When I was young, I had broad musical tastes. As such, I could never afford to buy all the albums fromall the bands that I loved. So for many years, I bought greatest hits albums, or K-Tel albums. Later, I was able to get into full albums. Here is my list of 3 absolute favorites:
3. The Beatles - Abbey Road.
2. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
1. John Coltrane - My Favorite Things
Honorable Mentions and likely to be spun by me:
Floyd - DSOTM
Coltrane - Coltrane
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
Garth Brooks - Ropin' the Wind
Rush - 2112
The Scorpions - Blackout
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
Black Flag - My War
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger/SOMMS
Allman Brothers - At Fillmore East
Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade
The Cure - In Between Days
The Cream - Disraeli Gears
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Journey - Escape
Crosby, Stills, and Nash - CSN
Jimmy Buffett - You Had to be There
Van Morrison - Moondance
Stevie Wonder (kinda cheating, but it is the album with Do I Do, which is my favorite and was previously unreleased) - Original Musicquarium I
Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell - You're All I Need
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On?
Yes - Yessongs
Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow
Bob Seger - Stranger in Town
The Doobie Brothers - Toulouse Street
Three Dog Night - Golden Bisquits
Blood, Sweat, and Tears - Blood, Sweat, and Tears
Sly and the Family Stone - Stand!
Bob Marley - Exodus
Depeche Mode - Music for the Masses or Some Great Reward
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
Pet Shop Boys - Introspective
Sade - Diamond Life
Carole King - Tapestry
Pat Benetar - Crimes of Passion
Heart - Dreamboat Annie
Peter, Paul, and Mary - Peter, Paul, and Mommy (don't judge me...)
They Might Be Giants - Flood
Aretha Franklin - Amazing Grace
Thelonius Monk - Straight, No Chaser
The Mamas and the Papas - If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
The DOC - No One Can Do it Better
Metallica - The $5.98 EP/ Garage Days Re-Revisited
wyfbane, a commendable list, albeit lengthy. Some observations:
Tres Hombres - incredible album, their highpoint, but downhill from there, with a recovery on Degüello, then more descent with El Loco and M-TV oblivion with the commercial overkill Eliminator. When 6th graders start popularising your music, time for a rethink. But am I critical they went for the money sound, synthesisers, drum machines? No way. More power to them! But they became a parody caricature of themselves. Well, that’s what I think. Obviously, with their success, very few thought the way I did. Long live Tres Hombres!
At Fillmore East - wow, is that just an absolutely fantastic live album or what?
Disraeli Gears - I believe it is just “Cream”, not “The Cream”, unless you’re intentionally implying “the cream of the crop”, in which case I completely back you up.
You Had To Be There - you absolutely nailed it with this one! And also a high water mark for this musician. This is the point where my collection stops. It’s all acceptable (with much greatness too) before, but downhill after this 1978 live album, into the mass market Parrothead circus era, not my taste. He honed in on a commercial pop sound and spotted an opportunity and he went gangbusters for merchandising, branding, restaurants, beverages, and money, and who in their right mind could blame him for that? Not me. Not ever. Well done, Jimmy! It’s rare in entertainment to not seize the moment if it comes along. I believe it’s Gerry Rafferty, in a description attributed to Billy Connolly, who said “Gerry didn’t want to be famous, didn’t care about the money, he just wanted respect as a musician.” And Buffett up to 1978 is good and respectable as any and has a certain charm.
Exodus - if you could only own one Marley album, which would it be? Exodus has to be in the conversation, no? Which ones are the other contenders?
Happy listening!
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