

In 2005 a hardback book version of the list was published and they removed some of the greatest hits albums and added in five or so at the every end of the list that they claimed just missed the original cut. Boz Scaggs was included with that along with The Stone Roses, Give It Up by Bonnie Raitt, Live From Cook County Jail by B.B. King, Aquemini by Outkast, New Boots and Panties by Ian Drury and maybe one other that I am forgetting. Anyway, I love the album but seeing as how it was produced by Jann Wenner I am not surprised it made the list

On a related note I'm not surprised to see Peter Wolf's Sleepless is still on the list. It's a fine album to be sure but on a 500 greatest of all time list (especially since it had only been out for a year when the first list was presented)? You would think he must be best friends with the publisher of the magazine to get that kind of a push...oh wait, he is!

 

To me, compilations are not albums, they are compilations. They should not be included on a 500 greatest albums list. But again, that is just me.

 

No, it's not just you - I don't think compilations belong in charts like this.

I understand their inclusion, as otherwise there's no way to recognize "singles acts" who never made a great album. You'd have a top 500 with nothing from some of the greatest acts ever.

But I'm fine with that. You can have other charts that acknowledge those artists. But if you never made an actual, honest-to-Wenner "great album", you'd shouldn't be shoe-horned in with a hits compilation...

 

I think you have to give Rolling Stone a little more credit than that. Lists like this are going to be subjective anyway but if you start saying factors like influence and popularity are irrelevant, then what criteria do you have left? "I think this is 'great,' so therefore it is?"

And it's not like Kanye should be excluded from the conversation. I don't know his work as well as others do, but Graduation made a bunch of critics' album of the year lists and even I can tell he's doing some things to push the boundaries of hip hop.

Jeff

 

Hmm...I gotta say, I am NOT any sort of conspiracy nut, but the facts that have come out about both the RS mag and the RnRHOF do not really paint a picture about Wenner just being a victim of 'convenient scapegoat'.

 

The thought occurred to me that they put the CCR comp in merely to open up a slot for another album. That and the fact that CCR was a great singles act.

Obviously the move offends a lot of CCR fans, but I doubt there's one individual who is a big fan of all the acts in these lists, thus the difficulty in compiling them.

 

Influence and popularity are relevant for this list when talking about a specific album. Saying an artist is such doesn't justify an album's inclusion.

 

I'm familiar with the story of how Wenner manipulated his magazine's "100 Best Singles" list, elevating Foreigner and Billy Joel at the expense of Stevie Wonder. But I've seen no "facts" that indicate he's done the same sort of thing with the Hall of Fame membership. I've also seen nothing, incidentally, to indicate that he has a particular grudge against prog. When he's asked in interviews about genres he dislikes he mentions punk and disco, not prog.

 

Putting compilations on a greatest albums list reeks of putting non-rock artists in the rock and roll hall of fame. The difference is, this is a Greatest albums list and obviously not everyone should be included. Otherwise, how much of a "Greatest" list is it? It they weren't an album act then they should be on an albums list.

 

If The Sun Sessions is out, I take it that other albums with these seminal tracks are on the list? They are probably the most important tracks in rock history.

 

For all I know, Wenner IS the evil mastermind who conspires to keep Yes and Rush out of the HOF - and who forces the greatest album chart to include Kanya West albums.

But I still think he's mainly a scapegoat. He's the public face of both the HOF and "RS", so it's easy to pin all their perceived failings on him.

And some of them ARE due to him, but he's turned into a bogeyman. "Say your prayers every night or Jann Wenner will get you!"

 

The Sun Sessions (out-of-print) was replaced by Sunrise, which contains all those tracks. But Sunrise is a compilation, so some don't think it should be there, if I am reading correctly...

(I haven't seen the list, so I don't have any idea where the actual albums placed on the list.)

 

Your's is a good opinion.

 

That's not only you but most music fans like us

The inclusion of compilations is ridiculous.
I haven't count them, but I think at least 50 compilations listed on that RS greatest "albums"

Replace them all with prog rock, heavy metal and other vastly underrated genres and we'll have a decent list. Far from being great, but at least decent

 

It is what it is, and what's to be expected.

Personally, I disregard any "greatest of all time" list that does not include AC/DC's Let There Be Rock.

 

Interesting list of albums that have been deleted. I, too own many of them. I don't have a problem with deleting Greatest Hits albums. I never consider them real albums, anyway. They were just a way to boost album sales for artists. I do have a problem with some of the real albums that have been deleted, especially the Elton John album. It has always been one of my favorites.