There's a significant number of people here who probably don't own
Revolver? You've got to be kidding. And
A Love Supreme is probably second only to
A Kind Of Blue as the most owned jazz album.
Speaking of jazz, it seems not enough people own this:
Charles Mingus * The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (Impulse!) 63
This is my all-time favorite jazz album. I love how Mingus had his psychologist write the liner notes. He refused to call it jazz. Preferred to call it "new folk" or something like that. Indeed, in 1963, no one had heard instrumental music so expressive, outside of classical. Anyone familiar with Mingus' autobiography
Beneath the Underdog and stories of him pulling a gun on his band can't deny that the man boils over with passion. An autobiographical magnum opus arranged as a six-part ballet,
Black Saint draws upon Duke Ellington's orchestration, post-Parker hard bop and avant garde dissonance. Because it ultimately sounds like nothing else, but evokes a flood of emotions in its complex layers, I think it's the greatest jazz composition ever.
Television * Marquee Moon (Elektra) 77
The Ramones, Talking Heads and just last week, Blondie, all graduates of the CBGB's scene, have all been inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. Television will probably never have a chance for such canonization, because not enough people have heard them! Not counting their 90s reunion, they only released two albums. Television were the first band to play CBGB's, having literally built the stage themselves. Unlike the Ramones, they weren't remotely punk. Their roots were more in 60s psychedelia like Love, The Byrds and The Grateful Dead. But with a very particular twist of Steely Dan and Andy Johns' brittle, bone-dry production work on The Rolling Stones'
Goat's Head Soup. <a href=http://www.marquee.demon.co.uk/nme77.htm>Brian Eno</a> was sent in for a premature recording session in 1975. While they had enough material to be the first CBGBs band to put out an album (Patti Smith Group came out with the classic
Horses that year, on which Tom Verlaine guested on guitar), Verlaine became increasingly fussy about developing a singular style, forcing co-founder Richard Hell to leave and take his more prickly songs ("Blank Generation," "Love Comes In Spurts") with him, to be recorded brilliantly by the Voidoids and Robert Quine.
Marquee Moon finally came out in 1977, and it was worth the wait. From Verlaine and Richard Lloyd's dueling, intertwining guitars and unique tones to the terse lyrics, the album was a true original. The long title track featured an ascending duel guitar solo that's as magical as some of John Coltrane's. Television have influenced many bands since, but the thrill of that new sound could only be experienced the first time around.
The original CD master was badly botched, and finally corrected in the 2003 remastered reissue.
