Art Dudley Listening

Listening #111 List of the Month

Sidebar: List of the Month

Last month's list was decidedly negative, so let's take a cheerier view this time out and consider those records whose musical brilliance has dribbled onto their jackets. Needless to say, there exist other great covers (the original cover of Blind Faith's studio album comes to mind), and similarly indispensable recordings abound (Martin Newell's The Greatest Living Englishman and the Du Pré/Barbirolli recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto top my list). But here are the ones of which I know that mate brilliance with brilliance, arranged from good to great:

Truth in Advertising: 10 Great Records, 10 Great Covers

10. Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Suite 2 (Prokofiev, Moscow State Philharmonic; 78rpm)
9. Thelonious Monk: Monk
8. Joanna Newsom: Have One on Me
7. Mahler: Symphony 3 (Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic)
6. XTC: Skylarking (2010 Ape Records LP reissue only, which restores the censored original artwork)
5. Gillian Welch: The Harrow & the Harvest
4. Roxy Music: Country Life
3. Miles Davis: Bitches Brew
2. The Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers
1. The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

COMMENTS
mike 1304's picture
Submitted by mike 1304 on March 31, 2012 - 10:35am

Art,

Under the heading of best explanation ever of "why you can't go home again"

and "one picture is worth a thousand words" you give us the Marantz 8b.

I also liked your take on Garber's 421a (Listening #109), probably the most

fufilling amp for our post apocalyptic world and the future retirement fund of

your daughter and my son.(Don't laugh, in 1964 my wife saw a small (8")

Alexander Calder mobile in the MOMA,NY gift store for $150 and begged

her mother to buy it and got a long Calvanistic lecture on thrift. A year or so

ago I saw a similar piece in a Sotheby's catalog for $40K.)

As for cheerier list's (and the risk/danger of turning into a AA column), how

about an Art D. Listener cover/content list. My own nominee's would be:

5. Winter-1999   TV in the Toilet

4. Summer-1997   Rooster and The Dole Pineapple Box Turntable

3. Spring-1997   Madman couple's admiring 300B tube's

2. Autumn-1996   Maxwell tape redux

1. Spring-1996   Eve in the Garden of Kimber Cable.

Alway's entertaining,

Regards, Mike 

Freako's picture
Submitted by Freako on April 8, 2018 - 10:48am

I think maybe you didn't know about this LP (not that the music is above that of the average local rock band, or even on par with it)

https://www.google.dk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiF8svvnavaAhWhE5oKHfGcB2IQjRx6BAgAEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.discogs.com%2FMama-Lion-Preserve-Wildlife%2Frelease%2F2345868&psig=AOvVaw3fwm4qC2zh0K7GR3q77_tI&ust=1523295669448334 (covered)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gHVBR20QmgU/maxresdefault.jpg (uncovered)

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