|
Weekend
Edition
June 12 / 13, 2004
CounterPunch's
Favorite Albums
The gound rules were simple: we asked
some of our favorite writers, friends and colleagues to present
a list of their 25 favorite albums recorded since 1950. Only
one entry per artist and no greatest hits collections. Of course,
rules are made to be broken and they were.
Alexander Cockburn, co-editor of CounterPunch
The start of every summer it's
the same. Jeffrey gets one of his lists going and we have to
scratch our heads, trying to go back beyond the day before yesterday,
remembering what we thought was great three decades ago or more.
Twenty-five best albums. At first I read this as just vinyl,
and though the Committee of Public Safety (total membership one,
JSC) says no, CDs are okay, I've stuck mostly with vinyl.
The golden age of vinyl ran
from 1958, when stereo started, to 1964 when various disasters
terminated this pinnacle of recorded sound. From '64, with LPs,
they crammed more time in each side of the record for the "extended
play" feature, which played hell with the sound quality.
They discovered extensive multi-miking. By 1965 they'd gone to
more and more microphones, and then by 1966-67 they'd went from
tube to solid state electronics, mixing boards for 12 or more
microphones, and it was all over. Tubes yielded a purer sound,
much closer to the subtlety and overtones of live music. (All
great things pass. The golden age of gas stoves peaked in l954,
so my friends in Gas Stoves With Style in Eureka tell me. Cars?
'57 or so.) The final step backwards in recorded sound was in
the early 1980s with the advent of digital sound and CDS
In honor of that, let's put
up an LP from Everest, a little hobby label organized by the
Blelock instrument company, whose enterprises ended abruptly
when the principals went to the joint for bilking Uncle Sam:
Mahler's
First, conducted by Adrian Boult. Everest.
I'm one of the last to get
my choices in, but I've been following the lists as they've poured
into our mailbox, and have been astounded to note the absence
of E. Presley. Even Dave Marsh passed him over. Not from
my list, I tell you. Put him up there. "Elvis
Presley", RCA Victor, 1956, though I do love "Elvis,
The Sun Sessions", RCA, 1976, putting together the
Sam Phillips cuts.
The man I think was the greatest
and most versatile of all the rock kings was Little Richard,
and I'd plunge for "Shut
Up", Rhino's collection of rare tracks, '51-'64,
put out in 1988, which takes you from the blues/soul of "Directly
from my heart to you" and "Maybe I'm right" (1953,
minutes before the gas stove went down hill) to the Domino song,
"Every Night Around This Time" (1962), sung when Little
Richard was briefly on the lam from Oakwood Bible College and
fetched up at Al Sound in New York, in a session with the Famous
Upsetters, where he kept his name off the label. The other Little
Richard song I'd rank with it would be "I Don't Know What
You've Got (But It's Got Me)", 1965, which Dave Vest introduced
me to, on an LP I've never been able to find.
I kept thinking, Have to have
Ray Charles and then came the news of his death, right
before Howlin' Wolf's birthday. I don't really know what was
the "best" of Charles' albums. He could sing anything,
even at a Republican convention ('84). I like to play (Scott
tube amplifier/ Recocut turn-table) "Ray
Charles in Person" (Atlantic), the live recording
of a concert he gave in Atlanta, May 28,'59, when the Fifties
finished peaking and the car colors went from desert rose and
turquoise into Vietnam era drab greens and tan metallics). A
great performance of "What'd I Say" and "The Right
Time", with Marjorie Hendricks' ferocious screams,
caught by a single WAOK mike a hundred feet in front of the stage.
The trouble with LP lists is,
they aren't singles, and how can you have the 25 best singles?
I'd change the list every day, even if it was the 1000 Best.
I've spent time recently listening to the Question Marks
singing "Another Soldier Gone", a haunting doo-wop
song from the Korean War off an amazing compilation of 40s and
50s stuff Michael Newman sent us, along with the funniest essay
(his) in CounterPunch's Politics of Anti-Semitism . Okay, Michael
is weird. but he's awfully smart and to prove it, I have
photographs of him on his third dozen of oysters in at the New
Orleans Jazzfest earlier this year.
Howling Wolf is spread across plenty of vinyl albums
and CDs. The Chess remastered vinyl set is indifferent in quality.
I think I'd pick "Howlin' Wolf, I Am The Wolf",
which I have on the Cleo label, with bilingual notes in English
and Dutch ("en de boze doordringende ogen in zijn massieve
hoofd". Yes, you're right: "the angrily burning eyes
in his massive head." The recording catches Howlin' Wolf's
harsh power and the howl he was apparently trying to copy from
Jimmie Rodgers' yodel, most eerily so in "Somebody
Walkin' In My House", also called "Somebody in My Home"
(Chess single, 1957). Yes, I guess we'll put in Robert
Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers (Columbia, 1961).
Aretha Franklin? Of course, but which one? How about
"Spirit
in the Dark", Atlantic, 1970. And since we're in among
the ladies of song, Tammy Wynette, strangely overlooked
by her admirer and erstwhile accompanyist, CounterPuncher Dave
Vest. "D-I-V-O-R-C-E",
Epic, 1967. Moving east if you want to hear Stravinsky not sounding
like movie music, get "The
Firebird", conducted by Valery Gergiev and the
Mariensky orchestra (which used to be the Kirov and we all know
what happened after HE got whacked), (Audio CD) and let's round
this out with Rachmaninoff's
Symphonic Dances, conducted by Donald Johanos and
the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1992, very well transferred
from a Vanguard vinyl lp to CD in the late 1990s by Analog Productions.
But you know, I'm beginning
to flag. This Top 25 business is madness. Cover me, Jasper, I'm
going to run for the woods, scattering decoys for the bloodhounds:
John Coltrane, My
Favorite Things, Atlantic, 1961; Roland Kirk, The
Inflated Tear Atlantic, 1957 Thelonius Monk, Brilliant
Corners, Riverside,1957. Jimmy Cliff's soundtrack
"The
Harder They Come". Randy Newman's Good
Old Boys, Reprise, 1974). The
Chieftains, Claddagh Records, 1969, started by my friend
Gareth Browne, and look where that particular phase of the Celtic
re-re-revival took us. And what about Chris Strachwitz's work
for Arhoolie? Out of a vast trove I pick Clifton Chenier
"Black Snake Blues", Arhoolie, #1038. Stay with
excavation, and try "Estrellas
de Areito", an amazing session of Cuban musicians from
the 1970s, put out as a double CD by World Circuit/ Nonesuch,
1979.
No list of mine is going to
omit The Temptations and Smokey Robinson, particularly
after we heard Smokey in New Orelans this spring. He had the
crowd in the palm of his hand for an hour and there wasn't a
woman in the crowd including my daughter Daisy who wouldn't have
abandoned all for an hour in his arms. A twofer: "The
Temptations Sing Smokey", Gordy, 1965. Leave it with
Harry Smith's three-record Anthology
of American Folk Music, Folkways, 1952. That's around 24
(don't count too close), a double tribute to the duodecimalists,
who fight on valiantly against the filthy metric tide. I'm out
of here. Somebody has to set an example. Many thanks to Pierre
Sprey for input on this, particularly on technical issues. Next
year I vote for ten best ways to cook oxtail. Off-hand I can
think of three.
Jeffrey St. Clair, co-editor of CounterPunch.
Obviously, this list ignores
vast fields of music that I listen to nearly every day: Waylon,
Merle, and Willie, the Stanley Brothers and Bill Monroe, Gram
Parsons, CCR and Bob Seger, Smokey Robinson, Aretha, the Four
Tops, and, most unforgiveably, any gospel whatsoever. There's
no hip-hop, either. I simply don't know enough about rap to judge
most of it. I realize that says a lot about my own tastes
and almost nothing about the music. For me, American music
is all about the blues and jazz--that kind of jazz, beginning
with Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong, which
started as improvised urban blues played by blacks in the brothels
of New Orleans. It proved much easier to select jazz albums than
blues or R&B records, which, until the 60s, mainly produced
singles. Like 5 million other American 6-year-olds in 1965, my
first album was Meet The Beatles, presented to me by my grandmother
Ruth, a child of the Virginia hill country who loved Jimmie Rodgers
and the Delmore Brothers. My other grandmother, Freda, who hailed
from Liverpool, despised the Fab Four, but cherished her Duke
Ellington and Count Basie records, which she played on an elegant
RCA stereo system that was the pride of her living room. My father
grew up in a largely black neighborhood in Indianapolis and developed
a taste for Leroy Carr, St. Louis Jimmy Oden (both did extended
stints in Naptown) and Nat King Cole, whom David Vest claims
Led Zeppelin mined (with power chords) mercilessly. My mother,
raised on an Indiana farm, loved rockabilly and the western swing
of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Not a bad heritage. My rebellion
wasn't against my family's taste in music--though I don't know
what they'd make of Sun Ra or Ornette Coleman. The first album
I recall buying with my own money was Highway 61 Revisited, which
features my favorite Dylan song, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues.
After 35-years of listening, I still have no idea what meaning
is to be found in that account of a strange run to Mexico, if
any. Natural Boogie by Hounddog Taylor and the Houserockers is
the only album I've ever stolen, from my friend Kevin Zirkle,
who was mistreating it and expressing a misguided preference
for the slide work of J.B. Hutto. Zirkle got his revenge. A few
months after we were locked in matrimony and while I was away
fighting the Wizards of Armageddon in DC, Kimberly in a burst
of humanitarianism decided to donate my vinyl collection to a
veterinarian who had spent the greater part of the 70s in Afghanistan:
bye-bye Junior Parker & T-Bone Walker, adieu Magic Sam &
Freddie King, adios Booker T and Luther Allison...I still wince
at the trauma. Cockburn, the Vizier of Vinyl, assures me this
remains valid grounds for annulment, even after, uhm, 23 years
of wedlock...at least in New Orleans and maybe Memphis. I try
my best to retaliate by disappearing every Madonna and U2 cd
I come across, but the equities will never be balanced. I confess
to having Napstered one entire album, Metallica's Live Shit,
which I downloaded solely to goad the band and the music cops
at the RIAA. Bring it on, Lars.
1. Louis Armstrong--Plays
W.C. Handy (1954)
Gene Krupa described the feeling
of playing with Louis Armstrong this way: "It was as if
someone had turned the current on." Yes, Armstrong went
electric 25 years before Muddy Waters and 40 years before Bob
Dylan. And he didn't have to plug in to get that sizzling sound.
He remains the definition of hot, an astonishing blend of speed,
power and precision. In his prime, Armstrong was capable of hitting
300 consecutive Gs above high C. That's just his trumpet playing.
He also possessed one of the most distinctive voices ever recorded
and probably invented scat-singing. Here in his best album of
the 50s Armstrong uses the sophisticated blues compositions of
the maestro from Memphis as a springboard for some of his most
evocative improvisations. See especially the versions of St.
Louis Blues and Yellow Dog Blues. Armstrong revolutionized the
blues, first in New Orleans and then in Chicago, in his own bands
as well as in his blistering solos on numerous Bessie Smith records.
He almost singlehandedly turned a relatively simply form into
a complex and existential art: jazz. In the 1960s, it became
commonplace among certain white liberals and black academics
to dismiss Armstrong as an Uncle Tom. This is heresy. Louis Armstrong
is one of the few musicians of any stature, black or white, who
spoke out publicly on the persistence of racism in America and
the cowardice and complicity of politicians in both the north
and south. In 1957, he called President Eisenhower "gutless"
for his refusal to personally intervene when Gov. Orval Faubus
used the National Guard to prevent 9 black students from enrolling
in Little Rock Central High School. Ike's staff responded by
labeling Armstrong "an ingrate" for attacking the president.
Louis didn't back down. "The way they are treating my people
in the South, the government can go to Hell." In 1965, he
denounced the Selma police for their vicious assault on civil
rights marchers, saying of the cops, "They would beat Jesus
if he was black and marched." For me, Louis Armstrong stands
head and shoulders above any other musician of 20th century.
Or any other century, for that matter.
2. Thelonious Monk--Plays
Ellington (1955)
Monk did to American music
what Picasso did to European painting. Blew it all up and put
it back together in ways no one, except this child of the North
Carolina piedmont, had ever imagined. You might call it beebop,
but Monk refuses be confined to any narrow genre. His idiosyncracies
as a composer and player are a huge part of his genius and why,
try as you might, his fractured, minimalist approach can't be
replicated. Naturally, that quality also made Monk hard as hell
to play with. Miles Davis famously ordered Monk to "lay
out" during his Bag's Groove sessions. But here Monk goes
solo on record for the first time, remolding 8 songs by America's
greatest composer, Duke Ellington. You can hear the old be turned
into something new.
3. Sun Ra--Angels
& Demons at Play / The Nubians of Plutonia (1956)
Music from Saturn, with stops
in Chicago and Montgomery, Alabama. Sun Ra's surreal piano and
organ runs are more than matched by the weird sax phrases of
John Gilmore--think Lester Young on mescaline. At their peak,
those posers Pink Floyd never ventured out nearly as far as Sun
Ra and the Arkestra did on a mere test drive. Parliament came
closest, I guess, but even George and Bootsie couldn't keep up
this kind of pace.
4. Little Richard-The
Georgia Peach: the Speciality Recordings (1957)
No doubt God arises many mornings
wishing he was Little Richard circa 1956. Richard wakes up thanking
God that he's still The Man. So, grab someone close to
you, squeeze tight, jack it all the way up and, as Springsteen
says, drop the needle and play--or is that pray? Don't matter,
much. Richard goes both ways, so to speak.
5. Mongo Santamaria-Afro-Roots
(1958)
Here for your listening and
dancing pleasure are the broiling, erotically-charged beats of
black Cuban music from the master percussionist Mongo Santamaria
and his mesmerizing band, featuring Willie Bobo and Cal Tjader.
Forgo the Buena Vista Social Club, this is the primo stuff, offering
some of the deepest and funkiest grooves ever laid into vinyl.
Santamaria's "Afro-Blue" is a kind of mambo-boogaloo
to plot a revolution by...or at least a seduction. Viva Mongo!
6. Big Maybelle-Blues,
Candy and Big Maybelle (1958)
A fulsome, nuanced and utterly
bewitching blues singer. Imagine Bessie Smith infused with a
hint of rock and roll and a lot of hours priming her voice in
a gospel choir. She's big, bouncy and sexy. Be careful, though,
Maybelle's bite is often fatal.
7. Ornette Coleman-The
Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)
Ornette hatched a new form
of music --free jazz or harmolodics, as he dubbed it--in the
early 60s and he's still extending the frontiers. This album
was the launching pad. Afterwards, there was no looking back.
And no regrets, either.
8. Jimmy Reed-I'm
Jimmy Reed (1959)
I can only understand about
one out of every three words Jimmy Reed sings. But so what? The
blues never grooved like this again. The credit shouldn't all
go to Reed, the Big Boss Man. The infectiousness of much of Reed's
music--he was one of the first black blues artists to find a
white audience--derives from the crunching guitar work of Eddie
Taylor, every bit as talented as luminaries like Albert King.
But unlike King, Taylor never needed to make his point through
protracted soloing.
9. Muddy Waters-Live
at Newport (1960)
Born in a mudfloor shack on
a Delta plantation; a lifelong illiterate; tutored in the blues
by Son House and Robert Johnson; fled to Chicago; went electric;
changed the world. Here America's most powerful singer is propelled
through a compact set by one America's greatest bands. Now, honey,
ain't that a man?
10. Howlin' Wolf-Moanin'
at Midnight (1962)
Where the blues gave birth
to heavy metal. And even AC/DC never played it as hard. Wolf
is the original Axis of Evil, all by his lonesome, awesome self.
When Wolf was 50 years old and weighing close to 300 pounds,
he would close out his shows by singing Smokestack Lightning
while climbing to the top of the stage curtain, where he would
unleash a final howl of triumph at the world of mere mortals
below.
11. James Brown-Live
at the Apollo (1962)
Perhaps only Miles Davis underwent
as many important reinventions as James Brown: from R & B
to rock, soul to funk, leading the pack at each post. But it's
hard to believe the Godfather ever expended as much energy as
he did on this incredible night. Expended it on music,
I mean.
12. Lightnin' Hopkins-Soul
Blues (1964)
There's a story about a Texas
millionaire who spent $50,000 on a custom-made guitar trying
to emulate the sound Hopkins achieves from his $50 axe on this
record. The tycoon never got close and wouldn't have even if
he'd gone down to the crossroads and sold his soul. He didn't
have Lightnin's blazing fingers or his even more agile mind.
Few have ever come close.
13. John Coltrane--Ascension
(1965)
Almost unlistenable. Except
you can't stop listening for fear that the three-sax attack
of Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and Archie Shepp, along with McCoy
Tyner on piano and Elvin Jones on drums, just might be leading
you toward the cusp of a profound religious experience. Apply
Occam's Razor & you won't be disappointed.
14. Bob Dylan-Bringing
It All Back Home (1965)
Slightly overrated as a lyricist;
grossly underrated as a blues singer. Although many would opt
for Elvis, I nominate Dylan as the great white blues singer.
He found his own way into the blues and didn't try to mimic Charley
Patton, Son House or Blind Willie McTell, a fool's quest where
so many other white singers have foundered. This album, Dylan's
answer to the Brit invasion, strikes an impeccable balance between
sound and content. And it rocks, too.
15. BB King-Live
at the Regal (1965)
Simply the best live album
ever made.
16. John Lee Hooker-Real
Folk Blues / More Real Folk Blues (1966)
John Lee probably recorded
more records, under more pseudonyms, than any artist this side
of Lightnin' Hopkins, literally 1000s of cuts across more than
60 years in dozens of studios, coffee houses, garages, and even
a great album taped in an attic. Real Folk Blues, recorded for
Chess and backed by the Lafayette Leake on piano and Fred Below
on drums, is one of JLH's finest, darkest and most overlooked
achievements -- shamefully so. In the late 1980s and early 1990s,
Hooker finally got part of the acclaim he deserved as one of
the four or five most important musicians of his time. But those
albums are deeply marred by star turns from the likes of Carlos
Santana and the preposterous Bonnie Raitt. This lp from the late
sixties burns with rage about the spreading poison of racism
in America and the deepening bloodbath in Vietnam, which Hooker
correctly identified as manifestations of the same machinery
of oppression. If his song "This Land is No One's Land"
doesn't send chills up your spine, then you're already stone
cold. Boogie on, chillun and rest easy, John Lee.
17. Slim Harpo-Hip
Shakin': the Excello Recordings (1967)
Mick Jagger would've offered
his left nut (and may have) to some Tent Show Queen in order
to sing and play the harp like the Bayou-born Slim Harpo. He
never comes close. But who cares? Let Slim scratch your back,
any old time.
18. Miles Davis-A
Tribute to Jack Johnson (1970)
At least 5--and maybe 8 albums--by
Miles belong on this list, but over the past few years this one
has steadily grown to become my favorite, eclipsing Walkin',
Kind of Blue and In a Silent Way. This album isn't fusion, exactly.
It's more like a raucous collision between hard rock and sparse
modal jazz. Miles always wanted to record with Hendrix, but the
guitar god perished before they could agree on a date. (Though
Miles's collaborater Gil Evans later made a strange and beautiful
recording of Hendrix
songs). In a way, this album is as much a tribute to Hendrix
as it is to the boxer Jack Johnson. But it's hard to imagine
that even Hendrix could've added much to these sessions. The
two guitarists Miles works with here, John McLaughlin and the
neglected Sonny Sharrock, are both technically more proficient
than Hendrix and more inventive and disciplined players. And
Hendrix never rocked any louder. This may be both the most innovative
rock and jazz album ever recorded--top that.
19. Sly and the Family Stone-There's
a Riot Goin' On (1971)
Sonic proof that the 60s, and
the ecumenical utopianism of Sly's Stand!,
were over and an age of darkness was descending, from which we
still haven't emerged. Unfortunately, neither has Sly. We need
him back. Now more than ever.
20. Clifton Chenier-Bogalusa
Boogie (1975)
The king of zydeco and swamp
blues presides over a scorching set of songs recorded in a single
afternoon, most in one take. Clifton fronts a brilliant band
as integrated as the music itself (the Stone Family of the Bayou?),
featuring the fabulous John Hart on sax and a young Sonny Landreth
on guitar. Now everybody: Ti Na Na, all the way home.
21. The Clash--London
Calling (1979)
"When they knock down
your front door, how you gonna come? With your hands on your
head or on the trigger of your gun?" Still an open question.
22. Prince--Sign
o' the Times (1987)
Funk, Marsha Cusic says, is
a class issue. Here the lineage goes from James Brown to Miles
Davis to Sly Stone back to Miles forward to Stevie Wonder and
on to Prince. This album stands as the final statement in the
genre. So far.
23. Don Byron-Tuskeegee
Experiments (1992)
The famous fraud Ken Burns
perpetrated the myth that jazz expired in the early 1960s. The
gifted young clarinetist Don Byron is just the latest to shatter
this outlandish lie. This album, his first, is an hypnotic brew
of funk, hip hop, and hard bop, interwoven with strands of Schumann,
yes, that Schumann. Tuskeegee Experiments stands as one
of the most dramatic leaps forward in improvised music since
Miles Davis laid the groundwork for hiphop in On
the Corner.
24. Otis Taylor-Respect
the Dead (2002)
The blues lives, breathes and
seethes in...yes...the mountains of Colorado.
25. Robert Bradley and Blackwater
Surprise-New
Ground (2002)
I guess Prince wasn't the final
word in funk, after all.
Bruce Jackson,
SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor
of American Culture at University at Buffalo, edits the web journal
BuffaloReport.com.
He is the author of "Wake Up Dead Man: Hard Labor and Southern
Blues" and "Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like
Me":Narrative Poetry from Black Oral Traditon".
When this began I thought we
were doing those 12"-diameter round black things that you
put on turntables and gently dropped an arm with a needle on
and you could turn them over and play the second side of, but
before I finished compiling my list I saw people posting 4.5"
silvery disks that did everything in places where we could see
nothing. The category is now so big I'm exhausted thinking about
the options. Here are 25, beginning with what may be the first
LP to have had
multiple overdubs.
1. Les Paul & Mary Ford
: Les
Paul's New Sound vol. 2 (1951)
2. Chet Baker: Chet
Baker Sings (1954)
3. Jackie Gleason: Music
for Lovers Only (1955)
4. Clifford Brown: Study
in Brown, (1955)
5. Victoria de los Angeles:
Five Centuries of Spanish Songs (1955)
6. Mahalia Jackson: Newport
(1958)
7. Frank Sinatra: Only
the Lonely (1958)
8. Max Roach Trio Featuring
the Legendary Hassan (1964)
9. Skip James Today!
(1964)
10. Bob Dylan: Bringing
It All Back Home (1965)
11. Leonard Cohen: Songs
of Leonard Cohen (1967)
12. Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic
Pillow (1967)
13. Janis Joplin, Big Brother
and the Holding Company: Cheap
Thrills (1968)
14. Pink Floyd: A
Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
15. Moody Blues: Days
of Future Passed (1968)
16. Van Morrison: Astral
Weeks, (1968)
17. Jacques Brel--Jacques
Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (1969)
18. Cat Stevens: Tea
for the Tillerman (1970)
19. Carole King: Tapestry
(1971)
20. Bruce Springsteen: Born
to Run (1975)
21. Tom Waits, Small
Change (1976)
22. Deep Purple, Perfect
Strangers 1984
23. Dire Straits, Alchemy
Live 1984
24. Jerry Jeff Walker: Great
Gonzos 1991
25. Charlie Haden & Pat
Metheny, Beyond the Missouri Sky 1997
Dave Marsh
is co-editor of Rock &
Rap Confidential and author of Two
Hearts: the Definitive Biography of Bruce Springsteen.
This is ridiculously small
for "greatest." I can only say "favorites."
Records to which I return continually. (E.g, do I really think
Tauhid is "better" than any John Coltrane recording?
No, but Tauhid is the one I listen to more.) And also very unresearched,
off the top of my head. Not because that's what the project "deserves,"
but because of short notice and no monetary incentive to sit
down and really puzzle it out.
You should do singles though
because you will fail to recognize many great pieces of music
and artists, especially black artists and women artists, if you
cite only albums. You will, for instance, have to live without
"Bacon Fat" and "Greasy Chicken."
These are in nothing like rank
order:
1. Marvin Gaye, What's
Goin' On?.
2. Bob Dylan, Highway
61 Revisited
3. Miles Davis, In
a Silent Way
4. Otis Redding, Dictionary
of Soul
5. Bruce Springsteen, The
River
6. Curtis Mayfield and the
Impressions, The
Young Mods' Forgotten Story
7. Muddy Waters, The
Best of Muddy Waters
8. James Brown Live
at the Apollo
9. Dorothy Love Coates, The
Best of Dorothy Love Coates and the Original Gospel Harmonettes
10. Sly and the Family Stone,
Stand!
11. The Rolling Stones, Beggars
Banquet
12. The Who, The
Who Sell Out
13. Sam Cooke, Live
at the Harlem Square Club
14. Pharaoh Sanders, Tauhid
15. Ted Hawkins, The
Next Hundred Years
16. The MC5, Kick
Out the Jams
17. The Temptations, The
Temps Sing Smokey
18. Public Enemy, It
Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
19. Magic Sam, West
Side Soul
20. N.W.A, Straight
Outta Compton,
21. Van Morrison, Moondance,
22. Jackson Browne, The
Pretender
23. Iris Dement, The
Way I Should
24. The Paul Butterfield Blues
Band, The
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
25. Patty Griffin, Flaming
Red
There are at least 15 possible
reasons to hate my self in the morning, here.
Susan Davis
teaches at the University of Illinois and is a contributor to
CounterPunch's new book on music, art and sex, Serpents in the
Garden.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience,
Are
You Experienced? (1967, MCA)
I still remember where I was
when I first heard it. The top of my head lifted off.
Kindred Spirits: A
Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash (2002, Lucky Dog/Sony)
A great cover album, in which
14 artists, including Hank Williams Jr., Travis Tritt, Bruce
Springsteen and Bob Dylan show they understand their man. one
track to skip: Keb Mo's cleaned up version of "Folsome Prison
Blues." Mr. Moore, you have some nerve.
Chulas Fronteras Tex
Mex Classics (a compilation of traditional Tex-Mex and Norteno
music.) (1976, rerelease by Arhoolie)
The soundtrack to Les Blank's
1976 movie of the same name introduced but's some of the great
San Antonio and South border musicians to a big gringo audience.
Flaco Jimenez, (all
kinds of albums from the 1970s and early 1980s, many on local
labels, some out-of-print).
Way before the Texas Tornadoes.
If you can listen to Flaco without dancing, you may be dead.
Jimenez is from a family of Texas Mexican accordion players.
His early party albums made for his San Antonio audience proved
accordions are not just for summer camp and polkas are well-played
outside upstate New York. Blank's film features charismatic Flaco
in performance.
Dwight Yoakam, Guitars,
Cadillacs, and Hillbilly Music. (1986, Warner Bros.)
"It won't hurt when I
fall off this barstool..." When the neighbor kids are bothering
us, we turn up the volume.
Bruce Springsteen, The
River (1980, Columbia)
Indelible.
Delbert McClinton, Nothing
Personal (2001, New West).
Almost makes you wish you'd
worked in Texas roadhouse bars for 40 years, but not quite. McClinton
still plays country fair gigs, so see him live if you can.
Bob Dylan, Bringing
It All Back Home.
He Did. But check out his more
recent return British Isles and American folk music on "Good
As I Been to You" (1992), and "World Gone Wrong"
(1993).
Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield,
Buddy Miles, Otis Span and Muddy Waters: Fathers
and Sons.(1972, MCA)
Incompetent, opportunistic
white rockers meet the blues Godhead. On a relisten, it's just
awful. But even Duck Dunn's right-on-the-beat drumming can't
ruin the joy of hearing Muddy Waters in fabulous voice, singing
some of his biggest hits. There are much better Waters albums,
but like an idiot I gave mine away to a vinyl collector.
June Carter Cash, Press
On (1999, Risk Records)
If you think autoharps are
for kindergarten teachers, or if you just need to sit down and
have a good cry. This was her second to last album, looking toward
death. The liner notes alone are worth the price, as are a few
songs describing her New York "rock-and-roll years"
when she opened for Elvis, before she met Cash. Beautiful versions
of "Ring of Fire" and "Far Side Banks of Jordan."
Ralph Stanley / Ralph
Stanley (2002, Columbia)
Carter is dead, Ralph is in
the Primitive Baptist church, super instrumentalists, including
Norman Blake, are sitting in behind Stanley's ballads and traditional
songs. It's not the 1950s Stanley Brothers sound, but it's great.
Buddy Guy, Damn
Right I've Got the Blues (1991, Silvertone)
I've always liked Buddy Guy
since I saw him play folk festivals in the 1960s, refusing to
de-electrifying or dress his band like folkies. Naturally, he
would get the 1 a.m. concert slots, and he seemed acid raw. It's
hard to pick a best Buddy Guy album, but this one came along
and brought back a lot of memories.
Little Feat, Waiting
for Columbus (1977, Warner Bros.)
How we learned that "Juanita"
rhymes with "torpedo."
Ry Cooder, Chicken
Skin Music (1976, Warner Bros.)
Cooder always ventured out
beyond and back, into country, folk, soul, Hawaiian slack key
and Caribbean. If you need extra proof that accordions can more
than hold their own, Jimenez is on this one, too. nice Leadbelly
covers.
Dr. John, Gumbo
(1972, Atco)
Relatively young Dr. John plays
a lot of traditional New Orleans Jazz on "Gumbo," including
"Junco Partner" and a great version of Professor Longhair's
"Tipitina." Be careful if driving.
Professor Longhair, Crawfish
Fiesta (1980, Alligator).
Late Longhair. Party music,
in a partly-live party setting. Listening to this will make you
realize that you can't explain what rhythm is, but it sure is
fun to wonder about. My favorite is an instrumental, "Willie
Fugal's Blues."
Roscoe Holcomb, High
Lonesome Sound (1961, 1964, 1974, compiled and rereleased
by Smithsonian Folkways, 1998)
Foundational for Mike Seeger
and lots of other good banjo players. For when you want the teenagers
to leave you and the house to yourself.
Al Green, Still
in Love with You (1972, Capitol)
People fight about which is
the greatest Al Album, but it's hard to top "For the Good
Times." No place for videos on this list, but if you want
to see Green in action check out Bob Mugge's "The Gospel
According to Al Green." Unless you're prone to conversion
experiences.
Gillian Welch, Revival
(1996, Almo Sounds)
Welch has a great but completely
cultivated Appalachian-sounding voice, and with her partner David
Rawlings, writes pretty songs. But for the real thing check out.....
Hazel Dickens, Hard-hitting
Songs for Hard-hit People (1980, Rounder)
A working-class feminist refresher
course in old-time music, Kentucky and West Virginia style. "Busted"
packs a new whallop sung by Hazel.
Van Morrison, Back
on Top.(1999, Pointblank)
He Is.
The Blazers, Puro
Blazers. (2000, Rounder)
Puro East Los Angeles folk-roots-rock-cumbia.
Ron Jacobs
is author of The
Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground,
which is being republished by Verso, and a contributor to Serpents
in the Garden, CP's forthcoming book on music, art and sex.
In no particular order, here
is my go at my favorite albums since 1950. Of course, this list
changes almost daily, but what follows is a fairly representative
listing of my perennial favorites.
Bonnie Raitt--Bonnie Raitt
This self-titled first album
by this lady of the blues is a straightforward blues recording
that features songs by Stephen Stills, Sippie Wallace, and Robert
Johnson (among others). It was recorded in a garage on a four-track
and features what I consider Raitt's best band.
John Coltrane--My Favorite
Things
A great example of everything
Coltrane. A standard reworked and sonic walls of sheer ecstasy.
Grateful Dead-Europe '72
This three-disc album is a
little bit of everything that the Grateful Dead ever did. Cool
versions of Hank Williams tunes and blues standards along with
psychedelic blasts of lightning and thunder all mixed in with
those songs that the Dead write that sound like they've always
been around. Pigpen's last blast before his premature death.
Patti Smith-Horses
This is what poetry should
be. This is what rock and roll should be.
Bob Dylan-John Wesley Harding
Apocalypse accompanied by a
six-string and an awesome bunch of Nashville musicians. The
lyrics to Armageddon are the lyrics on this album.
Miles Davis--In A Silent Way
Listening to this album is
like smoking really good hashish. It relaxes the most high-strung
person. I've used it to put crying babies to sleep.
Brother Jack McDuff-Down Home
Style
This man can play the Hammond
organ. The sounds here are funky and cry for hot sultry weather,
a cold beer and greasy food for accompaniment.
Bruce Springsteen-The Wild,
The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle
Bruce and his band right before
they went nationwide. The stories on this album are about New
York City and its Jersey neighbors. The best pieces here are
the rocker "Kitty's Back" and the story-song "Incident
On 57th Street," but there is not a bad song on the disc.
Besides, what other rock album can you hear a tuba to end one
side and an autoharp to end the other?
The Beatles-The White Album
The Beatles could have never
recorded another album and it wouldn't have mattered. This one
is too good. (I'm glad they continued for a couple more, though).
Curtis Mayfield-Superfly
This album didn't need a movie,
although the film is fun to watch. Curtis and his crew sing
beautifully about the ugly world of the dealer's streets.
Sly and the Family Stone-Stand!
Sly Stone and his East Bay
crew bring their infectious sound to the world of racism and
the power of the people. The optimism obvious in some of the
songs is tempered by the reality of "Don't Call Me Nigger,
Whitey." Unfortunately, the optimism would be short-lived
for Sly and the rest of us.
The Temptations-Anthology
Yes, this is a greatest hits
collection, but, hey, the second CD in this box kicks out the
funk. From "Cloud Nine" to "Papa Was A Rolling
Stone" to "Psychedelic Shack," this CD is the
perfect sound for your house party.
Nirvana-Nevermind-Kurt Cobain
was just a punker that knew how to write. His infectious hooks
and cryptic lyrics were just what the doctor ordered in the early
1990s. After seeing the band live at clubs and dorm parties
in Olympia, WA., I wondered how the music would sound on CD.
It sounds different, but it still kicks.
Joni Mitchell-Hejira
Joni's music heads further
down the jazzy road she first began exploring in "Court
and Spark." However, on this disc, she gets even more avant-garde.
The title means "flight" and she sings a song about
Amelia Earhart. There's also a tune about that great trickster,
coyote and a tribute to the bluesman Furry Lewis.
Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris-Grievous
Angel
This album would be on this
list even if it only included the title song. Fortunately, it
includes several other harmonious gems backed by a band that
includes Elvis Presley's best guitarist ever, James Burton.
The Clash-Supermarket Clash
EP
This is when The Clash begin
to incorporate ska and reggae beats into their music. The dub
of "Bankrobber" is the highlight of the album. Unfortunately,
it is not available on the CD remake of the EP, known as Super
Black Market Clash.
Bob Marley and the Wailers-Live!
Marley and his Wailers are
able to put down on vinyl the energy, music and emotion of their
live show and they do it all in forty-five minutes. Irie!
Willie Nelson-Red Headed Stranger
Willie's warbling voice finally
gets a listen. This story of love gone wrong is classic country
song stuff, but Willie's telling is in a category of its own.
His fingerpicking completes the effect.
Firesign Theatre-How Can You
Be In Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere At All?
The first side is "The
People's History of the United States" as comedy and the
second side featuring Nick Danger, The Third Eye, is the best
noir this side of Ralph Spoilsport Motors.
Chuck Berry-The Great 28
Oops, another greatest hits
collection. Where else can you get such tunes as "Maybellene,"
"Sweet Little Sixteen," and "Johnny B. Goode,"
all on the same disc?
Rolling Stones-Beggar's Banquet
Back when Mick and the boys
threw their lot in with the revolution. Hell, Brian Jones even
made it onto this album some, along with Ry Cooder and Nicky
Hopkins. My revolutionary buddies and I raised many a glass
to the chorus of the Stones' paean to working men and women,
"Salt of the Earth."
Seldom Scene-Old Train-
John Duffey was at least six
feet tall and 200 pounds. He held the mandolin up near his chest
and picked it in a style that respectfully went beyond Bill Monroe.
This band hails from the DC area and I spent some of my best
times in that area listening to them at the Birchmere or some
festival somewhere in the mountains nearby. Their version of
Hank Williams' "Pan-American Highway" is a religious
experience.
Hank Williams-Alone With His
Guitar-
This CD of old acetates is
Hank the Father in the raw. Just like he must have sounded back
in the early days. Pure country guitar licks and that voice
that rips out your heart and lays it next to his on the table
by the six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Jimi Hendrix/Otis Redding-Live
at Monterey Pop
I will always remember the
first time I heard this album. I was walking through Thomas
Circle in Washington, DC after a night of partying with the Yippies
and out of a top window came the sound of Jimi singing Bob Dylan's
"Like A Rolling Stone." I opened the door and went
up the stairs to the apartment from whence the song came. I
knew the occupants from hanging out in College Park, MD. They
let me in and I listened to the entire album twice before they
kicked me out. I still get a bit of that old flashback when
I hear any thing from this short, incredible work by two of America's
greatest musicians.
Bill Kauffman
is the author of Dispatches from the Muckdog
Gazette (Henry Holt/Picador)
1. The Beach Boys--Pet
Sounds (1966)
Sad, lovely music by regionalists
who made myth of the sands beneath their feet.
2. The Velvet Underground and
Nico--The
Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
Yeah, I know, but I like it.
3. Mark Lindsay---Arizona
and Other States of Mind (1970)
Raiders' singer covers easy-listening
pop tunes; hypnotic.
4. Gram Parsons--Grievous
Angel (1974)
Parsons called it "Cosmic
American Music."
5. Nick Lowe--Pure
Pop for Now People (1978)
That hungry little dachshund!
6. Graham Parker--Squeezing
Out Sparks (1979)
The most pissed-off of the
era's Angry Young Men and a superb lyricist withal. This album,
Parker's masterwork, contains the stunning anti-abortion song
"You Can't Be Too Strong."
7. The Clash--The
Clash (1979)
The best punk album.
8. Neil Young--Live
Rust (1979)
Play "Powderfinger"
at 160 decibels and yowl along. Contra my favorite Confederate
longhairs, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Southern men--hell, all of us--DO
need Old Neil around: he's an isolationist whose father wrote
hockey novels for kids. Young's latest, Greendale (2003), is
also outstanding.
9. X--Los
Angeles (1980)
L.A. punk was far superior
to the Faberge eggs laid by the slumming rich kids and art students
of Manhattan.
10. Iron City Houserockers--Have
a Good Time (But Get Out Alive)
(1980)
A working-class hero is something
to be.
11. Human Switchboard--Who's
Landing in My Hangar? (1981)
In this town/Buildings forget
their names...
12. Bruce Springsteen--Nebraska
(1982)
Bruce at the abyss. Then he
married a model and bought the mansion on the hill.
13. Dwight Twilley--Scuba Divers
(1982)
Pop so lush it makes "A
Summer Place" sound like John Cage.
14. Danny & Dusty--The
Lost Weekend (1985)
Greatest drinking album ever
made.
15. John Mellencamp--Scarecrow
(1985)
A tad earnest, but it has heart.
William Jennings Bryan rocks!
16. The Rainmakers--Rainmakers
(1986)
Straight outta the State of
Misery.
17. Bart Dentino and Kevin
Huber--I Wish I Was a Dinosaur (1987)
Children's music that is fun,
innocent, never cloying; give these
guys a good distribution deal and they'd kick Raffi's ass.
Alan Maas
is the editor of Socialist
Worker and an excellent writer on music.
1. Charlie Parker and Dizzy
Gillespie: Jazz at Massey Hall
You can find albums with a
better collection of Bird's compositions, but for the spirit
of the bop revolution and sheer supersonic velocity, this is
as good as they come.
2. Charles Mingus: Mingus Ah
Um
Sharp angles, lurching rhythms,
edgy, clashing harmonies, Mingus' bass elbowing the loiterers
along. Also totally infectious and unforgettable.
3. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
It's always on these lists
for a reason. Miles Davis comes into the studio with the sketchiest
outlines for five songs, and the band--John Coltrane, Cannonball
Adderly, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb--pretty much
records them without rehearsal in one take. So how could every
last phrase be packed with beauty and meaning? QPTGAOAT (Quite
Possibly The Greatest Album Of All Time).
4. Bob Dylan: The Times They
Are A-Changin'
The songs on this album convey
more in a few verses than a lot of books. Should be assigned
listening in all modern American history classes, in place of
those wretched textbooks. QPTGAOAT.
5. Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited
Midpoint in the greatest one-two-three
punch in rock 'n' roll history. It's a close call with Bringing
It All Back Home and Blonde on Blonde, but I think this one is
the most interesting musically.
6. Beatles: Revolver
As the darkness of Paul McCartney's
corrupt soul is revealed year by year, I'm less able to tolerate
any Beatles album in totality, but I'm picking my favorite for
old time's sake--and because no one ever thought of albums the
same way after.
7. Johnny Cash: Live at San
Quentin
Debs said that as long as there
was a criminal element, he was of it, and Johnny Cash played
San Quentin. And Rocked.
8. Sly and the Family Stone:
Stand!
Euphoric, irresistible, uplifting,
hopeful...what else? Words fail, but that's fine in this case.
9. John Lennon: Sometime in
New York City
Lennon's attempt to break the
mold with music that was as topical as the daily newspaper--and
unjustly dismissed as "too political" as a result.
10. Stevie Wonder: Innervisions
Stevie Wonder could have kept
churning out the Motown-style pop hits, but he added another
dimension, musically and lyrically, on albums like Innervisions
with songs about the consequences of the 1960s dream deferred.
11. Bruce Springsteen: Born
to Run
Ordinary lives and dreams,
set to soaring music and intoxicated, word-crazy poetry. I'd
never be able to pick between this one and its brooding sequel,
Darkness on the Edge of Town, except that Born to Run will never
be topped during the first warm days of spring. QPTGAOAT.
12. Peter Tosh: Equal Rights
A relentlessly political and
angry manifesto from one of the less well-known giants of reggae
and rival to Marley.
13. The Clash: The Clash
Razor-edged blasts at overblown
rock pretension and cultural reaction--not to mention racist
bigotry, corporate greed, government repression and everything
else rotten in the state of capitalism. There were more great
Clash albums to come, but it's hard to remember what I liked
about music before I heard "Complete Control."
14. Neil Young: Rust Never
Sleeps
When Neil is firing on all
cylinders (which comes and goes), he's a wonder--especially here,
where you get acoustic grace on one side, and electric Crazy
Horse-backed mayhem on the other.
15. Gang of Four: Entertainment!
Art-school Marxists expound
on surplus value, alienation and historical materialism--with
a stuttering, shrieking, transcendent guitar and jerky punk-funk
beat to highlight the main points.
16. Archie Shepp: Trouble in
Mind
This album of blues or blues-derived
tunes from one of the great tenor saxophonists in jazz is a duo
with pianist Horace Parlan, with all but one song set at an achingly
slow tempo, the better to pack its punch.
17. Rickie Lee Jones: Pirates
Sure, a great voice, but the
songwriting sets this album apart from your Sheryl Crows, Norah
Joneses, etc.--jazz and soul-influenced music and great storytelling.
18. XTC: English Settlement
Months spent in the studio
to produce these intensely crafted pop songs, which turn out
to be about arms control, the rise of the National Front, racial
tolerance and, uh, building preservation and Greek mythology...as
well as snowmen.
19. X: More Fun in the New
World
It should be remembered as
one of the milestones of American songwriting, but it got filed
under "Unlistenable (punk)" and forgotten. "The
facts we hate will never hear us." Sure feels that way sometimes.
QPTGAOAT.
20. Prince: Sign 'o' the Times
A sprawling encyclopedia of
modern popular music and an appropriately apocalyptic soundtrack
for the Reagan era, served up by a regular force of nature.
21. Public Enemy: It Takes
a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Passionate, unrepentant, laser-sharp
politics, with a ferocious sound behind every line. I don't know
enough about hip-hop, but this album is a standout for me. QPTGAOAT.
22. Pixies: Doolittle
The indie rock tide's been
out for a hell of a long time, leaving this weird, noisy outburst
at the high water mark, casting its shadow over what came after.
23. Nirvana: Nevermind
Alright, so maybe this tidal
wave washed over the high water mark. A punk album gone multi-platinum,
and overshadowed by the hype and tragedy that followed, but don't
forget what it was like when you first heard "Smells Like
Teen Spirit."
24. Bruce Springsteen: The
Ghost of Tom Joad
No popular musician that I
can think of has ever told more compelling and fully drawn stories
than this album--and they're about the have-nots of society,
whose stories never get told. This mostly acoustic album is as
quiet as they get, but it grips like a vise.
25. Wilco and Billy Bragg (and
Woody Guthrie): Mermaid Avenue
An excellent excuse to claim
Woody Guthrie for the second half of the 20th century, and with
a double album to boot. Woody left the lyrics behind--as entrancing
as anything you'll hear today--and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and Billy
Bragg contributed the tunes.
Plus...a few latter-day candidates
for squeezing onto the list with a smidgen more hindsight:
P.J. Harvey: Stories from the
City, Stories from the Sea OutKast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Wilco: A Ghost Is Born (from the Department of I've Downloaded
the Pre-Release MP3s of the Future of Rock and Roll and It's
Name Is...)
Ben Tripp
is a screenwriter, cartoonist and writes political satire for
CounterPunch. His new book, Square in the Nuts, will be published
this summer.
Wilhelm Furtwangler--Bayreuth
recording of Beethoven's 9th Symphony
Also his version of Bruckner's
8th
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
With Thelonious Monk
Miles Davis-- Bitches' Brew
you can hear the ideas, the
newness of it, even today... was tied with Herbie Hancock's 'Head
Hunters' but Miles got there first
Django Reinhardt--Djangology
three fingers, a million notes
John Barry-- Thunderball
his best outburst, also the
title song is so masculine, so muscular, it's almost gay
Jimi Hendrix--Experience Hendrix
normally I dislike compilations
but this one gets much of his best stuff in and leaves out most
of the 'wasted black guy with doin' it for the money white guys
behind him' stuff, ie whatever the 'classic rock' stations will
play
Frank Zappa--Freak Out
this album brilliantly transitions
from tinkly pop ballads into the biggest, hairiest acid trip
anybody ever had; also defined the American zeitgeist with such
insight that it remains the definitive work on the subject
Herbert W. Zoozman--They Came
In Outer Space
movie soundtrack, music and
words-- I did some of the voices, so I'm biased
Digital Underground--Sex Packets
the most fun ever had making
a recording
Jefferson Airplane--Bless Its
Pointed Little Head
one soul-crushing bong hit
from one end to the other
Glenn Gould--The Goldberg Variations
1981 version pales the 1955
The Eagles--Hotel California
I know, I know, fuck you too,
I was 10 years old and my beloved dyke children's book illustrator
friend Trina Schart Hyman sent it to me in the mail and it knocked
my grimy, mismatched socks off
New York Dolls -- New York
Dolls
eponymous album-- goes great
with bourbon and smack
Violent Femmes--Violent Femmes
also eponymous-- art school
classic tied with Talking Heads' 'Stop Making Sense', but the
Femmes could actually play
Thelonious Monk -- Straight,
No Chaser
John Coltrane--Complete Africa
Brass
oft overlooked but gigantic
stuff
John Williams--Star Wars soundtrack
the actual movie version, not
one of the 500 re-recordings
The Beatles--Revolver
John Lennon and Paul McCartney
had something to do with it
David Bowie--Ziggy Stardust
no idea if it has any merit,
but this album got me laid many times, or maybe it was my immense
schlong, and the album just happened to be on; in any case it
pleases me
Max Steiner-- King Kong
the first continuous movie
score and one of the greatest
Ry Cooder--Paris, Texas
annoying tracks of dialogue
from the movie cannot stop the sheer parched-earth minimal rawness
of that slide guitar
Philip Glass--Koyaanisqatsi
try this one on heroin
George Hoffnung--Interplanetary
Music Festival
I can't remember which 1950's
recording of his concerts is best, but one of these is so funny
I think I actually peed my pants
Prince -- Purple Rain
again, got laid with this one,
but not by Prince.. was tied with Depeche Mode's 'People Are
People' for the same reason... it was the 80's, it was a desert,
go to hell.
David Vest writes
the Rebel Angel column for CounterPunch and plays keyboards in
the Paul De Lay Band. He and his band, The Willing Victims, just
released a scorching new CD, Way
Down Here. He is also a contributor to CP's new book,
Serpents in the Garden.
No dates, people. These are
timeless.
John Lee Hooker -- I'm
John Lee Hooker
Stove and coal bucket on the
cover, white sports coat on the back, and nothing but the truth
inside.
Little Richard -- Here's
Little Richard
Has any album ever had the
impact this one had? Sure, you'd do better buying a compilation
now, especially the fine "Specialty Sessions" box set,
but this was the one people wore out and went on playing till
all you heard was needle grind.
Mahalia Jackson -- Great
Getting Up Morning
Her greatest Columbia recording,
and naturally the one they haven't re-released. "Just to
Behold His Face" and "Journey to the Sky" will
knock you to your knees, whether you believe anything or not.
Five Blind Boys of Alabama
-- O
Lord Stand By Me
One of two or three albums
I couldn't live without. If you haven't heard Clarence Fountain
in full high scream, you haven't understood James Brown.
Earl Palmer -- The
World's Greatest Drummer, Ever
Yes, it's a compilation, bringing
together 30 of the greatest tracks the legendary Palmer has played
on, from "I'm Walkin'" to "La Bamba" and
"Rockin' Robin."
Gene Vicent / Gene
Vincent Rocks, the Blue Caps Roll /a Record Date
Eddie Cochran joins the Blue
Caps to play bass and sing the bottom harmony parts for his pal
Gene on Vincent's last great album. All the latter-day fawning
over Cliff Gallup, Vincent's original guitarist, who'd rather
have been playing square dances, seems misplaced when you hear
the great Johnny Meeks rock out. And you get the definitive rock
versions of "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "You
Belong to Me."
Bill Black's Combo -- Solid
and Raunchy
One of the last great live
bands to consistently put rock instrumentals of the charts. Simple
but irresistible.
Jesse Winchester -- Learn
To Love It
Songs written from conscientious
exile in Canada during the Vietnam War. "Tell Me Why You
Like Roosevelt" is a masterpiece (and he TELLS you why:
"Good god in heaven, that's the poor man's friend").
Bob Dylan -- Slow
Train Coming
Sinead O'Connor is right, this
is the one. I first heard this album in Florence, Italy, sitting
in a bathtub. Two of my old band-mates, Barry Beckett and Ronnie
Eades, shine, and you get some of Dylan's best vocals.
Etta James -- At
Last
Best string arrangements ever
heard on an R&B album? Damned close, if you ask me.
Mary Black -- Babes
in the Wood
Perhaps the most intelligent
singer, doing songs worthy of her attention. I played this CD
ten times through before I even paid attention. Black never oversings.
The power held in reserve is brought out only when the song requires
it. Great (also understated) guitar by produced Declan Synott,
and piano player Pat Crowley is one of my favorites.
The Byrds -- Turn
Turn Turn
One album which doesn't make
us all look so stupid and sentimental for over-rating the Sixties.
Jimmy T99 Nelson -- Rockin'
and Shoutin' the Blues
Comeback of the (previous)
century, and still going strong by all reports.
Thelonious Monk -- Thelonious
Monk Trio
Contains the neglected masterpiece,
"Work," and the actual genuine correct melody for "Blue
Monk" which most horn players seem never to haveheard.
Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time
Changes
The best, and of course the
most neglected and hard-to-find, of Brubeck's "time experiment"
albums. Includes "The World's Fair" in 13/4 and the
long orchestral title piece, in which Brubeck seems to be channeling
Sun Ra at times.
Modern Jazz Quartet, Django
John Lewis. Connie Kay. Milt
Jackson. Percy Heath. The group that made civilization seem actually
attainable now and then.
Eric Dolphy, Out
There
One listen to the title track
and you'll know how far we are from anywhere.
Lafayette Leake, Easy
Blues
Maybe I'm crazy, and I know
how great Otis Spann was and how cool Joe Willie Perkins is,
but this is the Chicago piano player I seem to like best.
Katie Webster, Two
Fisted Mama
The greatest boogie-woogie
piano player living? While she was alive, it may have been Saint
Katie.
The Velvet Underground, The
Velvet Underground and Nico
I can't think of any reason
why anyone should like this album, except that no one seems to
be able to make a better one.
Leonard Cohen, Ten
New Songs
The old master slid this one
into the market like a thief in the night, in a generic looking
cover with a complete absence of hype. Find me a better song
than "Alexandra Leaving."
Elisabeth Schwartzkopf, Strauss:
Four Last Songs/12 Orchestral Songs
One of the greatest recorded
vocal performances in any genre.
John Lewis, Bach's
Preludes and Fugues, v. 2
Not for everyone, he made sure
of that.
Ornette Coleman, Skies
of America
The "change of the century"
and the "shape of things to come" in a titanic duel
with the London Philharmonic. The musical equivalent of the Grand
Canyon.
The Gospel At Colonus, featuring the Five Blind Boys of
Alabama and The Soul Stirrers (and the incredible Sam Butler
on guitar and vocals).
Just to break the rules, one
soundtrack. Two versions of it were
released, the first was better. If anyone has the video, I want
it,
Jesse Walker is
managing editor of Reason and author of Rebels on the
Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America, which has
just been reprinted in paperback.
1. Beck: Odelay
(1996)
The disc that proved country
and hip hop are ultimately the same sort of music.
2. The Blind Boys of Alabama:
Spirit
of the Century (2000)
Gospel for hipsters, and for
other folks too. The second time I saw these guys play was at
a punk/jazz club in L.A. There was a man in the audience who
kept yelling, "Praise Jesus!" "What an asshole,"
I thought, "making fun of these guys like that." Then
I saw he was wearing a Christian T-shirt and I realized he was
sincere.
3. William S. Burroughs: Dead
City Radio (1990)
Burroughs was always a deadpan
stand-up comic at heart.
4. John Cale: Paris
1919 (1973)
A quiet, cultured story cycle
from the most consistently interesting veteran of the Velvet
Underground.
5. Johnny Cash: American
Recordings (1994)
If we ever make our way back
to Rexroth's "old, free America," they'll stop adorning
posters with the glaring image of Uncle Sam and replace him with
the face of Johnny Cash.
6. Miles Davis: Someday
My Prince Will Come (1961)
Not just a great Miles Davis
album: the title track gives us John Coltrane at his most perfect.
7. Bob Dylan: Bringing
it All Back Home (1965)
Especially the electric half.
8. Steve Earle: El
Corazon (1997)
Earle hit his peak in the mid
to late '90s, and this eclectic CD was the finest of the discs
he recorded then.
9. Duke Ellington: Money
Jungle (1962)
With Charles Mingus on bass
and Max Roach on drums. Indispensable.
10. Firesign Theater: Don't
Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers (1971)
"The way we wanted to
produce those records," one of the Firesigns later said,
"was as if radio had continued into the modern era with
the full force of energy it had during its golden age."
That's what this is: a Discordian radio drama from a parallel
universe.
11. Aretha Franklin: Amazing
Grace (1972)
First Aretha brought her gospel
training to Muscle Shoals and created some of the century's greatest
pop music. Then she took her pop sensibility back to church and
made this devastating live recording.
12. The Kinks: Muswell
Hillbillies (1971)
It's a concept album about
urban renewal. Seriously. Probably my favorite entry on this
list.
13. Merle Haggard and The Strangers:
Pride
in What I Am (1969)
There's a lot of Haggard
records that could go here, but this one does the best job of
showcasing both his songwriting and his musical chops.
14. Charles Mingus: Mingus
Ah Um (1959)
Bop gospel swing.
15. Thelonious Monk: Straight,
No Chaser (1967)
Once I saw a movie where Fred
Astaire was staggering and somehow dancing at the same time.
That's how Monk plays the piano.
16. Willie Nelson: Shotgun
Willie (1973)
Everyone else says Red Headed
Stranger is the masterpiece -- and yeah, I like that one
too -- but this is the definitive document of outlaw country.
The session band includes Waylon Jennings, Johnny Gimble, Doug
Sahm, and Augie Meyers, and Jerry Wexler lent a hand in the studio.
17. Charlie Rich: Feel
Like Going Home (1992)
It was two middle-of-the-road
pop songs that made Charlie Rich a star, but his best work was
rootsy, gritty stuff; it falls into that undefined space between
jazz, blues, country, and soul. We're not supposed to list greatest-hits
collections, but this compilation includes enough songs that
never charted that I think I can slip it in.
18. The Sex Pistols: Never
Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (1977)
It's got an anti-communist
song and an anti-abortion song, and some say it's partly responsible
for the rise of Thatcher. Recommending it ought to get me barred
from these CounterPunch commies' next listmaking party.
19. Sir Douglas Quintet: 1+1+1=4
(1970)
Doug Sahm was a Lone Star sponge:
If a style of music ever took root in Texas, he mastered it.
These days this album comes on the same CD as the follow-up,
The Return of Doug Saldana, which is as good a two-for-one
special as anyone has a right to expect.
20. Sly and the Family Stone:
Fresh
(1973)
Funk's high-water mark.
21. Patti Smith: Horses
(1975)
Beatnik punk.
22. Richard and Linda Thompson:
Shoot
Out the Lights (1981)
The breakup album. Only Blood on the Tracks
tackles this topic with as much intelligence and power.
23. The Velvet Underground:
The
Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
It came out the same year as
Sgt. Pepper, and it holds up much, much better.
24. Bob Wills and His Texas
Playboys: For
the Last Time (1974)
Wills belongs on the short
list of great swing bandleaders, right next to Ellington and
Basie. But his fiddle-based Texas music is usually classified
as country instead -- and yes, it's that as well. This reunion
with his old band (plus special guest Merle Haggard) was the
last recording he ever made; it's also one of the first records
I remember hearing when I was a boy.
25. X: Los
Angeles (1980)
"Poverty and spit."
Michael Donnelly
is a forest activist and CounterPunch contributor living in Salem,
Oregon.
Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
1969
Get Yer Ya Yas Out is one of
the best live albums of all time. And Beggar's Banquet and Exile
are just superb. But, with Gimme Shelter, Love in Vain, Let It
Bleed, Midnight Rambler, Monkey Man and You Can't Always Get
What You Want on one album, I have to go with this one.
David Crosby - If I Could Only
Remember My Name 1971
Crosby grabs up the entire
CA music gang for this one: Jack Casady, David Freiberg, Jerry
Garcia, David Geffen, Robert Hammer, Mickey Hart, Paul Kantner,
Jorma Kaukonen, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Joni Mitchell, Graham
Nash, Grace Slick, Neil Young. Put it on Cowboy Movie and Spleef
Out Against the Madness.
John Mayall - Turning Point
1969
Talk about great Live albums.
I saw the tour back at Michigan State in '69. I still listen
to it at least once a month. Great concept also -- no drums.
Joni Mitchell - Miles of Aisles
1974
Another great Live one, her
best songs AND the LA Express. In my mind, when it comes to singer/songwriters,
there's Bob Dylan and Joni on top. The rest, great though they
may be, are Number Three, at best.
Beatles - White Album 1968
The most diverse album in the
history of rock. While My Guitar Gently Weeps is one of my favorite
songs. I was playing basketball in Community College when it
came out. Rocky Raccoon caused the first major cultural split
on the team, which had eight black guys and two of us white guys.
Until then, we all listened to Smokey, James Brown, Temptations,
Curtis Mayfield...but the team split between half who loved Rocky
Raccoon and half who absolutely would not let us play any of
it. That alone broadened my musical horizon.
Blind Faith - Blind Faith 1969
Well, all right -- what can
you say: super album by super group.
Crosby, Stills and Nash - Crosby,
Stills and Nash (first album) 1969
Stills does it all, playing
everything - guitar, bass, keyboards, even writing some of the
better songs. Top sing-along album of all time. The live Suite
Judy Blue Eyes from Woodstock is my favorite live song, much
better than the version here. I like the boys a lot, but they
went downhill after their first one. Somehow the harmonies got
too cute and sanitized with success. This one is rawer and far
better, as a result.
Bob Seger - Against the Wind
1980
Finally, Seger made the Rock
Hall of Fame this year. What took so long? My brother Mark was
hooked on Bob the second he heard Heavy Music.
Paul Simon - Graceland 1986
Lasers in the jungle. Good
as he always was, who knew he had this in him? The best song
for song of any album.
Jackson Browne - Late For the
Sky 1974
For Everyman, Late for the
Sky and The Pretender - back to back to back. What a trilogy!
hard to pick one over the others, but Fountain of Sorrow, To
a Dancer and Before the Deluge are a stunning trio that each
brought me through tough times. Play To a Dancer at my funeral,
please.
I've always felt Browne's career
suffered due to his activism. I love him for it.
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
1975
Come writers and critics...Zimmie's
Graceland? Every song a beauty. Though I could pick most any
other Dylan and be satisfied.
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the
Key of Life 1976
I'll never forget Fingertips.
One of those summer teenager memories. Wonder had his own trilogy
in the early Seventies: Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale
and Songs. Hard to pick one. They all make me smile.
Smokey Robinson - Tracks of
My Tears 1965
The first album I ever bought.
The falsetto king is still my favorite singer and what a songwriter.
Bonnie Raitt - Nick of Time
1989
Nobody's Girl. Another fine
activist who saw her career suffer. She and long time bassist
Hutch Hutchinson put it all together on this one. More polished
than her gri |