Rolling Stone’s song discards – less political than the albums?

In a post from March this year, I looked at artists discarded from Rolling Stone’s 2020 revision of its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list (originally published in 2003) to see how many of its discarded artists might have been motivated by the discarded artists belonging to genres associated with Republican-voting poor whites. I found that whilst not all of the discarded artists belonged to genres associated to varying degrees with Republican-voting poor whites, there were about a dozen of fifty-two discarded artists (slightly fewer than one-quarter) where this association may have been the decisive factor in their being omitted.

When I first looked at the updated songs list from about two months ago, I failed to compare with the earlier issue, although Rolling Stone did say that there had been large revisions vis-à-vis the 2012 and 2004 lists. However, recently I did look at the list and attempted to note, as I did previously with the albums, which artists had been entirely excluded this year who were present  in 2004 and 2012.

Big Joe Turner	Early blues artist
B.B. King	Early black pop artist
The Penguins	Early black pop artist
The Platters	Early black pop artist
Carl Perkins	Early white rocker
The Del-Vikings	Early black pop artist
The Dells	Early black pop artist
LaVern Baker	Early soul artist
Jackie Wilson	Early soul artist
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers	Early black pop artist
The Chantels	Early black pop artist
Archie Bell and the Drells	Early soul artist
The Coasters	Early soul artist
Ritchie Valens	Early Latino rocker
Jerry Butler and the Impressions	Early soul artist
Bobby Darin	Pop/rock
Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps	Early white rocker
Bill Haley and His Comets	Early white rocker	It is possible that like Elvis Presley his assocation with Republican-voting poor whites has affected his repuation amongst Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial critics
Dion (DiMucci)	Early white rocker	Same as for Bill Haley. Although his modern reputation is better (The Road I’m On was on David Keenan’s The Best Albums Ever...Honest), however, his history producing Christian albums and status as practicing Catholic may make Dion the more likely target
Barrett Strong	Early black pop artist
The Dixie Cups	Early black pop artist
Chubby Checker	Early black pop artist
Aaron Neville	Early black pop artist
The Spencer Davis Group	Pop/rock	This deletion also encompasses Traffic and solo Steve Winwood, neither of whom had songs on the original Rolling Stone list
Little Eva	Early black pop artist
Solomon Burke	Early soul artist
Percy Sledge	Soul/R’n’b
The Young Rascals	Pop/rock
The Lovin’ Spoonful	Pop/rock
The Troggs	Garage rock/protopunk
? and the Mysterians	Garage rock/protopunk
Love	College/hippie music	Although they had some association with hard rock and protopunk, the fact that mainman Arthur Lee was black would make them an unlikely target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial critics
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Janis Joplin
Eric Clapton	Hard rock Pop/rock	By genre a possible target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial critics, although less so for Clapton’s post-Cream work
Cream
Deep Purple	Hard rock	By genre a likely target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial crictics
Steppenwolf	Hard rock Heartland rock	By genre a likely target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial crictics
Labelle	Soul/R’n’b
The Carpenters	Pop/rock
The Five Stairsteps	Soul/R’n’b
Norman Greenbaum		By Christian faith a likely target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial critics
Lynyrd Skynyrd	Hard rock Heartland rock	By genre a likely target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial crictics
Jackson Browne	Singer/songwriter	A possible target as a standard white rocker, but political sentiments in 1980s make this less likely
The Jam	College/hippie music	This classification is not applicable outside the United States — the Jam were very much as mass-audience band in Europe
Foreigner	Hard rock Pop/rock	By genre a possible target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial critics, but too linked to soft rock to not exclude that they were excluded merely as an older pop band
John Cougar Mellencamp	Heartland rock	By genre a possible target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial critics
Salt-n-Pepa	Rap	A most surprising omission given that they were one of the first female rappers.
The Verve	College/hippie music
R. Kelly	Soul/R’n’b
Franz Ferdinand	College/hippie music

 In contrast to the albums, the song discards include many artists who might be expected to be “politically correct” from a Rolling Stone perspective, inasmuch as twenty-four of the forty-nine omitted artists (related artists counted as one) were black. However, all but five of these black artists predate the flowering of soul, funk and ultimately rap music upon which large portions of modern Rolling Stone canons have been based.

Early black pop artists, who date from a time before blacks were able to be politically active — although one could also say that with the power of Europe’s progressive working classes political conditions in the 1950s were much more favorable to advancements by black Americans than conditions since Europe’s deindustrialisation in the 1970s and 1980s — were simply not supportive of the left-wing politics with which Rolling Stone has been associated since its formation. From this fact, one could argue that Rolling Stone’s song discards are actually not that much less, or even no less, political than their album discards. Before the 1966 elections, political activism in black music was largely confined to radical forms of jazz and was not even widespread there — an example from as early as 1960 being We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite by drummer and composer Max Roach. Even We Insist! is not nearly so radical as bands like Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine would become in later generations. The 1950s and 1960s Civil Rights Movement was possible because the ruling classes in the US feared they would be subject to apartheid-type sanctions otherwise. Consequently, the movement was remarkably peaceful compared to virtually any other other social movement in modern history. However, Ward Churchill demonstrated in his 2006 On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections on the Consequences of U.S. Imperial Arrogance and Criminality that this peacefulness severely limited the long-term effectiveness of the Civil Rights movement and made it extremely easy for the US ruling class to reverse the improvements in life for black Americans once threats diminished — which Churchill and others show to have occurred for most black Americans since 1980.

For these reasons, it is by no means certain that the song discards of Rolling Stone are actually less political than their earlier album discards.

‘Rolling Stone’’s Updated 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

1. Aretha Franklin – ‘Respect’
2. Public Enemy – ‘Fight the Power’
3. Sam Cooke – ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’
4. Bob Dylan – ‘Like a Rolling Stone’
5. Nirvana – ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
6. Marvin Gaye – ‘What’s Going On’
7. The Beatles – ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’
8. Missy Elliott – ‘Get Ur Freak On’
9. Fleetwood Mac – ‘Dreams’
10. Outkast – ‘Hey Ya!’
11. The Beach Boys – ‘God Only Knows’
12. Stevie Wonder – ‘Superstition’
13. The Rolling Stones – ‘Gimme Shelter’
14. The Kinks – ‘Waterloo Sunset’
15. The Beatles – ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’
16. Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z – ‘Crazy in Love’
17. Queen – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
18. Prince and the Revolution – ‘Purple Rain’
19. John Lennon – ‘Imagine’
20. Robyn – ‘Dancing on My Own’
21. Billie Holiday – ‘Strange Fruit’
22. The Ronettes – ‘Be My Baby’
23. David Bowie – ‘Heroes’
24. The Beatles – ‘A Day in the Life’
25. Kanye West feat. Pusha T – ‘Runaway’
26. Joni Mitchell – ‘A Case of You’
27. Bruce Springsteen – ‘Born to Run’
28. Talking Heads – ‘Once in a Lifetime’
29. Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg – ‘Nuthing but a ‘G’ Thang’
30. Lorde – ‘Royals’
31. The Rolling Stones – ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’
32. Notorious B.I.G. – ‘Juicy’
33. Chuck Berry – ‘Johnny B. Goode’
34. James Brown – ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’
35. Little Richard – ‘Tutti-Frutti’
36. The White Stripes – ‘Seven Nation Army’
37. Prince and the Revolution – ‘When Doves Cry’
38. Otis Redding – ‘(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay’
39. Outkast – ‘B.O.B.’
40. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – ‘All Along the Watchtower’
41. Joy Division – ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’
42. Bob Marley and the Wailers – ‘Redemption Song’
43. The Temptations – ‘My Girl’
44. Michael Jackson – ‘Billie Jean’
45. Kendrick Lamar – ‘Alright’
46. M.I.A. – ‘Paper Planes’
47. Elton John – ‘Tiny Dancer’
48. Radiohead – ‘Idioteque’
49. Lauryn Hill – ‘Doo Wop (That Thing)’
50. Daddy Yankee – ‘Gasolina’
51. Dionne Warwick – ‘Walk on By’
52. Donna Summer – ‘I Feel Love’
53. The Beach Boys – ‘Good Vibrations’
54. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles – ‘The Tracks of My Tears’
55. Madonna – ‘Like a Prayer’
56. Missy Elliott – ‘Work It’
57. Sly and the Family Stone – ‘Family Affair’
58. The Band – ‘The Weight’
59. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five – ‘The Message’
60. Kate Bush – ‘Running Up That Hill’
61. Led Zeppelin – ‘Stairway to Heaven’
62. U2 – ‘One’
63. Dolly Parton – ‘Jolene’
64. Ramones – ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’
65. Earth, Wind & Fire – ‘September’
66. Simon and Garfunkel – ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’
67. Bob Dylan – ‘Tangled Up in Blue’
68. Chic – ‘Good Times’
69. Taylor Swift – ‘All Too Well’
70. Elvis Presley – ‘Suspicious Minds’
71. Tracy Chapman – ‘Fast Car’
72. The Beatles – ‘Yesterday’
73. Beyoncé – ‘Formation’
74. Leonard Cohen – ‘Hallelujah’
75. Pulp – ‘Common People’
76. Johnny Cash – ‘I Walk the Line’
77. The Modern Lovers – ‘Roadrunner’
78. The Four Tops – ‘Reach Out (I’ll Be There)’
79. Amy Winehouse – ‘Back to Black’
80. Ray Charles – ‘What’d I Say’
81. The Velvet Underground – ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’
82. Adele – ‘Rolling in the Deep’
83. Bob Dylan – ‘Desolation Row’
84. Al Green – ‘Let’s Stay Together’
85. Prince – ‘Kiss’
86. The Rolling Stones – ‘Tumbling Dice’
87. LCD Soundsystem – ‘All My Friends’
88. Guns N’ Roses – ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’
89. The Beatles – ‘Hey Jude’
90. Aretha Franklin – ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’
91. UGK feat. Outkast – ‘Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)’
92. Little Richard – ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly’
93. Kelly Clarkson – ‘Since U Been Gone’
94. Whitney Houston – ‘I Will Always Love You’
95. Oasis – ‘Wonderwall’
96. Jay-Z – ‘99 Problems’
97. Patti Smith – ‘Gloria’
98. The Beatles – ‘In My Life’
99. Bee Gees – ‘Staying Alive’
100. Daddy Yankee – ‘Gasolina’
101. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – ‘Maps’
102. Chuck Berry – ‘Maybelline’
103. Alanis Morissette – ‘You Oughta Know’
104. The Jackson 5 – ‘I Want You Back’
105. David Bowie – ‘Life on Mars?’
106. The Rolling Stones – ‘Sympathy for the Devil’
107. Wu-Tang Clan – ‘C.R.E.A.M.’
108. The Cure – ‘Just Like Heaven’
109. Sly and the Family Stone – ‘Everyday People’
110. The Beatles – ‘Something’
111. Bruce Springsteen – ‘Thunder Road’
112. R.E.M. – ‘Losing My Religion’
113. Stevie Wonder – ‘Higher Ground’
114. Britney Spears – ‘Toxic’
115. Etta James – ‘At Last’
116. Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock – ‘It Takes Two’
117. Aretha Franklin – ‘I Say a Little Prayer’
118. Radiohead – ‘Creep’
119. Marvin Gaye – ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’
120. X-Ray Spex – ‘Oh Bondage! Up Yours!’
121. The Beatles – ‘Let It Be’
122. The Impressions – ‘People Get Ready’
123. Talking Heads – ‘This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)’
124. Buddy Holly – ‘That’ll Be the Day’
125. Sex Pistols – ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’
126. George Michael – ‘Freedom! ’90’
127. TLC – ‘Waterfalls’
128. Led Zeppelin – ‘Whole Lotta Love’
129. Drake feat. Majid Jordan – ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’
130. Martha and the Vandellas – ‘Dancing in the Street’
131. Ben E. King – ‘Stand by Me’
132. Eric B. and Rakim – ‘Paid in Full’
133. Journey – ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’
134. Tina Turner – ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’
135. The Beatles – ‘She Loves You’
136. Otis Redding – ‘Try a Little Tenderness’
137. Ariana Grande – ‘Thank U, Next’
138. Blondie – ‘Heart of Glass’
139. Madonna – ‘Vogue’
140. Bob Marley and the Wailers – ‘No Woman No Cry’
141. Rod Stewart – ‘Maggie May’
142. George Jones – ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’
143. The Clash – ‘London Calling’
144. The Rolling Stones – ‘Jumping Jack Flash’
145. Outkast – ‘Ms. Jackson’
146. James Taylor – ‘Fire and Rain’
147. Fats Domino – ‘Blueberry Hill’
148. Led Zeppelin – ‘Kashmir’
149. Elton John – ‘Rocket Man’
150. Green Day – ‘Basket Case’
151. The Shirelles – ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’
152. Creedence Clearwater Revival – ‘Proud Mary’
153. Rick James – ‘Super Freak’
154. Howlin’ Wolf – ‘Spoonful’
155. The Strokes – ‘Last Nite’
156. The Kingsmen – ‘Louie Louie’
157. Sonic Youth – ‘Teenage Riot’
158. The Meters – ‘Cissy Strut’
159. The Who – ‘Baba O’Riley’
160. R.E.M. – ‘Nightswimming’
161. Madonna – ‘Into the Groove’
162. Nick Drake – ‘Pink Moon’
163. Fleetwood Mac – ‘Landslide’
164. Bob Dylan – ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’
165. Hank Williams – ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’
166. Mott the Hoople – ‘All the Young Dudes’
167. Eminem – ‘Lose Yourself’
168. Dusty Springfield – ‘Son of a Preacher Man’
169. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – ‘American Girl’
170. The Five Satins – ‘In the Still of the Night’
171. Louis Armstrong – ‘What a Wonderful World’
172. Nina Simone – ‘Mississippi Goddam’
173. Television – ‘Marquee Moon’
174. R.E.M. – ‘Radio Free Europe’
175. The Flamingos – ‘I Only Have Eyes for You’
176. The Kinks – ‘You Really Got Me’
177. Van Halen – ‘Jump’
178. Billie Eilish – ‘Bad Guy’
179. Pink Floyd – ‘Comfortably Numb’
180. Lou Reed – ‘Walk on the Wild Side’
181. The Byrds – ‘Eight Miles High’
182. Simon and Garfunkel – ‘The Sounds of Silence’ 
183. Stevie Wonder – ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’
184. Sinéad O’Connor – ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ 
185. Michael Jackson – ‘Beat It’
186. The Staple Singers – ‘I’ll Take You There’
187. Bob Dylan – ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’
188. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – ‘Little Wing’
189. David Bowie – ‘Space Oddity’
190. N.W.A – ‘[expletive] tha Police’
191. Bobbie Gentry – ‘Ode to Billie Joe’
192. Geto Boys – ‘Mind Playing Tricks on Me’
193. The Rolling Stones – ‘Wild Horses’
194. PJ Harvey – ‘Rid of Me’
195. Patsy Cline – ‘Crazy’
196. James Brown – ‘Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine’
197. Ann Peebles – ‘I Can’t Stand the Rain’
198. Marvin Gaye – ‘Sexual Healing’
199. Aerosmith – ‘Dream On’
200. David Bowie – ‘Changes’
201. Johnny Cash – ‘Ring of Fire’
202. Elton John – ‘Your Song’
203. Stevie Wonder – ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours’
204. David Bowie – ‘Young Americans’
205. Britney Spears – ‘…Baby One More Time’
206. Glen Campbell – ‘Wichita Lineman’
207. Rage Against the Machine – ‘Killing in the Name’
208. Hole – ‘Doll Parts’
209. Don Henley – ‘Boys of Summer’
210. Funkadelic – ‘One Nation Under a Groove’
211. U2 – ‘With or Without You’
212. Boston – ‘More Than a Feeling’
213. The Rolling Stones – ‘Paint It, Black’
214. Steely Dan – ‘Deacon Blues’
215. Mobb Deep – ‘Shook Ones, Pt. II’
216. Elvis Presley – ‘Jailhouse Rock’
217. Stevie Nicks – ‘Edge of Seventeen’
218. Wilson Pickett – ‘In the Midnight Hour’
219. Tom Petty – ‘Free Falling’
220. New Order – ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’
221. Ike and Tina Turner – ‘River Deep, Mountain High’
222. David Crosby – ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’
223. Eminem feat. Dido – ‘Stan’
224. Derek and the Dominos – ‘Layla’
225. Joni Mitchell – ‘Both Sides Now’
226. The Smiths – ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’
227. Creedence Clearwater Revival – ‘Fortunate Son’
228. Beyoncé – ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)’
229. Woody Guthrie – ‘This Land Is Your Land’
230. The Byrds – ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’
231. Whitney Houston – ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)’
232. The Who – ‘My Generation’
233. Deee-Lite – ‘Groove Is in the Heart’
234. The Supremes – ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’
235. New Order – ‘Blue Monday’
236. Bill Withers – ‘Lean on Me’
237. Hank Williams – ‘Your Cheating Heart’
238. Aaliyah – ‘Are You That Somebody?’
239. Big Star – ‘September Gurls’
240. Backstreet Boys – ‘I Want It That Way’
241. Digital Underground – ‘The Humpty Dance’
242. Jerry Lee Lewis – ‘Great Balls of Fire’
243. The Beatles – ‘Eleanor Rigby’
244. Pavement – ‘Summer Babe (Winter Version)’
245. Beastie Boys – ‘Sabotage’
246. Faces – ‘Ooh La La’
247. Joni Mitchell – ‘River’
248. N.W.A – ‘Straight Outta Compton’
249. Joan Jett – ‘Bad Reputation’
250. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – ‘Purple Haze’
251. Gloria Gaynor – ‘I Will Survive’
252. Parliament – ‘Flash Light’
253. Willie Nelson – ‘Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain’
254. The Supremes – ‘Stop! In the Name of Love’
255. Loretta Lynn – ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’
256. Metallica – ‘Master of Puppets’
257. Martha Reeves and the Vandellas – ‘Heat Wave’
258. Gil-Scott Heron – ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’
259. Neil Young – ‘Heart of Gold’
260. The Wailers – ‘Get Up, Stand Up’
261. Curtis Mayfield – ‘Pusherman’
262. Paul Simon – ‘American Tune’
263. Dolly Parton – ‘Coat of Many Colors’
264. Marvin Gaye – ‘Let’s Get It On’
265. The Replacements – ‘Left of the Dial’
266. Augustus Pablo – ‘King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown’
267. Drake feat. Rihanna – ‘Take Care’
268. The Isley Brothers – ‘Shout (Parts 1 and 2)’
269. The Righteous Brothers – ‘Unchained Melody’
270. Nine Inch Nails – ‘Closer’
271. Procol Harum – ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’
272. Thin Lizzy – ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’
273. Roberta Flack – ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’
274. Al Green – ‘Love and Happiness’
275. Randy Newman – ‘Sail Away’
276. Buzzcocks – ‘Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t Have)’
277. Bo Diddley – ‘Bo Diddley’
278. Toots and the Maytals – ‘Pressure Drop’
279. Radiohead – ‘Karma Police’
280. The Beatles – ‘Penny Lane’
281. Clipse – ‘Grinding’
282. INXS – ‘Never Tear Us Apart’
283. Ray Charles – ‘Georgia on My Mind’
284. Leonard Cohen – ‘Suzanne’
285. Destiny’s Child – ‘Say My Name’
286. ABBA – ‘Dancing Queen’
287. AC/DC – ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’
288. The Funky 4 + 1 – ‘That’s the Joint’
289. Bruce Springsteen – ‘Atlantic City’
290. Usher feat. Lil Jon and Ludacris – ‘Yeah!’
291. Phil Collins – ‘In the Air Tonight’
292. A Tribe Called Quest – ‘Can I Kick It?’
293. Alice Cooper – ‘School’s Out’
294. The Velvet Underground – ‘Sweet Jane’
295. The Who – ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’
296. Bikini Kill – ‘Rebel Girl’
297. Beach Boys – ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’
298. Bruce Springsteen – ‘Jungleland’
299. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – ‘I Put a Spell on You’
300. The B-52’s – ‘Rock Lobster’
301. Bob Seger – ‘Night Moves’
302. Pink Floyd – ‘Wish You Were Here’
303. TLC – ‘No Scrubs’
304. Kraftwerk – ‘Trans-Europe Express’
305. The Police – ‘Every Breath You Take’
306. Aretha Franklin – ‘Chain of Fools’
307. Gnarls Barkley – ‘Crazy’
308. Liz Phair – ‘Divorce Song’
309. Bill Withers – ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’
310. The Doors – ‘Light My Fire’
311. The Eagles – ‘Hotel California’
312. Isaac Hayes – ‘Walk on By’
313. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles – ‘The Tears of a Clown’
314. The Stooges – ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’
315. John Coltrane – ‘Pt. 1-Acknowledgement’
316. The Shangri-Las – ‘Leader of the Pack’
317. Bob Dylan – ‘Visions of Johanna’
318. Big Mama Thornton – ‘Hound Dog’
319. Tears for Fears – ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’
320. 2Pac – ‘California Love’
321. U2 – ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’
322. Neil Young – ‘After the Gold Rush’
323. Everly Brothers – ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream’
324. Billy Joel – ‘Scenes From an Italian Restaurant’
325. Iggy Pop – ‘Lust for Life’
326. Rilo Kiley – ‘Portions for Foxes’
327. Mary J. Blige – ‘Real Love’
328. Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘Under the Bridge’
329. Bad Bunny – ‘Safaera’
330. The Notorious B.I.G. – ‘Big Poppa’
331. The Marvelettes – ‘Please Mr. Postman’
332. Rihanna feat. Jay-Z – ‘Umbrella’
333. The Temptations – ‘Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone’
334. The Grateful Dead – ‘Ripple’
335. Marshall Jefferson – ‘Move Your Body (The House Music Anthem)’
336. Hall and Oates – ‘She’s Gone’
337. Cher – ‘Believe’
338. Black Sabbath – ‘Paranoid’
339. Prince – ‘1999’
340. The Clash – ‘(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais’
341. The Monkees – ‘I’m a Believer’
342. Chuck Berry – ‘Promised Land’
343. The Doobie Brothers – ‘What a Fool Believes’
344. Black Sabbath – ‘Iron Man’
345. Carole King – ‘It’s Too Late’
346. BTS – ‘Dynamite’
347. Elvis Presley – ‘Heartbreak Hotel’
348. Roxy Music – ‘Virginia Plain’
349. The Zombies – ‘Time of the Season’
350. John Prine – ‘Angel From Montgomery’
351. Jorge Ben – ‘Ponta de Lança Africano (Umbabarauma)’
352. Ice Cube – ‘It Was a Good Day’
353. Eurythmics – ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)’
354. Michael Jackson – ‘Rock With You’
355. Thelma Houston – ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’
356. Cheap Trick – ‘Surrender’
357. Taylor Swift – ‘Blank Space’
358. Patti Smith – ‘Because the Night’
359. Fugees – ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’
360. Prince – ‘Little Red Corvette’
361. Jimmy Cliff – ‘The Harder They Come’
362. Kacey Musgraves – ‘Merry Go ‘Round’
363. Bob Marley and the Wailers – ‘Could You Be Loved’
364. The Grateful Dead – ‘Box of Rain’
365. Sex Pistols – ‘God Save the Queen’
366. The Crystals – ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’
367. Frank Ocean – ‘Thinking ‘Bout You’
368. Soundgarden – ‘Black Hole Sun’
369. The Cars – ‘Just What I Needed’
370. Buddy Holly – ‘Peggy Sue’
371. Elton John – ‘Bennie and the Jets’
372. Bonnie Raitt – ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’
373. Drake – ‘Hotline Bling’
374. William DeVaughn – ‘Be Thankful for What You Got’
375. The Drifters – ‘Up on the Roof’
376. Merle Haggard – ‘Mama Tried’
377. The Cure – ‘Pictures of You’
378. The Killers – ‘Mr. Brightside’
379. D’Angelo – ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel)’
380. Fountains of Wayne – ‘Radiation Vibe’
381. The Slits – ‘Typical Girls’
382. Fiona Apple – ‘Paper Bag’
383. Childish Gambino – ‘Redbone’
384. Cardi B Ft. Bad Bunny & J Balvin – ‘I Like It’
385. Diana Ross – ‘I’m Coming Out’
386. The Kinks – ‘Lola’
387. New York Dolls – ‘Personality Crisis’
388. DMX – ‘Party Up (Up in Here)’
389. Pretenders – ‘Brass in Pocket’
390. Metallica – ‘Enter Sandman’
391. Eric Church – ‘Springsteen’
392. Coldplay – ‘Fix You’
393. James Brown – ‘Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)’
394. Jeff Buckley – ‘Grace’
395. Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force – ‘Planet Rock’
396. Elvis Costello – ‘Alison’
397. Public Enemy – ‘Bring the Noise’
398. Duran Duran – ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’
399. Sylvester – ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’
400. David Bowie – ‘Station to Station’
401. Fleetwood Mac – ‘Go Your Own Way’
402. Bill Withers – ‘Lovely Day’
403. Rufus and Chaka Khan – ‘Ain’t Nobody’
404. Kiss – ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’
405. Selena – ‘Amor Prohibido’
406. Run-DMC – ‘Sucker MC’s’
407. Lynyrd Skynyrd – ‘Free Bird’
408. Cat Stevens– ‘Father and Son’
409. Foo Fighters – ‘Everlong’
410. Allman Brothers Band – ‘Whipping Post’
411. Wilco – ‘Heavy Metal Drummer’
412. Neneh Cherry – ‘Buffalo Stance’
413. Them – ‘Gloria’
414. Blondie – ‘Dreaming’
415. Depeche Mode – ‘Enjoy the Silence’
416. Pearl Jam – ‘Alive’
417. Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars – ‘Uptown Funk’
418. Booker T. and the MGs – ‘Green Onions’
419. Mariah Carey – ‘Fantasy’
420. The Mamas and the Papas – ‘California Dreaming’
421. The Smiths – ‘How Soon Is Now?’
422. Craig Mack featuring Notorious B.I.G. – ‘Flava in Ya Ear (Remix)’
423. Fiona Apple – ‘Criminal’
424. Blackstreet feat. Dr. Dre and Queen Pen – ‘No Diggity’
425. Muddy Waters – ‘Mannish Boy’
426. Nicki Minaj – ‘Super Bass’
427. Sugar Hill Gang – ‘Rapper’s Delight’
428. Harry Styles – ‘Sign of the Times’
429. Queen and David Bowie – ‘Under Pressure’
430. Pete Rock and CL Smooth – ‘They Reminisce Over You’
431. Prince – ‘Adore’
432. Eddie Cochran – ‘Summertime Blues’
433. Pet Shop Boys – ‘West End Girls’
434. Ramones – ‘Sheena Is a Punk Rocker’
435. Rush – ‘Limelight’
436. Carly Rae Jepsen – ‘Call Me Maybe’
437. Lucinda Williams – ‘Passionate Kisses’
438. Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé – ‘Savage (Remix)’
439. Celia Cruz – ‘La Vida Es un Carnaval’
440. Alicia Keys – ‘If I Ain’t Got You’
441. Miranda Lambert – ‘The House That Built Me’
442. Motörhead – ‘Ace of Spades’
443. Fall Out Boy – ‘Sugar, We’re Going Down’
444. 50 Cent – ‘In Da Club’
445. T. Rex – ‘Cosmic Dancer’
446. Bruce Springsteen – ‘Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)’
447. The Beatles – ‘Help!’
448. Erykah Badu – ‘Tyrone’
449. Blue Öyster Cult – ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’
450. Neil Young – ‘Powderfinger’
451. Migos feat. Lil Uzi Vert – ‘Bad and Boujee’
452. Toto – ‘Africa’
453. Missy Elliot – ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’
454. Sister Nancy – ‘Bam Bam’
455. Jefferson Airplane – ‘White Rabbit’
456. Lana Del Rey – ‘Summertime Sadness’
457. Bon Jovi – ‘Living on a Prayer’
458. Beck – ‘Loser’
459. Sade – ‘No Ordinary Love’
460. Steel Pulse – ‘Ku Klux Klan’
461. Roy Orbison – ‘Crying’
462. Van Morrison – ‘Into the Mystic’
463. John Lee Hooker – ‘Boom Boom’
464. Joni Mitchell – ‘Help Me’
465. Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams – ‘Get Lucky’
466. Luther Vandross – ‘Never Too Much’
467. Nirvana – ‘Come as You Are’
468. Mazzy Star – ‘Fade Into You’
469. Dixie Chicks – ‘Goodbye Earl’
470. Gladys Knight and the Pips – ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’
471. The Animals – ‘The House of the Rising Sun’
472. Peter Gabriel – ‘Solsbury Hill’
473. Tammy Wynette – ‘Stand by Your Man’
474. Curtis Mayfield – ‘Move On Up’
475. Janet Jackson – ‘Rhythm Nation’
476. Kris Kristofferson – ‘Sunday Morning Comin’ Down’
477. The Go-Gos – ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’
478. Juvenile feat. Lil Wayne and Mannie Fresh – ‘Back That Azz Up’
479. Santana – ‘Oye Como Va’
480. Biz Markie – ‘Just a Friend’
481. Robert Johnson – ‘Cross Road Blues’
482. Lady Gaga – ‘Bad Romance’
483. The Four Tops – ‘I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)’
484. Weezer – ‘Buddy Holly’
485. Azealia Banks – ‘212’
486. Lil Wayne – ‘A Milli’
487. Solange – ‘Cranes in the Sky’
488. The Weeknd – ‘House of Balloons’
489. The Breeders – ‘Cannonball’
490. Lil Nas X – ‘Old Town Road’
491. Guns N’ Roses – ‘Welcome to the Jungle’
492. Miles Davis – ‘So What’
493. The Pixies – ‘Where Is My Mind?’
494. Cyndi Lauper – ‘Time After Time’
495. Carly Simon – ‘You’re So Vain’
496. Harry Nilsson – ‘Without You’
497. Lizzo – ‘Truth Hurts’
498. Townes Van Zandt – ‘Pancho and Lefty’
499. The Supremes – ‘Baby Love’
500. Kanye West – ‘Stronger’

Taking into account my lack of knowledge of commercial music after the 1994 Republican Revolution – due to both my own dislike and the criticism of the likes of Joe S. Harrington and Piero Scaruffi – there are not many songs I would be likely to include in a “best-of” of my own:

• #12 – ‘Superstition’ – is a definite exception that I wholeheartedly agree could be almost as high as it is
• #28 – ‘Once in a Lifetime’ – is also exceptional but its predecessor on Remain in Light – ‘The Great Curve’ – is even better
• #40 – ‘All Along the Watchtower’ – is another that fully deserves its place here and which I might include myself
• #60 – ‘Running Up That Hill’ – is truly deserving, although third track ‘The Big Sky’ is even better
• #61 – ‘Stairway to Heaven’ – is deserving, although ‘The Battle of Evermore’, ‘Four Sticks’ and ‘When the Levee Breaks’ are better to my mind
• #68 – ‘Good Times’ – I have recently listened to and feel fully deserves its place, although why ‘Le Freak’ is not there at all is a big question
• #172 – ‘Mississippi Goddamn’ – is probably the greatest civil rights protest song and would have to be on any list I make
• #358 – ‘Because the Night’ – is a deserved selection but not necessarily the best from its parent album
• #410 – ‘Whipping Post’ – is an equal must to ‘Superstition’
• #462 – ‘Into the Mystic’ – I also would have to include, although on a top-10 album probably it would have to be alongside the title tune and several others
• #210, #235, #289, #371, #468, #495, and Aretha’s several late-1960s and early 1970s songs would also be considerations, and if I thought carefully I could certainly add to this list further

However, what is apparent to me is that it is much more difficult to make a list of best songs than best albums. In many cases, I would certainly have chosen a different song, or one of several different songs, from the same or nearby albums:

Artist	Song	Song(s) I would have included myself
Fleetwood Mac	‘Dreams’	‘Rhiannon’ ‘Sisters of the Moon’ ‘Sara’
	‘Landslide’
	‘Go Your Own Way’
Patti Smith	‘Gloria’	‘Birdland’ ‘Ain’t It Strange’ ‘Poppies’
Stevie Wonder	‘Higher Ground’	‘Living for the City’
Elton John	‘Rocket Man’	‘Honky Cat’
Television	‘Marquee Moon’	‘See No Evil’ ‘Venus’ ‘Friction’ ‘Torn Curtain’ ‘Foxhole’
Parliament	‘Flash Light’	‘Sir Nose D‘Void‘Of Funk’ ‘Funkentelechy’ ‘Bop Gun (Endangered Species)’
The Police	‘Every Breath You Take’	‘Message in a Bottle’ ‘Don’t Stand So Close to Me’ ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’ ‘Spirits in the Material World’
Steely Dan	‘Deacon Blues’ (in my view one of their worst songs)	‘Josie’ ‘Black Friday’ ‘Hey Nineteen’ ‘Glamour Profession’
The Doors	‘Light My Fire’	‘Break On Through’ ‘Twentieth Century Fox’ ‘Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)’
Roxy Music	‘Virginia Plain’	‘Do the Strand’ ‘Re Make/Re Model’ ‘Psalm’
The Slits	‘Typical Girls’	‘Spend, Spend, Spend’ ‘Shoplifting’ ‘Earthbeat’ ‘Animal Space/Spacier’
Bruce Springsteen	‘Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)’	‘The E Street Shuffle’ ‘Kitty’s Back’

These cases really do make me think a lot. The fact that Rolling Stone have so often not chosen what I think of as the best songs on even those albums I would rate most highly really makes me feel that it must be more difficult to list best songs than best albums. I say this despite the fact that I rarely listen non-stop through even what I consider the best albums like Moondance, Country Life, Spiderland, Hejira, The Milk-Eyed Mender, alongside other lesser-known masterpieces. (The lack of full album listens may be influenced by lack of opportunity under record COVID numbers for long periods of non-stop listening as I formerly obtained via extended bus rides).

Even with my knowledge limitations, I am not willing to discredit entirely Rolling Stone’s list, and the possibly greater difficulty might call for more lenience than with their Top 500 Albums.

Rolling Stone’s discards – how political are they?

Although always sceptical thereof because of having read Joe S. Harrington’s Top 100 Albums and David Keenan’s The Best Albums Ever...Honest in the early 2000s, I have always loved lists of bests and worsts, and albums have been a natural face of this tendency ever since I read Harrington for the first time.

Former amazon.com writer “janitor-x” introduced me to Rolling Stone’s original 500 Greatest Albums from a very critical perspective in the middle 2000s, and I have since viewed this and most other professional lists in a very negative manner. That has not meant I have lost interest in these lists – comparing lists has always been of interest to me.

The criticisms of Rolling Stone’s earlier 500 Greatest Albums lists were many and varied. Danny A. Vogel argued the list took no account of the genuine underground history of rock, whilst “janitor-x” viewed Rolling Stone as a purely pop magazine trying to base its selections upon politics and relevance to Boomer hippie culture. In “janitor-x”’s view, a pop magazine must base its charts purely upon sales.

Whilst the 2012 revision was minor, for 2020 Rolling Stone made a variety of major revisions:

1. increasing the number of albums since 2000 to 86
2. a radical change of the top 50 to reduce the dominance of the Beatles and Bob Dylan
3. a major emphasis on music viewed as relevant to the Millennial Generation (born since about 1980)
4. a major effort to expand the presence of black and female artists on this list
   

On the Internet – mainly on YouTube – I have recently been devouring criticism of Rolling Stone’s updated 500 Greatest Albums. The majority of reaction is undoubtedly unfavourable, and often downright critical. The common argument – somewhat echoing “janitor-x” from fifteen years ago – is that Rolling Stone’s list essentially reflects the taste of left-wing “social justice warriors” (commonly known as SJWs), or musical affirmative action for blacks and women.

There is also widespread criticism of omitted artists present in 2012 and 2003. Having made a table comparing various best-albums list as an .xlsx file, I added all the albums from Rolling Stone’s 2020 list to compare with its 2012 one. Once I began studying YouTube and Reddit assessments of the new Top 500, I began asking myself to what extent Rolling Stone’s discarded artists reflect the musical preferences of those politically opposed to Rolling Stone – working- and middle-class white Americans. To do this, I:

1. tabulated all the artists who were unrepresented in the 2020 list but had been represented in 2012
1. this tabulation was approximately in chronological order of their earliest album on the 2012 list (some exceptions were made for compilations)
   
2. categorized these artists by genre to see if they belonged to a genre typically associated with working- and middle-class whites. Genres associated with working- and middle-class whites include:
   
1. heavy metal
2. hard rock
3. heartland rock
4. punk excluding art-punk
5. country and country-rock
3. added other details of individual artists’ religious and political views if they would have affected whether Rolling Stone might have discarded them for political reasons
4. added a green background for artists clearly not discarded for political reasons
5. added a brown background for artists who may have been discarded for political reasons
1. in this group, three shades of orange were used for the text in order of increasing likelihood of politics being behind Rolling Stone’s discarding of the artist in question
   

My results are tabulated below:

Artist	Approximate category	Comments
Little Walter	Early blues artist
Bobby Bland	Early blues artist
Howling Wolf	Early blues artist
John Lee Hooker	Early blues artist
Phil Spector	Pop
Stan Getz and João Gilberto	Pop
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Jackie Wilson	Early soul artist
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers	Early blues artist
Frank Zappa/The Mothers of Invention		His satirical tendencies make him a possible target for big-city Millennials, as satire was popular with poor whites
Albert King	Early blues artist
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band	College/hippie music	May have been removed due to the unavailability of Trout Mask Replica on streaming services.
Moby Grape	College/hippie music
The Drifters	Pop
Boz Scaggs	Pop
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Carpenters	Pop
Neil Diamond	Pop
Linda Ronstadt	Pop/Country	By genre a possible target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennials, especially as she performed in apartheid South Africa
Alice Cooper	Hard rock/metal	As a Republican and Christian a certain target for Rolling Stone and for big city Millennial critics
Jethro Tull
Mott The Hoople	Hard rock/metal	By genre a quite possible target for Rolling Stone and big city Millennial critics
ZZ Top	Hard rock/metal	By genre a quite possible target for Rolling Stone and big city Millennial critics
Professor Longhair	Early blues artist
The O‘Jays	1970s soul
War	1970s soul
Jackson Browne	Singer/songwriter	A possible target as a standard white rocker, but political sentiments in 1980s make this less likely
Barry White	1970s soul
Gram Parsons	Country	By genre and Christian sentiments (read Bill Kaufmann) a certain target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial critics
LaBelle	1970s soul
Cheap Trick	Hard rock/metal	By genre a quite possible target for Rolling Stone and big city Millennial critics
Steve Miller Band		A quite possible target as a standard white rocker, and much more likely so than Browne
Bee Gees	Pop
Meatloaf	Hard rock/metal	By genre a quite possible target for Rolling Stone and big city Millennial critics
Graham Parker and the Rumour	College/hippie music
Public Image Limited	College/hippie music
Echo and the Bunnymen	College/hippie music
Eurythmics	Pop
Jesus and Mary Chain	College/hippie music
The Pogues		Their punk and Irish leanings make them a quite possible target for Rolling Stone and big city Millennial critics
Steve Earle	Country	By genre a likely target for Rolling Stone and big city Millennial critics, although politics should reduce this
Def Leppard	Hard rock/metal	By genre a quite possible target for Rolling Stone and big city Millennial critics
EPMD	Rap	Surprising omission give Millennial focus on rap and the left-wing politics of the genre
Jane’s Addiction	College/hippie music Hard rock/metal	Although to a large extent a college band, their metal links make them a possible target
Don Henley	Pop
Soundgarden	Hard rock/metal	By genre a quite possible target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial critics
Moby	College/hippie music
My Morning Jacket		Some genre labels do suggest a possible target for Rolling Stone and big-city Millennial critics
MGMT	College/hippie music

Of the fifty omitted artists, about a dozen (circa 25 percent) do seem to seriously reflect the political polarisation of modern America, in coming from genres that are perceived to be consumed by working-class whites supportive of a far-right Republican Party that over the past half-century has created systematic social injustice towards black Americans.

Eight omitted artists fall approximately into the category of “college music” or, for earlier bands, hippie music. Although these tended to share the left-wing politics of urban millennials – who, opinion polls suggest, may prefer even Stalinism to capitalism – they differ in being much less confrontational than the ghetto blacks who form the core audience for rap. Although rappers were never so critical of hippie culture as punks and metal artists frequently were – no doubt because hippie culture was never relevant for blacks – I do not see the natural compatibility between them tacitly assumed by “janitor-x”. “Peace and love” are opposite to the ideals of (most) rap, which are based upon brutal confrontation with the ruling class.

Another eight omitted artists fall into the category of “pop” – highly popular artists who did not make a single important musical innovation and who have lost cultural significance. Interestingly, as many as eleven omitted artists are black, something that contradicts popular claims of affirmative action. Except for rappers EPMD, all of these achieved their reputations before the “punk revolution”.

Alongside the omitted pop artists – all of whom come from before the original Bush Senior Era rap revolution – the omission of ten pre-punk black artists does support the claim that Rolling Stone’s primary reason for updating its 500 Greatest Albums was to become relevant to Millennials, rather than politics. Nevertheless, it should not be assumed that relevance to the Millennial Generation is necessarily a purer motive than promoting left-wing politics – something “janitor-x” has seen as always fundamental to Rolling Stone.

‘30 fascinating early bands from future music legends’

As I was opening a Firefox window this afternoon, I discovered that Rolling Stone had put out a list of “30 fascinating early bands from future music legends”:

1. Bruce Springsteen’s Sixties Garage Band The Castiles
2. Elton John’s Sixties R & B Group Bluesology
3. Madonna’s Post-Punk Band Emmy
4. Eddie Vedder’s Eighties Alt-Rock Band Bad Radio
5. Billy Joel’s Wild Heavy-Metal Duo Attila
6. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s Psychedelic Rock Band Fritz
7. Simon and Garfunkel’s Teen Harmony Duo Tom and Jerry
8. Dave Grohl’s Adolescent Punk Band Dain Bramage
9. Robert Plant and John Bonham’s Psychedelic Sixties Outfit Band of Joy
10. Radiohead Members’ Sax-Driven Collective On a Friday
11. David Bowie’s Sixties Mod Group The Lower Third
12. Chester Bennington’s Nineties Alt-Rock Crew Grey Daze
13. Neil Young and Rick James’ Motown Pop Band The Mynah Birds
14. Steven Tyler’s Sixties Pop Group The Chain Reaction
15. Alice Cooper’s High-School Beatles Parody Act
16. Grace Slick’s Sly Stone–Produced Experimental Rock Band The Great Society
17. Michael Bolton’s Hard-Rocking Hair Band Black Jack
18. Iggy Pop’s High-School Garage Band The Iguanas
19. Duane and Gregg Allman’s Ill-Fated Psychedelic Soul Outfit The Hour Glass
20. Brian May and Roger Taylor’s Sixties Power Trio Smile
21. Future Doors Members’ Surf-Rock Band Rick and the Ravens
22. Debbie Harry’s Sixties Psych-Folk Group The Wind in the Willows
23. Ronnie James Dio’s Dreamy Fifties Pop Group The Vegas Kings
24. Dusty Springfield’s Early-Sixties “Family” Folk Trio The Springfields
25. Peter Frampton’s Teen-Idol Pop Group The Herd
26. Lemmy’s Costumed Sixties Band The Rocking Vickers
27. Bon Scott’s Australian Teen-Pop Band The Valentines
28. Carole King’s Progressive Folk Trio The City
29. Sammy Hagar’s Sunshine-Pop Duo Samson and Hagar
30. The Cars’ Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr’s Mellow Early-Seventies Trio Milkwood

I had heard of quite a few of these, though I have not listened to any. The ones completely new to me are:

• The Castiles (#1)
  
• Emmy (#3)
  
• Bad Radio (#4)
• Fritz (#6)
• Tom and Jerry (#7)
• Dain Bramage (#8)
• Band of Joy (#9)
• The Lower Third (#11)
• Grey Daze (#12, although I did not know the name and my main recollection of Linkin Park is hearing them called “stinking park” by a critic)
• The Mynah Birds (#13)
• The Chain Reactions (#14)
• The Hour Glass (#19)
• Smile (#20)
• The Vegas Kings (#23)
• The Springfield (#24)
• The Herd (#25)
• The Rocking Vickers (#26)
• The City (#28)
• Samson and Hagar (#29)

None of these seem of real interest to me, but that these musicians played in bands earlier than they did actually is.

“The Rap Bias” and race

Twenty-two years ago, I have a vivid recollection of reading Peter Kreeft’s Ecumenical Jihad and seeing some of the most outlandish claims I have ever read like:

“Even polls by the far-left Los Angeles Times in 1992 proved the existence of a massive media bias against traditional values, especially families, fidelity, morality, and religion.”

“We are not surprised when a teenager, who has typically seen fifteen thousand murders, rapes, and brutal beatings on TV and MTV and has heard this type of behavior encouraged and idealized on rap “music”, turns to violence.”

The notion that children could see fifteen thousand “murders, rapes and brutal beatings” on television or MTV has always made me laugh. So has the claim about the Los Angeles Times after reading such publications as Socialist Alternative, Socialist Worker and Green Left Weekly. Nonetheless, having in 1994 experienced a threatened murder leading to loss of $50 in Keilor Downs, and also bullying of a similar nature at school and during my early years in Carlton, I possessed and possess more sympathy for views like Kreeft’s than those around me would like.

Whilst some rap music – like gangsta rap – certainly does condone violence regardless of what its apologists say, critics neglect that many other genres of cutting-edge music were frequently equally or more violent:

1. heavy metal
2. grunge
3. hardcore punk
4. industrial

Moreover, extreme violence in heavy metal dates back to AC/DC. That band influenced but predate (most of) the above-mentioned sub-genres and were the first band to celebrate violence in their songs, as I have noted many times before. Celebratory violence in rap developed much later, beginning with N.W.A. around seven years after Back in Black’s ‘Shoot to Thrill’ glorified violence against women and stated there were “too many women” in the population.

Nonetheless, as Rachel Powers showed in ‘The Rap Bias’ from Orange Coast four years ago, it is rap that is associated with crime. Power says that:

“The bottom line of this research is that if you are somehow implicated in a crime, or if you are pulled over in a traffic stop, just the presence of rap music on your person or in your car can dramatically affect whether or not you’ll end up being prosecuted and convicted.”

“A [University of Georgia] law professor named Andrea Dennis wrote one of the earliest pieces on this practice, analyzing every case where defendant-authored lyrics were introduced as evidence in a criminal trial. All but one were rap lyrics...”

“The people who thought the lyrics were from a rap song [as opposed to a country song] saw them as more dangerous, offensive, threatening, in need of regulation, and literal.”

The last statement’s context demonstrates how conservative cultural critics simply ignore heavy metal and related genres of what my brother calls “white people’s music” or lump them in with “rap” as Robert Bork ridiculously did in Slouching Towards Gomorrah. This implies that criticism of rap is not related to (justifiable) moral complaints about lyrics condoning violence, but about criticising and blaming blacks – and that rap’s critics believe criticising heavy metal or other white genres will lose votes. However, in my view, the whites who listen to heavy metal are exceedingly unlikely to be persuaded to vote for conservative policies. Rather than being the struggling industrial workers upon whom Bush junior and Trump based their victories, heavy metal listeners are likely to be urban welfare-receiving whites. These people would be extremely unlikely to support tax cuts on bases of race because they would know that blacks suffer the same problems as whites, and because they are extremely dependent on the public sector for essential services.

In contrast, the whites upon whom Bush junior and Trump based their victories were poor rural folk who – owing to laws established between 1840 and 1940 excluding blacks from their communities (see James Löwen’s Sundown Towns) – have no direct contact with blacks and rely on outside media for their images thereof. Unavailability of noncommercial radio and concerts in rural areas means that these rural whites have had zero access to other than “middle-of-the-road” music ever since the tightening and standardisation of commercial radio playlists during the Carter Era. Consequently, they have missed the urban revolution in moral values during the past four decades, and feel severely threatened both socially and economically thereby.

Nonetheless, it is impossible for me to not believe that white musicians and cultural leaders are much more responsible for these radical cultural changes than black, even if white people have shown greater overt resistance to it. Moreover, because audiences for rap and cutting edge white music strongly overlap, criticism of the two needs to be linked and related to the economic and demographic problems faced by today’s Enriched World.

Are these the worst albums ever?

A couple of weeks ago now, one anonymous person published a list of the 100 worst albums he could think of. It is given as a very large poster and then listed in a user-friendly text format in alphabetical order by artist:

• Measure of a Man – Clay Aiken
• The Click – AJR
• Two the Hard Work – Allman and Woman
• Dirty Work – All Time Low
• NOW + 4EVA – Architecture in Helsinki
• Generation – Audio Bullys
• Sounding the Seventh Trumpet – Avenged Sevenfold
• Never Gone – Backstreet Boys
• Maroon – Barenaked Ladies
• Lions – The Black Crowes
• What the. . . – Black Flag
• Forbidden – Black Sabbath
• The Beginning – Blackeyed Peas
• The E.N.D. – Blackeyed Peas
• Epic – Blood on the Dance Floor
• Evolution – Blood on the Dance Floor
• #NEWGOREORDER – Borgore
• Never Let Me Down – David Bowie
• I‘m Not a Fan but the Kids Like It – Brokencyde
• Fortune – Chris Brown
• Graffiti – Chris Brown
• Camino Palmero – The Calling
• Charmbracelet – Mariah Carey
• Glitter – Mariah Carey
• Memories. . .Do Not Open – The Chainsmokers
• Testify – Phil Collins
• Scream – Chris Cornell
• Full Circle – Creed
• Milley Cyrus and Her Dead Pets – Milley Cyrus
• Outta Sight/Outta Mind – The Datsuns
• Destiny Fulfilled – Destiny’s Child
• A Moving Picture – Devlin
• One – Dirty Vegas
• Thank You – Duran Duran
• Revival – Eminem
• Streets in the Sky – The Enemy
• A Day Without Rain – Enya
• Mania – Fall Out Boy
• Playing with Fire – Kevin Federline
• Angelic 2 the Core: Angelic Funkadelic/Angelic Rockadelic – Corey Feldman
• Animal Ambition: An Untamed desire to Win – 50 Cent
• Wake Up! – Pope Francis
• Enclosure – John Frusciante
• Music for Tourists – Chris Garneau
• Cardiology – Good Charlotte
• Good Morning Revival – Good Charlotte
• UNO . . . DOS . . . TRÉ – Green Day
• Listen (Deluxe) – David Guetta
• Take It to the Limit – Hinder
• FOR(N)EVER – Hoobastank
• No Shame – Hopsin
• Cyberpunk – Billy Idol
• And Then Boom – Iglu and Hartly
• Virtual XI – Iron Maiden
• Blood in My Eye – Ja Rule
• Speeding Bullet 2 Heaven – Kid Cudi
• Music from ‘The Elder’ – KISS
• Something about Kreay – Kreayshawn
• The Rebirth of Venus – Ben Lee
• ReBIRTH – Lil’ Wayne
• Results May Vary – Limp Bizkit
• One More Light – Linking Park
• Authentic – LL Cool J
• Sorry for Party Rocking – LMFAO
• Slick Dogs and Ponies – Louis XIV
• Baytl – Gucci Mane and V-Nasty
• Red Pill Blues (Deluxe) – Maroon 5
• Super Collider – Megadeth
• Louder – Lea Michele
• Hotel – Moby
• Travistan – Travis Morrison
• Dark Horse – Nickelback
• A Lively Mind – Paul Oakenfold
• Heathen Chemistry – Oasis
• (One) – The Panic Channel
• Metal Magic – Pantera
• One of the Boys – Katy Perry
• Liz Phair – Liz Phair
• Having Fun with Elvis on Stage – Elvis Presley
• Life on Display – Puddle of Mudd
• Doll Domination – The Pussycat Dolls
• Nine Track Mind – Charlie Puth
• Eoghan Quigg – Eoghan Quigg
• Lulu – Lou Reed and Metallica
• Wanderlust – Gavin Rossdale
• United Nations of Sound – RPA and the United Nations of Sound
• ****hole – Gene Simmons
• Get Your Heart On! – Simple Plan
• souljaboytellem.com – Soulja Boy
• Underclass Hero – Sum 41
• 1989 (Deluxe) – Taylor Swift
• Paula – Robin Thicke
• Title (Deluxe Version) – Meghan Trainor
• Jewellery Quarter – The Twang
• Hotel California – Tyga
• Famous First Words – Viva Brother
• Raditude – Weezer
• #willpower – will.i.am
• 17 – XXXTENTATION
• Warlord (Deluxe) – Yung Lean

What is noticeable to me is that I have bypassed almost every one of these albums, because all but a few were made after I stopped listening to the radio in the middle to late 1990s when I felt that what was played was just too loud, tuneless and noisy to interest me. It is true that within my occasional present-day readings of music that these or similar albums are listed as very bad, and I do almost always accept that viewpoint. Whenever I have listened to these or related albums, I can only say I dislike them quite intensely.

However, as I reflect on past music reading, I always have scepticism that the list is too ephemeral and is not focused on records whose badness will endure with those who attempt to remember them. With hindsight, most of the worst of the popular music I listened to in the cloistered environment of Keilor Downs was nothing more and nothing less than ordinarily bad. For this reason, I wonder if the albums listed here will simply become regarded as just that in the future, and do so desite finding them much worse vis-à-vis what I listed to as a child.

150 Worst Albums Made by Men by National Public Radio

Pink indicates own album, whilst pink on artist indicated I own other albums by that artist.

According to National Public Radio, the point of the list was to:

“shift “the assumption that a male perspective can stand for all perspectives,” and to recenter women as a vital, dynamic part of the musical canon without reverting back to that perspective.”

Whilst with some reservations I do agree with that perspective, the problems with the individuoegalitarian culture of today’s Enriched World are undeniable, particularly from a demographic perspective but also from an ecological one in that it encourages people and economics to locate in the most expensive low-latitude locations. Rod Dreher, as noted here, has shown that today’s younger generation has trouble interacting – a view I can certainly sympathise with even though I will admit it is my own flaw.

I will list the albums below and then make comments:

150 Worst Albums Made by Men:

150. Pearl Jam, No Code
149. Skinny Puppy, Too Dark Park
148. Mother Love Bone, Apple
147. Chris Brown, Graffiti
146. Ace Frehley, Ace Frehley
145. Dave Matthews Band, Before These Crowded Streets
144. Morrissey, Years of Refusal
143. Jay-Z and Linkin Park, Collision Course
142. Good Charlotte, Cardiology
141. Kanye West, 808s and Heartbreaks
140. Stevie Wonder, Characters
139. Big Sean, Finally Famous
138. Jay-Z and R. Kelly, Unfinished Business
137. Guns N Roses, Chinese Democracy
136. Diplo, Decent Work for Decent Pay
135. Dr. Dre, Dr. Dre Presents… The Aftermath
134. Tool, Ænima
133. Chief Keef, Finally Rich
132. Drake, Views
131. Phish, Lawn Boy
130. David Guetta, Listen
129. Jamie Foxx, Best Night of My Life
128. Slint, Spiderland
127. Pat Boone, The Greatest Story Ever Told
126. Flo-Rida, Wild Ones
125. Dee Dee Ramone, Dee Dee King
124. The National, Boxer
123. Snoop Lion, Reincarnated
122. Julio Iglesias, 1100 Bel Air Place
121. Daniel Powter, Daniel Powter
120. Yung Lean, Unknown Memory
119. Eamon, I Don’t Want You Back
118. Usher, Raymond v. Raymond
117. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Pig Lib
116. Warrant, Cherry Pie
115. Prince, The Rainbow Children
114. The Crystal Method, Tweekend
113. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
112. Soulja Boy, iSouljaBoyTellEm
111. Duran Duran, Thank You
110. Gene Simmons, Gene Simmons
109. Neil Young, Are You Passionate?
108. Michael Bolton, Soul Provider
107. Hoobastank, Every Man for Himself
106. Kula Shaker, Peasants, Pigs and Astronauts
105. The Weeknd, Kiss Land
104. The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
103. Vanilla Ice, Bi-Polar
102. Russell Crowe and The Ordinary Fear of God, My Hand, My Heart
101. Bo Bice, 3
100. Muse, Drones
99. Lifehouse, No Name Face
98. Bobby Brown, The Masterpiece
97. The Cure, Wild Mood Swings
96. The Shins, Oh, Inverted World
95. Philly’s Most Wanted, Get Down or Lay Down
94. Action Bronson, Mr. Wonderful
93. AC/DC, Fly on the Wall
92. U2, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
91. Bee Gees, Living Eyes
90. Ray J, Raydiation
89. Jack White, Blunderbuss
88. Twenty One Pilots, Blurryface
87. The-Dream, IV Play
86. Swedish House Mafia, Until Now
85. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
84. Moby, Destroyed
83. Jet, Get Born
82. Jason Mraz, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things.
81. Gavin DeGraw, Gavin DeGraw
80. Deadmau5, Random Album Title
79. Radiohead, Kid A
78. Fun, Some Nights
77. One Direction, Four
76. Korn, Korn
75. Coldplay, Ghost Stories
74. Papa Roach, Infest
73. Elvis Presley, Today
72. Robbie Williams, Swing When You’re Winning
71. Giorgio Moroder, Déja-Vu
70. Weezer, Make Believe
69. Ed Sheeran, +
68. Daughtry, Leave This Town
67. Calvin Harris, I Created Disco
66. Maroon 5, Hands All Over
65. Metallica, Death Magnetic
64. Steve Miller Band, The Joker
63. Lil Wayne, Rebirth
62. Mötley Crüe, Generation Swine
61. Timbaland, Shock Value
60. Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
59. The Rolling Stones, Dirty Work
58. Borgore, #NEWGOREORDER
57. Sting, Ten Summoner’s Tales
56. Chingy, Hate It or Love It
55. Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
54. Toby Keith, Shock’n Y’all
53. Uncle Kracker, No Stranger to Shame
52. Plain White T’s, All That We Needed
51. Imagine Dragons, Smoke + Mirrors
50. Staind, Break the Cycle
49. Miles Davis, Doo Bop
48. Cee Lo Green, Heart Branch
47. 98 Degrees, Revelation
46. Ted Nugent, Cat Scratch Fever
45. Oasis, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants
44. Brad Paisley, Wheelhouse
43. Savage Garden, Savage Garden
42. Josh Groban, Closer
41. Nelly, 5.0
40. Sting, Sacred Love
39. Belle and Sebastian, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant
38. Orgy, Punk Statik Paranoia
37. The Black Eyed Peas, Elephunk
36. Jack Johnson, In Between Dreams
35. Magic!, Primary Colours
34. Charlie Puth, Nine Track Mind
33. The Strokes, Comedown Machine
32. Enrique Iglesias, Sex and Love
31. Placebo, Placebo
30. Nickelback, Silver Side Up
29. Rapeman, Two Nuns and a Pack Mule
28. Limp Bizkit, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
27. Lou Reed, Metal Machine Music
26. The Doors, Strange Days
25. James Blunt, Back to Bedlam
24. 311, 311
23. Jay-Z, Kingdom Come
22. Barenaked Ladies, Stunt
21. Matchbox Twenty, Mad Season
20. Robin Thicke, Paula
19. Trapt, Amalgamation
18. Methods of Mayhem, A Public Disservice Announcement
17. Train, Bulletproof Picasso
16. James Taylor, Greatest Hits
15. Justin Timberlake, 20/20 Part II
14. Creed, Human Clay
13. U2, Songs of Innocence
12. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, This Unruly Mess I’ve Made
11. Joe Scarborough Band, Mystified
10. Maná, Drama y Luz
9. Eminem, Relapse
8. Bruce Willis, The Return of Bruno
7. Bob Dylan, Christmas in the Heart
6. Kevin Federline, Playing With Fire
5. Toby Keith, 35 MPH Town
4. Chainsmokers, Memories... Do Not Open
3. Lou Reed and Metallica, Lulu
2. Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Last Rebel
1. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus

Like so many lists, there exists an element of predictability here. Many of these albums have been favourites for critical bashing ever since I read writers like Robert Christgau, Joe S. Harrington and David Keenan now over a decade and a half ago.

Spiderland – which is a brilliant work highlighted by ‘Don, Aman’ – was no doubt included as an effort to be hip for no reason. Tool’s Ænima, which although I have not heard it seems from what I have read to have a similar emotional perspective to the utter, solitary desolation of Spiderland, could be similar since Tool do have some critical credibility.

Wilco may be the sort of effort I read from one amateur named “janitor-x” a decade and a half ago, whereby metal and hardcore are emphasised over anything new from other genres. Sgt. Pepper’s is much more emphatically this – when Rolling Stone listed it as the best album of all time this “janitor-x” wrote a one-star review titled “‘Sgt. Pepper’ Grows Cold and Smells Bad”. The Nation and Kanye West are also potentially of the same school as “janitor-x” – indeed there are a few hints of what he would have said in 2003 and 2004.

Nonetheless, there is little to recommend this list, at least in the absence of well-argued reviews which I do not imagine as present.

Top 25 Misheard Lyrics by Nick and Jesse

Morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae)

When I was googling for an old misheard lyric from my childhood, I found this old list of a top twenty-five misheard lyrics. Merely because the list existed only cached, I thought I should put the list up in full. Moreover, when I did have a look at the cached page, I thought the misheards were funny and interesting enough to be worth blogging.

The list below originally came from two young me (in their picture) who give their names only as “Nick” and “Jesse”.

25) Beyonce – ‘Single Ladies’

• “I’m missing a leg Sue”

24) Green Day – ‘21 Guns’

• “twenty wine gums”

23) UB40 – ‘Please Don’t Make Me Cry’

• “peas on toast”
• (instead of “please don’t go”)

22) Australian Crawl – ‘Boys Light Up’

• “when the boys line up”
• I always heard it that way as a child, along with “I was heading for my Mukden home” at the song’s beginning.
• Mukden is an old Manchu name for the Chinese city of Shěnyáng, and I always knew it made no sense after the line following

21) Robbie Williams – ‘Candy’

• “liberate your sons and daughters the bush is high and in the hole is water”

20) The Corrs – ‘Breathless’

• “make me breakfast”
• Nick and Jesse’s listener’s daughter requested this song every morning

19) Rod Stewart – ‘You’re In My Heart’

• “you’re in my breath, pure alcohol”

18) Red Hot Chilli Peppers – ‘Californication’

• “feel my fanny for an occassion”

17) National Anthem

• “in the bones of love we meat”

16) Adele – ‘Set Fire To The Rain’

• “set fire to Lorraine”

15) George Michael – ‘Faith’

• “Got to have fanta, fanta, fanta”

14) Elton John – ‘Bennie And The Jets’

• “She’s got magic boobs, her mum’s got them too”

13) The Commitments – ‘Mustang Sally’

• “mustard and salad”
• Shelly said a colleague thought “Mustang Sally” was “Mustard and salad”. She was singing it once and I cracked up and had to correct her

 12) The Police – ‘Every Breath You Take’

• “My poo hole aches”
• “When I was little (about five) instead of saying my poor heart aches, I thought it said.... Omg... how embarassing!”

11) Beyonce – ‘Single Ladies’

• “I'm a singlet”

10) One Direction – ‘One Thing’

• “Shout meow to the sky, you’re in my crib tonight. You keep making me reek, yeah frozen in Cadbury”

9) Split Enz – ‘Poor Boy’

• “What more could a morepork do”
• as opposed to “What More Could A Poor Boy Do”

8) Rihanna – ‘Diamonds’

• “She ain’t white like a diamond”

7) Village People – ‘In The Navy’

• “Swing the lady”

6) Sandi Thom – ‘I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker’

• “I wish I was a prawn cracker!”

5) Bob Sinclar – ‘Love Generation’

• “Feed and hug little Asians”

4) Robbie Williams – ‘Angels’

• “I need protection to cover my erection”
• instead of something about love and protection

3) Gin Wigmore – ‘Black Sheep’

• “I’m a trash heap”
• Miss five-year-old not interpreting “I'm a black sheep” correctly?

2) Bruno Mars – ‘Locked Out Of Heaven’

• “Yeah your sex tapes made in paradise”

1) ACDC – ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’

• “Dirty deeds done to sheep”

Although I have no recollections of hearing them as those words given above, the misheard lyrics of ‘Faith’ and ‘In the Navy’ do sound a little like the real thing. The one of ‘Boys Light Up’ has extremely solid memories within my childhood, whilst the one of ‘You’re in My Heart’ (as I have noted earlier actually about Rod Stewart’s love of soccer) can easily be made sense of from the rhythm. I do wonder if anybody who realise the song is about soccer would think soccer is “pure alcohol” and/or that because of low scoring and ties it is dozy or some similar adjective?

Some of the lyrics were listed by Nick and Jesse as “Warning – naughty” – I have chosen to include them minus such notes. The one of ‘Every Breath You Take’ is a little funny and understandable, though everybody should know the proper word “anus” from younger than I did. I often have aches in my bowel due to a diet too heavy in sugar and I tend to accept them, but whether I would have accepted bad anus pains as a child I doubt gravely!

A list that claims to be universal, but overlooks almost everything

As I, perhaps looking to control obsessions that have dominated my thoughts and prevented me doing any real work on this blog or elsewhere over recent months, browsed YouTube looking for greatest albums articles of the type I lavished up a decade or so ago, I found one from 2013 that I had failed entirely to discover when it was originally written.

The list is, interestingly from my perspective and history as a music listener, written by Australians, namely Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson, and John O‘Donnell. The critics claim that they are dealing with what they perceive to be a kind of “nationalist” bias in rock criticism, claiming in their YouTube interview that:

“A US list will contain 99 US artists and the Beatles; a British list will contain 99 British artists and one US artist” 

I do have my doubts that “nationalist” bias of this type is so extreme as Cresswell and Mathieson claimed in their interview; nonetheless I do not doubt that the nation one is from can greatly influence which albums are considered important.

Creswell and Mathieson claim to have compiled their list from as many authoritative sources as possible rather than their own listening; however from my knowledge garnered during the 2000s of the most serious kind of rock criticism it is not possible for me to believe honestly that they have simply failed to see that a large number of  “best albums” lists are totally ephemeral and simply reflect the public popularity of records rather than enduring influence or being even remotely groundbreaking or even distinctive. To take at least some care, even if not the most extreme sort, to ensure that such lists are avoided is essential.

Joe S. Harrington’s decision in his Top 100 Albums to not allow anything released after 1992 to be included was a sign of wisdom since it is exceedingly clear he was listening to very little groundbreaking during the decade between 1993 and 2003, whilst David Keenan, who did include a couple of albums released after 1993 in his The Best Albums Ever...Honest, nonetheless came out utterly free from trendiness and attention to the present. Piero Scaruffi’s list of the 25 best albums is even more than Harrington’s or Keenan’s, the product of extremely intensive study of music and sound (not I would say by any means perfect), and focuses on music whose influence over the long term can be clearly demonstrated. I will say that I think Scaruffi can be a little over-the-top in praising avant-garde music that is not as good as he thinks, but his ability to find music of considerable value but which I would never learn about from other more mainstream critics is most definitely sufficient for me to recommend him.

I have tabulated Creswell, Mathieson and O‘Donnell’s top 100 albums, published in their book 100 Best Albums Of All Time, along with whether the album is included in the three lists by Harrington, Keenan and Scaruffi noted in the preceding paragraph and which I also note in my critique of NME’s Top 500 Albums from around the same time. Symbols:

1. a blank indicates that the artist has no albums on the relevant list
2. one asterisk is added for each album other than the one listed here the artist has on the relevant list
3. in Harrington’s and Scaruffi’s lists, each album included is given its number on that list
4. for Keenan’s list, which was not strictly ordered, each album from here included therein is simply labelled with a “Y”
5. albums released after the lists were published, or after 1992 with Harrington, are labelled with an “ineligible”
6. albums I own are shaded in pink

	Artist	Title	Year	Harrington	Keenan	Scaruffi
1	Bob Dylan	Highway 61 Revisited	1966		**
2	The Beatles	Revolver	1966		*
3	The Clash	London Calling	1979	*
4	Nirvana	Nevermind	1991	*
5	Van Morrison	Astral Weeks	1968		Y	#21
6	Joni Mitchell	Blue	1971
7	The Rolling Stones	Sticky Fingers	1971	*	*
8	Fleetwood Mac	Rumours	1977
9	The Velvet Underground and Nico	The Velvet Underground and Nico	1967	#25	Y	#4
10	Public Enemy	It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back	1988	#27	*
11	The Beach Boys	Pet Sounds	1966	#84	*
12	Bruce Springsteen	Darkness on the Edge of Town	1978		*	*
13	Television	Marquee Moon	1977	#83	*
14	Little Richard	Here’s Little Richard	1954
15	Led Zeppelin	Untitled (Led Zeppelin IV)	1971		Y
16	Radiohead	OK Computer	1997
17	The Band	The Band	1969		*
18	The Beatles	The Beatles (The White Album)	1969		Y
19	Pixies	Doolittle	1989
20	John Lennon	John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band	1970
21	U2	Achtung Baby	1991
22	Simon and Garfunkel	Bridge over Troubled Water	1970
23	Bob Dylan	Blonde on Blonde	1966		**	#17
24	Sex Pistols	Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols	1977	#2
25	Prince	Sign of the Times	1987
26	Arcade Fire	Funeral	2004	ineligible	ineligible
27	Michael Jackson	Thriller	1982
28	Neil Young	On the Beach	1973	*	*
29	Jay-Z	The Blueprint	2001	ineligible	ineligible
30	Massive Attack	Blue Lines	1991
31	The Smiths	The Queen Is Dead	1986		Y
32	Carole King	Tapestry	1971
33	David Bowie	Hunky Dory	1971	*
34	Ray Charles	Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music	1962
35	Paul Simon	Graceland	1986
36	Iggy and the Stooges	Raw Power	1973	*	*
37	The Jimi Hendrix Experience	Are You Experienced?	1967	#20	*
38	Aretha Franklin	Lady Soul	1968
39	Ramones	Ramones	1976	#63	*
40	The Rolling Stones	Exile on Main Street	1972	*	*
41	Patti Smith	Horses	1975	#17	*
42	Miles Davis	Kind of Blue	1958	**	Y	*
43	Sonic Youth	Daydream Nation	1988	#94	*
44	Bruce Springsteen	Born to Run	1975		*	*
45	The Beatles	Abbey Road	1970		*
46	Guns’n’Roses	Appetite for Destruction	1987
47	Black Sabbath	Paranoid	1971	*	*
48	George Harrison	All Things Must Pass	1971
49	Green Day	American Idiot	2004
50	The Doors	The Doors	1967			#5
51	Pink Floyd	Dark Side of the Moon	1973
52	James Brown	Live at the Apollo	1963		Y
53	Creedence Clearwater Revival	Cosmo’s Factory	1970
54	Pearl Jam	Vs	1993	ineligible
55	The Wailers	Burning	1976
56	The Monkees	Headquarters	1967
57	Talking Heads	Remain in Light	1980
58	Rod Stewart	Every Picture Tells a Story	1971
59	Devo	Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!	1978
60	Chuck Berry	After School Session	1957
61	Eminem	The Marshall Mathers LP	2001	ineligible	ineligible
62	Blondie	Parallel Lines	1978
63	Dusty Springfield	Dusty in Memphis	1968		Y
64	R.E.M.	Automatic for the People	1992		*
65	The Supremes	Where Did Our Love Go?	1964
66	Oasis	(What’s the Story) Morning Glory	1995	ineligible
67	Kanye West	My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy	2004	ineligible	ineligible
68	Jeff Buckley	Grace	1994	ineligible
69	The White Stripes	Elephant	2003	ineligible	ineligible
70	Eagles	Hotel California	1976
71	Wilco	Yankee Hotel Foxtrot	1994	ineligible
72	Beastie Boys	Paul’s Botique	1989
73	Tom Waits	Rain Dogs	1985
74	Kate Bush	Hounds of Love	1985		Y
75	The Who	Live at Leeds	1971	*	*
76	Joy Division	Closer	1980	#47
77	Kraftwerk	Trans-Europe Express	1977
78	Randy Newman	Sail Away	1972
79	Pavement	Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain	1994	ineligible
80	Curtis Mayfield	Curtis	1970
81	Roxy Music	For Your Pleasure	1973	*
82	The Strokes	Is This It?	2001	ineligible	ineligible
83	Midnight Oil	Diesel and Dust	1987
84	Coldplay	Viva la Vida, or Death and All His Friends	2008	ineligible	ineligible
85	The Kinks	The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society	1968		Y
86	Pretenders	Pretenders	1980
87	The Modern Lovers	The Modern Lovers	1975	#70
88	Primal Scream	Screamadelica	1991
89	Fairport Convention	Unhalfbricking	1968		*
90	Elvis Costello and the Attractions	This Year’s Model	1978	#72
91	Portishead	Dummy	1994	ineligible
92	AC/DC	Back in Black	1980	*	Y
93	Beck	Odelay	1998	ineligible
94	Gang of Four	Entertainment	1979
95	Marvin Gaye	What’s Going On?	1971
96	Arctic Monkeys	Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not	2006	ineligible	ineligible
97	Queen	A Night at the Opera	1975
98	Derek and the Dominos	Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs	1970
99	P.J. Harvey	Let England Shake	2011	ineligible	ineligible
100	The Byrds	Sweetheart of the Rodeo	1968	*	*

As one can see at the merest glance, most recordings on Harrington’s Keenan’s and especially Scaruffi’s lists are completely absent:

• only eleven of Harrington’s Top 100 albums are present
• only ten of Keenan’s best 103 are present
• only four of Scaruffi’s top 25 are present
• ten artists on the list have a different album in Harrington’s Top 100
• eighteen artists on the list have a different album in Keenan’s list
• only Springsteen has a different album in Scaruffi’s top 25

What one can say about the general composition of Creswell, Mathieson and O‘Donnell’s list is that it has many major omissions by genre. Heavy metal is utterly absent apart from Black Sabbath and AC/DC, but hardcore punk and progressive rock are also unrepresented, and experimental rock also absent except for Sonic Youth, whose pop hooks allowed them to reach the Billboard Top 40 in 1994 with Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star. Folk and folk rock are also weakly represented apart from Dylan and Joni Mitchell, for whom I will say the magnificent and utterly unique Hejira may be the finest recording I have ever heard and stands much superior to the more famous Blue. The absence of metal and progressive rock is of course almost certainly due to well-documented biases in Creswell, Mathieson and O‘Donnell’s sources, and how with progressive rock the key albums were never remotely popular commercially in the English-speaking world. These biases are however no excuse for not even trying to correct them.

Another severe fault is how the most recent albums on the list are all popular and what one must call “fashionable”. There is not even something by Joanna Newsom, arguably the most brilliant musical artist of modern times, yet alone by more obscure underground acts since the 1990s, such as the post-rock scene.

For all its grandiose claims, Creswell, Mathieson and O‘Donnell’s list is a very bad one. It simply reproduces badly flawed lists of music that tends towards the ephemeral, and ignores important parts of rock history.