HARD KNOX AND DURTY SOX
Nope, no mis-spelling…… This is from the liner notes of the album that would be my answer to the old question of,”If you were stranded on a deserted island with no hope of rescue and you had your choice of only one music album to listen to, what would it be?”…..
I’d be interested in other people’s choices – BUT, there are parameters: (1) Only individual albums by a single group….. (2) Can be more than one record/disc if the album was originally issued that way, BUT, (3) No “Greatest Hits”, “Various Artists”, or compilations….. Definitely (4) No 500 song MP3 discs…. (5) You MUST like EVERY track on the album – The only way the album can be played is from start to finish – No skipping tracks….., And, (6) It must give you the same tingly, goose-bumpy, spirit-lifting feeling every time – just like the first time you ever heard it…… Makes that coconut soup taste great!….. S-o-o-o, give it a lot of thought….. Not just an “off-hand” answer, or the latest album you’ve just been listening to….. Let’s see if we can come up with a list of “Kick-Butt” music and check-out everybody’s musical tastes at the same time…..
Talkin’ ’bout the album I selected…. I was goin’ to make a guessin’ game…. Yeah, Tellin’ ’bout the album I decided….. To you I’m sure it’s all insane…
(Sung to the tune of “Midnight Rambler”, the song from which I took my user name, “MRambler”…. Before the web, BBS’s, and the internet, I used it as my “handle” on the CB…. Tellin’ my age now…)
If you haven’t figured it out by now, the album is Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones…. Please click on the link and at least read the first two spotlight reviews….. I think you will find them interesting to say the least…..
I personally have listened to this album hundreds of times and it still raises the old goose-bumps everytime and meets all the parameters I specified above….. Every song is great and there are a vast number of guest musicians including a fellow Oklahoman, Byron Berline who plays Fiddle on the countrified version of their hit “Honky Tonk Woman” which is named “Country Honk” on the album…..
According to what I heard, Byron recorded his part on a street corner and the car honking that you hear in the song was a natural occurance and was left in the recording….. Byron moved back to Oklahoma in ’95, settled in Guthrie, and now owns and runs The DoubleStop FiddleShop and Music Hall…. He most recently played the memorial concert last Friday (22APR05) for the Oklahoma City Bombing…. Check out the links, he’s played with the best and has lots of great albums available with his band….
I have an old UK Decca vinyl copy of “Let It Bleed” that I’m going to dig out and hopefully get him to autograph it for me…..
“THIS RECORD SHOULD BE PLAYED LOUD” – another liner note in large bold type…….
April 26th, 2005 at 9:06 am
The fam and I met Byron and got to watch him play in his shop a little over a year ago. It was fun time, though not my usual musical cup of tea.
I might not last too long on MRambler’s island, forced to listen to Country Honk over and over and over and over and over and over….
On the album choice, mine would be Sylvian/Fippp “Damage,” the original 1994 version. My explanation will follow.
I’m curious to see Jek’s.
April 26th, 2005 at 9:54 am
Now, ONE album? These lists, like in Tower Record’s magazine (they were called “Desert Island Discs”) were always a top ten. I’ve never seen anyone force someone to choose ONE.
That’s a very hard call for me. I mean, the old Beatles vs. Stones debate makes me want to say “Abbey Road” just to balance out MRambler’s Stones pick. The modern pop fan in me wants to pick XTC’s “Skylarking” or maybe better yet “Apple Venus Volume 1”.
But if you really, really, twisted my arm and made me pick something, I think I would go with “Pet Sounds” by The Beach Boys. But I would have a hard time pulling the trigger on one single album.
April 26th, 2005 at 7:37 pm
Huskysooner, Country Honk only consumes 3:00 minutes of the “Let It Bleed” album….
But, if by some unfortunate accident, you washed ashore on the Isle of MR and had lost your copy of “Damage”, I would dedicate the last song on “Let It Bleed” to you personally – “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (7:28), but if “You Got The Silver” (2:51) for the “Midnight Rambler” (6:52) you can “Gimmie Shelter” (4:30), But you can’t “Live With Me” (3:35) that would be “Love In Vain” (4:18) and you would turn into a “Monkey Man” (4:12) dancing to “Country Honk” (3:00) until a loose coconut hit you on the head and you would just have to “Let It Bleed” (5:27)……
If, on the other hand, you still had your copy of “Damage”, we would have the luxury of alternate playings of the discs and I might become the monkey man…… But, if TTop also washed-up with “Pet Sounds” in his hands, we could have a trilogy goin’ and be well on our way to island party…..
Let’s see if anyone else shows up……..
April 26th, 2005 at 11:43 pm
Ug. I always have problems with best-ofs. So I’ve spent some time thinking about this today and I’ve determined that there aren’t many albums with tracks that I completely like. Sure there are lots of albums with tracks I don’t hate interspersed with ones I really love. But there are few albums that I can think of (today) that have tracks of equal, grand caliber. Furthermore that list gets smaller since I’d like to pick an album that offers a number of song styles and ideas. MR, you have indeed picked a tough challenge. Well I won’t disappoint you. I do have a selection. Though you must first suffer through my second choices (yes there are two of them).
Second choice #1: Starless And Bible Black by King Crimson. This album has alot of great music to keep me going while building shelter, a raft, and maybe even a cell phone. 🙂 It is definitely not short of energy and intimacy.
Second choice #2: Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. Wow! This album has all powerful tracks. This is great for total sound immersion, just what is needed to overpower that ocean splash.
So what’s the problem? Well, I think I’d get tired of Wetton’s voice and maybe the all similar style of Floyd. So what then?
Yes to the rescue…
Island choice: Fragile by Yes. It has variety among great tracks. Sure Anderson can get to you, but since I can’t skip any songs, there is plenty of space to recoup. One thing this does mean: Tarn won’t be on the island with me for long. Unfortunately I have burned her out on Jon Anderson’s voice. He has been temporarily banned from playback, though I do sneak him in unnoticed every once in a while. Speaking of Tarn, she wants to know how we are going to be listening to music on a deserted island. She suggests that you bring your iPod and see how long your batteries last.
April 27th, 2005 at 8:14 am
Solar power, baby!!
Great minds think alike, Jek. “Wish You Were Here” was very high on my short list. It’s just so consistently great from start-to-finish, even though my personal favorite is “Animals.” (That seems paradoxical, I guess, but the two Waters acoustic pieces that bookend the album are pretty annoying).
For me, “Damage” is the perfect balance of mind and heart, light and shade, tension and release. I love the layered atmospherics, all the trippy stuff in the background, the long drawn-out groves, Fripp, Gunn’s stick playing, Sylvian’s odd vocals, the song order, and the production. It has the spontaneity of a live performance but without the “HEEEELLLLOOOO CLEVELAND” type of nonsense or the audience singing along. Sylvian’s re-release screws up the playing order and some of the feel. It would be perfect for sitting on the beach while watching the stars at night and tropical clouds during the day.
Of course, if MRambler gets too saucy, I’ll change my mind and bring “Physical Graffiti.”
BTW, the XTC pick above is a nice choice (make mine “Oranges and Lemons,” though).
April 27th, 2005 at 12:16 pm
Oooh, some love for _Oranges and Lemons_ — I was a latecomer to XTC and O & L was my introduction circa 1990, so I’ll always have a special fondness for that album. The psychedelic intensity of “Garden of Earthly Delights”, the shimmery pop of “Mayor of Simpleton”, “The Loving”‘s simple anthemic truth (“all the rich & poor, even those we fight at war need The Loving”), the sly wordplay of “Pink Thing” and the McCartneyesque bridge of “Miniature Sun” all make for an underrated gem. Dang, I’m off-topic, but can’t resist!
April 27th, 2005 at 10:37 pm
Like you HS, I like Animals better too but both parts of “Pigs on a Wing” are major weak points.
Ah Damage. I approve. Actually there are quite good selections in this thread, including the Stones :D. The only group I don’t know much about is XTC. What’s a good starter album?
April 28th, 2005 at 8:05 am
I haven’t heard the entire catalog, so I’m probably not the best person to give a recommendation. “Skylarking” is the classic. Bass Player recommended “Oranges and Lemons,” and the bass parts on most XTC stuff is nice melodic fretless Wal — absolutely perfect. Pat Mastellotto plays drums on O&L. The band is quirky, very poppy, and probably an acquired taste. Strong Beatles influences. Jangly guitars occasionally sound like the Byrds. Very British. Occasionally sound similar, at least vocally, to their mid/late-80s contemporaries Tears for Fears.
April 28th, 2005 at 10:08 am
If you made me name my top three favorite bands, I would say The Beach Boys, The Beatles and XTC.
XTC started off as a punk/new wave band and somewhere along the line the band frontman Andy Partridge turned into an excellent songwriter and they headed in a pop direction.
Skylarking is probably the best starting point. “A summer’s day cooked into one cake,” as Partridge once described it. Produced by Todd Rundgren, it’s best-known track “Dear God,” wasn’t even on the original release, but tagged on when it achieved surprising success as a b-side.
Chips From The Chocolate Fireball by The Dukes of Stratosphear is really XTC is disguise. It’s a tribute to the classic psychedlic 60’s bands, such as Pink Floyd, The Hollies, The Beatles, The Kinks and The Beach Boys. The catch is that all of the songs are originals in the styles of various bands. They out-sixties the sixties!
Oranges and Lemons has a lot going for it, but I know people who haven’t liked it. It’s production is very slick, but it has some great tracks.
Nonsuch is from the early 90’s and has some fun stuff on it, like “The Disappointed,” “Humble Daisy”, and “Then She Appeared,” among other goodies.
After a seven-year strike against Virgin Records (who had made millions while the band had to work second jobs due to their horrendous contract), they were finally released from their contract and released Apple Venus Volume One, which is in a style that Partridge described as “Orchoustic”. It’s orchestral/acoustic pop and boy do I ever love this record — this would compete with Pet Sounds for my Desert Island Disc. I think it’s Partridge at his peak with his songwriting skills. JEK might recall the opening track “River of Orchids” (which I brought to MC6 my first visit) — it starts off as a drip of water, some random bass notes and stacatto strings, slowly building into a swirling nursery rhyme “Take a packet of seeds/take yourself out to play/I want to see a river of orchids where we had a motorway/Push your car from the road!” The album culminates in a great closing trilogy. An interesting side note, the next year they actually released a demo version of the album — Partridge is known for his intricate home demos of his songs (which are often fully realized versions), and they released all the tracks compiled in the same order as the album. The striking thing is how similar his demos sound to the final versions!
April 28th, 2005 at 6:13 pm
Looks like the island has been taken over by tough decisions on a single album and discussions of equally-liked and close seconds and thirds…..
So-o-o, to throw a twist into it, let’s say an off-shore pirate radio station ship/boat crashes ashore and now we can now sort though the entire collection of recorded music….. Can you each come up with a top five list with reasons thereof?….
I still stand by my number one choice, but Jek and HuskySooner know my tastes in music fairly well cover the entire spectrum, although leaning toward Blues and R&R…. In the band I played in we were playing “Have a Cigar” live less than a week after the album Wish you Were Here was released….. So that puts a Pink Floyd album in the works for me….. We also played songs from King Crimson ( a version of “In the Court of the Crimson King” which flowed into “Epitaph” and then back into “Court”), Beatles, Moody Blues, Todd Rungren, CSN&Y, Yes, and numerous others, therefore, I will have to do some thinking and Get Back (small pun) with a later comment after I look through the bounty off the pirate radio ship…..
April 29th, 2005 at 4:02 pm
Ok, Let me take this up around Venus and past Mars ( Which is a good choice) My choice would be Joe’s Garage By The father of the Mothers Frank Zappa. The statement of the entire piece about the evils of making too much out of the entertainment I business I think would be a great diversion from the matter at hand, Being stranded on a Island!
I think that “Outside Now “should be required listening for everyone before being allowed to own any form of music.
But “In the Flesh Pts 1 and 2 ” From The Wall Should also.
But just for entertainments sake I think my choice would be Illegal, immoral , And Fattening by Flo and Eddie.
Both of these albums give me the bumps that MRambler describes as the 1st time that I heard them, (Which By the way I was turned onto by the Aforementioned MRambler Both on the origional vinyl.)
The white zone is for loading and unloading only, so if you got a load go to the white zone, you’ll love it , it’s a way of life.
On the Bus.