Sting - Ten Summoner's Tales

I grew up with my dad listening to it all the time, so it has personal significance. Sting hit his peak with this album, I think. The lyrical complexity is intellectually stimulating, the sonics are excellent, and the music is very enjoyable as a whole. I don't think I could part with this one.

Great post, Clay! We should get some valuable responses with this one.

Great idea for some fun! Nice one indeed...

Led Zep album 2 for the track which seriously introduced me to the world of genuine stereo which was 'Whole Lotta Love' and even now the album hangs together extremely well for what it was at the time. Over the years and many formats onwards from the vinyl that album and especially that track still does the trick for me - Pink Floyd did almost the same thing to me around the same era with 'Interstellar Overdrive' - but Zep take the prize! Pure head spinning stereo at its very best...dope / sex / satan inspired maybe but surely a unique piece of music history!

I would have to agonize over which to keep, but it would be a Jimmy Buffett album. Maybe, Banana Wind.

What can I say? I'm a Parrot Head.

Great pick Clay, but I would have to go with "Live At The LOA - Summer Wind". Probably splitting hairs. For digi-heads, both are exceptional in the Hi-res formats.

OK...as ridiculous as this is, I'll throw my pick out there. Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny "Beyond The Missouri Sky". The last tune is entitled "Spiritual", and if you don't find a bit of that in every tune perhaps your without soul.

RG

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If, God forbid, you were forced to give up all your recordings but one

You'll never take me alive!!!

Hmmm. I've never been good at choosing Desert Island selections. I might opt for Another Green World by Brian Eno. It's got enough different stuff going on that there might be music to satisfy a variety of moods and desires. It might make me too sad and feel longing too much. I'll have to get back to you.

Another Green World is an excellent choice. It satisfies me at all times but...

I'd have to go with Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder. Love's in need of love today. As. Have a Talk with God. I Wish......So many excellent songs that you can never get tired of

Radiohead's "OK Computer." IMO the best album of Generation X so far, and if not, at least the best of the 90s.

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Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder.

Good call!!

For me, it would be Stupid Dream by Porcupine Tree. This recording touches me on many levels. The opening track, Even Less, is a wonderful song that pulls off the feat of being both majestic and intimate.

The first time I heard Even Less was at Nearfest 2001 when Porcupine Tree opened their set with it. Up to this point, I had only heard about the band and had never heard a single track. By the end of that one song my jaw was on the floor, and I was a Porcupine Tree fan--big time. The rest of their set only solidified the deal.

Giving them all up but one. Tough thing to do for a music loving audiophile who also happens to be an obsessive music collector. So many possible choices but only one can make the cut. Gee Clay, most Desert Island Disc lists let you pick at least three. See with at least three discs I can go with one jazz disc, one rock disc and one classical disc and kinda cover the major musical bases.

However, since this is your game and your rules may I ask that you flip the coin:

Heads and I go with Miles Davis - Bitches Brew - This the recording that helped turn me into "jazzfan" so I guess that's worth something.

Tails and I go with Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde - Dylan at his best and besides it's twice as long as Highway 61 Revisited.

And please let me know which one wins.

I hate this question. It's been bugging me all week.

I like Ariel's choice. I also like Jazzfan's picks (and strategy).

Today, if I had to give up all but one, I think -- I THINK -- I'd choose to keep Exile On Main Street. It's good for drinking, it's good for dancing, it's good for singing along to, it's good for just wallowing.

Sigh. Ah man, I can't believe I just gave up all of my Sonic Youth albums, though. I hate this question.

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I hate this question. It's been bugging me all week.

I like Ariel's choice. I also like Jazzfan's picks (and strategy).

Today, if I had to give up all but one, I think -- I THINK -- I'd choose to keep Exile On Main Street. It's good for drinking, it's good for dancing, it's good for singing along to, it's good for just wallowing.

Sigh. Ah man, I can't believe I just gave up all of my Sonic Youth albums, though. I hate this question.

Stephen,

Exile on Main Street is an excellent choice and if I weren't such a Dylan fanatic it might have been my choice for rock instead of Blonde on Blonde. But then I could also go with Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, another one of my all time favorites.

And I do agree that giving up Sonic Youth is a rather bitter pill to swallow. I consider Sonic Youth to be the best "guitar noise" band in the world. Although the best "guitar noise" player would have to be the late Derek Bailey.

Some other very bitter pills: Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Louie Armstrong, David Murray, Ken Vandermark, Keith Jarrett, The Beatles, Frank Zappa, The Grateful Dead, The Velvet Underground and too many others to list here.

Thank goodness the largest iPod holds 80GB worth of music.

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Thank goodness the largest iPod holds 80GB worth of music.

Yes! It's funny you mention it, because I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to fill up the Red Wine iMod with my favorite music. (I am addicted to iTunes, by the way.) I've now got 1650 songs on the iMod (using Apple Lossless compression), and I've only used about half of its capacity.

So, yes: If ever I'm forced to give up all of my albums -- no problem -- I'll just reach for an iPod and some headphones. I should be fine.

Also, I just recently fell in love with Blonde on Blonde. I'd owned it for awhile, but I just never got it. Filling the iMod up with music has helped me to rediscover a lot of stuff, some -- like Dylan -- suddenly makes sense to me.

I'll have to pick up that Beefheart album. Thanks.

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Thank goodness the largest iPod holds 80GB worth of music.

Yes! It's funny you mention it, because I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to fill up the Red Wine iMod with my favorite music. (I am addicted to iTunes, by the way.) I've now got 1650 songs on the iMod (using Apple Lossless compression), and I've only used about half of its capacity.

So, yes: If ever I'm forced to give up all of my albums -- no problem -- I'll just reach for an iPod and some headphones. I should be fine.

Also, I just recently fell in love with Blonde on Blonde. I'd owned it for awhile, but I just never got it. Filling the iMod up with music has helped me to rediscover a lot of stuff, some -- like Dylan -- suddenly makes sense to me.

I'll have to pick up that Beefheart album. Thanks.

Stephen,

I'm glad to read that you have fallen in love with Blonde on Blonde and that Dylan "suddenly makes sense to" you. Now as for Trout Mask Replica that's a whole other story. Beefheart never "suddenly makes sense to" anyone. With the Captain it's either you get him (and his wonderful music) or you don't.

However since you already like Sonic Youth I think there's a good chance that you'll "get" Beefheart. To phase like someone who doesn't get either Sonic Youth or Beefheart: "It all just sounds like noise to me." Ah, but what glorious noise it is!!

And by the way, don't dismiss Beefheart's lyrics as just a bunch of meanless words. Sure there are some songs where he's just riffing on the sound of the words, like "Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish" but then there are the songs that seem to make no sense until you listen closely to the lyrics, like "Orange Claw Hammer" which tells the story of an old seaman who finds his long lost child after thirty years. I should also note that the original LP release did not come with printed lyrics as does the CD reissue so I had to figure all this stuff out just by listening carefully. Not something that was easy to do in the altered state of mind one needed to be in to fully appreciate Beefheart's music.

Plus there are songs that tackle subjects that no other rock (or blues) artist has ever dared to touch, such as "Dachau Blues" (a song about the Dachau concentration camp of World War II) or "Veteran's Day Poppy" (a song about drug addicted veterans).

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I'm glad to read that you have fallen in love with Blonde on Blonde and that Dylan "suddenly makes sense to" you. Now as for Trout Mask Replica that's a whole other story. Beefheart never "suddenly makes sense to" anyone. With the Captain it's either you get him (and his wonderful music) or you don't.

I thoroughly agree, though I don't think Trout Mask has been well-served at all on CD. It can be very brittle sounding even on vinyl, but the CD master, at least the one I have (early 90s, I think) is almost painfully so. Have they remastered it lately? The most recent Safe As Milk sounds really rather good.

(Just think of Beefheart as a 50's Chicago blues band, a la Howlin' Wolf, with all of the members on acid and each in a slightly different dimension. Add some Eric Dolphy-inspired sax, and stir.)

All albums but one? Either the White Album, Fun House by the Stooges, or the Velvet Underground and Nico. I'd be miserable, but with any one of those three, I'd be less so.

L.

Not to be difficult, I understand your question, but I just can't answer such a question. To make that choice would be equivilent to claiming that this is the best music and all of the rest are second rate or lower. We all know that it doesn't work that way. My favorite today won't always be my favorite tomorrow (especially if it is all I had to listen to). Kind of like when people ask me what kind of music do I listen too. They always want an answer like rock, country, classical, jazz, etc. Since there is so much cross pollenization in music simple catagories don't really work and are artificial. My usual answer is'nt very helpful and generally causes the topic to change (not my intent at all).
My favorite type of music? Good music.
You will have about as much luck taking my music as you will taking my guns. Is the right to bear music covered in the constitution?

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If, God forbid, you were forced to give up all your recordings but one, which one would you keep?

Pavement-Wowie Zowie