1001 records you must listen to before you die

Patti Smith- Horses (1975)

Great cover obviously.. photo by her ex Robert Mapplethorpe… really captures what by all accounts was Patti Smith.. very Keith Richards… very male.. very straight up.. very in control…no bullshit…

The album itself, I dont' think Patti ever came even close to capturing that perfection although some swear by Radio Ethiopia (which is good..)… but this album is pure greatness and I don't think there is a bad note or lyric in it… so many great moments.. maybe the ending of Free Money may be my favorite…Her version of Gloria is exemplary so much so it is not a cover but a reinvention or re-imagination

It sort of fits my fuck you mood tonight..

oh yeah.. produced by John Cale which seems kind of cool given his track record.. not only made another amazing album- The Velvet Underground with Nico- but also produced the first Stooges record…and produced six of the eight tracks on the original Modern Lovers album…that is pretty amazing


Stooges 1969
Modern Lovers 1972 (released 1976)
Patti Smith 1975


wow



I also have to say Richard Sohl's piano work on Horses is really important to the album and maybe overlooked..

oh.. more on Cale:

Then in 1991 Cale contributed one song, "Hallelujah", to the tribute album to Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Fan. Cale's mid-tempo acoustic version was performed on piano, and his arrangement formed the basis of most subsequent covers of the song, which has since become a standard.

Black Flag- Damaged (1981)

fitting for today.. I am pissed off… love that sticker! :)

Prince  Purple Rain

Pink Floyd  The Wall

The Beatles  white album

The Flaming Lips  Soft Bulletin

Lady Gaga  Joanne

Sufjan Stevens    Illinois

R.e.m.  Green

U2    Achtung Baby

hutch wrote:



Black Flag- Damaged (1981)

fitting for today.. I am pissed off… love that sticker! :)

My copy doesn't have that sticker.  (It also always skips a bit even though it looks clean… grrr)

well.. its hard to get with the sticker i guess…who knows how many have survived… my copy looks a bit beat up but plays great…. I paid $20 for it…more than the sticker i'm glad it has the original matrices cause they recut it a few times I think.. my copy sounds wonderful.. just shoots out of the speakers..


for those unaware:

Their distribution deal with Unicorn?which was associated with MCA Records?resulted in an initial pressing of 25,000 copies. MCA Records president Al Bergamo listened to the album prior to release and claimed that it was "anti-parent", although he never cited a specific lyric that led him to that conclusion.[10] As a result, MCA refused to distribute the already-pressed-and-packaged album which bore an MCA Distributing Corp. logo on the lower right corner of the back cover. Black Flag members had to personally visit the pressing plant and apply a sticker over the MCA logo which read, "As a parent… I found it an anti-parent record"[5][6][11]?thus essentially throwing Bergamo's words back in his face.

Longtime SST employee Joe Carducci has reported that the "anti-parent" statement was a red herring. In fact, according to Carducci, Unicorn Records was so poorly managed and so deeply in debt that MCA would lose money in distributing Damaged, regardless of its content, and was eager to sever its relationship with Unicorn by any possible pretext.[12]

SST ended up distributing Damaged on its own; as a result, Unicorn filed lawsuit against Black Flag and SST, claiming breach of contract. Black Flag were suddenly enjoined from recording any more records under their own name,[6] although SST were able to continue with its own release schedule, releasing The Minutemen's The Punch Line and the debuts of the Meat Puppets and Saccharine Trust.[8] However, Unicorn would release a single of an updated "T.V. Party" before the legal trouble started, a recording (just as ironically) commissioned by MCA for the soundtrack to the film Repo Man.[13]

The legal dispute between Black Flag and Unicorn tied the band up for almost two years, during which time they released Everything Went Black, a double album of pre-Rollins outtakes, under the names of the individual musicians and vocalists on the record.[14] Unicorn ended up filing even more legal briefs, claiming that Black Flag had violated a court injunction against releasing new records. Ginn and Dukowski ended up doing several days in Los Angeles County Jail for contempt of court, but the case fizzled out soon afterward when Unicorn went out of business, freeing Black Flag of any further obligation to the label.[5][6][8]

Martha Wainwright  Come Home to Mama

Marilyn Manson    Antichrist  Superstar

Alaska Thunderfuck  Anus

Dead Kennedys  Bedtime for Democracy

Dinosaur Jr.    Greenmind

Jesus Jones  Doubt

hutch wrote:
well.. its hard to get with the sticker i guess…who knows how many have survived… my copy looks a bit beat up but plays great…. I paid $20 for it…more than the sticker i'm glad it has the original matrices cause they recut it a few times I think.. my copy sounds wonderful.. just shoots out of the speakers..


for those unaware:

Their distribution deal with Unicorn—which was associated with MCA Records—resulted in an initial pressing of 25,000 copies. MCA Records president Al Bergamo listened to the album prior to release and claimed that it was "anti-parent", although he never cited a specific lyric that led him to that conclusion.[10] As a result, MCA refused to distribute the already-pressed-and-packaged album which bore an MCA Distributing Corp. logo on the lower right corner of the back cover. Black Flag members had to personally visit the pressing plant and apply a sticker over the MCA logo which read, "As a parent… I found it an anti-parent record"[5][6][11]—thus essentially throwing Bergamo's words back in his face.

Longtime SST employee Joe Carducci has reported that the "anti-parent" statement was a red herring. In fact, according to Carducci, Unicorn Records was so poorly managed and so deeply in debt that MCA would lose money in distributing Damaged, regardless of its content, and was eager to sever its relationship with Unicorn by any possible pretext.[12]

SST ended up distributing Damaged on its own; as a result, Unicorn filed lawsuit against Black Flag and SST, claiming breach of contract. Black Flag were suddenly enjoined from recording any more records under their own name,[6] although SST were able to continue with its own release schedule, releasing The Minutemen's The Punch Line and the debuts of the Meat Puppets and Saccharine Trust.[8] However, Unicorn would release a single of an updated "T.V. Party" before the legal trouble started, a recording (just as ironically) commissioned by MCA for the soundtrack to the film Repo Man.[13]

The legal dispute between Black Flag and Unicorn tied the band up for almost two years, during which time they released Everything Went Black, a double album of pre-Rollins outtakes, under the names of the individual musicians and vocalists on the record.[14] Unicorn ended up filing even more legal briefs, claiming that Black Flag had violated a court injunction against releasing new records. Ginn and Dukowski ended up doing several days in Los Angeles County Jail for contempt of court, but the case fizzled out soon afterward when Unicorn went out of business, freeing Black Flag of any further obligation to the label.[5][6][8]

Thanks!

I actually knew none of that.  I bought mine back in like 1992 or 1993 for like $5 bucks from Second Story books in Bethesda.  At the time it felt a bit steep and I was on the fence but I also bought a really beat up copy of the Never Mind the Bollocks at the same time for like 50 cents… to bring down the cost per album. Went home and the Sex Pistols played (and plays) great, but the Black Flag album never did.

This record which came out in 1970 for whatever reason is not as known as say the late 60s records of Aretha or Stevie Wonder's "grown up" records but I think it is the bridge between the two and it is the equal of those…Donny went to Howard and gigged around DC for years.. there's a big DC connection to this one…

This record marries the Atlantic late 60s soul sound (King Curtis) with the late 60s Chicago soul sound as represented by Cadet Records (Phil Upchurch, Richard Evans,  etc.)….Basically King Curtis signed Hathaway but Hathaway was already working as a producer/songwriter in CHicago (for Curtis Mayfield!)..

Donny was a triple threat: amazing songwriter, singer and piano player..

Why is Hathaway not better known? Well he is well known in what I would call the conscious hip hop community….tons of samples.. the original Where is the love was sung by Donny and Roberta Flack (she also was a DC product)…

He may be best known now for that Christmas single This Christmas which can get kind of annoying…

But the answer is he probably isn't better known because he had mental health issues which derailed his career around 1973 or so I think.. he lived til the end of the decade and then jumped off a building and died…he apparently wouldn't take his medication regular and it messed him up

His daughter Lalah Hathaway is very well known in the DC area.. has played many shows at the Warner Theatre etc..

and you must listen to the original Metal Box cause it is 3 12" LPs that play at 45 rpm where the bass will blow you away and make your house shake… unbelievably well recorded…makes Second Edition sound very weak…

Elvis Costello AND the Attractions (Bruce Thomas, Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas)- This Year's Model

Sandinista!!!!!!


I can understand why some people prefer London Calling but its hard to understand the flak this album gets… i guess some people don't like the dub influence/tracks on it… if London Calling looks back for inspiration I think this one looks to the present and delivers something for the future… you can hear so much range on this from gospel (one of their best tracks which for some reason nobody seems to know: Sound of Sinners) to calypso to New Orleans to dub to NY disco rap…This album is really ambitious and for me it does not fall short.. This album has 36 tracks so probably the problem is people couldn't handle the length.. ..144 minutes.. compared to the paltry London Calling which clocks in at 65…this is definitely the Clash album to get stoned to….just listening to it makes me want to smoke something..anything…great vocal by Topper too on Ivan meets GI Joe!!!!!!  maybe the only failing this album has is that there isn't enough punk on it.. it was released 363 days after London Calling which is pretty remarkable… 5 LPs put out by the Clash within one year! Maybe its because Should I Stay and Rock the Casbah have been beaten to a pulp but I just don't get into Combat Rock much…

my LP copy has the promo gold stamp on the back but the records do not have white labels.. a real shame……the record came with a huge poster full of drawings and information on the music… the original clamshell cd had absolutely no info other than song titles and times.. man did they screw people over with the first cds!…the subsequent CD issue did have a replica of the poster…and was the first time I purchased it..

I spent many months in Buenos Aires listening to this getting stoned without a care in the world and this album really takes me back to those times where the world all around me collapsed…


"IF England were for Englishmen again…" kind of reminds me of Trump's whole campaign…

Townes van zandt live at the old quarter




Dont get no better

hutch wrote:
Townes van zandt live at the old quarter




Dont get no better

I have that one and I agree.

hutch wrote:
Elvis Costello AND the Attractions (Bruce Thomas, Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas)- This Year's Model

I never tire of this… much nicer with the bonus tracks too…

just saw this 2008 release with Disc two (Live at the Warner Theatre, Washington, DC, 28 February 1978)

Side wrote:

hutch wrote:
Elvis Costello AND the Attractions (Bruce Thomas, Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas)- This Year's Model

I never tire of this… much nicer with the bonus tracks too…

just saw this 2008 release with Disc two (Live at the Warner Theatre, Washington, DC, 28 February 1978)

Elvis Costello has the craziest reissues…. his albums have reissued more times in more different configurations than anybody else..

hutch wrote:

Side wrote:

hutch wrote:
Elvis Costello AND the Attractions (Bruce Thomas, Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas)- This Year's Model

I never tire of this… much nicer with the bonus tracks too…

just saw this 2008 release with Disc two (Live at the Warner Theatre, Washington, DC, 28 February 1978)

Elvis Costello has the craziest reissues…. his albums have reissued more times in more different configurations than anybody else..

[gif]David Bowie handing his beer to someone[/gif]

yeah Bowie is the other one..but Costello adds stuff to each reissue that makes them necessary! He has way more outtakes and extra tracks and live shows, I think, thank Bowie…