roachboy

the preamble:

so when i was growing up in new hampshire i wanted not be be in new hampshire more than anything but that was difficult to manage for a 14 year old, particularly one who was not terribly practical. so i listened to alot of records. somehow listening to records was linked to an ability to make lists: these goofy lists of bands would create cross-referencing potentials that i could use to listen to even more records. you know how it goes: band x goes on a major tour for the first time and so find itself trapped together in a bus for weeks during the course of which they discover that they do, in fact, hate each other. so they break up and form another band almost identical to the first band but copyright is such that they can't call themselves what they did, so they call themselves something else: and you need the new release by them but you wouldn't know that unless you knew that band x had mutated and while of course every review would tell you as much, it was much better for an alienated new hampshire boy to figure it out for himself by the comparing of elements drawn from lists in his head.

then there is the game of connect the bass players, for example.
i blame hugh hopper for this.


the point:

anyway, no matter the list-making capacities, and no matter the lists compiled by most alienated teenage boys who use music to escape a reality they do not like but cant do anything about, this one is bigger.


the guardian published a list of 1000 albums that you have to hear before you die.


http://music.guardian.co.uk/1000albums/

it seems that its one album per band.
sometimes i think they have it right---for example you must hear can's "tago mago" before you die. you must. there is no option.

but other times, i'm not so sure.
i would maybe correct the album.
sticking with c for a minute, if i were going to tell folk that they had to hear one chick corea record, i would say that the record he made with circle (with anthony braxton, barry altshul and gary peacock) would be it.

so while the guardian list is imposing:
how would you alter it?
what would you add?
what make you wonder "why is this here?"

secondary question:

is this link between listening to records and making lists typical?
is it a boy thing?
just wondering....

alteration number 1:

art ensemble of chicago:
the list has "full force" which is a great record
but "fanfare for the warriors" is the shit.

genesis: "selling england by the pound"
i dunno about this....it's a lovely record--but so is nursery crime and foxtrot.
i dont know how to choose between the 3.

addition:
jimmy guiffre: free fall

one of the truly astonishing free jazz records to come out of the west coast jazz scene of the early 1960s. it features some lovely lovely paul bley piano work too.

king crimson:
list: in the court of the crimson king
what?
"larks tongues in aspic" changed my young life when i heard it.
it has jamie muir on percussion, for fucks sake.
sheesh.

hey! where are the mekons?

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Daniel_

Cool thread.


I started to write a list.

I stopped.

I totally agree with 1/3 of the list (so far)
I vehemently disagree with 1/3 of the list (half of these are crap artists, and half are the wrong record by great artists )
I have not listened to about 1/3 of the list (about 1/2 of these I've never heard of).

In the list A-D, there are about 15 artists that I would have added...

I suspect that reading the full list of 1,000 is going to cause me to buy some CDs, you bastard.

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The_Jazz

A note as I peruse the list, such as it is: how can you name a "best of" album as "the" best album a band produced.

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flat5

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