Usual Year-End List Mania
Last night, the ABC aired “Australia’s Favourite Album,” a top-ten publicly voted list of rock ‘n’ roll records, with a panel commentary. The full 100 list has a lot more satisfaction to it, for me, than the top ten, because while I’ve heard at least songs from the albums, I’ve only ever sat down and listened to the entirety of two of them, Jeff Buckley’s Grace and (because I was a college student at the time and every dorm room had a copy) Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Australia’s number 1.

As the panel noted late in the program, not a woman in the ten, not a single non-white person. Carol King comes in at 18, with Tapestry, of course (did she record anything else?), and Prince’s Purple Rain at number 61. If we discount for “Australian Idol” and the “latest release” phenomenon, the list is pretty typical, and it was no surprise that that particular Pink Floyd album was at the top or that Sgt. Pepper’s was included, since the Beatles were sure to be represented. Abbey Road may be a little bit of a surprise, but only because of “Octopus’s Garden”, although at least it doesn’t ever get played, even by Ringo). Still, very few women, very few black people, no Aretha Franklin or any of the soul greats, and the Velvet Underground only edging over the line at 100 despite the undisputable fact that everyone who ever heard their record at least wanted to start a band of their own.

I voted for Brian Eno’s Another Green World, but I’m neither surprised nor disappointed that it didn’t turn up. Even I don’t listen to it that often.