504.
Devo - gut feeling
Devo were impossible
to ignore when the various singles first started hitting in about
1978. Because there had NEVER been anything like them, even
remotely. Even I got that. But being the genius I was in
my late teens, I found them pretty easy to dismiss. Fun, but
just a gimmick. I mean, they weren't actually a good band or
anything. Then one day I was hitchhiking, caught a ride with a
punk sort of guy who had the first album on, playing loud. Gut
Feeling came on as we were crossing the Second Narrows Bridge, and
let's just say, I realized I was wrong, yet again.
503.
Simple Minds - I Travel
Back in the very
early 1980s, before they became huge, absurd and even stupider than
their name implied, Simple Minds were pretty cool. Big, tough
beats that weren't afraid to be danceable. Lots of pumped up
sonics, mostly dark, but hinting at an inner light. And they
were kickass live. I'm guessing I Travel was about being on the
road, not that I ever bothered to study it. Just did what it
was telling me, which was hit the dance floor, shake off the ghosts,
be glad I was alive.
501.
Tom Jones - 16 tons
Album title
(Wereldsuccessen) says it all, a Dutch compilation that I grabbed one
day at a yard sale. Because Mr. Tom Jones was an international
monster at his peak, a force of passion, good humour, not to be taken
remotely seriously. Except maybe when he took on 16 Tons, an
old mining song, his Welsh blood rising, giving voice to who knows
what ghosts may have been lingering.
500.
Clash - guns of Brixton
Yet another monster
from London Calling. More than any other song, I'm thinking this is
what hooked me to the Clash. Because much as I'd dug their punk
and powerful raving and drooling, this was obviously something else.
Reggae, I guess, but not really. Because there was way more
going on here than just aping that popular Jamaican sound. Nah,
Guns of Brixton was intense, rife with scattershot noise, full-on
revolutionary. What do you do when the cops bust in? Face
them down like the enemy they are with any means necessary.
499.
Taj Mahal - done
changed my way of living
It says 1968 on the
record jacket but this is pure 1990s for me, serving as a personal
anthem for a while, as I scaled back certain extremes of lifestyle,
making that decision that most of us make as we see our forties
looming – to not just burn out, but to age, to CHANGE.
Because change is good, certainly the kind you choose to make.
Like maybe opening your mind, starting to actually like the blues and
hot just the heavy howling LOUD Led Zep style stuff.
498.
Genesis - dancing with
the moonlit knight
How different were
things in 1973? In 1973 (with Peter Gabriel still the front
man) Genesis were the definition of sophisticated, underground cool.
Way too cool for local radio which barely played them. But you
heard about them anyway from various cool older brothers and sisters,
saw the occasional photo in Cream magazine. But it was always about
the live show, like Alice Cooper apparently, except way more mature.
So when I finally heard them, it wasn't what I was expecting at all.
How could it be? It was unlike anything I'd ever heard before.
So delicate and then not. So powerful and mysterious. The
album was Selling England by the Pound. The first song was
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight. Like slipping into a dense and
beautiful dream that you weren't ready for, but here it was happening
anyway.
497.
Badfinger - carry on
till tomorrow
I've mentioned the
tragedy that is Badfinger already. Two suicides, the two guys
that wrote this song as a matter of fact. But let's not hang on
that. Let's hang on how beautiful it is, how accomplished.
And how glad I am they gave it to the culture, the world, me
ultimately. Because I always seem keep carrying on.
Doesn't seem to be any other option.
495.
Byrds - everybody's
been burned
Because it's true.
If it hasn't happened to you already, it will. Love will find
you, fill you with heavenly light and eventually burn you, maybe tear
you apart.
494.
Aztec Camera -
jump
It's difficult to put into
words how much I hated Van Halen when they were at their peak.
So maybe just let this cover speak for me, the way it takes the piss
out of the monster hit that was Jump, and yet improves on it by
serving it up as soft rock, and then it all explodes anyway.
Beautiful.
493.
Deep Purple - lazy
[randoEDIT]
Memories of John
Masterson, friend of my older brother, definitely a wild one.
He had a souped up Datsun 510 that he loved to bomb around in, so
he'd give me rides places just to have an excuse to open it up, burn
rubber, go fast. And I swear he always had the same 8-Track
playing, Deep Purple Made In Japan, and it was always the same song.
Not the obvious one, Highway Star. Nah, John Masterson was
hooked on Lazy.
492.
The Edge + Sinead
O'Connor - heroine
Interesting that
this gem came out in 1987, before Joshua Tree. Inspires
thoughts of an alternate pop-history of the last fifteen or so
years. The Edge falls for Sinead, splits U2. And the two
of them go on to overthrow the Pope, take over the Vatican, end up
ruling the world. Bono meanwhile has nothing to better to do so he
joins Van Halen after David Lee Roth bails. Satan retires,
moves to Calgary. A thousand years of peace ensue.
491.
Wall of Voodoo - lost
weekend
As I remember it, Wall of
Voodoo started out wanting to make movie soundtrack music, but
somewhere along the line, they just started making their own movies,
in the form of songs. I mean, Lost Weekend may be only four of
so minutes long on record, but it's feature length where it matters,
in my soul. Smoke a little dope, pour yourself some Scotch and
you can see the whole thing play out.
490.
Wings - let me
roll it
Apparently this one was
written at John Lennon, part of an ongoing feud that had been
going on since before the Beatles split. Lennon's attack songs
tended to be full-on nasty, like bitchy little swipes at a former
lover. But Paul was nice. He never really sank to that
level. Instead, he tended to just do a "John", spit
out some generic bile in a John sort of way. Which in the case
of Let Me Roll It gave us one of the truly great post-Beatles Beatles
songs.
489.
Van Morrison - snow in
San Anselmo
The experts seem to
have pegged this album as a disappointment. Not me. I
remember it as Side B of the Van Morrison cassette I found in the
closet of my new place, 1983, standing on its end on the windowsill,
like the previous tenant was offering it as a gift. And it probably
was. Side A had Moondance on it, which I already knew (sort
of), various selections in fairly steady rotation on radio through
the 70s. But not Hard Nose. Hard Nose was all new to me
when I finally got around to playing it, totally on a whim, coming
down off some okay acid, early morning hours, too exhausted to do
anything, too wired to sleep. And there it was (on a different
shelf now), cued to Snow in San Anselmo. Like an offering from
God, or just some friend I never met.
488.
Alice Cooper -
hard hearted Alice
It occurs to me that
there are three selections from Muscle of Love on this list, not that
I'm apologizing. They're all damned good with Hard Hearted
Alice ranking the highest, so it must be the best: moody, cool,
yet not afraid to show a few fangs. But I guess the audience
was growing up at this point (I know I was), getting less fascinated
with all things gory, gothic, gruesome (other things that start with
G), maturing into the likes of Elton John, Electric Light Orchestra,
The Eagles (other things that start with E). Because Muscle of
Love was definitely the end of something. Yeah, there would
still be Alice Cooper albums for some time, but the group was
finished. That is, Mike Bruce, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway,
Neal Smith and a
guy named Alice (who sang lead, sometimes wore dresses, and was known
to smash baby dolls to pieces) would no longer make beautiful-ugly
music together. Now it would be just Alice (and various
industry pros) and not much to get excited about.
487.
Orb - earth [gaia]
You've probably
noticed there's not much stuff on this list from the 1990s even
though the cut-off date is 2000. That's because I generally
didn't buy new vinyl past about 1989. Is this fair to the
1990s? No. And I'm sorry about that. Sorry,
decade. This list is not fair. This list does not do you
justice. This list is not definitive. Yet it does have
some Orb on it, from 1991's The Orb's Adventures Beyond The
Ultraworld, because I had to have that on vinyl, all four sides of
it, something I could look at BIG, while it played BIG, not unlike
the known (and unknown) universe.
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