F:ATtie Favorite Fives - Records

Michael Barnes wrote:

On the subject of dirty Prince, "Erotic City" is one of the more neglected Prince cuts, it being a B-side and all.

Not at the nightclubs I went to in the eighties, much to my delight.

Prince is the greatest pop star of my time... but he has to share the title with MJ.

Sister is one of the dirtiest songs I've ever heard.

You could make a list like that for MJ too and I would stand behind it

1/ Bad
2/ Thriller
3/ Blood on the Dance Floor (especially "Is it Scary", "Morphine", and "2 Bad" for some reason when MJ swears and screams it seems like he means it more then other artists)
4/ Dangerous
5/ Off the Wall

... there's still some genius tracks missing if I do this too. I just can't think of a better pop album then Bad. Dirty Diana is a fuckin rockin' tune. I wish MJ could have had it together enough to play with other bands, I think he could have been a brilliant metal singer. No singer in my lifetime had such a unique and instantly recognizable vocal style. His neologisms are fucking hilarious!

In fact for pop music alone I could try to do a top five...

1/ MJ
2/ Prince
3/ Al Jolson
4/ Diana Ross and the Supremes
5/ The Coasters (that's a personal one)

It's totally unintentional that the only white performer on that list actually performed in Blackface... but looking at it now you'd think it was a joke. I didn't put on people like Hank Williams because I don't think Honky Tonk was ever pop. You could make a similar argument for Jolson but his label "The Entertainer" leads me to thinking he is a bit more of the pop vein, albeit the early days.

Dogmatix wrote:

(Christ, Afrocelt Soundsystem and A3/Alabama-3 *might* have been the last time I was surprised by a band, and even then there was a niggling bit in the back of my head saying "I'd rather be listening to Tackhead...")

Hah, I fucking love Alabama 3. If I were to sit down and make one of these top-fiver lists, Coldharbour might just snag a spot. I also think you and Barnes are both wrong, and "The Velvet Underground" is the key VU album. Loaded is maligned for all the wrong reasons as well. "Oh Sweet Nuthin'" is one of the standouts of their entire catalog.

JonJacob wrote:

1/ MJ
2/ Prince
3/ Al Jolson
4/ Diana Ross and the Supremes
5/ The Coasters (that's a personal one)

Why Al Jolson over Fats "Al Jolson stole my shit AND wore blackface while doing it" Waller?

Not Sure wrote:

Dogmatix wrote:

(Christ, Afrocelt Soundsystem and A3/Alabama-3 *might* have been the last time I was surprised by a band, and even then there was a niggling bit in the back of my head saying "I'd rather be listening to Tackhead...")

Hah, I fucking love Alabama 3. If I were to sit down and make one of these top-fiver lists, Coldharbour might just snag a spot. I also think you and Barnes are both wrong, and "The Velvet Underground" is the key VU album. Loaded is maligned for all the wrong reasons as well. "Oh Sweet Nuthin'" is one of the standouts of their entire catalog.

I suspect you and I have extremely similar music collections.... And, whoops, I forgot all about The Velvet Underground, which is kind of sad because the first side of that record is classic and *far* better than Loaded. The 2nd side is "classic Velvet Underground"...which ain't the same thing at all [and also tied with Sister Ray for the "Most Likely to Make My Wife Yell "What the HELL Are You Listening to NOW?" Award].

And you're wrong about Loaded, so there! ;P

Ever had a chance to see A3 live? They're one of the few left on my list of bands that I want, but have not had any chance at all, to see. And they're one that I'd be willing [and probably be forced] to travel overseas just to see. Based on reports from a friend who caught them in Birmingham a few years back, they sound like they'd be up there with My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult as a live show in which sex drips off the walls. (You don't even have to *like* Thrill Kill Kult to find their show absurdly entertaining in a leather-n-chains kind of way.)

Dogmatix wrote:

Why Al Jolson over Fats "Al Jolson stole my shit AND wore blackface while doing it" Waller?

Because Waller was not exactly an entertainer. He wrote great songs and performed them ok on record but wasn't able to ham it up like a pop artist should and wasn't nearly as entertaining live. Like Elvis after him Jolson wrote nothing and had an incredible voice, but it's not the pop star's job to write, a wise man knows what his speciality his and focus's on that.

Jolson could entertain.

Dogmatix wrote:

I suspect you and I have extremely similar music collections.... And, whoops, I forgot all about The Velvet Underground, which is kind of sad because the first side of that record is classic and *far* better than Loaded. The 2nd side is "classic Velvet Underground"...which ain't the same thing at all [and also tied with Sister Ray for the "Most Likely to Make My Wife Yell "What the HELL Are You Listening to NOW?" Award].

And you're wrong about Loaded, so there! ;P

I bet you've got more noodling-hippie crap in yours. That stuff always makes me think "man, I miss seeing the JGB". However, I'm sure we'd have a good time spinning records and bullshitting about them.

I can't see how I'm wrong about Loaded, I just said it gets shit on for all the wrong reasons. It's not as cool as some of the other records for pissing off wives and girlfriends, but there's no shortage of good songs on there. Rock-n-Roll Animal makes the songs people know on Loaded obsolete, though. People get all hipster-defensive about John Cale and Doug Yule and whatever. Call it the first Lou Reed record if you want, it's still a good one.

Ever had a chance to see A3 live? They're one of the few left on my list of bands that I want, but have not had any chance at all, to see. And they're one that I'd be willing [and probably be forced] to travel overseas just to see. Based on reports from a friend who caught them in Birmingham a few years back, they sound like they'd be up there with My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult as a live show in which sex drips off the walls. (You don't even have to *like* Thrill Kill Kult to find their show absurdly entertaining in a leather-n-chains kind of way.)

Never seen them, I don't think they've ever toured the US. Shit, their records don't even get an "A3" US release anymore, my recent ones all say "Alabama 3" and I had to pay extra to fly them over here. I have a lot of bootlegs from them, they're sometimes brilliant and often sloppy.

I already posted my five, here's the ones I can't bare leave out:

Stevie Wonder: Talking Book
Minutemen: Double Nickles on the Dime
Television: Marquee Moon
Aphrodites Child: 666
Can: Tago Mago
Amon Düül2: Yeti
Slovenly: Riposte

SST was such a label at its time it blows my mind.

Tago Mago. _Amazing_ record. Part of one of rock's most incredible tryptychs- Ege Bamyasi and Future Days rounding it out.

Another great tryptych- Wire's Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154.

Marquee Moon took me years to fully appreciate, but now it's definitely a "best".

SST but no Husker Du? Really?

OK, this is some crazy shit right here. My phone just randomly started up Pandora and "Erotic City" started playing. Out of nowhere.

As for Loaded...it's a great record, I'll stand up for it. It was just as influential as the others, but sort of along a different path. You can't argue with a record that's got "Sweet Jane" and "Rock n' Roll on it, no way.

People get all hipster-defensive about John Cale and Doug Yule and whatever. Call it the first Lou Reed record if you want, it's still a good one.

Classic line from the Fall's "Shoulder Pads"- "...couldn't tell Lou Reed from Doug Yule..."

OK, this is fucked up even more. "Erotic City" just went off and "Superstition came on...from Talking Book. SO I guess "Mushroomhead" or "Venus de Milo" is next...

Not Sure wrote:

I can't see how I'm wrong about Loaded, I just said it gets shit on for all the wrong reasons. It's not as cool as some of the other records for pissing off wives and girlfriends, but there's no shortage of good songs on there. Rock-n-Roll Animal makes the songs people know on Loaded obsolete, though. People get all hipster-defensive about John Cale and Doug Yule and whatever. Call it the first Lou Reed record if you want, it's still a good one.

Ah, I see; I thought you said *I* was shitting on it for the wrong reasons. I'm not one of those "No John Cale = not VU" schmucks. But, the addition of a 2nd (competent) guitar and no viola weirdness go a long way to giving a "we tried really hard to make a pop album" feel for me. It's not like I think it's a bad record by any stretch, I just significantly prefer the earlier stuff (and I'd like to shoot the label for putting out a 2-disc deluxe version of Loaded with a fuck-ton of additional material--and I actually like the demos more than the final product in a lot of cases--right on the heels of the box set. That sort of double-dipping just pisses me off as there's no reason that they couldn't just put that same shit in the box set. Patti Smith did the same thing with a bunch of demo tracks on the Land 2-disc compilation right after releasing uber-editions her early catalog.)

And you know, it's funny but I don't actually have all that much noodly hippie stuff (if I want long improvs, I go straight to my jazz shelves). One of the things that drew me to Widespread Panic initially was that they were closer to a cross of the Allman Bros. and Little Feat than bands like Phish, .moe, String Cheese Incident, etc. They're more focused and only have a dozen or so songs in the 180+ songs you'll get over the course of a given tour-year where you're going to get more than 10 minutes or so out of 1 tune. Frankly, if Panic busts out a 22-minute job live it's because they got themselves horribly lost in the jam (nothing like 6 guys playing 6 different songs at once) and opted to try to play back to the pocket rather than just shift without using the clutch, matter how bad the gears might grind, to get the song back in gear. Phish and .moe, on the other hand, seem to take 15 minutes just to "ease" into some of their tunes.

The other thing I hate about noodle-jambands is the prevalence of "look at me being clever" conservatory-trained musicians that dominate a lot of them. Phish's Trey is probably the poster child for it--technically superb player but he can be the musical equivalent to a REALLY pretentious art house film. That drives me nuts. I will say that I do have an affinity for the recent trend to "live electronica" that has found its way into the jam scene. Particle (out of SF), Soundtribe Sector 9 (GA) and Lotus (Philly, and one of my faves) shoot for a rave quality to their shows. (Although StS9 and others like them can also go careening off into that "crystals and patchouli soundscape" thing that has a bit too much of a dull 'David Sylvian plays Zamfir master of the Pan Flute' quality.)

I CANNOT listen to jam bands. And you are so right on about the "music professional" vibe from them. Ugh.

Ask me in five minutes and it will be a different list but here goes (not counting Jazz or Classical):

Neutral Milk Hotel - In Aeroplane Over the Sea
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Velvet Underground - S/T (Couch)
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Can - Future Days

No single Husker album ever had the same effect on me as the albums I listed. Great band for sure, but I pick Double Nickles over Zen Arcade every time.

This list is giving me an inferiority complex because I don't know 90% of the stuff listed on here. Perhaps its time to dive into some deeper musical territory.

Here's a good start: www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/steveparker/1001albums.htm

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So what are we talking about here? 5 favourite albums, or 10 or more "greatest" albums. You guys lack self-discipline.

5 to 10 or more greatest favourite albums.