Hell yes. I've been a fan for years, and my friends are tired of hearing me say this.

That's just a given. (Now saying the opposite - that would've been bold!)

The Grateful Dead's music gets slammed so much that there are jokes like this one all over the place:

Q: What did a deadhead say after he ran out of pot?

A: "Man, this music sucks!"

I pick "Rattle and Hum" as when U2 jumped the shark (or whatever the music equivalent of that is... "entered their own personal '80s-era" maybe). That's when the pretentiousness took over the band completely.

Not sure if this is that bold but it's something that really pisses me off:

The Moody Blues' Question is horribly recorded. I like the song, which is why it pisses me off that the bass is drowned out and sounds like it was recorded from a mile away from an 1890's phonograph.

On Paul McCartney and The Wings' Let 'Em In, what's the fucking point of the last two notes at the very end. The song was already fading out, then you blast me with that end for no reason.

The Eagles? Don't care.
The Grateful Dead? Don't care.
The Who? Don't care.
Bob Dylan? Don't care.
Neil Young? Don't care.

Peter Hammill is by far the most influential musician post-Beatles, and relatively few even know who he is.

I think you meant to post this

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/YWGSFT_SoDg?start=284" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

No.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kC4LqiRoIE8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Grateful Dead >>>> The Band
Dylan >>>> Neil Young

If you've never dropped acid, you don't truly understand a lot of music made in the 60s and 70s.

Wilco is the greatest American rock band of the last two decades.

George Harrison's All Things Must Pass is the greatest of all Beatles solo records.

Frank Zappa's music was beyond genius and he is completely overlooked as one of the most important figures in music of any genre.

Lou Reed entering the RnR Hall of Fame at the same time as Joan fucking Jett is an embarrassment of the highest proportions.

Well, I nodded off a few times somewhere between 4:60 and 21:43, but other than that it was really exciting.

That's just it, because Piper kind of stands apart from the rest of their catalogue, there are actually plenty of people who have no interest in post-Syd Floyd that love it. Along with Sgt. Pepper, Piper is considered by many to be the absolute pinnacle of 60's psychedelic pop. I'd argue that depending on one's personal tastes, Dark Side, The Wall, and Piper are the three most "accepted" answers for best Floyd album.

Spot on.

And I'll run with the idea and say that perfectly produced and polished pop music can be just as enjoyable and even classifiable as "art" as any other music.

Right, as much as post-Syd Pink Floyd set the stage for the epics to come, Piper is a standalone classic and one with a tragic story. Piper was recorded in the same studio at the same time as Sgt Pepper and its no coincidence that both are seen as psych classics. i'd venture to say that Syd Barrett alone influenced music more than Pink Floyd in general.

Black Gives Way To Blue is a better album than any of the Layne Staley albums.

Senses Working Overtime by XTC is the most perfect pop song of all time.

Almost every band's best music is in the time between their 1st record up until 10 years later. So most of the new music they make after that span of a decade is over just hurts their legacy.

Pretty much. I can only think of a handful of bands that have managed to defy this statement. Deftones being one of them. Their last record may be their best ever.

On a similar note, here's my bold statement:

Vapor Trails is Rush's best album, and was supported by their best tour.

Metallica's Load and Reload were very good albums, just a little long in the tooth.

Agreed on Deftones. Their last album was simply stunning.

I think R.E.M. could have done more work - I just did a re-listen of their last five albums (Up through Collapse into now) and the last two albums were showing signs of regaining some of their former feel. With a new producer and maybe some outside writing, they could have kept on.

I wish they would have done a farewell tour.

Only if they threw out their electric guitars and listened to Murmur and Reckoning only nonstop for a year.

Leonard Cohen is the most poetic songwriter in Pop history.

Bob Dylan has an annoying voice and I've never been able to stand a single song he's recorded.

Ian Curtis was a quitter.

The most perfect pop single of all time was recorded in 1971 and no recording since has come close to matching its flawlessness.

<object width="640" height="480"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/COiIC3A0ROM?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/COiIC3A0ROM?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="480" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>