The 500 - The First 100 Albums

 

Milestone One has been reached!

I recently published my blog post about album #401 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. I am officially 1/5 of the way through my journey. 

This venture began on January 29, 2019, after discovering that comedian Josh Adam Meyer had made the decision to podcast about each record. I had maintained this blog for about four years and, formerly, the topics were usually gleaned from the world of education. However, I wanted to write weekly and when I heard about Josh's podcast, I decided to listen to and write about each record. The initial, goal of two posts a week was unsustainable, however, I'm currently on a pace of a blog post every 6.24 days.

Rather than review each record or give a track-by-track analysis, I wanted to uncover something different about the stories behind the music. As I looked over The 500 List, I felt that I had some personal anecdotes to share; however, there were many albums with which I had little familiarity. My goal was to "find the story" within. I don't think there is a better example of this than my Gram Parson's post from May, 2020.

Grievous Angel by Gram Parsons (1973)

Just as I was approaching the 100th record, Rolling Stone released an updated list. Consequently, albums I have written about have been removed from the list and, in some cases, rated higher. The Nas record, Illmatic, which I recently wrote about, has been (justifiably) moved from position #402 to #44. I have decided to stick with the 2012 list and, if I get to the end of this journey, I may double-back and write about the records that were added to the 2020 list, but that decision is seven years away.

September, 2020 edition of Rolling Stone Magazine 
with the updated 500 list.

Speaking of lists...here are a few of my own.

A big shout-out to the ten people who generously "guest blogged" with me...

• Nick Bishop - My Morning Jacket, Z (#457)
• Rob Hodson - John Prine, Debut (#452)
• Jay Dubois - Beck, Sea Change (#436)
• Oscar Macedo - The Police, Outlandos D'Amour (#428)
• Jeff Lewis - Bruce Springsteen, The Rising (#424)
• Steve "Lumpy" Sullivan U2, Boy (#417)
• Glen "Archie" Gamble - Van Halen, Debut (#415)
• Claudio Sossi - The Minutemen, Double Nickles On The Dime (#413)
• Karen Snell - PJ Harvey, Rid of Me (#406)
• My Dad - Who has proofread every blog post since the beginning. I love our weekly chats.

My Top 5 discoveries while on this journey and the albums that got the most plays after first hearing them are...

• Beck - Sea Change (#436)
• The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs (#465)
• My Morning Jacket - Z (#457)
• Gang of Four - Entertainment (#483)
• Manu Chao - Proxima Estacion: Esperanza (#474)

It is gratifying that my readership has grown since I began this project. Some of my first posts garnered 30-40 readers and I now average 80. Some posts are more popular than others. It might be the record or the artist.  It might just be fortuitous timing on my part and when I chose to promote the blog. Regardless, these five posts had the most readers:

1. Kiss - Destroyer - 143 readers, Published 19/03/2019
2. Nas - Illmatic - 118 readers, Published 03/10/2020
3. George Michael - Faith - 114 readers,  Published 02/07/2019
4. Loretta Lynn - All Time Greatest Hits - 101 readers, Published 20/05/2019
5. Portishead - Dummy - 98 readers, Published 27/06/2020

Here are the stats on the dates of the first 100 records:

• Two from the 1950s
• Eight from the 1960s
• 38 from the 1970s
• 22 from the 1980s
• 16 from the 1990s
• 14 from the 2000s

A few highlights on my journey:

• Getting to meet Josh Adam Meyers when he was in Toronto for the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival and seeing him record an episode of The 500 Podcast live. Episode #448 - The Police, Synchronicity. 
• Getting likes and Twitter mentions from comedians, actors and musicians that I admire, including Russell Peters, LL Cool J, Joe Satriani, Zainab Johnson and Wayne Federman.
• Receiving the comment "A brilliant essay" from actor and comedian Jay Mohr (SNL, Jerry Maguire, Action, Gary Unmarried) who read my blog post about Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love. (#467)

There are five artists who are not on The 500 list and deserve recognition. In each case:

• They were commercially successful
• The musicianship is excellent
• The record is considered influential by many other artists
• And, I really like them and I'm disappointed they are not on the list

In no particular order:

• Rush - Moving Pictures (This record is on the 2020 list at #379)
• Supertramp - Crime of the Century or Breakfast in America
• Boston - Debut
• Duran Duran - Rio
• Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

What do you think? I'd be delighted to hear your thoughts, feel free to post in the comment section below. 

Finally, thank you for reading and joining me on this journey through The 500 greatest albums of all time.  Next up: The Temptations Anthology at #400