{"id":2525,"date":"2010-01-22T10:44:59","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T15:44:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-01-22T10:44:59","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T10:44:59","slug":"once-and-for-all-what-s-the-greatest-deb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/once-and-for-all-what-s-the-greatest-deb\/","title":{"rendered":"Once and For All: What&#8217;s the Greatest Debut Album Ever?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><object type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" data=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/onceandforall.swf\" width=\"400\" height=\"275\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/onceandforall.swf\" \/><\/object><\/div>\n<p><strong>Townsman Andyr<\/strong> wondered if we&#8217;ve ever attempted to determine the <em>Greatest Debut Album Ever<\/em>. I don&#8217;t think we have, so this is as good a time as any to investigate this subject.<\/p>\n<p>As we pondered this subject last night, a dozen debut releases immediately sprang to mind, including those by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2008\/02\/29\/production_matters_the_specials_and_the_\">The Specials<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2009\/04\/17\/why_do_we_love_jimi_hendrix_so_much\">Jimi Hendrix<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2007\/05\/16\/endurance_the_richard_lloyd_interview\">Television<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2008\/02\/19\/roger_bechirian_interview\">The Undertones<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2007\/11\/05\/pop_rocks_aamp_coke_the_clash_say_cut_th\">The Clash<\/a>&#8230; However, if we&#8217;re to consider The Clash, we agreed we should only consider the original UK release, which I don&#8217;t find as strong as the later US version. Before we move forward, let&#8217;s agree that delayed, alternate releases in other-than-native markets are not open to consideration.<\/p>\n<p>As we talked about this topic, just as many debut albums by beloved bands were far from qualifying. Probably all debut albums released prior to 1967 wouldn&#8217;t make the grade. Artist that went on to have long, innovative careers may find that their debut album is overshadowed by the albums that followed. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2008\/07\/17\/rock-town-hall-s-fair-shake-era-launches\">Captain Beefheart<\/a><\/strong> may be an example of this. <em>Safe As Milk<\/em> is an excellent debut and the one album by him that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2008\/07\/15\/bullshit-on-captain-beefheart\">most rock fans<\/a> have a fighting chance of digging, but what Beefheart fan is going to put the necessary effort into making the case that it is the Greatest Debut Album Ever?<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s only fair that you take some time to think about this and that we discuss it as a community, but I will tell you that, after discounting <strong>Roxy Music<\/strong>&#8216;s debut for running out of gas on side 2, I&#8217;m presently considering the merits of two debut albums that I feel are stunning in their own ways:<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2010\/01\/11\/the-untouchables-2-starring-the-cars\">The Cars<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li>Pere Ubu&#8217;s <em>The Modern Dance<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I look forward to us reaching consensus, once and for all, the Greatest Debut Album Ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Townsman Andyr wondered if we&#8217;ve ever attempted to determine the Greatest Debut Album Ever. I don&#8217;t think we have, so this is as good a time as any to investigate this subject. As we pondered this subject last night, a dozen debut releases immediately sprang to mind, including those by the The Specials, Jimi Hendrix, <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/once-and-for-all-what-s-the-greatest-deb\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[88],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}