[rajacat]

Any top 100 list that mentions Tom Waits twice without mentioning Led Zeppelin is an abomination....

Cheers

No Led Zeppelin!!  

[richidoo]

Congrats to the radio station on their fundraising, I hope it is very successful campaign, and the survey is a big draw for listeners. I used to love to listen to those, and Let it be always won best song. But to call it top albums of all time is deceiving. Maybe better call it Our DJs' favorite albums. Serious commercial recordings have been made since before 1900, but this list only goes back to 1958 with Miles, and some Ray Charles on Atlantic, I think mid 60s. Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Van Cliburn, Fats Waller, Elvis were enormous commercial successes before rock. They created the record industry. I think these DJs aren't quite so eclectic if they only know rock.

Check out this list of actual rankings of record sales worldwide, including all artists from all genres through history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists

This history of recording industry is cool too:
http://www.recording-history.org/HTML/musicbiz1.php
Rich

[WGH]

I have no idea how this list was created, but it would be hard to make a list without leaving someone important off. My Mother would have a big problem with this list too. Great idea for fund raising though.

The musicians from an earlier period, such as Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Van Cliburn, and Fats Waller may not have made the list, but they are constantly played by KXCI dj's. The station is not a rock or oldies station, but a music station. Actually an artist's most popular songs hardly ever get played. I think an unwritten rule for the station is that if a song is popular and played on other stations, there is no need to play it here. Most of my friends don't listen to KXCI because it is too challenging, I love it just for that reason.

For almost 25 years KXCI always has done things differently. Kidd Squidd's Saturday afternoon show is always a surprise. Squidd's our local musical scholar, each 3 hour show he puts together has a theme that can range from very early blues and gospel to garage grunge rock (but usually not in the same show, but it can happen). Sam Taylor had a blues show for years, and Harvey Brooks donates his time every month by playing in the 17th Street Band's KXCI benefit concert at a local brewery. The other night I was grooving on Persian music, and Anoushka Shankar has been on the play list for years too. Eclectic does not even begin to describe what KXCI does.

So as lists go it is not all inclusive, but for a person starting out collecting vinyl or CD's you could do a lot worse. I have seen a few posts lately by people wanting to buy a turntable and get into vinyl. Taking this list of 913 albums to a used record sale would be a very good starting point, there is not a bad record in the bunch.

[Wayner]

No wonder the list is screwed up. It's public radio.

Wayner

[gbeard]

Any top 100 list that mentions Tom Waits twice without mentioning Led Zeppelin is an abomination....

Amen to that (and I love Tom Waits)!

Agreed, but which album and where would you put it in the lineup?

Damn near any of 'em (and I love Tom Waits) !!

No wonder the list is screwed up. It's public radio.

Wayner

Well Wayner, you've got a point. A least they didn't include "Celtic Woman" or the Cowsill's seminal effort. 

I do own about 40+ of the albums on the list, and yes, it would be very hard to put together any list that 10 people in the world would be in total agreement with, but sheesh, no Led Zep is unbelievable! And where is "The Mother's Live at Fillmore" ?   (oh yeah, it's public radio!  ) 

[Wayner]

I also notice that there is no YES, like where is the YES album. No XTC, they were the forefront of alternative (the Big Express). No Moody Blues. No Depesche Mode. Where is Meatloaf, Bat out of Hell? Kansas, Leftoverture........Boston (more than a feeling). I don't remember seeing any Dire Straights either.

Queen is deserving but Fleetwood Mac, Future Games is way better than Rumors.
Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense is a great album (it's live).

Wilco?

Well I guess you guys are right. We'd probably all come up with a completely different list, but there are some basic icons missing in their version of the top 100 that kind of disqualifies it as a list with any merit.

Shouldn't Roxy Music's Avalon be up there somewhere too? Any yes, where is Led Zep II?

Wayner 

Added later: Where the hell is the Allman Brothers (live at Filmore East)?????

[ecramer]

thats the only kind of radio station i listen to, comercial radio station drive me nut with thier constant stream of drivel

No wonder the list is screwed up. It's public radio.

Wayner

[ecramer]

And i just realized where The Who KXCI has no love for The Who?

[WGH]

No wonder the list is screwed up. It's public radio.

Wayner

No it is not, KXCI is Community Radio. They do get matching funds from the government, but each deejay can play whatever they want.

I am still thinking how we can make a definitive list of our own.
Albums would have to be nominated.
And then voted on.
And then perhaps ranked.

[Steidl Guitars]

Bill, thanks for posting this.

I live in Tucson and having KXCI here makes the place more interesting.  It is an eclectic station to be sure, which means that there are plenty of times when I don't especially like what's being played.  But there are just as many times where I am exposed to something new that appeals and that is fabulous.  Given the megacorporation influence on radio, KXCI is an independent breathe of fresh air.

And given KXCI's broad and eclectic leanings, their list will surely reflect that.  And thank goodness.

Same thing would (and should) happen if AC members tried to generate their own top 100...

Bob

[dwk]

I have no idea how this list was created, but it would be hard to make a list without leaving someone important off. My Mother would have a big problem with this list too. Great idea for fund raising though.

I'm only guessing here, but I suspect that they simply had their 15-20 dj's or important participants each make a list of their top 100, and then gave points 100-1, and totaled them up. The list of 913 is all the albums that someone voted on at least once.  I think this begins to explain some of the unusual results - a single person putting an album as #1 is probably enough to get it into the top 40, and anything that 'most voters' had in their top 50 is going to be up towards the top of the list. Similarly, down towards the bottom is stuff that only appeared on 1 or two lists, and so will be all over the map.

As with all these lists, I think it's best looked at as a celebration of the fact that we care about music at all. (Although I do agree that Zep and the Who getting the shaft is surprising, as I think their stuff has aged rather better than either the Stones or Beatles. *4* Beatles albums in the top 10 leaves me scratching my head. Of course, I believe that the Beatles were little more than the Backstreet Boys until Dylan metaphorically smacked them upside the head and challenged them to do something significant.)

[TONEPUB]

I think it's an age thing too.  Depending on when you grew up and what music influenced you the most will probably tend to weight things a lot more in one direction or the other.

I love the Beatles, but I would never consider Abbey Road the best record of all time. When I lived in Phoenix, the local radio station did this and they called the Eagles Till Hell Freezes over the best record of all time.

Always hard to make a list.

So much on this one that they left off.  A lot of good music to be sure, but a lot of pretty safe choices.
(not meaning to sound stuck up, as I do own all of those records but one or two)

I think it also depends on where you are in your life.  At a certain point in your life, different music will have more meaning to you than others.  Yet some things stay on your favorites list.  If only you had perfect memory and you could write down your top 20 or 30 favorite albums in the 70's, 80's, etc to today.  I'd be very curious to see how that's changed for a lot of people!

[gbeard]

Well said Jeff.

While I certainly enjoy REM and Nirvana, at the ripened age of 52, I would never place them in my personal top 100. That is not to say that I haven't heard music since the 70's that turns my crank. The Lucinda Williams choice is a good one, although I like Sweet Old World better myself. And while I'm sure its not in my top 100, the Wilco choice is very good as well.

[ecramer]

This is the ones i had from the list what doe's it say about my musical taste or lack of
 
17. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Will The Circle Be Unbroken
18. Chuck Berry, The Great Twenty-Eight
19. Neko Case, Blacklisted
20. Robert Johnson, King Of The Delta Blues Singers Vol. 1
21. Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
33. Johnny Cash, American Recordings I
50. Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
53. O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack
57. Tom Waits, Rain Dogs
62. Tom Waits, The Heart of Saturday Night
63. The Traveling Wilburys, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1
70. Little Feat, Dixie Chicken
72. Patsy Cline, The Ultimate Collection
75. AC/DC, Back in Black
78. Hank Williams, The Complete Hank Williams
92. The Doors, The Doors
95. The Blues Brothers soundtrack
108. The Who, Tommy
142. The Eagles, Hotel California
159. Warren Zevon, Excitable Boy
161. Cream, Disraeli Gears
170. Johnny Cash, Live At San Quentin
178. Aerosmith, Toys in the Attic
192. Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack
213. Ike and Tina Turner, Proud Mary: The Best of Ike and Tina Turner
237. Counting Crows, August And Everything After
248. Norah Jones, Come Away With Me
261. The Who, Quadrophenia
262. The Band, The Band
263. Leonard Cohen, Songs of Love and Hate
264. The Doors, L.A. Woman
268. Hank Williams, 40 Greatest Hits
269. The Allman Brothers Band, Brothers & Sisters
271. PJ Harvey, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
281. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV
290. John Mayall with Eric Clapton, Bluesbreakers
307. Mott the Hoople , All the Young Dudes
313. Alanis Morrissette, Jagged Little Pill
342. The Who, Live at Leeds
350. The White Stripes, Elephant
366. Jerry Lee Lewis, Anthology: All Killer No Filler
369. Massive Attack, Mezzanine
370. The Pretenders, Pretenders
374. Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man
378. Meat Loaf, Bat Out of Hell
402. Gillian Welch, Revival
414. X, Los Angeles
419. The Mothers of Invention, We're Only In It For The Money
421. Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures
422. Jethro Tull, Aqualung
424. The Doors, Strange Days
428. Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Paul Butterfield Blues Band
430. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Second Helping
434. BR5-49, BR5-49
436. Warren Zevon, The Wind
447. Steve Miller Band, Fly Like an Eagle
451. Black Sabbath, Paranoid
472. Hootie and the Blowfish, Cracked Rear View
490. Paul Butterfield Blues Band, East-West
502. Tom Waits, Small Change
507. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd
517. Joan Osborne, Relish
533. Bob Dylan, Love and Theft
544. Portishead, Dummy
547. PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love
550. Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath
594. Annie Lennox, Diva
599. Feist, The Reminder
616. Howlin' Wolf, Moanin' in the Moonlight
622. Frank Zappa, Apostrophe '
641. Aerosmith, Rocks
690. John Lee Hooker, Live At Café A Go Go
720. ween, Chocolate & Cheese
722. The Allman Brothers, Eat A Peach
730. Leonard Cohen, New Skin for the Old Ceremony
731. Kim Carnes, Mistaken Identity
735. Joe Cocker, Mad Dogs + Englishmen
761. Tom Waits, Swordfishtrombones
777. Tom Waits, Mule Variations
778. Gillian Welch, Time (The Revelator)
808. Buddy Guy, I Was Walking Through The Woods
812. The White Stripes, White Blood Cells
826. ZZ Top, Tres Hombres
839. X, Wild Gift

[soundbitten1]

I'm surprised there weren't more " best of " or " greatest hits " albums .