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1 Kevin Ayers -- The Confessions of Dr. Dream
Kevin Ayers, founding member of The Soft Machine, produced
this more-commercial-than-usual album in 1973. While he'd made his mark
after leaving the Soft Machine with laid-back art rock like Joy of a Toy
and Whatevershebringswesing, Confessions was Ayers' gesture to the market.
It alienated his left-of-center audience and didn't please the critics
either. But it's one of my favorites: it rocks, it is poetic, and it features
the incredible guitar playing of the late great Ollie Halsall--his solo
on Didn't Feel Lonely Til I Thought of You is superb. I bought Confessions
at a radio station fundraider for $1. I bought a Baker-Gurvitz Army album
that totally sucked that day too.
2 Roxy Music -- Avalon
Avalon was my introduction to Roxy Music. Just after graduating
from high school in 1980, Matt Flynn gave me a cassette of it. We didn't
get crazy about it right away; we both grew to love it over a period of
months. Over the next couple years I started exploring other Roxy albums
as well as solo efforts -- some of which, like 801 See You Later, Diamond
Head, etc, are in my top 50 list. But Avalon is a lush, perfect recording
of some of the most romantic rock ever. Like "Astral Weeks",
it is an album all serious music lovers should hear.
3 Roy Harper -- HQ [aka When an Old Cricketer Leaves
the Crease]
Perhaps Harper's most accessible recording, what with an
incredible band and a lush Abbey Road production and some of his most
angry and beautiful lyrics, HQ is Roy's masterpiece. There are those who
would say that "Stormcock" comes closer to that milestone (Christ,
there all great to me), but I think HQ shows Harper at a certain high
watermark: His top-of-the-game lyrical power, his interest in rocking
with a real band, and the happy balance between world-class production
values and leave-it-it-works first take freshness. I love this album!
4 Dirk Hamilton -- Meet Me at the Crux
It kills me that I didn't get to see Dirk Hamilton performing
during the days that Meet Me At The Crux was released by Elektra Records.
It truly would have been a memoreable experience to see this great poet
performing at the highest pitch of emotional power and musicianship. I
know people who saw him during this period and they would no doubt agree
that very few songwriter/singers ever came down the road with more conviction
and drive than Dirk Hamilont, circa 1978. Happy happy he's still making
records. http://www.dirkhamilton.com
5 Led Zeppelin -- Physical Graffiti
Memory: Listeing to Kashmir while stoned, driving around
rocky river access roads in Fair Oaks in the late '70s, being connected
to the river, the oaks, the hazy scent of pot, and each other. We could
swear the band was trying to trip us out. I still find PG to be one of
the best double albums....I can still listen all the way through. The
very same activities, going to the river near Sacramento and in a stoned
ecstasy communing with friends, plants, river and sky, inspired my own
song, "Ain't
Gonna Take You Down."
6 Nick Drake -- Pink Moon
One of my great loves turned
me onto Nick Drake. I never listen to Pink Moon without thinking of her.
Well, almost never. Pink Moon is a gripping, beautiful chamber piece,
a slight 35 minutes in length but with the emotional and spiritual impact
that stays with you for a lifetime. I read somewhere that Nick's songs
are still performed yearly at the church near the hamlet where he lived
with his parents until his tragic death.
7 Robyn Hitchcock -- Black Snake Diamond Role
This is the album that got me completely hooked on Hitchcock.
I'd gotten I Often Dream of Trains and Fegmania! first, but with this
one something really snapped in me. It works from beginning to end like
great albums should. Years later I discovered just how cheaply it was
made and some of the stories around the songs -- thanks to the loving
job Rhino did in re-issuing BSDR and other Hitchcock albums.
8 Rolling Stones -- Sticky Finger
Two songs, "Sway" and "Can't You Hear Me
Knockin'" would be worth the price of this album. They are that great.
To know that "Moonlight Mile" and "Sister Morphine"
are also in there makes this a must have. In fact, I only own two Stones
records: Sticky Finger and Exile on Main Street.
9 Big Star -- #1 Record
I came into Big Star long after they became hip. But that's
okay, I was a fan of all the bands that were preaching the greatness of
Alex Chilton and Dave Bell: REM, Let's Active, Game Theory, and The Replacements,
to name a few. None of them (and they'd be the first to admit this), NONE
of them ever approached the quality and delivery of pop-rock-jangle that
made this album so special.
10 David Bowie -- Hunky Dory
There are those who don't know this album exists who count
themselves as Bowie fans. Yet without it, Bowie would not have wondered
the distance between "Space Oddity" and "Ziggy Startdust."
Which isn't to imply that Hunky Dory is a transitional album. It's a classic
rock album with parts Beatles, Velvet Underground and honky tonk showtune
punk space folk to boot.
Could have made it (again:
no particular order implied):
Robyn Hitchcock -- Mossy Liquor
The Soft Boys: anything!
Led Zeppelin -- Zoso
Pink Floyd -- Meddle; Dark Side of the Moon; The Wall; WIsh You Were Here
Bowie: Low; 'Heroes'
King Crimson: Lizard; Red; Discipline
Brian Eno: Before & After Science; Ambient 2: Harold Budd; Wrong Way
Up (with John Cale)
Grant Lee Buffalo: Jubilee; Mighty Joe Mooon
Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left
Stones: Exile on Main Street
Townshend & Lane: Rough Mix
Pete Townshend: Who Came First
The Who: Who's Next?
Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom; Old Rottenhat; Shleep
Dirk Hamilton: Thug of Love; Yep!; sufferupachuckle; Alias I; You Can
Sing On the Left or Bark on the Right
Daniel Lanois: Acadie
Passengers: Soundtracks
Van Morrison: Astral Weeks; Moondance; "Wonderful Remark"; The
Healing Game
Big Star: Radio City; Big Star's 3rd
Syd Barrett: Madcap Laughs; Barrett
Roy Harper: Sophisticated Beggar; Folkjokeopus; Flat, Baroque & Berserk;
Stormcock; Valentine; Lifemask
The Replacements: Pleased to Meet Me
Hendrix: anything!
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