99. Madonna
The Immaculate Collection 1990
"On my first album, I wrote almost every song myself. Then I guess I got lazy." --Madonna

98. Jimi Hendrix
Electric Ladyland 1968
�There�s a lot in this hair of mine that I�ve got to get out.� --Jimi Hendrix

97. Beck
Odelay 1996
"I get frustrated when a bunch of people say, �Oh, that�s a bunch of gibberish.� It�s the way you perceive it." --Beck

96. Stevie Wonder
Songs in the Key of Life 1976
"[People] know I'm not going to put them to sleep with my moral indignation, dig it?" --Stevie Wonder

95. Moby
Play 1999
"[I'm] a skinny, bald, little white guy trying to fill the shoes of the rock god, [like] Tommy Lee or David Lee Roth...I just need to put a Lee in my name." --Moby

94. Def Leppard
Hysteria 1987
"We're prepared to go that extra yard, and sometimes you don't know where that extra yard is." --Joe Elliott

93. Bob Marley
Legend 1984
"Reggae music is a feeling, but reggae music is not the first time that feeling has come to the earth." --Bob Marley

92. Garbage
Version 2.0 1998
"I'm not great beauty, I'm no great intellect." --Shirley Manson

91. Weezer
Maladroit 2002
"This band walks a very thin line of irony. I don't think any of us actually know when we're being cheeky." --Pat Wilson

90. The Who
Quadrophenia 1973
"Mods gave me a feeling of belonging." --Pete Townshend

89. Bob Dylan
Bringing It All Back Home 1965
"It's been my lifelong ambition to be a movie usher, and I have failed, as far as I'm concerned." --Bob Dylan

88. Metallica
Master of Puppets 1986
"We met [Cliff Burton] and said, 'We're looking for a bass player and we think you'd really fit in. Because you're a big psycho.'" --James Hetfield

87. The Smiths
The Queen is Dead 1986
"We live in a world which is unlike the way Top Forty records convey it." --Morrissey

86. Bon Jovi
Slippery When Wet 1986
"Why would we do an experimental album? That's just selfish." --David Bryan

85. Van Morrison
Astral Weeks 1968
"I wrote it as an opera, but it didn't surface the way it could have." --Van Morrison

84. Led Zeppelin
Houses of the Holy 1973
"Nowadays we're more into staying in our rooms and reading Nietzsche." --Robert Plant

83. Queen
A Night at the Opera 1975
"I wanted to be outrageous with vocals because we're always getting compared with other people." --Freddie Mercury

82. Pearl Jam
Vitalogy 1994
"When I was younger and I heard about a band selling a million records, I thought the band would...jump up and down for at least a minute." --Dave Abbruzzese

81. Depeche Mode
101 1989
"The power between us was just incredible." --Martin Gore

80. Soundgarden
Superunknown 1994
"We're grown up and realized the importance of melody. Maybe we've been listening to Bryan Ferry or something." --Chris Cornell

79. The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground and Nico 1967
"If anybody played a blues lick, they would be fined." --Lou Reed

78. No Doubt
Tragic Kingdom 1995
"I told my mom I was going to be on tour for three months. And then we didn't come home for two and a half years." --Gwen Stefani

77. Pixies
Doolittle 1989
"It's not supernarrative, but I'm just fucking imitating the Beatles." Black Francis

76. Marvin Gaye
What's Going On 1971
"Basically, I said, 'Put it out or I'll never record for you again.'" --Marvin Gaye

75. Counting Crows
August and Everything After 1993
"I wanted people who play organically." --Adam Duritz

74. The Sex Pistols
Never Mind the Bollocks... 1977
"I wanted to be brilliant and adored." --Johnny Rotten

73. Michael Jackson
Off the Wall 1979
"I felt more at home singing and writing about the nightlife than going out and living it." --Michael Jackson

72. System of a Down
Toxicity 2001
"We're like a cross between Pink Floyd and Slayer. We want to sound like a band you can't clone or categorize." --Shavo Odadijan

71. Dave Matthews Band
Under the Table and Dreaming 1994
"If pianos were lighter, maybe I'd play one." --Dave Matthews

70. U2
Zooropa 1993
"When we start records, Edge is a slow starter. But at the end, he's the guy who's up all night for weeks." --Bono

69. Mariah Carey
Daydream 1995
"People get really bent out of shape when I refer to myself as a multicultural person." --Mariah Carey

68. The Rolling Stones
Let it Bleed 1969
"[Mick will] get incredibly shitty to anybody who appears to get too close to me." --Kieth Richards

67. Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine 1992
"Cynics have abandoned the idea that music can effect political change." --Zack de la Rocha

66. Prince
Purple Rain 1984
"I always wanted a band that was black and white. Half the musicians I knew only listened to one type of music." --Prince

65. The Who
Tommy 1969
"A deaf, dumb blind boy who's given drugs by an acid queen, is raped by his uncle and becomes the messiah. That'll make money!" --Pete Townshend

64. Bruce Springsteen
Born in the U.S.A. 1984
"My ass looked better than my face, so that's what went on the cover." --Bruce Springsteen

63. Bruce Springsteen
Darkness on the Edge of Town 1978
"The cars, the houses--that's not the American dream. That's the booby prize." --Bruce Springsteen

62. Madonna
Like a Prayer 1989
"Most of my dreams are really violent. But then, my life is pretty crazy. I'm always in the public eye." --Madonna

61. Miles Davis
Kind of Blue 1959
"I wouldn't care if [a sideman] came up on the bandstand in his BVDs and with one arm...There's nothing more terrible than playing with a dull rhythm section." --Miles Davis

60. AC/DC
Back in Black 1980
"I'm a rotten guitar player if I'm standing still." --Angus Young

59. Black Sabbath
Paranoid 1971
"I was a back-street kid, and that little demon is still in there. The aggression I play is the aggression I know." --Ozzy Osbourne

58. Linkin Park
Hybrid Theory 2001
"I'm a regular guy, you know? There's no leotard and cape under my clothes. I shit, I piss, I drink too much and throw up, just like everybody else." --Chester Bennington

57. The Strokes
Is This It 2001
"I can slap those guys' asses without feeling uncomfortable." --Fabrizio Moretti

56. David Bowie
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars 1972
"I feel like an actor when I'm onstage, rather than a rock artist. I don't think that's much of a vocation, being a rock & roller." --David Bowie

55. Nirvana
MTV Unplugged in New York 1994
"Sometimes I wish I had taken the Bob Dylan route and sang songs where my voice would not go out on me every night." --Kurt Cobain

54. Dave Matthews Band
Crash 1996
"That line 'Eat, drink, and be merry,' in 'Tripping Billies'--I didn't know that was from the Bible. I thought Dave came up with that." --Stefan Lessard

53. U2
The Unforgettable Fire 1984
"The greatest threat to the career of this band, or any other band, is financial success." --The Edge

52. Madonna
Music 2000
"I started to see the purity of it: the juxtaposition of the rawness of my voice with the overprocessed synthesizer sounds." --Madonna

51. Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin II 1969
"We've been so busy that we just weren't able to go into one studio and polish the album off. We put a rhythm track down in London, add the voice in New York, overdub harmonica in Vancouver and then back to New York." --Jimmy Page

50. Pearl Jam
Vs. 1993
"I talked with Henry Rollins one day. I said, 'Dude, I need some perspective and real quick.' And I really felt bad doing it. Because I was calling him up for the same reason kids call me up." --Eddie Vedder

49. U2
War 1983
"Sadomasochism is not taboo in rock & roll. Spirituality is." --Bono

48. Bob Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited 1965
"'[Like a] Rolling Stone' is the best song I wrote...When I was singing it, I knew I had to sing it with a band. I always sing when I write, even prose, and I heard it like that." --Bob Dylan

47. Alanis Morissette
Jagged Little Pill 1995
"There was one side of me that was crazy and deviant and another side that was very held-back, wanting to remain virginal for the sake of being the good white Catholic girl." --Alanis Morissette

46. Guns n' Roses
Use Your Illusion I and II 1991
"We weren't just throwing something together to be rock stars." --Axl Rose

45. Red Hot Chili Peppers
Californication 1999
"No matter how fucked up you are, you've always got a little funk left." --Flea

44. Jimi Hendrix
Are You Experienced 1967
"Two days after seeing him, I made up my mind that Jimi could be the biggest thing in the world." --Chas Chandler

43. Fleedwood Mac
Rumours 1977
"Being in this band really fucks up relationships with chicks." --Lindsey Buckingham

42. Metallica
Metallica 1991
"It's scary to look out and see couples hugging during that song ['Nothing Else Matters']: 'Oh, fuck, I thought this was a Metallica show.'" --James Hetfield

41. Oasis
Definitely Maybe 1994
"Suede were the biggest band in England. I thought that was a pile of shit because we just wrote 'Live Forever.' I knew if anyone ever heard it, we'd be fucking massive within six months. And it happened." --Liam Gallagher

40. Jeff Buckley
Grace 1994
"I like low stage volume. Once you have stacks of Marshalls, you need stacks of people to take care of them. Plus you have to jump around and get nipple piercings." --Jeff Buckley

39. Bob Dylan
Blood on the Tracks 1975
"I've never gone for having a great voice, for cultivating one. I'm still not doing it now." --Bob Dylan

38. Green Day
Dookie 1994
"I think Mike and Tre know deep down that I'm more of a sap than an angry punk. I'm pretty mushy." --Billie Joe Armstrong

37. Eminem
The Marshall Mathers LP 2000
"Every interview I do is like, 'Your lyrics are deadly, they're violent and misogynistic,' or, 'Black this, white that.' But do you like the music? Is the music good? Nobody talks about that." --Eminem

36. The Who
Who's Next 1971
"I said, 'There's no problem: Why don't we just make an album out of these tunes, because the tunes are great.'" --Pete Townshend

35. Red Hot Chili Peppers
BloodSugarSexMagik 1991
"[Sex is] perfect material for art, like death and every other fundamental aspect of existence." --Anthony Kiedis

34. Bob Dylan
Blonde on Blonde 1966
"The closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind was on individual bands in the Blonde on Blonde album. It's that thin, that wild mercury sound. It's metallic and bright gold, whatever that conjures up." --Bob Dylan

33. Oasis
(What's the Story) Morning Glory? 1995
"I haven't got the patience for a rock opera. I'm focused on verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle eight, guitar solo, verse, chorus, fade it out and that's it." --Noel Gallagher

32. Bruce Springsteen
Born to Run 1975
"I was rehearsing the band in one studio, singing 'She's the One' in another and mixing 'Jungleland' in the third. I'm never gonna do that again." --Bruce Springsteen

31. Pink Floyd
The Wall 1979
"[Pink Floyd] used to pretend that we all do this and we all do that, which of course wasn't true. And at one point I started to get very resentful, because I was doing a lot more, and yet we were all pretending that we were doing it." --Roger Waters

30. The Rolling Stones
Sticky Fingers 1971
"Rock & roll's not over. I don't like to see one thing end until I see another beginning. Like when you break up with a woman. D'ya know what I mean?" --Mick Jagger

29. Madonna
Ray of Light 1998
"Will someone just start puking? Can we have some version of the punk-music movement again?" --Madonna

28. Smashing Pumpkins
Siamese Dream 1993
"My reputation as a tyrant, Svengali, asshole, there's truth in that...I took a drummer who didn't even know what alternative music was and two people who could barely play their instruments and made a band." --Billy Corgan

27. Tool
�nima 1996
"Evolution didn't stop with us getting thumbs. There are a lot of metaphysical, spiritual and emotional changes going on right now, and we're just trying to reflect that. We're not that different from Tori Amos." --Maynard James Keenan

26. Radiohead
Kid A 2000
"I thought chords were boring. If anyone was playing a straight beat on a snare drum, I was like, 'Fuck this.'" --Thom Yorke

25. R.E.M.
Automatic for the People 1992
"I turned into a performer sometime in the last decade. I quit wearing darker clothes. I let the lights be a little brighter." --Michael Stipe

24. Eminem
The Eminem Show 2002
"That's my worst fear--that I'll wake up tomorrow and won't be able to write. That if there's not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something." --Eminem

23. The Beatles
Rubber Soul 1965
"You could walk in with an elephant, as long as it was going to make a musical note." --Ringo Starr

22. Nirvana
In Utero 1993
"Let's face it, we already sold out two and a half years ago. There's no sense in trying to redeem yourself by putting out an abrasive album and pretending that you're a punk rocker." --Kurt Cobain

21. Weezer
Weezer 1994 (Blue Album), 2001 (Green Album)
"I think we're a lot stranger and more talented than people can ever realize." --Brian Bell

20. The Beach Boys
Pet Sounds 1966
"[The desolate ballad 'Caroline, No' is] a story about how once you've fucked up with a chick, there's no way to get it back." --Brian Wilson

19. Pearl Jam
Ten 1991
"[The music] was bringing things out of me that hadn't been brought out. I was literally writing some of these words as I was going up against a wave or paddling." --Eddie Vedder

18. Smashing Pumpkins
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness 1995
"We're not interested in participating in a sound-bite culture." --Billy Corgan

17. Radiohead
The Bends 1995
"There is a certain state if mind I'm in when I write songs--it's like a bad virus. Everything is the wrong way up and inside out." --Thom Yorke

16. Weezer
Pinkertown 1996
"I saw Madame Butterfly, and I've never cried so hard in my life. My face was caked with snot and tears and my chest was heaving." --Rivers Cuomo

15. U2
All That You Can't Leave Behind 2000
"Joy in our group comes out of vowels, words with very few consonants, words that form when you're singing." --Bono

14. The Clash
London Calling 1979
"We realized that if more kids heard the record, then maybe they'll start humming the songs. And if they start humming the songs, maybe they'll read the lyrics and ger something from them." --Mick Jones

13. The Rolling Stones
Exile on Main St. 1972
"During the mix, I kind of decide [if the lyrics will be audible]. If the words are good, we bring them up." --Mick Jagger

12. Michael Jackson
Thriller 1982
"People often think the lyrics you're singing have some special personal significance for you, which often isn't true." --Michael Jackson

11. Pink Floyd
Dark Side of the Moon 1973
"We created a kind of sound collage to show movement and travel...It was a very serious attempt to achieve a certain effect." --David Gilmour

10. U2
Achtung Baby 1991
"U2's recording takes a long time to make not because the band members are stuck for ideas, but because they never stop talking about them." --Brian Eno

9. Led Zeppelin
[Four symbols I can't type] 1971
"Every musician wants to do something of lasting quality, and I guess we did it with 'Stairway.' I don't think there are too many people who are capable of it. Maybe one. Joni Mitchell." --Jimmy Page

8. Radiohead
OK Computer 1997
"We were thoroughly ashamed of being a guitar band. So we bought loads of keyboards, and when we got bored, we went back to guitars." --Thom Yorke

7. Guns n' Roses
Appetite for Destruction 1987
"I always wonder if, like, somebody's gonna slide the knife underneath my eye and give me the lobotomy. I think about that a lot." --Axl Rose

6. The Beatles
Abbey Road 1969
"We went through weeks of all saying, 'Why don't we call it Billy's Left Boot?' And then Paul just said, 'Why don't we call it Abbey Road?'" --Ringo Starr

5. The Beatles
The Beatles (The White Album) 1968
"When I hear them, I just think of the session--the forty-eight hours Paul and I sat up putting the White Album in order until we were going crazy; the eight hours of mixing 'Revolution 9'--whatever. Jesus, we were sitting for hours doing the bloody guitars." --John Lennon

4. U2
The Joshua Tree 1987
"Marvin Gaye, Patti Smith, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder--gee, I don't think there's anyone I like in rock & roll that isn't as screwed up as me in this area [religion]. I started realizing that rock & roll devoid of that spiritual confusion is the rock & roll that I don't like anyway." --Bono

3. The Beatles
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 1967
"I swear to God, or swear to Mao, or to anybody else you like, I had no idea it ['Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'] spelled LSD." --John Lennon

2. Nirvana
Nevermind 1991
"We all decided to do this. And we could decide to end this any day. I don't know how--it might land me in jail--but we could do it. If I went to jail, at least I wouldn't have to sign autographs." --Kurt Cobain

1. The Beatles
Revolver 1965
"Paul at that time was probably more avant-garde than the other boys." --George Martin

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