Via Chicago's Top 100 Albums of All Time: Summer 2008 edition

[PopTodd]

It's accessible. Tangled Up in Blue plays well on the radio. It's interesting to see him in concert and most of the time that's the one song that people belt out the words to. I can understand your view, but I we'll agree to disagree. Your comment about "appreciated, but never really enjoyed Dylan" IMHO, underscores the accessibility issue. Ol Bob's meandered broadly through the years, and this album is a common place to pick up the trail. His side paths are difficult to reach but more rewarding.

 

The one album that I always did like was Nashville Skyline... certainly a sideline, itself. But absolutely accessible, too. And, I always found Freewheeling to be the most-accessible (moreso than Blood On the Tracks).

 

But, agree to disagree we shall.

[Guest Cousin Tupelo]

The one album that I always did like was Nashville Skyline... certainly a sideline, itself. But absolutely accessible, too. And, I always found Freewheeling to be the most-accessible (moreso than Blood On the Tracks).

 

But, agree to disagree we shall.

One of my primary criteria as I was trying to whittle down my list was balancing the greatness of the album, with time and place it was released, what context it came from, what it enabled other performers to do in its wake, it's lasting power upon continually listenings, and of course, my personal biases.

 

Under that guidance, I would rank both Nashville Skyline and Freewheeling above Blood on the Tracks.

[MattZ]

In the grand scheme of this project, lesser artists' best work is better than Dylan's results here, again IMHO.

 

Far be it from to pick on the dude who shows as much Argy Bargy love as you have in this thread. I want to buy you a beer. But I am having a hard time wrapping my head around your belief that lesser artists' best work is better than Idiot Wind, Simple Twist of Fate, If You See Her Say Hello, etc.

 

It's ok though. It's why we all get to say IMHO.

[slaorenz]

1) Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha

2) The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album)

3) Andrew Bird - Mysterious Production of Eggs

4) Wilco- Summerteeth

5) The Beatles - Abbey Road

6) Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

7) Frank Black - Teenager of the Year

8) Rubber Soul - The Beatles

9) The Kinks - Lola vs Powerman and the Money-go-Round

10) Ween- Quebec

11) The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

12) Sigur Ros - ( )

13) Built to Spill - Keep it Like a Secret

14) Andrew Bird - Weather Systems

15) Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

16) Ween - The Mollusk

17) Coldplay - Parachutes

18) Ween - White Pepper

19) Animal Collective - Sung Tongs

20) The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow

[Guest Cousin Tupelo]

Far be it from to pick on the dude who shows as much Argy Bargy love as you have in this thread. I want to buy you a beer. But I am having a hard time wrapping my head around your belief that lesser artists' best work is better than Idiot Wind, Simple Twist of Fate, If You See Her Say Hello, etc.

 

It's ok though. It's why we all get to say IMHO.

 

Well in the grand scheme of music theory, we're all the Dude throwing Donny's ashes into the wind. My point is lesser artists than Bob Dylan have made an album that has lasting value, has influenced others, both musically and culturally (sometimes for worse than better), and challenged peoples thoughts, tastes, etc. I don't deny the value of a single song you mentioned (particularly Idiot Wind: "I can't help it if iI'm lucky"). But I could definitely say the same thing about songs on Shot of Love, not that I'd call that one of his best efforts.

 

I'd definitely buy you a beer.

[ryann7739]

Top 20 eh? No problem.

 

1. Radiohead-Kid A

2. R.E.M.-Automatic For The People

3. Sonic Youth-Daydream Nation

4. Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

5. My Bloody Valentine-Loveless

6. Yo La Tengo-I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One

7. Bruce Springsteen-Born to Run

8. Sufjan Stevens-Michigan

9. Avey Tare and Panda Bear-Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished

10. Wilco-Being There

11. Brian Eno-Another Green World

12. The Velvet Underground-White Light/White Heat

13. The Flaming Lips-Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

14. Interpol-Turn On The Bright Lights

15. Sonic Youth-EVOL

16. Talk Talk-Laughing Stock

17. Grizzly Bear-Yellow House

18. Joy Division-Unknown Pleasures

19. Joanna Newsom-Ys

20. Modest Mouse-The Moon and Antarctica

[gogo]

I realize ths is the "VC's Top 100 Albums of All Time," but will you list the also-rans in order, or at all?

The Top 100 will be posted in this thread. The full list of all vote-getting albums will be available as a google-docs spreadsheet.

 

 

And, here is the official one-week-to-go reminder of the rules. Remember to e-mail them in, folks!

The concept is simple: everyone votes for their favorite 20 albums, and then I compile all the votes and come up with VC's Top 100. The rules are: there ain't no rules.

 

No, wait, that's not going to work. OK, the rules are:

 

1. Polls will open on June 15, and close on July 31. Results will be announced on August 8, or sooner if I've got my act together.

 

2. Feel free to post your lists in this thread, for discussion, lobbying, etc. However, anything posted in this thread, or PM'd to me, will not count as an official vote. Votes must be sent to VCtop100@gmail.com.

 

3. List your Top 20 albums of all time, numbered from 1 to 20, and please include both the album title and artist name. Also include your VC screen name and your real name (first name only is fine), just in case I need to verify anything about your vote.

 

4. I will give each #1 vote 20 points, #2 will get 19, etc. Please don't list anything as a "tie". I will come back to you and make you decide. I know it's nearly impossible to make a list like this, but give it your best shot. Flip a coin for the ties, if you have to.

 

5. Once you submit your list, that's it. No take-backs, no changes. That's why the voting period is so long. You've got plenty of time to refine your list, think out loud in this thread, etc. Make it perfect, and then send it to me.

[Guest Cousin Tupelo]

The Top 100 will be posted in this thread. The full list of all vote-getting albums will be available as a google-docs spreadsheet.

 

 

And, here is the official one-week-to-go reminder of the rules. Remember to e-mail them in, folks!

Has FYE contacted you about a sponsorship -- as if they'd have half the albums available?

[ryann7739]

I just emailed mine.

[fineartoflife]

1. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

2. Abbey Road - The Beatles

3. Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones

4. Music From the Big Pink - The Band

5. Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin

6. Stax 30th Year Anniversary - various artists

7. Illinoise - Sufjan Stevens

8. Being There - Wilco

9. Some Kind of Blue - Miles Davis

10. Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams

11. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco

12. Live at Leeds - The Who

13. The White Album - The Beatles

14. Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan

15. Harvest - Neil Young

16. Come Away With Me - Norah Jones

17. I'm Not There sountrack - various artists

18. Orphans - Tom Waits

19. Flaming Red - Patty Griffin

20. The Animal Years - Josh Ritter

 

I hope the Stax compilation and soundtracks count, this was a lot harder than expected !

[Littlebear]

One of my primary criteria as I was trying to whittle down my list was balancing the greatness of the album, with time and place it was released, what context it came from, what it enabled other performers to do in its wake, it's lasting power upon continually listenings, and of course, my personal biases.

 

Under that guidance, I would rank both Nashville Skyline and Freewheeling above Blood on the Tracks.

 

Blood on the Tracks fits as much with your criteria as the other albums you mention, minus your personal biases.

[Guest Cousin Tupelo]

Blood on the Tracks fits as much with your criteria as the other albums you mention, minus your personal biases.

Maybe so. Point taken. In what way do you hold up the relevance of BOTT, based on those criteria (minus *your* personal biases

[Littlebear]

Maybe so. Point taken. In what way do you hold up the relevance of BOTT, based on those criteria (minus *your* personal biases

 

You said:

 

One of my primary criteria as I was trying to whittle down my list was balancing the greatness of the album, with

 

1) time and place it was released, what context it came from

 

released in the middle of the 70's, BOTT surprised and impressed everybody

 

2) what it enabled other performers to do in its wake

 

every album of divorce or heartbroken stories has to be up to BOTT since

 

3) it's lasting power upon continually listenings

 

see what another guy is saying above

 

Let me forward this to you, something I've read on another forum:

 

I once took a class called "Sociology of Rock 'n Roll" at Ohio University. It met on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons from 1:00 - 2:00, but the Friday afternoon session usually carried over to the Union Bar on Union Street, and sometimes we were still debating social mores and The Rolling Stones at midnight. It was the best class I ever took, although my parents probably viewed it as a waste of money. It wasn't.

 

The professor was a frustrated social protest/folk singer. He wrote a song called "Bullshit," and he performed it most Fridays at The Union after he had a few beers in him. It was about politicians in general and Richard Nixon in particular. It was a good song, cathartically pissed off and full of righteous indignation, and we all sang along.

 

One Friday he solemnly laid down his guitar, put his hand over his heart, and vowed that he could never write another song. It was all hopeless. He waved a purple album cover in front of us. "This," he said, "has done me in. You can't write a better album than this. There's no sense in even trying."

 

It was Bob Dylan's new album Blood on the Tracks, which had come out a couple days before. A few folks had heard it, but most people had not, so the professor slapped it on the turntable and cranked up the volume.

 

And he was pretty much right. Everybody knew Bob Dylan. He was a folk protest singer. He had written those surrealistic rock 'n roll classics in the mid-sixties. He was the country squire of Nashville Skyline. But he had never written anything like this. And he was writing about something he had never written about before: Bob Dylan. Maybe divorce does that to you.

 

I've heard that album so many times now that it's almost part of my DNA. It's arguably the best album from the best songwriter of the rock 'n roll era. But initially I couldn't take it all in. There was only one song that immediately struck me, sitting in that bar, and it still raises the hairs on the back of my neck. It goes like this:

 

Our conversation was short and sweet

It nearly swept me off my feet

And I'm back in the rain, oh, oh,

And you are on dry land

You made it there somehow

You're a big girl now

 

Bird on the horizon, sittin' on a fence

He's singin' his song for me at his own expense

And I'm just like that bird, oh, oh,

Singin' just for you

I hope that you can hear

Hear me singin' through these tears

 

Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast

Oh, but what a shame if all we've shared can't last

I can change, I swear, oh, oh

See what you can do

I can make it through

You can make it too

 

Love is so simple, to quote a phrase

You've known it all the time

I'm learnin' it these days

Oh, I know where I can find you, oh, oh

In somebody's room

It's a price I have to pay

You're a big girl all the way

 

A change in the weather is known to be extreme

But what's the sense of changing horses in midstream?

I'm going out of my mind, oh, oh

With a pain that stops and starts

Like a corkscrew to my heart

Ever since we've been apart

-- Bob Dylan, "You're a Big Girl Now"

 

It was a form of voyeurism, a kind of window into the heart that was a little too clear. I had never heard that kind of vulnerability before. And it was uncomfortable. It was painful to hear. It was the kind of song that somebody writes when they're wide awake at 3:00 a.m., staring up at the ceiling, pondering the fact that the best part of life has just walked out the door.

 

I love that song for many reasons. But the best reason, the reason that sticks with me, is the singing. You have to hear it to understand. Yeah, I know. Bob Dylan can't sing. And as my professor used to say, "Bullshit." Bob Dylan can sing, and nowhere does he sing any better than on this song. Here is the Voice of a Generation, the Pied Piper of the Counterculture, The Songwriter of all Songwriters, and do you know the best part of that song? It's when Dylan sings "oh, oh." You can't transcribe that properly. You have to hear it. It is what the apostle Paul describes as "groanings too deep for words." It's Bob Dylan opening the window on his soul. It's too painful. But it's thrilling.

 

I haven't played Blood in the Tracks for a few years, but I've been listening to it over the past few days. I'm going to play that song at the upcoming Cornerstone Festival in Illinois. And I'm going to talk about why the words "oh, oh" might constitute some of the best songwriting ever.

 

That was written by Andy Whitman (you may read his reviews on AMG or in Paste magazine).

[gogo]

Polls close Thursday at 11:59:59pm! Get those votes in!

[gogo]

Not to name names or anything , but I'm just going to start calling out those of you who said you were in, but haven't voted yet. Currently, the electoral turn-out looks like the sum total of voters in a Republican primary in San Francisco (that would be low, in case that wasn't clear ). Anyway: vote!!!

 

Sounds like good times! I'll start working on mine immediatly.

I'm in and very happy that we have so long to work on it!

i am in as well - this sounds like a shit ton of fun.

sounds awesome. I'll have to start working on this

i'm in, but just put me down for whatever poptodd submits.

I think are collective minds contain more credibility than any list Rolling stone comes up with, so I say yes

real people, real music fans a real list!!!! all in good fun of course

I'm in, now I just have to remember...

Just made a list of contenders that came out to exactly 50. i'll eliminate one a day i guess, i hope i don't think of more.

Oh I am in. This will be fun!

I'm in for sure.

[bobbob1313]

Why, you Smarmy Condescending Hurtful Bitch^tm.

[gogo]

 

I just want this to reflect the greatest number of VCers possible. It's not just you folks, I want everyone to vote. You just happened to have left yourself open to the criticism.

[bobbob1313]

I'll leave you open to criticism.

 

I'll get to it now...

[bobbob1313]

Alright, I whipped it up quick.

 

Thought of as many great albums as I could off the top of my head and then picked the 20 that I like the most.

 

I'm sure to remember something right after I send it, but I figure this isn't the type of thing you should think a lot about. Loving music is rarely about what you can rationalize, but rather, your first, gut feeling. Music shouldn't appeal to the brain, but to the heart, so this is my heart's top 20, I suppose.

 

1. London Calling- The Clash

2. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot- Wilco

3. Abbey Road- The Beatles

4. Highway 61 Revisited- Bob Dylan

5. Pinkerton- Weezer

6. The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle- Bruce Springsteen

7. The Soft Bulletin- Flaming Lips

8. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea- Neutral Milk Hotel

9. Kid A- Radiohead

10. Kind of Blue- Miles Davis

11. Illmatic- Nas

12. Reinventing Axl Rose- Against Me!

13. Dookie- Green Day

14. Paul

[Littlebear]

Music shouldn't appeal to the brain, but to the heart, so this is my heart's top 20, I suppose.

 

 

That's the best way to set a list of favorites in my opinion.

[Jay]

1) Guided by Voices "Bee Thousand"

2) Ryan Adams "Heartbreaker"

3) The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

4) The Wrens "The Meadowlands"

5) The Afghan Whigs "Gentlemen"

6) Pavement "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain"

7) The Beatles "Rubber Soul"

8) Wilco "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"

9) Broken Social Scene "Broken Social Scene"

10) The Replacements "Let it Be"

11) Sloan "One Chord to Another"

12) Guided by Voices "Alien Lanes"

13) Whiskeytown "Stranger's Almanac"

14) Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians "Element of Light"

15) The National "Alligator"

16) Ted Leo and The Pharmacists "The Tyranny of Distance"

17) The Clash "London Calling"

18) Radiohead "The Bends"

19) Yo La Tengo "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One"

20) Sebadoh "Bakesale"

 

Before making my list I would have expected all these to be on it: Johnny Cash's prison albums, Elvis Costello, The Smiths, Stones, Dylan, Galaxie 500, Sonic Youth. And if I did this list again next year they probably all would be. I guess that's why making lists like these are fun/painful.

 

If EPs were allowed then the Voxtrot EPs would have been on my list (as one entry as I tend to think of them as one).

[gogo]

A couple of people sent in their lists, but they somehow didn't make it through to the e-mail inbox. If you sent if your vote, but haven't received a response from me, I didn't get it! Please send it again, and if you don't hear back from me by tomorrow morning, send me a PM.

 

Thanks!

[isadorah]

i just sent mine in, hope it isn't too late, .

[Guest Hollinger.]

1) Guided by Voices "Bee Thousand"

2) Ryan Adams "Heartbreaker"

3) The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

4) The Wrens "The Meadowlands"

5) The Afghan Whigs "Gentlemen"

6) Pavement "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain"

7) The Beatles "Rubber Soul"

8) Wilco "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"

9) Broken Social Scene "Broken Social Scene"

10) The Replacements "Let it Be"

11) Sloan "One Chord to Another"

12) Guided by Voices "Alien Lanes"

13) Whiskeytown "Stranger's Almanac"

14) Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians "Element of Light"

15) The National "Alligator"

16) Ted Leo and The Pharmacists "The Tyranny of Distance"

17) The Clash "London Calling"

18) Radiohead "The Bends"

19) Yo La Tengo "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One"

20) Sebadoh "Bakesale"

 

Before making my list I would have expected all these to be on it: Johnny Cash's prison albums, Elvis Costello, The Smiths, Stones, Dylan, Galaxie 500, Sonic Youth. And if I did this list again next year they probably all would be. I guess that's why making lists like these are fun/painful.

 

If EPs were allowed then the Voxtrot EPs would have been on my list (as one entry as I tend to think of them as one).

 

 

Now there's a guy with taste.

[Jay]

Now there's a guy with taste.