Top 100 albums

Excluding classical music and in some sort of order of preference - this might take some time. And as I love album covers lets have them as well


1 Miles Davis - Kind of Blue 1959
Why not have arguably the biggest selling jazz album of all time as number one choice. I know every note on this LP. This music is timeless.


2. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme 1965
Another great jazz album, but whereas Miles Davis above was thoughtful, dreamy and tuneful: A love Supreme is fiery and passionate with Coltrane exploring the limits of his tenor saxophone.


3. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited.
The classic Dylan album, but I could have had ten other Dylan albums in my top hundred, but this one has Like a Rolling Stone, Just like Tom Thumbs Blues and the astonishing Desolation Row.
The ten other Dylan albums - Desire, Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the tracks, The times they are a-changing, Time out of Mind, John Wesley Harding, Street legal, Bringing it all back home, The Freewheeling Bob Dylan and live 1966 (the Royal Albert Hall concert)

Much as I love a lot of different jazz musicians, I have to say this is my favorite album.

Rock: Dark Side of the Moon has always been my pick.

Folk: Greg Brown's Songs of Innocence and Experience

Classical: Argerich, Maisky, and Kremer playing Shostakovich's second piano trio and Tchaikovsky's Trio in A Minor

Gypsy, Goran Bregovich, soundtrack to Black Cat/White Cat

I saw Goran Bregovich at The Marciac jazz festival about 5 years ago. It was an excellent concert and he got everyone dancing.

You worldly son of a gun...I miss all the good stuff nearby. But there is no excuse for my idiot thinking when Bruce Springsteen played Trieste last, maybe five years ago. We were going to go, the kids were both raised on lots of Dylan and Springsteen, the price was like a third of what Tom Waits cost (my 50th birthday present from a friend, concert in Prague), and I said it started too late--2300 start--too late for the kids. And of course, as we are so close, lots of friends went, we had to hear specific details, like a Triestine violinist was invited on stage, how it went at least 4 hours...I don't even recognize the self that made that idiotic decision.

>A Hungarian guy visited last week. His girlfriend remarked that his favorite song is Like a Rolling Stone. They have a band (shakin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJYmQhSR0xU) and they only do one cover, and she said they could do that one.

Now about your list of best Dylan albums. While I agree that many besides the one you chose could be on your 100 list, I must replace several, so that when future generations sift through these files...
Strike these: Time out of Mind, John Wesley Harding, Street legal
Replacements: Bob Dylan, Nashville Skyline, and Hard Rain
Commentary: A friend I love gave me a casette of Time Out of Mind, and before I made it all the way through it went out the window on Interstate 90 on the Iowa side of the Mississippi. J. Harding was some kind of experiment in acoustic no man's land. Street Legal was the beginning of the end, the warning signs being the use of background vocalistas. My guess, since, for one example, the very male Pink Floyders used vocalistas beautifully, my guess is Dylan RELIED on them. We all know how horrible he became in concert: I think Hard Rain was the last good live album.

ETA: I support a second place Coltrane.

Rick is wrong about his Dylan replacements. Bas's list is better. Sez me.

Here's a list of sorts. These are (some of ) MY top albums. That mean a lot to me and I'll listen to over and over. Many of these artists recorded other albums that could just as easily be on the list. I left off Kinda Blew coz i didnae wanna be copyin Le Bas. If I thought hard enough I'm sure I could come up with lots I forgot. And there are a lotta groups where a career spanning compilation would make the grade, but is that fair in this kinda list? even though i included some anyway...

Walter Klien - 3 Beethoven Piano Sonatas
Oscar Peterson Big Six - Live at Montreux
Horace Silver Quintet - Song for my Father
Velvet Underground and Nico
The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert
Bob Dylan - Bringing it all back home
Jesse Winchester - 1st LP
Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
Robert Johnson - Complete Recordings
Howlin Wolf - 'AKA Chester Burnett'
Soft Machine - Volume 2
Hatfield and the North - Rotters Club
Caravan - If I Could Do it all over again
Gong - Camembert Electrique
Brian Jonestown Massacre -- Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective
The Band - The Band
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
The Stooges - Fun House
Sex Pistols -NeverMind the Bollocks
Sleater-Kinney - Call the Doctor
Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight
13th Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere
Mose Allison - Retrospective (1971)
Impressions/Jerry Butler - The Vintage Years
Beatles - Revolver
Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
Pretty Things - SF Sorrow
Van Morrison - Moondance
New York Dolls - 1st album
Amon Duul II - Yeti
Can - Tago Mago
Allman Brothers - Live at the Fillmore East
The Cramps - Bad Music for Bad People
New York Dolls - 1st album
Modern Lovers - 1st album
Alan Stivell - Renaissance of the Celtic Harp

Personal Compilations
Jefferson Airplane
Lightnin Hopkins
Temptations
The Drifters

Yes, it is fair to throw in compilations. No, Rick is right, exceedingly so, about the Dylan ten.

So there.

>6 Crypto-Willobie: Some of my favourites in that list:

Horace Silver Quintet - Song for my Father
The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert
Bob Dylan - Bringing it all back home
Robert Johnson - Complete Recordings
Howlin Wolf - 'AKA Chester Burnett'
Soft Machine - Volume 2
Caravan - If I Could Do it all over again
Gong - Camembert Electrique
The Band - The Band
The Stooges - Fun House
Sex Pistols -NeverMind the Bollocks
Mose Allison - Retrospective (1971)
Beatles - Revolver
Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
Pretty Things - SF Sorrow
Van Morrison - Moondance
Can - Tago Mago

>5 RickHarsch: Dylan Albums
I have a bit of a blind spot with Nashville Skyline although it is a great album
Back in the day (the late sixties) There was a two year gap for Dylan releases. There had been 8 official release between 1962 and 1967 and quite a few bootlegs. Then nothing in 1968 when it was mooted that Dylan might have had a motorcycle accident. (no internet then so we couldn't check) Then a year later out came Nashville Skyline and that rough scabrous Dylan vocal had changed (no one likes change) On that first track Girl from the North Country (the duet with Johnny Cash) I couldn't believe it was Dylan (was he trying to sing in tune? had he twisted his neck?) and those terribly professional country music musicians and the LP came in at under half an hour. It took me years to get over the shock but Planet Waves helped.

4. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison 1968
One of the first rock albums where the bass player was a star performer, later Joni Mitchell would use the same trick with Hejira. The songs on Astral Weeks were poignant and intense and Morrison's voice was at its most expressive. However just like Dylans marvellous catalogue I could just as well have chosen other albums by Van Morrison for example: Moondance, Tupelo Honey, Hard Nose the highway, Veedon Fleece, Wavelength, Into the Music, back on Top.


5. Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship - Blows Against the Empire 1970
This has long been a favourite of mine. The Kantner/Slick vocals on this and the sometimes rambling feel of the songs bring out the best of what Jefferson Airplane were all about. Great lyrics full of youthful angst but also hippie hope. Wow


6. Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
It was the voice, the songwriting, great acoustic guitar playing and the shy retiring character of Drake himself that gives an inestimable touch of melancholy to much of his work. This album contains my absolute favourite song Northern Sky which I had played at my last wedding. His first Lp Five Leaves Left was nearly as good.

>9 baswood: Dylan etc

I was gonna say John Wesley Harding was 1968 but now I see it was released Dec 27 1967. Close enough for govt work? That was the first Dylan album I bought when it was new (I was only 13 when Blonde on Blonde came out) and I've always loved it. His voice is so completely ON. Nashville Skyline is ok -- I Threw it All Away and Tonight I'll Be Stating Here with You are primo but too much filler.

Planet Waves I didn't love though it has its moments. Bob not in particularly good voice there. I've read he had a cold during the sessions.

Van Morrison I was a couple keystrokes away from choosing Astral Weeks. Actually his first six Warners albums are one big masterpiece.

Starship vs Airplane? Starship lacks Jorma's lead guitar and that's the dealbreaker. I know this album isn't really "Jefferson Starship the group" but still lacks Jorma.

Did you know that Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman) in pre-Ramones days was the lead singer for a New York group called Sniper, some of whose members went on to Tuff Darts and Blondie. While in that group Joey's nom-du-rocque was "Jeff Starship".

>11 Crypto-Willobie: Well I have still got room for a Jefferson Airplane album in my top 100 and it's gonna be "Bless it's Pointed Little Head" where Jorma's guitar is in full flow.I agree about Blonde on Blonde Dylans voice was just a little softer than on Highway 61. I want You and One of us must know were great vocal performances and that's not forgetting Sad Eyed Lady.

Visions of Johanna?
Leopardskin Pillbox Hat?

Love your top two choices up at the beginning, bas - two of my all me favorites, as well.

7. The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet 1968
with the original banned cover that caused a lot of fuss in the 60's. This just comes in ahead of Let it Bleed and Exile on Main Street.


8. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 1967
This was an icon of progressive popular music when it was released. Perhaps it has not aged so well as Abbey Road or even Revolver, but this album brings back many fond memories for me I was 17 when it was released. It was and still remains a statement.


9. Family - Family Entertainment 1969
The group never released anything as remotely good as this album. All the songs are excellent. This is the album that has either been on my turntable or in my CD player the most over the years. Soon after this Rick Grech left to join Blind Faith.

10. Fresh Cream - Cream 1966
Stunning when this was released. Eric Claptons guitar improvisation on a set of simple blues tunes and the bubbling Rhythm section of Bruce and recently lamented Ginger Baker set a trend for many jazz rock bands.


11 Elvis Presley - Rock 'n' Roll 1956
Was this the Album that started it all? Mystery Train, I'm left, your right, she's gone and Thats alright. If you thought Elvis was just a movie star listen to this.


12. Archie Shepp - Four for Trane 1965
More jazz with Shepp's group leading the free jazz movement. I saw the group in London in 1966 and Archie Shepp in Marciac in 2017.

13. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland 1968
The experience never sounded better than on this Album - nice cover


14. Frank Zappa - Hot Rats 1969
Again there are many contenders for the best Zappa album. Chungas Revenge, Waka Jawaka, Sheik Yerbouiti.....................and the classics with the mothers of Invention - Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped my Flesh


15. Chicago Transit Authority - Chicago Transit Authority
This was a great rock album before they morphed into Chicago

Frank Zappa is a god in ex-Yugo. I downloaded all his albums once but couldn't keep the project up. I will listen to Hot Rats now in order to at least start off on the left foot.

Yeah I remember that Zappa album !
My dad loved it

My great grandpa loved it.

Liar ! you are not that young ! : )

>19 Macumbeira:
Making me feel ancient. My dad liked Al Jolson and Rodgers & Hammerstein.

My dad is 87
But I remember that while all the kids of my age had generation problems with their parents, I had none.
On the contrary, I was making sure my Dad didn't do anything wild again.
"Oh, you're so old" he would say to me after so many warnings of mine.

Whats wrong with Rodgers & Hammesrstein - John Coltrane took the song My favourite things, from The Sound of Music to unbelievable heights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWG2dsXV5HI

My mom and dad are both 88

I think by the time I was 16 I had broken more laws and rules than my dad has in his whole lifetime.

>24 baswood:
Nothing. I love R&H, and Lerner and Lowe and Frank Loesser, etc etc. I just mean that compared to Zappa they're pretty square. I did get my dad to like Simon and Garfunkel.

I saw these folks here in the summer. They were inspired to play R & H in preparation for a visit to N. Korea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EavTye99eZA&list=RDEavTye99eZA&start_rad...

16. The Damned - Damned Damned Damned 1977
1977 the year of the punks in England and the new wave in America. The Damned were the first group to get an Lp onto the streets and it was a classic.


17. The Clash - London Calling 1979
Decidedly post punk in 1979 this is a great collection of songs and the best football club in London have adopted London calling as their song.


18. Talking Heads - Fear of Music 1979
One of the best of the American new wave groups and this was their crowning achievement.

>18 RickHarsch:
from my recent review of Cold Warriors by Duncan White:

Vaclav Havel ended up as President of Czechoslovakia becoming a major player in the fall of the Soviet Empire while partying with Lou Reed, the Rolling Stones and designating Frank Zappa as a roving cultural envoy for this newly independent country.

Hail Mothers of Invention

AJA by Steely Dan

Take Five - Dave Brubeck

>29 berthirsch: Everyone on this side of the curtain misses Frankie.

19. Joni Mitchell - Hejira 1976
For me just ahead of Blue


20. Leonard Cohen - The songs of Leonard Cohen 1967
And what great songs they were. His second solo LP Songs from a Room was also excellent as was his comeback album Ten New Songs in 2001


21. Donovan - A Gift from a Flower to a Garden 1967
Only Donovan was the equal to the great solo singer/songwriters on the other side of the Atlantic and although A Gift from a Flower to a garden may not contain his best songs the packaging with the printed lyrics was the best yet.

Which Judas Priest is the best? Many of their albums are so different yet always with that distinct Priest sound. Sad Wings of Destiny might be the best, perhaps.

Off the top of my head--Live at the witchtrials and Hex Enduction Hour by the Fall. Entertainment!--Gang of Four. .....and out come the wolves--Rancid. 40 oz. to freedom--Sublime. Tweez--Slint. Rock Action and Mr. Beast--Mogwai. The first Clash album. War on 45--D.O.A.--Stations of the Crass--Crass. Living in Darkness--Agent Orange. Back from Samoa--Angry Samoans. The Bad Brains 1st album which actually came out in cassette. I like the Doors too and the Velvets. Either lp--Joy Division. Tragic figures--Savage Republic.

>35 lriley: Hex Enduction Hour by the Fall and Entertainment by Gang of four will both be in my top 100

>34 George_Salis: Judas Priest don't quite make it for me.

I forgot the Ruts. The Ruts to me were kind of like a gateway band---somewhere between a rock band and a punk band. They were one of the pub rock bands circulating throughout England pre-punk (or before the Pistols) like Elvis Costello and the Attractions or Stiff Little Fingers who got lumped in early with the Pistols, Clash, Slits and Damned and by the way Joe Strummer joined the Clash from the 101'ers which was a pub rock band. The Ruts like the Clash were among the very first to incorporate reggae into punk rock. The Ruts didn't last long because their singer Malcolm Owen died of an heroin overdose---though they did carry on for a while as Ruts D.C. Actually they have been playing together again the last few year.

#35---I always loved the Fall. Mark E. Smith was a really out there character. Gang of Four brought Marxist theory into rock music and Andy Gill was just an unique guitar player. He didn't so much play chords as turn them into shrapnel and they constructed their songs at least in some cases like plays with the band members emerging in and out of the songs.

Nostalgia time for me now and the first three albums I bought are still in my top 100


22. Chuck Berry - Chuck Berry 1963
This was a compilation but an early compilation all from his pre prison days. 14 great tracks


23. Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley's 16 all time greatest hits 1964
Another compilation yet again all from his early years.


24. Georgie Fame - Rhythm and Blues at the Flamingo 1964
For a long time this was THE coolest album that I owned. The sound quality was not great but the music was thrilling. I loved the sound of that hammond organ.

>37 lriley: Yes loved the Ruts the Peel sessions album was the best release of their songs. Stiff little fingers first LP was great too, but in those days singles (45rpm) were king and I have a drawer full of stuff from 1977/8

#40--yeah Inflammable Material--great record and it kind of broke out the independent label scene in Britain in the late 70's. The label Rough Trade got a lot of momentum off of that. The next record from SLF was pretty good too but after that they got poppier and poppier. The thing with Inflammable Material---it was pretty much all about the Northern Ireland troubles in the late 70's and a couple years later that went off the rails with the hunger strike--so it's kind of a period piece.

My favorites Clash songs are White Man in Hammersmith Palais, Police and thieves and Janie Jones--and the first two are really reggae. My favorite Ruts songs are the reggae ones too. Both of those bands figured that music out. NYC's Bad Brains falls into that too--they go from punk to reggae to punk but the Brains actually began as a jazz band. I like the energy of punk but those bands that could diversify into something more subtle were my favorites really.

Agent Orange were probably the first punk surf band. Mike Palm's brother worked in a Fender guitar factory in Southern California--so he was brought up around guitars and surf music. He just beefed up those old classic surf instrumentals.

25 The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour 1982
It could have been This Nations Saving Grace or I am Curious Orange, but here we have something from the 1980's, which was almost a wasteland for popular music imo.


26 The Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks here's The Sex Pistols 1977
The Sex Pistols were a singles band and this was their only studio Album. But it contained those four great singles.


27 Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material 1979
Real punk from Stiff Little Fingers.


28. Wire - 154 1979
Post punk and another classic from the Brits in 1979


29. XTC - Drums and Wires. 1979
More post punk or is it new wave?

#42--oh lord, Wire's 154---that is a great record. I was infatuated with them for a while. A single K.O. and Map. Ref., A touching display, Two people in a room.

30. The Liverpool Scene - The Amazing adventures of.........1968
Described as a poetry band led by poet Adrian Henri. This wonderful collection of songs just pips their final release St Adrian Company. Broadway and 3rd describing their trip to New York.


31. John McLaughlin - Extrapolation 1969
The album that took Jazz rock to places few musicians were able to follow.


32. John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Bare Wires 1968
John Mayall the father of the British blues scene took this band into jazz rock territory and made his best album

33. The Butterfield Blues Band - East West 1966
Some good blues tunes and a couple of extended guitar workouts for Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, still sounds good


34. Prince - 1999 1982
Something good from the 1980's Princes decade, head and shoulders above the rest. This is my favourite from among many possible choices.


35. Johnny Guitar Watson - What the Hell is this 1979
Something from the funky late 1970's and one of the best voices of that time - he played some nice jazz tinged guitar too.

>45 baswood:
East-West an old time favorite. Elvin Bishop was another band member.

off on a tangent...in an earlier post,>29 berthirsch:, I mentioned how Vaclav Havel had interacted with Zappa, the Stones and Lou Reed.

it is noted that the new president-elect of Argentina yesterday met with Patti Smith.

https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/culture/patti-smith-serenades-alberto-fernandez-...

#47--there's an interesting story here about a Canadian Paul Wilson who came to Czechoslovakia in the 1960's as a 20 some year old and became the singer in a very popular underground Czech rock band the Plastic People that were very influenced by Zappa, Lou Reed and John Cale's Velvet Underground and another New York band called the Fugs. Wilson eventually was expelled along with the rest of the band from Czechloslovakia. He is also the translator of numerous Czech novels by the likes of Havel, Bohumil Hrabal, Josef Skvorecky and Ivan Klima.

Nice to see Patti Smith looking alive and well. I saw her in concert about 20 years ago.

#47--there's an interesting story here about a Canadian Paul Wilson who came to Czechoslovakia in the 1960's as a 20 some year old and became the singer in a very popular underground Czech rock band the Plastic People that were very influenced by Zappa, Lou Reed and John Cale's Velvet Underground and another New York band called the Fugs. Wilson eventually was expelled along with the rest of the band from Czechloslovakia. He is also the translator of numerous Czech novels by the likes of Havel, Bohumil Hrabal, Josef Skvorecky and Ivan Klima.

By the way the Velvet Underground's first album with Nico and the Warhol banana cover is one of the most iconic and influential records ever made. They never really sold a lot of records but they were an inspiration for literally thousands of bands. They reached into both the worlds of literature and modern art like no other band before and maybe even after. Cale was really only there for their first two l.p.'s but he was and is an extraordinary musician--a musical savant. He is classically trained (before the Velvets he worked with people like John Cage) and can literally play any instrument. He is creative, intuitive and experimental.

>37 lriley:

"I forgot the Ruts. The Ruts to me were kind of like a gateway band---somewhere between a rock band and a punk band. They were one of the pub rock bands circulating throughout England pre-punk (or before the Pistols) like Elvis Costello and the Attractions or Stiff Little Fingers who got lumped in early with the Pistols, Clash, Slits and Damned..."

The Ruts were not a pre-Pistols pub-rock band. They formed in August 1977 and their first single came out in early 1979. The Sex Pistols first played in public in November 1975, though they didn't get much notice until around Feb 1976.
And Stiff Little Fingers weren't a punk band, at least in their early days? The British music press called then an Irish Clash. And they also didn't form until 1977, post-Pistols.

#51--before they became Stiff Little Fingers--most of the original members were in a band called Highway Star. Two members of the Ruts were playing in a band called Aslan and the two others were playing in a funk band called Hit and Run. All these were gigging bands. The story I always heard about SLF was that Henry Cluney was the one who was really excited about the punk thing--Jake Burns not so much and took some convincing. Their original drummer was a guy named Brian Fallon. He was also in Highway Star. SLF's original manager was Gordon Ogilivie--he kind of moved Burns towards making political statements about the troubles. A story I've heard about Owen is he just didn't use heroin--he was a dealer too. His death somewhat to do with an off and on relationship with his girlfriend. He'd been clean for a while but then his girlfriend left him again and he went into a depression and started using again and overdosed.

Joe Strummer was in the 101'ers. The Stranglers and Cock Sparrow were two other pre-Sex Pistols bands working that circuit.

Yeah, I know all that. Many early punkers had been in pre-punk "pub" bands. That still doesn't make The Ruts or SLF pre-Pistols pub-rock bands.

#53--well I guess I just described it awkwardly. Part of my point was that not all those musicians were novices--that they had backgrounds.

>50 lriley: The FUGS were very active in the East Village as community organizers and advocates. Tuli Kupferberg was their leader and was also a poet.

Kupferberg reportedly appears in Ginsberg's poem Howl as the person "who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and walked away unknown and forgotten into the ghostly daze of Chinatown soup alleyways & firetrucks, not even one free beer."

The writer Ed Sanders who wrote The Family on the Manson murders was also in the FUGS.

My favorite Fugs songs are 'Frenzy' and 'I Couldn't Get High' (the original, not the later live version).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNbU8WCyVe8

>54 lriley:
Fair enough...

36. The Only Ones - Even Serpents Shine 1979
Another new wave group from the late seventies.


37. Ornette Coleman - Chappaqua Suite 1966
Seven years earlier Ornette had broken new ground with his album The Shape of jazz to Come which is a classic but I love this double album originally made as a film score, but I can imagine the producers horror when they heard it. Ornette's trio improvise for 80 minutes over an occasional atonal backing group. Sublime is probably not the right word.


38. Pharaoh Sanders - Karma
Free Jazz saxophonist who cut his teeth with Coltrane. The Creator has a master plan and Sanders pushes the Saxophone way beyond its limits.

>58 baswood:- love all the jazz you list.

WAVE Antonio Carlos Jobim

>59 berthirsch: Yes I can play that on my tenor sax.

39. Pete Atkin - Driving through Mythical America 1971
Clever songs, lyrics by Clive James, very British.


40. Richard Hell and the Voidoids - The Blank Generation 1977
Richard Hell struts in front of an aggressive guitar led band and who could resist a single called Love Comes In Spurts.


41. The Pretty Things - S F Sorrow 1968
Beat the who to the punch with this Rock opera


42. The Who - Tommy 1969
Fantastic music on this double album. Townsend's underture is a classic piece of rock composing.

Boz Scaggs- Silk Degrees...smooth groove.

I like the Who quite a lot but my favorite is the earlier stuff---Happy Jack, Can't explain etc. etc.--(the mod deal) and the album that came after Tommy--Who's next. Keith Moon was a nutzo drummer and there might never be a better rock bass player than John Entwistle.

>63 lriley:
My Generation was an anthem for the times.

#64--it kind of was and every once in a while I'll youtube the video of them playing that on the Smothers brothers show at the end of which Moon explodes his drum kit which is hilarious.

The Who were the best live rock band of the 1960's that I ever saw, although having said that their best show was when they were featuring the album Who's Next in 1971.
Live at Leeds is a great live album and some might say the best thing that ever came out of Leeds (apart from Gang of Four). Meaty Big and Bouncy is THE collection of those early singles.

The only 60s British band i ever saw live was The Kinks and that was in 77-78.

(The only other British bands I've seen live are David Bowie, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and The Clash.)

Another interesting thread in this group might be Bands/Artists Seen Live

>66 baswood:/67

shit you not I saw the Beatles first NYC concert, 1964 at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium.

Cream in a small popular club on Long Island, The Action House, sitting on the stage, next to Clapton's amp, my ears have never stopped ringing to this day.

Practically lived at the Fillmore East, dozens of great groups which would take me time to innumerate. I was very lucky to be around as a teenager/young adult back then.

Wow! the Beatles.

Beatles 21
Julian Lennon - vocals, keyboards, etc
James McCartney - vocals, gtr, keybds, etc
Dhani Harrison - vocals, gtr, etc
Sean Lennon - vocals, bass, etc
Zak Starkey - drums

43. Santana - Caravanserai 1972
Every one loves the first Santana album, but this is my favourite. A couple of the songs allow Santana to stretch out on guitar with excellent backing.



44. Caravan - If I could do it all over again I'd do it all over you. 1970
The uncrowned kings of the Canterbury scene which included Soft Machine; Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, then Daevid Allen and Steve Hillage. Heady days. The next Caravan Album In The Land oF the Grey and Pink tried to repeat the formula.


45. Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
Totally wonderful and never repeated.

>70 Crypto-Willobie: Will never be as good as their Dad's

>72 baswood:

I dunno - there's a lot of talent there and they've never tried it together

>71 baswood:

I'd pick the second Santana LP over the first.

Carafans tend to worship Grey and Pink as their ultimate achievement but like you I prefer the 2nd album

I never could get to all that dance-wave, or disco-punk, or watered down bowie or whatever you want to call that duran-cell-league-ultra-spandau-flock-gary stuffola.
Though, oddly I really like the second Culture Club album and I lurve the first 5 Roxy Music albums (though ho-hum for the 3 post-hiatus Roxys).

============================

Hey, how about Lindisfarne?

46. Slayer - Christ Illusion 2006
I like metal and this hits the right notes - it's not Lindisfarne


47. Soft Machine - Third. A double album with one of the most memorable tracks from the Canterbury scene - Robert Wyatt's Moon in June.


48. The Band - The Band 1969
Could not leave this one out.

Yes The Band.
Robbie Robertson’s new album, Sinematic is a good listen.

49. Beck - Odelay 1996
Something from the nineties.


50. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King 1969
One of those albums where its so useful to have the skip button on the CD. The longest track Moonchild does not come near the other four brilliant songs.


51. Blind Faith - Blind Faith 1969
Similar to the King Crimson Album where one of the tracks - "Do What You Like" is pure self-indulgence by the group or perhaps they did not have any other decent songs.

Isn't that the lead singer of Zeppelin in that photo?

52. Blodwyn Pig - Ahead Rings Out 1969
A jazz rock group that had a bunch of great songs for their first LP and also the wittiest picture and title for their album sleeve.


53. The Blue Nile - Hats 1989
A collection of soporific songs from this Scottish group.


54. The Byrds - Untitled
A double album featuring a live recording of their classic early material and a studio recording of some great new songs.

55. Canned Heat - Living the blues 1968
A Studio album that contains their best songs, tied up with one of the worst live albums ever released, but the songs including the excellent Parthenogenesis puts this in my top 100.


56. Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band.1968
This is the good captains best album. I could never get my head round the much lauded Trout Mask Replica


57. Charles Mingus - Oh Yeah 1962
There are better albums by Mingus no doubt, but this is my favourite, because of its energy and jazzy looseness. I still get a thrill listening to Hog Callin' Blues.

Finally a Mingus!

58. David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees 1984
I love his vocal style and this is definitely NOT synth pop.


59. David Bowie - David Bowie 1969
There are many Bowie albums that could have made my top 100, The man who Sold the World, Diamond Dogs, Low, Heroes....... But this Album from 1969 is my favourite.


60. The Doors - Waiting for the Sun 1968
It could easily have been the eponymous titled album from the year before which has the wonderful 'The End'

I would probably go with the Doors first LP but this one does have Spanish Caravan and Five to one. There are great songs on all their albums though.

61. I like my Cure dark and tragic and so Pornography or Disintegration, Pornography/disintegration I will go with Pornography 1982


62. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bayou Country 1969
John Fogerty says it all.


63. Derek and the Dominos - Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs 1970
Clapton's finest hour and a half.

Layla and Bell Bottom Blues are great great songs. Clapton at his best.

Back to the Brits today:

64. Fairport Convention - Liege and Leaf 1969
The leaders of the folk rock movement in England - this was their best before Sandy Denny left.


65. The Free - The Free 1969
simple blues rock group but when the guitar and vocals are this good singing the telephone directory would sound fine.


66. Gang of Four - Entertainment. 1979
ten years later and the Gang of Four's first and best album - again a drum, bass and guitar quartet, but the world had moved on.

#85--a big fan of Entertainment. It's like political disco funk post-punk. Andy Gill is an extraordinary guitar player.

67. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass 1970
George and the garden gnomes, he saved his best songs for this album


68. Iggy Pop - Lust for Life 1977
This album really rocks


69. Joy Division - Closer
The final Statement. 1980

70. The John Handy Quintet - The second John Handy Album 1966
The quintet with Michael White on violin and jerry Hahn on guitar were a big hit at the Monterey Jazz Festival and this studio album was very exciting at the time.


71. Mike Westbrook Orchestra - Metropolis
The band that contained all the bright young British jazzers from the late sixties were exciting live and rocked.


72. The Stan Tracey Quartet - Jazz Suite (inspired by Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood)
Sublime music and one of my favourite album covers.

I'm only posting this because the Anals are about to fall behind the Bug Collectors.

Hadn't heard of Stan Tracey. Sounds pretty good...

73. Kevin Ayers and the whole World - Shooting at the Moon 1970
The whole world included Mike Oldfield, David Bedford, Lol Coxhill Robert Wyatt (guest) and Bridget St John. Pisser dans un violin still sounds wonderful. Never to be repeated.


74. Lou Reed.- Berlin 1973
The ultimate in depressive listening? Reed never sounded better.


75. Terry Reid - River 1973
And another great Reid. I could have picked any of Terry's releases, a distinctive vocal style that has stayed with him

>90 Crypto-Willobie: Stan Tracey stayed firmly on the jazz scene when many of his contemporaries were flirting with rock. His piano style owed much to Thelonious Monk.

76.The Battered Ornaments - Mantle-Piece 1969
Jazzers go rock and come up with a classic


77. Pete Brown and his Battered Ornaments - A Meal you can shake hands with in the Dark 1969
Poet Pete Brown lyricist for Jack Bruce's songs with the Cream, thought he could sing, an acquired taste perhaps, but great music supplied by the Battered Ornaments.


78 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads 1996
Theres over the top and then there is Nick Cave and Murder Ballads

79 Nucleus - Elastic Rock 1970
Another classic jazz-rock album, with added electronics


80. The Moody Blues - In search of the lost Chord 1968
The Moody Blues made one classic album and this was it


81 Neil Young - American Stars and Bars 1977
Of course I have not forgotten Neil Young, so much to choose from his back catalogue, but this is my favourite featuring both Neil Young on his own and with Crazy Horse - Like a Hurricane. And one of the best Album covers.

>94 baswood:

... and two of the key figures in Nucleus (Jenkins and Marshall) went on to become two of the key figures in late period Soft Machine...

Velvet Underground and Nico? aka the Banana album.

82. Groundhogs - Split 1971
The Groundhogs were always a second division group, but Split lifted them out of the ordinary for one brief moment.

.
83. Howard Jones - Human's Lib 1984
He always threatened to be more than a synth-pop artist and on his first release he nearly made it. I still listen to his music for that occasional flash of genius.


84. Mastodon - Blood Mountain
Quality Metal from this American band. They are so good they should be Scandinavian.

85. Tyrannosaurus Rex - Prophets; Seers & Sages The Angels of the Ages 1968
The third album "Unicorn" was just as good - Marc Bolan before he discovered the electric guitar. totally unique.


86. Third World (2) - Aiye-Keta 1973
Steve Winwood with a couple of African musicians Remi Kabaka and Abdul Asila Amad made this classic.


87 Medicine Head - New Bottles Old Medicine 1970
More strange Brits.

88 Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin 1968
Still my favourite Zeppelin album - Untitled has the best songs but I love the raw bluesy sounds on their first album


89 Loudon Wainwright III - Loudon Wainwright III 1970
Good old misogynist Loudon, but I love his voice and his tunes.


90. John Martin - Solid Air 1973
Another artist with an incredible back catalogue

So, Bas, this is in order, right? I know about seven of these albums (if I actually counted, maybe it would be three). I take my music serious in that I like to listen to it, so I see that there is much i have been missing. I want to ask where I should start, but that would seem to be with the first album I don't know. Yet, I am me and this is not tailored to me. I have enough jazz and classical--I love much more than I will ever listen to, or if I do, that's fine. But the rest--I like Clash, the Pogues, Dead Kennedys, Knockneed Murphys, some early ska...Given that can you suggest maybe a few albums?

>100 RickHarsch: Don't know where you should start but these might finish you off. Links to Youtube where you can always find more tracks from the same albums. Making note of your likes then Stiff Little fingers are something like the Pogues on Speed.

You might like the Wordsmith Mark E Smith who was The fall and Hex Enduction hour

Jefferson Airplane - takes a little time for them to get going on this live album but then they really rock.

Captain Beefheart Well it''s the blues innit

Iggy Pop - Lust for life should be up your street

Then it gets more introspective from some Brits. Caravan, Terry Reid, and Nick Drake
and don't forget the Godless metal of Slayer.

Stiff little Fingers - Inflammable material
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_rgknPseMw&list=PLM0QWHFvEjTaXGAYMSaFwnnIk3...

The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZZZjD5F5_0&list=PLglUu7rOaMDtglyRL6vxSuWEYi...

Jefferson Airplane - Bless it's pointed little head
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2tr-UctURQ&list=PLUHivxJA9ZFB-b66NUyHYNEkpE...

Captain Beefheart - Strictly Personal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rebV7EJiNg&list=PL962B8B1A14C4BD85

Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuBU3pzy7is&list=PLHCcCVjmq6AE1lKh5uepcdsuRU...

Blodwyn Pig - Ahead Rings Out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-VNfg9mg20

Terry Reid - River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ccV6xsFPmY&list=PLckAHSF6bQgg1umFAZnNkn-mVZ...

Caravan - If I could do it all over again I would do it all over you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAPGUi0l9N0&list=PLa8x9Xa2avTAj1Yx-A-UXB2WHi...

Slayer - Christ Illusion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22nbWlFfrhg&list=PLPf69IGxwfBEqaSvGAcVHsVqEA...

Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPV6XzMQ3tE&list=PL57CA6E50A255531D

91 Jefferson Airplane - Bless it's pointed little Head 1969
Probably my favourite live album, certainly my favourite album cover.


92 Rock Workshop - Rock Workshop 1970
More Jazz Rock - this one might have passed some people by.


Brad Mehldau - Live in Marciac 2006
A solo piano recital that had the audience spellbound and its great to have an album of the event

thanks Bas

It's a great thread even if Bas is not a big fan of the Velvet Underground and Nico.

#101---Mark E. Smith was a trip. The very underrated Wire's 154 also made the list.

#100--there were ska bands before them but the Specials were a great band that came into the light in the late 70's. Rancid's Out come the Wolves has a ton of ska in it. Some early punk bands worked ska and reggae music into their work. The Clash, the Ruts, Bad Brains, Vancouver's D.O.A. come to mind.

I knew the Specials.

getting near the 100 up and so it's time for some blues:


94. Muddy Waters - The Best of Muddy Waters 1957
This early compilation on the chess label just can't be beat



95. Sonny Boy Williamson - The Real folk Blues 1965 and More real Folk Blues 1966


96. John Lee Hooker - Dimples
This collection of early material on the DJM label is probably my favourite, but there was also some excellent stuff in the 1960's on the chess label.

>104 lriley: Thank you for the reminder about the Ruts, but just four more spaces to fill

#107--the Ruts were so good.

#105--The Ruts bring to mind Sublime a 1990's ska band that was just tremendous. A three piece band quite often accompanied by Bradley Nowell's dalmatian when they were doing gigs. They had their Rodney King riot song--April 29, 1992, Badfish and did a lot of covers including the Gershwin tune Summertime which they do as Doin' time. Over my years doing graveyards with the Post Office I must have wore out and replaces 3 CD's each of their two main albums. I used to play the shit out of them. They covered Marley and Tosh, the Grateful Dead and Bad Religion amongst others. I find watching youtube videos of them great fun too---the bass player puffing on a huge stogie---the Dalmatian running around. Like Malcolm Owen of the Ruts Nowell died from a heroin overdose effectively taking out the key creative spirit. The Ruts continued on for a while as Ruts DC and after a long hiatus the two surviving members of Sublime hooked up with another singer/guitarist and resurrected as Sublime with Rome.

>108 lriley: yes interesting. I have a Ruts DC album which is of course Rhythm Collision and I love the Dub reggae sound.

I don't have Rhythm Collision---I have the Crack, Grin and bear it in LP's and three or four 45's (West one would be one of them and I think In a rut and Babylon's burning and maybe something else). I also have the Ruts DC album Animal Now which has a lizard on the front cover.

So memories of great concerts at the Marciac jazz festival:


97. Charles Lloyd Quartet - Mirror 2010
And the Charles Lloyd quartet back in 1966 released Dream Weaver which was almost a cross over album and featured Keith Jarrett on piano


98. E.S.T. Strange Place for Snow 2002
The Esbjörn Svensson trio with Esbjörn fiddling around inside the piano as much as playing the keyboard, but he had an ear for great tunes and the rhythm section were excellent. He died following an accident in a swimming pool shortly after his performance at Marciac


99. Ahmad Jamal - Saturday Morning - La Buissonne Studio sessions 2013
Ahmad is a regular booking for the festival playing this year in his ninetieth year. This album captures his delight in percussion which has been a feature of late period Jamal


100. Grateful Dead - Live/Dead 1969
The Dead of course never played at Marciac, but I did catch one of their long concerts on a European Tour back in the 1970's. Dark Star seemed to go on forever, but sounds good on this album.

STOP STOP YOU HAVE REACHED 100


101 The Ruts - The Peel Sessions Album
I have been disappointed by the sound quality of their two albums, but the engineers on the Peel sessions got it right imo

love seeing all the album covers