Here’s something I wrote for my Agony Shorthand blog ten years ago. I made a reference within it about how we’d need to revisit this list in 10 years, and here we are. Let me think about it a little.

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A handful of times in my life, I’ve been asked to compile a “top albums” or “Desert Island Discs” sort of list, and usually it’s pretty easy to get me to acquiesce to such a request. I’m nothing if not willing to foist my musical opinions on others, and if it gets anyone else to dig deeper into the stuff I already like, well then – how about that. We’ve talked before in this forum about the sort of pathologies that drive individuals to keep such lists in their noggins, and chances are if you’re reading this site it all seems perfectly natural to you, as it does me.

Yet I can only usually rattle off 20 classics or so at a time – the life-changers, the ones usually discovered in the teenage years or just thereafter that set you/me on the fanatic course we still cling to. So I decided to go deeper. 100 is a nice number, why not go there? Thus here sits the Agony Shorthand 100 – the hundred best rock and roll albums of all time, or at least the ones I’d save from flames had I the time to meticulously sort through the alphabetized stacks & pull ‘em out. In order. Like a true dork.

The only rules for the list are that they have to be “rock” records (bending the rules slightly for 2 John Fahey albums), they have to have been LPs that came out during the artist’s lifetime as an official LP (no greatest hits or posthumous collections allowed), and they have to be righteous & amazing.

They also have to represent an honest accounting of my favorites – seriously, I could have thrown on some ultra-obscurities to impress you (even though they wouldn’t have) but that’d be cheating, right? So there’s a lot of Velvet Underground & Stones & Fall & Flesh Eaters in here – because those are my favorite bands when ya get down to it. Maybe yours too.

Oh yeah – EPs are allowed. Why not? I also reserve the right to revise the list ten years from now, but I have to say, my list ten years ago would’ve looked a lot like this one (minus CAN and THE KINKS, both of whom I’m a late convert to). I’m almost locked in. I’m sure I forgot a few – perhaps you can enlighten me as to what those were. Enjoy – and please go buy the ones you don’t have tomorrow!

1. FLESH EATERS – “A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die”
2. VELVET UNDERGROUND – “The Velvet Underground and Nico”
3. ROLLING STONES – “Exile on Main Street”
4. THE STOOGES – “Funhouse”
5. VARIOUS ARTISTS – “Yes L.A.”
6. GUN CLUB – “Fire of Love”
7. VELVET UNDERGROUND – “White Light/White Heat”
8. DREAM SYNDICATE – “The Days of Wine and Roses”
9. BIG STAR – “Radio City”
10. PERE UBU – “The Modern Dance”
11. THE FALL – “Hex Enduction Hour”
12. COME – “Eleven : Eleven”
13. THIRTEENTH FLOOR ELEVATORS – “Easter Everywhere”
14. ROLLING STONES – “Beggars’ Banquet”
15. MODERN LOVERS – “Modern Lovers”
16. THE STOOGES – “The Stooges”
17. BLACK FLAG – “Damaged”
18. DIE KREUZEN – “Die Kreuzen”
19. WIRE – “Pink Flag”
20. FLESH EATERS – “Forever Came Today”
21. MEAT PUPPETS – “II”
22. RAMONES – “Ramones”
23. RED CROSS – “Born Innocent”
24. CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND – “Trout Mask Replica”
25. VELVET UNDERGROUND – “The Velvet Underground” (3rd)
26. MISSION OF BURMA – “Vs.”
27. THE FALL – “Slates”
28. THE CRAMPS – “Songs The Lord Taught Us”
29. NEIL YOUNG – “Zuma”
30. GIBSON BROS – “Big Pine Boogie”
31. THE GERMS – “(GI)”
32. SYD BARRETT – “The Madcap Laughs”
33. SUPERCHARGER – “Goes Way Out!”
34. CIRCLE JERKS – “Group Sex”
35. FLESH EATERS – “Hard Road to Follow”
36. ROLLING STONES – “Let It Bleed”
37. VELVET UNDERGROUND – “Loaded”
38. NEW YORK DOLLS – “New York Dolls”
39. DINOSAUR – “You’re Living All Over Me”
40. MINUTEMEN – “Double Nickels on the Dime”
41. JOHN FAHEY – “The Legend Of Blind Joe Death”
42. TELEVISION – “Marquee Moon”
43. PINK FLOYD – “Piper At The Gates of Dawn”
44. THE SONICS – “Here Are The Sonics”
45. FLESH EATERS – “No Questions Asked”
46. MC5 – “Kick Out The Jams”
47. TALES OF TERROR – “Tales of Terror”
48. WIRE – “Chairs Missing”
49. CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND – “Safe As Milk”
50. ROXY MUSIC – “Roxy Music”
51. THE STOOGES – “Raw Power”
52. UNION CARBIDE PRODUCTIONS – “In The Air Tonight”
53. THE SAINTS – “Eternally Yours”
54. RAMONES – “Leave Home”
55. CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND – “Mirror Man”
56. NEIL YOUNG – “Tonight’s The Night”
57. X – “Aspirations”
58. MISSION OF BURMA – “Signals, Calls and Marches”
59. THE FALL – “Grostesque”
60. HAMPTON GREASE BAND – “Music To Eat”
61. ROXY MUSIC – “For Your Pleasure”
62. BIRTHDAY PARTY – “Junkyard”
63. CHEATER SLICKS – “Whiskey”
64. THE FALL – “Perverted By Language”
65. THE AVENGERS – “The Avengers” (White Noise EP)
66. LOVE – “Forever Changes”
67. PATTI SMITH GROUP – “Radio Ethiopia”
68. CAN – “Tago Mago”
69. THE KINKS – “Something Else”
70. THE GORIES – “I Know You Fine, But How You Doin’”
71. JOHNNY THUNDERS & THE HEARTBREAKERS – “L.A.M.F.”
72. MINUTEMEN – “The Punch Line”
73. JOHN FAHEY – “The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death”
74. THE DONNAS – “The Donnas”
75. GUIDED BY VOICES – “Alien Lanes”
76. GIANT SAND – “Glum”
77. ROXY MUSIC – “Country Life”
78. WORLD OF POOH – “The Land of Thirst”
79. THE SCIENTISTS – “Blood Red River”
80. VARIOUS ARTISTS – “Tooth and Nail”
81. THE CLEAN – “Boodle Boodle Boodle”
82. BRIAN ENO – “Here Come The Warm Jets”
83. NEIL YOUNG – “On The Beach”
84. YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS – “Colossal Youth”
85. SONIC YOUTH – “Sister”
86. CAN – “Soundtracks”
87. HUSKER DU – “Everything Falls Apart”
88. CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND – “Strictly Personal”
89. X – “Los Angeles”
90. FAITH/VOID – “Faith/Void”
91. THE KINKS – “Arthur”
92. THE BANGLES – “The Bangles EP”
93. NIGHT KINGS – “Increasing Our High”
94. SWELL MAPS – “ A Trip To Marineville”
95. GREEN ON RED – “Green On Red”
96. THE FALL – “Room To Live”
97. CLAW HAMMER – “Claw Hammer”
98. HIGH RISE – “High Rise II”
99. NEIL YOUNG– “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere”
100. NEU – “Neu!”