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Rock's Greatest 3 Album Runs - Corrected

  • Writer: Fred
    Fred
  • 6 hours ago
  • 4 min read

Updated: 60 minutes ago

I enjoy a good Rock List, so when I came across the BBC Music's Rock's Greatest 3 Album Runs - Ranked, I anticipated a list across the breadth and depth of Rock. Instead I got crud from a 70 year old boomer. Here was Jamie Atkins' List.


15. The Replacements – Let It Be (1983), Tim (1985) and Pleased To Meet Me (1987)

14. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid (1970) and Master Of Reality (1971)

13. Can – Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972) and Future Days (1973)

12. Radiohead – The Bends (1995), OK Computer (1997) and Kid A (2000)

11. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), White Light/White Heat (1968) and The Velvet Underground (1969)

10. Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run (1975), Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978) and The River (1980)

9. Talking Heads – Fear Of Music (1979), Remain In Light (1980) and Speaking In Tongues (1983)

8. David Bowie – Station To Station (1976), Low (1977) and 'Heroes' (1977)

7. Prince – 1999 (1982), Purple Rain (1984) and Around The World In A Day (1985)

6. Led Zeppelin – II (1969), III (1970) and IV (1971)

5. The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1970) and Exile On Main St. (1972)

4. Joni Mitchell – Court And Spark (1974), The Hissing Of Summer Lawns (1975) and Hejira (1976)

3. Stevie Wonder – Music Of My Mind (1972), Talking Book (1972) and Innervisions (1973)

2. Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde On Blonde (1966)

1. The Beatles – Revolver (1966), Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) and 'The White Album' (1968)


Wrong, wrong, wrong. Why so critical? One Word: Can.


We will correct below:

15. Marilyn Manson - Portrait of an American Family (1994), Antichrist Superstar (1996), and Mechanical Animals (1998)*

14. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid (1970) and Master Of Reality (1971)

13. Pearl Jam - Ten (1991), Vs. (1993), and Vitalogy (1994)

12. Isis - Oceanic (2002), Panopticon (2004), and In the Absence of Truth (2006)

11. Nine Inch Nails - broken (1992), The Downward Spiral (1994), and The Fragile (1999)

10. Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run (1975), Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978) and The River (1980)

9. Talking Heads – Remain In Light (1980), Speaking In Tongues (1983), and Little Creatures (1985)

8. David Bowie – Hunky Dory (1971), Ziggy Stardust (1972), and Aladdin Sane (1973)

7. Rage Against the Machine - Self Titled (1992), Evil Empire (1996), Battle of Los Angeles (1999)

6. Led Zeppelin – II (1969), III (1970) and IV (1971)

5. The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1970) and Exile On Main St. (1972)

4. Metallica - Kill 'Em All (1983), Ride the Lightning (1984), and Master of Puppets (1986)

3. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (1970), Live-Evil (1971), and On the Corner (1972)**

2. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), and Animals (1977)***

1. The Beatles – Revolver (1966), Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) and 'The White Album' (1968)


How did the BBC miss THIS album?
How did the BBC miss THIS album?


Honorable Mentions:

I really wanted to put a punk band on the list, but punks are notoriously bad at putting out complete albums, let alone 3 in a row. 3 punk bands that played horseshoes with the list.

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980), In God We Trust, Inc. (1981), and Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982)

Nomeansno - Wrong (1989), 0+2=1 (1991), and Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy? (1993)

Alice Donut - Mule (1990), Revenge Fantasies of the Impotent (1991), and Untidy Suicides of Your Degenerate Children (1992)


I will die on this hill: If the album above was just a red sky and was called the Red Album, it would have been one of the biggest College Radio albums of the 1990's. I think the image of the band's friend Chet in drag was too much for the average 90's kid to digest.

Why am I so tied in knots over a stupid Rock List? Because the Number # 1 movie in America today is Michael (2026).



When an artist is beloved, the masses seem to easily separate the art from the artist. I could argue that Michael Jackson is the most problematic musician of the past 100 years. Excuse the term, but the movie really whitewashed the Michael Jackson Story. When an artist is divisive---


* If you were alive in the 90's, you'd know that there was no bigger Rock Star than Marilyn Manson. I would argue that he was the Last Rock Star. But he was too problematic, too Satanic, and too over-the-top. If you listen to Antichrist Superstar on vinyl though, you'd appreciate the musicianship underneath all of the theatrics. Then, in 2021, Manson got himself cancelled: Monster Hiding in Plain Sight.



** I don't like Modal Jazz, but I love Electric Miles. From about 1968 to 1975, Miles Davis was a Rock Star. That's not just my opinion, Miles Davis is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But did the author at the BBC omit Miles due to his jazz leanings, or his problematic personal life? (I didn't miss Jack Johnson, I considered that a Soundtrack release.)


*** I find it very hard to believe that a Classic Rock reporter, from Great Britain, missed Pink Floyd. Which again begets the question, did the politics of Roger Waters help shape the original list? (From Wikipedia: The Dark Side of the Moon has received widespread critical acclaim and is often featured in publication listings of the greatest albums of all time.)



You argue that none of this matters?



I'll listen to that argument.


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