1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 6:03 pm

Sarah Vaughan - Sarah Vaughan at Mistery Kelly's - 1958

Another jazz album but Sarah Vaughan's vocals here are pretty mesmerizing. Recorded live at a jazz club in Chicago it's fun to hear a live performance - you get to hear things like the vocalist forgetting the words and just improving through it.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Wed Feb 10, 2021 12:02 am

Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Gershwin Song Book - 1959

A wonderful singer doing some familiar songs - the arrangements are a little too 50's saccharine for my tastes but talent is a joy to hear.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:37 am

Ray Charles - The Genius of Ray Charles - 1959

Side one is Ray Charles with a big band behind him and side two is Ray backed by strings. Both are great because of Ray and his piano - the arrangements would probably overwhelm a lesser talent. I"m ready to move past the 50's and this tendency to back great artists with way too much backing.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Fri Feb 19, 2021 12:57 am

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue - 1959

I'm certainly no expert when it comes to jazz but even I know this album is a classic.

Kind of Blue has been regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz record, Davis's masterpiece, and one of the best albums of all time. Its influence on music, including jazz, rock, and classical genres, has led writers to also deem it one of the most influential albums ever recorded. The album was one of fifty recordings chosen in 2002 by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, and in 2003 it was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Though precise figures have been disputed, Kind of Blue is often cited as the best-selling jazz record of all time.

I can dig it.

disarm · Post by **disarm** » Fri Feb 19, 2021 9:46 am

There are three jazz albums that I could listen to forever and never get tired of them...Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, Blue Train by John Coltrane, and Time Out by Dave Brubeck. Of those three, Kind of Blue is definitely my favorite...so accessible and easy to enjoy, even if you're not a big fan of jazz. It's hard to imagine that Davis pretty much turned his back on it later in his career, but apparently that style just wasn't interesting to him anymore.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Fri Feb 19, 2021 9:47 am

I'm not a big jazz guy either, but I own that album on vinyl and CD. It's one of those you are sort of legally required to own, like Bob Marley: Legend.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Fri Feb 19, 2021 10:46 am

So if I listen to 1,000 of these albums, but don't listen to the last one, then I won't die, right?

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Fri Feb 19, 2021 4:27 pm

YellowKing wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 9:47 am It's one of those you are sort of legally required to own, like Bob Marley: Legend.

i used to have that (from BMG Music Club) but i gave it to my dad since i was so sick of it from hearing it everywhere else in the 90s. especially the live version of "No Woman No Cry". (and over the past year KEXP has been playing "Three Little Birds" to death. cuz every little thing / will be alright. i will probably always associate it with 'official pandemic song' from now on)

i never understood why some people confined their entire reggae listening experience to Bob Marley and the Wailers (or even worse, just that particular compilation) or maybe adding some, i dunno, Jimmy Cliff and _The Harder They Come_ soundtrack or whatever, like UB40 - the genre is _huge_.

Z-Corn · Post by **Z-Corn** » Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:46 pm

hitbyambulance wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 4:27 pm i never understood why some people confined their entire reggae listening experience to Bob Marley and the Wailers (or even worse, just that particular compilation) or maybe adding some, i dunno, Jimmy Cliff and _The Harder They Come_ soundtrack or whatever, like UB40 - the genre is _huge_.

How can you be a college-age pothead and not dig on Scratch Perry?

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:55 pm

Z-Corn wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:46 pm
hitbyambulance wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 4:27 pm i never understood why some people confined their entire reggae listening experience to Bob Marley and the Wailers (or even worse, just that particular compilation) or maybe adding some, i dunno, Jimmy Cliff and _The Harder They Come_ soundtrack or whatever, like UB40 - the genre is _huge_.
How can you be a college-age pothead and not dig on Scratch Perry?

how indeed? if there ever was an embodiment of 'living legend', Lee Perry is that - yeah, he's not producing anymore, but at 84 years old he's still touring with backing bands... to venues of several-hundred capacity. if Marley was still alive, he'd probably be playing to stadiums. the name recognition definitely isn't there.

(like, i saw him again in 2019 in Seattle, and the [smallish] crowd was largely a weird mix of mostly white drunk/stoned 20-somethings and mostly white middle-aged Jamaican music record collectors.)

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:27 am

Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs - 1959

OK, I'll admit, when I read about this ablum before listening I was fully prepared to hate it. I don't like country and I like crooning country even less. But this isn't that - it's just as the title says, a collection of songs you'd expect to hear in a western movie. Several of them are story songs which are a lot of fun and, well, maybe it's just the whiskey talking but I kinda like it. I won't ever listen to it again but I enjoyed the time I spent with it.

Also apparently the first track, "Big Iron", was an internet meme and was included in Fallout: New Vegas.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:05 pm

I love Marty Robbins. He's not one of those artists that I can listen to for hours on end by any means, but in short doses it's a lot of fun.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Tue Feb 23, 2021 11:07 pm

YellowKing wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:05 pm I love Marty Robbins. He's not one of those artists that I can listen to for hours on end by any means, but in short doses it's a lot of fun.

The name seems familiar but I never would have listened to that album if not for this project. I'm enjoying the process even though some of the albums are hard to get through.

I am anxious to get past the 50s though.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Tue Feb 23, 2021 11:13 pm

I haven't posted much here but I've been going through at random (literally - I'm using a random number generator). I did knock off about 100 more just because I realized I had already listened to them. (Much of the 90s looked like they raided my CD collection in college). I'm showing 633 to go.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Wed Feb 24, 2021 12:32 am

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out - 1959

"The Dave Brubeck Quartet" is so familiar to me and yet I can't say exactly why. I've heard "Take Five" from this album many times (and not just on that old car commercial) but I don't think I knew until now who performed it.

Anyway, this is more jazz but interesting in that most songs are in an unusual time signature - 9/8, 5/4 and so on. "Take Five" is in 5/4. I see what they did there.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Wed Feb 24, 2021 2:29 am

Exodor wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 12:32 am The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out - 1959

"The Dave Brubeck Quartet" is so familiar to me and yet I can't say exactly why. I've heard "Take Five" from this album many times (and not just on that old car commercial) but I don't think I knew until now who performed it.

Anyway, this is more jazz but interesting in that most songs are in an unusual time signature - 9/8, 5/4 and so on. "Take Five" is in 5/4. I see what they did there.

I think Time Out is my favorite Jazz album ever. I think it's just genious.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Fri Feb 26, 2021 12:20 am

Joan Baez - Joan Baez - 1960

The 60s! I made it! And we start with some classic folk arranged and performed by Joan Baez on her first album. This album contains no originals so it's not political like her later work but instead is full of traditional folk songs. I don't really know why I never listened to Joan Baez before. I prefer female vocalists and I like folk music so it's no surprise that I liked this album and hope to hear more of her work.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sun Mar 21, 2021 11:55 pm

Elvis Presley - Elvis is Back - 1960

Recorded after Elvis returned from his time in the army and, well, it's Elvis alright. Critics say this shows a more mature Elvis but 61 years on it's hard for me to differentiate this from 50's Elvis. I'm surprised that I have not heard a single track from this album before - it's not exactly filled with hits.

Z-Corn · Post by **Z-Corn** » Mon Mar 22, 2021 11:51 am

Elvis looks either stoned or stupid in that cover photo.

...it's both...

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:08 pm

Miriam Makeba - Miriam Makeba - 1960

Well, that was interesting.

An album of African roots music with a strong backing vocal chorus (and a few covers like "House of the Rising Sun" and "Mbube", which you probably know better as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") featuring an amazing female vocalist. Not something I'd seek out but I spent an enjoyable 35 minutes with it.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Thu Mar 25, 2021 9:25 pm

The Everly Brothers - A Date With the Everly Brothers - 1960

I really like uptempo Everly Brothers songs ("Made to Love", "Lucille", "Donna, Donna") but man, the slower stuff puts me to sleep ("That's Just Too Much", "A Change of Heart"). This album leaned a little too much towards the dull stuff for my taste.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sat Apr 10, 2021 10:48 pm

Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack - 1960

The book calls this organ-fronted style "soul jazz" which, I guess - it sounds like jazz or blues with an organ in place of the piano. Kind of entertaining although it makes me think back to nights at Royals stadium in the late 80's when the organist would get busy in between innings. Listening to this makes me anxious for the grounds crew to finish up so the game can resume.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sun Apr 11, 2021 4:03 pm

Muddy Waters - At Newport - 1960

The first live blues album? That's what the book and wiki claim, and it seems this helped introduce blues to a mainstream audience. The style was certainly later copied by Led Zeppelin and a million other bands. I can see why it's so influential - the band is tight and they do a great job with these old blues standards.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sun Apr 18, 2021 11:54 pm

Bill Evans - Sunday at the Village Vanguard - 1961

Recorded live in 1961 in the village in NYC, it's an hour of jazz featuring Bill Evans on piano. Wiki calls it "one of the best live jazz recordings of all time." The band is certainly tight and the players play off each other well. If it wasn't for the applause at the end of each track you could easily forget it's live.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:21 pm

Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music - 1962

Listening to this now it just sounds like a great collection of covers by a master musician - but the book points out just how jarring it was in 1962 for an african-american artist to cover Hank Williams and other country artists. As wiki says,

The album's integration of soul and country challenged racial barriers in popular music at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. In the process of recording the album, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to exercise complete artistic control over his own recording career. In retrospect, it has been considered by critics as his best studio record and a landmark recording in American music. According to Robert Christgau, the album "transfigured pop, prefigured soul, and defined modern country & western music."

I find it interesting that there's only one entry from 1961 on the list. I do know that music kind of hit a fallow period between the 50's and the rise of the Beatles in 1963 - it could just be that there aren't any titles from 1961 that could elbow out the other 1000 entries.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:37 pm

4th Annual Grammy awards, May 29, 1962

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sun Apr 25, 2021 10:08 am

Isgrimnur wrote: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:37 pm 4th Annual Grammy awards, May 29, 1962

Funny you should post that. They did a quip of Friday about the 50th anniversary of Judy at Carnegie Hall and what a big deal it was.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Tue Apr 27, 2021 1:15 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:37 pm 4th Annual Grammy awards, May 29, 1962

I now understand why 1961 only has one entry.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Tue Apr 27, 2021 1:15 pm

Booker T. & The M.G.s - Green Onions - 1962

Surely everyone has heard the title track - the rest of the album is similar and good (although not as good as "Green Onions"). Three eventual members of the band later went on to serve as part of the backing band in "The Blues Brothers" (although only Steve Cropper was actually part of the band when this was recorded). This is a super fun listen.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Fri Apr 30, 2021 12:06 am

Stan Gets and Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba - 1962

According to wiki this album is credited with popularizing the bossa nova sound in America. I think it's probably one of those things that is impossible to experience after the fact - in 2021 this is a good fusion of jazz and brasilian music but in 1962, when no one had really heard anthing like it before, it must have been a lot more impactful.

Kind of like how Smells Like Teen Sprit just seems like another grunge song now but in 1991? Back then it just seemed to be inescapable (partly becuase it came out just a few weeks into my freshman year of college) and was so different from what was popular at the time that it seemed revolutionary (even though even Kurt Cobain acknowledged he was just ripping off the Pixies).

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Thu May 06, 2021 10:46 pm

Ray Price - Night Life - 1963

Wiki calls this the "last gasp of true honky tonk" but the title track (written by Willie Nelson) doesn't even really sound country to me - or it's country by way of Twin Peaks. I can hear it playing at the Double R and Audrey dancing along in front of the juke box. The rest of the album is more straightforward old-style country which, to be honest, I kinda hate.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri May 07, 2021 12:05 am

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Fri May 07, 2021 11:24 pm

The Beatles - With The Beatles - 1963

This is it - the first album on the list that I already own. My parents were big Beatles fans and it rubbed off on me. I think I bought my first vinyl copy of Sgt. Peppers when I was 12 or so. I definitely prefer later Beatles albums to the early stuff but there are some real classics here like "ALl My Loving". I'm always surprised that the early Beatles albums have so many covers and I'm pretty sure I could live without a few of them ("Till There Was You", "You Really Got a Hold On Me").

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Sat May 08, 2021 5:04 pm

and the recent (related) Haruki Murakami short story:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020 ... he-beatles

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Fri May 21, 2021 11:58 pm

Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan - 1963

I've never been much of a Bob Dylan fan. I don't know that I've heard much of his early work (other than the obvious hits like "Blowin' in the Wind" and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"). I've always regarded him as a brilliant songwriter but not much of a singer but this album surprised me. His voice will never be his strength but it's a lot more listenable here than I expected.

I think "The Times They Are A-Changin" is still my favorite Dylan song but it doesn't seem like that album made this list.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sat Jun 19, 2021 12:49 am

Phil Spector - A Christmas Gift For You - 1963

Christmas in June? Sure, why not. It's going to be 100 on Monday so anything that reminds me of cooler days is welcome.

This has to be the only album credited to the producer rather than the artists but I don't really want to talk about Phil Spector because he's a horrible murderous swine. But the idea of Christmas standards sung by female-fronted bands like The Ronettes and The Crystals in his "wall-of-sound" style? It's brilliant and I may be listening to this when Christmas actually comes around (although the kissy sounds at the beginning of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" are really creepy).

Wiki says this was a relative failure at release, possibly due to the ill-timed release date of November 22, 1963. That's some bad timing.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Fri Jul 23, 2021 11:35 pm

Sam Cooke - Live at the Harlem Square Club - 1963

Recorded in 1963 but unreleased until 1985 because it was "too raw" to release back in the day. Some call this the greatest live album ever - I don't know about that but it's great.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sat Jul 24, 2021 5:21 pm

Greatest live album ever was Stop Making Sense by The Talking Heads. This is not debatable, but also doesn't mean this isn't a good live album (I don't recall hearing it before so I can't comment directly).

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:49 pm

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady - 1963

I know music critics love jazz. I know this book is picks intended to honor diversity in music rather than just reflecting popular tastes. I can appreciate some jazz.

But. Enough with the jazz already.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Sat Aug 21, 2021 9:27 pm

I went through a very brief jazz stint in the late '90s. It was when I was really big into home theater and audio, and one of my co-workers who I used to hit the A/V shops with was a big jazz enthusiast and he turned me on to a lot of the classics and some more modern artists. Demonstrating them on a really good speaker setup I was just blown away.

I still have a few of the core albums (Coltrane and Miles Davis mostly), but it's the one genre of music I could never really get into. I'm not a big fan of jam bands either; long instrumentals bore me, so I think that may be part of it.