The top 10 albums in my collection, alphabetically A Charlie Brown Christmas A Ghost Is Born Abandoned Mansion Abbey Road Acid Tongue Acoustic Citsuoca After The Gold Rush All Things Must Pass Alpha Mike Foxtrot (Rare Tracks 1994-2014) An A.merican D.ream
10 Ways To Endure 40 Years Or More In This Crazy Business Known As Popular Music: 1. Have songs that a fair number of people enjoy or relate to. 2. Have songs that a fair number of people enjoy or relate to. 3. Never take yourself seriously. Others will find a way to do that anyway. 4. A sense of humor carries you a lot farther than pretensions of craft or significance. 5. Have a great or memorable name! Or logo! Or something... 6. Have songs that a fair number of people enjoy or relate to. 7. Find a way to make it onto bubble gum cards. 8. Make sure critics continue to despise a lot of what you do. 9. Know how to sell and market yourself. It's likely no one else will! 10. Have songs that a fair number of people enjoy or relate to.
10 Vinyl Album Jackets You Can Possibly Damage If You Don't Exactly Know How To Get Into Them! 1. Physical Graffiti: Led Zeppelin 2. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Elton John 3. Exile On Main St: The Rolling Stones 4. Sticky Fingers: The Rolling Stones (Be careful with that zipper!) 5. School's Out: Alice Cooper 6. Muscle Of Love: Alice Cooper 7. In Through The Out Door: Led Zeppelin 8. Around The World In A Day: Prince 9. Every Picture Tells A Story: Rod Stewart 10. The Originals: Kiss
10 Subliminal Phrases Found On The Original Banned Bathroom Cover Of The Stones' "Beggars Banquet": 1. The Beatles are the good guys? 2. She came in colors 3. Dear Doctor: Who's the nurse? 4. Banquet Menu: Bad Taste 5. The lantern broke 6. For a good time...call "Dandelion"... 7. Our love was like the water... 8. Play loud, then shower... 9. Pleased to meet you... 10. Summer's here and the time is right.
10 Random "Be Careful What You Wish For" Selections: 1. I don't need my bandmates. I can do just fine on my own, thank you. 2. Forget all this glammy-shallow good time stuff, rock and roll needs to go back to its "roots". 3. Why buy something on a physical medium? 4. Artist "X" really needs to hang it up. 5. Music will continue to be made in much more advanced and elaborate ways. It's ideal. 6. Artists should stop reissuing and releasing so much of their stuff. I have enough! 7. I have no use for all these deluxe boxes put out by classic artists. 8. I am not a fan of all these remixes and the varied ways for others to continually enjoy the greatness of classic music. One original option is always better than more, and it is blasphemy to try and enhance it as an alternative option. I couldn't care less that others enjoy and appreciate it. My view should be the one above all others. 9. Elements of violence and whatnot, I can live with, but I'm fine wiping out all this sexual innuendo and sleaze that has always been a "shameful" part of so much of popular music. 10. I'm not paying actual money to acquire this music. The artists are rich enough.
10 Very Interesting, If Not Great, Rolling Stones Songs From Their "Psych Period" (In My Opinion)... I celebrate these because I sometimes hear others say that there's hardly one or two! But I submit this as a humble disagreement: 1. She's A Rainbow 2. Child Of The Moon 3. Citadel 4. 2000 Man 5. Gomper 6. Dandelion 7. 2000 Light Years From Home 8. Sing This All Together 9. On With The Show 10. The Lantern I'd say that the first 4-5 alone are downright great! And the rest are still more than fair, in my view.
10 Statements I've Often Heard In Regards To Music And It Completely Baffles Me: I'm not saying there's anything "wrong" with these sentiments. To each their own. Just that it baffles me... 1. I know I can listen with my own ears, but the numbers for remaster "X" clearly show that this is a worse pressing than "Y". 2. The cover art, or visuals of an artist, mean nothing to me. I'm completely objective about the music itself. 3. Music can indeed be objective. It's obvious. 4. Artists are "smart" to avoid writing hit songs or wanting their songs to be popular. It's always best to keep an "underground" mentality. 5. The Beatles really weren't "all that" in the course of popular music. (And I'm not even an enormous Beatles fan, but...). 6. Bob Dylan really isn't "all that" in the course of popular music (Again, I'm not even much a fan, but...). 7. Band "X" clearly only lives on today due to image or commerce. No fan would ever like them this long due to their music. 8. New Vinyl is really a waste. And a marketing ploy. Nothing else. 9. The charts/45 singles were very limited and dull in scope. 10. Led Zeppelin stole a bulk of nearly every idea they recorded. That should account for something.
10 Ways To NOT Start a Band... 1. Name yourselves "The Beatles" and claim it's original! 2. Use your car mechanic as the drummer. Not because he can drum, but just because he will be able to provide free transportation! 3. You want to manage yourself. (Then again...) 4. Intoxicated! (Although some have indeed made this work...) 5. Have zero vision. 6. Promote yourselves as "The New Rolling Stones". 7. Agree to sign your life away and take 0% profits on any song or album sold just to "get your foot in the door". 8. Because you got your drummer's girlfriend pregnant and you both need the money! 9. Because you have nothing better to do! (Again, I suppose this has worked on occasion...) 10. To pay off back taxes!
10 Comments That Might Send The Record Label President Running During Your First Meeting... 1. We were thinking of leaving around 5% for the label. Does that work? 2. Most of us are ready to go. We are still looking for a couple members. 3. We figured we'd put out a greatest hits first... 4. Do we rehearse with you? Or just upon showing up at the studio? 5. Our vision? We see ourselves touring for eight months at least. 6. We were thinking of doing like a "circus show". If we get bored playing, people can just grab some popcorn and pet the tigers maybe? 7. We are going to be the greatest rock and roll band in the land, trust us! (It worked for Kiss, but as even they would tell you, this never works unless you mean it. And even for them it almost didn't work. And your label president probably is no Neil Bogart...). 8. Instruments? You mean like bring a harmonica or something? 9. We decided we'd like to open for Taylor Swift. 10. We do have two original songs. The writer left though. We are still looking for someone to take up most the writing.
10 unrelated songs I like but am not sure why.. 1. Do Ya Know What Time It Is - P-nut Gallery 2. Wildfire - Michael Murphy 3. Liar - 3 Dog Night 4. Outa Space - Billy Preston 5. Take Me Home Country Roads - John Denver 6. Love My Way - Psychedelic Furs 7. Life In A Northern Town - forget the band name 8. Computer Cowboy - Neil Young 9, Sex - Berlin 10. A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done - Sonny and Cher
10 Ways To Confuse The Hell Out Of Your Listening Base: 1. Release a 45 single with just one side! 2. Don't make the album that they deem is the one you "should" make. This happens endlessly, but remains reliable. 3. Be the Alice Cooper Group (1969-1974)! 4. Change your sex between albums (At least visually. Only literally if you really want to shake things up!) 5. Have one charted single and put out a "Greatest Hits". 6. Change lead singers with every album. 7. Release an album in four separate movements (one for each season). I think Prince actually did something like this... 8. Release a 3 sided double album! "The Doors" recently did this with the Deluxe LA Woman I believe... 9. Be a metal band and have David Foster produce it! 10. Be "The Beatles" and release "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Strawberry Fields Forever".
10 Things That Have Virtually Zero Impact On How Much I Like An Artist: 1. Any political views they may have. 2. Any notions on their part that what they are making is going to be enlightening, "artistic" or "save the world". 3. How "clever" the artist is. (I'm fine with just a good song!) 4. How "deep" or profound the artist is. (What does this mean anyways? Again, I'll just take a good song). 5. How "original" an artist is. (You can be a clone of a clone of a clone of a clone for all I care. If you connect and I love your songs, then you will always have a spot at the top). 6. Social commentary at large. 7. How "upstanding" or "perfect" they are as people. (It's great if an artist is a great person but that should hold for all of us. Not to mention that we all judge "upstanding" somewhat differently. To be honest, if it was a prerequisite that any artist I love live up to a personality ideal that is flaw-free or upstanding, then I'd be lucky to have two artists on my record shelf! I like an artist because I connect to what they offer as "art". Not because I would make them godparents. 8. Virtuosity (Perhaps hard to define, but let's just say I'm much more impressed by artists that know what not to play (or write) than ones who are talented but don't connect (or inspire repeat playing). 9. The "purity" of an artist's product. (To me, the beauty of music is being able to put/write/convey/manipulate feeling onto tape and make others happy. I honestly don't really care how they were able to achieve it from a genuineness standpoint. If you had to tweak and conjure up sounds from everything under the sun just to make a great record, then I fully applaud you for making it work. Others should have been just as resourceful! Playing an album live in the studio, or even outside of it, has virtually nothing to do with how much I may love it or how much I connect to its feel. Some of the most moving and enduring records for me are largely "studio creations". If hearing a band "as they are" is always the most essential thing, then why even buy their records?) 10. The notion that artists "owe us" something beyond bringing us enjoyment (or not) through their "product". If you happen to not like what an artist offers (or won't offer) then the easiest and most direct thing you can do to voice your opinion is by not supporting or buying what they are selling. If enough people agree, the artist has no incoming money and no support at large. I'm all for agreeing it's a nice gesture if an artist chooses to go out of his or her way to shower fans with unexpected surprises, or puts out an album for free or something. Elvis Presley was famous for doing such things, and I think that's why so many (me included) applaud him for it. But just because we chose to put an artist where they are and fund their bank account, gives us no free reign to dictate how they continue to offer (or not offer) their products. I'm not a mindless, submissive fan toward any artist, but the truth is that I owe far more to what my favorite artists have given me over the years than what they owe me!
10 Ways To Screw Up Your Greatest Hits Album... 1. Have about 22 hits but only release a single album with 10-12 of them randomly selected out of a hat. 2. Release the hit songs in mixes that are almost un-recognizable from the versions that were hits. 3. Release the package with nothing more than the actual singles. 4. Release the package with a handful of "fan favorites" that aren't technically hits. (It seems you can't win with either this route nor #3). 5. Use the album versions, not the single versions. (For my taste, I often like this actually. Yet many will scoff if a hits package doesn't contain the actual single mixes). 6. Have no coherence to the set. (Every hit is fair game in terms of where it is sequenced. This seems to make a more noticeable difference with some artists and less so with others). 7. Insert "live versions" in place of the single mixes. (This is one that really perplexes me, personally. Yet I've seen it done before!) 8. Include one or more of the hits as a new "duet version", sung with another artist. 9. Include one or more of the hits as a "new recorded version" of the original hit. 10. Tack on "new or unreleased songs" to the hits package. I'm sure the artist or label means well, but I'm personally not a fan of having an otherwise cohesive or succinct retrospective broken up by out of place "new material" (even if it might be good stuff).
Ten Songs Recorded in the 2010s That, Under the Right (or Wrong) Circumstances, Will Make Rain Keep Falling from My Eyes: (In no particular order) 1. "Burning House," Cam 2. "Say Something," A Great Big World featuring Christina Aguilera 3. "Melancholy Christmas," Amy Grant 4. "Summertime Sadness," Lana Del Rey (the album mix) 5. "Try," Pink 6. "Try," Mandy Harvey 7. "Wake Me Up," Avicii 8. "Let Her Go," Passenger 9. "Let It Go," Idina Menzel 10. "I Don't Know My Name," Grace VanderWaal
Top Ten Songs About Water 1. Simon & Garfunkel - "Bridge Over Troubled Water" 2. Deep Purple - "Smoke on the Water" 3. Led Zeppelin - "The Rain Song" 4. The Doobie Brothers - "Black Water" 5. The Band - "Up on Cripple Creek" 6. Led Zeppelin - "The Ocean" 7. TLC - "Waterfalls" 8. Nirvana - "Lake of Fire" 9. B.J. Thomas - "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" 10. Billy Ocean - "Caribbean Queen"
Ten Random Songs I Wish I Had Written (Not my ten favorite songs) 1. "Some Other Time" - Alan Parsons Project 2. "All Mixed Up" - The Cars 3. "One Simple Thing" - Stabilizers 4. "The Moon Is Turned To Blood" - Rob Jungklas 5. "The Spider" - Kansas 6. "Mais Que Nada" - Jorge Ben Jor 7. "Purgatory" - Iron Maiden 8. "The Dead Flag Blues" - Godspeed You! Black Emperor 9. "Habanera Rocket" - Elephant9 10" "Downtown" - Petula Clark
Top ten Sunset Strip 'faces' of the mid-60s: Sonny Bono Cher Jim McGuinn Arthur Lee Dennis Wilson Bobby Jameson Kim Fowley Jim Morrison Sky Saxon Gene Clark
Top 10 Mellotron songs: 2000 Light Years From Home -Rolling Stones Hole In My Shoe -Traffic Out And In -The Moody Blues And You And I -Yes Kung Bore -Anglegard Le Clochard -Focus The Fountain of Salamis -Genesis Clocks (Angel of Mons) -Steve Hackett Epitaph -King Crimson Appena Un Po -PFM
Ten Benefits of 8 Track Tapes: 1. Portability 2. Portability 3. Portability 4. They were smaller and thus more "storeable" than records. 5. You could now buy "Led Zeppelin IV" and impress a girl by playing "Stairway To Heaven" in a car, rather than having to wait until you get to your or her house to put on the record and make out. 6. You could now hear rearranged running orders of albums (which may or may not have been welcomed). 7. You could now hear albums in "four programs". Just what everyone was waiting for. 8. You could now have your favorite song on the album split apart by a click. Again, just what everyone was waiting for. 9. You could now record onto blank 8 track tapes and make compilations for the car! 10. It made your "Shag Adorned Rainbow Ride" even more cool now that you could pop in a cartridge of "Frampton Comes Alive" and cruise around smoking a joint...
Click doesn't do it justice. Loudest sound on some albums. One of my roommates in college had a 8 track player and a lot of prog rock.
Yes, it could be pretty startling. Especially if the passage of music was especially soft when it clicked!
10 Great Unofficial (And Unintended) "Album Trilogies" by Artists: 1. Get Your Wings, Toys In The Attic, Rocks (Aerosmith) 2. Greetings From Asbury Park, The Wild The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, Born To Run (Bruce Springsteen) 3. Kiss, Hotter Than Hell, Dressed To Kill (Kiss) 4. Destroyer, Rock And Roll Over, Love Gun (Kiss) 5. Oriental Beat, Self Destruction Blues, Back To Mystery City (Hanoi Rocks) 6. Are You Experienced, Axis:Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) 7. Controversy, 1999, Purple Rain (Prince) 8. Let The Music Do The Talking, I've Got The Rock n Rolls Again, Once A Rocker Always A Rocker (Joe Perry Project) 9. Gasoline Alley, Every Picture Tells A Story, Never A Dull Moment (Rod Stewart) 10. Green River, Willy & The Poorboys, Cosmo's Factory (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
10 Things That Almost Always Make For An Alluring Album Cover: 1. Women 2. Die-Cut designs 3. Vibrant colors 4. Total lack of colors 5. Reflective surfaces 6. Katy Perry on a cloud of cotton candy. 7. Glow in the dark qualities 8. Women 9. Sunrise or sunset images (see the front of "Hotel California" or the back of "Waiting For The Sun"). 10. The use of symbolism or historical figures (see the king of album covers, "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band").
