Rolling Stone's 500 "Greatest Albums" Part 29 Quiz

Answer: Déjà Vu

In 1970, "Déjà Vu" brought Neil Young into the triumvirate that already comprised David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. It was, some said, the first supergroup. The album topped the charts in Australia, Canada and the USA, but peaked at number five in the UK.

In 2016, "Rolling Stone" magazine conducted a readers' poll to find the "The 10 Best Supergroups". CSN&Y were placed fifth. Number one on that list was the Traveling Wilburys.

Answer: Cuban

The New York rapper Raekwon (born Corey Woods) was a member of Wu-Tang Clan and in 1995 "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." was his debut solo album. It reached number four on the Billboard 200. Also known as Raekwon (The Chef) a number of albums followed. Debut was said to have created "mafioso rap" and some critics claimed it glorified mass criminality.

Answer: Cool

The girl group TLC got together in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1990 and "CrazySexyCool" was their second album. In 1994 it reached number three on the Billboard 200 and number four on the Official UK albums chart. It was also a top ten in Canada and Australia.

Years later "NME": described the album as a "game-changing R&B classic". It noted that the album the album led TLC to become the first girl group to ever be awarded diamond status by the RIAA. It also, Will Lavin wrote: "paved the way for the next generation of girl groups."

Answer: Definitely

In 1994, "Definitely Maybe" was the debut album from Manchester rockers Oasis. Fronted by the Gallagher brothers Noel and Liam, Oasis were one of the biggest British hands of their time. Noel Gallagher was later to admit he was high on something or other when he made his notorious "bigger than the Beatles" claim in a 1996 MTV interview. Paul McCartney was sanguine. He told "Q" magazine" "I thought the biggest mistake they made was when they said 'We're going to be bigger than The Beatles'. I thought 'So many people have said that, and it's the kiss of death.' Be bigger than The Beatles, but don't say it. The minute you say it, everything you do from then on is going to be looked at in the light of that statement."

"Definitely Maybe" reached number one on the Official UK albums charts, and number three in Ireland, although it did not make much impression on main charts elsewhere.

So, if they were bigger than the Fab Four, how come Oasis flopped in the USA? Noel Gallagher believed it was because his brother Liam was not the kind of lead singer Americans took to. He also said in a CNN interview: "We got off on the wrong foot with Americans because they are extremely professional corporate people and we kind of treated that attitude with contempt."

(There is not enough space here to devote to the fragile relationship between the brothers Gallagher.)

Answer: Either

The short life and career of Elliott Smith promised so much. His death at the age of 34 was recorded as suicide, but questions remained.

"Either/Or" was the third album from the Omaha, Nebraska native. It was released in 1997, but failed to chart. In 2019, Rhys Buchanan wrote on "NME": "While the widely adored singer-songwriter has touched countless lives with his compelling musicianship and lyricism, the tragic circumstances of his death have left a sense of melancholy and mystery behind the musician."

Answer: Beauty

In 1971, "American Beauty" was the fifth album from the Grateful Dead and reached number 30 on the Billboard 200. A re-release in 2020 made number 19.

In a "Rolling Stone" review, Andy Zwerling wrote: "A complete contentment shines through the vocal work on this album. A full contentment. The instrumentation is rich with sound that moves through, under, and into the listener. Damn it all, the album is American beauty, of the best possible kind. The positivity of the Dead just can't be kept down."

Answer: Wildflowers

In 1994, "Wildflowers" was the second solo album from Tom Petty. It reached number five on the Billboard 200 and number 19 in the UK. On first release this was reduced from Petty's 25-track idea to 15. In 2020, three years after his death, a new version "Wildflowers & All The Rest" contained the missing tracks and other material.

Of all the stuff he had done with the Heartbreakers and with the Travelling Wilburys, Petty considered "Wildflowers" to be his greatest album.

Answer: Idler

"The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do", to give its full title, was the fourth album from Fiona Apple and was released in 2012. It reached number three on the Billboard 200.

Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart was born in New York City and released her first album at the age of 17. Within a few years her brand of art pop had attracted a lot of attention, and three Grammy wins. "The New Yorker" categorised her music as "thorny, emotionally revelatory songs", although it is fair to say early in her career her relationships with the media were not easy.

Answer: Wild

In 1966, "Wild Is The Wind" was released as the sixth LP from Nina Simone. The title track was a song from a 1957 movie of the same name. The movie, and the original song, is long forgotten however, as the "Financial Times" noted, Simone turned it into "a tornado of piano and vocal". It attracted the attention of others, including David Bowie who regularly featured it on set lists.

While few doubted the ability of Nina Simone, that was rarely replicated in record sales. She had felt under appreciated during her lifetime, Jim Faber noted in the "Guardian" in 2018 but there had been "an escalating appreciation not only of Nina Simone's depth of talent, but of her defiant character".

Simone died in 2003 leaving a legacy of more than 60 live and studio albums. It been a life devoted to music and her own radical politics, particularly her support for Civil Rights in the USA. That was typified by the song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", which Simone co-wrote and which became an anthem for the movement.

Answer: Unknown

In 1979, "Unknown Pleasures" was the first album from English post-punk rockers Joy Division. It was well received by the critics and reached number five on the UK album charts. In "The Irish Times", Ed Power wrote the album had initially been seen as "bleak, unknowable" and "above all profoundly mysterious". Those perceptions were to change and in hindsight it was, he said, "an accidental masterpiece".

Of all the bands emerging from Manchester in the 1970s, Joy Division were considered to be among the best. They, and their later incarnation New Order, "refined the external chaos of 1970s punk into a disquieting inner turmoil, ushering in the postpunk era", or so "Encyclopaedia Britannica" noted.