Secretariat won the Triple Crown in 1973. He set a record in each race, that are still records today. He won the Belmont Stakes by a remarkable 31 lengths. Truly a magnificent race horse. Many would call him the greatest race horse of all time. Some may consider another race horse as the greatest, but “that’s what makes horse races.”
We all hear that this song is the best, or this movie, book, or painting was the greatest ever created. The opinion is either subjective or what could be considered an objective universal view. Objective universal views are hard to find. They require that almost everyone is in agreement. You might say that Picasso was a good painter or that Jimi Hendrix was a good guitar player, are examples of objective universal views. Hard to debate. But saying that something is the greatest of all time obviously opens itself up to disagreement.
I recently read that Paul McCartney said that excluding his own albums, the Beachboys”Pet Sounds” was, his favorite album of all time. He said that when it first came out, and he still feels that way today. I saw a video where when asked about albums that he didn’t like, Bob Dylan had “Pet Sounds”high on his list. He thought the album was shallow and commercial. These views, while coming from experts, couldn’t be more diverse.
99 % of all opinions, don’t come from experts, but from regular folk. Other opinions about any work of art come from two main sources, exposure to and experience with. I remember (1970), riding to the top of Santa Monica Canyon in my friend’s 1929 Helms bakery truck, “After the Gold Rush” came on the radio. Young’s high voice captured the moment and made it unforgettable to me.
Contrasting opinions are easy to find. I read that when David Crosby first heard Bob Dylan’s voice, he didn’t like it. That opinion changed over time. How many people shared that evolution of opinion. To me, they couldn’t have been more wrong. When I first heard “Man of constant sorrow”, from his first album, I knew he was something special.
There is no measuring stick for perfection in art, only the artist’s efforts to achieve it. RJB