Thanks for taking the time to psycho-analyze the situation. I found it quite interesting. Your mode of track-matching, however, is completely bizassackwards. You can't really just go down the line and compare whatever songs correspond track-wise. That's basically the same as randomly throwing all of the songs in the air and then grabbing two and comparing them... then you could essentially grab "Warm Tape" and compare it to "Scar Tissue" in which obviously there is no comparison. Do you see what I'm saying? It's not like they planned for Track 1 to be similar to Track 1 but better on the next album. Apples and Oranges. Not to mention in doing so you've managed to pair up collossal titles like "Dosed" and "Otherside", "Zephyr Song" and "Californication", "Easily" and "Can't Stop", "I Could Die For You" and "Porcelain", "By the Way" and "Around the World"... we can't get anywhere with this, it's far too circumstantial. I think rather, you could establish a point system (this always seems to work) and just grade every song separately, then tally up the totals (not that you should do this... I'm just idealizing). Plus you've already stated your opinion quite well so there's no need.
I also sense (greatly) that this whole thing was based very subjectively. That is because, even though you're attempting to grade on "greatness" and not "favouritism" it is impossible to be 100% unsubjective (or objective); subjectivity is everywhere, you can't escape it. And before pliedes brings in math and equations, it's not about the BINARIES of being subjective or not subjective, but rather it is on a scale of subjectivity/objectivity. A spectrum which probably goes infinitely in each direction and has some kind of inhumanly comprehensible 0. Being objective however is the only way that "true greatness" can be judged... but wait... I just said judged, that means that there is still obviously some apparent level of subjectivity... so... what are we to do? Obviously to think of "greatness" is to think of all the things that supposedly make music great... in order to stay away from personal likings you would have to judge by skill, relevancy, creativity, innovativity, user friendliness... yet all of these things are still bound by subjectivity.
We can come to an almost agreement for many things... like, "Dosed" is an amazing beautiful song and was done very tastefully and creatively, it is very unique, and therefore it deserves to be called "good" and not just "I like it"... EVEN STILL this must be based on opinion, even if you take out the fact that this song blatantly gives you a right-1-2 emotionally. It is impossible to come to a realistic conclusion of how these albums stack up as "The Greatest Albums of All Time" unless you take into account a popular census (as gay as that would be) and I doubt we're going to poll the world about this so all we have left to do is to say that Ugly Bastard's opinion is that "Californication" is the more appropriate candidate for "Greatest Album" than "By the Way". My opinion differs and I believe that "By the Way" is "better". I think it just barely has more relevant and well-done tracks than "Californication" *coughcoughsubjectivitycough*. The valid and coherent variety that was established in this album plus the professionalism and innovativity in which it was audially put forth is enough for me to judge it as a very great album. I do not feel that "By the Way" is the greatest album of all time, but it's definitely in the top... 25 I'd say... (I'll give a little room for albums I haven't heard but may be better). Personally "One Hot Minute" is my favourite RHCP album, because it is "right up my alley", "my bag", "my cup of tea".
In conclusion, we can argue about what is realistically "best" all day long but it's still just going to be opinion, which is fine of course. I respect your opinion Ugly Bastard, but my opinion is not the same. "By the Way" compared to "Californication" to me is kind of like a Buddhist life compared to a normal other life. The Buddhist life, in an attempt to acheive tranquility, is much more borderline, not so many extreme highs and extreme lows. This compares to "By the Way" except there are many extreme highs. "Californication" has more lows (for me) and they pull down the overall greatness of the album just a hint more than "By the Way". Seriously, these albums are a close battle, they are both two of the most amazing albums.
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