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The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and U2 Make Vatican Newspaper’s List of Best Albums; Bob Dylan Snubbed
The Beatles, Oasis, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson and U2 may be one step closer to paradise. But Bob Dylan is still “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”
The Vatican has previously denounced rock music as the devil’s work but in a surprise change of tune on Sunday the Holy See’s official newspaper, L’ Osservatore Romano, published what it called “a semiserious guide” to the top ten rock and pop albums of all time.
The list included The Beatles’ “Revolver,” which was given the top slot, Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of The Moon”, Oasis’ 1995 bestseller “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” and Michael Jackson’s blockbuster “Thriller.”
“Some songs seem to have been written yesterday…. while others still send shivers down the spine for their illuminating simplicity and musical thrust” the writers of the article said about “Thriller.” Of Oasis’ record, L’Osservatore Romano said “the album was never equaled” in part because of the disruptive in-fighting by the Gallagher brothers, the leaders of the group.
The “little handbook of musical resistance” was published in an attempt to offer an alternative to mediocre and cheesy tunes that feature in Italian popular festivals like the 60-year old one of Sanremo, which starts Tuesday in the north-western Italian region of Liguria and is widely-watched on television.
The albums are perfect listening material for anyone who finds himself marooned on a desert island, the Holy See’s newspaper noted.
Other records that made the top ten include U2’s “Achtung Baby”, Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”, Donald Fagen’s “The Nightfly,” Carlos Santana’s “Supernatural,” Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and David Crosby’s “If I Could Only Remember My Name.”
The article by Giuseppe Fiorentino and Gaetano Vallini said that Dylan was excluded from the list despite his “great poetic vein” because he paved the way for generations of unprofessional singer-songwriters who have “harshly tested the ears and patience of listeners” with their tormented stories.
In the last two years, under new editor- in-chief Gian Maria Vian, L’ Osservatore Romano has shed some of its serious image and taken a more open approach, finding merit even in popular movies such as the “Harry Potter” series and “The Lord of the Rings.”