Favorite Albums & Bands
January 2, 2003
12:23 PM CST
Compiling a list of my favorite albums and bands was relatively simple. For the most part, it was just a question of going through my album collection and picking the favorites. I’d had to rebuild my collection from scratch after I emigrated to the United States—and fortunately, that more or less coincided with the arrival of the CD to the music scene.
Nevertheless, there are still a few albums which I used to have as LPs, but which I’ve been unable to find on CD. But I’ll get there…
Finally, I’m depressed that there aren’t more modern artists and albums on these lists. I’ve tried, man have I tried, to get into new rock—but it seems that none of the new breed can carry an album. All the “new” albums on the list were by and large created by geezers like Procol Harum or Joe Walsh. It really bites that Two Against Nature, easily the best album released in the past seven years, was made by Steely Dan. Frankly, I think that bands nowadays don’t spend enough time playing in clubs before they get into the studio. The ones that did (Nirvana, Soundgarden etc.) are head and shoulders above the others.
All-Album Bands
Every so often musicians come along and create such great music, I have to buy all their albums because I love almost every song they perform. The list is short.
The Beatles
Chicago
Chris Isaak
Jethro Tull
Joe Walsh
Earl Klugh
Led Zeppelin
Steely Dan
Top 25 Rock Albums
Excludes any made by the above bands.
A Night At The Opera (Queen)
Aladdin Sane (David Bowie)
Appetite For Destruction (Guns ‘n Roses)
Boston (B)
Bursting At The Seams (Strawbs)
Cosmo’s Factory (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Disraeli Gears (Cream)
Dogman (King’s X)
Electric Ladyland (Jimi Hendrix)
In Rock (Deep Purple)
Journeyman (Eric Clapton)
Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake (Small Faces)
Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
Prodigal Stranger (Procol Harum)
Pyromania (Def Leppard)
Sports (Huey Lewis & the News)
Soft Parade (Doors)
Shine On Brightly (Procol Harum)
Superunknown (Soundgarden)
Tarkus (Emerson, Lake and Palmer)
Tribute (Ozzy Osborne)
Van Halen (VH)
Walk On (Boston)
Wheels Of Fire (Cream)
Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie)
Top 22 Easy-Listening Albums
To me, “easy listening” does not mean soft jazz or elevator music [spit]; it means music I can have playing in the background while I work. The list also excludes albums from the “All-Stars” of the first list.
A Little Touch of Schmilsson In The Night (Harry Nilsson)
Argus (Wishbone Ash)
Avalon (Roxy Music)
Camel (Camel)
Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd)
80’s Ladies (K.T. Oslin)
Eve (Alan Parsons Project)
In Search Of The Lost Chord (Moody Blues)
Harvest - Neil Young
Headkeeper (Dave Mason)
Hotel California (Eagles)
The Kick Inside (Kate Bush)
John Barleycorn Must Die (Traffic)
The Long Run (Eagles)
Nick Of Time (Bonnie Raitt)
On The Threshold Of A Dream (Moody Blues)
Oxygene (Jean-Michel Jarre)
Tales of Mystery And Imagination (Alan Parsons Project)
Tarot Suite (Mike Batt)
Tea For The Tillerman (Cat Stevens)
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
World Machine (Level 42)
Favorite Live Albums
Most live albums suck, because most bands can’t reproduce their studio sound on stage.These bands can.
Alive (Slade)
Bursting Out (Jethro Tull)
The Last Waltz (The Band)
Live At The Fillmore East (Mothers of Invention)
Live At The Hollywood Bowl (Beatles)
Live At The Isle Of Wight (Taste)
Live In Newcastle (Lindisfarne)
Made In Japan (Deep Purple)
Night Of The Living Dregs (Dixie Dregs)
Priest Live (Judas Priest)
Seconds Out (Genesis)
World Wide Live (Scorpions)
20 Favorite “Best Of"/Greatest Hits Albums
I like these bands/artists, just not all their music. Hence the “best of” selection.
The Band
Beach Boys
BeeGees
Billy Joel
Blue Oyster Cult
Bruce Hornsby and The Range
The Cars
Climax Blues Band
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Doobie Brothers (Best Of)
Eddie Money
Hollies
Jimi Hendrix (only Smash Hits)
Mamas and the Papas
Marmalade
The Searchers
10cc
.38 Special
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Yngwie Malmsteen
