Beatles, Beach Boys, Dylan rank high in Rolling Stone's Top 500 book

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It's the usual suspects at the top: The Beatles, Dylan, Springsteen. . . .

Best album lists are an ongoing cottage industry in rock journalism, and Rolling Stone recently threw up a small subdivision with the publication of the coffee-table book, "Rolling Stone: The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" (Wenner Books, $35).

Stone compiled its list by polling musicians and critics, including James Hetfield of Metallica, Billie Joe of Green Day, Britney Spears, Pete Seeger, The Edge, Jackson Browne and Yoko Ono.

Perhaps the first thing that leaps out is that it's a very Beatle- centric list. "Sgt. Pepper" is No. 1 as it often is in such lists, but two of the top three albums are by the Beatles, three of the first five and four of the first 10.

The first 10 are:

1) "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by the Beatles

2) "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys

3) "Revolver" by the Beatles

4) "Highway 61 Revisited" by Bob Dylan

5) "Rubber Soul" by the Beatles

6) "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye

7) "Exile on Main Street" by the Rolling Stones

8) "London Calling" by the Clash

9) "Blonde on Blonde" by Bob Dylan

10) "The Beatles" (The White Album) by the Beatles

If Beatlemania seems to run rampant, it might be worth noting that when VH1 compiled a similar list back in 2001, it put four Beatles albums in the first 10. Interestingly, they put "Sgt. Pepper" at No. 10 and promoted "Revolver" to top billing.

Nathan Brackett, who helped put the book together, acknowledges there's a heavy Beatles tilt.

"I think people kind of thought of their favorite Beatles albums and weren't thinking about things like redundancies. When you have a bunch of critics doing a list like this, they'll say, Oh, we can't do both "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper" in the top 20.' This in a way is a little more honest reflection of what a broader slice of the population likes because they weren't thinking about that kind of stuff. It's not as perfect as maybe a rock critic's list would be."

If not as perfect as a rock critic's list, it's also, depending on your point of view, not as politically correct or as fair minded. Of the top 20 albums, only four are by African-American artists: Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue," Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

Female artists fare even worse. There's not a woman on the list until Joni Mitchell shows up at No. 30 with "Blue." There are only four albums by female artists in the top 50.

Brackett doesn't deny that the tally looks a lot like a boys' club.

"It's true," he says. "There's an undeniable male tilt to the list, an overwhelming male tilt to the top of the list."

As is often the case, there's also a substantial generational tilt. Musicians are like everybody else in that they tend to favor the music they grew up with.

"It's kind of unavoidable with a list like this," Brackett acknowledges. "You do kind of have to give in to people's demographic preferences on some level. It's true that the top 25 albums on this list aren't exactly unpredictable. You get Sgt. Pepper,' you get Blood on the Tracks,' you know, Highway 61.' My favorite part of the list is the second half. You see things from different eras creep in a little more."

Generational support

Generational bias seems to play out in two ways. Older artists tend to get slighted, and recent releases assume an importance that the verdict of history may or may not eventually confirm. Radiohead has more albums on the list than Frank Sinatra. Sinatra has two albums in the top 500, and Elvis Presley has only three. Conversely, relatively recent works such as "A Rush of Blood to the Head" by Coldplay, "The Eminem Show" and "Stankonia" by OutKast all make the cut.

Brackett admits generational allegiances have a lot to do with that.

"Is the failure of Presley and Sinatra to do better largely generational? Yeah. That's a huge thing, too. If you were looking objectively at the most important artists of the last 50 years, they would have to loom large. It's a rock list. The people who voted are rock fans."

Brackett was asked who, besides the Beatles, seems to be ascending in appreciation.

"Bob Dylan is rock-solid," Brackett says. "You definitely don't see any slippage with Bob Dylan. You see young people getting into Bob Dylan year after year. Of those classic rockers, he's probably in the best shape."

There are, however, classic rockers who seem to be slipping away.

"One band who I'm not sure gets enough credit they are on the list (is) Creedence Clearwater Revival. I don't really see them resonating with too many kids these days. Maybe they will enjoy a renaissance in the next few years," Brackett said.

"Those songs are so great. You put them on today, and they sound just as good as the first day you heard them, but I don't see a big constituency for them with the kids."

There are also whole genres falling off iPods. Folk, gospel and country aren't exactly rampant on the list.

"There's not a lot of jazz on here either," Brackett points out. "There was a time maybe a couple decades ago when maybe rock fans felt they had to pay a certain attention to jazz. I don't think you see that as much. I think there's only a limited amount of space in people's heads, and jazz has been pushed out by things like hip-hop and '70s soul and dance music, even."

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For the full list, go to www.rollingstone.com and type in "500 greatest" in the search field.