A really accurate Top 20 albums...

Here's a link to a blogger's top 20 albums of all time, based on a very rational formula that ignores critical moods and goes straight for a combo of sales, Grammys, chart position, etc.

Here's the list (and here's the link). (Thanks to Colvin for steering it my way...)

20. Faith - George Michael
19. Appetite for Destruction - Guns 'n' Roses
18. Purple Rain - Prince and the Revolution
17. Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin
16. Born in the U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
15. Nevermind - Nirvana
14. Van Halen
13. Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
12. The Wall - Pink Floyd
11. The Joshua Tree - U2
10. Metallica
09. Led Zeppelin
08. Hotel California - The Eagles
07. The Beatles (The White Album)
06. Led Zeppelin IV
05. Abbey Road - The Beatles
04. Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin
03. Thriller - Michael Jackson
02. Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
01. Songs in the Key of Life - Stevie Wonder

What's interesting to me are the albums that are so often left off critic's lists, especially the No. 1 album, Songs in the Key of Life. A great album, anyone would say - but it rarely gets into critical Top 20s, let alone top them. The other surprise is No. 20, Faith. Another great album, another one that critics would likely leave off a list.

And then there's the indisputable proof here that the top rock bands ever really are The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, with Pink Floyd right behind. FOUR Led Zeppelin albums - two each for The Beatles and Floyd) just about says it all. And that's without any hit singles to speak of. It also puts U2 in perspective, and Springsteen, and Metallica, and Nirvana, and The Eagles, all of wh om get only one album - and are happy to have it, I would imagine.

What's also interesting is who's NOT here: Bob Dylan for one, who very nearly always dominates Top 20 lists of the Rolling Stone era. Bob Marley. Bowie. The Rolling Stones. The Who. None of them made the list. This is really the TOP of the pops, and it is still amazing to me that Zeppelin dominates the way it does.

Any thoughts?

Down memory lane: CSNY in 1969

OK, I've been totally lax about posting here - but not for lack of interesting things to post. Just...inertia, or more likely, intimidation, because there's no real focus here. I just meander, and that doesn't feel right. But that's what blogs ARE, right? Just what pops up.

So, here are a couple of things I happened into of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who were, after all, the successors to The Beatles as that group folded. I remember so well that amazing time. Here are a few clips.



Here the are from the Big Sur film, where they do the rarely seen "Sea of Madness," a great duet between Young and Nash. And then there's Stills, ever-belligerent, confronting some freaked-out freak in the crowd. And finishing with "4+20," a great song.



And here they are on David Steinberg's show in 1969, which I remember seeing when I was 13 years old. And being blown away.