Ranking the Discographies

[revbob]

The Pogues
Red Roses For Me
Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Peace & Love
Hells Ditch
Pogue Mahone/Waiting for Herb (what day is it?)

[Kory]

Station to Station
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
Low
"Heroes"
Diamond Dogs
Aladdin Sane
Lodger
Hunky Dory
Blackstar
Young Americans
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
Black Tie White Noise
The Man Who Sold the World
The Next Day
Heathen
Reality
1. Outside
Earthling
Let's Dance
Spacy Oddity
Toy
The Buddha of Suburbia
Hours
Pin Ups
Tin Machine
Tin Machine II
David Bowie (1967)
Never Let Me Down
Tonight

[Flex]

Here's another one that's near and dear to my heart... all the way from fabulous Hawthorn, California... The Beach Boys!

Pet Sounds
Today!
Sunflower
Surf's Up (this would be higher if any of Dennis' songs had been included)
Smiley Smile
Friends
Wild Honey
Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
Love You
All Summer Long
20/20
Holland
Carl and the Passions: So Tough
Surfin' U.S.A.
Surfer Girl
Beach Boys' Party
That's Why God Made the Radio
Shut Down Vol. 2
Little Deuce Coupe
Surfin' Safari
M.I.U. Album
15 Big Ones
L.A. (Light Album)
Keepin' the Summer Alive
Still Cruisin'
The Beach Boys (1985)
Summer in Paradise

Okay, here's a pass-through on mine. Quoting yours here so we can compare. Broken up into tiers.

God-tier:

Pet Sounds (Try as I might to find a contrarian argument, this truly is one of the greatest records ever made and that's just the way it is)

Straightforward Excellence:

Sunflower
Surf's Up
The Beach Boys Today!
Wild Honey
All Summer Long
Surfer Girl (ASL and SG are the two perfect early-sound records, imho)

Idiosyncratic Excellence:

The Beach Boys Love You
Friends
Smiley Smile
Beach Boys Party! (This is their Another Side of Bob Dylan or Beatles For Sale. A band on the cusp of a next great leap forward)

Quite good!:

Holland
Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (the rest of the early records go here)
Surfin U.S.A.
Little Deuce Coupe
Shut Down Volume 2
Surfin' Safari
Carl and the Passions – "So Tough"
20/20
That's Why God Made The Radio

Here's the spot for the Christmas album:

The Beach Boys' Christmas Album

Major Flaws But Enjoyable:

M.I.U. Album
15 Big Ones
L.A. (Light Album)

Pretty Dire But Maybe a Track or Two Work:

The Beach Boys '85
Stars and Stripes Vol. 1
Keepin' The Summer Alive
Still Cruisin'

Mike Love Is Bernie Rhodes Making Cut The Crap Except He Has Access To ProTools Now

Summer In Paradise

A few things I'd like to still do next time I have the time:

1. Match each albums spots relative to each other on our lists
2. Add in live albums
3. Make an argument for where the reconstructed Smile would go. I don't know the answer yet.

[matedog]

Pet Sounds (Try as I might to find a contrarian argument, this truly is one of the greatest records ever made and that's just the way it is)

Two words: fade outs
Finish writing the damn song, Brian.

Mike Love Is Bernie Rhodes Making Cut The Crap Except He Has Access To ProTools Now

Summer In Paradise

[Dr. Medulla]

Summer In Paradise

According to Wikipedia, it sold 1000 copies on release. Which, if true, holy cow, how can that be true? There has to be more than 1000 BB fans who'd have bought anything, right? That's just hard to fathom how a long-standing band could sell so few copies.

[matedog]

Summer In Paradise

According to Wikipedia, it sold 1000 copies on release. Which, if true, holy cow, how can that be true? There has to be more than 1000 BB fans who'd have bought anything, right? That's just hard to fathom how a long-standing band could sell so few copies.

Plus it was kind of their follow up to Kokomo and they were doing 100+ shows a year.

[Dr. Medulla]

Summer In Paradise

According to Wikipedia, it sold 1000 copies on release. Which, if true, holy cow, how can that be true? There has to be more than 1000 BB fans who'd have bought anything, right? That's just hard to fathom how a long-standing band could sell so few copies.

Plus it was kind of their follow up to Kokomo and they were doing 100+ shows a year.

Wow. I mean, even with zero promotion, that kind of bomb is hard to comprehend.

[WestwayKid]

Summer In Paradise

According to Wikipedia, it sold 1000 copies on release. Which, if true, holy cow, how can that be true? There has to be more than 1000 BB fans who'd have bought anything, right? That's just hard to fathom how a long-standing band could sell so few copies.

It's the only Beach Boys LP I don't own as a CD, LP, cassette. Just have a version I ripped years and years ago. It is crazy that they only sold about 1000 copies. I think one of their distributors went bankrupt (possibly because of the album's poor sales), so not may production runs were actually done. John Stamos even helped promote the album on Full House, but apparently that didn't help, either.

[Dr. Medulla]

Summer In Paradise

According to Wikipedia, it sold 1000 copies on release. Which, if true, holy cow, how can that be true? There has to be more than 1000 BB fans who'd have bought anything, right? That's just hard to fathom how a long-standing band could sell so few copies.

It's the only Beach Boys LP I don't own as a CD, LP, cassette. Just have a version I ripped years and years ago. It is crazy that they only sold about 1000 copies. I think one of their distributors went bankrupt (possibly because of the album's poor sales), so not may production runs were actually done. John Stamos even helped promote the album on Full House, but apparently that didn't help, either.

Yeah, the Wiki entry mentions that its flop contributed to the distributor going under.

[WestwayKid]

[matedog]

Summer In Paradise

According to Wikipedia, it sold 1000 copies on release. Which, if true, holy cow, how can that be true? There has to be more than 1000 BB fans who'd have bought anything, right? That's just hard to fathom how a long-standing band could sell so few copies.

It's the only Beach Boys LP I don't own as a CD, LP, cassette. Just have a version I ripped years and years ago. It is crazy that they only sold about 1000 copies. I think one of their distributors went bankrupt (possibly because of the album's poor sales), so not may production runs were actually done. John Stamos even helped promote the album on Full House, but apparently that didn't help, either.

Yeah, the Wiki entry mentions that its flop contributed to the distributor going under.

I don't believe that. I think the album flopped BECAUSE the distributor went under. Fans were clamoring for the album, but it was nowhere to be found!

[matedog]

How is 15 Big Ones not a great album? I mean based on the title alone. Man Brian looks rough on that cover.

[matedog]

Ah fuck that abysmal cover of "Rock and Roll Music" is on that album.

[WestwayKid]

A few things I'd like to still do next time I have the time:

1. Match each albums spots relative to each other on our lists
2. Add in live albums
3. Make an argument for where the reconstructed Smile would go. I don't know the answer yet.

The question about Smile is very interesting and I think it could depend on what we think Smile would have been like had it been released in 1967. Like many fans, I spent seemingly endless hours trying to sequence my own version of Smile. I'd include link tracks, snippets, pretty much anything that was fair game. In my opinion, the version that was finally released by Brian was essentially a glorified fan mix: Darian Sahanaja assembled his version of Smile, but instead of using bootlegs, he had access to the man himself. It's a great listen, but I now think the version that would have been released in 1967 would have been traditional in the sense that it would have followed the 2 sided LP format. I don't think there would not have been "link" tracks or long, conceptual suites. I think Smile would have looked like this:

Side A
Our Prayer/Heroes and Villains
Vege-Tables
Do You Like Worms?
Child is Father of the Man
The Old Master Painter
Cabin Essence

Sive B
Good Vibrations
Wonderful
I'm In Great Shape
Wind Chimes
The Elements
Surf's Up

The Elements might be the closest thing to a suite on the finished LP and I'm going on Brian's notes from the period. I think this track would have contained "elements" life I Love to Say Dada and Mrs. O'Leary's Cow.

If I look at Smile this way, it's easier for me to place onto my list. I don't think it would have toppled Pet Sounds. I do think it fits somewhere in the top-5, however. Possibly in the 3rd spot, bumping Sunflower down a bit. Is it a better LP than Today? Pet Sounds and Today were collections of immaculately constructed songs. As cutting edge as Smile was/is, I still think it lacks the focus of an LP like Pet Sounds. I see it as a transitional piece to something Brian was never able to find.

What do you think?

[WestwayKid]

Ah fuck that abysmal cover of "Rock and Roll Music" is on that album.

It's lousy (in my opinion). The cover looks cheap. They also don't sing that well. Brian should not have been put in charge. It would have been better if they had gone with original songs instead of so many covers. It has its charms. The version of "Just Once in My Life" by Brian & Carl is strangely moving. I think it did lead to Love You, however, which is such a wonderfully insane album.