So why is Lenny Kravitz’s Mama Said on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
It’s often said that one’s favorite Saturday Night Live cast tends to track with your high school years.
Mama Said was released in 1991, so I did a quick check of the SNL cast from that year – which fell within my high school years (dating myself!) – and noted that it includes a huge chunk of my all-time favorites, including Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, David Spade, and a young fella named Chris Rock to boot.
I mention this because Mama Said is the “highest” ranked Lenny Kravitz album on this here best 1,000 albums ever project, and I think that it probably has something to do with the same high school years phenomenon.
Which isn’t to take anything away from it, of course – it’s only to emphasize the personal connection that we all have with music and how deeply it tracks with times and places in our lives.
I’ve given Stephen Thomas Erlwine over at All Music a goodly amount of grief for his snarky, highbrow musical critiques, but credit where due on a well played take on Mama Said: “…[it] finds Lenny Kravitz in the early ‘70s, trying to graft Curtis Mayfield and Jimi Hendrix influences to his Prince and Lennon obsessions.”
Here’s another reason that Mama Said is Lenny’s tops for me: while there’s a lot of worthy competition, “Stop Draggin’ Around” is my favorite Kravitz song of all. I recognize that it’s a somewhat unusual choice, simply from the fact that there are so many other radio/MTV hits that I could have chosen, along with a bevy of other deeper cuts.
There’s something so pure and groovy and, dare I say it, joyous in the way that the best music always comes across. “Stop Draggin’ Around” is a relatively straightforward song, minimalist in a way, really, allowing for the guitar and vocals to dominate. And it rocks out as though Lenny was leading the grooviest garage band of all time.
“Always On The Run,” which leans even more heavily into a wildly great rock hook, is also one of my Lenny favorites for similar reasons. And I can never get enough of the way he builds up to but I’m ALWAYS on the run.
Bonus: Mark Ronson’s remix of “Always On The Run,” off of Here Comes The Fuzz (#323 of best 1,000 albums ever) and featuring Mos Def and M.O.P., is fantastic and crazy exciting.
There are a number of gorgeous, soulful songs on Mama Said as well. “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over” is one of Kravitz’s best-known tracks, for good reason.
And “What The Fuck Are We Saying?” is one of his best slower and soulful neo-psychedelic numbers.
Some stats & info about Lenny Kravitz – Mama Said
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Album Rock, Retro Soul, Neo-Psychedelia, Contemporary Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was Mama Said released? 1991
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #276 out of 1,000
Lenny Kravitz’s Mama Said on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Lenny Kravitz’s Mama Said that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
My mama said that it’s good to be fruitful, but my mama said don’t take more than a mouthful.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.