Your top 10 albums - with some caveats

Elvis Costello - Get Happy!
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
New Bomb Turks - At Rope's End
Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks
TV Smith - Useless
Rancid - And Out Come the Wolves...
Johnny Burnette & The Rock & Roll Trio
Otis Redding - Dictionary of Soul
Benny Goodman, Live @ Carnegie Hall 1938
Johnny Thunders - So Alone
The Clash - s/t
Genesis - Selling England by the Pound

Ask me tomorrow and I'll probably have an entirely different list.

 

I use that record as the bed music when I'm back announcing on my radio show. As a result, every note is burned into my brain.

And yeah, it's great.

 

1. Nonsuch - XTC
2. Speak Now - Taylor Swift
3. Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
4. Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing - Keith Urban
5. Susan Ashton (s/t) - Susan Ashton
6. Arrival - ABBA
7. Amy Grant - Behind the Eyes
8. SheDaisy - Knock on the Sky
9. Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer Different Park
10. Fleetwood Mac - Mirage

 

But that’s all I know! Okay, I’ll try.

1. Catch a Fire - The Wailers
2. Plastic Ono Band - John Lennon
3. The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks
4. Disraeli Gears - Cream
5. The Chronic - Dr. Dre
6. Doggystyle - Snoop Doggy Dogg
7. Band on the Run - Paul McCartney & Wings
8. Fresh Cream - Cream
9. Something Else by the Kinks - The Kinks
10. Rastaman Vibrations - Bob Marley

Honourable Mention:
Voulez-Vous - ABBA

 

Boring, changeable, solid:

Starless and Bible Black
Live at Leeds
12 Songs
Get Happy
Groove Grease (Jimmy McGriff)
The Best of Doug Sahm and The Sir Douglas Quintet
The Johnny Otis Rhythm and Blues Caravan
Halloween Stomp
Colors (Ken Nordine)
J.S. Bach: (Any of) The Complete Works for Organ (Marie-Claire Alain)

 

Not including jazz records:

Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Steely Dan - Aja
Pretenders - S/T
Rage Against The Machine - S/T
Rush - Moving Pictures
Midnight Oil - 10,9,8...
Throwing Muses - The Real Ramona
Nirvana - Nevermind

 

Hard to list for me, a lot is based on personal sentiment...of course omitting the artist listed, though not a whole lot changes for me.

1. Bruce Springsteen : Born To Run
2. Ac/Dc : Highway To Hell
3. KISS : Psycho Circus
4. Michael Jackson : Thriller
5. Sonic Youth : Daydream Nation
6. Joe Walsh : But Seriously Folks
7. Carly Rae Jepsen : Emotion
8. Seiko Oomori : Tokyo Black Hole
9. Katy Perry : One Of The Boys
10. Utada Hikaru : Deep River

 

Well, what do you know, take out LZIV, Electric Ladyland and Dark Side and you have:

Layla
Who's Next
Moving Pictures
Hotel California
Abacab
The Stranger
At Fillmore East
Close To The Edge
Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
Let It Bleed (how did the Stones miss the exclusion pile? Either Aja or Metallica was next up on the list)

 

Kinks - Village Green Preservation Society
Savatage - Streets: A Rock Opera
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Zombies - Odyssey and Oracle
Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage
Guthrie Govan - Erotic Cakes
Nick Johnston - Atomic Mind
David Bowie - Ziggy
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
The Who - Tommy

and a few more

 

Off the top of my head, without overthinking it too much...

XTC - Skylarking
Squeeze - Argybargy
King Crimson - Discipline
Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session
Elvis Costello - Armed Forces
Richard & Linda Thompson - I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight
Pixies - Doolittle
Eels - Blinking Lights & Other Revelations
Jellyfish - Spilt Milk
Big Star - #1 Record

(I also excluded The Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones, and Steely Dan...)

 

Coltrane Ole is an amazing mind-blowing masterpiece of an album! Awe inspiring in another dimension. I just discovered it an easily and immediately in my top three Coltrane! It has a somewhat eerie sinister back beat and incredible bass line and the piano just draws it all together. Beautiful flow and mix of instruments.

 

I've been trying to figure out what the deal is with The Monkees on this forum as well. Maybe they're the favorite band of some heavy hitters in here? I really can't figure it out yet and I've commented several times when they have been grouped with The Beatles....and now here we have them grouped with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Led Zepp and others (though it's these five that to me are really the most impossible to compare them with).....seriously, this is like a game of "which thing doesn't fit with the others"?

 

Daevid Allen - Banana Moon
Barclay James Harvest - Ring of Changes
Soft Machine - The Soft Machine
Stuart A. Staples - Leaving Songs
Daniel Johnston - Welcome to My World: The Muisc of Daniel Johnston
Green on Red -- No Free Lunch
Sonny Burgess - Sonny Burgess
Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle

 

Boston S/T
The Cars S/T
BOC On Your Feet Or On Your Knees
BOC Some Enchanted Evening
Motorhead No Remorse
ZZ Top El Loco
Styx The Grand Illusion
Steely Dan Any Through Gaucho. They’re all too good to chose.
Donald Fagen The Nightfly
Rush Moving Pictures

 

In no particular order,

Blue Rodeo, Lost Together
Supertramp, Even In The Quietest Moments
Springsteen, The River
Dire Straits, Making Movies
Steely Dan, Pretzel Logic
Boz Scaggs, Silk Degrees
The Police, Ghost In The Machine
David Bowie, Diamond Dogs
R.E.M., New Adventures In Hi-Fi
Sheryl Crow, S/T

 

Alice Coltrane / Journey in Satchidananda
Serge Gainsbourg / Histoire de Melody Nelson
Paul McCartney / Ram
Eden Ahbez / Eden's Island
Kinks / Arthur
Velvet Underground s/t
John & Beverley Martyn / Road to Ruin
Os Mutantes / Tecnicolor
Black Sabbath / Vol 4
Love / Forever Changes

 

KISS - Rock And Roll Over
Aerosmith - Rocks
Alice Cooper - Killer
Savoy Brown - Blue Matter
Rush - Hemispheres
Van Halen - Fair Warning
Badlands - S/T
Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous
Ten Years After - A Space In Time
The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta

 

10 of my hundreds of Top 10 favorite albums not by The Monkees! ;-) First album is one of my top 5 all time....in case the cover isn't recognized it's Adam & Eve from Catherine Wheel.

 

The music you have excluded certainly is some of the greatest put to wax but there are thousands of other great records to choose from. If there is some on my list you haven't heard please give a spin and let me know what you thought of it. Thanks.
Gram Parsons-GP
Drive By Truckers-Southern Rock Opera
Spirit-12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
Ian Hunter-Rant
Mott the Hoople-Mott
Chuck Prophet-Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins
Steely Dan-Countdown to Ecstacy
Arlo Guthrie-Amigo
Beck-Modern Guilt
Byrds-Mr Tambourine Man
Kinks-Village Green
Eric Clapton-Derek & The Dominoes
Dillard & Clark-Fantastic Expedition
Gene Clark-No Other
Edgar Winter-They Only Come Out at Night
Rick Derringer-All American Boy
Elton John-Honky Chateau
NY Dolls-S/T
Everclear-Songs From An American Movie
Velvet Undergound-Loaded
REM-Murmur

 

I got most of em. But who's 'The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society' by?
Also, I love 'In Rainbows' but I'd rank 'Kid A' and 'A Moon Shaped Pool' above it. And, most days, 'Amnesiac' & 'HttT' as well. It is a damn fine album, though. I can't really argue too much with anyone putting it in their top ten.

 

I like The Beatles,Hendrix,Pink Floyd and Zeppelin but none of those groups would get in my top ten

Mine would be (in no particular order)

Talking Heads - Remain In Light
Radiohead - Ok Computer
The Cure - Disintegration
R.E.M - Automatic For The People
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
David Bowie - Station To Station
Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
The National - Alligator

 

Chuck Berry - Chuck Berry's Golden Decade
Rolling Stones - Between The Buttons
Troggs - Love Is All Around
Velvet Underground - White Light/ White Heat
Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
Captain Beefheart - Troutmaskreplica
Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs
Iggy & The Stooges - Raw Power
New York Dolls - New York Dolls
Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets

 

10 preferences in no certain order...

1.The 5 Royales / Dedicated To You (1957)...guitar innovator Lowman Pauling's work finally comes to the front of the mix on this highly prized & extremely rare classic

2.Ike Turners Kings Of Rhythm / I'm Tore Up (1976)...a 17 song compilation of Ike's hard rocking 1956-57 sides, best described by the label that released it Red Lightnin

3.The Doors (1967)...after 50+ years of enjoyment this record remains my favorite late 60s album & "Light My Fire" is the hippest groove in all of Rock

4.The Stooges (1969)...the sound of white urban street thugs on the loose, boy did it sound good!

5.Spinners / Greatest Hits (1973)...before joining Atlantic this Motown group released great music with the Clyde McPhatter era Drifters aesthetic fully intact, shamelessly under rated

6.Them featuring Here Comes The Night (1965)...US debut release of Van Morrison & Them, they were my favorite British Invasion band, IMO this version far outshines the Decca version

7.Pere Ubu / Live At Lone Star Club -1978...my favorite band of the last almost 45 years & a searing live document of the band at the pinnacle of their avant-garage powers

8.Miles Davis / Agharta (1975)....today it's Agharta tomorrow it could be Jack Johnson, Big Fun or many other Miles Davis records

9.Lou Reed / Ecstasy (2000)...my favorite solo LR, the record contains all the elements that made the Velvets great & IMO Lou's finest solo epitath every bit as good as Charlie Rich's epitath "Pictures And Paintings"

10.Talking Heads / Speaking In Tongues (1983)...Side 1 of 1980s Remain In Light is my favorite TH music but SIT was the logical progression from 1980s Remain In Light & with Eno out their most funkiest & danceable record in the Heads short catalogue....

The punkish skeletal sound of previous TH records was gone & they hadn't gotten to the bigger bolder more pure rock sound that would come with 1985s brilliant instantly accessible Little Creatures...

Essential TH indeed