The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 20 of 100

Well, I got through a fifth or two, and a fifth of the top 500! This is a lot more difficult than I thought!

 From 1976, it's Fela Anikulapo Kuti's controversial LP, "ZOMBIE!" Without a doubt,  the hippest, and most danceable protest album ever made! "Zombie, Zombie, Zombie!"

From 1998, "Life Won't Wait" is my favorite RANCID album! It's just got some great songs on it, period!

The debut 1984 album by The Red Hot Chili Peppers is my favorite of theirs! "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes!" What else do you need to know?

David Bowie is a real fave around this house, but this band effort of his in 1989 called Tin Machine stands out as my personal favorite! The Sales Brothers rock it hard, and the guitar playing by Reeves Gabrels is superlative all the way from start to finish! This record is near perfect!

A little mellower than the rest of this batch, but this 1969 album by The Youngbloods still rocks it with a great deal of indifference and irreverence, like they were having the time of their lives, and you could either join in or not, and it had a picture of a big elephant turd on the cover just to prove it!!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 17 - 19 of 100 (Stones & Beatles)

Just like Rolling Stone, I have a fondness for music from the 1960's, and The Beatles and The Rolling Stones ruled from the mid-60's into the late 60's, so here's seven LPs by The Beatles, and eight albums by The Rolling Stones that I would find essential if I was washed up on a desert island and could only bring 500 records with me!

From 1964, "Meet The Beatles," "Something New," and "Beatles 65!"

 From 1965, "Rubber Soul,"

From 1966, "Revolver,"

From 1967, "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,"

And from 1969, "Abbey Road!" Those are my favorite Beatles' albums!

 

From The Stones, it's "England's Newest Hit makers, The Rolling Stones," 1n 1964,

From 1965, "December's Children (and everybody's)" and "Aftermath,"

From 1967, "Their Satanic Majesties Request,"

From 1968, "Beggar's Banquet,"

From 1971, "Sticky Fingers,"

And from 1972 "Exile On Main Street!" Those fifteen albums have more truly classic stuff on them than almost anything else I can imagine!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 16 of 100 (My Opinion Is Becoming Less Humble)

 We ran into Larry Fischer at the San Diego Com Con in the late 1980's. Brian had made a mixed tape for the ride that included a Wild Man Fischer song, so I told Wild Man that we had just been listening to his music on the way there, and he asked me if it was playing on the radio. Sorry Larry, no, not then, not now! I bought this album at the Army PX in Alaska in 1969, and I still have it! How could it not possibly be on the 500 Greatest of all time? One listen to "Merry Go Round" would change any non-believer's mind forever!


I had to include somewhere on this list something by either The Gun Club or by Gun Club leader Jeffrey Lee Pierce! I finally settled on this solo album by Jeffrey Lee called "Wildweed," but, it's all good!!


Same thing with Joan Armatrading! Joan has at least 2 or 3 classic LP's, but for now I'll settle for this one!


The first Quicksilver album was their best! I love this record!


 Now how the Hell The Young Rascals aren't on the Rolling Stone top 500 list will stump me and about 250,000 Hawaiian fans all at the same time! This 1967 LP has a minimum of 5 extremely classic songs on it! What the Hell!?

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 15 of 100 (My Opinion Is Becoming Less Humble)

This Kraazy ass LP from some Middle East musicians with the help of Mountain bassist Felix Pappalardi in 1967 opened the door for lots of WTF!? releases in the following 10 or 20 years! To this day, I still have no idea of what they were trying to do! It's that great!!

Doll By Doll! Jackie Leven is one of  THE best vocalists out there! You can't read one issue of Rolling Stone without reading about Bruce Springsteen, but is there even one article about Doll By Doll? Sinful! One of the best bands ever!

The Flamin' Groovies - "Supersnazz" This is a record of what is commonly referred to as Rock and Roll! It totally rocks, and deserves to be on the top 500 for sure!

Flora Purim was voted THE best jazz vocalist for like 97 years in a row by Downbeat magazine!! Trust me, there's a reason! Open yer freakin' eyes!!

One of the best concerts I've ever had to pleasure to attend! Gil Scott-Heron was a super genius! While "The revolution will not be televised!!!!" this is one of the best 500 LP's of all time!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 14 of 100 (All But Forgotton 60's Musical Wonders)

Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger and the Trinity - "Open" - This LP from 1968 is an eternally fascinating jewel! It's like Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery went to England and recorded an album with Aretha Franklin, except they're all white, and Aretha has the angelic face of Twiggy! Why this LP is not on Rolling Stone's 500 Best Albums of All Time is an enigma deeper than the Atlantic Ocean! Unforgivable!!

Clear Light made one of the more interesting 60's L.A. scene psychedelic albums of the era, but I think they got lost in the shadows of their label mates The Doors!

What I know ain't always right, but what I've always heard was that when original member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention Elliot Ingber got out of the Army, Frank wouldn't have any more to do with him musically because he wouldn't tolerate any drug use, and Elliot had turned into a stoner. Stoner anthem "Don't Bogart Me" and other great tunes abound on this LP! It deserves to be on the list more than Madonna I'm sure!

Horn based groups like Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chicago, and Lighthouse were getting pretty popular in the late 60's but The Flock blew them all out of the water! With song titles like "Hornschmeyer's Island" and "Uranian Sircus" I just don't understand why they were never a real commercial success!!

Excuse my French, but how in the Fuck is it that Steppenwolf is not in or even ever been nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? "Born To Be Wild" is the biker anthem of all time, and this album "Monster" has what I consider the greatest song ever to describe what's wrong with the world today on it, "Monster!" "There's a monster on the loose, it's got our heads into the noose, and it just sits there watchin'!" Hell Yeah!!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 13 of 100 (Folk Music Gone Mad)

 It was 1969 in basic training at Fort Ord, California that late one night I tuned my little transistor radio into some radio station in Berkeley, California. The signal was poor and full of static but what I remember hearing was Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Duster's "Romping Through The Swamp!" My life has never been the same! And if that ain't enough, they also do an amazing version of "Swingin' On A Star!"

 After Dylan went electric, it blew the whole scene wide open! David Blue was one of the weirder purveyors of this new art form! Starting off with "The Gasman Won't Buy Your Love," it just keeps getting better and better!

 I bought this Incredible String Band album in 1968! I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I just knew it had the craziest cover I had ever seen! I still own it!

 Phil Ochs is such a tragic story! He was pretty much gone by this point! One of the most talented protest song folk singers of the time, Phil decided to make an electric album with a cover that was a satirical send up of The King. Even the back said 5000 Phil Ochs fans can't be wrong! What's the joke? Phil never had any hits! I love this album!
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Now there's no way this record should have ever been left off of Rolling Stones top 500 albums list! It's Shel Silverstein, and every song is a jewel! I'll just leave you with just a taste of Shel's genius, "After you been eating steak for a long time, beans, beans taste fine!" This is one of THE best records ever made!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 12 of 100 (The Truth)

 There are so many great jazz albums, it's really difficult  not to treat jazz as a completely different category! For now I'll choose this 1972 double album by Cannonball Adderley! Conceptually brilliant and performed beautifully!

 Sometimes you just can't get away from records you had as a kid! This is one of the first albums I ever owned, I think The Columbia Record Club had something to do with it! If you were raised on cowboy movies and TV shows, this is the soundtrack to your life!

 I said I wasn't going to include any greatest hits LPs on this list, but sometimes there's no other choice! To me, Johnny Horton was as much a legend as Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens!

 I got to see Loggins and Messina on their first tour when this record was first released!  They made quite an impression on me. They were truly unique at the time!

Just in case you think I only listen to 60's and 70's music! I nominate this 2000 CD by The Dickinson Brothers! They did their Daddy proud! One of the few bands I'd still like to see 'Live!'

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time (LOVE+) Part 11 of 100

Well, everybody always has LOVE's album "Forever Changes" on their list, but I don't think it's possible to discount the quality of their first two albums either! LOVE's first album was unique and probably had the best Burt Bacharach cover of all time, "My Little Red Book!"

LOVE's 2nd album "da capo" was also fantastic! They moved it way up in the psychedelic department, but it was still gritty! The side two opus "Revelation" is just that, and has never sounded old or tired to me! The single "7 and 7 Is" is precisely that, it IS!!

"Forever Changes" took LOVE in a completely different direction, and is on Rolling Stone's list for good reason! Definitely a timeless classic!!

I said I wouldn't put any 'greatest hits' records on this list, but I lied. I cannot possibly believe that The Animals weren't included in any form on The R.S. list! This record "The Best Of The Animals" has no less than five of the most classic songs of all time on it! "House Of The Rising Sun," "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," "Bring It On Home To Me," "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place," and "It's My Life!" Jeez, what more do you want? 

Here's another complete snub on the R.S. list, THEM! How it that possible? Besides "Gloria" the number one most classic angst driven sex song of all time, this record also includes "Here Comes The Night," and the incredibly haunting "Mystic Eyes," so the rest of the songs don't even matter. Those three songs alone are enough to make this record be included on the 500 Greatest of all time!