Best Double Album?

[SweetZombieJesus]

Poll question: Best Double Album?

[MiltonLeBerle]

1. What? No "Frampton comes Alive?"

or is that being saved for the Live Double-Album by a Brit thread?

[SweetZombieJesus]

4. Frampton?!?

Chortle, guffaw, giggle.

[MiltonLeBerle]

7. I didn't say I'd vote for it-

But in college, Everyone owned that album.

I voted for London Calling.

[SweetZombieJesus]

9. Good call

That's what I voted too.

[Rick Myers]

12. Same here

Prince is pretty close, however...

[LynneSin]

10. You put Prince on there

When Peter Frampton is clearly the better choice!

[Kazak]

2. WTF?!?

No Floyd?

I'll take Stereolab - Dots and Loops.

[SweetZombieJesus]

6. The Wall is their only double album, right?

If so, I stand by my choices.

[kixot]

13. Dead wrong.

Ummagumma and Pulse are two others.

[Squeech]

15. Ummagumma

Kids these days...

[sendero]

42. love Stereolab!

But I think their best days are behind them.

Have to go with Emperor Tomato Ketchup or Mars Audiac Quintet as faves. Fine stuff!

[ButterflyBlood]

3. Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile

[ixion]

5. The Wall or Quadraphenia

would be where my votes goes.

[commander bunnypants]

60. Quadrophenia

The Best-by far. Takes a dump on any other album.

DDQM

[BigMcLargehuge]

61. consider this another vote for Quadrophenia

Man is that great record!!!

[Birthmark]

8. Pink Floyd: The Wall

[kixot]

11. I can't beleive you don't have Pink Floyd's The Wall on that list.

Shame on you.

[Old and In the Way]

14. Please.............

If I start a thread with my personal favorites and ask the DU to make the choice, does that it real?

I vote, "other" btw.

[0rganism]

16. What is this? No Exit? No Lamb? No Wall? No Travels? No Brew?

I'm sorry, I can't vote in this bizarre poll.

[Zomby Woof]

17. Blonde On Blonde

AND...

"Freak Out!" by the MOI. Hotcha!

[edzontar]

20. The Trout Rules!

What no vote for Trout Mask--produced by FZ?

Surely the most radical entry on the list.

I'd say that the Clash, Henrix, Dylan, Stones, and Beatles examples are all equally good, which means they are all REALLY FRICKIN" GREAT.

Zappa did some good double, FREAK OUT being my favorite because its the first--but UNCLE MEAT is pretty damn great too.

[Zomby Woof]

24. yes on Uncle Meat

And...

"Sheik Yerbouti"... "Joe's Garage Acts II and III"... "Them Or Us".. I could go on!

My favorite Beefheart is "Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)", although of course I love "Trout Mask Replica".

[edzontar]

27. "Lick My Decals Off Baby"

The 1-disk follow-up to Trout, is probably my favorite Beef album.

I like Clear Spot quite a bit too.

On "Shiny Beast," I really really like "Owed to Alex."

For FZ---Them or Us I consider to be a very strong double--slabs and slabs of intense guitar work, funny songs like "Truck Driver Divorce."

I'd say it's "underrated"....

[sfecap]

18. Other...The Wall.

Simply the best!

[FarLeftRage]

19. Love The Clash...

but voted for The Beatles, I heard that one first and the others listed are great choices too.

[JackSwift]

21. Layla, Live Dead, The River

as for Trout Mask Replica, how about most overrated album of all time. Completely inaccessible garbage might qualify as avante guard, but please, please, not "Greatest".

[edzontar]

23. Please, enough with the anti-intellectual bit.

Beefheart is NOT overrated...

I was just listening to this today.

Look , the Beefheart album is a more "difficult" production to be sure, but I would maintain that it is the most daring work on the list.

I also think it rocks seriously out.

I like most of the others equally well, though, esp. Clash, Dylan, Stones, Beatles, Hendrix.

Oh and one more nod to Quadrophenia!

[Zomby Woof]

25. Trout is like Coleman

Ornette Coleman with Charlie Patton from the 8th dimension. Plus a heavy dose of Howlin' Wolf.

[JackSwift]

28. I love Patton and Howlin' Wolf

'cuz I too, was made for comfort, and not for speed.

[JackSwift]

26. well I wasn't able to endure

more than one listening. Makes Yoko Ono sound mainstream. Just absolutely awful in my not so humble opinion. And I like intellectuals just fine.

[edzontar]

29. First listen is not enough for "Trout"...

It is just too shocking at first--it only becomes clear after a few listenings what is going on.

The best pieces are very intricately structured--but the structure is totally inverted and unconventional.

I note that your choices--Clapton, Dead, and Springsteen, while all fine albums, are examples of exceptionally inspired but more or less traditional rock-based music.

I would except the Live Dead from this--that one really tries to exlpore something new, and it is that vein that I would recommend, humbly, that you try to approach Beefheart--perhaps working from his more accessible stuff like "Clear Spot" or "Safe as Milk," then work back to "Troutmask" via "Lick My Decals."

You may still not like it--it is difficult stuff in a way. But there are people out there who really get off on it, and it is not just noise.

By the way, I also like Yoko's stuff, but that is another post.

[sendero]

43. I will not call him "overrated"...

... but of all the artists I bought because other people/critics liked the kind of stuff I do, I liked his the least. Just never could figure out what the fuss was about. At all :)

Maybe I just need to listen 10 more times....

[Squeech]

46. Trout Mask is cubist blues

At every point, most of what's being played is deep, deep Delta blues. It's just that, at points, the various people in the band (drums, bass, two guitars, sometimes a reed or harmonica) are all playing different blues tunes. And then maybe eight bars later they all swap. It really is like cubism, experiencing an object from five different angles at once.

The way I got into it-- and it did take me a real long time-- was to start listening very carefully to the songs I did like (in my case, "Veterans Day Poppy" and "Moonlight on Vermont") and pick the licks apart. Then I observed how the same concepts were at work in the other songs. (Except "The Blimp," which is actually Zappa's music, with Beefheart's words superimposed.)

[Zomby Woof]

49. IT'S THE BLIMP FRANK!!!!

Hey, have you read "Lunar Notes"? Zoot Horn Rollo's autobiography - prtty cool insights.

[Cocoa]

35. I agree

it's not even the best Beefheart album, there are at least three I know I like better. I wouldn't call it garbage, because the lyrics are awesome, but I owned it for about ten years and hardly ever listened to it.

[5thGenDemocrat]

22. All fine choices

I'll go with "Quadrophenia" by The Who.
John
Which I've owned on album, 8-track, cassette, CD and MP3.

[David Zephyr]

30. Went With the White Album, But The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway might merit a place in your poll. I like all of your entries.

But I'd go with the White Album.

[-..__...]

31. The Doors

"Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine".

Kind of surprised that with all the 60's and 70's dinosaurs in here that it wasn't mentioned.

[Kat45]

45. I believe that was put together and released post-Doors,

so it may not be considered in the same light as an album the band put out while they existed.

[carpetbagger]

32. Everyone pile on SweetZombieJesus.

Dude, The Wall.

[tarkus]

33. "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"? "Tales From Topographic Oceans"?

I didn't really expect those, though I would have probably voted for one of them. The lack of "The Wall" really surprises me though.

[Quahog]

51. "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" is in fact the correct answer

If you spend time with that record, I mean REALLY spend time with it, it will screw you up for the rest of your life.

Lots of good music on the other sets listed here, but "The Lamb" is the mother of all concept albums. It is meta-concept. And it is freakin scary no matter how many times you listen to it. It frightened me when it came out and I was 15, and it frightens me now that I'm 43.

I LOVE that record.

[dawg]

58. Well, Doctor Dyper scares me!

I don't want him to snip off my windscreen wiper.

[dawg]

59. Tales is EXTREMELY underrated!

I've pre-ordered the Rhino remasters of both Tales from Topographic Oceans and Close to the Edge. Each is coming with plenty of bonus tracks (single edits, demos, alternate versions).

For the uninitiated, these are albums by Yes - the most critically hated band of all times. The Tales album was a double album with four songs - one per side. The songs were based on a footnote in the Autobiography of a Yogi, and each deals with some high-minded religious concept. The lyrics are ambiguous, however, and can mean whatever you want them to mean.

It sounds alot more gruesome than it actually is, however. The side-long songs are more like medley's and, for the most part, do not get tedious like you would expect. (Well, maybe side 2)

Tales is certainly not the best Yes album, and probably doesn't deserve to be on the list of best double albums, but is a good album (great album for a Yes fan) and does not deserve all the crap that has been thrown at it throughout the years.

[leftofthedial]

34. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

Derek and the Dominos

[maveric]

36. All Things Must Pass by George Harrison.

One of the best albums period of all time.

[SweetZombieJesus]

40. That's a triple album

And I would have done that poll, but the only triple albums I know are that and Sandinista.

[sendero]

44. I recently reacquainted...

...myself with All Things Must Pass. George just never got the props that John and Paul did, but in his own way he was just as talented. A really phenomenal record.

[Cocoa]

37. Eat a Peach

Allman Bros!

[Zomby Woof]

50. good call!

I'll throw in "Live At Fillmnore East". :-)

[Ediacara]

38. Smashing Pumpkins - Meloncholy and the Infinate Sadness

[LincolnMcGrath]

39. Live At Budokan

NO Cheap Trick!!

You can`t be serious

[AntiCoup2K4]

48. Budokan wasn't a double album.

At least not the original 1978 release. Although I do have the 2 CD "complete concert" version myself.

As for my choice... out of a tough crowd, I gotta go with the White Album if for no other reason that it still remains a double album today where others on the list ("London Calling", "Exile", etc) are now single discs.

And I'll have to add my 2 cents that the Wall should have also been nominated.

[LincolnMcGrath]

57. So I`m Wrong and Right?

WTF

[Kahuna]

41. Songs in the Key of Life..

Were you alive in the 70? :eyes:

[Kat45]

47. I'd say the "Layla" album

Other good double albums include the Allman Brothers "Live at the Fillmore East" and Frank Zappa's "Sheik Yerbouti" (I have a soft spot for the latter, for various reasons.)

[oustemnow]

52. jackass; WTF is Double Nickels on the Dime by the Minutemen?

I'd definitely classify that one as the best double album, w/ Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation as a close second (side four is mostly filler).

Funny thing about Double Nickels; somewhere on the packaging is the message, "Take That, Huskers!" a response to Husker Du's Zen Arcade. IMHO Double Nickels is much better than Zen Arcade. I love that kind of friendly (and productive) competition that the SST atmosphere fostered.

[Section_43]

53. I voted for Blonde on Blonde but thought of another

Kiss "Alive"

maybe not "great" but, highly influential

[rppper]

54. do "use your illusion 1 and 2" count?

i mean, although they were released as separate albums, they were released on the same date and who bought one and not the other? i enjoyed both of them, esp. tunes like "locomotive","pretty tied up" and "dead horse", not to mention the radio hits from both albums. say what you will about guns and roses, but those were two great albums.....

[theemu]

55. In my opinion, any of five is an acceptable answer...

White Album
Exile on Main Street
Blonde on Blonde
Sign O' The Times
London Calling

These are the records which define what it is to be a double album. I mean, I love Double Nickels on the Dime, Zen Arcade, Sandanista, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, or any other double albums, but really, those are the five which best define the sprawl and scope of the double album as a musical work.

[arwalden]

56. Frampton, Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Donna Summer Live and More

GEEZE! What's a fellow got to do to participate in a fair and all-inclusive poll around here?? LOL!

-- Allen