More Greatest Albums Ever At Press Time!

More Greatest Albums Ever At Press Time!

Well, the readers spoke—and the editors fetched! Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into when we asked you to send us lists of your 10 “best” and/or favorite LPs of all time, along with a 100-words-or-less description of why you chose your number one pick. We were literally swamped with a mountain of entries, which only goes to show that there’s a lot of aspiring rock critics out there (take our advice—try law school instead).

Anyway, we were quite surprised by the unpredictability of the whole affair. The album with the most votes? Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols! If you’d have told us this would take the honors even five years ago, we’d have never believed you. Heck, some of us remember being in college in 1977, and—-forget the Sex Pistols or the Clash—lots of people acted like you didn’t bathe or something if you liked “punk rock shit” like Elvis Costello!

So the times change, and even though a majority of the LPs that got the top votes are by “legendary” bands from the ’60s and ’70s (though, oddly, Bruce Springsteen didn’t place), we were very pleased by the wide variety of LPs that got mentioned. From T. Rex to Husker Du, from Little Richard to Robyn Hitchcock & The Soft Boys (the latter actually got five votes!), some really fine, fine LPs were mentioned, including most of the classics, and many that our fuddy duddy rock * critics missed in their lists. And, as we’ve always said, CREEM doesn’t want readers with good taste, CREEM wants readers who taste good—or something like that...

So what we’ll do here is list your Top 10, meaning the LPs that got the most votes. (The Beatles dominated, of course, with five LPs.) The list ^followed by the winning entry, which was chosen on the basis of the 100-words-or-less description, and then by the 10 runners-up. Ironically, most of the winning entries didn’t place in the Top 10 list. The winner will soon be receiving a brand new CD player, while the runners-up will each receive an album of their choice.

Finally, we had so many good entries (believe us, it was hard to choose—we began feeling like English professors), we’re gonna run excerpts from' some of the other entries.

So enjoy! It was fun—and, for everyone who didn’t place, we’re keeping the creole warm just in case you wanna stop by!

THE TOP 10:

H Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols —The Sex Pistols

N Exile On Main Street —The Rolling Stones

Who’s Next—The Who

-CR^W Abbey Road—The Beatles

The Beatles (The White Album) —The Beatles

*].$ Led Zeppelin I —Led Zeppelin

*].$ The Clash—The Clash

00 Rubber Soul—The Beatles

0 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band —The Beatles Murmur—RE. M. Blonde On Blonde —Bob Dylan The Ramones —The Ramones (Four-way tie)

IO Quadrophenia—The Who Revolver—The Beatles The Velvet Underground & Nico —The Velvet Underground (Three-way tie)

THE WINNER FIRST PLACE:

RUNNER-UPS:

Who’s Next—The Who

This album defines rock. OK, you want the ultimate rock band. Take the best bass player on earth, a drummer bordering on insanity, a large-nosed singer who wears funny clothes, a tall guitar player who jumps around a lot, and a songwriter who at least thinks he could be a genius. Have ’em play gut-crunching rock ’n’ roll for at least seven years. Then start the album off with synthesizers. All the great themes are here: alienation, love, sex, fear, sorrow, death, drugs, travel, anger, life. And the greatest scream ever recorded. YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!! This album is rock.

Paul O. Zickler

Cheney, Washington

The Shit Hits The Fans

—The Replacements

It’s live. They’re drunk. In Oklahoma. No kidding, Oklahoma. Most of the set is covers. They do “Sleeping Knights Of Jesus” by Robyn Hitchcock! They slop up their own songs as naturally as they do Bachman-Turner Overdrive. It’s a low quality Walkman bootleg, just like mine. The Replacements write the best ’80s midwest rock. “This ain’t the blues, this is white boys who ain’t got a job...”

Chris Tauson .

Boston, Massachusetts

Exile On Main Street

—The Rolling Stones

Eight Reasons I’d Take Exile On Main Street to a Desert Island or Abandoned Mine Shaft:

1. Because it’s the last potent album from a band I think we can all agree was one of the more worthwhile.

2. Because it’s a double album, and there’s very little filler.

3. I’ve always liked horns.

4. Amazing how black they can sound when so inclined.

5. “Soul Survivor” and “All Down The Line” sound great when battling Flu viruses or truly malignant hangovers.

6. “Loving Cup” and “Rocks Off” are close-to-transcendent morning motivational music.

7. It’s got a good beat, and you dance to it.

8. As the late theorist emeritus of this magazine once wrote: “It’s better than killing yourself.”

Dan Williams

Burlington, Vermont

Pet Sounds—The Beach Boys

Explaining my choice of favorite album is relative to explaining why I chose the woman I love. In both cases, I would express my reasons in terms of a lilting smile, a sweet disposition, and the ability to accept me regardless of how badly I fuck up in this world. Pet Sounds has those qualities, and most importantly, like the woman of my dreams, it has that underlying sense of sadness which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it understands. Me. Life. Everything. She understands, and through Pet Sounds, I know that Brian Wilson understands.

Paul R. Kohl

Salt Lake City, Utah

Revolver—The Beatles (English version)

There is no way I can tell you-how good this album is in 100 words or less.

David P. VanWinkle

Flint, Michigan

Metal Machine Music

—Lou Reed

When this came out at the end of 1975, it sounded like the best parts of “Sister Ray” spliced together, and still does. This is the only pure LP— no instruments, no voices. It demands creativity from the listener— read the cover: “Strict stereo separation.” Do it. Unplug one channel. Then play it again on the other channel. See? Get the quadrophonic copy. Do it again. Play it at 45 rpm. Then play it at 16 rpm (the correct speed). See? There ARE instruments. Play two (or three) copies at once. The possibilities are endless.

Imants Krumins

Hamilton, Ontario

Crocodiles

—Echo & The Bunnymen

Ian McCulloch is my Bob Dylan. Echo & The Bunnymen is my Velvet Underground. Crocodiles is my “My Generation.” It was released in the summer of 1980.1 was 19. It’s about life, death, going up, going down, love, sex, God, drugs, boys, girls, hair in your eyes, brains in your pocket, catching falling stars, and all that jazz. I’m always 19 when I play it.

Dan Grant

Laguna Hills, California

EXCERPTS:

MORE RUNNERS-UP:

Murmur—R.E.M.

When I’m broke, 1 sell my albums. I buy food, or books, or some other necessity. I have never sold Murmur by R E.M. It’s more nourishing than food. Who was it that said man cannot live by bread alone? He must have been listening to Murmur.

Brenda Appell

Marion, Indiana

Raw Power

—Iggy & The Stooges

The “best” rock record of all time is not my “favorite.” Raw Power doesn’t get played much around here, out of reverence and fear. The title speaks for itself. It is the most uncompromising, rebellious, selfdestructive album ever recorded. A screaming metal maelstrom of churning, seething rhythm, out of control junkie guitar, and vitriolic lyrics with Iggy at the eye of the hurricane, the personification of the whole debacle just to prove it ain’t nb joke. Raw Power is what happens when you just can’t take any more, and the lid blows off. And that’s what rock is all about.

Bob Hamilton

Kitchener, Ontario

The Notorious Byrd Brothers

—The Byrds

I have owned at least four copies of this record. I wrote a long essay in praise of it instead of studying for exams. I own the 8-track, the cassette and the reel-to-reel. At one point in my life, I played it once in the morning, in the car all day, and again at night. I could not believe it. I still can’t. McGuinn, Hillman (some), Crosby,.a little Clark and Clarke, and several studio aces produced a masterpiece of beauty, emotion, sound, content, programming, continuity, technology, viruosity and creativity. The only LP in history to reach the “cosmic range.”

George Guttler

Amherst, Massachusetts

Forever Changes—Love

I can’t remember the ’60s much, * just a few assassinations and exhilirating feelings I can’t pinpoint. Sometimes I think someone must’ve dropped acid in my Kool-Aid when I was five (1967) because I remember heat, lotsa swirly colors, English accents and sarcastic nasal voices. I’ve searched since 1974 to find music that sounds like the ’60s I remember. Beatles, Zombies, Kinks came close, but I didn’t hit ground zero until I heard Love’s Forever Changes... Dreamy, acoustic, and there’s Arthur Lee sounding as crazed and deadly sane as Dylan and Lennon at their best. 1967 as I remember it.

Coleen Toews

Reedley, California

Chronic Town—R.E.M.

Music doesn’t have to stun people with virtuosity. It only has to be real. That’s why any one of Muddy Waters’ songs beats the entire Emerson, Lake & Palmer catalog. When I hear RE.M.’s Chronic Town now, I hear four guys who love rock ’n’ roll and love playing together. It’s basic and heartfelt, and that’s why it’s my favorite.

Lisa Smith

Campbell, Texas

The Sun Sessions—Elvis Presley

Until I discovered this album in 1976, I always had difficulty defending Elvis as anything but an extremely gifted singer and entertainer. However, this music proves Elvis to be an artist without peer. Although by his own admission, he “couldn’t write a song to save my soul,” his interpretive abilites alone make him more than the equal of Bob Dylan and Chuck Berry. This is rock ’n’ roll’s origin.

Dr. Durrwachter

St. Louis, Missouri

Never Mind The Bollocks...

—The Sex Pistols

The timing was exquisite. Rock music circa 1977 was drowning in a puddle of geriatric stadium rockers, syncopated Bee Gee bleats and frustrated classical musicians who did unnatural acts with synthesizers. The Sex Pistols were the spearhead of a movement that gave rock a welldeserved kick in its fat, complacent ass.

Rick Ha..

Houston, Texas

The Velvet Underground & Nico—The Velvet Underground

As far as I’m concerned, this is the GREATEST album ever!! A cinematic tour de force! Raw and powerful! A New York rocker’s dream come true! Novelistic, voyeruistic! Awesome and amazing! No pretentions and no moral center of gravity, when I hear this one, I realize the possibilities are endless, exploring the “taboos” from within, and then trashing them about,

Troy Reyes Bronx, New York

The Beatles (The White Album) —The Beatles

The White Album is the only one of my Top 10 that, no matter where I put 1 the needle down, is immediately evocative with a complete, true range of emotion—an unbelievable accomplishment in any art form...In this idiom, it is the only self-parody I’ve known to retain its irony 20 years later.

Stewart Francke Berkley, Michigan

The Modern Lovers

—The Modern Lovers

It rejected the romanticized myth of the blues that most ’60s bands had swallowed, and it predicted (while inspiring) the bored white suburban new wave/punk sound of the late ’70s.

John Donnelly Winter Park, Florida

Headquarters—The Monkees

It turns out that the pre-fab popsters have minds of their own. They tell the corporate boys they want to play their own instruments— and the bosses let ’em! Big surprise: the Monkees make a record full of humor and style. Micky’s drumming is mostly awful, they had to pull in a studio bassist, and at one point Davy loses the beat on tambourine, stops and starts over. Still, its “we’ll show ’em” attitude makes it great (and ultimately subversive). Now it’s been reissued for everyone to hear. Justice is served.

Jim Hemphill t State Center, Iowa

Loaded—The Velvet Underground

I’ll never forget the moment those first chords came out at me like a fresh blast of spring air, and then Lou Reed’s vocal on “Sweet Jane,” and that was it. I knew I had the real thing, the genuine article, true, original rock ’n’ roll art. Time was stopped, the moment frozen, eternity exploded.

Alan Nunn Burkburnett, Texas

Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica

—The Ronettes

Phil Spector’s wall of sound envelopes Ronnie’s vulnerable teenage quaver in a song cycle of adolescent Idve and yearning. We’re all older now, but whenever this spine-chilling record is played, we all become “So Young.”

Bert Eccles Montreal, Quebec

Meet The Beatles—The Beatles

I remember jumping around to “I Saw Her Standing There” (when I was four). I didn’t comprehend the words, but I didn’t have to. It’s one of my happiest memories, and it changed my life foreverl!

Melanie Ruff Indiana, Pennsylvanfa

The ClashT—The Clash

This album took a boring romantic out of Marion, Dead End Ohio and set me in Greater London, England smack in the middle of 1977. I saw some fads, I saw some trends, but I also saw British people shoot life into the decaying carcass of rock ’n’ roll.

Eric Geissler Marion, Ohio

Magical Mystery Tour

—The Beatles

I’m here to tell you that exposure to this album led to my experimentation with such mind-altering substances as imagination, rebellion and free will. Being 10 years old when I first heard Magical Mystery Tour, I was completely unprepared for the mindthrashing it administered.

S. Jones Hollywood, California 0