10 Albums You Can't Be Without

I had a hard time even with today!

 

It always changes, but at the moment, and trying not to think about it too hard........

Pink Floyd - Meddle
The Beach Boys - The SMiLE Sessions
The Who - Quadrophenia
The Beatles - Revolver
John Coltrane - My Favorite Things
London Symphony Orchestra & Sir Colin Davis - Holst: The Planets
Graham Nash - Wild Tales
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn
David Bowie - Station To Station

 

I tend toward live release listening these days, so I'm going to mention a few studio releases along with several live releases, but only those that are available individually and not just as part of boxed sets.

1. King Crimson - Live in Mainz 3/30/74
2. Deep Purple - Made in Japan
3. Dylan - Bootleg Series 4, Live at Manchester Free Trade Hall
4. Beatles - Revolver
5. Grateful Dead - Live/Dead
6. Zappa - Hot Rats
7. Coltrane - Live at the Village Vanguard (w/ Eric Dolphy)
8. Sun Ra and his Arkestra - Angels and Demons at Play
9. Beethoven - 9th Symphony: the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Karl Bohm; 1970
   
10. Kronos Quartet - Early Music

Truth be told, I have at least 20 in my top 10, so I did what I could.

 

ROCK:

Radiohead-OK Computer
The Who-Quadrophenia
Suede-Dog Man Star
Talking Heads-The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
Manic Street Preachers-The Holy Bible
David Bowie-Station to Station
Doves-Lost Souls
Echo & the Bunnymen-Ocean Rain
The CURE-Disintegration
Peter Gabriel-III & So(sorry could not pick just 1 over the other)

Tough to leave off 'Ladies & Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space' by Spiritualized and 'Signify' by Porcupine Tree. Can I have 12 Picks

*Love Pink Floyd, but there is not any album that does not have 1-2 songs that I do not care for, but the 'Live' CD from 'UmaGumma' is great(just the studio CD is not that good).

*Also love BLUR, but same issue as mentioned above for Pink Floyd.

FUNK/Soul

Stevie Wonder-Songs in the Key of Life
Cameo-Knights from the Sound Table
Earth, Wind & Fire-Gratitude
Slave-Stone Jam
Brass Construction-VI
Gap Band-III
Stanley Clarke/George Duke-Clark/Duke Project-Vol. 1
Tom Browne-Rockin Radio
Mass Production-Massterpiece
Brothers Johnson-Light Up the Night

*Love All P-FUNK, but cannot select a complete album, but Greatest Hits/Best of Collection would be essential to own. Same for Bootsy Collins.

 

1. The Beatles - Abbey Road
2. Pink Floyd - DSOTM
3. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
4. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
5. Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
6. Jeff Beck - Blow By Blow
7. Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue
8. Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?
9. Chicago - Chicago Transit Authority
10. Santana - Abraxas

 

I tried, really tried. Can't do it. Got to #8 and my mind melted down because there is no way I could winnow it down to 10. I could maybe do with twenty-five but even then, there'd be hard choices to make.

 

The Meters - Rejuvenation
Sly and the family stone - Stand!
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Radiohead - In Rainbows
The Congos - Heart of the Congos
The Fall - Hex enduction hour
Fela Kuti - Zombie
Neil Young - Zuma
Modern lovers - s/t
Gil Scott Heron - Pieces of a man

 

Stranded - Roxy Music
Drastic Plastic - Be-Bop Deluxe

 

Safe as Milk - Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
Absolutely Free - The Mothers of Invention
Revolver - The Beatles
The Who Sell Out
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - Pink Floyd
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Doors - The Doors
The Man Who Sold the World - David Bowie
The Psychedelic World of the 13th Floor Elevators
Days of Future Passed - The Moody Blues

All on vinyl ... after almost 40 years of collecting these are the records I keep coming back to.

 

I must have surely missed quite a few, but these are the ones I can think of right now

Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 (Wilhelm Furtwängler, Lucerne 1954)
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Bill Evans - Moon Beams
Murray Head - Say It Ain't So
Jethro Tull - Minstrel in the Gallery
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Cat Stevens - Catch Bull at Four
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused to Sing

 

The Who - Who's Next
Queen - Queen II
Fairport Convention - What We Did On Our Holidays
The Who - Quadrophenia
Love - Forever Changes
Janis Joplin - Pearl
The Who - Tommy
The Kinks - The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
The Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

 

I definitely will include that on my list too

 

Leaving aside compilations, box sets but not live albums*

Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Blue Oyster Cult - Agents Of Fortune
Genesis - A Trick Of The Tail
Peter Hammill - Nadir's Big Chance
John Martyn - Bless The Weather
Mott The Hoople - Brain Capers
Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
T.Rex - Tanx
UFO - Lights Out
Van der Graaf - Vital*

 

Velvet Underground - VU & Nico
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
Stooges - Fun House
The Only Ones - Peel Sessions
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Neil Young - Tonight's The Night
Crazy Horse - ST
Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Nina Simone - Sings the Blues

 

Roxy Music - Roxy Music
Roxy Music - Flesh & Blood
Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden
Talk Talk - It's My Life
Kate Bush - The Sensual World
Lou Reed - Magic and Loss
Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby
Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends
Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park
Brian Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain

HM:
Sting - Dream Of The Blue Turtles

 

House! (Well there weren't any other sets that I had all of the albums.)

Edit - actually I don't. Could have sworn the Cars selection was the debut yesterday.

 

Ah...I call these the 'casket albums' i.e. the ones that get buried with me:

Exile On Main Street- The Rolling Stones
Revolver- The Beatles
Presence- Led Zeppelin
Animals- Pink Floyd
Tonight's The Night- Neil Young
The Nightfly- Donald Fagen
The Basement Tapes- Bob Dylan/The Band
Seconds Out- Genesis
Signals- Rush
Quadrophenia- The Who

(..and if there's room, toss Manassas, McCartney II and Extra Texture in there while yer at it!)

 

The Beatles - The Beatles
The Kinks - The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
The Who - Quadrophenia
Blur - Blur
Blur - Modern Life is Rubbish
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
Mansun - Attack of the Grey Lantern
The Who - Who's Next
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

and many more I had to leave off of this list...

 

Nice to see someone else really loves this record. While not in my list below, if we were allowed 20 it certainly would be.

1. Steve Reich - Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint
2. Todd Rundgren - A Wizard/A True Star
3. David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name
4. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
5. Laura Nyro - Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
6. Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk
7. Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Sings Newman
8. Jerry Garcia - Garcia

and, if I'm allowed 3CD sets...​

9. Frank Zappa - Lather

and, if I'm allowed 3CD bootleg sets...​

10. Bruce Springsteen - Live in the Winterland: December 1975

 

Tough ask...

Elvis Costello - This year's model
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
Rickie Lee Jones
nick Drake - Pink Moon
porgy and Bess - miles davis
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Albert king - born under a bad sign
Rolling Stones - beggars banquet
The cure - seventeen seconds

Joy division unknown pleasures, stiff little fingers - Inflamable material, Rolling Stones - Some girls, Disty in Memphis, van Halen 1, black sabbath - sabbath bloody sabbath all could have been in. Pink Floyd and thin lizzy miss out as no completely perfect album for me though I love them dearly.

 

Rolling Stones - Anything from 68-71 but i'd go with Exile
Pink Floyd - anything from 75-79 but i'd go with The Wall
Nick Cave & Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away
Bob Dylan - 65/66 Trilogy
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
The Doors - Live at Hollywood Bowl
R.E.M - Automatic for People
Hendrix - Band of Gypsys
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti but it's sophie's choice for me

 

Top 10 if I'm unexpectedly 'dosed':
Love - s/t
Love - Da Capo
Love - Forever Changes
Love - Four Sail
Arthur Lee - Vindicator
The Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere
The Golden Dawn - Power Plant
The Byrds - Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Blossom Toes - If Only For A Moment
Kak- s/t

...cerebral cortex "comfort food".

 

I need to add this one to my list as well....that makes 11. In all honesty, just narrowing it down to a "top 50" would be tough.

 

I don't think there are any albums I can't be without. If I lost my 10 favorite albums (whatever those are), I'd still have somewhere around 6,000 left of which about 3,000 are awesome.

 

Big Star - Radio City
Whiskeytown - Stranger's Almanac
Lucinda Williams - Lucinda Williams
Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
Alejandro Escovedo - A Man Under the Influence
Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties
Rory Gallagher - Calling Card
Ramones - Rocket to Russia
Steve Earle - Guitar Town