Rolling Stone 50 Greatest Prog Albums of All Time |
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Psychedelic Paul
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 16 2019 Location: Nottingham, U.K Status: Online Points: 41931 |
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Posted: December 31 2020 at 02:55 |
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"For close to a half century, prog has been the breeding ground for rock’s most out-there, outsized and outlandish ideas: Thick-as-a-brick concept albums, an early embrace of synthesizers, overly complicated time signatures, Tolkienesque fantasies, travails from future days and scenes from a memory. In celebration of Rush’s first Rolling Stone cover story, here’s the best of the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill." - Rolling Stone Magazine 2. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969) 3. Rush - Moving Pictures (1981) 4. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975) 5. Yes - Close to the Edge (1972) 6. Genesis - Selling England by the Pound (1973) 7. Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick (1972) 8. Can - Future Days (1973) 9. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) 10. Yes - Fragile (1971) 11. Rush - Hemispheres (1978) 12. Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery (1973) 13. Pink Floyd - Animals (1977) 14. Genesis - Foxtrot (1972) 15. King Crimson - Red (1974) 16. Gentle Giant - Octopus (1972) 17. Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells (1973) 18. Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention - One Size Fits All (1975) 19. PFM - Per un Amico (1972) 20. King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973) 21. Camel - Mirage (1974) 22. Rush - 2112 (1976) 23. Tangerine Dream - Phaedra (1974) 24. Magma - Mekanik Destruktiv Kommandoh 25. The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003) 26. Van der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts (1972) 27. Supertramp - Crime of the Century (1974) 28. Opeth - Blackwater Park (2001) 29. Dream Theater - Metropolis 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999) 30. U.K. - U.K. (1978) 31. Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning (1973) 32. Kansas - Leftoverture (1976) 33. Tool - Lateralus (2001) 34. Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971) 35. Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Io Sono Nato Libero (1973) 36. Harmonium - Si on Avait Desoin D'une Cinquieme (1975) 37. Marillion - Clutching at Straws (1987) 38. Gong - You (1974) 39. Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet (2007) 40. Soft Machine - Third (1970) 41. Amon Duul II - Yeti (1970) 42. Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve (1995) 43. Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado (1974) 44. Strawbs - Hero and Heroine (1974) 45. Triumvirat - Illusions on a Double Dimple (1974) 46. Carmen - Fandangos in Space (1973) 47. Crack the Sky - Crack the Sky (1975) 48. FM - Black Noise (1977) 49. Ruins - Hyderomastgroningem (1995) 50. Happy the Man - Happy the Man (1977)
Edited by Psychedelic Paul - December 31 2020 at 02:55 |
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Cristi
Special Collaborator Crossover / Prog Metal Teams Joined: July 27 2006 Location: wonderland Status: Online Points: 45138 |
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not bad, expected worse
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Psychedelic Paul
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 16 2019 Location: Nottingham, U.K Status: Online Points: 41931 |
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Yes, I was expecting worse too, especially after hearing about some of the Rap/Hip Hop "artists" on Rolling Stone's Top 500 albums list. There's a good cross section of albums in this list, including most of our prog favourites and also featuring lots of European bands and modern albums that often get overlooked, especially by me.
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Frenetic Zetetic
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This is actually not nearly as bad as I was suspecting.
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"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021 |
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Psychedelic Paul
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 16 2019 Location: Nottingham, U.K Status: Online Points: 41931 |
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I'm listening to No. 30 on the list for the first time today. It's a great album! It's good to see there's at least one album from all of my favourite prog artists on the list, including:- Camel; Caravan; Dream Theater; Electric Light Orchestra; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Genesis; Jethro Tull; King Crimson; Mike Oldfield; Pink Floyd; Porcupine Tree; Renaissance; Soft Machine; Strawbs; Tangerine Dream; Van der Graaf Generator; & Yes.
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nick_h_nz
Collaborator Prog Metal / Heavy Prog Team Joined: March 01 2013 Location: Suffolk, UK Status: Offline Points: 6737 |
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Why would hip hop not feature in their top 500 albums list? Why would you use inverted commas around artists? You know that you can dislike something or not be interested, without being so rudely dismissive? In any cross-genre list of greatest albums of all time, I would expect to see hip hop represented. Just as with rock or pop or metal or any other genre, there will be some artists who are more talented than others, but you shouldn’t write off an entire genre’s artistry just because it it not your thing. Steven Wilson commented not so long ago that the most progressive music was being made by hip hop artists, and while I may not completely agree, I know where he is coming from, and why he said that. I could never claim to be a great hip hop fan, and there is definitely far more that I don’t like than I do - but there is some amazing music being made within that genre. Dismissing it all shows your ignorance more than anything else. I’m not suggesting everyone has to like everything, nor that everyone has to be positive and warm and fuzzy all the time. There’s nothing wrong with criticism, but it should be informed and from experience. And by experience I don’t mean you’ve heard hip hop on the radio and don’t like what you’ve heard. By all means, say you don’t like what hip hop you’ve heard, but it’s just rude to imply that just because a musician composes or performs hip hop that they’re not an artist. By all means, wonder why hip hop appears in a greatest albums list, but perhaps instead of shaking your head and rolling your eyes, try and find out why. |
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Sean Trane
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I can live with their top 41. But below sounds relatively weak.
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let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
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Psychedelic Paul
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 16 2019 Location: Nottingham, U.K Status: Online Points: 41931 |
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I only know two albums - by ELO and the Strawbs - between #41 & #50.
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The Anders
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All in all a predictable list. It doesn't necessarily represent my views (f.e. I think the early Zappa is much more interesting than 70's albums such as One Size Fits All) but I think I can agree on the top 2. The vast majoirty of albums are from the 70's. Also, albums from outside the Enghish speaking countries are few (a few Italian and German albums).
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Lewian
Prog Reviewer Joined: August 09 2015 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 14953 |
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Indeed this is quite striking. Somehow it looks like at 41 they went out of steam and chose the remaining ones randomly out of a pool of 500+. Also some will hate me for writing this but there's too much Rush fandom in this list.
Edited by Lewian - December 31 2020 at 10:34 |
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nick_h_nz
Collaborator Prog Metal / Heavy Prog Team Joined: March 01 2013 Location: Suffolk, UK Status: Offline Points: 6737 |
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It does look very much like that, which does make the whole idea of it being the 50 greatest suspect, if they couldn’t even come up with 50 strong albums! 😄 That said, there are only two Rush albums in there, aren’t there? And easily the two most influential of their albums. I don’t think they are universally agreed upon as Rush’s best, and they’re definitely not my two favourite Rush albums - but if someone asked me what were their two most influential albums, I’d be hard pressed not to name these two. If a list of greatest of all time is taken to mean those that had the most impact and influence, then I don’t think the appearance of those two Rush albums is that far wrong. If the list of greatest of all time is simply meant as the best, then their presence is certainly less assured. But I always take greatest of all time lists to mean those with the most impact. What I think is far more suspect is the lack of content outside the UK and US, and the way when it appears, that it does. It’s almost as if they realised they needed one album in the top 10, and another in the top 20, and just shoehorned them in. And when they’ve chosen albums not from the UK and US, they seem to not really follow the example they’ve used for the US and UK albums, often choosing neither the albums generally acclaimed as the best, or the most influential, from a band. They don’t look as if they’ve been chosen with as much knowledge as the remainder of the list - and seem to have been chosen in the same manner that 41-50 were. 🤔 This list is in stark contrast to the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (or whatever it is titled) that is being discussed in another post on the forum, which appears to have had far more thought put into it - presumably because they asked far more people for their opinions/votes. [EDIT] I have just noticed a third Rush album in there. And three does seem a little too much. So I take back what I said, and have to agree that there is too much Rush fandom going on. Edited by nick_h_nz - December 31 2020 at 09:46 |
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Logan
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I would have set up to only highlight one album per artist. Such lists commonly really aren't of much interest to me other than what it says about an individual's taste. The narrower the parameters of a list, the more interesting it often is for me -- like if Rolling Stone did their top 50 most "Arckane Magick Musick".
Edited by Logan - December 31 2020 at 10:03 |
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Psychedelic Paul
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 16 2019 Location: Nottingham, U.K Status: Online Points: 41931 |
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I like Logan's idea of featuring one album per artist, but on a positive note, there are just as many Pink Floyd & Genesis albums (three each) in the Top 50 as Rush albums. It's a pity though that "The Ladder" album by Yes didn't quite make the Top 50.
Edited by Psychedelic Paul - December 31 2020 at 10:09 |
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Argo2112
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Yea, With Rolling Stone I expected the top five prog albums to be Madonna, Bob Dylan, Run DMC, The Ramones & Prince.
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Catcher10
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So is this list 100% created by the Rolling Stone writers?? One thing I noticed is CAN~Future Days is listed....but on their Top 500 All Time albums CAN~Ege Bamyasi is listed.........
I would suspect we should be pretty happy with this list.
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Psychedelic Paul
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 16 2019 Location: Nottingham, U.K Status: Online Points: 41931 |
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Yes, it's a pretty good list, all things considered. It doesn't have many of my favourites on there, but then again, my favourite albums are often the albums others love to hate. It's a shame ELP's Love Beach album didn't quite make the Top 50.
Edited by Psychedelic Paul - December 31 2020 at 12:00 |
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jamesbaldwin
Prog Reviewer Joined: September 25 2015 Location: Milano Status: Offline Points: 6036 |
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In the firsts 11 positions there are two albums by Rush and no one by Van Der Graaf.
Very bad. And the best seller the Dark Side of the Moon is not an album strictly prog. This a bad American commercial ranking. |
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Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion.
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nick_h_nz
Collaborator Prog Metal / Heavy Prog Team Joined: March 01 2013 Location: Suffolk, UK Status: Offline Points: 6737 |
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Different people asked for their contributions/votes. It might look odd at first glance, but it’s not really. I suspect this list may have come from the minds of only one writer (maybe two at a push). It looks more of an individual’s take, than the result of a group. The 500 Albums list, on the other hand, had a crazy amount of people contributing to it (hence it being a “better” list overall than this one, and accounting for the differences when it comes to bands like Can). |
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kenethlevine
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the list has been out for at least 4 years. My fave is how the Rolling Stone record guide gave Renaissance "Ashes are Burning" 1 star. 1 star!!! Now they rate it 30th best of all time.
As for the bottom 10, it's hit and miss, but I think it's good that they went with a few artists who had not been represented in the top 40. I just think that acts like Crack the Sky and Happy the Man shouldn't be anywhere near the top 50 of anything, which betrays Rolling Stone's pro American bias
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someone_else
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Though I can agree with some criticism in this thread, I have to admit that this list is not too bad for some guys that released a 500-page book about some five decades of rock music with three pages about prog.
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