30) LED ZEPPELIN – IV (1971)
This one would most likely appear on everyone’s list of Desert Island LPs. The tunes on this record are so ubiquitous that it is hard to actually isolate the memories associated with it, but here goes: Basketball in Doug Joyce’s back yard, “discovering” how great Side 2 was!, teaching myself the slow intro on the guitar (yeah, right) on my brother Norm’s hollow body guild electric, hearing this LP over and over at lunchtime on the cafeteria speakers at ECHS, pouring over all the Tolkien references throughout the entire Zeppelin canon, air guitar to “Rock & Roll” long before it was fashionable. Anyway, you get the idea – slap a quarter in your own personal memory jukebox, put this disc in the background and CRANK IT!
29) THE POLICE à Synchronicity (1983)
I had this running joke with my buddy Neal back in the day: there were 3 “bands of the 80’s” that I thought would really catch on and propel music forward toward to new century: INXS, R.E.M. & The Police. Sychronicity was the final release by the band. Sting, a/k/a Gordon Sumner - a first-rate manure salesman, detached himself from Stuart Copeland and Andy Summers became the world’s biggest ego and I believe (check me on this) had a small country named after himself. Nice. Anyway, this record is a killer cover to cover. We don’t even need to discuss Side 2, as that has all the REALLY big hits that we’ve heard forever. Side 1 though is a different matter. “Synchronity I" is the opener
28) CROSBY, STILLS & NASH – Crosby, Stills & Nash
A true classic is every sense of the word. It might be played out, but that just means you should listen to a different radio station. Stills’ “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” is emotion expressed in a way we’d not yet heard in a pop song. Crosby’s “Guinnevere” (changed in future releases to “Guinevere”) and his collaboration with Paul Kanter “Wooden Ships” are perfect examples of pop music stretching its legs into becoming a more modern yet organic medium. Nash’s “Marrakesh Express” is a 2:39 musical travelogue which not only depicts the actual trip he took, but sonically evokes the times in which he took it (1966) as well. This LP is true blueprint for so much of the fine music that sprung from Southern California.
27) THE EAGLES – Desperado (1973)
This is still my favorite Eagles disc. It doesn’t diminish their output after this release, but this one just clicked with me. I actually didn’t buy it until after On the Border came out. Even the band knew they had something special going on here – they wanted to make this into a Broadway musical (?). But the songs and the playing are all top shelf. Top 40 didn’t shine on the band for this release, but the LP still has legs today, at least for us old guys who fondly remember latter day Westerns (Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid; True Grit; The Magnificent 7). Songs like Leadon’s ode to peyote “Bitter Creek” and the up-tempo “Outlaw Man”, the historical timeline of “Doolin-Dalton”, the cautionary rhetoric of “Certain Kind of Fool” and the no holds barred bawdy “Out of Control” paint a less stereotypical picture of the cowboy life. Meisner’s “Twenty-One” sounds as optimistic as the vocals in the song. Together, this album was a fine song cycle about the cowboy as the anti-hero. He didn’t just ride into town with his white hat and sweep the school-marm off her feet. He was tough yet melancholy when faced with solitude. He relied on vices and violence to get him through the loneliness. So-called country rock had come a long way in a few short years. No one is going to confuse this with Western Shakespeare, but to a kid from CT it painted pretty cool pictures in head.
26) BOB SEGER & THE SILVER BULLET BAND – Night Moves (1976)
I think I once read this album described as Rock & Roll music for adults. Amen. Seger finally gained national recognition with this record. Side 1 could be a classic LP on its own, and “Mainstreet” isn’t even ON side 1. “Night Moves” & “Mainstreet” depict the recollection of time passed that is realistic and bittersweet. “Rock & Roll Never Forgets” is the arena rock anthem that “Old Time Rock & Roll” actually became. Seger’s classic “Turn the Page” is the post-script to the adrenal rush of performing described in “Sunburst”. “Fire Down Below” gave notice that Seger hadn’t lost the ability to relate to the average blue collar American for which his early releases were known. This album, like the muscle cars cranked out from his Michigan homeland back in the day, is true to its heartland roots: an American classic.
25) ELVIS COSTELLO à My Aim Is True (1977)
This was one cutting edged release in it’s day. It came out just as punk was starting to get a foot-hold in popular music. It wasn’t really punk, but it was totally angry and to the mainstream press that was the same thing. Originally recorded with most of Clover (John McFee (Doobies, Southern Pacific) & several members of the News without Huey) before Elvis came up his classic band the Attractions. Stellar compositions and performances throughout: “Less Than Zero”, “Red Shoes”, “Working Week”, “Blame It On Cain”, “Watching the Detectives”, “Waiting for the End of the World” and the classics “Alison” & “Mystery Dance”. THAT is a really good day’s work. Elvis has always followed his muse and has suffered some lack of mainstream popularity because of it. With lines like: “Dear Lord, I sincerely hope you’re comin’ ‘cause you really started somethin’” or “See those pictures in the magazines. What’s the use of lookin’ when you don’t know what they mean” or “Though it nearly took a miracle to get you to stay, it only took my little fingers to blow you away” Damn. That’s some writing, and it matches the music perfectly. Elvis IS king.
24) RICKIE LEE JONES à Rickie Lee Jones (1979)
This is a weird one. Weird, you ask. Why? First off, RLJ and this album are so intertwined with my memories of the late 70’s that it’s sometimes hard to believe she wasn’t reading our minds when she wrote these songs. A serious Neal Phelon classic. Right off the bat, we had been lucky enough to see RLJ once in three successive decades beginning with ‘79. I blew it when I was sent on a business trip to NoCal WHILE she had a week-long set at a small jazz club in the first decade of the new millenium. I happily scarfed up a ticket. Was I able to go? NOPE. Anyway a truly ground-breaking release from ’79. Rickie Lee’s debut release sounded like nothing I had ever heard. “Chuck E’s in Love”, although it had since been played to death, was an amazing find on popular radio. My personal standout tunes are: “The Last Chance Texaco”, “Company” and “Danny’s All-Star Joint”. “Texaco” is a lament using automobile and road metaphors that’s put “Pink Cadillac” to shame: “It's her last chance / Her timing's all wrong / Her last chance / She can't idle this long / Her last chance / Turn her over and go / Pullin' out of the last chance Texaco”. To my ear, “Company” is one of the best break-up songs ever written. Seriously, even if you can’t discern her vocals, listen to her voice, man. If that ain’t heartbreak. And that leaves us with “Danny’s All-Star Joint” – a 3 monks anthem, this hipster ode to an L.A. nightclub is one of the catchiest, clever jazz-inflected tunes to ever hit rock radio. Rickie Lee has followed her muse wherever it has lead her, sometimes succeeding and sometimes not. Bring this up on the ol’ victrola and see if you don’t end up snapping your fingers, tapping your toes and feel that tug on your heartstrings. Oh, and by the way it’s Doyt-Doyt!
23) TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS à Damn the Torpedoes! (1977)
This is a Shop-Rite special (Clean up in aisle 6, pickles!), immediately pulling me back to punching the time clock, falling in love with all the cute cashiers, meeting up with my now life long-buddies, 2/3 of the 3 monks - Roger & Neal, SNL, Star Wars, etc…. The 2 killer singles that shot this LP into the stratosphere popularity-wise were “Refugee” & “Don’t Do Me Like That” which we would later hear had been a tune he composed years earlier for his first band, Mudcrutch. They are so good, I STILL don’t mind hearing them. But my favorites (even then) were most every other song on the record. “Here Comes My Girl” was a credo to my intense (imagine that?!?) 19 year old brain. ““Even the Losers” get lucky sometimes” – top that line for a hook. “Shadow of a Doubt (Complex Kid)” – “she always seems so hard to figure out / she always likes to leave me with a shadow of a doubt” sure made sense to my mind when it came to trying to understand girls. “Century City” was a jet-fueled rocker that was perfect for a road-trip. “What Are You Doin’ in My Life” is the emotional flip-side to “Shadow” and then the album closes with the tongue-in-cheek twangy lament that really stylistically doesn’t belong on the record, with its heavy pedal-steel and all, but is still one of my favorites. This album is perfect for a drive down the highway – preferably a road either to or by a beach. Maybe the Pacific Coast Highway or Misquamicut or Montauk. Now If only I had a convertible….
22) JONI MITCHELL à Hejira (1976)
Released after I matriculated thru my senior year (Thank you, Hank Stram), this LP sort of slowly grew on me. The main cuts played on the radio were wonderful and catchy: “Coyote”, “Amelia” and “Black Crow”. So of course I bought it. But it wasn’t until I discovered deeper cuts: the slinky “Blue Motel Room”, “Refuge of the Road”, the title track and finally the ULTIMATE JONI MITCHELL song in my opinion, “Song for Sharon” that it became an all-timer. “Song for Sharon” mixes deeply personal lyrics (“I can keep my pool at poker / But I’m a fool when love’s at stake / Because I can’t conceal emotion / What I’m feeling’s always written on my face”), reflection on the passage of time (“And when I went chasing after Golden Reggie / You know it was white lace I was chasing / Chasing dreams / Mama’s nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans”) old friends (“Sharon, you’ve got a husband / and a family and a farm / I’ve got the apple of temptation and a diamond snake around each arm”)and (this being a Joni Mitchell song) – stunning verbal imagery (“Now there are 29 skaters on Wollman rick / Circling in singles and in pairs / In this vigorous anonymity / A blank face at the window stares & stares)….. Joni has never mixed her gifts better in one song: the poet, the painter & the musician.
21) JOHN FOGERTY à Centerfield (1985)
The single best comeback release ever. After all of his success with Creedence and subsequent problems with Fantasy Records prez Saul Zaentz, it is fairly incredible that Fogerty ever played again, forget this good. An amazing record cover to cover. Vinatge slices of Creedence vibe on the lead-off single “Old Man Down the Road” & “Searchlight”. Then everything sounded new and fresh. Great lyrics throughout: light-hearted and homespun at times (“Centerfield”, “Rock & Roll Girls”), melancholy & serious others (“I Saw it on TV”, “Big Train from Memphis”), scathing & sarcastic (“Zanz Can’t Dance” & “Mr Greed”). I have loved this record since the day it came out and have only grown in appreciation of it’s affect on me over time. A soundtrack for my life: baseball, Elvis, love, anger, sentimentalism – all in under 40 minutes.
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