10 Greatest Tribute Albums In Hard Rock
Rock's Final Grand Statements.
It's never easy to get over the death of a fellow musician. In the minds of rock fans, these artists aren't just normal people, but rather musical juggernauts who were able to capture emotion on tape that we may never be seen again.
Though we may never hear any new music from these artists, we can at least find comfort through the people they inspired.
Instead of having these musicians fade into obscurity, artists came out of the woodwork to make sure that their memory lives on in the genre going forward. In some of the greatest phoenix from the ashes moments, these respective bands picked themselves up after hard times and emerged even stronger by paying tribute to their fallen bandmates, with records that are as much about the tragic circumstances as they are about the chord progressions.
In that respect, you get to see these artists as real people getting over the death of a friend rather than these almighty titans of the music world. No matter how many hits they may have written, they're still human, and these songs are as close to the bone as it gets.
Even though some giants might not be among the living anymore, these are the dramatic sendoffs they deserve.
10. The Beatles Anthology - The Beatles
Any hope of a proper reunion of the Beatles was pretty much snuffed out once John Lennon was murdered in 1980. After years of speculating whether the Fab Four would truly reunite, it only took one gunshot for the greatest rock band in the world to become the Fab Three. That didn't mean that the story of Beatles ended right then and there though.
As Paul McCartney caught up with Yoko Ono at Lennon's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ono offered up a few bits and pieces of Lennon's ideas, with the intention of the rest of the Beatles finishing them. Once George Harrison and Ringo Starr were brought back into the picture, the Liverpool lads picked up right where they left off, as ELO's Jeff Lynne was brought on to oversee production on the songs Free As a Bird and Real Love.
Along with the new songs, fans were also treated to the Beatles Anthology, which turned into a box set including every piece of recorded history on the group, from rehearsal demos to new songs to even the clips from their failed audition at Decca Records at the start of their career. While it's unclear what Lennon would have done with the tapes, he would have definitely been proud with the love and care his musical brethren put into these tunes.