In 2012, Rolling Stone magazine revised its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. You can see the complete list here, but at this address we're only interested in albums on the list that were released in the years 1976-85. Yes, overall the list is weighted towards white, male, rock artists from the late '60s, but I'm trying to discover "new-to-me" music from my favorite decade that I may have missed. I made these lists for my own sake, but thought I'd share them with you for the common good of society. Here's the 17 albums from '76-'85 that ranked between 300-201:
No.
|
Album
|
Artist
|
Year
|
| 296 | Meat is Murder | The Smiths | 1985 |
| 291 | Talking Heads: 77 | Talking Heads | 1977 |
| 287 | Los Angeles | X | 1980 |
| 284 | The Cars | The Cars | 1978 |
| 270 | Some Girls | The Rolling Stones | 1978 |
| 269 | Psychocandy | The Jesus and Mary Chain | 1985 |
| 260 | Stardust | Willie Nelson | 1978 |
| 257 | Whitney Houston | Whitney Houston | 1985 |
| 256 | Trans-Europe Express | Kraftwerk | 1977 |
| 253 | The River | Bruce Springsteen | 1980 |
| 251 | Low | David Bowie | 1977 |
| 242 | Run-D.M.C. | Run-D.M.C. | 1984 |
| 241 | Let It Be | The Replacements | 1984 |
| 226 | Nebraska | Bruce Springsteen | 1982 |
| 223 | War | U2 | 1983 |
| 213 | Tattoo You | The Rolling Stones | 1981 |
| 206 | Dirty Mind | Prince | 1980 |
Here's a breakdown of the above 17 albums by release date:
1976
|
1977
|
1978
|
1979
|
1980
|
1981
|
1982
|
1983
|
1984
|
1985
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
And a breakdown of the 67 albums we've featured so far:
Nebraska is hands down my least favorite Springsteen album. Another critical favorite, its appeal escapes me. Now, The River on the other hand just got even better in my estimation with the recent revelations contained on The Ties That Bind set.
ReplyDeleteThe Cars, Run-D.M.C. and U2's War are other favorites on this portion of the list. Wonder if Bono and the boys ever come up for air from their oceans of cash and wander what the heck happened to the four young lads who recorded that album all those years ago. Probably not.
Which brings us to Dirty Mind, which was ranked two spots higher on the original list of 500. On the 1989 list of The 100 Best Albums Of The Eighties, Dirty Mind came in at number 18 though Prince also came in at number 2 and number 16 with Purple Rain and 1999 respectively. (He was down at number 74 with Sign O The Times, too.) In their 1987 evaluation of The Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years, Dirty Mind was number 20 ahead of heavy-hitters like Thriller, Dark Side Of The Moon, Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album and even Purple Rain. Coming it at just a hair over half an hour, Dirty Mind is a trip and half and though I came to it late in the game in 1982 as a horny sixteen year old rather than a horny fourteen year old, it is undeniably hooky throughout as well as unahsamedly romantic in parts even while fully living up to the promise of the album's title though those hearing it for the first time nowadays would not even blush. Hopefully, Prince will one day be wiping his eyeliner and lip gloss off, look into the mirror and say to himself "Damn, U were so funky thirty five years ago. What the heck happened 2 U?"
I have to agree with Herc on both Nebraska (I am not a fan) and Dirty Mind (it is easily in the Top 10 of my favorite Prince albums - and there are a ton of them!).
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