RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

[Richard W]

RS has (yet another) special issue of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Yep, Linda made the list at #164, but with the Rhino Very Best of collection. In the brief paragraph, there were a couple of mild pokes at her "so SoCal" style as well as her being an interpreter rather than a writer, then singled out her way with a pop song, "Long, Long Time" in particular, stating that "the girl next door" had a voice could "peel chrome."

Pleased (relieved?) as I am that she made the list (and that far up), I still don't consider collections like this "albums" in the purest sense, say, as opposed to "Heart Like a Wheel."

Linda made albums, didn't just release singles. And IMO, HLAW should be at #164.

[eddiejinnj]

the last survey had 2 of linda's albums the very best of and hlaw. is hlaw still on the survey at all? i know one article said that certain albums had to be bumped to make way for new entries. some being elton, madonna etc eddiejinnj

[erik]

To be brutally honest, I think these Rolling Stone lists have long since become massively unimportant in anything but the grand scheme of selling magazines and inflaming passions. It's just more of Jann Wenner's bulls**t any way you look at it.

[Richard W]

True, Erik -- yet my dander would be up if she were left off entirely.

And no, Eddie, HLAW was not on the list. Evidently, Linda, according to RS, is best represented by the singles, the majority of them covers or remakes or whatever, the very thing that RS seems to denigrate her for. Go figure.

[eddiejinnj]

well it was on one survey and other big name artists also like i said got bumped for the new survey. RS caters to whomever is their audience at present. in this tough economy the want readership/SALES and end up like others have said rewriting music history in doing so. eddiejinnj

[Richard W]

The fact that The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt sits right above Marvin Gaye's album Let's Get It On (and several notches above Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True) surely caused some chaffing among certain members of RS's editorial staff! (Note that I'm recalling referenced albums from memory based on a cursory glance at the newsstand. Correct me if I'm wrong.)

HLAW is not only one of the best albums of the '70s, but one of the best by any female singer ever. A classic from start to finish. I still maintain that TVBoLR is not an album but a collection. As we all know, what can be heard between the hits on her albums is just as good if not better than the hits themselves.

[erik]

Quote by richwar:

True, Erik -- yet my dander would be up if she were left off entirely.

And no, Eddie, HLAW was not on the list. Evidently, Linda, according to RS, is best represented by the singles, the majority of them covers or remakes or whatever, the very thing that RS seems to denigrate her for. Go figure.

This may seem extremely cynical of me to say, but I think they'll only really revere her once she is dead. I'm all but resigned to that now.

[cescpa]

i do believe that HEART LIKE A WHEEL is still on the list - this was the album that came in at #164

the one pargraph entry goes soemthing like this

"There's no way that I can be objective and say one album is better than another," Ronstadt told Rolling Stone in 1978. "I never listen to them anyway." But millions of other people did, especially to this record, where she displays her vocal flexibility and rock grit on "You're No Good" and a country twang on a cover of Hank Williams Sr.'s "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love With You)." Collaborating with producer Peter Asher, Ronstadt blends quality oldies (the Everly Brothers' "When Will I Be Loved?") and hip songwriters of her era (Lowell George, Anna McGarrigle), gracing each composition with her golden voice.

the latest VERY BEST OF compilation was listed at # 324

of her 70's material, I believe that Prisoner In Disguise or Simple Dreams are just as strong as H L A W

[Richard W]

That was a previous edition of the RS Top 500; the one now on newsstands only has Very Best of (at 164), and the paragraph describing it is completely different and does not mention HLAW or any song from it. The only song mentioned is "Long, Long Time."

[the Scribe]

I wonder what their definition is for "Greatest?" Their music section suffers from a real lack of credibility. Each release of a new album could make that list outdated.

[Partridge]

It just goes to show you how ridiculous these lists are. Heart Like a Wheel, a classic album, falls from 164 to nowhere and a hits collection stays on the list.

[erik]

This is why I consider it another example of Jann Wenner's bold-faced bastardization of rock and roll.

[sliderocker]

I've always believe that Wenner has thought of himself as a rock powerbroker, a kingmaker (or queenmaker) when it comes to rock and roll acts, and that only those he deems worthy of his time (and our time) are worthy of hearing. All other artists and bands are essentially wasting our time and his with their music. I also think many of the rock critics who have worked at Rolling Stain over the years shared Chairman Wenner's extremely narrow minded view but I also think that not everyone who has worked there shared that view. I think the idea of a list of the 500 best albums is a questionable matter in that the list is being decided by a small group of RS writers and you know it's their personal preferences and prejudices as to who's included or excluded or who's being discriminated against. I remember their first 500 best list had several albums by artists such as the Beatles, Dylan, Van Morrison, et al, which I found laughable. I always wondered how hard it would've been for them to have come up with a 500 best list if they had been limited to choosing just one album by any solo artist or band?

That first list, they tipped their hand on personal prejudices when they listed a Van Morrison album that allegedly only three copies (didn't know how they knew that) and used that album to dismiss and exclude the "Saturday Night Fever" album from their list, claiming the Morrison album was more of an influential album with the musicians, critics and the public than what SNF was. I'm not sure how an album that only sold three copies could've been an influential album with anyone other than the critics. Any album with virtual zero sales also likely could've meant little to no airplay on the radio for any of the songs and Morrison didn't do TV. But, the album that sold three copies was a highly regarded influential album heard by no one but the snoots at RS. You have to wonder which one of them bought the album? Of course, sales wasn't supposed to be a consideration in RS's list, yet I think many of the other albums they listed sold in the gold range (500,000 copies) at a minimum. The Morrison album in question (album title of which escapes me) might've been one of the best rock albums ever made but it seemed more like Wenner and his RS critics used the album to knock another album and to inflame some of their readers with that view.