Warrior in Woolworths - humble he may seem

Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...

#355 : Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (1970)

Recorded in a single 12-hour blurt by a hippie-leaning former blues band, this lumbering debut conjures up a new, sludgy sound: the birth pains of heavy metal. The slide guitar on “Wizard” and the grungy boogie of “Wicked World” would influence not only future metal spawn but even the sound of Nirvana. The album’s most vivid nightmare is the six-minute “Black Sabbath,” which even scared the band itself. “We always wanted to go heavier than any other band,” said bassist Geezer Butler.

Ozzy who?  Never heard of him!  As part of a previous "give me recommendations" exercise, I'd given Paranoid a run-out and found it bearable, but "not my sort of thing" - and I was expecting this to be very much the same.  And I'd say that's generally where we are - I don't hate it, but I won't be listening to it again.  I'd actually agree with Rolling Stone's description of a "sludgy sound" - it's not heavy metal as we'd recognise it these days, but it sounds quite "heavy" nonetheless.

Wikipedia points out how much the critics hated this at the time, which suggests it was just ahead of its time - although the possibility that the London-based music press just hated Ozzy's accent is also mentioned.  Wikipedia's entry for the band is much more amusing - as you can imagine there are a few amusing drug related anecdotes in there, including "Osbourne's excessive substance abuse led to his firing in 1979".  Hard to imagine, eh?!?  Customers also listened to Iron Maiden, Rainbow and Deep Purple - I suspect not too many people are surprised by that news.  Overall, an interesting diversion but "not for me", I'm afraid.

#354 : Germfree Adolescents - X-Ray Spex (1978)

Teenage multiracial London girl Poly Styrene had braces on her teeth and wore Day-Glo rags, screeching anthems like “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!” over saxophone blasts, and chanting, “I am a poseur and I don’t care! I like to make people stare!” X-Ray Spex’s explosive punk-rock debut went criminally unreleased in the U.S., but it became a word-of-mouth cult classic throughout the indie-rock underground in the Eighties and Nineties, influencing Sleater-Kinney, the Beastie Boys, and many others.

I was vaguely aware of Poly Styrene and the general high regard in which she was held by a lot of (mostly female) musicians I admire, but wasn't aware of the output of X-Ray Spex - I must admit I'm not generally a fan of "punk" (whatever that is) and I was concerned we'd be back in The Raincoats territory, so I was approaching with a certain amount of trepidation.  However, I'm pleased to report that nothing could be further from the truth - it certainly won't be to everyone's taste (I wouldn't bother with this one, Mum!) but it's got exactly the sort of attitude and energy that I believe punk should encompass, plus enough skill on the instruments to not distract from that.  It manages to sound both dated and fresh at the same time - over the years, I imagine it has encouraged a lot of other women to grab a guitar and give it a go.

Wikipedia has very little to say about the album, so spend your time reading about Poly Styrene - someone who actually was at an early Pistols gig instead of just claiming she was (and I know she was there because I saw her there).  She certainly lead an "interesting" life and I seem to recall having seen the odd interview with her where she was very engaging.  "Customers also listened to" a load of groups that mean nothing to me - for some reason, punk didn't really engage with a super cool 10 year old growing up in rock and roll Maidstone.  But I'm really glad I got to listen to this slice of unfamiliar musical history and I found it surprisingly enjoyable.

#353 : The Cars - The Cars (1978)

“We used to joke that the first album should be called The Cars’ Greatest Hits,” said guitarist Elliot Easton. Their debut was arty and punchy enough to be part of Boston’s New Wave scene, and yet so catchy that nearly every track (“My Best Friend’s Girl,” “Just What I Needed”) landed on the radio. When Ric Ocasek died in 2019, Eason offered a fitting tribute: “If the goal was to have great success making pop music with a sense of irony, then mission accomplished, right?”

From two very English contributions to a very American one - I knew "My Best Friend's Girl" (doesn't everyone?) but I can't say I was massively aware of much of their other stuff (apart from "Drive" which you couldn't avoid in 1985 for all the wrong reasons) so I was looking forward to listening to this, whilst mostly just expecting it to be more of the same.  And it kinda was, but not quite as good, which is always a bit of a disappointment - part of the problem is that "My Best Friend's Girl" is such a good track that it's always going to be difficult to top.  But it's all well done and an interesting listen - I can't claim to be an expert on late 70s US pop, but the fact that a lot of groups seemed to be aiming for that sound during the 80s suggests quite a few people listened to this album...

...and Wikipedia tells me it sold 6 million copies in the US - which is certainly quite a few.  There's remarkably little else about the album there - except for the fact that they hated the cover (although I suspect Robert Palmer quite liked it).  "Customers also listened to" The Steve Miller Band, who it wouldn't surprise me to see further up this list.  Overall, I quite liked this but I feel I'd be more likely to check out their greatest hits album than come back to this.

So, an interesting mix this time around, especially since they all came from the same decade.  To my surprise, I'm giving it to X-Ray Spex - I enjoyed listening to their album more than either of the others and considerably more than I was expecting.

#358-356 - Well, that's the end of that slight improvement
#352-350 - Woah - heavy, man!