Now Accepting Nominations for Best Album of All Time

Doug: So last week I was in the basement cleaning. I didn't care for what was on the radio, didn't have my Bluetooth speaker or any earbuds. So what was a fella to do? You guessed it (did you?) -- pop a cassette tape into the old boom box. And the one I chose? Maybe, just maybe, one of the greatest albums of all time. So that's where you come in. Argue with me, nominate your own, set some parameters... you know what we do around here. Just be sure to give us your rationale, which could be based on the number of hits, cultural significance or influence, or maybe it was just a favorite of yours at a key time in your life.

Doug: I was checking through the albums when my eyes settled on the Who's Who's Next. To be honest, I'd forgotten I had it. Let's be honest -- have any of you used your cassettes in the past 15 years or so? While records have made a comeback that I think is just great, I don't know if we'll have the same sort of nostalgia for cassettes (maybe for 8-tracks, though? Nah...). So without reading the back of the tape case, I inserted the tape into the machine and hit Play. "Baba O'Reilly". Awesome. Followed by "Bargain". Jeez -- did I have a greatest hits album in the wrong case? Nope. It's just that good. The cover and contents (courtesy of Wikipedia) is below.

Doug: So I'm thinking someone's going to sing the praises of... well, again, that's your job. We'll all be waiting patiently.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Pete Townshend, except "My Wife" by John Entwistle.

Side one
No.	Title	Lead vocal	Length
1.	"Baba O'Riley"	Roger Daltrey (verses) Townshend (bridge)	5:08
2.	"Bargain"	Daltrey (verses) Townshend (bridge)	5:34
3.	"Love Ain't for Keeping"	Daltrey	2:10
4.	"My Wife"	Entwistle	3:41
5.	"The Song Is Over"	Townshend (verses) Daltrey (chorus)	6:14

Side two
No.	Title	Lead vocal	Length
6.	"Getting in Tune"	Daltrey	4:50
7.	"Going Mobile"	Townshend	3:42
8.	"Behind Blue Eyes"	Daltrey	3:42
9.	"Won't Get Fooled Again"	Daltrey	8:32

Can't You Hear Me Rocking: Sticky Fingers Deluxe

Karen: The Rolling Stones have re-issued their classic 1971 album Sticky Fingers in 374 different versions to choose from -well, maybe not that many, more like nine, with varying price points and formats and goodies included. I purchased the Deluxe edition for $14.99, which includes two discs: a remastered version of the original album, and a second disc, with five alternate takes and five live tracks. I'm going to talk about that second disc in this post.

Karen: Here's a list of the tracks:

1. Brown Sugar (Alternate Version with Eric Clapton)

2. Wild Horses (Acoustic Version)

3. Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Alternate Version)

4. Bitch (Extended Version)

5. Dead Flowers (Alternate Version)

6. Live With Me (Live At The Roundhouse, 1971)

7. Stray Cat Blues (Live At The Roundhouse, 1971)

8. Love In Vain (Live At The Roundhouse, 1971)

9. Midnight Rambler (Live At The Roundhouse, 1971)

10. Honky Tonk Women (Live The Roundhouse, 1971)

Karen: The opening track is Brown Sugar and features Eric Clapton on a very prominent slide guitar (listen below). It's an interesting take on the song, and while kind of fun to hear, I'll take the original. But like everything on this disc, since we've heard the originals so many times, hearing anything different is like a breath of fresh air.

Karen: Wild Horses here is acoustic, and every note rings with clarity. It's pretty, in its way, but also very subdued, and maybe too spare. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure this isn't just the recording we know stripped of the electric guitar parts. Can't You Hear Me Knocking is clearly still in work-out stage, with Jagger still using "filler" vocals. I've read about this practice of his before, so it was fun to listen to him singing a strange tongue of his own creation along with the music. The song itself is in its embryonic stages, with the rhythm coming together but no long, Santana-like solo from Mick Taylor in sight. Bitch is another workout song, with the music mostly all together, but Jagger still groping for the words.

Karen: Dead Flowers is a real standout of the alternate takes, as it is a complete track but sounds  very different from the version on the album (listen to it below). This is much more up tempo, rock and roll as opposed to the country twang of the original. Jagger's vocals sound flat, almost disinterested, although some might prefer that over his exaggerated redneck style that he uses on the Stones' country-tinged tunes.

Karen: The live stuff is really the best part of this disc. Obviously the live tracks are not songs from Sticky Fingers but from the time frame that the band was touring the album. Recorded at The Roundhouse in London in 1971, the sound quality is excellent and the band is in great form. Live with Me is raucous and the horn section really blasts it out. Stray Cat Blues and Love in Vain both feature some excellent guitar work. But the last two songs are truly exceptional.

Karen: Most people are probably already familiar with a live version of Midnight Rambler -the one from Get Yer Ya Yas Out, which was also included on the Hot Rocks compilation album, rather than the studio version from Let It Bleed. That version is a fantastic example of the Stones at their most masterful -it is menacing, hypnotic, and theatrical. This version is a terrific counterpoint, as it goes in a completely different direction, shedding the darkness and going for a blistering raver, with Jagger's harp tearing it up. Charlie Watts propels the song with his chugging rhythm and the band is tight! It's a great cut and I'm glad they included it here.

Karen: Wrapping it up is Honky Tonk Women, a big, loud crowd-pleaser, not even ruined by Keith's screeching background vocals (yeah, I went there). Again, a great song done to perfection by a band at the peak of their abilities.

Karen: Now even though I purchased this "package" -an actual physical CD, which, since I got it through Amazon, I also got the MP3s too -I may be making another purchase. You see, I discovered something about the Super Deluxe version, which includes these CDs and a third CD full of more live tunes, plus a DVD, the vinyl album and a bunch of other crap for $152. For $18, I can just get the MP3s of the CDs, so I could get that third disc of 13 tunes of live material recorded at Leeds University in 1971 (known as Get Your Leeds Lungs Out). Dang it, the Stones are as bad as George Lucas when it comes to double dipping customers!

We're Talking About Album Covers

Karen: The art on album covers has often been as notable as the music inside. Some album covers instantly draw you in, and grab your attention.There are plenty of famous images -who can forget the covers to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, or the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's, or Sticky Fingers by the Stones? All are iconic images. And what would the 70s have been like  without all those trippy album covers by Roger Dean? But today I just want to hear about some of your favorite album covers, ones that you particularly like, or bring back certain memories. Feel free to toss out names of whoever you like. I encourage you to provide links if possible! I'll get the ball rolling with a few that I've always enjoyed.



Karen: The Beatles' first album cover has a wonderful simplicity to it. Featuring the faces of all four band members with one side in shadow, it has a very  dramatic effect, and creates a memorable image. It's also been copied and spoofed many times. One of my favorite versions is shown below, Meet The Franks.  I don't know who the author of that graphic is but I think it's hilarious.

Meet the Beatles -The Beatles

 

Ummagumma -Pink Floyd

Karen: Pink Floyd has had a number of great album covers, but I've always liked the one on Ummagumma, with the repeated image -although actually, the image is different in each inset, with the band members changing positions in each one. 

Lust for Life-Iggy Pop

Karen: Ah, James Osterman, or Iggy, as he's popularly known. I love this cover because he looks as if he's sincerely happy to be here, yet just a wee bit unhinged, so you really don't know what to expect from him. It's an uncomfortable feeling. It goes so well with the music on the album, where desperation oozes from every track. 

Karen: All right -your turn.

You Choose the Band, and Their Best Album

Karen: Today let's do a little exercise where we each choose a band or artist we like, and then select what we believe is their best album. You have to say why you think it is their best album, and it can't be a compilation/greatest hits album either!

Karen: I'll get it going with one of my favorite albums. I've actually mentioned this album before, three years ago in a post on "perfect albums," which I defined as 'all meat, no filler' -in other words, every track was worthwhile. It's Girlfriend by Matthew Sweet, that 90s purveyor of power pop. While I enjoy many of his albums, particularly 100% Fun and Altered Beast, I think Girlfriend has the best all-around songs and musical artistry. The album came out in 1991 and gained some notoriety briefly on MTV for its use of Japanese anime in the video for "Girlfriend." Sweet was going through a divorce when he wrote the songs and it appeared to have provided a great deal of inspiration for him. The guitar work of Richard Lloyd and the late Robert Quine is also fabulous; the sizzling solo on Girlfriend is unforgettable. The lap steel guitar by Greg Leisz is also noteworthy -you don't hear that particular instrument on a lot of pop/alternative music.

Sweet is, for my money, a fantastically talented songwriter, equally capable of lush, heart-breaking slow tunes like You Don't Love Me, upbeat love songs like I've Been Waiting, or rockers like the title tune. The album is all about relationships, with the occasional political song (Holy War), but it all holds together -like I said, a perfect album, a very solid 15 songs.

Here's something to think about as you consider your choice today: has the album as a product become obsolete? In these days of 'ala carte' music shopping, what with iTunes and MP3s, most people seem to eschew buying a whole album and typically buy individual songs.  I'm going to be a dictator here and say you can only answer this second question if you first tell us your choice for artist/album!!