doodledee

Stop the presses! Rolling Stone Magazine has put out yet another one of their pseudo-authoritative Greatest Whatever Lists. Kick ass! This time around it's the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Man oh man, I hope it's better than the 100 Greatest Guitar Players issue from a couple months back.

Update: it's not.

But it's not as horrible as everyone seems to be saying it is. After the top 50, I just read it as The 450 Remaining Best Albums of All Time, as opposed to literally interpreting each position as a 'rank'. If taken that way, it seems like a reasonably fun list of records.

I'm sorry, what? Yankee Hotel Foxtrot didn't make the list? Ok, I take back what I said. The list is total bullshit. YHF is genius. The list makers at Rolling Stone are doofs. Simple as that.

There's other stuff, too. 'Highway 61' being ranked higher than 'Blood on the Tracks' seems wrong to me. Having an artist's 'greatest hits' album listed is dumb - it's not an album, it's a collection of hits sold in album form. And then there's the whole "we'll throw in 'Love Supreme' and 'Kind of Blue' so people won't think we forgot about jazz" thing. It makes me puke. Where the hell is 'The Birth of Cool'? Ah boo Rolling Stone doofs yet again.

Doofs doofs doofs.

Ok, that's probably overreacting. Well no, it's not, but it's not like I'm some crazy guy who's all worked up because Motley Crue's 'Dr. Feelgood' didn't make the cut. But hey, if you're looking for that kind of outrage, head over to the forums at RS.com. They're full of angry metal heads from the 80's. And a surprising number of Tori Amos fans, too. Great stuff.

The final thing I'll note is that I've seen quite a few people commenting on the fact that there aren't many 'newer' albums on the list. The top 20, for example, contains just one album - Nirvanna's "Nevermind" - that was made in the last 20 years. Take that for what it's worth, I guess.

In a related story, the RIAA has issued a statement intended to counter the rumors that the recent decline in music sales is the result of so much crappy music being released. Apparently it's still that pesky p2p software's fault.