Rolling Stone: Top 500 All Time

Have to realize the list from TattooedMac is done by the listeners of a single radio network. That in itself will have a great bearing as to the list. It's also really a young persons network, so you'll have a great many of those never exposed to much if any of the music over 20 years old except that which the DJs have chosen to play.

Even on what should be an "all-time" hits list, most youngsters are still going to be voting for their current favorites.

For myself, a greatest list and a favorites list are not synonymous. If I had to sit down and create a list, I think there are very few songs that would be on my greatest list that would even make it to my favorites list just due to my own tastes changing and growing. Don't even believe I could put my top 4 or 5 favorite musicians on a greatest songs list.

That's why most all of these type of lists are, to me, really for personal discovery and re-listening to discover why some are rated where they are. And some, I'll never understand - they just sound like, as my dad would have put it - "What is that .... you're listening to?"

With the number of artists over the last 80 years, having a top 500 and limiting each artist to a single song on the list, there would still be some great song writers and musicians left out.

Having grown up in the "Album" rock era, I'd like to see a list created by those that have been "in the industry" for the last 40-50 years of the greatest albums of all time where every song on the album is worthy. I've always hated buying albums that only had 1 or 2 songs that were worthy of being in my collection. A collection that grew to nearly 7,000 LPs during the vinyl days.

What happened to the 7000 LP collection ? Do you still have that ?

My collection was much much smaller, like 200 or so and I once started transferring them from vinyl to digital media..... Gave up basically and bought the songs from iTunes store
Then gave all my vinyl to the local library .
Must say that I sometimes get emotional when my brother puts on The Stones on vinyl ... doesn't sound like much anymore but it has so much memories.

Cheers ... McBie

I've always hated "all time" lists. Did time end last Thursday? Did they stop making music? No? Then the list is pure BS, heavily influenced by what's currently hip and trendy (particularly if anything retro is hip and trendy). It's also influenced by one's own lifetime and what one listened to growing up.

It's perfectly okay to have a "this generation's favourites" or "best songs of the 70s" (you know, a decade that has definitively ended!), but this "all time" crap is just hype to sell dead trees.

If anyone hear is actually interested in a "best of the 20th century" type list written by people who've actually spent time listening to records from throughout that period, there's likely to be such a survey by *record collectors* that would be far more accurate and reflective of the overall period being analyzed than anything the empty husk of Rolling Stone could belch up.

bobtomay said:

Another in my opinion that should be much, much, much higher on the list is Pink Floyd.

There are 3 PF songs, all in the 300's. This is just way too low for music that continues to affect and remain popular with practically every generation for 40 years now. No representation at all from the 2 albums that rocketed them to their position among the R&R greats - Meddle and The Dark Side of the Moon.

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I hadn't even noticed that and I very much agree that Pink Floyd wasn't recognized properly. I understand that for many Pink Floyd is an "acquired taste" but even if you don't particularly like them, it's hard to ignore the impact that they had on rock.

McBie said:

What happened to the 7000 LP collection ? Do you still have that ?

My collection was much much smaller, like 200 or so and I once started transferring them from vinyl to digital media..... Gave up basically and bought the songs from iTunes store
Then gave all my vinyl to the local library .
Must say that I sometimes get emotional when my brother puts on The Stones on vinyl ... doesn't sound like much anymore but it has so much memories.

Cheers ... McBie

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Unfortunately, no. Sadly it had to go in the early 90's. Spent a lot of time in the used record stores for over 20 years. The owners all knew me and kept lists of what I was looking for.

I kept a 3x5 card file on all my music and carried it to the store with me that included the condition they were in. I was OCD with my music. I started backing up all my music on reel to reel in the late 60's, so most of my music never touched the turntable after it's first play and was stored inside two anti-static sleeves. Each album was placed inside an inner anti-static sleeve which then went backwards into it's original inner sleeve which in turn went backwards into the outer sleeve, which was then placed backwards into an outer anti-static sleeve. A finger definitely never touched the grooves once they entered into my ownership and not even my wife was allowed to touch the vinyl.

Fortunately for me at the time, a friend of mine knew another collector who ended up purchasing a fair amount of my collection, so it wan't a total loss.

One of my prized possessions out of that collection were a couple of mint copies of the 1st edition of It's A Beautiful Day.

bobtomay said:

Unfortunately, no. Sadly it had to go in the early 90's. Spent a lot of time in the used record stores for over 20 years. The owners all knew me and kept lists of what I was looking for.

I kept a 3x5 card file on all my music and carried it to the store with me that included the condition they were in. I was OCD with my music. I started backing up all my music on reel to reel in the late 60's, so most of my music never touched the turntable after it's first play and was stored inside two anti-static sleeves. Each album was placed inside an inner anti-static sleeve which then went backwards into it's original inner sleeve which in turn went backwards into the outer sleeve, which was then placed backwards into an outer anti-static sleeve. A finger definitely never touched the grooves once they entered into my ownership and not even my wife was allowed to touch the vinyl.

Fortunately for me at the time, a friend of mine knew another collector who ended up purchasing a fair amount of my collection, so it wan't a total loss.

One of my prized possessions out of that collection were a couple of mint copies of the 1st edition of It's A Beautiful Day.

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WOW a lot OCD mate ... to the point of being anal ......
Imagine there worth now /?
Couldnt possibly put a figure on it ... Envious

TattooedMac said:

WOW a lot OCD mate ... to the point of being anal ......
Imagine there worth now /?
Couldnt possibly put a figure on it ... Envious

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Who knows? You would have to find the right person for sure. Will tell you, no one, ever, came to my house during those years without being introduced to music and/or some great musicians they had never heard of. Had a few friends that purchased their house for less than I had invested in that collection. Ahh, those were the carefree hippie days.;D

bobtomay said:

Special Edition is out.

Even for the ones you don't care about, it's a great list for rounding out a collection.

Has a couple I'm surprised with this time around.
Cash - I Walk The Line at #30 and Ring of Fire in the top 100 - about time these two classics are given their due.
Beatles - Hey Jude - has always been far and away my favorite Beatles song and is the top rated song by them here.

You can check it out on your Mac here.

Head to the Zinio app on your iDevices.

Where did some of your favorites come in?

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Could basically quote the entire list though not enough space in here so I'll just go with two:
004 What's Going On Marvin Gaye 1971
005 Respect Aretha Franklin 1967