| Author | Message | ||
     Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 6 Registered: 04-2009 |
Hope it's not rude of me to have started a new thread. This is Michael Bachman's idea - but someone might as well give it a generic first shot, so here's my personal rough draft. In addition to abiding by the rules established above, I’ve also discounted single-artist tributes by individual performers (e.g. Nilsson Sings Newman, Famous Blue Raincoat, Camper Van Beethoven's cover of Tusk), one-off EPs, and halves of particular LPs, though there may be no other example for that beyond Todd Rundgren’s not-that-great Faithful. Also disqualified (says I, for mine): CAs with that couple of extra originals thrown into the mix, which shuts out Yo La Tengo’s magnificent Fakebook and McCartney’s surprising Run Devil Run. Anyway, here goes. I expect further lists will be a great deal less predictable. P.S. -- I really don't like that Matthew Sweet/Susanna Hoffs record. 10 ~ HINDU LOVE GODS (1990, rec. 1987) Purportedly intoxicated sessions with the magnificent Warren Zevon and three famous members of a simultaneously tight & loose southern alternative band, against whose own recordings this is far less mannered. As is well established, worth it for "Raspberry Beret" alone, but these are the kind of people we're blessed recorded themselves letting their hair down this far. 9 ~ TWELVE (2007), Patti Smith The terrific thing about Patti Smith is, of course, her ability to take the self-consciousness out of unabashed high drama, and make it soar with the finesse the finest new wave cinema -- which does not, unlike rock & roll, "come from the crotch". This particular trifle, however, is all wondrous cheap orgasm. The grit of Horses mixed with the kitschy exuberance of the two great Wave songs mixed with the cute disposibility of all covers albums, this one also happening to have some particularly grand tune choices. 8 ~ KICKING AGAINST THE PRICKS (1986), Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Some of the hardest evidence to that point that Cave was all brains and respect for the game, and the visceral wildman persona just impeccable studied burlesque, no matter how severely it carred over into his day-to-day life. But as a piece of vinyl, still satisfyingly visceral and intermittently wild. (God save adverbs!) 7 ~ MOONDOG MATINEE (1973), the Band So low on the list because I've never found it as likable as I know it to be important. But the Band are one of my favorites, and when the fluff-lite surface melts away there stands revealed a staggering depth and decadence that means and tells a great deal more than Scorsese's on-the-horizon career documentary. 6 ~ STARDUST (1980), Willie Nelson So low on the list because country and tin pan alley are not quite so much my things as rock & pop, but I'm thoroughly capable of appreciating the delicate and stately success of this landmark set of standards, which defines timelessness without ever being irritating or arrogant about it. It's worth noting that most of these songs were written by if not for people with voices like this. 5 ~ WORLD GONE WRONG (1993), Bob Dylan Destined to be permanently underrated, but unavoidably great while listening - through a thin visor of dark folk chestnuts, Dylan at his most candid, vibrant and un-self-conscious of any post-60s era, which is tremendously important, and endlessly enjoyable to hear. 4 ~ PIN UPS (1973), David Bowie Easy to wring the cheap thrills of the original versions from; difficult to comprehend the full scope of the avant-garde sheen Bowie, at his gender-bending thinking-man's best, has dressed them in because each track is so expertly swathed in pure and perfect trash & glitter. 3 ~ EASY COME EASY GO (2009), Marianne Faithfull A performance for the ages, songs trapped behind the glass of no particular era or genre through a voice at once fondly familiar and reliably alien. All the cool grace and mystery of her ancient "As Tears Go By" with the sturdy sandpaper resolve of everything she's recorded since. 2 ~ ALMOST BLUE (1981), Elvis Costello & the Attractions Many hate it, and it's best not to approach this as a country record by any purist standard. But Costello is such a complex and fascinating singer that this is the rare record where the songs add graceful context and embellishment to the voice and the feelings that voice conveys, rather than the other way around. 1 ~ "THESE FOOLISH THINGS" (1973), Bryan Ferry The original modern covers album, released first in the same month as the more thematically specific Pin-Ups and Moondog. Hilarious, ingenious, iconoclastic, disposible and indelible, no adjective properly conveys the weird amalgam of effects Ferry achieves with a performance that's at once transcendent act of God and really terrible joke. The end! | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 7 Registered: 04-2009 |
Oh, and if this is supposed to go in "off-topic" I trust somebody will be able to move it? ...[inexperienced-chatroom-user face] | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 195 Registered: 10-2008 |
welcome back LK, couldnt stay away eh? | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1498 Registered: 09-2006 |
I thought so too, at first, but after awhile wasn't so sure. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1499 Registered: 09-2006 |
I'm pretty sure he was "Ferdinand De Saussure" very briefly over in GBs chat, though. | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 196 Registered: 10-2008 |
The names a dead giveaway, as is his hero Elvis Costello's rank rotten country covers album at no 2 in his list. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1500 Registered: 09-2006 |
I'd agree that many things, certainly including the two you mention, point to it. But the more I read his stuff over in the other threads the more I waver. If it is a put-on it's his most elaborate one yet, and to quote from Christgau (whose style is obviously an influence) "it's as impossible as ever to glimpse what he might be like in "real life,"" | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 9 Registered: 04-2009 |
Though this is all tantamount to talking about divorce while your 6-year-old is in the room, I'll take this opportunity to openly leave everybody guessing, and bemoan the fact that a cavalcade of different lists hasn't followed. I really am fond of that Elvis Costello record. | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 198 Registered: 10-2008 |
Elvis Costello has been crap for 25 years That blonde 50 year old country artist whose name escapes me makes music that could curdle milk. and I bet if you were within 2 feet of her she would look like your grandmother Bob Dylan - treading water since 1967 Broooooce - dont get me started.. etc etc Is Vic there? | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 10 Registered: 04-2009 |
Elvis Costello has been crap for 20 years, not 25. Whoever you're talking about sure sounds like it! Bob Dylan - resisting both classification and consistency since 1967, but not treading water, he wasn't a solo Beatle. Who said anything about Bruce? Or is this an Australian thing? &c. &c. Re: LK -- is that because my posts are arch and mannered whilst [sic?] still failing to betray any real intelligence? | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1501 Registered: 09-2006 |
I'm staying out of the middle of this one. Not that anyone's wondering. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1502 Registered: 09-2006 |
Oh, and more lists will follow later, most likely. It's the weekend. This is actually the most activity I've seen on a Sunday in maybe ever... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2814 Registered: 05-2005 |
Allen, when you put quote marks within quote marks - as you have with "it's as impossible as ever to glimpse what he might be like in "real life"" - the inside quotes should be single. So what you should have written is "it's as impossible as ever to glimpse what he might be like in 'real life'". Lucinda Williams? | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 199 Registered: 10-2008 |
padraig - thats her | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1511 Registered: 01-2005 |
>Is Vic there? The night is young, the moon is mellow and there's music in my ears, saying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlXKbkqZS 80 | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 12 Registered: 04-2009 |
I love Lucinda Williams, but seriously believe you're confusing me with somebody. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1512 Registered: 01-2005 |
Has any music star aged so gracefully and shown as much class over thirty some years as Emmylou Harris? Never a bad word towards another musician. She refuses to dye her hair, dress like a tramp, or wave the redneck flag. She cranks out great album after great album and the voice is still there. | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 13 Registered: 04-2009 |
I don't imagine there's a more reliable asset to other people's records, but what has she done on her own that's particularly siginificant? | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 498 Registered: 05-2005 |
WWWWWRRRRROOOOWWWWWW!!!!!! I'm staying outta this one.......!!!!!!! | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 201 Registered: 10-2008 |
So Victor, Nick Cave and Randy Newman. What a pair of tossers eh? ;-) | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 932 Registered: 08-2004 |
Dylan's been walking on water since 1962. Aside from the occasional plop. Pin Ups is not much cop. Stardust & Twelve are worse. Emmy Lou Harris is marvelous. Particularly Luxury Liner & Wrecking Ball | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1383 Registered: 08-2006 |
This is the most delightful car-wreck of a thread I've seen around these parts in a while. It has it all - mistaken identity, musical disagreements, snark, etc. I'm enjoying it immensely. Carry on. | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 14 Registered: 04-2009 |
Re: Zim since '62 -- meritless baiting warrants no responses, unless you were the manager of some Greenwich Village place at the time and he played the kind of killer set comparable to that documented on Neil Diamond's immortal Hot August Night. A serious curiosity, what covers albums (italics)are(italics) much cop to you folk? It's a tricky genre to really impress with, innit? Tossers indeed! Salad & otherwise. But if you want to REALLY get me going, take a jab at my top five record albums of all time forever: 1) McCartney II 2) Marillion - Script For A Jester's Tear 3) Felt - Train Above the City 4) Vinnie Vincent Invasion 5) Nonesuch Explorer Series - Africa - Sounds From The Jungle, Plain & Bush Hon. men.: A CDR I made of "The Pawnbroker" 9 times in a row. But official releases only! | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 15 Registered: 04-2009 |
Somebody on another thread though I was fsh, a word (?) that means equally little to me. If you want a hint, I'm one of the guys that did "Booth & the Bad Angel". | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1505 Registered: 09-2006 |
Veek, off your list I'd take the Patti, the Willie, the Marianne, the Bobby and the Bryan. I'd add the Macca and the Yo La. And the Bobert Forster. And I'd have to think some more. I'd disregard the rule about all-one-person's-songs to include Maria Muldaur's Dylan album. And maybe Coulson, Dean, McGuinness & Flint's Dylan album. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1506 Registered: 09-2006 |
Angelo, I'm a huge fan! Dunno what you were thinking with that particular album, but...or are you Booth? | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 202 Registered: 10-2008 |
re that Top 5 list: - told you it was him ;-) | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 16 Registered: 04-2009 |
I haven't heard that Muldaur-Dylan but I hear it's wonderful. My guru and object of my intense carnal desire Christgau certainly thinks so. And yes, send me your copy of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me & I'll lipstick-sign it for you. Again, was very pleased to hear you're into Wussy, that's a well-kept secret I just got heavily into & am seeing play in a few weeks. Speaking of wussies*, skulldisco, why was this Little Keith gentleman ousted from the GBMB elite? 4 reasons why I'm American: 1) It's 11:40 right now 2) I'm off for Memorial Day 3) I'm eating cheesy popcorn and watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 4) I was born in America *cheap and humorless, granted | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 203 Registered: 10-2008 |
he wasnt ousted Vic, and you should know this 'cos you "retired" him!! | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 17 Registered: 04-2009 |
Lies! Vicious lies!! | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1508 Registered: 09-2006 |
If it is LK he's moved a couple of time zones. If he ever lived in California in the first place. Wait, it's Rob!! | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 933 Registered: 08-2004 |
Oh where's the Pete Townsend solo LP? I smell something fishy, maybe a red herring???? | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 19 Registered: 04-2009 |
I've told you, as onomatopoeic sounds go, "fsh" is not in my vocabulary! | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1510 Registered: 09-2006 |
Oh come now...even when you imitate the sound of a water fountain, or human urination? | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 20 Registered: 04-2009 |
All that tells me is that perhaps you ought to consider seeing a physician! | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1511 Registered: 09-2006 |
Is there no end to your prevarications? Fred Fisher is a fine young man who looks to have a long career with us...at long last do you have left no sense of decency? | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 21 Registered: 04-2009 |
I could take this further but ought to leave it to a more cleverly cultured poster, and wish to imply no tendencies toward McCarthyism... | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1512 Registered: 09-2006 |
None intended here either, except under the umbrella of absurdism we've been under all day. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 236 Registered: 02-2007 |
New York Girlfriend - RF ??? | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1513 Registered: 01-2005 |
John Prine - In Spite of Ourselves | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1514 Registered: 09-2006 |
Agreed one that one... | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1517 Registered: 09-2006 |
Once again, must work on impulse to hit the Post button before looking over my work. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1518 Registered: 09-2006 |
Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country Western Music One of the few albums my dad and I agreed on when I was a kid. | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 23 Registered: 04-2009 |
I guess that one counts more than Sinatra or Fitzgerald records, doesn't it. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1520 Registered: 09-2006 |
Yes indeed. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 238 Registered: 02-2007 |
All of Elvis!!!! | ||
| Mark Leydon Member Username: Mark_leydon Post Number: 232 Registered: 05-2005 |
Grant Lee Phillips - Nineteeneighties A fine cover album with a great tracklisting: 1. Wave of Mutilation" (Pixies) 2. "Age of Consent" (New Order) 3. "The Eternal" (Joy Division) 4. "I Often Dream of Trains" (Robyn Hitchcock) 5. "The Killing Moon" (Echo and the Bunnymen) 6. "Love My Way" (Psychedelic Furs) 7. "Under the Milky Way" (The Church) 8. "City of Refuge" (Nick Cave) 9. "So. Central Rain" (R.E.M.) 10. "Boys Don't Cry" (The Cure) 11. "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" (The Smiths) | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 26 Registered: 04-2009 |
Sounds cute. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1664 Registered: 10-2004 |
I always really liked Siouxsie & the Banshees' covers album "Through the Looking Glass." *ducks* | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 942 Registered: 08-2004 |
Oh Jeff, that seems fair. I haven't heard the whole album, but know 'This Wheels On Fire' & 'The Passenger' which they performed on TOTP. Japan should have done a covers LP. All Tomorrow's Parties' & 'I Second That Emotion' were great versions. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 536 Registered: 05-2005 |
Now the dust seems to have settled, I have to say most covers albums are crap.... except for John Lennon's "Rock 'n' Roll" which, IMHO, improved on quite a number of the originals. |