Author | Dave Marsh and John Swenson (Editors) |
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Subject | |
Publisher | Random House/Rolling Stone Press |
Publication date | 1979 |
Media type | Hardcover / paperback |
Pages | 631 |
ISBN | 0-394-41096-3 |
OCLC | 5353861 |
789.9/136/4 | |
LC Class | ML156.4.P6 M37 |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide, previously known as The Rolling Stone Record Guide, is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from Rolling Stone magazine. Its first edition was published in 1979 and its last in 2004.
The Rolling Stone Record Guide was the first edition of what would later become The Rolling Stone Album Guide. It was edited by Dave Marsh (who wrote a large majority of the reviews) and John Swenson, and included contributions from 34 other music critics. It is divided into sections by musical genre and then lists artists alphabetically within their respective genres. Albums are also listed alphabetically by artist although some of the artists have their careers divided into chronological periods.
Dave Marsh, in his Introduction, cites as precedents Leonard Maltin's book TV movies and Robert Christgau's review column in the Village Voice . He gives Phonolog and Schwann's Records & Tape Guide as raw sources of information.
The first edition included black and white photographs of many of the covers of albums which received five star reviews. These titles are listed together in the Five-Star Records section, which is coincidentally five pages in length.
The edition also included reviews for many comedy artists including Lenny Bruce, Lord Buckley, Bill Cosby, The Firesign Theatre, Spike Jones, and Richard Pryor.
Comedy artists were listed in the catch-all section "Rock, Soul, Country and Pop", which included the genres of folk (Carter Family, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly), bluegrass (Bill Monroe), funk (The Meters, Parliament-Funkadelic), and reggae (Toots & the Maytals, Peter Tosh), as well as comedy. Traditional pop performers were not included (e.g. Andrews Sisters, Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Rudy Vallee, Lawrence Welk), with the notable exceptions of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. (Dave Marsh justified this decision in his Introduction.)
Included too were some difficult-to-classify artists (e.g. Osibisa, Yma Sumac, Urubamba) who might now be considered as world music. (Ethnic music was the normal term in 1979.)
Big band jazz was handled selectively, with certain band leaders omitted (e.g. Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman), while others were included (e.g. Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman). Many other styles of jazz did appear in the Jazz section.
The book was notable for the time in the provocative, "in your face" style of many of its reviews. For example, writing about Neil Young's song, "Down by the River", John Swenson described it both as an "FM radio classic" (p. 425), and as a "wimp anthem" (p. 244). His colleague, Dave Marsh, in reviewing the three albums of the jazz fusion group Chase, gave a one-word review: "Flee." Marsh's review of a then-current rock band called Platypus stated simply: "Lays eggs."
The guide employs a five star rating scale with the following descriptions of those ratings:
Author | Dave Marsh and John Swenson (Editors) |
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Subject | Music, popular music, discography, sound recording, reviews |
Publisher | Random House/Rolling Stone Press |
Publication date | 1983 |
Media type | Paperback |
Pages | 648 |
ISBN | 0-394-72107-1 |
The New Rolling Stone Record Guide was an update of 1979's The Rolling Stone Record Guide. Like the first edition, it was edited by Marsh and Swenson. It included contributions from 52 music critics and featured chronological album listings under the name of each artist. In many cases, updates from the first edition consist of short, one-sentence verdicts upon an artist's later work.
Instead of having separate sections such as Blues and Gospel, this edition compressed all of the genres it reviewed into one section except for Jazz titles which were removed for this edition and were later expanded and published in 1985 Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide (ed. Swenson). Besides adding reviews for many emerging punk and New Wave bands, this edition also added or expanded a significant number of reviews of long-established reggae and ska artists (such as U-Roy, Prince Buster, Ijahman, et al.).
Since the goal of this guide was to review records that were in print at the time of publication, this edition featured a list of artists who were included in the first edition but were not included in the second edition because all of their material was out of print. This edition also dispensed with the album cover photos found in the first edition.
The second edition uses exactly the same rating system as the first edition, the only difference being that in addition to a rating, the second edition also employs the pilcrow mark (¶) to indicate a title that was out of print at the time the guide was published. Many albums had their rating revised from the first edition; some artists had their ratings lowered (notably The Doors, Yes and Neil Young) as the book now offered a revisionist slant to rock's history, whilst others, such as Little Feat and Richard Hell And The Voidoids, garnered higher ratings from a re-evaluation of their work. [2]
Author | John Swenson (Editor) |
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Subject | Music, jazz, discography, sound recording, reviews |
Publisher | Random House/Rolling Stone Press |
Publication date | 1985 |
Media type | Paperback |
Pages | 219 |
ISBN | 0-394-72643-X |
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide was published in 1985 and incorporated the jazz listings omitted from The New Rolling Stone Record Guide with additional reviews edited by John Swenson. It included contributions from 16 music critics and featured alphabetical album listings under the name of each artist.
This jazz edition uses the same rating system as the first two editions.
Author | Anthony DeCurtis and James Henke, with Holly George-Warren(Editors) |
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Subject | Music, popular music, discography, sound recording, reviews |
Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1992 |
Media type | Paperback |
Pages | 838 |
ISBN | 0-679-73729-4 |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide was a complete rewrite of both 1979's The Rolling Stone Record Guide and 1983's The New Rolling Stone Record Guide. The title change reflects the fact that by the time this edition was published in 1992, records were almost completely replaced by cassettes and CDs. This edition employs three new editors and reduces the number of reviewers from more than 50 as seen in previous editions to a mere four. This edition also included reviews of Jazz albums, which had been removed from the previous edition for the sake of publishing a separate Jazz guide. Unlike both previous editions, this edition did not include comedy artists.
Similar to the first edition, it employed a five star rating scale (without the "zero stars" (▪) rating), but this edition had new definitions of what the number of stars meant, and employed the use of 1/2 stars in the reviews. The descriptions of the markings used in the third edition of the guide are:
Some of the artists included in the previous editions but omitted in this edition include:
The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide was first published by Random House in 1999, with John Swenson as the editor. [1]
Reviewing the book for All About Jazz , C. Michael Bailey regarded it as a consolidation of the 1985 jazz guide and the blues coverage from other Rolling Stone guides. He recommended it to novices, calling it "a worthy addition to any serious jazz/blues collector's library", even though it was not as comprehensive as The Penguin Guide to Jazz or All Music Guide to Jazz , in his opinion. [2]
Author | Nathan Brackett with Christian Hoard (editors) |
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Subject | More than 10,000 of the best rock, pop, hip-hop and soul records, reviewed and rated |
Publisher | Fireside |
Publication date | 2004 |
Media type | Paperback |
Pages | 838 |
ISBN | 0-7432-0169-8 |
Approximately 70 writers contributed to this edition. Text on the back cover of the fourth edition claims that the guide had been "completely updated and revised to include the past decade's artists and sounds", and offered "biographical overviews of key artists' careers, giving readers a look at the personalities behind the music".
Some of the artists included in the previous guides but omitted in this edition include:
The Who Sell Out is the third studio album by the English rock band the Who. It was released on 15 December 1967 by Track Records in the UK and Decca Records in the US. A concept album, The Who Sell Out is structured as a collection of unrelated songs interspersed with fake commercials and public service announcements, including the second track "Heinz Baked Beans". The album purports to be a broadcast by pirate radio station Radio London. The reference to "selling out" was an intended irony, as the Who had been making real commercials during that period of their career, some of which are included as bonus tracks on the remastered CD.
Meet the Beatles! is a studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released as their second album in the United States. It was the group's first American album to be issued by Capitol Records, on 20 January 1964 in both mono and stereo formats. It topped the popular album chart on 15 February 1964 and remained at number one for eleven weeks before being replaced by The Beatles' Second Album. The cover featured Robert Freeman's iconic portrait of the Beatles used in the United Kingdom for With the Beatles, with a blue tint added to the original stark black-and-white photograph.
Give It Up is the second studio album by American musician Bonnie Raitt. Released in 1972 by Warner Bros. Records, Give It Up is an amalgamation of various genres, including folk, blues, R&B, and soft rock. Seven of the ten tracks on the album are covers, and the tracks range from soft sentimental ballads to fast-paced folk rock pieces. Lyrically, Give It Up revolves around Raitt's femininity, relationships, and being comfortable with herself. Raitt recorded the album at Bearsville Studios with producer Michael Cuscuna.
Takin' My Time is the third studio album by American musician Bonnie Raitt. It was released in 1973 by Warner Bros. Records. The album is an amalgamation of several different genres, including blues, folk, jazz, New Orleans rhythm and blues, and calypso. The 10 tracks on the album are covers, ranging from soft sentimental ballads to upbeat, rhythmic-heavy tracks. Lowell George was originally hired to handle the production, but was ultimately replaced by John Hall when Raitt became unhappy with his production.
Dave Marsh is an American music critic and radio talk show host. He was an early editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on rock music. He is also a committee member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Live at the Regal is a 1965 live album by American blues guitarist and singer B.B. King. It was recorded on November 21, 1964, at the Regal Theater in Chicago. The album is widely heralded as one of the greatest blues albums ever recorded and was ranked at number 141 in Rolling Stone's 2003 edition of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, before dropping to number 299 in a 2020 revision. In 2005, Live at the Regal was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in the United States.
Welcome to the Canteen is the first live album by English rock band Traffic. It was recorded live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon and the Oz Benefit Concert in the canteen of the Polytechnic of Central London London, on 3 July 1971 and released in September of that year. It was recorded during Dave Mason's third stint with the band, which lasted only six performances.
Tears for Dolphy is a 1964 album by jazz trumpeter Ted Curson. The album's title track, an elegy for Eric Dolphy, has been used in many films.
The Fabulous Charlie Rich is a 1969 album by country music legend Charlie Rich. In its review, AllMusic praises the album for capturing "the eclectic nature of Rich's music better than the great majority of his albums", but warns "country purists" that producer Billy Sherrill's production may make it less to their tastes. In spite of launching several hit singles, the album was not a widespread commercial success. The album has, however, been critically well received, warmly praised by a number of reviewers including Rolling Stone, who gave the album "five stars", and Robert Christgau who asserted that "I never took Charlie's could-been-Elvis rep very seriously until I heard the passionately confident Jimmy Reed medley that opens side two of this Nashville album".
It's All About is the 1968 debut album by British band Spooky Tooth, released in the United Kingdom by Island Records on 26 July 1968.
Ask Rufus is the platinum-selling fifth studio album by funk band Rufus, released on the ABC Records label in 1977. The album spent three weeks atop the Billboard R&B Albums Chart in 1977. In 2020, it was ranked number 499 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Party 'Til You're Broke is the ninth studio album by funk band Rufus, released on the MCA Records label in 1981. Party 'Til You're Broke which was the band's second album not to be fronted by Chaka Khan reached number 24 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart and number 73 on Pop and included the singles "Tonight We Love" and "Hold on to a Friend", making Party 'Til You're Broke the most successful Khan-less album from Rufus.
Sweet America was the twelfth studio album by Buffy Sainte-Marie and her last before retiring from music to work on Sesame Street and in education. The album was dedicated to the American Indian Movement and featured some songs with tribal rhythms and vocals that she was later to develop on her 1992 comeback Coincidence and Likely Stories.
Electric Guitarist is the fourth solo album by guitarist John McLaughlin, released in 1978 through Columbia Records originally on vinyl; a remastered CD was issued in 1990 as part of the Columbia Jazz Contemporary Masters series. Among McLaughlin’s former collaborators appearing on the album are drummers Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette and Billy Cobham, keyboardist Chick Corea, alto saxophonist David Sanborn, violinist Jerry Goodman, bassists Jack Bruce, Stanley Clarke and Fernando Saunders and fellow guitarist Carlos Santana.
Happy Just to Be Like I Am is the fourth studio album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.
Raspberries' Best Featuring Eric Carmen, more commonly known as Raspberries' Best, is a 1976 compilation album by Raspberries. The album contained songs from each of the group's four LP's, which were recorded between 1972 and 1974. Most of the tracks on this LP were among their seven charting hits. The group had already disbanded when this compilation was released.
David Bromberg is the debut album by American multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter David Bromberg. It was released by Columbia Records in February 1972. The album includes "The Holdup", written by Bromberg and George Harrison, and "Sammy's Song", which features Bob Dylan on harmonica.
New York, Fall 1974 is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Anthony Braxton, recorded in 1974 and released on the Arista label. The album was subsequently included on The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton released by Mosaic Records in 2008.
To Know You Is to Love You is an electric blues album by B. B. King, released in 1973. Produced by Dave Crawford in Philadelphia, it includes the participation of Stevie Wonder, the Memphis Horns, and members of MFSB, the house band for Philadelphia International Records in the early and mid-1970s.
Last Sessions is an album by Mississippi John Hurt. It was recorded at a Manhattan hotel in February and July 1966 shortly before Hurt's death that year, and released in 1972 by Vanguard Records.
Copies of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th editions are available to loan through the Internet Archive and Open Library (registration required):