10 Best Albums of All-Time

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Reading Bill's comment, this is very interesting - the OP asked for us to list the '10 best', not our '10 favorite', yet he clearly listed some albums that no one could possibly consider to be among the '10 best' ever, so I think he really meant '10 favorite'. Not that they aren't great albums - I love most of them, but this just shows how subjective of a question this is.

Right, and that's all I'm asking for, Scott, is some clarification. Are we listing the 10 greatest albums of all-time, or our ten favorite albums? Because those lists are going to be vastly different.

Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys might be on my ten greatest albums list, but it wouldn't be in my top 100 favorite albums of all-time. Rio by Duran Duran might end up in my top ten favorite albums of all-time, but I doubt it would supplant something like Carole King's Tapestry from any all-time great list. Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends and Revolver by the Beatles might be listed in a lot of top ten all-time lists, but I don't know if I'd put Revolver ahead of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Abbey Road on my all-time top ten list.

I just don't know how I'm supposed to respond until this is made clear.

[the 'stache]

Ok, I'm going to try and come up with my top ten all-time favorite album list, which is a near impossibility. These are the ten albums, if I were forced to live on a deserted island the rest of my life (with a lifetime supply of batteries!), that I couldn't live without.

Good lord, this is going to be hard, because I love metal, progressive rock/metal, pop, rock, jazz, the blues, fusion, classical...everything but country, really. How do I limit myself to ten albums? Do I take a greatest hits compilation as one album, which is really cheating?

Sigh...

Ok, here goes nothing. And tomorrow I might change it.

Bill's top ten all-time favorite albums right now.

Queen-II
the Beatles-Abbey Road
Jeff Buckley-Grace
U2-the Unforgettable Fire
Tori Amos-Little Earthquakes
Dream Theater-Images and Words
Duran Duran-Rio
Van Halen-1984
Rush-Moving Pictures
Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon

How the hell do I leave Queen's Sheer Heart Attack or A Night at the Opera off this list, or Van Halen I? Do I drop Rio for Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced? What do I take off to pop in The Who's Who's Next? What about the aforementioned Sgt. Pepper, or Rubber Soul? I really want The Police's Synchronicity in there, and Toto IV. And I don't know where the hell I'm going to get some Led Zeppelin, or Cream in there. Zep IV, Disraeli Gears?



Edit: oh crap, no Thriller, no Miles Davis-Kind of Blue, or Bitches Brew--both could easily make my list. Songs From the Big Chair by Tears For Fears is another favorite. Hotel California by the Eagles, and I'll go nuts not having 2112 if I'm listening to Moving Pictures.

No Rainbow or Deep Purple, how the hell am I going to live on an island with no Ritchie Blackmore?

Just shoot me. I will never be happy with this top ten!

[CamaroCPA]

I kow the guys that mentioned Brother Cane did so a few years ago when this thread was begun. I see they are still active on the boards so, on the off chance they still check this thread I thought I post post this pic. Maybe they, or someone else will get a kick out of it!


I was a fan in the early to mid-nineties. I saw them open for Van Halen (maybe... or was it Lynyrd Skynyrd?) in Huntsville, Alabama. By the time I saw them in 1998 in Colorado Springs they were playing small clubs again. It gave me the opportunity to meet them and chat a while and get their autographs! I can't recall if I got the pick during the show or if one of the guys gave it to me afterwards.

Now, as for the topic at hand, my top ten albums in no particular order (and with the disclaimer that there could be many, many more to make this list):

1. Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers - Includes my second favorite guitar solo of all time on Sway. (Favorite solo is Ocean by John Butler.)
2. Rolling Stones, Voodoo Lounge - They have stronger albums but this reminds me of some really good times.
3. Third Eye Blind, Third Eye Blind - Again, brings me back to a time. It wasn't the best of times and this album helped me through.
4. Metallica, Metallica - I wore out all of my cassette tapes of their preceding albums. This was one of the first CDs I purchased.
5. Boston, Third Stage - Tom Scholtz's guitar tone is so cool!
6. John Butler Trio, April Uprising - Hard to pick a favorite of mine from him so I'll go with the album that has my wife's and my first dance song.
7. Tool, Undertow - Just badass.
8. Cure, Show - A live album that is really, really good. Brings me back to good times too.
9. Guns N Roses, Use Your Illusion - Take your pick: I or II. I think they were at their peak with the range of the songs and the guitar solos on this album.
10. Bad Company, 10 From 6 - A "best of" album that I started listening to in high school. It opened my eyes to classic, blues based rock and broadened my horizons from just the eighties pop and hair metal that were my staples until then.

[TheBig6]

In no particular order,
Grand Funk...The Red Album
Pink Floyd...Dark Side of the Moon
Rod Stewart and the Faces...Every Picture Tells a Story
Led Zepplin...First Album
Jimmy Hendrix, Buddy Miles, Billy Cox....Band of Gypsy's
The Doors...Morrison Hotel
Trapeze...Medusa
Deep Purple...Machine Head
Jethro Tull...Benefit
Neil Young...Everybody Knows this is Nowhere


Some of my other favorites of which I wore out Vinyl
Spooky Tooth...The Last Puff (I am the Walrus is very Heavy)
Traffic..Forget the album name but one with 40,000 Headmen
Beatles..Revolver, Sgt.Pepers & White Album
Mountain...First Album (Mississippi Queen if you know what I mean)
13 Floor Elevators..Album with (Slip inside this House as I pass by)
CSNY...Deja Vu
Rare Earth..Rare Earth
Bob Dylan...Highway 61 Revisited
Jimmy Hendrix Experience...Axis Bold as Love

[glynparson]

i get the difference but dont mind seeing either list from people . feel free to post both bill.

[the 'stache]

Brother Cane puts on a great show. I saw them early on, I think it was 1991, in Dallas.