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
I agree on In Search of the Lost Chord. To Our Children's, Children's Children come close to 4/5 star quality as well.
Oh, wait! I meant Days of Future Passed is a 5-star. (I'd say In Search of the Lost Chord is a 4-star, though.)
BOB DYLAN - Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks
I have every album Bob Dylan released in the 1960s; the '70s and '80s are mostly represented in my collection by anthologies such as Biograph and The Bootleg Series; then I have every album from Oh Mercy (1989) on. I divide his '60s catalog into three distinct phases: 1) folk, 2) electric, and 3) post-motorcycle accident. I can tell from your choices above that you are primarily a fan of the "electric" era.
FOLK REVIVAL: When I first started to become interested in folk music, I enjoyed comparing the music of Bob Dylan to that of Simon & Garfunkel (who would often make digs at each other via the songs they would write and record). I later branched out and realized that the influence of American folk music had spread to the other side of "the pond" via artists such as Rod Stewart and Pete Townsend.
I would like to take this opportunity to clear up a popular misconception that "the king" in Don McLean's "American Pie" refers to Elvis Presley. ("And while the king was looking down, the jester stole his thorny crown.") Although the "jester" does indeed refer to Bob Dylan, the "king" refers to Pete Seegar. It happened at the 1963 Monterey Folk Festival: "When the jester sang for the king and queen, in a coat he borrowed from James Dean and a voice as it came from you and me." In this scenario, the "queen" is Joan Baez, and the "coat he borrowed from James Dean" is a reference to the jacket he wore on the cover of The Free Wheelin' Bob Dylan (his second album, 1962), similar to the one James Dean wore in Rebel Without a Cause. (Pardon me if you already knew all that.)
"DYLAN WENT ELECTRIC": At the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, Dylan famously (or infamously, some would say) "went electric." Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde are on your list, but Bringing it all Back Home (which was released between them) and John Wesley Harding (which was released after Blonde on Blonde) are conspicuously absent. All of these are 5-star albums in my estimation.
THE MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT: In July 1966, Dylan had a motorcycle accident that forced him to withdrawl from public appearances for the next year and a half. Although not released until 1975, The Basement Tapes (with The Band) was recorded during this time. You might like that one, too.
THE 1990s AND BEYOND: Here are some hilights:
Since then, he has released a series of albums of American pop standards: Shadows in the Night, Fallen Angels, Triplicate. When it came time to promote these albums, the reclusive Bob Dylan granted and exclusive interview, not to Rolling Stone but to AARP! In 2020 he released Rough and Rowdy Ways, which included "Murder Most Foul," a lengthy (17 minute) song about the assassination of President Kennedy. It occurs to me that, like the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan is an artist that has been around all my life and is still putting out vibrant, vital music.
TROUBADOURS OF THE FOLK ERA: I forgot to mention, when I was discussion the folk revival earlier, this three-volume set from Rhino Records (sold separately). They are out of print now, but should be easy enough to find on the used market, and well worth the hunt for enyone interested in the folk movement of the 1960s.
I'll vouch for Rough and Rowdy Ways. I remember being home the night he released "Murder Most Foul" online, and I listened to the song straight through twice, just in awe of the thing. And the rest of the album is really good, too -- I particularly like "False Prophet" and "Key West."
Bringing it all Back Home (which was released between them) and John Wesley Harding (which was released after Blonde on Blonde) are conspicuously absent.
I had never heard of Bringing It All Back Home until I saw it pretty high in the Rolling Stone Top 500* list -- second only to Blood on the Tracks, Dylan-wise. "Must be purty gud," thunk I. "Me must try this tiny frisbee in machine that make sound!" I told you I was a musical imbecile, right? Right.
I have John Wesley Harding, which I simply failed to mention. (I also already have Blood on the Tracks.) I knew about Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde because I had a friend in my 20s who was a Dylan nut, and was always making me listen to them. They were good enough that his irritating Dylan worship failed to make me hate them. TBH, I find Dylan's nasal whine annoying sometimes, but I can mostly ignore it as an odd artifact of otherwise great music, or even enjoy as an odd instrument whose sound isn't pleasant, but contributes to the whole. It's impossible to ignore that voice in his folk era, so I would put my foot down when my friend put on Free-Wheelin' Bob Dylan or any other pre-electric ones. I didn't know I was making lifelong choices then, but apparently I did.
I know very little about Dylan after my friend and I drifted apart, so the Basement Tapes recommendation is appreciated.
* I was looking at the list for ideas, but not taking it as gospel. I only had to see Never Mind the Bollocks, Here Come the Sex Pistols to know that not everything on the list was for me, even if it was from "my" era. I got that Sex Pistols album back in the day, after I had discovered The Clash and was looking for more like it. Wow, the Sex Pistols were AMAZINGLY bad musicians. They were amateurs who were worse than amateurish, since they were whacked out on heroin. I listened to it once, and would never willingly subject myself to it again. That tells me that at least one album on the list is on there for historical importance and not musical quality, and I don't need any albums for show, thank you. If I'm not going to listen to it, I'm not going to buy it.
CSNY - Crosy, Stills & Nash, Deja Vu
Yep, those're the two you need, I agree. (I also have CSN Demos.)
I saw CSN in concert once. They were to have opened for Chicago, but ended up "closing" for them, due to an electrical storm which delayed the show for hours. It was eventually decided that the headliners would open for the dedicated fans who waited for hours in the pouring rain. Due to those circumstances, both bands put on a really good show. I got separated from my firends early on, and was soaked to the skin and miserable by the time CSN took the stage. I arbitrarily picked a song, and decided that when they played "Marrakesh Express" I would leave. It was fourth in their set and I left after the song. Luckily, I had taken my own car.
Let's not forget Young.
I suspect that, at this point, the greatest hits of Neil Young would cover it for many people. However, Harvest, After the Gold Rush, and Rust Never Sleeps (two of which are mentioned in the original post) deserve additional mention.
I saw Crosby, Stills, and Nash (no Young) in the 1990s when they were doing a revival tour thing. The opening act called itself "Fleetwood Mac,", but it was Mick and several look/sound-alikes of the most famous line-up.
FRANK SINATRA - In the Wee Small Hours
Frank Sinatra is well represented in my record collection through anthologies and other collections, but In the Wee Small Hours is the only of his original albums I own, so obviously I agree with your choice. But can a talent such as Sinatra's be represented by only a single platter? For your consideration (and my own perhaps), these are all 5-star albulms according to my record guide...
Beyond that, I also own (and would definitely recommend) Duets (1993) and Duets II (1994).
Even Jimmy Thudpucker recorded a track with him.*
*(Sinatra famously refused to share a studio with any of the other performers.)
NOTE TO SELF: Consider "duet" albums along with "unplugged" as possible sub-topic. Ooh, and "tributes"!
HEART - Dreamboat Annie, Little Queen
The only Heart album I ever owned (on vinyl) was Greatest Hits. I later "re-acquired" it on CD, and I have found that that is all the Heart I will ever need. (I'm not being snarky; it's just a really good GH package.)
...for "Barracuda"
There's an interesting story behind that song. You should Google it if you don't know it (and care to, of course).
"Barracuda" was the theme song of KPLR-TV's long-running Wrestling at the Chase, replacing Tin Lizzy's "The Boys are Back in Town."
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