One at a Time - "The Pretender" (1976) by Jackson Browne

What is One at a Time? Check out the introduction here.

#391 "The Pretender" (1976) by Jackson Browne

Since I went to see Jackson Browne last night at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ, the man is on my mind, so today I’m going to cover The Pretender, from 1976, listed at #391 on Rolling Stone’s list.

One at a Time: "Something Else By The Kinks" (1972) by The Kinks

What is One at a Time? Check out the introduction here.

#288 "Something Else By The Kinks" (1972) by The Kinks

Well, my old computer broke, and I lost most of what I had written, but I'm finally starting to catch up.

When I left off, I had slowly chugged through 23 of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums, with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan as my number one, and The Slim Shady LP as my number twenty-three. Because I'm so far behind, I'm gonna start with a couple of albums that I know well enough to write about without listening to them for a week straight.

One at a Time: "All Things Must Pass" (1970) by George Harrison

What is One at a Time? Check out the introduction here.

 
#437 "All Things Must Pass" (1970) by George Harrison

One at a Time: "Elton John" (1970) by Elton John

What is One at a Time? Check out the introduction here.

#468 "Elton John" (1970) by Elton John

Elton John is a little bit uneven. "Your Song" is a classic, but one that is uneven itself. I mean, the lyrics are pretty basic. "Take Me To the Pilot", "Sixty Years On", "The Greatest Discovery", "The Cage", and "Border Song" are some of my favorite Elton John songs.

One at a Time: "Document" (1987) by REM

What is One at a Time? Check out the introduction here.

#470 "Document" (1987) by REM

For a list with 11 Bob Dylan albums, 10 Beatles and Stones albums, 8 Bruce albums (etc.), I find it to be quite lacking in REM albums. I'm not saying that those acts don't deserve everything that Rolling Stone gives to them (although, c'mon, do they really?), but that for a list that seems to rely very heavily on going back to the same well over and over again, at times including mediocre albums by great artists, why isn't this band one of those, especially when their better-than-mediocre albums aren't even included? REM has a lot of albums that are better than the worst Bruce album, or better than the worst Beatles album. Instead, they have three on the list: "Automatic for the People," "Murmur," and here at #470, 1987's "Document."

One at a Time: "Tunnel of Love" (1987) by Bruce Springsteen

What is One at a Time? Check out the introduction here.
 
 #475 "Tunnel of Love" (1987) by Bruce Springsteen

Moving up the list from the bottom, we next come to "Tunnel of Love" by Bruce Springsteen, from 1987.

"Tunnel of Love" is almost like a fork in the road, and Bruce started going in one direction, which is the direction that Rod Stewart took. That road ends up in soft-rock radio-land, where you wear a tuxedo and record Christmas albums and make old ladies happy. Thankfully, "Tunnel" only partially takes that road. Yes, the title track is very synthy, and there's no true rock and roll song on the album, but it still succeeds in many ways.

One at a Time: "Armed Forces" (1979) by Elvis Costello and The Attractions

#482 "Armed Forces" (1979) by Elvis Costello and The Attractions

What is One at a Time? Check out the introduction here.


I think that part of the reason that my big-ass re-rank of Rolling Stone's 2003 list of 500 Greatest Album's slowed down so much was that in using a random number generator to select the album I would do next, I was on occasion completely unprepared. I'm trying to listen to as many of these in advance of writing about them, but it's hard to pre-listen to the one that's going to get randomly selected. So, I'm going to start listening to ones that I don't know that well in preparation, but writing and ranking ones that I already own and have heard before.

One at a Time: "Green River" (1969) by Creedence Clearwater Revival

 #95 "Green River"(1969) by Creedence Clearwater Revival


I've never known much about CCR. I like their hits, but somehow their full catalog has escaped me. "Green River" is much more present and alive than the other boring, classic-rock hits that my brain tends to lump CCR in with. The guitar is alive, and there is no distance in the way that I expected.

One at a Time: "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" (1963) by Bob Dylan

#97 "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" (1963) by Bob Dylan

I think that it's sort of funny that I've had so many different number 1s already. I guess it's still pretty early on, but I got one of my favorite Bruce albums right away, and now one of my favorite Dylan albums right away.

One at a Time: "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" (1974) by Richard and Linda Thompson

#479 "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" (1974) by Richard and Linda Thompson

I had never heard "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" before I listened to it for this.

It's pretty much right up my alley, though. This type of stripped-down folk is one of my go-to genres, and I'm also a big fan of mixing a male and female voice, which "I Want to See The Bright Lights Tonight" does excellently throughout its track listing.

One at a Time: "Number One Record" (1972) by Big Star

#439 "Number One Record" (1972) by Big Star

Even though I'm pretty sure that they're not going to end up that close on this list, it's hard for me to figure out in my mind which Big Star album is the best one. It might be because I blend them a little bit in my head because the CD that I've always had was some re-issue that had both "Number One Record" and "Radio City" on it together.

One at a Time: "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" (1973) by Bruce Springsteen

#379 "Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ" (1973) by Bruce Springsteen

Don't tell anyone, but "Greetings" is my favorite Bruce Springsteen album. 

One at a Time: "Born Under a Bad Sign" (1967) by Albert King

This is supposed to be a very influential album in blues history, but listening to it today doesn't seem like it would be as transcendentally beautiful as it was back then. King's voice sounds like he's asleep, and while his guitar is often scaling heights not previously found on this list, with an electricity and liveliness that can only come from deep inside the gut of a blues man, there isn't much of a distinction between songs.

One at a Time: "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" (1998) by Lucinda Williams

#304 "Car Wheels On a Gravel Road" (1998) by Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams' "Car Wheels On a Gravel Road" is an album that sounds like it has been around for decades.

One at a Time: "Stop Making Sense" (1984) by The Talking Heads

#345 "Stop Making Sense" (1984) by The Talking Heads

I don't know why live albums count but compilation albums don't. A live album is a sort of compilation, in that the band compiles songs from their past to play during a show. But to me, they're different. The thing that we have to concentrate on is the performance of the songs, the choice of which songs to use and when to use them, and the quality of the recording, as opposed to simply the
songs themselves.

One at a Time: Note on Compilation Albums

I decided to remove all compilation albums from the list. I don't think they belong. They often are just money-grabs or ways of cutting out weaker songs from artists catalogs, and they aren't put together or recorded the same way as a studio album. In fact, it annoys me that Rolling Stone even included them. I guess I could see how hard it would be to draw the line. I did the best that I could, and I probably missed a couple that I'll just add later.

One at a Time: "The Rolling Stones Now!" (1965) by The Rolling Stones

#181 "The Rolling Stones Now!" (1965) by The Rolling Stones

In terms of Stones albums, "The Rolling Stones Now!" is fairly mediocre, but we're removing context, so that's sort of irrelevant. Without looking at the rest of the discography of the greatest rock band ever, it's a pretty good album.

One at a Time: "Tea for the Tillerman" (1970) by Cat Stevens

#206 "Tea For the Tillerman" (1970) by Cat Stevens

"Tea for the Tillerman" is a really good album. I wasn't as familiar with it (order and a few of the lesser known songs) as I thought I was, but listening to it now, that only made it better.

One at a Time: "Burnin'" (1973) by The Wailers

#319 "Burnin'" (1973) by The Wailers

I knew a couple of songs on here, but I'm not that familiar with reggae in general. I do know that I used to sort of sneer at kids in college who had Bob Marley posters on their wall, mostly because I knew that they didn't have it there because they were big Bob Marley fans (I'm sure that exists, but I've never known one), but because they liked to smoke.

One at a Time: "Bookends" (1968) by Simon and Garfunkel

#233 "Bookends" (1968) by Simon and Garfunkel

This one gives me a little bit of trouble. It's such a good album, with songs on it that are just so kickass.