50 Uncoolest records

[Harry]

How many of the 50 uncoolest records (as chosen by Rolling Stone) do you own? There are a few A&M's on the list. I think I own about twelve or so.

http://www.rollingstone.com/features/featuregen.asp?pid=665

Harry
...about to check out the 50 coolest, online...

 

[Rudy]

Aside from our familiar A&Ms:

Weezer: Weezer, proprietors of "The Sweater Song," had a hit with a song called "Buddy Holly" where the video was shot on the old Happy Days set, interspersed with classic Happy Days footage. (If you have a Windows 95 install CD, that video can be found there.)

George Michael: Listen Without Prejudice. A great thumbing-up of the nose at Sony, who wanted him to shake his butt and be a boy-toy. Made serious music instead...it's the only GM album I can listen to all the way through anymore. (Even his most popular of songs beats the dog doop that's on radio today.)

Supertramp: Breakfast in America. Still can't figure out what's "uncool" about it. Like the album, but don't care for Hodgson's whiney voice at times. "Goodbye Stranger" was the song that got me hooked on this album.

The Knack: Get The Knack. "My Sharona" is still a durable hit, and there are a couple of other good ones from these one-hit wonders.

Vince Guaraldi: Greatest Hits. Don't get me started--it doesn't even belong in Rolling Stone's class...

The Monkees: Greatest Hits. After the series played in syndication, this was one album I had to get. When CDs, came out, I bought one that had this entire album plus a bunch of other tracks. For some reason, it doesn't sound as good as it used to. A little too prefab, perhaps?

Bob Seger: Night Moves. His dreck doesn't belong in any list...he's one staple of classic rock that sends me running for the radio dial. Tom Petty and ELO are two others...

America: History: Greatest Hits. Just got one of their CDs last year. Have yet to find anything "uncool."

Slightly annoyed having to click through each item individually. It should have been in a list...it's obvious RS did this to get their ad impressions up.

-= N =-

 

[Mr Bill]

It's amusing to realize I own 12 records from that list! And I wouldn't mind owning a dozen others (I'll skip the metal & rap ones, thank you)...

From my collection:
Freddie & the Dreamers
Burt's Reach Out
Shania Twain (hey! it's for the wedding video thang!)
Meatloaf (but only because I was a Rocky HOrror fan)
John Denver
Supertramp's Breakfast In America (1979 was a great year for A&M)
Haircut 100
Sparks' Kimono My House (perhaps the most under-appreciated band of all time -- I proudly own all but one of their LPs)
The Knack
Pet Shop Boys
Monkees Greatest Hits

There were three on the list that intrigued me:
Moog Cook Book -- made me think of Art Gorson's A&M recordings...
Perrey & Kingsley's The In Sound From Way Out -- precursors to Kraftwerk??? This I gotta hear!
Joe Meek -- what the? As a sound guy I only know the name as a maker of pro audio components. More data. More data. More data.

--Mr Bill
wondering how many from the "Coolest" list are in his collection (and betting only 5 or less!)

 

[Rudy]

I did Ok with the Coolest list. If it weren't such a pain to navigate, I'd go back and look again. Steely Dan's Countdown To Ecstasy made the list...hardly one I'd call their "coolest" by any means, although it still had a lot of gems on it.

If anyone finds the list all in one place, either paste a link to it, or just paste the list here. That site gives me a headache!

-= N =-
"...and I'm never goin' back to my old school..."

 

[William]

Ditto.

document.writeln('')
document.writeln('')
document.writeln('')
We're sorry. This content is not available right now. Please check again later.

:|

- William

 

[Rudy]

Hey, at least you got some error messages--a few times, I only got a "white screen of death." You'd think they must have been using our old forum software!! (Actually, I'm not surprised by the errors--they're obviously using Microsoft's IIS running on NT Server. Can't say it's as stable as the FreeBSD/Apache platform that a lot of servers on the web are using...including ours.)

-= N =-
...wash, rinse, repeat...

 

[jimac51]

Boy,that was tedious. There is a reason why Rolling Stone becomes more irrelevant to music. I am too tired to argue with lots of it but why no Christopher Cross? Is the Bread anthology supposed to cover that brand of '70s soft rock? My vote for #1 is Mr. Loaf's "Bat" but the real pereptrator of that crime is Jim Steadman- Meat is merely the bagman in this stick up. Sony claimed in a mid-'90s ad that "Bat" sold 50,000 copies week in,week out every year-amazing. Mac

 

[Rudy]

Boy,that was tedious. There is a reason why Rolling Stone becomes more irrelevant to music. I am too tired to argue with lots of it but why no Christopher Cross?

OK, now you've done it--despite the stack of CDs I wanted to hear tonight, I just went and dusted off Christopher Cross and stuck it in the player. Aaaaaahhhhhh.... (I regret not buying his second album when it was briefly available on CD...still have the vinyl, though.)

I was a subscriber to the Stone many years ago. Back in the 80s, I remember when they published Tom Wolfe's entire Bonfire of the Vanities, chapter by chapter, in each issue. I remember being glued to each issue until I finished the entire book...in installments. (Several years later, I picked up a hardcover version, paired with The Right Stuff, on the discount rack. Have read both of them many times.)

But hey, I'm drifting. (Or is that "Sailing?") Those were the days when they had halfway decent reviews. Although I never agreed with their politics. I'd let my subscription lapse for a few years, then had some crazy deal to resubscribe. Seems they just turned into a fashion mag, with music as the soundtrack. A far cry from the old days. I even have a copy of the first issue of RS...it was a replica given out as a renewal bonus.

Back to Christopher Cross...why has good, quality music like this gone out of style?? It can still be found if you're willing to dig around with an open mind...but you just know something like this coming along and grabbing the public's ear, like this album did, won't happen overnight!

-= N =-

 

[Rick]

It was a tedious list to read. Though I felt several of the albums were actually COOL. I feel Captain & Tennille's "Dream" and Barry Manilow's "Trying To Get The Feeling Again" belong on an uncool list. Though the sub heading is "That We Love", so this RS list is really more of a COOL list.
I own a dozen of these titles also
Carpenters- Live At The Palladium (I love the Carpenters they are COOL!)
Meatloaf- Bat Out Of Hell
Supertramp- Breakfast In America
Klaatu
Haircut One Hundred- Pelican West
Sparks- Kimono My House
The Knack- Get The Knack
Johnny Mathis- Greatest Hits (this is a cool collection)
ELO- New World Record (this was a cool high school fave for me)
Bob Seger- Night Moves
America- History: America's Greatest Hits
Blue Oyster Cult- Secret Treaties (I bought it for the cool picture of the
ME 262 on the front & back cover. It's
not a fave but I do own it.)

 

[W.B.]

Back to Christopher Cross...why has good, quality music like this gone out of style?? It can still be found if you're willing to dig around with an open mind...but you just know something like this coming along and grabbing the public's ear, like this album did, won't happen overnight!

Mr. Cross was one of quite a handful of acts who were essentially "shoved aside" upon the advent of MTV (a.k.a. "Emp-Ty-Vee"); while reasonably talented, he appeared to look more like "eye broccoli" alongside the likes of Duran Duran , or Wham! (you get the picture). Had, say, Milli Vanilli appeared on the scene a decade before they did, the vocalists who actually participated might've shown their faces without shame and the producers probably wouldn't've resorted to such subterfuge as hiring two corn-rowed "pretty boys" to front for them on videos and in concerts.

 

[W.B.]

Boy,that was tedious. There is a reason why Rolling Stone becomes more irrelevant to music. I am too tired to argue with lots of it but why no Christopher Cross? Is the Bread anthology supposed to cover that brand of '70s soft rock? My vote for #1 is Mr. Loaf's "Bat" but the real pereptrator of that crime is Jim Steadman- Meat is merely the bagman in this stick up. Sony claimed in a mid-'90s ad that "Bat" sold 50,000 copies week in,week out every year-amazing. Mac

Jim Steinman wrote and co-arranged the songs in Bat Out of Hell; the producer (and Steinman's arranging partner) was Todd "Hello, It's Me" Rundgren. So both men could be called "perpetrators" in that sense. (Although I prefer the single edit of "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad.")

Mr. Steinman would also be responsible (and that's saying something) for Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and Céline Dion's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now," both of which, like the Meat Loaf numbers, are about as subtle as a Mack truck or a Pershing tank. 'Nuff said. If there was a list of "50 Uncool Singles" those two would definitely be on it.

 

[LPJim]

He was a producer of early 60s surf-rock instrumentals, and his most famous single was the Tornados' "Telstar." His perfectionist tendencies were even more extreme than Phil Spectors, and Meek ultimately became a suicide victim.

 

[jimac51]

Thanks,William for cleaning up my errors. I was tired when posting that one and I think the discussion about Rolling Stone had me thinking about when it was a pretty decent rag and Ralph Steadman did those great illustrations for Hunter Thompson's work. By the way, recent news from RS says that the new editorial chief is abandoning lengthy written pieces in favor of quickies-short attention span deficit with the youngin's. Rolling Stone has lost 10% of their readership in the last year. Mac

 

[Rudy]

Thanks,William for cleaning up my errors. I was tired when posting that one and I think the discussion about Rolling Stone had me thinking about when it was a pretty decent rag and Ralph Steadman did those great illustrations for Hunter Thompson's work. By the way, recent news from RS says that the new editorial chief is abandoning lengthy written pieces in favor of quickies-short attention span deficit with the youngin's. Rolling Stone has lost 10% of their readership in the last year. Mac

The lengthy articles were one of my reasons for being a subscriber in the 80's. Last I saw, RS came across as a teeny bopper/Gen-X fashion rag. (Music, it seems, is also treated as fashion, like a disposable product used as a soundtrack for the thriving teeny/Gen-X types.)

Anyone know if Jann Wenner is still involved?

-= N =-

 

[jimac51]

The blurb about RS for dummies comes from www.usatoday.com,via www.fmgb.com. They mention a guy named Kent Brownridge as Jann's "top deputy"-sounds like as long as they are making money,Jann keeps his nose out of it. That is probably a good thing. My years with RS span around issue #100,from 1970 to 1977 or so when they heralded Disco as something worthwhile. I hold Wenner's prejudice and promotion responsible for the L.A. scene that spawned the Eagles- an unforgivable sin. Yeah,A&M was a direct benefactor of that era,but IMHO,"Hotel California" should be banned from the earth forever. Mojo Nixon was right.... Mac

 

[Captain Bacardi]

The lengthy articles were one of my reasons for being a subscriber in the 80's. Last I saw, RS came across as a teeny bopper/Gen-X fashion rag.

Rolling Stone is nothing more than an oversized Tiger Beat today. The old RS would never even dare mention anything "cool", nor would they put Britney Spears, 'N' Sync or the Backstreet Boys on any of their covers - unless to parody them.


Capt. Bacardi
...still trying to figure out why No Doubt is considered a great band by RS online...

 

[Rudy]

One thing RS sort of got right was that U2 would be "The Band of The 80's". Can't say I entirely agree with that BUT...I also can't really name any other band to name in their place! U2's The Joshua Tree is one of the highlights in my collection, and I do like their earlier (and more vital, IMHO) recordings.

The original Rolling Stone is printed on newsprint, chronicles a drug bust at the house the Grateful Dead were living in, and has Lennon dressed up in army garb from a movie he was in.

Most frustrating were the RS reviews. One year, an album would be heralded as the next best invention since sliced bread. The following year, it would be dismissed as "their disappointing previous album." Go figure.

RS was also the only magazine to put down the Beatles CDs when they were released: in their view, the CDs should have been released in their shorter American formats, in phony stereo, "since we grew up listening to them that way." (Why punish us with Capitol's slaughtering of their original British catalog??)

I also don't appreciate the fact that they gave Dave Marsh the power to write a Record Guide. He's an odd piece of work, to put it nicely...

-= N =-

 

[W.B.]

He was a producer of early 60s surf-rock instrumentals, and his most famous single was the Tornados' "Telstar." His perfectionist tendencies were even more extreme than Phil Spectors, and Meek ultimately became a suicide victim.

The Honeycombs' 1964 hit "Have I The Right" was also produced in Mr. Meek's home studio. Wow/flutter and huge audio distortion also appear to have been a part of the Joe Meek "sound."

And for some reason, I somehow confused Mr. Meek's name with that of Joe Ely, I know not why.

 

[W.B.]

. . . (R)ecent news from RS says that the new editorial chief is abandoning lengthy written pieces in favor of quickies-short attention span deficit with the youngin's.

Interestingly, this mass shortening of attention spans that we've been seeing over the years (decades, actually) first began to manifest itself within a year or two of RS's launch. The two shows that helped pave the way for this, with massive overemphasis on boom-boom-boom quick cuts and going from one thing to the other in the blink of an eye, were Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and Sesame Street. With anything and everything being thrown at people all at once, with absolutely no time whatsoever being given for people to digest it all, it doesn't exactly come as a surprise that "ADD" has become such a problem. I.I.N.M., attention spans ranging from short to none didn't seem to be as much an issue 30+ years ago. . . .

 

[Tim Neely]

RS was also the only magazine to put down the Beatles CDs when they were released: in their view, the CDs should have been released in their shorter American formats, in phony stereo, "since we grew up listening to them that way." (Why punish us with Capitol's slaughtering of their original British catalog??)

Actually, there was plenty of reason to put down the Beatles CDs when they were released (early 1987 into early 1988; their release spurred me to get my first CD player, because that's when I KNEW the CD was here to stay). And lots of people did.

The biggest reason: The first four CDs were issued in MONO. That might have been fine for Please Please Me, as two of the tracks on that album don't exist in stereo, and most of the others have that annoying "vocals on one track, instrumentals on the other" stereo. But by the time Beatles For Sale came along, the stereo LPs are actually quite a pleasant listening experience.

The next thing I remember is that Rubber Soul and at least one of the other CDs from the same period (I can't remember if it was Help! or Revolver were remixed rather than merely remastered.

Another thing that is true, at least of my copy, is that some versions of the White Album have their tracking on Disc 1 messed up.

Yeah, I remember hearing some of the whining that the pre-Sgt. Pepper CDs weren't the way Americans remembered hearing them. But I understand the desire of EMI to once and for all make the catalog uniform around the world. I still can't get used to Rubber Soul without "I've Just Seen a Face" as the first song, and the echo-laden US 45 rpm versions of "I Feel Fine" and "She's a Woman" still feel like the "real" versions of those songs to me. And I miss some of the other oddities, like the so-called "false start" on the stereo US version of "I'm Looking Through You." But I feel Capitol/EMI is missing the boat by not making some of these oddities available on CD.

Last fall, Bear Family of Germany issued a Beatles collection called Beatles Bop -- Hamburg Days, which featured every known version of every song recorded by the Beatles with Tony Sheridan in Hamburg, with one CD having all the mono versions and one CD having all the stereo versions. If EMI did the same thing with each of the original Beatles albums through 1968 -- one CD in mono, one CD in stereo, with odd mixes from other countries and possibly even appropriate bonus tracks, they might not sell as much as Beatles 1 did, but they'd probably sell tens of thousands (at least).

 

[Rudy]

Actually, there was plenty of reason to put down the Beatles CDs when they were released (early 1987 into early 1988; their release spurred me to get my first CD player, because that's when I KNEW the CD was here to stay). And lots of people did.

Beatles CDs were the only time I'd ever preordered CDs! I recall going into Sam's Jams to pick them up, and the area behind the counter was stacked high with all the orders they were holding for customers!

The biggest reason: The first four CDs were issued in MONO. That might have been fine for Please Please Me, as two of the tracks on that album don't exist in stereo, and most of the others have that annoying "vocals on one track, instrumentals on the other" stereo.

That's partially a concern of mine also. The vocal/instrumental split was just a stereo cash-in by Capitol. They were never intended to be released that way (and when I'd bought a couple of stereo Beatles LPs, I'd "mixed" them so the channels were a lot closer together). But George Martin claimed that Hard Day's Night and Beatles For Sale were also intended to be released in mono...but my reasoning back then was, how do you explain the nice stereo mix on "I Should Have Known Better" from the Hey Jude LP?? The first two albums I can live with in mono, but knowing that the third and fourth could have been mixed better for stereo, as the Hey Jude track proved, it sort of left me cold.

The next thing I remember is that Rubber Soul and at least one of the other CDs from the same period (I can't remember if it was Help! or Revolver were remixed rather than merely remastered.

That I've never noticed. I'm a relative latecomer to Beatles, so I'm not that familiar with some of the mixes. I do, however, know how certain rarities sound different if they're pointed out to me. (That's why I've always liked that Rarities LP...it had a full roster of "rare" tracks, and gave complete details how they were different.)

Yeah, I remember hearing some of the whining that the pre-Sgt. Pepper CDs weren't the way Americans remembered hearing them. But I understand the desire of EMI to once and for all make the catalog uniform around the world.

When I started getting more Beatles recordings, I was working from books, and actually sought out the UK versions if I could find them. If not, I could recreate them from the LPs I owned. Rubber Soul and Revolver are by far my favorite two albums, and I'd owned the former on U.S. vinyl and played it enough that I, too, got used to "I've Just Seen A Face" as the opener. It seems to fit the rest of the album nicely.

But I feel Capitol/EMI is missing the boat by not making some of these oddities available on CD.

A lot of us may have thought the Anthology CDs would solve that problem. But to be honest, I have all three of those sets and I don't think I've ever played them more than a couple of times each. I still held onto my Beatles Rarities LP. To be honest, the Beatles tracks I'd really like to hear would be the Get Back album...in other words, Let It Be w/o Spector's production.

If EMI did the same thing with each of the original Beatles albums through 1968 -- one CD in mono, one CD in stereo, with odd mixes from other countries and possibly even appropriate bonus tracks, they might not sell as much as Beatles 1 did, but they'd probably sell tens of thousands (at least).

In a "record label" sort of mentality, it would be a good way to churn the catalog for another buying frenzy. But even on a single CD (these albums were short to begin with), there'd be enough room and reason to put both mono and stereo versions on the disc, and leave room for the rare variations.

I'll admit that despite all the other nitpicky things both of us find with the original Capitol CDs , they did do a good reissue job. After all the albums came out, they put the remainder of the Beatles tracks on the two Past Masters CDs. Which, from what I understood, meant you'd have the entire Beatles catalog if you owned those two plus all the album releases. (Not counting the Live "Hollywood Bowl", of course, and assorted other rarities that came up on the Anthology series.) Overall, I've been pleased with the CDs, and while I don't listen to them very often anymore, they're nice to have available.

-= N =-

 

[Harry]

That's partially a concern of mine also. The vocal/instrumental split was just a stereo cash-in by Capitol. They were never intended to be released that way (and when I'd bought a couple of stereo Beatles LPs, I'd "mixed" them so the channels were a lot closer together). But George Martin claimed that Hard Day's Night and Beatles For Sale were also intended to be released in mono...but my reasoning back then was, how do you explain the nice stereo mix on "I Should Have Known Better" from the Hey Jude LP?? The first two albums I can live with in mono, but knowing that the third and fourth could have been mixed better for stereo, as the Hey Jude track proved, it sort of left me cold.

Better example: George Martin insisted that the first four albums all be mono. That included WITH THE BEATLES and A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. But when tracks from those albums showed up on later CD compilations (the red and blue sets, and the BEATLES 1), miraculously they were in full stereo. These include: "All My Loving", "Can't Buy Me Love", "A Hard Day's Night", "And I Love Her", and "Eight Days A Week."

I'm a relative latecomer to Beatles, so I'm not that familiar with some of the mixes. I do, however, know how certain rarities sound different if they're pointed out to me. (That's why I've always liked that Rarities LP...it had a full roster of "rare" tracks, and gave complete details how they were different.)

I'm a latecomer as well. In fact, other than owning the red and blue set (a prize from winning a radio station contest), my first Beatles purchase was the American RARITIES album. The whole concept intrigued me enough to make that purchase.

When I started getting more Beatles recordings, I was working from books, and actually sought out the UK versions if I could find them. If not, I could recreate them from the LPs I owned. Rubber Soul and Revolver are by far my favorite two albums, and I'd owned the former on U.S. vinyl and played it enough that I, too, got used to "I've Just Seen A Face" as the opener. It seems to fit the rest of the album nicely.

I did the same. Bought books and reconstructed the albums in UK sequence, seeking out rare tracks from other releases around the world. My feeling about the first four albums getting the mono treatment is that had Martin relented and put out the second two in stereo, sales of the first two might have suffered, since all four went on sale at the same time. They should have released the first two in mono at one time, then come out with the second two in stereo a bit later.

If you want to hear some good stereo mixes of early stuff, done by George Martin himself, seek out the American LP release called ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC VOLUME 1. When that set was being readied for release, Mr. Martin once again was appalled at the early stereo releases, and remixed them, reversed the stereo, placed the vocals closer to the center, added a light touch of stereo reverb to the instrumentation, and generally improved the sound greatly. To date, when I want to hear "Twist And Shout", I'll grab the old ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC LP. The British EMI, hearing that George Martin had tampered with the recordings against the express contract with the four Beatles that no such tampering take place, released the same set without the remixes, essentially making it redundant as a compilation.

I like the idea of once and for all, release the albums with both mixes, and let the fans decide. Like you said, it's a good way to once again churn that catalog. Then, later on, release the albums in American configuration, and keep that cash cow going.

Harry
NP: ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC VOLUME 1

 

[Rudy]

Better example: George Martin insisted that the first four albums all be mono. That included WITH THE BEATLES and A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. But when tracks from those albums showed up on later CD compilations (the red and blue sets, and the BEATLES 1), miraculously they were in full stereo. These include: "All My Loving", "Can't Buy Me Love", "A Hard Day's Night", "And I Love Her", and "Eight Days A Week."

Yep, another good example. I recall all the furor when the first four came out--some complained that all four were mono. The first two, given a choice of the terrible fake stereo (vocals one side, instruments the other...this was just releasing what amounted to a "multitrack" master, since two channel was all EMI had to "mix" the vocals with the music. If you think about it, a lot of the early stereo LPs on ALL labels suffer--if you hear ONLY left and right music, no center, that's essentially the same thing.

Hard Day's and For Sale definitely should have been stereo. Whether or not they used existing mixes, or made new ones as accurate as possible, it would have been an improvement. (The entire Led Zeppelin box set was remixed--some could tell the difference, saying Jimmy Page's guitars were higher in the mix, but I really couldn't tell compared to the muddy LPs.)

-= N =-