People don't realize that MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS is loaded with specific late-60s U.K. cultural references. But it didn't matter, because it was also layered and funny. You didn't need to know who they were parodying in order to understand why they were making fun of that person.

The only song I don't love on BOLLOCKS is "Seventeen." The rest, even the ones where the words are dodgy, like "New York" or "Bodies," are fucking killer.

@warren

@totz,

Yup, and I would say that those are career peaks for Elvis, Talking Heads, The Cars, and pretty damn close for Ramones and Bruce.

One more thing about GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE - technically, it was The Clash's U.S. debut, since CBS had chosen not the release THE CLASH here in 1977. So in the context of having not heard the first album (or any of the singles that followed) and not knowing what the had up their sleeves, it sounded amazingly powerful,…

The Baseball Project has a great song called "1976" (about Mark Fidrych) on their new album.

@aleskel

@Jimmy James - Agreed with you on Topper. The man could play anything. One of the most underrated drummers in rock history, if not THE most. Probably because he never had an ounce of flash.

Wrong Clash in Picture
The lifelong Clash fanboy in me is compelled to point out that it's Topper in the photo, not Terry "Tory Crimes" Chimes, who was the drummer on THE CLASH.

FUCK! I forgot Rocket To Russia, which would be #4, after Marquee Moon but before Animals.

Instead of asking the internet, why don't you download THE CLASH or LONDON CALLING or SANDINISTA! and rectify this huge huge mistake.

1977 in lists
Such a great year:
1. Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols
2. The Clash - The Clash
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Pink Floyd - Animals
5. The Jam - This is The Modern World
6. Foghat - Live
7. Peter Tosh - Equal Rights
8. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
9. Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers -…

1977 Was Like Hitting the Reset Button
In a weird way, 1977 was like hitting the reset button on pop music. On nearly every level, things were utterly different after it was over

I'm out. No point in discussing this further.

I think that anybody who uses "Dad-rock" is 1) eventually going to grow older and 2) always going to stay stupid.

Fine. Here's what you're missing: the way the vocals pile on top of each other in "Pilgrimage,' the riff at the center of "Life and How to Live it," the simple purity of the opening of "Talk About The Passion," the desperation in the final verse of "Fall on Me," the pure stupid joy of "Superman," the drum roll after…

R.E.M.'s Legacy Has Never Belonged To R.E.M.
In a way, R.E.M's legacy has never belonged to them, from the moment MURMUR came out and they became what Peter Buck called "the acceptable edge of the unacceptable stuff," they always meant more than the sum of their music.

Despite the fact that @clown doesn't know what the fuck he's on about, and obviously doesn't know anything about R.E.M. no band has spurred more bad music than Led Zeppelin.

Also, let me echo the love for Live at the Olympia. I've always felt like R.E.M. was an underrated live band (and have the bootlegs to prove it), and that record finally showed why.