Rolling Stone 50 Greatest Prog Albums of All Time

 

 

2. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

3. Rush - Moving Pictures (1981)

4. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)

5. Yes - Close to the Edge (1972)

6. Genesis - Selling England by the Pound (1973)

7. Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick (1972)

8. Can - Future Days (1973)

9. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)

10. Yes - Fragile (1971)

11. Rush - Hemispheres (1978)

12. Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery (1973)

13. Pink Floyd - Animals (1977)

14. Genesis - Foxtrot (1972)

15. King Crimson - Red (1974)

16. Gentle Giant - Octopus (1972)

17. Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells (1973)

18. Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention - One Size Fits All (1975)

19. PFM - Per un Amico (1972)

20. King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973)

21. Camel - Mirage (1974)

22. Rush - 2112 (1976)

23. Tangerine Dream - Phaedra (1974)

24. Magma - Mekanik Destruktiv Kommandoh

25. The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003)

26. Van der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts (1972)

27. Supertramp - Crime of the Century (1974)

28. Opeth - Blackwater Park (2001)

29. Dream Theater - Metropolis 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999)

30. U.K. - U.K. (1978)

31. Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning (1973)

32. Kansas - Leftoverture (1976)

33. Tool - Lateralus (2001)

34. Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971)

35. Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Io Sono Nato Libero (1973)

36. Harmonium - Si on Avait Desoin D'une Cinquieme (1975)

37. Marillion - Clutching at Straws (1987)

38. Gong - You (1974)

39. Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet (2007)

40. Soft Machine - Third (1970)

41. Amon Duul II - Yeti (1970)

42. Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve (1995)

43. Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado (1974)

44. Strawbs - Hero and Heroine (1974)

45. Triumvirat - Illusions on a Double Dimple (1974)

46. Carmen - Fandangos in Space (1973)

47. Crack the Sky - Crack the Sky (1975)

48. FM - Black Noise (1977)

49. Ruins - Hyderomastgroningem (1995)

50. Happy the Man - Happy the Man (1977)

 

Yes, I was expecting worse too, especially after hearing about some of the Rap/Hip Hop "artists" on Rolling Stone's Top 500 albums list. There's a good cross section of albums in this list, including most of our prog favourites and also featuring lots of European bands and modern albums that often get overlooked, especially by me.

 

I'm listening to No. 30 on the list for the first time today. It's a great album! It's good to see there's at least one album from all of my favourite prog artists on the list, including:- Camel; Caravan; Dream Theater; Electric Light Orchestra; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Genesis; Jethro Tull; King Crimson; Mike Oldfield;  Pink Floyd; Porcupine Tree; Renaissance; Soft Machine; Strawbs; Tangerine Dream; Van der Graaf Generator; & Yes.

All in all a predictable list. It doesn't necessarily represent my views (f.e. I think the early Zappa is much more interesting than 70's albums such as One Size Fits All) but I think I can agree on the top 2.

The vast majoirty of albums are from the 70's. Also, albums from outside the Enghish speaking countries are few (a few Italian and German albums).

It does look very much like that, which does make the whole idea of it being the 50 greatest suspect, if they couldn’t even come up with 50 strong albums! 😄

That said, there are only two Rush albums in there, aren’t there? And easily the two most influential of their albums. I don’t think they are universally agreed upon as Rush’s best, and they’re definitely not my two favourite Rush albums - but if someone asked me what were their two most influential albums, I’d be hard pressed not to name these two.

If a list of greatest of all time is taken to mean those that had the most impact and influence, then I don’t think the appearance of those two Rush albums is that far wrong. If the list of greatest of all time is simply meant as the best, then their presence is certainly less assured. But I always take greatest of all time lists to mean those with the most impact.

What I think is far more suspect is the lack of content outside the UK and US, and the way when it appears, that it does. It’s almost as if they realised they needed one album in the top 10, and another in the top 20, and just shoehorned them in. And when they’ve chosen albums not from the UK and US, they seem to not really follow the example they’ve used for the US and UK albums, often choosing neither the albums generally acclaimed as the best, or the most influential, from a band. They don’t look as if they’ve been chosen with as much knowledge as the remainder of the list - and seem to have been chosen in the same manner that 41-50 were. 🤔

This list is in stark contrast to the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (or whatever it is titled) that is being discussed in another post on the forum, which appears to have had far more thought put into it - presumably because they asked far more people for their opinions/votes.

[EDIT] I have just noticed a third Rush album in there. And three does seem a little too much. So I take back what I said, and have to agree that there is too much Rush fandom going on.

I like Logan's idea of featuring one album per artist, but on a positive note, there are just as many Pink Floyd & Genesis albums (three each) in the Top 50 as Rush albums.

 

It's a pity though that "The Ladder" album by Yes didn't quite make the Top 50.  

I would suspect we should be pretty happy with this list.

As for the bottom 10, it's hit and miss, but I think it's good that they went with a few artists who had not been represented in the top 40.  I just think that acts like Crack the Sky and Happy the Man shouldn't be anywhere near the top 50 of anything, which betrays Rolling Stone's pro American bias