Recently on Facebook, a friend of mine drew my attention to a little quiz entitled "The 100 Most Influential Albums - How Many Do You Own?" I thought to myself, cool this should be fun. Now I knew going in that I probably wouldn't do very well seeing as my tastes run a little left of center to the average music fan (probably a little heavier than most) but going through the list I started to laugh. I didn't even know who half of the artists on the list even were?!
Really? Who the hell came up with the albums on this list? What was the criteria for these 100 albums to be the chosen ones? Or in the words of a friend of mine "What hipster doofus came up with that selection"? To say that I was puzzled is probably the understatement of the year. So instead of being embarrassed that I only own 4 of the "top 100 most influential albums of all time" I am going to take another approach. I am going to share with you another list.
Here is Wallygator's "Top 50 Most Influential Albums Of All Time". Feel free to discuss, score your own percentage of the albums you have in your collection. Or drop me a line and tell me I am crazy. Unlike the "hipster doofus" that created the facebook list, I will actually give you the criteria that I used when compiling my list.
Did the album have a clear and apparent influence on other bands?
Did the album have an apparent influence on a genre of music?
Did the album stand the test of time?
Did the album personally kick my ass? Meaning I love every single song top to bottom
If I could answer yes to one or more of these four questions than the album was considered for my list. I also tried to keep things "Decibel Geek" friendly, so albums such as Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours", John Mellencamp's "Lonesome Jubilee" (Both personal favorites) and albums like Michael Jackson's "Thriller", U2's "Joshua Tree" or Bruce Springsteen's "Born To Run" who some, or even millions might consider to be influential are not on my list. Knowing my roots it should be no surprise that there are a few "Canadian" entries, as they were indeed "influential" in my neck of the woods.
So here goes nothing....
1. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
2. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
3. Van Halen - Van Halen
4. AC/DC - Back In Black
5. Guns and Roses - Appetite For Destruction
6. Motley Crue - Shout At The Devil
7. Def Leppard - Hysteria
8. Kiss - Alive
9. Metallica - Metallica
10.. Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
11. Judas Priest - British Steel
12. Dio - Holy Diver
13. Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Ozz
14. Aerosmith -Toys In The Attic
15. Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell
16. Quiet Riot - Metal Health
17. The Who - Tommy
18. Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power
19. Green Day - American Idiot
20. Kiss - Destroyer
21. Rush - 2112
22. Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare
23. Killer Dwarfs - Dirty Weapons
24. Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry
25. Skid Row - Skid Row
26. Scorpions - Blackout
27. Kick Axe - Vices
28. Cheap Trick - Dream Police
29. Megadeth - Rust In Peace
30. Def Leppard - Pyromania
31. Van Halen - 1984
32. Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast
33. Queen - A Night At The Opera
34. Motley Crue - Dr. Feelgood
35. David Lee Roth - Eat Em And Smile
36. Meatloaf - Bat Out Of Hell
37. Boston - Boston
38. Ratt - Out Of The Cellar
39. W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P.
40. Lee Aaron - Metal Queen
41. L.A. Guns - L.A. Guns
42. Metallica - Master Of Puppets
43. Kiss - Creatures Of The Night
44. Helix - Walking The Razor's Edge
45. Whitesnake - Whitesnake
46. AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
47. Accept - Balls To The Wall
48. Brides Of Destruction - Here Come The Brides
49. Brighton Rock - Love Machine
50. West Memphis Suicide - Resurrecting The Ghost
If you are interested the link to the actual quiz is found here www.InfluentialAlbums.com
5 comments:
There are two reasons that list does not resonate with a North American hard rock fan 1)that list was definitely put together by a British hipster and 2)said British hipster clearly does not appreciate heavy metal or hard rock. But to be fair the list does not tout itself as being the "most influential of all time," as you say, only "100 Influential albums," and many of the albums on the list were extremely influential. One problem, leaving Black Sabbath off the list renders it meaningless. What band was more influential than Sabbath? As for your list, Wally, are many of these just your personal favorites? I suppose they influenced you, maybe to bang your head, maybe while driving, maybe you were driving under the influence, under the influence of the Killer Dwarfs, but putting the Killer Dwarfs or Kick Axe on a list of "influential albums" is just as ridiculous as putting Blur or The Wedding Present.
Ahhh yes BJ, I totally plead guilty to this list being 100% completely personal indulgence, with many of these albums just being as you mentioned "personal" favourites. I do direct your attention to the fourth criteria in choosing albums for my list "DID THE ALBUM PERSONALLY KICK MY ASS?" and every album found above did just that. Also, the mere title of the article stating Wallygator's Style totally excuses this self indulgent list.
That said, however I would totally stand behind my top 10 as being truly "influential" albums and quite possibly even the top 20. Beyond that I was having some fun.
Now before you dismiss Kick Axe - Vices as simply ridiculous, I will point out that this album was chosen as the 12th best Heavy Metal album of the 80's by one Martin Popoff. In fact it bested Rush's Moving Pictures, Metallica's Master of Puppets and even Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast. His review is found below...
A rich and powerful masterpiece of hard rock songcraft, "Vices" is a celebration of living on par with the most cherished highs from Van Halen, Kiss and Aerosmith. The elements that make "Vices" brilliant are many, first and foremost being the king-of-the-world vocal prowess of George Criston who soars, screams, yelps, and croons all over this, Criston turning in a performance so sincere and inspired, that the band can't help but be lifted to new heights in the process. And the playing is awesome, bottom-heavy, chunky, sparse and tasteful. Solos are metallic and resolvingly melodic, drumming is manic but somehow level-headed, production is hi-tech, overtreated but warm. Musically "Vices" occupies the space between simple, economic, mischievous metal and melodically complex hard rock pageantry. Just about everything inspires here, the smooth cruising riffs of "Cause For Alarm" and "All The Right Moves", the other-worldly philosophizing of "Just Passin' Through", and the anthemic bad boy stomps of minor hit "Heavy Metal Shuffle" right through the autobiographical title track. Vices remains a devastating and enduring piece of metal history after the passing years, the drift, and the ultimate break-up of KICK AXE. It's unfortunate that the overflowing talent on this album had not been recognized and nurtured. After all, this is the label and production team that brought us the obscenely successful debut from QUIET RIOT. Instead, it seems that someone had prematurely pushed the panic button, causing the subsequent stylistic shifts that would be "Welcome To The Club" and "Rock The World", albums that tended to cloud the band's obvious knack for spirited songcraft. "Vices" on the other hand, is a necessity of life.
- Martin Popoff
As for the Killer Dwarfs, I must ask if you own Dirty Weapons? Absolutley BRILLIANT ALBUM. Self Indulgant? Yeah BABY!
Wally, it doesn't matter at all if I own Dirty Weapons, I'm not foolin, you may want it bad, but all that we dream won't increase an album's appeal, nothin' gets nothin' when we argue about which album was influential upon whom, whether or not what I am saying is comin' through there is only one way out of this argument--I guess you get the last laugh.
B.J. you truly are a decibel geek! \m/!
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