Rolling Stone has a new issue with a cover story on "The Immortals," the 50 greatest artists in the 50 years of rock. Let's see how many of my own I can come up with at about 11:30 on a Saturday night.

Rock Immortals

1) The Beatles
2) Elvis Presley
3) Bob Dylan
4) The Rolling Stones
5) Chuck Berry
6) Buddy Holly
7) Little Richard
8) The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson
9) Bruce Springsteen
10) The Temptations

11) Diana Ross and The Supremes
12) Marvin Gaye
13) Stevie Wonder
14) Sly and the Family Stone
15) Jimi Hendrix
16) The Monkees
17) Jerry Lee Lewis
18) The Who
19) Michael Jackson and The Jackson Five
20) John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival

21) The Eagles
22) Fleetwood Mac
23) Elton John
24) The Clash
25) The Ramones
26) Rod Stewart
27) Elvis Costello
28) The Allman Brothers Band
29) Lynyrd Skynyrd
30) Jimmy Webb

31) Burt Bacharach
32) Phil Spector
33) Al Green
34) Sam Cooke
35) James Brown
36) Bob Marley and the Wailers
37) Otis Redding
38) Aretha Franklin
39) Van Morrison
40) The Byrds

41) Prince
42) Bo Diddley
43) Bee Gees
44) U2
45) Neil Diamond
46) Crosby Stills Nash and Young
47) Neil Young
48) Jackson Browne
49) Earth Wind and Fire
50) R.E.M.

Okay. There's a pretty decent list, and no overrated Madonna on it. And the list is not ranked.

Currently working on a project to recreate from memory, at least as a list, the music my brothers and I listened to as kids. This would cover roughly from the beginning of 1964 through the end of summer of 1971. Here's the story so far.

Music from the Front Room

Introducing the Beatles (VeeJay)
Meet the Beatles
The Beatles Second Album
The Beatles: A Hard Day’s Night
The Beatles: Revolver
The Beatles: Paperback Writer/Rain 45
The Beatles: Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane 45
The Beatles: All You Need Is Love/Baby You’re A Rich Man 45
The Beatles: Get Back/The Ballad of John and Yoko 45
The Beatles: Hey Jude/Revolution 45
Dave Clark Five: Return!
Dave Clark Five: Glad All Over
Johnny Horton Greatest Hits
Jan and Dean: Surf City
The Rip Chords: Hey Little Cobra! and other Hot Rod Hits
The Monkees
The Monkees Second Album
The Monkees: Headquarters
The Monkees: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones Ltd.
The Monkees: Daydream Believer/Goin’ Down 45
Glen Campbell: Wichita Lineman
Glen Campbell: Galveston
Glen Campbell: Try A Little Kindness
Glen Campbell: Oh Happy Day
Glen Campbell Live!
Glen Campbell: True Grit
The Fifth Dimension: Greatest Hits
Neal Hefti: Batman
Iron Butterfly: Live
Paul Revere and the Raiders: Spirit of ‘67
Paul Revere and the Raiders: Greatest Hits
Paul Revere and the Raiders; Him or Me, What’s It Gonna Be? 45
Jimi Hendrix Smash Hits
The Best of Cream
The Association’s Greatest Hits
The Hollies: Carrie Anne/Bus Stop 45
The Mamas and the Papas: Monday Monday/Got A Feeling 45 (?)
The Mamas and the Papas: I Saw Her Again/Even If I Could 45 (?)
The Troggs: Wild Thing 45
Johnny Rivers: Tracks of My Tears/Rewind Medley 45
Buffalo Springfield: For What It’s Worth/Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It? 45
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Bad Moon Rising/Lodi 45
Steppenwolf: Born To Be Wild/Jupiter Child 45
Steppenwolf: Magic Carpet Ride/Rock Me 45
Mercy: Love Can Make You Happy 45
Assembled Multitude: Overture from Tommy 45
Clarence Carter; Patches 45
Vanity Fare: Hitchin’ A Ride 45
Christie: Yellow River 45
B.J. Thomas: Mighty Clouds of Joy 45
Ocean: Put Your Hand In the Hand 45
Tommy James and the Shondells: Crystal Blue Persuasion 45
The Soul Survivors: Expressway to Your Heart 45
Jay and the Techniques: Apple, Peaches. and Pumpkin Pie 45
Alive and Kicking: Tighter Tighter 45
Jesus Christ Superstar
The Concert for Bangladesh
Mylon
Larry Norman: Upon This Rock
The Imperials: Time to Get it Together

More insights from the religion of peace

From muhajiroun.com:

The obligation of hating false religions

 This Saturday's LIVE talk on Paltalk will discuss one of the greatest
 forgotten obligations in Islaam - Hating false religions. Allaah (swt)
 orders the believers to hate all other religions, way of lives, creeds,
 doctrines and beliefs that contradict with Islaam, and one cannot be
 Muslim without to declare animosity and hatred towards kufr, bid'ah,
 shirk and nifaaq (Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism,
 Buddhism, Democracy, Freedom etc.).

 Date and time: 27th of March 2004, from 5:30pm - 6:30pm GMT
 Room: LIVE - Hating false religions
 Speaker: Abu Muwahhid

Bruce on Jackson

"I always imagined, what if Brian Wilson, long after he'd been offered a
bite of that orange that the serpent offered to him, what if he married
that nice girl in "Caroline No" -- I always figured that she was
pregnant anyway -- and what if he moved into the valley and had 2 sons.
One of them would've looked and sounded just like Jackson Browne. Cain,
of course, would've been Jackson's brother in arms, Warren Zevon. Love
ya Warren. But Jackson to me, Jackson to me was always the tempered
voice of Abel. Toiling in the vineyards, here to bear the earthly
burdens, confronting the impossibility of love, here to do his father's
work.

Jackson's work was really California pop gospel...Now I always thought
that in our fall from Eden, besides the strains of physicality and the
bearing of earthly burdens, our real earthly task was that an
unbridgeable gap or a black hole was opened up in our ability to truly
love one another. And so our job here on earth, and the way we regain
our divinity, our sacredness, and our general good standing is by
reconstructing wealth and creating love out of the broken pieces that
we've been given. That's all we have of the human promise. That's the
way we prove ourselves in the eyes of God and facilitate our own
redemption. Now to me, Jackson Browne's work was always the sound of
that reconstruction."

--Bruce Springsteen, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction of Jackson
Browne, March 15, 2004

UNC Basketball: The First Year of the New Beginning

Hubris. That was the word that came to mind as I watched Roy Williams talking in the press conference after Carolina's three point loss to Texas last evening. Not that the word should apply to Roy. He appears to be one of the most humble, other-directed people in the cutthroat world of college athletics. What I thought of was how it seems that the hubris of Dean Smith has brought Carolina to this place.

When Smith announced his retirement suddenly a few years ago, it left UNC with little choice but to name longtime assistant Bill Guthridge as head coach. At the time, this didn't seem like a bad decision. Guthridge knew the program, he had recruited many (if not all) of the players on the roster, the other assistants all stayed in place, and the UNC program appeared set to continue without a hitch. For three years, or two and a half, anyway, that appeared to be the case. What wasn't forseen was a downturn in recruiting, due in part to the uncertainty of Guthridge's future at the school. Some recruits who did come were clearly not of the Carolina mold of years past, and the stress fractures started to show in the program during the second half of Guthridge's last year, problems temporarily forgotten after a last run to the Final Four after the regular season ended.

Later that summer, Guthridge resigns. The heir apparent, Roy Williams, was all set to return to Chapel Hill. Except he didn't. The story of the next three years was the story of the unraveling of the Carolina program. There was a quick hire of Matt Doherty, whose youth, enthusiasm, and love for Carolina obscured his lack of people skills. After peaking with a number one ranking early in Doherty's first season, the slide began. A bad second half of the year. A poor NCAA appearance. The exit of Joe Forte. And the worst two years in the memory of many fans, with the nadir being the 8-20 season in Doherty's sophomore year.

Where does hubris come in? In this. Dean Smith, who famously controlled Carolina's program for over thirty years, and was the architect of its fabulous success, thought he could control the future as well. And when that future turned out to be messier and not capable of organization like one of his briskly timed practice sessions, the fragile edifice of success that was Carolina basketball imploded. The program seems to be on the right track again. Williams is obviously the right person to lead the program. But the damage is already done, and may take several more years to repair. Duke is the new Carolina, and that may explain why, after the loss last night, I felt less disappointment than would have been the case in years past. The outcome seemed not as crushing, because Carolina didn't have as far to fall. The heritage remains, but reestablishing the pain of failure is still in the future.