Rolling Stone's 500 "Greatest Albums" Part 36 Quiz

Answer: Bruce Springsteen

"Nebraska" was the sixth studio album from Bruce Springsteen and and earned the Boss a top ten place in many countries, including number three on the Billboard 200, number three in the UK and number three in Canada.

This was, according to "Rolling Stone" magazine, a stripped down basic folk album: "an acoustic triumph". 'Performer Magazine' later reported that Springsteen recorded 15 demos in the bedroom of his house in Colts Neck, New Jersey. There was no multi-track sound desk, just a Teac/Tascam Portastudio four track recorder and two Shure microphones. Going into the professional studies in New York City, Springsteen could not get the sound he wanted and eventually asked engineer Toby Scott to master the tracks from the cassette he had made in his bedroom.

Answer: John Prine

The songs that Chicago's John Prine wrote in his head while making his deliveries as a mailman found their way onto his eponymous first album in 1971. Here were the stories of a Vietnam veteran left with a drugs addiction, "Sam Stone"; a young man fleeing the draft, "Spanish Pipe Dream"; two elderly people trying to cope with loneliness in old age, "Hello In There"; a middle aged woman dreading advancing years, "Angel From Montgomery"; and a society seeking advancement through patriotism, "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You into Heaven Anymore". Some might have called these protest songs, Prine never used that term. For him these were songs about ordinary people and the lives they lived.

Over the remaining almost 50 years of his life, Prine became the songwriters' songwriter, penning classics that spoke to the heart of the people he saw around him; and coming the chronicler of Americana in the way that Woody Guthrie and even Mark Twain had been before him.

Following Prine's death in 2020, re-release of this first album reached number 55 on the Billboard 200.

Answer: Frank Ocean

In 2012 "Channel Orange" was the debut full LP from Californian rhythm and bluesman Frank Ocean (Christopher Edwin Breaux). It reached number two on the Billboard 200 and topped the UK R&B Albums chart. It was a number three in Canada.

Giving it a five-star review in the "Guardian", Alexis Petridis said this was a brilliant, beautiful album. He noted that Ocean's decision to come out with his sexuality just prior to releasing the LP might have been a risky one but "Ocean's songs draw compelling, unjudegmental portraits of dark subjects".

Answer: Jeff Buckley

Even if Billy Joel had never sang "only the good die young", that would have been true of Jeff Buckley. "Grace" was his first and only album, released just three years before his untimely death in 1997 at the age 30.
While the album may best be remembered for his cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", there were other outstanding tracks. These included his arrangement of "Corpus Christi Carol" and "Grace", which he wrote with Gary Lucas. The album only reached number 149 on the Billboard 200 but was a number 31 in the UK and number nine in Australia.

Buckley began playing guitar in his native Anaheim at the age five - perhaps influenced by folk singer dad, Tim Buckley, and has been cited as much underrated among the lists of good, or even great, guitarists. His professional career started in New York City where he joined the band Gods and Monsters, before going solo. A four-song EP "Live at Sin-é" was released in 1993 and Grace came the following year. He died in a swimming accident while working on a second album.

In an obituary in "The Independent", Pierre Perrone wrote: "Second-generation pop stars hardly ever live up to their illustrious parents. Jeff Buckley was the exception to that rule."

Answer: Blondie

Blondie sprang up amid a plethora of new bands in the USA in the late 1970s and moved ahead of most. It was not all plain sailing, though. Aussie producer Mike Chapman - part of a duo that had been behind 19 UK top 20s in the earlier part of the decade - was brought in. Speaking of early recording sessions he said: "The Blondies were tough in the studio, real tough. None of them liked each other, except Chris and Debbie, and there was so much animosity. They were really, really juvenile in their approach to life.... They just wanted to have fun and didn't want to work too hard getting it."

Chapman also found that he had to put a lot of effort into working with the individual members. They were, he claimed, musically the worst band he had ever worked with. Out of all that came "Parallel Lines" and it topped the UK album charts, was a number six on the Billboard 200, and number two in both Canada and Australia.

Answer: Eminem

"The Marshall Mathers LP" was the third album from Eminem and was a chart topper in the UK, USA, Canada, and Australia. It sold 1.7 million copies in its first week, eventually reaching 25 million sales.

"Newsweek" said "Eminem [is] arguably the most compelling figure in all of pop music. He picks on himself almost as much as he does the people on his enemies list. By flipping his razor-sharp lyrics on himself, Eminem subverts the smirking superiority that plagues mainstream rap, a wily underdog move that lets him get away with more than he could otherwise."

Not everyone was so sure. Eminem hit a lot of targets, some topics were not so pleasant. The "Guardian" noted; "Gangsta rappers before him have unleashed broadsides at their enemies, but they were always limited to civic institutions such as the police or government. In Eminem's case, anyone - even his fans - is fodder for his hatred. It makes for extremely entertaining but ultimately worrying listening - a soundtrack to a life that celebrates its lack of redemption."

When "Wealthy Gorilla" compiled a list of "The 25 Greatest White Rappers in the World", they placed Eminem at number one.

Answer: Led Zeppelin

In 1975 "Physical Graffiti" was the sixth album from Led Zeppelin and was a chart topper in the UK, Canada, and the USA. In a "Rolling Stone" readers' poll of "The 10 Greatest Led Zeppelin Albums", this was their number two.

Writing for BBC Music, Chris Jones said this was: "A towering monument to the glory of Zeppelin in their high-flying heyday." It contained, he said, some of the band's best music ever.

Answer: The Velvet Underground

In 1969 "The Velvet Underground" was the self-titled third album from the New York City rockers. It was also their first after John Cale left and did not unduly trouble the charts. The album contained some of Lou Reed's best songwriting, but with commercial success proving elusive, the line-up quit in 1970. Cale and Reed went on to have more impressive solo careers.

Answer: Bruce Springsteen

In 1984 "Born In The U.S.A." was the seventh LP from Bruce Springsteen and was to be a chart topper the world over and is probably best remembered by the title tack, which only got to number nine on the Hot 100, although it was a number five in Canada and number two in Australia

The title track can probably be classed as one of the most misinterpreted songs around. Yes it was a patriotic song, but not in the way that Ronald Reagan imagined when it was used on his campaign trail. Movie director Paul Schrader sent the Boss a script of a film to be called "Born In The USA" and asked for a song that was to be entitled "Vietnam" about a rock band struggling with life and religion. Springsteen came up with the song we know, and by the time the movie was ready for release the title had been too fixed in the minds of the public, so it was retitled "Light Of Day". Incidentally, a car company offered Springsteen $12m to use the song in a commercial. He refused.

The album contained several other songs that were to become Springsteen staples, including "Glory Days" and "Dancing In The Dark".

Answer: Pixies

Alt rockers Pixies got together in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1986 and "Doolittle" was their second album. It topped out at number 98 on the Billboard 200, but reached number eight in the UK.

The Pixies came to be regarded as pioneers of a new alternative sound emerging in the 1990s and their influence was seen in other outfits. Kurt Cobain was said to have used their music as his template for Nirvana. "Doolittle" was regarded as their most accessible LP.