Rolling Stone's 500 "Greatest Albums" Part 25 Quiz

Answer: Cut

"Cut" was the first album from London, England, all-girl punk band The Slits and was released in 1979. It reached number 30 in the UK album charts.

Launched with a rather provocative cover (look it up yourselves) the album provided radical music, even by the standards of the time. The band, though, saw little recompense for their efforts. They received an advance of $45,000 from a record company which claimed that was never recouped. Writing in 2016, lead singer Viv Albertine said: "It's complicated... but the truth is, even though many thousands of copies of 'Cut' have been sold and Island are in profit from the record and Dennis Bovell, the producer, got a different deal and gets paid, the Slits have never received any money, NOT ONE PENNY, from Island for the 'classic, in their top fifty albums of all time' record, 'Cut'."

Answer: Pearl

Released in 1971 three months after her death, "Pearl" was the second solo album from Janis Joplin. It topped the Billboard 200 and was also a number one in Australia and Canada. In a BBC review in 2008 Chris Jones wrote "'Pearl' is a smoother, more polished album than anything Janis had achieved previously".

The album contains one instrumental track, "Buried Alive In The Blues". Joplin died the day before she was due to record her vocals.

Answer: Hissing

In 1975 "The Hissing Of Summer Lawns" was the seventh album from Alberta native Joni Mitchell. It reached number seven in her homeland and number four on the Billboard 200. Reviewing the tracks in the "Toronto Star" in 1975, Peter Goddard wrote: "This is a major album, and an unsettling one, too."

Answer: Colors

Looking through a career that started in 1956, it is hard to find anyone who will say an unkind word about Dolly Parton. As Lindsay Zoladz wrote in "The New York Times": "Parton's popularity has endured, in large part, because even after five decades of stardom she remains an enigma in plain sight."

In that time she became as much a cultural as a mural icon. Released in 1971, "Coat Of Many Colors" was her eighth solo LP and reached number seven the Billboard Hot Country LPs chart.

Answer: Chapman

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Tracy Chapman started playing ukulele at the age of three and started guitar and writing songs at the age of eight. She was 'discovered' singing protest songs at a rally at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Her self-named debut album was released in 1987, and included the single "Fast Car", which reached the top 10 on the Hot 100. The album topped the charts in the USA, UK,, Canada and Australia and won three Grammys. Over the years that followed, Chapman continued to write and sing songs of commitment and was one of the headliners at the 70th birthday concert for Nelson Mandela in 1988.

Answer: Freewheelin'

When the young Robert Allen Zimmerman turned up in Greenwich Village, New York City, in the early 1960s, he was just another Woody Guthrie groupie, but those who were established on the coffee house scene recognised there was something important lurking within. "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" was his second album but was better received in the UK, where it was a number one, than in the US, where it reached number 22.

The track listing contained some of Dylan's most powerful early songs, including "Blowin' in the Wind", "Masters of War" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". In 2020, "Far Out" magazine ranked "Freewheelin'..." at number six among a list of 'Bob Dylan's 10 greatest albums of all time'.

Answer: Head

In 1973, "Head Hunters" was album number 12 from Herbie Hancock. It peaked at number 13 on the Billboard 200. As a keyboard player, songwriter, and bandleader the Chicago, Illinois, native was, in the words of 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' "....an incisive, harmonically provocative jazz pianist and then went on to gain wide popularity as a leader of electric jazz-rock groups." Hancock was nominated for 34 Grammys during his career, winning14.

Answer: Piper

Released in 1967, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" was the debut album from London, England, progressive rockers Pink Floyd. It reached number six on the Official UK Charts Company albums listings. In a BBC review in 2007, Chris Jones hailed the album as "Syd Barrett's crowning achievement. THE psychedelic classic of 1967...". He added: "this album remains a pinnacle of English psychedelic music".

In 2011 when "Q" magazine writers sat down to look at album sales, audience sizes and time spent in the charts by top acts they named Pink Floyd as "...the biggest band of all time...". [To see more, try an internet search for "the biggest band of all time Independent".]

Answer: Men

Hailing out of Akron, Ohio, punk rockers Devo brought forth "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!" As their debut album in 1978. It came out to mixed reviews and did better in the UK than in the USA: Number 12 on the charts versus number 78. The band took its name from "devolution" as a reverse of evolution: a sign that humankind was regressing rather than progressing.

Brian Eno, that great exponent of psychedelic music, produced this debut disc that was later to be regarded as the best the group released. Those who remember Devo from first time around will recall the crazy headgear that resembled flowerpots, but was to disappear in later years.

Answer: Honky

"Jaunty confession" is how Rolling Stone" summed up Elton John's fifth album, "Honky Château". Released in 1972, it was recorded in four days at a French Château. It reached number two on the UK album charts but was the first of seven successive long players to top the Billboard 200.

Rating 31 Elton John albums 'from worst to best', ultimateclassicrock placed "Honky Château" at number eight. It contained "....goofier lyrics and they bring out some of John's most relaxed performances, vocally and on the keys."

"Rocket Man", "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" were two stand out tracks, although "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself" also attracted plenty of comment.