The Great Rock Discography: Complete Discographies Listing Every Track Recorded by More Than 1,200 Artists

Rating:
Summary: An Alternative to the new RS Guide
Review: Admittedly, I don't understand the Amazon.com Editorial Review of this book. Perhaps someday that will change. Martin C. Strong gives us an excellent discography covering most of the artists important to us. Equally as important, though, is the fact that he rates every album covered. His 1-10 point system is straightforward, and frequently quite accurate. He is judicious in his assignment of 10 points; there are only a handful of them among thousands of albums rated. His perspective is also very British, with certain prejudices following. While compilations by Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Little Richard, etc., receive at best 9 point ratings, Oasis seems to have produced two 10 point albums. (It might make sense if he felt 'best of' collections did not warrant perfect scores, but such collections are nearly the only means of collecting those early artists, and anyway, he gave 10 points to both Bob Dylan's and Simon and Garfunkel's 'Greatest Hits' - so there.) In fact, among the few 'perfect' (10 point) albums found herein, among them are 'Close to the Edge' by Yes, and - of all things - 'Bat Out of Hell' by Meat Loaf. If the latter deserves 10 points, then Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run' deserves 1,000 points (it only got 9). He takes a realistic view of Eminem (no 10 point albums) while feeding into the overestimation of Nirvana (two 10 point albums). As for Dylan, some adjustment is called for, like swapping the 10 points bestowed upon 'Desire' with the mere 6 point given to 'John Wesley Harding'. Anyway, this could go on, but the point is, buy it for the discographic information and background essays, not so much the reviews. That said, at least this book DOES include Metallica, George Harrison and Joan Armatrading, unlike another new reivew guide we could mention....