Historical Image of the Day

This week's theme is the United States in 1968.

Elvis Presley near the time of his comeback special on television.

Top 10 Rock Albums Revisited

Some holiday trivialities to enjoy.

A year and a half ago, I posted my top 10 rock albums of all time. This was followed by contributions from the other writers here at the time, Lyrad, Trend, and Matt Duss, who has since moved on. I believe that between the 4 of us, we came up with 37 different albums. 2 had Who's Next, 2 had Daydream Nation (note: Sonic Youth is overrated; that should stir some shit up), and 2 had Dinosaur Jr's., You're Living All Over Me.

My 10 at the time were:

10. King Crimson, Red
9. Talking Heads, Remain in Light
8. Neil Young, Tonight's the Night
7. Drive By Truckers, Decoration Day
6. Alejandro Escovedo, A Man Under the Influence
5. Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life
4. The Band, Music from Big Pink
3. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
2. The Who, Who's Next
1. Marvin Gaye, What's Going On

18 months later or so, I still defend this list. All are great albums. However, I have trouble not including U2's Achtung Baby and Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man on the list. So let's drop Red and Tonight's the Night for now and put them at 11 and 12.

I'd probably upgrade Who's Next to #1 as well and Decoration Day to about #4. Everything else would probably stay in the same order.

So I have two questions. First, to Trend and Lyrad. Would you keep your top 10 the same today?

Second, to everyone else, both writers and commenters, what are your top 10 rock albums?

Note as well that soon after, I also wrote up a list of my top 10 underrated rock albums.

Also, speaking of our former colleague Matt, check out his stuff over at Think Progress, including this piece on how conservative writers are redefining the Bush Doctrine as a success. Huh.

Escovedo

I really appreciated David Hajdu's article in The New Republic on the great Alejandro Escovedo and his new album Real Animal. I recommend everyone check it out.

Escovedo is one of my favorite musicians. I have seen him several times at The Continental Club since I moved to the Austin area last year. Hajdu is particularly right about one thing--his new songs are not that great. I haven't heard the album but I have not been moved by most of the songs he has played off it. Hajdu is basically saying "Escovedo really deserves the attention he is finally receiving as an older and sick man. This despite the fact that the album is not that good." This makes sense to me.

My recommendation--go buy his phenomenal 2001 album A Man Under the Influence, then go buy Bourbonitis Blues and With These Hands. You will think these are all awesome albums. Then you can buy his more recent work.

Historical Image of the Day

The Kinks

Historical Image of the Day

Chuck Berry, 1965