sitboaf

Thanks for posting. I've never heard the oft-mentioned Garden Road until now. Kikkass!

I never heard of this feature before. I've just done a quick google on it, and can't wait to test it out. Will the half star ratings show up on my iPod classic or iPhone? No, and I don't think they appear on secondary 'puters that you connect your iPod to, either.

LOL number bands…

Yeah, the 90s were tough on a lot of my favorite artists. Many of them came back fine in the '00s, though; Yes, U2, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, especially. You guys have covered a lot of the great music of the '90s, and I can't think of much to add, except maybe Dead Can Dance. I think it will be remembered as a good decade for rock. Not as shiny, fun and interesting as the '80s, but far more solid when you dig a little.

Comes in between #22 and #44 for me. Thank God for the hidden feature that lets you access iTunes' half-star ratings, or I wouldn't be able to nail it down so tightly. :D

Well, he was "pretty damn good" enough to play with Genesis, anyway…and that's high praise. I prefer to focus on the pretty songs he wrote, and some rhythm parts that approached sublime. If you can write the gorgeous Your Own Special Way and Deep in the Motherlode, and also carry songs as diverse as Driving the Last Spike and Throwing it All Away, you're OK in my book.

I can listen to the old stuff. I adore Emmylou Harris. I even like it when Family Guy throws over to play entire Conway Twitty songs. Elvis Costello did a much better job at country than most country artists. King of America is at least half country, and it's great. Country doesn't have to suck, but it does! Maybe country is stuck where metal was in the late 80's when it was taken over by too many hair bands.

Yes. ;) j/k That first album is so interesting lyrically and vocally. There's nothing else quite like it in rock that I know of. A unique American creation. Too bad it was making him poor and he felt the need to change his style. Not that Born to Run or Darkness are failures in any sense. i just would have liked to hear more of that "first" sound he created.

Oh, I totally agree. That's DP's biggest selling point, no doubt. MY point, however, was that Rolling Stone/Wenner/RRHOF doesn't give a crap about artistry and admiration. And the general public doesn't have much awareness. Ergo, Rush waited 15 years too long to get in.

Undoubtedly the pop was coming. Would Bruford have stuck around much into that period? Highly doubtful. But It's really fascinating to imagine what directions they might have gone in the late '70s if they had taken a "Yes-like" approach to changing members. While Rutherford was fine as a bass player and surprisingly polished as a rhythm guitarist, he just stunk as a lead. Maybe that is what allowed Banks to be the "lead" instrument most of the time. Having a guitarist with a strong personality would have changed a lot of the dynamics.

I have more fun imaging Genesis with a proper replacement for Steve Hackett. Jan Akkerman from Focus? Steve Rothery?

I know, but let's look at Deep Purple objectively: First, you have three largely unknown psychedelic blues albums with Rod Evans. Then, a weird rock/symphonic concert, a single, and four albums (three of which are awesome, one of which stinks) over just 4 years with Mark II. Two excellent, but mostly overlooked albums with 2 new singers. Then a completely overlooked album with a different guitarist. Then a break for 9 years. Then a good return to form. Then a bunch of albums, put out every few years - some good and some bad - during a lengthy period of complete irrelevance. It's not something that jumps out at you. But let me make 2 points: 1. The actual important point that YOU want to make after reading this is "Yeah, well those 3 albums - DPIR, F, and MH, were so unbelievably awesome! They are one of the few unshakable pillars of heavy metal" and 2. If the whole band had died in a plane crash in 1974, Wenner would have gotten them in the RRHOF by now.

kikkass! I laughed every time they did a close up on the drummer.

Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah rips this to shreds.

Kimonos and a recorder solo. I don't know if anything was ever quite so prog as this prog.

I get that completely. I don't know who Robert Fripp is. I do see what you did there Ooooh Oh Oh, you don't know who Robert Fripp is.? OMG. He is only in one of the few bands that measure up to Rush for over 40 years. It's called King Crimson. Thou must check it out. Robert Fripp is the fellow at the beginning that starts the song... http://youtu.be/eGNcU8Goc5w Crimson = awesome, but watching Bill Bruford play his awful electronic drum kit makes me want to listen to a Master Joyboy remix of Rivendell 20 times consecutively.

I can't imagine what you're going through, but I feel blessed that you decided to share this story, and fortunate that I got to read it. There's a crazy amount of love in your family, and that's what will help you through this the most.

I think I made a few good points when I wrote about this in my blog back in 2009... "There was a time in the early 1990s when album-making went terribly wrong. The compact disc was born in the 1980s, but sales did not surpass cassettes until 1988. Cassettes then took a while to die out. By the early 1990s, bands began putting out albums for the CD format. And something bad happened. A lot of bands, realizing that you could fit 75+ minutes of music onto a CD, started actually doing that - making albums longer, and including tracks that perhaps shouldn't have seen the light of day. I call this disease CD-itis. Although the art of skipping songs became easier on CD than on vinyl and cassette, I still would rather not have to change an artist's vision by skipping tracks 7, 12 and 13. Here are some early '90s albums that I had a hard time listening to uninterrupted, until iTunes came along and allowed me to trim some of the fat. Genesis - We Can't Dance - 71m 30s Elvis Costello - Spike - 64m 29s Even U2's fantastic Achtung Baby is 55m 23s, and wouldn't exactly suffer from the loss of Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World or Acrobat. Most bands didn't fall into this trap. Those that did were cured of CD-itis when they realized that a succinct, 45-minute album is preferable to a 62-minute album with 4 mediocre tracks. (Pink Floyd's back-to-back magnum opuses Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here are both under 45 minutes. Sgt. Pepper is barely 39 minutes.) Let's save those "lost gems" for the fanatics who will spend money on the career-retrospective box sets."

I'm a big fan of RTB, too. But, I'll acknowledge that some of that is due to it being one of my gateway albums. I love revisiting it, because it was the first Rush album that was MINE. Love the lyrics about fate and luck. Neil nailed it. Lyrically, this is my favorite Rush album. Ghost of a Chance is damn fine poetry to my ears. Production could be quite a bit better. Yes, RTB album has 3 or 4 low points, which are toward the end of the album. I'm not sure if I prefer this particular failing to the one we hear in Counterparts, where the slog happens in the middle. Next time you listen to Neurotica, with it's banal lyrics, try to hear the song as an instrumental. It woulda been darn good as one!

I'm enjoying the hell out of these. Keep going!

I seem to be in the mood for Led Zeppelin only when it's really hot out (Trampled Underfoot sounds good during a heatwave) or really cold out (No Quarter... brrr). I can't bring myself to listen to them in the Spring or Fall.

The video is horrible...but the playing is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkbM1M1WN0w That's what I'm talking about!

Since he was called "the greatest guitarist you've never heard of", I have to mention Roy Buchanan. He played every style and every speed. Crazy talented. I also have a special place in my heart for Randy Jackson (of Zebra).

I'm a fan, too. Very cool stuff. I have a buddy who loves rap and trashy metal like Hawkwind. But his very favorite album of all time is Music Has the Right To Children.

I'm in a groove now Or is it a rut?