Maybe before I officially "got into" them it was the Sprawl

But the first one I found myself repeating incessantly was maybe Pipeline, and if not that then Wish Fulfillment

Lots of contradiction in these statements. You state that Goo "isn't very impressive as a whole", but then go on to label 7 of the album's 11 tracks as "great". I'll give you 'My Friend Goo', but 'Mary Christ' is one bad-ass tune (would fit right in on Thurston's Psychic Hearts). 'Titanium Expose' is yet another "great" tune and 'Scooter & Jinx' - on good headphones - can prove to be quite transportive. I'm not saying it's you, per se, but a lot of folks on this board think it's cool to say Goo and Dirty are SY's "sell-out" albums and cite A Thousand Leaves and New York City Ghosts & Flowers as somehow being superior albums. To each his own (obviously), but Goo and Dirty should be viewed as the SY cornerstones they, in fact, are...

Schizophrenia. Then Shadow of a Doubt. Then Starpower.

But the answer is schizophrenia.

Cornerstones how? Maybe milestones, at best. They both (Goo + Dirty) serve as documentation for what the band was doing at a very specific time in history, but they aren't career defining on any level. They define a chapter or two in a large book...but whatever. There are only two (arguably three, EJST+NS) that go into that sludgy (cough cough, "grungy") rock direction, and band members themselves have openly admitted to altering their sound a bit during that period because a) it was fun, and b ) they were trying to maintain an audience with the same bands they felt were (somewhat..very somewhat) innovative AND accessible at the time (Nirvana and Mudhoney). Of course said bands were influenced by the Youth (esp. Daydream...), but then again Daydream definitely stands out on it's own when compared to Goo/etc.

I think they are great for what they are, and sometimes I absolutely LOVE listening to them (Esp. Dirty...which absolutely rips Goo to shreds sans Lee's Goo material). Very nostalgic records. And you say plenty of Youth fans hate those albums (their "sell out records") or whatever...but let's not forget the MANY that act as if they are the only Youth records (it happens a lot).

Teenage Riot

Taped the video off 120 Mins with the ol' VHS. Single greatest most rockin song I had heard in the 14-15 years I had lived up to then. I watched it endlessly until I went to Sound Exchange and bought the DDN cassette that smelled like degreaser chemicals.
Wore that shit out. Never looked back.TEENAGE RIOT!

yeah shortly after I posted that I realized it sounded like I was contradicting myself. However, I meant as a collective whole... if you listen to it from beginning to end, it's fun but not nearly as critical or compelling as say Bad Moon Rising, Sister, EVOL, or Confusion in my opinion. I haven't been able to wrap my mind around this yet, but for whatever reason I generally seem to be unimpressed by most of their work after Daydream Nation. And again, this doesn't mean I think it's bad... just not as important to me. In the 80s they were firing out innovative ideas and all of a sudden they got mixed up in the whole "grunge" thing that I simply never dug. After that, they became more um... "mellow" when they were making the transition from EJSTANS (which I actually think is excellent) to Washing Machine and that's where the bands' inconsistency started for me. I'm not going to go over each one since there's too many and no one will give a single shit, but there you go. I don't really think it's cool to think the way I do about music. In fact, I'm not even sure if there's anyone on this board who'd agree with any of what I said. "To each his own" precisely... there are lots of differences in opinion here and I think it makes conversation a bit more interesting as opposed to everyone agreeing with everything. As Sway already said though... I don't see how Goo and/or Dirty are cornerstones for Sonic Youth. I don't mind them but to me they've always been near the bottom of the list.

Disappearer alone blows both your asses out the fucking water

True!

I think EVOL, Sister, DDN, Goo, Dirty, Washing Machine, ATL, Murray Street, Nurse, Rather Ripped and Eternal are all almost as great, when I put them in order I always do violence to myself.

Truth.

SY's attempt at grunge, Dirty, was an experiment that produced one of the eras most dynamic and rocking records. As discussed in Goodbye 20th Century, SY had to rev up their sound so as not to be blown off the stage by the bands they were touring with in the early 90's (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Babes in Toyland, etc). But of course they did it a very SY way. All of the base SY elements remain in tact...they just put an extra charge in the music, which for me works brilliantly. Songs like 'Chapel Hill' and 'Purr' show the band in tight, hard-rocking form. I'll take the Goo/Dirty "grunge" era to the A Thousand Leaves/New York City Ghosts & Flowers "beat poet" era one hundred out of one hundred times. I posted this in another thread, but here's how I generally rate SY's catalog...

Sonic Youth - 6/10
Confusion Is Sex + Kill Your Idols - 8/10
Bad Moon Rising - 7/10
Evol - 9/10
Sister - 10/10
Daydream Nation - 10/10
Goo - 8/10
Dirty - 9/10
Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star - 7/10
Washing Machine - 9/10
A Thousand Leaves - 6/10
New York City Ghosts & Flowers - 5/10
Murray Street - 9/10
Sonic Nurse - 8/10
Rather Ripped - 7/10
The Eternal - 7/10

The Whitey Album - 7/10

Drunken butterfly and orange rolls angels spit

You just made my heart stop.

NYC Ghosts and Flowers I admit... is pretty amazing. I'm going to listen to Dirty again later.

Drunken Butterfly!

The only Sonic Youth album I owned back in 2003 (when I first started getting into them) was Dirty. The second album I bought was NYC Ghosts & Flowers. I almost gave up on Sonic Youth after that, being so young and impatient.

Now, NYCG+F is my favorite record while I hardly ever listen to Drunken Butterfly.

Wow, that's crazy, but I'm glad someone likes NYCG&F as much as I do!!

I remember when NYCGF was released many fans didn't get into it.
It's strange to see that kind of comments now :/
I always loved that album, and still do.

Titanium Expose

Always forget this but this is a terrific song. Almost always overlooked!!