The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 29 of 100 - "The Blues Rock"

That last comment by Retrohound really got me thinking about how anal I'm being about this whole thing!  In reality, depending on one's taste in music, a person could easily come up with 500 Jazz records, 500 Blues records, 500 Country records, or 500 Rock records, but having to decide among them is a real chore! It's impossible to really list the 500 best records of all time, so I might as well cut loose and list a bunch of great records starting with the Blues!

 "Singin' The Blues" came out in 1959, and was Blues Boy King's first release! Is it any better than his second or third record? I doubt it, and therein lies the conundrum! What a great cover!

I like electric guitars, so I'm going to pick electric blues over acoustic blues 9 out of 10 times! Muddy Waters threw his psychedelic hat into the ring in 1968! "Electric Mud" is revered by some and loathed by others! Personally, I dig the shit out of it!

I love anything by Magic Sam! Just the fact that's he's magic should be enough for anyone, but if that's not enough, then there's this 1967 LP to prove it! This is one of my favourite record covers of all time!

This 1968 album by Howlin' Wolf is wrong on so many levels, it's sick to not love it! Guitarist Hubert Sumlin went deep and summoned up licks from God knows where, and The Wolf's vocals will send shivers down your spine!!

Sonny Boy Williamson is just one of many unsung blues heroes, and this 1959 album entitled "Down And Out Blues" says it all! Damn right I got the Blues!!!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 28 of 100

As hard as I try to find records not on their list,

Here's five more albums that are on Rolling Stones' Top 500 List that I  can't disagree with in any way, shape, or form!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 27 of 100

Here are five more LPs on Rolling Stones Top 500 Albums that I can agree with! More no-brainers!!I probably should have done all the records by one artist on the list together, but then, planning is not my strong suit! The 1965 Dylan album called "Highway 61 Revisited" is almost perfect from beginning to end! Although "Blonde On Blonde" has a bunch of equally classic songs on it, I'm not including it on this list because there's no justification for the overly long "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands!"

You gotta love this 1965 record from The Motor City Five, it was just about as raw as it could get up that point in time, so don't argue, just "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!!"

I'm not the biggest Rod Stewart fan in the world, but this 1971 LP was, and still is, hypnotic! Sometimes all the planets just align prefectly! Rod Stewart - "Every Picture Tells A Story!"

I thought I had used all the Stones' records that made the list already, but this 1967 album of theirs called "Between The Buttons" can't be left behind, it just had too many great songs on it!

Again, I should have grouped all The Wailers' LPs together, but I didn't! Rolling Stone lists this record as Bob Marley and The Wailers, but at this point they were still known as simply The Wailers, and still included members Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh! Irie-Ites!!!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 25 & 26 of 100

The deeper I get, the more difficult it is becoming!

 

The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East! (1971) Probably the best 'Live" album ever made!

Big Brother And The Holding Company - Cheap Thrills (1968) Two words, Janis Joplin! What else do you need to know?

Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969) This is almost a perfect album!

Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow (1967) The Airplane's second record is also almost perfect!

Santana (1969)  From 1967 to 1969 San Francisco ruled the musical world!

The Kinks - Something Else (1967) England wasn't doing so bad themselves! This record upon release was totally unique unto itself!

Having A Rave Up With The Yardbirds (1965) Just too good!

The Doors - Strange Days (1967) The Doors' second album was every bit as good as their first one, and maybe even better!

Pearl Jam - Vitalogy (1994) I could do without "Better Man" but the rest of this album is great from start to finish!

Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead (1970) I'm not the biggest Grateful Dead fan in the world, but this record is great! The Dead as "working class heroes!"  Fantastic concept!

Okay, so that's another ten albums that are on Rolling Stone's Top 500 that I can actually agree on! It's pretty much a no-brainer, they're all classics!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 24 of 100 (More Unforgivable Rolling Stone Snubs)

 In 1969 Fugs member Ed Sanders stepped out on his own and released arguably the best country parody LP of all time, and called it "Sanders' Truckstop!" The two songs that begin each side, "Jimmy Joe, The Hippybilly Boy," and "The Iliad" are the true standouts, but the rest of the album is as good as some greasy biscuits and gravy!

Most all of The Captain's work is fantastic and "Trout Mask Replica" always gets kudos for being a revolutionary breakthrough in music, but for sheer listenablity, I prefer "Clear Spot" from 1972! This record actually had songs on it with commercial appeal but it's still pure Beefheart!

Listening to this 1971 album called "Lost In The Ozone Again" by Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen never gets old! An honest to goodness classic!

Long John Baldry never seems to get enough credit, but this 1971 LP is a standout in my book. From the title song to "Don't Try To Lay No Boogie Woogie On The King Of The Rock And Roll," it just doesn't get much better than this!

How can you go wrong when two of the best guitar players in history get together to have a good time and share it? You can't, and that's what Chet Atkins and Les Paul did in 1976 with this album simply titled "Chester & Lester!" It's a jewel!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 23 of 100 (5 Albums On Rolling Stone's List That I Can't Disagree With)

From 1977, I love this record, Television - "Marquee Moon" 

Not just in the Top 500, "Disareli Gears" by Cream is probably one of the top 50 albums of all time! 

The 1968 country album by the former folk-rock psych band The Byrds, "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo" is just a really beautiful record! 

"The Harder They Come" is a great movie, but the soundtrack is even better! With songs by Jimmy Cliff, The Maytals, The Melodians, The Slickers, Scotty, and Desmond Dekker, this 1972 release is perfect from start to finish! 

There are a couple of Jimi Hendrix albums that won't be on this list but his 1967 album "Axis: Bold As Love" would be on my top 10 list too, if I had one!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 22 of 100 (5 More Incredible Snubs By Rolling Stone)

I found this 3 record 1972 release in a box in a corner of an old thrift store with a 25 cent price tag on it some forty years ago! I've still got it! "A Lot Of People Would Like To See Armand Schaubroeck...DEAD" is one of the oddest records you'll ever hear, AND a scathing commentary on society!!

I'm not a big Bob Segar fan, but his first album from 1969 was great!Cool cover and "Ramblin Gamblin' Man" is one of my favorite songs ever!

SPIRIT Guitarist Randy California's side project "Kaptain Kopter and the Fabulous Twirly Birds" from 1972 is the best Hendrix album Jimi never made! Hendrix was the one who tagged Randy with the name California, so it's only fitting!!

This 1974 album from The Firesign Theatre's Phil Austin is quite possibly the funniest record ever made! The jokes are fast and furious, the story is insane, and the music is incredible!

This 1984 EP by The Wind titled "Guest Of The Staphs," might only have six songs on it, but they're all pieces of power pop perfection, and not one of them is over three minutes! I never get tried of listening to this one!

The REAL 500 Best Albums Of All Time - Part 21 of 100

 This 1969 LP by the Bay area's "It's A Beautiful Day" is a rather obvious choice for this list! Just look at it! There's never quite been another song like "White Bird!" Case closed!

Kaleidoscope - "Side Trips"   The psychedelic jug band music on this 1967 LP by Kaleidoscope is timeless, with titles like "Pulsating Dream" and "Keep Your Mind Open!"

 On Rolling Stone's list of the Top 500, there's one LP by Steve Miller, "Fly Like An Eagle!" Personally I find these three LP's that came out in a row to be his best!        From 1968 - "Sailor" with the titles "Song For Our Ancestors," "Living In The U.S.A.," "Quicksilver Girl," and "Gangster Of Love!" C'mon it doesn't get much better! 

"Brave New World" - 1969 with Lonnie Turner on bass and Tim Davis on drums! If for nothing else but "Space Cowboy!" That's enough by itself!

Five months after "Brave New World" was released, Steve Miller came out with "Your Saving Grace!" Let me just say, the band was in a groove! This is a beautiful record! How to this day this man is still not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is incredulous to me!! Sinful!!

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!!