No. 140: Parallel Lines

Band: Blondie
Album: Parallel Lines
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Blondie's breakout record is still pretty amazing to hear today. Certainly Madonna got a lot of her style from Debbie Harry and the punk scene benefited a great deal from a pretty face to put on the scene. "Parallel Lines" had them spanning genre, hitting straight up rock in "Hanging By The Telephone," punk in "Call Me" and disco in "Heart Of Glass."
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: It's hard to argue that this record is more important (or better) than many of the albums behind it on the list ("Straight Outta Compton," the first Who record, the first Zappa record, "The Downward Spiral," "One Nation Under a Groove" or "The Gilded Palace of Sin"). It's pretty great, but it's still a pretty small drop in comparison to
Best song: "Heart Of Glass" is a classic.
Worst song: "I Know But I Don't Know" isn't great.
Is it awesome?: I love it, but I'm biased.

(It seems I start 4-5 of these every week with some "full disclosure" thing, but I'll keep doing that, I guess.)

Full disclosure: I have a giant crush on Debbie Harry. I tend to prefer woman singers to male singers for some reason and Debbie Harry's is fantastic. She's awfully sexy, too, even at whatever age she's telling people she is (52, according to Wikipedia, which makes her more than old enough to be my mother).

I've had a crush on Ms. Harry since I was a child and she was on the Muppet Show doing "One Way Or Another" and "Call Me" while Muppets pranced and sang around her. The Muppet Show peppers a lot of my views on music, as you can imagine.

Anyway, "Parallel Lines" is the turning point in the timeline for the band. Before it, Blondie was a punk band with an attractive female singer. After the album, the band became a sensation. Harry became an icon and the rest, as they say, is history.

Needless to say, "Heart Of Glass" is the classic track. Known as "the disco song" to a lot of Blondie fans, it was originally done as a slow reggae thing but was changed after the band decided to experiment with disco. The keyboards, not really working within the confines of the band's normal sound, seem to overtake the song. Chris Stein's guitar starts and stops in the perfect disc style.

And that voice. Oh, that voice. Harry's soprano-ish pitch falsettos around the verses and lowers during the chorus.

(On YouTube, I was mesmerized by Lily Allen playing with them on the Today Show last year)

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I'd be lying if I totally understand why this record is on the list while "Best Of Blondie" isn't. For an artist like Blondie, a greatest hits package is probably preferable to their breakthrough album, in most people's minds.

(To review: I think greatest hits packages shouldn't be on the list, save for bands who were around before the album era. The Chuck Berrys and Robert Johnsons of the world, basically.)

Blondie, to all but a select few, is the picture of a greatest hits band. Their albums have a fair amount of filler and their singles are divine. "Best Of Blondie" -- if you'll allow me to write about an album not on the list for a moment -- is a stellar package. It has the first rap song shown on MTV ("Rapture," though most argue about whether it's rap song), the great "Parallel Lines" singles (including the U.K. version of "Sunday Girl" wherein Harry sings in French) and the fantastic "Call Me" and "Atomic," two of my favorite Blondie tracks.

Most reasonable music fans would put "Best Of Blondie" before "Parallel Lines." Then again, the RS people are not reasonable.

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I think the placement of "Parallel Lines" comes down to two things. First, the album was something of a symbol of the turning point for the successful members of the CBGB scene, specifically the Talking Heads and Blondie. The Heads were broken into the mainstream with 1978's "More Songs About Buildings and Food" at the same time that "Parallel Lines" came out. Both bands became New Wave stalwarts and had to deal with the success that mainstream popularity brought. Blondie, I'd say, did cater more towards the mainstream than any other band in success and I think "Parallel Lines" is a symbol of that. Blondie was a lot less punk after the album came out.

The second reason to put the album on here is Harry. She was a different type of frontwoman, a small part Patti Smith, a big part Nico and a big part supermodel. Her femme fatale persona played off her (and the band's) punk roots to create a sex symbol image that was decidedly absent from rock and roll beforehand. The role of women in music changed a bit when Harry came into the mix and that's important.

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I love "Parallel Lines," but I'm surely in the minority. I imagine a lot of people look at this record on the RS list the same way I look at the non-"Ziggy" Bowie albums; They just don't need to be there. I think "Parallel Lines" belongs there, but I'm clearly biased.

No. 139: All That You Can’t Leave Behind

Band: U2
Album: All That You Can’t Leave Behind
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Um, no.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: The pompous fat band makes a concerted effort to "get back to their roots" is a theme overused by rock critics and bands alike. Basically, U2 had a colossal flop on their hands with "Pop," and decided "Hey, let's try and sell some damned records." I applaud the band's ability to write different themed songs, but the execution is the essence of middlebrow claptrap. Just enough emotion for idiots to understand it, not enough for it to have any actual, you know, meaning.
Best song: Zero. None.
Worst song: "Elevation" makes me want to die.
Is it awesome?: No.

I don't imagine U2 gets compared to the Black Eyed Peas a lot, but I'm going to do that here. When the Black Eyed Peas came out with "My Humps" and "Don't Phunk With My Heart," I was torn. On one hand, I applaud the group's move towards a more interesting sound. Those two songs are considerably different than a lot of what was popular at the time and it did push the limits -- albeit in a moronic way -- of what a pop song could be.

On the other hand, those songs suck eggs. They're terrible. Just plain terrible.

I'll say something similar about "All That You Can’t Leave Behind." On one hand, there are songs on the album that explore mortality and aging; Themes not often explored in rock and roll.

However, if you actually listen to the lyrics, you'll find a half-retarded stab at emotion that echoes the kind of middle-of-the-road nonsense that only idiots find meaningful.

In short, this album is the reason I despise U2.

I don't know how easy it is to keep your proverbial fastball into your 30s and 40s; I'm 26 and and not a particularly creative type. I know there are scores of bands that did drop off as they got older. That appears to be the way of the world in music.

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Things that annoy me about Bono:

• His awful voice.


• His lyrics that sound like a 15-year-old wrote them.


• How he only plays the guitar on, like, four songs.


• His damned glasses.


• His idiotic comments on pop culture and consumerism, despite the fact that his music is exactly that (see "Pop" and "Achtung Baby").


• His constant need to attention to the work he does with the poor. He's quick to take credit for every philanthropic thing he does as if saying "Look at me! I'm a good person!"


• That he actually said -- after winning Grammys, no less -- "[We're] reapplying for the job. What job? The best band in the world job." No, buddy, that title belongs to someone else. Anyone else.

Things that I like about Bono:

• Even though he's a pompous ass and is quick to act like he's saving the world single-handedly, he is actually trying to help people. That's more than I can say for a lot of musicians.


• He was the subject of the fabulous "Kill Bono" SST Records t-shirt during the '80s.

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Why do people like U2? Is it because people are lazy and just want the familiar? U2 is nothing if not familiar, if only because they're been around the top of the charts for 30 years now. "All That You Can’t Leave Behind" is a decided effort to sound familiar, even enlisting Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to produce the album.

All you need to know about the album is that the three singles -- those considered to be the best songs on the album -- are absolute garbage. I don't want to sound like I'm discounting Michael Hutchence's suicide; It was a tragic thing and Hutchence was a very talented individual. But that half-hearted attempt at exploring those emotions in "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" is misguided at best. Not to mention that they have a video using John Madden and a football game... Ugh. What a mess.

The album opener, "Beautiful Day" is even more of a mess. The record's theme -- a man who finds beauty in everyday life after a he's having a bad day -- is idiotic and emphasizes the band's middle class quasi populist appeal. I can see the morons empathizing with the lyrics: "hey, Bono knows that traffic sucks, too! He knows that rent is expensive! Wow! It's like he's speaking for me!" This person is an idiot.

(Again, the video has all the pomposity we have come to know from U2. Echoing a the Backstreet Boys video, the band hangs out around their private jet -- hey, did you know that they're rich? -- and around the airport. Awesome. You guys travel.)

"Elevation" is a song that anyone who watched TV in 2002 knows because it was on one of the iPod ads that ran nonstop during that year. It was on the "Tomb Raider" movie soundtrack and got a lot of of play on the radio. Like the idiotic "Batman Forever" single ("Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"), the song is based on a mediocre guitar lick and Bono screaming easy-to-rhyme lyrics.

Even U2 fans know this. here's part of the opening paragraph on the song's Wikipedia page:

Featuring a thunderous beat, a variety of sound effects on the central guitar riff, and an easy rhyming lyric for the audience to shout along with, it was highly effective in that concert-starting role and became a hit in the United States and the United Kingdom.

(Emphasis mine)

It's a crowd-pleaser, I'm sure. Only U2 could write a song specifically for chanting at a concert and people would be happy. Man, I hate this band.

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This album is why I hate U2. Based on years of radio play, listeners believe that U2 has some sort of talent and/or credibility. in reality, though, they're just a crappy band trying to make the easiest hits they can by using easy-to-repeat slogans, low-grade emotion and retarded middle class optimism. That's not good music.

No. 138: Rejuvenation

Band: The Meters
Album: Rejuvenation
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: The Meters were one of the premier funk groups of the '70s, taking the mantle from Sly & The Family Stone...
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: ... But to rank them above the fully genre-changing Parliament/Funkadelic is a little strange. "Rejuvenation" is a good record, but it's no Parliament.
Best song: The opener, "People Say," is pretty great. The epic "It Ain't No Use" is pretty great.
Worst song: "Loving You Is on My Mind" isn't awesome.
Is it awesome?: It's close. I don't know if it's fully great in the same way the record before it is, but it's still very good.

Let me say, in the interest of full disclosure, that I was not familiar with the Meters before I started this project. The band has two records on the list, so clearly someone at RS finds them to be important.

I know this: There are two Nevilles in The Meters. That's pretty cool, though it's not any of the Nevilles I've heard of (aka Aaron Neville). Coming from New Orleans, the band keeps with the funk rock template of heavy bass, pletny of horns and halting percussion.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that I find it a tiny bit repetitive. About half the record sounds like the other half and there are a lot of chant-type songs ("Jungle Man" and "What'cha Say" come to mind). It's entirely pleasant and the players are all amazing; Leo Nocentelli's guitar solo on "Loving You Is on My Mind" is pretty awesome.

Overall, though, this isn't a great album. It's close, but it's a little too cookie cutter for me to be totally impress. Spoiled by P-Funk, I'm not in love with The Meters.

No. 137: The Chronic

Band: Dr. Dre
Album: The Chronic
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: One of the most important hip hop albums ever, "The Chronic" brought the G-Funk to the forefront. Dre's production sampled tons of Parliament/Funkadelic records and started the careers of Snoop Dogg (then known as Snoop Doggy Dogg), Nate Dogg and (not on this album, but later) his step-brother Warren G.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: This is probably the record that made rap what it is today. Other than "Nevermind," "The Chronic" is probably the most important album of the 1990s. It should be higher.
Best song: Building off that theme, save for "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Nuthin' but a "G" Thang" was probably the most important song from that decade.
Worst song: "Lyrical Gangbang" isn't great.
Is it awesome?: Absolutely.

I love this album. Let's get that out of the way first. I'm a free speech absolutist. I'm also someone who is quick to dismiss lyrics -- though you can't really do that with hip hop records as much. G-Funk was the one of the first times in hip hop where flow and rhymes were almost (but certainly not) secondary to the production. The grooves and rhythms became the stars of the records.

That's where "The Chronic" came into it. Sampling loads of Parliament/Funkadelic, Bill Withers and other old funk records, Dr. Dre slowed down the speed of hip hop.

This new pace of hip hop couldn't have asked for a better voice than Snoop Doggy Dogg (now just Snoop Dogg). Snoop's languid voice reflects his stature; Thin, slow, smooth and long. Don't listen to his words; They're violent and misogynist. Listen to his voice. In the spirit of Ozzy, Johnny Rotten and Kurt Cobain, Snoop's voice is flat perfect for the style he is most identified with.

(Compare it to Dre's voice. Dre is lower and harder. Listening to his raps over the slower "Chronic" records -- "Nuthin' but a "G" Thang," specifically -- as compared to Snoop's... There's no contest. Snoop is made for this music.)

Part of the draw of "Nuthin' but a "G" Thang" is the zeitgeist video. While the lyrics were violent ("pimpin' hoes and clockin' a grip like I was Dolemite"), the video just showed a bunch of people hanging out at a picnic. Eating barbecue, playing volleyball, rolling in drop-top low-riders, the infant dancing, etc. The party moves t someone's house where there's a whole fridge dedicated to malt liquor. People dancing. Lots of people dancing.

Outside of the lyrics, there's the constant strain of misogyny in the video. The woman soaked by men pouring malt liquor on her and the woman playing volleyball getting her bikini top ripped down. Playful fun in another context, sure, but with a record that says "hoes" as much as it says "motherfucker," it's not playful anymore.

Still, there's no way to deny these beats. Snoop, Warren G and Dre could be reading from "Mein Kampf" and I'd probably still think the record was decent. That's how great the production is with the sampling here. It's Dre's opus, it's the first G-Funk record and it's a classic.

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In 1994, about a year and a half after "The Chronic" came out, Chicago rapper Common released a song called "I Used To Love H.E.R." The song is about a love affair with a girl, a metaphor for hip hop. The plot revolves around the girl's afrocentric start, her move towards social consciousness and eventually, Common's eventual disenchantment towards her when "she broke to the West coast."

Common eventually drops this little nugget:

Now she be in the burbs lookin' rock and dressin' hip
And on some dumb shit, when she comes to the city
Talkin' about poppin' glocks, servin' rocks, and hittin' switches
Now she's a gangsta rollin' with gangsta bitches
Always smokin' blunts and gettin' drunk

Common is considered "conscious" hip hop largely because he is a bit of a throwback. He dresses like a GQ model and raps about the inner city life in places like Chicago's South Side (where he grew up).

It's a strange dichotomy. The socially conscious rappers tend to be more peaceful and make records that call for action. Gangster rappers document those things in less of an elegant way. This harder way is certainly more striking; Hearing about bitches and hoes always gets people upset (understandably).

Put it this way: The mainstream didn't give a crap when "The Message" came out. People started giving a crap when N.W.A.'s first records came out. Part of that is fear; People were clearly afraid of N.W.A. No one was really afraid of Grandmaster Flash and certainly no one is afraid Common.

People aren't afraid of Snoop Dogg anymore, but they were in the early 1990s. People were afraid of Dr. Dre in the early 1990s and I imagine some are still afraid of him now.

Which is more effective? I don't know. The mainstream still doesn't really care about the plight of the inner city, if test scores and poverty rates are any indication. Maybe it would've gotten worse if either rap style hadn't come around. I don't know.

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As much as I like these records -- and I do -- I do want to make it clear that I'm ideologically opposed to a lot of the ideas on the record. I consider myself a feminist and I find the misogyny to be appalling. I also abhor violence.

For example, that the word "pimp" has come to mean something good just appalls me ("Pimp My Ride," for example). Language is an extremely powerful thing and a lot of gangster rap has changed language, mostly for the worse.

That doesn't change the fact that the records are great. Snoop's voice, as an instrument, is great. Dre's production is unparalleled. The lyrics are tough, though. No doubt about that. It changed music, it brought gangster rap into the mainstream more than ever and arguably made hip hop the dominant music form to this day. It's one of the most important records of the past twenty years.

No. 136: Tim

Band: The Replacements
Album: Tim
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: The 'Mats' major label debut has two of their greatest songs -- "Bastards Of Young" and the college radio homage "Left Of The Dial" -- and shows the band at the point of switch from college rock masters to alternative rock heroes.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: "Let It Be" is more garagey and "Tim" always sounds a little too polished for me.
Best song: I adore "Left Of The Dial."
Worst song: "Little Mascara" isn't fantastic.
Is it awesome?: It is.

Of all big three Minneapolis college rock bands (Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum and The Replacements), The 'Mats were the most successful (until Soul Asylum hit it big with "Runaway Train"). They were the first band to sign to a major label and they sold the most records (again, until Soul Asylum were labeled "grunge"). The reason, of course, was Paul Westerberg's pop sensibilities. Sharing Michael Stipe's affection for Big Star and his own love for punk rock created a garage college rock that remains to this day.

One of the bands profiled in the fantastic "Our Band Could Be Your Life" book by Michael Azerrad, the 'Mats were as standard a rock and roll band as you could get in the underground '80s. Chapter 6 of "Our Band" starts as follows:

While their crosstown rivals Hüsker Dü toed the line in terms of left-wing politics and SST-style pragmatism, the Replacements couldn't give a hoot about any of that -- they never booked their own shows or drove their own van, and the closest they got to a political song was... well, they never even got close to a political song. Instead, the band's leader Paul Westerberg wrote the kind of heart-on-the-sleeve rock songs, not to mention witty wordplay that were almost totally absent from the underground.

Azerrad calls them "one fo the few underground bands that mainstream people liked," in the next paragraph. It's hard to say that's not true. They were sort of the mid-1980s doppleganger for bands like The Police and Cars; mainstream bands that undergrounders could like, as well.

One thing the 'Mats did that was hugely influential, if not a total causation, was perfect the everyman image. Paul Westerberg was a handsome, if hugely troubled, frontman and the band's raucous shows were hugely peppered by their interactions with the audience. Even their nickname -- taken from an old review in which they were called "The Placemats" derogatorily -- was an homage to self-deprecation.

Sound familiar? It's, image-wise, a very similar construct to Nirvana's. Minneapolis was the original Seattle, after all.

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But what of the music? Again, Westerberg's sensibilities were so infused by classic rock that even calling the 'Mats "college rock" is a little off. Westerberg's smallness of sentiment in "Kiss Me On The Bus" is sweet, if not a little immature for a 26-year-old. "Bastards Of Young" is a rallying cry for the slacker generation (again, parallels to Nirvana) that includes the genius suburban failed dreams sentiment that a lot of us struggle with everyday: "Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled/It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten."

"Left Of The Dial" remains my favorite 'Mats song. In interviews, Westerberg has mentioned that the song is a love song to Angie Carlons (of the '80s North Carolina band Let's Active) and how their touring paths never really crossed. The idea that the only place he could hear her voice was college radio

Of course, the song itself is a love song to the form of college radio. It's one of the few songs that define an era (a long era, actually, from the mid-80s until about five years ago, when I was in college), where someone "Read about your band in some local page" and had to research the band ("Didn't mention your name, didn't mention your name") in order to know what was going on. It then picks up the classic Midwestern idea of road tripping and the relative signal strength of these wonderful stations "Passin' through and it's late, the station started to fade/Picked another one up in the very next state."

And the song ends, of course, with the wonderful homage to the beauty of the 89.3s and 88.1s of the world: "And if I don't see ya, in a long, long while/I'll try to find you/Left of the dial." Most bands on college radio are only there on the left of the dial and no one spoke this better than this simple final verse. It's my favorite Westerberg moment.

No. 135: Greatest Hits

Band: Elton John
Album: Greatest Hits
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Well, it's a greatest hits compilation that has sold 10 million copies. To say that Elton John isn't important would be foolish.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: It's a greatest hits compilation for a guy who has three other records on the list. It doesn't make tons of sense.
Best song: Well, they're all hits and all are pretty great.
Worst song: The only song I don't really like is "Border Song." It's got a nice message, but I'm lukewarm on it nonetheless. "Daniel" isn't perfect.
Is it awesome?: I guess. I mean, it's a greatest hits comp from one of the best-selling artists of all time. What did you expect? Crap?

There isn't a ton to say here about this compilation. Elton John has sold tons and tons of records and his hits are fantastic. This compilation reflects that.

As to not bore you, let's go listy...

1. "Your Song" is one of my favorite love songs. It's simple and strikingly beautiful. Like George Harrison's "Something," Bernie Taupin (Elton John's lyricist) captured the undefinable characteristics that come from "love" in the sweetest sense.


2. I don't love "Daniel", largely because Elton John's piano work isn't hugely impressive. Taupin's lyrics are a little overly sentimental, but that's nitpicking. it's a song about Vietnam, which is pretty impressive for a British singer to do. It's still a good song, just not great.


3. "Honky Cat" is a ridiculous song that mocks and embraces a genre foreign to most of us. It sounds like Vaudeville, basically.


4. I've written about "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" a bit and it remains my favorite song of his.


5. My qualm with "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" is that Elton John -- all glasses, platforms and wigs -- could kick anyone's ass. I guess he's not a small man, so anything is possible. Still, if you don't think about the logistics of Elton John getting into a fight, it's a really fun song.


6. I have a friend (hello, Jake!) who claims "Rocket Man" is simply a rip off of David Bowie's "Spade Oddity," a claim which I dispute. It's a pretty simple pop ballad, but it's wonderful.


7. I've also written about "Bennie and the Jets". It's a great deal of fun.


8. "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" suffers from the same problems as "Daniel," only in a much more superficial context. It's sentimental but in a love song way and a slow ballad way.


9. I enjoy the inclusiveness of "Border Song" in the final verse. John -- who wrote the verse himself -- croons "Holy Moses, let us live in peace/let us strive to find a way to make all hatred cease/there's a man over there. What's his colour I don't care/he's my brother let us live in peace." That's a nice message to just an OK song.


10. The record ends with good old "Crocodile Rock." It will always remain a patently ridiculous song in my mind for one reason and only for this one reason: Elton John's appearance on "The Muppet Show." Hell, forget linking to it... Let's embed that fucker:
    
    
    
    How great is that?

So, that's Elton John's "Greatest Hits." It's got some great tracks.

No. 134: Slanted and Enchanted

Band: Pavement
Album: Slanted and Enchanted
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Indie rock's poster boys don't need a lot of introduction other than to say that they were great. Stephen Malkmus' stream-of-consciousness lyrics, Scott Kannberg's guitar work and, together, their Fall-inspired rhythms combined to make a sound that was imitated (to some success), but without the pop sensibilities Pavement had.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I'm not sure "Slanted" is Pavement's best work and I'm not sure this placement isn't more a statement about indie rock in general than a statement about Pavement.
Best song: "Summer Babe" is about as good as it gets and "Conduit For Sale!" is rocking, dissonant fun.
Worst song:"Two States" isnt great.
Is it awesome?: Absolutely.

Formed in Stockton, California, Pavement is probably the template for indie rock. The band's pop tendencies, clearly aped from college rock bands R.E.M., The Replacements and The Fall, belied the quirkiness of rhythm and lyric. All the while, a punk sensibility peppers the band's work, as their feedback chorus of "I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying" repeated in "Conduit For Sale" shows.

It's a great combination. On their debut record, Pavement dared to be referential, hitting pop culture targets, sort of current events ("In The Mouth Of A Desert") and personal emotion/relationships ("Zurich Is Stained").

Still, Malkmus is positively Dylan-esque in weaving his narratives. Some of his song titles have the pompous glow of academia (Malkmus was educated at prestigious University of Virginia) while his lyrics reflect often reflect the simple intricacies of everyday life. The soft arpeggiated guitars of "Here" weave around Malkmus' voice, while the low-in-the-mix distorted guitar is the atmosphere for Malkmus screaming and swearing on "No Life Singed Her."

"No Life Singed Her" is also where the band splits from jangly college radio rock of R.E.M. and The Fall. The near chaos of the song is a lesson in controlled distortion that Steve Albini made infamous in Big Black and that Sonic Youth then influenced Nirvana with, as well. As much as Nirvana was punking up the rock charts in 1992 with Black Sabbath-meets-Black Flag, Pavement was modifying college radio into indie rock as we know it now.

Stockton engineer Gary Young -- also the band's first drummer -- once remarked "this Malkmus idiot is a complete songwriting genius," about as fitting a description as one can have. Young eventually was kicked out of the band -- he was a former Bay Area hippie, which means he did a lot of drugs -- after he pulled a gun on Malkmus while on tour.

Indie rock isn't well represented on this list, mostly because it's nearly indefinable. Still, Pavement are the standard-bearers of the genre and the band most cited by those not familiar with indie rock. "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" is my favorite Pavement record -- probably their most accessible --, but "Slanted" is where it all starts, basically. The template is there and boy, is it executed well by Malkmus and Co.

No. 133: Ready To Die

Band: The Notorious B.I.G.
Album: Ready To Die
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: "Ready To Die" is probably the seminal East Coast rap record and arguably the seminal rap record of the 90s. It's a street documentary and it is not for the faint of heart.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Again, it's not for the faint of heart. Where N.W.A. (and the subsequent albums by Dre, Eazy E and Ice Cube) were gangster rap, B.I.G.'s East Coast rap stripped a lot of the bounce out of it. There are interludes of a woman achieving orgasm and gun shots, well, everywhere. Also, "Ready To Die" is the record that introduced us to Puffy.
Best song: It's probably overplayed, but "Big Poppa" is a great sex jam. Also, "Who Shot Ya?" is the classic street life polemic. "Juicy" has an old school feel to it and it's fantastic.
Worst song: I'm not in love with "Machine Gun Funk."
Is it awesome?: Yes.

"Ready To Die" is striking. That's the best adjective I can apply to it. It's striking. If you're not used to a record wherein "shit," "nigga" and some form of "fuck" is used in every line, you're in for a shock.

And that's what gangster rap is, on some level, it's purpose is to shock. While the street life of Christopher Wallace is filled with weed, violence and sex, it makes for interesting storytelling (the essence of story is conflict) and his flow is nearly unmatched.

Battle raps like "The What" (featuring Method Man) and "Unbelievable" and threat songs like "The Warning" (sampling the classic Isaac Hayes track "Walk on By") pepper the street life narratives ("Respect," "Friend of Mine," "Things Done Changed") and introspective soul-searching ("Ready To Die," "Everyday Struggle").

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I was recently reading Barack Obama's second book, "The Audacity Of Hope." Obama devotes a portion of the book to the struggling black community and how much white America contributes to the struggles of the black community.

Obama certainly attributes a great deal of the problems in the black community to racism; I think anyone who says that racism is a thing of the past in America is surely fooling him or herself. Racism exists and will likely exist until the end of time. Obama suggests many problems are institutional and not entirely hard to fix, but to act like they don't exist is stupid.

Obama writes that a lot of the problems in the inner city community are those of access in regards to racism. Giant pork barrel projects that give jobs to low-skilled workers tend to favor places like West Virginia (not a lot of black people) or Wyoming (also not a lot of black people). In addition, inner city schools often get screwed by a lack of funding, which hurts children.

However, Obama doesn't dismiss the cultural aspect of the black community. He says the institutional racism inherent in our system (my words, not his) lead to a lot of black youth feeling disaffected with the way America works. Because of our nation's history, there aren't a ton of black role models to look up to and the way out of a lot of lower-class communities remains in entertainment or crime.

(Obama worked as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side in the 80s, so he knows a fair amount about the inner city black community, by the way. )

Rap music reflects that in a lot of ways. Sometime in the '80s, black music went from corresponding with white music, topic-wise (white and black dance bands wanted to party, black and white rock bands wanted to have sex and do drugs, all color folk singers just wanted peace and freedom) to being a reflection of Reagan-era policies of "screw poor people" (no matter the color). Black people, understandably, saw the establishment as ignoring -- if not blatantly hurting -- them and wondered where the New Deal or Great Society program for Black America was coming. It never did and I don't know that it ever will.

I imagine some of this switch came from Curtis Mayfield's fantastic urban storytelling of "Superfly," (which B.I.G. samples on the intro to this album, building off the record's message) but I think more of it came from Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" (an album sorely missed on this list for its influence). The title track is a stark contrast from the popular "Rapper's Delight" in that "The Message" recounted the various problems affecting urban American in the late 70s: homelessness ("Crazy lady, livin in a bag"), prostitution ("She went to the city and got so so so ditty/She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her own"), economic hardships ("Got a bum education, double-digit inflation"), bad education (My son said daddy I don't wanna go to school/Cause the teachers a jerk, he must think I'm a fool") and, of course, the violence inherent in that poverty:

Youll admire all the number book takers
Thugs, pimps, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them
Smugglers, scrambles, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers and even panhandlers

(The funny thing is, of course, that none of that stuff has really changed. I guess that's politics for you.)

Anyway, gangster rap came to glorify this environment at some point. It stopped being a call for change, but rather a sad look at what is. Eventually, this turned into a love affair with this world, the "jungle" Grandmaster Flash recounted. "Ready To Die" is basically the pinnacle of this. While West Coast rap was as much about having fun as it was about violence, East Coast rap is and was harder, because the East Coast is harder. The superhero narrative of the "gangster" like B.I.G. makes for great lyrics. It also serves two purposes in the commercial vein:

1. White suburban kids are fascinated, in the same way they're fascinated with Martin Scorsese movies, because they're frenetic and different from their way of life


2. Black inner city youths see their world reflected in a way that it hadn't been before

The second point is one to keep in mind, because in the '80s, there weren't a lot of TV showing urban black America in any semblance of a realistic light. There was "The Cosby Show." There was "Good Times," which was the TV version of "Rapper's Delight," all chubby guys dancing and sassy waitresses.

So, what now? Violence sells, no doubt. Rap music continually gets lewder and lewder. I don't have a problem with this; White culture is as lewd most of the time. Plus, white kids buy black music (not to mention the fact that white people control the record labels marketing this music), so the lines aren't really there between black and white.

Certainly, gangster rap doesn't sell in the same way it used to. While rappers like T.I. and 50 Cent dot the charts, sex romps tend to be more popular with Akon, Fergie and the like controlling the charts.

(Personally, I don't care if music gets more or less sexual. Sex is a pretty natural thing and the first amendment protects speech. I'm nothing if not a free speech absolutist. In a capitalist society, if you don't like a product, don't buy it.)

Still, the records exist. The issue is helping alleviate the problems in urban America so that gangster rap is looked at the same way mafia movies, Westerns and war movies are: Entertaining, but totally detached from reality.

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To be honest, I prefer "Life After Death" to "Ready To Die" as far as B.I.G.'s records are concerned. The production is smoother, his flow is better and while the double record is tough to swallow, the songs are better.

No. 132: The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle

Band: Bruce Springsteen
Album: The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Well...
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: There's a need to just jam Springsteen on here. Springsteen's two most popular records are already on here and his best ("Nebraska") won't appear for quite a while. So, it appears people just feel a need for Springsteen and this record is here because of that need. I guess the boomers who made up this list felt like they hadn't had a Springsteen record on here for a while, so why not put this one here?
Best song: I don't like a single bit of this album.
Worst song: "The E Street Shuffle" stinks.
Is it awesome?: No.

I don't even know how to write about this album. It's typical lame narrative songwriting about teenagers in New Jersey doing stupid nonsense in the mid-70s. On some level, "Born to Run" is something I can understand; It's easy to see why people love "Born To Run."

This one isn't the same. While it has one of the most detailed Wikipedia pages ever, I just can't get behind it. It's Van Morrison-esque, at times, in its incoherence and boring as can be musically. No thanks.

No. 131: Saturday Night Fever Original Soundtrack

Band: Various Artists
Album: Saturday Night Fever Original Soundtrack
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Disco was a polarizing force in the mid- to late-1970s and "Saturday Night Fever" was the pinnacle of the genre. The movie and record brought disco out of the small clubs and into the white mainstream, largely due to two things: The Bee Gee and John Travolta. Still, the record not just included the Bee Gees' best disco work, the album also has great "A Fifth of Beethoven,""Open Sesame," "Night On Disco Mountain" and "Disco Inferno."
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I think this is about right. The album is sugary sweet nonsense, but it's so ingrained in our culture that you can't deny the greatness of this particular sugary sweet nonsense.
Best song: "Stayin' Alive" is the best disco song ever, probably. Really, though, you know 90% of these songs. I like "A Fifth Of Beethoven," personally.
Worst song: "Manhattan Skyline" is kind of bad.
Is it awesome?: Probably. It's bubblegum candy, but it's hard to deny.

Disco occupies a weird place in popular culture. It's had more influence than a lot of people probably want to admit (the people who participated in "Disco Demolition Night"), but few people actually acknowledge how important it was. It was a punchline for so many years, though had a resurgence for a bit in the mid-90s. The Bee Gees benefitted a great deal from this resurgence, even getting some run on VH1 in the late-90s.

"Saturday Night Fever" has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. It's one of those records that everyone has a copy of, understandably so, because no one, you know, actually buys Bee Gees records. Most people, also, didn't buy a ton of disco records -- if you wanted to hear dance music, you went to a club.

The movie is darker than most people remember, with suicide, rape and suburban desperation being the among main themes (along, of course, with dancing). The music is kind of a juxtaposition when you think about New York in the mid- to -late 70s. This is the same time period of Son of Sam, the energy crisis and the Iranian hostage situation. Disco, however, was anything but dark and I think people remember this music style largely for that sunny optimism. It was pre-AIDS and post-sexual revolution. It sounds like a lot of fun, actually.

The songs are about some pretty simple stuff, dancing and boning. "Boogie Shoes," "You Should Be Dancing," "Staying Alive," "Calypso Breakdown," etc. Dance, dance, dance. "More Than A woman," "How Deep Is Your Love," "If I Can't Have You," etc. Boning, boning, boning.

But, it's sold so many copies, you can't deny how great it is.