Favourite music albums
January 9, 2009 - 8:57pm
My favourite album for a long time was Dylan's "Blond on Blonde". A friend's favourite is the Eagle's "Hotel California".
If you could name just one album as your personal favourite, which would it be?
I thought about this, and have to settle on Led Zeppelin I.
No wait. Led Zeppelin III.
No.... I... III.
Maybe I'll have to come down on the side of Led Zeppelin III, because I didn't actually like it that much on first listen, but it got better over time, and I still hear something different on each listen.
But then, nothing beats I for power chords......
I've decided. It's either Led Zeppelin I, or Led Zeppelin III.
Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert (yes, I know the o in Koln should have a umlaut, and no, I neither know how to generate one on my keyboard nor can I really be bothered to find out).
I've never really had many albums - when I was a kid and teenager, I couldn't afford them so I bought singles, and then when I was a young adult, I REALLY couldn't afford them (and right around that time, everything was switching to CDs anyhow, which I couldn't afford either) and so I stopped buying music altogether.
I still don't buy albums, really. I just got out of the habit because I never used to be able to afford them and now I just can't be bothered.
I did have a few albums, though, that belonged to me (as opposed to my parents, who had a number of them). I had Elton John's Live in Australia album, which I loved at the time (I was a teenager when it came out, and a big Elton John fan). I also loved his Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album - I know every song on it off by heart, pretty much.
David Bowie's Modern Love and Glass Spider were favorites of mine too because I was so in love with Bowie during my teen years. :) I know it's pathetic, but I only had one other Bowie album and that was ChangesOneBowie, which was a compilation album, and I loved it too, but my favorite one was his Modern Love album. What can I say, I was an 80's kid.
The first album I ever bought for myself, when I was a kid and had won a gift certificate to a music store at school, was the Village People album with YMCA on it. :D So I have a soft spot for that one too!
Hey, anyone remember the Stars on 45 album? Man, I used to LOVE that album when I was little. (Don't forget, I was born in 1972. So I have an excuse for liking it - I was too little to know any better!)
My parents had ABBA Gold, a compilation album. I loved it when I was a kid, learned it off by heart. And they had those two Beatles compilation albums too, the ones with the picture of the balconies on it, one blue, one red. Ever since I was old enough to put a needle on the record (like, 4 years old?) I have played those albums and loved them, and learned every note of every song and every word on it. The second one in particular, the blue one, is one I remember spending hours - heck, days - listening to.
So, favorite album? I don't know. Oh wait, yes I do. The Sesame Street Christmas album from the early 70's. Man, I'd give anything to have that album again. I loved that album like no other, even when I grew older. I wish I still had it. This is the one, but mine had a different album cover, that opened up and had absolutely gorgeous cartoon drawings all over it of all the Sesame Street characters, and illustrations of all the songs. Also, apparently there are tracks omitted from it, including Ernie and Bert and Mr. Hooper's Christmas story! Sacrilege!! :(
Edited to add: Oh my god, this is it, this is it! And free to download! SO AWESOME!
I thought about this, and have to settle on Led Zeppelin I.
No wait. Led Zeppelin III.
No.... I... III...
The only Led Zap album I ever listened to was II, because of "Whole Lotta Love". I have that song on a compilation album still.
I think I heard an Elton John single once, but never a complete album.
I thought about this, and have to settle on Led Zeppelin I.
No wait. Led Zeppelin III.
No.... I... III...
The only Led Zap album I ever listened to was II, because of "Whole Lotta Love". I have that song on a compilation album still.
I'm shocked, Boom Boom. The lyrics to that song are pretty raunchy. I always hoped I'd never be in a car with mother or grandmother when that song was playing on radio. I count my lucky stars to this day.
It's one of my favourite songs, too.
"Whole Lotta Love" got Jimmy Page into some trouble with Willie Dixon, as he "forgot" to credit Dixon on the album, and send the cheque for using his song.
I like any song where the bass threatens to go subsonic. However, the guitar break, with I think the cello bow, is deffinately "out of the pocket" which brings down this otherwise wonderfull song.
You should have a listen to "Dazed and Confused" on LZ I sometime Boom Boom, with particular attention to the bass and percussion, and how they play off each other. The first time I heard that particular song I was peeing on the side of the Trans Canada hwy, with a full moon rising in a black sky over a frozen Lake Superior.
And, yes. It was an eight track.
I'm not partial to Led Zeppelin II, I find the sound too clean. If you listen to "I Can't Quit You Babe" on LZ III, there's a deffinate squeek coming from the peddle on Bohnam's high hats or kick drum.
I like that kind of chaos.
"I'm shocked, Boom Boom. The lyrics to that song are pretty raunchy. I always hoped I'd never be in a car with mother or grandmother when that song was playing on radio."
Then you probably wouldn't want to drive around town with me when I'm blasting Elton Motell's "Jet Boy/Jet Girl".
Ooo hooo hooo hooo......
I'd have to break it down by genres. But I'm primarily a 3- minute pop song guy. Even then, it's a tough one; either Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything or Nick Lowe's Jesus of Cool
Well, this is a huge decision, I agree with Tommy regarding Lep Zep I and III, in fact my favorite concert of all times was Robert Plant at the Orpheium, which was like existing in the middle of a Led Zep sound track for 2 hours.
Having said that, Fleetwoodmac Rumours has so many memories that are fondly attached to it, that I must say I listen to it more than any other albums, of the hundreds we have.
Travelling Wilburies is also right up there for me on a road trip, Al Stewart The Year of the Cat is mellow out time, The Cult is great to excercise to, and Moody Blue's Days of Future Passed and Seventh Sojourn are great to contemplate to. And I must admit great parciality to Cat Stevens albums too.
And then there is The Band's The Last Waltz and I still have an ages old poster from it.
Oh, oh and Grand Funk's greatest hits too and then there is the Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Neil Young's Harvest...
___________________________________________________________ "watching the tide roll away"
I like raunchy occasionally - I listen to old James Brown albums for that reason. I've never listened to Barry White (except on that Simpson's episode where Barry's crooning is used to drive snakes out of Springfield... that was hilarious!). If I could weasel a bit and divide my preferences by nationality, I'd stick to Dylan's Blonde on Blonde as my favourite USA album, Songs From The Street (first LP by Murray McLaughlin) as my favourite Canadian album, and the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed as my favourite UK album.
Funny, at mention of the Travelling Willbury's, I thought of Dave Edmunds, who I thought was a member of that group.
But he wasn't. I must have got that confused with the Stray Cats, and Rockpile, where he did some work with Nick Lowe.
If the three minute power Rock ditty is your thing, then look no further than "Heart of the City". It deserves to be help up along side Chuck Berry's "Maybeline", Little Richards "I Can Hear You Knockin" and Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls o' Fire".
Dave Edmund's "Heart of the City" can be found on the album "Trax on Wax", which should be someone's favorite album of all time. I just reminded myself of the other songs on the album, and they're all pretty much solid rockin' tunes, like out of the 50's but with better sound.
Just as a side note, wikipedia is great if you are looking to broaden your experience in music.
When I was a laddy, I had to save up a few week's worth of allowance to buy an album, back when I first started. So, that didn't exactly encourage eclecticism or experimentation. (although, singles as Michelle mentioned, did) One was awful careful about what one bought, and you wanted a pretty good assurance that what you were buying was going to be adored.
A friend a few years older worked in a music store, so he got to listen to his heart's content gratis. He read the credits, and followed this artist and that from one album to another.
Wikipedia allows you to see the interaction of different artists at no expense, and can guide you to "discover" even old forgotten music.
"I'm shocked, Boom Boom. The lyrics to that song are pretty raunchy. I always hoped I'd never be in a car with mother or grandmother when that song was playing on radio."
Then you probably wouldn't want to drive around town with me when I'm blasting Elton Motell's "Jet Boy/Jet Girl".
Ooo hooo hooo hooo......
Well okay then. But not Ted Nugent's "Wango Tango" I've gotta Draw the Line somewhere. I can still remember my old ma telling me to turn that shit off, or down, or something. Besides, now I realize he's a Republican Party supporter. Deal or no deal!
So is, or was, Alice Cooper.
Apparent paradoxes like that are good illustrations for not letting yourself associate on stage schtick with the actual person.
I once saw an interview with Carlos Santana, during which he said he had to appologize to groupies because he didn't make love the way he played guitar.
I think we should play "six degrees of Dave Edmunds" using Wikipedia.
I am trying to link Dave Edmunds with Ian Anderson. Haven't made it yet, but I did find out that Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath fame was very briefly the lead guitarist of Jethro Tull.
There are so, so many. Right at this moment in time ...
And at this moment ...
Frick! I'm twittering ...
I don't know whether I've played Physical Grafitti or Never Mind the Bollocks more. They are both my "favourites."
Regarding the parental, "turn that stuff off," my Dad once came up to my 2nd storey bedroom to tell me to turn down the volume of Jet Boy Jet Girl.
I was wearing headphones.
Ca plane pour moi.
My musical frame of reference is more the '80s and '90s. So if I had to pick a few favourite records, they might be Paul Simon's 1983 album Hearts and Bones (perhaps not his best, but I grew up listening to it), They Might Be Giants' 1990 album Flood (nothing groundbreaking, but good fun in addition to being the first record I ever bought), and Art Bergmann's 1988 album Crawl With Me (some fans say that producer John Cale ruined it by drowning out Art's guitar with tinkly piano and backing female vocals, but I say it still fucking rocks).
Oh, and The Bends. Which reminds me of Supergrass and In It For the Money. And Tegan and Sara's If It Was You, and The Who Sell Out, and ... okay, that's more than a few. And Boom Boom said "one." In that case, I think I'll go with Art and Crawl With Me.
No, wait....
In my youth, I would have to say that some of these ranked as my favourites:
The Kinks - Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Badfinger - No Dice
Pink Floyd - Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon
David Bowie - Hunky Dory, Low, Young Americans, Heroes
Beatles - Rubber Soul, Revolver, Abbey Road
Genesis - Tresspass, Selling England by the Pound, Wind & Wuthering
Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman, Catch Bull at Four, Teaser and the Firecat
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited, Desire, Infidels
The Who - Who's Next, Odds n Sods
Wow. There's some artists in this thread I've never heard of, Art Bergmann for one.
Musicians (living and dead) I listen to a whole lot besides those I listed earlier include Jerry Jeff Walker, The Rascals, Rare Earth, Nanci Griffith, Odetta, the McGarrigle Sisters, Eva Cassidy, Leonard Cohen, Joan Osborne, Tim Hardin, Carole King, Pete Seeger, Gordon Lightfoot, Detroit (with Mitch Ryder), Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, and quite a few others.
"Whole Lotta Love" got Jimmy Page into some trouble with Willie Dixon, as he "forgot" to credit Dixon on the album, and send the cheque for using his song.
Dixon had to sue Zep over copyright infringement. Dixon won.
_______________________________________
Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!
In my youth, I would have to say that some of these ranked as my favourites:
The Kinks - Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Badfinger - No Dice
Pink Floyd - Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon
David Bowie - Hunky Dory, Low, Young Americans, Heroes
Beatles - Rubber Soul, Revolver, Abbey Road
Genesis - Tresspass, Selling England by the Pound, Wind & Wuthering
Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman, Catch Bull at Four, Teaser and the Firecat
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited, Desire, Infidels
The Who - Who's Next, Odds n Sods
laine, you've got to pare that back by two artists and 15 albums. desert island rules say eight discs only.
Of all time....
1. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
2. 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields
3. Closer by Joy Division
Just a few of my favourites, in no particular order.
1. Times they are a Changin', Bob Dylan
2. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco
3. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel
4. I Ain't Marchin' Anymore, Phil Ochs
Oh, and
5. You Forgot it in People, Broken Social Scene
Metallica: And Justice For All
Oh, I also really like "Fear of a Black Planet" by Public Enemy. I only bought it in the last year, but I've always liked a couple of the songs on it. Turns out the whole album is really solid.
I just realized that almost all the musicians whose recordings I regularly listen to are over 60 years old, or dead. The only under-50 musicians I have in my recording collection are Joan Osborne, Rufus Wainwringht, his sister Martha Wainwright, and George Thorogood. I guess I'm officially a geezer!
Yeah, me too. Even stuff that I consider "new" is old by my kids standards.
Although, I do enjoy the White Stripes from time to time, and the odd Moby. And Michael Franti. So, I'm not altogether hopeless.
Thing is though Boom Boom, almost all the new stuff sucks. Being a "geezer" means you like music.
And, btw, George Thorogood is older than I am, and I'm a few months shy of the big five-0.
Book'em Danno, Geezer one.
I listen to Greatest Hits by Sly & The Family Stone often, and have been wondering what happened to the man. Here's what I found:
Funk legend Sly Stone homeless and living in a van in LA
Limiting myself to just one pick, I'd have to go with Yo La Tengo's Electr-O-Pura.
Mockingbird Bible by Rodney DeCroo: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rodneydecroo2
I'm listening to "Blonde On Blonde" again today - I think it's still my Number One pick for Favourite Album Of All Time, although other Dylan albums such as "Nashville Skyline" are very close.
I have a friend coming over from Holland next summer for a road trip in my truck, I'm pretty sure a couple of Dylan albums along with Led Zep II will be on my music collection for the duration.
I'm going to be putting together a compilation of my Road Trip Albums, maybe we can post our lists here for a road trip?
Detroit with Mitch Ryder - out of print, but an awesome album. I saw them do this live in London (Ontario) at Wonderland. Awesome, hard rock.
Two of my favourites go back to my junior high days. Rumors by Fleetwood Mac and Hotel California by the Eagles. I purchase so many cds these days that I don't listen to any one cd very often. I had few albums to listen too in my adolescence and thus listen to them often and had the opportunity to develop them as favourites.
Out of music I have been introduced to as an adult Liege & Lief by Fairport Convention would be near the top of my list along with U2's Joshua Tree album.
I hate the Eagles. Give me Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young any day.
You really are old, crotchety and pissed off.
Rufus Wainwright on Jimmy Fallon tonight! (NBC, 1235 am)
You really are old, crotchety and pissed off.
Well no we are just indicating a preference is all. I'm with Tommy on the Zep albums. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young would be good listening for us as well.
But then again, I've become easily satisfied as I've gotten older. I'm 47 now and running with a rum crowd now and then. My 13 year-old nephew and I like that tune Party Rock ... "is in the house tonight... Everybody have a good time." We seem to connect on that one. The older one digs Zeppelin and Aerosmith. He can play Wish You Were Here and a few more from the Pink Floyd albums. I think it's pretty good. Kids nowadays can appreciate quite a range of music I find.
47! You're still a pup, Fidel.
Every once in awhile, we pull out the old vinyl records. I forgot how much I loved Wing's (Paul McCartney) "Band on the Run" and Stevie Winwood's "Arc of a Diver".
Fidel, I was quoting Boom Boom's signature.
Holy cow.
If I really worked at it I might be able to come up with 10 or 20 favourites.
My list today:
Tonights the Night - Neil Young
My Baby Just cares for Me - Nina SImone
Young Americans (or Ziggy Stardust... it's a toss-up) - David Bowie
Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground
Court and Spark - Joni Mitchell
Who's Next - The Who
Live in Paris - John COltrane
Workingman's Dead - Grateful Dead
Broken English - Marianne Faithfull
Who's to Know - Shankar
Everybody's Talkin' - Fred Neil
Revolver - Beatles
Bass Culture - Linton Kweisi Johnson
Better Git it in Your Soul - Charles Mingus
Nightclubbing - Grace Jones
CLoser - Joy Division
Singles Going Steady - Buzzcocks
Concerto in F Major & Partitas by Bach - Glenn Gould
Open Up and Bleed - The Stooges
Ram - Wings
I was always partial to Judas Priest's 'Screaming for Vengeance' album from 1982.
I've never really owned many albums, although I did have Supertramp's breakfast in america when I was a teenager and played that alot. But if I like an artist I would pretty much take any album they've produced. So, I would take anything from Gordon Lightfoot, Guess Who, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Holly Cole, James Brown, B.B. King, Albert King, Freddie King (also known as the three kings), Tony Rice, Louis Armstrong, Stevie Nicks, JJ Cale, Dr.John...I guess it would be simpler to say anything blues based.
I love the beginning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgT1AidzRWM&feature=BFa&list=AVGxdCwVVULX...
bump bumpitty bump
Just noted I didn't post any of my reggae favourites!
So is music from the 60's and 70's so much better than everything that's come since then, or is this thread simply a reflection of babblers' ages?
Yes.
So is music from the 60's and 70's so much better than everything that's come since then, or is this thread simply a reflection of babblers' ages?
Don't get me wrong; I like a lot of the music that is coming out now. But I can also see why some people might think the edge has been dulled a bit:
Zappa I'm the Slime (on national TV)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEA6oRPSmUA
Fela Kuti ITT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re2JiVd4gT4
The Pop Group - We Are All Prostitutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VnwL4-Ghn0
Nina Simone - Hollis Brown (Dylan)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsyQzLauhqI
Last Poets - Wake Up Niggers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3tzxKoxrM
LKJ - Fite Dem Back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BKN8C9taZg&feature=related
(though given the context of some of these songs, that might be a good thing. It is not exactly fun listening)
I also like Parliament, Funkadelic, and Bootsy Collins, but there's too much of that to list. Also Earth Wind and Fire, all the soul greats, Motown...
Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" remains my all time single favourite album, however. I still listen to it a few times each year, as I have since it was first released. I can't say that about any other album in my collection.
So is music from the 60's and 70's so much better than everything that's come since then, or is this thread simply a reflection of babblers' ages?
I vote for reflection of ages. Given the chance, I would vote that way twice.
@ bagkitty
I don't deny that it is. And I don't actually think that music back then was significantly better - we just remember the good stuff, not the shit.
On the other hand, if the tunes which came up were all current hits, the spectre of age, with a tinge of the pejorative - wouldn't even have been raised, even though it would probably left more people scratching their heads to name the tunes and artists.
Anyone have any current faves they want to name? Please, step up to the plate. I can think of a few in the last 10 years.
Music recorded recently that I like are by Joan Osborne, Perla Batalla, and Nanci Griffith. I brought a new Leonard Cohen album last year and it's okay, not his best.
if the tunes which came up were all current hits, the spectre of age, with a tinge of the pejorative - wouldn't even have been raised, even though it would probably left more people scratching their heads to name the tunes and artists.
Anyone have any current faves they want to name? Please, step up to the plate. I can think of a few in the last 10 years.
There's no tinge of pejorative here either. I'm sincerely curious about whether most people reach a point in their lives where they no longer 'get' - or can't be bothered trying to 'get' - newer music? Or was the music that loosely falls under the umbrella category of 'rock' better in its earlier days. I guess I'm wondering because I find I'm markedly less curious about seeking out new music than I was five years ago - which I never thought would happen.
Considering albums as a whole, (in no particular order) these would be on my best-of list over the last 10 years:
Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea
Go! Team - Thunder, Lighning, Strike
Wax Mannequin - Saxon
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Blonde Redhead - Misery is a Butterfly
The Organ - Grab That Gun
The Sadies - Darker Circles
Robyn - s/t
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Sleater-Kinney - One Beat
The Sadies - In Concert, Volume 1
and just sneaking in under the 10-year mark... Iron Maiden - Rock in Rio
Iron Maiden? Don't make me close this thread, F55...the rest of your selctions save you.
Is it too gauche to say Arcade Fire's Funeral?
This one is 14 years old, but Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane over the Sea basically defined the style Arcade Fire would pick up some ten years later. Other gems in the rock/pop genre from the 2000s include Modest Mouse's The Moon & Antarctica and The Constantines self-titled debut. I also loved The Strokes' Is this it? and The White Stripes' White Blood Cells, but those are rather "obvious."
Current faves, without time constraints:
Modern Lovers - Modern Lovers
The Clash - London Calling
X - Los Angeles
Lou Reed - Transformer
To be honest, I've been playing East German Amiga pressings of 1920s and 30s jazz greats: Sidney Lumet, Tommy Dorsey and Jelly Roll Morton. Do those count as "albums"?
Once they closed my local CD store, I stopped buying albums except for those sold at concerts and music festivals. So when I originally posted, I was thinking old-school albums. Now I mostly download songs as opposed to albums.
Having said that, there is a lot of new music out there that I love. Arcade Fire, Stars, Serena Ryder and Sufjan Stevens among them. I am definitely inclined to purchase Adele's album 21 and on a more local level, I really love the groups Nathan and Weakerthans (as well as Samson's new solo work).
Other talents that I haven't gotten around to purchasing music from are Hey Rosetta!, Great Lake Swimmers, Bon Iver, Goodbye Tanyas and Kathleen Edwards.
The question is, do CDs count as albums?
And that Modern Lovers album is a great one - not only for John Cale's production and piano playing.
Freedom 55. I would think it depends on the person. Some people gravitate to a certain era; others don't. I think it is VERY interesting that so much influence, for good and ill, still comes from popular music that was made almost 50 years ago.
Another important question about good new music is where to FIND it - certainly not on regular media. Anything new and good I run into is either at a music festival, on CBC or community radio, or streaming something from overseas .
Or as Neil Young pointed out (and he's right) youtube is the new radio.
CDs are definitely albums. I'm listening to Bob Dylan at Bukodan on cassette tape right now - I have it on vinyl, cassette, and CD - no difference between them as to content.
Is it too gauche to say Arcade Fire's Funeral?
No more than my choices of Wilco and BSS.
Modest Mouse's The Moon & Antarctica
I chose to limit my picks to 2002-present, but this might even make my top five of all time.
And I stand by my Iron Maiden pick.
Geez - a lot of musicians mentioned here that I've never heard of. If old Bob Dylan albums are good enough for me, he's good enuff for the rest of ye. Harrrumph.
Eddie lives.
More albums that date me:
Dreamboat Annie - Heart (Ann and Nancy Wilson)
Maria Muldaur - Maria Muldaur