My 50 Favorite Albums

First, I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of recommendations in response to my Top 50 Albums post.  Please keep them coming.

Nothing yet from Tony Alva, other than his threat to stop reading this blog if I left out Exile on Main Street.  I did not, he has to keep reading, and I expect a longer comment than that from him.

Now for some explanations, prompted mostly from the comments.

This is my 50 favorite albums.  It's not the 50 greatest albums and its not the 50 most popular albums.  It is a living list in that it can change at any time and it doesn't have to have 50 on it.  And I am going to take my time building it.

It is limited to the album/CD format and honestly its also limited to "popular music".  As much as I enjoy classical and opera when others play it, I don't listen to that music enough to put any of it on my favorites list.

It may include comedy and spoken word.  I hadn't thought to include that, but now I might.

I hope that clears things up for those of you who were wondering.  Please keep coming with your recommendations.  I've got a lot of music to listen to now and that's a good thing.

Comments

[Rod]

Fred, this is a monumental task, right after I sent you my comments, I had to pick Julia up, I heard Finest Worksong, by R.E.M. off of Document, great album, does it make the list, I don’t know. I say there are about 5,000 great albums, good luck. One more thing,
Give us readers of your blog a tease, add one album a week or so to the posted list, you have 11 so far.

[Tony Alva]

Sorry for the delay in submittal, I've been mourning the end of the season(the home game part that is) for college football here in Atlanta (especially dismal since Tech got crushed Sat. and will again get crushed by the Bulldogs in Athens this weekend). It's been a woeful season for me, Terps suck, Army sucks, Georgia Tech sucks, Penn State sucks, and I haven't won the pool once this year which means I'm going to be writing sucker checks to all the others. The worst kind of humiliation a man can suffer.

Anyhoo, you show great wisdom in posting Exile On Main Street so high on the chart. I have a couple of others that I would throw out to you for consideration. You may not have heard of the first two, but I would recommend them highly:

Peter Case self titled album and Man with the Blue Guitar, Sgt. Pepper's LHCB, RS Sticky Fingers, U2 Unforgettable Fire, Aerosmith Get Your Wings, or Rocks, G&R Appetite, Pink Floyd Dark Side, Black Sabbath Vol. 4, UFO Strangers In the Night, Ozzy Diary Of A Madman, Van Halen VH (Eruption changed everything and is still the New Testament for guitar players), REM Life’s Rich Pageant, NY Harvest, Eagles Hotel CA, Bruce Nebraska, Elton Goodbye Yellow brick Road, Paul Simon Graceland, Billy Joel The Stranger, Led Zep First Album and Presence, Cat Stevens Mona Bone Jakon and Tea For the Tillerman, Nazareth Hair of The Dog (thanks Jackson), Fleetwood Mac Rumors, AC/DC Back In Black and Highway to Hell, and everything from Jackson’s from Soundgarden on. They’ll be more when they come to me.

BTW, Rolling Stone has the Top 500 songs of all time and it was actually a pretty comprehensive effort I thought. I love lists and enjoy debating them. Good luck and hope that some of these recommendations inspire you to dust off a couple of these from your vinyl collection and take a listen (or pull them down to your iPod whachamacallit).

TA

[jackson]

I may have come off negative yesterday, sorry. I do endorse your effort, particularly since you've given yourself some leeway. Rod is right, 'Document' is great, so is 'Life's Rich Pageant', and 'Green', maybe even 'Automatic For The People'. "Out Of Time' might have made my cut if it wasn't for that stupid 'Radio Song' I'm gald you took some of Jason's comment to heart, all those Steve Martin and Richard Pryor records are great. "Be courteous kind and forgiving...."

[Tony Alva]

Automatic For The People is a HUGE oversight on my part. John Paul Jones arraignments are unbelievable. Throw it on my list as well. The only thing that would improve that album would be more cow bell.

[Tony Alva]

Comedy album... Robert Klein Child of the 50's

[jackson]

Tony brings up a huge omission on my part, Sir Elton. I'd say Madman Across The Water, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and Don't Soot Me I'm Only The Piano Player are definates.

[Bob Struble]

An age old effort, which never fails to satisfy (or provide a needed 10 minute diversion mid afternoon).

For what it is worth, I will give you my Top 10, in order, and 2 others which may be out of left field but should be in the Top 50. I was pleased to note such congruence with your calls:

1) U2 - Achtung Baby
2) Stones - Exile
3) Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
4) Clash - London Calling
5) Jimi - Axis Bold as Love (substitute Are You Experienced? if you want)
6) Neil - Rust Never Sleeps
7) Stones - Beggars Banquet
8) REM - Murmur
9) U2 - Joshua Tree
10) Nirvana - Never Mind

Wild Cards: Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience; Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

Additional editorial: You are high on On the Beach, interesting, but very far from the best Neil, and Elton John deserves no consideration whatsovever in any top anything list - middle of the road pop, straight up. And on the ground rules, you should not allow Greatest Hits albums, too easy.

[Tony Alva]

"Achtung Baby" and no to "Madman Across The Water"? Yet you'll relegate Elton to the Brittany Spears bin? Doesn't compute Bob, but the others are good ones.

[Bob Struble]

Different strokes Tony. I actually like a ton of Elton, but he falls off my list for everything he did in the 80s and 90s, to say nothing of early embarassments like "Philadelphia Freedom" or "Don't Go Breakin My Heart". You can't recover from that...

[Steve]

Surprised no one listed Talking Heads '77. Must be there. The second side of Abbey Road is IMHO the best side of music ever, and the first ain't too bad either.

[Tony Alva]

I hear you Bob, Sir Elton fell down the same well as many others did unfortunately. I peg it at the time him and Bernie Tuapin parted ways,Making "Capt. Fantastic" his last relevent record. I gave up on him after that too, but I can't discount the greatness of those early records. Mona Lisa's and Madhatter's, Take me to the Pilot, Burn Down the Mission, Levon, Madman, etc... Hall of fame worthy tunes and albums.

[jackson]

With all due respect Bob, you are way out of line.

`Cause I live and breathe this Philadelphia freedom
From the day that I was born I've waved the flag
Philadelphia freedom took me knee-high to a man
Yeah gave me peace of mind my daddy never had

Oh Philadelphia freedom shine on me, I love you
Shine a light through the eyes of the ones left behind
Shine a light shine a light
Shine a light won't you shine a light
Philadelphia freedom I love you, yes I do

If you choose to you can live your life alone
Some people choose the city
Some others choose the good old family home
I like living easy without family ties
Till the whippoorwill of freedom zapped me
Right between the eyes

Killer stuff. Give a re-listen after all these years, maybe that's what's best about this mission Fred is on, we revisit our youths and dispell the myths.