Beathoven
Studying the Beatles
(c) Ian Hammond 1999
All rights reserved
Virgin Top 1000 Colin Larkin is a lugubrious man who would stand up well to the flings and arrows of the outrageous RMB. He is also a prodigious man, having penned a rock encylopedia of mammoth proportions. Lastly, he is a successful man, having flogged the whole lot to Virgin, who seem to treat him well.
In 304 pages Larkin adorns the robe of Grand Inquisitioner and, as he says, ends a few arguments and starts a whole lot more. But he has the garb of democracy on his side: over 100 thousand votes determined the outcome, with which he is just as unhappy as any other reader. Or so he says. Methinks he doth not protest enough.
Now, before you feverishly dip your purple pubescent nibs into scarlet ink, let me say two things: First, I didn't write the bloody list and neither did Larkin. The great unwashed did (along with a gabble of critics etc). And second, of course I know that lists are a load of bollocks (but particularly so when your own darling doesn't appear at the top). Popularity Polls have all the lasting value of a Roman Circus. So, knowing all this, dear Populis, read on.
Each album is marked by its position, of course, and by its position the last time around, some five years ago. The rise and fall is often more interesting than the current fickle landing place of a particular album. Over the next fifteen years this series is going to make very interesting reading. It's not bad right now.
So, here's a quick review, concentrating on the Beatles and their immediate peers (read class enemies) and some other artists who have no other relationship to the Beatles other than me.
Top Ten Albums First, the Top Ten albums. The first column notes the current status (IS), the second the previous status (WAS):
Revolver fans will be happy to know that its back at the top. But your pleasure will be short lived! Come back in five years time and Pepper will be back!
IS WAS 1 5 Revolver 2 1 Pepper 3 15 White Album 4 57 Nevermind; Nirvana 5 58 Abbey Road 6 3 Pet Sounds 7 27 Automatic For The People; R.E.M. 8 5 The Dark Side Of The Moon; Pink Floyd 9 - (What's The Story) Morning Glory; Oasis 10 - The Bends; Radiohead
The White Album jumps to #3 (these things happen in Chinatown!!!) and Abbey Road jumps to #5. Quite amazing.
Interestingly, Oasis and Radiohead made standing start jumps in to the thirties with Definitely Maybe (25) and OK Computer (21). All the other slots up to 40 were determined by near jumps. That argues for some consistency in his figures.
Now, Larkin doesn't make it easy to work this out, but here's what the Top Ten was last time around, and how they've moved:
WAS IS 1 2 Pepper 2 26 Highway 61 Revisited; Bob Dylan 3 6 Pet Sounds; Beach Boys 4 17 Blonde On Blonde; Bob Dylan 5 1 Revolver 5 8 Dark Side Of The Moon; Pink Floyd 6 7 15 Astral Weeks; Van Morrison 8 44 Let It Bleed; Rolling Stones 9 32 What's Going On; Marvin Gaye 10 20 Rubber Soul
You'll notice two candidates for #5 and nothing for the #6 slot. A typo I guess. Now, in general, the Beatles are on an upper with two new albums entering the top 10 and one leaving. One the other hand Dylan and the Stones have left the top 10.
Top Ten Artists But Dylan and the Stones still figure in the first ten top artists of all time (all time is perhaps a bit overstated -- and this is a Brit, not an American making the claim. Bloody neo-colonists).
1 Beatles 2 Bob Dylan 3 Pink Floyd 4 Oasis 5 David Bowie 6 R.E.M. 7 U2 8 Radiohead 9 Rolling Stones 10 Nirvana
Fairly predictable, except that I am still trying to find a song that David Bowie actually sings.
Some other interesting, if catholic positions:
12 Beach Boys 13 Van Morrison 14 Jimi Hendrix 24 Joni Mitchel (first female) 26 Byrds 31 The Who 32 Captain Beefheart 33 The Band 38 Frank Zappa 41 Kate Bush (other female) 44 Elvis Presley
Sibling Rivaly Now, here's the All Time Number One Question for our Genteel Cyberspace Wednesday Afternoon Debating Club where the Gentlemen and Ladies are wont to ravage the numbers like vultures set upon carrion. The individual Beatles' scores:
104 66 Imagine; Lennon 146 259 Plastic Ono Band; Lennon
390 211 All Things Must Pass; Harrison
500 311 Band On The Run; Wings 654 --- Ram; McCartney, Paul & Linda
Lennon is doing well absolutely and relatively. The slow rise of Plastic Ono Band seems assured to me, although I'm still surprised to see it in every record store I visit.
Harrison is down, but still well ahead of McCartney. A reevaluation of Harrison's role in the Beatles is inevitable.
McCartney slips outside the top 500, but Ram jumps into the list for the first time. Nevertheless this must be a disappointing result.
Complete Beatles Placings Five Beatle albums leap into the list for the first time, leaving only Yellow Submarine AWOL (sorry Sir George).
The third column, DELTA, notes the rise or fall in position. I've included the solo albums as well so that you can see their relative popularity:
IS WAS DELTA 1 5 +4 Revolver 2 1 -1 Pepper 3 15 +12 White Album (Chinatown take note) 5 58 +53 Abbey Road 20 10 -10 Rubber Soul
104 66 -48 Imagine; Lennon 142 -- +858 A Hard Day's Night (recognition at last) 146 259 +113 Plastic Ono Band; Lennon 168 19 -149 With The Beatles (sob -- my fave) 196 112 -84 Help!
311 147 -164 1962-66 (The Red Album) 333 -- +667 Please Please Me (Yea!) 342 77 -265 1967-70 (The Blue Album) 390 211 -179 All Things Must Pass; Harrison
500 311 -189 Band On The Run; Wings 561 -- +439 Let It Be 654 --- +346 Ram; McCartney, Paul & Linda 789 -- +211 Beatles For Sale 926 -- +74 Magical Mystery Tour
Here's the Beatle albums to gain significant ground.
3 15 +12 White Album (Chinatown take note) 5 58 +53 Abbey Road 142 -- +858 A Hard Day's Night (recognition at last) 333 -- +667 Please Please Me (Yea!) 561 -- +439 Let It Be 789 -- +211 Beatles For Sale 926 -- +74 Magical Mystery Tour
Here's the significant losses, not much in comparison to the gains made above.
168 19 -149 With The Beatles (sob -- my fave) 196 112 -84 Help!
The real losers are the two compilations, which is as it should be:
311 147 -164 1962-66 (The Red Album) 342 77 -265 1967-70 (The Blue Album)
Slurprises Ringo does not chart. Along with the Bee Gees. Now, if you look at the way the Bee Gees dominated the seventies, you have to come to a simple conclusion: McCartney, Starr and the Bee Gees had a good run of success in the singles charts, but it didn't translate into albums (although I would have put the Bee Gees' Spirits Having Flown or even Still Waters somewhere in the top 1000).
It's also why pop albums before Please Please Me are so poorly represented. Most early Elvis albums and the Chuck Berry album nominated for the list are no longer available. They have been superceded by compilations. The Buddy Holly album was a compilation by definition. He didn't write non-hits! Singles aren't albums.
On the other hand there are some artists who rarely, if ever charted with singles, who are starting to claw their way up the album list. The big success story has to be Captain Beefheart with slots 61, 203, 233, 596 and 668. His school mate Frank Zappa has eight albums in the list. I would be very happy to see Captain Beefheart stop painting and start growling again.
Hanging Clusters Let's look at the peer lists of slots. That is, top competing artists in the sixties (with a little license (again)):
Beatles 1 2 3 5 20 142 168 196 311 333 342 561 789 926 Dylan 17 24 26 91 193 252 256 595 635 665 886 Stones 27 44 106 107 295 327 427 514 656 851 973 Beach B. 6 175 396 417 460 531 594 926 Byrds 75 95 178 209 225 288 Joni M. 53 201 224 289 484 647 813 842 Van M. 15 113 214 324 475 559 732
Frank S. 97 222 223 229 243 245 350 360 373 642 881 938 949
These are the biggies. Frank Sinatra is kind of something amazing.
The other big clusters are Bowie, Miles Davis, the Dead, Bob Marley, R.E.M. and Neil Young. Randy Newman, Elvis, Elton and number of others bubble just below.
Other Interesting Results Alanis Morissette, at 35, has the highest female slot (she only has one album). Joni Mitchell remains the Lady, with Madonna at five slots and Kate Bush with four. I'm really pleased that the McGarrigle sisters are in there at 265.
Spice at 101. Well, just eat that and try to enjoy it. Over 54 percent of the list fall into the pop-rock category. Carole King, at 102, started life writing material for manufactured artists before she produced Tapesty. Bjork and Tori Amos make it into the top 100. Tony Braxton makes in at 170. Janet Jackson gets two (her brother five).
Nick'll be glad to know that Lou Reed is in there with Transformer at 69 and three more.
The Sixties Fade The sixties are slowing fading away. They contribute 23% to the list, against 32% for the seventies, 22% for the eighties and 17% for the incomplete nineties.
What's more, looking at the list, I would guess that it is the late sixties dominates over the early sixties. We are starting to see the moving finger write, and having writ, move on. History is the most unforgiving friend we have.
Outro As polls go, this one has the meat and potatoes. Now all I have to do is go out and buy about 900 albums.
Colin Larkin listened to every album so that he could write a single paragraph on each. This listening epic makes his final entry in his never-ending list of acknowledgements (including the postman who delivered all the CD's) all the more relevant, where he says:
Finally to John, Paul, George and Ringo; putting this book together reaffirms how important they have been in my life.
This is very good news. We have friends on the inside. That's always very important when history is being written :-)
If you like watching election results, and other moronic Sunday afternoon activities, as I do, then this is a great read. I'm sure however that anyone else's review of this book would pick out completely different facts, to support their own equally fictional view of what we laughingly call reality :-)
ian