The Music Post

Maybe I should stop pretending this is a "Friday Random Ten" post and admit, it's a Weekend Music Post." Anyway - today's entertainment comes by way of Salon's Audiofile pointer to The Definitive 200 Albums of all time. As chosen by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Association of Recording Merchandisers. "Complete your collection!" Well, at least they're honest about it. If it's not literally the 200 best selling albums since 1955, it's damned close. Arranged in what appears to be a random order, after the top 10 - which consists of: Sgt Pepper; Dark Side of the Moon; Thriller; Led Zeppelin IV; The Joshua Tree; Exile on Main Street; Tapestry; Highway 61 Revisited; Pet Sounds and Nevermind - a completely inoffensive, uncontroversial and useless sort of list.... the comedy comes later, when Kenny G records clock in ahead of Beggar's Banquet and Creed and Linkin Park beat out London Calling. I may be obliged to offer a follow up on Andy Horbal's recent canon post....

Anyway, let's get on with the business of the day:

1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity [***] - what! no Nick Cave on the definitive 200 list!? What?
2. The Ramones - Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World [***] - what? No Ramones on the definitive 200 list?! This, of course, renders the exercise meaningless.
3. Cheap Trick - Clock Strikes Ten (live at Budokon) - wait a second - no Live at Budokon on the definitive 200?
4. George Harrison - Ballap of Sir Francis Crisp - this made it, I have to admit. #69, right behind Kid Rock's Devil without a Cause. I can see this is going to be a superb source of comedy...
5. Fleetwood Mac - I Don't Wanna Know - shoot, two in a row. #24, which, given a mainstream and commercial point of view, is quite justifiable.
6. Lou Reed/John Cale/Nico - Waiting for the Man (from Le Bataclan 72) - What? No Velvets? You know, by now, most lists like this, however dimwitted they may be, manage to work in something a little left-field - Velvets, Ramones, Stooges - you know... oh well...
7. Black Flag - Rise Above [****] - what!? etc.... But if you're oging to use a word like "definitive" - you are, in cold fact, claiming to be canon-making: and if you are going to make canons, you have to account for something, well - definitive: you have to try to map the terrain, as it were. That's what canons ought to be about - showing what has been done, and how. Leaving out records like this might as well leave out half the history of rock music, if nothing else. Oh well.
8. Dinosaur Jr. - Green Mind
9. The Warlocks - Baby Blue - from the phoenix Album - which is why it's not rated, by the way - the live version they released gets 4 stars: Warlocks sound a bit better live, where things get stretched and flogged a bit.
10. Tom Waits - Black Box Theme - What?! - you know where this is going?

Where else could it go? Here is a suggestion of what to do about this particular list....



Twice! a great live version - shot off someone's TV set, so kind of crappy looking - but a first rate performance....