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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.
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!
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'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.
"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"
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.
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.
Dixon had to sue Zep over copyright infringement. Dixon won.
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Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!
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