I'm collecting CDs of the music I used to have on LP before I sold my albums back in the '80s. Plus I want CDs of music I never had on LP before I sold my albums, but have always wanted to have anyway! I want to get these things before I die. Hence, bucket list.
Even though I know that's not how music is consumed these days. You're supposed to give your life over to the Internet and AI to get music. I understand that. It's the "new way," as they say in Clockwork Orange. A new broom sweeps clean.
But nah. Let the youngs do that. I'm old, and how I learned to appreciate music was off Top 40 radio in the '60s. Which made me buy a component stereo system with my newspaper-route money in the '70s. And buy albums up to and through the '80s, while I listened to AOR FM radio stations. I went to sleep every night through high school listening to King Crimson and Mott the Hoople on FM 103 in the glow of the radio dial of my $150 receiver, and via my $200, knee-high speakers, that I had bought myself. And you want me to listen to commercials on Pandora? Where's the magic in that?
And, boy howdy, I had a great record collection back then. I had the "Thick as a Brick" album with the fold-out newspaper inside. I had the "Sticky Fingers" album with the working zipper. And so forth.
But I was in my 20s and kept moving from job to job and state to state. While carting all those albums around. And they were HEAVY and FRAGILE, which is a bad combination. You couldn't trust them to friends or movers. You had to personally cart them to your car, and drive them to your new place, and cart them inside. When you had about 300 other things to worry about. So when CDs came along, I thought, "albums have become the new 8-tracks or casette tapes." And I had already gone through those transitions. And, to paraphrase Men In Black, I had already bought the White Album about three times.
TBH, I didn't really believe that LPs had become obsolete, like 8-tracks. But I was tired of carting the LPs around and wanted to believe it. Plus, with CDs, you didn't have to get up from the couch and turn the record over. So, in the late '80s, I sold hundreds of original 1960s and 1970s rock 'n' roll albums to some resale place in Panama City, Florida. Or maybe Memphis. For about $200.
Yeah, it still stings.
So now I'm going to fix it. Before I die. I'm going to get all the albums that I plan to listen to for the rest of my life. Many of which are albums I used to have on LP. Now I have to get them on CD. But I DON'T want to get more CDs that I'll just listen to once, and never again. (I already have plenty of those.) I want the classics. Or, more to the point, the songs that I grew up with, and now want to grow old with.
Which means this list won't be universal. In fact, I don't expect ANYONE to have the same bucket list as me. But I do hope everyone will chime in with their own choices, and to discuss mine. Because this is a forum! So here we go:
THE BEATLES
To me, the Fab Four are ground zero. Every time I listen to their catalog, I learn something new -- not necessarily about THEM, but about the times they produced their music and the times I grew up in. The insight, brother, the insight!
But also I do, actually, learn more about the songs when I listen to them as an old grown-up. (How could I have made all those Ringo jokes as a kid? He's PERFECT.) As I get older, The Beatles just get better and better. How could those twentysomethings have been so good? How could they have leaped forward album to album, and dragged the world with them? They were, in fact, just four working-class kids from a second-class port in England. But they changed the world. They certainly changed mine.
So I have to have:
- Please, Please Me
- With the Beatles
- A Hard Day's Night
- Beatles for Sale
- Help!
- Rubber Soul
- Revolver
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
- The Beatles
- Yellow Submarine
- Abbey Road
- Let It Be
Amazingly, if you buy all these albums, you still won't have all the major Beatles songs. Singles like "Paperback Writer" never appeared on an album, U.S or UK, because of the economic mechanics of the time. You have to get CDs like "One" and "Past Masters" to get them all. I have those, but I'm still not sure I have everything. I do have the two songs they sang in German (which are a hoot), on whatever album they were on, so I have some variants. But I'm not sure if I have everything. Not that it matters. I recently inherited "Anthology" from a friend who died, and I haven't been able to push through it. I don't need all the variants. I just need to tap my toes to what I already know.
THE WHO
I used to have the entire Who catalog through "Who Are You," which is about when I stopped buying vinyl. And you know what? I don't need to replace it all. There was a lot of genuine crap I don't need to listen to again. But I do need these:
- My Generation
- A Quick One/Happy Jack
- The Who Sell Out
- Tommy
- Who's Next
- Quadrophenia
- The Who by Numbers
- Who Are You
- Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy
Holy cow, that turns out to be the band's discography before 1980! I guess I can live with the crap for all the great stuff there. Especially now that Keith Moon and John Entwhistle have died. And I hear that "Live at Leeds" is the greatest live album of all time, from any band, so I guess I have to get that. (I have never heard it.) But I can pass on "Face Dances" and later work. I do want some of Townshend's solo work like "Empty Glass" and "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes." Most of it is pretentious, self-indulgent crap, but there are some remarkable and unforgettable songs there like "Gonna Get Ya." And I don't know what album "Eminence Front" is on, but I need that.
THE ROLLING STONES
When some department store in Memphis was closing (I don't remember which one), they had a clearance sale, and my wife and I happened to be there, and it happened to be at the same time that the entire Stones catalog was being re-packaged and re-sold, so they were all there, at dirt-cheap prices. So we bought the whole Stones catalog! The whole damned thing! I mention this, because I would never have bought some early Stones LPs otherwise.
And I have listened to them. Some of which I will never bother to listen to again. The Stones started out as a blues cover band, and they weren't very good until Paul McCartney showed them that writing their own songs was the way to go. Also, they had to get rid of Brian Jones. After which, they exploded.
Which is not to say that I don't love the Stones. I do, I do. I love them more than The Who. I listened to "Exile on Main Street" non-stop for about a year in college. I have seen them in concert three times. (I never go to concerts. Unless it's the Stones.) But the Stones have fewer must-have albums than The Who, so they have ended up here, at No. 3. Here are the ones I can't live without:
- Aftermath
- Sticky Fingers
- Black and Blue
- Let It Bleed
- Some Girls
- Exile on Main Street
- Beggars Banquet
After the "Big 3," everyone else is pretty interchangeable. Some bands I only want "best ofs," like The Doors and Doobie Brothers. Because the majority of their albums are crap, except for the songs you know.
BLIND FAITH
They only made one album, "Blind Faith." You know every song on it. You know every member of this band, from other bands.
CREAM
They made four albums. I only need the last three:
- Disraeli Gears
- Wheels on Fire
- Goodbye Cream
LED ZEPPELIN
I don't know what's on any individual Led Zeppelin album, because I bought a box set years ago and just listen to some of the CDs over and over. Some discs I don't need to listen to ever again ("In Through the Out Door," "Coda"). But the first four or five albums are must-haves. "Whole Lotta Love" and "Immigrant Song" alone.
PINK FLOYD
- Animals
- Wish You Were Here
- Dark Side of the Moon
- The Wall
MOODY BLUES
- In Search of the Lost Chord
- Day of Future Passed
VELVET UNDERGROUND
- Velvet Underground & Nico
BOB DYLAN
- Blonde on Blonde
- Highway 61 Revisited
- Blood on the Tracks
CSNY
- Crosy, Stills & Nash
- Deja Vu
JETHRO TULL
- Thick as a Brick
- Aqualung
NEIL YOUNG
- Harvest
- After the Gold Rush
KING CRIMSON
- In the Court of the Crimson King
DEREK & THE DOMINOS
- Layla & Other Love Songs
MOTT THE HOOPLE
- All the Young Dudes
TRAFFIC
- The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
- John Barleycorn Must Die
DAVID BOWIE
- Ziggy Stardust
FRANK SINATRA
- In the Wee Small Hours
BEACH BOYS
- Pet Sounds
- Surf's Up
HEART
- Dreamboat Annie
- Little Queen (for "Barracuda")
TOM PETTY
- Wildflowers
- Damn the Torpedos
- Full Moon Fever
BEETHOVEN
- Ninth Symphony
- Fifth Sympony
STRAVINSKY
- Rite of Spring
MUSSORGSKY
- Night on Bald Mountain
ELVIS PRESLEY
- Elvis
- Elvis Presley
WARREN ZEVON
- Warren Zevon
- Excitable Boy
THE CLASH
- The Clash
- London Calling
- Sandinista
JOHN LENNON
- Plastic Ono Band
- Imagine
- Shaved Fish (best of)
GEORGE HARRISON
- All Things Must Pass
- Living in the Material World
RINGO STARR
- Ringo
PAUL MCCARTNEY
- McCartney
- Ram
- Venus & Mars
- Band on the Run
I've never heard "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard" or "Flaming Pie," but they keep popping up on "best of" lists. I guess I'll have to listen to them at some point and decide.
YES
- Close to the Edge
- Fragile
Now we get to the part where I'm really ignorant. What Roy Orbison do I need ("Pretty Wonan," obviously)? What Buddy Holly?
Also, Granny's getting tired (Missouri Breaks reference). I can't remember all the bands and/or singers I like. So I've probably forgotten a few. Which is what you guys are going to remind me of, right?
EDIT: LEGIONNAIRE RECOMMENDATIONS
- The Who - Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy - a collection of their Sixties singles and EP tracks.
- Jethro Tull - Stand Up
- Mott the Hoople - Mott
- Beach Boys - Today and Summer Days/Summer Nights
- Roy Orbison: The All-Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison
- Roy Orbison: A Black and White Night
- Buddy Holly: The Buddy Holly Collection
- Brian Wilson: Smile
- The Who: The Who Hits 50!
- The Who: FACE
- Traveling Wilburys: Volume 1
- Traveling Wilburys: Volume 3
- Moody Blues: The Concert at Red Rocks
- John Lennon - Double Fantasy
- Paul McCartney - Tug of War
- George Harrison - Somewhere in England
- Ringo Starr - Stop and Smell the Roses
- Chicago: Chicago IX
- Eagles: The Long Run
- Eagles: The Very Best of the Eagles
- Chicago: The Very Best of Chicago - Only the Beginning
- Stevie Wonder: Music of My Mind
- Stevie Wonder: Talking Book
- Stevie Wonder: Innervisions
- Stevie Wonder: Fulfillingness First Finale
- Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life
- Joe Walsh: But Seriously Folks
- John Lennon: Lennon
- Eagles: Desperado
- Tom Petty: Hard Promises
- Jethro Tull: Original Masters
- Elton John: Elton John
- Elton John: Tumbleweek Connection
- Elton John: Madman Across the Water
- Elton John: Honky Chateau
- Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
- Elton John: Made in England
- Elton John: The Union
- Elton John: Captain Fantastic
- Elvis Costello-- the greatest hits compilation from the late 90s would do, though I like My Aim is True.
- Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run.
- Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
- The B-52s: Time Capsule: Songs for a Future Generation
- The Pogues: Rum, Sodomy, and the Last, If I Should Fall From Grace With God, Hell's Ditch
- Indigo Girls - Rites of Passage
- Tears for Fears-- Songs from the Big Chair
- Mary Margaret O'Hara - Miss America
- Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
- The Tragically Hip - Yer Favourites (unless you're really into the band, this will cover it)
- Ringo: Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr
- Don Henley: Building the Perfect Beast
- Glenn Frey: The All-nighter
- Don Henley: The End of the Innocence
- Pete Townshend: The Best of Pete Townsend - coolwalkingsoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking
- Pete Townshend: Truancy - The Very Best of Pete Townsend - (17 songs, 2015)
- Otis Redding: The Soul Album
- The Doobie Brothers - Best of the Doobies
- The Dog Night - 20th Century Masters, the Millennium Collection
- The Monkees - Greatest Hits
- Kinks: The Village Green Preservation Society
- Kinks: Best of 1964-1970
Replies
Dark Side of the Moon is definitely a 5-star album, and so is The Wall. I have nostalgic soft spots for Wish You Were Here and Animals, but if we're trying to be selective, I guess they'd fall to 4-star.
As noted, I have never heard Smile. I take your word that it's 5-star, just from what I know of its origin. How does it compare to other versions, or what we know of SMiLE or Smiley Smile or whatever? As to Beach Boys in general, Pet Sounds is considered 5-star, and apparently so impressed Paul McCartney that we got Sgt. Pepper as McCartney's effort to top it. But why? Is it because of advances Brian Wilson made in using the studio? I mean, I love "Sloop John B." as well as the next Boomer, but what's the big deal? It doesn't have "Good Vibrations," so I guess I'll have to get a "best of" to have that.
As to Yellow Submarine, I have the version that's all songs. (My vinyl version had the George Martin instrumental, and is long gone.) All Beatles albums are 5-star to me, even Beatles for Sale, depending on my mood. But I guess if I had to do a 5-star vote I'd say Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road. I immersed myself in The Beatles (White Album) in college, so it'll always 5-star to me, but I can see why it might not suit others.
Speaking of the Fab Four, I've never owned Beatles Red or Beatles Blue. I already had all the songs on other albums, younger me figured, so it never seemed a necessity. But maybe I should get them just to have the same experience (of those particular songs in that particular order) as so many others.
I said before I know little about Chicago, aside from the many songs I've heard on the radio. I recognize the three singles the internet tells me are on Chicago, but I don't know if I've ever heard the rest. I'll take your word it's their best LP -- and I'll have to, because they have too many for me to patiently sample them all.
As noted, I have never heard Smile... How does it compare to other versions, or what we know of SMiLE or Smiley Smile or whatever?
I personally would recommend the Brian Wilson version over the Beach Boys' version, simply because was the "first" version (i.e., the first "deliberate" version, not cobbled together out of odds and ends). Smiley Smile is similar in name only.
As to Beach Boys in general, Pet Sounds is considered 5-star... But why?
Pet Sounds was the first Beach Boys album I bought (after Endless Summer) when I first became serious about music, based entirely on its reputation as being so influential. The first time I listened to it, I didn't get it, either. But consider someone who grew up reading Marvel Comics, as I did. when I was young, I could easily liike at the early Lee/Kirby and Lee/Ditko and declare, "Oh, that's not so great!" But then you've got to compare it to the comtemporary fare: Gold Key, Charlton, even DC. Yes, a lot of what makes Pet Sounds so great is the technical innovation Brian Wilson used in the studio, but it took me years of study (and listening) to come to that conclusion.
Speaking of the Fab Four, I've never owned Beatles Red or Beatles Blue.
Sometimes I'm in the mood to listen to albums as cohesive works, and sometimes I want to hear the hits. The 2023 reissues of the Red and Blue albums make them better than they've ever been.
I'll take your word it's their best LP
It is certainly my favorite (although I personally happen to think it is their best as well). But I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to a tyro as a starting point, just as I wouldn't recommend Exile on Main Street as someone's introduction to the Rolling Stones. (I'd probably start them out with High Tide and Green Grass or something.) Chigago XXVII (a.k.a The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning) is my favorite of their many greatest hits packages, but it's two discs and goes into the "power ballad" years. A good, solid single-disc I'd recommend to you is the reissue of Chicago IX, which concentrates on the early years.
The last time I was at the LCS, I was talking to the No. 2 guy, who's about 10-15 years younger than me.
That reminds me of a story.
You know Casey Kasem. Back in the '80s he had a weekly radio show, American Top 40, as well as a weekly television show, America's Top 10. I never had much use for either one, frankly, although I did listen to/watch an episode of one each. I spent four hours one Saturday afternoon in 1982 recording American Top 40 the week my nephew was born. (It fit on a 90-minute cassette tape, which tells you how many commercials I had to take out.) The #1 hit that week was "Maneater" by Hall & Oates.
The only episode of America's Top 10 I ever watched was a special episode which was to rate the three most influential groups or artist "of all time" as chosen by the viewers.
Coming in at #3: Elvis Presley
#2 was the Beatles.
And the #1 most influential group of all time was... Queen (who had recently released The Game). I like Queen, but... c'mon!
I'm not one for rating albums however I do have favorite albums by my favorite artists and I think most have been mentioned already.
One group that we may have missed is Dire Straits. I'd place Making Movies and Love Over Gold among their best which to me would be 4 or 5 star quality..
I'm not one for rating albums...
I can respect that. But doing so can be a springboard to discussion. Here's another I'd like to throw open to the floor...
What was your first album?
Vinyl LP: Having an older brother and sister, there were certain albums that were always there which I just sort of "inherited." the one I think of as my first, though, is The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles' Hits. (I later got a copy on CD.) I wanted the first album I bought with my own money to be Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but when my dad took me to Nash Musicland in the Mark Twain Mall (with my birthday money in my hot little hand), it was out of stock. My favorite Beatles song at the time was A Hard Day's Night, so I bought that instead. Unfortunately, it was the American version, which was half non-Beatles instrumental versions.
Cassette: I was given a cassette tape recorder for my ninth birthday, but I didn't have any tapes of my own to play on it. I was given the choice of any tape I wanted to go with it (my brother to me to CMC* Stereo Center this time), and I chose In-A Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. *(Stands for "Custom Music Center.)
CD: I was in college and I walked into Sears to purchase an electric typewriter to type up a term paper so I cold finish my term paper, but walked out with a new stereo. I wanted my first CD to be something memorable, so again I chose Sgt. Pepper. Unfortunately, it was late 1986 and the Beatles catalogue had not yet been released on CD. They were being very deliberate about it, releasing one or two each month so that Sgt. Pepper would be released on June 1st ("twenty years ago today" since the original release). They were much more methodical about it than, say, the Rolling Stones were, who just dumped their Abkco catalogue on the market all at once with no fanfare or build-up (or sales). Instead, my first CD purchase was Led Zepplin's untitled fourth album.
Anyone else?
First vinyl - summer of 1969 I traded a stack of comic books for my buddies copy of Magical Mystery Tour. My first album purchase came just a few weeks later. The Beatles again, this time Revolver.
First cassette - same summer as above - I had saved up enough money to buy my first cassette recorder. At first I just taped music off the local Top 40 station or off friends albums but as Christmas drew near I was shopping at Sears with my mother who offered to buy a pre-recorded album as one of my Christmas presents. The selection was limited. It came down to Willy and the Poor Boys by Creedence or Blind Faith. I already owned Creedence's Green River album on vinyl so I opted for Blind Faith. After the holidays I took gift money and bought the White Album on cassette - still have it and the sound quality is awful.
First CD - the release of The Beatles catalog on CD motivated me to buy my first CD player. With the player I picked up Help! and Rubber Soul.
Bottom line if not for The Beatles I would probably own a lot less music.
My first album was Everything's Archie by The Archies in 1968. I was six and my folks got it for me that fall when the Saturday morning TV series started. ♫Sugar Sugar♫ wasn't released until the following summer. It was the third of five songs to hit the radio, with ♫Jingle Jangle♫ coming in at #10 a few months later so technically The Archies are not a one hit wonder.
My first casette was of an early Olivia Newton-John album (can't remember which, but from before she starred in Grease) from a Stop n' Go conveience store on clearance for under $2 when they were getting out of carrying music.
My first CD...? That wasn't until the early 1990s when I bought a whole bunch out of a clearance bargain bin at my local Walmart for $5 each, so I'm not sure which one to consider the first, but my collection has definitely grown since then.
First album? That one's easy: Abbey Road. I bought it with my own money, not long after it was released, even though I didn't have a stereo system. I listened to LPs on my parents' stereo system, which was literally built into a cabinet. I eventually did buy a component stereo with my paper-route money. I was a bit baffled by "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," but otherwise it was the bee's knees. Little did I know that I'd still be listening to that music more than 50 years later! (Or that I'd even be alive 50 years later. Hard to imagine when you're 11 years old!)
Speaking of The Beatles, I checked my Yellow Submarine CD to see which version I had. Turns out I have two of them. And both of them have the George Martin instrumentals! I looked it up on Amazon, and it appears that the version with actual Beatles songs on Side 2 came out in 2019, and is called the Yellow Submarine Songtrack instead of the original Yellow Submarine Soundtrack. Does that sound right? There's nothing new there, of course, as all the songs on Side 2 had been released before. But it was only $9.42 on Amazon, so I ordered it.
I was a bit baffled by "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"...
According to John Lennon, it's about Karma, that the minute you do something wrong, Maxwell's silver hammer will come down and bop you on the head. (Thematically, he would go on to write "Instant Karma.")
Little did I know that I'd still be listening to that music more than 50 years later!
I wish I had a nickel for every time I have used the "50 years from now" line in regard to one group or artist or another. Some friend-at-the-time would be sining the praises of whatever band was "The Next Big Thing" at the time, I would would say, "People will still be listening to the Beatles 50 years for now. Do you think they will still be listening to XXXX?" Most of the time the answer was "yes." Of course, I was never to see any of those people again to say, "See? I told you so." I have said that about groups ranging from the Starland Vocal Band to the Georgia Satellites.
Speaking of which... "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" was a catchy little tune and I liked it. The Georgia Satellites opened for REO Speedwagon (the group I have seen second most often following Chicago). Remember that story I told about when I saw the Eagles in concert. They opened with "Hotel California." The Georgia Satelites saved "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" for the very end of their set... because it was the only hit they had. At one point they were playing some jam I couldn't understand. They were several minutes in before I realized they were playing "Rock 'n' Roll Music." End of digression.
Does that sound right?
Yes, "Songtrack" is right (did I say "soundtrack earlier?), but it was originally released in 1999. (The 2019 version must be a remix or something.) I remember, if you were one of the first 100 purchasers (or whatever) you also got a little mylar "yellow submarine" balloon on a stick. It's a good snapshot of that period of the Beatles' career.
These are the first two albums that I ever bought. I no longer remember which was the very first.
My first album was Styx's Paradise Theatre, which I requested for my birthday; judging by the release date, I would have been turning 12. Around that time I also got two casette tapes from my cousins for Christmas: Tom Petty's Damn the Torpedoes, and The Cars's Candy-O.
"Sugar Sugar" on the other hand, was the number one song the week I was born. For a while I kind of resented that I had such a bubblegum intro into the world while my friends had songs by the Stones, etc., but now I realize it's the one Number-One hit by comic-book characters, and it seems the most appropriate thing ever.
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