Desert Island Records (max 10 allowed)

Okay, maybe ‘records’ is archaic. Maybe it can be an either/or word; either a description of a 45 or 33 ⅓ RPM vinyl recording with 2 sides or a collection of songs in a cloud. I don’t recall which critic wrote the book but that doesn’t matter. Let’s use the word ‘albums’ - still in use today - to describe a specific collection of works.

I’ll start.

Stuck on a desert island, I would want ten albums that defined me and that I still listen to again and again. So let me begin:

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
The Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
The Replacements - Tim
Leonard Cohen - The Essential Leonard Cohen*
R.E.M. - Murmur
The Clash - London Calling
The Velvet Underground - Gold: The Velvet Underground*
Elvis Costello - Spike

*Compilations

By the time the 1990’s came around, my musical influences were pretty well set in the music of the 1960’s through the 1980’s. Dylan and Cohen and Morrison were my 1960’s heroes, followed by VU/Reed, punk, ‘college radio,’ and Costello. Not that I didn’t listen to other music! I had an enormous record collection with record store contacts who would inform me of new artists that I might like. The L. Cohen album is the latest, I think, but has some ‘60’s tunes. The earliest album must be Astral Weeks?

Yes, I listen to other albums, other artists, frequently. But these are my MOST frequently played albums. I don’t know why; they just are.

And yours?

1. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
2. Greatest Hits - Neil Young
3. Communique' - Dire Straits
4.Trisha Yearwood - Trisha Yearwood
5.Crosby, Stills & Nash - Crosby, Stills & Nash
6. Greatest Hits - Steve Miller
7. Greatest Hits - The Moody Blues
8.Darkness On The Edge Of Town - Bruce Springsteen
9. Are You Experienced - Jimi Hendrix
10. Manassas - Manassas.

Records by The Velvet Underground (probably 2 records), Neil Young (After the Gold Rush & Tonight's the Night), The Doors (2 records), Pink Floyd (does The Wall count as 1 or 2?), Nirvana (Unplugged), Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan.

Led Zeppelin III - Led Zeppelin
After the Gold Rush - Neil Young
Deja Vu - Crosby Stills Nash and Young
So Many Roads - Grateful Dead
Let It Bleed - The Rolling Stones
Aja - Steely Dan
Darkness on the Edge of Town - Bruce Springsteen
The Best of the Spinners - The Spinners
Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles
Dirt - Alice in Chains

Great selections!

I came close to including Neil Young (I’d have to check out Greatest Hits to see if it includes Sugar Mountain - I might be inclined to pick Rust Never Sleeps, though) and Springsteen (Born to Run - arguably the best American rock album ever released). Steely Dan, too, and, yes, Aja would be my choice there, too.

I’m going to check the other listings on Apple Music. This is fun!

Mine are

1.The Queen Is Dead- The Smiths
2.The Smiths - The Smiths
3.Meat Is Murder - The Smiths
4.Your Arsenal - Morrissey
5.The Vauxhall And I - Morrissey
6. Violator - Depeche Mode
7.In Rainbows-Radiohead
8.Grace - Jeff Buckley
9.Hole- Live Through This
10.Unplugged -Nirvana

I listen to just about anything, so I'd take a variety:

1. Jack White - Blunderbuss
2. The White Stripes - Icky Thump
3. The Dead Kennedys - Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death
4. Muddy Waters - Hard Again
5. John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom
6. Duke Jordan - Flight to Denmark
7. Thelonious Monk - Solo Monk
8. Zydeco Joe - Jack Rabbit
9. The Who - Quadrophenia
10. Tom Waits - Nighthawks At The Diner