top albums-i think

The other week in little newsagents a magazine caught my eye. No it wasn’t “Sheep from Eastern countries” or FHMs top 100 sexy women. Incidentally that one is only just out-and checking it on a website I realised I did not know most of them-this magazine’s readership is white-van drivers, so probably explains the list.

Anyway the magazine was “Rollin Stone- The Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” I had the proverbial money to burn so I got it. Now Rolling Stone does this sort of thing quite often. And I am sure I have seen this one no more than 5 years ago at least-and I’m sure I remember seeing this for the first time some 20 or 30 years ago. I think this particular list comprised of 2 separate polls- one from 2003-the greatest albums of all time and one from 2009 –the greatest albums of the 2000s. It was a panel of 271 artists,journalists,producers and industry executives-and this shows on the list. And most of them were there because they felt obliged to vote for them.

I am almost sure the top 10 is almost the same as the 1^st one I saw way back when-I think I bought it back then,and despite a frantic search I discovered I no longer have it.Also being Rolling Stone magazine I felt it was very American orientated-wonder what it would be like if Q or NME or The Word did something similar.

Of the 500 I currently have 55 –there is one that I have all the tracks bar one as the band only made 2 albums (I think) and the greatest hits covers most of the 2 albums. So I’ll say 54. I used to have another 35 and they disappeared for various reasons down the years. Now here is the top 10

1 Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”   The Beatles

2 “Pet Sounds”- The Beach Boys

3  “Revolver”- The Beatles

4 “Highway 61 Revisited”-Bob Dylan

5 “Rubber Soul”-The Beatles

6  “What’s Going On”-Marvin Gaye

7 “Exile on Main Street”-Roliing Stones

8 “London Calling” The Clash

9 “Blonde on Blonde” –Bob Dylan

10 “The White Album”-The Beatles

See what I mean? -well the top 5 any way.

Now here’s  MY all time top 10-well for this week any way. Simply because I like them. After I put year released and where it is on the top 500-not in any strict order.

1 “Live and Dangerous”-Thin Lizzy (1978)-nowhere. Despite not being as live as we were lead to believe this is still a super album

2 “Steve McQueen”-Prefab Sprout (1981)-nowhere. This was a great band. With their albums it took 2 or 3 listenings to get into it-and after that you discovered that you could not live without it.

3 “London Calling” –The Clash (1980) –number 8 . Too good to be classed as punk-this is  a great double album.I would like this album to be buried with me.

4 “The Undertones”-The Undertones (1978) –nowhere.Derry’s finest.Whist the Belfast band Stiff Little Fingers were singing about the troubles, this band was singing about things we really cared about girls,cousins and mars bars. But what in the name of all that is holy and Cody Jarret’s mother-what is wrong with this crowd?

5 “Hank William’s 40 Greatest Hits”- Hank Williams (1978) number  94 Hank was always ready with a song to match my mood-he could do the sound track to my life story.

6 “Stupidity”-Dr Feelgood (1976)-nowhere-a great R&B band from Canvy Island-now this one IS live and still sounds great.The bass and intro to Roxette is amazing.

7 “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon”-Paul Simon (1972)-nowhere-great song writing

8 “Moondance”-Van Morrison (1970)- number 66-everyone says Astral Weeks is his best –but I think this is much better.

9 “The Photos”-The Photos (1980) nowhere-very sexy voice of Wendy Wu. The band only made 2 albums.The second one was “lost” for a number of years and was only released last year.Good but nowhere near as good as this one.Bit of a Blondie sound.

Loved the bit were the strings kicked in on the single “Now that you tell me that we’re through.”

10”Blue Lights On The Runway”-Bell X 1 (2009) nowhere. Great Irish band from Dublin/Kildare. Great song writing here.

And that’s it-no doubt if I do this in other 5 years it could be different-bar one or two.

Thanks for reading-now –what is YOUR top 3? Could you have guessed mine?